Daniel's Beast Kingdom

In this Bible study here tonight, we're coming to Daniel chapter 7 through our seventh message in this series, and as we've heard before, we're dealing with the heaven's rule. That is the whole theme of the book of Daniel, to open our eyes to really see that amidst the affairs of men, amidst empires coming and going, kings coming and kings going, that in the midst of that, this book is given, it's prophecies, it's testimonies is given, so that we can actually see that the heavens do rule. It's not just a past history book, neither is it just a future prophecy book, but it's a book for you and I, the church of Jesus Christ in this hour, since if ever in this year, if ever we needed to hear that the heavens rule, it is this year. My message here tonight as we come to Daniel chapter 7 is Daniel's beast kingdoms, Daniel's beast kingdoms, not a very nice title here tonight, but I assure you it is a biblical title that we're dealing with. Daniel chapter 7 and reading from verse 1, In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed. Then he wrote the dream and told the sum of the matters. Daniel spake and said, I saw in my visions by night and behold the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea and four great beasts come up out of the sea, diverse one from another. The first was like a lion and had eagle's wings. I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand upon the feet as a man and a man's heart was given to it. And behold another beast, a second like a bear, and it raised up itself on one side and it had three ribs in its mouth of it between the teeth of it. And they said, thus on to it arise and devour much flesh. After this, I beheld another like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl. The beast had also four heads, the dominion and dominion was given on to it. After this, I saw in the night visions and behold a fourth beast, terrible and dreadful and strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth. It devoured and it break in pieces and it stamped the residue with the feet of it and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it. And it had 10 horns. I considered the horns and behold there came up among them another little horn before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots. And behold in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouse speaking great things. Amen. Praise God as we come to this seventh message of our series, let's pray and ask for God's blessing here tonight. Father, I do pray that you show us the interpretation of this vision, of this dream, of this revelation from heaven, not only concerning the past, but concerning the future, not only for Daniel, but for us here in this meeting tonight and all those that are going to listen to this Bible study afterwards. Father, I pray that by your Holy Spirit that you would teach us, that you would instruct us, that you would show us the meaning of this dream that you gave unto Daniel to be sealed up and to be revealed and fulfilled in the very last days before Jesus Christ returns to the earth again. Lord God, we give you all the glory and we know that the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus Christ. Would you lead us to Christ tonight? Would you lead us to the Son of Man tonight? Would you lead us by the power of your Holy Spirit to the sinless, spotless Son of God who died for us at Calvary? My God, I pray the power of prophecy, knowing that you know all things, that you have ordained all things, that you work on all things would reveal our need of the Lord Jesus Christ and salvation in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. We come to our Bible study here tonight in Daniel chapter 7 and our message is Daniel's beast kingdoms. We see here in this vision, we see four great beasts that we are going to deal with tonight. But as I said last week in preparing for this Bible study, read Daniel chapter 2 and also read Daniel chapter 7. I believe these two chapters dovetail together and you don't understand one without the other. They both go together. These four kingdoms in Daniel 2 and the four kingdoms in Daniel 7 are the same four kingdoms. I believe they go together. There can be no doubt that the first kingdom in each chapter is the Babylonian kingdom. There can be no doubt of that. The second kingdom has a dual division or a dual nature. The third kingdom in both chapters ends up having a four-fold division and the fourth empire or the fourth kingdom in each of these chapters ends up having a ten-fold division at the end of its days. Also, that fourth kingdom in chapter 2 and in chapter 7 here that we have read, that fourth kingdom is marked by iron. Now these are only a few thoughts to show that chapter 2 and chapter 7 actually dovetail together. What is stated in Daniel chapter 2 is expanded in Daniel chapter 7. In Daniel chapter 2, we have each of the four kingdoms and we have a revelation of their governmental power and structure, not their history. There is no history as such in Daniel chapter 2. What God has shown is four kingdoms and what is their governmental structure. How are they put together? But here in Daniel chapter 7, there is an expansion on this and we begin to learn and this is about 40 years later in the life of Daniel. Between chapter 2 and chapter 7, you have a period of about 40 years. But here in chapter 7, we have an expansion of the vision in Daniel chapter 2. Now he goes back to the same four kingdoms and we begin to get details about their history, about events in each one of these kingdoms and we begin to get information that we can recognize each one of them. But listen to me more carefully here. I'm giving you an overview of where we're going in the next six weeks as well. This is Daniel 7 where we are tonight. But as we go forward from Daniel chapter 7 to Daniel chapter 12, we have six chapters. We have already taught on six chapters. We are now beginning to teach tonight the next six chapters and there is a distinction here. The first six chapters that we have already dealt with, they went in sequence, chronology, by year by year. But here in chapter 7, we're going to go back in