Will you take your Bibles and turn to the book of Daniel? We will continue our verse-by-verse study of this amazing book in the Old Testament. In a few minutes we will be looking at Daniel chapter two beginning in verse 25. In Psalm 29 two the Spirit of God speaks through the psalmist, and says, "Ascribe to the LORD the glory, due to His name." And of course, his name is the summary of all the glorious attributes of the essence of his holy character. And sadly, the humiliating defeat of our country in Afghanistan and the horror show that is being played out with this botched evacuation is a vivid illustration of what happens to a nation when it does not "Ascribe to the LORD the glory due to his name." To be sure, "pride goes before destruction," we read in Proverbs 16 and verse 18, "and a haughty spirit before stumbling." And this week, we have all witnessed what is perhaps the most chilling illustration of destruction in my lifetime, as the jihadist flag of the Taliban, now replaces Old Glory in Kabul, Afghanistan. My heart aches for the Gold Star families who have lost loved ones in that 20 Year War. And I offer my heartfelt sympathies to those of you, and I know, there are a number of our in our church, who have fought over there, people that we know who have been wounded and killed. I met with a gold star mom on Friday in Paris, Tennessee, at the dedication of a gold star Memorial Highway that will go from Paris Landing all the way into Paris. She lost her son in that war. It's heartbreaking to see what is happening. But frankly, we are a nation that has replaced the worship of the one true God who has revealed himself in creation in Scripture. And in the person in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ with a false god of secular humanism. We have embraced an anti-Christian woke culture that preaches hatred and racism and greed and victimization, in order to gain political power and money, fomenting division and strife that is ultimately leading us towards Marxist totalitarianism. We have defied creational realities by embracing gender fluidity, which is insanity. And we have denied God as the Creator of life, including the creator of two genders, male and female, both made in His image, for the purpose of bringing him glory through his church, and through the institution of marriage between one man and one woman. We have mocked all of that in our country. And while we fight over gender pronouns and transgender rights and critical race theory, our borders are being overrun with hundreds of 1000s of illegal aliens spreading COVID and crime and drugs. And for months, for months, we have listened to the self-righteous, churlish rhetoric of a president who is clearly in a state of cognitive decline, telling us how America is back. This is nothing more than Orwellian doublespeak, purposefully deceptive, confusing, self-centered speech. But while he and his woke administration insist on raising the Black Lives Matter flag and the gay pride banner over American embassies around the world. A medieval army of sociopathic, misogynistic, pedophiles, raise their flag over the American Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. It's heartbreaking. It's infuriating. It's evidence of the wrath of divine abandonment on the United States of America. Friends, our President and our elected leaders need our prayers, and we are commanded to pray for them. And I encourage you to do so; our enemies need our prayers. They need the saving, transforming power of the gospel. That's the only hope. Oh how quickly the mighty fall and how great is that fall. And this is the tragic legacy of liberalism. Wherever you see liberalism, whether it's theological liberalism, or political liberalism, it brings destruction. However, I would add that this is not a political battle that can be won by voting for the right person of the right party. Dear friends, this is a clash between two opposing kingdoms, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. And again, the gospel is the only thing that can change men's hearts. And only the Prince of Peace can reconcile sinful men to a holy God and sinful men to each other. But frankly, I would add that the greatest threat to our nation right now is not godless liberalism that drives the progressive wing of the Democratic Party and much of the Republican Party. The greatest threat to this nation is Christless Christianity. Pseudo-Christians that are filling churches, and evangelicalism. You know, during Jesus ministry, it's interesting, the brunt of his attacks was not on Rome, was not on Caesar, but on the institutionalized self-righteousness and hypocrisy of the Pharisees. And Satan has always used the twin themes of false religion and secular government to thwart the purposes of God. And nothing has changed to this day. Evangelical pragmatism has widened the gate of destruction filling churches with false believers. We now have so many churches with predators in the pulpit, entrepreneurs in the pulpit, preaching a worldly man centered gospel rather than a Holy Christ centered gospel. Pop culture hipster churches now dominate the evangelical landscape, spewing out meaningless platitudes and psychobabble. Nothing more than religious social clubs and community centers. They worship the next private revelation. Or they worship the next personality. Or they worship the next program or their music or their entertainment; anything and everything but Christ. We have an easy believeism gospel where all you have to do is pray a prayer, walk an aisle, check a box and you're in. And then we have the prosperity gospel that basically says Jesus died to make you happy. And if you learn how to manipulate him, you can pry from his stingy fingers, all of the goodies that you want. And then of course, we have now the social justice gospel, producing woke churches. And I would argue that this is unquestionably the most destructive heresy to come upon the church since its founding at Pentecost. Dear friends, this is liberalism and Neo Marxism rolled together on steroids. It has taken over much of evangelicalism.

