Turn in your Bibles back to Daniel
6. You can use your outline to follow
me. That will help you. We are dealing with a very challenging
portion of Scripture. And what I want to do today because
of the nature of that language is sort of lay a foundation and
a construct by which we can enjoy the subsequent messages
that will come out of it. in chapters 8 through 12. We're in Daniel chapter 7. We'll be dealing with the first
14 verses today. And the title of our message
is Dreams and Visions. Dreams and Visions. I'm sure you've had a dream. You may have had a vision, but
I'm sure you have had dreams. The distinct difference between
a dream and a vision is that a dream is a compilation of thoughts
and perspectives and images. It may be in the genre of a storyline,
or maybe just a series of pictures, or maybe just one picture. given
to you in a semi-conscious or a totally subconscious state. When you are dreaming, you are
asleep and you are in what is called a mode of incognito. And in a mode of incognito, you
are operating out of your semi or subconscious state. In that
state, you will see things and observe things and behold things
that don't necessarily make sense and they will not always correspond
with reality as we know it in our conscious state. As we deal
with Daniel chapter 7, you'll be able to see some of that.
Again, I don't want to... I'm going to try not to be too
tedious with it, but I do want to lay enough of a foundation
for you to know that Daniel chapter 7 is a series of visions that
Daniel sees that make sense they have a very clear grounded historicity
to them they are not so opaque and so mysterious as to not have
a sound and cogent interpretation to them. I wanna make sure that
we understand that. We have left off with the last
six chapters. We are at the top of the seventh
chapter. We are moving into what is called
the apocalyptic genre or the genre of a scripture that is
dealing with metaphor and hyperbole and symbolism and typology. Now that is a very common device
of communication in the Old Testament. Symbolism, typology, metaphor,
hyperbole. That's a very common type of
genre in the Middle Eastern cultures. It's not that much of a genre
in our Western culture. In our Western culture, we speak
primarily in literal terms with connotative significance. And
what that means is our literal words will have nuances to them.
They may not always be wooden, like sometimes I'm cool and sometimes
I'm hot. And for the young people, that
means the same thing. But for those of you who are
literalists, cool is antithetical to hot. but a connotation means
that it is not to be understood in this mere literal sense. Now that's the framework and
parameter of most of our English language. And I've talked to
us about the danger of having a Western mindset in terms of
a literal genre of interpretation when you go to the scriptures
because the scriptures are not bound by a Western mindset. They are not bound by any mindset
other than God's mindset. But when you read the language,
especially from the Old Testament with regards to the prophets,
you have to get God's mind to understand God's Word. You're
not going to readily understand the Bible without asking God
to help you. You're not going to readily understand
the apocalyptic language without being really rooted and grounded
in a Bible knowledge. You're just not. and to write
it off that it cannot be understood because you can't understand
it is to betray the fact that you've been too lazy to find
out how to understand apocalyptic language. Am I making a little
sense? Okay, so as we go into our text, you'll be able to...
I'm hoping that the Holy Ghost will help you, right along with
me, understand some of the symbolism. One of the best things you can
do, child of God, for your life, in terms of redeeming the time
and being prepared to hear God's Word, is to read your Bible profusely,
constantly, continually. Just read your Bible. If you read your Bible just to
read it because it's God's Word, not only because it's God's commandment
to you, but if you read your Bible continually, you will position
yourself to hear from God. And God will speak to you clearly
from His Word, and you will build a confidence in God's Word that
is lacking in this 21st century generation. People do not believe
in the clarity or the perpiscuity of the Word of God. That is,
the Word of God doesn't make sense to them, and so they write
it off as not being an effective means by which to guide us and
to lead us. I'm here to tell you that the
Bible is the only means by which to lead us and to guide us. And
that in fact of matter, everything that you and I need for life
and godliness is given to us in the Word of God. everything
we need within the pages of these 66 books. God has spoken plainly
and clearly to those who have an understanding. And you might
think that there are issues going on in our life of which the Bible
does not speak to. I would beg your pardon. If you
have really come to know the word of God, you would come to
understand that the Bible is is infinite in its application
to every need in life. So as we deal with the sixth
chapter of the seventh chapter of Daniel, I want you to pay
careful attention to the language. Now, Daniel has had a series
of visions and he calls them dreams and visions. Look with
me at verse one and two. In the first year of Belshazzar,
king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream. Do you see that? And then it
says, and visions of his head upon his bed. visions in the
plural, dream in the singular. Then he wrote the dream and told
the sum of the matter. Verse one describes in what we
would call the second person, Daniel. Daniel's really speaking
about himself. Sometimes my kids do that, particularly
one of my third, fourth oldest, Joanna. She loves to say now
Joanna said, but that's Joanna talking. And the Bible does that
frequently, too. John will talk about him whom
Jesus loved, but John is talking. So don't get tripped up by that.
The authors often remove themselves from the first person so that
you won't focus on them, but the God through by whom they
are speaking. And that's very important. And
so what Daniel is saying is there was a series of visions given
to me. Now, notice in verse one, the timing. In the year of Belshazzar,
king of Babylon, Daniel had these dreams. Do you notice that? In
the first year of Belshazzar. That means that Daniel had received
this series of visions before the fall of Babylon. That's point
number one for those of you who are going to get a foundation
here. Now, you know, we're in the seventh chapter and Babylon
has already fallen. Isn't that right? It fell in
the sixth chapter. But Daniel received the revelation
that we're dealing with before the fall of Babylon. The significance
of this is this, that Daniel is shown in the revelation, the
character and nature of Babylon and its fall in a symbolic connotation,
which means as I lay down the foundation for us today, with
regards to this vision that Daniel sees, we are not dealing with
history, future, without it also having immediate application
to the time in which Daniel lived and what we would call remote
fulfillment subsequent to the time that Daniel lived and then
also distant fulfillment that is what Daniel sees are a series
of visions that have to do with his own time a few hundred years
after his time and then during the time of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and then shortly after the Lord Jesus Christ, and then ultimately,
ultimately the apocalyptic language in the book of Daniel will have
application to us in the end time. Therefore, as some of the
theologians have said, when a prophet saw visions and those visions
were prophetic, of end time events are times that transpired in
their days. They often saw them in what they
call multiple mountain peaks. They're standing on the top of
the mountain and they can see the top of other mountains and
there is an ultimate mountain top at which the prophecy has
its final culmination. But between those mountain tops
are valleys. and roads and distances and you
cannot tell how long the period of time is between his receiving
the vision and that ultimate mountaintop. Am I making some
sense? Now I want you to know that because one of the errors
that I find prominent in the church today is that the book
of Daniel is speaking exclusively concerning in time events. That
is, this sort of a, I call it a narcissistic complex on the
part of the church today. That the Bible's prophetic element
is speaking to us, but it didn't speak to Daniel's day. And it
didn't speak to the days in what we call the intertestament period
between Daniel and the coming of Jesus. And it didn't speak
in Jesus' day. I'm here to tell you emphatically,
the book of Daniel is addressing 587 BC, 550 BC, 333 BC, 196 BC,
87 BC, 33 AD, 70 AD, the whole of
the church age, the Reformation period, and the end of time.
That's what the scope of Daniel's prophecy is about. This is for
you buffs who like to study prophecy. Do not fall into the trap of
putting the prism of an exclusive end time interpretation on this
book. We'll be able to see that as we deal with these four visions.
