In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of seeking understanding and wisdom from God through the scriptures. He references the book of Proverbs, highlighting the need to diligently search for knowledge like one would search for hidden treasures. The speaker also discusses the concept of unrest and its connection to the working of evil spirits. He then delves into the interpretation of the four beasts mentioned in the book of Daniel, relating them to the four kingdoms prophesied in Nebuchadnezzar's dream. The sermon concludes with a focus on the fourth beast, representing the powerful and terrifying empire of Rome.

Let's turn to Daniel and chapter 7. The last six chapters that we've looked at were dealing with historical matters, is the history of Daniel's lifetime, beginning with him as a young man in chapter 1 and on up to the age of 90 in chapter 6. And in those chapters we see the type of man whom God is looking for in these last days to stand as a testimony for him. The overcomers are to be men like Daniel and his three friends. Now the remaining six chapters of the book are not historical in relation to Daniel's history, but historical in relation to the future, that which is going to take place after Daniel's time, what we call prophecy. And prophecy is really history written in advance. So we can say the first six chapters were really history written after the events took place, and the last six chapters are dealing with history that's written before the events took place. And that is what prophecy is all about. And the reason why God has given us such detailed, such a detailed prophecy of the history of the great empires of the world in these following six chapters, is to encourage our hearts as we live in this day and look back and see the exact fulfillment of all that is written in these six chapters, many of these things already fulfilled, that gives us an assurance that the things that are yet to be fulfilled are also going to be fulfilled. But it's very interesting to see that God doesn't begin with prophecy, but he begins with a description of how these men stood in Babylon and overcame. So to be an overcomer is more important than to understand the details of prophecy. And that's why we are given a description of Daniel and his character and the type of man Daniel was to whom prophecy was revealed. The type of man we are is more important than understanding the details of prophecy. One of the marks of a carnal Christian is that he has no interest in knowing how to get victory over sin, but he's more interested in knowing the prophetic details about the second coming of Christ. The fact, for example, that a man is interested in studying the book of Revelation does not necessarily prove that he's a spiritual person. He may have a carnal interest in the future. But if he's interested in being an overcomer as we read in the second and third chapters of Revelation, then that is another thing. And that's why in the book of Revelation, it speaks about the overcomers in chapter two and three, and then begins the prophetic section. It's exactly the same in the book of Daniel. In the first six chapters, we're told about the type of overcomers that we are to be uncompromising in our stand for the truth of God in the midst of a sinful and adulterous generation and a compromising Babylonian Christianity. In the midst of this, we are to stand uncompromising for God, and then to such a person God desires to reveal the events of the future. So never let's lose that sense of priority. We come to chapter seven here, and since the prophetic sections are all put together, we find that this took place actually before Belshazzar died. Daniel has arranged the first six chapters dealing with history, and then in chapter seven onwards, he begins the prophetic section, and he deals with prophecies that were given even before Darius overcame Belshazzar, which we read off in chapter five. So chapter seven, we see here, in the first year of Belshazzar, the king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions in his mind as he lay on his bed. Then he wrote the dream down and related the following summary of it. Daniel was around eighty-seven years old in the first year of Belshazzar the king, or at least eighty-four or past eighty anyway, and we find he's a man who is still spiritually alert, having dreams and visions. In Acts chapter two, when the apostle Peter spoke about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, he said the Holy Spirit will be poured upon all flesh, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. It's one of the things that's going to be a result of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, that those who are anointed with the Spirit would have visions and dreams. And since the Spirit was upon Daniel, he had visions and dreams. And Daniel said, I was looking in my vision by night, and behold the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. And both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, the word for wind is the same as the word for spirit, and that's significant. There are spirits in the heavenly places that seek to stir up, and the sea is a picture of humanity in the world. We saw that in Revelation seventeen, when we studied Revelation, that the waters are multitudes and nations and peoples and tongues. And so we see the spirits in the heavenly places, evil spirits, stirring up humanity. And that's something that Daniel saw in the Spirit. And if we could see into the spiritual realm today, we would see an identical vision of the spirits in the heavenly places stirring up humanity against God. And as a result of this, there's conflict among the nations, and that's always the result of the spirits in the heavenly places stirring them up. And that teaches us that whenever there is strife and conflict in a church, you can be pretty sure that's the work of the same evil spirits who stir up strife and conflict in nations. And we can say about such a church, that such a church does not have power over satanic spirits. Any church in which there is strife and conflict, particularly among the leadership, and where the leaders are fighting and quarreling, and backbiting and gossiping against each other, we can write across that