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Well, good morning.
Good morning.
Gary, do you mind opening us up with a word of prayer, seeing how you're visiting with.
Us today?
Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you this day, Lord God, and we thank you for the love that you've shown for your sovereignty. And we ask, dear Lord God, that you'll speak your words through my word, Lord God, and we will take from this, Lord God, what we need to take in Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
Open your Bibles to Daniel, chapter 2, and we will finish it today. And I'm going to pick up in verse 36. I'm going to read to the end of the chapter for context. This is where he interpreted the dream.
It says, This was a dream. Now we will tell its interpretation before the king. You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength, the glory.
And wherever the sons of men dwell, or the beast of the field, or the birds of the sky, he has given them to your hand and has caused you to rule over them. And you are the head of gold. After you, there will arise another kingdom inferior to you, then another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over the earth.
Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron, and as much as iron crushes and shatters all things, so like iron that breaks into pieces, it will crush and break all of these in pieces. And that you saw the feet and toes, partly potter's clay and partly of iron.
It will be a divided kingdom, but it will have in it the toughness of iron, insomuch as you saw the iron mixed with the common clay. As the toes and the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong and partly it will be brittle.
And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seeds of men, but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery. In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people.
It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever, insomuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it crushed the iron and the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold.
And the great God has made this known to you, king, what will take place in the future. So the dream is true, and its interpretation is trustworthy. Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and paid homage to Daniel.
He gave orders to present him with an offering of fragrance of incense, and the king answered Daniel, and he said, Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, since you have been able to reveal this mystery.
Then the king promoted Daniel, and he gave him many great gifts and made him ruler over the whole providence of Babylon, and the chief prefect over all of the wise men of Babylon. And Daniel made a request of the king, and appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the administrations of the providence of Babylon, while Daniel was in the king's.
Court.
So last week we started going through the kingdoms.
We had, who was the most significant figure for those that were in here last week?
Anybody remember?
Anyone? Anyone?
Nebuchadnezzar.
He was the most significant, and his purpose, God raised him up for the purpose of doing.
What to the people of God?
Chastising them. Yeah, chastising them. Jeremiah 25 and 27 both said that he raised up Nebuchadnezzar as his vessel or his instrument to chastise his people, and that was the reason.
Then we had the next one, which would have been a Medo-Persian, and what's interesting.
About this and the statue, it falls along the lines of it having the arms, and as we look and we go further into the book, the two arms would be the Medo and the Persians. This becomes the smaller, less prominent part, and it winds up being just the Persian Empire.
Who's the most significant that we know in the Persian Empire. From last week in redemptive.
History?
What did he do?
He did.
It was prophecy. Correct. How many years? Do you remember how many years prophesied before? By name. It was prophesied 150 years before he even comes on the scene. Cyrus, my anointed one, will send the people back.
After I have punished them for being disobedient, he's going to send them back into the land to show restoration.
Well then, Greece.
Obviously, who's the most significant person in the Greek Empire? Alexander the Great. Now, I got asked this question after class. Somebody said, can you tell me where the intertestamental time comes in?
I'm going to take part of your seminar class. The intertestamental period comes in between these two. Greece is prophesied and Alexander the Great is prophesied to specificity in the book of Daniel. With the exception of his name, there is no argument among liberal scholars, conservative scholars, biblical scholars, historical.
He was prophesied to the T. That's why some believe that the Daniel was written after all of these events because of the amount of prophetic detail that's given. Okay? So, it's here. So, you have Cyrus.
The last king would be Artaxerxes. And then it goes into the intertestamental time. Is that correct? I want to make sure. He's a historian. So, I'm just trying to make sure. Darius III doesn't really show up in scripture because he's overthrown by Alexander the Great in 331.
So, if you're trying to keep time frame, this lasted about 80 years. This one lasts about 220 to 219 years. Understand, this was gold. This was silver. Higher quality in the Colossus. But see, they get lesser quality, harder, but longer empire.
Follow me?
Everybody following?
Okay.
