Teeth of Iron

Amen. You may be seated.Afternoon, everybody.It's It's just me and Neil and haveprayer to our Lord.Dear heavenly Father, we just thank youfor how gracious you are, how mercifulyou are to us.And we just thank youfor the love that you have for us. Andyou showed thiswhen you sent your sonwho cameand gave his lifeto give us life.So, Lord,we just come before you now humblyasking that you help our minds go intothe captivity of you and into theheavensso that we cancome into your Sabbath as it's comingnearto um put things asideand just think of you.Think of all the things that you'veblessed us within our lives right up to this state.And what we are learning now is going tohelp us in our futurein our walk with youas we know that it is very soon thatday will come when we actuallywill be ready for you.So, Lord, we just ask for yourumpresence now and ask that you umput the coals of fire on our brother'slips as he speaksand open our ears so we can hear themessage that you are going to present tous. So, we ask this in Jesus' name.Amen.All right. Uh good afternoon, everybody.Can you hear me back there?Yes.

Okay, thank you.So, um it's a privilege to be with youagain today.And umit was what, Friday afternoon, yes?Yeah, really.Well, I I lost a day when I flew here.AndYeah, I'll get it on the way home. Yes.Yeah. Yeah. So, this is a 6-day Sabbathfor me. When I go home, it'll be an8-day Sabbath.Um but anyway, um I'm going to talk thisafternoon.

My sermon's entitled Teeth ofIron or Iron Teeth. And umI I was going to uh when I was asked tocome out here, I was wondering what am Igoing to be speaking about.And uh I I came to conclusion that I'dlike to speak about end-time prophecies.And tomorrow morning, I'll be speakingaboutdifferent concepts of time such aslinear time, circular time, cyclicaltime, and so forth, and how those areseen in scripture, and how they show uswhere we are in the flow of historytoday.And then tomorrow eveningI'm going to be speaking about a sermonentitledpromises, pledges, and something else.Umit does it does have real title. And andI'm going to be talking aboutwhat some of our politicians have beenpromising recently and what Christ ispromising for his coming kingdom.And the fact that we have to vote oneway or another, our day of election istoday and our choice today matters foreternity.Uh so we're talking tomorrow about thethe promises of Christ about his eternalkingdom versus the promises that we hearfrom politicians today. Uh but uh thisafternoon, um this morning we had a bitof a detour into a an untotallyunrelated topic, but this afternoonwe're going to focus on some propheticmaterials once again. And um some ofthis you will will be familiar to you.Um but I realize these days that whenyou preach anywhere like this, uh mostof the people who listen to the talk areactually online.And the majority of those arenon-Adventists.And so we we've lost the ability to justspeak to a group of people cuz once youstream it and it goes on the internet,um most of your audience are actuallynon-native English speakers and many ofthem are from other faith backgrounds.And so if some of this you are familiarwith already, then I'd say praise theLord.

And uh but we're going to belooking in a bit more detail at theconcept of iron teeth in in Danielchapter 7. So um before we begin, let'sbow heads and ask the Holy Spirit toopen our hearts and our minds.Heavenly Father,Lord, I thank you for the privilege wehave of gathering here today. Lord, Ithank you that the Sabbath hours arealmost upon us.Lord, a day of rest and gladness, a dayfor reconnecting with you.Lord, I thank you that the blessing ofthe Sabbath is for all peoples aroundthe world and everybody gets the same24-hour allocation.And I thank you, Father, that yourconcern to meet with each one of us isthe same no matter where we come from,what we look like, or what our past hasbeen.And Lord, as we gather here today and welook once again at prophecy and the flowof prophecy and the fulfillment ofprophecy,I'm asking, Lord, that you'll give mewisdom, that you'll speak through me andfor me,that my words will draw people closer toJesus, the Lamb of God, that taketh awaythe sins of the world.So, Father, we give this these nextmoments into your hands. In Jesus' namewe pray. Amen.All right.

So,um this is our journey today. If I getthis thing to work.All right, there's our journey today.We're going to look at the rise and fallof empires in prophecy.We're going to look at the rise of thepapacy in prophecy.We're going to look at them We're goingto look at two aspects of the rise ofthe papacy, teeth of iron one and thisis very imaginatively named teeth ofiron two before we come to ourconclusions um on the matter.And so I recognize what I'm saying isn'tnecessarily politically correct, butit's the truth.And so the truth has to be spoken inorder for people to respond um in spiritand in truth to the worship of the trueGod. So, um let's let's start out withour instruction today. So, I was raisedin the UK, as you can tell from myaccent. I don't come from Michigan eventhough I live there today.

And uh when Iwas raised in the UK, I was acutelyaware of our history and the strugglesthat went on for 500 years from the timeof uh Henry VIII and his six wives andhis desire to establish the AnglicanChurch. He wasn't driven by anythingtheological, he just wanted to divorcehis wife. Um because the Pope wouldn'tallow him to divorce his wife, hecreated the Church of England andseparated from the papacy and then hecould divorce his first wife and uh someof his wives were beheaded, some weresent into retirement. Um but uh that wasthe start of the Church of England. Andthen we had um the English Civil War in1640s with Oliver Cromwell and Charles Iended with the king losing his head.

