The Gentile Kingdoms of Daniel 2

I don't know how many of you have played with puzzles. Now, playing with puzzles, it's quite a toss. I've got one here, which is 500 pieces, 550, small little pieces, small little pieces, and it takes a while to actually put a puzzle together. And you've got to be careful. You've got to be careful, and you get all these pieces to put the puzzle together.

And as you get these pieces, as you all know, usually there's no picture on one side, and there's a picture on the other, which is fine. And then you have a little picture, yeah, that you use as a guide. Now, it's a little difficult if you don't have the picture to do the puzzle. And it's a little bit even more difficult if you're using that side. So, a picture does help. Now, if you don't have, yeah, it's the case where they appear to fit. They appear to fit. But when you look at the picture, they actually don't fit. So, it is important to get the big picture. And Kathy and I have a technique. You may have your own technique. We usually start with the borders, and then we look at things of the same color, and we start putting together. And some pieces sometimes you don't know where they fit, and you, what do you do? You put them aside, and sometime later they will fit once other things start fitting together. But you don't say, well, I've got this piece, I've got to force it now. You wait until, right? That's how you do the puzzle. Now, I want you to turn with me to Isaiah 28, because the Bible, in a sense, is also a puzzle. It's also a puzzle. And you can't force fit it. You have to get the big picture, and then put it together as you go along. So, look at Isaiah 28. Isaiah 28, we start in verse 9. Who will teach knowledge? And think about, like, from a puzzle, you know? Okay, you've got to put this together. Let's say this is putting it together. It's knowledge. You've got to put this thing together. You have some knowledge to put it together. And whom will he make to understand the message? So, we've got to understand how to put this puzzle together. Those just weaned from milk. Those just drawn from the breasts. And the answer is obviously no. I mean, the puzzle starts. You start understanding when you become more and more spiritually mature. You start understanding more and more. Thus, you've got to grow to spiritual maturity. Because it says, for precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, you add a little, very little, just like you do a puzzle. A little bit here, a little bit there, and as you get the bigger picture, you can start, as you got more experience, you start and you actually can do the puzzle. That's how you do it. And then it's continuous. And I'm reading now in verse 11. Four with stammering lips and another tongue he will teach to this people. To whom he said, This is the rest, with whom he may cause the weary to rest. So, I sign, but God is going to talk as if he's a stuttering to these people, you know, like a puzzle, little bit here, a little bit there. Okay, you take a piece of scripture, yeah, piece of scripture there, and to whom he said, This is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest. Now, you may recall a few weeks back, I gave a sermon about the rest. The rest which in one way is the Sabbath, but really, those holy days of the seventh month, I was a shouting of it, he's 23, also point to the Sabbath rest, the rest, and also showed you in Hebrews 4 that there remains a rest for the people of God. So, this rest that God is talking about is the rest of the wonderful world tomorrow, and the millennium, and the kingdom of God of the promised land to come.

And so, to these people said there is a rest. In other words, he gave them a big picture of something future.

And, continue reading in verse 12, this is the refreshing. This is this big picture.

The kingdom of God, the wonderful world tomorrow, is what it's going to be, peace and harmony, refreshing. We watch the news today. We see these terrible things happening.

As you know, Thursday night, there was this terrible shooting in Dallas, and people are mourning. It's so sad. That is not refreshing. But the kingdom of God to come, that is the refreshing. We want to have this. We want to have this, because there will be a whole different spirit and peace and harmony. It will be a rest. Compared to this, we'll be a rest. The wonderful world tomorrow. It will be a real rest. That's our promised land. And so, God gave us this. God gives us this big picture. A little bit here, a little bit there. But then what does it say at the end of verse 12? But they would not hear. The people refused to obey from the heart, as we heard in the sermon. They would not hear. They did not want. They rejected them.

Therefore, look in verse 13, therefore the Word of God, the Word of the Lord was to them, yes, precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line. It was, yes, it is a little puzzle.

Yeah, a little, there a little. But you know what? That they fit the puzzle incorrectly.

They force fitted that puzzle so that they might go and fall backward and be broken and caught and smeared and caught. And that's what's happening in the world today. Oh yeah, you and I can say, how can all these churches be wrong? Recorrectably they are, because there is a system which is Satan's system. And at this time, God is teaching us the hard lesson of living through it and learning that bitter lesson of experience. Because afterwards, when we look back, we'll never want to go back.

