 us if you can. Today we're in Daniel chapter 2. We're going to be looking at Nebuchadnezzar's dream. Nebuchadnezzar's dream. Chapter 2, the book of Daniel. As you know last week we began our study of the book of Daniel and we've entered into the second chapter now beginning at verse 1 and reading till verse 9. Daniel writes, Now in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's had dreams and his spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him. Then the king gave the command to call the magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king and the king said to them, I have had a dream and my spirit is anxious to know the dream. Then the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic. O king live forever. Tell your servants the dream and we will give the interpretation. But the king answered and said to the Chaldeans, My decision is firm. If you do not make known the dream to me and its interpretation, you shall be cut in pieces and your houses shall be made an ash heap. Sounds like your boss, huh? Except for employees here. However, if you tell the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts, rewards, and great honor. Therefore tell me the dream and its interpretation. They answered again and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream and we will give its interpretation. The king answered and said, I know for certain that you would gain time because you see that my decision is firm. If you do not make known the dream to me, there is only one decree for you, for you have agreed to speak line and corrupt words before me till the time has changed. Therefore tell me the dream and I shall know that you can give me its interpretation. Now as we begin the second chapter of Daniel is one of the most famous chapters in the entire Bible because this particular chapter has the most comprehensive picture given of world history from 605 BC to the second coming of Christ. And this period of time is referred to as the times of the Gentiles. Jesus speaking of the times of the Gentiles in Luke 21 24 said Jerusalem we trampled by Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles are fulfilled. And so that's what we're going to be looking at today. We're going to be looking at chapter two of the book of Daniel that gives to us this this panorama of history in this chapter. Two basic questions will be answered. The first question is what does the future hold for the nation of Israel? And the second question is with the destruction of the Jewish temple will Israel cease to exist as a nation? We'll see in this particular chapter that those answers will be given to us as we begin and look at verses one through three. Notice how he says in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign Nebuchadnezzar had dreams. So this event occurs in the second full year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign the third year of Daniel's captivity. And now Daniel is serving before the king. The king has been having a series of troubling dreams and he's very upset and obviously he can't sleep. So the king gives a command to call the magicians the astrologers sorcerers and the Chaldeans. In other words because he's very troubled and he's unable to sleep he turns to his religion. And what he's doing as it says here in verse two and refers to these magicians and astrologers sorcerers and Chaldeans is he's actually calling in what is referred to as the wise men of Babylon later in later on in the same chapter in in verse 27. You see that that these four types or groups are really making up the one group called the wise men because it says in verse 27 Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said the secret which the king has demanded the wise men and then he gives these other groups. And so we know that the men that he's calling into his presence to interpret the dream constitute what are called the wise men the wise men of Babylon. Now notice with me there are four different categories that are listed here. First he refers to the magicians. The word magician actually has as its root word the word pen a pen and these are the scholars who are learned it in sacred writings and are knowledgeable of magic and astrology. He speaks of the astrologers who study the stars to predict the future. It also speaks of a conjurer and enchanter and exorcist or a mutterer. He speaks of the sorcerers. These are the ones who use the potions and incantations. These are the ones who practice witchcraft. He also has what is referred to as the Chaldeans which is called the priestly class of Babylon. They were the highest level of the wise men in Babylon. And so what he does is he calls in his religious counselors. Now notice what he says in verse three. It says the king said to them I have had a dream and my spirit is anxious to know the dream. Now the Chaldeans spoke and beginning here in verse four up to the end of chapter seven they use the Aramaic language. Up to this point it's been in Hebrew and up to verse 28 of chapter seven it will be in another language called Aramaic and then in chapter eight it picks up in Hebrew again. It says the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic and this is what they said. Oh king live forever. Tell your servants the dream and we will give the interpretation. And so they begin at that point by simply giving to him an Oriental courtesy when they say live forever and then they say well let us know the dream. But notice verse five. The king answers and says to the Chaldeans my decision is firm. You need to tell me what it is. Now when he says my decision is firm it's another way of saying basically I've forgotten the dream and so I'm going to ask you to remind me of it. So it gives him an option and I want you to see it. Either you tell me the dream or you end up dead. Obviously he doubts their accuracy. Not only that he's tired and cranky. He hasn't slept well. So he's not in any mood to mess around. Now these people were commonly recognized as experts at dream analysis and that's why he calls him. Now as I developed this let me say something very quickly here in the Old Testament. God used dreams to communicate in Job chapter 33 verses 14 through 16. We read God may speak in one way or in another yet man does not perceive it in a dream in a vision of the night when deep sleep