If you have your outline, I want you to follow me in your outline.
the effect of these visions and dreams upon Daniel. I want you
to note this for a very practical reason, particularly of those
of you who study your Bibles. If you look over in verse 15
of chapter 7, I want you to see the effect of these visions that
Daniel saw. Are we there? Verse 1 of chapter
15, I, Daniel, was grieved in my spirit, in the midst of my
body, and the visions of my head did what? Troubled me. Do you
guys see that? Now, this is quite interesting
because, you know, years ago when I studied the Bible, when
I was a very, very, very young man, I'm an older man now, but
when I was a very, very, very young man, the Bible was intriguing
to me. It was delightful to me. I loved
the revelations and the primary experience that I had in the
revelations of the Bible in my youth was the experience of joy. and awe at the testimony of Scripture
and the veracity of the Word of God and the clarity and the
multifaceted nature of Scripture. When I was 19 years old, I read
the book of Revelation. And when I read the book of Revelation,
I read the book of Revelation with the default system that
everybody reads the book of Revelation, that you're dealing with a literal
book. Instead of understanding this hyperbolic multiplied symbolic
language and therefore the interpretation therein I was blown away by the
imagery of the book of the revelation when I came to understand the
revelation a little bit later I Can understand now why Daniel
who saw the visions that he saw? Caused him to be troubled and
grieved in his spirit. Do you know what the Bible says
in the book of Ecclesiastes? I With much knowledge comes much
grief. And in the increase of wisdom,
there's an increase in sorrow. What that means is, as we grow
in the Lord, and as we grow in His Word, and as we come to understand
the truth of the Bible, and begin to be aware of the preciseness
of the prophecy in relationship to the time that I'm living,
and the circumstances surrounding our culture and our own fallibility,
weakness, and sinfulness, the prophecy does more to humble
me now than it does to rejoice my heart. Did you hear what I
just said? More times than not these days,
I find myself weeping by the revelation. rather than rejoicing. There is a commingling of joy,
but there is a burden to the Word of the Lord when it comes
in clarity because I understand its implication. And believe
you me, I understand a few things, just a little, about what's going
on in our generation, and I hope to make that true today. Look
with me over in chapter 8, verse 18. Chapter eight, verse 18,
I want you to see it again. This is Daniel responding to
another set of visions that are given to him in the third year
of Belshazzar. Again, this is before the fall
of Babylon. We are told over in verse 18,
these words, now as Gabriel was speaking with me, I was in a
what? Deep sleep, on my face toward
the ground, but he touched me and he set me upright. And then
he began to speak to me, Daniel, why are you in a deep sleep?
Well, you'll notice that there was a pattern with the prophets.
Whenever God was about to bring a word to them in the context
of visions and revelations, he would often put them to sleep. This again is an incognito state. that was necessary for the men
of God to be able to endure the profundity of the revelation
that was given to them. If you will recall, frequently
when the disciples were with the Lord Jesus and the Lord Jesus
was speaking to the Father, things would happen to the disciples
along these lines. They fell asleep. Why did they
fall asleep? Because they were not able to,
in their natural framework, in their weak bodies, capacitate
the glory of the revelation that was given to them. Am I making
a little sense? This is true with mostly all
the prophets as well. Ezekiel had the same problem
that Daniel did. Ezekiel received the same revelations
that Daniel did and Ezekiel was constantly aware of the significance
and the glory of those revelations and he was knocked to his face
and he was brought into an incognito state so that only through this
sort of semi-subconscious state could God bring the revelation.
Again, I recall another person that was in this same state,
John the Apostle in the book of Revelation. If you recall
that first vision that was given to him, when he saw the glory
of God in Christ standing among the seven golden candlesticks,
the Bible says he fell down as if he were a dead man. Now this
goes to show you how that when God really reveals himself to
you, what happens to your body? And what happens to your mind
and what happens to your heart when God speaks to you? When
God speaks to you, you don't jump up and down and run through
the church. You don't do back flips and scream
hallelujah. Not when God speaks to you. Will
you please hear me? None of the prophets did. None
of them did. All of them fell prostrate on
their face at any point where the true and the living God revealed
himself to them. And this ought to be in part
also the nature of the revelation of scripture when it comes to
your heart. It ought to humble you. It ought to humble you when
God reveals his glory and reveals his truth to you. By the way,
I'm gonna share one more point before we move on into our context.
You'll note that the Lord Jesus never had a dream. He never dreamed. He never dreamed. Why didn't he dream? Because
God doesn't dream. I needed to say that because
there are these contemporary preachers with this user-friendly
language who like to bring God down to our image and talk about
God's dream. God doesn't have a dream. God
is the revelation. God is the revelation. Are you
hearing what I'm saying? God's the revelation. Revelations
come from God. God himself is the message. And he is the interpreter of
his own word. This is the glory of the incarnation.
Jesus never dreamed. He slept, but he didn't dream.
He didn't need to dream. He's the source of all dreams.
He's the content of all dreams. He's the means and goals and
end of all dreams. Am I making some sense? You don't
find Jesus going into ecstatic states and receiving special
revelation from God. He is the revelation of the invisible
God. Get that into your heart. Remove
the term dream from your vocabulary when it comes to the true and
the Living God. If you want to use the word dream, use it with
the pagan gods that you bow down to, that you ask to get you cars
and houses and money, but not the true and the Living God.
The true, listen to me, the true and the Living God does not dream. He speaks, he proclaims, he reveals,
he fulfills, he prophesies, but he doesn't dream. Jesus never
dreams. But Daniel was dreaming. And
Daniel was seeing visions. And Daniel was fulfilling that
which ultimately would come to pass as we had talked about the
parallels between the book of Daniel and the New Testament. Daniel's first six chapters are
historic. Last seven chapters, our six
chapters, are apocalyptic. In the Gospels you have the history
of Jesus after his death, burial, and resurrection. Now you have
the ministry of the Gospel. And the Bible says after Jesus
would rise again, he would ascend on high, he would send his Holy
Ghost, and your sons and your daughters would prophesy, your
young men and your old men and your women would dream dreams
and see visions. That's what the Bible said. Now,
you're reading your Bible where visions and dreams are a prominent
part of the Old Testament, and you're reading your Bible where
visions and dreams were a prominent part of the New Testament. But
you need to be very careful about your discourse or your application
of dreams and visions. Because in our present culture,
you got a whole lot of people who have a dream, and a whole
lot of people who have a vision. and Jeremiah warns about it,
and Ezekiel warns about it, and Paul warns about it, and John
warns about it. Be careful of people who promote
their dreams and visions. Be careful about them. In fact,
and I won't say any more about that yet. In fact, I'll tell
you what you do. Listen carefully to the person
who promotes God's vision. And that's the Word of God. Do
you know that Daniel didn't even know the preciseness of the purpose
of the will of God within the framework of his visions? He
ascertained that through the Word of God. Look with me in
Daniel chapter 9 and verse 1 and 2. I want you to see how important
it is for you and I in this New Testament age not to fall prey
to one of the methodologies and techniques of the devil and that
is to exercise a spurious what we call parody of the work of
the Holy Ghost in the proliferation of dreams and visions so that
you disregard the truth of the Bible. Daniel says in Daniel
chapter 9 verse 1 and 2 in the first year of Darius the son
of Ahasuerus the seed of the Medes which was made king over
the realm of the Chaldeans in the first year of his reign I
Daniel what understood How did he understand understand by the
books? You guys got that now watch this
Daniel didn't understand all the dreams He didn't understand
all the visions, but he understood when he read the book. I And
when he read the book, here's what he understood. I want you
to see this now. He understood that it says here, by the book,
the number of years where of the word of the Lord came to
Jeremiah, the prophet that he would accomplish 70 years in
the desolation of Jerusalem. Do you guys see that? You understand
my point? My point is this God's word is
the final arbiter of all true. In fact, if you want to be safe,
God's word is the ultimate arbiter of all true. If you just want
to be safe from this realm of dreams and visions that you get
from people, just stick with God's word and stick with God
helping you by his Holy Ghost to understand the dream and the
vision. Now let's go back and deal with
the content. Go back with me to chapter 7
and let's deal with the content. Let me assert as we deal with
this that Daniel chapter 7 verses 1 through 14, yay the whole of
chapter 7 and chapters 8 through 12 can be understood. They can be comprehended with
definiteness. They cannot be fully apprehended,
but they can be comprehended with definiteness. I want you
to see the content of our account. Look with me at Daniel chapter
7 verses 2 through 4. It says, Daniel spake and said,
I saw in my visions by night and behold, four winds of the
heavens strove upon the great sea. Do you see that? Four winds
of the heaven strove upon the great sea, and four great beasts
came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was
like a lion, and it had eagle's wings. And I beheld till the
wings thereof were plucked up, and it was lifted up from the
earth, and made to stand upon the feet as a man. And a man's
heart was given to it, and behold, another beast, a second like
to a bear. And it raised up itself on one
side, and it had three ribs, and the mouth of it, between
the teeth of it. And they said unto it, arise and devour much
flesh. And after this, I beheld in low
another like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four
wings of a fowl. The beast had four heads and
dominion was given to it. And then he talked about another
beast completely and radically and distinctly different from
that. And we'll get to that toward the end of the message. Let's
deal with the content of this vision. What you have here, Saints,
is a combination of symbolic images, symbolic images, interconnected. interconnected to underscore
that the destiny of men and kingdoms are sovereignly governed by a
superior power and thus constrained by a predetermined course culminating
in a drama of history which would repeat itself over and over and
over again throughout the ages until what we call that final
conflict before the revelation of Jesus Christ to establish
an everlasting kingdom free of opposition forever. That's what
these visions are about. So let's look at the first portion
of this vision. Daniel says he saw a sea. And then he says he observed
the wind. Isn't that what the text says?
