God’s Prophetic Program Reviewed

Transcript

GRM 555
1/25/1998
God's Prophetic Program Reviewed
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

I want to talk to you this morning about some matters relating to biblical prophecy. Not in the way we've sometimes done it, focusing particularly on current events. But some of the biblical framework for what is taking place in the world in these days. I think these are very interesting times to say the least and particularly for us as believers as we watch the unfolding of the purposes and plans of God in the world in these days. I think of an event like we are facing as a nation with the turmoil that surrounds our leadership, and the President of this country is a reminder of how fragile the leadership and structure that we have really is. In a week’s time a man who leads would probably be considered the most powerful country in the world, goes from being secure and somewhat invincible in his power to being on the very brink of being removed from that position. We are reminded that things can happen very quickly and we are not always aware of what is taking place behind the scenes so to speak. Interesting days.

Perhaps you ought to look at Daniel chapter 4 before we get into what I want to talk to you about. We are going to be in Daniel some this morning, so you might want to leave a bulletin or your marker there, the prophecy of Daniel. In Daniel chapter 4 I just want to remind you of some verses that particularly we look at. A good reminder for all of us. In Daniel chapter 4 verse 17. Nebuchadnezzar is about to be removed from his position of power ruling the kingdom of Babylon and through Babylon the world. Verse 17 of Daniel 4 says, "This sentence is by decree of the angelic watchers, and the decision is a command of the holy ones, in order that the living may know that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, and bestows it on whom He wishes and sets over it the lowliest of men." Just a reminder of the sovereignty of God in setting up and putting down earthly rulers. And you and I as believers need to be reminded of that. The rulers of this world should recognize as Nebuchadnezzar is being called to account for that he ruled by divine appointment and that ought to condition his attitude. But we as believers ought to recognize that the rulers are those appointed by God, and he sometimes sets over it the lowliest of men and we do not necessarily respect and submit to these rulers because they are respectable but because we recognize the position they have by the appointment of God.


Further on in Daniel chapter 4, Nebuchadnezzar was going to undergo the punishment of God at the end of verse 25, "until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever He wishes." The end of verse 26 “he is to recognize that it is heaven that rules.” So, the end of verse 21, "Sovereignty has been removed from you." The end of verse 32, "Until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever He wishes." Verse 35 Nebuchadnezzar speaks after 7 years of insanity. He is now restored to his position and his right mind. "All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, 'What have You done?'" In this framework men are responsible for their actions and that's the very issue of Daniel chapter 4 regarding Nebuchadnezzar. But we want to recognize the sovereign hand of God behind all that is taking place as well, as He moves the world toward its appointment, if you will, with His Son Jesus Christ.

Back up to the book of Genesis. I want to talk about just the framework that God is operating on in the world today. This is review for many of you, perhaps most of you. But it is foundational for our theology. It is foundational for understanding world events and the world in which we are living. Genesis chapter 12, you have the beginning of the nation Israel with the call of Abram who will be the father of the Jewish people and the nation of Israel. Here you have the Abrahamic covenant when God enters into covenant with Abraham. In that covenant He gives Abraham certain promises and assurances and the promises and assurances of this Abrahamic covenant are the framework in which God carries out His purposes in the world. He called Abraham to leave His home and His family to go to a country, a land, that God would show Him which would be the land of Canaan. In verse 2 God says of Genesis 12, "And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed." Then God takes Abram through the land and so on.

In verse 7 the Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." There's provision in the Abrahamic Covenant for fullness of blessing for the Jewish people. From Abraham will come a nation and that nation will experience the full blessing of God. And ultimately will be the nation that rules the world. There's also provision in the Abrahamic Covenant for blessings for nonJewish people. We'll see that in a little bit. You and I are experiencing the blessings of God's salvation that He promised and provided for in the covenant that He established with Abraham. He assured Abraham that in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. The blessing that would come through the seed of Abraham was none other than Jesus Christ.

Look in chapter 13 of Genesis verse 14, "And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, "Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever." Now let me say I really remain puzzled by people who claim to be Biblebelieving Christians but at the same time want to declare that God is finished with the nation Israel. That the promises to the physical descendants of Abraham have been taken over by spiritual descendants, the Church. To me that casts more than just a cloud on the character and reliability of God. He tells Abraham look over the land. I will give you this land to you and your descendants forever. "I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can be numbered."

