Episode Transcript
Let's take God's precious word to turn to the book of Daniel.
And while you're turning there, remind you that after service, we're having dinner on the grounds.
And so feel free, doesn't matter if you brought anything, we always have plenty of food.
Then, if not, Brother Doug, you can just do without and let someone else eat.
We always have plenty of food.
So please.
Stay and eat with us.
If you're a guest, we welcome you.
So glad you came.
Book of Daniel, we have been teaching through the book of Daniel, verse by verse, and what an amazing book it's been.
And chapter 7 has been especially rich.
We have seen four great beasts rise up from the great Sea.
And we've learned that that represents four great world empires rising up from the sea, that is, the collective mass of unregenerate men.
We've learned all about that.
And if you have not been following us and you have questions about that, go to Know I'm Saved Bible Teaching.
On any, wherever you listen to your podcast, Spotify, you can go down the road, listen to Spotify, your No I'm Saved Bible teaching, listen to the book of Daniel on your radio.
Just driving down the road on Spotify.
Know I'm Saved Bible teaching and podcast and select whatever chapter and verse. you want to listen to.
So in Daniel chapter 7, verse 3, we'll start off there to get some context for today.
Daniel said, And four great beasts came up from the sea Diverse one from another.
And again, remember, these beasts are kingdoms of fallen men, world empires.
They're called beasts because, unlike man who has been given the Spirit of God so he can know God, remember Jesus said, God is spirit.
They that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Unlike man, these are, as the New Testament describes them, Like a natural brute beast made to be taken and destroyed.
So these are like animals.
They're animalistic people who have shut God off from their life, from their conscience, and they're not living by the Inspiration of God's Spirit, but by the lust of their own flesh.
So the kingdoms coming up From the great sea of fallen men are referred to as beasts, and this sets the stage of our understanding for when we come to the book of the Revelation later.
When you see a beast there and a mark of the beast, the beast in Revelation will be no different than the beasts That we're seeing here.
It's all the same.
So don't get confused by that.
Now, these kingdoms rising up, they represented the rise again of world empires.
Starting with the Babylonian Empire.
Okay, now all this is history.
This isn't Bible fairy tales.
This is world history.
And Bible prophecy, and the two go hand in hand.
So it begins with the Babylonian Empire, which was the first beast that rose up.
They did not come up simultaneously.
They came up chronologically.
Okay?
And so the first beast.
Begins the first of the four, and it carries us until the time of the end.
And after studying the first two B, so the first two world empires, we have seen that the animals' characteristics, because these beasts are different kinds of Beasts, different kinds of animals.
And these animals' characteristics portray, they illustrate the characteristics of the empires that they represent.
So the first beast, Babylon, if you'll remember, it was like a Lion with eagle's wings.
Remember that?
And we went through what all of that meant.
That's the Babylonian Empire.
Now, the second Empire, which we looked at last week, that was like a bear.
Remember that?
A bear that raised itself up on one side, and that meant the front side.
It raised itself up.
Like this, and the top side or the front side was higher than the bottom side.
We learned that Bear was the Medo-Persian Empire, and that the Persians Which is all that's Iranians.
The Medos and the Persians were all Iranian people, but two different kingdoms.
And the Persians raised up higher.
They were the dominant of the two.
Kingdoms that made up that Medo-Persian Empire.
And it had three ribs, remember, in its mouth.
And we saw that they had three Dominant victories whenever they rose.
And now we come to the third beast in Daniel's vision, which will be, chronologically speaking, the third empire from Babylon.
Want Babylon?
And then Medo-Persia, and now this new empire here that's going to come.
Daniel saw the second beast, and then he said, Look in your text now in verse 6: after this.
I beheld after this, not along with this, not coexisting together with the second beast, but after this second beast, Daniel said, I beheld because remember this prophecy is not given given to him in the form of audible words.
It's given to him in the form of a vision that God had given him.
And in this vision After seeing the second beast, Daniel looked, look back in your text now, and lo, another, he says.
That is, another beast.
Daniel said, This is now the third beast.
This is now the third world empire to come.
That was, look in your text, like a what?
Leopard.
A leopard.
This beast is going to have the characteristic of a leopard.
Now, I could go to zoology and study zoology.
Maybe I could study the leopard's blood type, the leopard's genes, the leopard's teeth, the leopard's stature.
And maybe tell you, well, maybe because a leopard is this, then it would represent this part of the kingdom and all that.
And we could just go off into all kinds of obscurity.
But you don't have to go to zoology to find out what characteristics this leopard is going to represent.
All you have to do is go to Scripture.