Andthen we had the Glorious Revolution of1688 and then there was the the sick the30 Years' War across Europe wherebasically Europe was turned into awasteland by roving gangs of soldierswho really didn't owe allegiance toanybody. And then throughout the 1700s,there were wars of religion back andforth all across the European continent.And so as a as a student of historygrowing up in England, we were aware of,for instance, the lessons of the SpanishArmadaand the Waldenses in the valleys ofnorthern Italy and the Hussites and theBohemians. And then in France, theHuguenots. And then the Cathars ofsouthern France who were eliminated inin a 30-year crusade um in the early1200s. The Battle of the Boyne innorthern Ireland, the German electors,the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the 30Year's War, and the Civil War in Englandall were reminders that um there isthere was papal aggression for hundredsof years and unless Protestants werewilling to take the field of battle andfight back, they would have beenslaughtered by the papal armies.Now, that may sound like it's a longtime ago,but it's really not that long ago.And some of these slaughters took placewithin living memory.We'll come to that shortly later on thisevening or this afternoon.

Without thoseProtestants willing to take the field ofbattle, the Protestant Reformation wouldprobably never have survived.The liberties of conscience that we takefor granted today would not have beenpreserved to take deep roots in the USunder the influence of Roger Williamsand the US Bill of Rights and thenultimately around the world.And so to understand the underlyingcause of the Protestant struggle forliberty of conscience, we need tounderstand the prophetic role of thepapacy.And to do that, we're going to start outwith the rise and fall of empires inprophecy. And I got a colleague in myoffice and he heard I was coming outhere and I All my PowerPoints arenormally just like white background withtext on it. And he said, "Let me see ifI can do something for them." So, Ithink he's done pretty good graphics,yes?I've no idea where he got this from, butI'm grateful that he did this for me.And so I'm going to first of all talkabout the rise and fall of empires inprophecy. And as Adventists, we normallystart out in any evangelistic serieswith this screen here, uh the the statueof Daniel chapter 2, uh the idea thatthat God gave a dream to Nebuchadnezzarand he charted the flow of world historyfrom Babylon to Medo-Persia to Greece toRome to the divided nations of Europeand we are living right down here, thetippy-toes of earth history, and thenext thing to happen is the stone carvedwithout human hands that will strike thestatue and obliterate the entire statueand it will that stone will fill thewhole earth and that will be the kingdomof God. And that is the second coming ofJesus.

So, um we see this flow inhistory as portrayed in Daniel chapter2. And as Adventists, we're very veryfamiliar with this. Um but there's aparallel prophecy to this and it saysDaniel chapter 7. And in Daniel chapter7, we're going to start out with verse 1here. It says, "In the first year ofBelshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel hada dream and a visions of his head uponhis bed.

Then he wrote the dream andtold the sum of the matters." So, thisis the first year of King Belshazzar,it's 546 BC. Babylon is declining. TheMedo-Persian Empire is growing on theeastern border in modern-day Iran andthey are soon going to attack Babylon.In fact, they will destroy Babylon in538-39 BC just a few years after thisvision was given. And Daniel is in hisbed and he has this vision. And in thevision, this is what he says on theleft-hand side of the screen.

It says,"Daniel spake and said, I saw in myvision by night, and behold, the fourwinds of the heaven strove upon thegreat sea. And four great beasts came upfrom the sea, diverse one from another."And so the question is What's What doesit mean they come up from the sea? Well,if you scripture to interpret scripture,Revelation 17, which also has propheticimages,uh the angel says to John theEvangelist, "And he saith unto me, Thewaters which thou sawest, where the sitteth, are peoples, andmultitudes, and nations, and tongues."And so the waters represent thepopulated areas of the world. The greatsea from Daniel's perspective was theMediterranean. That was the great seajust to the west of Israel.

And Danielsees four beasts coming up out of thesea representing four kingdoms orsuccessive um kingdoms in earth'shistory. And he goes on to say, "This isthe text." He says,"The first the beast coming out of thesea was like a lion and had eagles'wings. I beheld till till the wingsthereof were plucked and it was liftedup from the earth and made to stand uponthe feet as a man and a man's heart wasgiven to it." And so the first beast wasa lion with wings, but the wingseventually were plucked off and wasforced to stand as a lion. Now, lionswere a very popular animal in ancientBabylon. Uh the kings would keep lionsin dens and for shows, they werenational symbol.

And if you look at theIshtar Gate, the Babylonians used thewinged lion as a symbol of their empire.As we mentioned the other day, if you goto to Berlin to the Berlin Museum, youwill see there the Ishtar Gate in allits glory. It's about five stories high.That would have been gate that Danielwould have walked through on a dailybasis. And all across those glazed bluetiles are wing winged lions. So, thiswas the national symbol of Babylon. Butin this in this passage here, we seethat it starts as a lion uh with wingswhich indicates power and speed, butthen he's made to stand upon his feet asa man and a man's heart was given to it.So, it indicates that there is a declinein the quality of this empire.

And sowhat was this empire? Well, we know whatit is from prophecy. Um Daniel uh inDaniel chapter 2 explains who the firstkingdom is going to be. It's going to beNebuchadnezzar and the kingdom ofBabylon. Now, Daniel says to KingNebuchadnezzar, "Thou, O king, art theking of kings, for the God of heavenhath given thee a kingdom and power andstrength and glory.And wheresoever the children of mendwell, the beasts of the field and thefowls of the heaven hath he given intothine hand and hath made thee ruler overthem all.

Thou art this head of gold."And so the the first animal that Danielsees coming out to the sea is the wingedlion. And actually Nebuchadnezzar, hewas the dominant king of the BabylonianEmpire. When he died in 562 BC,he was followed by a series of very weakkingseventually his kingdom was lost to thenext empire that came along in 538 to539 BC. And that is the next empire towhich we turn our attention. So, thesecond beast that Daniel sees in hisvision of Daniel 7, he says, "And beholdanother beast, a second like to a bear.And it raised itself up on one side andhave three ribs in the mouth of itbetween the teeth of it.

