If you would this evening for a short time to Daniel chapter 2 and if we can read the words that we have in verse 44. 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. Daniel Chapter 2. Daniel is a relatively young man. He is down in Babylon and in the courts of Nebuchadnezzar. And we saw this morning we made a comparison between Nebuchadnezzar, on the one hand, who was a king of Babylon, And secondly, the second kingdom that is referred to in this chapter, and that is the kingdom of Messiah, of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's not just Christians that refer these words to Messiah. Jews themselves, ancient Jews, would be looking for the coming Messiah and were applying these words to the Messiah, it's his kingdom. So that when you come to look at this, you see that there are two kings. And we saw this morning that Nebuchadnezzar was one king and Jesus Christ is another king. And we saw the differences between the two. Nebuchadnezzar was disturbed by the simple dream that he had. The Lord Jesus Christ is not disturbed. He is raised up at God's right hand. He is a king into whose hands all power in heaven and earth has been given. Secondly, we saw that not only was Nebuchadnezzar someone who was disturbed, he was someone who was disappointed because the soothsayers and the astrologers Those who would read the horoscope couldn't actually answer his question. He couldn't tell him what dream he had. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't need anybody to tell him. He was able to tell what was in the heart of the woman at the well. He knew exactly what was in the heart of man. And thirdly, not only was he someone who was disappointed, but you see he was also someone who was displeased. He was going to put to death all these soothsayers, including Daniel and his friends who hadn't even been there. He was a tyrant. And that's the way the kings were in these days. If you didn't please the king, he put you to death. Well, we saw the difference in King Jesus, how he loves his people and he gave himself for his people. He loves his church with an undying love. This evening, we want to look at the kingdom, the two kingdoms, the kingdom that is particularly mentioned as we come to the end of the chapter. Because there are actually four kingdoms that are mentioned here, but there is a final kingdom. In that day, these days, God of heaven will set up a kingdom. And it's completely different to the four kingdoms that have gone before. And we want to take a look at that. Now what can we say about the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ? What are we able to say about that? Well, we can say that it's not a religion. Christianity is not a religion. It's not a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a has no basis or foundation in anything, in history or anything else. All the false religions, it's mere speculation, they're religion. But the Christian, Christianity is not a religion, it's revelation. It's a revelation by God of things to come. It's a revelation of who God himself is. The Christian religion is based not upon man-made suppositions. It's based upon the revelation that God has given himself. Daniel, when he came into the presence of Nebuchadnezzar, he says, I'm not any better than anybody else. It's not just my own opinion that I'm going to give you here. But this is a revelation that is given by God himself. And you know, we're wonderful this evening. We have a Bible. An open Bible that tells you how everything came into existence. We have a Bible that tells us where sin came into the world. We have a Bible that tells you about the fall. We have a Bible that tells you about God's dealings with mankind. We have a Bible that tells us who God is. And more than that, we have Jesus Christ, who is the great revelation of God himself, because he is God manifest in the flesh. Daniel wasn't going to give mere speculation here. He wasn't going to give him some kind of religion. When Daniel came into Nebuchadnezzar, he brought revelation. What God himself had revealed to him. And my friend, surely that's what the preaching of the gospel, that's what preaching should be about. Preaching should be about what God has said. What God has revealed to us in his word. When you get into a pulpit, a preacher comes into the pulpit. He shouldn't just go and say, this is what I think. This is what I believe. He should come say, thus saith the Lord. It's what God has said. So that the Christian, Christianity is based upon revelation. The revelation that God has given of himself. And he told Daniel things that were yet to come to pass. Now, You go back to, he reveals here a kingdom that would be established. Now that revelation about God's kingdom is not something new. You go back to Adam, and Adam was a king. In the Garden of Eden he was created as a king. He ruled, he even named the animals that were brought to him. But he was a king who failed. He was one who rebelled against God. And as a king, he failed. But there is a promise that is given that there would be one who would come into this world and crush the head of the serpent. That there would be one who would take it upon himself to establish a kingdom. Abraham is then told that the one who would come would not just be king over one nation, but in Abraham, in that one family, it