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So now welcome to this third session in a small series of talks on the prophecy of Daniel. When we began, we made ourselves a table of contents, a simple table of contents, and I put it up again here for a short moment on the screen, so that we might really get it into our eyes and on our brains and into our hearts, and if need be, into our bones or wherever you keep your recollections, do you see? Because it is a help to know one's way around the book of Daniel and to know what goes where and what are the contents. And so there you see, in the two lists, chapters one to the end of five. Chapter one begins with the story how Nebuchadnezzar came against Jerusalem, and as well as taking various captives into exile in Babylon, he took some of the vessels from the house of the Lord in Jerusalem and put them eventually in the temple of his God in Babylon. So says chapter one. uh Chapter five, here at the end of the first list, is the story of the banquet that Belshazzar, the vice regent at the time in Babylon, the banquet that he gave to all his lords and ladies. And we're told how that, when he was a little bit tipsy, perhaps, he ordered his servants to go to the temple and take out the vessels from the house of the Lord in Jerusalem that Nebuchadnezzar had put in the temple of his god in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar had done that very reverently. He respected the god of the Jews and would have considered that the god of the Jews had allowed him, uh, to ha- get victory over the Jews, and in honor of that god, he put them, as he thought, honoring god, in the temple of his god in Babylon. But Belshazzar, the vice regent at the time, took those vessels, and to the delighted astonishment of his guests, he did a most shocking thing. He took those golden vessels dedicated to the service of God and drank wine out of them himself. Those vessels were of gold, suitably symbolic in the temple of God at Jerusalem, of gold, saying that the service of God and God himself is the supreme value to which we give our very best. Belshazzar said, fed up, sick and tired of hearing of my, uh, great father Nebuchadnezzar and how he got converted by these Jews. Sick and tired of hearing it, particularly from a queen mother who's always telling me about this and how Nebuchadnezzar got converted. Hm. I'll show you what I regard as my supreme value. Bring those golden vessels. These the supreme value in your court? You, you offer the wine to God and the praise to God. My values are this. And he had them filled with wine, and he drank of them himself. The supreme value was I myself. I live for myself. That is my supreme value. All right. Daniel was called in to interpret the writing that God wrote on Belshazzar's banqueting house wall. We can't study that tonight. Come back another week if you hear- want to hear about that. But, um, that very night, Belshazzar was slain, and Darius the Mede, as he's called, took over the kingdom. So you come down the first list to the end of Babylon, and why God allowed it at that moment to come to its end. On this side, when at last, if ever we do, we come to chapters ten to twelve, they will not only prophesy in detail parts of history that occurred, uh, in the, uh, 2nd century BC, and the persecution of the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes in those terrible years, one hundred and sixty seven to hundred and sixty BC. But with those, uh, with that record, the prophet is inspired to go way and beyond to the end of this age, when there will arise the man of sin with all his blasphemies of the God of heaven. And therefore, this talks about not the end of Babylon merely, but the end of all Gentile authority. The end of this present age as we know it, in the coming of the Son of Man. It is true that on this side, Daniel will record certain visions, certain dreams that he had himself that happened in the time of these earlier kings. But notice the drift, therefore. This is going down not simply to the end of Babylon as this side, but to the end of, uh, our present world as we know it. You will see that the lessons are grouped, and tonight we are, uh, going to concentrate on, uh, this first one here, chapter two, the, uh, image that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream. We, uh, s- started to study that last week, and we must continue it tonight. At the same time, we shall compare it and contrast it with a similar vision on this side of the fence. This was a vision given to Nebuchadnezzar, and Daniel was used of God to expound the significance of the vision to Nebuchadnezzar. Whereas on this side, this was a vision given not to Nebuchadnezzar, but to Daniel privately. That was for his benefit. But as we consider it, we shall see that it covers some of the same ground as this, uh, vision covers. Do you see? This is going to be, uh, uh, the story of Nebuchadnezzar's dream image. So Reggie has very kindly produced us a chart of these facts. Let me put that up for you. We're going this night to think about, uh, chapter two and the great image that, uh, Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream. And the image is made of different materials, gold, silver, bronze, that