Why is our nation in such an uproar over Christianity? (Daniel7)- Kay Arthur

PRECEPTS FOR LIFE

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The following is an actual transcript of the PRECEPTS FOR LIFE Broadcast. For the purpose of filling transcript requests quickly, they have received only light editing. If you have questions concerning the material covered in this broadcast, Kay has published a number of books explaining the Scripture in depth. These books may be ordered by contacting the telephone number or address printed above.

 

          

OPEN 

Why is our nation in such an uproar over Christianity? Why are they so adamantly, adamantly opposed to anything that is Christian? Why do they forbid us to have the Ten Commandments in courts of law? Why do they forbid crèches, ah, manger scenes in public places? Why are the nations in an uproar? We’ll talk about it today. 

 

PART ONE

I left you hanging in that last program, didn’t I? And I want us to go immediately to Daniel, chapter 2, because what I want us to do is to go back and understand and get all the details of this dream that Nebuchadnezzar dreamed, because it has to do with the end of the days. It has to do with time that is yet to come. You say, well how do you know that? Well, has the God of heaven set up a kingdom and has He removed every other kingdom on the face of this earth? No He hasn’t. And that’s what that dream says will happen. So because that hasn’t literally happened then we know that it either ain’t going to happen or it’s future.

And because it’s in God’s Word, I can tell you this: it is going to happen it, believe it or not. You say I don’t believe it and I don’t see how it can come to pass. Whether you think it’s going to happen or not, whether you believe it or not, it is going to happen because it’s the Word of God, because so many prophesies, 333 prophesies about the first coming of Jesus Christ came to pass. I mean, in detail, where He would be born, when He would be born, and Daniel has something to say about His coming. And we’re going to look at it. But you and I need to understand these details. This is so that we are not tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine.

So let’s go to the book of Daniel. And let’s go to Daniel, chapter 2. Now we’re looking at the interpretation of this dream that Nebuchadnezzar had of a huge statue that stood before him with a head of gold, a chest of silver. That’s right: a belly and thighs of, bronze, right, and legs of iron and feet of iron and clay. All right and it talks about the toes on the feet. How many toes are on feet, normally? It’s five on each foot, so there’s ten toes. So we saw this.

All right, now this is what I want you to do if you haven’t done it already: In your study guide you have, you’ve either downloaded that study guide or you’ve picked up the phone. You’ve called our 800-number and you’ve gotten it. You have a picture of that statue. All right and out to the right hand side as you look at it, there’s a place for you to write what you learn about the statue.

All right, so you have learned that the head of gold is Nebuchadnezzar who is the king of Babylon. So you want to put Babylon there. So the head of gold is king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. All right, does it tell you what the chest of silver is? No. All it tells you is that this chest of silver is inferior to the gold. All right and that’s all it tells you. Now when you look at that chest, you’ve got two arms, you know, attached to the chest. That’s where our two arms are attached. All right, then you come down to the belly. So below the belt, down to the thighs you have bronze.

Now, let’s see what he says about this because I want you to do it on your chart. And this is important for you to do it, not just listen, because the doing of it is part of the process of learning. The minute that you act on something, the minute that you say something, do something, write something, it helps you retain it. Just hearing normally, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, when we hear something we lose 90% of what we simply hear. But the minute we see it, the minute that we interact with it in some way, draw it, write it or whatever, then our retention goes up tremendously.

All right, so this is what it says in verse 39: After you, speaking to Nebuchadnezzar, there will arise another kingdom inferior to you, then, and you want to mark the after and the then with a time clock, then another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth. All right, so the head of gold, we know that’s Babylon. We know now that that’s number one. We know that it’s number one because he’s just told us that there’s a number three. So go back and next to that line where you have Babylon, put number one. Next to silver put number two.

Next to bronze put number three. Okay, because he has started numbering them. All right, next to the bronze, underneath it we know that the bonze kingdom will rule over all the earth. Okay, that’s all we know about it. All right, and then it says verse 4, there will be a fourth kingdom. The then implies a sequence of time and there’s a fourth kingdom. So this is by the legs and by the feet. All right, as strong as iron, as iron crushes and shatters all things so that like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces. These what? These other three. All right, so you want to put fourth kingdom next to the iron.