would be a blessing to all the nations, to all the families of the earth would be blessed in Abraham. That there would be one who would come from Abraham who would be a great blessing to all the nations of the world. That is then followed up when Israel got a king. It's not that in Deuteronomy chapter 17, before Israel demanded a king, God said that he would already give them a king. It was always God's intention that they would have a king. But they wanted Saul to be their king. And they got Saul, and Saul failed as a king. But David was raised up by the Lord as the king of Israel. Even David himself was a sinner. But what a wonderful promise David was given. You will not build me a house, but I will build you a house. A wonderful covenant promise that is given to David that God at one time would raise up from the seed of David a king. a king who would establish a everlasting throne, a king who would establish a kingdom, and that would reign forever. What a wonderful, and when you come to Daniel chapter seven, as we saw last week in Daniel chapter seven, there is a picture of that kingdom. These four kingdoms that we see in this chapter tonight are mentioned again in chapter 7 in the similitude of animals. One is a lion, one is a bear, one is an eagle, and the other is but a beast. But here in chapter two, Daniel is not given a vision himself, as he is in chapter seven, but he interprets and gives the revelation from God of Nebuchadnezzar's dream. And what a wonderful picture we are given in that. You see, first of all, that this kingdom is separate from all the rest of the kingdoms. You see the kingdom that these four kingdoms, and the four kingdoms are Babylon. We are told that the first kingdom was Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar himself was the gold, Babylon. That's the very first kingdom that you have. The next kingdom is the Persian, meets in the Persians. Cyrus, remember, comes and overcomes Babylon. And then you've got the Greek Empire, Alexander the Great. And then ultimately you've got the Roman Empire. These four great empires that are predicted here. Now you notice they're all different. One is the head. One is the chest and the arms. The other is like the feet. They're all different because they all come at different times, but they're all made of different substances. One is of gold. One is of silver. One is of brass. One is of iron and clay because they're all different. They're all going to be different kingdoms. But my friend, they're all one because it's one great image that you see. Nebuchadnezzar saw this great image of this one great image that was there, and he saw it as one. But the stone is not part of that. The stone, the kingdom that God would establish and raise up would be a different kingdom altogether. It wouldn't be part of this great image. It would be separate. It would be. And my friend, is that not true of the church of Jesus Christ? It is separate and distinguished from all the other kingdoms of this world. There is no kingdom like the kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. There is no kingdom like the church of Christ. It is completely separate altogether from all the different kingdoms that arose under Nebuchadnezzar, coming right down through the Persians, right down through the Greeks, and right down to the Roman Empire. They were all the same. They were all worldly. But the kingdom that would come, that God would establish, would be completely different altogether. It's one that would come and smash the feet of clay and of iron. My friend, do you rejoice this evening that being part of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, it's not just like some worldly organization. It's not just like some worldly club. My friend, if that's the view you've got of the church, then your view of the church is very mistaken. The church of Jesus Christ is completely separate. to any other kingdom that you will ever have seen and ever will see in this world. And what a beginning. Some people take the stone to Jesus Christ, but I think when you look at it, the stone itself is the kingdom. And what a small beginning that kingdom has, isn't it? It's just a small stone. It's just a small stone. It's not a mighty stone. It's a stone that is made without hands. You see, this is the kingdom will be established by the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's established, you know, the Nebuchadnezzar, he established his kingdom by the power of troops. The Persians would come in the form of Cyrus. The Roman Empire would be established around Caesars. But this is a kingdom that would be established without hands. See, God himself, while God himself permitted Nebuchadnezzar to be raised up and to become a king, it says here that the Lord himself will establish this stone. The Lord himself. In a verse, thou saw'st 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. Here is the stone. that is established without hands. My friend, the church is a spiritual kingdom that is established upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that not how he began? He began as a stone. He began as one that was without, that was born in a staple. He was one that was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And he tells us that his kingdom is just like a seed, the smallest seed, but