In the Word

Pastor Mike Warren: What situation did I find myself in that I cannot compromise? Chapter three will tell us the same thing when we get there next week. But as we come to chapter two and work our way on through chapter seven, some of the greatest prophecies that we have in the Bible and some of the most far-reaching prophecies that we have in the Bible are mentioned here in Daniel, and we're going to get a good dose of that tonight.

So let's pray and we'll just dive right in. Father, we thank You for Your word. Lord, we thank You for the example to us in the time we're living in. We're being challenged every day in our culture and in this United States to compromise under threat of some consequences, and yet we see and we're encouraged by Daniel, a teenager, by his three companions—Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, as we're going to see next week in chapter three—who just would not bow to the ungodly demands of the government of the day but stayed true to You and to Your word.

Lord, we want to be those people. Also in this book are some of the greatest prophecies. In fact, chapter two and chapter seven concerning the Gentile people, considering the church, some of the greatest prophecies. Chapter nine concerning Israel, some of the greatest prophecies. So just give us ears to hear, we would pray. Give us hearts that are open, minds that are receptive, and then when we learn, Lord, give permanence to those things we pray in the mighty name of Jesus we ask, and all God's kids would say, amen.

Well, let me just take a few moments and get us up to speed. We left off in verse 35 of chapter two, but in chapter one, you know the situation, you know the scenario that God had been sending prophets to Judah, the two lower tribes that had separated from the ten northern tribes. He was dealing with them because of their idolatry. Ezekiel and Jeremiah, these are contemporaries with Daniel.

As they would not listen to the warning that God was giving to them around 586 BC, Nebuchadnezzar was coming back from the Battle of Carchemish where he actually destroyed Pharaoh Necho, and as his empire is coming to the fore, they laid siege to Jerusalem. God is using this wicked nation to judge His people. You know that Daniel was one of those teenagers along with his three companions that was led captive and taken back because it was the practice of the Babylonians that when you conquered a particular kingdom, that you would take the best and the brightest back and you would put them in the court of the king and they would become counselors.

So that's what happened to these three young men. You know the stories we studied a few weeks ago that they wanted to feed them the best: the king's meat, the king's wine. They wanted to make them the brightest and the best. They wanted to train them in the Chaldean language. In fact, not only that, they became eunuchs. Everything was stripped from these three young men as teenagers. They were taken from their country, they were taught a different language and now stand before a wicked king and his court. They were made eunuchs, and all of these things were forced upon them.

But when it came to defiling themselves with the king's meat, they refused. They said, "We're not going to do it." And the test went, as you know, we saw it, we read it, we studied it, that after ten days they were fairer and brighter than any of the others. I'll tell you, God will prosper you. God will bless you. Whatever challenge comes your way, the lesson of chapter one is always do what the Lord commands you to do and leave it with Him because He has a way. He just has a way when there's no fruit on the vine or no cattle in the crowd to make a way.

He has a way to make a way when there doesn't seem to be a way. In fact, we're going to see because they would not compromise, God puts them in a position now where they can change the direction of a nation. In fact, Daniel will not only change the direction of King Nebuchadnezzar, but he'll live long enough to change the direction of King Cyrus of the Medes and Persians when he comes in and conquers the Babylonians. An amazing young man who has a long ministry because his life begins with a willingness to never compromise God's truth. His relationship with the Lord was not negotiable.

So we move into chapter two, and it's interesting there in chapter two that, as we saw last week, Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. This dream troubles him. The indication is he knows what the dream is, but he's telling the soothsayers, the Chaldeans, the wise men, the sorcerers, those channelers that channel familiar spirits as they're in his court. He says to them, "Listen, I've had a dream and you need to tell me the dream and the interpretation." He says that because he wants to know that they know the dream.

He's not going to tell them the dream and have them give some fanciful interpretation. I think he'd been in the court long enough with his father, Nabopolassar, to see these guys work his dad and he's going, "You're not working me. Things have changed now. I'm in control. I'm not my dad. There's a new sheriff in town, and here's the deal. If you cannot tell me the dream and the interpretation, here's the motivation. If you don't do that, I'm going to cut you in little pieces and make your house a dunghill." He was a motivational speaker.

He says, "But if you can and you do, then I'll reward you great. So here's the deal." And they said, "King, nobody's ever asked of this. Nobody can do this. This that you're asking no other king, potentate or governor has ever asked. In fact, what you're asking can only be done by the gods." I think the true living God is setting them up. You know the case is, he said, "Okay, I'm done." He tells his commanders, "Chop them into little pieces, make their houses dunghills."

Arioch, the commander over this, came to Daniel and Daniel said, "Why is the king so hasty? Come on, give us time to pray." And then they take him in before the king and he says, "King, just give me time to pray and I'll be able to tell you what the dream is and the interpretation." For whatever reason—and I think God gives favor in certain situations to certain people—the king agreed to this. So he withheld the chopping into pieces and the making of dunghills out of their houses and gave him a little time. Daniel goes back and says, "Hey, Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael, it's prayer time. We need to get on our faces before God because here's the deal. If we don't hear from God and tell this king who, by the way, is an absolute monarch—whatever Nebuchadnezzar said was law; he in the truest of senses was a dictator—then we're going to be chopped in little pieces and our homes are going to be made dunghills."

