The Kingdoms of the Earth
The Kingdoms of the Earth
By Dr. Tim Little
Thanks, Sean. It's nice to see you again too. It's kind of funny, we don't live that far apart, but you're down here doing what you're doing, and I'm where I am, doing what I do.
And so I think we've seen each other only maybe a handful of times since you graduated from school. Yeah, it's nice to come down here. I don't think I've ever actually been in the auditorium.
I've been in your building before just for various things, but I don't think I've ever been here at Northridge in the auditorium. So it's nice to come in to visit a church and then to have the privilege to open up God's Word. So if you want to go ahead and find your way to Daniel chapter seven.
Daniel, chapter seven. That's where we're going to be this morning. And the kingdoms of the know, they war, they rage, and even in our day and age I was talking to a couple of men yesterday.
We had a little Bible study Saturday morning at a coffee shop, and we were just kind of talking about worldliness and how we need to be careful about the things of this world. Specifically. Do you love the Lord or do you love the world? What are you living for, the love of God or the love of the pleasures and the fancies of this world? We went to First John, chapter two, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life and how those things allure us.
And as we discussed and even thought through the application of that, one of the things that came up in the conversation was the amount of time that we spend paying attention to the affairs of this world, specifically affairs that are far from us, the conflict that's in Russia and Ukraine, everything going on there. And then, of course, in recent days, well, at least more recent days, Israel and Hamas and everything that's taking place there. Both of the men, especially the one, is very much involved in technology, and he has his pulse on a lot of things, and he even testifies and testified about how that kind of feeds his anxiety.
And as you think through this world and all of the things that are transpiring in this world and how little control we have over all of it, it's nice to take comfort in the one who is in control. And Daniel chapter seven does that. It exalts and reminds us of who is really in control of the rising and the falling of kingdoms.
And I would just encourage you as you open up your copy of God's Word. I pray you have that open at this time as we read through Daniel seven, that you would reflect anew on the kingdoms of this earth and how the Lord is sovereign over them. So if you can just follow along in your copy of God's Word, I am going to read through the entire chapter.
In the first year of Belshazzar, King of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head while on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream, telling the main facts. Daniel spoke, saying I saw in my vision by night and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea and four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other.
The first was like a lion and had eagle's wings. I watched till its wings were plucked off and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on 2ft like a man. And a man's heart was given to it.
And suddenly another beast, a second like a bear. It was raised up on one side and had three ribs in its mouth, between its teeth, and they said thus to it arise, devour much flesh. After this I looked, and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird.
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, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth.
It was devouring, breaking in pieces and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it. And it had ten horns.
I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words. I watched till thrones were put in place and the Ancient of Days was seated.
His garment was white as snow and the hair of his head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him.
A thousands ministered to him. 10,000 times 10,000 stood before him. The court was seated and the books were opened.
I'm in verse eleven. I watched then because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn was speaking. I watched till the beast was slain and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame.
As for the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. I was watching in the night visions and behold one like the Son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He came to the Ancient of Days and they brought him near before him.
Then to him was given dominion and glory, and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed. I Daniel was grieved in my spirit within my body and the visions of my head troubled me.
I came near to one of those who stood by and asked him the truth of all of this. So he told me, made known to me the interpretation of these things those great beasts which are four are four kings which arise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.
Then I wished to know the truth about the fourth beast which was different from all the others, exceedingly dreadful, with its teeth of iron and its nails of bronze which devoured broken pieces and trampled the residue with its feet. And the ten horns that were on its head. And the other horn which came up before which three fell, namely, that horn which had eyes and a mouth which spoke pompous words, whose appearance was greater than his fellows.
I was watching. And the same horn was making war against the saints and prevailing against them until the Ancient of Days came and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High. And the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom.
Verse 23. Thus he said the fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth which shall be different from all other kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, trample it and break it in pieces. The ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom and another shall arise after them.
He shall be different from the first ones and shall subdue three kings. He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time.
But the court shall be seated, and they shall take away his dominion to consume and destroy it forever. Then the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people. The saints of the most high.
His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominion shall serve and obey him. This is the end of the account. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts greatly troubled me.
My countenance changed, but I kept the matter in my heart. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this time that we can read your word and we can feed upon it.