Proverbs nine and verse 10, we read that, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." And in Proverbs one seven, "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." Then he says "fools despise wisdom and instruction." Today we're witnessing a government that is being ruled by fools, and worse yet, are witnessing an evangelical church that is being led by fools. And as a result, America has become a fool's paradise. And we're reaping what we have sown. Our once great country has become an enemy of the Most High God, and he has abandoned us to the consequences of our iniquities. As Romans one makes so clear, we've become a laughingstock around the world. Our enemies openly mock us, our allies are furious at us. In fact, God laughs at us, as I read in Psalm two a few minutes ago, how quickly the mighty fall and how great is that fall. But dear friends, please understand, great empires have always risen, and they have always fallen, and that will continue to happen until the Lord Jesus Christ returns. In fact, it will continue to happen even in the rise and the fall of the final gentile empire of the Antichrist. It will one day be defeated by the King of kings and Lord of lords who will return in power and great glory to establish His kingdom that will never end. Now there's the hope of the Gospel, amen? According to Daniel chapter seven, beginning in verse 13, we read this "'I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like a Son of Man was coming. And He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away, and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.'" Dear friends, this is what we see here in Daniel. In God's outline of world history that was given to King Nebuchadnezzar in a dream, a dream that was also given then to Daniel who interpreted that dream.

So, let me provide for you once again, the context of where we will go this morning, you will remember, remember that Nebuchadnezzar had this terrifying dream. And he demanded all of the wise men, all of the Chaldeans to come in, and not tell him just the interpretation of the dream but tell him what the dream was. So he knew they weren't trying to snooker him, because he obviously didn't trust him. And he said that if they couldn't do that he was going to have them torn from limb to limb, and their houses would be made into a rubbish heap. Pretty serious. And in verse 11, we read that "no one else who could declare it to the king, except gods," is what they told him, o one can do that; “whose dwelling places not with mortal flesh." And of course, that's exactly what God wanted them to say. So he could prove himself powerful through his servant Daniel. Well, the king became indignant and furious with his wise man and gave orders to have them all destroyed. They go and they speak to Daniel and his three companions. And he asked if he could speak with the king, so that he could have some time. King gave him the time, he went to prayer with his friends, and we know that God revealed to Daniel, the dream, and the interpretation of the dream. He praised God and then he called the king's commander, Arioch, and he says, "Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon." He said, "Take me into the king's presence, and I will declare the interpretation to the king."

Now we pick it up at verse 25, "Then Arioch hurriedly brought Daniel into the king's presence, and spoke to him as follows, "'I have found a man among the exiles from Judah, who can make the interpretation known to the king!'" Obviously, Arioch wanted to take credit and maybe even participate in the reward right? Verse 26, "The king said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, 'Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen and its interpretation?'" Now, what I want you to notice, dear friends is Daniel didn't immediately launch into the dream and the interpretation This is very important, but rather, he actually agreed with the Chaldeans and gave all the credit to God, unlike Arioch. Notice verse 27, “Daniel answered before the king and said, 'As for the mystery about which the king has inquired, neither wise men, conjurers, magicians nor diviners are able to declare it to the king. However, there is a God in heaven, who reveals mysteries.'"