falls upon men while slumbering on their beds. Then he opens the ears of men and seals their instruction in the book of numbers chapter 12 verse six he said here now my words if there's a prophet among you I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision. I speak to him in a dream. So the Lord would use dreams to communicate what he wanted to communicate to his people and not only would he speak to his people but you might find this interesting but there are different accounts where he actually will give a dream to a pagan to an unbeliever. You see it here in in the case of Nebuchadnezzar. We also saw it in the case of a man by the name of a bimilech. There was a time in the life of Abraham and Sarah where Abraham was entering into a land and he was concerned that he was going to be killed for for his wife Sarah's sake and in Genesis in chapter 20 you might want to turn there for just a moment. I want to read this to you Genesis chapter 20 beginning at verse one we read Abraham journeyed from there to the south and dwelt between Kadesh and Shura and stayed in Gerar. Now Abraham said of Sarah his wife she's my sister and a bimilech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah but God came to a bimilech in a dream by night and said to him indeed you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken for she is a man's wife and so the Lord what an encouraging dream that would be by the way huh you are a dead man the Lord would communicate and he did communicate in various times through dreams he would dream he would give dreams to prophets who would be able to communicate that to the people but he also would communicate occasionally to pagans and that's what we're seeing take place here back in Daniel chapter two Nebuchadnezzar is received a dream and God is going to use this dream by the way and the failure of the Chaldeans in interpreting it and in the success that he gives to Daniel to differentiate between the pagan religion of Babylon and the true faith of Israel and this is what we're going to be seeing here and so notice with me again that God is given to this king King Nebuchadnezzar a dream that has disturbed him is called his dream analyst to find out what it means and so they do what is normal they walk up to him and they say okay tell us the dream and will interpret it well he's not going for that so he says to them listen either you tell me the dream or I'll cut you up and I'll destroy your homes now in verse seven they answer again and said well let the king tell the servants his servants the dream and we will give its interpretation the king answered and said I know for certain that you would gain time because you see that my decisions firm if you do not make known the dream to me there's only one decree for you for you have agreed to speak line and corrupt words before me till the time has changed therefore tell me the dream and I shall know that you can give me its interpretation and so that's a very simple test if you really have you know an ability to analyze and to know and you've got the secret wisdom this really ought not to be too difficult for you so he's saying again my decision is firm there's no way that I'm going to change my mind I want you to remind me of what I have dreamed and if you can do that then I'll know that you're the genuine article now notice the response the caldians answered in verse 10 the king and said it's not a man on earth who can tell the king's matter therefore no king lord or ruler has ever had such a thing of any magician astrologer or caldian it is a difficult thing that the king requires and there's no other who can tell it to the king except the gods whose dwelling is not with flesh for this reason the king was angry and was very furious and he gave a command to destroy all the wise men of Babylon so the decree went out and they began killing the wise men and they sought Daniel and his companions to kill them now they're confessing at this point they're obvious inability they're basically confessing we are unable to do this only the gods can do what you're asking for and we have no contact with them now that's an interesting and very important confession because today we have people who don't seem to understand that and that's why they call the psychic hotline they don't understand that if you have no relationship with God how can you be able to give this wisdom from God how can you have these kinds of abilities if you have no contact with God and so there that's a very interesting confession we don't have contact with the gods there they don't dwell amongst men therefore we can't communicate or speak to them or do anything like that and in this we see the reality of the pagan religious system versus the reality of the god of Israel who communicates to those whom he loves this is what we see revealed to us right in front of us the pagans are simply saying we don't have that power we have no communion with him now he's angry obviously and so he sends the order I want you to begin rounding up all of the wise men now the majority of them were centered in the city of Babylon so they're beginning to get them they're hurting them together and this is going to make a public spectacle of them and he's going to have a public execution of all of these useless useless Chaldeans so it says in verse 13 the decree went out they began killing the wise men they saw Daniel and his companions to kill them in verse 14 then with counsel and wisdom Daniel answered Ariok the captain of the king's guard who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon he answered and said the area the king's captain why is the decree from the king so urgent then area Ariok made the decision known to to Daniel so Daniel went in and asked the king to give him time that he might tell the king the interpretation so notice how Daniel responds I want you to see this in verse 14 it says with counsel and wisdom Daniel answered Ariok in other words as Daniel begins to speak to Ariok this this very powerful man he uses discretion and he portrays himself with calmness and wisdom he's asking for time but God is going to show him favor in Proverbs 16 verse 7 the Bible says when a man's ways please the Lord he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him and so as he speaking to him he's saying I need some time so notice