That's the first thing Daniel sees. Put your feet in Daniel's
shoes and see what Daniel sees. Notice what it says in verse
3. Verse 2, I beheld the four winds of heaven striving upon
the great sea. Now saints, Daniel is using the
same language that Jesus uses. He's using the same language
that John uses in the book of Revelation. The four winds of
the heaven is a symbolic or metaphorical language which refers to God's
sovereign control over all the affairs of the world. The number four is a symbolic
number that connotes universality. When the Bible talks about the
four corners of the earth or the four winds of heaven, what
it's referring to is God's sovereign, listen to me, His sovereign,
omnipotent, transcendent power over everything that goes on
in this world. I'm going to develop that. But
see, had you been paying attention to the hymn, the last hymn that
we sang talked about God's power of controlling all things in
a transcendent way. The wind in the Bible, the wind
in the Bible is to be understood as God's sovereign, incomprehensible
power. I mean to emphasize both words,
sovereign, The proverb says, who can take the wind in his
fist? Can you control the wind? Can
you make the wind do anything? Can anybody grab a little bit
of the wind, put it in their hand and say, hey, see what I
got? I got some of the wind. In that same way, it is a foolish
notion to suggest or imply that you can control God or that you
can turn destiny or that you can affect providence. You and
I can't. Now the wind in the Bible, is
a symbolic metaphor that denotes God's immediate presence and
influence over a thing or God's remote presence and influence
over a thing. The wind, the Hebrew word is
Ruah. And it's given to us in Genesis
1 verse 2, where the Bible says, in the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth and the earth was without form and
darkness was upon the face of the deep and the spirit of God
moved. upon the what? Waters. The wind
moved upon the waters. Immediately in the Genesis account,
we are already dealing with a multifaceted prophetic truth. Yes, we are
dealing with creation, but we're also dealing with the recreation. Yes, we are dealing with the
facts of history, but we're also dealing with typology and symbolism
that tells us that when God created the heavens and the earth, he
had more than this physical world in mind. The Bible tells us by
Jesus himself in the Gospel of John that the Spirit of God is
like the wind that blows hither and thither. Am I making some
sense? In John chapter 3, you can't tell from whence it comes
or whether it goes. It moves according to its own
sovereign power. All you and I can do is wait
for the effects. Am I making some sense? So when
you talk about the wind, you're talking about God's power to
influence the affairs of the world. Psalm 107, you don't have
to go there. God commands the stormy winds. He rides upon the storm. His
footsteps are on the clouds. God rides upon the wind. It denotes
God controlling the events of this world by the mystery of
the power of the wind. Second point in relationship
to that, there's an inexorable connection between the wind of
God and the oceans. You know our oceans move to and
fro, don't they? They go up and down and the rivers
flow in and out from them. There's a cycle to the movements
of our oceans, right? Our seven seas, they call them
the seven seas, and they are moving in a circuitous route
and they are affecting our rivers and our lakes. Why? Because of
the motion of the wind. There is an inseparable connection
between the wind and its current moving upon the oceans. There
is a tie in there. These are two different elements,
but there is a combination of the two, which teaches us that
God is always in the affairs of this world. Now, having said
that already, what I'm implying by the sea then is that the seas
represent the masses of the people. The seas represent the masses
of the people, do they not? All through the Bible, the scripture
makes this very plain. In the Psalms, God talks about
the Gentiles or the nations, the goyim, as the isles. Islands are bodies of people
that sit out on water masses. In Isaiah chapter 60, you don't
have to go there, it's in your outline, you can read it in your
own time, God is speaking prophetically concerning the success of Jesus
Christ and the salvation of sinners. And he says, the seas shall be
converted to you, the Gentiles shall come to you in mass. The
seas then represent the nations of the people. Now you can go
with me in your Bible for one Bible verse. Just for the purpose
of time, go to Revelation chapter 17. And I want you to see in
Revelation an explicit interpretation of this fact. Revelation chapter
17. Now, when you read the book of
Revelation, understand that you are reading an echo book, an
echo prophecy. It is a set of prophetic truths
that have their origin in the Old Testament with an end-time
significance, but they don't have a separate set of prophetic
truths independent of the rest of the Bible. Echo meaning their
original point of beginning was in the Old Testament, in the
book of Daniel, in the book of Ezekiel, in the book of Zechariah,
and then culminating in this New Testament period. I'm in
Revelation 17 verse 1. Are you there? And there came
one of the seven angels which had seven vials and talk with
me, saying unto me, come hither, and I will show you the judgment
of the great whore. Do you see that? That sits upon
many what? Look over at verse 15, and he
said unto me, the waters which you saw where the whore sits,
we'll talk about her later on, are peoples, multitudes, and
nations, tongue Got it. The Bible is its own interpreter
So in this context in this context the seas the masses of the waters
represent the nations of the world The people groups of the
world again spoken in that fourfold language of universality languages
nations peoples and tongues so the wind is affecting the waters
and What that means is, listen to me, God is in control of everything
all the time. Now, let me make one more interpretive
point here so that we can move on. When we use the term wind
in the scripture in relationship to God, as I said, the wind can
be interpreted depending on the context as the immediate influence
of God Almighty by his spirit in the life of men and women
or the wind can be one of God's agencies by which he controls
the events that transpire. For instance, the wind in the
scripture is often a metaphor for the maniacal, demonic, diabolical
behavior of the devil. Ephesians chapter 4 tells us
to grow up Be sound in the truth. Be no more tossed to and fro
by every wind of doctrine, by the cunning slate of men who
lay in wait to deceive you. In our Lord's ministry, the Lord
Jesus Christ, when he went about preaching the gospel, him being
the personification of the kingdom and the essence of the message,
do you know he met with opposition all the time? Our Lord, when
he got here, was opposed by Herod, They tried to kill him when he
was a baby. He grew up by the providence and protection of
God. And then he went about his ministry. There were occasions
where when Jesus would cross the sea, whether it was the Tiberias
Sea or the Galilean Sea, he would cross the seas to go from one
body of land to another body of land. And the Bible said frequently
the winds would rise up in order to attempt to destroy the boat
that he was on. I remember one time particularly
in the gospel of Mark, we called the gospel of Mark the gospel
of the kingdom because it denotes the power of Christ in the salvation
of the Gentiles as a great feature. Jesus crossed over from Capernaum
into the Decapolis because he had a sinner whom God had chosen
for redemption who was bound by a legion of devils. Do you
remember that? And he slept among the tombs
and he lived among the tombs. And here comes Jesus crossing
land and sea in order to save his redeemed people. And the
Bible says that the wind stirred up against him. The wind stirred
up against him. Why? Because the devil doesn't
want Jesus breaking through the bars of hell and snatching out
subjects that are ordained to eternal life. But Jesus stood
up and said to the wind, peace be still. And he crossed on over. And when he crossed over, the
demoniac met Jesus at the shore and fell down and began to worship
him. I think if he knew that Jesus came to save him, he says,
I'm so glad that you're here now because I couldn't save myself. I'm bound by my iniquities. I'm
bound by the devil. I'm locked into this sinful state.
