Ministry on Daniel

… In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hands, with part of the vessels of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar, to the house of his God. And he brought the vessels unto the treasure house of his God. In any worthwhile structure, if the building is to last and stand any test that comes along, the foundation must be well and truly laid. Taking the example of natural life, the prophet Isaiah reminds us that the right order of things is to take root downward, bear fruit upward. Another thing that I become aware of increasingly is this. If there was ever a time when it could be accepted that all or most of an audience like this was fully conversant with the text of the scriptures we were going to consider, I judge it's no longer a reasonable assumption. Amongst children, it's no longer realistic to start applying the lesson to be learned until we first of all ensure that the details of the narrative are understood. Another thing that over the years perhaps has made us shy away from merely saying what the story is before we apply it, is that very often, maybe the way we've been trained over the years, that very often we fly to the moral and spiritual application because that's much more obvious to us than the physical material details. I give you two examples and pass on. It's much easier, to me anyway, to see the lesson that God intends us to learn from things like the tabernacle and the temple than to glean from scripture sufficient detail to lay out a working plan, a blueprint from which one could with any confidence make a model. I think in the mercy of God, there's always some detail which is left unstated so that we don't get too engrossed with the actual material detail and we are drawn on to the moral and spiritual lesson. Notwithstanding all that, for myself, I judge that I will be well able or better able to learn the moral and spiritual lessons there are for me in the book of the prophet Daniel if I know something about the background. So, in this introductory session, I would ask for your forbearance and I will assume that like myself, mostly in the past, you've gone into the detail, you've gone to the prophetic interpretation and you've gone to the moral application without worrying too much about how the thing was when it happened. Now, whether that's the case or not, I intend to spend time this evening in ensuring that we know something about the background, something about the situation, and then when it comes to the application later on, we'll be better able to see it. Now, we're going to spend time tonight then on a bit of geography and a bit of history. Don't be put off by that. Don't switch off either because you say, geography, history, I know it all. I'll wait till Tuesday before I switch on. Or on the other hand, saying, history, geography, not for me. The geography concerning the book of the prophet Daniel. Let us remind ourselves of a basic lesson in reading the Bible. In geographical terms, the reference point is the land of Israel. When things are spoken of, and we shall see something of this, as north, south, east or west, it's about north, south, east or west of Israel in general and Jerusalem in particular. Let us always bear that in mind. Now, having said that, I want to take you back to the 8th century BC and I have here some maps as you will observe. Now, if you cannot see them, ideally move forward. If you cannot or will not move to a position where you can see the maps, gain what you can, come forward at the end having listened to what is said and compare the detail with the maps. Better still, go home, get those Bible maps and Bible atlases off the shelf. I believe it was Dr. Oliver of Galashiels who many years ago made a very pertinent remark. He said, we should not shelve the truth. There's much truth on our shelves, even maps. Let us take them off the shelves, dust them off and see what there is to be gained. Now, in the 8th century BC, the Gentile Empire that was in sway was the Assyrian Empire and the capital was at Nineveh. Now, you may not see the writing, you can see the colour. The blue is the Mediterranean Sea, the red sea, the Persian Gulf. I would guess that even up to about 6 months ago we didn't know very much about the geography, I would think most of us are acquainted with maps like that now. Red Sea, Persian Gulf, South Arabia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey, Palestine and the Assyrian Empire in the 8th century BC was the one that counted. Now, that was very significant for the people of Israel. At that time, Israel as a nation was split into two. There was the northern part of Israel here in yellow and there was the southern part of Israel called Judah. Judah and Benjamin were with their capital city at Jerusalem and there we have the northern part of the kingdom, the ten tribes with the capital at Samaria. Now, I want just to leave the history just a little bit for the moment and just pinpoint this matter of geography. Yes, we'll leave that at that. And looking ahead, the Assyrian Empire covered most of what we would now refer to as Iraq, Syria and Jordan and parts of the Middle East. Of eastern Turkey and bits of what we now call Iran or what used to be Persia. And the two vital spots really are the land of Palestine, God's pleasant land, and the valley of Mesopotamia between the Tigris and the Euphrates, which has always been a point of contention, being so fertile. And at the time was under control of the kingdom of Assyria. Now, the kingdom of Assyria was vanquished by the Babylonian Empire and the capital moved south from Nineveh to the city of Babylon and then in turn was overtaken by the Empire of Persia. Now, that's as far as I want to take the geography lesson tonight, but when scriptures are referred to, just glance up there and we can move on to what is a little more relevant, the history of the significant nations. When Israel as a nation demanded a king, they wanted someone they could look up to and they were given one that they could look up to physically, head and shoulders over all the people. As the scripture says of him, King Saul. And then we had three 40-year reigns, King Saul, King David, and King Solomon, three times 40. Solomon sinned grossly. That's sufficient for our purpose to take account of that. He sinned grossly. Now, when David had wanted to build a temple for God, a temple for a house for the Lord, God said, that's a good idea, but it won't be in your time. You are a man of war and it wouldn't be proper for you to be allowed to build a house unto the Lord. But because you've got the idea, you collect the materials together and then your son Solomon will be allowed to do it. Now, that was blessing that was deferred for a generation. Solomon was allowed to build the temple. Towards the end of his life, he was told by God, because of his sins, judgment would fall upon the nation over which he had been given the stewardship of being king. But as the blessing of building a house for the Lord was deferred a generation in David's time, so the judgment upon the kingdom in Solomon's day was deferred a generation unto Rehoboam's time. Solomon's son, Rehoboam. And Jeroboam and others rebelled against Rehoboam when the kingdom first passed into Rehoboam's hands and it was then that the kingdom became divided into the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. Now, because they were in the North, the ten tribes were more vulnerable to attack from further North and from further East. Now, the Assyrian Empire, we see with its capital at Nineveh that it was readily placed to attack the Northern Kingdom of Israel. And the prophets of the Lord in succession, those prophets whose responsibility it was to speak to the Northern Kingdom again and again, they said if you don't mend your ways, you're going to be conquered by a Gentile power. The ultimate insult to God's earthly people. If you want to see which prophets prophesied under which kings, again there is a chart here both for the Northern and the Southern Kingdom and have a look at the end or consult the data at the back of your Bibles and you'll see which prophets ministered and prophesied to the Northern Kingdom of Israel or the Southern Kingdom of Israel. Well, Israel, the Northern Kingdom did not repent and the final message came to them that they would be taken away into a foreign land, they would be replaced by foreigners and that others would be able to enjoy the fruit of the present land. And the Kingdom of Assyria was allowed to attack the Northern Kingdom. Now, if you look here, you'll see that that is the Dead Sea, that is the Sea of Galilee, River Jordan flowing North to South. Now, if you remember, there were two and a half tribes which didn't really enter into the land. Reuben, Gad and a half of the tribe of Manasseh, the brown, yellow and purple, they didn't go over the land, over the Jordan, into the land, they stayed on this side, Jordan. They were, their confidence in God, their faith was incomplete, they didn't go all the way. When they were liberated from Egypt, they went almost into the land but not quite, their faith was incomplete. So, for that reason and because circumstantially they were the nearest to be picked off by the Kingdom of the Empire of the Assyrians, Reuben, Gad and Manasseh in about BC 740 were taken away captive into the land of Assyria. Now, the rest of the Northern Kingdom, having lost such a slice, everything that was East of the River Jordan, they should have realised then that it was time to mend their ways. They went on as before, disobedient to their God and about 18 years later, 722 BC or thereabouts, they were invaded again by the Assyrian Empire and all the remaining Israelites of that Northern Kingdom were taken away. And they were dispersed and they were scattered and they became lost. Often, the lost tribes of Israel are mentioned in conversation or in books. I fear that many believers assume that by the lost tribes being scattered, that what we are intended to understand by that is that there are Jews in every part of the world and so there are, but they are not the lost tribes of Israel. The lost tribes of Israel are the members of the Northern Kingdom of Israel which was taken away in two stages, 740 BC, 722 BC by the Assyrian Empire and we don't know where they are. No point in guessing. When God wants to bring them together again, he will, but if God says they're lost, they're lost and there's no point in my trying to guess where they are. When we speak of Jews as we recognize them, we are speaking about those of the Southern Kingdom of Judah, similar sound, the Jews from Judah, and certainly there are Jews in many nations of the land. Makes it very difficult for man to sort it out with all the intermarriage that goes on. We can have confidence in God that when he so decrees, he will gather together his earthly people and ensure that they are there to have the opportunity given to them of enjoying the good things of God's green and pleasant land. Well, there we have it. The Northern Nation was taken away in two stages and the Southern Kingdom, Judah, had the opportunity of mending their ways. Now, God was gracious. He took away the Northern Kingdom in two stages and he was even more gentle with the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Those who were taken away were taken away not in two stages but in three. Now, again, we shouldn't fault the historians for a word or a year here and there. Very, very difficult to track down exactly what date certain things happened. But again, when we think of what the Bible says about geography, that the reference point is the land of Israel, Bible history has its reference point, the people of God, the people of Israel. And so things that are of deep significance in worldly terms, Gentile terms, are often glossed over and something that's relatively unimportant in the world's eyes is seen to be of great significance to God because it affects his earthly people. Now, what happened was that the Southern Kingdom did not mend their ways, they were not repentant. At the same time, the Assyrian Empire was overtaken by the Babylonian Empire with its capital at the city of Babylon, or Shinar, as it's spoken of in the Bible on five occasions. Now, we come to the point where Nebuchadnezzar was in control. And he took the opportunity of invading the Southern Kingdom Judah and he took away the holy vessels from the house of God and he creamed off, I suppose, what would nowadays be called the yuppies, the up-and-coming bright young things of the day, those with the best upbringing, those with the most cultured background, the privileged class of the day, those who were able to respond to special training, and he took them off. He creamed off the best of the young generation and he took them back to Babylon. Now, what I want to do at this stage is read some scriptures and just to orientate our minds. Unless we relate what's going on to the scriptures, we are wasting our time. Turn back, please, first of all, to 1 Kings, chapter 8, verses 46 to 50. This is part of Solomon's word that he gave when he dedicated the temple that God had allowed him to build. Speaking of the people of God, those who should be using the temple of God in the worship of God, chapter 8, verse 46 says, If the people sin against thee, for there is no man that sinneth not, and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near. Yet, if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely. We have committed wickedness, and so return unto thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, which led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name. Then hear thou their prayer, and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause, and forgive thy people that have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee, and give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them. Second Chronicles, the last chapter, 36. Verses 15 to 21. The Lord God of their fathers... Now, bear in mind that what is being recorded here is 400 years, approximately, after Solomon dedicated the temple. By now, what Solomon had indicated had occurred. The people had rebelled, they had been disobedient, and the northern kingdom was away, and the southern kingdom was about to be taken away too. The Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes and sending, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man or him that stooped for age. He gave them all into his hand, and all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon. And they burnt the house of God, and break down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon, where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths. For as long as she lay desolate, she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years. Now move over, please, to Jeremiah 25. Jeremiah 25, and verse 12. Really, we should take note of verses 1 to 14. Let us make a point of reading that before we come together again. But for the moment, I'll only read verse 12. It shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations. Chapter 29, and verse 10. For thus saith the Lord, that after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 1. Verse 11. Verse 11. And so, verse 17. So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations. We've read scriptures before the event, where the Lord's message was, if you continue in sin, you'll be conquered, you'll be taken away in captivity to a Gentile nation. We've read the historical record of what took place when it happened, with the added comment that as God's disciplinary tools, God was going to use Gentile nations, and was using Gentile nations to discipline his earthly people. But that he would hold such Gentile nations responsible to him for what they did to the apple of his eye, in particular when they overstepped the mark. And finally, we have read after the event, from the Gospel by Matthew, looking back, and seeing the Holy Spirit's record, that things that happened in the nation of God's earthly people happened in an orderly way, at orderly intervals. I'll say no more than that, but there are references here to a series of fourteen generations at a time, thrice over. But perhaps the most significant thing that we've read about was that what took place when Nebuchadnezzar took the holy vessels and the cream of the younger generation back to Babylon, the most significant thing that we've read is that this was done because, in a particular way, the southern kingdom of Judah, as well as the northern kingdom of Israel, had defaulted in a very special way. They were in debt to God. They had not given to God seventy Sabbath years. They owed God seventy years. Now, I'm going to read some scriptures now to refresh your memory as to what God had ordained should be the principle on which they worked. That not only should there be one Sabbath day per week, but that there should be one Sabbath year in seven, in order that the land might rest. Now, we are going to look at a few scriptures, the first one in the book of Exodus and chapter 23. We'll only read the odd verse. Exodus 23, verses 10 and 11. Six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof. But the seventh year thou shalt let it rest, and lie still, that the poor of thy people may eat. And what they leave, the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard. Leviticus, chapter 25. Verses 1 to 7. The Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a Sabbath unto the Lord. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof. But in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land, a Sabbath for the Lord. Thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap. Neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed, for it is a year of rest unto the land. And the Sabbath of the land shall be meet for you, for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, and for thy cattle, and for the beasts that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meet. Chapter 26, verse 14. I also will do this unto you. I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning egg, and that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart. And ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies. They that hate you shall reign over you, and ye shall flee when none pursueeth you. Verses 27 and 28. If ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me, then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury. And I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. Verse 32. I will bring the land into desolation, and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you. And your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate. And ye be in your enemies' land, even then shall the land rest and enjoy her sabbaths. Again, 400 years before the setting up of the kingdom in response to the pleading of the people, there was the message from the Lord to Moses to speak unto the people. That even at that early stage, the warning was given, if ye refuse and rebel, you'll be driven out of the land, and your enemies will possess it for themselves. Now, again, God was gracious. As when he withdrew from the temple and its precincts in the prophet Ezekiel, so we find here that the discipline of God on the southern kingdom took place in easy stages and gave them the opportunity to repent, but they did not. First of all, in about 6 or 6 BC, the holy vessels and the cream of the youngsters, they took no notice of this as a nation, and then, well, again, somewhere between 10, 12, 14, 15 years later, when they rebelled again against the king, the king Nebuchadnezzar said, well, only leave behind the lowest of the peasants to tend the land. Bring everybody out, and bring them all back, and they will all serve me in my land, the land of Babylon. And so they did. And they still were disobedient to their God, and then a few years later on, we find that the few that were left were taken away, and the city itself was destroyed. What a pitiful comment upon the disobedience of the people. Just a reflection there. This happened because the people had been disobedient and had not given to God the Sabbath years of rest. Seventy years they owed to God, and because one year in seven was to be Sabbath, this meant that they had been disobedient for 490 years. Now, put that number in the back of your memory, we'll come back to one or more sets of 490. But think of it that the nation had been disobedient for 490 years. What's even worse, when you work it out, you find that 490 years from the time that Nebuchadnezzar conquered the southern kingdom and took away the holy vessels out of the temple, if you work 490 years back, you come to the year that Saul was made king. In other words, as long as there had been a kingdom, they had never once allowed the land to enjoy its Sabbath rest. You may well conclude that even before that, they hadn't allowed the land to recover in the way that God had decreed. But the responsibility of the kings was for this nation, which was constituted a kingdom, and their responsibility was that for the whole of that historical period of 490 years, they hadn't given to God once the Sabbath of rest for the land. How gracious, how long-suffering God is. And now the time had come where the discipline must be applied. Judgment must be carried out. And we find that from this date, which Matthew 1 we've read, began the carrying away of the southern kingdom of Judah into the land of Babylon, not to be lost without trace like the northern kingdom, but preserved as an entity. And as we've read from the prophet Jeremiah, that after 70 years of discipline, to correspond with the 70 years that they owed God after that commensurate period, that in the ways of God, they would be allowed liberty to come back to their land of promise. Now that's as far as we can take that part tonight. One other little matter that we need to consider for the moment. Not so much the layout of the book, but the language which is used. If you just take your Bible into your hand and look at the book of Daniel, chapter 1, and make a mental note of the fact that from chapter 1, verse 1, through to and including chapter 2, verse 3, the language that Daniel was written in was Hebrew. Then again, from chapter 8, verse 1, to the end of the book, again is written in Hebrew. Hebrew that the southern kingdom of Judah would be able to understand. The intervening bit, and we'll find other reasons for this as we go on, but chapter 2, verse 4, right through to chapter 7, verse 28, is written in a language which is variously Arabic, Chaldean, Syriac, or Aramaic. Now, we aren't surprised that in gospel times that the people were still conversant with Aramaic because, again, the people who were brought from Assyria and Babylon to repopulate the land of Israel had that as their natural dialect. Now, I want to make one fundamental suggestion for tonight and leave it at that. The part written in Hebrew, the first one and a bit chapters, and then the later chapters, are written in Hebrew because they contain God's message to the people of Judah. The intervening chapters, from chapter 2, verse 4, to the end of chapter 7, are written in the Gentile tongue because they contain the message for the Gentile nations. And the message to the Hebrew people was this, what's happening to you now is no misfortune. It's not primarily due to the aggressive nature of Nebuchadnezzar. It's necessary because you owe to God 70 years and you will go into captivity for 70 years to repay that 70 years. But we will bear in mind that that 70 years that they owed God represented 490 years of disobedience and we must come back to that. Judah had robbed Jehovah, they were in debt, they must pay it back. Why write half the book in a Gentile tongue? Or we learn in Romans that the whole world is left without excuse. And in the book of Daniel, particularly in chapters 2 to 7, written in a Gentile language, the Gentile minds can understand God outlines what is going to happen, how the Gentile nations are going to act, how God views them in the way that they act, and the judgment that God would carry out upon them when the time was right. And so that they might be without excuse, the outline of history written in advance, or prophecy as we call it, was making plain both to the Hebrews, the kingdom of Judah, and the Gentiles, the kingdom of Babylon, that their responsibility was directly to God and they were answerable to God for everything that they did. Now, I trust we've laid the basis for further studies, and if the Lord will, on Tuesday night we shall look at the major prophetic statements in chapters 2 and 7 as to the times of the Gentiles. And if the Lord will, we'll do that. But let us project ourselves in our last hymn to beyond that, to the time when God's purpose for Israel has indeed been worked out, when there will be joy on earth, 256. …

… 33 verse 14, God speaketh once, yea, twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men in slumberings upon the bed, then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, that he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man. He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword. Now in the book of Daniel chapter 3, Daniel 3 verse 1, Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits. He set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Verse 8, At that time certain Chaldeans came near and accused the Jews. They spake, and said to the king, Nebuchadnezzar, O king, live forever. Thou, O king, hast made a decree, that every man that shall hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, shall fall down and worship the golden image. And whoso falleth not down and worshipeth, that he shall be cast into the midst of a burning, fiery furnace. There are certain Jews, whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, have not regarded thee. They serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image, which thou hast set up. Verse 19, Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated. And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning, fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosem, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning, fiery furnace. Therefore, because the king's commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning, fiery furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar, the king, was astonished, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered, and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered, and said, Lo, I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. Verse 28, Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and hath changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve, nor worship any God, except their own God. Therefore I make a decree, that every people, nation, and language, which speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill, because there is no other God that can deliver after this thought. Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. I suppose most of us are conversant with that oft-quoted statement in Job 33, whether or not we know where it's from. God speaketh once, yea twice, and man perceiveth it not. Now we are here tonight because God has a message for us, you and me, but being what we are, we find it easier, we find it more pleasant, we find it more acceptable to see other people's faults. Makes us uncomfortable, doesn't it, to think about our own. But God is gracious, God is kind, God is merciful, and he has sprinkled freely in the scripture of truth, illustrations of lessons that he wants us to learn, and the book of Daniel is a good example. Of the many things that might be said about Nebuchadnezzar, I want to single out two, two incidents in the life on earth of Nebuchadnezzar. Now at every stage, while it's interesting to speak about Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, who lived what 2,700 years ago, 2,600 years ago thereabouts. It's only really worthwhile if we realize that through Nebuchadnezzar, and the lessons that he had to learn, that God is speaking to you and to me. God speaketh once, yea twice, but man perceiveth it not. In case you're under any delusion, let me say also, God speaketh once, yea twice, yet woman perceiveth it not, yet boy perceiveth it not, yet girl perceiveth it not. None of us is excluded from the lesson we need to learn. Nebuchadnezzar is well placed that we might learn from him. Nebuchadnezzar was a king, the son of a king, born in a palace. How favoured he was. Never wanted a mouthful of food. Never short of a refreshing drink. God was good to him. God has caused you and me to be born in a land, in a day, where we have every favour extended to us. Some of you, I can see, move about, not only in this country but throughout the world, and you're aware of how other people are obliged to live, or as we would say, exist. What if you'd been born a Kurd? An Ethiopian? A South African Negro? Or in some of the more poverty stricken back streets of Newcastle even? Some of you have lived through hard times, I know that. Some of you were born in very poor circumstances, but God has been good to all of us and he's been gracious and kind and given us more than we need. We're only promised, aren't we, what we need? But God has provided us with more than we need, with the intention that we should be grateful to him, the good and faithful creator. Sadly, the human heart is such that rather than being grateful to the great providing God, there's a tendency for each of us to think we can paddle our own canoe. We can get on by ourselves, thank you very much. Nebuchadnezzar? Born into very convenient, congenial circumstances. Looked up to as the king, all-powerful. How he must have enjoyed the message of the prophet Daniel. When Daniel said, now look, you're the king like there's never been a king like you. Your power is the kind of power that's never been known. I'm sure Nebuchadnezzar preened himself and said, quite right, I'm just the man to be that kind of king in that kind of kingdom. And his heart was lifted up in pride. Let us just pause there. When we consider the goodness of God towards us, whether old or young, the kind of family that he caused us to be born into, what thanks have we given to God for the way that he's blessed us even in a material way? What thanks is due to God for the many of us who've been born into families where God is honoured, where the word of God is read, where parents and grandparents have prayed for us that the blessing of the Lord which maketh rich and addeth no sorrow with it might be our portion day by day. Nebuchadnezzar, we read about him, heart lifted up in pride. How susceptible we are to it. And his servants, his officials came along and said, now look, if you're the greatest king in the world, this should be publicised. Let's make a great image of him. Let's make a great statue, 90 feet high, 9 feet wide, and everyone will see it and everyone will have to bow to it. And in bowing to that, they will be worshipping you. Nebuchadnezzar, of course, should have said, now look, be sensible. I'm only in this situation because of the goodness of God. If you want to give thanks, give thanks to the God who gives us all the air that we breathe. We couldn't last without God, could we? In broad terms, I think it's true to say, we can last a few weeks without food. We can last a few days without water. We can last a few minutes without air. We can't last at all without God. In him we live and move and have our being. All things continue to exist in virtue of the being of Christ, the Son of God, as the New Testament tells us. Nebuchadnezzar, oh, how sad. You know, we all yield to temptations of different sorts. Some of us fall when we get too much money. Some of us fall when we have too little. Some of us fall when we have too much criticism. And many of us fall if we are given too much praise. Fortunately, most of us are spared from that. Nebuchadnezzar, he says, what a good idea. Let's tell everybody what a wonderful man I am. Everything that happens in the kingdom, they owe it all to me. I'm the big noise. I'm number one. Get on with it. Build this 90 feet statue. Of course, it was a put-on. The people who suggested it knew for a fact that there were those in the kingdom who knew that worship should only be given to God. Worship God, the scripture says. There were those who would give honor, real honor, the top honor, only to God, to whom they owed their breath. And then when these schemers made the image, built the statue, how ready they were to come to King Nebuchadnezzar and say, you'll never guess what's happened. Tell me, said the king. These Jews, these captives that were brought from southern Palestine, who owe everything to you and you've been good to them, King Nebuchadnezzar, they've had the audacity to refuse to bow to the image. The king was so uplifted in the pride of his heart that he said, well, we said what we would do, we'll have to do it. And ultimately, these three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, were thrown into the seven times heated, fiery furnace. You're sitting there comfortable. You're sitting there handsome, in person, in lifestyle, in clothes. How real is your faith? What answer would you give if someone said, now look, unless you pay due honor to this statue that's in the street there, unless once a week you bow before it, you're going to suffer. You're going into a fiery furnace. I think most of us at the start would have a few palpitations, wouldn't we? Well, would it really matter? The Lord would know our heart isn't really in it. But every now and again, God pushes us into a crisis where we have the opportunity to demonstrate how real our faith is. Let me encourage you. If you are a believer on the Lord Jesus Christ, if you believe that Jesus died for you and rose again, I'm convinced of this. If it was necessary for the glory of God, if it actually happened in your life that your faith was tested in that way, if you really trust in the living God who sent his son Jesus into the world for your salvation, if you really trust in such a Savior, let