it grows into a great tree. The mustard seed, which grows into a great tree. Well, here, this is a stone. And it appears in a moment of time. So it appears like that. The kingdom that is there is the Roman empire. Iron and yet feet of clay. Strong yet weak. and in would come the Lord Jesus Christ into that, and he would establish his kingdom in a moment of time. The stone would come, and it would destroy. Not because the Lord is against a kingdom. It's not because the Lord was against another king. If there had been a king that honored God, then this would never have happened. But these four kingdoms culminating in the Roman Empire were against God and against his anointed, against his king. And therefore, what a beginning it has. And if you look at the picture you have of this image, it's almost in reverse, isn't it? The image, this great image that Nebuchadnezzar saw, he saw it as a great image. The word image there is, it's just like a forum. And that's so often the way the kingdoms of this world are. They just have the outward forum. And they had the forum, but what a great image it was. But look at what it comes to at the end. There's a deterioration. It goes from the head of gold. Nebuchadnezzar as a king. Absolute rule. Absolute monarch. He was a king of kings. Kings came to him and did obeyance. And then you had the Persians and the Medes and such absolute authority beginning to wane until you come right down to Rome when it's ultimately not even the Caesar is a king. He's not even a king. You see, there's a downward, downward, downward. But look at the progress of the kingdom that the Lord would establish when the last of these kingdoms are there. It would start off as a small stone, but this small stone would become like a great mountain. 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. For as much as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it break in pieces the iron and the brass, where after the, therefore it will become, in verse 35, There was the iron and clay and brass like the chaff of it and the wind carried them away that no place was found for them. And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain that filled the whole earth. The kingdom that God would establish would not just be a kingdom in a nation like Israel. It's not that Israel as a nation would all of a sudden become this great and mighty power. That's what the Pharisees thought would happen. That's what the Pharisees were looking for. They thought the Messiah would come and that he would destroy the Roman Empire. He would establish a great, just similar to what had gone before. But that wasn't to be the case. This kingdom would be a kingdom that would cover the whole earth. All the nations of the world would be gathered into this kingdom. My friend, what a wonderful picture you have of the gospel church going forth from the time of Christ coming in, that small stone of the kingdom growing and becoming a great mountain and covering the whole earth. all the nations of the world. Jesus Christ gives that when he says to his disciples, go ye into all the world, go ye to the ends of the earth, preaching the gospel, telling people, and bringing in, building up the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well then, it's the very opposite. The image deteriorates, whereas the kingdom of the Lord becomes greater and greater. And who's going to set this kingdom up? It's not man. It's God himself. In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom. It is God who sets up the Christian church, which shall never be destroyed. The very gates of hell will never prevail against the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. The devil will try to destroy God's people. The devil will seek to destroy the church of Christ. But my friend, it's futile. It's useless because God has set up his kingdom and it shall never be destroyed. And it will never be left to another. You see how all these previous kingdoms, one kingdom was ruled by Nebuchadnezzar. And then it's as though they passed the baton on to the Persians and their Cyrus. He's a great leader again. And then he passes the baton on to Alexander the Great, who's, as we saw last week, his kingdom was like going out and growing so quickly. Alexander the Great. And then that baton is passed on to someone else, to the Caesars, to Caesar. My friend, that's not so with this kingdom. He says here, which it'll never be destroyed and it shall not be left to other people. There is one king and he knows his people. He draws them with the cords of his own love. And he won't leave it to someone else. The baton won't be passed on to someone else. There is one king. There is one head of the church. Even the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is no other head of the church but Jesus Christ. He is the only king. And he will never pass that on to anybody else. What a wonderful picture Daniel sees here. The kingdom, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever. You see, that was the characteristic of every single one of these kingdoms. Ultimately, they all failed. And that's true of all the kingdoms of this world. It is continually true of every kingdom of this world. whether it be the Roman Empire, whether it be the United Kingdom, whether it be Russia, America, the EU, whatever it may