If you press that little, I don't know what you call it, the button in the middle there, it should expand it up to the... yeah, good. All right. If you have your Bibles this evening, please turn to the Book of Daniel and Chapter 2. Daniel Chapter 2. And the title of our message tonight is The Panorama of Bible Prophecy. panorama of Bible prophecy. In Daniel chapter 2, we have now this tremendous vision of Nebuchadnezzar's revealed and interpreted through God's servant Daniel. In our last message, we looked at how God answered Daniel's prayer tremendously in the prayer of his three friends to reveal this dream to him. And it truly is an amazing prophecy and really gives us a tremendous overview of Gentile world history as it relates to Israel. And so we want to just spend some time looking at that tonight. I'm going to just read for you tonight from verse 24 down to verse 36. We'll hold the reading there and we'll have a word of prayer, but Lord willing, we will also read and cover the rest of the chapter tonight. So a bit of ground to get through tonight, but we trust it'll be a blessing to you as we look at a panorama of Bible prophecy. So reading from verse 24, Therefore Daniel went in unto Ariok, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus unto him, destroy not the wise men of Babylon, bring me in before the king and I will show unto the king the interpretation. Then Ariok brought in Daniel before the king in haste and said thus unto him, I have found a man of the captives of Judah that will make known unto the king the interpretation. The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen and the interpretation thereof? Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, the secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers show unto the king. But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream and the visions of thy head upon thy bed are these. As for thee, O King, thy thoughts came into thy mind, upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter, and he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass. But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have, more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the King. And that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart. Thou, O King, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee, and the form thereof was terrible. This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou saw'st till that a stone was cut out without hands which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay and break them in pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold broken to pieces together and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors. And the wind carried them away and no place was found for them. And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. This is the dream, and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the King. Let's have a word of prayer as we commit this time to the Lord in prayer. Father, we do give you thanks and praise tonight for the opportunity to come here, Lord, and to open your word together. And Father, how we need the help of the Holy Spirit, who is the author of this book, to understand these wonderful truths. Lord, we are so thankful that you have revealed many things concerning the future in your word. We thank you, Lord, that we can rest in your omnipotence and your almighty power, Lord, knowing that though things may seem very dark and dismal around us, Lord, you are upon the throne and, Lord, you reign in the kingdoms of men and, Lord, your will will be accomplished. for this world. And so we look forward to that day when you will come and you will rule and reign for a thousand years and then on into eternity, Lord, in that new heaven and new earth and how we look forward to that day. So, Lord, if nothing else tonight, strengthen the hearts of your people, encourage them, Lord, that you are in control and that, Lord, though things may be very difficult even in this life, Lord, one day you will reign and you will rule and we look forward to that. So bless us now we pray, give us wisdom in Jesus' name we ask it, Amen. All right, as mentioned, this chapter before us contains one of the most significant prophecies in the Bible, and it really gives us an overview of what the Lord Jesus described as the times of the Gentiles. In fact, there are two key phrases in the New Testament you should be familiar with. One is the times of the Gentiles, the other is the fullness of the Gentiles. Now that is not, those things refer to different, those two phrases, sorry, refer to different things. Okay, the times of the Gentiles, referred to that period of domination by the Gentile powers, which is really what Nebuchadnezzar's image gives us a view of. And it gives us an overview, as we're going to see soon, of this time from the time of Nebuchadnezzar through to Christ's millennial reign, and particularly as these kingdoms relate to Israel. We know that there have been other significant world powers that are not mentioned in this prophecy, but understand within the context of Daniel, these are the kingdoms that particularly have some sort of relation to the nation of Israel. And we know that, of course, in the end times, in the tribulation period, Israel is very much going to be back in focus with the Antichrist making that covenant for one week. So we have the times of the Gentiles. In the book of Romans, we have, in Romans chapter 11, reference to the fullness of the