And they saidthus unto it, arise, devour much flesh."So, Daniel sees a bear.It has three ribs in its mouth. And oneside is higher than the other.And well, what's what could that whatnation or empire could that bearpossibly represent? Well, for those ofyou who are lifelong Adventists, youprobably know the answer to this. It'sthe empire of Medo-Persia. And so, inDaniel chapter 8, another parallelprophecy, the angel actually explains toDanielwhat this next empire is going to be.And here we have different imagery.

Itsays, "Then I lifted mine eyes and sawand behold there stood before theriver." And this this vision is givenjust at the end of the BabylonianEmpire. "A ram which had two horns.""And the two horns were high, but onewas higher than the other and the highercame up last. The ram which thou sawesthaving two horns are the kings of Mediaand Persia." So,Persia was modern-day southern Iran.Media was ancient and northern Iran,which is very mountainous. And theMedo-Persian alliance started out it wasdominated by the Medes in the north, butover time the Persians in the south cameto dominate under the leadership of theemperor Cyrus the Great. And Cyrus theGreat is still remembered as thenational hero of Persians even to thisday.

And so, this this bear was risen onone side, it means that one side of thiskingdom had preeminence over the other.So, of the Medo-Persian Empire, inhistory it is now known simply as thePersian Empire because the Persians cameto dominate in that empire. And so,there you have the empire of Medo-Persiaor more simply of Persia. And thosethree ribs in its mouth, well, thePersians had three major militarycampaigns. As they came from the east,they first came west and they conqueredBabylon in 539 BC. They then movednorth, they took out the Hittites inAnatolia, modern-day Turkey, in the year547.

And then afterwards, Cyrus' sonCambyses, he led a military expeditionsouth all the way into Egypt and theyconquered the Egyptian Empire. And so,they conquered the Babylonians, theTurks, and the Egyptians. And theyeventually tried to go even further westto attack the Greeks, but they weredefeated at the Battle of Marathon in490 BC. And Xerxes was defeated atThermopylae in 480 BC. Although thoseare some of the most significant battlesin world history, actually.

They werethe some of the turning points of worldhistory that have a direct influence onus today.In the Battle of Marathon,the concept of democracy was preserved.The idea that free men could vote in acity and everybody would abide by thedecisions. And the concepts of freewill,free elections, democracy, and classicallogic all come from ancient Greece andthey were preserved in the Battle ofMarathon.And so, these battles have an influenceon our society world society even untiltoday. So, then we come back to thevision of Daniel 7. And Danielhe sees this other beast. He says,"After this I beheld and lo another likea leopard which had upon the back of itthe four wings of a fowl.

The beast alsohad four headsand dominion was given to it."And so, this is the the third animalthat comes up out of the sea in hisvision. And we say, "Well, what animalwhat what empire could this represent?"So, if we interpret scripture withscripture and you drop to Daniel 8,there you have a picture of it. Well,I'll tell you on the screen it's Greece,but you have a four-headed leopard withwings on the back. And the wings onceagain emphasize the speed of theconquest as the Greek Empire underAlexander the Great exploded fromnorthern Greece and they conquered allthe way across Afghanistan and down intoEgypt and they conquered almost theentire known world. And the the advanceof the Greek Empire, you say, "Well,does that affect us today?" Well, yes itdoes.

We work on classical logic in thewest. All of us work our brains think interms of logic.All A is A, all non-A is B, therefore Cis B.Yes? You followed that?All A is A.All non-A is B.Therefore C equalsB.If ifall A is A,okay? All non-A must be B.Therefore C must equalB. All right, okay.

The basics ofclassic logic, all right?So, anyway, this is the fourth empire.We when we say in the west, "That's nota logical thing to say."We are implicitly think the way ourbrains are wired, we think along Greekphilosophical lines and Greek logicalGreek rules of logic and thinking. Andso, with Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle,they have influenced our world in manymany ways. And the four heads on theleopard are those are indicatedhistorically because when Alexanderconquered the world and he came back toBabylon, and he was about 32 years ofage, and what else was there to do buthold a drunken party?And he went down with malariaand he never woke up.And he had four generals.Those generals were Cassander,Lysimachus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus.And they divided the Greek Empire upamong themselves.And so, Seleucus took modern-day Iraqand Syria.The Ptolemies took Egypt, so Cleopatrawas the last of the Ptolemies.Lysimachus, he took modern-day Turkey.And Cassander, he took the Greek portionof the empire. And those four generalswere basically always at war for therest of their lives and figuring out whowas going to be the dominant general.And over time, these two, the Ptolemiesand the Seleucids, they became thedominant parts of the Greek Empire. Andit was the Seleucids persecuted the Jewsin the story of the Maccabees.

But thosewere the four heads on the on theleopards and that's the Greek when theGreek Empire when Alexander died, thosefour generals took over the Greek Empireas well recognized historical fact. Butthen you have the fourth empire thatcomes along.It says, "After this I saw in the nightvisions and behold a fourth beast,dreadful and terrible and strongexceedingly. And it had great ironteeth." Hence the name of our sermontoday, iron teeth. "It devoured andbreak in pieces and stamps the residuewith the feet of it. And it was diversefrom all the beasts that were before itand it had 10 horns.""I considered the horns and behold therecame up among them another little hornbefore whom there were three of thefirst horns three of the first onesplucked up by the roots.

