HopeLives365

Guest (Male): When decrees are forced to get God's people to bow down, do not worry, do not fear because I will be with you. I will guide you, I'll strengthen you, I will be there with you.

Guest (Female): This is Hope Lives 365 with Pastor Mark Finley. Today's message, a series in the book of Daniel, week one, part five. Enjoy and remember you can always catch up with past messages and stay up to date with Hope Lives 365 and Pastor Mark by going to hopelives365.com.

Mark Finley: Welcome to another one of our Bible studies on the book of Daniel. Thank you so much for joining us this evening. You're in for a fascinating evening of Bible study. But before we launch into our Bible study, we've got a number of questions that have come in, and our producer, George Washington Devaraj, has just emailed them to me. So let's go over some questions, then we'll have prayer.

I want to remind you as well that you should invite your friends to join you on Wednesday night for these inspirational Bible studies. You'll find that you look forward to these Wednesday nights, that the Spirit of God will touch your heart, that you'll grow in Christ and grow in a knowledge of His Word. Thank you for your questions. Now, remember how to send the questions to us. We'll put up on the screen, if you have any questions from this week or the past, you send it simply to info@hopelives365.com. Any questions, info@hopelives365.com.

Here we start. First question: "Why is 10 mostly used in chapter one? Like, for example, in verse 12, 10 days; verse 20, 10 times. This is from Uganda. What does 10 represent in the Bible?" I want you to think of some of the times 10 is used in the Bible. What is a tithe? A tithe is one-tenth, where God invites us to dedicate one-tenth of our income to Him for the glory of His name. So 10 there represents dedication when it comes to income.

What about the Ten Commandments? They invite us to be dedicated to God in each area of our life. Remember in the Bible, in Matthew 25, it talks about the ten virgins. Virgins, not defiled by falsehood or error, ten virgins indicate a call to God to His last-day people to be dedicated to Him. So when you come to Daniel, this idea of 10, ten days that Daniel fasted and asked for the diet, he purposed in his heart not to defile himself with the king's meat. He asked for a vegetarian diet for those ten days.

He fasted from—of course, when I say fasted, he didn't take the wine, didn't eat the meat—but he had a vegetarian diet. Ten days of dedication of his body. They were found ten times better than all the wise men in the realm. Again, dedication in the area of mental intellect in the university. So when 10 is used in the positive sense, it's used in the idea of dedication. Now, there are times that 10 is used in the negative sense, which would be the opposite of dedication, which would be rebellion against God.

You find that in Revelation 17, for example. We have the ten kings and the false unity that takes place, the union of church and state and so forth, apostasy from God. You also in Daniel find the ten toes of the image, a society that is so weak that it's crumbling because it's rejected God's way. So 10 typically, if it's used in the positive sense, is dedication. Negative sense is lack of dedication or rejection or rebellion against God.

Let's look at some more questions. Here is number two: "My son is interested to join the study. I'm just wondering if you've recorded the Revelation study. We would like to see it. Thank you for your help, Sherry." Yes, Sherry, we have. You just—if you want to do that—go to hopelives365.com and then you go from there to the inventory of past studies and you'll be able to certainly get the Revelation studies. If you have any questions about that, of how to get them, just write a question to our staff at info@hopelives365.com if you have any problems getting them.

Somebody said, "How do I get the study notes on Pastor Finley's study on the book of Daniel?" We'll put that up. Here is how you get the study notes: hopelives365.com/weeklybiblestudy. So if you want the study notes, hopelives365.com/weeklybiblestudy.

Here is from Cecil. It comes from Facebook. He said, "I have two questions for Pastor Mark. Did Jesus complete salvation on Calvary, and can you be a Christian if He didn't?" Yes, Jesus did complete our salvation on Calvary. The atonement was complete on Calvary. Christ paid it all. I love the old song, "Jesus Paid It All, All to Him I Owe." The shed blood on Calvary provides complete salvation for us.

But it is not until we accept that that we can receive that salvation. Christ's work of salvation, the price He paid was complete on Calvary's cross. But after Jesus died and was resurrected, He ascended as our High Priest into heaven. So we come to Jesus, our High Priest, who applies the benefits of what He did on the cross to our names individually. Can anything be added to what He did on the cross? No.