is really brass, if you like, but bronze, and then iron. And the feet of the image are a mixture of iron and clay, or iron and ceramics, you will see. And to put it briefly, they represent the succession of different world empires from that time of Babylon onward, you'll see. In chapter seven that we shall also think about, there is a vision given to Daniel himself, and that is likewise a vision of a succession of world empires, and they correspond with the empires that are, uh, depicted here in this image. For instance, the head of this image is, uh, said to be Nebuchadnezzar himself. Says Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar, thou art the head of gold. That is Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Here the lion represents Babylon as well. The shoulders here and so forth, representing the Medo-Persian Empire, and they're made of silver. Do you see here, uh, that same empire represented by a bear. Here, the third one, Greece, the Empire of Greece, started by Alexander the Great, uh, do you see, represented by this metal here, uh, brass or or or bronze perhaps. Here, that same empire represented by a leopard. On this side, the l- legs and the feet eventually representing Rome, that the succession of a empire came after Greece, the Grecian Empire, represented here by an amalgam of various kinds of beasts, an utter horror of a beast, you'll see. So this vision covers very much the same as that vision. That raises the question, of course, why do we have two? Why doesn't God content himself with one, you'll see? Now, I suggest that first of all, we read the relevant passage to get the text of the scripture onto our minds. And this is chapter two. to start with. This is the description of the vision that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dreams and which Daniel interpreted for him. We begin in verse thirty one. Thou, O king, sawest and behold a great image. This image, which was mighty, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee, and the aspect thereof was terrible. As for this image, his head was of fine gold, the breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of copper, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and break them in pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the, the, the copper, the silver, and the gold broken in pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them. And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. So much then for the actual vision that, uh, the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had. Now comes the interpretation. This is the dream, says verse thirty six, and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. Thou, O king, art king of kings, unto whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the strength, and the glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and has made thee to rule over them all. Thou art the head of gold. That is, he's represented. The head of gold represents Nebuchadnezzar, emperor of Babylon. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of copper, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron, for as much as iron breaketh in pieces and subdues all things, and as iron that crusheth all these, shall it break in pieces and crush. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potter's clay and part of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, for as much as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. And whereas thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron doth not cleave, uh, mingle with clay. And in those days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall the sovereignty thereof be left to another people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. For as much as thou sawest that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and it did break in pieces the iron, the copper, the clay, the silver, and the gold. The great God has made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter, and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure. So much for Nebuchadnezzar's dream. Now let's read from chapter seven, The same kind of contents, but given to Daniel in rather different form. Do you see? Here we start at chapter seven, verse one. 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 vision by night, and behold, the four winds of the heavens break forth upon the great sea, and four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was like a lion and had eagle's wings. I beheld to the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand upon two feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it. And behold, another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it was raised up on one side, and three ribs were in the mouth between the teeth. And they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh. After this I beheld, and lo, another like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl. The beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions and behold a fourth beast, terrible, powerful, strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth. It devoured and break in pieces and stamp the residue with its feet. And it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. I beheld till thrones were placed, and one that was ancient of days did sit. His raiment was white as snow, and his hair as the head of the of his head like pure wool. His throne was fiery flames, and the wheels thereof burning fire. And a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him. Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. And judgment was set, and the books were opened. I beheld at that time, because of all of the voice of the great words which the horn spake, I beheld even till the beast was slain and his body destroyed, and he was given to be burned with fire. And as for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of heaven one like unto a son of man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom, that which shall not be destroyed. Two visions, therefore, covering the same as topic, but from two distinctly different points of view. So let's, uh, put the, now the two visions side by side. And notice the differences between them. In the first vision, the vision of the succession of Gentile empires, those Gentile empires are likened to a majestic man, magnificent and glorious, gold and silver and bronze and iron. An image so glorious, man writ large, a very big man. So big, it was a little sort of scary, he was so big and so glorious. You'll see. The succession of Gentile empires, like a glorious image of man. When God shows to Daniel a vision of those same empires, look at the difference. They're represented as wild beasts. And why is that? And how do you reconcile the two images, the two, uh, uh, figurative languages? Then notice the trouble with the succession of Gentile empires. The image of the man was marvelously glorious, but it had a fatal weakness in his feet, and he wasn't that old like some of us. You'll see, the weakness was that the feet and the toes were made partly of iron, partly of clay, and they didn't cohere. So the thing was weak in its feet, and therefore the whole thing was unstable. You'll see. The weakness of the, this imperial system. You look the other side. What was wrong with that? Well, not weakness in the fourth division. The fourth division was the very opposite. It was the sheer hideous strength of that final animal in the series that God, in his mercy, had the beast destroyed before it could destroy the rest of humanity. The hideous strength and destructiveness of the thing. Two different views of the same empires. How did this one come to its end? Well, in the dream, as Nebuchadnezzar looked at this tremendous image, and then happened to see a mountain ridge nearby, and the peak of the mountain suddenly lifted off, cut out without hands. It came in his direction and s- hit the image on his feet, smashed the thing to smithereens, so no place was found for it. And then it itself, this stone that smashed the image, grew into a great mountain and filled the earth. Picture, of course, of the kingdom of God in the hands of Christ. You will notice here, as against the fatal weakness, the supernatural power of the kingdom of Christ. You see, when it says the stone was cut out without hands, that is a Hebrew way of saying, or an Aramaic way of saying, indeed, for it's written in Aramaic, that bit. It's a way of saying, not by human power, but by supernatural power. God's answer to man's weakness, the supernatural power of Christ. Notice the other side, how does this lot come to its end? Here the empires are regarded as a beast, described as beasts, the last of which is hideous in its strength and destructiveness. It is destroyed, replaced by what? Well, this is a lovely passage. The ancient of days did sit, that is God, and the wisdom of God, and the books, the rational books of God, as distinct from the animal behavior. And the judgment set, and universal dominion was given to by, to the son of man, the ideal man. Well, that's a beautiful thing, isn't it? I saw the vision, the Son of Man came to the Ancient of Days, and the kingdom was given to him. And I have to tell you, uh, uh, not seeking to flatter you any way or, or swell your heads, but to enlarge your hearts, it was given to the Son of Man and a collection of people called the saints. Mm. Caught up with that yet? To claim to be among them? There were some Christians once in a city called Corinth, and to be honest with you, and to tell a few tales out of school, they weren't too good. And yet, when Paul comes to rebuke them because they were chasing each other to the Gentile courts, they'd fallen out about something, and they prosecuted each other in the Gentile courts, was absolutely a, a, a sl- a shame upon the Christians, you see. And Paul rebuking them says, have you forgotten that the saints shall judge the world? That the saints shall judge angels. If we are believers, born again, members of the body of Christ, we are saints by God's calling. Christ has made unto us sanctification and redemption. And when he comes one day, we shall reign with him. So is the promise. But now what I want to do in a few moments is to look at these, uh, uh, uh, visions and concentrate just for this evening on the imagery of them. Now, of course, those who are skilled in Daniel will point out that, um, these are prophecies of the succession of empires and prophecies of