In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the interpretation of the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar as described in the book of Daniel. The sermon is divided into 10 sections, with each section taking about 5 minutes to discuss. The preacher emphasizes the significance of the four world Gentile powers represented by the image in the dream. He highlights the importance of the final projection of the image, which is represented by the ten toes, indicating the end of Gentile supremacy. The preacher also mentions his belief that Hitler could not win the war based on his understanding of the Bible, and asserts that the Russians cannot govern the world either.

End of Daniel, chapter 2 please. Book of Daniel, and we're at the second chapter, and it's the chapter where we have this great dream that Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, dreams. I think that nobody ever dreamed before like this and I'm perfectly sure that nobody has ever had a dream like this since. This dream brought before him this great image, the image of a man, and this image measures for us the whole course of gentile supremacy. The whole course of gentile supremacy is revealed through this image. From its inception, when Babylon became the first gentile world empire, from its inception to its destruction, when the stone cut out without hands smashes this image to pieces. It's a wonderful chapter. It's one of the greatest, of course, in the word of God. I think that most of us know that when Paul was talking in the letters of the Corinthians, he said that we should give no offense to the Jew, or the gentile, or the church of God. And this little verse gives us the divisions that God makes at this particular time, in this particular dispensation, among the world's multitudes. God sees the Jewish nation, God sees the gentiles, and God sees the saved out of both Jew and gentile in the church of Jesus Christ. God's not looking at the multitudes of the world as black or white, not looking at them as protestant or catholic. God's not worried about colors, orange or purple or green or white. God has divided the peoples of the world at this very time into these three divisions, Jew, gentile, the church of Jesus Christ. These are the divisions that God makes. And I think that all of you know this, from the day that he called Abraham unto her of the Chaldees, the way back there in Genesis 12, and said, if you leave your country, your kindred, I will make of thee a great nation. Then God took up this nation, and God worked through this nation, God worked for this nation, God worked with this nation. But there came a time when God cast this nation aside, not finally, but for a time. They're not cast off forever. But the day that God cast them off, he took up the gentiles, and Nebuchadnezzar, who was then the king of the Babylonians, under God and allowed by God, became the first world gentile power on this earth. He ruled the then known world. That was the beginning of the times of the gentiles. And the whole course of the times of the gentiles is seen in this dream, in this image, in this man that Nebuchadnezzar met in his dream. Right from the inception of gentile supremacy, to the destruction of gentile power, when the stone comes and crushes this image. And so we're going to look at this very carefully this evening. I want to deal with the whole chapter tonight, and there are 49 verses. That's quite a long piece for us to take off. And I've got 10 headings for you, and that makes 10 little sections that we want to look at personally. And if I take five minutes for each section, that's 50 minutes, and then we might have to play overtime 15 minutes each way, I think, because we're not in a hurry. There's nowhere to go now. I should have said thank you to you all turning up at the meeting tonight. You should see the big heavy ones coming in, all panting, you know. It just reminded me of the text that all things work together for good. It'll do some of you good, you know, having to walk a bit. You're not used to walking. But I do thank you for coming. What we're doing, we're going to look very carefully at this whole great chapter. And then next Tuesday, if the Lord will, we're going to take the time of looking at the 10 toes alone. Because this great image that we look at tonight, when you start with the head and come to the breast and the thighs and the legs and the feet, you know the 10 toes, this is the final projection of this man. This is the final projection. And we want to look very carefully at this final projection. Of course, 10 toes, it's a sort of mutual federation, isn't it? Yes, that's exactly what it is. And yet while this is the final projection of this image, and this is the mutual federation, it's an unnatural unity because these toes are made of iron and clay and that is unnatural. You cannot get that moulded together properly. Is it possible that we're just seeing the 10 toes being formed now in our day? Is this great European economic community that Heath is really voting for and going all august? Is this the formation of these 10 toes? Have we come almost to the end of gentile supremacy? Is the Lord going to come back and smash it soon? We've got a lot of things to pay attention to here. But the only way we can do it is take the whole chapter as it comes this evening and then take an hour and a half next Tuesday up the 10 toes alone. And I think we'll do it properly