What is...? The Eschatology of Hope- Daniel 2

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We want to teach God's word. We want to together to grow up in all things, which is

Ephesians chapter four, verse 15. Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even

Christ. So that's what we want to do. Dan is with me again. And our series that we're doing together is what is.

So we're looking at different things in scripture and asking the question, what is, what is this? What is that?

We want to try to explain it, talk about it, answer questions. If you have any questions, um, if you, if you've said to yourself, what is this or what is that?

Give us a comment, send us a message and we'll try to answer those questions. If we can, we've been spending some time on eschatology.

Eschatology is simply the study of last things. Um, we have been talking about eschatology.

It seems like, uh, we've been trying to do every other video on my eschatology and what we've decided to do now is, um, look in the book of Daniel.

Daniel is where we get a lot of prophecies from and, and of course other books of the old

Testament, but Daniel is one of those. And hopefully we'll have a chance to the Lord willing to look at all the prophecies of the old

Testament concerning in, in things in times eschatology.

Um, let me go, we'll go ahead and get started. I'll go ahead and give a little bit of an introduction. Um, if you start in Daniel chapter one, this is where we're introduced to Daniel and his three friends.

Um, they are, they are part of the, the captivity. They're part of the Jewish nation. They're in captivity in Babylon and the, some of the healthy, good looking men are rounded up by the

King and they're given this diet, they're prescribed this diet by the King. And so all the, all these men that are rounded up are given this diet, a certain drink, certain food that they are to eat.

But Daniel says, no, we're not going to defile our bodies with, with this certain drink, this certain food.

We're going to honor God and eat this other way. Long story short, they come out healthier on the other end and uh, they, they move up in ranks.

They're, they're respected. Their names are changed. They're given new names through all this.

And then in chapter two begins, um, begins our, our look, our, our journey through prophecy.

Um, the King himself has a dream and he needs an interpretation of this dream.

And what happens is he, he calls for, it says in, uh, depending on what version you have.

Um, I have the new American standard. I think it's an older version of American standard, but, but mine says the

King gives orders to call for his magicians, conjurers, sorcerers, and Chaldeans.

And, um, we can also interpret those, some of those words as, um, astrologers.

So he, he calls them in and he, he wants an interpretation for his dream, but he gives them this task of not just interpreting their dream because he, they, they ask him,

King, give us the dream and we'll give you the interpretation. You know, don't worry about that.

We'll give you the interpretation. Just, just give us the dream. The King is like, not so fast.

You tell me what the dream was and you give me the interpretation. And they're like, there's nobody that can do that.

Um, only God, where is it at? Um, verse 10, the Chaldeans answered the King and said, there is not a man on earth who could declare the matter for the

King in as much as no great King or ruler has ever asked anything like this of any magician, conjurer, or Chaldean.

Moreover, the thing which the King demands is difficult. And there is no one else who could declare it to the

King except God's. And so it's only, it's only a

God that would, that could be there in human flesh, present with them, that would be able to do what he's asking them to do, to tell him what his dream is and give him the interpretation.

So I guess this will be called common grace in my mind, where ultimately, if you peel back all the layers, uh, if you get down to the bottom of things, even these conjurers and magicians and sorcerers, they realize there there's only certain there's only, we have limitations.

We can only go so far and, and we, we need, um, someone outside of ourselves to come in.

And of course there's, we can, we can start pointing to Christ at this point and look to him that God sent him because he was outside of us and we needed an alien righteousness.

We need God to come down and rescue us. Um, but this is where it gets interesting for me.

And this is where it was shocking for me. And maybe, maybe it will be shocking for you, but I want to flip over to Matthew just for a second.

Um, I'm not really going to physically flip there, but in my mind, and if you'll go with me, uh,

Matthew chapter, well, I'm going to have to flip there. Matthew chapter two. Yeah. Matthew chapter two.

What do we have in Matthew chapter two? We have the account of the wise men who are, who come from the

East, who see his star, the, the, the Messiah that had been prophesied.

