Jan. 22, 2025

Daniel's Spiritual Battle in Babylonian Times - (Enmity with the Seed– Part 2 - From Daniel to Jesus), Episode 16

Daniel's Spiritual Battle in Babylonian Times - (Enmity with the Seed– Part 2 - From Daniel to Jesus), Episode 16

Send us a text Witness the dramatic rise and fall of ancient Israel as we journey through its storied past, where empires clashed and destinies were reshaped. Can a divided kingdom ever truly stand? Discover the powerful narratives of King David and Solomon's united reign, the fracture that led to the northern and southern kingdoms, and the unsettling echoes of apostasy that resulted in the northern tribes' loss to Assyria. Feel the weight of prophecy fulfilled as Judah's disobedience paves t...

Send us a text

Witness the dramatic rise and fall of ancient Israel as we journey through its storied past, where empires clashed and destinies were reshaped. Can a divided kingdom ever truly stand? Discover the powerful narratives of King David and Solomon's united reign, the fracture that led to the northern and southern kingdoms, and the unsettling echoes of apostasy that resulted in the northern tribes' loss to Assyria. Feel the weight of prophecy fulfilled as Judah's disobedience paves the way for 70 years in Babylonian captivity, marking a pivotal moment in biblical history.

Step into the shoes of Daniel and his companions, whose defiance against Babylonian idolatry becomes a beacon of faith and resistance. What happens when cultural norms clash with spiritual integrity? Uncover the spiritual and historical shifts that followed the Israelites' return from Babylon, and how the absence of sacred elements in their rebuilt temple profoundly affected their identity. The saga continues with Roman oppression and the corruption of the priesthood, yet amidst adversity, Daniel's story of unwavering faith offers a powerful testament to the enduring strength of a committed spirit.

Join us as we explore Daniel's supernatural confidence and the miracles of divine intervention. From interpreting Nebuchadnezzar's elusive dream to standing firm in prayerful understanding, Daniel exemplifies a trust in God's purpose that transcends earthly challenges. How does one cultivate such resolute faith today? By drawing parallels to modern times, we encourage listeners to resist societal idols and distractions, urging a deeper relationship with the divine. Let this episode inspire you to nurture a spirit of excellence and faith, trusting in the power of prayer to guide you through life's trials.

00:00 - The Captivity of Judah in Babylon

13:46 - The Defiance Against Babylon's Idolatry

28:15 - Avoiding Idolatry and Defilement in Babylon

41:38 - Interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's Dream

49:09 - Daniel's Power of Prayer and Understanding

01:07:26 - Daniel's Supernatural Confidence and Promotion

WEBVTT

00:00:00.420 --> 00:00:03.750
Well, praise the Lord, hallelujah, Glory to God.

00:00:03.750 --> 00:00:06.384
We give you praise, lord.

00:00:06.384 --> 00:00:08.590
We give you praise for the word of God.

00:00:08.590 --> 00:00:13.067
Hallelujah, praise Jesus.

00:00:13.067 --> 00:00:22.172
Oh God, we're going to leave Elijah in the northern kingdoms.

00:00:22.172 --> 00:00:35.868
Jump forward a few hundred years to what is the inevitable result of the kingdom dividing.

00:00:35.868 --> 00:00:43.350
Let me just give you a short, real short history of what happened.

00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:48.831
David became king after Saul.

00:00:48.831 --> 00:00:57.420
Samuel anointed him even when Saul was the king, and David's kingship lasted about 40 years.

00:00:57.420 --> 00:01:04.971
33 of those years represented at a time when Israel was completely united.

00:01:04.971 --> 00:01:19.950
Under David's kingship, all 12 of the tribes and the entirety of Israel, from the south of Benjamin and Judah up to the north of Dan, all of the tribes were under one kingship.

00:01:19.950 --> 00:01:23.489
That continued under Solomon.

00:01:23.489 --> 00:01:32.774
Solomon reigned for 40 years, so for 80 years the kingdom was united under the leadership of David's household.

00:01:34.941 --> 00:01:36.266
Approximately 80 years.

00:01:36.266 --> 00:01:38.986
Either David or Solomon.

00:01:38.986 --> 00:01:41.962
Solomon's son, rehoboam, david's grandson, became king.

00:01:41.962 --> 00:01:50.450
Solomon's son, rehoboam, david's grandson, became king and the ten northern kingdoms decided they did not want him as their king.

00:01:50.450 --> 00:02:04.859
He could be the king of Judah if he wanted to, since he was of Judah, and Benjamin went along with that, since they were located down in the south.

00:02:07.480 --> 00:02:12.009
But the northern tribes decided they were going to follow a man by the name of Jeroboam and the whole ministry of Elijah.

00:02:12.009 --> 00:02:33.954
And Elijah is about what happened to the northern kingdoms as they followed after not only a non-anointed and appointed king, but also a kingdom that had gone after false gods.

00:02:33.954 --> 00:03:01.455
And so eventually, after about 250 years of this apostasy, the northern kingdoms, the northern tribes, were just absorbed into the Assyrian kingdom and essentially disappeared out of the landscape of what became Israel in later times.

00:03:01.455 --> 00:03:29.973
Not that they just disappeared entirely, but they lost their tribal identities, because so many of them were taken into slavery, so many of them were just dispersed and all of that sort of thing happened, and they lost their tribal identities, in fact, so much so that they became foreigners to their own brethren in Judah.

00:03:29.973 --> 00:03:38.800
Another thing that happened during this time is the northern tribes went into apostasy and started to chase after false gods.

00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:48.002
Many of the devout Jews came south, out of the northern kingdoms and assimilated into Judah, and so they began.

00:03:48.002 --> 00:04:07.883
Even even if they had been of the tribe of Ephraim or the tribe of Manasseh, or the tribe of Asher or the tribe of Zebulon or whatever, they came south and basically became of the tribe of Judah, so that they could continue to worship at the temple and do the things that they were accustomed to doing.

00:04:07.883 --> 00:04:28.521
A great number of Jewish people came out of the northern tribes before they were sent away and they became part of the Jewish nation in Judah Now.

00:04:29.865 --> 00:04:37.552
So 250 years goes by and the northern tribes are conquered and they're dispersed.

00:04:37.552 --> 00:04:46.612
That leaves Judah and Benjamin basically in the south, where Jerusalem is as the remaining kingdom.

00:04:46.612 --> 00:05:06.567
That kingdom continues on under the grandson of the grandson of the grandson of the grandson of David, until the nation of Judah had fallen into a similar kind of apostasy.

00:05:06.567 --> 00:05:17.673
Their kings, their priests, had started chasing after other gods and started disobeying the word of the Lord.

00:05:17.673 --> 00:05:29.550
And you'll find that the main thing that God held them accounted for was that for 490 years they did not observe the Sabbath year.

00:05:32.161 --> 00:05:52.511
So if you remember the law, what the law said was that every seventh year they had to let the land growth go fallow so that it could replenish itself, and then they would have to continue on the next year.

00:05:52.511 --> 00:06:03.324
So really, what that meant was that if you were in the sixth year, it's almost exactly like what happens around the Sabbath day.

00:06:03.324 --> 00:06:06.487
Exactly like what happens around the Sabbath day On Friday.

00:06:06.487 --> 00:06:19.423
You have to store up enough not only to get you through Friday but to get you through Saturday and to get you through Sunday.

00:06:19.423 --> 00:06:24.915
For whenever the manna fell or the quail fell, amen In the Sabbath year.

00:06:24.915 --> 00:06:27.406
The manna fell or the quail fell, amen In the Sabbath year.

00:06:27.959 --> 00:06:45.331
You had to plant enough that you would harvest for the sixth year and the seventh year and the eighth year, which would be the first year of the next seven, because you wouldn't harvest Even if you planted in the eighth year.

00:06:45.331 --> 00:06:45.872
You wouldn't harvest until.

00:06:45.872 --> 00:06:49.242
If you planted in the eighth year, you wouldn't harvest until almost the end of that year.

00:06:49.242 --> 00:06:51.848
So you had to.