We'll never want to go back to bitter, let it rest on experience. But God has given us a hope that we will never want to go back to bitter. The question is, are we going to hear it? Are we going to obey it from the heart? God is calling many people. We preaching the gospel. We doing Kingdom of God seminars. And how many people come? Yes, maybe a few come. How many stay?

Do not want to hear. And therefore, that's what it says, that they will therefore go and fall backward and be broken and smeared and caught. And you may say, but is this fair? Is this fair? How can a loving God do that? You see, people therefore get worried, but they forget that God is a plan.

God is a big plan, a big master plan. And what is that plan? That you and I are going to be children of God, ruling in the Kingdom of God, ruling forever in peace and harmony. That is the rest.

And for us to rule well, we have to be wise children. And so a few weeks back, I also gave a sermon about, that's what God's looking for, wise children. But you see, God does everything decently in order. Like when you put the puzzle together, you've got to put decently and in order, so it is actually first. God does everything decently in order. And therefore, God is patient.

Patient? Why? Because we as human beings are stubborn. We are stubborn. We are self-opinionated. We have our own opinions, and I know better. And I can Google and find out, and I know better.

That's the wall today. I am rich and increased with goods. I need nothing.

I can search and find it in Google, so I don't need you to tell me what it is or what to do.

So, God is patient and long-suffering, giving everyone an opportunity to repent.

But he has a road map, and those are road map has a timeline. And there will be a time when he says, that is it. So that road map is a road map through various world events.

And those world events are both religious and political. It's a fact. In other words, affect the way of life and affect the people and grouping of people, the nations.

That's what they are, and it's got a roll-out plan how to do it. That plan, in a sense, is what you and I call prophecy. It's written out in advance what it's going to do, religiously, and what it's going to do internationally.

That's prophecy. It's called prophecy, is that road map, religious and international.

But it's also a warning for us to repent. Prophecy, sometimes, does not have to happen.

Because it's like you say, you tell your child, hey, be careful when you cross the streets, because you might get run over by a car. I mean, I was nearly run over by a bicycle in New York when I went. I got out of the taxi, and there's the hotel, and I'm walking from the taxi hotel. I didn't realize that suddenly there was a bicycle trail. And suddenly, the life had changed, and as I walked with the case, etc., there's this bike coming in, you know, bam, bam, bam, you know, the little twinkle, and be careful, and I jumped out, and there was a bicycle just went by.

Simple thing.

Now, when you tell your children, be careful when you cross the street, you can get run over.

That, in a sense, is a type of prophecy. If you're not careful, sooner or later, you get consequences of those actions. So, prophecy is also warning to say, hey, change, look around, and repent.

So, prophecy, therefore, is telling us what God is going to do, what his will, and his will will be done.

Will be done. Therefore, it's not that he went back to the future, it's that he has the power to make it happen that will be done. That's what it is.

People think, oh well, therefore, God went to the future, therefore, that's why he knows the future. He knows the future, because he can make the future happen. He's got that power. That's what it is.

So, we saw in previous sermons that God wants wise children, which identified four keys in prophecy. Not the only ones, I mentioned that clearly. It's not the only ones, but I mentioned four keys that are important keys in prophecy.

We'll go through those briefly in a moment, so that we can put prophecies in this prophetic puzzle, which could be religious or could be international, in other words, religious or political. You know, we can put this prophetic puzzle together according to God's picture. What is the outcome? The outcome of us.

The outcome for us to know the big picture, to know prophecy, is that God wants us to be balanced, mature, Christian, living a godly life.

It's not that you become the expert in counting years and dates and tweaks and things like that.

It's really, you have a big picture. Why? Because God wants to make you and I and us, his children, to roll in the kingdom, to be balanced, to be really representatives of God, in other words, to be to the honor and glory of God. When your children and your grandchildren are respectful and are really nice, doesn't that make you feel proud is probably the wrong word, but well, please, maybe it's a better word.

And people say, well, it's a good man. You've done a good job. In other words, it's to the honor of the parents. Likewise, God's children, if they behave correctly, that is to the honor of God, to his honor and to his glory. So that is the outcome.