They follow his star. And of course, you know, the they find Jesus and worship him because they followed his star.

They, they knew about his birth, which was to come. It's interesting to me that there's very little said, um, year after year.

We, we come up, we come up on Christmas, December, and very little is said about the

Magi other than they must've been astrologers because they, they studied the stars and they come from the

East, you know, not really sure what country. So we kind of leave them on the peripheral of the story, um, because there's so much mystery to it.

But if you look at Daniel and you read next verse, I read verse 10, verse 11 of chapter two, but if you read verse 12, it shed some light on the subject and it did for me.

It's verse 12 says, because of this, the king became indignant and very furious and gave orders to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.

All the wise men of Babylon. If, if we believe that scripture is consistent, if we believe that we can interpret scripture with scripture, if we can look at the old

Testament to, to help us understand the new Testament, especially when it comes to prophecy and in things, um, then we can see here,

I believe we can make that connection that here are, are the wise men that Matthew was referring to.

Um, the, the work and also the words or, or some of the qualifications or, or occupations that they had could be interpreted as astrologers, same as the wise men in Matthew.

Um, and here Daniel had a connection with these guys. And as Daniel grew in respect and authority, um, and they, his wisdom was made known to them.

And so he had to have shared with him the, the old Testament, uh, the other prophecies and, and the prophecies here that he gives, that he writes down.

And, um, this, this is my opinion. I want to share my opinion. Dan and I talked about this briefly, but I think there's a reason why that part of the story is left out year after year, because I think it messes with, um, if you go down a certain eschatological path,

I believe that there's a fear that making this connection with the wise men in Matthew and the wise men in Daniel, then it will, it will throw a wrench in your end times understanding.

And what do I mean by that? Well, eventually we're going to get to Daniel chapter nine, but Daniel chapter nine, he gives us some numbers.

And if you follow those numbers, you'll find that Daniel prophesies of the

Messiah to come and his, his birth. And, and when he will, um, when he will be, when he, when he will die.

In other words, Daniel uses the word cut off. Daniel prophesies this of the

Messiah to come. And if you follow it out, I think it's, uh, the numbers begin, the counting begins at the, uh, rebuilding of the, the temple, if I'm correct on that.

And then you follow that through, you make that connection. Um, is that correct?

The rebuilding of the temple? I think that's what I read. Uh, it depends on who you talk to.

A lot of, a lot of folks will start the, the countdown, uh, when Israel becomes a nation, they say one generation from that point, uh, which generation is now meant 40 years, 60 years, 80 years closing in on, uh, well, closing in on 80 years coming up soon, 1949 to well, 1929, it'll be here before you know it.

Uh, and then supposedly at that time there, or whatever time one generation is, the temple will be rebuilt.

Um, the land will be reclaimed and all of these things will, will get started or so.

So some say, yeah, yeah. And that would be the, those that hold to that in times, um, position that I was referring to, uh, that they, this type of interpretation, um, looking at or making the connection with the wise men and Daniel may throw a wrench in that position.

Um, if you look at Daniel chapter nine, the last two verses, um, that position tells you that, um, it's talking about the, the tribulation, the, if you're familiar with the first three years, uh, there's is going to be peace.

And then the antichrist is, is we'll make a covenant. And then he's going to break the covenant. Then there'll be three years of, of tribulation.

Well, the last, they say the last two verses of Matt of Daniel chapter nine, speak to those seven years.

And, um, but if you were to make the connection with the wise men and Matthew, the wise men and Daniel, you follow the numbers to the

T follow them directly. Um, you'll see that Daniel chapter nine is speaking of the

Messiah and not the antichrist. It is speaking of his, um, his death and where he, he puts an end to sacrifice, um, because he himself is the sacrifice.

And I don't want to say too much more about it because we are going to get to Daniel chapter nine, but I just wanted to point out from now on when

Christmas approaches, when, um, December approaches and you talk about the wise men flip back through and look at Daniel, read it for yourself.

