{"id":18396,"date":"2017-05-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-07T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/daniel-021-gods-control-of-history\/"},"modified":"2017-05-07T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-07T05:00:00","slug":"daniel-021-gods-control-of-history","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/daniel-021-gods-control-of-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel 021: God’s Control of History"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[72],"series_event":[467],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18396","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-daniel","series_event-daniel","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Daniel 021: God's Control of History","sermon_date":"20170507","sermon_month":"5","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":4638,"sermon_slides":4637,"sermon_mp3":4640,"sermon_id":"5717105725","series_or_event":467,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":72,"chapter_and_verse":"7:1-7a","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nGod Is In Control Of History\n\n5-7-17\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Daniel 7:1-7a\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 21\n\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0 If we could take our Bibles and open them to the book of Daniel, the book of Daniel, chapter 7, verse 1. The title of our message this morning is God Is In Control Of History.\u00a0 A lot of panicky people out there looking at the world, wondering what\u2019s happening and what\u2019s going on, it\u2019s such a refreshment to come to the pages of God\u2019s Word and to understand, particularly in our chapter, which we\u2019re going to begin today, that history is fitting into a divine pattern that God told us about long in advance.\n\nAnd as you\u2019re turning there, you know life is filled with changes, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Jim Hartzog, a longtime member of Sugar Land Bible Church is now in the presence of the Lord, \u201cabsent from the body, present with the Lord,\u201d 2 Corinthians 5:8.\u00a0 [2 Corinthians 5:8, \u201cwe are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.\u201d]\u00a0 Charlie Howard, a longtime representative of this district in the Texas House, also a very committed Christian and someone who loved and loves Jesus and was also involved in missionary work and all kinds of things, he is now in the presence of the Lord.\u00a0 It was exciting to attend his memorial service yesterday at Sugar Creek Baptist and learn how much this man loved the Lord.\n\nAnd there\u2019s changes going on amongst our youth; we\u2019ve got three high school seniors that are now moving off into college; we commemorated that last night here at this church: Tess, Savanah and Lindsay, so congratulations to all three of you and your families.\u00a0 [clapping]\n\nAnd my family and I, my wife and I are back from two weeks in Europe.\u00a0 One of the places we went to was Lichtenberg, if I\u2019m pronouncing that right, Germany, which is the cradle of the Protestant Reformation.\u00a0\u00a0 You know, it\u2019s one thing to learn about the Protestant Reformation and photographs and Google Earth and scrapbooks, but it\u2019s quite another thing to actually stand in the place where these men stood, where Martin Luther stood and made his great stand for the centrality of Christ and the Scripture.\u00a0 A trip like that sort of kindled in my heart anew to help us understand a little better about the Protestant Reformation.\u00a0 And so we, in my Sunday School class this morning finished the doctrine of salvation and so I\u2019m going to be doing some teaching in that particular class on the Protestant Reformation, what it was, why it was needed, what did it accomplish, what did it leave unaccomplished.\u00a0 And so we have that class going on beginning next Sunday; if you can\u2019t make it we have it archived and live streamed along with another very good class by Bob Draper on the Matthew 13 parables.\n\nBut what we\u2019re doing this morning is we are returning to our study on the book of Daniel and as my brain is still on European time I can\u2019t guarantee the quality of the sermon today, and lo and behold the Lord sends us into the most complicated chapter in the whole book, maybe the most complicate chapter in the whole Bible.\u00a0 So I trust you\u2019ll pray for me as I\u2019m trying to teach this this morning.\n\nThe book of Daniel as you\u2019ll recall is written during a time when the nation of Israel is outside of the land of Israel in captivity and consequently God has raised up this man, Daniel, to act as a prophet during this time period to explain this time period prophetically that the nation was going through.\u00a0 And as we have to studied to sort of function as a role model.\u00a0 How do you live for God outside of the land?\u00a0 How do you live for God on pagan territory?\u00a0 How do you work for a boss that doesn\u2019t agree with your Christian worldview?\u00a0 How do you sit under professors at college, as our three seniors are going to soon discover, that don\u2019t share your biblical belief system?\u00a0 How do you interact with dorm mates and classmates and colleagues when you\u2019re representing a minority view and you\u2019re living on their territory?\u00a0 How do you do that exactly?\u00a0 How do you live for God in the United States of America that at one time was a Christian nation and largely has become a pagan nation.\u00a0 How do you live for God in Europe that has long forgotten the Protestant Reformation.\u00a0 So Daniel then becomes very instructive for us because he\u2019s our role model in terms of how to do just that.\u00a0 You put God first always, and you trust the circumstances of your life to God.\n\nChapters 1-7 is historical, that\u2019s the section we\u2019ve been working through.\u00a0 Chapters 8-12 are prophetic, but we\u2019re coming near to the very end of section one of the book of Daniel.\u00a0 Chapter 1 you\u2019ll recall laid out the setting of the book; it described the captivity, it described what had happened and how the scenery for the nation of Israel had suddenly changed.\u00a0 No longer were they living in their comfort zone, which they had been in for 800 years, but now they\u2019re living in pagan territory 350 miles to the east of the nation of Israel in a place of captivity.\n\nYou know, your life may have just gone from a comfort zone to a scenery change, a job change, a loss of a loved one, a financial reversal; whatever the circumstances may be is God still on the throne during those times?