And they prayed and God showed to Daniel the dream and gave to Daniel the interpretation. So he's brought back in and Arioch says, "I found a man." I think he's wanting some of that reward, bragging a little bit. He brings Daniel in and Nebuchadnezzar says to Daniel, that's what we saw last week, "Can you tell me the dream and the interpretation?" I love Daniel's answer. You've got to understand, this is a teenager. He's about 17 years old. All of the other soothsayers, the diviners, the magicians, and the people that practice dark and black arts and in witchcraft and all of those guys are standing in the court.

Daniel says, "Could not these men, the greatest and the wisest of Babylon, could they not tell you the dream and give you the interpretation?" Now Daniel's not saying that to put himself in a position of prestige or favor or to be sought or looked upon as though he was something special because he goes on to say, "And I'm not special either. It's not because I'm any wiser than they are. But what you need to know, oh Nebby"—I don't think he said that, but it sounds good; I might have said that, of course, I wouldn't have lasted long in the court—but he said, "Listen, there is a God in heaven who reveals the deep and dark and secret things, who knows what's in the darkness and He dwells in the light and nothing is hidden from Him. And that God has made known unto me your dream."

And then he gives it to him. Notice carefully as we noticed last week, that not only does he give him the dream and tonight we're going to get the interpretation, but he tells Nebuchadnezzar what he was thinking when he was sitting on his bed before he went to sleep and had the dream. You think God doesn't know what you're thinking? How many times have you gone to bed and you're sitting there and you're mulling over the day or you're mulling over a situation or you're just praying, "Lord, I just can't believe this is going on" or "Lord, what about this?" or "What about the future?" because that's what Nebuchadnezzar was thinking about.

What about the future? What's going to happen? What's going to happen to my empire? What's going to happen to my kingdom? What's going to happen to me? He tells him what he's thinking on his bed before he ever goes to sleep and has this dream. You think the Lord doesn't know your thoughts from afar? Do you think He doesn't know your needs before you ask? Do you think He's not well-acquainted with you? Do you think He doesn't know the deepest recesses of your heart? In fact, the Bible says—and I know it's some are easier than others—but He says He's numbered the hairs upon your head.

Now listen, so many people say, "Well, does that mean He knows I got 5,736 and here I just pulled one out so it's 35?" No. He numbered them. You might pull a hair out that's sticking out and that might be number 847. Stop pulling them out because some of you don't have a lot to go around. But He has numbered the hairs on your head. In fact, Jeremiah tells us He knew you before you were. You see, I don't believe life begins in conception, I don't believe life begins with a heartbeat. Your life is a story. Psalm 90 tells us it's already been told.

In fact, Jesus was crucified before the worlds were ever created because God knew you. In fact, He knew you before you were and the Bible tells us He chose you. You're a chosen before the worlds began that one day you would stand before Him in love. And that word 'before' is a very interesting word. It's three Greek words put together: kata, en, and opion. It means when you stand before Him, He's going to strip away the outside and He's going to look at your heart. Not the failures, not the sin, not the times that you just got in the flesh. He's going to strip all of that away and He's going to look into your heart and He's going to know you and you're going to know Him. That's the God we serve.

So he says, "Nebby, when you were sitting on your bed, this is what you thought. Then when you went to sleep, this is what you dreamed." And he only tells him what the dream is, he tells him the emotions he was having when he saw this thing, what he was feeling, what he was sensing. Isn't that amazing that God knows everything about us? Sometimes we think when we pray, we have to inform God. "Well, God, did you know?" Well, what kind of God do you pray to if you've got to inform Him? If He doesn't already know?

Sometimes I catch myself doing that. "God, don't You understand?" Oh really, I'm telling God, "Don't You understand?" I think He do. "But did You know this?" Way before you did. You see, nothing takes Him by surprise. And so Daniel says, "This is the dream. You had a dream and you saw this terrible image and this thing was so frightening that literally you were shaking when you saw it. This huge image and it was an image, the head of it was gold and the breast and the arms, they were of silver and the thigh and the bellies going down were bronze and then the legs were made of iron and it went down to the feet and there were the feet were iron mixed with clay, ten toes down there."

And then he said, "And by the way, when we look at this prophecy, you can tell people we're in the time of the toes. That's the time we're in. If you want to know the prophetic timeline, you and I, man, we are feet and there's some things afoot because we're living in the times of the toes, those ten kings, and I'll try to do my best to tell you what I think they are and they are alive and well today."

So he said, "You saw the feet and the ten toes and then you saw this miraculous supernatural stone that was cut out of this mountain without hands and this stone, it struck the feet and the whole thing came tumbling down and it turned like to dust and it blew away and the stone that struck the feet grew into a great mountain and filled the whole earth." Well, Nebby's blown away. That's where we ended last week. He's so blown away. This is an extreme ruler of an empire and he falls down at the feet of this teenager and begins to worship him.