If you, um, would you consider yourself, uh, a pre -millennial dispensationalist?

Dan and I wanted to ask you, how do you make that connection? How do you see this? How do you connect the dots with, with Daniel chapter two,

Matthew chapter two, Daniel chapter nine? Um, how would you connect all those dots?

We'd love to hear from you. Uh, but my opinion, I think it throws a wrench in that theology.

Um, and I was excited to see, uh, that I could make another connection with the old

Testament and the new Testament with Daniel two and Matthew two. So enough of that.

I hope that was encouraging. Hope that was interesting to you. But, but Daniel tells the, the, the general, he says, put a stop to it.

Hold up. I can't do it, but my God can. And so give me a chance.

And so that's where we are. That's where we want to start with this prophecy. Um, of, of end times is

Daniel giving credit to God for being able to tell him what his dream is and being able to interpret that dream.

And I want to turn it over to Dan and he's going to walk us through the scripture here in Daniel chapter two as Daniel interprets the

King's dream. And Dan's going to tell us why it's important and how it's, um, how it points us to eschatology.

Right. Daniel is going to interpret Daniel as Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar. Let's start off in verse 31.

What you see is this, this is important. You do, you do not want to miss this. Um, it's, it's simple enough, uh, to just read through it as a recounting of what happened.

Uh, but you don't want to miss, uh, especially with the point that Robert brought up just a second ago, uh, the other, other, uh,

God's servants, the priests of the false gods said, you have to tell us what the dream is.

There is no way that, that anyone who lives with mortal flesh is going to know what's going on.

We need a God. We need someone from the other realm who deals in dreams on a daily basis to tell us these things.

We, we can't, we can't climb up inside of your head. And I know that's true because I'll have, um, my five -year -old tell me a dream sometimes.

And even after he tells me, I don't know what he's talking about. So to have somebody out there say, you need to tell me what my dream means.

And you need to tell me what my dream is. It is nothing short of the hand of God giving

Daniel the information that he has. So when we recount this, this is a supernatural experience that Daniel is having as he is giving the, uh, this is what

Daniel was revealed by God. So as Daniel speaks, Daniel is speaking as a mouthpiece for God.

So we need to pay close attention because this really what we're seeing here is God speaking to Nebuchadnezzar through Daniel.

So then here's what he says, uh, you, O king were looking and behold, there was a single great statue.

He was talking about a great statue that was sitting there in, in his dream, uh, which was large and extraordinary and of extraordinary splendor was standing in front of you.

This appearance was awesome. This was a cool thing. It was huge. It was amazing. Imagine going to the statue of Liberty for the third, for the first time.

Um, I've actually never been, been close to it, but never, never seen it, but apparently it's just absolutely amazing.

Uh, the head of that statue was made of fine gold and its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze and its legs basically from its calves down and its feet, partly of iron and clay.

And you continued looking until a stone cut without hands, uh, until a stone was cut without hands and it struck the statue on its feet of the iron and the clay and crushed them.

In other words, he saw a, um, he saw a larger stone and no person walked up to it, but I don't know, maybe laser beams or just, it just happened.

Maybe it just separated somehow a chunk of that rock, some piece of stone cut without hands raised up and smashed this statue on the feet.

Um, where was 35 and then the iron and the clay and the bronze and the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found.

But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. So that's what we're working with here.

That's what we need to interpret. And that would be difficult. Uh, if Daniel didn't give us more than that, which he does, he like walks us through it.

Like we don't have to guess at these things. We don't have to say, well, gold's important. Maybe it was some big

King coming later. Maybe there's ours from Russia or we don't have to do any of that. Uh, he actually tells us of the succession of the kingdoms that are coming and, and what these different, uh, precious metals and clay down at the bottom, what they all mean in this vision.

Like, what is this stone that was cut without hands? It came and smashed it, crushed it. What does all this mean?

