Bible Truths - Prophecy of Daniel and Revelation - Dream of the Ages #1

you welcome you to the landmarks of prophecy this is we believe our going to be an epic Bible study spectacular because we're going to take just the high points of Bible the landmark so Bible prophecy study and we're gonna break them down together I've been doing this now for thirty years and I never tire of how miraculous the Word of God is and sharing it with people because I see that it changes people's lives alright I'm gonna give you a quiz do you recognize any of those places one on the left or what's that where is the Eiffel Tower Paris France and the one on the right started in France now in New York City right those are landmarks that are recognized around the world and then now how about the next two do you recognize the white building we got the Taj Mahal and where is that in India and then next to it you've got the great pyramids in in Egypt these are some landmarks that you have around the world and they help us identify places locations times in history when they were created there are a number of landmarks in the Bible that also give us high points so that where we can know where we are in the biblical continuum of history and that's what our lesson is based on tonight there is a dream that was given to an ancient king by the name of Nebuchadnezzar and the lesson is titled the dream of the ages now there's several times in history when God gives leaders and monarchs dreams to help them understand what's happening so that they can share and disseminate that information with their people so that people will not think that life is just a series of meaningless accidents how hopeless life would be if there was no purpose to life if all that life is is we're just all biological accidents and there is no God then life really has no mean God gives life meaning and the the knowledge that he is can control that things aren't just spinning wildly out of control helps us know that there's a purpose to life well there are other times in history that God has given dreams to monarchs perhaps you remember the story where the Pharaoh of Egypt had a dream to help them prepare for what was coming to that country and Joseph help prepare because he interpreted the Pharaohs dream this king of Egypt was given a dream another little amazing fact Sir Isaac Newton one of the great scientists of history I mean he's really the the father of calculus and his book on mathematics became sort of the the text book for many years of mechanical philosophy he built the first reflecting telescope you know all we think about him is sitting under a tree and an apple falling on his head but that that really simplifies the genius of Newton he was also an astronomer mathematician physicist a brilliant man but what many people don't know is he was also an avid student of Bible prophecy and he firmly believed in the dependability of Bible prophecies he was fascinated with numbers and just like I said a genius of a mathematician and he realized that the numbers in the Bible could not line up so perfectly unless there was a greater mind behind them this is the father of calculus who recognized that when he read the Bible but he's not alone other scientists like Michael Faraday and many others and even Christopher Columbus were fascinated with the books of prophecy the favorite book for Isaac Newton was the Book of Daniel because there are many time prophecies in the Book of Daniel we'll get to some of the time prophecies another night but tonight we're gonna talk about a prophecy that's in Daniel chapter 2 and most of this presentation is going to deal with this dream of the ages that this ancient King had Nebuchadnezzar his name is pronounced a few different ways spelled two different ways in the Bible was the king of Babylon this empire was really at the zenith of power for the ancient empires and he had a very broad extensive Empire one of the first kingdoms you find in the Bible was built by Nimrod when he left the Tower of Babel and he formed the kingdom of Babel and later the tower of course was destroyed but Nebuchadnezzar he rebuilt everything and we'll talk a little bit about the the scope and the size and the glory of that kingdom but if you read in Daniel chapter 2 it tells us that the king went to sleep one night and he was troubled about the future he had conquered all these other kingdoms around him eat conquered Egypt and he conquered Jerusalem carried off captive thousands of prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylon and the ammonites and the Moabites and the in the kingdom of Tyre and many others and he had become a king of kings but he wondered how long will it last even though he ruled 45 years halfway through his rule he just he said you know human life is temporary and what's gonna happen to this Empire when I'm gone Solomon pondered those same things you build it all up and it's vanity of vanities what happens when you're gone so he went to bed troubled and worried about the future and God gave him a marvelous dream a very vivid dream now we all have kind of strange dreams that you know are just meaningless and I used to snow ski I went to a school where we skied several times a week and I dream and in my sleep I'd I'd be seeing well that's not a supernatural dream and as John mentioned I I like to play racquetball and it's a fast game and you're just you always swinging like this and and once or twice in the night I've gone like this and no cares what's the matter is it off sorry I was going for a shot just so even Cleese yes he said a dream comes through the multitude of business and that every dream means anything but he had a dream that he was absolutely sure it was three-dimensional it was vivid it was divine and he knew it had a meaning to it but he didn't know what the meaning was and you can read about this now if you go with me in your Bibles and we'll begin with verse 31 this is what he dreamed and this is Daniel relating the dream you Oh King were watching and behold a great image this great image whose splendor was excellent stood before you and its form was awesome so here's this great splendid awesome image now keep in mind an image in the Bible they were told not to worship images they