Let's just back up and read it there. Let's take back up to verse 35 and he says it filled the whole earth and it filled the whole earth. That means, well, I don't want to back up as far as I need to back up to get him worshiping me, but let's get down here to verse 36. He says, "That's the dream." Yep. Now we will—so no doubt Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were there with him in the court, Daniel's the spokesman for these other three—and he says, "Therefore, King, we're going to give you the interpretation."

Now listen carefully and isn't it amazing because he's going to say at the end of this, he's going to worship Daniel, he's going to say, "Listen, your God is the God of gods because no other god could do this." But in the very next chapter, he will deny what God has said. Now, I want to make this point because we're going to get to this next week. But how many times has God spoken specifically to you? And it's clear and it's concise. And through that work of the Spirit when you're reading God's word or He's dealing with you because we as His sheep, we hear His voice and He speaks very clearly to us.

And God is a God of detail. And then when He gives us the clear direction, gives us the detail, tells us what He wants us to do, how He wants us to do it, where He wants us to do it, who He wants us to do it with, and then we begin to alter that. Be careful. Because that's what's going to happen in chapter three. He's worshiping and thanking God for the revelation in chapter two, but in chapter three he tries to alter it, add to it. And how many times has God spoken to you directly and when you go away or you're praying, "God, if You'll just do this, then then I will do that"?

And then, you know, there's a movie a long time ago and I can't remember, Burt Reynolds was in it. Maybe you've seen it. I only saw part of it. The only part I saw was the part God was trying to speak to me through that movie. I walked in and the movie was playing and I just caught kind of a part of it. The reason I caught the part of it because he's praying and I'm thinking, "Burt Reynolds praying, that's really interesting." Well, apparently Burt Reynolds had been trying to kill himself through this whole movie.

You know, he tried to take a bunch of pills and he drank sour milk and he spit them out. And everything he tries to do to kill himself, it doesn't work. And so finally he gets a great idea. He's going to swim way out in the ocean, get so far out there that he's so tired that he'll just drown. There's no way out, man. This is a this is an absolute foolproof plan to end my life. And so you see him out in the ocean, he's bobbing, all of a sudden he changes his mind. He says, "God, I want to live."

And so I, this is my prayer. All of me, You can have 100% of me. You can have everything that I am. Just if You'll let me get back to the shore and live, I will serve You the rest of my life. And so you see him swimming. And you can see he's getting closer to the shore. And so he stops for a moment, he prays again. "Lord, I'm telling You, if I can just get to the shore, 90%, 90% of everything that I am." He swims a little further, gets a little closer to the shore.

"Lord, if You can just let me get to the bank, 50%, half, man, we'll cut it right down the middle. You'll be my partner. You get 50%, I get 50% and I'll serve You 50% of the time and then the other time's mine, just let me get to the shore." And then when he gets to the shore as he's walking onto dry land, he said, "Lord, we'll talk about it later." I think that's a great example for us never to do that. When God speaks to us and He does, it should be without contestation.

We should pray the same prayer that Jesus prayed when we hear those words and get that instruction, even if we don't want to do it. Nevertheless, not my will but Thine be done. Amen? And so he begins to lay out the interpretation of this dream. He said, "Thou, O King, art a king of kings." And he certainly was. Nebuchadnezzar is the only potentate or ruler in the history or recorded history, I would say, in recorded history that had absolute authority. He can make a decree and he can change a decree.

Now, watch how the governments come and go because Nebuchadnezzar had that authority. But when the Medes and Persians take over, as we saw with Xerxes, Xerxes had the authority as a ruler or an emperor to make a decree, but once it was written down, the law of the Medes and Persians is not only that could the king couldn't even change it. It had to be fulfilled. We saw that as we studied through the book of Esther. And then when you move from the Medo-Persians into the Grecians, we're going to see they were the first republic, kind of like our government where they had senators and they formed this, so there was not an emperor so to speak, but but it was a body of legislators.

And so the Roman Empire started the same way as a republic, but it did not end up as a republic, and we're going to talk about that tonight. It ended up under a dictatorship or a monarchy with emperors, which by the way toward the end of the Roman Empire demanded worship as though they were gods. And the whole Roman Empire kind of ceased to exist because of it. So what Daniel is going to say to King Nebuchadnezzar as the interpretation of this dream is that there're going to be four great empires that are going to come and they're going to go.

And then ten kings or kingdoms are going to rise up in the last days to try to form another empire, but they're going to fail because at the time of these ten toes, the Great God of heaven is going to interrupt human history. It's going to be what we read about in Isaiah chapter nine verses six and seven where it says, "Unto you a child is given, unto you a son is unto you a child is born, unto you a son is given and the governments will be upon His shoulders." And one of these days He's going to establish a government that'll have no end. We're getting close to studying that right now as we're coming through chapter 20 and 21 and 22 of Revelation.

Listen, we are on the precipice of that stone returning and setting up His kingdom. So if it stinks right now where we're living, sometimes feet stink because you're living in the time of the toes, man, and pretty soon He's going to come. And so he says, "You know, you you are a great king and God's God's given you this kingdom and this power, this strength and this glory. God gave that to you. And wheresoever the children of men dwell and the beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven hath He given into thy hand and hath made thee ruler over them all. You truly are an absolute dictator. Thou art this head of gold."