00:06:51.848 --> 00:07:06.151
You had to believe god that what you planted for in the sixth year was going to give you a triple harvest and you had to store it up so that you could survive the sixth year, seventh year and eighth year.

00:07:06.151 --> 00:07:17.379
This would take a lot of faith and a lot of group participation.

00:07:17.740 --> 00:07:47.009
Because if you sowed in the sixth year generously and you reaped generously and you had your barns full for the next two years, and I'm over here and I just figured, ah, you know, he doesn't really mean that, and so I just plant like it's any old year, and then in the seventh year, I plant and nothing comes up, and now I don't have any seed to plant.

00:07:47.009 --> 00:07:53.767
In the seventh year, I plant and nothing comes up, and now I don't have any seed to plant in the eighth year, and so now I'm destitute.

00:07:53.767 --> 00:07:59.571
So your barns are starting to look real good.

00:07:59.571 --> 00:08:05.271
So if I don't have group participation, I'm going to have group riots.

00:08:05.271 --> 00:08:14.266
I'm going to have group riots, I'm going to have food fights, I'm going to have jealousy, envy, stealing, and what happens when that breaks out?

00:08:14.266 --> 00:08:17.569
Every other evil thing breaks out.

00:08:17.569 --> 00:08:21.187
That's exactly what happened to Israel.

00:08:21.247 --> 00:08:25.173
Because they did not observe the Sabbath year.

00:08:25.173 --> 00:08:53.768
God was counting and there were 490 years, which are 70 Sabbath years, and at the end of 14 generations after David, god sent the people of Judah into captivity in Babylon, and he did that for 70 years.

00:08:53.768 --> 00:08:58.105
Amen, remember all this.

00:08:58.105 --> 00:09:00.687
Jeremiah knew it was going to be 70 years.

00:09:00.687 --> 00:09:05.412
Daniel, who we're going to be studying for a few weeks, knew this.

00:09:05.412 --> 00:09:12.524
He said after reading the scripture, I determined that the allotted time was at end and I started to pray.

00:09:12.524 --> 00:09:18.360
Why is all this important?

00:09:18.360 --> 00:09:26.654
Because God sent them to Babylon for 70 years as a judgment.

00:09:26.654 --> 00:09:39.374
There's a good principle in here and I can show you that it happens all the time that God sends his people into the hands of the enemy when they disobey him.

00:09:39.374 --> 00:09:50.893
And he sent them into the hands of Babylon for 70 years, one year for each of the Sabbath years that they didn't obey him.

00:09:50.893 --> 00:09:57.173
And the ground laid fallow for 70 years.

00:09:57.173 --> 00:10:03.692
Nobody was cultivating, nobody was growing crops, hallelujah.

00:10:03.692 --> 00:10:22.928
So now we've got the tribe of Judah taking captivity into this country of Babylon, and I want to start reading in the book Daniel in chapter 1.

00:10:22.928 --> 00:10:34.277
This is approximately 500 years, 500 and a little change.

00:10:34.557 --> 00:11:04.806
After David's reign We've had a whole bunch of kings that weren't worth two cents, a few in there that were not too bad, but it got so bad that God had to curse this line of kings, had to curse this line of kings so that they would never sit on the throne again.

00:11:04.806 --> 00:11:08.134
Praise God, hallelujah.

00:11:08.134 --> 00:11:47.115
Let's read in verse one In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it, and the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hands with some of the articles of the house of God which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his God and he brought the articles into the treasure house of his God.

00:11:47.115 --> 00:11:48.419
And he brought the articles into the treasure house of his God.

00:11:48.419 --> 00:12:08.524
This is going to be important because when we get through a number of the things that happen in the book of Daniel, amen, it's these vessels that were carried into captivity, along with the people are going to show up again, praise God.

00:12:08.524 --> 00:12:23.620
So not only are the people of God carried off into captivity, but the articles of value in the temple are taken into captivity.

00:12:23.620 --> 00:12:30.269
This is the last time that we see the Ark.

00:12:30.269 --> 00:12:49.628
This is the last time that the articles of the captivity table of showbread, the altar of incense, the brazen altar, the brazen labor, all of those things were taken.

00:12:49.628 --> 00:12:54.110
And when they had to come back, they had to make new ones.

00:12:54.110 --> 00:12:56.508
They didn't bring them back, I don't believe.

00:12:56.508 --> 00:12:58.822
And they had.

00:12:58.822 --> 00:12:59.927
Those things were taken.

00:12:59.927 --> 00:13:05.452
The ark has been not here since then.

00:13:06.260 --> 00:13:18.452
When they rebuilt the temple upon their return from Babylon, 70 years later, the ark did not come with them, amen.

00:13:18.452 --> 00:13:26.211
So they rebuilt the temple, they rebuilt the curtain, but behind the curtain there has been nothing.

00:13:26.211 --> 00:13:38.629
So for about 400 years, between the time of their return and the time of Jesus' coming, there was nothing behind the curtain.

00:13:38.629 --> 00:13:45.519
Praise God, hallelujah, praise God, hallelujah.

00:13:45.519 --> 00:13:53.009
And there was no fire at night and there was no cloud by day.

00:13:53.009 --> 00:13:55.048
That left also.

00:13:55.048 --> 00:14:09.994
So that which came back out of Babylon was completely devoid of the kinds of things that made their life what it was.

00:14:09.994 --> 00:14:12.485
Their life was defined.

00:14:12.485 --> 00:14:13.850
Are you hearing me?

00:14:13.850 --> 00:14:22.327
The enemies of Israel shook in their shoes when they came over the top of the mountain and they saw the fire and they saw the cloud, and it was there all the time.

00:14:22.327 --> 00:14:25.178
Nobody else had that kind of manifestation of a God the mountain, and they saw the fire and they saw the cloud, and it was there all the time.

00:14:25.178 --> 00:14:27.865
Nobody else had that kind of manifestation of a God.

00:14:27.865 --> 00:14:40.820
They were the only ones, and that was their identity from the time of David, from the time of Solomon, from the time of the construction of that temple.

00:14:40.820 --> 00:14:48.581
That was their identity, and the Babylonians leveled it and stole all the things of importance.

00:14:49.544 --> 00:14:58.667
Now there are various stories as to what happened to the ark.

00:14:58.667 --> 00:15:00.110
I'm not going to go into all that.

00:15:00.110 --> 00:15:05.352
We don't know, but I'll tell you this if you come back and you that's.

00:15:05.352 --> 00:15:06.115
You know, we don't know, but I'll tell you this it has.

00:15:06.115 --> 00:15:06.365
You can't.

00:15:06.365 --> 00:15:19.469
If you come back and you build a temple and there's no ark and there's no fire and there's no cloud, then all you have is a museum.

00:15:19.469 --> 00:15:24.469
All you have is something that is a memory.

00:15:24.469 --> 00:15:44.573
That's why the men and women who had seen the old temple, when they came back after 70 years and they rebuilt the new temple, wept because the latter temple did not have the glory of the former temple.

00:15:44.573 --> 00:15:48.561
That wasn't necessarily just the grandeur of the building, but can you?

00:15:48.561 --> 00:16:00.693
I mean the ark wasn't there, the cloud wasn't there, the fire wasn't there and everything that was being done was just a going through the motions of a remembrance.

00:16:03.621 --> 00:16:13.972
It got so bad I've told you this before it got so bad during the times of Jewish occupation, especially with the Romans, that the priesthood was not, were not even Jews.

00:16:13.972 --> 00:16:20.604
They were political hacks, political puppets.

00:16:20.604 --> 00:16:24.129
Praise God, hallelujah.

00:16:24.129 --> 00:16:37.904
So we have this problem that all of these people were coming over from Israel.

00:16:37.904 --> 00:17:00.004
So Nebuchadnezzar appoints his wise men to go out and survey the youth of the tribe of Judah and find him, some young men who were some of the king's descendants, some of the nobles.

00:17:00.004 --> 00:17:04.549
Verse 4 says Young men in whom there are no blemishes, for no blemish.

00:17:04.549 --> 00:17:18.449
Good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had the ability to serve in the king's palace and whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans.