the, um, uh, eventual coming of the kingdom of Of Christ. Christ. What I'm going to say tonight will not in any way contradict that. I too believe that these images are, these visions are both prophecies of what shall be in the last days. In fact, Daniel tells, uh, the king, do you see, uh, God has made known to you by giving you this dream of the image, God has made known to you what is going to happen in the days yet to come. It is a prophecy. So is the vision, the dream given to Daniel of the succession of empires under the figure of beasts, down to the destruction of the final beast and the kingdom handed over to the Son of Man. We should look at that another time, God willing. All I want to do tonight, as well as getting the facts on our heads, is to enjoy with you the imagery. And you say, what on earth do you mean by that? Why bother us with a lot of old beasts? Why can't you tell us what it means and cut out the beasts and just tell us that the first empire is Babylon, and the second one is the Medo-Persians, and the third one is the Greeks, and the fourth one is the Romans? And that's all we need to know about the image and then the coming of Christ, and and the whole thing will be destroyed and he will reign. And those beasts, well, the first beast is Babylon, the second one is Medo-Persia, and the third one are the Greeks, you see, and the fourth are the Romans, and they're going to come to a sticky end, and then Christ shall rule, and this is the prophetic timetable. Why bother about the beasties and the image? Well, to illustrate what I want to do, I'll ask you to remember the stories in the Gospel of John about the miracles of Christ. You remember them offhand tonight? Um, he made the water into wine, miracle, yes? He cured the parali- paralyzed man at the pool of Siloam, yes? And he fed the thousands with the the loaves and fishes. As you say, walked on the sea and gave a man sight, blind man sight, and raised Lazarus and things like that. And the point of those miracles? Well, if I ask you, you'd tell me, wouldn't you? Those miracles were acts of supernatural power to convince you and me that Jesus is the Son of God. That is the point of them. So long as you get that, you don't have to worry about the details. And if I were to say to you, well, what about that wine he made at the wedding? Uh, uh, uh, does that matter? If I were to say to you, no, that, that, the wine, well, he made wine, yes, but that isn't the point of it, you see. It was an act of supernatural power that you believe he's the Son of God. Well, why did he feed the, feed the... Well, you don't need to bother about the feeding of those fish and loaves and things like that. Just get the point that he did a miracle so that you can believe he's the Son of God. I don't think you'd accept that, would you? You would say, yes, they were all a- a- a- acts of supernatural power, but look at the richness of the miracle itself and what that is saying. So yes, these are prophecies of the future, but we're going to think about the imagery, the symbolism of it. And first of all, the image, uh, of the man. Josie. First of all, a picture of Gentile government through the ages. Pictured as a man, magnificently majestic. This is God's own estimate. This is what Nebuchadnezzar was given to see. How God conceives of the great empires that have been. They have been magnificent. We may not know about Babylon, but they were a mighty civilization, weren't they? And to the very present day, they influence us, you know. Irishmen indeed, as well as Englishmen. Of course, Englishmen have been downtrodden by all sorts of people, but, uh, uh, the great free Irish people, even they are influenced by Babylon. You see, the Babylonians, with their knowledge of astronomy and things like that, invented what we call the sexagesimal system, counting in sixties. We count up to a hundred, don't we? So we count in tens, do you see? But the Babylonians counted up to sixty and then they started again. You say that's highly inconvenient, do you see? Mm-hmm. Well, so it might be, but you still do, don't you? How many, um, minutes in an hour with you on your Irish clock? Sixty on the whole. Yeah, not a hundred? Sixty. And how many seconds in each minute? Hundred. No? Sixty. And a whole circle, how many degrees is that? Four hundred. Three hundred. Three hundred and sixty. yes. Ah, I thought so. And a right angle, well, perhaps that's 100. Oh, ninety. Yes, but it's a quarter of a hundred and sixty, isn't it? Still influenced by the Babylonians and their inventions, you'll see. But look at the beautiful head of gold and the silver and the bronze and the iron. Because as we look through history, man's achievement in government has been a magnificent thing, has it not? You, I, I can convince you of it easily. I think you'd be preferring to live in Belfast, even Belfast now, rather than in Darfur, wouldn't Wouldn't you? you? For ideas of government have increased over the years with different forms of government. There have been absolute monarchs like Babylon was, you'll see. There have been people like the Medo-Persians began to get the idea of everybody being subject to law. There was Greece with the copper. Do you see? You think of Greece and what we owe to, to