Look in chapter 15 of Genesis. God is about to firmly ratify this covenant with Abraham. If we were going to ratify such an agreement today, we would do it in a legal setting and so on. We'd become a binding contract because we went through certain legal requirements. That's what is happening in Genesis chapter 15. God is going to formerly ratify and render this covenant with Abraham. And the way they did that is they took certain animals. They cut those animals in two and laid them in a row with a path down the middle. Two rows, half of the animal on each side and a path down the middle. The Hebrew word for making a covenant is literally to “cut a covenant.” The parties to a covenant walked between those divided animals and that covenant became binding on them. The person who broke the covenant would thus become guilty and worthy of the same fate those animals had experienced.

Now Abram is instructed by God to take the animals and the birds and split them and make the two rows with the path in between. Then verse 12, "When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram and behold terror and great darkness fell upon Him." And God told him in the dream about the coming Egyptian bondage of some 400 years. Then He said, verse 17, "It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking of and in a flaming torch." The presence of God as manifested in a smoking oven and flaming torch which pass between these pieces, “on that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying”.

Now I want you to note, and I realize I'm repeating my repetitions, God alone passes down between the animals. Abram is asleep. What is being declared here is God is entering into a covenant with Abram and his descendants and God takes it as His sole responsibility to see that this covenant is carried out. So, if the Abrahamic covenant is not carried out according to the promises that God gives in that covenant, it is God who has failed, not Abram. Now do we have that fixed in our minds? Because what happens is people say, well, because of the unfaithfulness of the Jewish people, God has rejected them and canceled His agreement with them and given it to the Church. That would be an indication not of Abram's failure or the Jewish people's failure but of God's failure because of the covenant and the way that it is established on this occasion.

And the covenant include,s verse 18, "To your descendants I have given this land." Then the perimeters of the land are given down through verse 21. I seems clear if you accept the Bible at face value for what it says that God has entered a covenant relationship with Jewish people and that includes for them the possession of the land we know as Palestine.

Look in chapter 17. God now gives them a physical sign of the covenant, circumcision. Verse 10, "This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you; every male among you shall be circumcised. You will be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin; it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you." The problem in all of this up to this point, Abram and Sarah still had not had a child together. They have tried to help God out and Abram has fathered a child through Sarah's handmaid. The child is Ishmael. Abraham says, you know, we don't have any children, Sarah and I, fulfill this all through Ishamel. Verse 19, "God said, 'No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him." You get the idea that God is very precise in fulfilling the details of the covenant. You're right, Abraham, we have a problem. You and Sarah don't have any kids but you have one. That will be good enough. That's not good enough because it has to be the son of Abraham and Sarah for the covenant to be fulfilled as God's gives it. I say this because God is precise on the details of how this covenant will be accomplished and carried out. To me it is total disregard for the Word of God to just decide thousands of years later we washed it out. It didn't work out the way it could of.

Now He does promise that He'll make Ishamel a great nation as well. But verse 21, "My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year." Ishamel becomes the father of what we know is the Arab peoples. He's the character and the behavior in his descendants that's described in chapter 16 verse 12. I understand those of you in the Adult School of the Bible are working through all these chapters so this is review again. "He will be a wild ass of a man. His hand will be against everyone, and everyone's hand will be against him; and he will live to the east of all his brothers." And we see how clearly fulfilled the prophecy concerning Ishamel's descendants is right down to our day. So God is precise.

Now saying this is God has established a covenant with Abraham and his descendants. That covenant has not yet experienced its fulfillment. But it will and what we see going on in the world today is an unfolding of the promises of God given to the Jewish people through Abraham.
Turn over to Jeremiah chapter 31. The Abrahamic Covenant is the foundational covenant in the Old Testament. It is amplified by several subsidiary covenants. For example, the Palestinian Covenant which elaborates on the land promises of the Abrahamic Covenant. The Davidic Covenant which unfolds the king that will rule over the nation and over the world out of the Abrahamic Covenant. In chapter 31 of Jeremiah, we have what is called the New Covenant. It's called the New Covenant not because it replaces the Abrahamic Covenant but because it replaces the Mosaic Covenant which was a temporary covenant. The New Covenant unfolds the provision coming out the Abrahamic Covenant for salvation. For Israel and in you all nations of the earth will be blessed. God's provision of salvation for the nation Israel, that salvation will also be available and effective for the nations of the world as well as the nation of the world.

So you read in verse 31 of Jeremiah 31, "'Behold, days are coming,' declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah." Note whom the covenant will be made with. The house of Israel and the house of Judah. Can God be anymore specific? "Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt." So you see this new covenant is in contrast to the Mosaic Covenant that was made at Mount Sinai following the Exodus from Egypt. Verse 33, "But this is the covenant which I will make with the church." No, that's not what my Bible says. It's not what the text says. "'This is my covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,' declares the LORD, 'I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.'"