00:17:18.449 --> 00:17:45.932
So part of the deal was that, if you were chosen in this well, I'm just going to be undelicate here the man that the king appointed to do this, his name was Ashpenas, in verse 3.

00:17:45.932 --> 00:17:49.386
He was the master of the eunuchs.

00:17:49.386 --> 00:17:52.589
So there was a definite downside in being chosen.

00:17:52.589 --> 00:17:58.330
I'll just say it that way, amen.

00:17:58.330 --> 00:18:02.669
But they got good food.

00:18:02.669 --> 00:18:04.491
They got to eat the king's table.

00:18:04.491 --> 00:18:07.607
They got to eat the king's table, they got to drink the king's wine.

00:18:07.607 --> 00:18:18.972
But verse 6 says Among the sons of Judah were Daniel, hananiah, mishael and Azariah.

00:18:18.972 --> 00:18:23.121
But they gave him new names, daniel.

00:18:23.121 --> 00:18:24.404
They gave the name of Balthasar.

00:18:24.404 --> 00:18:37.460
I can't say that Balthasar to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach and to Azariah Abednego.

00:18:37.519 --> 00:18:56.192
And verse 8 is the key verse in this section of scripture and what we're talking about, because what we're talking about, as we talked about with elijah, the point of attack, the, the antichrist, was making a point of attack.

00:18:56.192 --> 00:19:12.756
That point of attack when Judah was taken captive out of the land of Judah, out of the land of Israel, amen.

00:19:12.756 --> 00:19:24.710
The purpose of that attack was to take the seed out of Judah and bring it into subjection to man worship.

00:19:24.710 --> 00:19:42.020
The whole thread that runs through the book of Daniel is this thread of Nebuchadnezzar exalting himself to be worshipped and Daniel and his three friends refusing to do it.

00:19:42.020 --> 00:19:54.382
I'm going to say it again the whole state, the whole nation, was brought under subjection of man worship.

00:19:54.382 --> 00:20:02.643
And yet there were a few who refused to do that.

00:20:02.643 --> 00:20:14.796
And in refusing, god exalted them, gave them miracles, gave them deliverances, gave them signs, wonders.

00:20:14.796 --> 00:20:17.782
All sorts of things happened, amen.

00:20:17.782 --> 00:20:25.094
And every time the Antichrist tried to swallow up the seed, the seed was in Judah.

00:20:25.094 --> 00:20:28.156
He knew it, didn't know where, but he knew it.

00:20:28.156 --> 00:20:40.298
The seed was in Judah and he was trying to swallow up the seed into a form of man worship instead of God worship.

00:20:40.298 --> 00:20:51.700
But Daniel, because of Daniel's faithfulness, the seed was preserved and Israel was delivered.

00:20:52.582 --> 00:20:53.523
It was not the plan.

00:20:53.523 --> 00:21:02.109
Listen, you may think this is not so important, but this is very important.

00:21:02.109 --> 00:21:11.740
This is one of the most important moments in history because of what happens to Babylon.

00:21:11.740 --> 00:21:15.517
Babylon, if you think.

00:21:15.517 --> 00:21:18.509
See, this happens with Pharaoh.

00:21:18.509 --> 00:21:32.903
Pharaoh did the will of God in that he set up a situation where God's power could be revealed and God's people could eventually be set free Amen.

00:21:33.590 --> 00:21:39.760
And yet God held Pharaoh responsible, even though he was doing the will of God.

00:21:39.760 --> 00:21:45.323
You can read about how how that works in how that works in Romans, chapter 11.

00:21:45.323 --> 00:21:56.051
He said I have mercy on whom I have mercy and I harden on who I harden If I want to harden Pharaoh's heart.

00:21:56.051 --> 00:22:00.555
Paul said this if he wants to harden Pharaoh's heart, who are we to tell him?

00:22:00.555 --> 00:22:01.337
He can't do that?

00:22:01.337 --> 00:22:06.616
The same thing happens here.

00:22:06.616 --> 00:22:11.298
Nebuchadnezzar takes Judah captive.

00:22:11.298 --> 00:22:12.934
Well, that was God's plan.

00:22:12.934 --> 00:22:36.402
They were being punished for 490 years of not observing the Sabbath year, but in the process, he took the instruments out of the temple, ransacked the temple, destroyed the temple and then tried to abuse his people.

00:22:36.402 --> 00:22:43.737
So, even though he did the will of God, amen, babylon was held in judgment.

00:22:43.737 --> 00:22:49.451
Oh praise God.

00:22:49.451 --> 00:22:50.252
Amen, babylon was held in judgment.

00:22:50.252 --> 00:22:50.855
Oh praise God, hallelujah.

00:22:50.855 --> 00:22:51.656
We're going to see how all this works.

00:22:51.676 --> 00:22:56.893
This is going to take some time, because the book of Daniel is one of the most fascinating books in the Bible.

00:22:56.893 --> 00:23:10.762
I just want to say this that one of the things that is said of Daniel that is not said of very many people, and that, was that Daniel had an excellent spirit.

00:23:10.762 --> 00:23:15.338
Everybody that you read about you read about David.

00:23:15.338 --> 00:23:18.196
What's the first thing most people think about David?

00:23:18.196 --> 00:23:27.320
Bathsheba the one thing that God says didn't please him, about David.

00:23:27.320 --> 00:23:39.156
But everything else that David did pleased him and he was a man after his own heart and he pleased him in every way, except for the matter, and it really wasn't about Bathsheba.

00:23:39.156 --> 00:23:42.913
I'm not going to make a case out of this.

00:23:42.913 --> 00:23:45.682
You won't go anywhere with this in this culture.

00:23:47.653 --> 00:23:49.579
But he told David it's in your Bible.

00:23:49.579 --> 00:23:53.760
He said, david, if you'd have wanted women, I'd have given you women.

00:23:53.760 --> 00:24:02.521
It wasn't about Bathsheba that you got in trouble.

00:24:02.521 --> 00:24:03.976
It was about her husband.

00:24:03.976 --> 00:24:08.234
You tried to kill him to get her.

00:24:08.234 --> 00:24:31.202
If you wanted her, all you had to do was ask me If you wanted a dozen like her, I'd have given them to you, but you wanted to kill in order to get her, and that we're not going to do.

00:24:31.202 --> 00:24:34.477
But that was the only thing.

00:24:34.769 --> 00:24:40.238
The Bible says that, except in the matter of Uriah, not the matter of Bathsheba.

00:24:40.238 --> 00:24:42.657
I wish people would get it straight.

00:24:42.657 --> 00:24:51.570
It's the matter of Uriah, that that one thing, that everything else that David did pleased the Lord.

00:24:51.570 --> 00:24:57.452
Praise God, hallelujah, daniel.

00:24:57.452 --> 00:25:06.919
I don't see anything in the book of Daniel that is a criticism of his character.

00:25:06.919 --> 00:25:16.997
He had an excellent spirit, praise God, hallelujah.

00:25:17.416 --> 00:25:46.200
So the first thing we're get to a couple things is this in this battle of the Antichrist and we are in a battle and he is doing what he wants to do in the world right now the last thing we've talked about on Sunday was this little children, keep yourself from idols.

00:25:46.200 --> 00:25:52.820
Daniel would put it this way Little children, keep yourself from being defiled.

00:25:52.820 --> 00:26:14.042
Verse 8 says this Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank.

00:26:14.042 --> 00:26:26.131
I'm going to read it again Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies, nor in the wine which he drank.

00:26:26.131 --> 00:26:34.529
I ask you a question Was there anything intrinsically wrong with the food or the drink?

00:26:34.529 --> 00:26:38.694
The answer to that question is no.

00:26:38.694 --> 00:26:44.863
It's just food, it's just drink, but it was associated with the king.

00:26:44.863 --> 00:26:47.886
Amen.

00:26:47.886 --> 00:26:54.483
It was what the king was going to bribe all of the young men that were under his control.

00:26:54.483 --> 00:27:08.164
He was going to bribe them and keep them close to himself by bribing them with choice food, choice drink that sort of thing.

00:27:08.164 --> 00:27:19.619
Daniel said I'm not going to defile myself with what belongs to the king, so listen to what God's saying to us in this day and age.