time again and we're going to see that the visions and the revelations of the next six chapters that we're going to deal with actually fit into the story we've already covered in the previous six chapters. In other words, they overlap. The revelations and prophecies from chapter 7 to chapter 12 in time sequence are placed in the previous six chapters. Let me just prove that. As we come to Daniel chapter 7 verse 1, we are given the date. Then Daniel chapter 8 verse 1, we're given the date or the year. Daniel chapter 9 verse 1, we're given the year. Daniel chapter 10 verse 1, again we're given a year. So for the next six chapters, we are given four divine revelations and each of these revelations fit into our previous stories. So all that we've already covered before, we are going back in time. In other words, when we see Daniel in the den of lions, that is as old as we see him. That is the last bit of history in Daniel's life. Now we're going back in the life of Daniel and he's no longer going to be speaking in the third person about the story happening. Now he speaks in the first person and he's giving you the information of the next four revelations in six chapters. I hope you're understanding this tonight because as we come to chapter 7 here, we're going deeper into chapter 2, what we've already taught. And in fact, after this week, beginning next week from chapter 8 to chapter 12, we are then even going to go deeper and gain more information and more facts and more details. But listen to me from tonight for the next six weeks, as we cover the last six chapters of Daniel, there is a certain theme. There really is. Do you realize that in the next four visions, in the next six chapters, there is an underlying thing. God gives this revelation to Daniel for a very specific reason. Now there's much information we're going to cover, but there's something I want you to note here. And I wanted to impress you here tonight that there's a theme from chapter 7 to chapter 12. And listen, this is it. It is the little horn or what we as the church through the New Testament know as the Antichrist. Now I know that's going to shock and disturb and disappoint many Christians, because you know what we've been told? Don't focus on the Antichrist. Don't teach the Antichrist. Teach about Christ. I'm not looking for the Antichrist. I'm looking for Christ. I don't need to know about the Antichrist. All I need to know is about Christ. And you know what? All through the church, we hear constantly, just deal with the real. Don't point out what's false. Do you realize that sounds very spiritual? It sounds very correct. It sounds very mature, but it's totally unbiblical. It is utterly incorrect with the Bible. Do you realize the Bible constantly, if it's going to show you a real prophet, it teaches you what a false prophet is. If it's going to show you the real and also alongside it shows what is false all the way through the Bible, beginning with Cain and Abel, all the way through to Revelation, where we see that mother of harlots placed alongside the real bride of Christ. So here, do not listen to those that say we don't need to teach on the Antichrist. We won't be here for it. It doesn't affect us, since we as a church in every generation need to teach about the little horn. And that you might as well close your Bible now and not read any further in Daniel. If you don't want to hear about the little horn, because this is a vital theme, but don't think that takes away from Christ. As we look at this, we begin to see the reality and the power and the majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ. These are remarkable prophecies that we're going to deal with in the next six weeks. They are extraordinary prophecies here tonight. Let's begin on these six chapters. These four revelations are visions of Daniel that are concerning the last day. Although he deals with history, although he deals with prophecies, some of which is already fulfilled, all of it is to bring us to this hour that you and I are in now. All of it is to bring us, to prepare us, to give us insight concerning this generation, the last generation before Jesus returns. And I assure you, this is biblical teaching. This is God's teaching. And don't you treat it lightly saying, I don't need to know. Since you may play games with your soul, if you play games with the Word of God like that. My message tonight, Daniel's beast kingdoms. Starting with Daniel chapter 7 and verse 1. And it says here, in the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon. Notice here, this is going back to the beginning of the reign of Belshazzar. Remember we saw him on his last night in Babylon in Daniel chapter 5. Now Daniel takes us right back to the very beginning of this last king of Babylon, which is going to bring us to the end of the Babylonian kingdom. And it says in that year of the first reign of Belshazzar, Daniel had a dream and a visions of the head. Notice here on this night, he was upon his bed. And it first says that he had a dream. As he slept, a dream is something you have as you sleep. As he slept, he had this dream. And yet it goes on to say he had visions as well. That means all of this began with a dream. He had this dream when he was asleep. When he was unconscious, he had a clear dream. Then when he woke up, he was still lying upon his bed and he began to have visions. The exact same visions. Then it says while he's still on his bed, he wrote the dream down and he told the sum of the matter or the main points of it. The substance. He didn't give everything that he saw, but he gave the main information as inspired by the Holy Spirit. It says in verse 2, Daniel speak and said, I saw in my visions by night and behold the four winds of the heavens strove upon the great sea. Notice here that in this vision, as it begins to open, you've got the four winds of the heavens striving upon the great sea. Notice that this is a vision that he's talking about. In the vision, he sees the great sea. See that term, the great sea in the Old Testament, it always means the Mediterranean sea. That term is very specific. I could give you many scriptures that prove that this statement, the great sea only speaks about the Mediterranean sea. In his vision, he is seeing the Mediterranean sea as a specific bit of water. He sees these four winds blowing upon it, are striving upon the water. In other words, stirring the water up. In the Bible, when it talks about these four winds of heaven, there's almost 120 references to the winds of heavens in the Bible. 