When I saw that this third beast was like a leopard, immediately scripture started popping into my mind where God uses a leopard in the Bible.
It uses certain characteristics of a leopard to get his point across.
Now, like the other beast, This empire was a predator, like a lion, right?
Like a bear.
And now we have this leopard.
But this predator possessed unique characteristics.
When compared to Babylon and Medo-Persia.
They're different empires.
Now, there are two characteristics that the Bible mentions that stand out when it comes to a leopard.
The first characteristic is speed. it is speed.
A leopard moves quickly when it goes for its prey, and so will this third empire.
And I'm speaking futuristically because this hasn't happened yet.
In Daniel's time.
This is futuristically.
But this third kingdom from Babylon, Daniel had this vision during the rule of the Babylonian Empire.
He envisions the Medo-Persian Empire coming like a bear.
He then Envisions this third empire coming like a leopard moving quickly for its prey.
Listen to how God, through the prophet Habakkuk gave us some remarkable insight into the leopard, this third empire, and its comparison to Babylon, the first empire.
Habakkuk chapter 1.
Verses 6 through 8.
God told the people of Judah.
Now that's important.
God is not speaking to the world in particular, He is directing this prophecy to the people of Judah.
Telling them about their coming destruction from Babylon.
He says in Abaka 1:6 through 8, For lo, I raise up the Chaldeans.
Now the Chaldeans, the Babylonian, Babylon were Chaldean people.
I raise up the Chaldeans, that's Babylon, That bitter and watch this next Adjective hasty nation.
Hasty means what?
Quick.
The bitter and Hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs.
They are terrible and dreadful.
Their judgment, right?
Their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.
Their horses, that's talking about their battle horses.
Also, are watch this now, swifter than what?
The leopards.
Now, this is a prophecy.
About the first beast.
Now, it's not described as a beast here.
It's not the same as Daniel's dream, but it's about the same beast.
Empire doing the same thing that the lion with eagle's wings is going to do.
Why did the lion have eagle's wings?
Because it's going to fly high and it's going to fly fast.
Okay?
And so these two prophecies harmonize with each other.
And so he says here, their horses are swifter than the leopards.
What does that tell us?
It tells us that God prophetically associates leopards with swiftness.
Okay?
So we take that and we carry it that truth into the book of Daniel.
And that's a remarkable statement when you realize that Daniel, another prophet in the Bible, would see a vision of a leopard as one of the beasts in his dreams, you see?
That would come after Babylon two nations later.
Now, I don't believe God is saying that their horses are swifter than a leopard in the sense of their top speed.
If you were to read prophecy like this, it would get you all confused.
If you were to read prophecy like this. .
Then the devil would come in and say, Now, now, see, this is back before they were able to have radar or to clock.
The speed of animals.
And so the writer here thought that a horse could outrun a leopard, but he was wrong.
That shows there's errors in the Bible.
Man, if you were to read the prophecies like this, you would be all kinds.
Of confused because you would also believe that there was a lion that had eagle's wings, you see, and the Bible's not saying that either.
You have to understand. the imagery that God is giving here.
And God is not saying that their horses, I believe, were swifter than a leopard in the sense of their top speed, but in the relative sense, That the armed men riding them would ride through the city, executing God's judgment against the people of Judah.
And by doing so, God's judgment would come to the people of Judah swifter than a leopard could catch and kill his prey.
How many of y'all have ever seen a leopard catch and kill his prey?
Not in person, but on on on T V It takes a little bit, doesn't it?
I mean, it's kind of something.
I mean, you got the antelope or the gazelle or whatever it is, and they taking off running.
And that leopard's taking off running.
And boy, they kind of do this for a while and do this for a while.
And finally, finally, it catches up and the leopard grabs a hold of that animal and everything.
Relatively, as the leopard to his prey, the horses, the people riding the horses with their swords.
Would be able to overtake their prey quicker than the leopard overtakes his prey.
You see how that works?
That's what God is saying here.
You look at a leopard and you can say, wow.
They're not going to outrun that leopard.
But I tell you what, the people of Judah were not going to outrun Babylon, and that's what God was going to say.
And now look not only that, but watch how Habakkuk's prophecy harmonizes again beautifully with Daniel, because he continues to say in Habakkuk 1, verse 8, that the Babylonians' horses were swifter.
Than the leopards, they're swift, and are more fierce than the evening wolves, and their horsemen Which is the swiftness we're looking at here.
Their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far.
They, the horsemen, shall fly as the what?
Eagle that hasteth to eat.
Do you see how that harmonizes again with Daniel?
Because Daniel's vision of Babylon was that of a lion with eagle's wings.
It's amazing to me.