00:27:19.619 --> 00:27:33.798
He's saying this If you know that the Antichrist is attacking, if you know he is making certain moves against us, against, remember what I've taught you.

00:27:35.421 --> 00:27:45.755
If you look at things like their attacks on the country or attacks on our culture or attacks on whatever you want to think, you better think again.

00:27:45.755 --> 00:27:53.660
It is always an attack on the body and it will manifest itself in these other areas.

00:27:53.660 --> 00:27:55.817
But he could care less.

00:27:55.817 --> 00:28:05.798
He is after God's people, always has been, always will be.

00:28:05.798 --> 00:28:07.395
That's the point of attack.

00:28:07.395 --> 00:28:09.757
We have to know those things.

00:28:09.757 --> 00:28:14.858
If you know that, then you need to leave his stuff alone.

00:28:14.858 --> 00:28:22.721
I said you need to leave his stuff alone.

00:28:26.012 --> 00:28:45.049
Whatever he's raised up as an idol and a focus of worship, whatever kind of men or women or something that he's raised up as a God, you better leave it alone and you better leave it alone.

00:28:45.049 --> 00:28:46.957
And you better leave it alone.

00:28:46.957 --> 00:28:58.251
I mean leave it alone Not just, you know, touch it a little bit, or touch it when it has your approval, or touch it when you think it's oh well, it's not really that bad, or?

00:28:58.251 --> 00:29:02.338
You know well, you know, not everybody thinks the way we do.

00:29:02.338 --> 00:29:12.740
So, you know, just kind of keep on nudging over next to it, patting it a little bit, and draw your hand back, pat a little bit.

00:29:12.740 --> 00:29:16.635
You don't understand what I'm saying.

00:29:17.238 --> 00:29:20.154
Praise God, you got to leave it alone.

00:29:20.154 --> 00:29:25.541
You just got to shut the door on it and leave it alone.

00:29:25.541 --> 00:29:31.195
Praise God, because it will surely contaminate you.

00:29:31.195 --> 00:29:35.423
Bad, what's the scripture?

00:29:35.423 --> 00:29:37.330
Bad company corrupts good morals.

00:29:37.330 --> 00:29:42.681
Good behavior Amen.

00:29:42.681 --> 00:29:49.819
You can't even sniff it, you can't even be around it If you know it's contaminated.

00:29:51.733 --> 00:29:58.337
Paul says if you know that something has been sacrificed to idols, you need to just leave it alone.

00:29:58.337 --> 00:30:00.376
Not for your conscience.

00:30:00.376 --> 00:30:02.016
You could probably deal with it.

00:30:02.016 --> 00:30:04.596
I'm not too sure you can.

00:30:04.596 --> 00:30:09.037
Some of these things, this is strong magic, this is strong stuff.

00:30:09.037 --> 00:30:14.621
If you know it's been consecrated to idols, leave it alone.

00:30:14.621 --> 00:30:20.060
That's why I quit watching all professional sports.

00:30:20.060 --> 00:30:28.589
I quit watching all sports, basically sports.

00:30:28.589 --> 00:30:30.896
I quit watching all sports basically because it's all been sacrificed to idols.

00:30:30.896 --> 00:30:31.880
Now, how do I know that?

00:30:31.880 --> 00:30:33.592
Well, first of all, because the Lord told me.

00:30:33.592 --> 00:30:37.808
Second of all, he gave me illustrations of it that proved out.

00:30:37.828 --> 00:30:42.820
I told you the story about how I told the, the pastors in Costa Rica.

00:30:42.820 --> 00:30:44.695
I said y'all are addicted to soccer.

00:30:44.695 --> 00:30:49.257
I said I can go over to your house after church on Sunday and you won't even talk to me.

00:30:49.257 --> 00:30:52.200
You're sitting there watching soccer game, going like this.

00:30:52.200 --> 00:30:54.878
You know, the whole afternoon that's all they think about.

00:30:54.878 --> 00:30:59.681
I said let me give you a couple of facts.

00:30:59.681 --> 00:31:14.566
And I just rolled off a couple of things that I knew about international soccer and I said the Lord is going to bring it down Just to show you he's going to do it, just to show you that my word is true.

00:31:14.566 --> 00:31:15.289
I was real bold.

00:31:15.289 --> 00:31:16.492
I just told him.

00:31:16.492 --> 00:31:21.676
I said I'm telling you as a prophet of God that they are given over to witchcraft.

00:31:21.676 --> 00:31:39.441
They're given over to seances and spells, because what they're really after they're not after an outcome of a soccer game, they're after the control of minds that are glued to a common television set for all of these hours and all through that time they're going to program you.

00:31:39.441 --> 00:31:47.775
I said if you know that, you've got to turn it off, did any of them turn it off?

00:31:47.775 --> 00:31:50.261
No, not a one.

00:31:50.261 --> 00:31:54.458
Did the Lord do what he told me he was going to do?

00:31:55.310 --> 00:32:12.497
The whole leadership structure of the international governing body of world soccer collapsed in scandal and because it's all riddled with illegal betting and gambling and billions of dollars are changing.

00:32:12.497 --> 00:32:17.038
It's crazy, but the whole world's addicted to it.

00:32:17.038 --> 00:32:26.383
You put on a World Cup thing every four years and I mean half of the world's population is just sitting in front of television getting reprogrammed again.

00:32:26.383 --> 00:32:31.080
If you know it's that way, stay away from it.

00:32:31.080 --> 00:32:37.175
Stay away from the Olympics, it's the same way.

00:32:37.175 --> 00:32:39.895
Stay away from it.

00:32:42.231 --> 00:32:49.877
Sports is just one of the four things that that we're talking about, of idols, but glory to God.

00:32:49.877 --> 00:32:52.644
Just stay away from, stay away from the power center.

00:32:52.644 --> 00:32:54.493
Stay away from politics.

00:32:54.493 --> 00:32:56.038
Stay away from getting caught up in it.

00:32:56.038 --> 00:32:58.182
Don't let it captivate your mind.

00:32:58.182 --> 00:32:59.031
Don't let it don't.

00:32:59.031 --> 00:33:00.895
Don't let them think for you.

00:33:00.895 --> 00:33:07.258
Don't let them think for you and then put their thoughts on like they're your thoughts.

00:33:07.258 --> 00:33:08.300
They're not your thoughts.

00:33:08.300 --> 00:33:10.276
You haven't had those thoughts.

00:33:10.276 --> 00:33:12.156
Those aren't original thoughts.

00:33:12.156 --> 00:33:18.779
Those are borrowed thoughts from somebody else that's trying to feed you something.

00:33:18.779 --> 00:33:21.373
I'm telling you.

00:33:21.452 --> 00:33:31.619
When the Lord begins to talk to me about stuff like this, it's scary what he tells me Because it counters everything I'm talking.

00:33:31.619 --> 00:33:41.663
I said everything that we're being fed, and if you think that something is accepted in that, you are very grossly mistaken.

00:33:41.663 --> 00:33:48.559
Everything that we're being fed will be to God.

00:33:48.559 --> 00:33:56.421
You've got to purpose in your heart not to be defiled with the king's portion.

00:33:56.421 --> 00:34:02.761
Whatever the king decides, he's going to give you Amen.

00:34:02.761 --> 00:34:05.654
They were just groveling after it.

00:34:05.654 --> 00:34:14.840
You've got to decide for yourself that I am not going to grovel at the king's table.

00:34:14.840 --> 00:34:20.697
I am going to think what the Lord tells me to think.

00:34:20.697 --> 00:34:23.523
I'm going to do what the Lord tells me to do.

00:34:23.523 --> 00:34:27.371
Lord tells me to think.

00:34:27.371 --> 00:34:29.514
I'm going to do what the Lord tells me to do.

00:34:29.514 --> 00:34:30.335
I'm going to be dependent upon him.

00:34:30.335 --> 00:34:30.715
You know the story.

00:34:30.737 --> 00:34:32.478
Daniel worked out a deal.

00:34:32.478 --> 00:34:43.956
He said look, you give me vegetables and water and then measure my countenance and the countenance of my friends against all the rest of the guys that are eating off the king's table.