The head of gold as you saw this Nebuchadnezzar represents your empire. And after thee arises another—remember you're sitting on your bed wondering what's going to happen? Well, here's what's going to happen. After you will arise another kingdom, it will be inferior to yours and then a third of brass which shall bear rule over the whole earth and then a fourth which is strong as iron. Now He's told us that the metals that represent this is gold, silver, bronze, and iron.

And a fourth is strong as iron forasmuch as iron breaketh into pieces and subdueth all things and as iron there breaks all of these so shall it break into pieces and to bruise. And then he says this, "Whereas thou sawest the feet and the toes part of potter's clay and part of iron, the kingdoms shall be divided but there shall be in it the strength of iron forasmuch as you saw the iron"—14 times he mentions iron in these passages—"mixed with miry clay." Modeling clay, as it were.

And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken. Now he's talking about in a few moments he's going to talk about the ten toes represent ten kings or ten kingdoms that are strong in and of themselves, but for whatever reason they cannot coalesce together. There's something that keeps them from absolutely forging themselves together because it's like iron mixed with clay. Put that in the back of your brain, it'll mean something in a moment.

And whereas thou sawest the iron mixed with clay, thou shalt mingle themselves with the seed of men. They're going to be intermingled in the population of men. These these ten kings, they're going to be—there's something about them, there's something about their ideology, their philosophy, there's something about an effect that they're going to have that will mingle themselves with the seed of men. Listen carefully. But they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron does not mix with clay.

Verse 44: "And in the days of these kings," so we know these ten toes represent kingdoms, they represent kings, "shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the kingdom that shall not be left to other people but it shall break into pieces and consume all these other kingdoms and it shall stand forever and ever and ever." There's the interpretation. Now, we have the beauty of hindsight. How many studied world history? I studied it to the nth degree because I was studying before I got saved and went off to Bible college, my ambition was to became a world high school world history teacher.

You see, I love history. I love history. And now that I'm not a high school history teacher, I'm just a person who teaches His story. You'll get it on the way home, I know. Corny joke, huh? It's a teacher joke, some of you teachers get that kind of corny stuff. But anyway, so listen carefully. He's running it down for us. Now we know in about five, or excuse me, 636 to 539 BC, the Babylonian Empire ruled the world, correct? But it was conquered by who? In 539, it was conquered by who? The Medes and Persians. Cyrus the Great, king of the Medes and Persians, and it continued on as an empire to about 330 BC.

And the Medo-Persians were conquered by who? How many saw the movie 300, Thermopylae and and all the things that went? It was the Greeks and the Greeks ruled and reigned from about 30, 330 BC to about 65 BC, and who conquered the Greeks? The Romans. And the Romans ruled from about 65 BC to 476 AD and the question is who conquered the Romans? No one. They kind of fell apart.

And if anybody knows history and I had the wonderful privilege of visiting—I've not gone to Rome, I haven't been able to go to Rome yet—but I've been to Constantinople, Istanbul. And you remember when Constantine became one of the last rulers of of Rome, he moved the headquarters from Rome to Constantinople. And in the middle of Constantinople, as he set it up for all roads came, as remember the story, all roads lead to Rome? Because the Romans built the road system that was was so remarkable.

The Romans created this thing called the Pax Romana. And what it meant is they controlled the seas and they built roads to expand their empire. I think that's why Jesus came at that time, because at that time you could travel relatively safe. You could either go by sea or by ocean and we know that Paul traveled a total of 12,000 miles, some six by sea and almost six by land and he could do it relatively safe because of the Pax Romano. Before that pirates could rob you in the sea and robbers by land but they set these things up and some I've seen some of those Roman roads that are still in existence when I was in Turkey and I'm going to tell you they're better than our roads. They don't have any potholes in them. You ought to see the way and I've looked and researched the way the Romans built the roads.

But the Romans were those kind that would just consume all things and they consumed a language, a Greek language, which is far superior to any language that's ever existed. I had to take one semester, actually I took a whole year of Greek when I was in Bible college. And I will tell you that that it's it's a very, well, Greek has a voice to it, did you know that? You can as you read it, you you there's ways that the structure is formed that gives you emotion. Well, for example, when Jesus meets Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus and He says to him, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?"

When two words are put together like that, it has the sense in the Greek of pathos or passion. So we know that He's being very tender to Paul. There's a tenderness, there's a passion in it. The Greek language has seven tenses, not like three in the English language. You know, it has words that mean specific things. Now, we have in our English language the word love, correct? And you may be here tonight and say, and you ought to if your wife is sitting next to you, "I love my wife." But you might go home to your house and when your dog greets you, you might say, "I love my dog."

Whoa, do you love your wife like you love your dog or do you love your dog more than you love you use the same word. Or you might leave here and go down to Baskin-Robbins and say, "I love ice cream." It's the same word. Four in Greek. There's one very special word in Greek, Agapao, and that's a divine love that we have with the Father. "You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, soul and strength." Agapao. We gather and we have fellowship and you might say, "I phileo you." That's brotherly love and we ought to phileo each other.