the Greeks. Do you see? Tremendous. They invented every form of literature that we know of today, except about, um, satire maybe, and that's not certain. They were the beginning of the philosophers. They invented the atomic theory. It's a very ancient theory, the atomic. The Greeks invented it. And their government, how Socrates and Plato deliberated about what is the best form of government, and Athens was about the first democracy under the face of the sun. The magnificent achievement of human government, recognized by God. And if you don't believe that, let me quote the New Testament at you. There is no power but of God, of God's ministers. And therefore the early Christians were taught that they must obey even the Roman emperors. Because government is an institution appointed by God. Christians are to pray for the government, that we might live by peaceful lives in all godliness and sobriety. Do you see? There come times when one has to disobey the government, but not try to overturn it. To submit. Thank God for good government. Second notice to de- uh, to Nebuchadnezzar, second lesson. I'm not sure he wanted to hear it. Because Nebuchadnezzar, dear old boy, like anybody that starts an empire, he hopes it will go on forever. And you know, in those far off distant days, people could well have been excused for thinking that their particular form of government would last forever. People get the same view about democracy, you know. It ain't true. Nebuchadnezzar had to be told that his kind of government would not be permanent. It would be succeeded by a different form of government, and that again by another form of government, and again by another form of government. No form of government is permanent. Notice that they are all valuable. Gold is majestic, isn't it? It's a bit soft, gold. Not that I know much about it, of course, don't have any, but, uh, uh, gold is a bit soft, but is majestic, and you must admit old Nebuchadnezzar was a kind of a majestic king, was the great beautifier of Babylon, he was. Mm-hmm. Medo-Persia was of silver, still valuable. Copper was an invention, of course. Uh, uh, and uh, uh, uh, as they refined the copper, brass is a mixture of copper and tin, but the copper, as they mined it and then formed it, is one of, marks one of the ages of advance, so that the archaeologists, when they dig up an old settlement, can uh, uh, uh, divide the history of it into the different ages, the uh, copper age and then the iron age, you'll see. Iron is not so glorious as the gold. It's a good deal more, uh, solid and hard and durable, and therefore more powerful. So each of them had its value. None of them was permanent. And you'll say, well, where does democracy come into that lot? Well, people say that the, uh, the legs here were Rome, but Rome eventually was a big democracy. It was a republic, wasn't it? Sometimes people forget that. It was a republic. The Senate and the people of Rome was a republic. It didn't last. It went down in a bloodbath, and in its place, Augustus set up the big Roman Empire. He still had a bit of democracy about it, but it was the emperor was the big chief guy in the end and overruled it. Do you see? We need to get hold of it, ladies and gentlemen. Some of our friends in distant countries that you could get at if you went west seem to have the impression that democracy is so much the best of any kind, it has to be imposed by force upon other people. That's not true. Perhaps democracy is the best form of government in this fallen world. But look at the weakness. The two lots, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men. That is the govern- the governing people and the governed. And there lies the weakness. Do you know, I'm nowhere near so glorious as that image, so don't keep looking at me. But I don't, I have my moments, you see. And when it comes to governing myself, pooh, you should see the strength of my determination. I say, Gooding, now you're going not to do that anymore. Do you see? And Gooding kicks his heel and says, righto, and a- and that you will do. Mm-hmm. That's the ruler in me. But I do have a very serious weakness. I share it with the Apostle Paul, actually. He found it out too. The good I would do, I don't do. And the evil I didn't want to do, that I do. The The fatal fatal wi- weakness in the human heart. It reflects itself, of course, in the government, doesn't it? The government laid down the laws, but there's a lot of folks don't want to obey them. The government lays down the laws and itself breaks them. For corruption in government is widespread round this earth. You say, is any of these going to be the solution, the final solution? No. Because of the weakness of the thing. Fatal weakness. The governed and the governed don't agree, and in the end they tear each other to pieces. There is no hope for our world ultimately, but the reign of our blessed Lord and his kingdom. And of course, you know the basic condition for entering his kingdom at all is this, except a man be born of water and the spirit, he shall not enter the kingdom of God. Therein will lie the success, and already begins to show itself, the government of Christ. Yes? Agreed so far? Oh, when he shall come, his kingdom shall be forever, not like these