I pray that it would nourish our souls. Lord, as we come to church with various troubles, with various concerns, anxieties plague us, I pray that we may take confidence remembering who you are. I thank you for Daniel, chapter seven, and how it reminds us how you are in control over everything and we can place our trust in you.
One day you will right all wrongs. You will rule and reign upon this earth, and your saints will reign with you. We look forward to that day and take comfort that in the end, good will prevail.
In Jesus name, amen. I don't know if you noticed as I was reading through the text, I was emphasizing this idea that something is given. There are these gifts that the Lord gives.
This is a major Old Testament theological concept that we see repeatedly in the Old Testament where there is a king. But who put that king into that position of authority? Who placed that king? Who gave him his dominion? Who gave him his rulership? And the answer is the sovereign, the Lord. This isn't working.
I don't know if maybe you can just advance the slides for me. Thanks. The Lord is the one that's the sovereign.
He is the one that's the king of kings and the Lord of Lords, and he gives dominion. He gives dominion to his subjects. And to think through that, you know what? The Lord is sovereign.
He is in control. Why do we have the president that we have? Why are the people that are in authority in authority over in the Middle East or in Europe or you fill in the blank. And the answer is that they were placed in authority by a sovereign God.
And guess what? You can take comfort knowing that God is still in control. So I pray as we work through this text that that would be a source of comfort to you. What do we see here in Daniel chapter seven? We have a vision.
It's at a specific time period. It's in the first year of Belshazzar. Do you remember Belshazzar? He was that really good Godly king, right? He did everything that was really honorable and just and equitable.
Okay. Oh, maybe not. Must have been somebody else.
All right. Yeah, Belshazzar was a bum. That's what you know.
And who put Belshazzar in a position of authority there in Babylon? A Sovereign God. A sovereign God put that king in control. Does it seem sometimes like God is not in control? Yes, it seems like God's not in control because the people who are in power hate God.
They defy him. Belshazzar, of anybody should have had some kind of inkling of a thought of who the sovereign lord of all creation really was because he witnessed what happened to Nebuchadnezzar and how Nebuchadnezzar was humiliated, how Nebuchadnezzar was exalted by God, then humiliated, and then he was put back into a position of authority. Daniel rebukes him for this two chapters earlier in Daniel chapter five.
But who is this Belshazzar? He's a bum. When a king, a person, is put into a position of power and authority who does not respect the law of God, what might that do for those who trust in the Lord, who do fall upon the sovereign hand of God and submit to his dominion in their lives? It can be kind. Oh, God.
Why is this person in control? Why does this person have the power? It can be a source of uncertainty, of anxiety. And so at a specific time in Israel's history, this vision comes to Daniel. Daniel had a dream and visions of his head while on his bed.
Then he wrote down the dream, telling the main facts. And so that's what we get here. We get the main details, and in verses two through eight, we get the vision, then we get the explanation of it.
In verses 15 and following. So it states in verse two, Daniel spoke, saying, I saw in my visions by night, and behold, the four winds of the heaven were stirring up the great sea. So there's a lot of symbolism that's going on here.
What is the great sea? Okay, what's going on with the four winds? Okay, those are some good questions. I'm going to let you study those out for yourself. Verse three, and four great beasts came up from the sea.
Four beasts, they come up from the sea. Well, what are the beasts? You know, sometimes it's difficult to interpret God's word because the Bible doesn't tell us. But then there are these other times, if we just keep reading, the Bible actually tells us the explanation.
What are the four beasts? Well, we get it. You remember Daniel, he's like, oh, man, what's up with these beasts? What's up with all of this? And look at verse 17. What does it say? What's saying? Verse 17, those great beasts which are four are four kings.
They're four kings. So these four beasts are four kings. By the way, that's not kingdoms, it's kings.
Okay, think about that. But there's this correlation between a king and a kingdom. But let's come back to our beginning of our text.
They are four kings. That's what it's going to tell us. And I think Daniel figured out who the first one was.
The first was like a lion. It states in verse four, and had eagle's wings. I watched till its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on 2ft like a man, and a man's heart was given to it.
So here is artist's rendition of the one beast, the lion. And this lion, there's a fair amount of agreement that the lion represents King Nebuchadnezzar. He was the king of one of the great empires of the ancient world.
He was the king that conquered Jerusalem and a whole bunch of other places. By the way, he was a military mastermind and at times was very brutal. We see that even in the book of Daniel.