This goes about 220 years. This one comes in, overthrows them around 539. I mean, I'm sorry, 331. This is somewhat debated on where the Grecian Empire actually falls. I'm going to say it actually falls, this is all BC by the way, 27 BC.
Okay, and I'm going to tell you how I come to this because this sets up the Roman Empire, which is each one of these. This is important. This is how God worked through redemptive history prophetically and he raised up a nation in every generation and generation successive that paved the way for the stone that was cut without hands that would set up Messiah's kingdom.
Okay? Anybody remember what happened after Alexander the Great died last week or what we said happened? Splintered into four, go ahead.
Four kingdoms.
Four kingdoms. Do you know the generals? Ptolemy?
Yeah, it was one.
Yeah, okay. Ptolemy, Cassander, Lysimachus, and Seleucid. And out of those, I'm just going to put P, S, F, and Cassander. Now, these two become the more prominent. These two begin to end.
Y 'all remember last week?
What happened? These two begin to end fights with one another more than all of them. And this gets much detail in chapter 7, 8, 10, and 11 as we get through the book. So go, why have we spent so much time in the last two to three weeks on this?
Because if you don't understand these four kingdoms and the fifth kingdom that's set up forever, which is Messiah's kingdom, the book's not going to make any sense. This sets up how we understand every vision afterwards.
Okay? With the exception of one dream that Nebuchadnezzar gets in the tree in chapter 4. All these others build upon this. This dream of the Colossus comes in to Nebuchadnezzar, but it's given more detail to how it's going to unfold over the next some 500 years to the time of Christ.
How it's going to unfold comes to Daniel. And when you get to chapter 7 and 8, it focuses very intently on this one. And when we get there, I can tell you why.
All right.
It splinters into these four. Then as it splinters into these four, they begin to end fight with one another. These become the prominent, the Ptolemy and Seleucus. He takes Egypt. He takes, basically, Babylon, which we'd say Iran.
He actually had Palestine for a while until Seleucid Empire comes down from the north and he fights and takes over Palestine at some point. Well, kids, y 'all heard of Cleopatra? Kids? How many of y 'all thought she was Egyptian?
She actually wasn't. She actually was Greek. She came out of the Seleucid Empire. She was given to the Ptolemies as a bride to try to unify so they would quit the fighting. I know people are like, oh, I didn't know that.
Yeah.
You know the song Walk Like an Egyptian, you got her doing the... No, she was Greek.
Now, there was two.
There was one early given on. And then you had the Cleopatra. That happens... Well, she's dead now.
She...
There was two.
Two major. You had one. How many of y 'all heard of Marc Anthony? Julius Caesar, right? Who was Julius Caesar's lover? I know this is history, but it's important because that's how this all takes place.
Cleopatra. Cleopatra. This one, the later one. Cleopatra and Julius Caesar. The last dictator, per se, before it goes into the empire. She was his lover. When he was murdered... Anybody remember how he was murdered in history?
Anybody remember Julius Caesar? He was killed at Pompeii's theater. He was killed by Cassius and Brutus and a bunch of other... 40 other senators, okay? That's when the rise of Octavian comes in. Octavian winds up being...
Anybody know who this guy is?
We talked about it last week.
Caesar Augustus. In history, who was Caesar Augustus? Go to Bethlehem. That's exactly right. Caesar Augustus was Octavian. Caesar Octavian Augustus. He winds up being the first emperor of Rome. The first emperor of Rome.
Not Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar was a dictator. He had tried to grab a hold of the power from the Senate, which caused infighting, which caused Octavian Augustus to then fight against Cleopatra and Mark Anthony.
And Mark Anthony and Cleopatra wind up committing suicide because Octavian Augustus, which would soon be the first emperor of Rome, was going to kill him. So this becomes the rise of... Because she was married off to the Egyptian ruler, but she was actually Greek.
That's why.
Now, I've got to come over here so that I can put... The Roman Empire. So this lasts anywhere between 260 years or so.
More.
The longer, some people say 300 years, okay? So as they get into the lower quality, more hardened metals, they become longer empires in the vision.