Gentiles, that blindness in part has happened unto Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And that's a reference to this church age where the Lord is primarily calling out people for his name from the Gentile nations now certainly there is an election according to the there is a remnant according to the election of grace amongst the Jewish people but on the whole during this particular church period God is calling out a Gentile bride a Gentile people so we don't know when the fullness of the Gentiles will be reached But when the fullness of the Gentiles is reached, the Lord knows when that is, that last soul during this church age is saved, then the rapture will take place and then we have the seven-year tribulation following. Now, I want you to notice that this stream, we're just in introduction here, was clearly prophetic by a number of words and phrases that come through. In verse 28, we have the phrase, latter days. In verse 29, we have the phrase, what shall come to pass. Verse 45, the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter. And when Daniel gets to the end of the interpretation in verse 45, he says the dream is certain and the interpretation thereof sure. Isn't it wonderful when it comes to Bible prophecy, we're dealing with something that is real, something that is certain, something that is absolute. And someone said that prophecy is really history written in advance. And I love that. I thought that's a good way of putting it. Prophecy is history written in advance. In other words, it is so sure it's as good as completed history, but it just simply has not happened yet. But we know that when God speaks of the future, it will come to pass with absolute accuracy. All right, so we want to look at several things tonight about this prophetic dream. Before we study the actual statue itself, we'll get to that in a moment, we want to just look firstly at these verses, verse 24 to 35, as Daniel reveals the dream to Nebuchadnezzar. So that's our first point tonight. We have the revelation of the dream in verse 24 through 35. So Daniel now comes before the king and retells the dream for the king. He reveals the dream and then he will go on to interpret it. so we'll move reasonably quickly through these verses, but just try and stay with us. So we have the revelation of the dream in verse 24 through 35. In the first part of this we see that Daniel has an audience with the king in verse 24 through 30. Okay, he has an audience with the king. We know from last week's message that the Lord answered Daniel's prayer and so Daniel then petitions Arioch in verse 24 to 25 to get access to the king, to present to him the dream and the interpretation so that they will not perish along with the rest of the wise men. So we see Daniel's petition to Arioch there, verse 24 and 25, and then in verse 26 through 29, as Daniel appears before the king, we see that he exalts the Lord, he exalts the Lord as he stands before the king and gives the interpretation. The king asked Daniel an interesting question there in verse 26, "...Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen and the interpretation thereof?" If ever there was a temptation for Daniel to lay his hand onto some of God's glory and some of the credit to try and exalt himself in the eyes of this pagan king, this would have been the moment. Okay, the King says, are you able, Daniel, to make known to me the interpretation which I have seen, sorry, the dream which I've seen in the interpretation thereof? Daniel could have very quickly said, well, yes, King, I've got the goods. After all, God's given me the gift of interpreting dreams and so on, and I'm 10 times better, as you know, than the rest of the wise men. I've got what it takes. But Daniel didn't do that, did he? Daniel appears before the dream to reveal this dream, but he is careful to exalt the Lord. You know, there's a prayer we often pray, but don't actually follow through on. We say, Lord, we will be so careful to give you all the praise and all the glory for what you will do. Amen. And then we go away and claim all the credit and the glory, or simply forget to give God glory at all. Well, Daniel didn't do that, did he? He exalts the Lord, turns the focus straight away from himself onto the Lord. He says there in verse 27, the secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers show unto the king. And Nebuchadnezzar had already discovered that with the phony religious elites that he tried to consult before. But Daniel says in verse 28, but there is a God in heaven. that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the King Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days." Okay, so Daniel is very careful as he appears before the King to retell and to reveal the dream that God has now revealed, given to him, that he exalts the Lord and humbles himself. Verse 30, look at his humility there. So Daniel says, listen, it's not because I'm anything special. We see here in Daniel a spirit of humility. When God answers prayer, we need to learn to give the credit where credit is due, don't we? God had moved in a miraculous way to reveal this dream to Daniel and his three friends. Daniel appears before the most powerful man on earth. The temptation would no doubt be there for him to lay some claim to the credit, particularly understanding in the pagan mindset there that Nebuchadnezzar would be naturally disposed to give Daniel the glory as some sort of elite man or some sort of holy man, as we'll see later