church, whatever church it is called, that is the church over which Satan has got power. The spirits in the heavens are stirring him up. And such a church is not the church which Jesus is building, because Jesus said the church which he built at the gates of hell would never prevail against it. And if I belong to a church in which the leaders were fighting, I would leave it at the first opportunity, and find a place where the leaders do not fight. I'm surprised to see that there are so many believers who don't have that much sense as to see that it is satanic spirits who stir up strife among the leaders. And it's stupid to belong to a church where Satan is working more than the Holy Spirit. And we see here as a result of the stirring up of the great sea in humanity, verse 3, four great beasts came up from the sea, different from one another. And as we read through this chapter, we find that these beasts, these four beasts, are the same as the four kingdoms which Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream. You remember Nebuchadnezzar saw the dream with a statue of four different types of metals, and the four different metals were gold, silver, bronze and iron, symbolizing the four great kingdoms that were going to come from Daniel's time, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. We saw that in study of chapter 2. Now, that was man's vision of the kingdoms of the world. Nebuchadnezzar saw the kingdoms of the world as precious metals, gold, silver, bronze and iron. But when God gives Daniel his viewpoint of these same four kingdoms, he says they are not like precious metals, they are like wild beasts. And God's view of these kingdoms is quite different from man's view. What we saw in Daniel chapter 2 was man's view, what we see in Daniel chapter 7 is God's view. The sea, the Bible says in Isaiah 57 verse 20 that the wicked are like the troubled sea which cannot come to rest. And that's a mark of wicked people. They can never come to rest because they are constantly stirred up by Satan. Wherever there is unrest, there is the working of evil spirits. Remember that. Whenever there is unrest in any heart or in any assembly, it's the working of evil spirits. It's the mark of the wicked. Like the troubled sea, they cannot rest. And from this troubled sea comes forth these four beasts. And we've seen verse 4, the first beast was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle. And that's the picture of Babylon. And history shows us these pictures used even by those kings in those days, of a lion with the wings of an eagle. And it says here the wings were plucked, which is a picture of Nebuchadnezzar being humbled by God. A lion was the king of the animals and the eagle was the king of the birds and that was the power that Nebuchadnezzar had as the king of Babylon. And God plucked his wings and he was humbled. And when God made Nebuchadnezzar behave like a beast, as we studied in chapter 4, it was God teaching him, this is my opinion of all of you great men on the earth. But it says here finally, he was lifted up from the ground. We studied in Daniel 4 that Nebuchadnezzar began to eat grass like cattle. But then God lifted him up and this speaks of his conversion, where he was made to stand on two feet like a man. Till then he was like a beast. And we need to see all the governments of the world and all the political parties of the world, in God's eyes they are like beasts. One type of beast, another type of beast. And when you're asked to vote, you're asked to vote between one beast and another. That's why I never vote, because there's not much of a choice between these different beasts that there are in these political parties. We see in Daniel 7, that is God's view of all these people who seek for political power. And we don't vote for beasts. But Nebuchadnezzar, towards the end of his life, was converted. Then he became like a man. Until man is converted, he's really like a beast. It's only when he's converted that he becomes a human being as God wants him to be. And a human mind was given to it. Verse 5, then he saw another beast, which is a picture of the second kingdom, that is Medo-Persia, resembling a bear. And that speaks of the ferocious nature of the kingdom that overpowered Babylon, the kingdom of Cyrus and Darius, Medo-Persia. These two kingdoms together were joined up. And it says it was raised up on one side, which indicates that Media came up first, and Persia overpowered it and it became the kingdom of Medo-Persia. And three ribs were in its mouth, between its teeth. And we know from history that the Medo-Persian empire spread in three directions of the compass. Not in four directions, but in three. And that's what's symbolized by the three ribs. Medo-Persian empire is what is today known as Iran. And we know from history, 500 years before Christ, in the 6th century before Christ, that this empire of what is now Iran spread not eastwards towards India, but north, south, and west. It spread in these three directions. And finally reached, history tells us, right up to the borders of Greece, in a Grecian town called Marathon. That's where this Medo-Persian empire reached. Now, it's quite amazing how God gave Daniel a clear picture of all that was going to happen. And now, as we live in a day when we can look back and compare the word of God with history books, we find exactly what God said. We see it fulfilled in history. And then we read in verse 6, the third empire, the Medo-Persian empire, as I said, reached up to the borders of Greece. And then, the third empire, after this I kept looking, and behold, another one, like a leopard. And this speaks of the empire of Alexander the Great as the king of Greece. And he conquered the known world at a fantastic speed. And that's why he's likened to a leopard, from which family the cheetah comes, the fastest animal. The speed with which he conquered, he came right up to the borders, right up to India, Alexander the Great. And he had on his back four wings, unlike the two wings that Babylonia had in verse 4. He had four wings, spreading, going forth in quick speed. And it says here, the beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it. Now this is something else that was fulfilled in history. History tells us that when