me encourage you. I'm convinced that God would give those of us who are real the grace for the occasion. Difficult to judge at the moment. Many of us may well have gone soft because we've never had to suffer for our faith. Well, it's an opportunity, isn't it, to think about Nebuchadnezzar's treatment of these three godly men, and that when he said to them, now what sort of a god are you? Where's your god now? What's he going to be like? How's he going to look after you now? Lovely reply. I didn't read it. It's in the text. They said, don't you worry about us. Our God is able. He's able to deliver, and he will. That's our faith in him. No doubt about it at all. But, O King, they said, in case you're in any doubt, if God, for his own best purposes, if it's his will that we are not delivered, well, so be it. We'll still not bow down to the image. Now, a faith that was prepared to suffer. And they did. And they were sustained. And a figure, a fourth, an extra person, having fellowship with them in their sufferings, in the terrible heat of the fiery surface, furnace. One, the scripture says, like unto the Son of God. You Bible students, look that word up, the Son of God. Not here, the meek and lowly Jesus. Not here in his personal charm, but here in his official judicial character, the one who's in charge of the situation and consoles those who trust in him. And he says to them, don't you worry. I'm here. I've got the situation under real proper control. And he had. Now, apart from being an interesting historical fact, God was speaking once to Nebuchadnezzar through this amazing, miraculous incident. God speaketh once. Now, by what he said afterwards, it would seem as though he'd got the message. Verse 29, there is no other God that can deliver after this sort. Something happened to other people. And he seemed to have learned the lesson. God spoke once to him. I want to read a little bit from chapter four, where God spoke to Nebuchadnezzar again. Verse one, Nebuchadnezzar, the king unto all people, nations and languages that dwell in all the earth, peace be multiplied unto you. Verse four, I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest in mine house and flourishing in my palace. I saw a dream which made me afraid and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head troubled me. Verse 19, then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was astonished for one hour and his thoughts troubled him. The king spake and said, Belteshazzar, let not the dream or the interpretation thereof trouble thee. Belteshazzar answered and said, my lord, the dream be to them that hate thee and the interpretation thereof to thine enemies. Nebuchadnezzar has another dream here, given another vision of what's going to happen in the future. How privileged we are when God draws the veil aside and lets us see what's going to happen in the future. God says to us, the dead, small and great, will stand before God and the books will be opened and every individual who is at that tribunal will be judged according to their deeds. According to their works. And there'll be a clear line of demarcation. Those whose names are in the Lamb's book of life, the final court of appeal, will be blessed. But those who aren't, because all have sinned, those who are not covered by the blood of the Lamb, their portion will be the same as that for the devil and his angels in the lake of fire. The tragedy is not that that is the end. For those who know not God, that's bad enough. The double tragedy is that many who know that, who've been told it from the scriptures, who realise it and agree with it mentally, would have not acted upon it, that they will be in the lake of fire because God has spoken to them once, yea, twice and they've done nothing about it. There are some here who for 40, 50, 60, 70 years have taught and watched while boys and girls and older people have heard the sinful gospel message of Jesus and his wonderful love. A few have responded, but oh the many who have gone on heedlessly, carelessly, without an interest in the destiny of their precious soul. Those of you who've witnessed to neighbours, to unconverted relatives, to workmates, to school pals over the years, that will be the end for them. All Nebuchadnezzar was spoken to not once, but twice. Read the rest of the chapter, wherein we are told that he who'd been so proud of his kingdom, that God who'd made him such an exalted person officially in his kingdom, that God would bring him low, that such would be his mental and moral condition, that he'd be brought down to the level of the brute beasts in appearance and in habits. And the scripture says, all this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar, verse 28. Verse 37, 36 says, at the same time my reason returned unto me, verse 37, I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the king of heaven, all whose works are truth and his ways judgment, and those that walk in pride he is able to abase. He now takes sides with God against himself. He who'd been so proud is now able to agree with God and align himself with God in true repentance and says, that which God has said about me is absolutely true. As I read the book of Daniel, I'm never quite sure what condition of soul Nebuchadnezzar ended his days in. Maybe you are convinced. Read the book of Daniel again. This seems to be the last we hear of him, and it's on a good note. He's saying, God's right, I've been wrong all along, everything that I have I owe to God, he had to bring me down in order to lift me up. Where are we? I want to say to you two conclusions I've come to over the last few months. When I say it, you may say, well that's obvious, that's what the gospel says. If it's obvious to you, not only do you believe it, but do you act upon it? Let me say two things about the death of Christ at Calvary. Yes, God gives us a true vision of ourselves by giving us a true vision, a true sight of the Lord Jesus on the cross. Judge what I'm going to say against your knowledge of what the Bible says about God, about Christ, about Calvary. What Jesus did at Calvary, in dying, in sacrifice for sin, is of sufficient value to God that it covers every sin that's ever been committed by man. By everybody that's ever lived. Oh, that's a tremendous value, isn't it? The value to God potentially is sufficient to cover every sin committed by every individual from the beginning of time. That's what scripture says. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from every kind and every individual sin that's ever been committed. We'll leave that for a moment and go to the other end of the scale. Do you believe this? If there'd only been one sinner that ever lived, you. If you'd only committed one sin, do you believe that that one sin committed by you is so obnoxious to God that the death of Christ at Calvary would have been absolutely necessary to deal with the claims of God upon you? One sinner having committed one sin. Sin is as horrible to God as that. It's not a question of you saying, well, I think it might be nice to be a Christian. I think I will decide to become a Christian. These people I think I could get on with, and yes, I think that's what I'll do with my life. The bad news is, don't think about anybody else. Your sins committed by you made it necessary for Jesus to suffer and bleed and die at Calvary. Oh, but the good news, the glad tidings of the gospel is that when Jesus went to the cross just for you, just for your sins, in personal, individual love for you, that when he did that, the value to God of what he did was sufficient to cover every sin of every sinner. The Bible says the righteousness of God is unto all. It's available to everybody, and it rests upon all those who believe. There's grace available tonight for any who recognize that your sins made it necessary for the death of Christ at Calvary, for the shedding of his precious blood. But, oh, if coming as an individual just for yourself, you receive a blessing which you find is enjoyed by many other sinners who can sing as we sang, nor have I gotten but what I received. I am only a sinner saved by grace. Now the assurance comes when God says to you, if you really believe that, that your sins made it necessary for Jesus to die, if you trust him as the only possible way of salvation, God says, look, you can be really sure that your sins are forgiven because, look you, God says, I've raised him from the dead. The work was sufficient. The work was complete. The love of God was so real and full, the love of Christ was sufficient in coming into the world to die in that you and I might live unto God. The assurance that God wants us to enjoy is conveyed, at least in part, by the hymn we are going to sing now. And let us, as we sing it, just think about what we've been talking about. 415. Again, it's a question, will your anchor hold in the storms of life? You know, there's no apology for being personal in the gospel. I'm saved because somebody said to me one day, are you sure you're saved? Have you confessed the Lord? You believe in your heart? Have you confessed with your mouth? The challenge comes to all of us of any age. Do we believe in the heart? Have we confessed with the mouth? If so, we can sing this lovely hymn of assurance. We have an anchor that keeps the soul steadfast and sure while the billows roll, fastened to the rock which cannot move, grounded firm and deep in the Saviour's love. 415. Will your anchor hold in the storms of life? When the fountains fall and the wind blows by, when the sun rises and the day goes away, will your anchor hold? We have an anchor that keeps the soul steadfast and sure while the billows roll, fastened to the rock which cannot move, grounded firm and deep in the Saviour's love. Will your anchor hold in the strains of fear? When the rapes that grow and bleed in fear, when the surges rage and the wild winds blow, shall we ever be raised again from our fall? We have an anchor that keeps the soul steadfast and sure while the billows roll, fastened to the rock which cannot move, grounded firm and deep in the Saviour's love. Will your anchor hold in the storms of death? When the waters roll till the nature's breath, on the rising night we shall never fail, will your anchor hold? We have an anchor that keeps the soul steadfast and sure while the billows roll, fastened to the rock which cannot move, …

… From the book of Daniel, chapter 5, beginning at verse 1. Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. Belshazzar, whilst he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem, that the king and his princes, his wives and his concubines might drink therein. Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem, and the king and his princes, his wives and his concubines drank in them. They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace. And the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another. The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. And the king spake and said to the wise men of Babylon, Whosoever shall read this writing and show me the interpretation thereof shall be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. Then came in all the king's wise men, but they could not read the writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof. Then was king Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed in him, and his lords were astonished. Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another. Yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation. Thou hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven, and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee. And thou and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines have drunk wine in them. And thou hast praised the gods of silver and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know. And the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified? Then was the part of the hand sent from him, and this writing was written. And this is the writing that was written, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Eupharsin. This is the interpretation of the thing. Mene, God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. Tekel, thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. Peres, thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians. Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom. In that night, in that night, was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. I haven't read every book that's ever been written, that's obvious. But one thing I'm sure of, the one book that's been written, and remains undated, unaffected by the changing fashions of this world, a book which is always topical, is the Bible. Belshazzar, the last effective sovereign of the kingdom of Babylon, before it lost its place as the ruler of the nations. Wherever you find Babylon referred to directly by name, or by the other name connected with Babylon, Shinar, wherever the word or the name or the place is mentioned, we read about something where those who are there are set against God. Maybe in word, maybe in declared atheism, I don't believe there is a God at all. Maybe as an agnostic, I'm not very sure. I'm willing to be convinced, but you'll have to give me sufficient proof to satisfy my clever mind. The audacity of sinful men and women that demand proof to their satisfaction. Oh, we shall be required to give satisfaction to God, to give account of ourselves to God. Belshazzar then, repudiating the true God, desecrating those vessels that were dedicated to the service of God, paying homage, as I suppose 90, 95% of the people in our land do now, paying homage to materialism. Paying homage to the gods of gold and silver and wood and food and drink. If there could or were to be a census in Newcastle upon Tyne and every question was answered and there must be, how many would have to say, I, by my lifestyle, I don't say the words, but by the way that I live, I'm just like Belshazzar and his lords, I pay homage to the four Bs. Pierre, Bucky, Bingo and Benidorm. You analyse it. I would say most people in this country are governed by the four Bs. Things that give pleasure to the natural senses. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. I think, well no I'm sure, we are returning to the sort of pagan days where it will take spectacular miracles to shift needy souls out of their indifference. Like the days of Belshazzar and his lords. Busy man, wasn't he? Head of the nation. Probably the prince regent in the absence of his general father who was away doing battles from time to time. Belshazzar, the virtual king, spent his days in feasting with his princes, his wives, his concubines. Busy man. God was crowded out of his life. Whether believer or unbeliever, how easy it is for God to be crowded out of our busy lives. Not openly, not blatantly, but surreptitiously, bit by bit. Oh yes, I get to the meetings, I do my duty and then the rest of the time is my own. Far be the thought. Belshazzar gathers with his lords, repudiates the true gods, sets about enjoying himself and he needs to be brought to an abrupt halt and he was. I remember reading once a comment on this chapter, normally called Belshazzar's feast. But writers like to be alliterative. It's not always peace like we had last night. The comment of one writer was about this feast, fingers that finished a feast. Fingers that finished a feast. There he was, reveling, literally and metaphorically, carousing, having an orgy and then absolutely stricken. He sees the fingers of a man's hand writing on the wall. Oh how significant that is. In the same hour, while God was crowded out of his life, by choice came forth fingers of a man's hand. I wonder how many of you shared an experience that occasionally used to happen to me. My mother used to say to me, don't point, it's rude. Why is it that if someone points at you, you feel uncomfortable? You feel invaded. You feel insulted. The answer to all important questions is found in the Bible. I think we just have time to let our eyes fall upon a few examples where the Bible talks about the finger being raised. And we'll learn something if we haven't noticed it before. Turn back to Exodus chapter 8. Moses and Pharaoh's magicians contesting before Pharaoh. Up to a certain point, the world's magicians can copy the acts and the power of Moses, the man of God. But then Moses does something which is beyond the magicians. Pharaoh, their master, says now come on. You've copied them up to now. Don't let me down. Verse 19. The magicians say this is the finger of God. This is the finger of God. I'll keep them all together, but look at chapter 31. The last verse in the chapter. The Lord gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God. Move over to Leviticus chapter 4. Again, this is the chapter about the sin offering. We'll come back to that. Verse 6. The priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle of the blood seven times before the Lord. Verse 17. The priest shall dip his finger in some of the blood. Verse 25. The priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering with his finger. Verse 30. The priest shall take of the blood thereof with his finger. Verse 34. The priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering with his finger. New Testament. Luke's Gospel. Chapter 11. May God use our eyesight in looking at these verses for our spiritual blessing. Luke 11 20. If I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. John chapter 8. Well-known incident. Verse 6. They tempted him that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground. The message is consistent. When God wants you to know that all things are naked and open in his sight. That there's no escape. You cannot hide from God and he knows all about you. God raises his finger in accusation. The law, Exodus, accuses. It tells you where you've gone wrong but it cannot put you right. All those instructions about the sin offering in Leviticus 4. How important they are. The only way. The righteous accusation of God against you because of your sins. The only righteous answer to that is the finger of accusation. Being satisfied by the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses from all sin. There's no other way. Cleansing, forgiveness, bestowal of righteousness, fitness for heaven. Sins and their penalty have to be met once and for all. And this was signified on behalf of the whole nation. For the ruler that sinned. For the priest that sinned. For one of the common people that sinned. Didn't matter who it was. Noble or of humble birth. Prominent or obscure. Many or a few. The only answer to the sinfulness was that the blood had to be sprinkled before the veil. There was no approach possible to God unless the blood was shed and applied in the sight of God. It's the blood that maketh atonement for the soul. The life of the flesh is in the blood. And it was for that reason that the Lord Jesus Christ had to come into the world and die. And that his blood must needs be shed. There was never ever a life on earth like the life of Jesus my Lord. There was never a death like the death of Jesus my Lord. God took account of it. And as I said last week I would say again tonight. God looking at the death of Jesus. God looking at the blood. He clearly says there's sufficient worth in that blood to cleanse every sin. The potential is there to cleanse every sinner. To remove the stain of every sin. But before it's effective it must needs be applied. There were those in the days when Jesus lived upon earth. We read about it in John 8. Where they thought they were alright. Came into the presence of the Lord accusing a woman who was a sinner. They were accusing her. The Lord said, think about yourselves. And he wrote with his finger on the ground. He says if we are talking about accusations. Consider yourself before God. How tempting it is to think about other people. Who in our eyes are worse sinners than us. More blatant, more flagrant, more regular over a longer period. Oh the God who says there's sufficient worth in the blood of Jesus. To deal with your every sin. The same God says if you've only sinned once. The whole weight of the wrath of God hangs over your head. This was the message. Meanie, meanie, teakle, you farson. Forgive the pronunciation. It's like the tunes we sing. As long as we all sing the same thing and understand it. Whether we are 100% accurate perhaps is secondary. Well give me a better pronunciation. But we don't need worry about the interpretation. God gives it to us. God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it. You may get people at your door. And tell you they've got good news for you. And they will encourage you to understand. That if you behave yourself. And read their books. And do what they say. They'll promise you life on earth. I'm not quite sure whether they would still say forever. But they'll promise you an extended life on earth. That's not a blessing that would be a curse. Maybe it's a sign of growing older. But the idea of living forever on earth. Gets increasingly unattractive the longer we live. As the vortex of the whirlpool gets quicker. As the pace of life increases. As the thin veneer of respectability is taken off the cesspool. That's society in 1991. The time must come. When as to Belshazzar. God says to the world at large enough. No more. The reckoning day will have arrived. Now what basis was the reckoning going to be on? Listen to what the message is. Thou art weighed in the balances. And art found wanting. You remember. When Eve transgressed. Being deceived. Took Adam with her. Just like now. Everybody wanted to blame somebody else. Not me Lord somebody else. Adam says not me Lord it was the woman. The woman says it wasn't me it was the serpent. God says to the serpent. Because thou. God said to the woman. Because thou. God said to Adam. Because thou. Individual responsibility. Ezekiel 33 is it. Each will have to bear their own responsibility before God. And because God is entirely consistent. With what he's declared himself to be. As he spoke to Adam. As he spoke to Eve. As he spoke to the serpent. So he spoke to Belshazzar. And says thou. Individual. I've weighed you up. I don't want to open any old wounds. But any of you who've been burgled. Will probably share with many others. A common reflection. It's not so much. The things that were taken. It's not even the terrible mess that was left behind. The best of all is to know. That for a long time. Somebody had been watching you. Taking account of all your movements. And making a note perhaps. When you went out. When you came in. What your habits were. How many people came to visit you. Was there a time. When your house was left unguarded. Without anybody there. I'm told. That that's the common experience. Of those who've been burgled. God. Watches us. All the time. There's not a thing that we do. There's not a word that we utter. There's not a thought that passes through our minds. That he doesn't know all about. At the last assize. We read. That the wicked. The wicked dead small and great. They'll be raised. They will stand before God. And the books will be opened. The books of records. I suppose. For most of us. Certainly for me. There are some things that I've done in my life. Some things I've said perhaps. Many thoughts. That I've allowed to pass through my mind. I wouldn't want my best friend. Never mind my worst enemy. To know anything about them. But God knows them all. And the time will come. When everything will be revealed. And Belshazzar here. Is a picture of that. I've been watching you Belshazzar. I've been taking notes. There's a record of everything. That you've ever done or said or thought. And the result is. You've been found wanting. As we learn in Romans. We've all come short. Of God's standard. The glory of God. I may well. Be ashamed. Of things that are on my record. But thank God. They've all been dealt with. None of them outstanding. The blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. God's son. Has cleansed me. From every sin. God forbid that I should use that as an excuse. For doing as I like. But the Bible says. It doesn't work like that. When your sins are forgiven. You're determined. To live for the one that saved you. Romans 6. God forbid. That we should give the impression. That we would like to abound in sin. That grace might super abound. But there he was. Belshazzar. Doesn't say. How many sins he'd committed. Didn't say where about. On the scale of grossness. Or seriousness. Any of them were. You. Have been weighed up. And found wanting. Any of us. Could put ourselves. On the scale. And the same would be said about us. However old. However experienced. However mature or immature. Put on the scales. God says about you and me. You've been found wanting. Many would like to think. That the scales of justice stand. Adjusted. So that they're perfectly in balance. And the pointer is on mid scale. Zero. And they would like to think. That. The commendable things they've ever done. The good things. The good works. Will be put on one side. And that. The admitted wrongdoing is put on the other side. And then you have to watch the scale. And. If the bad things outweigh the good things. Well. That would be a pity. But if. Your good things outweigh the bad things. Well it'll be all right in the end. It's a lie of the devil. God said to Belshazzar. He says to you and me. He says. You are in the balances. All right. We'll adjust the scales. They are fair. God is righteous. It's on. The point is on zero. God says. I'm putting you on one side. And he says. If there's one sin. That you've ever committed. Can be put on the other sides of the scale. Bump it will go down against you. In the days. When Belshazzar lived. That was the end of it. Tonight. You're finished. No opportunity. For repentance. Yes he may have had opportunities in his life. He'd seen the life of those who were true to God. Daniel and others. He'd ignored that. Lived for himself. And he exits. On his way to judgment. The accusation. Of the finger of God. Meant that he was without excuse. How sad it would be. If regular attenders. At gospel meetings. Who'd had far more opportunity than Belshazzar. To know. Not only the justice of God. But the mercy of God. You see at the present time. It's not like Belshazzar. That you're ushered into eternity. And you're away. And no opportunity. Up till now. The grace of God is available to you and me. And that in the light of the gift of God. His beloved son. Who died at Calvary for our sins. God says oh yes. I must point the finger. You are weighed in the balances. You are found wanting. Oh but the cry of mercy is this. Trust Jesus as your saviour. Forget about yourself. Realize there is a God with whom you have to do. Get the matter settled. While still you can. I feel it right. At the close of this meeting. To draw your attention particularly. To the words that we are going to sing. Think about Belshazzar. Think about yourself. Acknowledge your sins. Confess them before God. And accept what the Bible says. The only way of salvation. Is to put your simple trust. In the Lord Jesus Christ. And accept that he loved you. And gave himself for you. Simply trusting every day. Number 120. Simply trusting every day. Oh far better than the four B's. Trust Christ as your saviour. Confess your sins. Turn your back. On whatever has governed you in the past. And say from now on. Whatever happens. I'm going to put my simple trust. In the Lord Jesus Christ. Trusting through a stormy way. Even when my faith is small. Trusting Jesus. That is all. Trusting as the moments fly. Trusting as the days go by. Trusting him whate'er befall. Trusting Jesus. That is all. 120. …

… Profane, wicked, Prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end, thus saith the Lord God, remove the diadem and take off the crown. This shall not be the same. Exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it, and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is, and I will give it him. Luke 21. Luke 21, verse 20, And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let them which are in the midst of it depart out, and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days. For there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Acts 17. Acts 17.31. God hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. On Saturday we looked at scriptures which tell us plainly that the nation of Israel as a whole was in debt to God, and is in debt to God. In particular, and certainly since the inauguration of the kingdom of Israel as such, with the accession of King Saul, from that time God's earthly people had robbed their God, in that they had not carried out the injunction to let the land rest one year in seven. That the land should be allowed to be under the beneficent hand of God who gave it, and that one year in seven should be a Sabbath unto the Lord. And at the time that we pick up the thread in the book of Daniel, 490 years have transpired, which meant that the nation was in debt to God to the tune of 70 years. Man being what he is, after the first 120 years or just a little more, the nation had divided into the northern kingdom, in yellow, which called the kingdom of Israel, and the southern kingdom, in red, the kingdom of Judah. Now, as we must do this week, in the time available, we were painting with a broad brush, and if you checked your maps in the back of your Bible, in your Bible atlas, or if you came forward and checked the location, the distribution of the tribes of Israel over the land, you would notice that while the southern kingdom substantially was Judah and Benjamin, you would notice that at the very bottom of the map, there was the location of the tribe of Simeon. Very little is said subsequently, but certainly because they were isolated from the nine with whom they were nominally associated, they seem to have got adrift of it and seem to have been absorbed into the southern kingdom. We also know that by the time we get to gospel times, there are individuals like Anna, of whom we read that she was of the tribe of Asa. But generally speaking, there was the northern kingdom of Israel, the southern kingdom of Judah. And we also noticed that because of their rebellion against God and disobedience to him, that the nation, the kingdom of Israel, was first to be taken into captivity by the kingdom or the empire of Assyria with its capital at Nineveh. And then a little later on, and this is where Daniel comes into it, 490 years of the long suffering of God gave way to the 70 years captivity. Not now in Assyria, because that empire had in turn been absorbed by the empire of Babylon with its capital in the city of Babylon. And so in Daniel's times, we come to consider the captivity of the kingdom of Judah in Babylon. And we read on Saturday from Jeremiah 25 and 29 where we learned that in payment or in part payment of this debt to God, that the kingdom of Judah was to be captive in the land of Babylon for 70 years. Now, after that kind of background introduction, we need to move into some of the direct prophetic summaries that we get in the book of Daniel. And again, it isn't the exercise, it wouldn't be the time to dot all the i's and cross the t's, but rather to establish for ourselves a framework for future study. Now, it was for that reason that I read from Ezekiel 21 where, again, the tale is taken up from the standpoint that the nation, because of its rebellion, had to be disciplined by God. And a new thing, as far as the extent was concerned, God had determined that Gentile nations should be used as his disciplinary tools. And we read in Ezekiel 21, particularly in verse, well, verse 25, we'll pick it up there, Thou profane wicked prince of Israel. Now, we have here a reference, the divine comment on things as they were. The kingdom of Judah was in a very sorry state. The last king was on the throne, referred here as the profane, wicked, prince of Israel. He wasn't even a king in his own right. He was a puppet of the Gentile monarch. And he's in such a sorry state, in line with his spiritual and moral condition, that both in himself and as a demonstration of the condition of the people, we find that he ended his days blind. As always, blessing comes to man from the hands of God in all its pristine beauty and glory. And then, in responsibility, man causes it to degenerate. This is why, when we consider the sorry state of things of man and responsibility, we find that the last judge, Samson, finished his days blind. The last formal priest who judged, Eli, finished his days blind. The last king, Zedekiah, finished his days blind. And in case we are inclined to preen ourselves, we must bear in mind that the last state of the church, the Christian church, is declared by the Lord to be blind, pictured in the church at Laodicea. So here we have the last kingdom, and at that, a puppet, and not only evil in himself, but a picture of things at the end, immediately before God, through Christ, takes personal control by personal intervention and setting up the kingdom, which shall never be superseded. We find that Zedekiah is a picture of another last king of the nation, spoken of in scripture as the Antichrist, and we'll come to him again, an apostate Jew, seeking to present himself as the sovereign of the nation, and yet in his heart, against God and his Christ, a first prophetic element of what we have here. Now, it is because of who and what Zedekiah was, that the prophet Ezekiel says, now look, this is the word of the Lord, this cannot continue. God says, because the sovereign of the first Gentile empire, allowed to enslave the kingdom of Judah, has gone beyond the limit, beyond the mark, he will, I will remove him, I will overturn. And he said, the first kingdom, Gentile kingdom, will give way to a second one, and in turn to a third, and in turn to a fourth. So in the days of the first Gentile world empire, there is this prophecy that God would overturn three times more until the second, third, and fourth Gentile world empire were allowed to run their course. And then God says, and then, I will give the kingdom to him whose right it is, until he come whose right it is, and I will give it him. Now, this succession of four world empires is that which the Lord referred to in the verse we read in Luke chapter 21, the times of the Gentiles. The times of Gentile supremacy, when the Jews would be subjugated, when they would be under the sway of one Gentile nation after another. Now, in our survey tonight, we shall find it necessary to read mainly from chapters two and seven of the book of Daniel. Chapter two, Nebuchadnezzar's image. Chapter seven, Daniel's dream. To make things simple, in chapter two, we get man's view of the four Gentile kingdoms in their apparent majesty and apparent majesty and glory and attractiveness. In chapter seven, we get God's view of these same four kingdoms. Now, what we hope to do tonight is look to see what the book of Daniel says about the first three. And then, if the Lord will, we'll see what scripture says about the fourth tomorrow night. But first of all, let's look at chapter two. Overall statements. Again, setting out some benchmarks for our studies. Daniel, chapter two, verse 31. Daniel is privileged to reveal to Nebuchadnezzar the sovereign of the first Gentile world kingdom of Babylon. And this is what Daniel says by way of interpretation. Chapter two, verse 31. Thou, O king, sawest, and behold, a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee, and the form thereof was terrible. Verse 34. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and of clay, and break them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors. And the wind carried them away that no place was found for them. And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. Well, here we have it. Man's view of this succession of empires. Straight away, Nebuchadnezzar had it revealed to him by Daniel that this was a mighty image, that it was there in all its parts, but that this, whatever the image spoke about, would come to a sudden end by miraculous means at a time which up to this point is not specified. And that the power, not personified, not declared at this stage that brought the downfall of this image would emerge as the everlasting kingdom which should never be destroyed and which would be universal. Now move over to chapter seven. Again, an overall statement, not now at the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar's image, but the beginning of Daniel's dream. Chapter seven, verse one. In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed. Then he wrote the dream and told the sum of the matters. Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of the heavens strove upon the great sea, and four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. Now here's a little more detail. As well as this image, which seemed to be a continuous assessment of things, we now have four different entities, four different individuals who are referred to not in their apparent majesty and glory, but in their bestial character, beasts before God. Coming out of the sea, out of a state of unrest, speaking of general conditions in the world, and here we have these four great beasts, diverse from one another. Verse 17. These great beasts, which are four, are four kings which shall arise out of the earth. Now, my main point tonight is to demonstrate from the text of the book of Daniel that what we are led to understand and can understand from the book of Daniel is not a matter of a peculiar interpretation by a small body of Christian believers. It's not a fantasy of one or two clever minds. Everything we are going to look at tonight is verified from the text. As well as being there in detail, it also demonstrates again what we need to do when we study any scriptural subject. We go through and we learn broad lessons. We establish a framework and then once we've got the main gist of the thing, we start again and we comb through with a finer comb, getting more detail. And then when we've swept through a second time, we start again and we go through in finer detail again. There's no substitute really for going through longhand by yourself. Now, what we're going to do now, having established from verse 17 that it's not a minority interpretation, it's a statement of the infallible word of God that this fourfold image in chapter two, these four beasts in chapter seven, are in fact representing four kings that should come out of the world system. And as we've learned from other scriptures, these are the kingdoms in particular which are of interest to God and therefore of interest to us because they were to be used by God to discipline his earthly nation Israel. So, let us go back now to chapter two and comb through in a little finer detail. Chapter two. Again, verse 31. Thou, O King, saw'st, behold, a great image. Verse 32. This image's head was of fine gold. Verse 37. Thou, O King, art a king of kings, for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory, and wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the head of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold. So, here we have it. Plain statement of scripture. Daniel speaking in the presence of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, is able to say plainly, now look, O King, this image that you saw, it begins with a picture of yourself. You are the head of gold. And thou, O King, art a king of kings. Thou art this head of gold. So, here we have it. Direct statement that the first kingdom to vanquish the kingdom of Judah as God's disciplinary measure, because they'd robbed God of 70 Sabbath years, was the kingdom of Babylon. Now, move over, please, to chapter 5 and verse 18. Daniel speaking in the presence of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, O thou King, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honor. And for the majesty that he gave him, all people, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whom he would, he slew. And whom he would, he kept alive. And whom he would, he set up. And whom he would, he put down. Daniel speaking now to Belshazzar, the grandson, biologically, but in succession, the one who's now on the throne. Daniel says, Belshazzar, you haven't learned the lesson. What was the lesson? Kings, as the New Testament says, kings are God's ministers for good, and for the punishment of evildoers. Kings hold sway because God chooses that they should be there representatively on his behalf. And if you want to understand God's idea of a kingdom, as to the principle on which it operates, chapter 5, verses 18 and 19 of the book of Daniel, give the kind of king, the kind of kingdom, the positional status, the system of government that is according to God. This is not the same as saying that Nebuchadnezzar was the perfect king, anything but. But as a system of government, you have God in heaven, you have a man on earth chosen by God, enthroned, given absolute, undisputed sway, his word on behalf of God, held absolute sovereignty, as it says graphically, whom he would he slew, whom he would he left alive, whom he would he promoted, whom he would he demoted. His word was law. God says that's the kind of kingdom that will ultimately be extant on the face of the earth, but we must leave that for a moment. But as a system of government, this couldn't be better. This control in the hands of one man. You and I are used to a system of democracy. Our minds are attuned to assume that it's right for everybody to have their say and it's wrong to have control concentrated in the hand of one person, a man. God says it's ideal, it's right, it's perfect for control to be held in the hands of one man, but it has to be the right man. So we have this picture of government as it should be. Chapter 7, verse 4. Verse 3 told us, four great beasts came up from the sea. Do you die, verse 1, from another. The first was like a lion and had eagle's wings. I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked and it was lifted up from the earth and made stand upon the feet as a man and a man's heart was given to it. Now we aren't told which kingdom it is, but we know we've had it explained to Nebuchadnezzar, we've had it explained to Belshazzar, and this now speaking about the first kingdom gives us God's view of that first kingdom and we know because scripture has told us it was the kingdom of Babylon. There is certainly majesty about the lion, the king of beasts. There is certainly majesty about the eagle, the sovereign of the skies, which has its home in the most lofty eminence that a creature can have. That a creature can have. But speaking here of animals or birds of prey who live by devouring others, we have here a statement by God. Yes, the position is an exalted one given by God, but man's heart being what it is, it's lifted up in pride and takes to itself the glory that should be God's. And in homely terms, chapter 7 verse 4 says it was necessary, it will be necessary, it would be necessary, it must be necessary that when the king got too exalted thoughts of himself, it was necessary for God to cut him down to size. That he was a mere man after all. And so we find this described in chapter 7 verse 4. That's about all the book of Daniel says about the first world empire. We get details about how King Nebuchadnezzar got exalted thoughts of himself and had to be disciplined personally by God. We learn how Belshazzar also had these lofty thoughts of self and again had to be brought to a summary end. But really, other than that, we don't get a lot about the kingdom because it was written about something that was existing at the time and was well known. So we move on. God overturned. This shall not continue. This cannot be allowed to proceed, God says, and I will take away the one and bring in another. Now what does scripture say about this second one? Back to chapter 2. Again, verse 31 said, thou, O king, sawest and behold a great image. Verse 32, the middle of the verse says, his breast and his arms of silver. Verse 39, after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee. That's interesting. Look it up in your Septuagint and you will probably expect to find that this is another kingdom of the same sort, that these four kingdoms were going to be the same. In fact, it's not. It's another kingdom of a different sort, a different character. The only one of the four that's said to be God's style and God's system of government is the first one, the head of gold. But in responsibility, man always moves further and further away from God's thoughts. And in these four world empires, each one becomes stronger in material strength but less worthy in value. And that's according to God. Well, let's turn over to chapter 7 and see what chapter 7 says about it. Behold another beast, a second like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it. And they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh. Here again, it tells us a kingdom would vanquish the first one and that it would have the character of a bear which tears the flesh of its victim in a very cruel way. But that's about all that we learn except that there are three parts to it somewhere. Three ribs absorbed, taken into the mouth, and there is that connection. We have to move on to chapter 8 in order that we might get an explanation of that. Chapter 8 verse 3, I lifted up mine eyes and saw. And behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns. And the two horns were high, but one was higher than the other. And the higher came up last. Chapter verse 6, the goat came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power. And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with collar against him, and smote the ram and break his two horns. And there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, stamped upon him. There was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand. Now this is explained in chapter 8 verse 20, the ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. Now again you see, this is no interpretation by us. The first gentile kingdom that overpowered the kingdom of Judah was the kingdom of Babylon, ruled by Nebuchadnezzar and then eventually Belshazzar. Overturned overnight, vanquished, history tells us, by the Medes, who were in turn absorbed by the Persians. If we wanted to, perhaps we could see an indication of these three ribs, in that the Babylonian empire, absorbed by the Medes and then by the Persians, there were these three major elements to the kingdom, Babylon, Medes and Persia. There may or may not be a reference to that in the three ribs, but what we do learn in both the bear and the ram is that one side is more prominent than the other. In the bear, the shoulder, one shoulder is higher than the other, more prominent than the other. With the ram, we are told it has two horns and that the second, the later one to grow, becomes more prominent. Certainly, if we read the historical books and if we read the books of Ezra, Esther, Nehemiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, we certainly learn that this joint empire, which became the Medes and the Persians, the earlier, the one more prominent earlier, was the kingdom of the Medes, but as time went on, the Persians became more prominent. Daniel, in his prophetic statements, was so exact under the constraint of the Holy Spirit that cynics ever since have said the prophecy is so accurate, so exact, it must have been written after the event, a tribute by the cynical unbeliever to the prophecy of God. Well, we learn here then that the ram with two horns is the kings of the Medes and the Persians, and that defines it for us. Now, we must move on and we look back at chapter two. I have no apologies for taking you back again and again to the text of Holy Scripture. If we read books of ministry and if they are helpful, they are helpful because others on our behalf have gone through in the fine detail as we are hoping to demonstrate tonight. Chapter two, chapter two, verse 32. Partway through the verse, again, his belly and his thighs of brass. The third part of this image, again, stronger again in mechanical strength, less worth in value. We move on to verse 39. Another third kingdom of brass, consistent with Ezekiel 21, consistent with the overall statement in chapter two, verses 31 and 32. Let's move on to chapter seven again. And verse six, after this, after the second kingdom, I beheld and lo another like a leopard which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl. The beast had also four heads and dominion was given to it. Chapter eight, verse five. As I was considering, behold and he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth and touched not the ground and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. And as we read from verses six and seven, he attacked and destroyed the ram, which we know is a picture of the kingdom of the Medes and Persians. Verse eight. Then the he goat waxed very great and when he was strong, the great horn was broken and for it came up four notable ones toward the four kings of heaven. I think we leave that at that for the moment. Except that we read verse 21, the rough goat is the king of Grecia and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king. I'd been listening to ministry, good ministry, for many years when it was explained to me that the first three kingdoms were Babylon, the Medes and the Persians, and Greece. And it was a long time before the penny dropped with me that these are the plain statements of scripture. I'm not relying upon the interpretation of others, however spiritual they may be. We are told in the text before the event that first of all, Babylon would enslave the kingdom of Judah. Then the kingdom of the Medes and Persians would take over. And then this king of great tenacity and tremendous rapidity of movement, the things that characterized the first king of Greece, this Grecian empire, Alexander the Great, as history speaks of him, the thing that took people's breath away was the speed with which he operated. This leopard with four wings. But we learn also that there is another inference with the four wings and the four heads. That is, that acting on behalf of Alexander the Great, he had four deputies as we would speak of them, four generals looking after his armed forces. And we've read in the chapters that this notable king, having destroyed the kingdom of the Medes and Persians, having taken over their empire into his, he coming from the West, again remember your geography, relative to the land of Palestine, he came from the West, he absorbed all the Medes and Persian empire, and then we read, when he was at the zenith of his power, he was struck down. Again, he went too far. God says, yes, I'll use you, but go farther than I say, and you yourself will be disciplined. In turn, the kingdom of Babylon, the kingdom of the Medes and Persians, and ultimately the kingdom of Greece. The sad record of history is that at the age of 32, Alexander looked around and he says, he wept, there was nothing left for him to conquer. He got himself into a drunken orgy and he died. What a sorry end to such an amazing start in his to such an amazing start in his adult life. What a commentary upon what man does with power that God puts into his hand. If the Lord will, we'll take this a step further tomorrow night and we'll see what scripture says about the fourth kingdom, but let us absorb for the moment that everything that has happened so far has been stated and interpreted in the scriptures for us. We can see it and accept it as the word of God, and it's plainly stated, and then, if the Lord will, when we extrapolate from this, when we move on from what is interpreted by scripture, having learned the principles, we can use the same lessons and learn what God wants us to learn about the fourth kingdom, but we'll have to leave it there for the moment. …