had plenty of idols and images in Babylon so in the Jewish mind just recognize idolatry was forbidden the image had a head of fine gold its chest in its arms were of silver its belly in its thighs of bronze its legs of iron its feet partly of iron and partly of clay you watched while a stone was cut without hands which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces then the iron and the clay the bronze and the silver and the gold were crushed together and became like the chaff from the summer threshing floor these heavy metals suddenly became like chaff that became very light and the wind carried them away so that no trace of them not just one little particle no trace of them was found but the stone that struck the image it becomes a great mountain and it fills the whole earth now what does this dream me now this is an overview of the dream we're gonna delve now into the lesson we're gonna back up a little bit and start with the beginning of chapter two and point by point we're gonna go through and we're gonna study this chapter together because this dream of the ages gives us a panorama of history from the time Nebuchadnezzar had the dream until the end of the world and you see if you can figure out where we are in the scheme of time as we look at this together so I'm with that as an introduction I'm gonna get into the lesson oh by the way here is this is the friend of mine who led an evangelistic organization gave me this one time and I thought wow this is a great figure I might might refer to Melvin here give him a name hope nobody hears named Melvin tonight we're gonna get into our study and start with question number one in the lesson I find one of the best ways to teach is the question answer format question number one why did God give the Babylonian king this dream we don't have to wonder the answer is right in the Bible and all of these references are found in Daniel chapter two that one's verse 28 there is a God in heaven that reveals what secrets and makes known to the King Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter day so it's talking about the future secrets of the future are being revealed in this dream says the prophet Daniel okay well when the King first had this dream he didn't know what it meant he instinctively called for all of his wise men and counselors and they came along and he said I've had a dream and I don't know what the dream means they were on the payroll full-time supposed to be able you know their astrologers and soothsayers and card readers and everything else and and he said what is his dream me and they said okay King tell us the dream we'll tell you what the dream means well you know you ever have a dream and when you first get up it says real vivid and 20 minutes later you're having trouble it gets fuzzy pretty quick because your dreams are really happening in a different part of your brain and he said you know the details are already starting to get fuzzy said you guys are supposed to be wise men that understand mysteries how do I know you does not manufacturing you're gonna make up some interpretation prove to me you've got supernatural ability to interpret my dream you tell me what the dream is and then I'll know you can tell me the interpretation well that kind of flushed them out and they said Oh huh that's not how it works you tell us the dream we'll make up I mean we'll tell you an interpretation said no and he started getting mad because they were buying time and stalling and he was so much wanted to know the answer to what this meant that he became a little irritated and this is question number two when the king's counselors failed to reveal and interpret the dream what was Nebu his command and the king commanded and he said here you find the answer and Daniel to verse 12 the king commanded to destroy all of the wise men of Babylon now at this point I've got to give you a little background I told you that Nebuchadnezzar had conquered Jerusalem a few years earlier and among the people that he took into the kingdom along with thousands of the Jews he took some of the children of the royal line princes he trained them in the language of the Babylonians so that they could be sitting among the counselors and thus they could represent the thousands of Jews and others in the kingdom he knew that the Jews were a very bright people he had seen the Temple of Solomon he actually destroyed it he knew that they were very sophisticated and he said I want to train some of these young men that are already bright and educated in our language and they were part of the wise men but they weren't invited they weren't senior Wiseman they weren't invited when the King said tell me what my dream means so when the decree went out that all the wise men are going to be executed on a certain day finally Daniel and his three friends you probably have heard their names before Shadrach Meshach and Abednego they hear about this thing and they were a little concerned they thought why is this happening number three when Daniel learned about the decree what did he ask of the king and what did he tell his friends and here's your answer it says Daniel went in and he desired of the king that he would give him time and he would show the king the interpretation and it goes on to say Daniel went to his house the King granted him time because the King he wanted to know what the dream he thought what if I kill all the wise men I'm still not going to know what the dream means here's some young men that he had tested before he found they were unusually bright they seemed to have integrity they were godly young men they stood up for their religion when others compromise he said they said give me a little time and we can tell the King oh you know they didn't want to lose that opportunity and so I thought well I'll find out and so Daniel went to his house he made the thing known to Hananiah Mishael and Azariah companions that they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this there you got that word again secret so they went home and they had a prayer meeting what would you do if you knew you had to dream something that I dreamed tell me what it was are you gonna die well they had a real serious prayer meeting number four when the Lord revealed the