By the way, this is most important because what he's ultimately saying here is, there is a God in heaven who can do this, unlike the worthless gods of the Babylonians, which was a direct blow to the magical powers of the Chaldeans. Daniel went on to say, "'and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the latter days. This was your dream and the visions in your mind while you were on your bed.'" Now, the term "latter days," is an important term. It is a term used 14 times in the Old Testament. And the New Testament alludes to the Old Testament concept in a number of passages. Each one needs to be interpreted contextually. But as Dr. Walvoord says, quote, "Taking both the Old and New Testament uses together, it is clear that the latter days for Israel began as early as the division of the land to the 12 tribes, Genesis 49 and verse one, and include the first and second Advents of Christ. The last days for the church culminate at the rapture and resurrection of the church, and are not related to the time of the end for Israel. Daniel does not deal with the age between the two Advents except for the times of the end, and the New Testament does not clearly use the term quote, "latter days" of the present church age." So as Walvoord went on to say in the context of what God is revealing in Daniel two, "The latter days include all the visions that Nebuchadnezzar received and stretches from 600 BCE to the second coming of Christ, to the earth." And beloved, what we will see here is a prophetic outline of the rise and fall of four great world empires that will finally be permanently replaced by a fifth Empire, the kingdom of heaven, for which we longingly await, and for which we are commanded to pray, right? "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven."

So, the latter days encompasses the history of Gentile domination over Israel that will one day come to a sudden and a catastrophic end when Christ returns and establishes his millennial kingdom. And we read about this in verse 44, and 45, we just read this to you, we'll come again to it in a few minutes. But there we read, "'In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom, which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold, the great God has made known to the king, what will take place in the future; so the dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.'"

Now let's go back to verse 29. Daniel says, "'As for you, O king, while on your bed, your thoughts turned to what would take place in the future.'" Now, folks, this is absolutely staggering. Do you realize what he's saying here is that God revealed to Daniel what he was thinking about on his bed, before God even revealed the dream. It's an amazing thing. Nebuchadnezzar was basically thinking, I wonder what's going to happen after I'm done. After the Babylonian Empire, what's going to happen next?

Daniel goes on to say, "'and He,'" referring to God, "'who reveals mysteries has made known to you what will take place.'" Verse 30, "'But as for me, this mystery has not been revealed to me for any wisdom residing in me more than any other living man, but for the purpose of making the interpretation known to the king, and that you may understand the thoughts of your mind.'" So once again, Daniel's humility shines bright, as he underscores how God alone is responsible for all of this. God alone is responsible for getting you to even think about the future. God alone is responsible for giving you the revelation, and now giving you the interpretation through his servant. And what he is about to describe now, I might add, corresponds to the vision described in chapter seven, that God revealed to Daniel personally and we will see that later, when we get there.

Back to verse 31, "'You, O King, we're looking in behold, there was a single great statue; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendor, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome.'" The word here is from a root word, meaning to fear. So what he saw was a colossal, vivid, bright image that evoked a sense of terrifying all within his heart. It was overwhelming. Verse 32, "'The head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron, and partly of clay.'" In the original language, literally, baked clay, a piece of pottery, piece of ceramic, if you will. I want you to notice here there is a descending deterioration in the precious value of the metals from the head to the feet. Moreover, each metal is less weight, with the clay and the feet being the lightest of all. However, it's also fascinating to note that each material increases in hardness, from the head to the feet, with the noticeable exception of the clay in the feet, which is the weakest part of the image. Mixing hard brittle quote, "baked clay" or ceramic with durable iron, certainly presupposes a very weak foundation that is subject to collapse. And that's the point.

Now let's look closely at what Daniel goes on to say, verse 34, "'You continued looking,'" we have a participle here, depicting I should say that the king's constant gaze at the image; "'You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them.'" So here he describes a large stone cut out of a mountain, as we see in verse 45. That strikes the feet of the image, its weakest point, and it strikes it with such force that it not only crushes the feet, that Final Empire, but caused all of the other empires that are pictured in the image to disappear without a trace. Verse 35, "'Then the iron the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed, all at the same time, became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.'" My what a stunning scene, right? This colossal image instantly destroyed by a stone hitting its vulnerable feet and then becoming a mountain that fills the whole earth. All those metals were rendered powerless and worthless, utterly insignificant in comparison with the stone that was cut out without hands that struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them.

