Daniel 7 - Unsealing the Symbols with Mark Finley (Bible Prophecy)

in daniel chapter 7 the truth of god that is that has been echoing down through the centuries is challenged in daniel chapter 8 the truth of god is preserved one cannot fully comprehend the last six chapters of the book of daniel and the prophecies unless you first understand something about the sanctuary of old the old testament so let's spend a little time reviewing for some and maybe for some this is new the sanctuary that moses built because we're going to be talking in daniel chapter 7 8 9 10 11 12 about the heavenly sanctuary once you understand the earthly sanctuary you then will better be able to understand the heavenly sanctuary you remember in exodus 25 verse 8 and if you have your bible let's go back keep your marker in daniel 7 we're going to go over it verse by verse but this is to position us so that we'll more clearly understand exodus 25 and you're looking there at exodus 25 and verse 8. and you remember moses was wandering in the wilderness with the israelites and god said to them if you don't have a bible you can look at it in the screen and if you have your scripture let's look at it here in the text and here in exodus 25 and let's read it together either from the bible or from the screen god says to moses let them make me a sanctuary that i may dwell among them according to all that i show you that is the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings just so you make it so god said to moses make me a sanctuary according to the pattern exodus 25 verse 40. see to it that you make them according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain so the earthly sanctuary is a pattern it's a scale model of something that was up in heaven now of course the dimensions of the heavenly sanctuary are far far different so what do we learn about that earthly sanctuary and then how does that apply to the heavenly sanctuary and what we will be studying tonight in the book of daniel and next week the earthly sanctuary illustrates the plan of salvation there are those who have the mistaken idea that the old testament believers were saved by law and the new testament believers are saved by grace nobody will ever get into heaven by being saved by law every human being whose ever comes into heaven is always saved by grace the old testament believers were saved through faith they were saved as they expressed faith in the christ that was to come we look back at the christ who has come so salvation is always and only by grace they looked forward and their faith grasped the christ that was to come we look backward and our faith grasp the christ that has come so the sanctuary was all about the plan of salvation the israelites were not saved because they offered a lamb the lamb pointed forward to jesus the lamb of god so if they knew what they were doing you remember john says in john 1 verse 29 behold the lamb of god that takes away or bears away what the sins of the world so when an israelite sinned according to the book of leviticus they needed to bring a lamb or an animal sacrifice incidentally if you were too poor to bring an animal you could actually bring a grain offering or a flower offering and the perpetual sacrifice that was offered by the priest in the morning would cover you but they came with that lamb and let's suppose i'd gotten angry and let's suppose that i was at a store and somebody cut me off in line i was so angry i yelled at them i would not do that but let's suppose and let's suppose i felt really badly about it and so what would i need to do bring a sacrifice and i would come to the sanctuary kneel there at the sanctuary put the full weight on that animal the bible says in leviticus 5 that i would have to confess that specific sin over the head of the animal so i'd say dear lord i got angry today and i know the wages of sin is death one sin is worthy of eternal death and lord i'm so sorry that i did that that i confess my sin my guilt is transferred to the lamb and then what must i do take the knife the priest doesn't slay the lamb i have to slay the lamb and i slit the lamb's throat you say that's horrible and the blood runs maybe on my leg or it spurts on my hands and the priest catches some of that blood in the basin you see that's terrible the wages of sin is what death why did god give them that sanctuary system so they would know the cost of sin because it's terrible for a lamb to die but it's much more terrible for jesus to hang on the cross and bear the sins of the entire human race the one who never sinned the pure righteous divine son of god hangs upon the cross bearing the condemnation and guilt of the world and the more the depths of love require the depths of suffering and so jesus dies there so every lamb was to point forward to christ the priest would take the blood and bring it in and sprinkle it before the veil behind the veil was the most holy place in the sanctuary where the law of god was enshrined within the ark all of this represented of course jesus dying on the cross is our lamb being resurrected and ascending to heaven as our great high priest applying the benefits of his death to us so when we come today we in our imagination see our lamb dying for us we imagine our the guilt of our sin being taken off of our shoulder and being placed upon our lamb we imagine are the guilt of our sin being placed upon jesus on the cross we think of the fact that jesus died and is resurrected and before the universe lifts his wounded hands and the scars and says that man that woman is one of mine they died for me and so i remember on one occasion i was lecturing on the fact that we can come jesus says come unto me all you that are burdened and heavy laden come with your burden of guilt come with your shame come with your sinfulness and confess it to me and i was lecturing on that one night a lady came to me right after the meeting and i've told some of you this story and she said to me and this was in