We are talking about a yet future time as Jeremiah writes this at least, when the nation Israel will experience God's salvation. We know that the provisions for this new covenant are made in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So what did He do on the last night at the supper with His disciples? When He took bread and wine He said what? This is the new covenant in my blood. Our Bible is divided between the Old Testament or the Old Covenant and the New Testament or the New Covenant. Now all you have to do is stop and think. Has there ever been a time since the crucifixion of Christ when the nation Israel has experienced the salvation of God in the way we are talking about here?

Furthermore, look at verse 34. "And they shall not teach again each man his neighbor and each man his brother saying, 'know the LORD,' for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,' declares the LORD, 'for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.'" I don't think you have to be a great Bible scholar or even be very intelligent to read this and say that's not happening. You are here listening to the Word being taught. There are a lot of people who need to be told about the Bible who don't know anything about it. Yet in the time when the New Covenant is implemented "they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man His brother saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest." Isaiah said “the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.” What I'm saying here is that as we move through Scripture we have to be careful to handle Scripture with integrity. Not try to make it say what we want it say but accept what it says and adjust accordingly. We will read on.

You can help yourself a lot by just reading the next verse when you look at Scripture. Instead of just pulling out a verse like verse 33, "This is the covenant which I will make with them”. “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it and I will be their God, and they will be My people." That's talking about the Church. Well, if you read the verses before and the verses after it, it's talking about Israel and Judah.

Look at verse 35, "Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea”. “The LORD of hosts is His name." So here's what God says on the basis of His own character. "'If this fixed order departs from before Me,'" declares the LORD, 'then the offspring of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me forever.' Thus says the LORD, 'If the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out below, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done,' declares the LORD."

Now one thing we have found with our added abilities in these days to plumb the depths of space, how do you measure it? When they start talking about planets and stars and objects out there moving away from the earth at such a speed of light and how many times the speed of light, I say how do you measure this stuff? You know what God says here? There's no chance that I will discard Israel because of their unfaithfulness. Does the sun come up? Do the moon and stars shine at night? You can be sure then the nation Israel will remain a nation before God forever, verse 36. And now what the New Covenant does is it operates the salvation provisions of the Abrahamic Covenant. In that there was provision for all the nations of the earth to be blessed and we are experiencing that. But the New Covenant has not been implemented as it has been promised in Scripture. Number one, it's made with Israel primarily. Number two, when it is in force, you won't need to be teaching people about the Bible and about Christ because everybody will know about Him.

You know, there is an amazing thing that happens when we talk about prophecy. People have to acknowledge, people who believe the Bible, Christians, that all the prophecies of Scripture that have been fulfilled have been fulfilled literally. I've used this example, these examples, before. But God said Jesus Christ the Messiah would be born at Bethlehem. Micah said He would be born at Bethlehem. You know, that doesn't mean, well, all He was trying to say is a little town somewhere. Why not Wahoo, Nebraska. I mean, in the scope of the world. It's not big. It's little. It's on the way to Omaha, just like Bethlehem is on the way to Jerusalem. It will do. No. Why? God said Bethlehem. But somehow now we look to the future, and we say God says I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah that refers to the Church today. “And they will not teach each man his neighbor and each man his brother because they will all know Me from the least to the great.” That just means that people in the Church will know the Lord and experience His salvation in their heart. I say where do we get the right to do that to the Word of God. God has established clearly what His promises are and how He fulfills those promises. And it becomes significant today because we see the hand of the Lord at work in the world in moving Israel and the world toward a time of the completion of the purposes of God in these areas.

The time framework for this is in the book of Daniel. So turn over to the book of Daniel. Daniel chapter 9 gives you the time framework that we are operating on for the nation Israel. And understanding the timework for the nation Israel helps you understand where we are in the plan of God. Daniel 9 verse 2. As the chapter begins, we are in the first year of Darius who is ruling over the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians. Verse 2, "In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years." So Daniel was studying the writings of Jeremiah the prophet. Jeremiah was roughly a contemporary of Daniel. Studying the writings of Jeremiah Daniel came to understand that the Babylonian captivity of Israel would be seventy years in duration. Now again a reminder how Daniel understood prophetic writings. Seventy years meant seventy years. And that's how long the Babylonian captivity went. That's what God had said to Jeremiah. That's what God meant.