dream to Daniel to whom didn't Daniel give credit he could have said well you know I've got the supernatural ability and I need a raise hey I need a promotion he didn't say that he said I thank thee and I praise thee O God of my father's and then he told Nebuchadnezzar there is a God in heaven that reveals secrets there's that word again this is a secret that is being revealed about the future all right now let's get into the dream and can you imagine when Daniel comes before the dream he begins to tell the King what the King saw in his dream he can imagine Nebuchadnezzar sat down on the edge of his throne and he listened with his mouth gaping and he was just so fascinated by that so what are the two objects that it says that they saw in the dream he says thou Oh King saw and behold there was a great a great image now earlier in Daniel it talks about an image like a lion and one like a leopard and one like a bear and it tells us when these images were like animals this image it doesn't connect with any kind of animals so most scholars agree it was probably an image resembling a man because it mentions toes it mentions a chest it mentions arms so that's why virtually all the artists you're going to see they come up with something like this they take some of the the looks that they find on the ancient Babylonian carvings and and they make an image based on that so there's actually some artistic and historical accuracy that goes into the depictions that you're seeing there he describes to the king dawa King sauce is great image and then he said the second thing was beside the image said thou saw that a stone so you got two principal things that are at odds in this dream one is a stone one is a statue one represents God's kingdom the idol the image represents the kingdoms of man now you know when the Jews made their altar God told them do not even lift up a chisel on it or you've polluted it take rough stones build my altar out of 12 rough stones he was concerned about the people getting into idolatry 10 commandments which were the center of God's kingdom in other words when you get the holy mountain you get the holy city you get the holy temple you got the holy place he got the Holy of Holies you got the Holy Ark in the Holy of Holies and the only thing in the Ark were stone tablets written by the finger of God so in the Jewish mind this stone that destroys the image daniel it represented God's kingdom so you see these two big opposing elements here in the dream so let's start to decipher this now Daniel tells him the dream now Daniel begins to tell him what does the dream mean after Daniel tells the King about the dream and he says here's a dream can you imagine the King going yes that's what I saw yes yes yes that was the dream how did you know that now the king is really excited so when Daniel begins to tell the King what the dreams means does the king doubt Daniels accuracy no I have a dream vivid dream and you can tell me exactly what I dream the next thing you said now let me tell you the interpretation I'm all ears so you can imagine this monarch was very connected tuned in number six what does the head of goal in the dream represent Daniel said to the king thou art this head of gold the head the kingdom is going to begin this vision about the history of the world's empires is going to begin with this prominent world empire of Babylon and it's going to make its way all the way down to the end of time which I think you're gonna find out is where we are and it starts with a head of gold now that probably made King Nebuchadnezzar feel pretty good when Daniel said you are the head of gold and a lot of folks if they wanted to get on well with a king would have stopped right there and said don't tell him anything else just say you're the head of gold how do you feel you're at the top now why did he say that Nebuchadnezzar was the head of gold because this dream is outlining the history of the main world empires that would impact God's people that had scripture from the time of Daniel to the end during the time of Daniel God's people had been conquered and were scattered and as you go through time you're gonna find that the kingdoms that are being mentioned as we study tonight are not representing all the kingdoms of the world you're not gonna find any reference earlier this year I was in China I've been there a few times but we were able to do a full public evangelistic meeting in a city with six million people it was wonderful because that was just history-making and it was televised it was recorded for television they had a big Empire even back in the days of Nebuchadnezzar and you know from your history there were great empires among the Mayans we've been with the ruins among the Mayans and down in South America among the Incas and some in Far in Southeast Asian there were different empires though kingdoms that are mentioned in this dream are the ones that had direct impact in particular on the Jewish people for the first part of the dream and on the church for the last part of the dream so you'll see as we go on what we're talking about so it's outlining the history of the world Babylon was called the head of gold because it really was a golden Empire I mean it's just fascinating I've got a few facts here just that come from the the famous ancient historian Herodotus where he talks about Babel and matter of fact some archeologists say it's so phenomenal they can't even believe that it's all true but the Greek historian from 450 BC Herodotus he said the outer walls of Babylon were 56 miles around can you imagine that there's room there in that plane the the walls were 300 feet high 80 feet thick at the bottom 25 feet thick at the top and 2 4 horse chariots could pass each other on top of the walls like an interstate there were and this was of course during the 45 year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign it was at the top of its splendor it was a square city with approximately 15 14 miles in each side brick walls surface with glazed blue and gold bricks behind the main wall was another wall 75 feet the Euphrates River don't miss this because this comes into revelation later the Euphrates River ran right under the walls irrigated the entire city they had more