a european country she said pastor i have a question for you i said yes she said i've always wanted to ask a pastor this question yes you can ask me what is it is abortion murder she said i want to know that is abortion murder and i said to her um tell me why do you ask me that question do you ask me because you're pregnant and thinking about an abortion no pastor do you ask me because you have um a friend that had an abortion and you want to give her some counsel no pastor do you ask me that question because you had an abortion and it really troubles you she looked at me and said and she told me the sad story of her life and i won't go into all the details here but she told me about an abortion she had 17 years before and how guilty she felt and how condemned she felt and how she couldn't sleep at night and i said to her the reason you're having difficulty sleeping is because you're carrying a burden that's too heavy for you that's going to crush out your life you see this woman didn't need me to sit there and read all the texts or tell her that an abortion was evil what she needed was a savior what she needed was to know jesus what she needed was to have that burden lifted off her shoulders and we talked about the old testament we talked about the lamb we talked about confessing our sin and letting go that was the story of the sanctuary when you confess your sin you let go and let jesus bear your burden and you sense that jesus stands before that broken law in heaven's sanctuary and after the priest took the blood he would bring it into the holy place in the sanctuary there were three parts there was the court where the lamb was slain then there was the tent-like structure called the tabernacle the tabernacle had two parts the holy place the first apartment and the most only place the second in that first apartment there was on the right the table of showbread which represents jesus the bread of life the one that supplies every physical need we have on the left was the candlestick representing jesus the light of our life through his word psalm 119 verse 105 says thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path and so you have the light jesus is the bread of life jesus to the light of life then you have the altar of incense which is representing of christ's merits that mingle with our prayers and ascend to heaven beyond the second veil you see every day animals were offered in the court every day the priest would enter into the holy place but once a year at the end of the jewish year there was a day of atonement and on that day of atonement the priest entered into the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary of the earthly sanctuary the most holy place of the sanctuary he entered right into the shekinah glory of god and there in that place in that most holy place there was a judgment all of israel had to kneel around that sanctuary and anybody that did not participate in repentance on that day was judged and cut off from the people the high priest eventually left the sanctuary and put the guilt of sin on the scapegoat and that scapegoat was taken into the wilderness the sanctuary service in the book of exodus is taken as symbolism into the book of daniel the book of hebrews tells us this in hebrews 8 verse 1. now this is the main point of the things we're seeing we have such a high priest where is he is he any earthly sanctuary no he's in a heavenly sanctuary he's seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens a minister of the sanctuary so jesus our high priest is a minister of the sanctuary and of the what tabernacle the true tabernacle that the lord erected not man so the bible talks about two tabernacles it talks about one on earth another in heaven what happened on earth was to be a scale model or a pattern of what's going on in heaven now with that background you're gonna be able to understand daniel chapter seven and eight much better because daniel 7 and 8 takes us from the horizontal kingdoms and it gives us that vertical look up into the heavens where we look at the sanctuary so we are going to go now to daniel the seventh chapter and we'll see the imagery of the sanctuary later on in the chapter and especially in chapter eight we will see it daniel is an older man now i didn't say an old man i said an older man and he has his first vision daniel 7 verse 1. let's go back to the book of daniel i'm sure you have it there in your bible you're looking at daniel chapter 7 and we're looking at verse 1. i've given you a background on the sanctuary that's going to help us in daniel chapter 7 and daniel chapter 8 to understand it much much more clearly daniel the seventh chapter we are now looking at the first verse are we ever is everybody there okay good in the first year of belshazza read it with me from your bible or from the screen whichever you prefer in the first year of belshazzar king of babylon now wait a minute what year belshazzar is this first year now remember in daniel chapter 5 in the historical section of the book of daniel that belshazzar was killed and that was in 539 now this is the first year of el shadow so this is the first year of his reign daniel had a dream and visions of his head on his bed then he wrote down the dream telling the main facts have we read about any dream that daniel had before in daniel chapter 2 daniel didn't have the dream did he that was king nebuchadnezzar and daniel interpreted the dream here this is the first stream we read about that daniel has now daniel writes down the dream it's significant and he writes down its main facts daniel 7 verse 2 daniel spoke saying i saw in my vision by night and behold four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea and four great beasts came up from the sea each different from one another so you have a let's imagine this in your mind now can you imagine the scene you're looking out over the sea the wind is blowing the waves are high they're crashing and four big beasts come up