And so I mentioned four keys. Let me restite again those four keys. One I mentioned was the Sabbath and the Holy Days, which revealed the plan of God. Correct. Reveal that road map, the plan of salvation. That is the religious road map. The religious road map. Then I mentioned it's important for us to understand who is Israel. And we've got in the church a very good study guide about the U.S. and Britain, because Israel is not just the Jewish nation. It's more than that. There are other nations. The Jewish nation is one of the 12 tribes. Or in fact, maybe we should call it one of the 13 tribes. So there are other nations. And we need to understand so that when we read the prophecies about Israel, and it says, this is to the house of Israel and this is the house of Judah, we understand that the ones to the house of Israel are not to the ones to the house of Judah. And we need a fort to understand these prophecies in their context. So that was the second key. Also, relate to Israel. Say that we understand there's the spiritual Israel and the physical Israel. How God works through the spiritual Israel and through physical Israel. And God never rejected Israel. Because ultimately, his goal is to work with everybody and make everybody children of God, regardless of nationality, race, color. There's no discrimination. But all it is is God a road map. How he's going to work through certain people to achieve his end result. So it's not a question of discrimination, it's the question of a road map of how he's going to get there. That's what it is. So we mentioned about the modern identity of Israel. Then we also talked about the identity of the two women of a revelation. You know? And I said, you know, there's a virtuous woman and there is a great holid.

And I also mentioned that basically means two ways of life. Put it very simply. The way of give and the way of get. Or the holy Jerusalem versus the unholy Babylon. Or the way of life and the way of death. Or the tree of life and the tree of knowledge and the renewal. It's basically two ways of life, two systems. And you and I have to make choices. Wise choices. Wise choices to become wise children. And in the end, those choices evolve, making sure that we choose justice, mercy, and to walk humbly in faith. And those are attributes of, as we're doing a sermon, of loving truly in a heart. True love, because that's what God's law is all about. It's God's love.

And within that, I also said, we ought to be awake. In other words, we ought to be watching.

And watch what? First and foremost, watch ourselves that we're making those right choices, that we are becoming part of the virtuous woman, not of the wrong way. Making the right choices. And the fourth theme, the fourth theme, is basically the purpose of my sermon today, which is the identity and the continuum of the Gentile kingdoms of Daniel 2.

In other words, that is the road map of the Gentile nations at an international level. Just like the plan of salvation, the Holy Days, is the road map at the religious level. The road map at the national level, in fact international level, outside of Israel, is laid out during this world until God establishes his kingdom on earth, to govern on earth, is laid out through Daniel 2. So it is important for us to know who those Gentile kingdoms are of Daniel 2, because those are the ones that have direct interaction with the nations of Israel. And also that there is a continuing, there's a continuity from the head to the toes. So it's not a statue. So when you have Daniel 2, you end up with a statue, and it's the same statue. So it's not a statue, yeah, and the toes and the feet belong to a different body. It's the same body. The problem is when people don't understand this, they say, well, the toes and feet are this group of this nation out there, but that's a different body. It's not part of this body. We've got to understand that there is a continuity from head to toe of one body, and that is very important to understand. In other words, we need to correct a place, political events in this prophetic puzzle. So what? Again, we'll get back to it. So what?

So that it multiplies us, number one, to better discern the times.

Now, this is the problem. The Jews, during the times of Christ, they could not discern the time. Let me give you one example. Luke chapter 12, verse 54 through 56.

Luke chapter 12, verse 54 through 56. And this is Christ talking. This is the Son of God Himself with the message from the Father talking and saying. Then He, Jesus Christ, said to the multitudes, whenever you see a cloud rising out of the West, immediately you say, it's going to rain. Yeah, you get the cloud coming out from the West, it's probably going to rain.

And when we see that the South wind blow, you say, well, it's going to get hot.

And I always get puzzled with this in South Africa, because it was the North way.

Yeah, because in the South it was here, right? I mean, yeah, this is the North, and it was here, so it's applicable in the North, and it was here. But you've got to understand, obviously, it's talking to people that were introduced in the Northern hemisphere. So, yeah, it was the South wind. But in South Africa, it was the North wind. So, anyway, it's just a little bit of humor there. It just tells it's all relative to your position on the planet. Anyway, but anyway, verse 56. Hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it to you that you do not discern this time? Do you know what they do not discern? They do not discern. They do not recognize. They do not click. You know, click. They didn't grasp it. That Christ was the Son of God, speaking to them the words of life. They did not discern that. And they got into trouble because of that. You see, brethren, we live in this sanctuary, and we know we live at the end of age.

It's important that we discern the time, the times we live in. For instance, since 9-11, it's clearly, unless you put your head in the sand like a proverbial ostrich.