what happens in verse 17 Daniel went to his house and he made the decision known to Hananiah Michelle and Azariah his companions that they might seek mercies from the God of heaven concerning the secret so that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon notice what he did guys it's very important notice what he did two things I want to point out very briefly one is he secured believing friends he went and gathered believing friends because in the communion of friends who love the Lord there's a strengthening of faith and I really believe that when you're in a situation that calls for calling upon the Lord it's a wonderful thing when you have friends who have faith in God and know the power of prayer so that's the first thing he does is he approaches his friends and second they have a prayer meeting and I want you to see what he does here I want you to see how they begin to cry out to God for mercy in verse 18 that they might seek mercies from the God of heaven concerning the secret so that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon they knew their situation was desperate and they knew there was only one who could deliver them and that was going to be God you need to remember that King Nebuchadnezzar is the most powerful king on the earth and when he says you're going to die that's all there is to it and unless God were to change the heart of the king then the king's decision would be firm Proverbs tell us that the king's heart is in the Lord's hand and like the rivers of water water he turned at them with us whoever he will and so they begin to seek the mercy of God in prayer and one of the things I really believe with all of my heart and it's becoming more and more fervent belief in my life is that much of the things that we go through we go through because we haven't delivered these things to the Lord in prayer a lot of times we try and seek our own wisdom or our own way to get out of the problem but Daniel knew that his life was in the balance he knew that there was no way he's going to get out of this and he had to go to the Lord he didn't gather a bunch of party hearty friends and say man we got to do something he went and took out he took out some of the guys that he knew the best who love the Lord and he said guys we got to get on our faces before God because we're dead meat because he's going to slaughter everybody and it wasn't just for himself by the way that he was praying in the mercy that God had placed in Daniel's heart he's also praying for the rest of those people there because he has ministry that he's concerned with and he wants to make sure that that ministry is fulfilled and so notice what happens in verse 19 then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision so Daniel blessed the God of heaven Daniel answered and said blessed be the name of God forever and ever for wisdom and might are his he changes the times and the seasons he removes kings and raises up kings he gives wisdom to the wise and understanding or knowledge to those who have understanding he reveals deep and secret things he knows what is in the darkness and light dwells with him I thank you and praise you old God of my fathers you have given me wisdom and might and have made known to me what we asked of you for you have made known to us the king's demand I want you to see how he responds to the Lord he gives him glory and praise I praise you God I thank you God you have shown me mercy and you've shown me your goodness I thank you that you have preserved my life I thank you because all things are open before you and not a single thing is hidden and you know everything so I could trust you and we've come to you and we've asked you to reveal and you have and I thank you for it so he praises the Lord notice verse 24 therefore Daniel went to Ariok whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon he went and said thus to him do not destroy the wise men of Babylon take me before the king and I will tell the king the interpretation then area quickly brought Daniel before the king and said thus to him I have found a man of the captors of Judah who will make known to the king the interpretation the king answered and said to Daniel whose name was Balthesh Azar are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen and its interpretation Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said the secret which the king is demanded the wise men the astrologers the magicians and the soothsayers cannot declare to the king but there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days your dream and the visions of your head upon your bed were these as for you okay thoughts came to your mind well on bed on your bed about what would come to pass after this and he who reveals secrets has made known to you what will be but as for me this secret has not been revealed to me because I have more wisdom than anyone living but for our sakes who make known the interpretation to the king and that you may know the thoughts of your heart you old king were watching and behold the great image this great image whose splendor was excellent stood before you and its form was awesome this image's head was a fine gold its chest and arms of silver its belly and thighs of bronze its legs of iron its feet partly of iron and partly of clay you watched while a stone was cut out without hands which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces then the iron the clay the bronze the silver and the gold were crushed together and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found and the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth and so he begins to give him first his dream now Daniel goes to area because we saw in verses 24 through 28 and Daniel has a full confidence now that God has given him the dream and its interpretation and therefore as he approaches him is extremely poised now I want you to see something here that you might not have noticed I want you to see a contrast that develops immediately first I want you to see verse 25 it says area quickly brought Daniel before the king and said thus to him I have found a man of the captives he didn't find anybody what's he doing he's trying to get credit for this he's taken a big chance by the way what if Daniel's wrong but I want you to notice the contrast area tries to get part of the credit for