And behold, inthis horn were eyes like the eyes of aman and a man speaking great things."When I was about 10, I had my firstingrown toenail and I was convinced thatwas the fulfillment of this particularprophecy of the little horn.I then acquired a mother-in-law andthought that was the fulfillment of thelittle horn prophecy as well.But this is a fascinating passage here.Andthere you have an image of it. It's thethe empire that followed the empire thatfollowed Greece was Rome. It's anunimaginable beast that Daniel sees. Ithas 10 horns on the heads and it hasteeth of iron and it stamps and breakswherever it goes. And historically, werecognize thisin this passage herethe first verse as Imperial Rome, theRome of the Caesars.That merges in the second passage hereinto Papal Rome, the Rome of the Popes.So, you have Papal Imperial Rome andthen Papal Rome.And so, this is the the the Adventistinterpretation and it's not justAdventists, Protestants going all theway back to like the 1200s, goingCatholic priests at the time recognizedthat the Roman system was a fulfillmentof these two verses here.

And so, thereyou have an image of of that particularbeast. And there you have on the screenthe four beasts that Daniel saw comingout of the sea in his dream or dream ofDaniel chapter 7. The winged lionrepresenting Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar.The four-headed leopard representingAlexander and his four generals. TheMedo-Persian Empire conqueringthe Babylonians, the Turks, and theEgyptians. And then the 10-horned beastof Rome.And that conquers everything in itspath.So, let's just delve a bit more intothat fourth beast, shall we?It says, "And the 10 horns out of thiskingdom are 10 kings that shall arise.And another shall arise after them.

Andhe shall be diverse from the first ordifferent from the first. And he shallsubdue three kings." And so, if you lookat a map ofEurope at the time of the collapse ofthe Roman Empire, Europe was dividedamong various pagan tribes. Some werepagan, some were Christian. And so, youhad the Anglo-Saxonsup in England, the British Isles. Youhad the Visigoths,the Suevi in Portugal, the Vandals inNorth Africa, the Burgundians insouthern France where we get Burgundyfrom today.

The Franks from whom we getthe French, the Alamanni from whereAlamannia is name for Germany in German.You had the Germans, the Lombards, theHungarians, the Ostrogoths, theAustrians, the and then the Heruli downhere. And of these nations here, theVandals, the Heruli, and the Ostrogothswere Arians.Which meant they believed that Christwas a created being.And that Christ was not the eternal Sonof God.And the Emperor Justinian over inConstantinople over here, he sent hisgeneral man called Belisarius, andBelisarius marched in and they conqueredthe Vandals, the Ostrogoths, and theHeruli, and they liberated Italy fromArian control, and by a decree ofJustinian in 538 AD, the Papacy wasestablished as the ruler of WesternEurope. And hence these are the threekingdoms, the three horns that uprootedby the arrival of this new little horn.And there's a chart there that has thename of those 10 kingdoms and thelocation of the modern equivalent today.And soumthis is all kind of like historical factwe're dealing in so far here.And so these are the this these are therise and fall of kingdoms in prophecy,but let's move on to what we really wantto focus on and that's the rise of thePapacy in prophecy.And so Daniel chapter 7 goes on in a bitmore detail to discuss the rise of thePapacy in prophecy. And this is what hesays. He says, "I Daniel was grieved inmy spirit in the midst of my body andthe visions of my head troubled me." Sohe was worried by what he'd been seeing.And he wants to have a deep moredetailed understanding.

He says, "I camenear unto one of them that stood by andasked him the truth of all this. So hetold me and made me know theinterpretation of the things. And thisis the interpretation. These greatbeasts which are four are four kingswhich are to rise out of the earth. Butthe saints of the Most High shall takethe kingdom and possess the kingdomforever, even forever and ever." Nowwhat you notice about this explanation?Well, what you notice about thisexplanation is that Daniel wants to knowabout these beasts and the explanationfocuses on what happens to the saints ofGod.And in the explanation here Daniel wantsto know what's happening, the thingsthat are troubling him are these fourbeasts in his vision, and so this is theinitial explanation of the four beasts,but the focusof the explanation in this doesn'tappear in the vision of the four beasts.The focus of the explanation is that thesaints of the Most High shall take thekingdom and possess the kingdom forever,even forever and ever.

Now that wasn'tin the original vision.But that's the explanation that theangel gives to Daniel. That Daniel, ifthere's one thing you need to know fromthis, if there's one takeaway among fromall this is that no matter what happensin the rise and fall of earthly empires,God knows who his saints are and hissaints will inherit an an eternalkingdom.That these four kingdoms representempires that rise, they have their dayin the sun, then they fade away.And empires, they have this natural lifecycle of about 10 generations.Uh there's a time when they are theyburst, they're full of energy and visionand creativity and vigor andself-belief, then they achievecommercial wealth, then they achievemoral decadence and they collapse. Andevery empire goes through these naturallife cycles. And uh but the point isabout this vision is that there is acoming kingdom that the saints of theMost High are going to inherit and thatkingdom, unlike these four kingdoms uphere, is never going to collapse.So the kingdom that God is establishingis fundamentally different to any of theearthly kingdoms that we've seen so farin the flow of history. That's goodnews.That the saints of God will inherit aneverlasting kingdom.