And he starts right in in the next verse. This was the dream. Uh, now we will tell you that it's interpretation before the

King. You owe King or King of Kings to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength, and the glory.

He was top dog. His empire was the biggest empire in the world. He was like so many others had gone before him.

The Pharaohs, uh, Caesar to come later. We think of Napoleon, what Hitler was trying to be, uh, this great emperor of a world superpower.

Um, that was Nebuchadnezzar. He was the top dog. And he says, God puts you there and here's what he has to say to you.

Uh, and wherever the sons of men dwell or the beast of the field or the birds of the sky, he has given them into your hand and caused you to rule over them.

You are the head of gold. No, that probably feeling pretty good about himself and the gold.

That's amazing. Gold is very, uh, precious. I like gold. No, he's a

King. Of course he likes gold. He wants to put it all into a storehouses and on his fingers and on his crown and put it over the throne and on the capitals of the pillars and all sorts of different stuff.

Uh, but after that, it says after you, he's got me thinking, well, wait a second. Let's go back to me.

Let's go back to the old King, King gold head over here. But it real quickly says, and after you will arise another kingdom.

Oh, what's happened into my kingdom. Let's read on. Uh, after you, there will arise another kingdom inferior to you than a third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth.

So there's two other kingdoms coming. The one that takes you over, it's going to rule for a little bit, and then he'll be taken over by somebody else.

And then it says right here in verse 40, then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron.

So even those other two that took you over, somebody else is going to take them over. They're represented by the bronze, which was like from calves down.

It was bronze or not bronze iron. Uh, in as much as iron crushes and shatters all things.

So like iron that breaks into pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces.

It was going to crush all of the world governments that had come before it. And that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron.

It will be a divided kingdom. In other words, this fourth kingdom, the kingdom that comes directly after the first two will be, or the first three, that fourth kingdom will be a divided kingdom.

It will be a kingdom mixed of iron and clay. It will have the toughness of iron.

And, uh, in as much as you saw the iron mixed with common clay, uh, as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery.

So some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it brittle. And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, uh, they will be combined one with another in the seat of men, but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery.

So he's actually getting pretty specific here. Now we need to back up a second. If we're going to actually look at what he's trying to say, he identified the first kingdom, the first kingdom, the kingdom of gold is

Babylon. It is represented by Nebuchadnezzar, the king, the head of Babylon. So this head of gold is the

Babylonian empire. We know from, uh, Daniel five, hold on a second.

I'm going to make sure before I tell you it's right here. Yeah. Daniel five, that the Medo -Persian empire comes in, uh, while, uh, one of the king's descendants is

Nebuchadnezzar is gone. He's, he's handwriting on the wall. He says, uh, you know, he's drinking out of the things from the temple, getting drunk, having a feast to his gods.

And this hand comes and writes on the wall hand that writes on the wall, um, basically tells them that your kingdom's going away and it's going to go tonight.

And the, the Medo -Persian empire was actually staged outside. They came in through, uh, the, the, the sewer system or the water system.

So how they infiltrated, uh, the Babylonian fortress and killed everyone.

Um, they took over the kingdom that night. So if we follow from there, that gives us kind of the

Rosetta stone. It helps us to know which superpower started it, which one took over next, which one was after that, which one was after that.

Then it's just a matter of following the history books. Uh, you have, uh, the top of the head of gold being

Babylon, uh, the silver then is the Medo -Persian empire. The bronze, which comes next is

Greece. Uh, and the, after the Greek empire comes the Roman empire, the

Roman empire being that fourth kingdom. Now listen to the description of it again, uh, verse 43.

And then that you saw the iron mix with common clay, they will be combined one with another in the seat of men.

In other words, there's going to be intermarriage cross, uh, old tribal lines and, and, uh, old nations, uh, people who had at one time been a separate people are going to be lumped together under this

Roman empire, but they will not adhere to one another. In other words, they're going to be lumped together.