out of the sea now i've had people say to me well you know prophecy is always a matter of individual interpretation who do you think gave this dream to daniel who gave it to daniel god gave it to daniel didn't he now if god gave the dream to daniel do you think god wants us to just a guess at its meaning if the great prophetic books of the bible are daniel and revelation and if those books especially relate to this generation wouldn't you give god credit that god will make those interpretations plain the bible always explains itself so let's see if we can see some simple explanations we want to know what do these four winds represent what does the c represent and what do these four great beasts represent now let me give you this little um caveat in studying the bible and the bible and bible prophecy the bible is meant to be understood as it reads okay you don't have to look for a hidden meaning behind every word of the bible but when obvious symbolic language is used then you look for the interpretation of that prophecy okay so when you study the bible you can look for the obvious meaning in the text but when prophetic language is used that's obviously symbolic how many times have you saw four great beasts rise up out of the sea you know it's when you read and when you read these a lion with eagle's wings a bear with three ribs in its mouth a leopard with four heads and wings on its back that's obviously symbolic why does god give us symbolic prophecy what reason does he give us why doesn't god just mean what he says and just say it straight confucius said that a picture is worth a thousand years so god often gives us symbolic prophecy to condense space and succinctly state facts but there's another reason symbolic prophecy in the bible often condemns political and religious counterfeit religious powers so if god would openly expose those powers they would then attempt to destroy down through the ages those handwritten portions of the bible and those other portions of the bible so to prote so god reveals in sim symbols at times the co encode the truth about history to protect his word so let's look and see if we can discover something about this well the first beast is like a lion he has eagle's wings i watched till his wings were plucked and it was lifted from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man and a man's heart was given it and then the suddenly another beast you're looking there at verse five a second like a bear was raised up on one side it had three ribs in the mouth between its feet and they said thus unto it arise and devour much flesh after this i looked and there was another like a leopard which had on its back four wings of a bird the beast also had four heads and dominion was given it after this i saw in the night visions and behold a fourth beast dreadful and terrible exceeding strong it had huge iron teeth it was devouring breaking in pieces trampling the residue with its feet it was different from all the beasts that were before it and it had ten horns is there anything in your mind that is similar to anything else we've studied in daniel so far in daniel chapter 2 we read about a great image how many medals did that image have gold silver brass iron four what about the legs of that image it had ten what toes here you have four beasts with ten what horns in the book of daniel there's a principle called repetition and enlargement in daniel you have basic prophecies you have a prophecy in chapter two a prophecy in chapter seven a prophecy in chapter eight and a prophecy in chapter eleven you have four major lines of prophecy the prophecies in daniel repeat one another but as you go through they enlarge and give you more details repetition and enlargement the prophecy of daniel 2 is repeated in daniel 7 but enlarged upon it gives you more information it assumes you know daniel 2. the prophecy in daniel 8 repeats portions of the prophecies in daniel 2 and daniel 7 but it enlarges on that understanding that you understand those too in daniel 11 you have that same principle through the book of daniel so we're beginning to understand daniel more clearly there are four beasts a lion with eagle's wings a bear with three ribs in its mouth a leopard-like beast with four heads in a kind of a very descript beast with more like a dragon with ten horns a very weird kind of beast now in the book of daniel do we have to guess what a beast represents a beast in the bible does not represent a person it represents an ideology a system a king or a kingdom if you look for example in daniel 7 and verse 17 we don't have to guess what the beast represents daniel 7 and verse 17 those great beasts which are four are four kings now does anybody have a number after kings you know sometimes you'll get a little marginal reference in the bible that gives you an explanation in my bible i have a little number 23 that takes me to a marginal reference that says king representing their kingdoms in other words these are not individual kings but they're kingdoms let your eyes drop down to verse 23 and you will see that even more clearly in verse 23 thus he said the fourth beast shall be the fourth what on earth the fourth what kingdom so when you read in daniel chapter 7 about the lion the bear the leopard and the dragon you're reading about for what for what everybody kingdoms now here's another principle we've discovered the principle of repetition and enlargement once you understand that that's going to help you greatly in not being confused in bible prophecy now there's a second principle and here it is the bible prophet god always begins revealing to the bible prophet where the bible prophet is so the starting point of every timeline prophecy in the bible is always where the prophet is it's always in that prophet's uh generation that's why when you come to revelation the prophecies of revelation always begin in the first century and take you down the stream of time the prophecies in daniel always begin in