and get everything officially sorted out. We just keep praying for that. I'm thankful that we purchased a new van the last couple of weeks. All right, let's take our Bibles tonight. We're gonna be in Daniel chapter two. Daniel two, and we're gonna conclude our study in this chapter this evening, Lord willing. We'll pick up starting in verse 36. Daniel chapter 2, starting in verse 36. The Bible says, this is the dream. This is Daniel interpreting Nebuchadnezzar's dream. It says, this is the dream, and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. Thou, king, 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 of the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, for as much as iron breaketh in pieces and subdue with all things, and as iron that breaketh all these shall it break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes part of a potter's clay and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided, but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron for as much as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. 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. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed. And the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. For as much as thou sawest that stone that was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it break in pieces, the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter. And the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure. Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and worshiped Daniel and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odors unto him. The king answered unto Daniel and said, of a truth it is that your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest 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." Let's go to the Lord in prayer before we continue tonight. Father, we are thankful for your word and the opportunity to preach and to study it tonight. Well, what an incredible portion of scripture, a great prophetic passage, and it shows your glory, your might. And Father, we want to acknowledge you as the Lord of all kings. You are the God of heaven. You rule and reign, and you're in control. As we look on what's happening on the world stage, whether it's in history or whether it's in our present, whether the concern of what will take place in the future. Lord, may we rest assured as believers that you're in control and you have a purpose and a plan. And we're thankful, looking forward to that kingdom when Jesus comes to rule and reign and we celebrate his first coming. We anticipate his second coming as well tonight. Would you give us not just the right understanding of this passage, but help us to obey all the truths that you reveal to us by your spirit. For it's in Jesus name we ask. Amen. Tonight I want us to study Nebuchadnezzar's dream interpreted. Last week, we looked at the beginning of Daniel chapter 2 and Nebuchadnezzar's unusual dream and his unusual request. He came to all of his wise men, the astrologers, the Chaldeans. This is the wisest cabinet you can find on planet Earth at that time. It's the leading world empire, the Babylonian Empire. And none of them could help ease his conscience about what was happening. He wanted them to not only give the interpretation of the dream, But to perhaps test them, he also wanted them to tell him what he actually dreamed. Of course, none of them could do that except for Daniel. So Daniel first explained what happened in the dream and the significance of the dream. If you look at Daniel 2, verse 30, The Bible says, 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 that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart. In other words, Daniel rightly understood it was God that allowed him to understand what this dream was. And God had a purpose that he wanted to reveal to King Nebuchadnezzar. As wicked as he was, God was trying to reveal himself to him. And we talked about the significance of God as a revealer. What a blessing that he reveals himself to man. But Daniel first accurately reported the content of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, which no one else could do. Now, I gave him the credibility to give him the interpretation of the dream, and we'll focus on that tonight. First, number one, let's consider the head of gold. Remember, in this unusual dream, he sees a large statue, and the first thing that people are struck with is the head, which is made of gold. And Nebuchadnezzar is said, clearly, to be that head of gold. And after him would come three other kingdoms, each represented by different materials. And if you study them out, they're each in descending order, getting inferior and more inferior. Daniel, in Daniel 2 here, verse 37, says, thou, O king, art a king of kings. So acknowledging the greatness of Nebuchadnezzar's rule, he was a king like no other, you could say. But notice this, the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom. Well, there is one over in Abba Genezer. It's the God of heaven. The God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power and strength and glory. Listen, for someone to give you something means they possess all of it themselves, amen? So any power or strength man thinks they have, ultimately it comes from God. Whenever I read a passage like this, I always wonder, I wonder how many of the rulers in our country, in our city, understand really that it's God that actually allowed them to be there. It's only God that put them there. Some of them can be very proud and arrogant and think they put themselves there. I understand that God's the one that has appointed the rulers and can take them out too. I wonder how many of our rulers understand that thought. But here, Nebuchadnezzar is said to be that head of gold. And it's interesting, Daniel refers to him as a king of kings, a king like no other, really. And the prophet Ezekiel gave that exact same title to King