(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 Wonderful singing. Let's start off our service with a word of prayer. Dear Lord God, Heavenly Father, I thank you for giving us this day, giving us this opportunity to come to your house, Lord, and to hear the preaching of your word, to have a fellowship here with your brethren. And I thank you for the souls that were saved this afternoon, Lord. And I ask that you please just bless this service now. Bless the singing. Bless the music, Lord, that would be pleasing unto your ears. And I pray that you please bless Pastor Mahiel with your spirit, give him boldness as he preaches, and fill him with your spirit as he preaches that he may impart wisdom unto us, Lord, and fill us also with your spirit that we may be attentive to that which is preached and that we may apply it on our lives. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Go ahead and turn to song number 255. Song number 255, Come and Dine. Song number 255. All together on that first. Jesus has a table spread Where the saints of God are fed He invites his chosen people, Come and dine With his manna he defeat And supplies our every need Oh, to sweet yourself with Jesus all the time Come and dine, O master, call him, Come and dine You may feast at Jesus' table all the time He who fed them all the tomb Turn the water into wine To a hum we call it now, Come and dine But if cycles came to plan How so vain Christ's command For the masses roll unto them, Come and dine They have their hearts desire Bread and fish upon the fire The sea satisfies the hungry all the time Come and dine, O master, call him, Come and dine You may feast at Jesus' table all the time He who fed them all the tomb Turn the water into wine To a hum we call it now, Come and dine Soon the lamb will take his pride To be ever at his side All the hosts of heaven will assemble be Oh, twirl thee and blow his sight All the saints bought this wine And the Jesus they will feast eternally Come and dine, O master, call him, Come and dine You may feast at Jesus' table all the time He who fed them all the tomb Turn the water into wine To a hum we call it now, Come and dine All right, great singing. Thank you so much for being here this evening. Welcome to First Works Baptist Church. If you did not get a bulletin, go ahead and raise your hand. And one of the extras came, we'll get one for you. And there's also, there should be a sheet along with that for the summer family nights. Our services are as follows. Sunday morning is at 1030. Sunday evening is at 5 p.m. And then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock. Forgot to mention 156 for the next song. Jesus is the sweetest name I know. Song number 156 if you want to get that ready in your songbooks. You see the so many times, the list of expecting mothers, and the important reminders there. There was a baby shower today for Miss Stevie. It looked like everything went well. And so thank you so much for being a part of that. Sunday, July 4th, and of course thank you Miss DJ and your mom for heading that up. Sunday, July 4th is the birthday breakfast. And then along with that on that Sunday night, there will be a 4th of July barbecue. Hope you can stick around and eat some dinner with us and fellowship. July 15th through the 18th is the Red Hot Preaching Conference. We have a men's prayer meeting coming up July 30th at Brother Hikes' house at 630. There will be dinner provided. And then Sunday, August 1st of course is the August birthday breakfast. For the summer family nights, we're going to just do four weeks of just different things throughout the month of July. As I mentioned, the 4th of July barbecue will be on that Sunday evening. And if you have to be somewhere, go watch Illegal Fireworks or something like that. Or go do the Illegal Fireworks, you know. I completely understand. But we will have a barbecue here. And so looking forward to having you here. July 11th, the following week we're going to have a smoothie contest. Winners will receive a Lucille's gift card. First place $100, second place $50, third place $20. And please see my wife for the requirements on that. Of course it has to taste good, it has to be a smoothie. You can't purchase it from anywhere else and it has to look good and all that. But you can see my wife for more details about that. And then on the 18th, there will be a sports night at Eucalyptus Park. Dinner will be provided. And so bring your kids, there's a place for kids to play. There's basketball courts. For all the Mexicans, there's a soccer field. No, I'm just kidding. And there's also, we could do football too, okay. And then there's a baseball field as well. July 25th, we have the men's preaching night. There will be about four men preaching that evening. And so looking forward to that. And there will be ice cream after the service as well. And so hope you could be there for all the evenings for the summer family nights. It's gonna be great. Looking forward to it. At this time, let's go ahead and take some soul winning numbers for the week. Let's take some soul winning numbers from Monday, from last Monday up until Thursday. Yes. Two, okay. Anybody else? Anybody else? How about Friday and Saturday? Yes. One. Two. Anybody else? Yes. One for Brother Glenn's team. Three. One for Brother Cody. Four for Brother Huyck. Where at, Brother Huyck? Over there. Okay, great. In your area or what? Okay, cool. Anybody else for Friday and Saturday? How about Sunday afternoon? Sunday afternoon, Brother Mark? One for Brother Mark's team. Brother Paul? Three. Brother Huyck? One for Brother Huyck's team. Brother Maury. Two for Brother Maury's team. One for Brother Marcus's team. Anybody else? Going once, twice, thrice. And of course we had the baptism this morning. And so thank God for that. Keep up the great work on soul winning. Let's go ahead and sing our next song, 156. Jesus is the sweetest name I know. Song number 156. Song number 156. All together on that first verse. There have been names that I have loved to hear. But never has there been a name so dear. To this heart of mine as the name divine. The precious, precious name of Jesus. Jesus is the sweetest name I know. And He's just the same as His lovely name. And that's the reason why I love Him so. Oh, Jesus is the sweetest name I know. There is no name in earth or heaven above. That place should give such honor and such love. As the blessed name, let us all acclaim. That wondrous, glorious name of Jesus. Jesus is the sweetest name I know. And He's just the same as His lovely name. And that's the reason why I love Him so. Oh, Jesus is the sweetest name I know. And someday I shall see Him face to face. To thank and praise Him for His wondrous grace. Which He gave to me when He made me free. The blessed Son of God called Jesus. Jesus is the sweetest name I know. And He's just the same as His lovely name. And that's the reason why I love Him so. Oh, Jesus is the sweetest name I know. Amen. Wonderful singing. At this time the ushers will come forth to collect the offering. And you may turn in your Bibles to Daniel chapter number two. Daniel chapter number two. Daniel chapter number two. Daniel chapter number two. Tonight we're in Daniel chapter number two. Daniel chapter two and the Bible reads, And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled and his sleep break from him. Then the king commanded to call the magicians and the astrologers and the sorcerers and the Chaldeans for to show the king his dreams. So they came and said, So they came and stood before the king. The king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream and my spirit was troubled to know the dream. Then spake the Chaldeans to the king of Syriac, O king, live forever, till thy servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation. The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me. If ye will not make known unto me the dream with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces and your houses shall be made a dung hill. But if ye show the dream and the interpretation thereof, ye shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great honor. Therefore show me the dream and the interpretation thereof. They answered again and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation of it. The king answered and said, I know of certainty that ye would gain the time because ye see the thing is gone from me. But if ye will not make known unto me the dream, there is but one decree for you. If ye have prepared line and corrupt words to speak before me till the time be changed, therefore tell me the dream and I shall know that ye can show me the interpretation thereof. The Chaldeans answered before the king and said, There is not a man upon the earth that could show the king's matter. Therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler that asks such things at any magician or astrologer or Chaldeans. And it is a rare thing that the king requireth, and there is none other that can show it before the king, except the gods whose dwelling is not with flesh. For this cause the king was angry and very furious and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain, and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain. Then Daniel answered the counsel and wisdom to Arioch, the captain of the king's guards, which was gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon. He answered and said to Arioch, the king's captain, Why is the decree so hasty from the king? Then Arioch made the thing known unto Daniel. Then Daniel went in and desired of the king that he would give him time and that he would show the king the interpretation. Then Daniel went to his house and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Ariziah, his companions, that they would desire mercies of the gods, concerning this secret that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in the night vision. Then Daniel blessed the god of heaven. Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are his. And he changeth the times and seasons, he removeth kings and seteth up kings, he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that no understanding. He revealed the deep and secret things he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him. I thank thee and praise thee, O thou god of my fathers, who hath given me wisdom and might, and has made known unto me now what we desired of thee, for thou has now made known unto us the king's matter. Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus unto him, Destroy not the wise men of Babylon, bring me in before the king, and I will show unto the king the interpretation. Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and thus said unto him, I have found a man of the captains of Judah that will make known unto the king the interpretation. The king answered and said to Daniel, Whose name was Belshazzar? Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen in the interpretation thereof? Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, show unto the king. But there is a god in heaven that reveal the secrets and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream and the visions of thy head upon thy bed are these. As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into my mind upon thy bed what should come to pass hereafter, and he that reveal the secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to thee. But as for me, the secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart. Thou, O king, sawest and behold a great image, this image whose brightness was excellent stood before thee and the form thereof was terrible. This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of grass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Now sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands which smote the image upon his feet that were the iron and clay and break them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken to pieces together. It became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors and the wind carried them away and no place was found for them. And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. This is the dream that we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. Thou, O king, art a king of kings, for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength and glory. And wheresoever the children of Mendual, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven, hath he given into thine hand and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold, and after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee and another third kingdom of brass which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, for as much as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueeth all things, and as iron that breaketh all these shall it break in pieces and bruise. Whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, parts of potter's clay and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided, but there shall be in it for 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 clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken. 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 is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to the other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. For as much as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it break in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter, and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure. Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and worshiped Daniel and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odors unto him. The king answered unto Daniel and said, Of truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret. Then the king made Daniel a great man and gave him many gifts, great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and the chief of the governors over the wise men of Babylon. Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon, but Daniel sat in the gate of the king. Let's pray. Dear Lord God, Heavenly Father, just thank you for this time we have to hear your word, Lord, and I pray right now that you give Pastor Mejia boldness and fill him with your Holy Spirit and just bless the service we have and give the congregation here ears to hear and pray that you bless this whole service and we pray this all in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Okay, we're in Daniel chapter number 2. Look down at your Bibles at verse number 30. It says, But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom, that I have more than any living, but for their sakes, that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart. Thou, O king, sawest and behold a great image, this great image whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee, and the form thereof was terrible. And this evening I'm gonna preach a sermon on Nebuchadnezzar's great image, Nebuchadnezzar's great image, or the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had. And I'm gonna explain to you what this is and we're gonna get a little bit into some Bible prophecy tonight. So you're gonna have to work hard at paying attention to the teaching tonight because a lot of it is just a lot of information but it's important for us to know these things. Not every sermon can be a banger on reprobates or stuff like that. Sometimes we gotta talk about just these things here that may not be as interesting, but it is in the Bible, therefore we should learn it. And if you think about it, a lot of this has significance to our lives today and even the end times. So it's important for you to know this. So we're gonna talk about Nebuchadnezzar's great image and more specifically the dream that he has, what it means and why God gave Nebuchadnezzar the dream of the image. Now, here in Daniel chapter number two, we have the famous story of Nebuchadnezzar receiving this dream. He can't interpret it. He doesn't even remember what the dream was about. And he calls on all the astrologers and the soothsayers and the wise men of the land to interpret the dream for him. They come and they basically say, well, come on, give us something to work with. Tell us what your dream was and we'll be able to interpret it for you. And he's like, I don't remember it. I don't remember the dream. I want you to tell me what I dreamed and the interpretation thereof. And they're basically at their wits end saying, well, we don't know how to do that. You're gonna have to tell us what it is so we can interpret it. And he's basically saying, you're trying to waste my time because if I tell you what the dream is, you can just make up an interpretation based upon what's being revealed. So obviously, you know, you guys don't know what you're talking about. Of course, I'm just kind of condensing it here. And Nebuchadnezzar, he's kind of, you know, he's got a short fuse, okay? He's like, if no one can answer this, I'm just gonna kill every single one of you, okay? And we'll find someone who does. He's just like, I'm just gonna make you a dunghill. I'm gonna destroy you all. All the wise men are just gonna die because you guys can't interpret this dream that I had. Well, this gets to Daniel, Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego. Daniel hears about this, and he sees that Arioch, who's the man deputized to put these people to death, he finds out that he's gonna be killing them. And Daniel intercedes and basically says, give us some time. Let us talk to the God of heaven who reveals all these secrets, and I'll be able to interpret it for you. So they receive a little bit of mercy, a little bit of time to be able to pray and ask the God of heaven, what is the interpretation thereof? God reveals it to Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He comes to Nebuchadnezzar, and he not only gives the interpretation, but he actually explains to Nebuchadnezzar what the dream was. And when you look at it, you see this is a pretty graphic, very detailed and terrible dream that Nebuchadnezzar is receiving here with this great image, okay? Look down at your Bibles at verse 32. Let's look at his dream, and of course we know that the dream has prophetic significance to it, right? It's prophetic, God is revealing to Nebuchadnezzar what's going to take place in the end times and really the foundation of this system of Babylon, okay? Because really this image that he sees is representative of those four kingdoms that really will make up the spirit of Babylon that's going to be revealed in the end times. And he decides to reveal this to Nebuchadnezzar. Look at verse 32, it says, This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and arms of silver, his belly and thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest 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 