So now we have Rome, 27 to BC,.
When he seizes power. He gets rid of Lepidus. He gets rid of Mark Anthony, which was part of the second triumvirate. Do you know what that was? That was part of the three-way, how they ruled the Roman Empire before it became an empire.
Augustus seizes that power. He takes it because of the coup that was tried to do with him. Mark Anthony killed himself. Lepidus then gets banished to another providence. Caesar Augustus seizes power. He becomes the first emperor,.
And that's how long the Roman Empire lasts.
Isn't that crazy? When they were overthrown by the Visigoths, they were sacked. The sack of Rome happened in 476.
That's why I put it here.
Time of Augustine. Augustine actually saw it, if I remember correctly. Yes, the Visigoths, the Vandals. If I remember correctly, that's how they were. Yeah, correct. So you see how long this empire was.
Obviously, you had emperor after emperor after emperor after emperor. You go into the Holy Roman Empire. You go into Christendom and all of that. All of that's included in here, but that is the Roman Empire.
But at 3 BC, roughly,.
Caesar Augustus says, I want everybody in the known land to go back somewhere. He wants them to go back to their homeland so that he can tax them. That sends Joseph and Mary back to Bethlehem. So you see how God has worked all of this out.
In the meantime, in the meantime, while Caesar Augustus has made a decree for them to go back, Alexander made what language universal? Koine Greek. Everywhere you went, from the Indus River to Bulgaria, modern day Bulgaria, everybody knew Koine Greek.
Now, they might speak Aramaic. They still may speak a little Hebrew. They may speak wherever their little tribal tongue was, per se. But everybody spoke Koine Greek. That's huge. Because if you remember what I said last week, when they got the Hebrew scriptures translated into the Greek tongue, Koine Greek, by this empire here, told me the second and the third century.
Not only did they have it where they could pass to scriptures or Old Testament scriptures around, but then, as it went from the Greek Empire to the Roman Empire, what did Rome do to help get books? Mail.
What did they do? There's a saying. Roman roads. Hey, all roads lead to Rome. Which made it possible for Mary and Joseph to get back to their homeland where they needed to be taxed. Then, as the scriptures are written over the course of, which I believe it was all written before 67, 68 A .D., Old Testament and New Testament could go all over the empire.
So you see how God used each one of these. Nebuchadnezzar chastens God's people. Cyrus then, after the 70 years of captivity, he then sends them back for the restoration as the prophecy had been given through Isaiah and Jeremiah.
Then, as you get to the Greek Empire, it was prophesied that there would be a man that would come that would be strong and mighty and he would overrun the earth very quickly. That was Alexander the Great.
And then it talks about a ruthless kingdom that will come up made of steel, I mean made of iron. The iron heel of Rome. That's what comes. But then it says he had some feet and toe problems and we really didn't get into that a whole bunch last week because we ran out of time.
It says iron and clay. How many people in here have a study Bible? Does anybody say the revived Roman Empire? Ten toes. Anybody? Most of your study Bibles say the ten toes is the revived Roman Empire at the end of the age.
That right before the kingdom of Messiah comes, there will be a revived Roman Empire made up of ten confederate states that come together. That was the pretty much teaching by most scholars up until just after 1980 when they jumped from eight confederate states of the revived Roman Empire to twelve very quickly.
And then that idea began to dissipate. I think that's an utterly ridiculous view because you're interpreting Scripture in light of the world event, not fulfilled history. Understand? So, if you want to see what the iron and clay were, does anybody remember what I briefly spoke of last week which came about with the Romans and the Herods?
Anybody remember last week? Who appointed Herod? The Romans. You know why he was appointed? Because he helped Mark Anthony. You see all this? I mean, this is how it played in history.
So, the Romans, the Herods,.
Become in cahoots with one another.
They try to polytheist,.
Somewhat, I would say, monotheist. They were of the descendants of Abraham, but that's still a little... These men have one way they want to rule the Empire. They've given these men a way of ruling the Jews.