then. Let's have a look at the king's agitation with a Daniel 2 verse 1. And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams wherewith his spirit was troubled. And as sleep broke from him, then the king commanded to call the magicians and the astrologers and the sorcerers and the Chaldeans, for to show the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king and the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream. And my spirit was troubled for not a dream. I'm sure that there must be people here who have dreamed dreams at times. There must be one or two beautiful dreamers in the meeting. And I can tell you this, that if you take cheese and onions as you go to bed about twelve, you'll most surely dream the most fantastic things you've ever seen. You know, I was told the other day about a gentleman who was feeding like this at twelve o'clock and went to bed and then he dreamed that he was on his way to the North Pole. And he had big fur coats on him and all the rest of it. But some of the party were dropping out with the cold and at last he was left alone with a sleigh and the dogs. And then one by one the dogs said, he's almost at the North Pole and he's not going to make it. So he threw everything out of the sleigh and got down into the middle of it and covered them over and pulled the sheet over and said, well I'll just die in the darkness. He felt his feet terribly cold. They were sticking to the sleigh when all of a sudden the top came off and a voice said, what in the name of the world are you doing here? Well I assure you that this dream was not anything like that. This dream was a God-given vision. This is something that God wanted to do. And the God of heaven gave Nebuchadnezzar in the night season this particular vision. Yes he remembered dreaming but then it went from him and his spirit was troubled, it was agitated. Now let's go quickly from the agitation and leading at verse four. Then speak the Chaldeans to the king and Ciri. O king, live forever. Tell thy servants the dream and we will show the interpretation. The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, the thing is gone from me. If ye will not make known unto me the dream with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces and your houses shall be made at Dunhill. But if ye show the dream and the interpretation thereof, ye shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great honor. Therefore show me the dream and the interpretation thereof. They answered again and said, let the king tell his servants the dream and we will show the interpretation of it. The king answered and said, I know of certainty that ye would gain the time because you see the thing is gone from me. But if you will not make known unto me the dream there is but one decree for you. For ye have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me till the time be changed. Therefore tell me the dream and I shall know that ye can show me the interpretation thereof. The Chaldeans answered before the king and said, there is not a man upon the earth that can show the king's matter. These were the wise men, you know. But you know sometimes wise men of this world, even those who have got degrees that bring them into the king's palace as wise men, sometimes professing themselves to be wise, they become fools. They're saying there is not a man upon the earth. At that moment there was a man in the palace. There is not a man upon the earth that can show the king's matter. Therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler that asks such things of any magician or astrologer or Chaldean. And it is a rare thing that the king requires, and there is none other that can show it before the king except the gods whose dwelling is not the flesh. For this cause the king was angry and very furious and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain. And they thought Daniel and his fellows to be slain. And just getting over that long stretch quickly, you can see the judgment that came from this fierce king, because Nebuchadnezzar was a fierce and cruel man. You remember how he had taken Zedekiah's sons and he had slain them before Zedekiah's eyes, and then he had taken Zedekiah's eyes out. He was a cruel man. And this is the condemnation that's lying on the head of the wise men of Babylon. And then we come to this supplication of Daniel's. See verse 14? Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom to Ariok, the captain of the king's guards, which was gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon. He answered and said to Ariok, the king's captain, why is the decree so hasty from the king? Then Ariok made the thing known to Daniel. And Daniel went in and desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he would show the king the interpretation. I think that was very wonderful, very courageous indeed, that Daniel should go in again before this furious king. This is the thing that the king was yelping about so much that men were trying to get time. But Daniel put it another way round for him. He said, you just give me time and I'll tell you. He wasn't beating about the bush or anything like that, he said, I'll tell you. It's faith, you know. And it says here, verse 17. Then Daniel went to his house and made the thing known to Hananiah, Michiel and Azariah, his companions, you remember we read about them last week, that they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning the sheep. You