It's not going togrow bigger and bigger and then collapsein moral decay, it's going to be foreverand ever true and moral and beautiful.And so this is the focus. Theinterpretation here this is not youcan't actually see this in the earlierverses, but this is the interpretationthat God wants Daniel to have of thisvision. But Daniel won't give up onthis.So he comes backand he wants to know about the truthabout those beasts, in particular thefourth beast. Like, "Okay, Lord, Iunderstand the saints of the Most Highare going to inherit inherit an eternalkingdom, butwhat about that fourth beast?" And hesays, "Then I would know the truth aboutthe fourth beast which was diverse fromall the others, exceedingly dreadful,whose teeth were of iron and his nailsof brass, which devoured, breakingpieces, and stamped the residue from hisfeet. And of the 10 horns that were inhis heads and the other which came upand before these and before whom threefell, I even of that horn that had eyesand a mouth that spoke very greatthings, whose look was more stout thanhis fellows.

I beheld and the same hornmade war with the saints and prevailedagainst them until the Ancient of Dayscame and judgment was given to thesaints of the Most High and the timecame that the saints possessed thekingdom." So once again, in even inDaniel's question, Daniel is starting torealize that even though he is naturallyfocused on the fourth beast, the worstbeast that he's seen, the very questionitself ends with a note of ends with anote of hope. Judgment was given to thesaints of the Most High and the timewould come that the saints would possessthe kingdom. That's good news.That God gives judgment for his saintsagainst the oppressive powers andkingdoms of this world and the saintsare going to possess an eternal kingdom.So if you learn nothing else from thisafternoon,is that God has an eternal kingdom togive his saints, regardless of the flowand the ebb of history and the rise andfall of empires, God has a purpose togive an everlasting kingdom to hissaints.So if we are the saints of Godand you you're worried about the affairsof this world as many people are, asDaniel was in his time,we need to know that God knows what'shappening.And as Daniel said, Nebuchadnezzar saidin Daniel 4 that God is sovereign in theaffairs of men.And God raises kingdoms and he takesthem down. He raises them up, he takesthem down, and but he knows who hissaints are.And he's going to give his saints aneverlasting kingdom one day.So what are the clues in this passagethat indicates that this is the Papacy?Well,we're going to go through it verse byverse. On the left hand we're going tohave the verse.

On the right hand we'vegot the clue, okay? So the first verseis Daniel 7:8.It says, "I considered the horns andbehold there came up among them anotherhorn before whom there were three of thefirst horns plucked up by the roots. Andbehold in this horn there were eyes likethe eyes of a man and a mouth speakinggreat things."So the clue here is that this littlehorn on the top of this fourth beastcomes up from among the 10 powers, thoseare the 10 horns on the fourth beast,uprooting three of them in the process.We already noted that those three Ariankingdoms were uprooted by the armies ofJustinian in order to establish theBishop of Rome as the supreme ruler inWestern Europe. So this little horncomes up from among the 10 powers andthis little horn speaks arrogantly.The next verse, "And of the 10 hornsthat were in his head and of the otherwhich came up and before whom threefell, even of that horn, that's thelittle horn, that had eyes and a mouththat spoke very great things, whose lookwas more stout than his fellows. Ibeheld and the same horn, that is thelittle horn, made war with the saintsand prevailed against them." There's atypo there.

And the clue here, yousummarize it here, is the little hornhas eyes and a mouth, so it has a humanface to it. The little horn speaksarrogantly and the little horn makes waron the saints of God.Those to whom God has promised aneverlasting kingdom before they receivethat kingdom will face war andpersecution at the hand of this littlehorn power.The text goes on on the left here.Thus he said,"The fourth beast shall be the fourthkingdom upon the earth which shall bediverse from all kingdoms and shalldevour the whole earth and shall treadit down and break it in pieces.And the 10 horns out of the kingdom are10 kings that shall arise and anothershall rise after them and he shall bediverse or different from the first andhe shall subdue three kings. And heshall speak great words against the MostHigh. He shall wear out the saints ofthe Most High and think to change timesand laws. And they shall be given intohis hand until the time and times andthe dividing of time." And we coveredthat time element yesterday or was itthe day before?

And so the clues on theright are this little horn power isfundamentally a different natured powerto all the powers that have gone beforeit. The little horn power is going tospeak words against God. That is is ablasphemous power. The little horn isgoing to wear out attempt to wear outthe saints of God. That is it's going tobe a blasphemous and a persecutingpower.

The little horn will attempt tochange sacred seasons and the law ofGod. And um the little horn will begiven power for a time, times, and halfa time.And so these are the clues on the rightas to the nature of this this power,this little horn power, that's going tobe a persecuting blasphemous power thatarrives on the world scene.But then Daniel goes on to say, "Thejudgment shall sit and they shall takeaway his dominion to consume and todestroy it unto the end."And I say amen to that. The little hornpower will come under the judgment ofGod and ultimately will be destroyed byGod.This persecuting blasphemous power thatattacks the saints of God, God willdeliver his saints from thatpersecution.So what is the fulfillment of thisprophecy? Well, if we go through itsystematically, those are the clues onthe left. That's the explanation on theright.The little horn power would arise out ofthe 10 barbarian kingdoms that arosewhen Rome fell.And historically, the Papacy arose inRome after the collapse of the WesternRoman Empire.The next clue is the little horn poweris not like the powers that came beforeit.That is all the earthly powers, those 10kingdoms that we saw on the on the onthe head of that fourth beast, they werethey were um kingdoms,but the Papacy is an is a combination ofkingdom and religious power.