Did they have a right to rule the Jews? Did the Herods have a right to rule the Jews? No, they weren't of the descendants. They didn't have a right to be a king. They were put in place and that constantly caused conflict.
So, you have these two different world views trying to come together and mix to rule a group of people that doesn't mesh together. Iron and clay do not mix. These constantly fought.
Constantly.
I mean, constantly. There were at times, right before the Herod's come, you had what was called the Hasmonean Dynasty. That came out of the Maccabean War, and we'll get to that when we get to chapter 7 and 8.
But they sent Rome to squash that, that dispute between the Hasmonean Dynasty and between the Roman Empire. They had two that were bickering, who should get the next in line, who should be the next Judean king, who should be the next Judean priest.
It was Hyrcanus and Aristobulus. Those men were fighting over who had the next heir to the throne. Rome steps in, conquers it through Pompey.
In around 36.
They install Herod, squash it all, Antigonus winds up being put in place to be the high priest. Remember, all this is put in by the Roman Empire. This is not done by lineage based on what the Scripture said.
So that's where this here doesn't mix. Think about one time where the Herods and the Romans agreed. Anybody remember? It's pretty easy. That's it. That's the only time. And actually, if you read that in the narrative, it says it's at that time that they became friends.
They had a unified hatred, and that unified hatred was for the Messiah. Pilate was threatened if he was really a king, although Jesus said, my kingdom's not of this world, because he asked him, hey, are you a king?
And he said, you said, well, but my kingdom's not of this world. If this kingdom was of my world, you know what I would do? My people would come and fight for me. He says, don't you know I could dispatch 12 ,000 legions of angels and I could flatten this place?
Jesus said, my kingdom's not of this world. So that was the only time they were unified. This constantly bickering, fighting, and in 70 AD, it's finally put to rest. But that's where these don't mix. But then it says there is another kingdom that arises.
And it says in verse 45, inasmuch as you saw that stone cut without hands, it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. That happened in 3 BC, when Jesus Christ was born on the earth.
That was the inauguration of Messiah's kingdom. Not waiting for some thousand year reign, not waiting for something. When Jesus comes on the scene, Messiah's kingdom begins. Now, was it in its full fullness?
Well, of course not. It was not in its fullness. Because what does it say? It was a stone, small stone cut without hands, and as it begins to roll, it says it then took over the whole earth. Right? If we look at Isaiah chapter 7, it said there was a promise that a virgin would be born with a child.
That's pretty small, isn't it? That seems pretty insignificant. But then you go on to chapter 9 of Isaiah. Anybody remember what the prophecy of that would be? It says that he would be a governor and a counselor.
Let's read it. Turn your Bibles to Isaiah. So you don't have to take my word for it. And this is a prophecy about Jesus, actually at the beginning of Matthew, because he comes, I'm sorry, Isaiah chapter 9.
There's a prophecy about a light coming out of Galilee of the Gentiles. Remember, Galilee was up high. It was almost into the Gentile land. And it was often called Galilee of the Gentiles. Well, listen to what it says, and we'll just start verse 1.
But there will be no more gloom for her who has anguish. As I mentioned earlier times, he treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Natali with contempt. But later he shall make it glorious by the way of the sea on the other side of the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.
And here was the prophecy about Jesus in Matthew. So this was concerning Jesus. The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. Those who live in a dark land, that light will shine on them. You shall multiply the nation.
You shall increase their gladness. They will be glad in your presence, as with the gladness of the harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For you shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff of their shoulders and the rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian.
For every boot of the booted warrior in a battle of tumult and the cloak rolled in blood will be burning fuel for the fire. And here's the prophecy of his birth and what he will be. For a child will be born to us and a son will be given and the government will rest on his shoulders.
His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, the Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of his government or of his peace. On the throne of David and over his kingdom, and he will establish it to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. That is the Messiah's kingdom. It says that when this Messiah comes, when this child is born, this son is given, it is going to be at that point that Messiah's kingdom begins and he is going to be Wonderful is the actual name.