Now, I find it interesting that Nebuchadnezzar here is absolutely speechless. I think I would be too. He never interjects a word. And he must have been dumbfounded to hear this 18-year-old Judean tell him exactly what he saw in his dream, and he obviously knew that a god far superior to anything that he could have ever imagined was involved in this whole scenario. Again, notice what Daniel says in verse 36, "'This was the dream; now, we will tell its interpretation before the king. You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength and the glory; and wherever the sons of men dwell, or the beasts of the field or the birds of the sky, He has given them into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold.'" Obviously, the king is the personification and symbol of the Babylonian Empire. Now I can see in my mind's eye, mind you, this isn't in the text, but I think it's fair to say we could kind of sit back and look at Nebuchadnezzar at this point, we could kind of see him sit back, kind of stick his chest out and raise his head up and you see a grin begin to form on his face. His mouth is probably wide open with pride. Although it's also clear, from what Daniel says, that all of these things were given to him by the God of heaven, who was revealing this to Daniel. And what's really interesting is that God had previously prophesied the meteoric rise of Nebuchadnezzar some six years earlier, through the prophet Jeremiah, who warned the kings of Moab and Edom in Amman and Tyre and Sidon, in Jeremiah 27. Beginning in verse six, here's what he had said six years earlier. "'Now, I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.'" It's amazing. This happened before it ever happened; the prophecy happened before it actually happened with Nebuchadnezzar. So, "'I've given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, My servant, and I have given him also the wild animals of the field to serve him.'" Isn't it interesting that God even uses the ungodly to serve his purposes? We need to keep that in mind given the present crisis we are in. "'All the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson, until the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings will make him their servant. It will be that the nation of the kingdom which will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and which, and which will not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword with famine and with pestilence,' declares the Lord, 'until I have destroyed it by his hand.'" In verse 14, "'So do not listen to the words of the prophets who speak to you saying, 'You will not serve the king of Babylon,' for they prophesy a lie to you, for I have not sent them' declares the Lord, 'but they prophesy falsely in My name in order that I may drive you out, and that you may perish you and the prophets who prophesy to you.'" So here we see that God even orchestrated false teachers, to lie to them and to get the people to believe that lie so that he might judge them. And in Jeremiah 37, in verse 10, God even warned the Jews at the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar siege of Jerusalem in 588 BC, saying, "'Even if you had defeated the entire army of Chaldeans who were fighting against you, and there were only wounded men left among them, each man in his tent, they would rise up and burn the city with fire.'" So indeed, God providentially appointed Nebuchadnezzar to be not only an irresistible force, but also a magnificent, brilliant, sovereign monarch that would conquer the whole known world at that time, including apostate Israel.

Back to verse 39, Daniel to Daniel goes on to say, "'After you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you.'" And we know that this is a reference to the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians depicted in the dream as the breast and arms of silver, which probably intends to portray the dual monarchy of the Medo Persian Empire. That such a king of kings would be replaced by, quote "another kingdom inferior to you," is a bit puzzling at first glance, is it not? Especially given the fact that the Medo Persian Empire was geographically much larger than the Babylonian Empire? Most conservative scholars believe the inferiority of the Second Empire pertain to its quality of government.

Let me explain this because I think this is accurate. Historically, we know that Nebuchadnezzar reigned for 43 years as an absolute dictatorial autocrat, and he was a brilliant, astounding king. He reigned over a totally unified kingdom and he was greatly feared and respected, and the people prospered. However, when he died in 562 BC, he was replaced by his son, Evil-Merodach . Then two usurpers of the throne, Neriglissar and Nabonidus. And finally his daughter's son, Belshazzar, who was that vile man, that total fool who saw the handwriting on the wall, as you will recall. Remember he was so morally rotten, that he was weighed in Gods balances and "found wanting," Daniel five, verse 27. Well, as a result of all of this, the great Babylonian Empire began to deteriorate because of incompetent, corrupt and morally bankrupt leadership. Which, by the way, is exactly what we're seeing happening here in our country. Now, Cyrus, the ruler of the Medo-Persian Empire, was indeed inferior to the great Nebuchadnezzar; he was not able to wield an autocratic scepter, like Nebuchadnezzar, because his authority was ultimately subject to the law of the Medes and the Persians. So even as silver is about 40 times or so, less valuable than gold, the monarchy or quality of the Medo-Persian Empire, was inferior to the Neo- Babylonian kingdom. In fact, the empire of Alexander the Great that came next, that conquered the Medo- Persian Empire also lacked that kind of central authority, that superior organization and unity that Babylon had, and that the Medo-Persian Empire possessed. And of course, this is exactly what Daniel sees in the progressive inferiority in the succeeding empires. Although we've also got to bear in mind, while there is, as you will see, a descending value in the metals, there is also a ascending strength, suggesting the increased military might, that will increase over the history of the times of the Gentiles. And we especially see this in the explosion of military might that came through the unimaginable military power of the world conflict that's going to come eventually, in Revelation 16, and 19, to which Daniel refers in Daniel 11:36 through 45. Again, we will look at that when we get there.