I'm so glad you came to get me. Am I making some sense? And so
constantly in the Bible you will see where the devil is prefigured
as an opposing entity, an opposing wind. One more. The combination
of the wind and sea is seen in Revelation chapter 7 verses 1
through 14. Don't go there for the economy
of time. I just want you to hear me. Get
the CD, listen to it 10 times. The Bible tells us in Revelation
chapter 7 that the four winds were held back by the angels
of God and God said to the four winds, I don't want you to hurt
anything, land or sea, anything until I have sealed all my servants
in their foreheads. And the teaching is that God
won't have anything to occur in this world that will endanger
or bring to damnation his elect. You and I won't suffer until
God has called us by his grace, quickened us by his spirit, revealed
Christ to our hearts, and sealed us by his Holy Ghost. Once he
just does that, he can let the winds go. Because you see, to
die in the body is to be present with the Lord. But that's only
after we're sealed by the Holy Ghost. Am I making some sense?
So see, the wind is still under the control of God. And that's
what Daniel sees. Now, what emerges up out of this
sea are four creatures that I want to spend some time developing
because I want you to understand the interpretation. Notice what
it says. And four great beasts came up
from the what? Seas. That means they came up
from the nations. They came up from the people
masses. They came up from the body of the Gentiles. Are you
hearing me? See, I told you earlier that
the imagery, the symbolism is interconnected. Don't separate
the wind from the sea. Don't separate the sea from the
beast. The beasts come up out of the sea. They proceed from
the sea. In other words, whatever these
beasts symbolize, they have their origin among the people masses.
Am I helping you? This is so very important. I
want you to know how to do what Daniel did and what John did
and what Ezekiel did. And you know what they did? They
watched carefully. The text tells us, Daniel said,
and I beheld and I kept looking and I looked carefully and I
saw what I saw because I was careful to look and say, you
can't see the truth unless you're careful to look at the truth.
It'll evade you every time. If you're careless in your Bible
reading, if you're careless in the looking at the nuances of
the text, if you're careless and you miss the plural forms
or the verb forms or the context or the semantics, you're going
to miss the meaning. Read the scriptures carefully
so that you can see the vision. And so what emerges are four
beasts. They emerge out of the people
groups. I'm going to tell you right now what these are. These
are political kingdoms. These four beasts are political
kingdoms. I've told the saints that have
been under this ministry for years, our political system is
nothing but a what? Beast. But by de facto, that means the
people are too. That means by nature you are
too. Because our politicians and our
rulers that govern our nation, have their origin and derive
their essence from us. So as the leaders are, so are
the what? People. Am I making some sense? Our leaders come from among the
people. So these kings come up out of the masses of the sea
or the people groups and they form political powers. Now, Daniel says the first of
the four and they are all different one from another. The first of
the four was like a what? A lion. Do you see that? It's
like a lion. The second was like a bear. The
third was like a leopard. Leopard. The fourth was like
an animal that he couldn't describe. I'll deal with that a little
later on. The vision that Daniel sees now is the same vision that
Nebuchadnezzar saw earlier in Daniel chapter 2 when Nebuchadnezzar
saw this great image whose head was gold whose chest and arms
were silver, whose belly and thighs were brass, and his legs
and feet were of iron and clay. Those four categories correspond
to the four animals that you see in our text. Am I making
some sense? In other words, the lion with
wings corresponds to the head of gold, which corresponds to
the Babylonian kingdom. What Daniel was seen in this
first beast is the Babylonian kingdom. The Babylonian kingdom
had in the days of Daniel, what we would call an emblem,
an ensign. They had their own banner. They
had their own monarchy. That was a lion with wings. It still exists in Babylon today. The great image that depicts
the nature of Babylon today is a lion with eagle's wings. Now follow me carefully because
I want you to be able to get this as we go through the book.
The distinction between Babylon and the next group of leadership
that comes on the scene, as you and I know, will be Medo-Persia,
isn't that right? The distinct difference is that
this animal is called a lion. Now the lion in the Bible is
the king of the jungle. And what it signifies is the
preeminence of the Babylonian kingdom over the other kingdoms
in terms of its royal state, in terms of its regal state,
in terms of its antiquity. Remember, Babylon is the oldest
and first of all kingdoms. Is that not true? goes all the
way back to Genesis chapter 9. Nimrod, the mighty hunter, started
Babylon. And so the lion represents the
king of the jungle. And so this lion, while he is
a predator, while he is vicious, while he destroys, he is viewed
as being the preeminent among all these kingdoms. That's why
in Nebuchadnezzar's vision of the image, his head was of what? Gold. The gold is, in the Old
Testament, in the Middle Eastern world, the greatest of commodities,
the richest, the most endurable, and it often signifies, in Scripture,
deity. So the Babylonian kingdom is
represented by a lion. This lion is ferocious, he's
predatory, he's powerful, and again, it represents his preeminence,
because among the animals of the kingdom, you don't find the
lion being hunted, Killed and eaten, do you? Among all the
carcasses strewn upon the plains of the jungles and the fields
where the animals survive among each other, you don't find some
other atrocious animal able to subdue the lion and kill the
lion and carcasses have been eaten and left there to rot.
You don't see that. Why? Because the lion is considered
the preeminent one. Am I making some sense? Then
I want you to know that the wings that are on this lion are not
common wings. These are the wings of eagles.
And the eagle is the one bird that is preeminent in the air.
No other fowl exceeds the preeminence and regality and power of the
eagle. They are all subordinate to them.
It doesn't matter what it is. The eagle reigns supreme. Now the symbolism is divine authority
by virtue of the lion represented authority among the masses and
the eagle represents authority in the air. Now follow this now
because I want you to understand what's going on. While you and
I are dealing with symbolism, symbolism always has a message
behind it, doesn't it? So you got to listen now, don't
go to sleep on the vision. The wings of eagles depict Babylon
as being a kingdom that has great clarity, great what we call sagacity. It's wise. It has a sense of
perspective. The eagle can soar at a height
of miles up in the sky and look down and hone in on the smallest
of prey. In fact, it rides so high above
the sky and above its prey that it's undetectable by its prey.
Undetectable undetectable and so Babylon was given the term
the glory of kingdoms by God in the Bible because it serves
as a archetypal Preeminent type of the Antichrist system. Am
I making some sense? All right, then we'll move on
notice what Daniel says he sees He sees the lions wings being
rooted up are plucked out. Isn't that what it says? Look
at it. I Don't go anywhere now, because all I want to do is deal
with these four bees. The first was like a lion, had
wings of an eagle, and I beheld, here he is, until the wings thereof
were what? Plucked! Plucked! Rooted out! Rooted out! What does that mean? That means
The advantage that the Babylonian kingdom had in being able to
observe and critique from the heights of heights the goings
of men and therefore have advantage over all the other kingdoms of
the earth were removed from them. I'll talk more about that down
the line as we deal with the significance of the imagery of
the Babylonian kingdom with the time in which we live. But mark
this now, nothing that's going on in the book of Daniel is insignificant
or irrelevant to our time today. Listen to me, there are entities
and powers watching over all of us. Not only God, not only
Satan, but earthly authorities. They can see all of us in ways
that we cannot see. Why? Because they are rooted
in that demonic spiritual dimension called Satan and his kingdom
filled with his intelligences, with his own agenda and purposes.