when he tries to offer oblations to him like he would to a pagan god. But Daniel did not. do that, he exalted the Lord very clearly. So we're looking at the revelation of the dream, Daniel's audience with the King, verse 24 through 30. Now we notice in verse 31 to 35, Daniel's articulation of the dream. So Daniel now retells this dream to Nebuchadnezzar, outlining this colossal image that Nebuchadnezzar had seen in his dream. Now notice a few things about the image. Notice the appearance of the image in verse 31, he says, This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee, and the form thereof was terrible." So here we have a great image. So this was a huge, colossal image. We may have a bit of an indication of how large this image was from Chapter 3, where Nebuchadnezzar builds a statue, an image of gold, around three score cubits. and the breadth thereof six cubits, verse one of chapter three. Now, I forgot to include the note here. I think it's somewhere in the order of 90 feet high. So Nebuchadnezzar, rather than humbling himself at this point before God, who'd revealed his dream, rather thought, hey, I think I would look really good. I mean, that image represents me. I don't want to just be the head of gold. I'd like to be the whole 90 feet worth of gold. Thank you very much, and sets it up. And God's going to humble Nebuchadnezzar later. we're going to see but for the moment the appearance of the dream it's it's a great image and the Bible tells us it's it was a bright its brightness was excellent this means it was shining there was a certain brilliance about it and it was terrible meaning that it had a certain frightening aspect to it. Really what we see in Nebuchadnezzar's vision is world powers, world empires viewed from man's perspective. It looks very glorious and it looks so great and amazing, but we will find later in Daniel, in Daniel chapter 7, that God gives Daniel a vision of the same four world empires, but God depicts them as ravenous beasts. So really in Daniel chapter 2 we have this great statue really revealing man's perspective largely or how the kingdoms of the world appear in man's estimation. Then in chapter 7 we have more God's estimation of the kingdoms of this world. God views them as cruel and vicious. as depicted by those beasts. So we see the appearance of the image. Now look at the sections of the image in verse 32 to 33. We see the structure of the image was of the head of gold. We have then the breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs of iron, and then the feet, partly iron and partly clay. Now we're going to look at those specific components of the statue in a moment and explain those, but just at the moment we're looking at Daniel retell the dream. He's articulating the dream to the king before him. Now if we take a step back and just have a look at this image for a moment, there's a few noteworthy things that we can observe. So just try and take a step back and just think about the image. It may have looked like that. It might have looked a bit different, but it gives us a bit of an idea. And we notice a number of things. We notice it is impressive in its appearance and makeup. Sorry, its impressive appearance and makeup reveal that this is the kingdoms of the world viewed from man's viewpoint. I mentioned that before. We also note that this image is top-heavy. and weak in its feet, indicating an unsteady and precarious foundation. Okay, we have gold with a specific gravity, I'm told, of 19.3. Silver with a specific gravity of 10.51. Brass, 8.5. Iron, 7.6. And then clay, a specific gravity of 1.9. Mathematicians, okay. So what we can see is this image is top heavy, but as you go down, it becomes weak. All right, clay is very weak. And what this represents really is the natural progression or the gradual deterioration of the kingdoms of this world and that's the direction that the kingdoms of this world naturally take. Quite opposite actually to the humanistic idea that man is constantly getting better, the old evolutionary concept that we're evolving and we're advancing, actually when you take a step back and look at The vision here, as revealed by God, God actually depicts the kingdoms of this world as decreasing in value and decreasing in strength. Now the legs of iron actually are the strongest part, but eventually that also becomes weak. We have the clay feet mixed with iron. So this is the inevitable progression of human governments, isn't it? And world empires. Then we note the destruction of the image in verse 34 to 35. It says, he says, Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay and break them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold broken to pieces together and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors and the wind carried them away that no place was found for them and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. So there we have eventually the kingdoms of this world being completely devastated and destroyed by a stone that is cut out without hands, okay? That tells us right there that this is something supernatural. This is something divine, okay? It's not a stone that is anyway shaped by the hands of man. This is something that is divine in its origin, comes from God, and it smites the image right there in its weakest point, and so devastates the image that it becomes like chaff, and it blows away in the wind. That's the ultimate destiny of this world system. And we know, as we're going to speak about in a moment, that