water in the Euphrates back then because now it's all getting sucked up by Turkey and other countries that are north the Euphrates used to run a lot more massively than it does now and a moat completely went around the city between the outer wall in the inner wall the Hanging Gardens of Babylon one of the seven wonders of the ancient world that's the picture that you see on the screen Nebuchadnezzar married the daughter of the king of the Medes and she was disappointed because the median Empire in the north had mountains but Babylon isn't a big vast plain and she felt homesick all the time so he said don't worry dear I will build you a mountain and I will forest it and so he made this great terraced Gardens they Straubel and other ancient historians said they had machines they had invented for taking the water and lifting it up and it would cascade down and irrigate these gardens and like waterfalls and they were man-powered somehow but they had somehow built some machines for pumping water even back then so they had tons of gold everywhere great they had a a table of gold that weighed tons and gold statues and so it really was a golden Kingdom I don't even have time to you got to read about some of the things that it tells us about the size of ancient Babylon and some of the wonders that are there but this was a golden Kingdom matter of fact if you read in Daniel chapter 4 Nebuchadnezzar actually he's so proud of the Empire he walks around on the balcony one day and says is not this great Babylon that I have built for my Majesty in my glory it was a glorious Kingdom he was the head of goal now something interesting about what we're hearing right now we're studying ancient Babylon well you know where that is our son was in the Marines a few years ago during one of the Gulf Wars and he was based in Iraq and right now Iraq is in the news with Isis when you read in the Bible about Jonah and Esther and Daniel and Ezra and Ezekiel and Nehemiah all of them are going in and out of the same territory that is in the headlines today the ISIS warriors ISIL Isis it's depends on what two element you're talking about they are fighting now to build to restore acally fight empire because they're inspired by what nebuchadnezzar once had in that region of ancient Persia they would like to have their own empire cuz you know the Islamic countries are all divided and broken and you look at a map it's the same territory some of you may or may not know that Saddam Hussein that was his great ambition that he could restore the ancient glory from the days of Nebuchadnezzar when they were a world empire matter here's a picture where Saddam had a poster of himself and he said that he was the reincarnation of Nebuchadnezzar now the Nebuchadnezzar were talking about tonight is technically they called him nebuchadnezzar ii but no one knows about the first so they don't ever use that it says he's the big one he's nebuchadnezzar here's an example of a coin saddam hussein had a coin imprinted with him with the vision of nebuchadnezzar in the background he wanted to why do you think he invaded kuwait he was trying to expand control the oil so that he could expand he wanted to be the leader of the islamic worlds and restore that ancient again matter of fact there was a Jewish prophecy that says that Babylon would never be rebuilt Nebuchadnezzar wanted to overrule or confound that prophecy and he spent five nor not Nebuchadnezzar sorry Saddam Hussein and Saddam Hussein spent five hundred million dollars trying to restore ancient Babylon to thwart this Jewish prophecies that said it would never be rebuilt again and in the midst of his first attempt to rebuild it you can see even some of the workers there the Desert Storm came along and then brought was brought to a halt dried up his resources then he had just begun to try to rebuild it again when the second Iraq war broke out and ultimately he was arrested and came to a unhappy ending now here's the prophecy that you find in the Book of Isaiah that talks about what would happen to ancient Babylon after Nebuchadnezzar says then Babylon this is Isaiah 13 verse 19 and 21 and babblin the glory of the kingdoms the beauty of the Chaldeans pride will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah it will never be inhabited nor will it be settled from generation to generation nor will the Arabian pitched tents there nor will the Shepherd's make their sheepfolds there but wild beasts of the desert will lie there their houses will be full of owls ostriches will dwell there and wild goats will scamper or caper or dance there and you go there today and if there's nothing he was not able to reap I mean there's some tourist spots but he wanted to make it a new capital God stopped that again so back to Daniel talking to Nebuchadnezzar what happens next in the dream he should have just stopped when he said you're the head of gold but number seven would the Babylonian Kingdom lasts forever well you know he says after thee this is the rest of the the dream after these shall arise what another Kingdom you can write that in inferior to thee now if I can't have a gold I'm happy with silver but let's all agree the ounce of silver is not worth an ounce of gold these things are decreasing in value as you go down through the metals but they are increasing in hardness all the way down through the image and so just notice that and I'll say more about that another prophecy that talked about what would happen to Babylon is found in Jeremiah that came true Jeremiah the Prophet said in 25:12 I will punish the king of Babylon and it wasn't Nebuchadnezzar that was punished well Nebuchadnezzar was punished too but ultimately it was his grandson that was overthrown I'll punish the king of Babylon and that nation saith the Lord for their iniquity and the land of the Chaldeans I'll make it a perpetual desolation and that's what you find in that region today the Bible even tells when you get to chapter 5 of Daniel you're getting kind of an overview of Daniel tonight in chapter 5 of Daniel it tells about how that happened Nebuchadnezzar and as I said he reigned 45 years he ultimately converted if you read the Book of Daniel Nebuchadnezzar ultimately after a couple of backsliding episodes the end of