90 of these times are in the Old Testament and over half of these, when it speaks about the winds coming from heaven, usually means the divine influence of heaven. In other words, heaven's influence upon the earth. Now look with me, this is all in the vision that he is seeing it. As these winds stir up the Mediterranean sea, stir up the waters, and there's a great storm and a great shaking of the waters up out of these waters. What does it say here in verse 3? And four great beasts came up out of the sea, diverse one from the other. When it says four great beasts, it means huge, domineering, dominating beasts. In other words, you can't ignore them. You cannot ignore them. They are dominating. When they rise up, each one of them dominates the entire scene. And yet he says they're diverse one from the other. They're distinct. They're different. You could never confuse one for the other. They are so radically different. And notice with me, as we begin to deal with these four beasts, it actually says they are like beasts as we begin to look at them. In other words, they're not normal animals or normal creatures. These creatures or these animals, they look like certain animals, but they are not certain animals. They're actually mystical. So you get a lion with wings. I don't know whether you know, but there are no lions with wings. So these are not normal beasts. They look like certain animals, but they are very different. They are very unusual. And look at it. It is God's influence upon the sea. You see, it says a little bit later that the sea, that this sea in the vision, this great sea in verse 17, it says that it's the earth, the Mediterranean sea, the great sea in the vision represents the earth or in other words, the land mass. In other words, these four creatures that come up out of the Mediterranean sea, that's in the vision that when it's interpreted, there are actually four kingdoms or four empires that come up out of the earth, but there's a connection with the Mediterranean sea. I've got three clear points from this chapter for you tonight, three clear points of what I want to deal with. And this is my first one. As we begin to understand, since I'm taking you somewhere, we already have chapter two as a foundation. Next week, we're going to begin on chapter eight through to chapter 12, but here tonight, chapter seven, let's hear what God says about this. This is my first point, four beasts from history, four beasts from history. What I'm dealing with as we look at these four beasts, we're going to identify them and we're going to see that they're four beasts, not in the future, but in the past. In other words, they were a prophecy in Daniel's day, but they were fulfilled before the first century or the beginning of the church of Jesus Christ. These four beasts were beasts that were fulfilled in history. It says in chapter seven of verse 15, I, Daniel, was grieved in my spirit, in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. As he looked at these four beasts, you know, after the vision, after the dream, this is the effect it had. I'm sick to death with people's dreams and visions. I've had dreams from God. I've had open visions from God. I was only once in my life caught up in a trance, but I want to tell you, I'm sick to death with people's stupid dreams and visions. They're absolutely worth nothing. They're not even worth listening to. They don't have a clue what they've seen or what it means. But look at Daniel, the effect, when he had a real dream and a real vision, it grieved his spirit. Seeing these four creatures, it grieved him in his inward parts. Deep within him, his spirit was grieved, but also his head was troubled. Then I came near unto one of them that stood by, and I asked him the truth of all of this. Notice what Daniel says when he's seen a dream and a vision, he is a man gifted by God to interpret other people's dreams. He could interpret King Nebuchadnezzar's dream. He could interpret the writing of the wall. And yet, look, when he has a dream and a vision, he is caught up in this vision, and he doesn't understand what these four creatures are. So what does he do? He asks one that was standing by. I believe this is an angel, and we're going to see this angel again, at least in another two chapters, the same angel. But he speaks to this angel, and he asked him the truth of all of this. He's in a vision. He's in a dream. And he said, so he told me. You know, a lot of people that do well to shut their mouth and go to prayer rather than talking about the dreams they had at night. I assure you, begin to ask God, and he will show you. And he asked him the truth of all this. So he told him, and he made me know the interpretation of these things. In other words, he opened it up. He explained it. He made it clear. He made it obvious. Verse 17. These great beasts, which are four, are four kings which shall arise out of the earth. Then in verse 23. Now notice with me, what are the four beasts? They are four kings. Verse 17 says there are four kings. But then in verse 23, it says the fourth kingdom was diverse from all the other kingdoms. So we see in this chapter the interpretation. What are these four creatures? They are four kings. No, they are four kingdoms. In other words, each of these beasts represents a king, but also represents an entire kingdom, just like Daniel chapter 2. Each of those gold or the silver or whatever represented a king and a kingdom. Again, each of these beasts represent a king and a kingdom. Each beast represents a certain man, but more than a certain man, an entire kingdom that that man was head over. He was head over it. Since we are looking at something remarkable here, and I want you to take you in this first point to four prophetic kingdoms that were fulfilled in history. When Daniel gives it, he is