Now as Daniel prays and confesses his sin and confesses the sin of the nation the angel Gabriel appears to Daniel with some new and additional information. Verse 24 of Daniel 9, "Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city." Now I want to stop and say, now what are we are talking about here. Well, let's skip who we are talking about. "Your people, Daniel," that means the Jews. "Your holy city," that means Jerusalem. So, seventy weeks have been decreed by God for the accomplishing of His purposes for Israel and Jerusalem.

Now seventy weeks, and we don't have time to go through the rest of Daniel here and over into the book of Revelation but the weeks here is literally “seventy sevens”. Seventy periods of seven. We are talking about seventy sevenyear periods not seventy seven day periods. So Daniel comes to understand that the Babylonian captivity would be seventy years in length. Now God further reveals to him that His program for Israel will be accomplished over a period of seventy sevenyear periods, 490 years. What will be accomplished? Six things will be accomplished in that 490year period: “to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin; to make atonement for iniquity; to bring in everlasting righteousness; to seal up vision and prophecy; to anoint the most holy place.” When you get to the end of this 490 years you have arrived at the millennial kingdom, the establishing of the New Covenant for the nation Israel and the earthly reign of its Messiah. We'll have brought in everlasting righteousness. You'll seal up vision and prophecy for vision and prophecy will come to its fruition in the return of Christ to rule and reign. “To anoint the most holy place,” the Messiah Himself will dwell at Jerusalem and thus receive the worship of the world.

Now this seventy-sevenyear period, 490 years, is broken down. From the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince. Now you can go to the Encyclopedia Britannica and get the date for issuing a decree to rebuild Jerusalem by the king. It's in Nehemiah chapter 2 in your Bible and I didn't doublecheck it. It's somewhere around of March of 445. As you go to the encyclopedia it will give you the date. Roughly in that period. March of 445 BC sticks in my mind. If you have a study Bible and go to Nehemiah 2, it will give you the date there too. Maybe in a footnote. I don't have one here.

So we know from that decree until Messiah the Prince will be a total of 69 weeks. Seven weeks plus 62 weeks, the end of verse 25. Until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and 62 weeks, a total of 69 weeks. So, we know we are talking about years. Because we know when the decree was given, we know at least approximately the time of the birth of Christ. So, we know we are not talking about seventy sevenday periods. Four hundred eightythree years brings you to the time of Christ. And some have worked out the weeks here, the years, because you have to account for leap years and so on to get the timing right. One writer who spent some time on this came up to the date of the Triumphal Entry as the completion of the first 69 weeks of Daniel. But without going into the detail that's the period of time we are in.

After the 62 weeks which was after the 7 weeks. So after a total of 69 weeks the Messiah will be cut off. I think the Scripture is very clear here. It doesn't say in the 70th week. In fact, we'll see in the book of Revelation it can't be that the 70th week follows the 69th week. Because when John writes the book of Revelation which is about 60 years after the death of Christ, He says the details of the 70th week are still future. The Messiah was cut off after the 69th week. Well, we're going to have, as is true in biblical prophecy of the Old Testament, the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ are put together. That's why Peter wrote and said the prophets couldn't understand how Christ could suffer and die and also reign in glory. The Old Testament prophets just wrote about the coming of the Messiah. Events associated with the first coming, events associated with the second coming, but they didn't tell you there will be a period of about 2000 years give or take some in between.

Now it wasn't that God lying. He was just talking about what He was doing with the nation Israel. So Old Testament prophecy will go up through the 69th week of Daniel and events associated with that and the first coming of Christ. Then Old Testament prophecy stops. And it picks up with events that are still future from our period of time today. There are events leading up to the second coming of Christ to earth, His second coming and events following the second coming of Christ to earth. So here it's not unusual or surprising in biblical prophecy that there is a break in what is revealed. After 69 weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing. So it means there'll be a break. The Messiah is killed, and He has nothing. It doesn't mean He is killed and immediately He's raised and rules over the earth. There's a break here.

"And the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary." A couple of things to note here. Here you have a prophecy of the coming destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. So, you have what? The events around the first coming of Christ carrying you to 70 AD with the destruction of Jerusalem talked about. You ought to also note "the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city." The prince who is to come will be picked up in verse 27. He is the coming Antichrist, the final ruler of the western world who will dominant the world in the years leading up to the second coming of Christ to earth to establish His kingdom.