You know, I was just talking to a sister on the way in here and I told her, "You know, you're my sister and I care about you and it grieved me what's going on in your life right now, I'm broken over that." We bear one another's burdens. We're brothers and sisters in the faith, we're the family of God. Listen, the the blood that flows through your veins connects you more to each other sitting in this room than the blood connects you to your to your biological family, did you know? Because we have the blood of Christ connecting us.

So I phileo you. Now, you men can say to your wife and your wife can say to their husbands, husbands and wives can only use this word, Eros. We get the word erotic from that. You are to have erotic feelings for each other in context of marriage, only in the context of marriage. If you have those feelings for somebody else in this body of Christ, that is spiritual incest because that's your brother and sister. Erotic. And then there's Storge, which is the kind of love you're to have for your family, parents have for their children, children for their parents.

And so we have a an apt description in the Greek. And and so it's interesting to me as this prophecy comes, you have these empire builders and each one of them brought something to the fore that was necessary to bring Christ into this world and so that He could set up His kingdom. But the last two are extremely important. And there's an object lesson for us tonight in the last of these I want to look at. But what I want you to take note of if you're a note taker tonight, notice how they diminish in value: gold.

In fact, when Herodotus, the great Greek philosopher and writer and historian, visited Babylon, he said there was more gold in Babylon than he'd ever seen in his life. In fact, he makes note in some of his writings of a table that was used in the king's court, a conference table that was six feet wide, 40 feet long, four inches thick, that was solid gold. Now, when we get to chapter three and we realize that he makes this whole image out of gold, we don't know if it was overlaid in gold but we do know that some of the gods and idols that he had there was Moloch was 15 feet tall, solid gold.

So the first empire which was represented by the head of gold, listen, they trafficked in gold. There was more gold in Babylon, Herodotus says, than he'd ever seen in his life. In fact, they overlaid the walls with it. They had, I mean, they used it for everything. But as we study through Esther, what was the metal, the precious metal of the economy during Artaxerxes or the Medo-Persians? Silver. Silver is less valuable than gold. And then we come to the Greeks and we enter in what we call the Bronze Age.

They had shields made of bronze. They had swords made of bronze, their helmets were made of bronze. Less valuable metal than silver. And then iron of the Romans. And the Romans used iron. Iron-tipped spears, forging steel swords, metal helmets, metal breastplates, they were known for steel, for iron, for metal. Now, notice this too, that as it progresses from gold, gold is the softest of these metals. Then silver is a little bit harder, then bronze is harder yet, and then iron is extremely hard.

And what He's saying as we progress through humanity, the hardness of men's hearts. The further we get away from our Creator and creation and the creation story, the harder the heart gets. It's the second law of thermodynamics. Things go from a better state to a worse state. And I remember a saying that used to go around before I was saved and my mom used to say it, "In every way and in every day things are getting better and better." No they are not. And they won't.

In fact, the Bible tells us things are going to get worse and worse until the coming of the Lord. Did you know that? But here's the beauty of it. God knows how to take care of His kids. You remember when He was judging Egypt, sending Moses and Aaron with all the plagues on Egypt? What happened in the land of Goshen? Nothing. They were taken care of and they were blessed. God knows how to take care of His people while He's judging the nation that they're in.

And God's going to take care of you and me. But as we look around, listen, things are deteriorating. We're moving toward a one-world government as we're going to see. We're moving toward the Antichrist. We're moving toward that time when God will return and establish His kingdom. We're living in the time of the toes and it stinks. Man, this world's got athlete's foot bad. Would you agree? And so the last of these great kingdoms will be the Roman Kingdom. It will be divided between Rome and Constantinople, that represents the two legs and then at the end of the two legs will be these ten kings.

And we'll take a look at that in just a few moments. But let me say this about the Roman Empire and there's a lesson to be learned from this. How many read the book "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" by Edward Gibbon? How many read that book? Nobody read the book? Oh, Mike did. You know, it's it's must-reading, dude. It's must-reading. If you want to know where this country is going, buy the book "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" by Edward Gibbon. I think Mr. Olstrowski made that mandatory reading in high—Mr. Olstrowski and Mr. Young, my two world history teachers when I was in high school, wrote the textbook for all of California.

And later got professorships, one went to Chico State and another one went somewhere else. But they had us read this book, "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," because it follows patterns. And when you read the book, he will tell you there's five reasons, listen carefully, why the Roman Empire ceased to exist. Wasn't conquered, it was just destroyed as it were from within. And see if these aren't similar.

The first was divorce. The Roman Empire bragged that the first 100 years when it was a republic before it became an empire under Caesars, they bragged that there was not one divorce in all of the Roman Republic. Not one. Very moral, very committed people. Very committed to family. Family was extremely important. In fact, the Romans are the ones who came up with the idea when you adopt somebody, you give them your name, it's a it's it's like they're yours. They're not stepchildren, they're your children.

Very strong on family, very strong on morals. But divorce entered in and there was a moral decay. The second thing was higher and higher taxes. Now I know we know nothing about this, but they bankrupted themselves. Higher and higher taxes. The third that Edward Gibbon mentions is an addiction to pleasure and entertainment. That's when they started building the arenas and the gladiators and and more and more entertainment. Less focus on things that were right and more focus on just amusement.