Alexander the Great died at the age of 32 or 33, very young, because of living a very licentious life, his kingdom was divided up between four of his generals. And that's symbolized by the four heads. And the four generals controlled four parts of Alexander's empire. One took Syria, another took Egypt, another took what is today Turkey, and another one took Greece. And this is described to Daniel. Now I just mentioned this to see how exactly all that God said to Daniel was fulfilled. And after this, verse 7, I kept looking in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong. This is the iron in the legs of the statue that Nebuchadnezzar saw, the empire of Rome. And it had large iron teeth. You see the iron coming in here too. It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet. And we find that Rome conquered Greece and became the dominant empire of the world right up to the time that Jesus was born and on to a few centuries after Jesus' death and resurrection. And it was different from all the beasts that were before it. There were many ways, we don't have time to go into it, in which the Roman empire was different. Rome had elections and various things. They had a senate, a parliament, things which the other three kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece never thought of. It was different, but yet it was powerful. And now I want you to notice something, that at this point where it says it was different from all the beasts that were before it, there is a comma. And from that comma, there is a gap of two thousand years of what we call the Church Age. Now the Church Age was hidden from Daniel. Daniel was like a man who was looking at a number of mountain peaks and he saw this mountain peak of Rome and he did not see the two thousand year valley that lay between that and the next mountain peak which is the kingdom of the Antichrist. And looking from a distance, he saw this mountain peak and the other one and he thought the two went on one after the other. We read in one Peter chapter one that this age of the Church was a mystery, not revealed to the Old Testament prophets. None of the Old Testament prophets knew about this mystery of the Jews and the non-Jews becoming one in the Church. And so we see in Daniel and his prophecy that he goes on straight from Rome, skips over two thousand years of Church history and comes immediately to the ten kingdom empire in Europe that's going to be finally headed up by the Antichrist. It's almost as though one is going to follow after the other but we know now that there is a two thousand year gap in that comma in the end of verse seven and it had ten horns. And these are the ten kingdoms that we studied in the book of Revelation. And verse eight, while I was contemplating the horns, another horn, this is the Antichrist, a little one came up among them. Daniel was the only Old Testament prophet who had a clear revelation given to him even though he probably didn't understand it fully of the Antichrist. We see it beginning here, a little one came up among the horns, among the ten kingdoms will rise up one person who will rule the world. And three of the first horns, that is three of the first kingdoms were pulled out by the roots. In other words, this one is going to overpower three kingdoms and this horn possesses eyes like the eyes of a man. He's going to be the Superman the world's been looking for. And his mouth is like the mouth of Satan, uttering great boasts. That's the spirit of the Antichrist, a mouth uttering great boasting thing. And remember this brothers and sisters, whenever we open our mouth to boast about ourselves, even if it is giving a Christian testimony, it's the spirit of the Antichrist that's operating through our mouth when we boast. Never forget that a mouth uttering great boasts is a description of the Antichrist. And that's what we sang in the hymn just now. Spirits of pride are quickly drawn to the Antichrist. And we see it as we go through this chapter, how it comes up again and again, this boasting spirit. I kept looking until thrones were set up. You see, this is the end of time. And Daniel sees it one peak after the other and he does not see the valleys that lie in between. And he sees the throne set up. This is the time of judgment. And the Ancient of Days took his seat. His vesture, that is God himself, God Almighty. His vesture, Ancient of Days means the one who is eternal. His vesture was like white snow, speaks of his holiness and his purity. And his hair was like pure wool, white wool, speaks of his wisdom, the holiness and the wisdom of God. His throne was ablaze with flames, speaking of his purity. Its wheels were a burning fire. God is called a consuming fire. And a river of fire was flowing and coming out from before him. The Holy Spirit is not only a river of living water, he is also a river of fire, coming out from before God. And look at this beautiful picture of the angels. Thousands upon thousands were ministering to him. Ministering to him means worshipping him. And myriads, that means ten thousands upon ten thousands, millions, a hundred million angels were standing before him, awaiting his orders. I just want you to notice two things there. We say, Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. This is how the angels stand in heaven. There are two things mentioned that the angels do in heaven. One, they worship him. It says they were attending on him. They were attending on him means they were ministering to him, worshipping him. And the second thing said there is, they were waiting for his word, waiting for his orders, waiting to hear what God Almighty has to tell them to do. And I, it's a beautiful vision of heaven we have here, which we need to experience in our own life. That spirit of worshipping the Lord and waiting before him for his word. Speak Lord, your servant is hearing. What do you want me to do? That is the spirit in which we are to live all our earthly lives. Worshipping him and waiting on him. And that's something we can, it's an attitude we can have right through the day. Attending on him and standing before him from morning till night. And the court sat, this is the time of judgment, and the books were open. This speaks of the final judgment at the end of the millennium. Another