Nebuchadnezzar in Ezekiel 26, verse 7. If you go to Jeremiah chapter 27, let's turn there to Jeremiah 27. There, the Bible describes how God raised up King Nebuchadnezzar. Let's go to Jeremiah. chapter 27. And let's look at verse 5. Jeremiah 27, verse 5, "'For I have made the earth the man and the beast that are upon the ground by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me. And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant." Isn't that interesting? God says he's my servant. He's going to do exactly what I want him to do. He's going to do my bidding, even if he doesn't realize it is the idea. And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him. And all nations shall serve him, and his son and his son's son, till the very time of this land come. And then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him. And it shall come to pass that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, say the Lord, with the sword and with the famine and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand. Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon." This is, again, another interesting scripture because Nebuchadnezzar was a powerful ruler. Again, this is the world's mightiest empire. So this is the most powerful man on earth. And here God's saying, he's actually just my servant. He's a tool in my hand, and I'm going to accomplish my will through him. Interesting. But he's the head of gold. We're in Daniel chapter 2. He's that head of gold in the dream there, that image, that terrible image. But then there's several other kingdoms. Let's look at the next two kingdoms. The second kingdom in verse 39 says, after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. So there's going to be at the next couple of kingdoms, silver, and then brass, of course, inferior elements to gold. Media, Persia. Persia would be that next kingdom, which was inferior to Babylon in a few different ways. And it's represented by two arms of silver. If you look at Daniel 2, verse 32. Daniel 2, verse 32. This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver. And that refers to the next world empire that would come after the Babylonian Empire, which is Media Persia. And again, made with inferior metals. Now some wonder, how was Media Persia inferior to Babylon? If you look at history, if you look on a map, they were not inferior in geographic size. They controlled more land, as far as geography goes. They had more territory than ancient Babylon. But yet, compared to Babylon, it didn't have the same quality of leadership as the idea. In other words, Mediapersia was inferior in its authority and how it was organized and ran. And history tells us that Mediapersia, the empire of Alexander the Great, the Greeks, which followed, they all suffered from a lack of centralized authority. They were spread too thin, you could say. And Nebuchadnezzar was truly an absolute monarch. He ruled with an iron fist, and he literally did run the show. Even though these next empires were larger, and maybe even lasted longer than Babylon, they didn't have that type of centralized power and organization. Persia, history shows, was really more of an oligarchy. Many of the nobles had equal power as the king, and sometimes even more so. Rome, which we're going to look at in a moment, started introducing democracy. And so all of these succeeding empires didn't have the same absolute centralized authority that Nebuchadnezzar had in Babylon. So it's interesting that the Bible describes this image really as a template, illustration of the next stage of world leaders that will come on the stage and God's estimation of their rule. Remember, it started out Nebuchadnezzar is the one that's made of gold. Daniel calls him a king of kings. The third kingdom of bronze or brass was that, the Bible says, he would rule over all the earth. Well, Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great, I should say, you study how quickly and how powerful his armies were and how much land they conquered in a very short amount of time. It's remarkable. It was a large in its scope, but again, still didn't have that centralized power and authority as the first kingdom mentioned here, Babylon. So it's interesting. That's why verse 39 says, after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. Some wonder exactly what is God's I guess you could say God's perfect idea of government. And does God want democracy or this or that? And I will tell you this, that the last government on earth, when King Jesus comes to rule and reign, will be an absolute monarchy. So he commends Nebuchadnezzar as this king of kings, because he's an absolute monarch. But ultimately, King Jesus is the real King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and it will be an absolute monarchy when he reigns. And praise God for that, because then there'll be true, perfect peace and perfect justice throughout all the earth, perfect knowledge of God throughout all the earth. Men have tried to have their own absolute monarchies and dictatorships, and it always fails. And every government really will fail until King Jesus comes. So this is interesting, how God describes these world empires. And then let's spend some time looking at the fourth kingdom. In verse 40, it says, and the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron, for as much as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things, and as iron that breaketh all these shall it break in pieces and bruise. This fourth kingdom in Nebuchadnezzar's dream is represented by the legs and the feet of this image. If you skip back to verse 28, Daniel 2, 28. I'm sorry, Daniel 2. Let's see here. Daniel 2, verse 33. It says, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. So it's interesting, the legs and feet of this image, part iron and part clay. And when you study how Daniel interprets this part of the dream, he spends more time on this fourth kingdom than all the other