… Three basic scriptures which I read last night and I wish to read again, partly as a reminder for those who were able to get, partly as a connecting link for those who were unable to be present. And David, have you the sheets there for tonight? Perhaps, without being too much of a distraction and to save time, David will give, I think there's sufficient for each couple anyway, where there are couples, 25 to 27. And thou profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come when iniquity shall have an end, thus saith the Lord God, remove the diadem and take off the crown. This shall not be the same, exalt him that is low and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it, and it shall be no more until he come whose right it is and I will give it him. Luke's Gospel, chapter 20, 21 sorry, Luke 21 verses 20 to 24. When ye shall see Jerusalem come past with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let them which are in the midst of it depart out, and let not them that are in the countries enter therein too. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days. For there shall be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people, and they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations, and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Lastly for the moment, Acts chapter 17. Verse 31. God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead. Thank you, David. I think I have it. Thank you. In our introductory studies to the book of Daniel, to establish for all of us a framework for future detailed study, we began last night a look at what the Lord Jesus himself called, in what we have as Luke 21, 24, a phrase, the times of the Gentiles. A period of time at least in part prophetic future when Daniel was speaking and historic to us for the most part. And we use the term freely because they are the words of scripture. And we began last night in comparing Daniel 2 and Daniel 7, because the times of the Gentiles, we learned from the text, cover an extended period of many hundreds of years where because of the disobedience of the nation of Israel, and in particular the disobedience of the southern kingdom of Judah, it was necessary for God to discipline his earthly people. And that to their horror, the people of Judah found that God was using a Gentile power to vanquish them, take them into captivity, which was the supreme insult for the people of God upon earth. And we looked first at that scripture in Ezekiel, written in the days of the first of the four successive Gentile empires, when the kingdom of Babylon held sway and where there was a puppet king, Zedekiah, installed on the throne of the kingdom of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar. And Zedekiah was acting in such an evil way that God, through the prophet Ezekiel, says, this can continue no longer. It shall be no more. I will deal with this nation of Babylon and bring in further kingdoms who will do what my disciplinary work on my behalf. And we learned from the text that this would eventually include four successive Gentile kingdoms, and we read the words. Now, last night, for revision for those who were here, and for a connecting link for those who couldn't come, if you refer to the diagram, we compared Daniel 2 and Daniel 7. Daniel 2, giving us man's view of these kingdoms in all their apparent significance. The left-hand side of the page, that representation of the image that Nebuchadnezzar was given to see. On the right-hand side, we see a representation of what Daniel chapter 7 describes as these four world empires in their viciousness, in their selfishness, in their cruelty to the people of God. The image then, man's view of these kingdoms, these beasts, beasts of prey. On the right-hand side, God's view of the same kingdom. Now, in the center, we have a heading as to what we would nowadays call Gentile superpowers. And in particular, we've looked at the comparison between Daniel 2 and Daniel 7. As far as the kingdom of Babylon was concerned, we compared, as scripture does, the head of gold in chapter 2 with the lion with eagle's wings in chapter 7. And we saw how well those features represented the kingdom of Babylon, succeeded by the kingdom, the joint kingdom of the Medes and the Persians, seen in the breastplate of silver in Nebuchadnezzar's image in chapter 2, but seen as what we would call simply a hunchback bear in chapter 7. One shoulder, and how strong the shoulders are, one shoulder beginning to grow after the other one, eventually becoming higher and stronger, indicating that the kingdom of the Medes, first of all, was powerful, particularly in the hands of Darius the Mede, and then eventually in that joint kingdom, the amalgamation, Cyrus the Persian becoming supreme. And we looked at that comparison and the features in chapters 2 and 7. We then followed by looking at the loins of brass in chapter 2, and the four-headed, uh, four-winged leopard in chapter 7. And again, not by fancy, not by interpretation, but by plain straightforward statement of the word of God, we were told that this third world empire was the kingdom of Greece. We are not given the name of the first king. History records that as Alexander the Great. And after his sudden demise at the age of 32, the number of generals who then, after a little bit of confusion, settled down in number four to wield the former power of the kingdom of Greece. And that's as far as we got last night, in fairly quick succession. As the kingdoms went on, we noticed that each kingdom was greater in mechanical strength, mostly wider in domain and territory, but of decreasing worth and value as far as the materials of the image were concerned. And tonight, we are going to look at the fourth empire. Now, as before, we cannot do better than trace longhand, through scripture, what we are told. So would you turn back, please, to chapter 2 of Daniel. And we look, first of all, at verse 31, as we did before. Chapter 2, verse 31. Speaking to Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel said, Thou, O king, sawest, and behold, a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee, and the form thereof was terrible. Impressive, indeed, to the eyes of men. This image's head was of fine gold. We've looked at that, the kingdom of Babylon. His breast and his arms of silver. Scripture has defined for us that as the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians. His belly and his thighs of brass, the kingdom of Greece. Those who couldn't come last night, check up in chapter 7 and 8, and the kingdoms are stated as by their name. And so we had these kingdoms. And now, in verse 33, we come to something we have not considered before. His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet, that were of iron and clay, and break them to pieces. Now, putting 33 and 34 together, we have a representation of the fourth kingdom, as yet unnamed, but we are told that there were two major parts to it. A major dual structure signified in the legs, and then at the end. And because we're going in time chronologically from the tip of the head, and we have been going through time, it is reasonable to assume, even before it's defined, that because the kingdom of Babylon was first in time, then the kingdom of Mede and Persia, then the kingdom of Greece, we are now moving on to a fourth kingdom, and that we have a representation of part of the features of the kingdom in the two legs, and then another representation of something connected with the kingdom in the feet, partly of iron and partly of clay. Now, verse 35. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away, and no place was found for them. And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. Now, before we go any further, we've learned this. We know from history, from the Bible, it was true of the kingdom of Babylon. It didn't last forever. It was ultimately judged by God, and removed from power. It was also true of the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians. It did not last forever. It was superseded by the kingdom, the empire of Greece. And we've learned from scripture that the kingdom of Greece did not last forever. And now, as we continue our study, we have a prophetic statement that this fourth kingdom, when it came in, it would not last forever. That it would meet its destruction from this rather mysterious representation, a stone cut out without hands, which would smite the image upon the feet. Now, here we have the first, second, and third kingdoms were superseded by the use of normal national military power by the kingdom that followed. But we have an early indication here that the fourth empire would come to its ultimate end because of supernatural means, supernatural power, this stone cut out without hands. Now, we can only leave that there for the moment, and we can move over to verse 40. We come to the interpretation, the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron. Iron would be prominent in the materials in common use in this kingdom and would be a feature of the kind of strength that this fourth kingdom exerted. For as much as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things, and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of pot as clay, part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided. We are to look for a kingdom which is under one emperor, but where there should be two major divisions. The kingdom shall be divided, and there shall be in it of the strength of the iron for as much as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. So again, without giving a name, we are learning that there will be a material strength about the kingdom, but that the rulers should mingle their executive power with those who came from the lower ranks of the population, and that this would result in an undermining of the executive efficiency. And again, I'm being as general as possible to be fair to what the scripture says. I'm trying not to fly to an interpretation that's not offered by the scriptures that we've read so far. Now that's in chapter two. As before, let us look at the diagram. And yes, we've got a representation of two legs, ten toes, and then if we compare this with the right-hand side, we'll find a description of a monster, an aggressive monster, whose description we are going to look at now in chapter seven. And we look at chapter seven and verse seven. After this, I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth. It devoured and break in pieces and stamped the residue with the feet of it, and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots, and behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man and a mouth speaking great things. So, in the interpretation in scripture of this fourth kingdom, this fourth empire, we are told that the power would become more and more diffused. Two, and here we have ten horns corresponding to the ten toes. No split as to time, nothing said about the point in history when this should occur, and we have to wait till other scriptures to look at that. Now then, let us look at verse 15, chapter 7, verse 15. I, Daniel, was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me, and well they might. Just imagine, most of you have been looking on and off at the book of Daniel for many years, and if you're anywhere near like me, every time you look at it, you can remember the general outline, but because our minds are finite, the detail goes, and we have to refresh our memory, and every time we look at it again, we feel like Daniel. We feel that the visions of our head trouble us, and verse 16 goes on to say, I came near unto one of them that stood by and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me and made me know the interpretation of the things. These great beasts, the beasts of prayer, chapter 7, which are four, are four kings which shall arise out of the earth. Yes, we'll leave that for a moment. Four kingdoms, and then verse 19, how persistent Daniel was. Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, his nails of brass, which devoured, break in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet, and of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell, even of that horn that had eyes and a mouth, that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows. I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them. Now again, we come to one of the marks of kingdoms that are referred to in scripture. Where they become worthy of God's notice is where their activities affect God's earthly people, and we are told that this fourth world empire would come to a point in its history where they treated God's earthly people in a terrible way, persecuting them in a terrible way, at the time that the power of the kingdom is represented by ten horns. Again, let us reserve our judgment as to which of the kingdoms of the world this is. Now, would you turn over, please, and for the first time we'll have a little excursion into the book of Revelation. Chapter 4, verse 1. Note the order of these scriptures. Revelation, chapter 4, verse 1. After this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven, and the first voice which I heard was, as it were, of a trumpet talking with me, which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the Spirit. And behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. Chapter 13. Notice the similarity between the verses 1 to 10, which I'm going to read, and the verses we've been looking at in Daniel 2 and 7. Chapter 13, verse 1. I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads, as it were, wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed, and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who was like unto the beast? Who was able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them. And power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leaveth into captivity shall go into captivity. He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and faith of the saints. Chapter 17, verse 8. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition. And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. Chapter 19, verses 11 to 16. I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written king of kings and lord of lords. It is well said that we cannot understand the book of revelation without first studying the book of Daniel, and you cannot rightly understand the book of Daniel without a knowledge of the framework of Ezekiel. We've looked a little at Ezekiel, we are spending more time in Daniel, but to consider in parallel with what Daniel says about the fourth kingdom, we've read these verses in chapter 17 of Revelation. There will be a time, again to be fair not yet defined, there will be a time when it is right to say that this fourth world empire, characterized by iron teeth and great cruelty and great power, there would be a time when it was right to say it used to be great, it's relatively unimportant at the moment, and the time will come in the future when it will be great again. It was, it is not, and shall be present. Revelation 17 verse 8. But note where that is said. It is said after chapter 4 verse 1 and before chapter 19. When we look at the introduction to the book of Revelation, and John is instructed to record certain things, he is recorded to, he is asked to record the things that thou hast seen. That's his vision in chapter 1. The things which are, the things which are current at the present time when he wrote, and the things which shall be hereafter. Chapter 2 and 3, he gives what is clearly an account of the responsible career and history of the Christian church from Pentecost to the rupture. And then, in this pictorial way, at the beginning of chapter 4, as a symbol of what will happen at the end of the church period on earth, John is invited to come up to heaven. He leaves earth as a scene and he moves up into heaven. A picture of that momentous event which will bring to an end the responsible history of the church on earth. The catching away of those who are Christ's. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. So this period when we are told that this fourth kingdom used to be great and is not now, but it's about to become prominent again, is speaking of a time after the rupture. Chapter 19, the words we read, speak very clearly of the appearing in power and great glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Chapter 4 verse 1, the blessed hope, the rupture. Chapter 19, the appearing of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, we are narrowing down the period that this fourth kingdom, which used to be great, relatively insignificant, now going to become prominent again. We've narrowed it down to a period after the rupture has occurred, but before the personal appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, when he will deal in a public way with his enemies. If you like, we are speaking of a period between the private coming of Jesus for his own and the public appearing of Jesus with his own in bible terms. Now let us go back, that's all we can do for the moment there, but it will be laying a basis for what we shall, if the Lord will, be looking at in the next two evenings in Daniel's 70 weeks prophecy. We look at the small print of that time between the rupture and the appearing as the Lord permits. But let us go back now to Daniel chapter 2, still thinking about the truth of this fourth kingdom. By the way, if you look at the diagram, against Babylon, it says Nebuchadnezzar. We are on good ground there, that's what the bible says. Medo-Persia, Darius the Mede, Cyrus the Persian. We are on good ground there, scripture says so. Greece, the great horn, Alexander the Great, and four generals. There's no reason to dispute that the great leader, the first emperor of Greece, Alexander the Great, is indicated there. Against the representation for Rome, there are four letters, S P Q R. Canst thou speak Greek? Not at all. Canst thou speak Latin? No more. A Latin scholar tells me that there has been a kingdom on earth whose motto has always been, I'm relying on others for the approximate pronunciation, Senatus Populusque Romanus, being interpreted the senate and people of Rome. There's no doubt, when we think of the way history worked out, when we think of the empire which held sway, which vanquished Alexander the Great and his successors, that is, when that four-fold empire, which was split north, east, south, and west, as we shall see tomorrow night, that kingdom eventually gave way to the empire of Rome. And indeed, they did have two major legs, two major portions to that Roman empire, one based on Rome, one based on Constantinople, the two legs. But we shall, if the Lord will, tomorrow night, see that ultimately, that empire of Rome, which was in that balanced, two-legged stance, straddling Europe and part of Asia, which is less than prominent at the present time, that the time will come, because God says so, when it will be revived to prominence, and that ultimately it will be a conglomerate of at least ten units. And if the Lord will, we'll look at that. But we are going to look further ahead again tonight, and we're going to look at chapter 2 and end as scripture ends. Chapter 2, verse 34. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and break them to pieces. Forty-four and forty-five. In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom which shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. For as much as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it break in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter, and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure. An indication that after these four world empires, each coming to the end of their allotted span of power, that they would be superseded by a kingdom which would never be superseded. Remember Ezekiel 21? That this overturning, overturning, overturning would go on until he come whose right it is, and I will give the kingdom to him. God speaking. Now we're going to look at chapter 7 where we see the detail of that working out. God in all his glory passing on to the true king the kingdom that shall never be superseded. Chapter 7 verses 9 and 10. I beheld till the thrones were cast down, all these four kingdoms now gone, the ancient of days did sit whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool. His throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him. Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The judgment was set, and the books were opened. Here we have a picture of God in all his glory and honor and majesty. Notice in passing that the same attributes are listed of the Lord Jesus Christ himself in Revelation chapter 1. But here it's God as such. Verse 13 and 14. I saw in the night visions, and behold one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him, and there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. Here we have it. That term which speaks of the Lord Jesus in his lowliness, humility, and humiliation taken up here as identifying the one to whom all power shall ultimately accrue, and the one whose kingdom shall never give way to another. I understand that's the literal sense of these terms forever and everlasting in speaking of kingdoms. Again the use of the term everlasting in the book of Hebrews. Again written with a Jewish mind in view. Speaking of things which shall never pass away, which shall never be superseded again, and not necessarily being eternal in duration as we would speak of it, but not excluding it, but the emphasis being primarily that while other kingdoms were superseded when they'd had their day, here is a kingdom to be introduced which would never go away. Here is a king who would never be superseded by another. And lastly, verse 27, the character of the kingdom. The kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the most high, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. This strongest of man's kingdoms, the fourth kingdom, very strong in its early days, iron chariots, iron roads, very strong in everything that they tackled. Some of their roads even here are still visible to be seen, but ultimately diminishing in strength and passing off the scene as a world force, never from the perhaps the fourth century AD up to now to be reckoned as a world superpower. Diminishing, getting less, losing even that which had been its force and its power. Another indication of that which always comes in when man is left to responsibility. How happy we are to be able to end on this high note that the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ will never diminish, will never degenerate, will never deteriorate, will never be superseded by another. And some of his personal activities bringing in that kingdom and inaugurated it in power and great glory, we shall hope to look to see from tomorrow evening, if the Lord will, when we look at the prophecy of the 70 weeks. …

… The ninth year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes, and I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments, we have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts, and from thy judgments, neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which speak in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day, to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel that are near, and that are far off, to all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee. O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. To the Lord our God belongeth mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him. Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice. Therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, because we have sinned against him. And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judge us, by bringing upon us a great evil. For under the whole heaven hath not been done, as hath been done upon Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us. Yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth. Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us. For the Lord our God is righteous in all his works, which he doeth, for we obeyed not his voice. And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day we have sinned, we have done wickedly. O Lord, according to all thy righteousness I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain. Because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us. Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate for the Lord's sake. O my God, incline thine ear, and hear, open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name. For we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies. O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, hearken and do. Defer not for thine own sake, O my God, for thy city and thy people are called by thy name. And whilst I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God, for the holy mountain of my God, yea whilst I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation, and he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee, for thou art greatly beloved, therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision, and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. Know therefore, and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment, to restore, and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore, and two weeks. The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times, and after threescore, and two weeks, shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself, and the people of the Prince that shall come, shall destroy the city, and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week, and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice, and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined, shall be poured upon the desolate. Fascinating, isn't it? Over the last two evenings, we've been looking mainly at chapter two and chapter seven of the book of Daniel, giving first of all in chapter two man's view, and then in chapter seven God's view of a period of time entitled by the Lord Jesus in Luke 21 verse 24 as the times of the Gentiles. Israel, Judah, had been exceedingly disobedient to their God. They had to be disciplined, and one, another, another, and another. Four Gentile world empires were defined by Daniel as being allowed to have the ascendancy over the kingdom of Judah, each being used as God's disciplinary tools. The first one who was dominating Judah at the time that we read the book of Daniel was even called by God, Nebuchadnezzar, my servant. What a travesty that though that Judah's enemy for the moment had to be called the servant of God in punishing the nation and kingdom of Judah. Well, we've traced through from scripture, taking account of the words the Holy Ghost uses of that succession of four world empires. Tonight and tomorrow night, if the Lord will, I propose to look at this 70 weeks prophecy. Tonight should be relatively straightforward. Enjoy it, go home, read it through, have a good night's sleep, and then tomorrow night come fit and fresh, because if the Lord spares us, we'll have to work at a quicker pace tomorrow night. But we'll be laying a foundation tonight. But we'll be laying a foundation tonight. Now, notice the split of the chapter in chapter 9. The first two verses, introduction, and we learn there that Daniel was studying the scriptures. And in verse 3, we read that he was praying. And in verse 4, we read, he was confessing his sins. The only right combination for any godly person on earth. In any dispensation. We are very good at telling the children, encouraging them to learn choruses like, read your Bible, pray every day. Are we as good at doing it for ourselves? Daniel did. He read the scriptures, he prayed. We read in the book, we're getting nearly all our information from the text of the book. He read the scriptures, and he prayed at least three times every day. That's the way to blessing. If I say, oh, there's a lot of the Bible I don't understand. It's very hard to me, I haven't the mind to understand that. Maybe that I'm not studying the scriptures. Maybe I'm not spending sufficient time in prayer. Maybe in particular, I'm not confessing sin when it comes into my life. Daniel, he studied the word of God. He prayed and he confessed his sin. Now, it was while those things were true of him, that the prophecy was revealed to him. Now, he was reading evidently, and we are told from Jeremiah the prophet. Now, I think we would do well in this foundation study of this 70-week prophecy to look at the words that, in our language, that Daniel was reading at the time. Let's turn back to Jeremiah chapter 25 and verses 11 and 12. Jeremiah 25, 11 and 12. After saying how disobedient, how willful and sinful the nation was, Jeremiah says to the people, and he was contemporary with Daniel at this time, he said, this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years and it shall come to pass when 70 years are accomplished that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, saith the Lord, for that iniquity and the land of the Chaldeans and will make it perpetual desolations. Daniel was very clever. He was very experienced. He'd done very well. He was virtual prime minister of the land. He'd done very nicely, thank you very much. He didn't need have any cause for concern for himself. He read of this prophecy of Jeremiah, given about 70 years before Daniel was reading it, a year or so before the kingdom was taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, he read the words where Jeremiah was saying, now then, you're going to be vanquished by the kingdom of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar is going to take you all into captivity and it happened about a year after Jeremiah predicted it. About 68 or 69 years after it happened, that is about 70 years after the prediction, Daniel, who had no cause for concern for himself, he'd done very well in life, he was reading Jeremiah 25 and probably 29, another similar verse, and he says, hello, and he says, hello, the 70 years is almost expired. He could have thought, well, that's very interesting. Maybe he did. He could have thought, well, if God says so, it will happen. Doesn't need anything from me. If God says it will happen, it will, and it does. But Daniel was in the will of his Lord and he knew instinctively that if God's purpose, mysterious to men, if God's purpose for the nation was to be carried out, carried out, and if this kingdom of Babylon was to be in turn disciplined on God's behalf by the kingdom of the Medes and ultimately the Persians, the second world empire, Daniel knew because he was close to the Lord that this would be because God would choose to answer the prayers of the godly people of the day. Let me pause there. You believe that Jesus died for you and rose again. You're clear of judgment. You've got nothing to worry about for yourself. Why not sit back and take it easy? God's work will go on and it will. God wants each of us to be involved in his work now. If I don't get involved, the work will still go on, but it means that God will use some of my but it means that God will use somebody else instead of me. Let us take the lesson. We can't rest on our laurels. Knowing that we're saved and ready for heaven, as long as he leaves us here on earth, there's something on earth he wants us to do. Let us enjoy Christian fellowship. Let us undertake Christian service for the Lord as long as he leaves us here. Now Daniel there thought, I must get down on my knees. I must confess the sins of the nation and my own part in it. Daniel could have said, well I do alright. If everybody else in the nation was as good as me, the nation would be favoured by God. He didn't even say, well I'll pray for the others because they need prayer on their behalf. I'm doing alright, but I'd better pray for them. Then he said, no I'm part of the general condition and he prayed to God and confessed his part in the sins of the nation. And notice, and that's why I read it all the way, thank you for your patience, from verse 3 to verse 19, the majority of the chapter is about Daniel in the presence of God, praying, confessing his sin and interceding on behalf of the people. Notice the proportion. Yes, he studied the scripture. He prayed intelligently because he'd read the scriptures. He felt the general sinful condition, didn't sit back. He said, Lord forgive me for my part in it and bring then all of us to a spirit of repentance before God. And his prayer was answered. He had this angelic visitation. That's how God spoke to the nation of Israel in those days, by angelic ministry. And it happened here. And he was given the message. And notice that the prophecy, the actual prophecy, many books have been written on it since the days it was first put onto papyrus parchment or whatever it was in those days. And many volumes have been written upon this prophecy, which is detailed in four verses, 24 to 27. Now we are here tonight to introduce ourselves to the main outline of this 70-week prophecy. But unless we've learned this initial lesson, that revelation comes to those who confess their sin, study the scriptures, and continue in prayer before God. Let us not just say, my sins are forgiven. I'm saved. I know it. Why should I bother anymore? There's much that needs to be done. There's much that we need to grow in. There's much that we need to learn. The work of the Lord has to go on. These are the principles of showing those of the Lord's servants