00:34:43.956 --> 00:34:53.148
The master of the eunuchs said okay, I think they gave him three weeks or something like that.

00:34:53.148 --> 00:34:56.858
Ten days, ten days.

00:34:56.858 --> 00:35:16.240
And Daniel and his friends, at the end of those 10 days, were better looking, smarter and in every way more exemplary than the ones who had eaten at the king's table.

00:35:16.240 --> 00:35:18.396
Think about that.

00:35:18.396 --> 00:35:24.101
Daniel would not be defiled.

00:35:26.271 --> 00:35:27.637
Now look what God did.

00:35:27.637 --> 00:35:40.300
It's one thing for a man to just make a decision Okay, hey, you know you can decide I'm a, I'm a live clean, I'm a live fit.

00:35:40.300 --> 00:35:43.610
You know all that kind of stuff will work out every day Blah, blah, blah.

00:35:43.610 --> 00:35:46.500
You know you can make those kinds of decisions.

00:35:46.500 --> 00:35:50.597
But it's another thing if God gets behind it.

00:35:50.597 --> 00:35:53.657
Look what God did, verse 19.

00:35:54.670 --> 00:36:10.440
It says then the king interviewed them and among them all, none was found like Daniel, daniel, hananiah, mishael and Azariah.

00:36:10.440 --> 00:36:14.179
Therefore, they served before the king.

00:36:14.179 --> 00:36:37.172
So instead of being disappointed in them because they didn't eat his portion, he promoted them and in all the and watch this and in all manner of wisdom, matters of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them, he found them 10 times better.

00:36:37.172 --> 00:36:39.896
Now, that's just not an exaggeration.

00:36:39.896 --> 00:36:42.039
How many days did they separate themselves?

00:36:42.039 --> 00:36:45.324
Ten days, how many times better were they?

00:36:45.324 --> 00:36:47.456
Ten times better.

00:36:47.456 --> 00:36:56.639
Just think what happened after 100 days, or after three years, which is 1,000 days.

00:36:56.639 --> 00:37:00.277
And it did get like that.

00:37:00.277 --> 00:37:10.219
It got so crazy that we're going to find out.

00:37:10.219 --> 00:37:20.512
The king's going to have a dream it's in the next chapter and he wants somebody to tell him what the dream is and the interpretation.

00:37:20.512 --> 00:37:28.445
Glory to God, hallelujah.

00:37:28.445 --> 00:37:41.237
He was 10 times better than all the magicians and the astrologer who were all in his realm, who were in all his realm.

00:37:41.237 --> 00:37:56.925
So God exalted Daniel and his friends amen, to a level that none of the mad magicians in Babylon were able to obtain.

00:37:56.925 --> 00:38:00.778
Now I want you to see something.

00:38:00.778 --> 00:38:02.876
I'm just throw this out.

00:38:02.876 --> 00:38:10.378
You know you can't make a doctrine about this, but listen to how that played out.

00:38:16.550 --> 00:38:29.786
Daniel was at such a high level and continued at a high level the entire 70 years that Israel was in Babylon.

00:38:29.786 --> 00:38:34.474
But they left.

00:38:34.474 --> 00:38:40.184
Israel left, judah left and went back to Judah.

00:38:40.184 --> 00:38:55.121
Judah Okay, but the impact in Babylon was so great that they were expecting a Messiah 400 years later.

00:38:55.121 --> 00:38:59.036
But Judah was not.

00:38:59.036 --> 00:39:14.481
Daniel had more impact on the magicians than he did on his own people, because they ate of the king's delicacies.

00:39:19.478 --> 00:39:20.501
Now, how do I know this?

00:39:20.501 --> 00:39:24.429
Now, how do I know this?

00:39:24.429 --> 00:39:54.639
Because nobody in Jerusalem had any idea king of the Jews, who was born according to the star that hung over there.

00:39:54.639 --> 00:40:00.721
They knew that Jesus was coming.

00:40:00.721 --> 00:40:06.581
The kings and priests and whatnot in Israel did not.

00:40:06.581 --> 00:40:07.443
They didn't have a clue.

00:40:07.443 --> 00:40:12.760
The king had to ask the priest where is he going to be born?

00:40:12.760 --> 00:40:36.416
And they had to pull out a scripture that said he's going to be born in Bethlehem, but the wise men knew that several hundred miles away and that's all due to Daniel, praise God, think about that Found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all of his realm.

00:40:36.416 --> 00:40:44.074
Thus, daniel continued until the first year of King Cyrus, which was a long time down the road.

00:40:44.074 --> 00:40:58.791
Let's go to the second chapter and we'll get through this, praise God.

00:40:58.811 --> 00:41:00.494
So now the king has a dream In the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign.

00:41:00.494 --> 00:41:03.920
Nebuchadnezzar had dreams and his spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him.

00:41:03.920 --> 00:41:13.681
And so he calls out to all the magicians and the astrologers and the sorcerers to tell him what the dream is.

00:41:13.681 --> 00:41:17.994
He said I had a dream and my spirit is anxious to know the dream.

00:41:17.994 --> 00:41:22.867
Verse four says oh, king, live forever.

00:41:22.867 --> 00:41:27.547
Tell your servants the dream and we will give the interpretation.

00:41:28.175 --> 00:41:31.300
Now, that sounds like a reasonable expectation, doesn't it?

00:41:31.300 --> 00:41:34.465
I mean that's you know.

00:41:34.465 --> 00:41:42.706
I mean, if you were in their position, that's probably the thing you would want.

00:41:42.706 --> 00:41:47.182
You'd probably say King says my decision is firm.

00:41:47.182 --> 00:41:57.387
If you do not make the known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be cut in pieces and your houses shall be made in ash heap.

00:41:57.387 --> 00:42:00.920
No pressure there.

00:42:00.920 --> 00:42:13.186
You know, the first guy that thinks he's got the answer is probably not going to be the first guy to open his mouth.

00:42:13.186 --> 00:42:15.123
You know not if he's got any.

00:42:15.123 --> 00:42:21.478
He's going to let somebody else see if somebody else got anywhere close and see what happens to them.

00:42:21.478 --> 00:42:27.009
Glory to God, praise the Lord.

00:42:27.735 --> 00:42:44.467
Now I'm not going to get into this, you know, but what his dream was is a cornerstone of end times prophecy.

00:42:44.467 --> 00:42:46.789
It's the dream of the one.

00:42:46.789 --> 00:43:08.327
It's the dream of the wonderful man, the man whose head was made of gold, his torso was made of silver, his legs were made of brass, his feet were made of iron and his toes and bottoms of his feet were made of clay.

00:43:08.327 --> 00:43:16.563
And this is a foretelling of the kingdoms that would come after this kingdom of Babylon.

00:43:16.563 --> 00:43:29.001
Nebuchadnezzar was the king of gold, and then the Medes and the Persians would come, then the Greeks would come, then the Romans would come, and all of this was a prophecy.

00:43:29.001 --> 00:43:55.465
Concerning this, and this is a major piece of end times prophecy, because of the nature of the feet being of iron and clay and how that mixes together and all that, it was impossible Many people have trouble with the book of Daniel because they can't figure out how Daniel got all this information, because it was like somebody wrote this book.

00:43:55.666 --> 00:43:59.780
After all, these things happened and then there was a whole school of thought.

00:43:59.780 --> 00:44:16.487
Daniel was one of the books that really, when men got real smart, they had trouble with and they started saying that the way that we thought the Bible was written couldn't possibly be true, because of the book of Daniel, among other things.

00:44:16.487 --> 00:44:23.668
And pretty soon we didn't have Moses writing the first five books and we, we had this and we had that and you know they started tearing it all apart.

00:44:23.668 --> 00:44:38.869
But they started with Daniel, whereas a very smart man by the name of Isaac Newton, who happened to study religion more than he studied science, came up.

00:44:38.869 --> 00:44:47.699
He, he did the math on Daniel's prophecy of the Messiah entering into Jerusalem.

00:44:47.699 --> 00:44:57.369
Matter of fact, that picture right there, if I can get it going here, this picture right here, is that day.