his life he was praising the God of the Jews he believed in him and you might even meet him in heaven if we all get there but his grandson was different his name was belt a chancer belt a Shazzer his father nab adonis was outside the kingdom trying to defend the kingdom from other nations that were making inroads meltus asar was left in charge he was sort of the second-in-command but he was called the king at that point and he had a feast now the reason he had this feast is because all surrounding the kingdom of Babylon the Medes and the Persians had come to try to conquer the city but their walls were so math massive the young king wanted to show disdain he said I'm not afraid of the Medes and the Persians they can't get in here and so they had a big feast they said they had enough food to withstand a siege of 20 years you know in warfare it's very expensive to run a war and when you beseech a city the longer they can hold out you know if you can't conquer their capital you can't feed your army forever Jerusalem was besieged for two years by Nebuchadnezzar before it fell Masada in Israel was besieged by the Romans for three years they had food they held it a matter of fact as the Romans were trying to take the city the Jews were throwing food and water over the walls in the desert to show that they had plenty they weren't afraid three years they had to build a ramp to try and take it many armies have failed just because economically they couldn't handle a long siege and so the King said you're gonna run out of money and resources before we do we got the water coming under the walls we got storage galore in the silos of the city and so they had a big feast and the king began to drink during the feast and then to show that his God was more powerful than all the other gods their idols that he worship he said didn't we capture all those beautiful vessels of gold from the Temple in Jerusalem I want to drink out of those vessels I'm gonna toast my god using Jehovah's vessels he was mocking the God of the Bible so he called for his servants to bring from the Treasuries the vessels that had been captured from Solomon's Temple that cuts in the bowls and he began to use them to pour wine in and to drink and to toast his gods mocking the God of heaven in the midst of their revelry at the peak of their party all of a sudden a bloodless hand appeared just a hand this big plaster blank spot like a billboard on the walls of ancient Babylon and began to write in these cryptic letters burning letters in the wall and you can imagine that everybody froze I got scared Bible actually says the king was so frightened his knees smote together you ever been so scared that your knees are knocking first time I preached that's what I looked like I was so scared my hands were sweating I mean they were terrifying and he called for the wise men again and they weren't young men Pharaoh called for his wise men too they never did seem very wise and his wise men couldn't tell what it meant but the Queen now this is many years after Nebuchadnezzar Daniels still alive he's now an old man he's been in the kingdom for just about 70 years he may have been in his 90s but he still straw and healthy and the queen she says there's a man that was in the Empire no mystery was too hard for him Daniel is summoned to the party he didn't go to that party he knew better so they bring him in the King says I'll make you third ruler in the kingdom if you tell me what that writing says Daniel said I know what the writing says and you can keep your gifts so Daniel called an old man and he begins to tell him the writing said meanie meanie tickle you Farson the handwriting on the wall you heard that expression before meanie God has numbered your kingdom and finished it tickle thou art weighed in the balances you're being judged and you are found one thing your coming up short you're gonna fail in the judgement in other words Paris your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians who are outside the wall and at the very moment that Daniel was in the banquet hall Cyrus the Persian general outside the wall had done something brilliant without the king of Babylon knowing upstream way upstream in the Euphrates River there was a dry lakebed they dug a great Channel right next to the Euphrates River at the right moment then they broke the dam separating it all the water was diverted from the Euphrates River and began to run off into this dry lakebed the water level where it ran under the walls of Babylon dropped he was at night his army marched under the walls the soldiers within the city in the inner walls they're not sure what happened and he wasn't actually an artist conception of that some of the soldiers were either drinking or through treachery some maybe they conspired with somebody on the inside the gates were left open the inner wall and the army went in they opened the other gates the Medes and the Persians came pouring into the city that very night bell DeShazer was slain our Belshazzar the king I'm sorry was slain belter Shazzer was the Babylonian name of Daniel it's very close here's the prophecy now catch this I'm gonna read a prophecy to you that was written by Isaiah the prophet we know from the Dead Sea Scrolls that Isaiah the prophet wrote these things before they happened 150 years before they happened listen to Isaiah says in chapter 45 thus says the Lord who is anointed to Cyrus names him a hundred and fifty years before he's born to his anointed cyrus whose right hand I have held I'm helping you to subdue nations before him and to loose the armor of Kings to open before him the double doors so the gates will not be shut and when it says to loose the loins of Kings that means that the joints of the Kings would be loosed and that's what happens when the King shakes and this is exactly what happens Cyrus a gentle general he went in they conquered the kingdom and you can go to the British Museum and there is what they call the Cyrus cylinder I've actually seen this and in that cylinder in cuneiform they've translated cuneiform Cyrus talks about conquering babylon and I believe Jerusalem is even mentioned during that time because he later lets the Jews go back home again to their land so now the Kingdom the head