And what was he like? He was this lion, which was a symbol of Babylon, and with the wings, the speed and strength and power of that beast. But then what happens to it? The text explicitly states that the wings are cut off and a man's heart was given to it. This is probably a reference to Daniel chapter four, with Nebuchadnezzar's humiliation and how Nebuchadnezzar became just like a regular man.
In fact, he became less than a man. He became like an animal. His nails grew out and all that weird stuff.
So what is the first beast? It's very likely the Babylonian empire. Referring to the king, though, remember, the beasts are kings, and king would be Nebuchadnezzar. Okay, well, let's keep going.
What's the second one? Verse five. And suddenly another beast, a second like a bear. It was raised up on one side and had three ribs in its mouth.
So the three ribs probably represent three kingdoms because it's eating, it's consuming them. And the two are pretty easy to identify. We have Babylon, obviously, and then the Medes.
And then maybe the other one is Egypt. We aren't totally positive on that one. The issue is that Cambesis was the one that actually conquered Egypt, so it may be a different one.
Cambisus was his son, Cyrus's son. But the beast, the bear refers to Cyrus, and some are like, maybe canvases as well. I'm a little bit questioning that because the four beasts are four.
It's the word kings. Four kings. So some of these details we might be like now to Daniel, this kingdom didn't exist.
This had not yet happened. This was still future. Now we move on to the next beast, verse six.
After this, I looked and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it. Okay, so it's like a leopard, it's got wings, it's got four heads representing the four generals, which, of course, this kingdom then gets divided into four different kingdoms, a reference to Alexander the Great.
This is clearly one beast, one king, one kingdom, the Greek empire led by Alexander the Great. There is a lot of clarity that this is the representative king of the leopard. Our key phrase occurs at the end of verse four, and at the end of verse six was given.
A man's heart was given to the first beast, and here dominion was given to the third beast. This moves us then to the fourth beast. After this, I saw in the night visions and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong.
It had huge iron teeth. It was devouring, breaking in pieces and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it.
And it had ten horns. I've terms this the monster, and it's like, how do you describe this thing? It's kind of what it does. It's just kind of like a big monster, and it's eating, it's devouring.
And then anything that's left of the ground, what does it do? It tramples them with its feet, and it's just crushing everything so that there's nothing left. And then the question becomes, who represents? Who is this beast? Who does this beast represent? Perhaps the beast is not yet known. Perhaps it's the Roman Empire, but that doesn't quite fit.
Who would be the king that ruled, that did all of these actions? This is not characteristic of the Roman Empire. Is this a revived Roman Empire? I'll let you study that out for yourself and you can have fun doing so. This beast, of course, greatly disturbed Daniel because it's ferocious, it's vicious, it destroys.
The beast is elaborated upon. He gives additional information on it. In verse eight I was considering, it states in verse eight the horns.
And there was another horn, a little one coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth was speaking pompous words. That's all that Daniel gets.
He just sees this beast that's making a mess of everything, destroying the world. Ten horns. Then a little horn replaces the three horns and it's speaking these pompous words and that's it.
Then something else happens. And this is going to lead us to our second points. This is a sermon.
It's not a history lesson. It's not a prophecy conference or whatever else. It's a sermon.
And what is our key phrase that we've seen repeatedly was given? It's a passive know active passive verbs. Oh, this is a grammar class now, sorry, but it's a passive verb because they aren't taking it. It looks like they're taking it.
Nebuchadnezzar is conquering around, Cyrus is conquering through. Alexander the Great is blasting through the Middle East. He is a conqueror.
But no, what is this? This is a sovereign God who says, this is given to you. And then what does king do? He goes and he takes it. Why is he successful? Because God has given it to him.
And as we see the wicked prevail, we can take comfort that the Lord is the sovereign king overall. And we see that in verses nine through 14, nine through 14, and we see that the Lord gives dominion to the king. In verse nine, we have the vision continuing.
I watched till thrones were put in place and the Ancient of Days was seated. His garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame and its wheels a burning fire.
And I want you just to think about that vision a little bit. That's one of the things about pictures. You ever thought about pictures? How sometimes they rob us of something.
If you're looking at a picture, what has it done for you? It's imagined for you. So I've intentionally not put a picture up of the Ancient Days, because what do we have? We have God. And you know what I think it might be good for you to do? Think.