You know what amusement means, right? Muse means to think, 'a' means non or not to think. And so just an addiction. None of us know about addictions to entertainment, do we? How many got a cell phone in here right now? How many are on that cell phone more than an hour today or or an iPad or this or that? Listen, we are so addicted to this stuff. Number four, are you ready? Get this. Building a bigger army to protect them from the outside forces when the real enemy was within.

Sound interesting? Why do you think my world history teacher said you need to read this book? And then the last one is a decay of religion and actually an animosity toward anyone who was in the faith. And thus a decay of moral thinking. Those five things destroyed the Roman Empire from within until they became nothing. Now, what we need to glean from this in prophecy is that we know Babylon, it came and went. We know the Medo-Persians, they came and went. We know the Greeks, they came and went. We know the Romans came and they kind of faded away, destroyed from the inside.

We can walk us down through the two legs, the one in Rome, all roads lead to Rome, and the one in in Constantinople where they, I stood right at the pillar, you know, now they've had to dig it down because the roads have built up, but I stood right at the pillar where it says all roads now lead to Constantinople, and I got to see the other leg of Daniel. I haven't got to see the first leg of Daniel in Rome, but I've seen the second leg of Daniel right there in Constantinople.

You know, I stood there, and it wasn't much to look at and people were going, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's move on. Let's go over to this church or that church." And the whole tour, because I was on a tour with a bunch of pastors, wanting to move, but I was marveling because all I could think about was Daniel chapter two. This is amazing, this is prophecy right here. I'm looking at it. And right underneath that is the ten toes. Now, how many have studied prophecy under Chuck from the 70s on through?

Just me? Chuck Smith? Are you kidding me? Anyway, Chuck used to talk about the European Union. You remember that's got to be the ten toes. You remember when Greece in 1975 became the tenth, oh man, that was it, we were going home. And then there was an 11th and a 12th and a 13th and then there was 35 and 36 and 37 and it fell apart. So it couldn't have been that. And then everybody had a a postulation or a theory or a teaching on who these ten toes could be because we knew that we'd already walked through the legs and we have to be at the time of the ten toes.

So who might they possibly be? And I was doing my devotions, like I tell you, in Proverbs and Psalms and I got the Psalm 83 one one morning and I'm doing my devotions in Psalm 83 and it just dawns on me, this is 10 years ago, it dawns on me that the group of people that are mentioned in Psalm 83 are not the same group of people mentioned in Ezekiel 38 and 39. And it was at the same time, this was 2011, when the Arab Spring was coming to the fore. And I did a history search because their names have changed a little bit, but the ten countries that radicalized with Islam that now surround Israel that we call the Arab Spring are the ten nations mentioned in Psalm 83.

Psalm 83 is a prophetic psalm that's never been fulfilled. In fact, let's just turn there for a moment if you would, Psalm 83. If you don't can't get there quick enough, they'll put it on the screen. I just want to share with you that my theory is, and you can have your own warped opinion, I have my warped opinion. Others have said that these will be the ten factions that rise up in the last day that rule with the Antichrist. Understand, these ten kings in Psalm 83 and hasn't been fulfilled yet are radical Islamic.

Isn't it interesting we just read last week in Revelation as we're going through chapter 20, that the preferred method for martyrdom for those people that won't take the mark of the beast during the tribulation is what? Being beheaded. What radical religious system today that is anti-God—and by the way, Rick Warren has it wrong, he needs to change his last name or change his doctrine. Because the god of Islam is not the God of the Old Testament. He's running around spouting this "Chrislam" thing and it's not true, and so is the Pope, by the way.

But we're moving toward a one-world religious system as well too, and a one-world economic system because you have to have those things in place to bring a one-world government. You have to have a one-world military, you have to have a one-world financial system, you have to have a one-world religious system because without religion you can't rule. Marxism knew that. And then you're going to have to have all of these things come together so one man can reign. But Psalm 83 starts out by saying, "Keep thou not silent, O God, hold not thy peace, be not still, O God."

There's a cry coming from Israel and this is a prophetic psalm at some point in Israel's future because this has never been fulfilled, that they're going to be so panicked about the condition they find themselves in that they realize the only hope they have is God. Do you think they might be in that position today with our present current administration? Netanyahu, when he visited the United States and spoke before our Congress, said, "Listen, we're going to do what's right for Israel no matter who helps us."

And by the way, right now they are standing alone. And I'm going to tell you, the things that are going on on the world scene today are priming the pump as it were for this war, this battle spoken of in Psalm 83. This battle when it kicks off, it's followed by the second battle, the battle of Hamongog where Russia and her horse come down to invade Israel because they need the spoil. This is a holy jihad. This battle will ensue because they hate the God of Israel, they hate the people of the God of Israel.

That's what's going to kick this off. And Iran over there, and especially when Ahmadinejad was the prime minister or leader president, whatever they have over in Iran, when he was there, he said the very same words that we're going to read in a few moments in a forum that was entitled "A World Without Zionism" and they're calling for the destruction of Israel. If Iran ever gets a nuclear weapon, they will use it because it is what our government doesn't understand, they are radically committed to the wickedness of of that basket with the wicked one we saw taken over there and dropped off.