brass, the silver, the gold broken into 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 you have this image being seen here. It has a head of gold, arms, excuse me, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs and feet of iron and clay, and then a great stone is cut out of a mountain. It basically hits the feet of this image and destroys it and becomes like a chaff. And what that's representative of is Jesus Christ, who is the chief cornerstone who will one day come and destroy the Babylonian system, the new world order, and will establish his kingdom through the millennial reign, and then ultimately through the new heaven and new earth where you have the new Jerusalem descending down, which is that great mountain that's being described there. He says in verse number 36, this is the dream, and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. Thou king are a king of kings for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom power and strength and glory. So let me just start out, let me pause there and say this. This is a great accomplishment, right? Because he just explained to them what the dream was, which obviously we see here, this is a pretty complicated dream. But he's going to go a little further and actually explain what they represent. Verse 38 says, and wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beast of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made the ruler over them, thou art this head of gold. So he says Nebuchadnezzar, just to let you know, you represent the head of gold, you're the one at the very top. Now why is Nebuchadnezzar the head of gold? Why wasn't he, you know, because prior to him you have the Egyptian empire, you have the Assyrian empire, and in fact in Revelation chapter 17, you see those empires being discussed because it talks about the five previous empires known as Egypt, the Assyrian, the Babylonian, Meno-Persian, and the Grecian empire, and of course the one that was at that time, which is the Roman empire, is the one that John was writing about when he was on the isle of Patmos. So the Egyptian and the Assyrian empire are not being mentioned as being any of the body parts that we see here on the image. It starts off with Nebuchadnezzar as that golden head, that head of that, the image that he's looking at there, he's the head of gold, verse 39. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee. This is talking about the Medo-Persian empire. And a third kingdom of brass which shall bear rule over all the earth. This is the Grecian empire. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron, for as much as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things, and as iron that breaketh all these shall it break in pieces and bruce. This for sure is referring to the Roman empire, okay, because even from a historical standpoint, when you look at the kingdoms and the empires that succeeded each of these, they basically go in chronological order. The Babylonians, Medo-Persian, you have the Grecian empire, then you have the Roman empire, who did break in pieces, did subdue all things, their kingdom spread further, the empire spread further than any of the other kingdoms prior to them, okay. Verse 41 says, And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes part of potter's clay and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided, there shall be in it 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 broken. Now this is, was literally true of the Roman empire, okay, because they were not only politically strong, but even from a standpoint, or excuse me, they were politically strong, but they were weak because of the religion that they had, okay. They were partly strong, partly broken, and of course we know that the Roman empire ended up falling apart, and the spirit of Rome continued, but the actual empire itself decayed and is no longer present. Verse 43 says, And whereas thou sawest 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 is not mixed with clay. Now look what it says here in verse number, go down to verse 45. For as much as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it break in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter, and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure, okay. So he gives him this interpretation, he says look, the dream that you're having, it represents these four kingdoms, four empires, you being the first one, and the three other ones representing the ones who are gonna succeed you thereafter. And he lets them know these are the things that are gonna be here after, okay. So Nebuchadnezzar gets this vision, he knows what's gonna happen, because here's the thing, you know, think about it, if you're in Nebuchadnezzar's shoes, if you're in his sandals, what are you thinking? Oh man, someone's gonna destroy me, right. The Medo-Persian empire, this chest and silver, chest and arms of silver, they're gonna destroy us, someone's gonna destroy them, and they're just coming to this other empire, somewhere along down the road, who's gonna destroy them. He's given this vision of his demise, which is interesting because both dreams that Nebuchadnezzar has in the book of Daniel are both of his demise. This one is of his, the demise of his empire, the next dream that he has when he sees the massive tree is also a picture of his demise. It's when God basically removes, takes the kingdom from him, he gives him a heart of a beast, you know, he goes into the field for seven years, and he humbles him, and then of course he comes out of that, and I believe he gets saved thereafter. But it's interesting because both of these dreams actually represent his demise. So look folks, if you're in Nebuchadnezzar, you're getting this image, you're getting the interpretation of this terrible dream, of this image, you're the head of gold, but you see that these succeeding empires are gonna destroy your empire, you're not gonna be an empire anymore. You know, you probably wanna change your way. But you probably wanna change your ways. Right, you're probably thinking well, you know, maybe we should start doing some things different because basically God is foretelling, he's prophesying of my destruction and the destruction of my empire. Now here's the funny thing. He gets this image, he gets the interpretation of it, Daniel chapter two, and what does he do in Daniel chapter three? Hey, this is a great idea to make myself an image of me. Daniel chapter three, he creates a golden image of himself, inspired by the dream, because I believe that's what it is, inspired by the description of the dream, he's like why don't I just make an entire image of gold, of me? So he tells Daniel hey, great job interpreting it, you're gonna be an important person, here's all these riches. Alright guys, let's get to work. I got a great idea. Let's just create this image of me and have everyone worship it. You pull out the six instruments, it's an image of gold whose height was three score cubits and the breadth are of six cubits, you have six instruments that play and whoever doesn't fall down and worship it will be just cast into the fiery furnace. So he knows that he gets this image, this vision from God, he knows that it depicts his destruction, but he just completely ignores it and creates an idolatrous image of himself for people to worship. It's really showing you how thick-headed Nebuchadnezzar really is. Pun intended, because he's a head of gold. So he uses the interpretation as justification to create an image of himself. Now we'll go back to that thought at the end of the sermon, because I'm gonna explain to you why God gave, this entire sermon is just for this one point, but we're just gonna read a bunch of verses and explain a bunch of things and then I'm gonna give you that at the very end. Why did God give Nebuchadnezzar this vision? Go to Daniel chapter number seven, we'll get into that in just a bit. Daniel chapter number seven is a parallel passage to the image that we see in Daniel chapter two, the difference being Daniel chapter seven is a vision that's given to Daniel regarding the four beasts and these four beasts are basically parallel representatives of the head, the chest and arms, the belly and thighs, the legs and feet. Look at verse number one of Daniel chapter number seven, it says 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 us some of the matters. Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night and behold the four winds of the heavens strove upon the great sea and four great beasts came up from the sea, divers from one another. So this is a pretty terrifying sight. He's seeing this image of four beasts coming up out of the sea and look what the first one is, the first one is the lion with eagle's wings, says in verse number four, the first was like a lion and had eagle's wings, I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand upon the feet as a man and a man's heart was given unto, was given to it. Now, why is it that this vision is being reiterated in a separate form to Daniel? Well, because obviously it didn't work with Nebuchadnezzar. It's given to Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar makes an image of gold, an adulterous image of gold for himself, so God gives it once again to Daniel in a different form but it represents the same exact thing and if we're to compare these with each part of that image, of that body of that image, we know that this first beast that comes out of the sea that's like a lion with eagle's wings is referring to Nebuchadnezzar because Nebuchadnezzar is that head of gold and here we see that he is like a lion with eagle's wings. It says here, till the wings thereof were plucked and he was lifted up from the earth and made to stand upon the feet as a man and a man's heart was given unto him. Now, go to Daniel chapter 4, hold your place there just to kind of reiterate and reaffirm why this is referring to Nebuchadnezzar. Look at verse 33. Obviously, we understand that Nebuchadnezzar was a prideful man and when he receives this dream of this large massive tree, a tree that's going to be cut down, that tree represents Nebuchadnezzar because he's so prideful and lifted up that God was going to remove him from his position of dignity and abase him and he was going to live in the fields as a beast. Okay, look at verse 33. The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar and he was driven from men and did eat grass as oxen and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hairs were grown like eagle's feathers and his nails like bird's claws. Now, he's not turning into an animal. Some people say that. They're like, yeah, he grew feathers and all, you know, God. No, this isn't a, what's that island called, that show where people were mixing the animals? You guys remember that book? Animals? Never mind. I regret asking. Whoa. Whoa. Yeah, forget it. I really regret asking. Stop answering the question. I was thinking of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but that wasn't, it was something Jekyll's Island or something like that where a guy, you know, it's a sci-fi thing, you know. Anyways, this is not referring to the fact that he actually becomes an animal. He becomes like an animal, okay. He's given the heart of a beast. It says in verse 34, at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes into heaven and my understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most high, and I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation. So he is that head of gold, and when we see there in Daniel chapter seven that he had eagle's wings, it's referring to the fact that his hair grew like feathers, right. And it says, I beheld till the wings are of war plucked. What does that mean? When his sanity is returned back to him, he was lifted up from the earth, he was lifted up from the field, and he was repositioned in his place of authority, and it says, and made to stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given unto him, his sanity returned back unto him, okay. So Daniel chapter seven, verse four, is simply describing the process that Nebuchadnezzar experienced when he was a beast of God and returned to his position of authority seven years thereafter, okay. That's what it's talking about there. This is obviously referring to Nebuchadnezzar. Verse five, go back to Daniel seven, so that's parallel with Daniel chapter two that he's that image of gold, also referred to in Daniel chapter seven as the lion with eagle's wings, okay. It says in verse number five, and behold, another beast, a second like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it, and they said thus into it, arise and devour much flesh. So the bear represents the Medo-Persian empire, and the reason we know that is because of the fact, obviously if we compare that to Daniel chapter two, that's the chest and arms of silver which represents the Medo-Persian empire, those two arms, Medo-Persian empire, but also here the image that we see is that he's raised up on one side because one part of that empire is actually stronger than the other. The Persian empire was far more stronger and powerful and had more authority than the Medes, you understand, that's why he's raised up on one side, and it says there that he had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it, and they said thus into it, arise and devour much flesh. Now what is that talking about, it says they had three ribs in its mouth. Well I believe that the ribs, obviously we understand ribs are bones, ribs represent, these bones represent previous kingdoms, because if you think about it, the Medo-Persian empire succeeded three previous world empires, which is obviously the number one being Babylon, the Egyptian, and the Assyrian empire. And all of these empires have the spirit of Babylon in them. So what is he doing? The bear is succeeding these empires, he's chewing the meat, but he's spitting out the bones. So he's taking the best of these empires, the spirit, the agenda of these empires, and he's left with the bones, you understand? So the bear who's lifted up on one side because the Persian was far more powerful than the Medes, it was a dual empire, but the Persians were far more powerful, they succeeded the previous three world empires, which are the Egyptians, Assyrians, and of course Babylon, they chewed the meat and they spit out the bones, he devoured whatever those empires were doing, and he's left with the bones. I believe that's what it's referring to there, okay? And of course, compared to Daniel chapter two, it's referring to the breast and his arms of silver. Look at verse number six. It says, after this I beheld and lo, another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl, the beast had also four heads, and dominion was given unto it. Now of course we know that's referring to the Grecian empire. When compared to Daniel chapter two, this is referring to the belly and thighs of brass, okay? And the reason that the leopard represents the Grecian empire is because of its rapidity. We understand that Alexander the Great conquered within a span of ten years the noble world at that time. His empire basically expanded about 3,000 miles and conquered many people within a short span of time. He conquered many people during a short span of time. He conquered a lot. And of course we know that he died early. So his kingdom came and went quickly, right? And then it was spread into four different heads as we see the leopard to have. Four wings, four different heads, representing the four different kingdoms that succeeded that Grecian empire thereafter, okay? After the death of Alexander the Great, his empire was given to his four generals, two of which were probably the most successful, which was the Ptolemy and the Seleucid empire, Seleucid empire being that empire which Antiochus Epiphanes would stem from, okay? And of course that's the sermon for another day. So we see that image there. You have the lion being represented as Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. You see the bear representing the Medo-Persian empire being lifted up on one side, the three ribs in its mouth representing the kingdoms and the empires that it succeeded. You have the leopard being represented as the Grecian empire with four heads because it was divided into four empires with the generals there. Verse number seven says, After this I saw in the night vision and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth and it devoured in breaking pieces and stamped a residue with the feet of it, and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. Now from a historical standpoint, we would know that this is referring to the Roman empire. Now this is the only beast that's that is not given a description of how it looks or what kind of beast it is. We know that one of them is a lion, the other one is a bear, the other one is a leopard, the fourth one is just referred to as a beast. Now we know that this is the fourth empire historically, but also from a biblical standpoint because of the fact that in Daniel chapter nine when prophesying of the Messiah that should be cut off, we know that that took place during the Roman empire. And in Daniel chapter number nine when it's prophesying of the Messiah being cut off, it talks about the fact that there's going to be desolations upon the temple of God's people and we know that happened in 70 AD. So it's prophesying of the death of Jesus Christ in Daniel chapter nine, but it's also prophesying of the destruction of the temple by Emperor Titus in 70 AD, by the Romans. Look at Daniel seven verse eight, it says, As I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots, and behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking great things. Now here's something interesting, okay, because when you look at who Daniel's referring to as far as the antichrist that we see being described in the book of Daniel, from a historical standpoint, we would say that it is Antiochus Epiphanes, because we see that from a historical standpoint, he did a lot of the things that we actually see in the book of Daniel, Daniel chapter nine and seven, we see that he actually fulfilled a lot of those things. The only problem is with that interpretation is the fact that Antiochus Epiphanes was of the Seleucid empire, which stemmed from what? The Greeks. Whereas the little horn that we're seeing here actually stems from what? The Roman empire. Now I still believe that it's Antiochus Epiphanes and obviously it's representative of end times antichrist. I think if you were to tell me, well, how would you interpret that? I would just say it's just referring to that antichrist spirit, that Babylonian spirit, because here's the thing, the Romans are not Babylonians, but