daniel's day so if indeed this is true and it is the beast represents a king or a kingdom the first kingdom would have to begin in daniel's day now let's look secondly what does water represent in bible prophecy the other thing you'll find about bible prophecy is this the symbols are always consistent what you read in one area about symbolism when you get the interpretation of that you can find it in another keep your finger here we're going to look at revelation chapter 17 verse 15. revelation 17 verse 15 that will help us a great deal in understanding symbolism in bible prophecy revelation 17 we're looking there at verse 15. it's a description of water we'll be studying the book of revelation in some of our classes here you'll be interested in those revelation 17 verse 15. he said to me the waters where you saw where the harlot sits incidentally in the new testament the church is represented as the bride of christ the church on earth has a husband the church is the wife the husband is the bride but what is harlotry when you go back to somebody that's not your true husband so when the church unites with the state to enforce religious laws to coerce worship when the church unites with the state that's called harlotry so anyway verse 15. i just give you a little tip but we're gonna look at that more and he said to me verse 15 the waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples multitudes nations and tongues so then what does the sea represent waters represent what does that represent peoples multitudes nations and tongues how do you know that because i told you no you know it why because you read it where in the bible do we use that expression sometimes have you ever heard anybody say the great sea of humanity sure so we go back now to daniel chapter 7. it talks about four beasts and what are beasts in bible prophecy everybody what are beasts in prophecy they're kingdoms they rise up out of what the sea what does the c represent peoples so if you have so these are kingdoms that are rising up out of people's nations what is happening on the sea what's taking place on the sea is it is it a calm cc is it what kind of a sea scene is it a windy cesti okay what does wind represent strife or destruction you find that in jeremiah 49 see we don't need to guess at biblical symbols and once you understand them these prophecies just jump out at you they just make so much sense isaiah chapter oh no jeremiah chapter 49. here we are if you are watching us online tonight you know we had 7 000 i just got the numbers before i walked on the platform tonight seven thousand one hundred and about 63 people that this past saturday morning tuned in that was the highest we've had in a long time and uh now tonight i know many of you are watching online you're in your homes take out your bible and look at jeremiah 49 jeremiah 49 and you're looking at verse 32 and 33. it talks here about uh in the 29th chapter uh 49th chapter of the book of jeremiah it says verse 32 their camo shall be for booty the multitude of their plunder i'll scatter to all wins those farthest corner and i will bring their calamity from all its size says the lords now notice he's talking about winds or calamity what did you notice on your back deck today if you left your chairs out they were moved weren't they they were all over the place i went to walk here and i was cutting across the golf course don't tell anybody please anyway i was cutting across the golf course and my neighbor's shutter blew off today i mean it was on the ground wind causes destruction doesn't it and the higher the wind the more destruction so wind in the bible when you see a windy seascape that is calamity that's calamity so what do we see in daniel chapter 7 daniel says i looked upon the sea it was windy war strife calamity destruction i saw four beasts one of the beasts represent everybody kingdoms rising up where among peopled areas of the earth they're not unpopulated areas of the earth the sea represents peopled areas of the earth i saw in my vision by night and behold four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea destruction conflict among nations as the four beasts or these four kingdoms rise kingdoms start in daniel's day they come from the sea each different from one another and you remember in daniel chapter two four medals gold silver brass or bronze and iron feet of iron and clay now you see four beasts daniel seven verse four the first was like a lion and had eagle's wings what a fitting symbol of the nation of babylon not long ago i was leading a tour through europe and i wanted my group to come to the uh pergamum museum in east berlin this is just a few weeks ago now probably six weeks ago why did i want to take them to the pergamon museum because in the latter part of the 19th century robert called away a german archaeologist came down to babylon and he excavated it now you know the city of babylon is about 190 miles it's 90 miles south of baghdad and cold away excavated babylon when he excavated babylon he took the tiles some of them were broken but many of them were on the walls he took them off he brought them back to east berlin and the germans are amazing they are very technical detailed people and so they put the they reconstructed the ishtar gate which was the leading gate into babylon and the all along the ishtar gate when you look at the originals and i have to confess to you now this is pastor's confession time you're not supposed to touch the lion with eagle's wings on the wall but i wanted to touch something that daniel touched so i just reached out and said daniel you may have put your hand there i just have to do it please lord forgive me um you will see on the ishtar gate a lion with eagle's wings i've taken pictures of the originals lions with eagles wings in our next lecture series when i give a full lecture on the prophecies of daniel revelation we're going to look at that but you'll see some but lion with eagles wings very common symbol