It's aunion of church and state.It is a civil state, but is also areligious power and that way it'sfundamentally different to all the 10kingdoms that went before it.The little power plucks up three hornson its rise to power.We kind of briefly mentioned thisalready, but before the papacy could beestablished in Western Europe, the threeAryan nations that posed the greatestthreat to it had to be uprooted by thethe armies of Justinian led by the theemperor the general Belisarius. And youcan read the stories of Belisarius.There are books about him and hisconquests. Um but the Aryan nations ofthe Ostrogoths, the Vandals, and theHeruli were destroyed before the papacycould claim supreme power in Rome in 538AD.Then we read that the little horn powerwill persecute the saints of God.Well,did they do this?Yes, they did.Uh historians estimate today that almost50 million people were murdered by thepapacy during what we call the Dark Agesof papal supremacy.Such as the Spanish Inquisition, theWaldenses, the Cathars, the Crusades,the Hussites, the Bohemians, and theHoly Roman Empire's persecution ofProtestants. And you know, even youknow, I my I have family that grew up inIreland. My mom's from Ireland.

Um evenin the 1980s, uh the the Roman CatholicChurch was running what they called umthe Sisters of Magdalene Laundries,where girls of um who maybe got pregnantout of wedlock or runaway girls weretaken. And they also had workhouseswhere runaway boys and orphans were wereum abused in the most horrendous manner.And uh there was a backlash in Irelandin the '90s against this. And Irelandhas swung from being a Catholic countryto a very very secular country becausepeople have realized that even in the'90s,the most horrendous forms of systemicabuse were being perpetrated on theirown children by the monks and by thepriests in the Sisters of MagdaleneLaundries and the workhouses. And thisis a very painful chapter in Irishhistory. And Ireland has now swung fromCatholic to very very secular.

Andthey've had national referendum onabortion and same-sex marriage and otherissues. They've all gone the secularroute or route because they are so sodisgusted at the abuse that wasperpetrated upon them um by their own uhpriests priests and monks. And then youhave the little horn power persecutesthe saints of God. Okay, we've alreadytouched that. Yes.

The little hornspeaks blasphemy against God. Does thelittle horn speak blasphemy blasphemyagainst God? Absolutely, it does. ThePope claims the titles of Holy Father,Pontifex Maximus, that is a bridgebetween man and God, the Vicar ofChrist, and God on Earth.And so the the Pope claims that thehe claims titles that relate to God theFather, God the Son, and God the HolySpirit. And he claims the right toforgive sins through an earthlypriesthood rather than people findingforgiveness through the ministry ofJesus Christ, our heavenly high priest.False mediators such as Mary and thesaints replace Jesus in the heavenlysanctuary.So the papacy has erected an artificial,false, counterfeit system of worshipthat entirely overshadows the truths ofscripture, what Jesus is doing for ustoday.

So yes, it is a blasphemouspower. Uh the little horn tries tochange the law of God.And the catechism, the Catholiccatechism, eliminates the secondcommandment against idols, and it splitsthe last commandment into two.And they also claim the right to changethe solemnity of the seventh-day Sabbathto Sunday as the mark of theirauthority. So uh when my boy went to umLutheran school in Minnesota, one of hisfirst jobs in in in grade one was tolearn the Ten Commandments.And so he brought home the TenCommandments from his Lutheran school,and I took a look at the TenCommandments. I said, "Wait, wait, wait.That's not those aren't the TenCommandments. You just dropped thesecond commandment and split the tenthcommandments in two." So I said to myboy, "That's not what you're going tomemorize.

You're going to memorize fromthe Bible." So that's what he did.So I went in with him to explain to theschool principal that those are not theTen Commandments. And he said, "Butthose are the Ten Commandments that weuse." I said, "But you're a Lutheranschool. You should know that these arethe original Ten Commandments and thoseare the corrupted Ten Commandments." Andhe explained, "This is our curriculum.This is what we're going to stick to."Um so uh you might say that theReformation for some people really isover. Um but the the little horn triesto change the law of God. And if youread in the catechism, the catechism hasa a new set of Ten Commandments that youwon't find anywhere in the scriptures.It's as simple as that.

And um they getrid of the commandments against idolsbecause a lot of what happens inCatholicism is the adoration of imagesand idols.And so they had to eliminate thatcommandment, and then they just claim tochange the solemnity of the Sabbath tothe Sunday in honor of the resurrectionof Christ. At least that's what theyclaim. Then the final clue in thisprophecy is the little horn has dominionfor a time, times, and half a time.As we saw yesterday, a time in biblicalprophecy because of the year-dayprophecy principlefound in Numbers 14:34, Ezekiel 4:5-6,and Daniel 9:24-27.So a day in in in eschatologicalprophecy represents a year in earthlytime. So a time represents um 360 days.So three and a half times, a time, twotimes, and a half a time is 1,260 days.And that covers the prophecy covers from538, when the papacy was established asthe ruler of Western Europe, 1,260 yearsonwards, 1,260 years, you come to 1798,and when the the armies of revolutionaryFrance took the Pope captive, and thePope was deposed from Rome. And he diedin prison in in um South of France, inAvignon.

And so there you have theinterpretation of the prophecy that thatthat umthat little horn powerum arising out of beast with iron teethis the papal system.And you may say, "Well,is it really as bad as you say it is?"Yeah, I'd say it is. And I'm going togive you two examples of that.The first teeth of iron onewill take us back to France. Well,actually, let's go back to South Africa.I was in South Africa last year.Andjust outside, I think it was Cape Town.Some of you are from South Africa. Youyou'll correct me on this.There is a valley dedicated to theHuguenots.It's a huge valley.And there's a statue there to theHuguenots who first arrived in in SouthAfrica.And the town and the valley, a series ofwineries, was established by theHuguenots who were driven from fromFrance.And the Huguenots, they arrived in SouthAfrica and sort of you you started theircivilization there. But why did theHuguenots come to South Africa in thefirst place?Well, in the France in the 1560s wastorn between the the ruling Catholictraditions and the living faith of theProtestant reformers coming out ofGermany and Switzerland.