they have the spirit of Babylon. The Grecians are not Babylonians, but they have the spirit of Babylon. It's all that same agenda, different name, different people, you know, same devil, different embodiment of whatever he's using, different empire to further his agenda. So even though Antiochus Epiphanes is described coming from the Roman empire, here in Daniel chapter number seven is being that little horn, and even though he's described as being one of the four generals that basically took over after Alexander the Great into those four heads, at the end of the day, they're just a picture of the antichrist, you understand? So no picture in the Bible is perfect of the end times Bible prophecy because it's only supposed to foreshadow it, you understand? So we can't look at these images that we see in the book of Daniel or different portions of the description of the Old Testament and just take them completely at face value and say, well, this has to be 100%, you know, what the antichrist is going to go through because when you look at what happens with Antiochus Epiphanes in Daniel chapter 11, he dies not like the antichrist dies in the New Testament. He just kind of, I think he drowns or something, right? He just kind of dies a weird death. Whereas, you know, the only thing that happens to the antichrist is that he drowns but is in the lake of fire. He's cast into the lake of fire, right? So not everything that we see in the book of Daniel can be applied to the antichrist or end times Bible prophecy. There's simply nuggets of prophetic statements that are being made that we can compare to that which is revealed in the book of Revelation, you understand? Look at verse 17. So we see that this little horn with the eyes of a man and the mouth speaking great things has to be the antichrist because we see in Revelation chapter 13 that he speaks great blasphemies, right? You see that same terminology being used. Verse 17 says this. These great beasts which are four are four kings which shall arise out of the earth but the saints of the most high shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever and ever and ever, even forever and ever, excuse me. Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast which was diverse from all the others exceeding dreadful whose teeth were of iron and his nails of brass which devoured in breaking pieces and stamped a residue with his feet. When it says he stamped a residue with his feet, he's basically saying that this empire, when it took over for these other empires, he basically got the job done. Because the Roman empire actually took over far more than any other empire of the ancient world. So he basically, he not only took over what the previous empires had already conquered, he stamped the residue of that which was left, okay? He says in verse 20, and of the 10 horns that were in his head and of the other which came up and before whom three fell, even of that horn that had eyes and a mouth that spake very great things whose look was more stout than his fellows, I beheld and the same horn made war with the saints and prevailed against them. Of course we understand that horns are referring to actual kings, kingdoms, et cetera. Verse 22 says, until the ancient of days came and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. Thus he said, the fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon the earth which shall be diverse from all kingdoms and shall devour the whole earth and shall tread it down and break it in pieces. Now let me just explain something here when it talks about the fourth kingdom. From a historical standpoint and even from a biblical standpoint, we know that this is referring to Rome, okay? However, the fourth kingdom is kind of amalgamated into the New World Order as well because it has a lot of those same elements and the Roman Empire didn't take over the world, right? It took over the known world but it did not take over the entire world. The entire world shall be conquered and ruled by the New World Order and the Antichrist. So when it says here that this fourth kingdom shall devour the whole earth, that's actually far more true of the New World Order, the coming kingdom that is not yet. It says in verse 24, and the 10 horns out of the kingdom were 10 kings that shall arise and another shall rise after him and he shall be diverse from the first and he shall subdue the three kings. And he shall speak great words against the Most High and shall wear out the saints of the Most High and think to change times and laws and they shall be given into his hand until a time and time and dividing of times but the judgment shall sit and they shall take away his dominion to consume and to destroy it unto the end. So what do we see here? Well, we see that, obviously, this is figured of the Antichrist but I believe that this is an actual Antichrist that existed at one point, who actually fulfilled all these things. He wore out the saints, he set up the abomination of desolation, he caused the sacrifices of the temple to cease, he became great with the very small people and, in fact, historically, Antiochus Epiphanes actually did that. He used the Jews to consolidate his kingdom and then eventually turned on them, okay? We see that taking place. So, obviously, this has immediate, there is an immediate fulfillment to this in this time but it's also foretelling of something in the end times as well. Go to Revelation chapter 13. Revelation chapter 13, if you would. So the image that Nebuchadnezzar sees is that new world order. It is, obviously, represents the previous kingdoms but it also represents a conglomeration of all those kingdoms in one, right? Nebuchadnezzar sees that, he makes a golden image of himself. The vision is then given to Daniel, represented by four beasts that represent these previous kingdoms and one that is to come one day, okay? Now, we know for a fact that this is prophetic of end times Bible prophecy because of the language that's being used in Revelation chapter 13 when describing the new world order. If you want to study on the new world order, read Revelation 13. Look what it says in verse number one. And I stood upon the sand of the sea. This is the vision that's being given to John. And I saw a beast rise up out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns and upon his horns ten crowns and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast, excuse me, which I saw was like unto a what? A leopard, okay? And his feet were as the feet of a bear and his mouth as the mouth of a lion and the dragon gave him his power and his seed and great authority. So we see that the animals that are being described here are very similar to what we see in Daniel chapter number four. Excuse me, Daniel chapter number seven, right? With the, you have the leopard, you have the lion, you have the bear. The only difference is is now the dragon is being mentioned because the fourth beast is the dragon. So you know what that tells me? The animal that was not described in Daniel chapter seven was the dragon. Okay? So it says, it talked about this terrible beast and it didn't really go into detail as far as what beast it was. Well, Revelation 13 basically reveals that to us. It's the dragon. And the dragon, of course, is representative of Satan. He's the one who's basically leading this pack, right? Into the new world order here. It says in verse number two, and the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard and his feet were as the feet of a bear and his mouth as the mouth of a lion and the dragon gave him his power and seed and great authority and I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death and his deadly wound was healed and all the world wondered after the beast. So we see that this beast that represents all of these previous world empires, their ideologies, their agenda, their desire to conquer the entire world, they're kind of conglomerated together to create this one world system and one of those heads, just as that one little horn, the stout horn, that was significant and distinguished from the other horns, he receives his deadly wound to the head. This is referring to the antichrist, okay? His deadly wound is healed and the world wonders after the beast. So here's the thing, when you look at the description of this beast in Revelation chapter 13, it represents the new world order but it also represents the beast, which is the antichrist. It represents both, you understand? Because the new world order belongs to Satan, it belongs to the antichrist. Even though it's a conglomeration of all these previous empires and their ideologies and their successes and their agendas, it's going to all come together in one and although it represents a worldwide, one world government, one world financial system, one world religion, it has one person as its head. Hint, hint, hint, Easter egg, okay? It says in verse 4, And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and power was given unto him to continue forward in two months. He opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle and them that dwell there in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them and power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations. So we see the similar terms and phrases and verses that we see, we can compare that to what takes place in the book of Daniel. Now let me say this, this is obviously