Interesting to note here. The people of the prince who is to come will destroy Jerusalem.
We know who destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD. It was the Romans. I think there may be some indication here that the coming Antichrist will be a Roman because the people of the prince who is to come, the Romans, will destroy Jerusalem. It's from these people that the coming prince, the Antichrist, will come. We'll say more about that in a moment.

Now this prince who will come, verse 27, he will make a firm covenant. So what you do here now, you ran through the 69 weeks. You talk about the death of Christ. You talk about the destruction of Jerusalem. Now a coming prince will “make a covenant with the many for one week.” So, the 69 weeks end and after that the Messiah will be executed. There are indications right in this passage there is a break. Then the 70th week will begin when a coming prince signs an agreement. Then we know from within the context here there would be at least 70 years. And we know from history Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans. So, between the end of the 69th week and the beginning of the 70th week we'll have at least 70 years. So that there's a gap here, it doesn't seem to me that there can be a debate.

Now I would say to understand it just as literally everything up to that point has been actually literal, has it not? You figure it out, you work it out, you get one of the booklets in Sound Words. Four hundred eightythree years brings you right up to the time just prior to the death of Christ. Maybe within a week that calculation is correction. The Messiah will be cut off. Well, that was literal, not figurative. Doesn't mean He was going to have a hard time. It doesn't mean He's going to have to leave Jerusalem and go to Babylon for a while. It meant He would be cut off and have nothing. He's executed. In that sense His earthly ministry was over.

Now he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week. He enters into a covenant with the Jewish people for one week. In the middle of the week, he'll put a stop to sacrifice and grain offerings. We have yet one sevenyear block of time left to complete God's program for the nation Israel in preparation for the establishing of the earthly kingdom of Jesus Christ. That covenant will begin when the coming prince who rises out of the revived Roman empire and evidently is Roman himself signs an agreement with Israel.

I'm interested, in light of the hassle in going on about peace negotiations. The last two days, I forget whether it was Friday or Saturday, one of the headlines on the second page of the paper, the Omaha World Herald, was about the United States trying to resolve the difficulties and bring about the peace agreement in Israel. I don't believe the Antichrist arises from the United States. What does interest me is the involvement of the western world in attempting to bring about peace there. That ultimately will be brought about by the signing of an agreement by the man who arises from the revived Roman Empire.

They'll be a seven-year period. It's divided into two 3 1/2-year periods because in the middle of the week, he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering. What happens? In the middle of that sevenyear period, that last week of seven years, he stops the sacrifice and grain offering. Well, that tells me something. Israel will have resumed its sacrificial system in Palestine in Jerusalem. Which will indicate the temple will have been rebuilt. Now, you know, you say well, that's interesting. Think about if you had been reading this 400 years ago and Israel hadn't been in the land for centuries and centuries. You'd say that could never be fulfilled literally. I mean, you would have nobody, those Arabs and those people, they would never let those Jews come back in and take over that land. It could never happen, never. There must be another explanation. Well, the explanation is wait and it will happen exactly as God says.
Now it's not so amazing to think that Israel might rebuild a temple. We have questions of how the details will be worked out, but does anybody say that could never happen? You could read in secular news magazines about it. Preparations being made for it. Open statements being made about it. Well, here's an indication it would happen because the Jews need the temple in existence to begin their sacrificial system again. We see all the discussion going on about the red heifer. Did he have to many white hairs in his ear or whatever to qualify for the initiatory sacrifice. But you know why they are looking for a red heifer if they are not going to reinstitute the sacrificial system and they can't reinstitute the sacrificial system without the rebuilding of the temple? We read here, in the middle of that seventh week, sometime before the beginning of the 70th week of Daniel or the during the first half of the 70th week of Daniel, the temple will be rebuilt, and the sacrificial system will be reinstituted. It seems to me that's just what it says. In the middle of that week, it will come to an end.

You'll note then at the end of verse 27, "On the wing of abominations will come, one who makes desolate." And that becomes significant. The abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet Jesus referred to in Matthew 25. This is the reference. "Even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed is poured out on the one who makes desolate." There'll come a time when this one who signed the covenant, at the end of that week, he's going to be brought to an end.

Back up to Daniel chapter 2. Daniel chapter 2 Nebuchadnezzar is given a vision and a dream of the empires of the world and it’s in the image of a man. The head of gold represents Babylon and so on. Daniel is called and he gives the explanation of the significance of the image. Verse 32 of Daniel 2 as Daniel tells him. Nebuchadnezzar wanted him not only to give the interpretation but tell him what the dream itself was so he could be sure he didn't fool him with the interpretation. "The head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and thighs, bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 'You continued looking until a stone was cut without hands, it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, the gold was crushed all at the same time, became like the chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth."