And many peopleacross France were searching thescriptures for themselves. They adoptedthe reformed teachings of Martin Lutherand John Calvin. They became known asHuguenots because of their practice ofgathering in people's homes, housechurches, for worship. That is why theywere called Huguenots. By 1562,it's estimated that there were almost 2million Huguenots in France scatteredacross more than 2,000 home churches.And against this onrush and the growthof Protestant influence in France, theCatholic hierarchy and the Catholicmonarchy fought back bitterly.And the divide in Paris in Paris andacross France was exceedingly bitter.So in January 1562,the Edict of Saint-Germain was it was itwas issued.

And this recognized therights of Huguenots to practice theirreligion, but that it was a carefullylimited practice of religion. So theywere not permitted to practice withintowns or at night, and they could not bearmed.So uh the the Huguenots were allowed topractice their faith, but you had to beoutside of the towns. And with thegrowth of towns and commercial cities,that was where the commercial wealthwas. So the Huguenots were kind ofbanished to the countryside, and theywere not permitted to practice theirreligion at night for for worship.And so this Edict of Saint-Germain, itwas allegedly ostensibly uma an Edict of tolerance, but itcarefully controlled how the Huguenotscould live and survive. In in March1562, there was a massacre of 300Huguenots in the city of Vassy, and thatleads to a number of decades of armedconflict between the Huguenots and theCatholic hierarchy.

And this is the eraof umumthe Three Musketeers.Yes?And Cardinal Richelieu umbesieging La Rochelle.And the Three Musketeers and D'Artagnan,Porthos, Aramis, and Athos, I think weretheir names. Have you read thosestories? Uh that's the background to thestories of the Three Musketeers, andthey were on the side of the Catholichierarchy, just so you just so you know.They were not the good guys in in thegood flow of history. So there was theEdict of Saint-Germain. In 1572,this woman, Catherine de Catherine deMedici, was the queen regent of France.And the very fact her name is Medicishould tell you all you know needs toknow about this woman.

The Medicis wereperhaps the most bloodthirsty, violent,corrupt,cynical, manipulative, controllingfamily ever to hold sway in Rome.And this lady, Catherine de Medici, wasrelated to the rulers in Rome, and shewas the queen regent of France, and shewas determined to end Protestantpresence once and for all. She was astern woman, an ambitious lady. She wasproud of her faith, and she decided toeliminate allHuguenot leaders in one fell swoop.So how did she do this?She arranged for a marriage between aRoman Catholic princess, Margaret deValois. She was a sister of the Frenchking, Charles IX, with a Protestantprince from southwest France, PrinceKing Henry of Prince Henry of Bern. Andhis kingdom controlled Navarre acrossthePyrenees into southwest and Spain.

Andshe arranged for this marriage ofconvenience so that if the if theProtestant prince married a Catholicprincess, somehow the nation could beunited and the religious wounds could behealed. That was the That was the thepropaganda anyway.And so to celebrate the marriage,Huguenot leaders were invited from allacross France to gather in Paris for thecelebration.Meanwhile, Catherine de Medici, sheorganized teams of militia and murderersacross Paris ready to strike when thesignal was given.On 23rd of August, 1572, the bells rangout early in the morning to celebratethe wedding.It wasn't just to celebrate the wedding,it was the starting signal for themassacre of the Huguenot leadersgathered in Paris. The Catholic militiasstarted working their way through thelists of the Huguenots to be murdered.This is a woodcut from the time. It'sknown as the Saint Bartholomew's Daymassacre. It's very similar to whathappened between the Hutus and theTutsis where people were given lists ofpeople to exterminate.

And so this iswoodcut from the time and it showspeople being butchered in their beds,people being butchered in the streets,people being people being chased out.And this is a lady naked from herwindow.There was systematic rape, destructionof property, beheadings, impalings,torturing people to death. It was anorgy of violence across Paris.The The The killing continued for a fewdays and within a couple of days over70,000 innocent souls have beenbutchered.As the when CatherineCatherine de Medici came out to inspectthe dead, she was apparently very happyby what she saw.Here she is inspecting the slaughteredProtestants of France.So the news of the Saint Bartholomew'sDay massacre spread all across Europelike wildfire. There was condemnation inProtestant England. The English werehorrified at this and they theycondemned the the outrage in nouncertain terms just as later OliverCromwell was to denounce the killing ofthe Waldenses in some of their massacresin the 1640s.But Pope Gregory XIII, he was delightedwhen he heard the news of the massacreand he ordered a golden medal to bestruck. There's a copy of the goldenmedal.

There There was a Te Deum to besung as a special Thanksgiving in theVatican. The motto was struck on this agold medal. It says Huguenot TorumStrages 1572 or the overthrow orslaughter of the Huguenots 1572and it shows an angel bearing a crossand a sword standing before theslaughtered Protestants.He also commissioned the artist GiorgioVasari to paint three frescoes in Rometo celebrate the massacre. There's oneof the frescoes there. I don't have thespace to put them all up there.