know, he got together all the folks he knew that knew the Lord, and they were to desire mercies of the God of heaven. I like the way Daniel goes about things, you know. Some people gather for prayer and you would think it was just an honor for God to bless them. Somehow they think that the way they form the sentences and the emotion they put into it, that their prayers become a sort of sacrifice to move God, and that's baloney. That's what that is. Yes. Sometimes I see up in prayer meetings and I know they mean it well enough. Prayer changes things. No, it doesn't. God changes things in answer to prayer. You think that just a few words does it, you've got the wrong end of the stick. Oh, I believe God does things in answer to prayer. That's what I believe. My faith is in God. Some people's faith is in vain repetition. That's what the heathen do. You know, when the Lord was talking to us about prayer in Matthew chapter 6, he said, and when thou prayest, be not like the hypocrites that love to stand at the corner of the streets and make long prayers to be seen of men. Possible to come to the prayer meeting and only be man-conscious. Ah, you're only wasting our time, that's what you're doing. You'd be better at home. And then the Lord said, thou when thou prayest, be not as the heathen are who used to depend on vain repetition. You see, sometimes people are just man-conscious in the prayer meeting and sometimes they're just word-conscious. I guess you hear these old phrases for so long, if they didn't come you could say their prayers for them. Because they read up about the people that have a prayer book. Will you pray at all? That's the thing we want to get round to. And thou prayest, enter into thy closet, shut the door and pray to God. We shouldn't be man-conscious, we're not looking for hallelujahs in the prayer meeting. And we shouldn't be through word-conscious. We need to be God-conscious, all that we could get back to God. And I wish I could arouse all the true believers for this weekend. Because I think that we need mercy from God at the weekend in this country of ours. And we're all responsible here, you know. I can tell you if this blood bath begins, and it may well begin, don't let's screw ourselves. There's a great number of people in this land who are fed up with the rebels. They're tired of it. This little town here has had about enough of it. And they're tired, you know, people are tired. And there are men who are ready to march on the street with guns. And they'll walk into Roman Catholic quarters and they'll be murdered. Well indeed. And blood will flow freely. And innocent Roman Catholics and innocent Protestants will be murdered. We are on the verge of it. Don't fool yourself. I pray every day that God will give us mercy in this thing. And that some of these agents that have been carrying on will break down and get on their knees and let's get a bit of peace. Yes, we would all need to pray the God of heaven for mercy. Man, do we haven't anything to commend us to God? I don't think the Unionists are guiltless, you know. Not a bit of me. I think I fooled around for 30 years and walked over everybody. And I hadn't got the guts to stand up to Westminster when the time came. Oh yes, I don't want to get into politics because it doesn't suit me at all. There's a terrible lot inside that I would love to say sometimes. I think we believers need to pray. Daniel aroused these pals of his. They were in Babylon. I suppose the Babylonians never thought they would have a prayer meeting down there. Well, they had a prayer meeting in Babel. Yes, this is supplication, isn't it? And he said this. Daniel aroused them, verse 18, that they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this matter, that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then, if that might, you know, then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. That's how it comes, you know, just like a revelation. I really believe, you know, that the believers, if they were in touch with God in this land at this moment, hold the key to many things. I would be a far more powerful character for this country on my knees along with God than I would be fooling around on the TV. I think it's my place, and I think it's yours too. But some of us don't find that easy to do. And I believe that this country is going to be saved. It'll be prayer that will save us, not God. God heard and answered, didn't he? Then, oh, it comes like a crash, doesn't it? It's the psychological moment, then, just like that. Oh, I tell you, friends, God hears, and God answers prayer. Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel. And I like this bit, you know, then, that's another then, then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. I think when God hears and answers prayer, we should not forget to thank God. Sometimes we take too much for granted, don't we? Many a man, having got the answer to the king's query, would have run over the house and down the street and up the avenue to the palace. Oh, Daniel took a minute or two just to thank God. And what a picture he paints of God here. You should take it sometime and preach from it, you young preachers. Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever. What a wonderful name God has. Blessed be his name. And then God, Daniel said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are his. He's got wisdom, he's got, well, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge belong to him. This whole book says his understanding is infinite. Well, if he's God, he knows everything. But he's not only got a wonderful name, and not only has he wisdom, not only has he might, but he said he is, and he changes the times and the seasons. Oh, what authority he has. He's the sovereign God. Oh, that we could get a hold of this. He changes the times and the seasons. He removes us kings and sets us up kings. Yes, he's the Lord of all. I think we should get our eyes on God, on his name, on his wisdom, on his might, on his power, and on his authority. He gives us wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding. He reveals the deep and secret things. He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth within. You know, what a picture he has painted of God, if we could take the time. And then he looked into God's face, and he said, I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee. For thou hast now made known unto us the king's matter. You know, I'd like you to think about this twenty-third verse. You know, thanksgiving was in his heart. That's a great thing, you know. We should always thank the Lord. But not only is thanksgiving in his heart, you know, humility is in his mind. Who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me. You know, he's not taken any glory for himself. He says, this is all you're doing, you know, I've nothing to do with it, I only got down on my knees and you told me. And you can see the wisdom, the thanksgiving that's in his heart, and you can see the humility in his mind. But I want you to watch how it changes things. He says, I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee. You know, he recognized the other fellows were at the prayer meeting. And he went for them, he said, for thou hast now made known unto us. I think he's a great character because you can see the thanksgiving in his heart, and you can see the humility in his mind, and you can see the recognition of others in his soul. I think this is all adoration, you know. So we're sweeping through the chapter, we looked at the agitation, and then the condemnation, and the supplication, and this is, and then the revelation, and this is adoration. And I like this bit, you know, in this twenty-fourth verse, Therefore Daniel went in unto Ariok, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went in and said thus unto him, Destroy not the wise men of Babylon. I'm perfectly sure that these magicians and astrologers, all these called things, were these Babylonian mysteries. And if they were not Daniel's friends, I'm positively sure of that. I think, you know, they would have put him out of action if they could. But you know, this man who's got thanksgiving in his heart, this man who has humility in his mind, this man who's got the recognition of others in his soul, this man has a concern for the perishing. And that would do a lot of us a lot of good if we could just grow up like that. If we could just start to thank God a little bit. You know, we've had a lot of people saved here in this place, and across the world. I wouldn't think in bomb-stained Lurgan tonight that we've got hundreds of people sitting around the Bible who wouldn't believe it, you know. And we've had people saved Sunday by Sunday, right down through this year and many other years. We've got a wee man, he's over there, there he is in there, bald head, see him hiding behind the woman in the pink coat on there. And he prays in our prayer, mixing, Lord, we thank thee for thy doings, it's not the past as Lord, and I always say, Amen! Why these boys grew up round here to realise if anything's done, it's the Lord's doing. This is the Lord's doing. This is the Lord's doing. And we should thank the Lord all the time, and we should be humble enough to know we don't need to be patted on the back, and we should recognise others who are doing certain things in the work too. And we should have a concern in our soul all the time for the passion. They said it to Daniel, and you could see that the fellow could preach from Daniel himself, that we must linger there. That's solicitation, he doesn't want them destroyed. And when they're twenty-five, then Ariok brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said thus unto him, I have found a man of the captives of Judah that will make known unto the king the interpretation. The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, that's the name the Babylonians gave him when they tried to brainwash him, art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen and the interpretation thereof? Remember he's in the palace, and he's before the king, and the king's not out for any nonsense. And the king says, art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen the interpretation thereof? Daniel starts off very wonderfully, I think. Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, the secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, show unto the king? You know, he's not trying to belittle anybody, he's just trying to show the king the misery of his magicians. I think he's got a right to do that, you know. Prophets and preachers have certain rights. Sometimes when I'm at conference meetings where they ask questions, and some silly fool asks silly questions, I really take him to court, you know. I'm told in this book to avoid foolish questions, unlearned and foolish questions. And so Daniel's just letting the king know the misery of these magicians. And then he went a little bit further. He says, but there is a God in heaven. I think that was big of Daniel. You know, he's in this Babylonian court, and they've got all kinds of images around him. They've got gods that they fall down and worship, the sun god, the fire god, and so on. And Daniel just wants to tell this old king that there's a real God in heaven. It's the man to do this sort of job, you know. I wasn't rushing it. He didn't need to rush it. They've got to wait for the answer anyway. So he talks, first of all, about the misery of his magicians, and then he talks about the greatness of his gods. There's a God in heaven that reveals secrets, and makes us known to the king that you can measure what shall be, and get this phrase please, in the latter days. Oh, I wish you would get a hold of that, because all the things of importance in his vision just wasn't for that day, for the latter days. God's trying to tell you what will take place in the latter days. Thy dream and the visions of thy head upon my bed are these. As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon my bed. What should come to pass hereafter? You see, Daniel, first of all, let the king see the misery of his magicians. Then he let the king see the greatness of his gods. And then he let the king see the reason for this particular revelation. And then I like this bit, very pretty. He says, but ask for me. This secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living. You know, I love the man for that. He just showing the king the poverty of the prophets. Oh, I'm the teacher at this class, I know. And I've been teaching this class coming up on twenty years now, every Tuesday. And we've had these people here with their Bibles. But I don't want you to think that I'm anything special, because I'm just one of you. I'm just a common five-eight. Only God, in his wonderful grace, has given me the gift of picture. Now why he would give it to a fellow like me, I wouldn't know. But I just happen to know that that's why the class continues. It's because of God's grace and God's gift. It isn't that I'm different from anybody. I suppose if we were put into a class and I had to do some of the sums or grammar or anything else, well I would be away at the back of the class. But then that's not how God works, you see. Gift is different from academic standard. And I wish some of you academics would learn that. Because it would do you a power of good. A fellow said to me once, oh we cannot send our girl to the mission field. She doesn't know how to speak. She's never been to school. She's no scholarship at all. Threw my Bible at him. I said, find me the schooling of Peter and James and John. And when you've got that going, I'll dig you John the Baptist and two or three more that were aired in the wilderness. Ah baloney, we're fed up listening to this. This is chop-chop. That's not how God works. God takes whoever he likes and gifts them. And that's it. You can do what you like about it. You can't do the job and that's all there is about it. And I don't have any ideas about me. I just know it's all of God. I've got that into my hide long ago. Yes, Daniel was a character just like this, you know. He says, but as for me this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their fakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart. I think he's explaining here just the whole thing. So we've got our way through 30 of the verses. Just reading the book, that's all we're doing now. But we're coming to the more detailed part and we must take time now, because we've come to the publication of the thing. Now verse 31, and watch your bible now very carefully. Daniel speaking to the king. Thou, O king, sawst and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent stood before thee, and the form thereof was terrible. The image's head was of fine gold, and just try to get that into your mind. The head was of fine gold. Notice the word his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass. The image was the image of a man. That's what the word his just tells you. Now the king was dreaming and he saw a man, rather peculiar kind of man, because the head of this man that he saw in the dream, it was made of fine gold, and his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass. And that makes me think, you know, I think the image had its arms folded, because he could see the breast and the arms of silver. And of course he could see the belly and the thighs of brass, nothing hiding anything. I just wanted to get the thing properly. You can see the head of gold, the breast and the arms of silver, and the belly and the thighs of brass. And then you notice very pretty, see his legs of iron, then his feet part of iron, and part of clay. Now this man, or this image, was standing before the king in this dream. But that wasn't the end of the dream. Verse thirty-four, Thy thoughts tell that a stone was cut out without hands. That's very important, you know, that the king should get that idea in the dream, that this stone that came was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet, and it didn't smite them upon the head, remember. It just smote them upon the feet that were of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away, and no place was found for them. And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled, get it now, the whole earth, and a wee bit of it, a whole earth. Well, that's the