But is our work of salvation complete on the cross? Our work of salvation is complete only as we accept what Christ has done on the cross and only as we personally receive the benefits of that salvation by coming to Jesus, who is our living High Priest. Jesus died for us, Jesus lives for us, and we must have the dying Christ but also the living Christ. His death on the cross is complete. Nothing can be added to the atonement there, but to receive that, we come to the living priest and receive the gift of salvation.

Here is one that talks about, "Does the kingdom that God sets up apply to the church or the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ? I'm sure the verse itself shows it, the church may not be applied, but I just want more explanation." Sure. There's another one there too that was kind of interesting. Somebody asked if the stone cut out without hands signifies the 144,000 mentioned in Revelation 7 and 14.

Let's go to the text itself. That question sometimes is raised, and we look at Daniel chapter two. When the image is—when the vision is given, Daniel talks about this great image in chapter two. The splendor was excellent; this is verse 31. Verse 32, "the image's head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of brass, its legs of iron, feet of part of iron and clay." Then notice, "you watched till a stone was cut out without hands."

Without hands—this is something divine, the stone. It struck the image, so it strikes it on its feet, and the iron and clay breaks them to pieces and dissolves them. And the stone that strikes them, according to verse 35, "becomes a mountain that fills the whole earth." Now, notice verse 44: "In the days of these kings," that is the divisions of the Roman Empire, "the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, the kingdom won't be left to other people. It will consume and break all these pieces, all these kingdoms. It'll stand forever."

So the vision of Daniel 2 is not peace and love coming to earth through the church, but it is rather a cataclysmic destruction, a cataclysmic destruction that takes place. The rock cut out without hands smashes the image down. So this represents, of course, Jesus Christ, the Rock of Ages, the one who returns as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Not the 144,000, not the church on earth, but it is the divine coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to destroy evil and wickedness.

I think that's as far as we'll go today. Some of our other questions that you have asked, somebody asks about biblical sources to confirm dates that you give in the study. Yes, there are sources in the Bible and outside of the Bible, in fact, and I'll ask our team to send you some of those sources in answer to those questions. So if you didn't get your question answered tonight, I'll either answer it next week or we'll send one of our—we'll have one of our team email you the answer. Thank you for your questions. Again, if you have any questions, please, you can write them to info@hopelives365.com.

Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank You with all of our hearts that the Word of God is true, that it is trustworthy, that it is reliable. As we study Daniel, the ancient prophet of the past, help us learn lessons that enable us to understand Your will for our lives personally. As we go into Daniel chapter three tonight, speak to our hearts, impress our minds, draw us close to You, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.

You'll recall that we're looking at three things in every chapter of the book of Daniel: What does this chapter say about God? What does it say about my life today? What does it say about end-time events? We studied chapter one. We saw that Daniel and his friends were taken into captivity by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. We saw that Daniel was faithful to God and that at the end of chapter one, we discovered that Daniel and his friends were ten times wiser than anybody in the Babylonian realm, of all the wise men.

Chapter one reveals the God who turns defeat into victory. That's what it says about God. What does it say about my life today? It says that when we're faithful to God, He will work miracles in our life that we cannot imagine. What does it say about end events? It says that God is calling us to faithfulness in a world that is like Babylon, in a world that's sex-centered, thrill-jaded, morally twisted, in a world where the Babylonian culture of the world tries to squeeze us into its mold with media, with Hollywood's productions, with the worldly system. It calls us to be faithful to God.

Daniel chapter two, we looked at it last week, the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar. You don't have to guess what that dream represents; the Bible tells us. Nebuchadnezzar has a dream of an image: head of gold, breast and arms of silver, thighs of brass, legs of iron, feet of iron and clay. Daniel says, "Nebuchadnezzar, you're the head of gold. Your kingdom, Babylon. After you will arise another kingdom, Medo-Persia, then Greece, then Rome." And then Rome will be divided, the Roman Empire, in ten divisions. Then the rock cut out without hands.

We find history following the image of Daniel 2 like a blueprint. Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom crumbled as the Medes and Persians attacked it and destroyed it, and they ruled. Then the Greeks overcame the Medes and the Persians. Then the Romans overcame the Greeks. Somebody asked where can you find these dates. They are well known in history. Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire outlines the fall of Rome and it talks about the divisions of the Roman Empire, the tribes. But any standard history you can find that Babylon ruled the world from 605 to 539 B.C.