thousand years is over. So Daniel missed out three thousand years here. And he sees it all together. One mountain peak after the other. There's a two thousand year valley between the first two. Another thousand year valley between the second and the third. He sees it all together. Then I kept looking because of the sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking. Notice the emphasis again. The spirit of the Antichrist is always manifested in boasting, boastful words, boastful words. And they are very often heard even in Christian circles. Words that exalt oneself instead of exalting Jesus Christ. I kept looking until the beast was slain. The kingdom of the Antichrist is finally destroyed. His body was destroyed and given to the burning fire. We know that the Antichrist himself is going to be cast alive into the lake of fire and his kingdom is going to be destroyed. As for the rest of the beasts, that is the remaining kingdoms on the earth, and here is a little picture of the millennium. Their dominion was taken away, but an extension of life was granted to them for an appointed period of time. And that period we see from Revelation 20 was a thousand years. That all the heathen are not going to be wiped out from the earth when Jesus comes during the thousand years reign of Christ. There are going to be earthly kingdoms with sinners who are not converted and that is spoken of in verse 12. There is going to be a next, some are going to be spared to live on for the thousand years in the millennium. And I kept looking in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man. Now this is the contrast I want you to notice. First of all a lion, then a bear, then a leopard, then an indescribable beast. All animals and then a man. That is the contrast. Animals ruling the world and even today it is animals that are ruling every nation of the earth. But finally will come a man who will rule the earth, not a beast. And that is Jesus. The son of man was coming. This is the contrast in Daniel 7. God wants a man to rule the world. A man in contrast to the animals. And he came up to the father and was presented before the father, before God Almighty. And to him was given dominion. Notice here the word given occurs more than 20 times in the book of Daniel. It speaks of God's sovereignty. He gave Nebuchadnezzar, he gave the kingdom to Cyrus, he gave it to Alexander the Great, he gave it to the Romans, he gives it to the Antichrist for a period. But finally God the father gives it to the one to whom it rightfully belongs. And even Jesus, you see the humility of Jesus, that he doesn't take the kingdom. He waits for the father to give it to him. Everything we are to receive like that, given by God. The spirit of grabbing is the spirit of Satan. And we are born with that spirit. And during our earthly lifetime, God seeks to deliver us from the spirit of grabbing and to teach us to learn to receive by faith. That's how Jesus receives the kingdom. Dominion, glory in all the people's nations, men of every language will serve him. A time will come when every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the father. And his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away. All the other dominions ruled by these various beasts, they pass away after a while. But his dominion is an everlasting dominion which does not pass away. And which will never be destroyed, the kingdom of Christ. And as for me Daniel, my spirit was distressed within me. And the visions in my mind kept alarming me. He was concerned because he couldn't understand all this. We see it clearly now. But Daniel couldn't understand all that this meant. And so he did the very best thing that we can do when we don't understand the scriptures. He approached one of those who were standing by in this vision of God. And he asked him the exact meaning of all this. What a wonderful thing to do. Lord, teach me the exact meaning of this scripture. He sought for the revelation of the Holy Spirit on the word that he did not understand. And so he told me and made known to me the interpretation of these things. And the same Holy Spirit is there today to interpret the word of God to us. And he said these great beasts which are four in number are four kings who will arise from the earth. But the saints of the highest one will receive the kingdom. You see, we saw the kingdom being received by Jesus in verse 13 and 14. But he's not going to receive it alone. He's going to receive it with his body. Jesus is the head and the body is the church. And they are together going to receive the kingdom. Jesus said that in Luke 12. Fear not, little flock. It is your father's good pleasure to give, to grant you the kingdom. We've just got to receive it. We can't earn it. We can't fight for it. We receive it because God is pleased to give it to the saints. And they will possess the kingdom forever for all ages to come. What a beautiful picture again of Jesus who will not rule alone. He wants to rule along with us. He would not have a glory which he does not, which he cannot share with us. That is pure unselfishness. And that is what, that is the nature he seeks to impart to us, where we do not seek a glory for ourselves, which we do not want to share with our brothers and sisters in the church. That's the spirit of Christ. He will not have that glory which he cannot share with us, his brothers and sisters. Let's never forget that's the spirit of Christ. Then he says in verse 19, then I desire to know the exact meaning of the fourth beast. He said he was particularly concerned about that, which was different from all the others, exceedingly dreadful with its teeth of iron, claws of bronze, which devoured, crushed, trampled down the remainder with its feet. And the meaning of the ten horns that were on its head. And the other horn which came up, before which three of them fell, namely that horn which had eyes and a mouth, uttering great boasts, and which was larger in appearance than its associates. I kept looking, and that horn was waging war with the saints, and overpowering them, which teaches that God allows the Antichrist to overpower Christ. Way back 2,500 years ago, he saw in vision all that was coming in the future. And he saw the Antichrist rising up and fighting