\u00a0 We discover in this book that He very much is alive and well.\u00a0 Chapters 2-7 is basically organized like a chiasm; it\u2019s a literary device, it\u2019s going to become very important today as we look at chapter 7 but the information in chapter 2 is largely repeated in chapter 7.\u00a0 Just like the theme of chapter 3 is repeated in chapter 6.\u00a0 Just like the theme of chapter 4 is repeated in chapter 5.\u00a0 So we\u2019ve moved through chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4, chapter 5, chapter 6 which we finished on resurrection Sunday, and now we find ourselves at the outer edge of this chiastic structure, Daniel chapter 7.\n\nYou say well outlines, shmoutlines, I\u2019m not an outline person, can you give us some pictures.\u00a0 And yes I can. If you were to associate every chapter of the book of Daniel with a picture you would know what\u2019s going on in the book of Daniel.\u00a0 Even in Europe it was amazing going to Wittenberg how much of Christian life was given to pictures.\u00a0 The Protestant Reformers communicated through pictures; the reason they had to communicate through pictures is the population was illiterate and didn\u2019t understand language and texts.\n\nSo the Ten Commandments were portrayed for us in pictorial form there in Wittenberg, Germany.\u00a0 Our minds like pictures.\u00a0 Chapter 2, just think of a giant statue.\u00a0 Chapter 3, think of fire, that\u2019s Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego in the fiery furnace.\u00a0 Chapter 4 think of a tree being chopped down, that\u2019s the humiliation and discipline of Nebuchadnezzar.\u00a0 Chapter 5 think about handwriting on the wall, the handwriting on the wall chapter.\u00a0 Chapter 6 think of Daniel being protected by an angel in the lion\u2019s den, that\u2019s what chapter 6 is about.\u00a0 And then chapter 7, what we\u2019re moving into today, think about four animals or beasts, that\u2019s what chapter 7 is about, these four beasts.\n\nWe have the historical setting, chapter 7 verse 1, a vision that Daniel had, verses 2-14.\u00a0 I love how the Bible doesn\u2019t leave us to our sanctified imaginations in these visions, it actually interprets the visions for us.\u00a0 This vision is interpreted in verses 15-27.\u00a0 And finally the chapter concludes with a personal impact on Daniel.\u00a0 This vision that he saw here in chapter 7 touched him at a very personal level which is what God wants to do with all of His truth; He doesn\u2019t want it to just be data in the mind; He wants it to have some sort of personal impact on us and we see the impact this had on Daniel there in verse 28.\n\nLet\u2019s start, if we could, in verse 1, the historical setting.\u00a0 Notice if you will Daniel chapter 7 and verse 1.\u00a0 It says, \u201cIn the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon\u201d now the first\u00a0 year of Belshazzar, the king of Babylon allows us to date this chapter.\u00a0 There are several dates given in the book of Daniel but knowing what we know about Babylonian chronology we can date this chapter in 553 B.C.\u00a0 You say well who cares?\u00a0 It\u2019s a big deal because Daniel is going to start to see things in this vision that transpired long after 553 B.C.\u00a0 The date is very important because God is revealing to Daniel history in advance.\n\nAnd frankly this is one of the things that makes the Bible stand out against every alleged holy book and all of its competitors.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know a single book in the world that gives you history before it happens the way the Bible does.\u00a0 You kind of get the impression as you read this that an all-knowing God who knows the end from the beginning, inspired this book.\u00a0 And if God has given us history in advance He is obviously in control of history.\u00a0 So we need not be gripped with fear and panic the way the world is when various events of turmoil, whether it\u2019s terrorism, stock market dips or crashes, wars occur, the world without the knowledge of the Bible is just terrified by these things.\u00a0 Not so the Christian; not so the child of God who understands that God has revealed history.\u00a0 History is allowed under God\u2019s sovereignty to progress a certain way.\n\nIsn\u2019t it great to know that God is in control of the world that looks like it\u2019s out of control?\u00a0 And yet the only way to understand this and have the peace of God is to understand prophecy.\u00a0 Daniel, when he had this particular vision, is in his mid-sixties and you say well pastor, I\u2019m very confused and the reason I\u2019m confused is the last time you left, as you taught the Babylonians weren\u2019t in control, chapter 6 ended with the Persians in control and I thought Persia replaced Babylon as the next empire during the times of the Gentiles and so I\u2019m chronologically confused.\u00a0 And my answer is you should be chronologically confused because this book is not written in a chronological manner.\u00a0 Fourteen years transpire, Daniel 7 and 8 in other words take place 14 years before Daniel 5.\u00a0 Daniel 5 is how the Persians came to power over the Babylonians and yet chapters 7 and 8 are taking place during the time when the Babylonians are in control.\u00a0 That means chapter 7 and 8 occur before Daniel 5.\u00a0 Daniel 7 and 8 takes place before Daniel 5 and 6.\n\nWhat am I trying to say?\u00a0 I\u2019m trying to say that Daniel 7 and 8 are out of order chronologically.\u00a0 The book of Daniel generally flows in a chronological direction until you get to chapters 7 and 8 and those chapters are out of order; now it\u2019s a rehash of something that took place when the Babylonians were in control.\n\nYou say well why is it organized that way?\u00a0 \u00a0Because the book is structured not chronologically\u00a0\u00a0 the way a western mind likes it structured; it\u2019s structured what?\u00a0 Chiastically, it\u2019s structured thematically.\u00a0 The book is designed so that the information in chapter 7 reminds you of the information in chapter 2.\u00a0 So Daniel, as he puts this together is not trying to necessarily develop a chronological timeline for us but he\u2019s trying to develop a thematic timeline.\u00a0 I call this my sanity chart because that chart will tell you what king is in power in any different chapter in the book of Daniel, which we need because this book doesn\u2019t flow chronologically, at least when you get to chapters 7 and 8. Chapters 1 -4, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon is in charge.