Think about this picture. What do you have here in verse nine? I'm going to read it again and think about it. Imagine it in your mind.
I watched till thrones were put in place. Thrones, plural? Multiple thrones put in place. The Ancient of Days was seated.
Being seated would be a position of power and authority. His garment was white as snow and the hair of his head was like pure wool, white everywhere. His throne, however, is not white, but it's a blaze of fire.
Imagine a throne that's on fire. It's wheels. A burning fire.
The throne has wheels. That's weird. Okay, now your whole imagination just kind of got little caddy wampus.
How do you even think about that? Exactly why I don't want to put a picture up there, because we aren't really sure. You can see these royal carriages with thrones, like in Ezekiel, chapter one. But you have to have quite the imagination.
Think about it. And I think it's good for you to imagine it. It continues in verse ten, a fiery stream issued and came from before him.
Look at this. It's like this lava, fiery stream coming from before him. What a magnificent scene.
And then what do we have before him? Also a thousands ministered to him. 10,000 times 10,000 stood before him. You have tons and tons of people.
Or are they people or are they angels? What are they? That are ministers. That's what they are defined as. They are identified as ones who minister before him.
Do you see this scene in your mind? And then what happens? At the end of verse ten, the court was seated. What? This is like a justice scene. Think through a courtroom and then what is going on? The books are opened.
This is like, oh, we have a justice situation. And who is the judge? The Ancient of Days and what is the evidence? Books were opened. Do we understand? And then what's going to happen? Justice will prevail.
I'm getting a little ahead of myself. We're going to talk about that some more, but this is the beginning of it. Okay? The justice that's going to flow forth from the Ancient of Days, the books were opened.
This idea of books, God keeping an account of what is done is a prevalent theme. I don't know about prevalent. It occurs a few times in the Bible.
We see it in Isaiah five and Malachi three. And then of course, you're probably most familiar with Revelation chapter 20, where it states that the books were opened and the judged were debt. The dead.
The dead were judged according to what was written in the books. Do you want to be judged by what's written in the books? Let me just tell you, you don't. You want to be judged not by what's written in the books.
You want to have your name written in a different book. It's called the Book of life. It's an idea that's in the Old Testament, and then we see it in Revelation chapter 20.
And I want to just encourage you if you think that you can work your way into heaven and that God's going to open up the books. He's going to read through the deeds that you have done and he's going to say, hey, you are pretty good. You can come into heaven.
That's not the way that it works. You have to acknowledge, you know what, I've sinned. I've sinned multiple times over.
I don't deserve to be in the presence of God. You have to acknowledge that truth that you have sinned. And then you need to fall at the mercy of God and say, god, I can't save myself.
Please save me. And guess what God's done that. He has opened the way of salvation through his son, Jesus the Messiah, who died on the cross so that you can have your sins forgiven.
And if you trust in God's plan of salvation, not your own God's plan of salvation, and believe that the blood of Jesus is what saves you, then guess what? Your name is put into a book, and it's not according to the books. Your name is put into the Book of Life. And then you will not be judged according to what's written in the books.
You will be declared righteous because your name is in the book. Here we have this idea of the books. By the way, if you have questions about that and you're like, I don't know if my name's in the Book of Life, talk to myself, talk to Sean or one of the other pastors or deacons here at the church.
We would love to talk to you about how you can have your name. Make sure that you have your name written in the Book of Life. Now coming back to the text, the books were opened.
And in verse eleven, I watched then because of the sound of the pompous words, which the horn, which the horn was speaking, I watched till the beast was slain and its body destroyed. And what's the word given? Its body is destroyed and it's given, it's given to the burning flame. Okay? So that kingdom that's destroying everything, what's going to happen to it? It's going to burn up.
That's what's going to happen to it. It's not going to continue. It will not prevail.
And then in verse twelve, as for the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were given for a season and a time. It's translated, we're prolonged by the NKJV, but that is our verb. These other kingdoms, they kind of morph and they continue at least for a little while.
Okay. Now continuing in verse 13, I was watching in the night visions and behold one like the Son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He came to the Ancient of Days and they brought him near before him, then to Him what's the verb was given.
So who is this? This is the Son of man. We get to know him in the New Testament. He's identified as Jesus, the Messiah.