of babylon in fact on babylonian coins lions with eagles wings so we know from these three ways that the lion with eagles wings has to be babylon number one it is the first of the four nations in sequence prophecy begins where daniel is has to be babylon number two the uh it parallels with daniel chapter two the head of gold four medals four uh empires number three it was a common symbol of babylon very common so the first the lion with egos wings the first beast of course represents babylon second empire would represent the nation that followed babylon daniel 7 verse 5 suddenly another beast a second like a bear it was raised up on one side and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth now remember when you read about the metals you read about gold silver bronze and iron babylon meteopersia greece and rome but you remember the principle of repetition and what enlargement so let's look at this symbol how it is much broader much more detail than was in the breasts and arms of silver here's a bear and it raises itself up on one side what nation overthrew babylon what nation did that media and what persia you don't read much about the medians the persians lifted up and ascended themselves over the medes hence the bear lifting himself up on one side the media persians attack babylon but the persians are in dominance what does the bear have in its mouth three ribs they're between its teeth so the bayer that has three ribs between his teeth if it's going to cut if it's made of persian going to conquer the world at that time it has to conquer three nations media persia attacked babylon lydia and egypt and overthrew it i will tell you the more you study bible prophecy god does not guess he knows he writes these things hundreds of years in advance the second beast obviously represents me to persia it follows babylon four beasts in succession daniel 7 verse 6. after this i looked and there was another like a leopard which had on its back four wings of a bird the beast also had four heads and dominion was given to it what do you know about a leopard is a leopard the slowest beast on the planet what do you know about a leopard it's fast now if you want to describe rapid conquest you choose a leopard but if you want to describe rapid rapid rabbit rapid conquest what do you do with your leopard what do you do with that you put wings on your leopard what who was the leader of greece what was his name alexander the great what do you know about alexander the great he conquered the world more rapidly than you can possibly imagine how old was alexander when he died 33 years old he died as a young man rather than have a battle for his empire there were four generals there were names were cassandra lasimicus ptolemy and seleucus don't worry about spelling them uh you'll have them in your lesson cassandra ptolemy's seleucus um and with symmachus these four generals took over his empire you talk about the accuracy of bible prophecy the rapid conquest of greece putting your wings on the back of it putting four heads upon it the four generals that would rule bible prophecy is absolutely amazing god does not guess he knows the third empire of course represents greece you come to the fourth empire daniel 7 verse 7 after this i saw in the night visions and behold a fourth beast dreadful and terrible exceedingly strong it had huge iron teeth what nation overthrew greece obviously the nation of rome the fourth beast is dreadful and terrible it has huge iron teeth the iron monarchy of rome and you look back it says it was devouring break in pieces it trampled the residue with its feet it was different from all other beasts before it it had ten horns what were the legs of the great image made out of the legs of the great image were made out of what iron they had how many toes ten toes this beast has iron teeth and it has ten horns again the roman empire with its ten divisions so the fourth beast represents rome obviously the fourth then you have the ten horns which represent of course the ten divisions of rome now metal is temporary uh i don't care whether it's gold silver iron brass it's going to tarnish and it's temporary all the kingdoms of this world are quite temporary beasts are violent and so here you have war and conflict but here is where something amazing is happening now we should look at dates because i want to position you where we are in history the lion bear babylon ruled from 605 to 539 bc media persia ruled from 539 to 331 bc the greeks overthrew the persians in 331 they ruled to 168 when the romans took over the romans ruled from 168 to 351 500 years just about it was during the roman empire that jesus was born it was a roman decree that brought caesar from caesar augustus that brought mary and joseph down to the uh down to bethlehem it was a roman governor that tried jesus it was roman soldiers that put nails through his hands it was a roman a seal on the tube so jesus lived in the days of rome 168-351 the roman empire or the ten horns the divisions took place in the middle of the fourth century to the middle to to the middle of the fifth century about 351 to 456 a.d so now follow me very closely because this is where the prophecy gets amazing this is where it gets really incredible from 351 to 476 the roman empire's falling apart daniel looks now these are events along the timeline of history that lead up to the second coming of christ and what we're going to see tonight is is quite incredible quite amazing daniel 7 verse 8 i was considering the horns what do the horns represent everybody what do they represent the breakup of the roman empire from when from the middle of the fourth to the middle of the fifth century so where is daniel looking now he's looking in europe he's looking at the divisions of the roman empire and he's looking at the fourth century and there was another horn a little one coming up among them where does the little horn come up among among the what ten the ten were the divisions of europe