\u00a0 Chapter 5, which follows chronologically, Belshazzar of Babylon is in charge. Chapter 6, which follows chronologically, Darius of Medio-Persia is in charge.\u00a0 And then you get to chapters 7 and 8 and we\u2019re right back to Babylon, Belshazzar, the last reigning king of Neo -Babylonia is in charge in chapters 7 and 8.\n\nYou\u2019ll notice what it says here in Daniel chapter 7 and verse 1, continuing along, it says, \u201cIn the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel saw a dream and visions in his mind as he lay<\/em> on his bed;\u201d now some of your versions say he had a dream in his head as he lay on his bed.\u00a0 So that\u2019s a neat little rhyme, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 So Daniel is minding his own business as a 60 year old, he is working under the administration of Babylon, which is about to be overthrown by Persia 14 years later, and God begins to give this man, Daniel, a vision.\n\nNow according to this chiasm Daniel, rather than Nebuchadnezzar, has this dream.\u00a0 Go back to the chiasm just for a minute; the information in chapter 2 is repeated in chapter 7.\u00a0 Daniel chapter 2 and verse 1, which is an outline of Gentile history, was received initially by Nebuchadnezzar himself, the then reigning king of Babylon.\u00a0 Daniel 2:1 says, \u201cNow in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; and his spirit was troubled and his sleep left him.\u201d\n\nChapter 2 is a description of this time of history from Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s point of view.\n\nNebuchadnezzar receives the dream.\u00a0 Chapter 7 is a description of the exact same time period; the exact same empires are involved.\u00a0 But this time the description is not given to Nebuchadnezzar, the oppressor; the description is given to Daniel, the one who is being oppressed along with his people.\n\nThat is very important because chapter 2 and chapter 7 are describing the same period of time but from different vantage points.\u00a0 More on that a little later.\n\nChapter 7 and verse 1 continues and it says \u201cthen he\u201d that\u2019s Daniel, \u201cwrote the dream down and<\/em> related the following<\/em> summary of it.\u201d\u00a0 Notice that Daniel had the dream and wrote it down.\u00a0 In other words, Daniel is the author of this book that we call the book of Daniel.\u00a0 He\u2019s the author of chapter 7.\u00a0 You say well who cares?\u00a0 That\u2019s a big deal because on A & E, Mysteries of the Bible, The History Channel, etc. they will bring on some PhD from Harvard who will essentially tell you that we all know that Daniel didn\u2019t write the book of Daniel. Well why do you think that?\u00a0 Because Daniel couldn\u2019t have seen all of these empires ahead of time, in the 6th<\/sup> century B.C., he must have, or a forger must have written about these things someone other than Daniel, after the events transpired.\u00a0 That\u2019s called higher criticism or just quite frankly rank liberalism. Liberals have been teaching this for the last century and so they believe that maybe part of the book of Daniel was written by Daniel but we know the rest of the book could not have been written by Daniel.\n\nAnd so you ask them well what do you do with chapter 7 and verse 1 which says, \u201che\u201d that\u2019s Daniel, \u201cwrote the dream down\u201d and \u201ca summary of it.\u201d\u00a0 And they say well, it doesn\u2019t mean what it says.\u00a0 Well, I hate to tell you folks, at the end of the day I agree with Daniel.\u00a0 More importantly I agree with Jesus.\u00a0 Do you think Jesus is a pretty good interpreter of the Bible?\u00a0 Jesus, in Matthew 24;15 quotes Daniel 9:27 and He says, \u201cTherefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, [standing in the holy place (let the reader understand),]\u201d\u00a0 Jesus attributed authorship of the book of Daniel, all of it, even the later chapters which the liberals deny Daniel wrote, Jesus attributes all of these things to Daniel himself.\n\nTo buy into the history channel, A&E, Mysteries of the Bile, is to deny what Daniel himself says here in chapter 7 and verse 1.\u00a0 And beyond that it\u2019s an attack on the words of Christ.\u00a0 If Christ is wrong on the authorship of the book of Daniel what else is Christ wrong on?\u00a0 See?\u00a0 What does an attorney in a court of law do?\u00a0 He tries to find discrepancies in someone\u2019s testimony with the hopes that the jury will say well that person isn\u2019t reliable on this point, therefore they\u2019re not reliable on anything else.\u00a0 And consequently higher criticism causes people to doubt the words of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 If Jesus can\u2019t be right on the things we can see,\u00a0 how can I trust Him on heaven and hell, the plan of salvation, faith alone?\u00a0 And that\u2019s why your position on the authorship of the book of Daniel becomes a big BIG deal because your theology will start to collapse like a house of cards if Jesus, in fact was wrong on this point.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I spend time bringing these issues to your attention.\n\nBut notice, if you will, verses 2-14 where we have the vision itself.\u00a0 Now this vision, which probably we won\u2019t even get through this morning, is divided into four parts; we have four beasts coming out of the sea, verses 2 and 3; a description of the four beasts, verse 4-8. Some character called \u201cthe ancient of days\u201d, verses 9-12, and finally we have the vision concludes with the son of man and his presentation and the establishment of his kingdom, verses 13-14.\n\nBut notice, if you will, verses 2 and 3 as we start to look at the actual vision itself.\u00a0 What does it say here?\u00a0 [2] \u201cDaniel said, \u2018I was looking in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. [4] And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another.\u201d\u00a0 What does Daniel see here in this vision?\u00a0 What he is going to begin to see is the various empires that will trample down the nation of Israel during this time of captivity.\n\nIt\u2019s a time period that we call the times of the Gentiles.\u00a0 It\u2019s a time period when the nation of Israel has no king reigning on David\u2019s throne. Zedekiah, the last king of Judah was deposed by Nebuchadnezzar back in 586 B.C. and that inaugurated a time of history that we would know virtually nothing about had God not raised up this man Daniel.\u00a0 It\u2019s a time of mystery in the sense that it\u2019s a brand new time period, there is no prior revelation about this.\u00a0 Daniel was raised up specifically by God to give the details, prophetically, of this time period.