You want to put iron because he hasn’t told us who it is. All right, so we just know it’s Babylon, silver, bronze and iron. And then underneath that you want to put down that it is going to crush and shatter all these. It’s going to crush and shatter number one, two and three. All right, now, let’s go on and see what it says, verse 41: In that you saw the feet and toes, which are part of this fourth kingdom, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom. Okay, so what you want to put down under this fourth kingdom of the stats that you’re putting down so that you eventually will understand what this is; it’s a divided kingdom.

Now stop and think. It’s a statue we’re looking at, not the head of the statue, which is one head. We’re not looking at the chest of the statue, which is one chest with two arms attached to it. We’re not looking at the belly and the thighs of the statue. We’re looking at the legs of the statue. So there it’s divided into two, but then the toes divide it even more. It’s, so it’s a divided kingdom. It ends up being a divided kingdom of ten toes.

All right, so it is a divided kingdom and you know that it’s a divided kingdom at that point because he’s talking about the toes, the toes that are partly clay and partly iron. It will be a divided kingdom. But will, it will have in it the toughness of iron in as much as you saw the iron mixed with common clay. So it’s a divided kingdom; it’s partly clay and it’s partly iron, but it is still tough. It is still tough because it has the iron in the toes.

All right, now he’s going to give us another detail. It says and as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle. So here is a kingdom that is divided into ten segments. Part of it is strong and part of it is brittle. It goes on to say, and in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men.

All right now, what does it mean that they will be combined together in the seed of men? We know that it’s ten. It’s part of a kingdom, so there’s going to be some sort of a federation here. That federation will be in the seed of men, so all we know is that it is going to come between men or with men. And so you’ve got human people behind these kingdoms obviously. You always do. And it’s combining together in the seed of men. But they will not adhere to one another, one another.

Now if you can just imagine taking your hands and spreading out your fingers so that you’ve got ten fingers in front of you, and imagine them to be toes. All right here they are, part iron, part clay, but they’re not combining with one another. It’s not as if you closed all your fingers and hooked your two hands together so that it’s, it’s like one unit. He’s saying that this is a federation. Part of it’s strong. Part of it is brittle or weak and they’ve combined together in the seed of men, they’ve, they’ve united together and yet they are not going to adhere to one another. In other words they’re going to be independent. They’ve united themselves in this fourth kingdom and yet they’re retaining their independence. It says even as iron does not combine with pottery.

Okay, now verse 44: And in the days of those kings. So when he’s talking about these ten toes he’s talking about these kings, these ten kings, these ten kings that are in the seed of men, these ten kings that are in a federation, these ten that make up a fourth kingdom, but are not really adhering to one another, but they’re in this federation. In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom, which will never be destroyed. Do you realize what you have just read? You may not understand it. You may wonder what is the second and the third and the fourth kingdom. And I will tell you this: Daniel’s going to let you know.

Daniel’s going to let you know. I’m not going to tell you and you may have heard, as I said before, you may have heard what it is, but let’s just wait and see. Let’s just take what God gives us. Let’s take the things that He gives us, the things that He makes clear and go with those until He makes more, makes it clearer and clearer to us. But this is what you know: You know one fact, absolute fact for certain and what is it? I’m going to tell you after this announcement. 

 

PART TWO

Daniel, chapter 2:44 to me is one of the most incredible verses because it tells you what it’s going to be like in the world when the God of heaven sets up His kingdom, which will never be destroyed. In the days of those kings the God of heaven, and you would want to mark all these references to God.

The God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it, God’s kingdom will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it, God’s kingdom will itself endure forever. Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future; so the dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.

He says I’ve told you the dream; I’ve told you the interpretation and it’s trustworthy. It is going to come to pass. It won’t come to pass tomorrow, obviously, but it is going to come to pass. He has told you how many major kingdoms there will be.