They're going to be one nation. They're going to be one people, but they don't want to be.

It's like the people up in Macedonia still aren't going to like the people down in Palestine. The people in Rome still aren't going to like pretty much everybody else.

Um, as far as they go, uh, you go up into the territory of the barbarians and you go everywhere you go in the

Roman empire, there's a different people group there. Those other people groups don't lose their national identity quickly.

Uh, we see that truth even in our nation today. Uh, we have one big melting pot here in America and, um, from time to time, especially now you see flaring up between these people who came from different areas of the world who just, for whatever reason, don't like each other.

They'll fight with each other. It's something that happens. And that was one of the things that characterized this kingdom.

Now listen to what it says in verse 44 in the days of those

Kings. Oh, let's just stop. What Kings?

Those Kings made the ones he just talked about. We've got Nebuchadnezzar. You've got, um,

I'm blanking on a Medo -Persian King. One of those coming next, uh, Alexander the great and his nation actually split up into four.

That's actually prophesied here in the next couple of chapters. Um, you got the Roman empire that comes right after that.

And it says in the days of those Kings. So in the days of the Roman empire, the

God of heaven will set up a kingdom, which will never be destroyed.

There are many people who say that the kingdom of God is going to be future. It's going to be in the millennium. This is wrong because it says right here in the days of those

Kings, God will set up a kingdom. This is why Jesus came with that language of, um, the kingdom of God is in your midst.

The kingdom of heaven is a hand. Oh, John the Baptist, the repent, the kingdom of heaven is a hand. Uh, Jesus saying, um, um, the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.

It's going to start all small and then grow. And everybody's going to come and hang out in the branches. Uh, it starts like a little bit of lemons going to get in, uh, to the bread and it's going to permeate and it's going to go away.

It happened then in the days of those Kings, he will set up a kingdom, which will never be destroyed.

And so the kingdom was set up. Now I'm not going to try to, uh, say that those world powers and kingdoms, um, were all the way done away with them.

I'm not going to say that the kingdom of God came in like a roaring lion and I don't think

Jesus would either. But what it was, is it was established there and it was established small. It was established with Christ on the cross, paying for the sins of men.

And when he established that kingdom, he said of it, the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

Now I've, I've brought this up to a few different people, but gates are not an offensive weapon.

You do not shoot a gate. You don't drive a gate over something. A gate is a weapon of defense.

It's a weapon where you're behind it because this is your last stand. So to speak, you're there and you have to protect what's behind it.

Those gates will not prevail. They won't hold up against the kingdom of God.

Meaning that that little tiny kingdom of God that started with no 12 believers, one of them, a devil, and then the 120 in the upper room, uh, 3000.

So you're figuring just if you do that math, 3 ,131.

Yeah. 31 people, uh, so many years ago. Uh, so today you have

Christianity spread abroad over the face of the entire globe. It started small.

Uh, the kingdoms of the earth couldn't stop it. Now Jesus did tell us the kingdom is not of this world.

It's of a different nature. Um, it's one that, uh, it permeates everything.

It gets into everything. Uh, it was a Solomon said, uh, he said, look at the lizards there can, they can be caught easily in the hand, but they're even in King's palaces.

Uh, think of, uh, the, the Christian like that we're, we're easy to pick off one by one, but man, we're everywhere.

You can't get rid of us. We're going to be around. Um, let's see.

Uh, and is, yeah, let me go back. Let me finish. I got caught up. In those days, in the days of those

Kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom, which will never be destroyed. That kingdom will not be left for another people.

In other words, the people that it's established with, it will be their kingdom forever and ever. Um, and, um, the other people, it will crush and it will put to an end all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever.

So we are the lizard people. Oh my goodness. I thought that was

Zuckerberg. Anyway, we're not on that one yet.

Um, oh man, that made me lose my train of thought. Let's see. Where were we? Um, not be left to another.