I've never really seen an ostrich put his head in the sand, but anyway. Anyway, but unless you do that, you can see that radical Islam is raising up its head.

Then there was the story of Iraq, and you saw how that developed. We saw the Arab Spring in Egypt.

We now see the European migration. They had my immigration into Europe. You can see trouble. You see that wind from the south. We're going to discern the times.

Then, what other winds are there? You see Russia and China asserting themselves.

You see America retreating, and you see England retreating. I mean, Brexit is nothing else than England retreating. So, you see, the Israelite nations retreating, and the others boys getting back into the ring and trying to see who's the next bully in the bloc. You know, and that's what it is. You know, they're all kind of shoveling for position to be the boss. So, we need to be motivated to discern the time. There's nothing wrong with discerning the time. We'll go a little bit more into that in a moment.

Secondly, we need to motivate ourselves to a sound, balanced, reasonable understanding of Bible prophecy.

You know, not this exotic, weird idea. You can't believe. You said I had a phone call. I was preparing the sermon, and I had a phone call. The 64 says, oh, can you please take this call?

Yes. Okay. There's this guy not mentioning the name. I don't know who he is, or whatever. Oh, did you know Mr. Armstrong? Yes.

Not personally, but I didn't know of him, yes. You know, there's this, oh, do you know Mr. Armstrong talked about the two witnesses? Yes, yes. You know what? I have found the two witnesses! I'm so excited! I found them! And you must now preach that and tell the world who they are! I found them! They're hiding! And I know who they are!

I understand yesterday. Thank you very much. Thank you. Goodbye. Because there was nothing I was going to do to change that mind, or to get into an argument. It wasn't necessary, and I needed to prepare the sermon.

So, I said, thank you so much. I appreciate that. So, we need to motivate ourselves to a sound, balanced, reasonable understanding of Bible prophecy. Not get it carried away. It says, oh, I found this piece of the puzzle! It fits there! Well, come on, let's get the big picture.

Let's get the big picture. And thirdly, and this is probably the most important piece of it, so what? We need to motivate us to a mature, holy conduct, and to godliness.

We need to motivate us to be true Christians from the heart. Like we're in the sermon, you know? Right. Love from the heart. That is, in the end, to become children of God. That's our goal. Is not to get carried away into all these weird ideas. And brethren, because all these things are happening, people are going to pop up out of every little woodwork with other little ideas, saying, I have found! I have this! I have that! They're gonna pop out now! All ideas, please do not be deceived! Please keep the big picture in mind!

So it's not to get carried away with twigs, because they're gonna come out with a lot of twigs.

But let's look that we need to be motivated, yes, to discern the times, prophetically speaking, but motivate us to have a balanced look at prophecy, which is balanced, which is sound.

And in the end, the real goal of this is that we have a godly life, godly, holy conduct, to be loving, to be kind to people. And you know what? I have lived in a country in South Africa, and I, people would say it when problems went through South Africa and this and that, I have never seen or felt such animosity between races as in this country. And people would think that it was in South Africa. I think there's more in this country than it was in South Africa. It's just unbelievable, and it's building up! So, brethren, these things are going to create division, are going to create, wow, this, speak bad of this person, speak bad of that, speak bad of this, and we're going to create problems. Brethren, we must not get involved in these things, and we must look at God's kingdom and at that hope, at that rest. The rest to come is what we're going to look at, and we're going to rely on God and trust in Him and keep that the major focus in our lives. That is what we're going to be motivated.

You know, brethren, Daniel wanted to discern the tongues. I mean, how many times you go there? Like, for instance, let's look at just a few scriptures here in Daniel, for instance. How Daniel wanted to know the tongues. So let's start in Daniel chapter 1 verse 17.

Daniel chapter 1, just look at it, I mean, just point a few. Daniel 1 verse 17 says, and for these four young men, God gave them knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. So Daniel was given by God a certain special talent. Think about it, a special skill, right? And then in chapter 2 verse 22, Daniel admitted, look at it, it says, that it's God, Daniel 2 is going to reveal deep and secret things. He knows what is in the darkness and light dwells within. He acknowledged that knowledge had to come from God. Then, look in Daniel 7 verse 16. Daniel 7 verse 16, it says, I came near to one of those who stood by and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me and made known to meet interpretation of these things. So he relied on revealed knowledge, not on his own ideas, but look then at verse 19, at the beginning of verse 19, then I wish to know the truth about the fourth beast. In other words, he wanted to know, he wanted to understand, he wanted to know how these things fitted. Look at verse 28, and this is the end of the count.