But I also wish to add that some classical writers, such as the ancient Greek poet Hediod, who lived for about, somewhere they think 750 to 650 BCE, as well as the Roman poet Ovid, who lived from 43 BC to 18 AD. These were some of the guys that viewed history progressing in the same ways as the descending values of the metals. I find that very interesting. Think about this, contrary to evolutionary theory, man did not begin with dust and ascend to gold. Just the opposite happened. And the times of the Gentiles began with gold, but it will end in worthless dust that will disappear in the wind. And as I thought about this, even as evil entered the world through the chief angel, who was at the same level of Michael the archangel, it will end in the eternal separation of divine oblivion. And even as sinners enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin, even as sinners live for themselves and ignore God, their corruption will gradually metastasize as a cancer, until finally, it will utterly eat them away and they will be ruined. What was once promised as pleasure, will end in the solitary confinement of an eternal hell, such as the progress of sin’s corruption, dear friends; both historically as well as personally. What did Solomon say, "Vanity, vanity," it's all vanity, "striving after the wind." That's what life is, unless you fear God and obey Him, live for His glory.

Back to Daniel, two 39. At the end, Daniel then describes the third kingdom, "a kingdom of bronze," he says, "which will rule over all the earth." Now as predicted, a third kingdom arose and conquered the Medo-Persian Empire. And it did rule over all the earth and this was the kingdom of Macedonia, of Greece, ruled by Alexander the Great beginning in 334 BC. His Grecian Empire not only conquered all of the regions of the dual silver kingdom of Medo-Persia, but even further east, all the way to the borders of India. And by the end of his conquests, history reveals that he had carved out an empire of 1.5 million square miles. Now, what might we glean from the fact that the inferior quality of this bronze kingdom was somehow able to conquer the Medo-Persian kingdom, symbolized by the superior silver? Clearly silver is a superior quality of metal than bronze. So in what way were the Greeks inferior, especially given the fact that Alexander's military was mighty? Its accomplishments were far superior than the Babylonians and the Medo-Persians put together. In fact, it is said that his army of around 40,000, sometimes it went up as much as 90, but most of the time is around 40,000, moved with such speed and agility, they were able to defeat armies like the Persians, that were about three to five times larger in size. They were powerful. They invented the Greek phalanx, which was a single rectangular mass of military that locked their shields and their spears together, they had pikes, they had what were called sarissas, that they invented, these were long spears or pikes that they would hold with with two hands and between 13 to 20 feet long and they had a sharp iron head shaped like a leaf, and then they had a bronze bud spike, which could be anchored in the ground to stop charges. You've seen that in some of the movies; they put the sticks down and the horses run into them and all of that type of thing, they invented that. The spike was sharpened well enough that it could pierce through the enemy shields. They also implemented smaller and lighter shields. They developed skirmish infantry's, archery units, light cavalry, heavy cavalry, siege engines. They were so well organized that they had various divisions that were dedicated to specific responsibilities, each working together with perfect efficiency at a moment's notice. They were virtually unstoppable. You may recall they even defeated the war elephants of King Porus in the Battle of Jhelum, in 326 BC. In fact, in Daniel chapter eight, I'm going to take you there for a moment, beginning in verse five. God revealed to Daniel even more about the mighty Alexander the Great that would come. And there he depicted him as a male goat.

We read in Daniel eight beginning in verse five, "While I was observing behold, a male goat was coming from the west, over the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground;" denoting the speed, "and the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. He came up to the ram that had two horns," referring to Medo-Persian Empire, "which I had seen standing in front of the canal and rushed him in his mighty wrath. I saw him come beside the ram and he was enraged at him; and he struck the ram and shattered his two horns, and the ram had no strength to withstand him. So he hurled him to the ground and trampled on him, and there was none to rescue the ram from his power. Then the male goat magnified himself exceedingly. But as soon as he was mighty, the large horn was broken, and in its place there came up for conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven."

