If you didn't recognize that, that's another Chris Tomman member. We should really have him on our staff or recognize him on the back Pam or something do so much of his music made to worship. We are We'll worship something folks We'll worship or someone Well if I started off this one about telling you that I had a dream last night where I was at the beach and while I was At the beach in my dream out of the water came a Align with wings like an eagle A bear eating ribs A leopard with wings and four heads and this other ferocious beast that they all appeared and then they interacted with each other And they kind of morphed from one form to the if I told you I had a dream like that last night. You'd say Pastor Whatever you had for dinner last night I want to pass on that mirror now or whatever medications you're taking. You might want to cut the dose a little bit But that's what we're talking about here this morning this vision of Daniel's by way of quick review Reminded Daniel's book breaks his 12 chapters as we have a breaks into two parts the first stories of and about Daniel and his friends Shadride me shack and bed to go The last six chapters is the visions of Daniel and this is the one who gets juice and people get to argue and fight or what they mean There are many many understandings leads versions of course mine are correct You should write them down and know them I'll do the best I can to guide you through it. Let's pray to God
Father as Reminded we are made to worship We're very grateful that Why your grace and of your mercy you have Kindly reached down to each and every one of us and brought us to this place We might worship the one true God not some lesser God We're made to worship There's a psalmist reminds us we are Just dust or a frail children of dust and feeble is frail But we're dust is made in your image and that is our glory and you've called us to yourself and you've loved us with an everlasting love And so now father by your love and your mercy and your grace And as if you open our hearts and our minds to see the truth of your word is given to us to your servant Daniel Praise Jesus named the living word. I'm in Which after seven begins with a dream or a nightmare might want to say The Daniel has one night the late Fred Smith like to say that the way people always talk about Hearing from God at night. You think they got only work the night shift Well, he doesn't he works 24-7 but this vision of Daniels took place at night We're gonna break the passage down again reading with me if you will Daniel chapter 7 verse 1 in the first year of Bell Shazzar king of Babylon and let me just stop and say now you need to realize there that this is not chronological Two chapters ago. We saw Bell Shazzars last night where he partied himself into oblivion But this vision takes place in the first year of his reign. So around somewhere around 550 maybe a BC the first year Bell Shazzar king of Babylon. Daniel had a dream Vision's past. It was mine as he was lying on his bed He wrote down the substance of his dream Daniel said in my vision at night I looked and there before me or the four winds of heaven turning up the great sea Four great beasts East different from the others came up out of the sea the first was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted from the ground so that it stood on two feet like a man And a heart of a man was given to it and there before me was a second beast which looked like a bear It was raised up on one of its sides and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth It was told get up and eat your fill of flesh After that I looked and there before me was another beast one that looked like a leopard You know it's back at that four wings like those of a bird This beast had four heads and it was given authority to rule. Let's stop there and talk about this First thing you need to note in these verses is that some kingdoms are destined to simply pass away Some kingdoms will simply pass away look at Daniel's vision a lion with wings of an eagle its wings were torn off And it stood on two feet like a man and the heart of a man was given to it. Is that a reminder of anything else we've already seen in the book of Daniel? The proper Jeremiah many years decades before Daniel has his visions The proper Jeremiah said this in 49 verses 19 to 22. He described something like a lion But it also has a characteristic of an eagle that attacks Israel and carries off its best limbs from the flock This in fact is what Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon did and so scholars are basically an agreement It's first vision of the lion with its wings Well the wings are torn off and it's given the heart of a man That fits what happened with Nebuchadnezzar in the time of his madness So this first kingdom we see is the kingdom of Babylon Which we know from chapter six passes away almost overnight and deris the me conquer it Which leads to the second beast which looks like a bear had three ribs in its mouth And it was told get up and eat your fill of flesh Scholars in agreement that this is the kingdom that succeeded Babylon and that is the kingdom of the meadow Persian Empire And again we met last chapter met deris the king of the me what do we make of all these three ribs to the ribs represent something in Particular each rib representing. I think what it means is it's just killed and it's getting ready to do it again because that's what it does Any kingdom any king that has no fear of God or a higher authority No fear being greater than itself for himself Will quickly descend into totalitarianism and It's people will suffer and there will be bloodshed people will be crushed That's what happened with the meadow Persian Empire as well. Now the third beast looks like a leopard. It's got Four wings like those of a bird now has four heads and it's given the authority to rule Scholars are in agreement. This is the kingdom of Greece since represented of course as peak