so the little horn has to arrive in europe arise in europe it has to arise sometime after the breakup of the roman empire it doesn't rise in days of babylon doesn't rise in the days of me to persia greece or rome the little horn arises among the ten and there in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man now that's very interesting we're gonna have to find out what are these eyes with man what does this mean a mouth speaking pompous things what does that mean pompous things things that are proud boastful a power that exalts itself the ten horns the bible tells us are ten kings that will rise from this kingdom and another shall arise after them that's the little horn he'll be different from the first the ten horns were political powers this horn would be different because it would be a religiou political power that would rise out of the old roman empire in the fourth or fifth century it would arise to prominence it would be different from the other horns in that they were political this one would be a religious political power he shall speak pompous words against the most high there would be some proud statements made he'll persecute the saints of the most high that is this at times there would be a union of a religious political power in europe church and state would unite and at times faithful bible believing christians would be persecuted and shall intend or think to change times and law so the law of god remember we studied in the first six chapters the fact that god always invites men and women to be faithful to him and obedient to his law so there would be that intent to change the varying the the very law of god we'll study more about that in other lectures and presentations so we read about the lion babylon the bear meet of persia the leopard greece the dragon rome we read about the ten divisions of rome then we read about a prediction of a religious political power that would rise in europe that would change the truth of the gospel that would at times change the very law of god this little horn power would be small at first and then grow to prominence the gospel would be changed remember the bible tells us in acts 16 verse 30 to 31 that when paul brought out the prisoners when when when paul was in prison and the earthquake came the jailer in philippi said sir what must i do to be saved and he said believe on the lord jesus christ and you'll be saved in your household the the disciples always proclaimed the truth of the gospel the good news that nothing that we do or today or ever could do could redeem us but a religious political power would rise the gospel would be distorted human works would be substituted for grace the teachings of the church would be substituted for the teachings of the word of god and even the very law of god would be eventually tampered with and changed the little horn power would be small at first but it would grow daniel says daniel 7 verse 8 i was considering the horns and there was another little horn a little one coming up from among them the ten horns are ten kings after them another shall rise so this is after that breakup of the roman empire he's going to be different from the first we studied that a religious political power we also noticed that in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man what does that mean again how do you determine what a bible symbol means you have to go to the other places in the bible does anybody know what another word for a prophet is in the bible a what a seer why is a prophet in the bible called a seer why do you think they're called a seer because they see with whose eyes god's eyes so a prophet does not see with human eyes a prophet sees with whose eyes god's eyes did daniel look into the future with god's eyes he did did the great prophets of the bible isaiah look into the future of the god's eyes they did so if eyes in the bible represent wisdom or understanding and if this is not the eyes of god but the eyes of man it's talking about a human political religious system that rises in the roman empire that unites church and state in the early centuries but bases its philosophy religiously on the eyes of man now can we bear that out in scripture we can ephesians 1 verse 18 the bible talks about the eyes of your what understanding so when you talk about eyes it's wisdom or understanding this is the wisdom of man not the wisdom of god and it is human tradition not divine teaching so what is the what if what does daniel predict if he predicts this in the early centuries a power would rise out of the remnants of the roman empire it would be a power that would be based on the teachings of man a power that would introduce into religious teaching things that were not found in scripture it would be a power that would introduce works rather than grace as a method of salvation that would eventually even tamper with the very law of god this would be a religious political power the bible says in daniel 7 verse 25 he shall speak pompous words against the most high shall persecute the saints of the most shall intend to change the times and the law so the very law of god written with god's own finger there will be an attempt to change that by human religious powers in the early centuries we've summarized it this way speak pompous words against the most high one of the characteristics that is to exalt human teachings above divine teachings persecute the saints of the most high that is church and state would unite in the middle ages and do we read about a long period in history that some have called the dark ages have we ever read about that in history the dark ages why were the dark ages called the dark ages because that was a great period in history that church and state united in that medieval church where many of the bible-believing christians were persecuted where human teachings came into the church and the very there was a very intent to change the very essence of the gospel and the very law of god daniel chapter 8 verse 12 