dream. You got it into your mind? Can you see the head of gold? Can you see the breast and the arms of silver? Can you see the belly and the thighs of brass? Can you see the legs of iron? Can you see the feet, part of iron, part of clay? Can you see the stone coming quickly, and smashing this image to pieces by striking its feet? Can you get all that? Yes, it's a funny dream. No wonder the king was confused. But you see, God was making this thing doubly true to the king, because he not only gave him the vision, but then he blotted it out of his mind. But the moment that the prophet would come, and tell him the whole thing over again, like he's done just here and now, then of course the king would know that this was God, that God was really speaking to him. And of course the whole thing came back in all its class. And so this is Daniel explaining the thing. This is the publication of the dream. Now we come to the bit that's most important, this is the interpretation. That's why I said to him, I said, we'd have to take it that by this he's going to do anything with it at all. Now, if you watch, you can't get muddled in the interpretation, there's no trouble about it at all. Daniel is still speaking and he's saying this to the king in verse 36. This is the dream. And we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. Thou, O king, art a king of kings. For the God of heaven hath given me a kingdom, power and strength and glory. And no doubt at all, the God of heaven gave this supremacy into the hands of Ned you could never. He was kicking off the Gentiles just now. And this kingdom is so great that wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold. You couldn't miss that, could you? This head of gold is the Babylonish empire, world empire. This was the first great Gentile world empire. And here it is. Thou art this head of gold. This is an empire and this is its king. Now, he went on with the interpretation, verse 39, and asked of thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee. You see, it is kingdoms that we're talking about. Because you noticed when you were looking at the image that the metals used, each one as we went down the man became inferior to the one above it. The head of gold, and then the breast and arms of silver, and then the belly and thighs of brass, and the legs of iron, and the feet part of iron and part of clay. You can see how it deteriorates as we go down the image. Now, the second Gentile world kingdom was to be inferior to the first. And the first one was Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonish kingdom. Now, what was the second Gentile world kingdom? How do we do that? It's very simple. You see chapter three, see the first word, Nebuchadnezzar, the king, he's still living there. See chapter four, Nebuchadnezzar, the king, and he's speaking unto all people and nations and languages that dwell on the face of the earth. You see, he's the boss. Well, he's still the king there. Well, when you come to chapter five, it's his son that's reigning now. It's Belshazzar of the king. Remember how he made a feast for a thousand lords. See verse two, Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the gold and silver vessels which his father, Nebuchadnezzar, had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem. Now, his son is on the throne now. And he's thrown out his wheat a bit. He wants to insult the gods of Israel. It is my father wrecked their temple once and brought the gold and silver vessels out. Let's bring them in and drink out of them. Because what this fellow's going to do is, he's going to mock God. Ah, well, you're not allowed to mock God. And so, just at that moment, there came the fingers of a man's hand on the wall. And you know there was writing on the wall. You remember it? It's the verse twenty-five of chapter five. This is the writing. Mene, mene, tekel, you fasten. And Daniel came to interpret the writing. Mene, meant, God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it. The Balaamish kingdom was about to end. And it says in verse thirty, In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain, and Darius the Median took the kingdom. Of course, the historians in this meeting, and there are some historians from Queen's University here, and they know better than I do that when you trace the Gentile supremacy in this world, it began with the Babylonian Empire, and then, of course, Medo-Persia was the next great world empire. And so, it was Darius the Median that came in and took over the kingdom. Of course, it was inferior a little bit to Babylon. It was the breast and arms of silver. It was an inferior kingdom, but it was the one kingdom, just the same. So, let's get back again to Daniel 2. And then at verse thirty-nine, And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. Of course, you can see that these are world rulers. It's Gentile supremacy. It's the world Gentile empire. Now, for the young students around here, are you listening? This is your bit. When you come to the last word in Malachi, last dot, last word, Old Testament finish, Medo-Persia is reigning supreme over the whole Gentile world. You got that? Now, between your last word in Malachi and your first word in Matthew's Gospel, how many years are in there? That's the thing sometimes you young people miss. Well, let me tell you between the last dot in Malachi and the first word in Matthew, there are four hundred years. Sometimes it's