It's interesting in that passage there, he's called Wonderful. Does anybody remember when Mr. and Mrs. Manoa are told about Samson being going to have a baby? Anybody remember what they ask him who you are?
Anybody remember what he says he is? He says, I am Wonderful. And we all, at least most people, believe that they were speaking to the pre-incarnate Christ at that point. He says, My name is Wonderful.
And it said he did many signs and deeds in front of them. I've often wondered what did he do? What kind of magical looking things did he do in front of them? But it says that he would have the government rest on his shoulders and the increase of his government and the peace would never end.
What does it say about that stone cut without hands when it shatters all of these other kingdoms? What does it say in Daniel? It will never end. What happened to each one of those empires? They were either overrun, engulfed, or taken over, or absorbed into the next kingdom.
But when the kingdom of Messiah comes, it shatters it all. And even Jesus speaks of his kingdom being as a stone. When he was, I call it the day of questioning, it was on, if you want to do it in our calendar, it was on Tuesday of Passion Week.
He's giving all of these parables. He speaks of the lawless vine dressers. And he said, this vine, this man had a vineyard. This dignitary had a vineyard. And he gave it to these people and he rented it out.
He provided everything for them. And when it come time to pay, they didn't pay. They didn't produce the fruit. They didn't give him what he needed. And it says that he sent a dignitary to them. And what did they do to the dignitary?
They killed him. Then he said, I sent another official. And that other official told him it's time to pay up. You owe the owner. And it said they killed him. And it said that landowner, the vineyard owner, said, You know what?
I'm not going to send any more of my dignitaries or officials. I'm going to send my son. And it says they sent the son. The dignitary sent the son. And as the vine dresser saw the dignitary's son coming, it says we shall kill him and we'll keep this kingdom for ourself.
Remember, Jesus is telling this to the Pharisees. And it says that when he came, it said that they killed the son. And it says he asked the dignitaries, What should be done to those men? He said to the Pharisees, What should be done to those men that killed that man's son?
And he said, They're miserable wretches. They should be put to death and their cities burned. And then Jesus said, That's you. And then it says, I am the stone by which the builders have rejected. I am the one whom you have rejected.
I'm the chief cornerstone. And then he goes on to say, But not only am I the chief cornerstone, I am a stone which if you fall on me, you will be crushed. And if I fall on you, you will be crushed into powder and be blown off in like dust.
What does it say in Daniel? That when that stone hits every one of those kingdoms, it shatters it into dust. And it says,. And it blows out like the noonday chafe. Jesus is speaking of himself in the same way that Daniel did.
Messiah's kingdom, this is important. Messiah's kingdom did not begin at Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. It began when he came into the world in his humility. When he began to do everything that the law required of him by God.
Look, do we often think of Jesus' suffering as a baby? Do we? Do we think of Jesus' suffering as a child? You understand that the son of the living God humiliated himself to be carried into the womb of a woman and then came into this sin-cursed world and he suffered from the day he was conceived by the Holy Spirit in his mother's womb.
Look, he gave his prerogatives of deity. Now, he didn't give away his deity. I want you to understand that. But every prerogative of his deity, he gave back. How many times could Jesus have just spoke a word to those that said things about him, picked up stones to kill him?
Jesus could have spoke a word and incinerated them. Could he not? But he didn't. He humiliated himself. He humbled himself. He took those prerogatives of deity and put them aside for a larger, greater purpose.
It says what? That he, knowing and looking at the cross, and the joy that was set before him. Look, the cross was not joyful. What was going to be joyful about the other side of the cross? Him receiving this kingdom by which he was going to purchase.
That's what it's about. Now, like I said, some of your study Bibles may say this is about a thousand year reign. There is no merit for that anywhere in the Bible. No merit for it.
None.
And probably over the next, probably six weeks, you may hear some things that may be odd. That's when we get into Antiochus Epiphanes, and we get into the Jewish wars, and the Maccabean revolt. All of that is prophesied in the book of Daniel, and it's prophesied to the T.
Just like all these kingdoms were. But the major kingdom is the kingdom of Messiah. It will come in the person and work of Jesus Christ, and it will never be destroyed.