this and he didn't have anything to do with it Daniel had spoken with him and had asked him what's going on area could told him he said I gotta get some time he got some time come back and says well I know what's going on and then area comes in he's gone we'll see this petty ruler you know puffing his chest out like yeah I discovered somebody he didn't discover anybody Daniel was being moved by the Lord I want you to contrast that with the attitude of Daniel because the king says can you make this interpretation known and Daniel makes it very clear the knowledge of this is not with men but there is a God in heaven what does he do he humbles himself before the king and he says there's no way I'm taking any credit for God's revelation it didn't come with me I simply beg him and in mercy God gave to me this revelation and so I want you to see the contrast there Daniel did not in any way shape or form take it unto himself now he says this interpretation was given because God has given to me mercy in verses 29 through 35 when he says as for you old king thoughts came to your mind while you were on your bed he begins to now reveal a panorama of history through an image and as you look at this we're going to see it in some detail in just a moment but as I was reading this to you I want you to notice with me that the metals that are spoken of in this image that he describes are descending in value they begin with gold but they end up with that which is really useless and so they have a descending value they're progressively inferior and this is intended to reveal the quality of man's kingdoms because what he is speaking about here is kingdoms of man and you need to see that as he speaking of these kingdoms these are kingdoms of man these are the best that man can do in the glory that man can provide and that's what we're seeing here now this particular series that he's giving is actually ruling nations we'll be looking at those nations more closely as you remain here in our study at us in Daniel you'll see this in chapter seven chapter eight and chapter 11 as we see more detail concerning these nations but that's what he's referring to now in verses 36 through 45 we end up now with the dream now let's look at it this is the dream now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king you o king are a king of kings for the God of heaven has given you a kingdom power strength and glory and wherever the children of men dwell or the beasts of the field and the birds of heaven he has given them into your hand and has made you ruler over them all you are the head of gold but after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours then another a third kingdom of bronze which shall rule over all the earth and the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron in as much as iron breaks in pieces and shatters all things and like iron that crushes that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others whereas you saw the feet and toes partly of Potter's clay and partly of iron the kingdom shall be divided yet the strength of the iron shall be in it just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay and as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile as you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay they will mingle with the seat of men but they will not adhere to one another just as iron does not mix with clay and in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the kingdom shall not be left to other people it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever in as much as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it broke in pieces the iron the bronze the clay the silver and the gold the great God is made known to the king what will come to pass after this the dream is certain and its interpretation is sure now let's look a little bit at this dream in a little more detail this is the dream now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king Daniel says now what I'm about to share with you is a panorama of human history I already mentioned in my introduction that it refers to a time that is called the times of the Gentiles and what we have here in this particular passage is for human kingdoms described and one kingdom that is made without human hands that's the kingdom of God and as we look at this we note that he's already mentioned and we've already seen this but in verses 37 and 38 he says to him you are the head of gold so we know that the first kingdom that he's referring to and you have to picture this as a statue of a man and a head of gold and what it was is a picture of Nebuchadnezzar who is standing before this statue and as he was standing before this statue the statue was immense it was incredibly large and in Nebuchadnezzar's dream he's standing before this incredibly large statue and he sees the descending value from gold, silver, bronze down to the iron mixed with clay and all and as he was looking at that it caused him great concern and something also that's interesting and I ought to say it at first is the density of the gravity of the weight of the metals descends in weight gold is heavier than the very bottom and therefore it's top heavy and he's looking at this enormous top heavy thing with gold as the head and he's wondering what does that represent well Daniel begins to tell him you are the head of gold now the head of gold being the most valuable gives to us the value of the kingdom and so he's saying to him you have absolute authority and the Babylonian rulers had absolute law if a Babylonian king said I'm gonna cut you in pieces and burn your house down that was all there was to it there was nothing you could do to stop him he had absolute authority there was no counsel there was no group of people there was nothing that could keep him from doing what he wanted to do and if he chose to do that the only thing that is his people that were under him could do is obey his command and that's why he says you have this incredible domain you have this power I want you to see how he puts it in verse 38 wherever the children of men dwell or the beasts of the field or the birds of heaven he's given them into your hand and has made you ruler over them all you are the head of gold what is he saying that when he says bird come dog go you know giraffe jump that they do that no what