in the midst of the first kingdom. The other three do not exist. They're not even on the horizon, but yet he's given a specific vision of kingdoms that are going to replace each other one after the other in history, and he's given historic information about them. In fact, he writes down information that you can identify them very clearly. That's why Daniel 7 is given, so that beyond any shadow of a doubt, you can recognize them. Let's look at these four kingdoms for a moment that came in history, that are in the past. First of all, we see the first in verse four. The first was like a lion. Notice it says like a lion. It doesn't say a lion. It says like a lion, and it had eagle's wings. Now, that's the first thing I want you to notice. Notice of this first beast, that it was like a lion, but it had two wings like an eagle. Now, what does this represent? This represents King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian Empire. Now, Nebuchadnezzar's father was the king of Babylon in the year 626. Shortly after that, Assyria that ruled over Babylon fell in the year 612, and there was another decisive battle in the year 609. This is Nebuchadnezzar's father. Notice the date, the year 609. In 70 years time, Babylon is going to fall, and there'll be the end of the Babylonian kingdom. In other words, you see the rise of Babylon with Nebuchadnezzar's father 70 years before it will come to an end. Exactly 70 years in the year 609. What a remarkable thing here that we have in history, but four years later in the year 605, his son Nebuchadnezzar is at the gates of Jerusalem conquering it for the first time when he gets news that his father has died back in Babylon. He takes a small portion of Jerusalem, including Daniel, and he returns to the city of Babylon, and he becomes king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Babylonian kingdom. This is the first empire that ruled over Jerusalem. It was the golden head of Daniel chapter 2, but notice how Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon is depicted as a lion. It looks like a lion with the wings of an eagle, like a lion, but it has eagle's wings. Do you realize that in Jeremiah chapter 49, Jeremiah prophesied about Nebuchadnezzar and the rise of the Babylonian kingdom. Listen to what he says, this phrase, he shall come against Jerusalem like a lion. Then a bit further, it says he shall come up and fly as an eagle. In other words, years before Jeremiah prophesied that Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians were like an eagle and also like a lion. Do you realize both of these animals are the kings of both the air and the land. The lion is the king of all land animals. The eagle is the king of all flying animals. Also in Ezekiel chapter 17, Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon is symbolized as an eagle. Nebuchadnezzar was a king of kings and what depicts his kingdom, a winged lion. That's what it is. Do you realize the old Nebuchadnezzar's palace, he had statues all through there of lions with eagle's wings. It was a fulfillment of Bible prophecy. If you go to the British Museum, you can walk through there and see statues from the palace and the city of Nebuchadnezzar. They are large lions with wings all through there. This was all through the city of Babylon in that hour. But what does it represent? This beast represents something. This is the history of Nebuchadnezzar and of this kingdom. You see this creature, this lion with eagle's wings speaks about kingship, royalty, grandeur. Also the eagle can mount up and swoop down upon its prey. Do you realize this one city Babylon became a great empire? It was a city-state that swept out like an eagle, that came roaring like a lion. Nebuchadnezzar was the greatest warrior king of the ancient world. He ruled over the entire landmass and he made Babylon the center of the world. If you go and read the old cuneiform, he said this is the center of the entire world culture. Babylon is at the center of everything. Since this first creature, and notice Daniel is getting a vision here as he draws closer to the end of this first kingdom. Notice what happens to this lion with eagle's wings. Verse four, I beheld till. In other words, he's speaking about the latter end of this kingdom. He's talking about as it comes close to its end. I beheld to the wings thereof were plucked. In other words, they're pulled off. The two eagle's wings were pulled off the body of a lion and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand upon its feet as a man. The man's heart was given onto it. Do you know what Daniel is saying? It's the later history of the Babylonian kingdom. It's no longer going to be grand like a lion. It's going to become like a man. It's going to lose its wings, the ability to mount up, to sweep in on its enemies. It'll lose all of this ability. The last 10 years of Belshazzar's kingdom, it was in a terrible condition. They had lost their ability to fight or as a warrior nation, they weren't conquering anymore. That's what we see with Belshazzar, a drunken party and the people of Babylon are sick to death of the entire system. You know what? It was no longer a godlike kingdom. Nebuchadnezzar was no longer that deity, but the whole thing, political system was just like a man. That's all it was in its end. That's the first kingdom. The second kingdom that's going to replace Babylon in verse 5, and behold another beast, a second like to a bear. And it raised up itself on one side and it had three ribs in its mouth of it between its teeth and they said onto it, arise and devour much flesh. Now, we said it was the Medo-Persian empire and Cyrus the Great who replaced the Babylonian kingdom. Now, we know about Cyrus the Great, that he became king in Persia in the year 559. 10 years after that in 549, he conquered the larger, greater Midian empire beside him, just 10 years after becoming king of the small Persian tribes. 