that he will use. And now we come to the prophecy itself, verses 24 to 27. Now, as an introduction, notice, first of all, there's the statements, 70 weeks are determined. That's the period. We'll come to the detail. Now, verse 24 there, and we'll come back to the detail, it gives an overall summary of what will be achieved by the fulfillment of the prophecy. Verse 25 tells us about the first 69 weeks of the 70. Verse 27 tells us about the last week of the prophecy. Notice how much time. There's as much detail given about one week, the last week, as is given about the first 69. Much more detail. God's microscope is put on the detail of one week in a concentrated way more than the first 69. This is why, as well as introducing ourselves to it, we are going to think about the 69 weeks tonight, and then, if the Lord will, we look at the last week, the 70th week tomorrow night. Verse 26 is an interval. It's in brackets. For my help and benefit, I've, in reading, I've put brackets around verse 26 to remind myself that it's parenthetical. It tells us about the condition of things, and things that will happen after the first 69 weeks have finished, and before the 70th week begins. Now, that's straightforward, but forgive the simplicity. Verse 26, we must think about, tells us about what will happen after the end of the first 69 weeks, and before the beginning of week 70. Now, that gives the general scope. Now, would you turn to your diagram, please? Top right-hand corner, you will see it should have sheet one. If it has sheet two, you have the wrong sheet. I'll give you a copy of sheet one. Sheet two is on the 70th week tomorrow night, if the Lord will. So, we are going to work through the sheet. If we do no more tonight than understand the framework of this 70-week prophecy, and take this home, and look up the scriptures that are quoted, we will have done well enough for one session. But, second last line, you'll see the 70-weeks prophecy, Daniel chapter 9, verses 24 to 27. Please take this away with you, and study it as the Lord enables you. Every time you look at it, remember that this prophecy came after the study of the scriptures by Daniel, after the time spent in prayer, after the time spent in confession of sin, and intercession for his own nation. And then, you're ready to think about this. Now, the events are indicated in the dots, the large dots on the horizontal line, just above the phrase, the study of prophecy. All right? The dots. The little wiggles in the line just indicate that the sketch is not to scale. Nothing more dispensational significance with the little squiggles. If you look at the top horizontal line, in between the vertical lines, where there are arrows which show the limits that govern the statements that I make. Again, I will assume we haven't thought about the 70-weeks prophecy before. We are looking at it for the first time, and I will try not to miss anything out as to general scope. Now, on the bottom horizontal line, you will see a dot with a vertical line from it, which says, decree of our taxerxes to rebuild Jerusalem. And I've given two scriptures for that, Nehemiah 2 and Daniel chapter 9, verse 25, which we've read tonight. And from that vertical line to the next vertical line, I've put seven weeks, and I've put the word weeks in brackets. Really, it might take us on the wrong path. Literally, the word is seven sevens. Doesn't say what the sevens are. At this stage, as we've thought with the four world empires, let us just take our teaching from scripture, without interpretation, without borrowing from the world's historians. Let us see what scripture teaches. We always do well to think of the units. I remember when my daughters were at school, and when they were young enough in their school life to do things that weren't too hard for father, the thing I usually used to check was that they'd put their units. And very often, I used to look at their book and say, cabbages, and they knew what I meant. They'd put a number without the units. Now, at this stage, we cannot put the units. It's seven sevens. The actual word is unimportant. It's seven sevens. Let us reserve our judgment for the moment. We are thinking of a period of time which is called, in the text, seven sevens. Now, the second dot with the second vertical line is called Jerusalem rebuilt. Now, I've taken that from the beginning of this prophecy. Pick up your Bible again, please, and look at chapter nine. It says, 70 weeks are determined. That's the whole of the prophecy. Well, let's pause there. Look at the arrows at the top of the page, and look along the top, and you'll see seven weeks, or seven sevens, 62 sevens, and then you'll see a longer line with a question mark, and then the last pair of vertical lines has a note, one week, week 70. Now, the bit with the question mark corresponds with verse 26, which I suggested should be in brackets. Now, if you look back to the chart, and look first of all at the first pair of vertical lines, I've said seven weeks, and if we look in verse 24, it says, well, verse 25, know therefore, and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and three score, and two weeks, and the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. Now, if you check the grammatical construction of that, you'll be able to check that the two periods, seven sevens, and 62 sevens, refer to those two works, or two periods that are detailed. One, the time it would take to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, it says the street and the walls, that that would take a period called here seven sevens. Then it says from the end of that period, the end of the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem, to what is called Messiah the Prince, would be another 62 sevens. If you are patient, if you have stamina, if you make yourself the time available, and you check through the historical books, late second kings, second chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, the major and minor prophets, it would be possible for you from scripture to follow all these events through to see countries quoted, kings quoted, the year in their reign quoted, and events quoted, which would make it possible for you to track down in numbers of years when these events occurred. Now, secular historians differ. One might say something happened in 445 BC, somebody else may say 456 BC, or something else. But with tenacity and spiritual judgment and spiritual interest, you could track it down from the text of scripture. If you did that, you would find that the length of time it took, though that remnant who went back to Jerusalem when Artaxerxes gave the decree and said, yes, if you want to, you can go back and rebuild your city. If you tracked it down, you'll not be surprised, you'd find it was 49 years. Now, this seven sevens, this 49, is the period that corresponds to that historical period of 49 years. Now, this gives us the scale of the prophecy. This seven weeks tells us that the scale is seven years for one week, or one seven. Now, that makes life very much easier. And again, with the same tenacity, you won't be surprised to find that if seven times seven gives you the period from the decree of Artaxerxes to rebuild Jerusalem to the completion of the work, you won't be surprised to find at all that the 62 weeks, which we now know as 62 times seven, 434 years, takes you to the time, to the year when the Lord Jesus walked, well, when he rode into Jerusalem and presented himself as Messiah to the nation of Israel. From the decree of Artaxerxes, check the text, Nehemiah 2 gives his name. From the decree of Artaxerxes to say, yes, all right, go back and build the city, right through the completion and right through to what people, I suppose, would call Palm Sunday nowadays, the beginning of the week in which Jesus our Lord was crucified, always sticks in my memory. I remember in boyhood, there were three significant Sundays about Easter time. The older ones might remember, Carlin, Palm, Pesach Day. Now, it's in history, it's recognized, but in the history of the Bible, something of far greater significance than the customs of man. When Messiah, the prince, presented himself for the acclaim and for coronation, he was refused, but he presented himself and he presented himself 483 years after the decree of Artaxerxes. Now, this tells us, this takes us then to Messiah presenting himself at Jerusalem, and please check the text when you get home, Zechariah 9 verse 9, behold thy king cometh. Matthew 21, well, if Zechariah 9 is the prophecy, Matthew 21 is the historical record that that's exactly what happened in fulfillment of the prophecy. Colossians 2 11 tells us the significance of it. It says that those of us who trust Christ as savior, we have been cut off in the cutting off of the Christ. Now, look now, please, at verse 24, and we must have a word about this. We've now got something which pins down seven sevens, 49 years, 62 sevens, 434 years, 69 sevens in total, 483 years. Now, what is the prophecy given to achieve? Verse 24, 70 weeks are determined upon thy people. Well, let's pause there. We know now 70 weeks from scripture, we know 77s, 490 years. Why 490? We learned the other night that the people were taken into captivity into Babylon for 70 years because as a kingdom, when it was first set up with King Saul as its first king, from then on, they'd been disobedient to God. They hadn't kept one Sabbath year. They'd been disobedient for a full cycle of 77s, 490 years. Listen carefully to what I'm going to say. Please don't misquote me. It will take 490 years, 77s of years, to work out God's answer and reply and necessary response to the disobedience of the people. The disobedience was for 490 years. Working out in the ways of God, God's reply will take 490 years. Yes, they had to pay back to God sevenfold. They'd missed out 70 Sabbaths, so they owed God they had to repay 490 years. I'm not saying it will take God 490 years to work it out. What I am saying is that in order that there might be a full demonstration of the folly of the disobedience of God's people, it will be necessary to demonstrate that over something that takes 490 years to unfold. And that's why in verse 24 we read, 70 weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city. I think John will tell us shortly whose alarm has just gone off. 70 weeks connected with the people and land and city of Judah. Now if we look at these other phrases, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, make reconciliation for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up the vision, they merit your personal study too. Like Daniel, let you and I read the scriptures, compare scripture with scripture, pray over it, confess any outstanding sin, and then God will let us into the secret of what it all means. Certainly, without looking at the detail, we can see that all the sin that had accrued because of the disobedience of the people had to be answered. Every claim of God upon the people because of their sins must be given due answer. Every claim of God must be met. The enemies of God, given their answer, God's Messiah brought in as God's anointed, appointed king, bringing in blessing with him, bringing his sheaves with him. All this is encompassed in verse 24. But now look just for a moment at verse 26. After the three score and two weeks, check up a literal translation, you'll find that there should be a definite article there, after the three score and two weeks, that is at the end of the 69th week. Messiah shall be cut off, and again literally, and shall have nothing. Tells us that after the end of the 69th week, doesn't exactly say precisely on the same day, but after the end of the 69th week, and of course that's what happened, no disservice to scripture, no inaccuracy in the text. Yes, he presented himself at the beginning of the week, and towards the end of the week, he was tried, led away, and ultimately crucified. Or read the epistle to the Galatians, find out what an ugly activity crucifixion is. How horrible in the sight of God. For your sins and mine, it was necessary for Jesus, our Lord, to be cut off, to be crucified with such a cruel death. Well, it's foretold here, that after having been presented as the Messiah of the nation, as Isaiah 53, we have to compare scripture with scripture, because he was rejected by the nation, he was cut off in his prime, in the midst of his days, halfway through approximately the allotted span for man. And at that time, none of the acclaim and the glory and the honour due to him was proffered and given. It will. God has appointed a day in which he will rule the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained, whereof he has given assurance unto all in that he's raised him from the dead. Act 17, 31, strictly speaking, tells us about that occasion and that period when the Lord Jesus will be in universal sway. And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. If we go back to the times of the Gentiles, the four world kingdoms, chapters 7 and 8, and earlier chapters, told us the names of the first three kingdoms. Babylon, Medes and Persians, and the Greeks. No interpretation needed. We had to leave in abeyance the identity of the fourth kingdom. But here in verse 26, we learn that at the end of the 69th week, Messiah would be cut off, his life on earth brought to a precipitate end, and that again, before the beginning of the 70th week, a people called here the people of the prince that shall come, they would destroy the city of Jerusalem. Even for this, we don't need the secular historian. Happily for them, the secular historian agrees with what scripture teaches. Read the gospels, read the acts, read the epistles, it becomes very plain. That the sovereign nation at the time of the gospels and early days of Christianity was the empire of Rome. We can tell that from scripture. And here we learn that the people of the prince that shall come, this notable person, that this people, the Roman people, we know from the gospels and acts, that they would destroy the city of Jerusalem. Now we do know from secular history that this did take place in AD 70. We know that. We know from the epistle to the Hebrews, written about AD 64, that that destruction of Jerusalem was just round the corner. Ye have not yet resisted to blood, but the implication was you're about to, and they did. And these are things which verse 26 says would happen after the end of week 69 and before the beginning of week 70. Now there's much. Now as to the last week, we'll be looking tomorrow night at the last week, and it will be necessary for us to move from thinking about the people of the prince that shall come to the prince of the people of the prince that shall come. In other words, we are going to think about someone who's a descendant of the fourth world empire, someone who comes to prominence in a particular way. Put that at the back of your mind for when we get to the 70th week, but for a moment look back to the chart just before we close. What happens after the end of week 69 before the beginning of week 70? My suggestion to you is that it's valid to say that the church period is the period covered by the brackets that I've suggested putting around verse 26. After Jesus our Lord was crucified, before the prophetic period that we are going to look at tomorrow night, and for reasons which will emerge then, we now live after the end of week 69 before the beginning of week 70, and we live in the period marked by two epochs. The first epoch concerning us was the inauguration of the Christian church on the day of Pentecost. Again, that was after the end of week 69. The time from the crucifixion of the Lord, covering his resurrection, and the period up to the day of Pentecost, even that period is covered by the prophecies concerning the feasts in Leviticus 23. But nothing in the prophetic statements of the old testaments tells us any detail about what happens after the end of week 69, after the inauguration of the Christian church, and the end of the church period. The Christian church is not a matter of prophecy so much. It's a matter of revelation. Now, revelations of prophecies are given to us in the Christian church to learn about and to learn from, particularly about the 70th week. Things that will happen after the church is gone to be with the Lord. I would suggest this indeterminate period with the question mark began on the day of Pentecost when the church was brought into being, and it will come to an end when the church is translated, when the rapture occurs, 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 17. Now, we'll have to leave that there, and we will be looking in particular tomorrow night at that period of seven years which cannot begin until after the rapture and will come to an end when the Lord Jesus Christ appears in power and great glory. Read these scriptures, please. Get them settled in your mind. Let you and I do what Daniel did, study the scriptures, pray, meditate, confess any sin, and seek grace from the Lord to find the time to share with us tomorrow evening. …