ones combined, actually. That's interesting. It's assumed that this image has 10 toes. That's usually how many toes are on our feet, amen? Well, for most of us, I hope all of us tonight. But Daniel gives more attention to this kingdom and it's assumed that it will have feet with 10 toes. And so many Bible teachers compare this passage with Daniel chapter 7. Let's skip over to Daniel chapter 7. Daniel 7 verse 7. says, after this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth, it devoured and break in 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 10 horns. This is a description of a fourth world empire, which many look at as Rome. Let's look at verse 24. Let's skip to verse 24. And the 10 horns out of this kingdom are 10 kings that shall arise, and another shall arise after them. And he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws. And they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominion shall serve. and obey him. This is really a description of the Antichrist. But notice the 10 kings, this last stage of Gentile world power. So many look at this fourth kingdom as the Roman Empire. But Roman history doesn't show any federation of 10 kings. And so this particular empire must still be future. Because of the number of toes, passages like Daniel 7, like we just read, and also Revelation 17. Let's turn there. I think, point to the fact that this must be future. Look at Revelation 17. Revelation 17, verse 12, also speaks of 10 kings. It says, in the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet, but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. Since the fall of the Roman Empire, there has never been a world-dominating force that really could quite compare to it. There's no mention in Daniel 2 here of a fifth kingdom, and so many look at this as the idea that the fourth kingdom has never completely gone away and will be revived in some form, and that's really what's in view here, a future revived Roman Empire, especially noting these 10 kings, perhaps a federation of 10 nations. Many have pointed to things like the European Union and other things that, leagues or united groups, united nations, that could perhaps be a fulfillment of this prophecy. But there's no mention of a fifth kingdom. And perhaps the fourth kingdom is around today in some various form or fashion and will be used by God and will be judged by God at some point is the key. But I want to draw our attention to the fact that there have been many that have tried to have this kind of just all-consuming power and control over man, over the earth, over human history. The Roman Catholic Church tried to put the Roman Empire back together again. Charlemagne the Great and others unable to do so. And Napoleon, Hitler, Mussolini, if you study what they were trying to do, Hitler with his Third Reich. That was basically what they had envisioned. They revived Roman Empire. But the Bible says that won't happen, honestly, until the Antichrist comes. He will be the one that God enables, by the way, to amass this power, this centralized force. The Antichrist, which we just read of in Daniel 7, and also Revelation 12. But as we're reading this empire, the Bible is clearly showing that there's a weakness with this empire. It's mixed with iron and clay, and iron and clay don't really mix well. And so there's an inherent weakness that as strong as it appears is actually there's gonna be a divide and it's gonna tumble, it's gonna fall. And if you know anything about just engineering, if you have a base that's weak and brittle, the whole thing's gonna fall down eventually, right? And so if the toes and the legs and the feet are weak and brittle, the whole image itself will come cascading down. And the picture is that all of human history, all the power that man thinks they have, trying to rise up and be great, is just going to crumble one day. It's not going to last. It's not going to withstand what God's going to do to it. That's the picture that Daniel's bringing forth in this dream. So there's an inherent weakness in this image and in this empire. In chapter 11, Daniel describes forces from the south, east, north, contending with the Antichrist for supremacy, perhaps indicating a civil war, a division there within the empire. Could be a lot that we can speculate which countries will be in this, which will be affected. It's hard to speculate because things change so quickly. You know, the European Union has changed. Nations get in there, get out. Things change so much, so it's hard to just say, well, here exactly are the countries They're gonna be representative. We just don't know, but we do know there will be this consolidation of power with the Antichrist at its head. Now, the destruction of this 10-toed image. Look at verse 43. It says, and whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. And the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever. So God is predicting the destruction of this image and the establishing of a new kingdom. And we studied this, we talked about part of Nebuchadnezzar's dream was that smiting stone. Let's go back to Daniel 2.34. Let's look at verse 34. After he sees the dream of this great image, he sees a stone, now saws till that a stone was cut out without hands, meaning it didn't come from man, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay and break them to pieces. Now, the first thing I want us to know is that nothing like this has ever happened in history. The Bible is saying that this league of ten kings will be destroyed suddenly and simultaneously, all at once, utterly destroyed. That hasn't happened yet, but it will take place at the end of the tribulation of the Battle of Armageddon. You read Revelation 19 and following, you read how when the Lord returns, And His Second Coming. He's going to devour and destroy all the nations. He's going to destroy them and establish His own Millennial Kingdom. That's what Daniel 2 is prophesying up