And he has told you what’s going to happen to all those kingdoms when the God of heaven sets up His kingdom. He has told you that that stone which is cut without hands out of a mountain and crushes the statue. And where does it crush the statue? That’s important. Does it crush it in its side? No, it doesn’t say that. Does it crush it in its head? No, it doesn’t say that. It crushes it in its feet because that’s when the God of heaven is going to set up His kingdom, in the days of those kings, in the days of those ten toes. And you’re going to have to think about this. And you’re going to have to read it.

And you read it and you don’t add anything to it. You let the text say what it says. And you can know this that what Daniel told was true and the interpretation was trustworthy and it is God that is doing it. It says then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and did homage to Daniel, and gave orders to present to him an offering and fragrant incense. And the king answered Daniel and said, surely your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, since you have been able to reveal this mystery. Now listen to what Nebuchadnezzar is now saying about God. Look at how God is working in Nebuchadnezzar’s life.

And you’re going to see it more and more as we progress through the book of Daniel. It’s awesome. God takes this king, uses him as a rod of judgment and this is what Jeremiah says, to judge God’s holy people, to judge God’s holy nation because they did not obey God, and so God is bringing the fruit of their ways on them just like He said in the end of Deuteronomy, I will bless you if you will obey Me; I will curse you if you disobey Me.

If you disobey Me I will bring someone down from the north; I will take you captive, and this exactly what happened. But in that captivity you see the grace of God because there was a young man by the name of Daniel, a young man who had God’s hand on him, a young man who knew his God, a young man who is now being used of God and not instantly, but in a progress of time to bring Nebuchadnezzar to a deeper knowledge and understanding of who God is. And he says surely your God is a God of gods and a king, a Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries since you have been able to reveal this mystery. Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many gifts, and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon.

And Daniel made request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego over the administration of the province of Babylon, while Daniel was at the king’s court. In other words Daniel did not forget these three faithful Jewish friends. And he brought them in under him to rule over the province of Babylon.

So Daniel stayed at the king’s court and Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego were out there ruling over the province of Babylon. Now if you read the history books you know that, that our nation just turned against God. You know that from the 1970’s on nothing was the same in the United States of America because we began to believe that this Bible was not the Word of God. It only contained the Word of God.

And the seminaries began to preach that instead of preaching it as absolute truth. You remember that we had the feminist movement. You remember that this was a time of great change. And from that period of our history we began to go downhill morally. We were prosperous and we thought we were fine and in our prosperity we became more and more decadent in our morals. Why are the nations roaring?

Well, in Psalm 2 God tells us what’s going to happen. And in Psalm 2 He gives us an awesome prophetic psalm. Why are the nations in an uproar, and the people devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed. His Anointed is His Son. Let us tear their fetters apart, and cast away their cords from us! Listen, they are binding us up with these Ten Commandments.

They are binding us up with this talk about Jesus and that, and we don’t’ want these things around us. Get rid of those fetters. Get rid of those cords. He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them.

Then He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury: But as for Me, listen, God says I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain. The King is coming. He says I will surely tell the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, Thou art My Son, today have I begotten Thee. Ask of Me, and I will surely give You the nations as Your inheritance. This is the Father speaking to the Son.

The Son is Jesus. The Son is the coming King, and the very ends of the earth as Thy possession. Thou shall break them with a rod of iron and Thou shall shatter them like earthenware. What’s that last kingdom like? Iron and earthenware.

And He is going to break them with His rod of iron and shatter them like earthenware. Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; shape up, you rulers of these nations.

Take warning O judges of the earth that are making decisions that are not of God, not of justice, but according to, to the way you view life, according to your philosophy. Take warning O judges of the earth when you cast decisions because there is a judge over you and that judge over you will hold you accountable. Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, lest He become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath will soon be kindled.

How blessed are those who take refuge in Him. He is coming. Jesus is coming. And He is coming as the God Man. God, one with the Father and man, the Son of Man. So what are you and I to do now? You and I are to kiss the Son; we are to bow before Him. We are to give Him the reverence due Him. We are to live for Him and we are to remember that the nations may roar, but the day is coming when they will be crushed and shattered and only One will reign and that is the one and true living God.

Oh beloved, kiss the Son; He’s the King.

Michael James Stone

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