As for me, Daniel, my thoughts greatly troubled me, and my countenance changed, but I kept the matter in my heart. It was trouble when God saw and showed him some of the things to happen. He saw well, he was troubled. So there's nothing wrong for us to be concerned and to sigh and cry for the weaknesses and the sins of the nation, but we must not lose hope. We must not lose hope. Look then in chapter 8 verse 15. Look in chapter 8 verse 15, and then it happened when I, Daniel, he'd seen the vision and was seeking the meaning. He wanted to discern, he wanted to understand, he was seeking the meaning. And then look at Daniel 9 verse 21 and 22. It says, and yes, while I was still speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering, and he followed me and talked with me and said, oh Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand. God gives us an understanding. God gave Daniel the skill to understand.

And look at chapter 10 verse 1. And the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, the message was revealed to Daniel. And then he says the message was true, but the point of time was long, and he understood the message and then understanding of the vision. So, in other words, God gives us the understanding. God gives, but Daniel wanted to know. He wanted to discern. He wanted to understand. And God showed him, oh, ever! God not show him everything.

Yes, God showed him certain things, but not everything. Look in Daniel 12 verse 4.

Look at Daniel 12 verse 4. But you, Daniel, shut up the wards and steal the book.

Until the time of the end, many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase. Man, many shall run to and fro. I have not ever seen, never seen so many people together as in New York City.

I never seen too many people, particularly I had to go past Tom Square.

And I've never seen so many people. There were tons of people, and they're all running to and fro doing nothing.

So, it's just unbelievable. Anyway, continue. Look at verse 8.

Although I heard, I did not understand. Then I said, Lord, what shall be the end of these things?

And they said, go your way, Daniel. Ciao! You don't understand it now. Not the time for you to understand. Ciao! Certain things, it's not for you to understand yet. And we know, there are certain things that were sealed. For instance, in verse 13, look at that. But you, Daniel, go your way till the end. You shall go to sleep, you're gonna die, you shall rest, and you will arise to your inheritance at the end of the day.

But in the meantime, certain things you'll not understand, because they're not for you to know. And even us today, certain things we understand. Certain things we have, the big picture, and we understand. There's certain details in the puzzle that we can't put together yet. And you know what? We've just got to keep those pieces to the side and wait till the right time.

And that's it! That's as simple as that! But don't get caught with your own opinions and ideas of somebody that invented or created something, and they're, oh, the greatest thing is a slice of bread! I know where the two witnesses are! Don't get involved with that! You see, Daniel was a man that wanted to discern the times.

And through prayer, through Bible study, through fasting, and righteous living, God gave him some understanding. But there was one specific dream that puzzled him. And that is Daniel 2. And that probably was the longest introduction that I've ever had. But it was important to put it into a frame and spend a bit of time on it. So let's go to Daniel 2. Daniel 2. We'll start in verse 1. Now, in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams, and his spirit was so troubled that he slept left him. So he stayed up the whole night. He couldn't sleep. So let's continue a bit on verse 2. Then the king gave the command to call the magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers, the Chaldeans, to tell the king of his dreams. So they came and stood before the king. And the king said to them, I've had a dream, and my spirit is anxious to know the dream. Then the Chaldeans spoke to him in a remake. Oh, king, you'll live forever. Now, you've got to battle the king up a bit first, you know, you'll live forever, and have a nice dream up.

And now, tell us what was the dream, and then we'll tell you what it means. And the king asked them to say to the Chaldeans, my decision is firm. If you do not make known the dream to me, if you don't tell me what I dreamed and what it means, you are no good, and you're going to be cut, put together in a shredder, and made into little pieces of string. That's basically what they told him, you know.

I'm just paraphrasing. And they are afraid. He says, come on, it's impossible. How? Anybody will know what you dreamed. Nobody knows that. Nobody can do that. Look in verse 6. However, if you tell the dream and its interpretations, you shall receive from me gifts and rewards and honor.

Therefore, tell me the dream and its interpretation. And look at verse 11. And it is a difficult thing that the king requests, and there's no other who can tell it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with the flesh. For this reason, the king was very cross. He's fused blue, and he was blown gasket, and his engine was overheating, and he was really hot. And gave the command to destroy those men.