Guest (Female): We'll be right back with Pastor Mark Finley. We thank you for listening and hope you're enjoying today's message. Our mission is to attractively present the Christ-centered biblical truths of scripture in a practical, relevant way to people around the world so that they may experience the abundant life that Christ offers and effectively share with confidence His life-changing truths with others. You can support this ministry and help us reach even more by going to hopelives365.com/donate. And now, back to Pastor Mark Finley.

Mark Finley: Medo-Persia ruled from 539 to 331 B.C., before Christ. Greece ruled from 331 to 168. The Roman Empire ruled from about 168 to 351, 168 B.C. to 351 A.D. Then from 351 to about 476, the barbarian tribes came down, attacked, and destroyed the Roman Empire. When you look at Daniel 2, Daniel 3, Daniel 4, they really are a unit. In Daniel chapter 2, God's the true Prophet. He holds this world in His hand. Wisdom and might are His. He knows the future, and He's the architect of the future. So in Daniel chapter 2, He's the true Prophet.

Daniel chapter 3, He is the Priest. He's the Interceder. He's the one who intercedes for His people. He leaps into the flames to protect. In Daniel chapter 4, He's the true King. So He's Prophet, Priest, and King. Daniel 4, as we study next week, He throws Nebuchadnezzar—He allows Nebuchadnezzar to go off his throne. Nebuchadnezzar crawls around for seven years as the beast, eating grass and feeding with the animals. So Daniel reveals God as the true Prophet, the one that knows the future. God is the true Priest who intercedes for us through Jesus Christ our Lord. And He is the true King. He is the one who rules over all.

In chapter 2, He's the Revealer. He reveals the future. Chapter 3, He's the Redeemer. He redeems His people. Chapter 4, He's the Ruler. These chapters give us amazing pictures of God and they give us confidence in God. Now we come to chapter 3. Chapter 3 is critical for our understanding because it reveals to us events that happened in the days of Daniel and events that will happen just before the coming of Christ. So you remember in chapter 2, we read about a great image. The image had a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, thighs of brass, legs of iron. Representing the successive nations that would rule the world, that dominate the world, and then the divisions of the Roman Empire.

So let's go to chapter 3. We also have an image, but it's quite a different image. Daniel 3, verse 1: "Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits and its width six cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon." So its height is sixty cubits. How long is a cubit? Well, from the end of the elbow to the tip of the finger, that was considered to be a cubit. Usually about 18 inches. So if you've got sixty cubits, approximately 90 feet, if you're long and skinny, it could go up to 100, 103 feet.

Then it goes—it says that it is six cubits wide. That's nine feet wide, about. So you've got—but there's a little something strange there. If something is 100 feet tall and it's nine feet wide, the proportions of that are just not good. They're wrong. But people have said, "Wait a minute, this must be a legend. It must be fictitious because the proportion"—no. Take the Statue of Liberty. What's the Statue of Liberty? About 300 feet or so, 305. But when you measure the Statue of Liberty, you measure it from the bottom, include the pedestal, and then you have the statue.

So it's the same here. No doubt the total from the ground to the top was about 100 feet, 90 to 100 feet. But you had a pedestal that was on the bottom of it, so the proportions would be right, not—you wouldn't have this skinny stick-like figure if it's 100 feet high and nine feet wide. No. So it considers the pedestal. Now, notice something here too in verse one. Nebuchadnezzar makes this image all of gold. Why do you think he did that? What do you think his reason was in doing that?

Nebuchadnezzar did that for one major reason. God gave Nebuchadnezzar a dream of the future in which his empire, Babylon, would be overthrown by the Medes and the Persians. The gold would give way to the silver, then the bronze, the brass, and the iron and the clay. But Nebuchadnezzar said, "No, no. That's not going to happen. The image is going to be all of gold because my kingdom is going to rule forever and ever and ever."

And you know, the archaeologists excavating in Babylon found a clay tablet, a cuneiform tablet, and this is what it said: "O Babylon, the delight of mine eyes, may my kingdom last forever." So Nebuchadnezzar built this image in defiance of the true God's interpretation of history, in defiance of the true God's plan for the rise and fall and the destiny of nations. So he makes this image, 90 feet high to 100. He erects it on the plains of Dura, so the sun glancing off the golden image could be seen from miles away.