referring to someone completely different than what we see in Daniel chapter 7. And the reason it's important to say this is because you have a doctrine today called Preterism. It's one of the stupidest doctrines I've ever heard in my life, okay? And it's only half true. The only half that's true about Preterism is the fact that they believe it actually already happened, which we agree with, but they just say it will never happen again. If it's been fulfilled once, it will never be fulfilled again. So they claim that everything that you see in the book of Daniel, the prophetic statements made of the Antichrist, Antiochus Epiphanes, Titus in the 70 AD, the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, all these things already happened. They already took place. They're never going to happen again. Well, then we have a problem in Revelation chapter 13. Now we have a problem in Revelation chapter 19 because when you compare Daniel 11 and how that Antichrist died to how the Antichrist in Revelation 19 died they're both different. So if they experience different deaths and different destructions, that means they're different people. Oh, but hold on a second. There's so many similarities. Yeah, because it's a foreshadowing of the Antichrist. No, but that already took place. Then how do you explain his death? How do you explain the destruction of his empire? Was there a great mountain that was cut out, you know, and just fell upon the Antichrist of Daniel chapter 7 and 11 and just drowned him? No, it wasn't. He died just a death of any man. He didn't die like the Antichrist. The Antichrist shall be destroyed with the brightness of the coming of Jesus. Folks, the Antichrist gets to dwell in the lake of fire all by himself with his false prophet. They get it all to themselves for 1,000 years. I mean, that's how much God hates the Antichrist. It's like, you know what? You get 1,000 years, just you get the whole thing for yourself. Okay? You know, they get tossed into the lake of fire in Revelation chapter 19, both soul and body in hell. Okay? And so to say, well, these things have already come to pass, you know, your interpretation just sucks because it's not all come to pass yet. You know, they'll even say that the Emperor Titus in 70 AD is represented in Revelation chapter 8 with Apollyon. They'll say Apollyon was Titus in 70 AD. What in the world? Apollyon, the angel who leads about the army of Locusts, they're like, oh yeah, this army of Locusts, that was Emperor Titus' army. I've heard this before. And the person I was talking to about this, I said, well, did Emperor Titus' army kill like a bunch of people? They're like, oh yeah. I'm like, well, then it's not Apollyon because Apollyon's locusts were able to hurt people but they didn't kill anybody. There you go. Well, you know, I still think, well, because you're not thinking, that's why. And we need to make sure that we're never imposing our beliefs and ideologies and preconceived ideas into the Bible and just take it for what it says. Folks, Daniel 4 and 7 and 11, yeah, it's talking about the Antichrist but let me just say this, there was an Antichrist back then because even Jesus said in Matthew 24, you know, that there's Antichrist that shall come. John said in 1 John 2, even now are there many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time. And he talks about two different Antichrists. He says we know that Antichrists shall come, even so there are many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time. Oh, hold on a second, Lord. Don't you know there's only one? Come on. Well, what is he saying? Folks, Judas was an Antichrist. Antiochus Epiphanes was an Antichrist. These are all foreshadowings of something that's going to take place in the future. I mean, wasn't there a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ, multiple foreshadowings of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament? King David being one of them? So why does God do that? To basically prime our minds to help us to understand biblical truths and make connections and understand these things, okay? Go to Revelation 17, if you would. Revelation chapter 17. Verse number 9 says, And here is the mine which hath wisdom. Verse 9, The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth, and there are seven kings, five are fallen, one is, and the other is not yet come, and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. It says, And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. So what he's talking about here in verse number 10, he's saying there are seven kings, five of these are fallen, and the five that he's referring to is the Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonia, Medo-Persian, Grecian. Those are the five. And then he says, Well, from the perspective of the writer, which is John, he's writing this during the first century A.D. when the Roman Empire is existing. So those five are fallen, one is, which is the Roman Empire, and the other is not yet come. And when he cometh, he must continue a short space. So this is referring to a seventh empire who the Bible would also refer to as Babylon, Rome, the spirit of Babylon, the spirit of Rome. It continues a short space. What does it mean by a short space? It doesn't exist for that long. So it starts a couple hundred years ago or so. It continues a short space. It says, And the beast that was and is not, referring to the Antichrist, when it says he was, that means he was alive. He is not, meaning he dies. Even he is the eighth and is of the seventh and goeth into perdition. So what this is referring to is the fact that the seventh kingdom will transition to becoming the eighth kingdom. And the Antichrist, I don't believe this, now I believe, I don't know if you know this, that America is Babylon. To all those patriots out there. You know, seeing the praises of America, America's in the Bible folks! Yeah it is, it's right here. It's about to be destroyed folks. The seventh kingdom, when it says that he is of the seven, I believe it's just referring to the fact that he's using the seven to basically complete that establishment of his kingdom, which is the new world order. Because the eighth is that new world order. And the eighth doesn't come to flourish until the abomination of desolation is set forth. Because even prior to that, you have all this, you know you have the four horsemen of the apocalypse, you have wars and rumors of wars, you have pestilences and famines and death on a massive scale. Then you have martyrdom, you have all this tragedy taking place in the world. The savior, quote unquote, steps up known as the Antichrist. He receives a deadly wound to the head, he's a hero, he comes back to life, they think he's Jesus. What does he do? He sets up an image! Right? After he sets up the image, everyone has to worship that image, and that's when he begins to set up his new world order. He is of that seventh. But he is the eighth kingdom. Because remember, kingdoms in the Bible, the heads in the Bible, they represent kingdoms, but they also represent the head of that kingdom as well. It says in verse 12, And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings which have received no kingdom as yet, but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. Yeah, after he comes back to the dead, like, why even try to rule against this guy? This guy is the man. They give their power unto him. These have one mind and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for he is Lord of Lord and King of Kings, and they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful. Now go to Daniel chapter number three. Daniel chapter number three. I'm actually pretty much done with this sermon, believe it or not. Because I'm just going to give you some random points at the end, because this is something I've been thinking about because I've been talking to a lot of people about end times Bible prophecy on social media, doing, like, interviews, and I've been arguing with people on interviews, and people, folks, it's a jungle out there. Let me just say that. What you and I deem to be very normal, like, we know what's going on, there's Christians out there that are freaking out of their minds. They think some of the weirdest stuff, okay? And although, you know, I don't think any of that's going on in our church, if it is, we're just going to put a stop to it tonight, you know? But let me say this, look at Daniel chapter three. So why is it that God gives Nebuchadnezzar this vision of these previous four kingdoms that make up somewhat of a new world order, right? As we see in Daniel chapter seven and also in Revelation chapter 13, because those are all, you know, chapters that have one to do with another. We interpret them using each other. Why is it that he gives this vision, this dream, to Nebuchadnezzar? Well, because in his omniscience, okay, and his foreknowledge, he knew that Nebuchadnezzar was going to make a golden image of himself for people to worship. And if you remember the, look at verse number one, it says, Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold whose height was three-score cubits, right, sixty, and the breadth thereof, six cubits, and he set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Now, this is actually representative and actually foreshadows that image that the Antichrist will one day make because we see the same exact