that stone is not something, but someone. That stone is the Lord Jesus Christ. And that stone that comes and smites the image is the return of Christ, which we know is absolutely sure and going to happen. And this shows us that this world system with its kingdoms has a predicted end and the Lord Jesus will come and smite it and bring it to an end. So we have the revelation of the dream, Daniel appears before the king and then Daniel articulates the dream before the king, he retells it for him. Number two, we note now the interpretation of the dream and there we see that there is a very clear transition in verse 36 between Daniel simply retelling the dream and then now interpreting the dream because he says in verse 36, this is the dream, what he's just said, And we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. So can you see verse 36 marks a clear transition from Daniel retelling the dream, revealing it to the king, and then now interpreting the dream. So that is where we're up to. We have the interpretation of the dream. And now we're going to look at these various kingdoms more specifically. We have the first kingdom, documented in verse 37 to 38, of gold, which is the Babylonian kingdom. And it's very clearly spelled out there. In verse number 37, he says, Thou, O king, art a king of kings, for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field, and the fowls of heaven, hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all, thou art this head of gold. Okay, so this is the Babylonian Kingdom. This is a chart from the Herald of Hope. Okay, and as you can see there, like I mentioned, we have the vision of Chapter 2 with the statue. And then over here in Chapter 7, we have the same four kingdoms. in another vision, but now depicted as wild beasts. And then in chapter eight, we have two kingdoms specifically zeroed in on with the kingdom of the Persian kingdom, Medes and Persians, and then the Grecian kingdom that will destroy the Persian kingdom. So this head of gold represents the Babylonian Kingdom, very clearly spelled out there for us. And gold speaks of wealth, doesn't it? Glory, prestige. We notice that the metals decrease in value as we go down. So the Babylonian Kingdom was indeed a magnificent and wealthy kingdom. We see that this kingdom came from God, that was the source of the kingdom, verse 37, God had given this to Nebuchadnezzar, in fact God speaks about Nebuchadnezzar elsewhere as his servant, God was using this heathen ruler to accomplish his purposes. We note the scope of Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom, that it encompassed world dominion, he had tremendous power over the known world, and then the symbol was, as we mentioned, gold. According to Dennis Lyle, he says that when Herodotus the historian visited Babylon 100 years after Nebuchadnezzar, he wrote that in all his life he had never seen more gold nor imagined there could be so much. So it was a very wealthy kingdom, very powerful kingdom symbolised in the head there. and that kingdom ran approximately from 606 BC to 536 BC. Then we have the second kingdom and the third kingdom which are only contained or just described very briefly in one verse, okay, in verse 39 and then there's a tremendous amount of detail, more detail given to the fourth kingdom than any other of the kingdoms and that's for significant reason because that prophetically is very important because the Antichrist is going to come out of that last kingdom and ultimately be destroyed by the Lord. So we have the silver kingdom, verse 39, And then he says, and another third kingdom of brass which shall bear rule over the earth. Okay, so here we have the Persian kingdom. You say, how do you know it was the kingdom of Persia? Well, this happens in Daniel's lifetime in chapter 5. Remember Belshazzar and the story there and how he sees the handwriting on the wall and how God gives Darius the Median victory over Babylon they take over. The two arms, as some have suggested, could represent the two people groups that make up the kingdom of Persia because it was actually the Medes and the Persians that made up this kingdom. We see that later with the ram that also depicts the kingdom of Medo-Persia because both horns here represented those people groups, the large one being the Persians, they seem to be the more dominant, and the smaller representing the Medes. the arms and the chest there of silver. Now this empire of Persia was still in power when the Old Testament closes. You remember our Nehemiah series? Persia was still on the throne then, and God used the Persian kings to issue those important edicts for the children of Israel to go back and reestablish in the land. So as you come to the close of the New Testament in Malachi, Persia is still the world power at the time. Then we come to the third kingdom, the kingdom of bronze. This is the Grecian kingdom, and this kingdom arose in the silent years between the Old and the New Testament. However we have very clear scriptural evidence that this was the kingdom of Grisha because in chapter 8 and verse 21 it says and the rough goat is the king of Grisha and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king so read sometime in chapter 8 about this goat that's running so fast its feet aren't even touching the ground, indicating tremendous swiftness, has a prominent horn up on top. Here we know from history that there was a man who conquered the known world at that time with incredible speed by the name of Alexander the