Daniel 7, 4 says, the first was like a lion.
And had eagles' wings.
Because Babylon, once again, not only flew high toward heaven, we saw that.
That's what made the feathers of those eagle's wings get plucked.
It lifted itself too high and put it and Nebuchadnezzar put himself in the position of God, and God cast him down.
But not only did those eagles' wings lift him up high, but it also caused them to fly swiftly.
Toward Judah, to whom this prophecy was written, executing God's judgment quickly against them.
In about 587 BC, Babylon, that first beast, flew into Judah.
Conquered them, captured their people, and leveled their temple.
So when Daniel sees this next empire come in like a leopard, Then we have to understand here that this empire is going to come in swiftly.
It's going to come in and it's going to conquer.
The enemies swiftly like a leopard that's known for speed, and historians confirm to us that the next empire that came after the Medo-Persian Empire indeed Conquered a great amount of territory in a very short amount of time.
But there is another, and we'll look at that here in a moment, but there is another characteristic.
About the leopard that the Bible speaks of prophetically.
Not only a leopard's speed, but a leopard's what?
Spots.
There we go, Brother Shepherd.
Not only a leopard's speed, but a leopard's spots.
Jeremiah chapter 13.
Jeremiah chapter 13.
Verse twenty-three Can the Ethiopian change his skin?
No.
Or the leopard, his spots.
My wife, where's your drink at, your mug at?
You got it handy?
That's not the one I saw this morning.
It must be in the car.
She's got a mug with leopard print on it.
I was looking at that mug on the way up here this morning, thinking about the scripture this morning. the leopard's spots and how that falls into prophecy, and I was contemplating looking at that mug.
But a leopard's known for spots.
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?
Then may ye also do good.
That are accustomed to do evil.
So, so not only a leopard speed, but a leopard spots.
This next nation would be a spotted nation, like a leopard.
Now, if you've ever studied leopard spots, and for this message, I did study a leopard spot.
They're rosettes, but they're not just put out in different places like at random.
They're actually very well organized.
They're spotted stripes.
You just follow them and they just they make these these little lines like this.
And then if you have you ever I know, I think a little too much, maybe.
But this is what I did, Brother Doug.
This is what I did.
I got those leopard spots out.
And I stared, and I stared at those leopard spots, contemplating on that scripture.
And you know what happens when, you know, there'll be like a hidden picture sometimes.
If you'll stare at it, and you'll kind of let your eyes blur a little bit, and you'll see these hidden pictures.
Did you know as I stared at those spots and I let my eyes blur a little bit, try it?
Pull up a big picture of a leopard at home and let your eyes blur a little bit.
Next thing you know, you will see All these interconnected lines, just like the weaving of a basket, is what it makes.
They're all interconnected. forming this continual interconnected pattern on this animal.
Different than a lion.
Because all these different spots, even though they're different and it's spotty, they're at the same time homogeneous.
It's all one big pattern on that leopard.
It's going to be a spotty Empire.
The word leopard, interestingly, here in the Bible, it's taken from a word that has the idea. of like a an ink pen that goes drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip and just drips little spots everywhere.
It's honing in on the spots.
And those spots are placed again, they're arranged in these nice, neat little rows, interconnected.
Lines throughout, allowing them to blend in with their surroundings.
And I believe this could be and is because the next empire.
Would be known for its cultural influence permeating the world, interconnecting the world.
Although it's spotted with all these different nations, all these different cultures It's yet all interconnected in making up one beast with many, many different Cultures, causing the empire with its vast and varied territories to be spotted rather than a uniform color.
And in this next empire, it permeated the world so much whenever it came to pass that our new.
Testament would be written in its language.
Isn't that amazing?
Now that's permeation.
That's how it comes, because of this leopard.
Because of this third beast, the leopard, it is the reason that when we teach in the New Testament, we say now in the Greek.
It says this.
It's still affecting us to day.
This next Cannibal wood.
It blended in so much, in fact, in this world empire that even many Jews Would be considered Greek.
Did you know that?
Even the Jews, many of the Jews. would be considered Greek.
Acts chapter 6 verse 1.
Acts chapter 6 verse 1.
Watch.
This is amazing to me.
Acts chapter 6 verse 1 It says, and in those days, just a moment here, in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplied, There arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected.
Do you want to know why we have deacons in the church?
Because of this next empire.
That's why.
When it says Grecians, it's talking about Hellenistic Jews.
Now, Hellenistic is a word for Greeks, okay?
Just like Chaldeans is a word for Babylonians.
It's all the same.
So when you see Hellenistic, then it's talking about Grecians.