So, why is the Grecian Empire symbolized by an inferior metal than the Medo-Persian empire that it conquered? Well, I believe the answer can be explained in that it had an inferior quality of unity, and administration. The efficiency of Alexander's empire crumbled very quickly, great division began to emerge in his kingdom, and that was, that was its ruin. And as we will see more in detail in chapter eight. At Alexander's death at age 33, in 323 BC, four of his generals became kings over four sectors of the vast Grecian Empire, and that was their undoing. Now, notice again, back to verse 32. "The head of the statue was made to find gold," that's Babylon, "its breast and its arms of silver," Medo-Persia, then the third kingdom is described with "its belly and its thighs of bronze," and then a fourth kingdom with "its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay." That's fascinating, isn't it? This third Empire designated by the "belly and its thighs of bronze," verse 32, ends with the thighs from which the legs of iron emerge, indicating it would eventually encompass the territory of both the East and the West. And of course, this is a reference ultimately to Rome, as we will understand more in days to come. Verse 40, "Then there will be a fourth kingdom, as strong as iron; inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things, so like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces." And again, this is a reference to the Roman Empire that succeeded Greece historically. I might also add that the parallel symbolism of the animals in Daniel's vision in chapter seven underscores the designation and sequence of all these successive empires, the fourth beast in verse seven being a clear reference to the iron legions of Rome. Now, iron is clearly the least valuable metal in the descending quality of metals, pictured in the image, but it is also the strongest, "inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things," crushes and shatters all things, the original language carries the idea of, in these terms, of that which compresses something out of violence, out of its natural shape and shapes it into something else. In fact, I noticed "smashes" is a participle. And it means one which breaks by a hammer, and it denotes continued action. And that's what the Romans did. They just kept beating things down. One historian and scholar, Miller says this, "Rome ruled the nations with an iron hand and like a huge iron club shattered all who resisted its will. The Roman Empire dominated the world from the defeat of Carthage in 146 BCE to the division of the east and west empires in AD 395, approximately 500 years. The last Roman Emperor ruled in the west until 476. And the Eastern Division of the Empire continued until AD 1453."

Now Daniel goes on to tell the king in verse 41, "'In that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay,'" in other words, brittle baked clay, and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom, but it will have in it the toughness of iron inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with common clay.'" So here's a portrayal of vulnerability of weakness. And I agree with Wood and others who say, quote, "The weakness of Rome, which led to its fall, and which did come to existence, especially in its latter period,” was catch this, "a deterioration of moral fiber among the people. Idleness, luxurious living and dissipation of character found their way into, and intermixed, with the still firmly structured aspects of government." Reminds me of the United States doesn't it you? Here we are in an absolute moral freefall in our country, a country that is obsessed with culture, the culture of entitlement, critical race theory, materialism, drug abuse, and the overall insanity of liberal wokeism. That's clearly the potters clay that is dividing us and will ultimately destroy us.

Back to verse 42. Daniel says, "'As the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong, and part of it will be brittle. And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery.'" And in chapter seven, these 10 toes are also depicted as 10 horns. I don't want to confuse you a lot, but we're going to see that that he will speak of this again later on. And within the context of these eschatological events of Daniel seven, eight, as well as verses 24 through 27, as those things unfold, on the stage of world history, we will see that ultimately, this is going to include an 11th horn, portraying the final antichrist. Moreover, in that context, what we see is Daniel's vision flashes forward to the divine throne where judgment is going to be meted out on the fourth kingdom. We read about this in Revelation 20, beginning in verse 11, through verse 15. And because of this, I believe, as do many other conservative scholars, that it is safe to conclude that the 10 toes of the iron kingdom described here in Daniel 2:41, through 42, points to 10 future kings, who will control the territory of a revived Roman Empire, during what is called the 70th week of judgment upon Israel, that Daniel describes in Daniel nine, verses 24 through 27. And that future seven-year period of judgment will end with sins final judgment, and Christ's reign of righteousness, when Christ returns and establishes his millennial rule over the earth, which will become the consummating bridge between world history and the eternal state.

Back to verse 44, "'In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom, which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever.'" Obviously, dear friends, nothing close to this has ever happened. So obviously, this must be something future. And to be sure, the spiritual aspect of Christ's kingdom today has not obliterated Gentile domination in the world. So we look at something future here, verse 45, "'Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay and the silver and the gold, the great God has made known to the king, what will take place in the future; so the dream is true, and its interpretation is trustworthy.'"