called by scholars four hundred silent years. You see, Malachi was one of the prophets, but he was not the last of the prophets. He's the last of the minor prophets, and he's the last prophet in the Old Testament, but he is not the last of the Old Testament prophets. Have you got all that? John the Baptist was the last of the Old Testament prophets, but he appears in the New Testament. But he was one of the Old Testament prophets. Yes, and between Malachi speaking and John the Baptist speaking, God had been silent for four hundred years. God had said nothing to the nation. He fed up with the nation, and the Gentiles were ruling. I think that every historian in this place knows this, that Babylon was the first world empire, Medo-Persia was the second, and in between the two testaments, Medo-Persia was overthrown by Alexander the Great, and the Grecian empire came into being. And that's the third one. That's the brass one. Now, it's very interesting that when you open your New Testament, it's neither Medo-Persia nor Greece. It's Rome that's in power when your New Testament opens. Have a look to just make sure of that now. We're at Luke's Gospel, and we're at chapter two. Luke's Gospel, chapter two, verse one. Luke's Gospel to verse one. And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taken. What's he talking about now? Ah, he's the boss. Do you know who Caesar Augustus was? Well, he was the Roman emperor. That's who he was, because Rome is ruling the world. And that's the fourth kingdom, you know. Let's go back again just to Daniel 2. You get this proper. Daniel 2, and we're a way down at verse 39. And after thee, that is after Babylon, shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, Medo-Persia, and another third kingdom of wrath, Greece, which shall bear over all the earth. Alexander conquered the world and cried because there were no more worlds to conquer. And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, for as much as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things, and as iron that breaketh all these shall it break in pieces and bruise. And so here is this iron kingdom. And you know, if you follow this image that God gives, there are only four great world empires. Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Let me say this, that no other world, no other gentile power can become a world power. Those of you who know history know quite well that the Turks made a great bid to rule the world. Didn't come off. Those of you just a wee bit older remember the time when Napoleon made a great bid to rule the world, and nearly did it. Only for Wellington at Waterloo. And some of us remember well the 1914 war when the Kaiser thought that he could just take the world over. And of course, most of you know something about Hitler. And let me say this, he came nearer to it than anybody else that ever lived. You know, I was giving lectures at a certain place on the day that Hitler and his great panzer army walked into Paris. And he defeated the French. And they had to surrender and sign the surrender. Out in an old railway carriage. It was the same railway carriage that the Germans had to sign the surrender in, in the 1914 war, 1914-18 war. And just to humble them, he took the great French generals out to the same railway carriage and made them sign the surrender. You think you hear the French now that they were the whole cheese. Remember they surrendered. And let them just know this once and for all, if it had not been for Britain they would be under German domination tonight. And they're still, they're waiting about all the time and you can hardly put up with them. They got a real hiding. Oh, I know that our men were chased home at Dunkirk, I know all about that. But the day that Hitler walked into Paris, that day I was given a lecture to hundreds in a certain little spot. And I took up the subject, why Hitler cannot win this war. And didn't I look a real mug. There's nobody in the meeting believe this, only me. Yes, it was a very great day, I'm glad I did it. You know, old fella sat and looked at a young fellow, young fella then, sat and looked at me, you know, think he's off the knopper. Well, I knew from this book that Hitler couldn't win the war. And I know from this book tonight that the Russians cannot govern this world either. I know that. You see, God gave the whole course of gentile supremacy from the head to the feet. God was mopping up the course. There's only the four, there's no more. The way the old farmer used to pray at night, Lord bless me and her and John and his wife, what's four and no more. All right, now we've got this settled that there are four worlds gentile powers here. And we've seen them all, you know. I want you to get this, the fourth one, we're back at verse 40. And the four kings shall be strong as iron, for as much as iron breaketh and pieces and subdueth all things, and as iron that breaketh all these shall it break and pieces and bruise. And where are thou saw'st the feet? And it very specially talks about the toes. I want you to get that into your mind, you know. As if Daniel's eyes were going down this image, looking up the head, looking up the breast and arms, looking up the belly and thighs, looking up the legs, looking up the feet. Last of all the toes, ten toes. You see, that's the final projection of the man. It's the last bit we want to look at. That's the final projection. And I think that the expositors and men who write