\u00a0 Israel is going to be trampled down by various powers; that will continue until the establishment of God\u2019s kingdom upon the earth.\u00a0 That\u2019s what Daniel 2 is about and this is also what Daniel 7 is about, the outer edges of this chiastic structure.\n\nYou\u2019ll notice that these beasts, or these animals, which represent various Gentile powers, are coming up out of the sea in Daniel\u2019s vision.\u00a0 What is the sea?\u00a0 The sea, many times in the Bible represents the great mass of humanity, the great mass of the human race.\u00a0 Isaiah 57:21 says \u201cBut the wicked are like the tossing sea, for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up refuse and mud.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s how God looks at human history with the Gentiles in control.\u00a0 It\u2019s a bunch of \u201crefuse and mud.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s just constant churning.\u00a0 And these four beasts are coming up out of the sea.\n\nYou know, the antichrist, the beast in Revelation 13:1 is also portrayed as coming up out of the sea.\u00a0 [Revelation 13:1, \u201c\u2026Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names.\u201d]\u00a0 Revelation 17:1 talks about a great harlot, this is the end times system of the antichrist and his city and his system and it says, \u201cCome here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters,\u201d the sea.\u00a0 What is the sea?\u00a0 Revelation 17:15 says, \u201c\u2026The waters which you saw where the harlot sits, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.\u201d\n\nSo typically in the Bible, not every time but many times the sea or the ocean is this great mass of humanity in its fallen condition churning.\u00a0 And\u00a0 yet from this sea are going to come forth four specific empires.\u00a0 They will be named by name in the book of Daniel, and these are the empires which will trample down the nation of Israel during the times of the Gentiles.\n\nNebuchadnezzar, when he saw this time period saw it from man\u2019s perspective.\u00a0 Daniel, on the other hand, saw it (the same time period) but from God\u2019s perspective.\u00a0 See, when Nebuchadnezzar was given information about the times of the Gentiles he saw it as a beautiful statue, dazzling in appearance, beautiful, head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, feet made of iron and clay.\u00a0 It was a spectacle to behold, it was dazzling, it was beautiful in appearance.\n\nAnd here in the year 553 B.C. Daniel sees the same exact period of time.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t see it though as a beautiful statue, the statue that\u2019s there in the far left column; as you move to the right just one end to the right you\u2019ll see that Daniel did not see a dazzling statue, he saw four disgusting grotesque ferocious beasts.\u00a0 He saw a lion and a bear and a leopard (sounds like the Wizard of Oz doesn\u2019t it).\u00a0 And then at the end he saw this terrifying beast.\n\nWhy the difference in perspective?\u00a0 Well because from Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s point of view chapter 2 is a great time period.\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar was in charge.\u00a0\u00a0 It was beautiful, but the perspective changes when the same information is given to Daniel, a Hebrew, a Jew, it\u2019s not a beautiful time period, it\u2019s a terrible time period because Daniel is not the oppressor but the oppressee.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting that when you look at history\u00a0 you can look at it through different lenses.\u00a0 How do you look at history?\u00a0 Do you see God\u2019s point of view in history or do you see man\u2019s point of view in history.\u00a0 This is why my hope and prayer is that God will continue to raise up godly historians, people like David Barton for example, who can go into history and extract from it the divine viewpoint, the divine viewpoint of America because without the divine viewpoint the only thing you\u2019re stuck with is the Gentile perspective.\n\nHere\u2019s a little chart I put together showing you the different perspectives of history.\u00a0 Daniel 2, the receiver of the vision is Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel 7, the receiver of the vision is Daniel himself.\u00a0 Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar is the oppressor; Daniel 7, Daniel is the oppressee. Daniel 2 the division is given to a Babylonian.\u00a0 Daniel 7 the same period of time is given to a Hebrew.\u00a0 Daniel 2 is the Jewish point of view, I think I have that backwards actually, Daniel 2 should be the Gentile point \u00a0\u00a0of view, Daniel 7 should be the Jewish point of view.\u00a0 Daniel 2 we have an anthropocentric perspective, a man-centered view; Daniel 7 is a theocentric perspective, God\u2019s point of view.\u00a0 That\u2019s why history is narrated in Daniel 2 as a beautiful statue but in Daniel 7 the same period of time is described through four beasts.\u00a0 Daniel 2 the time period is beautiful; Daniel 7 the time period is grotesque.\u00a0 It\u2019s a matter of where you sit isn\u2019t it?\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s a matter of what side of the ledger you\u2019re one that you can look at a historical event as something good or as something negative.\n\nIt\u2019s even interesting as I was in Germany learning about the Protestant Reformation, learning about the Protestant perspective of the Protestant Reformation.\u00a0 It\u2019s a wonderful time, it\u2019s a time of recapturing truths that have been lost.\u00a0 Now have you ever listened to a Roman Catholic talk about Martin Luther?\u00a0 He\u2019s the arch heretic.\u00a0 It sort of depends on who\u2019s giving you the historical point of view.\u00a0 But at any rate Daniel is receiving the Jewish perspective, the oppressed perspective and he sees these beasts coming out of the sea, he sees them as all different from each other and as we move into verses 4-8 we actually get a description of these various beasts.\n\nNotice if you will verse 4, \u201cThe first,\u201d that\u2019s beast number 1, \u201cwas<\/em> like a lion and had the<\/em> wings of an eagle. I kept looking until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man; a human mind also was given to it.\u201d\u00a0 The first beast that Daniel saw that would trample Israel down during this difficult time was a lion.\u00a0 Now we know exactly who this lion is because the lion is identical with the head of gold in the information that Nebuchad\u00adnezzar received back in Daniel chapter 2.