It will crush and we'll put an end to all these Kings, but in itself one door forever. So what are we looking for this kingdom to do that was established at the time of the

Roman empire, this kingdom of God, we're expecting it to take over the earth, plain and simple.

We're not. Now we temper that with what Jesus has said. Jesus has said that the kingdom is not of this world of the kingdom is, it doesn't fight the same way that other kingdoms do.

It's not one that takes over its enemies through destruction in the sense of using bombs and guns and knives and, um, booby traps and that sort of thing.

It takes it over through either the crushing of a system by it's just falling apart in and on its, in on itself or through the drawing of a people to God into that kingdom by having

God, you think of the old, uh, that movie, uh, 300, not all of it good, but the part where that King thinking he's a

God talking to those men saying, if you'll just, you know, give up and worship me,

I'll bring you into my fold and you can be good. Oh, except God is nothing like that guy.

He, he is actually sent his son to die on the cross for sins. And he's calling out to his enemies.

Any single one of you who will turn from your sins and come to me for forgiveness and sins will find it.

You will not be made a second class citizen. You will join the kingdom of God on full standing. You will find your citizenship here in the kingdom of God.

Um, because your nation and the way your nation is trying to do things is sinful and it's falling apart.

So what is going to happen? God is recreating the earth. He's remaking it in his, uh, to his specifications.

And he's doing so by putting down the things that men are building up. Uh, and he's doing it in such a incredibly loving and gracious way that sometimes people presume upon it in ways that they shouldn't.

Uh, even Peter says, no, why should I fear God? You know, he says that he's going to come and judge me.

He's been saying that for a long time now. Why do I need to worry about it? He's like, Oh, one day with God is like a thousand years.

God is a, he's not willing that any should perish, but he's going to bring all of his repentance.

So back to this, uh, prophecy. And as much as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and it crushed the iron and the bronze and the clay and the silver, the great

God has made known to the King. Remember it was important to know that this is God speaking where the, the

Magi and the others could not, uh, the great God has made known to the

King, what will take place in the future. So the dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy.

So what we're looking for in this prophecy is that at the time of the

Roman empire, we're looking for a kingdom to be established. This is what

Jesus said he did. This is what, so, um, the kingdom of God that was promised was prophesied.

It came on time. It came as it was promised and it came in the way that God said that it would.

It came in with incredible power. It saw lives changed.

It raised the dead. It, um, yeah, praise the dead.

I mean, I was trying to go bigger than that. Like, let's just stop on that one for a second. It doesn't, it doesn't get much more like you don't see that every day.

Right. That's why it's such a big deal. You know, like, uh, Donald and Connell were telling, uh, Richard Dawkins on that one, uh, video, he said, you can't, uh, use the evidence of Jesus rising from the dead because people don't rise from the dead.

Like, well, yeah, except for all those people who did rise from the dead. It's pretty spectacular. It doesn't happen every day. That's why it's such a big deal when people actually rise from the dead.

So when Jesus rose from the dead, he didn't just rise himself. This is something that's not brought up a lot, but there were people in the graves in Jerusalem at the time who got up and walked around.

Like these folks, they weren't dead very long in their life, came back to them. Yeah. Amazing power of God shown that even death didn't hold over.

The kingdoms of darkness had absolutely no power. The kingdom of God had come. It was established.

The temple veil was renting too. And God had come among men. He died for the sins of people.

That is the prophecy here in Daniel. Um, that's what we're looking for.

We're looking for that kingdom that comes and takes over the earth. It's been given to Christians.

We will not ever go away and we will take over the earth through the preaching of the gospel and the worship of God.

I mean, now it's something that Crusaders got that wrong. Uh, they, uh, was it some trust in chariots, some trust in horses, but we will trust in the name of the

Lord, our God. They didn't trust in the name of the Lord, their God. They trusted in their chariots and horses.

We don't do that. We trust in the gospel of Jesus Christ. No, it says we will overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony.