he's saying is you have absolute authority over all domain that's just a picture of your authority and so he's saying as the king of Babylon you are ruler now the Babylonian kingdom lasted from 605 to 538 under Nebuchadnezzar and then it's replaced with the second king you see that in verse 39 in verse 39 we see the chest and arms of silver that represents the Medo Persian Empire they ruled from 538 to 330 BC they were incredibly powerful the Medo Persians but they had something that the Babylonians didn't have the Medo Persian king was bound by the law if you were to decrease something then it was fixed in the law the Medo Persians you'll see this later on as we get into our study because on one occasion we'll see this later the Medo Persian king makes a decree and then discovers that that decree he'd been he'd been tricked into making and thus he tries all night to get it removed but he can't because he's bound by the law whereas a Babylonian king could change his mind Nebuchadnezzar could change his mind the Medo Persian could not that's a descending kingdom it's an inferior one and thus it's portrayed as silver in verse 39 you have the bronze that represents the Greek Empire that ruled from 330 to 30 BC the Greeks conquered the Medo Persians and it was a military aristocracy the most famous leader of the Greeks you all know is Alexander the Great and they were an incredible empire but they were a military aristocracy inferior to the Medo Persians and finally you have in verse 40 the nation of Rome the fourth kingdom he says and the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron in as much as iron breaks and pieces and shatters all things this was a picture of the power of the Romans the Romans were known for military strength and they were famous for their ability to crush all resistance with an iron heel they were bound by law and weakened by Caesar worship and as you see they are going descending in value all the way down now notice in verses 41 through 43 he says this whereas you saw the feet and toes partly of potter's clay and partly of iron the kingdom shall be divided yet the strength of the iron shall be in it just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay and as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile as you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay they will mingle with the seed of men but they will not adhere to one another just as iron does not mix with clay now we'll look at a couple of other things I want you to see how he says the kingdom will be a mixture of strength and weakness now notice verse 43 he speaks of iron mixed with ceramic clay he says they will mingle with the seed of men but they will not adhere to one another just as iron does not mix with clay the final form of the kingdom will include diverse elements possibly race possibly cultural political parties sectional interests cultural diversities and it will prevent the final form of the kingdom from having a real unity speaking of a massive empire that ultimately implodes there's so many things taking place in it and Rome never really had a unity they had the Roman peace but the Romans would conquer and they would bring into the Roman culture the various elements that they had conquered there never really was a true culture as a matter of fact when I was studying world history I still remember our teacher talking about the Greeks and how the Greeks would develop things and they had a culture but the Romans were never really a cultural giant but rather they had a acquisition they would take what was invented by other cultures and they would inculcate them into the Roman culture and so they weren't genius in terms of producing culture they were rather genius and taking it and bringing it in the problem is as they did that they never really had a unity and that's the point that's being made here and so this kingdom they speaking about this fourth kingdom is the kingdom of Rome now as we look at this I want you to note that he's describing a man and thus we get down to the feet and the toes notice verse 42 it says the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile now the 10 toes have a prophetic overview the last form of the Roman Empire is going to have 10 nations 10 nations and this is the last days kingdom that will be destroyed by Jesus when he returns in Daniel chapter 7 let's just take a quick peek over there into chapter 7 in verses 7 and 8 and this really is just basically a foundation will be looking in detail when we get into chapter 7 but in Daniel chapter 7 verses 7 and 8 we read these words after this I saw in the night visions behold a fourth beast dreadful and terrible exceedingly strong it had huge iron teeth it was devouring breaking in pieces and trampling the residue with its feet it was different from all the beasts that were before it and it had 10 horns I was considering the horns and there was another horn a little one coming up among them before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by its roots and there in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking pompous words without getting into too much detail this is a picture of the last days kingdom of Rome that is revived the ones that are being spoken of our 10 nation Confederacy the little horn is another way that we know that is referring to the anti-Christ this is speaking of a kingdom and a leader here and we'll see that in detail when we get there and I'll take you through this slowly but notice verses 23 and 24 of the same chapter because he tells us thus he said the fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth which shall be different from all other kingdoms shall devour the whole earth trample it and break it in pieces the 10 horns are 10 kings who shall arise from this kingdom and another shall rise after them he shall be different from the first ones and shall subdue three kings this is a picture of the anti-Christ rise to power the roman empire in various forms is continued to exist and that's the point that's being made the united states is patterned after after many many elements of the nation of Rome and in many various forms the roman empire continues to exist even until the day that we're we're standing here right now and so what's going to happen and this is just a quick picture is this kingdom this