00:44:57.369 --> 00:45:05.597
There's Jesus right there, he's going down the hill on Palm Sunday and he's going in that very day.

00:45:05.597 --> 00:45:09.206
That very moment is prophesied by the prophet.

00:45:09.266 --> 00:45:28.916
Daniel Newton, being a very smart guy and very capable in mathematics, did the math and showed almost to the very hour when Jesus had to come down.

00:45:28.916 --> 00:45:37.396
He said on the basis of that one prophecy, it is sufficient to believe the entirety of the word of God.

00:45:37.396 --> 00:45:51.242
That prophecy is so accurately predicted down to almost the very hour, 400 years, 480 years before, 483 years before.

00:45:51.242 --> 00:45:56.643
He said that's efficient to believe the entirety of the word of God.

00:45:56.643 --> 00:46:11.246
Now, smart guys, less smart guys than him, say on the basis of that prophecy, it's sufficient to not believe the entirety of the word of God because it can't be that accurate, because it would have had to been written afterwards.

00:46:11.246 --> 00:46:12.539
So it's all a fraud.

00:46:12.539 --> 00:46:29.960
So that's what guys that are not as smart as Newton had to say about it, whereas Newton, who is arguably the smartest guy that has been around since before Einstein, said just the opposite.

00:46:29.960 --> 00:46:32.503
Praise the Lord.

00:46:33.356 --> 00:46:34.601
Anyway, let's go on with this.

00:46:34.601 --> 00:46:38.101
So Daniel gets involved.

00:46:38.101 --> 00:46:40.197
He hears that the command has gone out.

00:46:40.197 --> 00:46:41.820
He hears that the command has gone out.

00:46:41.820 --> 00:46:48.809
Nobody's willing to go out on a limb and give the dream and the interpretation.

00:46:48.809 --> 00:46:54.106
So the king gives the command kill them all.

00:46:54.106 --> 00:47:01.228
Just gather up all of the sorcerers, the wise men, the magicians, the astrologers, just hack them all to pieces.

00:47:01.228 --> 00:47:01.891
He's upset.

00:47:02.936 --> 00:47:04.623
Daniel hears and goes what's going on.

00:47:04.623 --> 00:47:07.041
They tell him what's going on.

00:47:07.041 --> 00:47:10.085
He says go tell the king not to do this.

00:47:10.085 --> 00:47:12.500
Tell him I'll be there.

00:47:12.500 --> 00:47:16.164
And so Daniel goes in and he says what's going on?

00:47:16.164 --> 00:47:26.536
King tells him he says give me a little bit of time and I will be back and I will tell you what you want to know Now.

00:47:26.536 --> 00:47:29.646
Just imagine everybody else had backed off of this.

00:47:29.646 --> 00:47:33.621
Daniel steps up and says I'm going to get the answer.

00:47:33.621 --> 00:47:38.063
He hasn't even talked to God about this yet, but he goes and he now.

00:47:38.063 --> 00:47:40.079
Now this is how Daniel prays.

00:47:40.079 --> 00:47:43.260
We need to, we need to pay attention to this.

00:47:45.835 --> 00:47:46.416
Verse 20,.

00:47:46.416 --> 00:48:02.384
Daniel answered and said chapter 2, verse 20, blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are his, and he changes the times and the season.

00:48:02.384 --> 00:48:05.994
He removes kings and he raises up kings.

00:48:05.994 --> 00:48:08.163
We need to say praise the Lord right there.

00:48:08.163 --> 00:48:10.396
Amen.

00:48:10.396 --> 00:48:12.764
If you think this situation is too hard for God.

00:48:12.764 --> 00:48:17.365
Glory to God.

00:48:17.365 --> 00:48:22.246
He gives wisdom to the wise and watch this.

00:48:22.246 --> 00:48:24.519
This is a good thing to know.

00:48:24.519 --> 00:48:28.623
Everybody say this.

00:48:29.295 --> 00:48:30.420
Daniel knows how to pray.

00:48:30.420 --> 00:48:31.597
Daniel knows how to pray.

00:48:31.597 --> 00:48:41.478
When we get back a little bit later in some of these things, we're going to see that when he figured out that the 70 years have been completed.

00:48:41.478 --> 00:48:50.960
He fasted for 21 days and prayed and the Bible says that the angel he said.

00:48:50.960 --> 00:48:52.161
The angel told him.

00:48:52.161 --> 00:48:54.304
Archangel Michael told him later.

00:48:54.304 --> 00:49:04.686
He said Daniel, your prayer was heard on the first day, but I was withstood by the Prince of Persia.

00:49:04.686 --> 00:49:09.802
But I have come in response to answer your prayer.

00:49:09.802 --> 00:49:13.985
Praise God, daniel knows how to pray.

00:49:14.054 --> 00:49:15.561
Everybody say Daniel knows how to pray.

00:49:15.561 --> 00:49:24.764
He gives wisdom to the wise, he gives knowledge to those who have understanding.

00:49:24.764 --> 00:49:31.840
So if you're praying for wisdom and knowledge, the prerequisite to that is understanding.

00:49:31.840 --> 00:49:42.461
You need to be a person who understands the ways of God, needs to understand the wisdom of God.

00:49:42.461 --> 00:49:44.427
Amen.

00:49:45.675 --> 00:49:50.422
The people of Israel knew the acts of God, but Moses knew his ways.

00:49:50.422 --> 00:49:54.041
Moses had understanding of God.

00:49:54.041 --> 00:49:57.161
When God said Moses, get out of the way.

00:49:57.161 --> 00:50:01.525
I'm going to destroy this people, I'm going to raise up another people through you.

00:50:01.525 --> 00:50:04.164
And Moses said Lord, you can't do that.

00:50:04.164 --> 00:50:07.884
I said what would your enemies think of you if you did that?

00:50:07.884 --> 00:50:11.686
You delivered these people out of Egypt.

00:50:11.686 --> 00:50:16.641
You brought them out with a mighty right hand and here they are in the desert and you're just going to kill them right there in front.

00:50:16.641 --> 00:50:19.704
What's people going to think about you if you do something like that?

00:50:19.704 --> 00:50:24.302
Moses said that to him because he knew his ways.

00:50:24.302 --> 00:50:26.106
Amen.

00:50:26.106 --> 00:50:35.110
He knew he could appeal to God, because he knew the mercies and the generosity of God, the kindnesses of God.

00:50:36.876 --> 00:50:42.817
I thought that phrase was important, that if we want to have understanding concerning the things of God, amen.

00:50:42.817 --> 00:50:54.706
Or we want to have knowledge concerning the things of God, or we want to have knowledge concerning the things of God, we have to understand who God is and how he is, because only then can we begin to understand how he thinks.

00:50:54.706 --> 00:51:03.905
We don't know him, we will always misjudge his ways and how he thinks People that don't know God.

00:51:03.905 --> 00:51:07.804
They've got him up in heaven, or you know he's the man upstairs or he's.

00:51:07.804 --> 00:51:12.782
You know all the kinds of silly things that people say about God because they don't know him.

00:51:12.782 --> 00:51:17.556
They don't even know about him, but they certainly don't know him.

00:51:17.556 --> 00:51:20.199
Because they don't know him, they have no understanding.

00:51:20.199 --> 00:51:24.786
He reveals deep and secret things.

00:51:24.786 --> 00:51:27.010
Hallelujah, we're not.

00:51:27.010 --> 00:51:28.659
We're not after the shallow here.

00:51:28.659 --> 00:51:29.139
We want to.

00:51:29.139 --> 00:51:31.184
We want the deep and secret things.

00:51:31.184 --> 00:51:36.163
He knows what is in the darkness and light dwells with him.

00:51:36.163 --> 00:51:38.367
Glory to God.

00:51:38.367 --> 00:51:39.891
So this is that.

00:51:39.891 --> 00:51:42.679
You know, daniel, Daniel was clued into something.

00:51:42.739 --> 00:51:54.722
He knew that if he kept his hands off of the things of the king, if he kept undefiled from the things of Babylon, that Babylon wouldn't have any power over him.