That is what we're to expect. That's what we get from Daniel two. That's right.

The scripture reference has, has left me, but this stone that was cut out, out of the mountain to, um, to knock down the statue.

Uh, what's the scripture reference that says this, this stone will become a great mountain. You remember, you know what

I'm talking about? You're talking about the Psalm. Yeah. It says, uh, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone and it will become a great mountain.

I believe I could be conflated. I'll have to find it. Okay. The scripture reference just, uh, just left me, but, uh, wrapping up Daniel chapter two here, the, uh, the question was kind of posed to me the other night, um, as I'm introducing people to this, this eschatology that is not familiar to many.

Um, the question is often posed to me and, and I think it would, it, it would be, um, a very common question.

You know, how do I respond if this is, if this is true?

Okay. Let's, let's look at the emphasis that, that Dan, uh, put on verse 44.

Um, and in the days of those Kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom.

Okay. So that's what we're looking for this kingdom to be set up in the days of those

Kings. So what we're doing is we are interpreting the Bible literally.

In other words, according to the literature, the way it is telling us to interpret it.

And so we are looking for God to set up this kingdom, not at a future date after a large gap, but in the days of those

Kings. Now we, we introduced this to somebody is introduced to me.

It's introduced to Dan it's introduced to whoever. And, and we're like, okay, this is, um, this is different than what

I've heard. So what is my response then? Um, what am

I to be looking for? Because on one hand you have, um, you know, the one position, of course, uh, they're very evangelistic, um, to, to a degree, but the, the caricature maybe of that position is those who are building bunkers and, and looking for, uh, uh, a calling up to meet

God in the air. And then there's a big sigh of relief. I made it.

I'm out of this tribulation of this terrible, horrible world that I was in.

And, and, and I wasn't left behind to, to go through any more of it. And so that's, that's kind of the mindset that we have with this popular position.

But then I'm introducing this, this position, um, to other people, to family members.

And the question is asking me, so what then is my response? What happens to us?

You know, if we are not to be, if we're not to be looking for, uh, a rapture, you know, it's often said it could happen.

But even before this video was finished, we could be called up. And that's stated over and over and over again, um, on radio programs, television programs, sermons.

That's the position we're looking for this time where there's going to be a rapture. We're caught up in the seven year tribulation.

If that's not what we're looking for, how then should we live? What is it supposed to look like?

And I think Dan really, really hit the nail on the head with, um, his analogy, which, which of course comes from scripture.

Um, where, where Jesus says the gates of hell will not prevail against this kingdom of heaven.

It will not prevail. So this kingdom of heaven that started out small, that's growing and growing and growing.

If you are a believer, if you've been born again, if you are a member of this kingdom, you are a part of a kingdom who is storming the gates of which cannot hold, hold us back.

We are defeating enemies. God is using us to defeat enemies. And that last enemy is going to be there.

And then comes the end. God is crushing his enemies.

Jesus is crushing his enemies under his feet. And that last one's going to be dead. And we are a part of that.

We get to be, um, God is so gracious and amazing that we get to be part of that.

And, and it doesn't always look like, look like it to us from our vantage point, but you know, if we back up and we look at the greater picture, um, well,

I, I used a similar analogy this weekend and I, and I can't remember what it was. Um, it, it was a, it was at work.

It was at work. Um, it relates a little bit. We, we dig holes, we dig holes at work and we come up with solutions on, on how to fix things.

Well, there were a couple of us. We were, we were down by the hole looking at the problem and, um, we could see a couple of solutions.

Well, the guy up on the track code who was digging, he come up with a completely different solution.

Why our vantage point was here. His vantage point was up here and he could see the bigger picture and he come up with a better solution.

Perspective change changes when you look at things from a different angle, from a wider view.

Um, and so is the case when we are going through tough, difficult times, if we can back up and look at the, the bigger picture.

Um, but, but what, how do we live in light of this? If we're not expecting, if we shouldn't be digging a bunker, if we shouldn't be looking for a rapture to happen at any moment, what are we supposed to be doing?