And so it's saying the Greek-speaking.
Jews and the Hebrew-speaking Jews became at odds with each other because they thought, well, those Hebrew-speaking Jews, their widows are getting treated better than our Greek-speaking Jews.
And so they had to have some deacons come in there and choose some men to try to make sure everything was.
Was handed out equally to everybody, and there wasn't any turmoil in the church.
And so that's what's happening here.
And how spotted is that?
That spotted folks, and yes, this third empire, this leopard, would be Greece, the Grecian Empire.
And Greece would fly so swiftly across the world.
This leopard going so swiftly across the world, gaining even more territory conquered Than Babylon.
Now, Babylon ruled all, but that didn't mean they conquered all.
And so they would gain even more territory than Babylon, which is why I believe This leopard is said to have how many wings?
We're going to see in just a minute.
Four wings instead of two, like Babylon.
Daniel said, It was like a leopard, look back in your text, which had upon the back of it.
Four wings of a fowl.
Four speaking of Greece.
One historian had this to say about Alexander the Great.
Alexander the Great, you all have heard of Alexander the Great, Alexander the Great is being prophesied about here by Daniel long before Alexander Would ever be born And Alexander the Great, heading up this Greek empire, is the one that Came in swiftly.
Now, watch this: what the Bible, I mean, one historian has this say about Alexander the Great and his conquest of global territories.
Quote: Nothing was more swift.
Then the conquest of Alexander from Illyricum unto the Adriatic Sea unto the Indian Ocean. and the river Ganges he rather ran through the world by victories rather than by battles, and in six years subdued part of Europe all Asia, even unto India, to which may be added all Egypt, Syria, and Palestine.
Ask quick That's quick.
But that's not all Daniel saw.
Fascinatingly, Daniel said, look back in your text, see what else he saw about this beast.
It not only had four wings, it's flying really fast.
But it says, the beast had also four what?
Four heads.
Man, what a monster!
Can you imagine a leopard with four wings and four heads?
Boy, that sounds really crazy, doesn't it?
But remember, all of this is imagery.
A picture painting a thousand words of divine truth for us.
After Alexander the Great's death, why these four heads?
You know, a head can be more than just this anatomical body part right here.
What else can a head be besides just what sits on a person's neck?
Sir, a leader.
Have you ever heard of heads of state?
It's exactly what this is.
These are four heads of state.
All this is seen by Daniel.
Now, It's not spelled out.
It's a picture painted because the message is there.
And then, when history fulfills the prophecy.
Now you can look at history and look at it and say, there they were the whole time.
That's the way God does things.
Now, watch this: four heads.
You see, after Alexander the Great died, His empire was divided into four main Hellenistic, that is Greek, kingdoms.
You just look it up.
It's Macedon.
The Ptolemaic, Egypt, and then Seleucid Empire and Pergamon.
Macedon, the Ptolemaic Egypt.
Seleucid Empire and Pergamon.
Those are the four heads, headed up by four different generals.
Okay?
Those generals took over those four divisions.
And these four Greek kingdoms ruled the world until the next beast rose from the sea in Daniel's dream.
Daniel's dream back during the time of Babylon, stretching all the way to the time of Greece, and it doesn't stop there, it won't stop till the end of time.
One beast rose from the earth, all Greek, but culturally blended, and it was ruled by four heads.
Headed up by four generals that this empire was divided into.
Look back in your text, and dominion was given to it.
That is, dominion was given to this beast.
The beast would rule the world.
Dominion was given to the Grecian beast until the fourth beast rose to power, and then dominion would be given unto it.
When you look at the end of time, You're going to see that that last beast, there's going to be power given to it as well in authority to persecute and kill the saints.
It's going to happen.
It's coming.
There's going to be great persecution, Jesus said.
And all of this secular history and all of this was seen by Daniel long before it happened, and God willing.
Next Sunday morning, we're going to take a look at the fourth beast, which is unlike any other beast that's ever been seen.
I assure you this, you won't be able to go to the zoo.
To Africa, you won't be able to go anywhere and find a beast like this beast.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
Thank you, Father God, for giving us this great assurance that as these things came to pass, In the past time, so we know that your kingdom will come to pass in the future time.
As these heads of state rose to power in dominion was given to them, so the same prophecies will also be fulfilled.
From the same prophet who said, Your son will rise to power and dominion will be given to him.
And that's who and what we're waiting on.
In the meantime, we'll continue to study so we'll know what to expect and we eagerly wait for his coming.
Bless the food we're about to receive and the people who came here today and let the truth of your words sink deep in their hearts with clarity and understanding.
In Jesus' precious name, amen.