Great. Okay, so very clearly the third kingdom of bronze, as predicted in Daniel chapter 8, we don't have to guess what that was, that was the kingdom of Grisha, but in time that didn't actually take place until the silent years, the period between the Old and the New Testament. History, interesting that they're depicted as bronze because history tells us that the Grecian army used bronze extensively for their armour and weaponry, for example, their shields and swords. And Alexander the Great was their leader and has gone down in history as the greatest general of ancient times, conquering the known world at that time. Tradition says he wept that there were no more worlds to conquer and died in Babylon around 30 years of age. Then we come fourthly now to the Iron Kingdom, which is the Roman Kingdom. Very clearly from history we can see this, because Rome was known for not just its use of physical iron for its weaponry and so on, but for its iron rule. The legs of iron. Two legs, again likely indicating the two east and west divisions of Rome that came about in time. But iron, speaking of tremendous strength, and power and brutality. And more is said about this fourth kingdom than in any other. Look at it there in verse 40 to 43. You can almost hear the stamping feet of the Roman soldiers, can't you? And how they crushed everything in their way. All right, we'll read the other verses in a moment. I want you to notice that there are three distinct divisions in this fourth empire, this fourth kingdom, the Roman kingdom. We have in verse 41, the legs, sorry, verse 40, we have the legs of iron breaking in pieces, okay, and we know this to be the Roman kingdom that took over and conquered the Greeks. and was in power at the time of Christ, okay? Then in verse 41, he then refers to the feet and toes, part of potter's clay and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided, but there shall be in it of the strength of iron for as much as thou sawest the iron mixed with Maori clay. Verse 42, and as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken. So until the Lord comes, it seems that this kingdom exists in some form. We have the legs of iron firstly, which was Imperial Rome, that was roundabout from 63 BC to 476 AD. And then we have the feet of clay and iron, so it degenerates into weakness, and that's exactly what happened with Rome. It was started out very strong, but eventually weakened over time. So iron signified Rome's power, severity towards those who would not submit. Josephus, the Jewish historian, recorded that over one million Jews perished in Rome's siege of Jerusalem in 8070, and 97,000 were taken captive. 10,000 were burned alive or killed in gladiatorial games to entertain Roman crowds. So the iron fist, the iron heel of Rome, bore rule in that time. Then we have the feat of iron and clay. This appears to be a weakened form of the Roman Empire, and this has existed in various forms. For example, the Holy Roman Empire, though there were separate kingdoms in that time, yet the papacy exercising tremendous rule over, really, that old empire through the church up until the 1800s. And now we have the European Union, which very much appears to be the revived Roman Empire. Okay, and what is shaping up very likely to be the end time kingdom of Antichrist, okay? Now the 10 toes speak to us about this, of the revived Roman Empire that will be the Antichrist kingdom. You say, how do you know that? Well, there's an emphasis in the Bible upon the number 10 in relation to this final kingdom. We have the 10 toes depicted here in Daniel 2. Then the same kingdoms described in Daniel 7, look over there for a moment, as 10 horns. same kingdom Daniel chapter 7 verse 7 through 8. So this is referring to the same kingdom. but now through a different vision. Before whom there were three of the first horns, sorry verse seven, where are we? It devoured and breaking pieces and stamped the residue with the feet of it and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it and it had how many horns? Ten horns. I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots, and behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things. So we have this ten-horned beast, and then this little horn arising up out of that, within that context, which is what the Antichrist will do. Then turn over to Revelation, and see how this ties in with Revelation chapter 13. And then chapter 17, Revelation chapter 13. And we'll hold the reading there. And then turn over to chapter 17. obviously there's a lot of detail we could camp on but we just want to get the overview here. Chapter 17 verse 12 to 14. And the ten horns which thou sawest are what? Ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet, but receive power as kings, one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These shall make war with the lamb, and the lamb shall overcome them. For he is the Lord of lords, and King of kings, and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. Okay, so the emphasis here, as we tie this together with Daniel, and then tracing into the Book of Revelation here, there's a ten kingdom confederacy that will give their power and strength under the beast. Who's the beast? The beast is the Antichrist. Okay, so we have the Antichrist arising out of this ten-toed kingdom also depicted in Daniel 7 and then Revelation 13 as the ten horns. And it would seem the European Union is the early development of this kingdom and may eventually become the Antichrist