Am I making some sense? But Babylon fell because you
can't be flying high like an eagle and have your wings plucked
and still stand. Now, Saints, Daniel understood
very clearly the interpretation. You know why? Because Nebuchadnezzar,
when he came to him with the dream, he said, I'm troubled.
Daniel says, Neb, I wish this was to your enemies. But the
fact of the matter is you're about to fall. Why? Because of
your pride, because of your arrogance, because of your self-assumption,
because of your own self-righteousness. And the plucking of the wings
means that Babylon fell to the ground. represented in Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar came down to the
ground in such a way that the text says, and when the wings
were plucked up, now watch the symbolism here, it was removed
from the earth. Isn't that what it said? It was
removed from the earth. What was removed from the earth?
I want you to hear me now. Please hear me. What was removed
from the earth was the influence and power and control of the
Babylonian kingdom over the nations of the world for the seven years
that Nebuchadnezzar went insane. Are you hearing me? For the seven
years that Nebuchadnezzar went insane, Babylon, for all intents
and purposes, was ineffective in its rule over the nations
of the world. But now notice what it says. When the wings
were plucked and Babylon fell to the ground in the person of
Nebuchadnezzar, a man's heart was given to it. Daniel understood
that too. Did Daniel understand that? So
that after the seven years, what did Nebuchadnezzar do? He praised
the Most High God. See, he got some sense then,
didn't he? He exalted the true and the living God. He says the
heavens do rule and the kingdoms amend, and God's armies control
all the affairs of the world, and God reputes the nations as
nothing, and he raises up kings, and he sets down kings, and God
does whatever he wants to, and nobody can say anything to him.
I wish our leaders would talk like that. I wish our leaders
would talk like that. You know what I would know? God
would have given them men's hearts. Because the Bible tells me that
man is as the beast that perisheth. Read it in your Bible, Ecclesiastes
3-8. Man is as the beast that perisheth.
Solomon said, Oh, I wish that man would understand his end
and his estate. That he has no preeminence over
the beast. Only the beast goes downward and he goes upward.
That means he's got to face the judgment. We'll deal with that
at the end of the text. But by nature, watch me now.
Apart from the grace of God, apart from salvation, men are
nothing but beasts. And when you aspire to and accomplish
political height, your behavior and your conduct is atrocious. To become a prominent leader
in the world is to give yourself over to maniacal powers and methodologies
of which the scripture describes you as a beast. When Babylon
was humbled at the fall of Nebuchadnezzar, you'll notice in the history
books say this, I don't have time to develop it, but all the
history books say that when Nebuchadnezzar was raised back up and given
a right mind, he was so benevolent, he was so kind, I would be too
after God tore me up for seven years, wouldn't you? He was so
kind, he was so... The Babylonian kingdom was a
very benevolent kingdom from that point on until Nebuchadnezzar
died. Am I making some sense? I really
want you to get this because I want you to be able to enjoy
the Word of God and understand that the Word of God is very
clear if we pay attention to the scripture. Now, we already
have the history in chapters 1 through 6. Go back through
the history and it'll help you understand the apocalypse. Am
I making some sense? All right, having said this,
that Nebuchadnezzar was humbled by God and given a man's heart. And the kingdom of Babylon was
a benevolent kingdom. This sets us up for the next
beast that comes on the scene. And I want to interpret this
for you. This is very important. Notice what the text says. And
Daniel said over in verse eight. And behold, another beast, a
second like to what a bear. Do you see it? And then he describes
this bear as being raised up on its side, having raised up
itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it
between the teeth of it. And they said unto him, arise
and devour much flesh. Do you guys see that? It's very
important for you to understand what Daniel said. Daniel said,
I saw a bear. Now, a bear is ferocious. A bear is voluptuous in its appetite. A bear is predatorial, but a
bear is not like a lion. So the characteristics of the
bear are relevant because this bear image represents Medo-Persia. Am I making some sense? Medo-Persia. The Median kingdom was the kingdom
that came in after Belshar had that drunken party where he drank
out of the Lord's utensils and God gave him the first big cinema
movie. We talked about that, right? The first big 3D DVD movie. He saw what we call The Hand
of the Lord. That was the title of the movie.
The hand of the Lord is against you and God brought judgment
on him. Ain't that right? That same night Darius came in
and took the kingdom. Now Darius was the king of the
Median kingdom. The Median kingdom. The Median
kingdom was a very benevolent kingdom. It wasn't a hostile,
aggressive kingdom like Babylon. And the Median kingdom was controlled
by the Persians. But the Median kingdom reigned
over Babylon for a few years, six or seven years. And then
King Cyrus came on in and took the throne. I want you to hear
what I'm saying. So when you get the image of the bear, the
bear is aggressive. He is powerful. He's destructive. And on one side, he's resting. That's the Median side. On the
other side, he's rising up and destroying flesh. That's the
Persian side. The Persian side was the more
aggressive side. It was the more hostile side.
It was the more assertive side. The Persian kings, we'll see
this when we get to the book of Esther. Esther married the
Persian king Artaxerxes, remember that? And in the days of Nehemiah,
Nehemiah sat under the Persian kings, remember that? Ahasuerus.
And so the point is, is that as God had prophesied that the
Medo-Persians were coming, the Medo-Persians did come. Media
for six years came into Babylon calmly. But after that six year,
here comes the aggressive Persians, not only subduing Babylon, but
they went forth to subdue Asia Minor, they went forth to subdue
Macedonia, and they went forth to subdue Egypt. And in subduing
Egypt, Asia Minor, Macedonia, we're dealing with the North,
we're dealing with the South, and we're dealing with the East.
In the middle is Israel. So Israel is included in this
domination of the Medo-Persian kingdom. And when you read about
the bear here, it has its correspondence in chapter 8. Go with me to chapter
8. I want you to see this. chapter 8 Daniel has a vision
in chapter 8 verses 1 through 3 this vision I'm not going to
develop it I'm only going to touch a point to affirm what
I'm saying this vision is perpetuating the vision starting not with
the Babylonian Kingdom but with the Medo-Persian Kingdom under
the typology of a ram verse 2 and I saw in a vision and it came
to pass when I saw that I was in Shushan in the palace and
which is in the province of Elam and I saw in a vision and I was
by the river Uriel then I lifted up mine eyes and saw and behold
there stood before the river a ram which had what stop right
there Daniel like Ezekiel and like John were at what we call
horizons land points where there were water masses between them
and the vision that they saw Ezekiel was at the river as well
when he saw his visions John Daniels at the river as he sees
this vision because again movements are taking place out of the waters
What Daniel sees here is a ram with two horns, isn't that right?
The connection then is that the bear in chapter 7 is Medo-Persian. These are the two kingdoms one
kingdom and is less aggressive. The other kingdom is more aggressive.
It rises up on its side. Look at the latter part of verse
3 and notice what it says. And the two horns were what?
High. But one was higher than the other
and the higher came up with? Last. Are you with me? We're
dealing with Persia. Persia comes up out of the Median
kingdom and it has a far more preeminent and a far more menacing
characteristic. It now is the bear with his claws
out and his feet out and is given a command by God, rise and devour
much flesh. I want you to think about it
with me before we move on to the third image. When kingdoms rise up
and nations go to war and men engage in battle and they prepare
way beforehand to do this, You know our presidents and our Congress
and our military don't wake up one day and say, let's go to
war against Iraq. Neither do other countries wake up one day
and say, let's go to war against America or any other country
in the world. They are all countries that use
intelligence and they go to war at a specific time with a specific
objective to accomplish. Are you hearing me? War is not
done haphazardly or out of compulsory mode. Don't buy into the media. The media does not tell you the
truth about how wars go. Wars are financed. Wars are purposed. Wars take place after decades,
decades of planning because the goal of the beast is to have
control over the world. He's not settled with his own
region of land. That's when you are a beast.