00:51:54.722 --> 00:52:03.728
He knew that just touching it would defile him, but if he kept himself clean from it and kept himself undefiled, then Babylon would have no power on him.

00:52:03.728 --> 00:52:15.762
But if he kept himself clean from it and kept himself undefiled, then Babylon would have no power on him and God would reveal the things that are in darkness and bring them into his light, which is exactly what happened with this dream.

00:52:15.762 --> 00:52:24.528
I mean, why would he give Nebuchadnezzar this dream, amen, when Nebuchadnezzar is the problem?

00:52:24.528 --> 00:52:33.586
Well, he would do that to protect Daniel and give Daniel even more favor in his eyes.

00:52:33.586 --> 00:52:36.981
So you know the story.

00:52:39.715 --> 00:52:46.923
Daniel goes in, tells the king you can't sleep, you're having a hard time with this dream.

00:52:46.923 --> 00:52:48.360
Let me tell you what this dream is.

00:52:48.360 --> 00:52:51.905
You had a dream about this man, amen.

00:52:51.905 --> 00:53:05.704
His head was of gold, his body was of silver, his legs were bronze, his feet were of iron mixed with clay, and then he gave them the interpretation.

00:53:05.704 --> 00:53:09.365
He said Nebuchadnezzar, you are, oh, king, you are the head.

00:53:09.365 --> 00:53:13.201
There's never been a king like you there never will be again.

00:53:14.737 --> 00:53:27.699
Which is why, when Babylon is destroyed, it is one of the most awesome moments in world history, because that kingship, that place listen to me very carefully there's a rock right over there.

00:53:27.699 --> 00:53:45.807
In that cabinet I exchanged a gold-plated 1955 Selmer Paris Alto saxophone, probably now worth tens of thousands of dollars, for a rock.

00:53:45.807 --> 00:53:54.186
It was hand carried by my son from the ruins of Babylon.

00:53:54.186 --> 00:54:13.264
Glory to God, hallelujah, praise the Lord.

00:54:13.264 --> 00:54:25.304
It was the mightiest empire on the planet since the days of Noah coming off of the out of the flood.

00:54:25.304 --> 00:54:57.465
All through the days of Noah, the days of Nimrod, the days of Abraham, isaac, jacob, the captivity of Israel in Egypt, the return of Israel back to Canaan, david, solomon, and all of that, hundreds and hundreds of years, babylon had been the reigning power in the world.

00:54:57.465 --> 00:55:00.684
Nimrod was of Babylon.

00:55:00.684 --> 00:55:04.202
That kingdom was the head of gold.

00:55:04.202 --> 00:55:24.126
The kingdom that would take over in power was the kingdom of the Greeks that was of silver, or the Persians were of silver, then the Greeks were of bronze and then the Romans were of the feet of iron.

00:55:26.346 --> 00:55:43.181
King answered Daniel, verse 47, and said truly, your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings and the revealer of secrets, since you could reveal this secret, hallelujah.

00:55:43.181 --> 00:55:46.476
And the revealer of secrets, since you could reveal this secret, hallelujah.

00:55:46.476 --> 00:56:28.601
I'm telling you that when God moves and we haven't seen this in its fullness yet, but we're going to see it we're going to see it moment, day after day after day, where people who were blaspheming God have turned and said this God is the real God Because, listen, you can evangelize all of the bottom layer of people that you want to, and it won't change a nation Because they're not in power.

00:56:28.601 --> 00:56:35.463
It's just a simple fact and I don't mean that we shouldn't do that.

00:56:35.463 --> 00:56:39.226
We should go after, but we should go after everybody, right?

00:56:39.226 --> 00:56:47.420
Not just them, because if you just go after them, the nation's going to stay the same and they're going to stay poor.

00:56:47.420 --> 00:56:51.360
That's just how it is.

00:56:51.360 --> 00:57:08.047
But if you go after the ones who make the rules and they get changed, then you have kings saying truly, your God is the God of God and the king of kings, amen.

00:57:08.414 --> 00:57:09.842
The revealer of secrets.

00:57:09.842 --> 00:57:28.806
And then Daniel gets another promotion and he gave him many great gifts and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon Sounds like Joseph and chief administrator over all of the wise men of Babylon.

00:57:28.806 --> 00:57:35.545
That's why I'm telling you that Daniel because he was the head of all of them could take him to school.

00:57:35.545 --> 00:57:39.746
He said let me tell you what's going to happen in about 400 years.

00:57:39.746 --> 00:57:42.081
Oh, glory to God.

00:57:42.081 --> 00:57:51.862
Also, daniel petitioned the king and he set Shadrach, meshach and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon.

00:57:52.943 --> 00:57:55.969
And Daniel sat in the gate of the king.

00:57:55.969 --> 00:57:57.536
You know what that means.

00:57:57.536 --> 00:58:03.509
He was the number two man in the kingdom, just like Joseph was in Egypt.

00:58:03.509 --> 00:58:07.639
Number two man in the kingdom, just like Joseph was in Egypt.

00:58:07.639 --> 00:58:10.871
And then he sat in the gate, which meant that if you wanted to see the king, you had to go through Daniel.

00:58:10.871 --> 00:58:12.237
You wanted an appointment with the king.

00:58:12.237 --> 00:58:14.762
You had to get an appointment with Daniel.

00:58:14.762 --> 00:58:16.306
Daniel didn't want to see you.

00:58:16.306 --> 00:58:22.036
There was two things that were going to happen you didn't get to see Daniel or you didn't get to see the king.

00:58:22.036 --> 00:58:25.445
There wasn't any way around it.

00:58:25.445 --> 00:58:31.380
You couldn't bypass Daniel and get into the king's place and say hey, king, I want to have a word with you.

00:58:31.380 --> 00:58:32.764
Off with his head.

00:58:32.764 --> 00:58:39.525
He didn't come in here with an appointment card from Daniel.

00:58:39.525 --> 00:58:48.367
That's what that means In the old days, when a man sat at the gate.

00:58:49.275 --> 00:59:04.865
That was the place where business and affairs and judgments were made, and the man who would be the mayor of the city or the ruler of the city would sit at the gate and hold court If you had a complaint.

00:59:04.865 --> 00:59:08.516
You know, this guy said you know this, hey, I bought.

00:59:08.516 --> 00:59:12.567
I bought two boxes of peaches off this guy and they were rotten.

00:59:12.567 --> 00:59:14.480
I need to, I need you to make a judgment.

00:59:14.480 --> 00:59:23.478
Or I bought, I bought a bag of almonds off this guy and the top was covered with almonds and the whole bag was filled with rocks.

00:59:23.478 --> 00:59:28.427
You know, I want a judgment on.

00:59:28.427 --> 00:59:34.362
Well, that's the kind of position that Daniel had then.

00:59:34.362 --> 00:59:36.389
Daniel was a buffer for the king.

00:59:36.389 --> 00:59:42.664
The fact that Daniel sat at the gate meant that he had the king's authority to make judgments.

00:59:42.664 --> 00:59:49.920
He had the king's authority to establish what was right and what was not right.

00:59:53.347 --> 01:00:00.940
Praise God, hallelujah, glory to Jesus, praise the name of the Lord.

01:00:00.940 --> 01:00:02.224
Praise the name of the Lord.

01:00:02.224 --> 01:00:05.880
So, daniel.

01:00:05.880 --> 01:00:15.394
There are things about Daniel that are amazingly important.

01:00:15.394 --> 01:00:22.117
One of them is that Daniel unveils God through.

01:00:22.157 --> 01:00:26.925
Daniel unveils some amazing prophecies in this book.

01:00:26.925 --> 01:00:28.389
This is one of them.

01:00:28.389 --> 01:00:41.150
He lays out the development of mega nations over the next several hundreds of years.

01:00:41.150 --> 01:00:55.085
In this one prophecy that we're looking at right here, another one he pinpoint precisely, prophesies the day that Jesus is going to enter the city of Jerusalem as the prince and the Messiah.

01:00:55.085 --> 01:01:05.655
Pinpoint, not just a general blah blah, but I mean a pinpoint, just a general blah blah, but I mean a pinpoint.