without Xander the great They's four heads and we need to visualize them not like if you know anything about Latin or Roman mythology Not like the three headed Cerberus at guard of the Passive way into into what we would call hell the underworld and if you're a Harry Potter scholar is not like Fluffy the three headed beast that guarded the the interest of the Chamber of Secrets No, these four heads represent for some of your one. What are you talking about? We need to read more. Okay these four heads represent Their pictures looking each direction north south east west Because it has an appetite to conquer Everything to extra to extend its dominion in all four directions the four winds that Daniel sees are the four winds from the four Characterized by the four directions north-south east and west They all have this in common if you look at these different beasts that we look at so far. They all have this in common They all go against guys intended created order in Genesis one thing and two you see God creating something out of nothing and then through his own Agency's and also through Adam and Eve and their dominion or their exercise and dominion They bring order out of chaos and species are distinct and they bring forth after their own kind and Here we see that pattern corrupted Distorted even reversed and species being Mutant mutated and turning into something they were never intend to be You know the old saying we don't break God's laws God's laws break us God's laws break us in our culture There's a tremendous movement toward Commencing us that men and women are really identical Sexual orientations sexual lifestyles are more the equivalent Husbands and wives mothers and fathers are completely interchangeable same-sex marriage doesn't matter if it's Marriage is one man and one woman or two men or two women the polygamists will be right behind it Please look at my blog about sister wives and open windows There's a tremendous push to say it doesn't matter what your gender is what your orientation is they're all the same Same-sex couples adopting that isn't as an implicit statement if two men can adopt or two women can adopt It is an implicit statement that if it's two women fathers are not important And if it's two men adopting is an implicit statement or an explicit statement Mothers are not important. They're just interchangeable mothers and fathers openly homosexual Lifestyles in the military now our culture is trying to Shove down our throats that men and women are interchangeable all sexual lifestyles are more the equivalent in fact a few years ago in New York City They actually proposed a board of health rule That people listen to this people born in the city of New York Would be able to change the documented sex on their birth certificates Your birth certificate might say male or female, but you could change it if You would live in your quote adopted gender lifestyle for two years So many you have to wear a skirt for two years not because you're Scottish. We're in a kilt. Okay women have to wear I close I guess for two years and you have to get a doctor and a mental health professional to sign on the line that says Sign an affidavit saying he's not gonna live as a woman. She's not gonna live as a man and that you intended that to be permanent I'll give you a word for this nonsense madness We don't break God's laws. God's laws break us Men and women you ought to write this down. This is a stunning revelation. I'm about to give you men and women are different And by the way ladies, you're very complicated, but that's another sermon men and women are different and No amount of judicial activism or social engineering can ever change Our differences are God-given you cannot paper them over or make us interchangeable any more you can expect a lion At the wings of an eagle Or leopard to have forehead. We're selling the whirlwind folks Our children our grandchildren will reap it if we don't find a way to regain some more sanity Some kingdoms are destined to simply pass away others Our destiny To be destroyed pick up the narrative with me at verse 7. We After that in my vision at night I looked and there before me was a fourth beast Terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had a large iron teeth It crushed and devoured its victims Trampled underfoot whatever's left It was different from all the former beasts and he had ten horns While I was thinking about the horns There before me was another horn a little one Came up among them and three of the first horns were uprooted before it this horn had eyes like the eyes of a man And a mouth that spoke boastfully But his fourth beast It's very strong has these large iron teeth and ten horns Commentators and scholars are pretty much agreed this represents the Roman Empire and the ten hills or ten horns of the ten hills Trevor Longman in his Commentary refers to this large beast with the iron teeth because it robo beast It's the Roman Empire some kingdoms are destined to pass away others to be destroyed There'll always be evil kingdoms because there'll always be evil men with what needs to call the will to power That's one of the major reasons that our founding fathers built into our constitution a separation of powers They knew that if any one branch of government was allowed to take total control There was just a short step from there to tyranny because power corrupts absolute power corrupts absolutely And so they wisely built in a separation of powers so no one branch would be allowed to dominate the others Rome fell Because Not because it was conquered by some superior military force. There was no superior military force The Roman army was the greatest military force the world had ever seen No one could have conquered it by direct military conquest Rome collapsed under the weight of its own moral corruption its own Internal decadence own outright paganism and then because it was just a rotting carcass a rotting imitation what it once been it