here. It's powerful. That's why verse 44 says, "...the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed." This is describing a single, decisive event that ends the rule of man, ends the glory of man, the age of man will be no more. It'll be Christ ruling and reigning. I want to emphasize that this is Christ because some have tried to interpret this and say, well, it's talking about the church and it's being fulfilled today. And they kind of spiritualize it. But I think that that misses the whole point and context of what Daniel 2 is talking about, especially when you compare it with Revelation and other Bible prophecy. The Church or the Gospel have not in one decisive event shattered the reign of human kingdoms. This is still a future event. And also, this isn't describing salvation, this is describing judgment. This is not describing salvation. Smashing, smiting, crushing, destroying, pulverizing, that's not the same as salvation to me. I don't know about you. So this stone that's cut without hands is not the church, it's Jesus, it's the Messiah. We gotta make that very clear. And there are many scriptures that point to Christ as the stone. You read Psalm, the stone which the builders disallowed, and the same has become the corner. Right, he's the chief cornerstone. Peter recognized him, he's the rock. The Bible always calls Christ the rock of our salvation, the foundation of our faith. He is that smiting stone cut without hands. So can you imagine, Daniel gives not only what the dream is, but he gives the interpretation of the dream, and then there's just silence. Nebuchadnezzar's reaction is interesting in verse 46. He fell upon his face. Again, this is the leader of the world. This is the one that people, their knees would shake if they had to go in front of him. But he bows down and he starts to worship Daniel, really commending Daniel because of this interpretation. You know, I don't want to make too much of this, but I'll just say when you have the hand of God on your life, God can allow you to do anything. He can allow you to speak before people you never thought you'd speak to. I'm sure Daniel is just a teenager stripped from his home as a slave, never thought that he would be in this moment. But remember back in Daniel 1, he purposed in his heart. He wouldn't defile himself. Now look what God's doing in his life. Pretty amazing. But Nebuchadnezzar bows down to Daniel here. It's interesting. And the king is obviously impressed by all that's been told to him. In verse 47, so the king answered unto Daniel and said, of a truth it is that your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret. Again, Nebuchadnezzar was not in the habit of giving credit to slaves. or to other foreign gods that their country, their nation, their empire didn't recognize. But here he recognized there's something different about Daniel's God. Something different about Daniel and his God. Of a truth it is that your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of secrets that thou couldest reveal this secret. And the king promotes Daniel. He makes him a great man and gives him many great gifts according to verse 48. He becomes a great prominent leader with a high office. And he'll have that really for most of the rest of his life there in Babylon. And then Daniel, though, doesn't forget who he came there with. He remembers his friends. His friends were important because when Nebuchadnezzar had this dream and no one could figure it out, remember what he wanted to do? He wanted to kill all of his wise men, including Daniel and his three friends. Well, Daniel and his three friends did something very important. They got together, they prayed. They prayed. And so Daniel remembers, you know what? I had some friends praying for me. They need to come along with me too. King, you got to promote them too. Give them a great stage as well. He made sure his friends were also promoted. It says in verse 49, Daniel requested of the king and he said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel sat in the gate of the king. He had that important access to the king and he would have that throughout his life. Now this is a really important message, I think, especially in light of this Christmas season. Many refer to this time of year as Advent, which comes from a Latin phrase that means the coming of the Lord. And certainly we celebrate the first Advent, but as we celebrate, we look forward to the second Advent, when He comes again. And I'll remind you, you may already know this, many of our Christmas carols that we sing, many of them are actually singing about the Lord's second coming, not His first coming. For example, joy to the world. I'll read just the first and the last verse, and I want you to think about it in light of our Lord's second coming. Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let earth receive her king. Let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing. The last verse, he rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and wonders of his love. Let's pray. Father, we are so thankful for your word. And Lord, it's an unusual scripture and passage, but we believe it mightily points forward to Christ coming to rule and reign as king, defeating the governments and World leaders of this world, Lord, that have rejected you and shaken their fist at you, that in pride and arrogance thought that they could establish themselves. Lord, all along it was you that established them, and it's you that will judge them as they refuse to repent. And Lord, we await the second coming of Christ, even as we celebrate his first coming this Christmas season. We know he wasn't just a baby in a manger, he came to die on the cross, and he's coming again to be our king. I pray we would keep those thoughts in mind during this Christmas season and just continue to worship you and live for you. In Jesus' name we ask. Amen. Let's continue with our service. We're going to have our offering