against Christians, able to overpower them physically. Why? Because they will not bow down to him in spirit. Praise God that there are going to be people like that. These are the saints described in verse 21, who are the overcomers, who have stood against the spirit of the Antichrist through the ages, who are going to possess the kingdom, as mentioned in verse 18. Until the ancient of days came, verse 22, which teaches us that there is a time limit. God allows the Antichrist to reign, but only for three and a half years. There's this wonderful word, until. There is a time, and God has a perfect timetable for the kingdoms of the earth. Exactly on the right day, Cyrus came and took over Babylon. Exactly on the right day, Alexander the Great came up and overpowered Medo-Persia. Exactly at the right time, the Antichrist will rise up, and exactly at the right time, the Antichrist will be put down, and the saints will possess the kingdom. As it says here in verse 22, judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the highest one, and the time arrived. And we can be sure that God's trains all run on time. Not one of them is late. The saints took possession of the kingdom. Praise God. Wonderful. And thus he said, the fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the others, and it will devour the whole earth and tread it down and crush it. And as for the ten horns, this is the last days, verse 24, out of this kingdom ten kings will arrive. Out of that old Roman kingdom, from Europe as we know it today, ten kings will arise. Ten kingdoms, and another, the Antichrist, will arise after them. He'll be different from the previous ones, and he'll subdue three kings, and he will speak out against the most high, and wear down the saints of the highest one. And he will intend to make alterations in times and in law. He will alter God's laws, and they will be given. Notice that word given again. This is the word that describes God's sovereignty. God has given it, allowed him to have it into his hand for a time, times and a half time. We saw that in Revelation 6. A crown was given to that man who rode on the white horse, the Antichrist. When the court will sit for judgment, when the three and a half years, verse 25, a time one year, times two years, and a half a time, half a year, three and a half years is going to be the period of the Antichrist, and when that time is up, the court will sit for judgment, and his dominion will be taken away. God gave it to him, and God will take it away. Annihilated, he'll be annihilated, the kingdom, and destroyed forever. And again, we find in verse 27, for the third time, the sovereignty, the dominion, the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given, not just to the Lord Jesus Christ, but to the people of the saints of the highest one. Did you notice that? Three times, verse 18, verse 22, and again in verse 27, the kingdom is coming to the overcomers. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion, and all dominions will serve and obey him. At this point, the revelation ended. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts were greatly alarming me, and my face grew pale, but I kept the matter to myself. There's one thing that we see very clearly in this chapter, and that is that all these people receive from God. The difference is that the heathen beasts who receive the kingdom, do not realize that God has allowed them to have it, whereas Jesus and the saints, when they receive from God, they recognize this is the gift of God. And I believe that's the mark of an overcomer. One mark of an overcomer is that he recognizes that everything he has, every good and perfect gift is from above, from the Father. And therefore, he is free from that pride. See, pride comes when we think there's something I have which God didn't give me. I accomplished it myself. I achieved it myself. That's the spirit of the antichrist. But the spirit of the overcomer and the spirit of Christ is, I have nothing of my own. Everything is given. Do I have intelligence? It's God's gift. Do I have spiritual gifts? That's God's gift. Do I have health? That's God's gift. Has God given me the ability to make money and earn a living? That's God's gift. Has God given me a good family in which I could grow up? That's God's gift. Has God given me a house? Has God given me a fellowship? It's God's gift. There is absolutely no room for pride in the overcomer because he recognizes that from zero to a hundred, from top to bottom, everything is the gift of God. Not a single thing which he has, which is not given, given, given, given, given. That's the great thing that comes through in the book of Daniel. And now we move on to chapter eight because this also deals with somewhat similar period of time. Daniel chapter eight is again prophecy and we can believe what the word of God says that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. And as we study through it, we benefit by seeing again the fulfillment of prophecy exactly and thereby are encouraged to believe that everything else prophesied in the scripture will also be fulfilled exactly. In the third year of the reign of Belshazzar, Daniel is about 87 or so now, a vision appeared to me. Wonderful. He kept on going and he kept on seeing visions about the future. And it says, I looked in the vision and I saw I was in the citadel of Susa, which was the winter capital of the Babylonian empire in the I looked in the vision and I myself was beside the Ulai canal or river. And I lifted up my gaze and looked and a ram. This is a picture of the Medo-Persian empire. You see, he has come to the third year of the reign of Belshazzar, verse one. The Babylonian kingdom is almost finished. Belshazzar is just about to be overpowered and he sees the next kingdom, which he saw earlier as a bear. He now sees it as a ram with two horns, Media and Persia, two kingdoms standing in front of the canal. You see the exactness of fulfillment. Now the two horns were long, but one was longer than the other with the longer one coming up last. It's exactly like that in history that the Median empire was a small one. The Persian empire overpowered it. And the was a bigger horn came up last, but it was considered a joint empire of Media and Persia. And I saw