of gold passes from Nebuchadnezzar onto the medo-persian kingdom and so this happened approximately 539 BC and the Persian Kingdom was of course another powerful Kingdom lasted from 539 to about 331 BC their capital was precipitous and there a medium of exchange was silver so it's entirely appropriate that they're represented here by the the silver arms we've gone from Babylon Demeter Persia and they had a vast Kingdom but silver is not as valuable as gold they lasted longer but they didn't have the same glory that Babylon had got to keep moving this is a lot to cover and I hope you'll read Daniel chapter 2 when you get home and you can take time to read the whole chapter number 8 what metal would represent the Kingdom that followed medo-persia answer it says yeah in daniel another third kingdom of brass actually we say brass brass has got some tin included in it it's the ancient word for bronze would be bet you polish bonds it looks the same way shall bear rule over all the earth now Daniels saying this is gonna even have a vaster territory than the Persian king what kingdom came next after the Persian Kingdom it was the kingdom of Greece how many of you have heard of a young Macedonian ruler by the name of Alexander better known as Alexander the Great and he conquered the Persians and in 331 very quickly in his battles with Darius and he swept in just 11 years he swept through that country not only did he take the territory of Persia he went off into the elements or the regions of India and up through Afghanistan and so Alexander was phenomenal by the time he was 21 years old he'd conquered Egypt and was just phenomenal what he did and how far he marched his armies he's a brilliant general trained by some of the great Greek philosophers and what do you think their armor was made out of they were called the bronze soldiers and they had the bronze swords and I'll bring that up later and I think I even have a picture here of what some of the helmets looked like they had bronze helmets and Alexander's Kingdom lasted a little longer then the Persian Kingdom each Kingdom is lasting longer but the medal is not worth quite as much and so these were the wrong bronze soldiers in there's one quote from a historian Aryan is I believe his name the historical library book 16 chapter 12 and this is what he says about the rule of Alexander the Great I am persuaded that there was no nation or people then being whether his name did not reach there seems to me to have been some divine hand presiding over both his birth in his actions it seemed like there was a divine hand that was protecting him as he went everywhere but even though Alexander the Great could conquer much of the world he could not conquer himself and he actually died in Babylon and just shy of 33 years of age matter of fact when he was on his deathbed they're not sure he died of a fever last in several days they don't know if someone poisoned him others had wondered if it was malaria it may have been cause he had before the fever came on he had had a lot of drinking going on it might have been alcohol poisoning the historians aren't sure but he was semi-conscious drifting in and out and his wife asked him his son was very young and she said who will rule if you die he said the strongest and that's exactly what happened his kingdom was divided in four parts by his generals that end up warring among themselves but the kingdom of Greece lasted for several hundred years and that was during the time of 331 to 168 BC now what do you think happens next year if you go to question number nine and I think some of you could guess what comes on the scene next what metal represents the fourth kingdom no you got it haven't even put it on the screen yet Daniel chapter 2 verse 40 the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron as much as iron subdues and breaks of the things and he was one of the strongest metals they had back then they didn't have the kind of reinforced steel or stainless steel that we have now but you could take a Roman sword that was made out of iron and you could actually break a Greek sword made out of bronze I mean you remember when David killed Goliath he had to take the lightest iron sword he'd even have a sword and later when David wanted to battle he said I need a sword they had no swords in the kingdom the Philistines knew how to forge iron it was a very valuable art back then David went into battle with Goliath sword I must have been a doozy huh because it was iron it could break the swords of many of the other enemies it was during the time of the iron monarchy of Rome that Jesus was born it was those Roman soldiers that went with her iron swords into Bethlehem and killed the babies it was an iron spear that pierced Jesus side probably iron nails it pierced his hands and his feet Rome was his iron empire and just as the Persians lasted longer than the Babylonians and the Greeks lasted longer than the Persians the Romans lasted longer than the Greeks it tells what happens through history many of you know about your Roman history number ten what would happen after the fall of the Roman Empire you can read in Daniel chapter 2 verses 41 and 42 it said the kingdom shall be divided as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken and as Rome expanded it tried to envelop such a big territory that gradually decadence began to set in and the kingdom began to implode I mean we've all heard about Nero fiddling while Rome burned and we've heard about B the games in the Coliseum and we've all heard about the orgies and and under the time of Augustus Caesar they were more interested in morals and family but after he he fell off the scene they had a couple of military Caesars and then they got some very immoral governors of Rome and the morals of the country sank has that happened the other empires seeing the opportunity from the north the barbarians came in Hannibal came up from Carthage and and the Rome was under well Hannibal came earlier but Rome was under constant attack and gradually the Kingdom divided by the way you know I I just thought I really ought to share this tonight if you read in history Edward Gibbons who wrote his book rise and fall of the Roman Empire when he talks about some of the five