10 years after that in the year 539, he conquered Babylon. The Babylonian empire fell. And in 539, as Cyrus rode into the city of Babylon, the Medo-Persian empire rose up to power. What a remarkable thing. All through chapter 6 of Daniel, it's called the Medo-Persian empire. It is one empire. It is one kingdom, undivided, joined together because 10 years previously, he had joined these two great kingdoms and made them one kingdom. He also married a Median girl whose father was next in line for the throne. So he literally merged in marriage. He made it one. He caused them to be one empire that would march together against her enemies. Do you know what we read about Cyrus's great army? He started with a few thousand Persian rebels just 20 years before. That's all he had. That's all he had. When he marched against Media, he had almost no army at all. But as he advanced on Babylon, he had 40,000 horsemen and 150,000 foot soldiers. Do you know some of the old writers say that he had an army of at least 1 million soldiers? Maybe as many as 1.5 million. The old writers said that when his army marched, it was like a great sea covering the landmass. It was remarkable. But since, look how God looks at this history of Cyrus and the Medo-Persian Empire, what does he say? Another beast. A second like to a bear. Cyrus and the Medo-Persian Empire from God's perspective is like a great bear. A ferocious bear. A very vicious bear. Do you know what a bear represents? Power. Power. Ferociousness. I want to assure you, don't you ever get out of your car if there's a bear around. You better be sure it's been tamed or it's chained. That bear has enormous strength. It has great size. It is very heavy and it has an appetite that you couldn't even begin to imagine. It is less swift than a lion. It is not as glorious as a lion, but it is second to a lion. Notice here with this great, ferocious, large, dominating beast, far bigger than a lion. It says here that it raised itself up on one side. Now what does that represent? It is lopsided. There's two sides to it, Persia and Media, but one side gets raised above the other and dominates the entire creature. It is a very awkward creature, but it is dominated by the smaller Persia. Persia came later. Persia was far smaller and yet it dominates this great bear. It also said that it has three ribs within its mouth and it's devouring the flesh. What's it talking about? These three ribs represent kingdoms or nations of people. Listen to me. Cyrus and the Medo-Persian Empire, to arise as an empire, conquered three other kingdoms. First of all, the Kingdom of Media in 549, then Lydia in 546, and finally Babylonia in 539. Then she became the second beast, the second empire on the world. Do you know what it also says here? Arise and devour much flesh. See those three ribs in the mouth show that it was not satisfied. This creature, this bear, was not satisfied even after conquering the Babylonian Empire. It was to arise and to devour much else. Cyrus's son conquered Egypt. Then the next king, Darius, reached all the way into India to the Indus Valley. Then Xerxes I, he went the other way and he invaded Greece. Look at it. This bear is ferocious. It has a heavy weight. It doesn't move. A bear can run fast, short distance. You don't want to be around a bear and think you can outrun it. You won't, but it can only run like that for a short distance. Yes, it's fast, but only for a short distance. Nebuchadnezzar was fast over a long distance. We see all of this. Do you know that this Medo-Persian Empire remained in place for 200 years? It began on Daniel's day and it continued all the way through to the year 331 in the days of Alexander the Great. Then verse six, after this, and behold, and lo another, a third beast. What's it like? It's like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings like a fowl or like a bird. The beast had four heads and dominion was given onto it. Now look closely. This is the Grecian Empire, just like Daniel chapter two. This third beast, this leopard is the Grecian Empire of Alexander the Great. Isn't it funny how they're all called in our history books, the great Nebuchadnezzar the Great, Cyrus the Great, now Alexander the Great. See, our world remembers these men. The Bible is accurate. Do you know Alexander as a young man was homeschooled. He was a homeschooled boy. You'll go far if you get homeschooled. That's a plug for someone out there, I can assure you. Up until the age of 16, he was homeschooled. Who taught him? Who was his personal teacher? It wasn't his mommy. It was Aristotle, one of the great Greek philosophers. In fact, the greatest of his generation, the greatest thinker, the greatest academic actually taught Alexander the Great until he was 16 years old. Do you know who trained Aristotle? Plato. Do you know who trained Plato? Socrates. So we see these three greatest of ancient Greek philosophers, they poured all their learning down into this young boy, this young man, this soldier, this fighter. Do you know what God was preparing? A leopard to be released against that old Median Persian Empire. He found himself a young man called Alexander. It was in the year 336 that his father, that Alexander, his father died. He's just a young man. Two years later in the year 334, and listen to this, with an army of 32,000 foot soldiers and over 5,000 horsemen, he crossed Asia Minor to begin to attack and conquer the Persian Empire. This young whippersnapper, this young man, this young warrior was going to take on the greatest empire that the world had ever known. 200 years and it was unconquered. And yet this young man trained by Aristotle is going to go forward to fight against this empire. You know the history books tell us that it was in the year, just two years after he began, in the year 332 that he took the city of Jerusalem. The following year, he defeated the Persians and he took the city of Babylon and he made Babylon his headquarters. In a period of 10 years, he conquered at great speed from Macedon in the land of Greece, all the way through to India. And on the way, he stopped to defeat the Medo-Persian Empire, the greatest empire the world had ever seen. He died in the year 323 at the age of only 32 years old, having conquered the entire known world. What's the vision of Alexander? He looks like a leopard. He's like a leopard. What is a leopard? It is marked by its swiftness. You don't see fat leopards. I want to tell you that. I've never seen a fat one. They're all very slender and swift. They're agile. They can run long distances. They have a swiftness of speed and movement. They are agile. And notice their size and their power. Now, people say the leopard is related to the panther. They're connected family-wise. And that this leopard can run 35 miles per hour at an easy pace without losing its breath. But listen, some say that it shouldn't be a leopard here. It should be a cheetah. If that is true, then double the pace. It can run at 75 miles per hour. So whether it's a leopard or a cheetah in the Greek language, you know what? It was a swift creature. It had long legs, long strides. And this leopard, with its long strides, one stride, it could cover 20 feet in one single bound. 