which we're going to be studying next week says because of transgression an army was given over to the horn that is the little horn to oppose the daily sacrifices we'll talk about what that means next week the daily sacrifices and it says and he cast truth down to the ground he did all this in practice and prospered so in the early centuries there during the dark ages truth would be cast to the ground there would be great medieval church would develop and god warns us against that in scripture the apostle paul says this 2 thessalonians chapter 2 verse 3 let no one deceive you by any means for that day that's the coming of jesus will not come unless there comes a falling away first so the here's what the bible predicts there'd be babylon a political empire then there'd be media persia a political empire then greece then rome then after the roman empire it would be divided into ten divisions in those divisions in the early centuries there would rise a religious political power and there would be a falling away from the truth of the gospel of falling away from scripture but in the last days a tradition would take the place of scripture it would take the place of the word of god in many people's lives but what did jesus say in john 17 verse 17 sanctify them by what your truth your word is truth there'd be a revival of the very word of god you remember what peter said he said we ought to obey god rather than men in mark 7 verse 7 it says in vain do they worship me teaching as doctrines the commandments of what of men now we come to the most exciting part of the book of daniel daniel 7 verse 9. daniel's looking at all this and what does he see he sees babylon media persia greece and rome he sees political powers then he sees the union of church and state he sees earth and he sees truth being compromised he sees teachings coming into the church that were never found in scripture but then daniel says i looked i looked away from earth i looked up into heaven i looked away from earth and i looked up to the sanctuary there and i saw where jesus was i watched till thrones were put in place and the ancient of days was seated his garment was white as snow you can almost hear the excitement daniel's voice is recording this you almost can get the thrill of it daniel said i saw babylon and that tread down the people of god and i saw me to persia and that stamped on the people of god and i saw greece and i saw rome and then i saw rome broken up and then i saw this religious political union but then daniel says this i looked and thrones were put in place the ancient of days was seated his garment was white as snow and the hair of his head was like pure wool his throne was like a fiery flame its wheels are burning fire and a fiery stream came and issued before him thousands upon thousands ministered unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him the court was seated the books were open daniel says i looked up and there was a final judgment and the light of truth shone from heaven there was a mighty revival the kingdom of god was restored and just before the return of jesus there'll be this final call back to truth i want you to notice daniel chapter 7 and look at verse 13 and onward daniel 7 verse 13 and onward daniel says i was watching in the night visions and behold one like the son of man who's the son of man who is that jesus daniel says i looked up and i saw jesus and he came with the clouds of heaven he came to the ancient of days who's the ancient of days god the father so daniel says i looked up and away from the distractions of the earth away from the error and the tradition away from the war and the conflict and away from the famine away from the difficulty there is jesus he's in the sanctuary above he comes to the ancient of days they brought him near before him then to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away his kingdom one that will not be destroyed look at daniel chapter 7 and verse 20 verse 26 and onward daniel 7 verse 26 and onward but the court shall be seated they shall take away his dominion that's the dominion of the little horn to consume and destroy it forever then the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the most high his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and all his dominion shall serve and obey him what does daniel 7 teach us babylon would attack the people of god and babylon would enter into the very sanctuary in jerusalem and daniel and his friends would be taken captive then media persia would allow israel to go free but it too would oppress at times the people of god greece and rome would follow the roman empire would fall apart there would be that long period of time known as the dark ages where the medieval church dominated history and the gospel was substituted for human teachings but then at end time just before jesus comes the light from the sanctuary would shine upon god's people truth would be restored the kingdoms of this earth would be judged unit god's eternal kingdom would triumph forever and ever and ever and ever the good news of daniel chapter 7 is that god's kingdom is going to triumph god's people are going to triumph god's truth is going to triumph and that is a hallelujah good news hey everybody matt gray here media director for hopeless 365. don't go yet make sure that you subscribe and click the bell so you get notified of the next video in this series and i think you should check out these other videos over there i think you'll like those as well see ya

Channel: HopeLives365

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Keywords: Daniel 7, mark finley, unsealing Daniel's Mysteries, the book of Daniel, understanding daniel, part 7, bible, prophecy, christianity, Hopelives365, pastor mark finley, seventh day adventist, seventh day adventist beliefs, seventh day adventist church, mark finley daniel, bible study

Id: y2zaiPrHThU

Length: 50min 22sec (3022 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 27 2020