the ram butting. Notice the exactness. We saw this in chapter seven as well in three directions, not four. We know that Medo-Persia did not invade India, which is eastward. It invaded westward, northward and southward. And no other beast could stand before him. The Babylonian empire was crushed. There was no one to rescue from his power, but he did as he pleased. And notice this phrase, which comes repeatedly in chapter eight. He magnified himself. That's the spirit of the Antichrist. Magnified himself. It was there in Media-Persia, right? While I was observing this, that's the spirit of Satan. While I was observing, behold, a male goat. This is the kingdom of Greece described now as a goat. It's a repetition, but with a little more detail, but highlighting that the spirit of the Antichrist was there even in those empires. Was coming from the west. West of Iran is Greece. And Greece came in from the west over the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground. And that speaks of the speed of Alexander's conquests. And the goat had a conspicuous horn. That is Alexander the Great himself. Between his eyes. Now, this is all written over 200 years before they were fulfilled. And Daniel writes it down. And I saw him come beside the ram. And it says here in verse six, he came up to the ram that had the two horns, which I saw standing in the canal, and rushed at him in his mighty anger. Earlier on, the Medo-Persian empire had come right up to the borders of Greece and defeated them at one point, even though they couldn't proceed from there. And the fury of the Greeks for their earlier defeats is manifested now under Alexander the Great. It says they came in mighty wrath, verse six. And that's exactly how it was fulfilled in history. If you have studied the history of Europe and the world at that time, this is history written in advance in symbolic language. And I saw him come beside the ram and he was enraged. The Greeks were furious. We read that Alexander the Great, when he came into the great city of Persepolis in Iran, he razed it to the ground, burned it up completely in his anger. And he struck the ram and shattered his two horns. And the ram had no strength to withstand him. And there was none to rescue the ram from the power of this goat with this notable horn called Alexander the Great. And again, the same phrase. Then the male goat magnified himself with one more word added exceedingly. The spirit of the Antichrist is building up a little more than Medo-Persian Alexander the Great. And the Roman Caesars were a little more and the Antichrist will be still a little more. Magnified himself. But as soon as he was mighty, he was a young man around 32 or 33 Alexander the Great, the large horn was broken. Suddenly God judged him for his licentious life and his pride. And in its place there came up four, these are the four generals that took over after Alexander the Great died. His son did not succeed him. Four of his generals fought and divided up Alexander's empire into four parts toward the four winds of heaven. They occupied four different directions. And out of one of them, and that is referring, I told you that these four generals had four parts of Alexander's kingdom, which was Greece, Turkey, Syria and Egypt. And in the book of Daniel, particularly in chapter 11, it deals more with Syria and Egypt and we'll come to that later on. Why Syria and Egypt? Because Syria is north of Israel and Egypt is south of Israel. And we find a lot of detail given about that in chapter 11, which has relevance for the last days. And we find that we're living in the days when Syria and Egypt are around Israel and all that has taken place in relation to those countries. But Alexander the Great, two of his generals, one took Syria and the other took Egypt. And it says out of one of them, and we know this is from Syria, history tells us out of one of these four, and that is from Syria, came a rather small horn, which is again a picture of one of the descendants of the generals. History tells us his name was Antiochus Epiphanes, but he's also a symbolic picture of the Antichrist that's going to come up in the future. A small horn from Syria, which grew exceedingly great, great in the eyes of men, the spirit of the Antichrist again, toward the south, that is towards Palestine or Israel, toward the east and towards the beautiful land. That's a description of Israel, the beautiful land. And when we come to chapter 11, I'll go into this in detail, how Syria came down and attacked the Jews in the second century before Christ. But it is also a picture of something that's going to take place in the future, where the Antichrist is going to come upon that beautiful land. And it grew up, here is a, as I said, Daniel seeing the two peaks together without seeing the 2,000 years in between. It grew up to the host of heaven. It speaks of the powers of evil in the heavenly places and caused some of the host and some of the stars to fall to the earth. This speaks, this is Satan now, and bringing down the spirits from the heavenlies down to the earth, and it trampled them down. And again, this phrase, the Antichrist, he magnified himself. Notice the emphasis there. And this is the thing I'm sure Daniel noticed, all these people, they lift themselves up. That's the spirit of the Antichrist. He magnified himself. And that spirit, when it is found in a church, we can say the spirit of the Antichrist has come into that church, where a person seeks to lift himself up above the other brothers and sisters, either with a title, or a position, or some honor, or by an abuse of his gift, when he seeks to magnify himself, even if he calls himself a Christian. He's got the same spirit as Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Alexander the Great, the Roman Caesars, the Antichrist. He's got the same spirit operating in him. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. It says here, he even magnified himself to be equal with the commander of the host. Who's the commander of the host of heaven? That's the Lord Jesus Christ, Joshua. When he went to fight against Jericho, we read in Joshua 5, verse 13 to 15, that he saw a man standing there with a sword, and the man said, I am the commander of the Lord's host, and Joshua fell down. He took off his shoes, and he worshipped, and it was Jesus saying, I have come to lead you to victory. Now here is the spirit of the Antichrist seeking to be equal with the commander of the host, and it removed the regular sacrifice from him, and the place of his sanctuary was thrown down. Jesus spoke about the temple in Jerusalem being made desolate, and the abomination of desolation being set up there. And on account of transgression, the host will be given over to the horn along with the regular sacrifice, and it will fling truth to the ground and perform its will and prosper. The spirit of Satan that was manifested in wanting to be equal with God, pulling down the angels beneath it. And the host of heaven not only refers to the angels, it also refers many times into the Old Testament to the sun, moon and stars. Now I want to tell you something which is very significant in relation to the host of heaven. In Genesis 2 we read that the Lord finished creating heaven and the host of it, that is the stars and the sun and the moon. And here it speaks of man, a superman trying to get up into the realm of the heavens. I want to show you a verse in Psalm 115 in this connection which is very significant with the advance of science and technology particularly in the last 15 to 20 years. Psalm 115 verse 16. This is speaking about boundaries that God has allotted for man and boundaries that the Lord has reserved for himself. It's like the compound wall between your house and your neighbor's house. Do you know that God has put a compound wall for man? Here it is. The heavens are the Lord's, but the earth he has given to the sons of men. Do you know that the moon has not been given to the sons of men to go on to? It's very clear. Everything in the heavens belongs to the Lord, but the earth has been given to the sons of men. And when man went outside the boundaries of earth's atmosphere into the moon, he had broken the compound wall and gone into territory that did not belong to him. It's the spirit of the Antichrist. You can call it science, technology, whatever you like, but there's a spirit behind it which is building up to the revelation of the Antichrist in the United States, the host of heaven. He will trample them down. That's the spirit of the Antichrist. He magnifies himself. He says, who said that's the Lord's? It's very significant that the Russians who first went up to space, they said, we didn't see any God up here. You see, that spirit is the Russians who went up to space first. It's the spirit of the Antichrist operating in communism and operating in other, in capitalism as well for that matter. But it's that spirit that moves out of the boundary wall God has put for man. It's just, I just mentioned that as an indication that we are approaching the end of time. It says here in Daniel chapter 8, God allows it, he gives it to them. The host, verse 12, on account of transgression, because of sin, the host will be given to the horn. You can have it. You can, you can do it. God allows him to have power over the host of heaven, okay? And also allows him to pollute the sacrifice in the temple and he will fling fruit to the ground. One other mark of the Antichrist, he loves lying. Pride and lying are the two marks of the Antichrist. And you know that pride and lying are found very much in the flesh of Adam. How then shall we be overcomers? We shall be overcomers by fighting pride and lying whenever we discover it anywhere in our lives. Truth will be flung to the ground. He hates the truth. God allows those who don't love the truth to be deceived. He will do his own will. It's a mark of the spirit of the Antichrist. Doing my own will, doing what I like. And God allows him to prosper for a period. There's a deception in the material prosperity that we find among ungodly people. And then I heard a holy one speaking. Another the regular sacrifice applied while the transgression causes horror. This abomination that makes desolate so as to allow both the holy place and the host to be trampled. There, one holy one, an angel is asking another one in order for Daniel to hear, how long is this going to take place? And he said to me, for 2300 evenings and mornings. That is a period of about six years and three and a half months, which is possibly the period which the, during the last seven years before Christ comes, a period described as 2300 evenings and mornings, the exact nature of it, which we'll probably understand only when it is actually fulfilled. But I just want to mention here that the Seventh-day Adventists have got a terrible heresy. It's one of the most abominable doctrines of the Seventh-day Adventists that they teach that these 2300 days speak of 2300 years that began with the command to rebuild Jerusalem. And they prophesied that Jesus would come in 1844. And the man who prophesied it when Jesus didn't come had the honesty to admit it, that I was mistaken. But somebody else took it up, a lady, and said, no, Jesus came in the, entered the most holy place and started cleansing the sanctuary. And some type of stupid rubbish like that, the deceitful spirits got into to deceive her like deceiving Eve. And this is, I just mentioned that in passing, is one of the wrong teachings that the Seventh-day Adventists teach in relation to this verse. But it's referring to the 2300 days that are going to be fulfilled finally in the reign of the Antichrist. Then verse 15, it came about I, when I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it. He didn't get any fancy interpretations of it like the SDAs. He sought to understand it and he sought God in humility for it. And behold, standing before me was one who looked like a man. And I heard the voice of a man between the banks of Ulai and he called out and said, Gabriel, give this man an understanding of the vision. You see, this is something we see again and again, Daniel crying out for the spirit of wisdom and revelation and God giving it. The book of Proverbs chapter 2, we are told, verses 3 to 6, that if you cry out for knowledge, if you seek for it as for hidden treasures, if you are not lazy in your attitude to the scriptures, if you dig into it like you would dig for gold in the backyard of your home, if you cry out and weep and say, Lord, teach me the word, God