Jesus came and he died on the cross the first time, creating a way for you to be saved from your sins. He's going to come back again, and it's going to be a very different coming. We read about that in Revelation and repeatedly throughout the Old Testament.
He's not going to come as a passive lamb to die. He's going to come like a roaring lion, and he's the one that God's going to use to destroy this beast. And dominion is then given to Jesus.
Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away in his kingdom, the one which shall not be destroyed. Okay, how are we doing? Are you sticking with me? Okay, we've gone through a lot.
That's the vision. Now Daniel's like oh, that's the vision. I want the interpretation.
Give me some more details. And that's what he asks there. And then in verse 15.
All right. And this is where things get. We get more information, and we don't like some of the information.
Daniel doesn't like some of the information that the messenger shares. In fact, at the end, he states, my thoughts greatly troubled me. My countenance changed.
He's like, disturbed because of this. And of course, the focus is on the last beast. And the third point that I have for the sermon is that the Lord gives justice to the saints.
The Lord gives justice to the saints. We see that in verses ten and eleven. We saw it with the courtroom scene, and then we're going to see it here in 15 through 25 as well.
Verses 15 through 25. I, Daniel, was grieved in my spirit within my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. I came near to one of those who stood by and asked him the truth of all this.
Look at this. I love this. Daniel, hey, you know what? Why don't you ask somebody what all this means? And he's like, hey, I'm going to ask isn't a great idea? So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of these things, those great beasts which are four are four kings which arise out of the earth, but the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever and ever.
Now, wait a minute. The saints are going to receive the kingdom? Who did it say is going to receive the kingdom? Just back in verse 14. Well, 13 and 14, the Son of man.
You see, the text combines this idea that the Son of man receives the kingdom, but then who else gets the kingdom? The saints. The saints, their identity in with the Son of man, receive the kingdom and rule and reign with him as well. Okay, let's keep going.
That's going to be something that you want to just kind of. Think about and we're going to talk about it again in verse 27. Okay.
So verse 19 then I wish to know the truth about the fourth beast which was different from all others, exceedingly dreadful, with its teeth of iron and its nails of bronze. Think about that. Teeth, iron.
Okay. May it was this time of year for Halloween, right? Beggars nights tomorrow night. I was going to tell you in incine.
Beggars nights tomorrow night. I don't know when it is here in Des Moines, you just turn the light off or make sure you have some candy on hand, friends. That's all I got to say.
All right? And this thing looks like a Halloween costume. Teeth of iron, nails of bronze, exceedingly dreadful. It's devouring and breaking in pieces.
So it's eating. It's just ripping stuff apart and then stuff on the ground. It's just trampling it and crushing everything.
Ten horns. How freaky is that? I mean, this thing's like straight out of a horror film. And then the other horn which came up before which three fell, namely that horn which had eyes and a mouth, which spoke pompous words.
It has eyes and a mouth and it's speaking pompous words. Its appearance is greater than his fellows. Go ahead and advance the slide.
They've tried to depict this thing and they've made it kind of like a horn. And this is one of the issues with having an artist create a picture of something. It kind of robs you a little bit.
I should have maybe had you imagine it first. What's wrong with this picture? It's kind of neat. I still like it, but there are a couple of things that are wrong with it.
What's wrong with the picture? It's what? It's weird. Okay, what is it identified as? It says a little horn. It's not that little.
It's bigger than all the other ones. Plus it says that it has an eyes. It has eyes and a mouth.
And the artist has made this thing a whole face. It's given the ears and a nose. Maybe it had ears and a nose, but the text doesn't say that it had ears and a nose.
It says it has eyes and a mouth and it's speaking pompous words. But this little horn we see this little horn, this displacing horn in other places in the Scriptures, in Revelation. Second, Thessalonians two several times we see this little horn in its arrogance defying God.
And so what's coming back to the text then, verse 21, I was watching and the same horn was making war against the saints. And then here's a key phrase. What does it say after that? And prevailing.
And you might be like, that's not right. Who is sovereign overall? The Lord is sovereign overall. Well, then why is it that this defiant, rebellious, pompous horn is prevailing? Do you understand? You see, when we look at this world, we're like, wickedness is prevailing.
God, do something. And by the way, it's good to ask God to do something, a plead with him, cry out to him. That is completely appropriate.
But sometimes God's, like, my plans are greater than your plans. I know what's really going on and everything is going to be okay in the end. And what do you then have to do? I'm going to trust you, God.