10 feet into the air without a thought. It was smart. It was silent. It was a predator. And it could accelerate. In three bounds, it would be at full speed. Saints, I'm telling you what God says, this empire. You know, when Daniel got this dream and vision, Greece wasn't on the map. They're all small tribes. And yet God is saying there's going to arise a leopard. You know what? More than 200 years in the future, would you like to predict who's going to be ruling our world in 200 years? Some of you smart alecks are going to say Jesus. And you'd be absolutely right. But imagine if history was going to go on. Who could ever prophesy 200 years ahead of time who is going to triumph? And we're going to hear remarkable things about this next week. But notice that this leopard on its back, it had four wings of a fowl or of a bird. So it had wings on its back. Of course, it's a fast animal, but it's also got four wings. It is swift, extra speed. The number four speaks about the universal or worldwide influence. In other words, this leopard is going to dominate the entire world. It's going to have universal spread. It is going to move very fast against its enemies. This leopard represents its history. Notice as well, it says the beast had four heads. Four heads. The bear had one head. The lion had one head. But you know what? This third kingdom has got four heads. Now these heads don't represent kings. Horns represent kings. What do heads represent? Heads represent headship. What is Jesus to the body? Jesus Christ is the head of the body. In other words, he is the government. He is in control. He has authority. The head represents headship or, listen to me, government. In other words, this leopard, this Grecian empire, in its later stage is actually going to have four distinct governmental heads. It's one empire, one creature, but it is going to have four heads. This is prophesied 500 years before it happens. The accurate history of Alexander's kingdom. Do you know when he died as a young man? At 32 years old, he's lying there in the city of Babylon. He has four generals who are standing by his side, ready to divide his kingdom. For the next 25 to 40 years, they're going to fight for this. And finally, the Grecian empire divides in four, and it has four distinct governmental heads. In other words, four sources of government inside the same kingdom, inside the same empire. So exact, isn't it? Then verse seven, to this fourth empire here tonight. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth. It devoured and it break in pieces, and it stamped the residue with the feet, and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it. And it had 10 horns. Since I'm going to show you this fourth beast and the interpretation of it. It was this fourth beast that meant more to Daniel than any one of the other beasts. It was a very important beast. This was the one that the vision emphasized more of than the other three. All the other three were in history. And Alexander's kingdom that was divided in four was going to be followed by a fourth creature or a fourth beast. And here we see it, a fourth beast dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth. Down in verse 19, it says then Daniel speaking to the angel, then I would know the truth of the fourth beast. Do you realize Daniel was more interested in the fourth beast than the other three? He didn't ask about the other three. He said, I want to know about this fourth one. It was this fourth one that caught his attention. And he asked the angel, I want to know the truth about it, of this beast that was different, different, diverse from all of the others and exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron and whose nails of brass, which devoured him, breaking pieces and stamped the residue with his feet. And look at verse 40, and the fourth kingdom should be strong as iron. Sorry, let me just backtrack there. As we think back to Daniel chapter 2, we think of that fourth kingdom that was represented by the iron legs. And you know what it says about that fourth iron kingdom in Daniel chapter 2? Listen, Daniel 2 verse 40, it is exactly the same as this fourth kingdom. This fourth beast in Daniel chapter 7 is exactly the same as in Daniel 2. Listen to Daniel 2 and 40. And the fourth kingdom shall be 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. Now, I want you to see this fourth creature, this fourth animal. We are not given what animal it is like. Do you know why? It's not like any animal in nature. It's not comparable to any natural creature. Look at it. Its teeth were of iron. Its nails on its claws were made of brass. That means judgment. It brings judgment. Its teeth were made of iron. In other words, they conquered. It's bite actually conquered you. It wasn't like any other animal. And although the fourth kingdom is not named in Daniel, in the Old Testament, you know, the other kingdoms are mentioned. Greece is mentioned. Medo-Persia is mentioned. Babylon is mentioned. But remember, this is centuries ahead of Rome arising. But we know Rome replaced Greece. We know that. But the name isn't given in the Old Testament. Neither is it given in the book of Daniel. But it is given in the Bible. We are shown who is this great king that's going to arise. Do you realize this fourth king? And I hope I stir up your inquisitive mind. Who is the fourth king of the Roman Empire that's going to