We, we are supposed to be living in this kingdom that is, is storming the gates and is defeating enemies and, um, saving souls.

And it's a glorious time and it's something we can be excited about. Um, how, how would you respond to somebody,

Dan, who's, who's being introduced to this type of position on eschatology and they say, well, how do

I live in light of this information? Um, I forget who said it, but someone said that if they were told that the world was going to end, uh, tomorrow,

I said, what would you do? He said, I would plant a tree. He said, why?

Because there's a lot of benefit in planting a tree. I get to do, uh, work. I get to, you know, plan for the future.

I get to say, all you can do is what you can do for that day. So what do we do?

We don't look for, um, a way out. We look for a future and we look for what we do in those moments that we have that builds that future.

What is the future that we're told that we have? It's one of victory in Christ and of overcoming our enemies of, of seeing the world come to know

Jesus. Um, so what do we do? And we build schools.

We preach the gospel at every turn. We live as Christians in every single way that we, that we act.

Every breath that we take should be a Christian breath. When it leaves a legacy for those who come behind us, because my children are going to be one step closer to seeing the fruit of the gospel as it works in the world.

So man, what do we do? Oh man, we do everything. We plant a tree.

We do stuff that we may not ever see the results of, but we do it in faith and we do it because of what

Christ has done for us. And we do it most importantly for the glory of God. And we do it all under the power of the gospel.

We don't do anything on our own. It's not like we're going to manipulate people into the kingdom. People are going to be drawn into the kingdom by the shed blood of Jesus Christ because he has picked out of people for himself before the foundations of the earth.

And he came and he died and he saved those people. So what do we do, man? We preach the gospel.

We call those people and we wait to see how God does his stuff. We live as people who know we teach our children when we sit in the house and when we stand up and when we go in the way and we put it on the gates of our house and we mark it on the front of our eyes and on our hands, you know, not physically, but everything that we think, say, and do, it needs to be

Bible. Why? Because that's the very words of God that give life to us, that show us the

God in front of us. So what do we do? Man, everything.

That's right. Amen. Go ahead.

I said, we can do it with a smile on our face because we have the joy of the Lord. It doesn't mean the stuff's always easy, but man, it's you have the joy of the

Lord. You can rejoice like we talked about last week. You can rejoice in it because God's doing the work and he's doing it in you.

Even if stuff gets rough, even if it gets terrible and he's doing something and you're a part of it.

Paul was thrilled that he was going to be counted worthy to suffer like Christ did.

I mean, he was rejoicing in it. I mean, he didn't want it like that hurts, but to think back that, man,

God called me to something and he's using me for his purposes. That's pretty cool.

Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. And what we want to do tonight as we end is we want to proclaim

Jesus, the king of that kingdom, the kingdom of the king of everything.

He has all authority in heaven and on earth. Jesus came and he died for the sins of those that would believe in him.

If you, if you have not received him, if he's not, if he's not caused you to be born again, we would proclaim him to be king and that call you into submission to him by repentance and faith.

Come to him, repenting of your sins and put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, that he would save you and give you a new heart and put you on this path of joy, living in his kingdom.

Dan, if you don't mind, would you mind to close us in prayer? Sure. Dear heavenly father, we thank you for all that you've done.

Thank you for showing us your word, showing it even through a pagan like Nebuchadnezzar at the time.

God, we thank you for what you were doing. We thank you for saving us, allowing us to be a part of it.

We pray that you would cause your word to go out and be effective, that it would do exactly what you've called it to do, that you would continue to glorify yourself as you deserve all glory.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right. Thank you guys for watching. Remember if you want to support us, if you want to help us get the word out, give us a heart, give us a like, give us a comment, let us know that you watched and share the program if you're so inclined to do that.

But until next time, remember that Jesus is the king. Go live in that victory and let's continue to go out there and proclaim his gospel.