\u00a0 In fact in Daniel 2:38 we know exactly who the head of gold is because Daniel 2:38 to Nebuchadnezzar says \u201cYou are the head of gold.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0The head of gold, or the lion, (head of gold chapter 2, lion chapter 7) would represent the empire that was in place when Daniel had this vision.\u00a0 Babylon trampled down the nation of Israel from about 605 B.C. to about 539 B.C. So within his own lifetime Daniel would see his prophecies begin to be fulfilled because fourteen years later, in chapter 5, the days of Babylon would come to an end and be replaced by Persia.\n\nYou\u2019ll notice that this particular beast is described here as having eagle\u2019s wings, most likely a reference to the very rapid, swift conquest of Babylon as she came to power and subjugated the nation of Israel.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice also this reference in verse 5 to the fact that it looked like a man who had been plucked; it\u2019s almost as if his life had been interrupted, then he had been made to stand on his feet and a man\u2019s mind or a human mind was given to that individual.\u00a0 I believe this is the description of what happened to Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4.\n\nNebuchadnezzar, the first reigning king of Neo-Babylonia during the times of the Gentiles had a bad case of the\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019s.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 You remember in Daniel 4:30 he said is this not the great Babylonian empire which I myself have created for my own majesty.\u00a0 Notice how \u201cI\u201d and \u201cmy\u201d keeps recurring there in that verse.\u00a0\u00a0 [Daniel 4:30 \u201cThe king reflected and said, \u2018Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?\u201d\u2019 NASB]\n\nAnd the moment those words, in fact, before those words came out of his mouth God turned Nebuchadnezzar into an insane man for seven years; he thought he was an animal, he lived like an animal.\u00a0 Medically this is an actual disease\u00a0 that the medical experts call lycanthrope, or boanthropy or zoanthrope, people that actually think and act like animals.\u00a0 I know some Jr. high school students that are kind of like that\u2026.\u00a0 But the fact of the matter is they think and act like animals and then there is suddenly cured and they\u2019re restored to their place of sanity.\u00a0 That\u2019s what happened to Nebuchad\u00adnezzar back in chapter 4.\u00a0 I believe Daniel is seeing that; he\u2019s seeing how God humbled a man and restored him which is a tremendous testimony of the grace of God.\n\nAnd Daniel kept looking in this particular vision, and by the way, that\u2019s the territory, some of these I got from The Bible Knowledge Commentary<\/em>, that darker area is the territory that Neo-Babylonia controlled, it was the empire of that time period, it was the conquest of the known world.\u00a0 Nobody ever thought in their wildest dreams that Neo-Babylonia would have its day in the sun and then disappear.\u00a0 It\u2019s like today, it\u2019s kind of interesting looking at\u00a0 America; we think that this American system, as wonderful as it is and I agree that it is wonderful, we just sort of think that we have this license where it\u2019s just going to go on and on and on and on and on forever.\u00a0 And we can just live however we want and act however we want and discard God and peace and prosperity and good times are just going to keep on rolling on through and how we need to look back at history and see that God brings all great empires to an end.\u00a0 This is what God did with Neo-Babylonia; she was replaced by the empire of Medo-Persia which conquered Babylon in a single night (as we have studied, Daniel 5) without even a battle.\u00a0 That\u2019s how vulnerable the Babylonians were.\n\nAnd this moves us into verse 5, the second part of the vision.\u00a0 Verse 5 says, \u201cAnd behold, another beast, a second one, resembling a bear. And it was raised up on one side, and three ribs were<\/em> in its mouth between its teeth; and thus they said to it, \u2018Arise, devour much meat!\u2019\u201d\u00a0 The lion is followed by the bear.\u00a0 We know that the bear is Persia because the book of Daniel itself identifies Persia, Medo-Persia as the empire that would follow Babylon.\u00a0 You might want to jot these down: Daniel 5:28, you\u2019ll see the name Persia.\u00a0 Daniel 8:28, you\u2019ll see the name Persia.\u00a0 Daniel 10:13, the name Persia.\u00a0 Daniel 10:20, the name Persia.\u00a0 [Daniel 5:28, \u201c\u2019PERES\u2019'-- your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Daniel 10:13, \u201cBut the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty-one days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia.\u201d Daniel\u00a0 10:20, \u201cThen he said, \u2018Do you understand why I came to you? But I shall now return to fight against the prince of Persia; so I am going forth, and behold, the prince of Greece is about to come.\u2019\u201d]\n\nSee in context the Holy Spirit is so specific that He says I\u2019m going to give you the name of the empire that is going to follow Babylon.\u00a0 This bear would parallel the chest and the arms of silver that Nebuchadnezzar saw back in chapter 2.\u00a0 This is an empire that would come to power in Daniel\u2019s day, beginning around 539 B.C. the big [can't understand word]\u00a0 change between Babylon and Persia is Daniel 5, and would last all the way to 331 B.C.\u00a0 This is an empire that Daniel saw would replace Babylon and that exchange happened in Daniel\u2019s own lifetime.\u00a0 And Daniel keeps seeing the Persian Empire in this vision lasting long after Daniel died, lasting all the way to 331 B.C.\u00a0 Keep in mind Daniel saw these things roughly 200 years before Persia went out of power; Daniel saw these things in 553 B.C.\n\nYou\u2019ll notice that this bear has three ribs in its mouth.\u00a0 What are these three ribs?\u00a0 Well, I don\u2019t know if I know for sure but I can give you an educated guess.\u00a0 These are the provinces Persia conquered as she was rising to power over Babylon.\u00a0 She conquered Lydia, number 1; Babylon, number 2, and Egypt, number 3.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll notice that God told in this vision the Persian Empire to arise like a bear and devour, and that\u2019s exactly what the Persian Empire did.\u00a0 It had a geographical area that expanded even beyond what Nebuchadnezzar had brought in under Neo-Babylonia.\n\nYou\u2019ll notice that Persia doesn\u2019t come to power until God gives it permission to come to power.