01:01:05.655 --> 01:01:34.275
Newton used the lunar calendar of the Jews as his measuring stick and could pinpoint the day, because it says that from the day that the king decreed that Jerusalem would be rebuilt, or the temple would be rebuilt, from that day you count so many days and in so many years and so many years.

01:01:34.275 --> 01:01:37.523
That's how we got the formula for the years.

01:01:37.523 --> 01:01:51.206
He calculated how many months that was by the, the lunar, lunar cycle, and he came up with a date that is right there, right when Jesus would have been 33 some years old.

01:01:51.206 --> 01:01:59.085
Glory to God, hallelujah and several other things that Daniel did, like that.

01:01:59.085 --> 01:02:09.777
Amazing prophecies, because God unveiled secrets to him, and this is the going to be the kind of things.

01:02:09.777 --> 01:02:19.677
This, this battle, is not going to be fought in the ballot box, it's not going to be fought on the TV screen, it's not going to be fought in the courts.

01:02:19.677 --> 01:02:26.309
This, this battle is going to be fought in the realm of mighty signs and wonders.

01:02:26.309 --> 01:02:41.804
I mean, we're going to see the next thing we're going to look at in chapter 3, we're not going to go there tonight, but in the next miracle that happens, jesus shows up.

01:02:41.864 --> 01:02:53.338
You want to deal If you're Antichrist and you're trying to promote a major man worship activity based on a 90-foot statue of gold?

01:02:53.338 --> 01:02:57.539
Somebody help me here.

01:02:57.539 --> 01:03:03.563
Do you know what a 90-foot statue of gold would be worth?

01:03:03.563 --> 01:03:07.681
Have you got a clue?

01:03:07.681 --> 01:03:15.945
Do you have any idea how wealthy a nation would be to just be able to waste it on a 90-foot statue?

01:03:15.945 --> 01:03:25.097
I mean, just think of that statue of Houston that's down on I-45 going.

01:03:25.097 --> 01:03:27.143
You know what is it?

01:03:27.143 --> 01:03:35.422
Yeah, it's on I-45, but what's the city where the prison is, huntsville, down around that area?

01:03:35.422 --> 01:03:36.898
It's this huge statue.

01:03:36.898 --> 01:03:38.103
That's what we're talking about.

01:03:38.103 --> 01:03:42.762
Something like that, only probably taller, made out of solid gold.

01:03:42.762 --> 01:03:46.322
It was nine stories high.

01:03:46.322 --> 01:03:50.304
The statue was 90 feet tall.

01:03:50.304 --> 01:03:53.083
That's nine stories high.

01:03:53.083 --> 01:04:00.568
That's one third up the way of the Bass Towers downtown Fort Worth.

01:04:00.568 --> 01:04:08.182
Glory, I mean glory man's huge it was.

01:04:08.182 --> 01:04:11.289
It was 18 to 20 feet wide.

01:04:11.289 --> 01:04:13.757
Somebody had to work.

01:04:13.757 --> 01:04:19.849
I mean they had a lot of people involved over to God.

01:04:19.849 --> 01:04:21.697
Hallelujah.

01:04:22.498 --> 01:04:46.780
If you're gonna, if you're the, if you're the, the one, if you're the one who builds that, and you're going to bring an entire nation to its knees in front of that and Jesus shows up in the fire, what are you going to do?

01:04:46.780 --> 01:04:50.822
What are you going to do?

01:04:50.822 --> 01:04:53.001
And that's what I'm talking about.

01:04:53.001 --> 01:04:54.117
We don't, you know.

01:04:54.117 --> 01:04:56.798
Vote Definitely, go.

01:04:56.798 --> 01:05:00.481
Vote Definitely.

01:05:00.501 --> 01:05:11.289
Do what you're supposed to do, do what you need to do, but understand this that at the end of the day, this battle is going to be won by the mighty works of God.

01:05:11.289 --> 01:05:23.577
This battle, just like always, is going to be determined by the real Christ showing up, hallelujah, and he will show up.

01:05:23.577 --> 01:05:30.016
And he is not showing up to rescue us, he's showing up to win.

01:05:30.016 --> 01:05:36.927
He's not showing up to rescue us and give up, he's showing up to win.

01:05:36.927 --> 01:05:47.643
Hallelujah, praise God, because that is the pattern that we have seen time after time after time after time.

01:05:47.643 --> 01:05:49.201
We're going to see it continue.

01:05:49.201 --> 01:05:50.920
It's going to keep on happening.

01:05:50.920 --> 01:05:57.648
He's going to show up and he shows up to win, amen.

01:05:58.235 --> 01:06:03.746
And he just has that characteristic about him.

01:06:03.746 --> 01:06:04.907
We love it.

01:06:04.907 --> 01:06:08.523
The devil hates it, but I don't care about what he hates.

01:06:08.523 --> 01:06:14.402
I care about what God loves, and God loves to win through the son.

01:06:14.402 --> 01:06:25.744
And Daniel, because he was created with an excellent spirit, had a knowing of that.

01:06:25.744 --> 01:06:46.398
God gave him a knowing that this Jesus, if he kept himself undefiled and allowed himself to step forward in the knowing that God was going to do something.

01:06:46.418 --> 01:07:16.570
I love it that Daniel, just where everybody else, where all of the minions of the Antichrist Were afraid to stick their necks out and even make a guess, daniel said wait a minute, I'll be back in a couple of days with the answer Hadn't even prayed yet, hadn't even.

01:07:16.570 --> 01:07:19.001
What do you think about this God?

01:07:19.001 --> 01:07:19.844
What are we going to do here?

01:07:19.844 --> 01:07:32.945
He knew what God was going to do and because of this, god prophesied to the centuries and gave Daniel a promotion.

01:07:32.945 --> 01:07:35.425
Glory to God.

01:07:35.425 --> 01:07:42.929
Hallelujah, Because what we're studying here is we're not studying a history of the Old Testament.

01:07:45.775 --> 01:07:49.740
Here is we're not studying a history of the Old Testament, we're studying a history of how God moves when his body is under attack.

01:07:49.740 --> 01:08:06.550
If we know these things, then in this hour we can believe, we can call on intercessors, we can form our prayers, we can pray more effectively.

01:08:06.550 --> 01:08:11.143
Listen, read that prayer in chapter two, verse 20, many times.

01:08:11.143 --> 01:08:16.503
Go ahead and read it and see what the confidence that Daniel had in his prayer.

01:08:16.503 --> 01:08:19.091
He wasn't guessing about this.

01:08:19.091 --> 01:08:22.497
He had every confidence that he was going to hear from God.

01:08:22.497 --> 01:08:24.360
He was going to hear precisely from God.

01:08:24.360 --> 01:08:27.404
God was going to speak clearly to him and show him.

01:08:28.447 --> 01:08:47.570
Daniel was centuries ahead, I'm telling you, the magicians, the astrologers and the sorcerers in Babylon were not a bunch of dope crazed hippie quacks.

01:08:47.570 --> 01:08:50.756
They were world-class magicians.

01:08:50.756 --> 01:09:02.207
Their trainees over in Egypt were the kind of people that could put a rod in the Nile River and turn it to blood.

01:09:02.207 --> 01:09:07.471
They were not flunkies.

01:09:07.471 --> 01:09:30.515
These guys were world-class magicians and Daniel was not afraid to take them on and God was not afraid to use Daniel as his instrument.

01:09:30.515 --> 01:09:30.895
Glory to God, daniel.

01:09:30.895 --> 01:09:42.466
I'm telling you, daniel was centuries ahead because he was, he was because he the Bible says he had an excellent spirit, amen.

01:09:42.466 --> 01:09:52.358
He was operating in things that we would come to know as flowing in the spirit After Pentecost.

01:09:52.358 --> 01:09:55.064
He was doing it at our level.

01:09:55.064 --> 01:10:06.750
Amen, that these magicians and sorcerers who were world-class Jezebel and antichrist proficient.

01:10:06.750 --> 01:10:09.037
They couldn't do it.

01:10:09.037 --> 01:10:12.856
Praise God, hallelujah, well.

01:10:12.856 --> 01:10:13.623
Glory to God.