That that was their basket. They are committed to anything that is anti-God. What you see going on in the world is not political, it is spiritual. We're in a great battle and I tell you who wins. I'll tell you in a couple weeks on Sunday morning. But this is a holy jihad. It says, "For lo, Thine enemies make a tumult and they that hate Thee have lifted up their head." Listen, that's exactly how how many when you were going to high school, did you hear about Islam?

Well, when I went to high school, but that was back when the universe was only 8 million light years across and now it's, I don't know, they're saying it's a lot bigger than that. and hadn't been that old since I've been in high school. Listen, as a pastor, we never considered Islam to be a threat 15, 20 years ago. But all of a sudden what's woven into the fabric of our government now? What is the biggest concern in the Middle East right now? Islam. Do you understand there are some states that want to bring Sharia law in to protect them so they can be?

Listen, you're an American. You're under the Constitution. What they're calling for is this bringing people under this system of Islam, Sharia law. Do you understand that in the Islamic system, they're looking for their 12th Imam, which is our equal to the Christ because when he comes, he's going to rule the world? Well, who do you think their 12th Imam is? The Antichrist. Oh, and by the way, there are a number of factions and persuasions and flavors in theology is in Islam. And they don't get along with each other.

They're iron mixed with clay. In fact, if it wasn't for Israel and they had a common enemy, they'd kill each other. In fact, they do. Do you understand that the Shiites and the Sunnis hate each other? In fact, do you understand when they go to battle with each other, they kill each other? Do you understand they're more merciful to a Christian because you can pay a tribute, you can do certain things and they'll let a Christian go, but if they find one another because they consider each other to be apostate, they kill each other?

It's the iron mixed with clay. Now, this is my warped opinion, let's just read on. It says in verse three, "They have taken crafty counsel against Thy people, they've consulted against Thy hidden ones." Now, who would be the hidden ones? What did Paul say about the church? It was a mystery hidden in times past. So this holy jihad, this spiritual war that will arise in the last days that will set off as it were the events that will bring the Antichrist to the fore, is through a religious, a wicked religious system that comes out of Babylon—is that wicked thing that was carried to Babylon, remember, and put on a pedestal that we just read about not too long ago in Revelation—and it's going to try to dominate the world.

These ten kings don't have a kingdom but they give authority to this one, the 12th Imam. Listen carefully. "They have crafty counsel against the people and consulted against the hidden ones. They said, 'Come and let us cut them off from being a nation that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.'" Almost the same words Ahmadinejad said. And that's the cry today. Israel does not have a right to exist. That's what's going on with the Palestinians, that's what's going on with the Iranians, that that's the problem.

You know, the prophet said of old—Isaiah, Jeremiah—they said, "Listen, in the last days Jerusalem will become a cup of trembling and a stone of stumbling for all nations." It is that little piece of real estate that we got to visit a year and a half ago. Listen, there's not a government on the planet today that doesn't have some discussion every week about what do we do with Israel? What do we do with Jerusalem? It is a cup of trembling and a stone of stumbling to all nations.

And then he gives us a list, and you can go to our prophecy update last year and you can look at the list. It is those ten nations that radicalize around Israel right now that are calling for its destruction. But let me just take you to the end of Psalm 83. It says there in verse let's just read verse 17 and 18. "Let them be confounded and trouble on every side, yea, let them be put to shame and perish." So the cry of Israel is, "God, stand up for us." And listen to what He does in verse 18: "That men may know that Thou whose name is Jehovah," now our King James has this backwards, I actually had a guy who spoke Hebrew read this to me.

In fact, at the time, he was helping with us in Uganda and he was running and helping with our training center there because he said in Hebrew it reads backwards. It doesn't read like it does in the English, "that men may know that Thou whose name alone is Jehovah art the most high over all the earth." It actually reads, "that men may know that Thou whose name is Jehovah alone rules in the affairs of men." So whatever happens when these nations attack—and is not the saber-rattling going on right now?—when they attack, God Himself shows up like an Old Testament way.

So the whole world knows that God alone, Jehovah the God of Israel alone, the God of the Christians alone, has shown up and defeated these nations. And then here comes Gog and Magog, Battle of Hamongog, read 38 and 39 of Ezekiel. And for every seven soldiers that come down, one will be left to return, they're sixed, and they're going to bury the dead for seven months and then they're going to hire professionals to cleanse the land. And it reads like what you do during a nuclear exchange for seven years.

And out of the smoke and dust from that battle, the Antichrist comes to the fore and Daniel will tell us as we go into chapter 10, 11 on in through that that man will be a man of peace and he'll conquer through peace. He'll have all the answers, he'll tell Israel "calm down, build your temple, do your thing" and he'll have all the answers to calm the world down. And halfway through that seven years, he's exposed for what he is. The last seven years are pretty rough, but then Jesus returns with you and me because we go before the seven years, we come back after the seven years. You got to be here on Sunday mornings, inquiring minds need to know these things.

To set up His kingdom. So Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar, "You were a great king and you are a great king, but there's another coming after you and another after him and another after him and then finally we're going to the two legs and the ten toes." And then listen to this as he we move on, verse 45, "Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone," by the way, circle the word 'the', it's a definite article, it says it's a definite article, it means the stone, not a stone. This is a supernatural particular stone. This is the Rock. This is Christ Jesus.