\u00a0 You get this idea that God is pulling the strings here; God is in control of history.\u00a0 The Persian Empire is a very interesting empire because that was the empire that God put into place for a purpose, to bring the nation of Israel out of captivity and back into their land.\u00a0 That is the story that is recorded in the book of Ezra and Nehemiah.\u00a0 In fact, God in Isaiah 44:28, the very last verse in chapter 44 of Isaiah, and into the very first verse of Isaiah 45:1 God says let me give you even more information.\u00a0 \u00a0[Isaiah 44:28, \u201c\u2019It is I who says of Cyrus, \u2018He is My shepherd! And he will perform all My desire.\u2019 And he declares of Jerusalem, \u2018She will be built,\u2019 And of the temple, \u2018Your foundation will be laid.\u2019\u201d\n\nIsaiah 45:1, \u201cThus says the LORD to Cyrus His anointed, whom I have taken by the right hand, to subdue nations before him and to loose the loins of kings; to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut:\u201d]\n\nI will give you the name of the Persian leader who will allow Israel to come back into their land.\u00a0 God gave that information 200 years before it happened.\u00a0 Liberals are so upset with this that they don\u2019t think Isaiah wrote that either.\u00a0 I mean, these guys don\u2019t think Daniel wrote Daniel; they don\u2019t think Isaiah wrote Isaiah because how could Isaiah have known that?\u00a0 Well, it\u2019s easy if you under\u00ad\u00ad\u00adstand that God is omniscient, who breathed the book into existence and records human history in advance.\u00a0 And God put the Persians in power for the very specific purpose of allowing the nation to go back into their promised land, which they did in three waves, as recorded in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.\n\nAnd how far the Persian government has gotten away from their history, because the modern nation of Persia is what?\u00a0 Iran, very easy to document.\u00a0 In fact the name Persia was changed to Iran in 1935 and it became the Islamic Republic of Iran in my own lifetime, in your own lifetime, with the toppling of the Shah and the replacing of the Shah with the Ayatollah.\u00a0 And isn\u2019t it interesting how Iran (or Persia) began to turn against Israel at that point in time, turn against the United States.\u00a0 Ezekiel in his prophecy saw Persia turning against Israel and he probably thought these prophecies were crazy because Persia was a good guy, Persia was a friend, Persia was an ally.\u00a0 And yet Ezekiel in the end times sees the turning of Persia.\n\nPrior to 1979 Ezekiel\u2019s prophecies about the turning of Persia seemed crazy to most people because Persia was an ally of the United States\u00a0 and Israel.\u00a0 And how everything changed with the Islamic revolution in1979.\u00a0 I remember, even as an unsaved Jr. High School student watching that on TV.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know all the particulars of it but I knew that this was big.\u00a0 I knew it from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet that something was happening.\u00a0 And God was moving\u00a0 His hand in history, He was allowing the stage to be set up for the end time drama when Persia herself, according to Ezekiel\u2019s prophecies would not be an ally of Israel but would in fact launch a last days attack from the north, along with Rosh and others, against the nation of Israel.\n\nAnd today the leadership of Persia is not a blessing to the nation of Israel.\u00a0 In fact, Ahmadinejad<\/a>, a former leader of Iran, said we are going to wipe Israel off the map.\u00a0 How easy it is to lose sight of your culture and your heritage and not understand that God raised up Cyrus and Persia to be a blessing to the nation of Israel.\u00a0 I worry about this in our country.\u00a0 I worry about the fact that have we gone so far in our rebellion and rejection of God that we don\u2019t even understand any more why America exists.\n\nIt is not difficult to understand why America exists if you just go back to America\u2019s founding documents, go back to the Mayflower Compact, where those that came to these shores from Europe set up a structure and they said this country exists for the propagation of the Christian faith.\u00a0 Why has God blessed America?\u00a0 Because God has raised up America to be a blessing to other nations in terms of missions and Christianity being exported.\u00a0 How many millennials today understand that?\u00a0 How many high school students understand it?\u00a0 How many Jr. high school students understand it?\u00a0 How many churches have pastors that tell you about it?\u00a0 I think we\u2019re losing sight of who we are and why we exist much as the Persians did.\n\nBut Daniel kept looking at this vision and he saw yet another animal, this was the form of the leopard.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, Daniel chapter 7 and verse 6, it says, \u201cAfter this I kept looking, and behold, another one, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird; the beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it.\u201d\u00a0 See how it keeps saying \u201cdominion\u201d is given.\u00a0 These empires don\u2019t come into existence until God moves His hand and allows them to come forth.\n\nSo this third empire would be the empire of Greece represented by a leopard.\u00a0 You say well where are you getting Greece from?\u00a0 Well here are the verses that give you Greece by name as the empire that would follow Persia in the book of Daniel itself.\u00a0 Daniel 8:21, you\u2019ll see the word Greece.\u00a0 Daniel 10:20 you\u2019ll also see the word Greece as the empire that would follow the Persian Empire.\n\n[Daniel 8:21, \u201cThe shaggy goat represents the kingdom of Greece, and the large horn that is between his eyes is the first king.\u201d Daniel 10:20, \u201cHe replied, \u2018Do you know why I have come? Soon I must return to fight against the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia, and after that the spirit prince of the kingdom of Greece will come.\u2019\u201d]\n\nWhen Nebuchadnezzar saw this same time period back in Daniel 2, to him it appeared as belly and thighs of bronze.\u00a0 Greece, beginning with Alexander the Great around 331 B.C. would arise to power and conquer the known world.\u00a0 This is the empire of Greece.\u00a0 This is what is happening in the intertestamental time period, the time period between the testaments.\u00a0 The time period between Malachi and Matthew.\u00a0 Why is it that when you close the pages of the Old Testament the Persians are in power and everyone is speaking Hebrew or Aramaic?