temporary ones. His kingdom shall be forever. It's based on that law. You see the image was smashed by the stone cut out without hands. It's supernatural power. We have to be born again to enter the kingdom by the power of God's Holy Spirit. Yes. One day Christ shall come, and he shall reign, and his reign shall never be destroyed. It is based, of course, on that supernatural power. As to the stone cut out without hands, our blessed Lord referred to it in the, uh, gospel by Luke, to say, he said, this is the stone that was rejected of the builders, a stone of stumbling. Everyone that stumbles over this stone shall, uh, uh, uh, be broken. On whomsoever that stone shall fall, it will grind him to powder. We have to learn nowadays to come and be reconciled to Christ, don't we? To receive Christ as Lord and Savior, to be born of his spirit and enter into his kingdom. Some people stumble at the rock of offense, which is Christ, says Peter. But the world needs to be warned that when Christ comes again in judgment, at the end of the age, on whomsoever he falls, he will grind it to pieces. Human government then, in its majestic ex- aspect, but its fatal weakness, and the answer is the supernatural power of Christ. Let's briefly go over to the other side, and what about this? You say it seems to contradict the first one. Well, in a way it does, but it's the other side of the story. Human government represented by wild beasts. You see? Now let me tell you a thing about wild beasts. Ha ha. I was in Kenya once upon a time, and as a reward for my little efforts, the then missionary, he was a very good hunter, and he took me down to one of the, um, whatnot, the reserve parts in those, uh, part of Kenya, you see, the great game park, you see, and took me out in his kind of a Land Rover thing to see the beasts. And we ended up, well, not we ended up, but we came across early in the morning a lion. And, you know, the thing was only about the distance of that second lot of seats from the Land Rover. And, uh, there it was. Nice, big, nice lion, benign looking, and his whiskers happy, and it it it just had it. He had a a a a a giraffe to see for breakfast, well, most of it, and it was there very content and beautiful, you see. Uh, we were very near it. I put up the window because I didn't like that. Well, I said to myself, you mustn't catch his breath because that would be bad, but I put up the window, you see, because I I I I didn't want him to think he he needed some more breakfast. Because lions are like that, you know? Uh, when they had enough breakfast, they're very peaceable, and even the little deer can come and walk among them, and the deer are not afraid. But when the lion gets hungry, if you should happen to be there and you represent a good breakfast to him, he has no compunction whatsoever. He would take you. Eat the lot of you, and enjoy himself and think he'd had a good meal, does he? Animals have no moral conscience. They are bundles of power, but they are perfectly amoral. That is without morality. That's what animals are. I was in America once. Don't tell Josh when he comes back, but I was in America once, and they'd asked me to talk about Daniel, and I made the point that this was years ago, you see, before Mr. Bush Senior got going, and I said, you know, if America ran out of oil and you had oil. You know what America would do, don't you? It must have oil. It might well come and take it. And you know some of my American Christian friends, they're very tolerant of most things, but that they felt they couldn't really stomach. And then came Master What's His Name, and it was the question of the oil fields in the end. And Mr. Bush Senior sent the army in, didn't he? Governments, in the end, are amoral. We've had an instance, haven't we, in recent history. There's a big firm in England that makes fighter jets and other such ballistic missiles. Now, the law of the land is you mustn't, you're not supposed to bribe anybody to buy your goods. That's called corruption. But this firm did a little deal with Saudi Arabia to buy these aforesaid jet fighter things and other implements. And you know what? They stalled a bit. And the big firm saw what was needed, a gift of about ten million to one of the Saudi princes. And there was a little bit of a storm in the British Parliament, but that was fully illegal to do, and it must be investigated whether this firm had, uh, paid a bribe like that, and this is illegal. And so the investigation began, but then the Prime Minister stopped it, didn't he? Why? Because it wouldn't be in the interests of the nation to have it exposed. Government act in the interests of the nation, morally if they can. They're a little bit like the lion, aren't they? If they need the food, if they need the resources, they're going to have it anyway. In the interests, as they say, of the nation. We should remember it. Hm. But there's an interesting little bit about this lion. You know, his wings were clipped, and he was made to stand up on his hind legs. Well, that's an approach toward being a man, isn't it? And what a, a man's heart was given him. Very good. It's talking about Nebuchadnezzar, of course. And do you remember how he got converted? Well, we shall come across that later, God