be, they all at the end of the day pass away. But there is one kingdom that shall never be destroyed, and that is the kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, then we then see, first of all, the origin of this kingdom. The origin of Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom was the God of creation allowed him to establish his kingdom. Daniel has said that. The Lord has allowed you, Nebuchadnezzar, to have this great kingdom. He's privileged you with a kingdom. He's the God of heaven and of earth. He's the God that knows the beginning from the end. But this other kingdom, it's not just the God of creation, it's the God of grace that will establish this kingdom. My friend, the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ is established by the God of all grace. He is bestowed upon the church through Jesus Christ. Grace. Secondly, it has feeble beginnings. It's just like a stone. It's not in its beginnings like a great, like any great mountain or anything. You have a few fishermen along with the Lord Jesus Christ. You have a few working class men, not university graduates, not professors of theology. You are fishermen, tax collectors, a few disciples that follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And then you have the Apostle Paul, as we have been seeing going on his missionary journeys. A man of no great wisdom of words. His letters were weighty, but he himself, there was nothing to him. He wasn't a great orator or anything else. Small beginnings, feeble beginnings. But look at the progress. This stone would soon begin to grow and grow and it would grow and it would become like a great mountain. Think of the difference between a small stone. Think of the difference between the mustard seed and the great tree. It will gradually progress and then it will become universal in extent. It will become, it will go from sea to sea. It will go from the ends of the earth. And not only will it be universal in its extent, it will be perpetual in its duration. This is a kingdom that will never and never has an end. Well then, what words come to Nebuchadnezzar? Here is Daniel without fear, standing before the king and telling him that his kingdom is going to come to an end. He's being told that his kingdom will cease and that another kingdom will come and supersede it. Now what do you think Nebuchadnezzar would do in that situation? Well you discover that he gets down and he worships Daniel and the God of Daniel it would appear that this revelation has at least some consequence upon the heart of Nebuchadnezzar. When he is told about a kingdom that is yet to come, what a glorious revelation is given to him. This is from here on in, it's written in his own language. It is, a part of scripture that's not written in Hebrew from chapter 2 right through to chapter 7 it's written in the Aramaic language because that's the language of Nebuchadnezzar and that's the language of Babylon. One of the few few places in scripture that you will read anything other than the Hebrew but for the next five chapters it's going to be written in Aramaic. Chapter 7, it goes back to Hebrew again. Why? Because Daniel is wanting to comfort God's people. He's wanting to warn Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar, pay heed to what God is saying to you about the kingdom. Don't set your heart on your own kingdom. Don't set your heart on the things of Babylon. Because there is a greater kingdom that's coming and a greater king that's coming. And my friend, what Daniel and what God says through Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar in his own day and in his own language, God says to us this evening in our language. The image that was given to Nebuchadnezzar was very clear. Daniel, when he gave the vision to Nebuchadnezzar, he didn't dress it up in language that couldn't be understood. He didn't give him the vision and the dream of something that was hard for Nebuchadnezzar, the king, to comprehend. It was a straightforward image. It was of gold and of silver and of brass and of iron and clay. And then there's a kingdom coming that would destroy them all. And my friend, it was very clear, and it's spoken in Nebuchadnezzar's own language, that Nebuchadnezzar would take warning. And my friend, what God says to Nebuchadnezzar, he says to us this evening, there is the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. The king has come. Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek and mild, sitting upon the ass and upon the coat, the foal of the ass. He has told us that Christ the King has come. He has established a kingdom, and he now sits upon the throne at the Father's right hand. He ever lives to make intercession for his people. We don't come this evening seeking a dead Savior. We come seeking the living Christ. the one who is enthroned and whose kingdom he is establishing even as we speak today. He has established a kingdom that hath none end at all. He speaks it in the language of Nebuchadnezzar that Nebuchadnezzar would understand, that he ought not to place all his confidence in the astrologers, the soothsayers, the religions of the day, or even in the wealth and power of Babylon. because he says there is one higher than it all before whom you will be brought to an account. My friend, we this evening are warned. Are we