\u00a0 You open up the pages of the New Testament and Rome is in power and everybody is speaking Greek.\u00a0 Well, there\u2019s history there.\u00a0 God revealed in advance what He would do to set the table, to set the stage if you will, for the advent of His Son, Jesus Christ.\n\nYou\u2019ll notice that this leopard has four wings; it\u2019s most likely speaking of the rapid conquest of Alexander the Great as he brought the Grecian Empire to power and toppled Persia in the process.\u00a0\u00a0 You know, Alexander the Great is the guy who conquered the known world and then started to weep because he had nothing else to conquer.\u00a0 This is a man who died, I believe around age 30-33, very young, of sexually transmitted diseases and things of that nature.\u00a0 This is a man who could conquer the world but he couldn\u2019t conquer his own passions and his own lusts and was prematurely snuffed out.\u00a0 He, Alexander the Great, becomes the focus of Daniel\u2019s prophecies in Daniel 8 and Daniel 11; the dates for the Grecian Empire would be 331 B.C. to 63 B.C.\u00a0 Daniel saw all of this in 553 B.C., nearly 200 years before it happened.\u00a0 The power of the Bible, to reveal the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end!\n\nDaniel, in Daniel 7:6 also makes reference to four heads.\u00a0 [Daniel\u00a0 7:6, \u201cAfter this I kept looking, and behold, another one, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird; the beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it.\u201d]\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting when Alexander the Great died he had no heirs, probably due to the early age in which he died, so his empire could not be divided to his heirs.\u00a0 So where did it go to?\u00a0 It went to his four generals; the four generals are Cassander who got control of Macedonia, one part of Alexander the Great\u2019s empire.\u00a0 The second general is Lysimachus who got control of Thrace and Asia Minor, another part of Alexander the Great\u2019s empire.\u00a0 The Third empire becomes Seleucus, who got control of Syria, to the north of Israel, the northern part to Israel of Alexander the Great\u2019s Empire.\u00a0 And the fourth general was Ptolemy who got control of Egypt, south to the nation of Israel.\n\nAnd in Daniel\u2019s prophecies as we move into chapter 8 and chapter 11, Cassander and Lysimachus dropped off the radar screen and Daniel begins to focus on Seleucus and Ptolemy because from Seleucus is going to come the Seleucid Dynasty and from Ptolemy is going to come the Ptolemy Dynasty.\u00a0 And these two empires do battle traipsing back and forth across the Promised Land.\u00a0 You can see that just based on their location, fighting it out.\u00a0 And Daniel in chapter 11 gives uncanny information about that time period with specific detail long before it happened.\u00a0 In fact, the information is so detailed that the liberals just can\u2019t handle it, they don\u2019t think Daniel could have written it.\u00a0 How could he have known such information in such detail.\u00a0 Well, it makes sense if you understand that an omniscient God breathed this book into existence.\n\nFrom the Seleucus dynasty is going to come Antiochus IV or Antiochus, depending on which syllable gets the emphasis.\u00a0 Anti-o-chus, Anti-ochus, take your pick; Antiochus Epiphanes whose name means God manifest.\u00a0 No ego problem there, right?\u00a0 And he is going to come into the land of Israel and he\u2019s going to desecrate the temple and God is going to perform a great liberation of the temple\u00a0 during that time period that the Jews still celebrate today, called what?\u00a0 Hanukah, the Feast of Lights, Feast of Dedication.\u00a0 You say well, is that a holiday in Judaism that\u2019s found in the Bible.\u00a0 It\u2019s not found in Leviticus but it was added to the Jewish calendar because of what God did to rescue His people during that time period.\u00a0 In fact, Jesus Himself goes to Jerusalem in John 10:22 to celebrate that feast, Hanukah.\u00a0 [John 10:22, \u201cAt that time the Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem.\u201d]\n\nAnd Daniel 7 and Daniel 8 and Daniel 11, these prophecies that we\u2019re getting into become the prophetic basis for that great holiday.\n\nAnd then we move into the last empire, the empire of Rome.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, Daniel 7:7, it says, \u201cAfter this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong; and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet;\u201d stop right there in the middle of verse 7, this fourth beast Daniel sees is a terrible beast, it\u2019s the empire of Rome.\u00a0 You say well how do you know it\u2019s Rome that he saw?\u00a0 It\u2019s Rome because we know from secular history that Rome followed Greece, it\u2019s just a matter of historical fact.\u00a0 Rome is not mentioned by name the way Persia is mentioned or Greece is mentioned but it\u2019s just a matter of history that Rome followed Greece.\n\nThis was the legs of iron that Nebuchadnezzar saw in Daniel 2, two legs of iron.\u00a0 Why two legs?\u00a0 Because there was an eastern division of the Roman Empire and a western division of the Roman Empire.\u00a0 This is an empire that would come to power in 63 B.C. as General Pompeii would come into the land of Israel and subjugate the nation of Israel and this is an empire that would continue to trample down the nation of Israel until A.D. 70 when this empire pushed the nation of Israel out of their land yet again.\u00a0 And historically speaking this is an empire that would continue on up until the 5th<\/sup> century A.D.\n\nI want you to understand that Daniel is seeing all of these things 500 years before they happened.\u00a0 Daniel is seeing these things in 553 B.C.\u00a0 Rome wouldn\u2019t even come to power until 63 B.C. up until A.D. 70.\u00a0 The interesting thing is the description that Daniel gives to Rome, which was yet on the horizon when he spoke these things.\u00a0 He says it would be terrible, dreadful, terrifying, strong, devouring, crushing.\n\nLet me tell you something about Rome.\u00a0 It was one of the most wicked empires the human race has ever seen.\u00a0 In fact, as you know, it was the empire that would be responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 God allowed this empire to come into existence to crucify His Son so that the sin debt of the world might be paid for and we might have life in His name.\u00a0 The instrument of execution known as crucifixion is one of the grizzliest methods of death the human mind in its depravity has ever come up with.\u00a0 This was not an instrument of death that was started by the Romans; it was started by the Assyrians.