fourth kingdom really never ceases to exist though the roman empire of course fell in 14 I think was 1453 yet it still has an influence throughout history in the end in the latter days though there is a kingdom that will arise it's been called the revived roman empire it will be headed by a military leader by the name that we call them the anti- christ it'll be a 10 nation confederacy and in this government established by the anti-christ if that is the government that will be in existence when the Lord Jesus Christ comes revelation chapter 17 gives us the same idea in verses 12 and 13 in revelation chapter 17 verses 12 and 13 we read the 10 horns which you saw are 10 kings who have received no kingdom as yet but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast these are of one mind and they will give their power and authority to the beast and so there is a kingdom that will be present in the last days that is a form of the revived roman empire headed by an anti-christ also known as the little horn it is this particular kingdom that Daniel's referring to as we turn back to Daniel and we read the next several verses in verse 44 and 45 it says in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed the kingdom shall not be left to other people it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms it shall stand forever in as much as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it broken pieces the iron the bronze the clay the silver and the gold the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this the dream is certain and its interpretation is sure so what are you saying to us is this and we'll look at this now in the days of these three kings he says God will set up a kingdom which shall never end this is a picture of history in it in a snapshot you have Babylon Babylon is overtaken by the Medo-Persians the Medo-Persians ultimately overtaken by the Greeks the Greeks ultimately are overtaken by the great Roman Empire the Roman Empire's influence continues throughout history we end up now in what I call presently the last days the influence continues to this day in the last days in Antichrist and we'll look at all of this in detail when we get into chapter 7 8 and 11 especially but the Antichrist establishes a kingdom as he establishes this kingdom he will rule in his rulership ultimately there is one who's going to come to destroy it the picture that's given to us here in the book of Daniel in chapter 2 is a picture here in verse 35 when it says the iron the clay the bronze the silver and the gold were crushed together and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth the stone is an image of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ now how do we know that well I'll give you two scriptures first let's read together Luke chapter 20 verses 17 and 18 in the gospel of Luke chapter 20 verses 17 and 18 Jesus is having a discussion some people are challenging him and he responds to them and he says what then is this that is written the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone whoever falls on that stone will be broken but on whomever it falls it will grind him to powder Jesus was using the image of a stone to represent himself here and so he's speaking of his judgment or his ability to grind them into powder it's the same basic image that we saw just a moment ago in Daniel and then by cross-referencing that with Revelation chapter 19 and I'm going to read a few verses from there beginning at verse 11 we see this picture of the return of Christ in Revelation 19 verse 11 then I saw heaven opened behold a white horse and he who sat on him was called faithful and true and in righteousness he judges and makes war his eyes were like a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns he had a name written that no one knew except himself he was clothed with a robe dipped in blood and his name is called the word of God and the armies in heaven clothed in fine linen white and clean followed him on white horses now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword that with it he should strike the nations he himself will rule them with a rod of iron he himself treads the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God and he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords I saw an angel standing in the Sun he cried out with a loud voice saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven come and gather together for the supper the great God that you may eat the flesh of kings the flesh of captains the flesh of mighty men the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all people free and slave both small and great I saw the beast the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse and against his army then the beast was captured and with him the false prophet who works signs in his presence by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image these two are cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of him who sat on the horse and all the birds were filled with their flesh that's the picture that Daniel is giving to us that he's elaborated by John the second coming of Christ in which he comes and destroys the kingdom of the Antichrist and he brings in what is called the Millennial Reign and so back in Daniel and closing this is so hard for me to try and say there's so much more but we'll look at it you know we will in verse 36 King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face prostrate before Daniel and commanded that they should present an offering and incense to him the King answered Daniel and said truly your God is the God of gods the Lord of kings and the revealer of secrets since you could reveal this secret then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief administrator over all the wise men of Babylon also Daniel petitioned the King and he set Shadrach Meshach and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon but Daniel sat in the gate of the king the king is not becoming a believer in the God of Israel by the way not here he simply saying your God's better than the God's I've been worshiping true story was given to us at the pastors conference minister in India minister goes India was sharing concerning something that had occurred there were some people in a particular group of missionaries going to a particular