was right for the picking right for the plunder of the Goths and Visigoths and the vandals and it fell Under the weight of some corruption for 1080 a great empire Strongest military in the world Collapsing under the way of some immorality and corruption He was eyes to see letting see it there's ears to hear letting him hear it some Empire some kingdoms are destined to collapse and simply perish others are destined to be conquered from the outside Evil empires always fall let me just take a moment to just list a few and those you are of a few decades of Experienced you'll know mostly Remember the USSR the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic if collapse not because we conquered a military Although they thought that we that's all that we could And they exhaust themselves trying to keep up with it. They collapsed under their own internal corruption and rot You could ask Stalin what happens you could ask Kibber you could ask Mussolini you could ask Pol Potter Chow Chesky you could but they're all dead all gone you could go to Iraq and ask Savon Hussain Said he was put to death by his own people you could go to Tunisia and you could find a president exile President Ben Ali you can ask him what happens In Egypt may be able to ask President Barr and Haiti were you stunned as I was that John Cron Duvalier so-called baby doc Who is run out of the country by his own people 25 years ago in return? What was he thinking is going to be welcome back? As under house arrest will stand trial for his crimes Those of you who are Cuban Cuban descent the parents came over You yourself came and you remember Castro's day is coming folks Miss life will in the next But he will answer for this crimes against humanity Mahatma Gandhi said this when I despair I Remember that all through history The way of truth and love is always one they have always been tyrants and murders for a time It's him invincible, but in the end they always fall think of it always We're saying in there's a lesson for us to learn it. He who ignores history is doing to repeat it These empires they fell some through military conquest Yes, but the vast majority of them fell under the weight of their own internal corruption their own internal moral decadence and Like hours were right now The number one movie is no strings attached About a couple who are friends and they spoil their friendship by having sex and then the rest of the movie as I understand it Let me read you their own description of it in this colony Emma and Adam are lifelong friends who almost ruined everything by having sex One morning in order to protect their friendship and make a pact to keep the relationships strictly no strings attached No strings means no jealousy no expectations no fighting no flowers no baby voices means they can do whatever they want Whenever they want in whatever public place they want as long as they don't fall in love The questions become can you have sex without love getting in the way and can their friendship survive? I can think of a couple of other questions. They might have wanted to ask before they asked those questions I can think of just a couple of other questions out of come first like Whatever happened to the belief that sex was made for marriage and marriage only Whatever whatever happens to know what are having the notion of sin is there nothing wrong in our culture when it comes to sex Accepting tolerance of other people sexual lifestyles. I Can think of a few other questions and maybe out of ass first Right now the number one TV show and MTV something called the Jersey Shore. I've never seen it I've sure heard about it. It's got the highest ratings of any show MTV's ever had Coming up behind it is a show aimed at adolescent sexuality. It's called skins It's about these teenage high school friends as they romp through again their own description The the wild ride to the lies were a group of high school friends stumbling through the mind field of adolescence Stepping on most of the minds as we go The parent television council is called at the most dangerous program. There's ever been voices in our children They're actually getting sponsors to a man and ship rapidly Over the shows fouling with illegal drug use illegal activity as well as thoroughly pervasive Sexual content and many if not all the actors or minors Have we totally lost our moral senses? Is there nothing wrong anymore? Is it no such thing as sin? No one will conquer us militarily if we go down the tubes Because we destroyed ourselves Our own moral decadence and the weight of our own corruption internally and externally And Daniel's vision we see some kings are destined to pass away Some kingdoms are destined to be destroyed We've also seen Daniel's vision The vision of the majesty of God His anointed one and their kingdom and I would remind you again Daniel's seen these things somewhere around five and a half centuries BC the kingdom that will last forever first nine as I looked thrones were set in place The ancient of days took his seat his clothing was as wide as snow the hair of his head was white like wool His throne was blazing it was flaming with fire its wheels were all blaze a River of fire was flowing coming out but from before him Thousands upon thousands attended him ten thousands time ten thousands stood before him the court was sealed a seated rather and the books were opened Fire lays in gentlemen the scripture always represents God and his purity and his holiness think about it the burning bush The pillar of fire that led the Israelites through the wilderness as there's vision of God high and lifted up and Smoke filling the temple Malachi's vision of God refining As if a silver smith refining by fires if a silver smith skimming out the impurities off the top of the molten silver And Hebrew says our God is a consuming fire Verse 11 then I continue to watch because of the boastful words the horn was speaking I kept looking until the beast was slain in his