I'm going to talk about that here in a moment. But what you
see here in the Medo-Persian element is that God has told
them to go and devour much flesh. Do you know what that means?
God uses nations to shape the conditions of the world. and
the events that take place are designed to humble the masses
and to bring them into a place of subjection so that they might
look up and call on the name of the true and the living God.
In other words, what that means is if God wanted to send the
forces of China or Korea into America, it would be designed
by God to humble us and calls us to cry out to the true and
the living God. You better hear what I'm saying. God's sovereign. And he's not a sovereign God
sitting back on his throne, allowing things to sort of happen autocratically
on its own. God is moving the hearts of the
Kings with us however he wills, like the rivers of water. God
is ushering in the actions of the nations after the council
of his own will. God does this in order to check
sin, in order to punish nations, in order to bring men low, and
in order to save his elect. Am I making some sense? Cause
you don't hear this in the church today. God is sovereign. God controls everything. God
controls the devil. He owns the devil. The devil
can't breathe without God. The devil can't move without
God. He can't afflict one soul without the permission of the
true and the living God. Am I making some sense? You gotta
know that. And that's what these visions
are teaching us. Daniel, is shown by God and you and I, if we listen
carefully, if we listen to the word of God, the worst thing
you can do, let me say this, the worst thing you can do is
to think that you can navigate your life through this world
without this book. You are blind spiritually. to everything that's going on.
You cannot know what's going on in this world while you think
you can walk with God with your Bible closed. You can't. This
is God's counsel. This is God's prophecy. This
is God's warning. It's his testimony. It's his
truth to us. And if the Bible says, we shall
continue in the truth, we shall know the truth and the truth
will what? Set us free. That means it will set us free
comprehensively. What that means is like Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego, And Daniel all saw the things that were
coming down the line before they came. You and I can see them,
too. I'm here to tell you this is absolutely the God honest
truth. You can interpret the behaviors
of men. You can interpret the goings of nations by the word
of God. You can know what's going on. If you don't study your word,
you're walking in darkness. You're walking in absolute abysmal
darkness. See, there was a time when I
believe that all God was dealing with was his church. But it's impossible when you
think it through that if God is dealing with his church and
his church is in the world that God is not also dealing with
the world for his church's sake. And it's impossible if you believe
that the church is a byproduct of sinners from every nation,
kindred, tribe, and tongue out of the world brought into the
church, that God is not manipulating, coercing, controlling all the
affairs of the world and nations for the advancement of the gospel,
the salvation of sinners, and the building of his church. They
are all integrated. You can't separate it. Am I making
some sense? Very important for you to know
that because there is a type of interpretation that will put
blinders on you concerning the things that are taking place
in our world when the Bible gives us a periphery to comprehend
the secular and the sacred at the same time. The secular is
given to us in metaphors, is given to us in mysteries, is
given to us in symbolism. Because Jesus said to the disciples
in Matthew 13, when they said, Lord, why are you speaking to
them in parables? He says, because it's not given to them to know,
but it's given to you to know. So we're dealing with parables
right now. We're dealing with metaphors right now. That's how
John got it in the revelation. He was on the isle of Patmos,
in the spirit of the Lord, on the Lord's day, and God gave
him the full revelation. And that revelation was about
the time he lived in, and in the time you and I are living
in as well. Are you hearing me? All right, then let's go back
and look at the third beast for a moment. Am I boring you? No. All right. I would lie to you
and say I'll be done in five minutes, but I think I'll be
done in about 10 minutes. We're moving pretty quick, though.
We're only on the third beast. Verse five. And behold, another
beast. I'm sorry, verse six. And after
this, I beheld and another like a what? Leopard. which had upon
the back of it four wings of a what? Do you see the distinction
now? See how I'm helping you? It's
a fowl, it's not an eagle. It's a generic word for a bird. But the specific Hebrew word
for an eagle was to underscore the soaring nature of the Babylonian
kingdom of heights that are almost spiritual in nature because it's
the archetypal antichrist system. It is predominantly controlled
by Satan. Not that Medo-Persia is not,
not that this next kingdom is not, but in the sense in which
the Babylonian kingdom will have its ultimate culmination in the
book of Revelation. The Medo-Persian kingdom doesn't.
And this next kingdom doesn't either. And I'll talk about why
that's the case here in a moment. But it has wings. Now, think
with me for a moment. The animal that we are considering
is a what? Leopard. Beautiful animal. Splendid. Have you ever seen
one? Have you ever seen a black panther?
Same thing. Leopard, panther. Leopard, panther.
Have you ever seen them operate? Have you ever seen them walk?
Have you ever seen them crouch? Have you ever seen them lurk?
Have you ever seen them lunge at their prey? Have you ever
seen them from a dead stop jump 15 feet in the air up into a
tree? It's fascinating and it's amazing. What it teaches us is that God
made those animals. to show us the beauty and infinite
multifaceted nature of God's wisdom, but to give us a typology
of the behaviors of men. The leopard is like a lion in
that it's predatorial, but it's different than a lion in several
ways. Follow me now, don't go to sleep.
The leopard does not run in prides. It doesn't run in groups. It
doesn't have a posse. The leopard is all by himself. The leopard spies out its prey
and it waits and it waits and it waits and it waits. You will
find the leopard on the mountaintop. You'll find the leopard in a
tree. You'll find the leopard crouched down behind a bush and
you won't see that leopard because he'll make sure that he waits
until you don't see him. The lion, on the other hand,
will allow you to see him. because while you're looking
at one, three on the backside, getting ready to run you down.
Now, please follow me because while I'm giving you a little
bit of a connotation on nature, this here is dealing with spiritual
things. I'm with Daniel. I'm listening, Lord. Daniel's
listening. He understands the nature of
leopards. He understands the nature of bears. He understands
the nature of lions because all three of these predators dominated
the Middle East. Israel was troubled by bears
and lions all the time, weren't they? What about the leper? In your own time, you have Bible
verses in your outline. You know I always give you many
Bible verses in your outline. Why? I do that so that you can
go back to your Bible and have these things affirmed of which
I'm speaking to you. Also, I do that to let you know that we
are not taking a passage of Scripture out of its context and assigning
to it some arbitrary interpretation. I draw my conclusions based upon
precept here and precept there. Precept upon precept, line upon
line. in relationship to the subject
that I'm dealing with, not haphazard verses. And so the Bible will
tell us in the book of Jeremiah, God says, I will watch over Israel
like a leopard. And then he tells us in the book
of Hosea chapter 13, he says, and I will observe Israel like
a leopard. God is attributing to himself
the leopard like characteristic. Can I say something else before
I go on? He did the same thing with the bear and with the lion. Hosea chapter 13 verse seven,
he says, I will be like a lion. I will be like a bear and I'll
be like a leopard against my own people. You know what that
means? When God brings judgment on the church, God blames himself
for it. I didn't get one response out
of that one. We shown up in the 21st century, right? God doesn't
judge the church. Does God judge the church? The
Bible very clearly says God will judge his people. God judges
the church. As he judged Israel, he judges
the church. Revelation chapter one through three is nothing
but Jesus judging the church. He who walketh in the midst of
the candlesticks with eyes of flaming fire, feet like brass,
judging the affairs of men. Am I making some sense? Jesus
is a judge. So when you read Hosea chapter
13 verse 7, what you are reading in Hosea is God is saying these
nations that came against Israel, I brought them. Got it? I brought those nations. I brought
Babylon against Israel. I brought Medo-Persia against
Israel. I'm the one who did this. They
didn't do this of their own accord. They did it after the passion
of their own heart, but I'm the one who guided them. Am I making
some sense? Read the minor prophets. They know what they're talking
about. So then what is this fourth creature who is so agile in its
abilities, so swift in its power, so patient in its waiting to
overcome its prey? What is this creature? And then
on top of that, the Bible says he had four wings. Now, let me
tell you something. If you ever run across a leopard
with four wings, just give it up. Just say your prayers right
there, ask the Lord to save you right on the spot if you lost,
because if you flinch, you're gone. The symbolism teaches us
of the overwhelming, overwhelming, overwhelming speed of the leopard
in its domination of the nations of which it's assigned to dominate.