be like Nebuchadnezzar, like Cyrus, and like Alexander? He's mentioned in the Bible, but not in the Old Testament. You see, this fourth kingdom made of iron. It is mentioned in the Bible, but we need to go to the New Testament. When we go to the New Testament, to the Gospels, it opens up with this fourth beast. It is replaced the Grecian empire. Rome is identified and also its first great head, our first great leader. Doesn't it make sense to have the man named in the Bible and the kingdom name, not just the kingdom, but the man that made imperial Rome what it was. Listen closely. In Luke chapter 2 and verse 1, the Gospel opens with the reign of the first Roman emperor. Rome had been there for centuries, but it only became an imperial under this man. And he was the first emperor. Do you know what his name is in Luke chapter 2? Caesar Augustus. Augustus or Octavian, as was his original name, was the first head of this kingdom, of this fourth great world empire. If you go back to the history books, we see that the Roman empire replaced the Grecian empire. That's what we see in the history books. No other kingdom conquered the Grecian empire. It was the Roman empire. Listen closely as I come down to the end of this fourth beast. It was the Roman soldiers who were rising. When Daniel gave this prophecy, they were seven small communities in the city of Rome. They had a fence built around those seven hills with seven small villages with seven tribes of people all joined together. They were nobodies. They didn't even have power in their region or over all of Italy yet. This is hundreds of years before that Daniel is speaking about an iron kingdom that will conquer the entire known world. What do we see as Rome begins to conquer Italy and it begins to arise in the year 63 BC before Jesus Christ? It is the Roman armies that conquer Jerusalem. And it was in fact, general Pompey who actually conquered it. It was after this that Augustus, it was that very same year in fact, that a young man was born called Augustus. Now listen to me, up until this point, there were five types of government in the Roman empire. Going right back to its initial history when they had seven kings, it was kings were their initial. Imperial Rome had not come yet. When Augustus was born and Jerusalem was conquered by the Roman soldiers, Rome is only beginning to arise. But in that year 63, the Romans take the city of Jerusalem and Augustus is born that year. Do you know who his great uncle was? It was Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar. It was some years later that Augustus, as he rose to power, he defeated Queen Cleopatra of Egypt. Listen to this in the year 31 BC. In other words, that was the very last portion of Alexander's kingdom that Augustus the Great, Augustus Caesar, who is mentioned in Luke chapter two, he is the one who conquered the very last part of Alexander's kingdom. In that year 31 BC, he become the sole ruler of the Roman empire. In fact, he took over the political realm, the military realm and the legal realm, and he forged together a singular empire and he become the first Roman emperor. Do you realize that the Roman empire or the Roman people had already had five governments or five different kinds of government? And now this was going to be their sixth form of government that was going to begin to rule. Now I'm going somewhere, you better write this down because if you understand what I've just said there, all a Bible prophecy is going to begin to fall into place. Now who was this Augustus Caesar? Do you know in his coins, and I looked it up this afternoon, the coins that they used in his day in the Roman empire, in the city of Jerusalem under Augustus, do you know what was on the coins? There was a picture of a woman riding a beast. Do you hear me? She was the mother goddess called Europa or some of them call her Artemis or Diana. She's riding a beast. So what's the symbol of Augustus as this fourth beast rise up? It is a woman riding on the back of the beast. I hope you understand what I'm actually saying here. I'm saying the Bible indicates the man who's the first primary leader of it. And this beast that is arising up out of the sea, the Mediterranean, notice all four of these beasts are connected to the Mediterranean sea. All four of them are connected to the city of Jerusalem. All four of them at some point conquered the city of Babylon. All four of them rose as great dominating empires that covered the entire land mass. Do you know that this empire spread and it ruled during the beginning of the first century of the church? Do you know who prophesied this? Daniel. Daniel. Can you imagine all the early churches reading the book of Daniel and they can trace the history of this? Since I've lost my time here tonight and I'm going to cut this short or I'll keep you here to 12 tonight. I didn't want to separate nights from chapters but I'm going to have to do it tonight because I want you to understand this. Next week we're going to go further and complete Daniel chapter 7. A thing that I didn't want to do but I showed you the history of these kingdoms. I've actually shown you these four great beasts that have come up in history and believe me what I'm about to tell you and show you next week is future. It is in our future. In fact I believe it's at the door. In fact I am fully persuaded it is just about to happen. If Daniel was accurate about those four creatures I'm going to show you this Roman beast. Remember like the other three? We see them at their beginning. We see them in their power and then we see them in their demise or at some later stage. We are going to see the later portion of that fourth kingdom. We are going to see it in its last days and what God reveals to Daniel. Here Daniel is revealed about the history of this fourth beast and you know what it seems to have disappeared from time. All of us would say the Roman Empire it's come and gone. It's not here anymore. Many of us would begin to say that it fell in the year 410. Remember go to your history books. Get the book off your shelf. Go on Wikipedia and you'll read that the city of Rome the empire of Rome fell in the year 410 whenever the