components that he thought contributed to the fall of Rome I thought some of them sounded similar to what's happening in the Western world today this was his analysis five prime reasons for Rome's downfall the undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home number two increasing taxes and spending to public money for bread and circuses number three now he wrote this long time ago the mad craze for pleasure with sports becoming more exciting and more brutal number four the building of armaments when the real enemy was the decadence of the people number five the decay of religion with faith fading into mere form basic faith that makes a moral society that gives you civilization and protection Phillip Myers in his book Rome its rise and fall he observed almost from the beginning the Romans stage was gross and immoral it was one of the main agencies to which must be attributed the undermining of the original of the originally sound moral life of Roman society so absorbed did the people become in the indecent representations of the stage that they lost all thought and care for the affairs of real life it's hard for us to imagine that the Romans had become so absorbed in their media back then to say they all lived for what was going to be on the stage from week to week they had these theaters everywhere that's all they talked about they didn't think about the real issues of life and they had a problem then what's going on now I mean they didn't have 150 channels I thought okay getting back into our study so I think we all know that Rome started to gradually disintegrate and what was once a United mighty vast empire broke up into originally ten kingdoms and those ten kingdoms some of their ancient names and I'll give you the modern equivalents the alamin eye which were the Germans I know our friends that are listening to the Spanish translation right now alamin are alemana is that's Germany then you have the Franks which was the French the rag onions which were the Switzerland thus we've I which was Portugal the lombards which is Italy the Visigoths which is Spain the anglo-saxons England and then when they first divided they also had what we call the Vandals that's where you get vandalism because the Vandals went and broke all the they defaced all the Roman statues they called the Vandals the Vandals the hair you lie and the Ostrogoths so the Roman Empire broke into ten distinct parts and it's broken up many times since then well that would put us down into the end of this image where you've got this now you're down to the feet of not just iron but iron what clay what was man made out of in the beginning play you know it's very interesting one of the oldest concrete buildings in the world is in Rome it's the Pantheon you know what all modern concrete is built out of you ever watch them pour concrete it's miry clay and iron rebar you know what the number one building material is in the world today concrete you should go to China they got so many problems with concrete dust everywhere there's just a forest of building cranes they called the building crane the national bird in China because they're everywhere but I've never seen construction like that but we are living in that time of iron and miry clay the age of concrete number 11 would these ten kingdoms ever succeed in uniting answer it says here they will mingle themselves with the seed of men and here you got it but they shall not cleave one to another they'll not stick one to another even as iron is not mixed with clay they could not well together even though they tried matter of fact they were so desperate at one point Queen Victoria she had she had the longest and most prosperous of the English reigns she had forty children and grandchildren and by the end of her reign she was related to every leader in Europe through marriage they tried to reforge and rebuild that Confederacy that Rome once had through marriages but it didn't last matter of fact you can just look at history you got everybody from louis xiv to Charlemagne Danna Poli and the Kaiser Wilhelm to Adolf Hitler they were all trying to reforge the word Kaiser you know what that means in German Caesar the words are you know what that means in Russian it means Caesar they were all trying to regain the power of the Caesar once again but the Bible said they will not cleave one to another I understand Adolph Hitler had a Christian secretary in which he found out about his plans she said sorry my Fuhrer but this will not work he said what do you mean he said the Bible says it will not work in the book of Daniel he said well we'll change the Bible didn't work very well for him number 12 who will set up the final Kingdom now we're down where the stone comes into the picture Daniel 2:44 what did the Prophet tell us and in the days of these Kings the God of heaven not to be confused with Nebuchadnezzar's myriad of other gods the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed that's the kingdom that will last forever Jesus is coming soon that's the next Kingdom number 13 what does the stone do to the other world kingdoms it says Daniel 2 verse 34 and 35 a stone was cut without hands which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron in clay and did what broke them in pieces so this whole thing that represented counterfeit worship you know the big issue in the Bible is worship and you know by the way you know the commandment doesn't say don't make an immature arm in trouble right now huh how many of you when you came in you saw the big inflatable how many of you saw that and came in because you thought this was a Halloween party tonight anybody I looked out my window at the hotel I saw these people taking pictures out there with the Babylonian model Bible doesn't say just don't make an image if you've got a photograph you're in trouble says don't make it and bow down to it right well they worshipped idols now the only stone that is cut without man's hands was the Ten Commandments God hewed those first tables of stone and handed them to Moses later Moses broke him and God got another set so it says broke it to pieces and what happened to the stone it says that stone that smote the image became a great mountain the kingdom of God is often referred to as the