Now in the interpretation of this we are told that the head of gold represented Babylon. Then you go to MedoPersia and Greece and Rome. Literal earthly empires. We are told that the final form of this empire, the Roman Empire, has ten toes. Now some say well it doesn't say ten toes so maybe it was just two toes on each foot. Well, you go to Daniel chapter 7 he sees the same thing using different images, wild beasts. And the Roman Empire is depicted as a fierce with ten horns. So here the Roman Empire, iron, with ten toes. All you have to look at us the parallel then there's no problem.

But these ten toesthe final form of this Roman Empire are mixed with clay. It has the strength of iron but brittleness of clay. What you have in Daniel chapter 2 is what you have in the other prophetic portions. You have a gap. But we speak about the revived Roman Empire because it's still the iron of the Roman Empire that is in existence in the ten toes. And you have a ten-nation confederacy brought together at a yet future time. I am absolutely sure and if you believe the Bible, you have to believe it to. This is future. That means reformed theologians and Amillennialists ought to repent and convert today. Because verse 43 says, "And that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with clay." The final Roman empire, the revived empire, the European community, basically speaking, will end up being ten nations. As any confederacy, it can be very strong. We start hearing about the economic power that they will have and so on. They can marshal great military might. But any confederacy like that has weakness because France thinks it ought to be dominant and England's jealous of France and they are both jealous of and on it goes. There is a fragileness in that kind of alliance as well as a strength. That's the exact picture. How did Daniel know that? The other empires he had to talk about, Babylon, that was a solidified empire. MedoPersia, two nations but it's still got a solidity to it. Greece and Rome. But now you are going to get down to the final form and it's going to have a mixture.

And here we are today reading in the newspaper about the alliance of the European community. And you see the bickering. France jockeying for position and other nations and this and that and who's going to get in and who's not and what's . . . Let me tell you where it's going to end up. It's going to end up ten nations. No, it can't happen. We already have 15 or whatever we have and you know, there's more. That wouldn't work. Well, Daniel was writing 500 years before Christ. Twentyfive hundred years later you think those details won't get worked out. I'm in awe. I read this and I say, boy, you know, just open up the paper, Marilyn. I'll put that right here as I read this here and my goodness.

Now look at verse 44, "And in the days of those kings." What kings? The ten toe kings. They are kings. We get over to Daniel 7, if I get moving here. You find out these ten toes are ten kings or ten kingdoms. "Now in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever." So I say, I'm absolutely sure that hasn't happened. I open up the paper and read about France, read about England, read about Italy, the kingdom of God has not crushed the kingdoms of the world. In fact, when I read the paper, I don't read about the kingdom of God at all. I read about the kingdom of the world. He's going to pulverize the earthly kingdoms.

Well, that really happens in the spiritual sense of the heart. Who gave anybody the right? Was the head of gold Babylon? No, that just spiritually meant some kind of pure kingdom someplace that existed in people's hearts. You know, all of sudden we run down this and everything we have to admit right down through the iron of Rome was literal earthly physical. But you know, I don't like to think of that that way so let's make the rest of it spiritual. The toes are going to be spiritual. So this image didn't really have toes, they were just a spiritual allegorized thing.

What kind of way is that to handle Scripture? So were the earthly kingdoms that you pulverized earthly kingdoms or not? See all of a sudden, now by the time we get to the toes, we decide the image wasn't literal and physical after all. It's a spiritual crushing that takes place in hearts. So was Babylon Babylon or not? Was Nebuchadnezzar or not? I mean, the Bible's not so hard but we make it so.

Turn over to Daniel chapter 7. Daniel chapter 7 Daniel sees the same information under a different picture. Nebuchadnezzar saw an image of a man. From the worldly perspective the earthly empires are beautiful and have an attractiveness to it. Daniel sees the earthly empires more from God's perspective. They are ravenous beasts destroying each other. And we know the interpretation is correct because the angel gives the interpretation to Daniel which is why liberals who don't believe in the supernatural in the Bible try to say Daniel had to be written after these events because it's much too specific and that creates their own set of problems.

But look at verse 7 of Daniel 7, "After this I kept looking, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong; and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed, and trampled down the remainder with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns." So here the most powerful of the earthly empires. It has ten horns just like the image had ten toes. "While I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them.” “Three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it.” “This one possessed eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth uttering great boasts." So now you have a little horn. A horn represents a king or a kingdom as you read the rest of Daniel 7 and the interpretation that is given to Daniel. The little horn is a king who comes up and by his power he replaces three of the kings. So now he has onethird of this ten nation confederacy that he dominates. That becomes his power base that ultimately all ten will give their power to him and he becomes the worlddominating Antichrist.