Confederacy. It's in a similar location to the old Roman Empire and encompasses many of the same lands. And David Cloud makes the following comment. He says, in 1957, six nations signed the Treaty of Rome, pledging unity. Interesting, it's called the Treaty of Rome. France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. In 1958, the European Economic Community was born, often called the Common Market. In 1979, an election was held for the first European Parliament. In 1993, the European Union was formed. It encompasses 500 million people, and in 2014, owned about 24% of the world's gross domestic product. In 2002, the euro was adopted as a common currency. Interestingly, note this, one of the symbols of the European Union is the ancient Tower of Babel. The tower was featured on the European Union poster in 1992 and the Union's headquarters in Strasbourg, France is shaped like an unfinished tower. Another symbol, probably more significantly here, of the Union is the ancient goddess Europa riding a bull, which is a woman riding a beast. Remember that from Revelation 17. This same image of the woman riding a beast is on the Euro coin and a statue of her resides outside the Union's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Now he makes this comment, we don't know if the existing European Union will play any role in the rise of the Antichrist, but we do know that some sort of European Union will. So we understand in the future, after the rapture, the Antichrist is going to come on the scene. But what we do see is very much what appears to be a revived Roman Empire in this confederacy that is pulling together. And out of that, the Antichrist will arise. So amazing to see these things foretold. Now, just think about this for a moment. We have the advantage of looking back on a lot of this being fulfilled. OK, right from there down to about here, we've seen the fulfillment of that. All right, we're just waiting this last part here to take place. But remember at the time when Daniel was writing this prophecy and revealing it, the only aspect that had been partially fulfilled was this head of gold. All of the rest of this for Daniel and for Nebuchadnezzar and for the Jews of his time was all prophetic. Doesn't that tell you something about the accuracy of Bible prophecy and the accuracy of the word of God? In fact, the critics, because of the accuracy, the stunning accuracy of Daniel's prophecy here, have attempted to try and prove that it was written after the event. Because they just can't accept that it could be so accurate. Okay, because this was written before it all happened. We have these, we have the Kingdom of Babylon, then Persia, then Greece, Rome, amazing. So if all of this here has been fulfilled with exact accuracy as foretold by the Word of God, we can know that the rest of this is going to happen as well, can't we? Okay. Then we come now to the fifth kingdom, which is the eternal kingdom, depicted by the stone. Okay, this is the eternal kingdom. I want you to notice some things about this in verse 44 to 45. Please note who the king is of this kingdom. The stone is clearly a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 45, for as much as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, Verse 34, back in verse 34, thou saw'st that a stone was cut out without hands. We know the stone is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is frequently referred to as the stone in scripture. And we know that this is a reference to his second advent, his coming, where the kingdom of Antichrist and even broader than that, the kingdoms of this world will come to an end, be ground to powder, and his kingdom will take over. Now let me just ask you a question. I want you to answer me out loud. Was this first kingdom of Babylon a literal kingdom or a mystical spiritual kingdom? Literal, okay. What about the chest and arms of silver, was that literal or spiritual? Literal. Okay, this kingdom of brass, Greece, was that literal or spiritual? Literal. And the Roman Empire, was that literal or spiritual? Literal. Okay, so when Christ returns, will his kingdom be literal or spiritual? Literal. Literal, that's very important. So what are you saying that for? We know that. But hang on, do you know that the vast majority even of professing evangelical Christendom today are amillennial? In other words, they say that there is not going to be a literal 1,000 year reign of Christ. Now the problem I have with people who hold that view is they're actually robbing the Lord Jesus of some of his glory. Okay, it's actually a very serious thing to deny the kingdom and it's the most inconsistent way of interpreting the scriptures. It's inconceivable that we can have a literal fulfillment of this whole prophecy that hangs together and then all of a sudden when we get to the bottom here, it's flick a switch and goes into some mystical spiritual kingdom. Can you see that? Okay, each of these kingdoms were literal kingdoms. We have no reason and there's no warrant scripturally to all of a sudden say that this kingdom of Christ is some sort of airy-fairy thing that doesn't have a literal fulfillment. Okay, so Christ is referred to here as the stone, the stone, and there's many references that would reveal that to you. And I have an outline here about Christ the stone that I just want to share with you from Pastor Dennis Lyle. And it is, it says follows, Jesus Christ was the supernatural stone. We find that he was cut out without hands, verse 34. He is the