I want you to see what I'm talking about. Go with me to chapter
8. In chapter 8, We have a corresponding link of vision between the leopard
in chapter 7 and the he goat in chapter 8 verses 5 and 6. Are we there? Chapter 8, verse
5 and 6. Now watch this. And as I was
considering, behold, and he go came from the West. On the face
of the whole earth. Now watch this, and he didn't
touch the ground. and the goat had a notable horn
between his head. And he came to the ram. Now remember
the ram, Medo-Persia. So this he-goat is in battle
with Medo-Persia, and he's running so swift, his feet aren't touching
the ground. Man, I'm telling you, Daniel
was enjoying him some vision, wasn't he? This is the oxymoronic nature
of visions. They don't meet rational logic
when you're awake. Key goats are slow, folks. Key
goats are slow. This one is so swift at his feet. Have you ever ran so fast your
feet didn't touch the ground? I did. I remember telling this years ago.
Somebody was chasing me down with a pistol. And I ran so fast,
I outran those bullets. Past the line. Listen, let me
tell you something. Between me and God on the streets
of Oakland in the middle of the night when somebody trying to
kill you, I don't know how I got from one end of the street to
the other end of the street without that bullet hitting me, but God
helped me. And I could run a little bit
back then, but I'm telling you, I picked my feet up so quick,
I don't even remember touching the ground as I ran. There were
some angels lifting me up, running me down that way. I'm here to
tell you, that's why I'm here to preach to you today, because
I know God was with me at that time. And I heard those bullets
coming, but I ran those bullets. Do with that as you will. I'll talk to the Lord about that
when I get the glory. I'll thank him for those angels
that put wings on my white patent leather shoes that I used to
dance in. I'll thank him for it. I'll thank
him for it. I wore the rubber off those shoes going from East
14th to San Leandro out running somebody trying to kill me. Are
you hearing me? See y'all laughing, but a few
of my brothers know what I'm talking about. When that adrenaline
kicks in, a man or a woman will do things that you cannot even
believe. And so we have a correspondence
of this Hego battling against the Ram. The Ram is Medo-Persia. The Hego is the Grecian kingdom. The Hego is the Grecian kingdom.
I'll just give you one more verse to interpret that. Go over in
chapter eight to verse 20 and 21 and see what I'm saying. Are
you there? The Ram, which you saw having
two horns, are the kings of what? Media in Persia Notice what it
says in verse 21 and the rough goat is the king of what? Grease
and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king now
stop right there The Grecian Kingdom was Was prominently
known by one notable horn He's called the little horn. You know
who he was Alexander the Great We talked about this about four
years ago as we went through the book of Daniel. Alexander
the Great was a man that rose to prominence and power in around
330 years before Christ. He was a man in his teens. By
the time he was 24, 25 years old, he was the greatest, most
notable military leader in the known world at that time. He
died at around 33 years old, but in six years, He flew across Asia Minor, Macedonia,
Egypt, and Syria, and he took all the land. Everybody came
under subjection of him. His exploits were phenomenal. Just do your study and you'll
find out that what I'm talking about is true. In six years he
dominated. This here is the significance
of the four wings on the back of the leopard and the he go
rolling across the ground so fast. He ran up into the ram
and took him straight out. In fact, the history record says
that Alexander was so ominous that when he came to cities and
nations, they just gave up. That's why I said, if you ever
see a leopard with four wings, just pray, ask the Lord to save
you because it's over with. God is teaching Daniel about
the unfolding of world history. and the nations and the kingdoms
of the world in terms of their aggression one towards another.
God is showing Daniel the way the world is unfolding. Daniel
in the year 550 BC is receiving this vision and so far his vision
has been cast all the way to 333 BC. He's 200 years down the
line. Am I helping you? He's 200 years
down the line. He's only got 300 years before
he gets to Jesus. Are you hearing me? So the Medo-Persian
kingdom is dominated by the Grecian kingdom under Alexander the Great.
And the Bible tells us in Daniel chapter seven, chapter eight
and nine, that what happened was that his kingdom got broke
up into four parts. That's what the four wings are
about. That's what the four heads are about. Go back to chapter
seven. I'll use that as we launch into our last beast. It says,
and behold, over in verse six, I beheld and I saw a leopard
which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl. And the
beast had how many heads? That's right. And dominion was
given to it. In other words, God gave him authority. Now those
four heads, we are told in Daniel eight, the four heads that were
the consequence of the little horn expiring in his domination
of the land and his kingdom was broken up into four parts Daniel
chapter 8 verse 22 and 23 says this and the he goat after he
had come to his end that little horn was broken and the kingdom
was broken up into four parts but it never had the kind of
power that it did when the little horn was there Are you guys hearing
me? In other words, it was broken
up into four small kingdoms. And here are the four small kingdoms,
Egypt, Macedonia, Asia Minor, Egypt, Macedonia, Asia Minor
and Syria. If you had a map, you would be
able to see this if you started with Israel. Egypt is at the
bottom. Macedonia is right above Israel. Syria is right above Macedonia
and Asia Minor is to the side of Israel. There's only one other
kingdom left and it comes out of Rome, which is above Syria
and above Greece because Greece is between Syria and Israel.
Are you guys hearing me? The Roman Empire is the next
beast we want to consider. Give me a few more minutes of
your time. Look with me down at verse Chapter seven, verse
seven. And after this, I saw in the
night visions and behold, a fourth beast. Dreadful and terrible,
it's strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth and it
devoured and broken pieces and it stamped the residue with the
feet of it. And it was diverse from all the
beasts that were before it. And it had what? Ten horns. And I considered the horns and
behold, there came up among them a little horn, before whom there
were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots. And
behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a
mouth speaking great things." What a beast. What a beast. Daniel couldn't even describe
this beast. For the economy of time, I'm gonna help you. This
beast is the Roman Empire because the Roman Empire was the most
vicious, bloodthirsty, hostile, aggressive kingdom in the East,
in the Middle East, during the days prior to the coming of Jesus. You'll notice that it starts
off with the lion, Babylon, then it goes to Medo-Persia, right?
This is the bear. Then it goes to the Grecian kingdom.
This is the leopard. Each successive kingdom dominates
the other. So what you have is actually
an expansion of the kingdom. That kingdom expands itself all
the way to the Roman Empire. Rome dominated the known world
of that day. So what you have in the picture
or the imagery here is not only the exaltation of earthly kingdom,
but the expansion of those kingdoms. I need to say that we'll develop
this as we go on, but kingdoms don't exist not to expand. America doesn't exist not to
expand. Its influence is all over the
world. China is not resting. Russia is not resting. The Middle
East is not resting. Don't fool yourself. They haven't
drawn their lines and said, I'm content with what I got. Why?
Because they're beast. Will you hear me? Beast always
prepare to dominate other lands. And what Jesus or what Daniel
has seen is what God has demonstrated, the succession of kingdoms, but
the expansion of those kingdoms by swallowing up to themselves
the kingdoms that were before them. By the time you get to
the Roman Empire, Alexander the Great has already dominated most
of the land. Only land he didn't dominate,
only land he didn't dominate was the Roman Empire or what
we call Italy, Rome. And Rome was in existence 600
years before Christ. God had just simply set them
aside while he paints this picture of what Daniel is seeing. Now
he brings Rome into the picture. And he describes Rome as a hostile
creature. You can't even describe him.