And then the king summons all of the wise men in his realm. The Bible says he brings his princes, that's satraps in some translations of the Bible, they're princes. He brings the princes, the governors, the astrologers, the magicians, the educated elite—they are all to come. Come to the plains of Dura. We read it here in verse two: "The king Nebuchadnezzar sent word to gather, to gather the satraps," that's princes, "administrators, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image which the king had set up."

Anybody that was anybody and everybody that was somebody came to that dedication. And so they came, and the king, the herald cries aloud, "To you it's commanded." Now notice, here is a counterfeit image whose dimensions are sixty and six. And a universal world leader, Nebuchadnezzar, passes a decree, a command, that everybody should fall down and worship this image. "Then a herald commanded: To you it is commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, at what time you hear the sound of the horn, the flute, the harp, the lyre, the psaltery, with all kinds of music, fall down and worship the gold image that the King Nebuchadnezzar set up."

Who set up the image in Daniel 2? Who gave Nebuchadnezzar that dream? God did. Who made the image in Daniel 3? Nebuchadnezzar did. What's the difference? Nebuchadnezzar rejects God's plan. Nebuchadnezzar turns his back on God's plan. Nebuchadnezzar wants to have a kingdom that lasts forever and ever and ever. And he calls all of the wise men of Babylon to come to the plains of Dura. They set up a golden—he sets up this golden image, and he says, "Look, the music is going to play. And when the music plays, hit the ground. Worship the golden image as a tribute," Nebuchadnezzar says, "to my empire, as a tribute to me, that I will rule and reign, and after my death, Babylon will go on and it will be the mighty empire to the ends of the earth."

An image sixty and six. A decree that is set that goes forth, a command from a universal world ruler that has to do with worship. It has to do with breaking the commandments of God because the first commandment says, "Thou shalt not have any other gods before Thee." Second commandment: "Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, bow down and worship it." So this command by Nebuchadnezzar was contrary to the command of God. And to bow down would be to violate the commands of God.

Is there in the last days of earth's history another image that will be set up? Is there a divine decree that will go forth? Is there another command contrary to the commands of God that will call men and women to worship falsely, in contrast to the commandments of God? Revelation describes that in Revelation the 13th chapter. It says that there would be a beast, calls it the beast. A beast in the Bible is a kingdom, a religio-political kingdom that would unite church and state.

Guest (Female): You've been listening to Hope Lives 365 with Pastor Mark Finley. We hope you've enjoyed today's message and remind you that you can find more in our many ministry resources at hopelives365.com. And you can support this ministry by going to hopelives365.com/donate. And now, a final thought from Pastor Mark.

Mark Finley: And in that union of church and state, those that did not worship in a particular way, they would face—at first they'd be unable to buy or sell, then they'd face a death decree. So this chapter, Daniel chapter 3, foreshadows, it points forward to what's going to happen in the last days of earth's history. So let's continue as we study. And as we do, we go down to verse 8 because there were three that would not bow down and worship the gold image.

Verse 5 says of Daniel chapter 3 that "at the time you hear the sound of the horn, the flute, the harp, the lyre, and the psaltery, the symphony with all kinds of music, you shall fall down and worship the gold image that the king Nebuchadnezzar set up." But yet, there were those that wouldn't bow down. Who were they? Verse 8: "Therefore at that time certain Chaldeans came forward," that's Babylonians, "and accused the Jews. They spoke and said to the king, 'O king, live forever. You, O king, have made a decree that everybody needs to bow down.'"

Verse 12: "There are certain Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, have not paid due regard to you. They do not serve your gods or worship the gold image that you have set up." Notice, very interesting language. "They have not paid due regard to you." In other words, they are violating the laws of the state. They cannot go along in harmony with the laws of the state. And so in the last days of earth's history, a powerful world leader works to unite religions and political forces under his auspices. Human beings are commanded to worship contrary to the commands of God, just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were commanded to worship contrary to the commands of God. And those that don't worship are accused once again, just like the Babylonians accused the people of God in those days. They're accused, and what are they accused of? They're accused because they don't give due regard to the laws of the state.