"Forasmuch as thou sawest the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands," it is supernatural, it's not the work of man. "And that thou breaketh in pieces the iron," it's harder than the iron, it's harder than the bronze, it's harder than the silver, it's harder than the gold. "The great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter and the dream is certain and the interpretation thereof is sure." It is dyed-in-the-wool. And again, my namesake Rick Warren is wrong. You can't change prophecy.

The Daniel Plan won't do it. Listen, the stuff that's coming down the pike is set in stone, as it were. It's dyed-in-the-wool. Not one jot nor tittle of God's word will fail to it all comes to pass to fruition. Amen? The best thing you and I can do is find out what it is He's doing and get behind it. Amen? And listen, by the way, we get taken out of here before the tribulation starts, we have dinner with Dad for seven years and we return with Jesus Christ as He judges this world.

We've been studying these things. So if you get to heaven and you don't know these things, don't tell anybody you're from Gold Country Calvary Chapel. Tell them you're from some other church because you should know better. Can I get an amen? You should know better. And watch the response of Nebby. Nebby now, he falls down on his face. This king who is a king of kings, who has ultimate reign, power and authority, glory given by God, falls on his face before a teenager. Isn't that amazing what God can do?

"Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and he worshiped Daniel and he commanded that they should offer an oblation, give an offering of sweet odor unto him. We need to worship Daniel." Then the king answered unto Daniel and he said, "Of a truth, it is that your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of secrets seeing that He couldest reveal this secret." Boy, how quickly we forget. The ink is not even dry on this chapter do we come to chapter three and he's forgotten all about it.

Remind you of anybody? Maybe that person you looked at in the mirror? Listen, Peter said we don't know need so much to be taught as reminded of the things we already know. Amen? So be careful when God speaks. You know, early on in my life, I went everywhere with a notepad. I just kept a little leather-bound notepad and a pen because when I was praying and God was speaking, when I was studying and God was speaking through the word, I would write it out. That's what You want me to do.

You know, I remember, just we're almost done, give me just a few moments. I remember that when I went to Bible college, I went to this church where every mom tried to set me up with her daughter. I'm not interested. I choose poorly. I just need to get through Bible college and when I graduate, God will bring me the wife. Listen, if He can raise the dead, He can blind a woman to love me. I'm convinced of it. I am convinced of it. And He can just, you know, do what He wants and then open her eyes later and she goes, "Whoa, well, we're in a covenant relationship, can't get out now."

And He and I just would trust Him to do those things. And I wrote down what I wanted, what I thought I needed, and I have every bit of that. God has been a wonderful God to me and He is the Lord of kings. He's my King, He's my Master, I can trust Him. And so he says this to Daniel and then verse 48, he says, "Then the king made Daniel a great man." Daniel's already a great man. No person on this planet can make you a great man. But there's a God in heaven who will choose you if you'll follow Him to put you in great places to do great things.

"But this king made Daniel a great man and gave him many great gifts," not like God gave for sure, "and made him ruler over the whole providence of Babylon and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon." So this 17-year-old turns around and looks at the wall of all of these soothsayers and Chaldeans and scientists and magicians and channelers and demonic people and witches and witchcrafters and all these people and he goes, "I'm now in charge." But not really, the God I serve now in charge. At least until next chapter.

"And then Daniel requested of the king to set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego," those were the Babylonian names given to Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, "make them over the affairs of the providence of Babylon. But Daniel set in the gate of the king." Daniel became his greatest advisor. Now, as we journey through this book of Daniel, we're going to see that Nebuchadnezzar goes up and down. We're going to see at one point he grows hair like feathers and claws like an eagle and he eats grass for seven years.

But because God brought Daniel into the life of of King Nebuchadnezzar, I believe personally that we're going to see Nebuchadnezzar in heaven. I believe he gave his life to the Lord there toward the end, and he made another one of those decrees: "If you don't serve the God of heaven, guess what? Little pieces, dung." Don't know what it is with little pieces and dung with this guy, but that's the thing he thought motivated people: little pieces, dung, pure manure if you don't serve the God of heaven.

And, you know, I could be wrong on Psalm 83. Let me just give you a disclaimer, but I don't think I am because I think I see the rise of this coming now and it's a holy war. It could be that this planet is divided up into ten regions when the Antichrist rules, but Islam will play a part, make no mistake. Its head is rising. And you know what? We need to pray for revival, that the power of the Holy Spirit would move again in our generation and our culture, that God would stand up men with a voice that are not afraid to speak His word, the teachers and doctors and nurses and educators would stand up and say, "We're not going along. The king has no clothes" and give one last cry to this nation under the unction of the Holy Spirit: "You need to turn from your wicked ways," just like Jeremiah and Ezekiel did. Amen?

We need to pray for that. The only hope for any nation is God. And the only hope for God to turn a nation is the people get on their face in prayer. And that what we're told in the Old Testament: "If My people called by My name would humble themselves in prayer, seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then from heaven would I hear and I'd heal their land." You don't have a right to complain about anything you haven't prayed over. Amen? And if you pray over it, you won't complain about it. Can I get an amen? Let's stand.