So the decree went out, and they began killing the wise men. And they sought Daniel and his companions to kill them as well. So Daniel said, wait, wait, wait, wait, what is this? Why is this? And so Daniel said, well, the king wants to know this is this.

So he said, okay, give me time. So look at the in verse 19. Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. And so Daniel blessed the God of heaven. And look at Daniel's prayer, short prayer, but he said, blessed be the name of God for ever and ever, for wisdom and might are his.

He changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and raise up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and secret things. He knows what is in darkness and light dwells within. I thank you and praise you, O God of my fathers. You have given me wisdom and might. You have now made known to me what we ask of you.

For you have made known to us the king's demand. And so God revealed to him what was going to happen. Look in verse 24. Therefore Daniel went to Ariok, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. And he went and said to him, do not destroy the wise men of Babylon. Take me before the king and I will tell the king the interpretation. Then Ariok quickly brought Daniel before the king and said thus to him, I found a man of the captives of Judah who will make known to the king the interpretation.

And the king lost it and said to Daniel, whose name was Dopshazar. Are you able to make known to me the dream which I've seen and his interpretation? What? Are you able to do that? I didn't expect somebody to come and say it. And Daniel lost it in the presence of the king and said, the secret which the king has demanded, the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the soothsayers cannot be cleared to the king. But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets. He gave the glory to God.

And he was made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. And your dream and the visions of your head upon your bed were these. And then he explains. This was the dream. He says, verse 30, But as for me, this secret has not been revealed to me because I'm just a bright guy. No, but for your sakes God has made the interpretation known that you may know the thoughts of your heart.

You are king. We're watching and be all the great image. So he now describes what the dream was, the great image. And then this image was of fun gold, the head was fun gold, the arms of silver. I'm reading verse 32, the belly and thighs of bronze, the legs of iron, and its feet partly iron and partly clay.

So that is basically as we have in this picture, Yah. That was the dream, was the statue. And then he says, well, there was a stone. And you watch while the stone, verse 34, was cut with our hands, which struck the image on its feet.

And the stone says at the end of verse 35, that struck the image, became a great mountain. Perfectly, it means the great kingdom. That's the kingdom of God. And full the whole earth. In other words, that kingdom of God then ruled over the whole earth. It was a world kingdom. This is your dream. This is the dream. Now we'll tell you the interpretation. That's the dream. That's what you dream. Yes, yes, that's what I dream. All right, now I'm going to tell you what it is. And then he explains. So, King, you are the head, Babylon. And so, this is important for us to understand. Because there's a continuity from head to toe. This is very important for us to understand international events that there's a continuity. The head, which is gold, it's Babylon. Now, what is Babylon? Babylon was that first government. No, not the first world government, because before that was the Syria and it was Egypt at us. But it was the first government of this statue of since Judah went into captivity, till Christ comes back and established the kingdom of God. It was the time of the Gentiles. And so, there is this continuity from Babylon. But what is Babylon? Number one is gold. What does gold mean? Well, gold has a certain degree of endurance, of the lost a long time. And therefore, that kingdom of gold had basically a structure of rulership, but it also had a religion, a religious system. And that religious system, and that structure of government, has continued all the way to the toes. Again, those two things, religious and political. Those two ways of doing things have continued through that statue. You see, Babylon was the head. There's obviously the Babylonian religion. The chest and arms were silver, was the means and Persians that then took over Babylon. And then, Daniel even became a governor there in the means and Persians. But they kept the same sort of concept of government. They kept the same religions it filtered through. After that came in Greece. Greece came in through Alexander the Great. That's the belly and the thighs. And basically, after Alexander the Great died, there were four generals. But then two of them were the main ones. Therefore, the shells, therefore, the belly and the thighs representing the two main kingdoms that came out of that, even though initially we're four. Right? And Alexander the Great, which was a student of Aristotle's, he swallowed all the kingdoms before and went in very quickly and he took them over. But there were two. There were four generals that when he died, they handed over two. But two were the main ones that remained. One was a general in the north, was a so-called Seleucus, and the other one was in the south, so-called Potlamy.

And that is extensively described in Daniel 11. Probably the longest prophecy in the Bible. Now, we've got a booklet that describes that in great detail. The Middle East in prophecy, because this affects the Middle East. One is the king of the north, which is Seleucus, which was part of Greece, and the other one is king of the south, which was Egypt.