tribe in India a village in India and they went in and as they went into this particular village the people in the village said to them if you don't leave our village we're going to beat you up and kill you and so they said it's probably a good idea to leave and so they did but as they left the village they stopped on the outskirts in the jungle there and they began to pray and they said God we know that you called us to this village we know that you sent us here there's no reason we'd be here if you didn't give to us a desire and a vision to come here and and that's why we're here Lord and would you please open the door so we can go back into the village and preach your your word and as they were praying a man was walking through the coming out of the jungle on a trail towards them and he stops and he's beginning to speak to them and he asks them what are you guys doing here what are you doing and they said we want to go into that village and we want to share about our God it turns out that the man who was there walking in and stopped to talk to them was the village chieftain and so he says well come back in with me and so he brought him back in and because he was the chief of the village nobody there could stop these people from coming in when they came in they were given an opportunity to share as they began to share some of the villagers walked up and said to them listen we have some children here who are very ill do you think maybe your God can do something for them and they said well we can only ask but our God has the ability to heal bring them to us and so they brought very various sick people to these Christians and they said God you are God you have the ability to heal and would you show them your power because they have been worshiping in darkness all of this time and you know what the Lord answered their prayer and the people began to get healed and when the people began to get healed they were able to establish a church there and they were able to baptize believers into fellowship with Christ and from that village now they've spread out from that area and they've been planning churches around there see the pagans worship God but they worship him in ignorance they have a concept of a God but no revelation of the true God and so they'll do all they can and all that they believe and they'll go again with all of their tradition and all of that that's what Nebuchadnezzar did Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and it troubled him he didn't know what to do about it so he calls in the wise men these are the wisest people in in his is in his culture and he says listen you need to tell me what my dream was it's disturbed me and I can't sleep they said well tell us the dream will give you the interpretation now you're buying time I can't even really remember it but if you will tell me it I'll remember it and then it also proved that you're real well you're asking us to do something that no man has ever been asked to do they say to him they say we do we can't do that because this is knowledge that is secured by the gods and only the gods knowing they don't dwell with men but you've got this Jewish young man by the name of Daniel he just finished three years of Babylonian college and he's serving the king and then he hears about it and he says well you know what let's get into a prayer meeting he and his buddies pray God you've got to show us mercy God reveals he goes to Nebuchadnezzar we're able to do it he reveals the descending kingdoms and he says to him you are the king of kings you are the head of gold and as he begins to share this and he begins to give the details this is what you were doing Nebuchadnezzar sees this he says undoubtedly you've got inside information my men didn't have the ability to communicate a single thing as a matter of fact I know that they were dodging this because they could ultimately die because I told them they would but you came with poise and confidence and you gave to me the insight that nobody else could give me therefore the God that you serve is a great and mighty God and it gives to him the recognition as a man of God because Daniel was in touch with his God and that's the same kind of thing maybe not as major of course but that's the same kind of thing that the Lord constantly does in our lives to guys by the way when you're on the job and people know that you're a Christian and they walk up to you after seeing you and watching you and sometimes you know this is true they'll be watching you from the corner of the eye to see what you're like and they see that you're honest they see that you're there on time they see that you don't take long breaks they see that you don't join in with looking at the porno telling the dirty jokes or gossiping in the office they see that there's a quality about you that's really different they may even speak to you on occasion and say what's you know all about what do you do well you know I'm a Christian oh okay fine that's all I was wondering but later on they walk up to you don't they and they'll say by the way when you're talking to man upstairs once you remember me my I'm having problems with my wife don't they next time you're talking to the the big guy up there they'll say would you would you remember my kid he's in the hospital right now I'm concerned about him and then they walk away they disappear that's happened to me it happens to you they'll say you know what I know you go to church would you think of me sometime what are these saying to you they're saying my religion doesn't work but there's something about yours that does I'm going to take a chance with you and you want to know something Daniel was lifted in the eyes of the king because Daniel's God is a great God and you will be raised in the eyes of your friends when you worship and serve the true God of heaven and that's what we're seeing take place here incredible prophecy that we will look at in detail in chapter seven eight and 11 but the point is he's saying listen king the God of heaven whom I serve knows all things he knows what you dreamed he knows what's bothering you and by the way this is what it was and now he's great he's gaining credibility in such way that later on you're going to see his impact is incredible in the kingdom of Babylon so we'll stop here and we'll pick up next time in chapter three