mountain of the Lord will be glorious and it filled the whole earth Babel and is it a plain God's kingdom is a mountain Jerusalem was on a mountain and it filled the whole earth the Bible says that the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters do the sea it's talking about Christ's Kingdom when blessed are the meek what will they inherit the earth and so this is not talking about something that happened in past now it's talking about we're living in that age of iron and clay down on the toes of this image the next thing that happens is the coming to Christ can you imagine the look on Nebuchadnezzar's face after he saw this after hearing Daniels clear interpretation of the dream what did Nebuchadnezzar say about the Lord you can read in Daniel chapter 2 verse 47 the king answered unto Daniel and said how the truth it is that your God is a God of gods he's not just another God he is the God is what Nebuchadnezzar saying and the Lord of Kings and a revealer of there's that word again secrets no later Nebuchadnezzar wanted to worship Daniel and he wanted to give him all these gifts he actually promoted him and made him well leader of all the wise men which was probably a smart move and Daniel told the king the dream is certain and the interpretation thereof is sure God has given us a map of history that's why this book is so popular is because we can look back on history we know that Daniel wrote these things before they happened everything has happened with these world empires what is the head of gold represent Babylon came and win more valuable didn't last as long as the next one medo-persia is the silver right they fell to the Greeks all of these occupied Israel did you know that Babel and occupied Israel Persia occupied Israel the Greeks occupied Israel and Rome occupied Israel but then it divided and after during the time of Jesus the Kingdom began to go everywhere because Jerusalem was destroyed Christianity became spiritual Jews as well and then you had the Roman Empire and it spread through the Roman Empire Paul was killed in Rome the gospel is then been going around the world now the whole world is what this last kingdom is talking about that stone that is going to come it's called the Rock of Ages it's Jesus the next thing that is supposed to happen in this vision is Christ coming now these are interesting prophecies but I have to be honest with you right up front we don't do these seminars just to be fantastic or sensational and wow people with the power of prophecy all prophecy is redemptive and if you know these things but you don't know Jesus won't save you the Bible says even the Devils believe in tremble the reason the Lord gives us these prophecies is so you'll know that God is not surprised by history there's a plan and he has a plan for your life he will not activate and mobilize that plan until you give him your heart and that's something you need to do he wants you to find that peace he wants you to find that rest have you found that rest have you found that peace are you part of God's kingdom if he reigns in your hearts now you don't need to worry about the next phase of this vision amen friends I'd like you to pray about that and think as if John comes out he's gonna sing for us right now and then we're gonna close off our program with prayer [Music] [Music] made green I trust the everliving one that he for me did I know No it is even nuts that Jesus died and let he die for my faith is resti [Music] salvation in my saviors name of salvation through I made No [Music] it is enough I [Music] but Jesus time and [Music] amen thank you so much on Kelly it is beautiful appreciate that friends this is just the beginning there is so much more that you're gonna learn that's gonna transform your lives it is amazing to me that people do not find more interest in studying the book and the prophecies that God has given to show us that there is a plan God has a plan for you the Bible says it he's everywhere he is all-powerful and yet he loves us so much he wants to have a personal relationship with each one of us you know most prophecies understood best looking backwards jesus said when these things come to pass then you will believe he wants us to look back and say wow God really doesn't know what's going on and this is just one little prophecy of many we're gonna share with you as we continue to study we're going to be looking ahead we hope that you'll plan now on coming and I'm absolutely sincere I'm saying this from my heart when I tell you of all the things that you could be doing in this next few weeks while we're here this is the one that may make an eternal difference in your life as well as improve your life here and now because if what I'm saying is true nothing is more important if this world is not lasting much longer and Jesus is coming as I believe he is then you tell me being ready for his coming and doing what he wants us to do in the interval what in the world could be more pop more important than that so God has a plan for us we believe you're either watching on television or the internet or you're here tonight because of a divine appointment I'd like to pray with you as we close father in heaven thank you so much for your presence here tonight for bringing us safely together to study your word we ask for you to protect and bless each person and as we come together as your children to seek first your kingdom I pray Lord that you'll reveal yourself to us help the word to come alive just set angels about this entire event each person that's watching or attending and transform us you promise Lord that if we draw near to you you will draw near to us if we seek we will find now honor that promise Lord we thank you and we pray in Jesus name you you

Channel: Memphis Raleigh Seventh-day Adventist Church

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Keywords: Bible Truths, Prophecy Daniel, Prophecy Dream Of The Ages, Bible Truths 2020, Amazing Facts Prophecy, End Time Prophecy 2020, Prophecy Daniel Revelation, Bible Prophecy 2020, Revelation Prophecy 2020, Prophecy Seminar, Signs You Can't Ignore, Landmarks Of Prophecy 2020, Amazing Facts

Id: 8LKsXxCEmlw

Length: 58min 16sec (3496 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 18 2020