And what brings him to an end? "I kept looking," verse 9, "until thrones were set up" and so on. And you come down to verse 13, "I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming." Verse 14, "To Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed." You understand this is in the context of earthly kingdoms. Somewhere along the line people just leap out off the roof into space. Well, the kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom in the hearts of men. That's not the kingdom we're talking about here. We are talking about earthly kingdoms and earthly kingdoms being replaced by the earthly kingdom of Christ.

Jump over to Revelation chapter 17. Revelation chapter 17. I want you to see this yet future. Daniel saw five earthly empires. He picked up where he was with Babylon moved to MedoPersia, moved to Greece, moved to Rome, moved to the ten-nation confederacy which is the final form of western world empire. Daniel goes back and picks up with Egypt, then Assyria, then Babylon. Now what is the determining criteria of what nations were picked. Where there the nations in the context of the nation Israel. God is not primarily concerned with China. You say, well, they had a great empire. Why weren't they included? Because the Scripture is concerned with the nations that impact the nation, the nation Israel.

Verse 9 says, "Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains” and “they are seven kings." So, the heads of the mountains are kings. "Five have fallen." Now John's writing this in 90 some AD, 95 AD, 96 AD, 50 or 60 years after the death and resurrection of Christ. Five kings have fallen, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece. "One is," Rome. "The other has not yet come," the ten-nation confederacy. "When he comes he must remain a little while. And the beast which was and is not." This is referring to the little horn, “the prince that will come." “The beast which was and is not, is himself an eighth and is one of the seven." That's exactly what Daniel said, is it not? He comes from among the ten-nation confederacy. So he's one of those seven kingdoms. He comes out of the seventh kingdom, the revived Roman Empire, the ten-nation confederacy. But he will be different enough even to qualify as an eighth. The second 3 1/2 year period of the seven years will be different enough because it will be world domination by world dictator even to be considered an eighth kingdom, even though he's of the seventh, the ten horns, which are a revival of Rome.

But do you see how specific it is? When Daniel writes Rome was in existence, the other had not yet come. When John writes this, the prince that will come is yet future so we know the 70 weeks of Daniel can't follow one on another. Because the prince that come that will sign the agreement with Israel will break that agreement as John writes 60 years after the death and resurrection of Christ. That's still a future event. “If the 70th week followed right on the 69th week, it would have been over seven years after the death and resurrection of Christ. We're 60 years after and John says those events are yet future. So we know there's a gap.

Verse 12, "The ten horns which you saw are ten kings." OOPS there's those “ten horns.” Those ten horns were on the head of that fourth beast, Rome, in Daniel 7. They were pictured as the “ten toes” in Daniel 2. "The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beasts for one hour." They have one purpose. They give their power and authority to the beast. "And the ten horns," verse 16, "which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the harlot and make her desolate." The “harlot” refers to the apostate church that opened up chapter 17, “Mystery Babylon, the harlot.” During the first 3 1/2 years, this revived Roman Empire and the Antichrist will be using the apostate church, Roman Catholicism, and Protestantism joined together.

I received a mailing from a local ministry, liberal ministry, this summer. What did it have in it? World church by year 2000. I think of it, I'll bring it this evening and read you an excerpt from it. A conversation going on they relate in the United Nations. They are already the groundwork being laid, hopefully to be realized by the year 2000 of one world church.

Now during the first 3 1/2 years, the Antichrist, the revived Roman Empire, will be using the apostate church for support. You following the Pope? You don't think that his power would be a great asset to a revived Roman Empire and to the Antichrist? I'm amazed. The power of the
man is supernatural. Here's a man who walks up, and I'm not making fun of him, but it is a picture. You've seen it. You know, he can hardly move. Now what did you think if you came to my sermon and I said, "Now turn in your Bibles and I will read to you about what happened to Abraham, and this will be very interesting, and you will go on." Millions of people line up, what? To hear him. There is an awe about him. What? The leaders of countries show him deference. I open up the paper and you ought to read about Israel and the conflict there with Netanyahu and the peace process and the involvement in the West and trying to get it worked out and you read about the Pope and his impact on world events, and you can't get away from the fact that the leader of the most powerful country at this time is on a shaky throne and the return. I look at the Arab countries and the remnants of Russia and the Soviet Union and I come back, and I say God's plan is what's taking place. He is moving all things toward what? The completion of His program.