part, we are part of the outward visible church, but are we truly part of the spiritual kingdom that is not made with hands, but that is established by God himself? The second thing is that he goes back to the Hebrew language in chapter seven. Why does he go back to the Hebrew language? Because he wants to speak to God's people as well. He wants to speak to the Jews as a nation, as a people, and he wants to tell them they are down in bondage. They know that there is a promise given of a king to come, but what are they seeing? They are seeing God's people poor. They're seeing Israel as a nation in bondage. They are seeing the power of Nebuchadnezzar, that golden head. They see there the power that he has. They see there how God's people are trampled underfoot. They are despised among the people. And they must wonder to themselves, has God forgotten to be gracious? Is God not able to rectify this situation? But God gives a wonderful promise. He gives a dream to Nebuchadnezzar. Later on, he gives a dream to Daniel himself. Once again, we see these four nations. Once these four powers, the last of them is out of the way, God's kingdom will grow like a mountain. And it will be like a stone hewing out of a mountain. It'll be a kingdom that's not like these kingdoms. It's a kingdom that will be a spiritual kingdom and a kingdom that will last forever. What a wonderful encouragement it must have been to Daniel as a young man. What it must have been as a great encouragement to his three friends when they were able to, when Daniel went in before the king and explained to the king and they see the king getting down on his knees and worshipping. Oh, that today the Lord would do a work in our nation, a godless nation, a nation that is, when we walk by sight, we say to ourselves, what a fearful nation we live in. when they can parade their filth in the streets of Edinburgh and be puffed up in their sinfulness, you say to yourself, what about God's church? Has he forgotten to be gracious? And then you come back and you see that God is building his church. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. His kingdom is one in which Daniel, his three friends, and Nebuchadnezzar were to put their trust in. They weren't to walk by sight. They were to walk by faith, knowing that God would do a mighty work in his own day. And my friend, we too, in our day, need to walk by faith, not by sight. Just as Daniel had revealed to him things that were yet to come, so it is that the Apostle Paul and the disciples had revealed to them things that were yet to come. It has been revealed to us that the day will come when Jesus Christ will return to this world. Every eye shall see him, every tongue shall confess, every knee shall bow before him. What a day! As the true Israelite, as Daniel and his friends look forward to the day of the coming Messiah and of the day when he would establish his kingdom. So we can look to the day when the Lord Jesus will return. And all things will be brought to an end. We have great and precious promises. Are you able to say today, come, Lord Jesus, come. He will come as a thief in the night, and he will gather to himself all those who are his people. May it be that we would be part of the great kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let us pray. Gracious and ever-blessed Lord, we thank thee that thou art the God that is able to raise up even a small stone Even in the sling of David, when that stone brought down Goliath, so it is that the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the gospel goes out into the world even today, it is entering into the strongholds of Satan, and sinners are being converted. Lord, we pray that thy kingdom would come, that thy will would be done on earth, even as it is in heaven. Bless thy word to us this night, and pardon us our sin. For Jesus' sake, amen. Psalm 45. Psalm 45. the first version of the Psalm, Psalm 45, the first version of the Psalm, and from verse six to nine. Forever and forever is, O God, thy throne of might. The scepter of thy kingdom is a scepter that is right. Thou lovest right, and hatest ill. For God, thy God most high, above thy fellows hath with the oil of joy anointed thee. And so on to the end of the verse, Mark 9. Forever and forever is, O God, thy throne of might. Forever and forever this, O God, thy throne of might, The center of thy kingdom is, A settler God with might. Thou God most bright and native still, for God thy God most high, above thy fellows, now and with yore, ♪ Of joy anointed thee ♪ ♪ O values mother and Cassia ♪ ♪ A spell thy garments cast ♪ But of the ivory palaces, where my living land Among thy women honourable, in salt and swerve at hand, have won thy right hand, dear the Queen, in the home of the brave? The prayer meeting on Thursday at 7.30. The services next, Lord's Dare at 11 and 6.30. And we remind you of the Sabbath school congregational outing, which is on Saturday. The bus will leave here at 10 o'clock. If you're going directly there, then we will meet at the centre outside at 12 noon. And if you're intending going, if you can put your name on the sheet at the back. These are all the intimations we'll conclude with the benediction. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, three persons, one God, rest on and abide with you now and forevermore. Amen.