Yes, sir.
But what are your thoughts on Messiah being strictly theological versus having, like, what I mean by that is like the Lord's Prayer, we're taught to pray. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
But also you see, even into early Christian history, you see people like the Crusaders taking that into a, I'm talking about the Christian Crusaders.
I see.
Not the personal gain, but the Christian Crusaders. It was basically a takeover of the Muslims for Christ.
But they took up arms to do that.
That's what I'm saying. I'm saying do you see the kingdom of Christ being strictly a theological, you know, conversion type? Or do you see it actually having, like, physical?
It has to have physical ramifications. When Jesus said, I think it was in Matthew chapter 4, the first time we think it's where we see him say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He's baptized.
He goes out into the wilderness. He is tested for 40 days. He comes back, and it says from that point on, he began to preach, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of God is at hand.
Why was it at hand? Because the Messiah was here. Now, is it a spiritual thing? Well, of course it's spiritual because the conversion starts within the heart. Right? It says that a part of the new covenant is that God's going to take out that heart of stone, put it in the heart of flesh.
It causes you to walk in his ways and obey your statutes. Well, if God converts the person's heart through a spiritual act, it's impossible for it not to have physical ramifications. A man's heart changes.
He changes the way he thinks. He changes the way he thinks. He then changes the way he acts. Did I answer your question? Are you talking about the Crusaders itself going out and doing the very same things that the Muslim did, which was try to convert people by the sword?
Right. I'm saying, yeah, I guess I would say like Christ's kingdoms in form of like governments, you know, would you say that, you know, you can have like, hey, this, this, like, you know, Christian government, we are working to advance the kingdom of Christ.
I believe that that could be a physical outpouring of a person's conversion. You know, a president gets saved, a senator gets saved. Like they can further the kingdom of Christ.
They can.
But do I believe there's going to be a Christian government? No.
The Bible doesn't talk anything about that. It does talk about a new heavens and a new earth. But it doesn't talk about this post-millennial euphoria that one day there's going to be this, this kingdom on earth that's going to be ruled and reigned by a Christian government.
That's nowhere in the Bible. That's completely conjecture. Now it does talk about men and women being in the world, but not of the world. And then we should try to make changes to the world by our beliefs and by standing on the word.
But it never tells us to try to overrun the government. I mean, and that could hold revolutions.
I just know how some people, they take the passage, you know, my kingdom is not of this world. And they say, well, then that doesn't, you know, we're just supposed to be about conversion. That's all we're supposed to care about is people's souls, which is a large part.
And when we care about people's souls, Christ can use that for that furtherance.
No doubt. No, we have to interact with it. If not, we'd have to all go move out and be hermits and, you know, live in some compound. And next thing you know, we'd be called David Koresh's and all kinds of stuff.
You know, they'd think we're out there drinking Kool-Aid or something. But no, I think with Jesus, not I think, I'm confident. Jesus was making the distinction. If somebody would have come and arrested Caesar, what would have happened?
There would have been an all-out war. Okay, physical war. Jesus is making that contrast. Look, y 'all have arrested me. I'm an innocent man. Hey, six times, Pilate had to answer that question. He had six times to let Jesus go, and that coward did not.
He had six times he said, that man's innocent. That man's done nothing wrong. That man needs to be let go. Even his wife had a dream and said, hey, I had a dream last night saying, you better not touch that man.
He needs to go. You need to let him go. So Jesus was making that contrast. Look, if my kingdom was like yours, man, we would run you over. And what did Jesus say in the Garden of Gethsemane when Peter cut off Malchus' ear?
What are you doing? You know, this is not what it's about, you know. This is not about raising up arms and trying to protect me. I can handle myself. It's because this kingdom was not of this world. It was about raising up a kingdom of priests, priesthood of the believer.
What did he say? He said, you know, we are made of kings and priests. Well, kings and priests of what? Kings and priests that are seated in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus, and we have every right and privileges that Jesus has.