supernatural stone. He was the stumbling stone, 1st Peter 2.8, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. That was to the nation of Israel. Thirdly, he was the smitten stone. Take the rod and smite the rock, said God to Moses in Exodus 17, picture of Christ who was our rock of ages smitten at Calvary for our sins. Number four, he is the salvation stone, the stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner. There is salvation in no other, Acts 4 verse 12. Here's the sovereign stone. We see that this stone in verse 35 becomes a great mountain and fills the whole earth. The picture there is of a universal and complete reign over the entire world. So we see that Christ is the stone and he's gonna come again at his second coming and he's going to smash the kingdom of antichrist that's gonna arise out of this 10 kingdom confederacy. And the Lord Jesus will rule and reign for those thousand years. and then on into the eternal state with the new heaven and the new earth. Are you encouraged about that? Good, I hope you are. It's wonderful, isn't it, to think about that. The Lord Jesus is our rock, our stone, and he's going to deal a death blow to the systems of this world. And that's the end of it. This is where it's foolish to subscribe to the idea that we have to somehow build the kingdom now. The Lord is not going to come and take the kingdoms of this world and renovate them. He's going to grind them to powder and blow them off the scene. Okay, so you understand that what we believe about these things will affect our philosophy of ministry. Because there are many people today who are putting huge amounts of resources into trying to reform human government. Now, I'm not against having a representation, I think as Christians, we are to be salt and light, we are to speak the truth. The Bible brings that principle out for us in other scriptures. But sometimes this is the outworking of this kingdom now philosophy that we need to try and build the kingdom of God now. Listen, this kingdom is a divine kingdom that God himself will bring to this earth. We can't possibly build his kingdom. Okay, we can be a part of it and trust the Lord to work in us there, but we can't possibly try and reform the system of this world to make it somehow fit for Christ. That's the outworking of the wrong theology. wrong theology. Now again, don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying we shouldn't stand up and speak the truth. But we're not called upon to try and take over, in that sense, secular governments and try and make them a kingdom of God on earth. God is going to destroy the system of human government eventually because it's just corrupt and he will set up his own kingdom. So we have the king of this kingdom, the stone which is the Lord Jesus. We have the timing of the kingdom. When does this kingdom of Christ come? When does the stone smash the image? Well in verse 44 it says, in the days of these kings, What kings? Well, the ten-toed confederacy, the ten kings spoken about in Revelation. So it would appear that this revived Roman Empire in its end times form will encompass ten kingdoms, there's probably going to be some sort of amalgamation maybe of various countries and things, until the point where there are ten, clearly ten divisions there, ten kingdoms, and they will give their power to the beast, the beast will arise out of that system, that revived Roman system, Roman government, but then the Lord Jesus in the days of those kings during that time will smash will smash the Antichrist's kingdom at the end of the seven-year period and set up his eternal kingdom. All right. So that's the timing of the kingdom, the duration of the kingdom. How long would this kingdom last for? Well, it tells us there, which shall never be destroyed, it shall stand forever. Okay, so we see the kingdoms of this world have a time limit on them. and eventually we have four of them, well the first three definitely are passed away, the first major part of this fourth one passed away, some still future, but on the whole, the kingdoms of this world pass from the scene, but the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ will never be destroyed. It shall stand forever. conquest of this kingdom. Who will conquer it? Well we've mentioned already the stone will break in pieces. It says verse 45, the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver and the gold. So really we have a panorama here of Bible prophecy and we're still waiting for this to be fulfilled. Understand, by the way, that there are gaps in Bible prophecy, okay. Sometimes for many years, we're in this church age at the moment, awaiting that, the rapture, and then the Antichrist will come to the throne, so to speak, over that revived Roman Empire, and then the Lord Jesus will deal with him there at the end. So we see the interpretation of the dream. Thirdly and lastly tonight, and very briefly, the promotion after the dream. Okay, so we have the revelation of the dream. Daniel appears before the king and retells the dream for him. Then we have the interpretation of the dream. Daniel interprets, gives the divine interpretation of the dream given to him by God. Then number three, the promotion after the dream in verse 46 down to verse 49. Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and worshipped Daniel and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him. The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is that your God is a God of gods, and the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldst reveal this secret. Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. Then Daniel requested of 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. So the promotion came to Daniel after he had revealed the dream to the king. And we note two aspects of this promotion. There was praise in verse 46 and 47 and then position in verse 48 and 49. We note in verse 46 the praise of Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar was a pagan king still at this time and sought to offer to Daniel some sort of adoration that he would offer to a pagan deity. Now this was wrong for Nebuchadnezzar to do this but it is an amazing gesture when you consider that he was the most powerful ruler on the earth at that time. He wasn't known for his humility but he was so impacted by the dream and its interpretation, had that ring of truth about it that it just brought that response out in him and that he sought to really worship Daniel and to elevate him in some way. Sometimes we read this hurriedly and we say well it seems like Daniel doesn't offer any protest and how could Daniel do that as a godly man, it seems he receives the worship. But let me just show you something I think that reveals that Daniel probably did have something to say about this because in verse 47 it says, Now if the King's answering Daniel, it would appear that Daniel said something to him, okay? And it's interesting, from verse 46 to 47, the King all of a sudden changes from trying to worship and exalt Daniel, to then answering Daniel, whatever Daniel said we don't know, and says to Daniel of a truth, it is, that you're God. is a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldst reveal this secret. So I submit to you that it appears that though the king endeavoured to worship Daniel initially, Daniel said something that made the king direct his focus away from Daniel to the one true God. So Daniel was received promotion, the praise of Daniel, and then the praise of Daniel's God, verse 47. The king now praises Daniel's God for revealing the secret. Then we have position. Daniel was promoted in position. Verse 48, we have Daniel's promotion, the elevation of Daniel. You think about the glory of Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom, and Babylon proper was really like the capital city of that entire world empire. And so he didn't just make Daniel a ruler of maybe one section of the kingdom in some far-flung country away from Babylon, but actually made him a great man and ruler over the whole province of Babylon. So tremendous promotion there for Daniel. And when we think about where that comes from, it came ultimately from the Lord. But we see that God, as we mentioned, didn't we, in a previous message, those that honour God, and God will honour. Honour God and God will honour you. And then we have the elevation of Daniel's friends, verse 49. Daniel requests of the king for these three friends of his, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, to be also promoted to areas over Babylon. So God honored these three, four, sorry, Hebrew young men. for their faithfulness to him. And God revealed the dream through Daniel. And as a result of that, God ultimately positioned Daniel and these three men into positions of tremendous influence in a pagan kingdom. And through Daniel, a witness was being provided to Nebuchadnezzar and to his whole kingdom of the one true God. So there we have it, the panorama of Bible prophecy. We will get to more. details on prophecy once we get into the second major section of the book. The first major section is from chapter 1 to 6, and on the whole chapter 1 to 6, though it includes this section here on prophecy on the whole, it has to do with Daniel and his three friends, their godly character and God's dealings with them and through them. Then we come to chapter 7 through 12 and that section will major more on the prophetic aspect. So we'll talk more about some of these things as we get to that point. But tonight hopefully that just gives you a little bit of an overview and the challenge and the encouragement for us is that great stone is going to fall one day and the Lord will reign, Jesus shall reign. And that's the theme, isn't it, of our series in Daniel, that our God reigns. God is on the throne and ultimately his plan for this universe will be accomplished. So take courage tonight, things can look very dark. and very disappointing and heartbreaking around us, but the Lord is on his throne. And though wicked men may feel that the destiny of the world is in their hands, we know that our God is the one who truly reigns, and he will reign victorious. Let's pray. Father, we thank you tonight. And for the word of God, Lord, we confess, as we look into the future, there are some things we don't understand. But Lord, we do marvel at the wonder of Bible prophecy and how you have revealed these things to us. And Lord, we have complete confidence that what you have said will happen, will happen, because you are God and you know the future and you've revealed these secret things that we might know them and that we might ultimately fear before thee. So Lord, bless us, we pray now. Help us to walk in the strength of these truths this week. Lord, help us to glorify you. And Lord, not to live for this world and this world system. but Lord, to live for that eternal kingdom that is coming. And we say, thy kingdom come, Lord. Even so come, Lord Jesus. We pray these things now in his name. Amen.