commentaries, maybe some of them a hundred years back, you can't blame them, they haven't seen all that we can see. Tonight, you know, there are ten nations on Europe about to be formed together. Is this the final projection? If this is the final projection, this was a mighty vision that Daniel got. We're going to pick up the toes next week and just take a whole night at the ten toes. Wonder which one of the toes Britain will be. Certainly not the big toe, neither foot. No. Oh, the feet of one of the wee ones. He wouldn't like that. He just doesn't know what he's pushing the people into. That's his problem. You see, Britain used to have a commonwealth. It was called an empire. Oh, Queen of the Empire. You know, it's nearly gone tonight. And I think if they pushed the common market enough, you know, maybe Australia and New Zealand and Canada might have something to say. And she might be left a very small toe indeed. I don't think that they realize what's happening. But we'll not stop at ten toes of their form. No doubt at all about it. You see, it's the fully fledged man. Of course, when we go over to one of the other chapters, we're going to see ten horns. Of course, we'll get it all wedded together when we get the next chapters on Revelation 17 and a few more places. We'll get all the tens in. Maybe I'll be able to do a lot of them next week. The final projection, this mutual federation, this unnatural unity, because this is an unnatural unity. Ah, you know, they're not as united as they would like to make it appear. There's clay mixed with the iron here and it's not sticking. And they're all going to work a wee bit out for themselves. This is the big idea. They're not just as united as you would think. But we'll not only look at the final projection and the mutual federation and the unnatural unity and the individual toes, but we'll look at the total destruction. Ah, there's a whole lot more headings I have in the back of my head for you next week, but we'll get round to that, you know, because I mean to do these ten toes properly. But let's get this bit in this week, verse 43. Whereas thou sawst iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, but they shall not please one to another. I don't believe they'll please. I think the French have ideas of their own, and I'm positively sure the Germans have ideas of their own. They always had ideas. And I don't think the Italians are far behind them. Yes, they're not cleaved properly, you know. Of course these boys wouldn't learn out of this book, would they? No, he should know more about playing a piano. Somebody should buy him a book for Christmas. Look at this. And in the days of these kings, let's get that bit in. Of these ten toes, or kings, or kingdoms if you like. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom. God's going to do something too, which shall never be destroyed. It's going to be an everlasting kingdom, isn't it? Verse 45. For as much as thou sawst that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands. Who is this stone now? Would the Lord Jesus have recalled the stone? Yes, he was. Ah, it was good old Peter standing up before the Sanhedrin said, this is the stone that the builders rejected. Lord Jesus is the stone right through this book, you know. The Lord Jesus is going to come back. Oh, I know he's coming first to the air to take his people home, maybe before the weekend, and do what the like with us after that. We might be going home, you know. I still believe tonight that there is one of three answers for Ulster. It's either revival, or reprisal, or removal. We might go tonight. Sometimes I just linger on before I pull the clothes off and say, even so, calm Lord Jesus. I would square that, wouldn't I? I would fix it. Make no mistakes, we're on the verge of that. Because if these ten pearls are forming, and our Lord's to come for the church first, and there's seven years between that and his coming to smash the post, we must be terribly near the first stone. You see, seven years later he's coming to smash these stones. And when we see the stones forming now, and no doubt they're forming, we haven't too long to go. And he's the stone that will come back. Isn't this a mighty chapter? What a Bible we have. You know, when Daniel did all this of his chest, the old king knew right well he had told the truth. Hebrews 46. Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and worshipped Daniel. Daniel shouldn't have allowed him to do that. And commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet orders unto him. And I'm sure Daniel rejected this. The king answered unto Daniel and said, Of a truth it is that your God is the God of gods, and the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, saying, Thou couldst reveal a secret. Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and the chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. Here's something that shows you the calibre of Daniel. Then Daniel requested of the king that he sent Sadduk, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of Babylon. You know, Daniel was a great character. There was thanksgiving in his heart up there to the God of heaven, and there was humility in his mind, and there was recognition of the men that prayed, and there was concern for the souls of men. And here he never forgets his friends. Now we're all set now. That's the thought of introduction for next week. See you around the ten toes next Tuesday.