On page 24 of this booklet goes into that in great detail. But it's important to understand this, because the Middle East is going to be critical for prophecy in the future. So it's got a very good, basic, sound stuff that you can prove from the Bible in this study guide. So after that, who took over Greece? Rome. Rome took over Greece. Swallowed up the previous kingdoms, but the religion and the culture remained from Greece, which then also came from Babylon. So there is this continuum from the head to the chest and arms, which was Persia, Mediacosia, to the belly and thighs, which was Greece, to the legs, which was Rome.

Look at verse 40, for instance. Look at verse 40. And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, in as much as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything, and like iron that crashes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others. The Roman age, think about it, or the Roman system was referred to as an age of iron, enforced what they called the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace, by force until Augustus, and it lost it for some 500 years, that Roman Empire.

Then, you even can see in the time of in the time of Paul, when he went to Ephesus, they worship Diana, the great Diana, you can read that in Acts 19, the Roman Diana, which is the Greek for Artemis, which was from Babylon. So it was the same God's system that came there. That had a deadly wound. That Roman Empire finished. Had a deadly wound. And that happened in 476 AD of the Christ of the Sierra. But then, there was the Imperial Restoration of the Roman Empire. And that Imperial Restoration, you can see that, is prophetic of Revelation 13, but that Imperial Restoration came in by Justinian in 554. And they were different heads that came out of them. Three had been pulled out. Then the others came ruled by this woman, which was the syncretized Christianity by the Catholic Church, that controlled the restoration of the Roman Empire. So we can see that continuity in that statue. The last one is the feet. And that's in verse 41. Whereas he saw the feet and toes, partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided, yet the strength of the iron shall be in it. Just as you saw the iron mixed with the ceramic clay. And there is this ten toes, which is still future to come. But it is part of the same statue, of this continuum. So what it means is the same continuum, means the same system. It's the same area, which is basically around Europe, where Rome was. And it's the same religious system. Babylon the Great, the Great Olive, that Roman Church that ruled the Roman Empire during the Imperial Restoration. And all those rulers were, let's put it this way, or dying, or blessed by the Pope. And so, it's very clear, identifying who the statue is. So when people come and say, oh no, the beast which represents the ten toes, right, the beast to come, they say, oh the beast, the ten toes, are going to be Russia or China. Can't be because it's not part of the statue. You see, it's not just continuing. You immediately reject because it does not fit the puzzle. The international puzzle, you see, does not fit that puzzle. So that's so important. So what we have is the deception of Babylon flowed through Greece to Rome, and therefore what began with the head of gold, which gold is enduring, endures through the empire with its system, its perception, its religion, and it continues through the statue until the toes, which is the beast's power to come. It's important for us to understand who's continuing. It's therefore, it's important to correctly place who are the ten toes. And therefore, that helps us to understand who is the beast. So when people come out of their own ideas, it doesn't fit the puzzle. So this statue is very important because think of it, it's like a simple summary roadmap, a simple summary roadmap.

You see, Babylon will be destroyed. You hear it? You read that in Revelation 18. Babylon will be destroyed. Let's look at that. Babylon 18 verse 2. I mean, Revelation 18 verse 2. Revelation 18 verse 2. Revelation 18 verse 2.

It said, "...and he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, Babylon the Great is fallen." He's fallen. You see, Babylon fell many years ago. That was the head. But this whole Babylon system has continued, is going to rise up again, and he's going to fall again. That's why it's fallen twice. And has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hatred bird.

And he says in verse 3, at the end of verse 3, "...and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of eluxury." This Babylonian monetary system, that's nothing else, which that system that has continued, some merchants will become very rich. And he says, get out of it, in verse 4, by people, lest you share in essence, and lest you receive over place. Look at, for instance, in verse 13, it's talking about the merchants of the earth. You can see that in verse 11, and the merchants of the earth will mourn over her when she's destroyed, when Babylon is destroyed. And look in verse 13, it says, at the end of verse 13, that they trade, they traded in all these things, by the merchandise of gold and silver stones, etc., and bodies and souls of man. And you must say, is there slave trade today? Of course there is. Of course there is. Particularly for women, slavery. It's big time. It's big business. It's probably bigger that prostitution and slave trade bodies like that, than actually for drugs. There's more money in that. And brethren, this is an evil system that's going to be destroyed. That system of Babylon, of Rome, if you look at history and the history of how Europe got so rich, that system that fueled the growth of Europe, and that caused the death of millions of people in the ages that have gone by, because of that Roman system. And they got rich because of that.