barbarian armies invaded took over the city and rampaged it for three days. Something that hadn't happened in 800 years of Roman history. Here these invaders come in and they bring Rome to its actual knees. A little bit later in the year 476 Romulus Augustus the last Roman emperor of the Roman Empire. In the year 476 just a young man he was forced to officially renounce himself as the last emperor of the Roman Empire. Do you know what happened? I believe like Revelation 17 says and in Revelation 17 you have the whole understanding of this and the whole explanation. You can't understand Daniel 7 without Revelation chapter 17 and Revelation chapter 13 and I'm going to come back next week and explain it onto you and show you how it fits in here because Daniel not only showed the Roman Empire rising in those early centuries after the Grecian Empire but he shows it again and you know what after five forms of government you remember the beast in Revelation how many heads it has. How many heads does it have? It has seven heads. It actually has seven heads. Five of them had come and gone by the time Augustus got power. Augustus marked the sixth head of the Roman Empire. What happened to imperial Rome? It continued through to the fifth century and then it was slain. The head of that beast was killed. Please do not tell me that the future Antichrist the little horn is going to get assassinated and then be resurrected from the dead. That is not true. That is an utter wrong interpretation of the Bible and we've all been taught it at some point but I want to challenge you. The book of Revelation does not say that the Antichrist is going to get assassinated and raised from the dead. Do you know what it does say? Of that beast that last world government that's going to arise just before Jesus returns. Do you know that that last beast that Roman beast one of its heads were killed. One of its forms of government were killed. When did that happen? In the fifth century but we are told in Daniel 13 that its head gets healed and it becomes a sixth head. Sorry a seventh head. What is the seventh head? We're going to look at next week and then there's an eighth head as well on that beast but it has seven heads. This same beast that Daniel first told us about that has 10 horns. It's a Roman beast. It's going to arise up out of the sea. We're going to see it come back and its head is going to get healed and suddenly all the world is going to follow it and worship it and when we see it it's going to have 10 horns meaning 10 kings and it's going to have seven heads and that seventh head is going to be healed and you're going to see something. Do you know 2,000 years ago or 1,500 years ago that head was imperialism but when it gets healed again I believe it's going to happen in the city of Rome. I can prove it. I can show you. I believe it's going to happen very soon. I believe it's going to be identified at a time when 10 great world leaders are going to be 10 kings that rule over it. Will you pray with me? I'm so sorry time has gone and I've got so much here. I don't want to lose you but I want to hold it here. I didn't want to do this but I've got more to say than I can possibly fit in on these nights. We need about 50 nights to cover what I'd like to say to you but I tried to do it in 12 nights. It's going to take another 13 since I'm telling you that everything the Bible says is true. Bible prophecy is true. Every kingdom, all the great kingdoms of history, Daniel's vision was accurate. Every detail historically accurate and we're going to see more in the weeks ahead but I tell you it's to bring us to a place in Daniel 7 we're going to begin to see next week the little horn arising. You see all this information is going so we know the hour we live in. We know what's happening. We know what's about to come and since I tell you it is all about to break upon our world. Will you pray with me tonight? Father we thank you for the word of God. We thank you that you're the God of history. We thank you that you're the God of prophecy. That it's you that raises up kings. It's you that removes kings. That is not within the power of man. It's not left within the hand of man but you as a sovereign God raise up on your removed men. Lord God we believe that you are the God of the times on the seasons of our world. We believe that you are ordaining the seasons. That you are in control. That you have authority and we submit to you tonight as the church. My God we're in rapture to think that Daniel what he's seen in vision. What he's seen in dreams of the night. That you showed him the history of the rise and fall of empires and also in this chapter you showed him what is just about to happen in our day. We thank you that you're absolutely in control. That the heavens do rule. Since as we close this seventh vital important we're halfway through the book of Daniel now tonight. We're halfway through it. We're right in the midst of it and I want to tell you the heavens do rule. I want you to be persuaded that the heavens rule. That God is in control and that we the church in this hour and this year we must believe this. We must understand it and we must know what the Bible says. Don't set the Bible on your shelf saying it doesn't matter. I promise you we live in an hour where it's gonna be very important that you know what I'm teaching you here and you know what it's gonna bring us to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you don't know Jesus it's time to get born again. If you look at these things and you're amazed at them it's time to walk with Jesus Christ. It's time to put all your confidence in the one that's coming from heaven. Saints I'm looking up. I'm not scared. This isn't my world. I'm making ready for Jesus. I'm going to get caught up to meet him in the clouds of heaven as is taught in Daniel chapter 7 and many other portions of scripture. There is a kingdom coming from on high and if you only have your eyes on the kingdoms of this world you're going to get very discouraged but next week I'm going to lift your eyes heavenwards but before we do we'll begin to look at this little horn. God bless you here tonight in this Bible study. Amen.