body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire The other beast had been stripped of their authority We're allowed to live for a period of time. I don't want to get hung up on the time frame or all the details Specific so much so that we lose sight of what is truly important here in In my vision at night verse 13 I looked and there before me was one like a son of man Coming with the clouds of heaven He approached the ancient of days and was led into his presence He was given authority Glory and sovereign power all Nations and people of every language worshiped him His dominion is never lasting dominion that will not pass away and his kingdom is one That will never be destroyed We will worship something ladies and gentlemen Either a false unless or God or the one true and living God represented here as the ancient of days Look what he says in verse 13 in my vision at night I looked and there before me was one like a son of man He was human interference But more so and he's given authority Coming with the clouds of heaven I did a quick a quick search what got created the internet and Bible programs The quick searches past week of clouds in the scripture They're rarely ever mentioned in terms of a meteorological sense. Well, it was cloudy that night It was cloudy as the sun came up. There are a couple of mentions like that But almost always the clouds have to do with God coming in his authority riding the clouds sending the clouds like his messengers The clouds go before him and thick and terrible darkness He's coming with the clouds of heaven Clouds are so shaded with God in his glory Do you know what Daniel's seeing here? In addition to the kingdoms that will pass where be destroyed Daniel five and a half centuries before Bethlehem Daniel saw Jesus Come in the clouds or how do I know that? There's no guesswork when he was being tried before the Sanhedrin They asked him if he was the son of God Jesus said this in Matthew 26 verse 64 You have said so Jesus replied But I say to you All of you from now on you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of the mighty one and coming on the clouds of heaven Jesus so identifies with the vision in Daniel. He said what Daniel saw That was me and the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the teachers of the law in the scribe They had no doubt what he meant Because of that point they pronounced the death sentence upon him for blasphemy because he was in fact claiming To be God Almighty people say you old Jesus never claim to be God Tell that to the Pharisees and Sadducees because they condemned me to death for blasphemy Not like The lion and the bear the leopard not even like the robo beast is impressive As as opposing as there are those kingdoms are all destined to To fall and be relegated to ash heap of history there to be Minor footnotes that students are to study and memorize and hope they can recall correctly when it comes test time No, this kingdom This kingdom is one That will grow larger and more powerful from the time of its inception until the time when God says Enough I'm calling time and bringing the curtain down and I'm coming back This is the kingdom that will grow more powerful throughout time and space and will not pass away and will never be destroyed Augustine said in his similar work to see of God That which man builds man destroys But the city of God the kingdom of God is built by God and cannot be destroyed by man
I've referred to this a couple times before with this congregation about the aberge repeating Chuck Colson And I have great respect for Chuck Colson From Nixon's hatchet man to a man who has done a great deal to advance the kingdom of God especially in places Most of us would never go into the prisons You know the jails and they most Most secure facilities in this country 1993 Chuck Colson won the Templeton award for the advance of progress of religion And at his address his acceptance address Chuck Colson said this to deliver before Buddhist leaders Muslim leaders Hindu leaders Mormons and every other faith which represented every other faith And then we'll represent it there and Chuck Colson said this as part of his acceptance speech I speak to you as one By Jesus Christ the living God He is the way the truth in the life He has lived in me for 20 years His presence is the sole explanation for whatever's praise worthy in my work That is more than a statement about myself It is a claim to truth It is a truth that may contradict your own The God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob reigns his plan and purpose rob the future of its fears By the cross he offers hope by the resurrection he assures his triumph This cannot be resisted or delayed mankind's only choice Is to recognize him now or in the moment of ultimate judgment Our only decision is to welcome his rule or to fear it And as we prayed earlier our time of corporate prayer Like kingdom come that will be done on earth as it is in heaven Let's pray together Our father and our God King of kings and Lord of lords We bow the knee before you and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord To the glory of God the Father Well, we know that one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Between here and there We worship you openly and freely we acknowledge you as Lord And we pray Or that you might use even such as us help advance your kingdom in some small way this day By gathering in this place to declare That we will not be swayed or overcome by the prevailing cultural Elite so the winds of politically correct We'll stand the timeless internal truths If you are the ancient of days and Jesus Christ is Lord We bow the knee to no other God
Praise you to stay Jesus name Amen Well, Amen, we thank you again for being with us today Now we ask you to see the Lord's benediction Go now in the love of God the Father The grace and mercy of God the Son The fellowship and companionship of God the Holy Spirit And live the life Amen