There is seven years left. Now we are in between. You note the church did not fit. It was not until after the 69th week that the Church began in Acts chapter 2. My understanding is the Church will be removed before the beginning of the 70th week of Daniel. Because “seventy weeks are determined upon your people and your holy city”, Daniel. It doesn't have to do with the Church. But in this present period of time Gentiles have been grafted into the place of favor in Romans chapter 11 and God is dealing with the Church. My understanding is that the Church will be removed from the earth in the first phase of the second coming so that God can complete His program with Israel. The Church is not part of the first 69 weeks. It's not part of the last week. That fits John 14, "In my Father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, receive you, that where I am there you may be also." It doesn't say I'll come back and establish a place for you on earth. That's the promise for Israel. His promise to those disciples who would become the foundation for the Church is what? He'd come and take them to glory. The promise for Israel is I'll come and reign on the earth.

1 Corinthians 15, "I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed in a moment, an atom of time." A transformation of this body will occur. “The dead in Christ shall rise first and we who are alive.” We can't be talking Israel. We can't be talking about the establishing of the kingdom because you give everybody a glorified body. But we know there are going to be babies born in the Millennium. We know there are going to be people that rebel against Christ at the end of the Millennium. It cannot be people in glorified bodies and 1 Corinthians 15 cannot refer to the beginning of the earthly kingdom. We are referring to an event that precedes the beginning of the 70th week of Daniel, the last sevenyear period, the removal of the Church and the return of the focus of God in His work on the earth to the nation. Singular, Israel. 1 Thessalonians 4 is another major passage on that.

We are a people living between the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ. We know He came at the first coming to provide salvation through His death and resurrection. We know He is coming again to establish a kingdom on earth. We know before that kingdom is established there must be a sevenyear period where He pours out His wrath on the earth and turns Israel to the Messiah so that by the end of that sevenyear period Israel will bow on its knee and say, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." Before that, the hope of Church, will be realized as we look for “the blessed hope, even the appearing of the glory of the One who is our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,” as Paul wrote to Titus. We are to be a people living in light of that second coming. I understand He came the first time. I understand why He came the first time. I am trusting Him as my Savior and my full hope and focus is on His soon return.

You know, I wonder as I reflect back on this past week, as I thought about these things, I say, I wonder, Gil, does it really look like you are focused and consumed with the coming of Christ. I mean, you watch the news, you watch all that's going on, and sometimes I think the Church has blinders on. We ought to be thrilled. We ought to be on the edge of our seat. We realize the momentous changes that could occur within days. Now I realize the sovereign God is working His purpose. I see His hand at work in moving the events of this world to the point when He will remove believers, the true Church, and He will true to His word, down to the detail, begin a sevenyear period that will finally prepare the nation for the establishing the kingdom that was assured and promised to them. And let me just say, some people will say, well, you talk about a Millennium, a thousandyear kingdom, you don't take the Old Testament literally, because it says He'd give it to them eternally. My understanding is the thousand years are just the first phase of the eternal kingdom. That the kingdom is eternal. The first phase of that kingdom is a thousand years. They are marked off for accomplishing certain purposes, but the kingdom goes on eternally and the Word of God is fulfilled literally.

Now in light of all this, the question is twofold. Number one, are you prepared for the coming of Christ? This is the day of salvation, the day of Gentile salvation, a day of salvation for you if you will believe that Jesus Christ died for your sin. That's what God is doing in the world today. In salvation, calling a people to Himself through faith in His Son. The second part of the question is if you've believed in Him, does your life demonstrate that you’re living focused on His coming. If that is not the focus of your life, I really question whether you've really experienced His salvation, or you've just become more religious. We need to carefully consider the seriousness of the days in which we live and be living accordingly. Let's pray together.

Thank you, Lord, for the richness of Your Word. Lord, we praise You that you are a God who honors His Word, that heaven and earth will pass away but Your Word will not pass away, not one jot, not one tittle can remain unfulfilled. You are a covenantkeeping God. Lord, we have stacked our hope for eternity on the reliability of Your Word. We believe You are true, that Your Word is true. Lord, we are thrilled. We see what is taking place in the world today. Lord, may we be a people who are eagerly about Your business, who are zealous in our service for You, who are boldly giving forth the message of life in Christ. Lord, we are thrilled to consider that we may be the people who will be called into Your presence at the coming of Christ. May we live every day with that expectation. We pray in Christ's name, amen.