will teach you. But if a man's lazy, then of course he won't know the truth. Daniel understood the truth because he cried out for it. That verse, which we have often considered in Proverbs 25, verse 2. It's the glory of God to conceal a matter, but it's the glory of kings to search out that matter. God has concealed many things in his written word, but if we are going to be kings and overcomers, our glory is seen in searching it out, in digging out that treasure. We know that gold is never found on the surface. There's no place on the earth where gold and diamonds are found on the surface. You've got to dig hundreds and thousands of feet into the earth before you get the gold. There are men who value gold, who are willing to take the trouble to dig thousands of feet, just 40, 50 miles away from Bangalore, they do it. Well, but it's a shame that so many believers are not so keen in digging for the hidden treasures. In God's word, like that. But Daniel was one, and so he got understanding of the vision. So he came near to me where I was standing, and when he came, I was frightened. It's amazing. Even the vision of an angel is enough to frighten a man of God. Imagine what God himself is like. And he fell on his face, and he said to me, son of man, understand that the vision is not relating to the present time, but to the time of the end. We are living in the most privileged generation in the history of man, because we are living in that period called the time of the end. That's why the book of Daniel has got a particular relevance for us who are living in these days. While he was talking with me, it says here, I sank into a deep sleep with my face to the ground, but he touched me and made me stand upright, and he said to me, behold, I'm going to let you know what will occur at the final period of the indignation, for it pertains to the appointed time of the end. The ram which you saw with the two horns represent the kings of Media and Persia. That's the explanation. It was given to Daniel. He knew something's coming. Media and Persia are going to overpower Belshazzar. He saw this vision as we saw in chapter 1, verse 1, sorry, of chapter 8, before Media and Persia had conquered Babylon. That was prophecy. And then he was told, but the Media and Persia may look like a powerful empire now, but it's going to be overpowered. The shaggy goat represents the kingdom of Greece, and the large horn that is between his eyes is the first king. That's Alexander the Great of that empire, when it became a world empire, that is. And the broken horn and the four horns that arose in its place represent four kingdoms, that is Alexander's four generals, who will arise from his nation, although not with his power, which history tells us that the generals never had the same power that Alexander the Great had. In fact, their names are not even known to us. But in the latter period of their rule, and here is where Daniel skips over the 2,000 years of church history and sees the end of time again, the peak beyond the 2,000 year valley, when the transgressors have run their course, that means when sin has mounted up, mounted up, mounted up, mounted up, and come to the place where it is time for God to judge it, when sinners have come to the place where it's time for God to judge them, that's the meaning of that phrase, a king will arise. The Antichrist, insolent, that is proud, skilled in intrigue, in diplomacy, in scheming, his power will be mighty, but not by his own power, it will be satanic power. It will be supernatural satanic power, not just human, he won't be just a human superman, it'll be a satanic power, and he will destroy, or as the ordinary degree, you think we've seen a lot of corruption yet? Well you haven't seen anything yet, it's going to be much worse, to an extraordinary degree, corruption morally, and in every other way, and he will prosper and perform his will, he will destroy mighty men, and he will destroy the saints, that is physically, because they will not bow down to him, and through his shrewdness, which is the shrewdness of the serpent, he will cause deceit, to succeed by his power, and notice this phrase again, he will magnify himself, become great in the eyes of men, in his heart, begins with, to begin in his heart, and then outwardly, he will destroy many, while they are at ease, he will even oppose the Lord Jesus Christ, the prince of princes, but he will be broken, without human power, by the almighty power of God, here is a description of what's going to happen, the antichrist suddenly, when Jesus comes down to earth, his power is broken, and the vision of the evenings and mornings, that is the 2300 evenings and mornings, which we just saw, is true, but keep the vision secret, you can't understand it in this day, it pertains to many days in the future, that's the time in which we are living, and I Daniel was exhausted and sick for days, seeing this, he was perturbed, then I got up again and carried on the king's business, but I was astounded at the vision, and there was none to explain it, he wanted to understand it more, but he couldn't understand it, I wonder if he realized, what a privileged people we are, to be able to understand the things, that are hidden, even from Daniel, just want to show you one verse in closing, 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 12, verse 10 to 12, it says about this salvation, the prophets prophesied, and they wanted to know, what person or time, the spirit of Christ within them was indicating, verse 12, it was revealed to them, that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things, which now have been announced to you, through those who preach the gospel, to you by the Holy Spirit, sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look, verse 10, prophets wanted to understand it, they could not, angels long to understand it, but it's been revealed to us by the Holy Spirit, to whom much is given, much will be required, brothers and sisters, I wonder if we realize, the tremendous privilege and honor that is ours, to live in the days in which we are living, and God calls us to be overcomers in these days, like Daniel, standing for Him, without compromising, knowing that all these things are going to come to pass in our generation, Amen.