And so brethren, that system is going to be destroyed. And it's going to be destroyed. Look back at Daniel 2. At Daniel chapter 2. Daniel chapter 2.

Daniel chapter 2. And look at verse 34-36. It says, And you watched, while a stone was cut out without ends, that stone is Christ, is the rock, was made without ends, that struck the image on its feet. In other words, that beast power that will rise up, Christ will come and will destroy, utterly destroy, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, the gold, all crushed together. It was Babylon is fallen, he's fallen, all crushed together. And became like chaff, a chaff from the summer's rushing floors, the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image, Christ ruled and implemented that kingdom. That's the kingdom of God on earth, that full the whole earth. Look at the interpretation of that. It's in verse 44. And the days of these kings, the God of heaven, will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. God's kingdom will never be destroyed.

And the kingdom shall not be left to other people. You know what? Once that kingdom is established, you'll never be outvoted. It will be forever. Forever, because it says, will be not left to other people. It shall break in pieces and consume all those kingdoms. It shall stand forever. In so much as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without ends, and that the broken pieces, the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. And the dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure.

God's will will be done. Thy kingdom come. Thy will will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The kingdom will come, and God's will will be done. Therefore, with that understanding of this statue, we can identify with the 10,000 of Daniel 2, which is also the beast, the 10 nations, in the realm of Europe, the resurrected Roman Empire, referred also in the Bible as the king of the north.

We're also in the Bible, talks about the king of the south, because we know there was this kings of the south from Egypt during the middle ages. The caliphates, they tried to overtake Europe while the Rome was there, the restored Roman Empire. They tried to, and that's going to happen again. The king of the south is going to again rise up and try to destroy Europe. But not only Europe will try and destroy America and England and the Jewish nation. So we need to understand who is the true Israel, who is the United States, who is Judah, who is the Jewish people, because a lot of things are going to happen around that.

And we also need to understand which one was the church that controlled that Roman Empire. Historically, it's just going to be repeat itself, because it's the same statue. It's just a repetition of history. And so, if we have this big picture in mind, we will not be easily deceived. We'll then start understanding other scriptures that come along. We'll then start understanding other things that will come along. So, what is the outcome that God wants from us? Is to have a balanced, sound approach to prophetic scriptures. Keep the big picture. I deliberately don't go into a lot of details. I just try to show you the big picture. The big picture is based on four keys, as I emphasized. One is religious, which is God's plan of salvation, which through the God's early days. The other one is political, through the statue of Daniel 2, gives us that roadmap. Then there's the identity of who is Israel, and the identity of those two women, which are those two systems. Those are important pieces for us to understand. So what? So that we can better discern the time. So that we can be motivated to have a balanced and reasonable understanding of Bible prophecy. So that we can be motivated to have a mature and holy conduct to Godliness. I want to turn, as we conclude, just to a few two or three scriptures. One is in 2 Peter chapter 3. 2 Peter chapter 3. 2 Peter chapter 3.

2 Peter chapter 3. Starting verse 10.

You see, this should motivate us to a mature, holy conduct. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and Godliness? You see, this should motivate us to a mature, holy conduct and Godliness. Not to live in fear. I don't want you to live in fear. God does not want you to live in fear, because, as I mentioned in the sermon last week, God will protect if you are His children and He's got a plan for you. You're trying to do what's right. God wants you, you as children, to rule the world tomorrow. So He wants there. He wants it there. So, as if we jump a little bit forwards to verse 17, you therefore will not, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your unsteaded fasteners, being led away with the error of the wicked. People are going to come out with really weird ideas, brethren. Don't be swayed by those ideas. Keep the big pictures in your mind. Verse 18, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Growing that grace and knowledge. That's what we're going to be working on. We're going to be working our mature holy conduct onto godliness to be like Christ.

That is the trunk of the tree. That's what we're going to focus. Remember, God is training children. God will protect His children.

And look at what Christ says to us in Luke chapter 12, verse 32. Luke chapter 12, verse 32.

Luke chapter 12, verse 32. Christ says to us, Luke chapter 12, verse 32, do not fear little flock. You know, brethren, there's a lot of things happening. God does not want us to lose faith.

We live in difficult times, but if we're doing our part, He says, do not fear little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Keep up the good work. Stay faithful to God, and do not fear, because it is God's pleasure to give you the kingdom.