thing being carried out. You see that they have to worship the image. Meshech, Shadrach, and Abednego choose not to. They're cast into the fiery furnace. They're sought to be put to death. And we see that in the furnace, the Son of God shows up just as at the end of those 75 days of great tribulation, the Son of God comes, lift up your heads for your redemption, draweth nigh. They are rescued from the fiery furnace. Not a hair of their head are singed. They're not careful to answer the king in this matter, just like was what we see in Luke chapter 21. It's a lot of parallels that are preached through that many times. So what do we see? We see Nebuchadnezzar is a foreshadowing of the Antichrist. Right? He is a foreshadowing of the Antichrist. And so why did God give Nebuchadnezzar this dream of this great image that we see being talked about in Daniel chapter number two? Because of the fact that Nebuchadnezzar was the head of that image. Because the head rules the body. And in like manner, because he's representative of the Antichrist, the Antichrist is the head that shall one day rule that new world order, that new world order, that beast system. So God in his foreknowledge, before Nebuchadnezzar even decided to make this image, before he even knew the interpretation of the dream, in his foreknowledge, he knew that Nebuchadnezzar was going to create this image, really creating an opportunity to foreshadow things that were going to take place in the end times. And by the way, there's times in the Bible where saved people represent the Antichrist, unfortunately. Sucks for them, man. It's like their bad decisions, their stupid decisions that they made, caused them to be a byword and a proverb to foreshadow a wicked person. Aaron is an example of that. You know Aaron is a, represents the Antichrist? He represents the Antichrist. Why? Because he makes an image of gold. Right? He makes this image of gold, and he causes people to worship it. Okay? And of course, Moses represents Jesus Christ who comes down from the mountain. You understand? And then he makes everyone drink of his wrath. He pours out his wrath upon the people. So there's many times that people in the Old Testament who are good people represent the Antichrist because of their bad decisions that they made, and Nebuchadnezzar is one of them. In God's foreknowledge, he knew that Nebuchadnezzar was going to make that golden image and persecute his people, so that's why he made him what? That head of gold. Because in like manner, the Antichrist, who Nebuchadnezzar represents, was going to be the head of that new world order. Understand? Now let me give you some random points, okay? Just to consider. Let me say number one is this. We are seeing the unfolding of end time precursors today. Now the rapture's not tomorrow. Okay? But the precursors are here. So we're not saying that, you know, these precursors don't exist. Look, I'm not a preterist. I'm not one of these kingdom fools who thinks we have to usher in the kingdom of God and we have to permeate all of society and politics with Christians so we can usher in the kingdom of God. That's stupid, folks. That's Jeff Derpen type stuff. Theology. You know? But what I do see is this, is that there could be precursors because precursors are necessary in order to condition the population to embrace this type of stuff in the future. You know, you have Amazon One. With its literal, you know, put this thing in your hand and just scan it over and stuff, you know? Those are precursors. Now let me just say this right off the bat and some of you guys may not like this. I think New World Order technology is awesome. I do. I use New World Order technology all the time. My watch, I pay for stuff on my watch. This is what I say. It's the mark of the beast without the condemnation, without the damnation. I get to enjoy New World Order technology without the damnation. You're a part of the problem. No, you are because you're not preaching the gospel. You don't preach the word of God. You're too involved in politics and, you know, preaching that the vaccine is the mark of the beast and you're making Christians stupid. You're not actually showing them what God's word says. You know, I'm actually preaching the truth and I get to enjoy technology while we're doing it too. But that's not to say these aren't precursors. I mean, folks, just within the last couple of weeks, they rolled out a plan called the giant which is a 10-story image that they want to place in 21 different cities in America. Okay? Look it up. They want to put in 21 cities a 10-story image of a body that can move. It says it can sing. It can move its head around and people are loving it. What in the world? It's like, oh, it's going to be like a theme park where we're going to go there and they'll have all this historical information on there. You know, it can burn you with fire if you seek not to worship or something. It's like, what's next? These are obvious precursors. You say, why would they do that, 21 of them, because they want to get the population to just be normalized to it, desensitized to it, right? You say, aren't you desensitized? Well, here's the thing. I'm not desensitized. I'm just saved. So I'm not worried about any of it. And you say, aren't you worried about the vaccine? No, I'm not worried about the vaccine because number one, I'm not taking it. And number two, I already know what the Bible says about it. But that's not to say that there's not an unfolding of end times precursors that are out there and it's important for us to know that. It's important for us to see that. You know, this conditioning of the mind to embrace these technologies, embrace these things, because of the fact that people have this misconception that when the New World Order is rolled out, you know, oh, man, people are just going to buck it. They're going to fight it. No, the New World Order is actually something that people want. People want the New World Order. They want to embrace it. They want those things, okay? The only ones who don't are the Christians. And all these truthers out there who are not even saved, I guarantee you a lot of them are going to embrace the New World Order. So we're seeing the unfolding of end times precursors. Number two, we are not in the tribulation. I just got to put that out there real quick. You say, oh, duh, yeah, but there's duh people out there who don't seem to understand this. They literally think we're in the tribulation. I just had a discussion with this idiot this week who literally said we're in the tribulation. We're in the tribulation. He's like, shame on you for being a pastor even though we're in the tribulation. I said, show me where the tribulation is. Show me where the tribulation is in the Bible. Book, chapter, and verse. Where's it at? He said, uh, it's everywhere. Book, chapter, and verse. Tell me where it's at right now. He's all, Revelation 11 and 7 and all these duh. What? I'm like, you know what you sound like? You sound like you're giving me all your information from YouTube and none of it from the Bible. We're in the tribulation right now. You're being arrested for not taking the vaccine? That's funny, I'm not arrested. Has anybody gone to jail in here for not taking the vaccine? Has anybody in here been put to death for not taking the vaccine? Yeah, but there's people out there like that. Yeah, but that doesn't mean it's the mark of the beast, folks. And if you think that's the mark of the beast and you think that's bad, you don't even know what's coming up. Folks, vaccines destroy people's lives. They destroy the body. It'll physically damage your body, okay? But the mark of the beast is not meant to destroy your body. It's meant to damn your soul. And really, the mark of the beast is not meant to destroy the person to whom they receive it. It's meant to weed out Christians, to kill Christians. It's not like, oh, and this is why people, they get this weird doctrine. Don't take the vaccine because it's the mark of the beast. You're going to become damned and it's going to mess with your soul. Don't you know it messes with your DNA? What? Yeah, I know that, but it has nothing to do with my soul. And how weak of a Christian are you to think that a vaccine can destroy your soul? Isn't there something in the Bible about that where the Bible says, Fear not him which can kill the body but afterwards can do nothing? Rather fear him who's able to destroy both soul and body in hell? That's the actual vaccine that you should fear. It's called the wrath of God. And it's not going to be injected. It's going to be poured upon the unbelieving world for rejecting Jesus Christ as their savior. We are not in the tribulation. The reason we know we're not is because, yeah, there's wars and rumors of wars because there's always been wars and rumors of wars. It's called the military industrial complex. There's not only wars and rumors of wars. There's actually been wars, folks. Oh, but I hear of wars and rumors of wars. Buddy, there's been wars. There's always been wars. As long as Jews are here, as long as there's politicians around, there's always going to be war because they need to keep making more money and priming that military industrial complex. You know, yeah, but what about COVID-19? Isn't that a pestilence? Yeah, but folks, the tribulation that's being highlighted in Revelation chapter 6 is so global that it