You can still cry out to him, but when some travesty takes place in Israel, okay, a sovereign God is sovereign overall, and it is part of his divine plan. And you can take confidence in that, even when wickedness seems to prevail. So let's hear verse 21.
Let's keep going. I was watching and the same whore was making war against the saints and prevailing against them, until oh, that's a good, happy word there, until the Ancient of Days came and a judgment was given that's your given word again, was given in favor of the saints of the Most High. And the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom.
You see, in God's grand plan, it's not just simply that good always prevails on earth. Sometimes good will not. And that is part of the plan of a sovereign God.
And we have to trust Him through that. Eventually, though, the saints do possess the kingdom first, we have a little bit more bad news. He's going to explain in this poetic form in verses 23 through 26, the extent of that little horn, that displacing horn and its wickedness.
What does it state in verse 23? The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth. Oh, I thought it was a king. Now it's a kingdom whoa.
Which shall be different from all other kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, trample it and break it in pieces. The ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom, and another shall rise after them. He shall be different from the first ones, and shall subdue three kings.
So one king supplants the three. He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints will be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time.
Verses 23 through 25 further explain what was going on in verse 21. And just as the judgment is made then in favor of the saints, verse 27 then leads us to our final point. The final point is that the Lord gives the kingdom to the saints.
Now we can meditate upon the future and the kingdom which God is going to bring to this earth. The Lord Jesus will set up his throne here on this earth and rule and reign with perfect justice from Jerusalem. The kingdom will be a good kingdom.
There will be peace on the earth, there will be no more war. But how do we get there? Well, the time in getting there is not going to be too great. And that's okay.
Look at verse 27. Let's keep our eyes on this kingdom, then. The kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven.
What's the verb shall be given. It will be given. But wait a minute.
It will be given to who? What does it state in the text? Oh, to the people, the saints of the Most High. You compare that to verse 14. Back in verse 14, it states then to him that'd be the Son of man in verse 13 was given dominion.
As the Son of man is exalted, so also will the saints of the Most High be exalted. The kingdom given to the Son of man is then given to the saints of the Most High while all of these other kingdoms are destroyed. This kingdom is an eternal kingdom.
It states in the text, his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. His kingdom will not end. Believer, what kingdom are you living for? As I reflect upon that time I had with those men at the coffee shop, and we reflected upon the things of this world we were in.
James, chapter four and one John, chapter two. Familiar texts, texts you're probably familiar with. Why are there wars and fights among you? What do you want? What do you desire? Oh, I want a bigger house.
I want just peace and quiet. I want. I want, I want and so then what do you do? You fight and you war.
What are these things? These are things of the world. What does First John, chapter two say about the things of the world? The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. What happens to all of those things? They all pass away.
What's going to continue forever? This kingdom, which, by the way, this kingdom's not going on yet. We're not there yet. The king is going to come back, and then he's going to set up his kingdom, but we're not there yet.
But we need to live in light of that. We are citizens of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus, and one day he will come back and set up that kingdom. Do you understand? One day that will be here on earth.
And all of these things that we're striving for, that we're fighting for, they're all just going to pass away. Believer, don't be concerned as the kings rise and fall. Even yesterday we were talking about Hamas in Israel, and they're like, oh, boy, what's going to happen in the future? And the one guy was like, is this, like, precursors to something in the end times? I'm like, this is a localized skirmish.
It's just part of God's grand plan. It's all going to work out in the end. We have no idea how it's going to be.
But what can we do? We can trust a god who does know, he is in control, he is sovereign, he is overall. Let's pray. Lord, I thank you for this time we were able to get into Your word.
I pray that each individual here has trusted in you as their own personal savior. If they are not sure that their name is written in the book of life, then I pray that they would talk to myself or another individual who can show them how they can know for sure that their name is written in the book of life. Lord, as believers, as we pilgrim through our lives in this world, I pray, Lord, that we would not be anxious about the affairs of this world.
Kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall. You Lord, are eternal and one day your kingdom will be placed here on earth and it will rule forever. And Lord, I pray that we would not be anxious, but we also would not live for the things of this world.
This world passes away even as that fourth beast that's so mighty and victorious, it just wastes away and it's thrown into the fire. Help us to focus on you. I pray we would not live for this world, but to live for you, Lord.
In Jesus name, amen.