He's unnatural. He's undescriptive. But Rome
is given to us in Revelation chapter 13 verse one. Don't go
there. Revelation 13 verse one gives
us a composite sketch of the lion, the bear and the leopard
under the auspices and control of the Roman empire. Are you
hearing me? That's Revelation chapter 13 verse one, which means
while it was 600 years before Jesus, all these nations existed,
they went out of power. It didn't mean that they did
not have a base or a literal existence. In fact, Daniel chapter
seven says, and the rest of the beast had a little season where
they existed, but they weren't influential. The beast that was
influential was the Roman empire. Daniel chapter seven verse eight
says, and I considered the horns and there were 10 horns that
rose up. You guys see that? In your own time, go through
the book of Revelation. All it talks about is this ten
horned beast. Ten horns! These are not your
ten common market. These are not ten nations. These
are a composite whole of what the Bible calls symbolically
the completion of the nations under the dominion of the Roman
Empire. The number ten is the number
for completion. Don't look for 10 nations in
your 10 common market. That's too literal. The number
10 is the number of fullness. There was one horn that rose
up and the Bible says he had eyes like a man and a mouth like
a what? He spoke great blasphemies against God. John talked about
this in Revelation 13 and there was given unto the beast a mouth
speaking great blasphemies against God. Isn't that what it says?
Here this one horn has one set of eyes. Now the horn in the
Bible represents power and strength and dominion, whether that be
political or whether that be religious. Let me wrap this up
now and drive this home. What Daniel sees coming up out
of Rome is a notable horn who has all the characteristics of
a man. He has a set of eyes. a mouth
but you'll see in Revelation chapter 5 verse 6 that the Lamb
of God has a horn yea seven horns and seven eyes so you have one
man with one horn a set of eyes and a mouth then you got another
man with seven horns and seven sets of eyes What are we dealing
with? We're dealing with the Antichrist
over there and the true and the living God right here in the
person of the Lord Jesus. See, the book of Revelation expands
the imagery and gives us a fuller picture with a clearer interpretation. In Daniel chapter seven, you
guys have just been introduced by the fourth beast with its
Antichrist leader. He has eyes. You know what that
means? He thinks like a man and he sees
like a man. That means he has wisdom. It's
carnal earthly wisdom, but it's wisdom. Eyes always represent
understanding. That the eyes of your understanding
might be what? Enlightened. These are the same
eyes that own your dollar bill in your pocket. These are the
same eyes that watch over the whole world through the pyramid
scheme controlling all of the power banks in our society. Same
eyes, same eyes have been controlling the world since the day that
the Lord Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 24, when you see the
abomination that make a desolate standing in the holy place, flee
to the mountains. Historically, this horn with
the eyes represents the Roman Catholic Church. It came up out
of Rome. We're dealing with the Roman
Empire. And we're dealing with the apostate church with this
man of sin, the papacy seeking to control the masses of the
world with its political, religio power. Am I making some sense?
This is what Jesus warned John about in Revelation chapter 13,
verse one. You're going to suffer under
the hands of the Roman pontiff in the early church. because
the Roman pontiff is going to mimic himself being like the
true lamb who has seven horns and seven sets of eyes which
means he has perfect wisdom and he has perfect discernment and
he has perfect power. Am I making some sense? This
is the antithesis that you're dealing with here. Now I want
to show you one other thing. Notice what it says in verses
9 through 14. And I beheld till the thrones were cast down and
the Ancient of Days did sit Whose garment was white as snow and
the hair of his head like wool Pure wool and thrones like the
and the throne of his was like a fiery flame and his wheels
were burning flames What is verse 9 describing? the judge Sitting on his judgment throne
in Preparation for judgment the proverb says the throne is set
for judgment Who's sitting on the throne? God. He's called
the Ancient of Days. That's why we sang the song.
Folks, get it. Our hymns are designed to accompany
us with sound theology. The Ancient of Days. He sits
on his throne. What is he doing sitting on his
throne? He's about to bring judgment. Who is he about to bring judgment
on? This beast. whose mouth is so big blaspheming
the true and the living God. God says that's enough. I'm going
to do something about this. Let me show you what I'm talking
about. Look with me over at verse 11. And I beheld them because
of the voice of the great words which the horn spake. Do you
see that? I beheld even till the beast was what? And his body
destroyed and given to the burning flame. What happened? God sat
in judgment against the beast. I'm here to tell you when the
kingdoms of this world rise up so high, become so arrogant,
so proud, so contrary to the true and the living God, so blasphemous
in his policies and his legislation, God will take care of his own
business. God will take care of his own
business. The Roman empire with its arrogance of autonomy and
spirituality, Caesar being Lord, are you kidding? Jesus is Lord.
The picture that we have in verses 9 through 14 is the fifth kingdom. The fifth kingdom is the kingdom
of our Lord, Savior, Jesus Christ. It's the kingdom that's above.
It's the kingdom that rules over all kingdoms. It's the kingdom
that controls the affairs of this world. You'll notice what
it says. God sat in judgment and he destroyed the beast. And
then the Bible says, and then I saw one like the son of man.
Do you see it? Look at it. And then I saw one
like the son of man, verse 13. And then I saw the night visions,
and behold, one like the son of man came with the clouds of
heaven, and he came to the ancient of days, and they brought him
near before him. Here we have a distinction between
the son and the father. The father is viewed as the ancient
of days, and the son is viewed as the one who has a right to
come to the throne. But in Revelation chapter 1,
Jesus is described as having hair like wool. Because in His
essence, He is one with the Father. In His authority, He is equal
with the Father. In His eternality, He is equal
with the Father. He carries the same attributes
of the Father, but He is distinctly the Son. Am I making some sense?
And in Revelation chapter 1, Jesus is viewed now as the Judge. In the book of Daniel, He's viewed
as the Servant who has successfully accomplished the crown rights
by which he opens the seven seals. And now God gives to Jesus the
right to sit in judgment over the worlds. Am I making some
sense? That's why he's not viewed as
on the throne. Why? Because when he walked this
earth for 30 some odd years, he walked this earth as the son
of man. He walked this earth as God's
last Adam. He walked this earth as the representative
of his people, the surety of his elect, the savior of his
church. And he bowed himself under the
wrath of God to put away our sins by the sacrifice of himself.
and He justified us from all things from which the law of
Moses could never justify a guilty sinner. He died on Calvary's
cross, He rose again the third day, and God set Him at His own
right hand to rule over the nations. And Jesus has been there for
2,000 years ruling over the nations. How does He do it? How does He
do it? How does He rule over the nations?
Through the preaching of the gospel of the glory of God in
every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. That's how He's been
doing it. He's been slain the beast by the church of Jesus
Christ as it goes into all again It was in the hymn not with swords
Do we go forth to conquer but by love and good deeds that is
the preaching of the gospel of the glory of God This is how
we overcome this world system and the Bible says and what in
what was given to him was a dominion of that was everlasting forever
and ever and ever and what john sees in this small picture not
john but daniel sees in this small picture is this the success
of the gospel to thwart and stop the pagan powers of this world
system until god has saved his last elect sinner and then that
same jesus is going to break the heavens and break the silence
and come in power to destroy this world and start all over
again, having cast the beast, the false prophet and the devil
into the lake of fire and judge men who have rejected the message
of the gospel and bring his elect into the fullness of bliss and
salvation of which he's promised us now for 2000 years. Do you
guys see what I see? Then you're in good shape. Let's
close in prayer. Father, we thank you for your
time. We thank you for your word. We thank you for Jesus. We thank
you for his gospel. We thank you for this message.
We thank you for Daniel. We ask, Lord, that you help us
to drink it in and understand that the things that are going
on today, right now in our world, are things that have already
been and are culminating, bringing us to a final climax. May your
church understand it's calling, may it understand it's job, may
it understand it's purpose. May we walk like Jesus walking,
declare the truth like he declared it, because that's the way you've
called us to conquer this world. Give us grace, Father, to do
just that. In Jesus' name we pray.