The symbolism of a stone cut out of the mountain without hands, clearly points to divine origination. This is something that God is going to do. Clearly this is the kingdom of God that will not only replace every vestige of all the preceding Gentile kingdoms, but this kingdom will destroy them all and replace them all forever. I can only imagine what must have gone through Nebuchadnezzar's mind when he heard all of this. I wish to close this morning with an excellent summary statement from an old friend, Dr. David Larsen, from his excellent book, "Jews, Gentiles and the Church; a New Perspective on History and Prophecy." I highly recommend that book to you. By the way, the Lord took David home this last March, he was a prolific author, Bible expository. He spoke here at Calvary Bible Church in the late 90s. And he served as a professor and chair of the practical theology department at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School from 1981 to 1996, up in Chicago. And here's what Dr. Larson said, quote, "God's call to Israel was to be a nation apart in order that she might bear effective witness to the nations. While even her dispersion and tragic history among the nations will be a real plus, in her ultimate testimony and witness, her restoration as a nation and her quote, 'resurrection from among the nations,' Ezekiel 37, one through 14, will become the fulcrum for her worldwide effectiveness at the end of the age. With her captivity, and only a remnant in the land, Israel was facing an extended period of time called by Jesus, 'the times of the Gentiles,' Luke 21:24, during which Jerusalem would be trampled on by the Gentiles. This prolonged period is the scope of the dream of the great image that God gave to the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel two and repeated to Daniel himself and the vision of the four beasts in Daniel seven. Through this extended period of many centuries, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome, in an earlier continuing and later form, will dominate world history until Jesus Christ comes back to reign. The stone smiting the image of Daniel two 44 through 45 and the coming of the Son of Man is described in Daniel 7:13 through 14."

Well, as we continue to make our way through this amazing book, these things will begin to make more and more sense to you, you'll be able to put the pieces of the puzzle together. So bear with me, read it, study it, meditate on it. But may I leave you with this challenge, dear friends, seriously, let's pray for our nation. Let's pray for our leaders. Let's pray for our soldiers. Let's pray for our enemies. And may I also encourage you strongly to pray for the true Church, that we might remain faithful and not get sucked in to all of this craziness that is out there. I'm reminded of what Paul told the Corinthian believers, he said in Second Corinthians 11, three, "But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ." Dear friends, Jesus is coming again. Jesus is coming again. We are a second coming church because we are a second coming people. And as I finished my meditations on this particular passage, as is often the case, the verse of a song came to mind. It comes from Charles Wesley's great hymn, "Rejoice, the Lord is King." The last verse came to my mind and let me just read this to you in closing. "Rejoice in glorious hope. For Christ the judge shall come and take his servants up to their eternal home. Lift up your heart. Lift up your voice, rejoice again, I say, rejoice." Let that be the theme of our heart this morning.

Let's pray together. Father, we are always overwhelmed when we read your word and see your sovereign hand in everything that you say, everything that you do. We thank you that we are not living in a random world. We thank you that we serve a sovereign a faithful and a good God. We thank you that our hope is anchored securely in the person in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has secured our redemption forever. So Lord in all of this, we relax, we rejoice. But we also grieve for those who have no hope. And I would ask that you would help us to have an ardent zeal for evangelism, to spread the Good News of the Gospel everywhere we possibly can, and to live it out in such a way that others will see Christ in us, the hope of glory. And, Lord, if there be one here today that knows nothing of what it means to truly be born again, to truly have an intimate walk with the living God, because they have been united to him through faith in Christ, I would plead with you that you would break their heart this day. Help them to see their sin for what it is. To acknowledge it, to run to the foot of the cross and to plead for undeserved mercy, that will be granted so rich and so free. Lord, we commit this to you as always, I pray especially for our children and our young people, as they are bombarded with all of the lies of the enemy. I pray that you will protect them and use us as parents, as grandparents, as mentors, as Sunday school teachers, all of us who have influence in their lives, Lord use us to speak truth into their hearts, by the power of your spirit and through Your Word. So Father, we thank you for this time. We love you, we praise You and we long for your soon return. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.