\u00a0 The Assyrians\u2026 remember Nineveh?\u00a0 Remember Jonah who didn\u2019t want to preach the love of God to the Assyrians?\u00a0 Why didn\u2019t Jonah want to preach the grace of God and the love of God to the Assyrians?\u00a0 Because of the diabolical nature of the Assyrians.\u00a0 So God said go to Nineveh and Jonah went where?\u00a0 Tarshish, the opposite way.\n\nThere\u2019s a reason he went the opposite way; there\u2019s a reason he didn\u2019t want the love of God to come to the Assyrians, because of how they executed people.\u00a0 The Romans just reached back into history and said you know this method of death called the crucifixion, that\u2019s a great way to keep people in submission and subjection; let\u2019s take it out of history, not invent it but popularize it.\u00a0 This is all the hand of God putting the table in place for the crucifixion of His own Son.\u00a0 And even after Christ Himself was crucified the cruelty of Rome against the Jewish people didn\u2019t stop there because they came against the nation of Israel in A.D. 70 and pushed the nation of Israel out of their land.\n\nI want you to understand something: in A.D. 70 over a million Jews lost their lives because of what the Romans did to them.\u00a0 In fact, Josephus, the historian, tells us that the Romans tore open the wombs of pregnant Jewish women to snuff out the life that was in the those Hebrew wombs, to wipe this race and this nation off the face of the earth forever.\u00a0 That was Rome.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Daniel describes it as crushing, devouring, trampling.\n\nAnd then what comes on the scene is a prophetic skip of over 2,000 years.\u00a0 Beginning in Daniel 7 and verse 7 there is a gap there of 2600 years where Daniel, in this prophecy, leaps into the distant future and he sees on the horizon, coming out of the cultural inheritance of ancient Rome something even worse, something even more ferocious, something even more grotesque, something that is yet to come, that is the empire of the antichrist.\n\nYou see, you talk like this to a Jewish person who doesn\u2019t know Christ they don\u2019t want to hear anything about what I\u2019m saying here because in their mind their holocaust has already happened.\u00a0 If I\u2019m interpreting my Bible correctly what Titus of Rome did in A.D. 70, even what Adolf \u00a0Hitler did in Nazi Germany is small potatoes to what is on the horizon.\u00a0 And yet God, who doesn\u2019t say all things are good, He says He works all things together for good, to accomplish His purpose, which ultimately will be the conversion of the nation of Israel in the tribulation period, leading to the manifestation of the kingdom of God on the earth.\n\nYou say I\u2019m dying for more explanation, I mean, you\u2019re stopping right there in the middle of verse 7?\u00a0 You\u2019re not going to tell us about the rest of verse 7 and verse 8?\u00a0 Well, I will tell you about it but you have to come back next week to hear it.\n\nBut something like this is so encouraging to me in a certain sense because it shows me, it\u2019s a reminder that God is in control of human history.\u00a0 He\u2019s in control of human events.\u00a0 The world looks like it\u2019s out of control but it\u2019s not.\u00a0 Everything is happening according to God\u2019s divine timetable.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t say all things are good but He\u2019s working all things together for good to accomplish His purposes.\u00a0 Do you look at your problems that way as you\u2019re going through difficulties?\u00a0 You might say to yourself, I don\u2019t think what is happening to me is good but I know God is going to work it together for good.\u00a0 You know that because Romans 8:28 says that to you.\u00a0 [Romans 8:28, \u201cAnd we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.\u201d]\n\nThe only question I have is do you know this God who is orchestrating these events?\u00a0\u00a0 The fact of the matter is God wants to know you personally in a relationship and that happens through what we celebrated this morning through communion, a representation of what God did.\u00a0 It\u2019s called the gospel; we call it the gospel because it means good news.\u00a0 It\u2019s good news because Jesus did all the hard work.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t just predict suffering, but the story of the Bible is God\u2019s entrance into suffering to die on a cruel Roman wooden cross 2,000 years ago to bear the penalty of a holy God in our place so that by simply believing or trusting in what He has done for us, NOT what we do for ourselves, but what HE HAS done for us we might have our sins forgiven, a relationship with Him, and the immediate hope of heaven.\n\nAnd my question is have you received that.\u00a0 You can receive it right now even as I\u2019m talking, it\u2019s not a twelve-step program, it\u2019s a one-step program where you trust, rely upon, have confidence in, which is another way of saying believing what Jesus did for you.\u00a0 As the Spirit places some of you under conviction you can respond right now in the privacy of your own mind, in the privacy of your own heart, as a matter of privacy between you and the Lord where you trust, where you rest solely, exclusively on what Jesus did for you.\u00a0 You trust Him for your eternity, you trust Him for the safekeeping of your soul.\n\nIf that\u2019s something you\u2019re interested in doing you can do it right now as I\u2019m speaking.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to raise a hand, walk an aisle, join a church, give money to do it.\u00a0 You don\u2019t even have to pray a prayer to do it.\u00a0 You can pray if you want but it\u2019s not the prayer that saved\u00a0 you, it\u2019s Christ that saves you.\u00a0 And what\u2019s important is the faith, which is what God is looking for, expressed in the prayer.\u00a0 Why would you leave today without being assured of your salvation.\u00a0 Trust Christ right now, where you\u2019re seated.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something that you need more information on I\u2019m available after the service to talk. Shall we pray.\n\nFather, we\u2019re grateful for Daniel 7 and how it speaks from the 6th century into our time period; it reminds us of history that You have given in advance and yet the reminder can be difficult for us to absorb yet it\u2019s a reminder that You are very much in control and we praise You for that.\u00a0 We lift these things up in Jesus name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026 Amen.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t