willing. He got converted to God, and a proper heart given him. So this lion got up on his hind legs, and the heart was given it, the human heart. And you know, ladies and gentlemen, the governments of this world, or at least in our part of it, have become more humane, have they not? Well, you're not old enough to know, none of you here. But I remember the time when in my hometown you could see little children walking around with just one vest on and in their bare feet. When if you wanted to go to hospital, you had to pay ten te- tuppence a week to be in the club, and if you couldn't pay it, you couldn't go. The poverty was alarming. In those days, in the, in between the two world, wor- world wars, the recession was so bad that in Wales some men were out of work for ten years on, and got no benefit from any government. You go back in the history of the mill owners in Britain, when the work dried up, the workers had no work. The men took opium to dull the hunger pains, so that what bread they had could be given to their wives and families. We won't find it now. The government, at least in Britain, has become more humanized, more humane in its attitude. You say, well, there is hope if we last long enough. Professor Dawkins thinks so, if we last long enough, that we shall arrive at being moderately perfect. That will be the answer. No, it won't, says God. Have a look at these. This last one? An amalgam of every kind of beast you could imagine, nearly, and wild at that. And he tore in pieces. There, uh, came up this little horn, the predominant horn that controlled all the rest. And it is said that he had eyes in the horns. Well, now an a- an eye is the sign of intelligence, and this beast managed to coalesce the eyes of a man and the strength of a beast. Well, if it ever happened, I don't know whether the scientists would get that far of being an translate and have, uh, uh, you see, a mixture of human in lions. Who knows? But if you mark, it it wasn't given the heart of a man, like the first one, but the intelligence of a man. And if you rate intelligence of man for almost limitless power, what will happen? Well, we scarce need to be reminded in our century, do we? Of the gigantic power now possessed by humans in the atomic mechanisms, and the first use they applied, the splitting of the atom to was what? This beast will think to change the times and the laws. He won't let himself be bounded by the natural laws of life. He want to create man in his own image and control who shall be born and what kind of people shall be born. His power of destruction will be so big that God, in his mercy, to save the human race, will destroy it, there will be put in place the kingdom of Christ, of course. But now it's not pictured the kingdom of Christ as a stone cut out without hands and supernatural power. The kingdom of Christ that shall supersede this, it's not denying his deity, but it's called the Son of Man. The ideal, beautiful, sinless, wonderful Jesus Christ our Lord. The Son of Man. It was to that prophecy that our Lord referred when he stood before his judges. They were animals, weren't they? They were intent on pulling him to pieces and were about to nail him to a cross. Wild animals. Some of them dressed up in priests' robes. And our Lord reminded them, they said, are you the Christ? He said, you'll see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven and seated at the right hand of God. The blessed Lord, butchered by the government of this world, is the Lamb, the Son of Man, that shall reign from shore to shore. All the blessedness that is and shall be to be in his benign kingdom. So I tried to make sense of the imagery. Yes, these are prophetic things. We shall have to consider the implications of the prophecy, particularly for the establishment of the kingdom of Christ on another occasion. But let us profit from the visions that God gave first to Nebuchadnezzar and then to Daniel, because the terms of the vision, the symbolism, is a very important part of the message. Shall we pray? Our Father, thou hast not treated us as slaves and servants, because a slave knows not what his master's purposes are. We bless thee, Lord Jesus, for saying, I treated you as friends, and the Holy Spirit, whom I will send, will tell you of things to come. So we thank thee for thy book, these visions given in those far off days, still relevant. They lead our hearts to thy solution of all Earth's problems. And at the end of our thinking this evening, we thank thee for Jesus Christ, our Lord, that amidst all the turmoil of Earth, we have come to know him, put our faith in him, by his grace and power have been born again and are already part of his kingdom, and look forward with joyful anticipation to the time when Jesus comes again. We thank thee that then there shall be peace. There can be no final peace until he come. And therefore, Lord Jesus, as we hear thy word to our hearts this evening, surely I come quickly. We make our response, each one before thee now in these moments, to thy promised coming, and we say in thine ear, even so, Lord, come quickly. And so we thank thee for thy word. Help us to understand it, give us wisdom to apply it, and live in the light of it for thy glory, for thy name's sake. Amen.