You all know that? Do you know that? That God does not love you any less than He loves His Son. Do you know you don't have any less privileges and promises than Jesus has? I don't know about y 'all, but that doesn't compute in my brain right.
But if you look what it says in Ephesians, that we are seated in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus, we are heirs to the kingdom that He has. And what does that make us? Now, we shouldn't walk around like we're kings and priests, and look at me, I'm going to rule and reign over you.
That's not what it's talking about. We are heirs because we are in Christ, not because of something we have done. That's part of being of Messiah's kingdom. We get everything that Jesus gets. We got.
And we are sealed, George.
Because of the new covenant, yeah. And when we get to chapter 7, which gets into detail more how this unfolds, it's actual where it talks about the Ancient of Days giving the Son of Man. It says that He goes and He receives a kingdom.
Well, what makes Daniel kind of have consternation is he sees all these good things that are happening. He says the Son of Man goes and He receives a kingdom, and then He takes that kingdom, the Son of Man, meaning Christ, and then He gives that kingdom back to His people.
That's what it says in 7, but then it goes on right after that, and it talks about this great time of persecution that takes place over another hundreds and hundreds of years. That's what makes Daniel go several times in the book, I was trembling and I was scared.
I was sick for many days. I could not eat. Because he sees the restoration of His people through Cyrus, but then he sees the vision, God's people right here, it's bad, man.
It's bad. It's bad.
Then when you get into Rome, he sees that too, and it actually says in chapter 11 that the man makes war with the saints. And if you remember that statement, if you've read anything in Revelation, what does it say in Revelation about the beast?
The beast wages war against the saints, and that's what Daniel's hearing. Daniel goes, well, I don't understand. This kingdom of Messiah is supposed to be, and from his understanding, it's supposed to be this time of peace.
The vision's, no, it's not going to be a time of peace. It's going to be a time of great distress until that peace comes. Kingdom of Messiah is peace, but it's peace with God. Kingdom of Messiah on this earth is war.
I'm not talking about talking about raising up arms. I'm talking about it's a spiritual warfare, and even gets in that in chapter 9 and 10. You see a spiritual battle that's taking place in the heavens, and Michael the archangel and Daniel is then dispatched to go take the message, a spiritual basically two angels fighting in the heavenlies, and he sends Michael the archangel to squash it so that he can get this message down to Daniel.
I mean, that sounds weird, but that's what happened because the battle we wage in Messiah's kingdom is not against flesh and blood. It's against principalities and powers and rulers of darkness and evil in high places.
That's how the Bible describes it, not taking up like the Crusades, taking up arms, going out and converting Christians, trying to make Christendom. I think that's a terrible way of trying to show Christianity.
Think about that, Christianizing the world. Man, Baptists and Presbyterians can't agree on who takes the table and who's baptized. What do you think is going to happen with a Christianized quote earth?
Are they going to be fighting one another over who gets baptized and who takes the table just like they did in the medieval times? That's right. They killed one another. They drowned our ancestors. Our Baptist ancestors put stones around their necks, took them out into the middle of the lake, and through the baptismal waters you have offended, through the baptismal waters you were condemned, and they threw them jokers over with a millstone around their neck and drowned our Baptist ancestors.
What do you think would happen again? That's exactly what would happen again. We've got 35 seconds for questions.
I think that's a good, I think your summaration. There is a good opening speech though to the Christians who are all about Christ's kingdom is all about winsomeness and it's repentant belief. That is very clear.
That was the message. That's always been the message. That's been the message of the prophets. That's been the message of Jesus, and that's been the message from every apostle after him and all of the writings of the church fathers.
It's repent. It's repent and turn to Christ. John, you'll pray us out, brother?
Father, we thank you again for this opportunity to delve into your word and really piece through all of everything that you've revealed. We just thank you for that. We thank you for Brother Mike and his ability to communicate that to us and show us through history how your word was fulfilled.
Lord, as we finish here and we go into the service, we just ask that you be with Pastor Keith. You open up the word to us through him. Lord, we just really thank you for this opportunity to be with one another today.
We ask all this through your son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