destroys everything. I mean, literally, the entire world is turned upside down, okay? And let me just say this. Part of the tribulation, I know I said I was going to be short tonight, but I'm almost done. I'm almost done. Look, it says that the beasts of the field killed people in the tribulation. That's not taking place right now. Yeah, but like somewhere in India it is, though. Yeah, but that's been taking place like forever, though. Try again. The beasts of the field that's being mentioned in Revelation chapter 6 is the fact that when there's pestilence, just like we saw within the last year, they quarantine people. And what happens when you quarantine people? Yosemite and all these national parks become overrun with the beasts of the field. That happens on a massive scale when the tribulation takes place because if there's massive pestilence where people are just dying in large numbers and people get quarantined, then you're going to start seeing bears and stuff out here who are killing people. That's what it means when it says beasts of the field in Revelation chapter 6. We are not in that point right now. I don't see freaking lions and bears out there waiting for us. A lion is not in the way. It's not in the street. Number three, the vaccine is not the mark of the beast. It's not the mark of the beast. Correct me if I'm wrong. Does anybody get injected in their right hand or in their forehead? Right? Is COVID-19 being pumped through the right hand or in the... Are they saying, give me your right hand or give me your forehead to inject this COVID vaccine? Has anybody seen that at all? Okay. So we need to go over what the Bible actually says, folks. Do you know what's in that vaccine? Do you know what's in the Bible? I have a better question for you. What's in the Bible? Because the Bible says that the mark of the beast goes on the right hand or in the forehead. And no man might buy or sell save he that had the mark. How many of you bought something today? How many of you got the mark of the beast? How many of you got the vaccine? As far as I know in here, no one has it. How in the world did you... You guys must be the exception to the rule. Because everywhere else in the world, that's what's going on to everyone else. Such a stupid, nonsensical... And folks, this is what's called the great falling away. When Christians so-called... And by the way, you talk to these same people, ask them about their salvation theology. They're a bunch of repent of your sins, works-based salvation, a bunch of heretics that can care less about the salvation of the soul by grace through faith. They just want to pump this works-based salvation, repent of your sins. You got to make sure you do this and this and that. A bunch of holier-than-thou, self-righteous, false prophets and heretics that teach us nonsense. That's who they are. Yeah, but they got a lot of good stuff there on there. They talk about a lot of good stuff. What good stuff? They're saying that the vaccine is the mark of the beast. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life. Yeah, but I mean, you said the giant. Isn't that the abomination of desolation? The abomination of desolation is set up in Jerusalem, not in America. Read your Bible. A lot of this will just be taken care of if you just crack open the Bible and read it. Not click. And look, I'm against the vaccine. Obviously, you know that. Or as they call it on social media, the V, the jab. Lastly, number four is this. Being awake doesn't mean being woke. Being awake means walking in the spirit. It doesn't mean know what's going on in the news. Be awake, guys. Stay woke. Let's expose this communist agenda. Let's expose Biden and Q and trust the plan. Alex Jones was right. Got to stay woke. No, we got to be awake in the Lord. Awake to righteousness and sin now, for some have not the knowledge of God to speak this to your shame. Awake, thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and Alex Jones shall give you light? Christ shall give thee light. Awake, thou that sleepest, arise from the dead, and social media shall give you light. No, Christ shall give you light. Being awake in the Lord means you're walking in the spirit, folks. It doesn't mean you know what every Tom, Dick, and Harry is doing out there. And look, if you're into the news, you want to know what's going on, more power to you. But don't call that being awake. Don't promote that as being awake. Oh, man, we're so awake, man, we know what's going on. We're going to be involved in this protest. We got to speak out against Biden. Why? The guy's like, the guy's... I mean, he kind of exposes himself. $40 million. How many of you know what I'm talking about? Raise your hand if you know what I just did right now. Using his inside voice. I want our church to be awake in the Lord. To be reading the Bible, praying winning souls to Christ, living holy lives, fulfilling their biblical roles, because that's the only way that we're going to be ready for these things. Folks, the woke crowd, they're some of the most fearful people on the face of the planet. The only reason they're a part of that group is because they're afraid. What's going to happen? We're not afraid. Why? Because God didn't give us a spirit of fear, but a power of love and a sound mind. Our job is to stay awake in the Lord and serve God. And you know what? Where my servant is, where I am, there shall my servant be also. That's what Jesus said. Jesus said, where I am, there my servant shall be also. As we walk with God, we keep his commandments. We're friends of God because we keep his commandments. God says, I'll protect you. I'll be with you. Lo, I'm with you always, even until the end of the world. And what was the thing that he said prior to that? Go ye therefore and teach all nations. He didn't say go ye therefore and vote in the right person. And lo, I'm with you always, even until the end of the world. Go ye therefore and fight against these vaccines and teach that it's the mark of the beast. Which this idiot out there is teaching. I don't even want to say his name, but he's an idiot. He literally left everything to take his family, to evangelize the whole, living from hotel to hotel, preaching this false gospel, talking about that we're in the tribulation right now. And he's like, I follow no man. I follow God. It's like, well, what about your wife? Does she follow you? Do your children follow you? Oh, do you want people to follow your message then? Hypocrite. Being awake means walking in the Spirit. Don't be like a Nebuchadnezzar who was so prideful. The vision was right before him and he just completely took it a different way. Hey, the vision is right here. The vision of the mark of the beast right here. Vision of the new world order right here. Don't try to fit this into your agenda. Like, oh, that's a good idea. Maybe we should say the vaccine is the mark of the beast since I hate vaccines so much. Maybe we can scare people into not getting the vaccine by telling them that it's the mark of the beast. Nebuchadnezzar is basically doing that. He's like, maybe we could just create a great image for people to worship me. No, why don't we actually take the Bible for what it actually says and not impose our interpretation on it. Just allow Daniel, right? Allow the man of God, allow the Holy Spirit to interpret it for us. Amen? Spry our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word. And Lord, thank you for the fact that you are destroying America. It's a good thing. And America deserves to be destroyed. For all the wickedness and perversion that it promotes. All this nonsense that's gone on this week, this month. And false prophets abound. I pray that you'd help us, Lord, to be vigilant, to be sober, to be awake, to walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Some of these people who preach that stuff of being woke haven't even stepped foot in the church. And yet they're going to teach us on how to be awake in the Lord. Some of those people haven't even, they've been sleeping for years. And so I pray, Lord, that you'd help us, Lord, to remain vigilant and continue to do what we're doing. Read the Bible and pray and preach the gospel and get people saved and fulfill your commandments to the best of our ability. We love you so much and we thank you. Pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, leaning on the everlasting arms. Song number one, four, seven. All together on that first verse, nice and loud. All together on that first verse, nice and loud. All together on that first verse, nice and loud. All together on that first verse, nice and loud. All together on that first verse, nice and loud. All together on that first verse, nice and loud. Leaning on the everlasting arms. Oh, how sweet to walk in this building way. Leaning on the everlasting arms. Oh, how bright the path flows from day to day. Leaning on the everlasting arms. We need to be safe and secure from all alarms. Leaning on the everlasting arms. What have I to dread? What have I to fear? Leaning on the everlasting arms. I have blessed peace with my Lord so dear. Leaning on the everlasting arms. Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms. Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms. I'm broke. I'm going to go to bed tonight. This isn't that practice. Did I tell you how to get to where it's going to be? So, I still have to go to bed today.