They'reactually very tall, narrow things. Theydon't They don't fit well into aPowerPoint. But here you have theCatholic militia slaughtering theProtestants.People being thrown out of windows, etc.This was the Saint Bartholomew's Daymassacre of 1572.Across Europe, Catholicism became viewedas a cruel, bloodthirsty and implacableenemy of progress.Later on in 1685, Louis XIV, the SunKing of France, he issued now what isnow called the Edict of Fontainebleauthat ended the legal recognition forProtestantism in France at a stroke.The Huguenots were violently attackedviolently attacked by royal troops. Theywere forced to flee abroad such as toSouth Africa or convert or be killed.And the Huguenot population was reducedfrom almost from over 1 million to justover a thousand left in France.Just over a thousand.And it was um the Huguenots were themiddle class of France.They were the scientists, thephysicians, the engineers, the teachers,the lawyers and the doctors.And when the Huguenots left, France leftlost its educated middle class.And if you go to France today,what you'll notice is that France isreally two nations. There's the elitesin Paris and then everybody else isbasically lower working class.There isn't a really a strong workingclass in in France.Because because the Huguenots weredriven out.

They were the middle class.Because Protestants have a work ethicand we believe that you can work andimprove yourself. You have aresponsibility to improve yourselfwhereas you don't find that sense ofresponsibility in Catholic countries.And so the when the Huguenots weredriven out, France went into economicstagnation all the way up until theFrench Revolution and that's when thethe papacy and thethe monarchy in Paris discovered thatthe the poor of of France had learnedthe lessons of the Huguenots and theyturned that violence back on theCatholic hierarchy and on the kings ofFrance. So that's the first teeth ofiron that we're going to celebratecelebrate and talk about today.But I want to talk about another episodeof this teeth of iron as well with youhere today. This happened withinprobablyOkay, this happened within um my dad'slifetime.Okay? So we're not talking ancienthistory here.So if you're 80 or above, this probablyhappened in your lifetime.So in 1941, Adolf Hitler invaded what wenow call the former Yugoslavia.He invaded them with in combination withhis Italian allies led by Mussolini.And they appointed a man called AntePavelić as the head of what he calledthe Independent State of Croatia.

Andthere is Hitler greeting Pavelić herejust after the conquest of Croatia.There's another picture of Ante Pavelićthere. Now who was this guy AntePavelić? He was the leader of anorganization known as the Ustaše.He'd been indicted in France for theassassination of King Alexander I ofYugoslavia in 1934.Mussolini had refused to extraditePavelić from Italy to face justice. SoPavelić had been condemned to death inabsentia by the French courts.But when Hitler when Hitler andMussolini invaded Yugoslavia, AntePavelić was their useful man who theycould install as a puppet ruler overCroatia.Now Pavelić was a dyed-in-the-woolCatholic with an inveterate hatred forall non-Catholics.And Croatia is majority Catholic. Serbiawas majority Orthodox and there werealso Muslims in modern-dayBosnia-Herzegovina.So this was a religious powder keg.So on 18th of May, 1941,Pope Pius X gave a private audience toPavelić and his Jesuit colleagues.And here's a picture of the archbishopthe cardinal archbishop of Zagreb, thecapital of Croatia, meeting Ante Pavelićin 1941.

And Pope Pius X, the RomanCatholicPope, he was an active supporter of theNazis.And he issued a letter on the whenHitler came to power, he issued a letterinstructing all of the Catholics ofGermany to obey Hitler.And so Hitler's armies were mostlycomprised of willing Catholics.And so in Zagreb, you have this alliancebetween the Roman Catholic Church andAnte Pavelić and his Ustaše regime.And those the Ustaše, their theirprimary goal it seemed was to massacreall non-Catholics.And they set about this with a brutalenergy.The German army who went in went inthere with them were appalled at thebrutality. Even the Nazi SS, they wrotethe Ustaše have gone raging mad killingSerbs, Jews and Roma. Those are theGypsies in that part of the world.The Ustaše established concentrationcamps. They established torture of themost brutal kinds imaginable. Theydelighted in causing pain to Orthodox orMuslim prisoners.

Massacres,deportations, forced conversions wereimplemented often led by the priests.Here's a report of one of those priests.The priests, invariably Franciscans,took a leading part in the massacres.Many went around routinely armed andperformed their murderous acts withzeal.A Father Bozidar Bradarović, known forthe machine gun that was his constantcompanion, was accused of performing adance on the bodies of 180 massacredSerbs at Alepassa in Most at Most meansbridge. Individual Franciscans killed,set fire to homes, sacked villages andlaid waste the Bosnian countryside atthe head of Ustaše bands. In Septemberof '41, an Italian reporter wrote of aFranciscan who witnessed south of BanjaLuka urging on a band of of Ustaše withhis crucifix. And so when you read thestory of the Ustaše regime, it wasn't somuch Hitler trying to kill the Jews, itwas the Ustaše regime with the fullcooperation of the papacy eliminatingall non-Catholics in that part of theworld. And it was genocide againstnon-Catholics, Serbian Orthodox andBosnian Muslims and anybody else theycould get their hands on who was not aCatholic.

And this was activelysupported by the Catholic Church. It wasknown known about by Pius X who heldregular conferences and face-to-facemeetings with Ustaše leaders. This isall well-documentedhistory. The cooperation between thepapacy and the Ustaše was very veryopen. In 1941, on July 22nd, Pope Pius Xgave an audience to a man called EugenDido and 100 members of the Croatiansecurity police.

That was the Ustaševersion of the SS. Their concentrationcamps were so brutal that Dido's motherappealed to her son to stop it and whenhe wouldn't, she committed suicide indespair of what she'd brought into theworld.An Ustaše government minister declared,"The Ustaše movement is based onreligion. All our work rests on ourloyalty to religion and the CatholicChurch." End of quote.So, at the end of World War II when theUstashi leaders were forced to flee atthe liberation of Yugoslavia by theSoviets,it was discovered that almost 300,000Serbs and Jews had been deported to Nazideath camps, 500,000 plus had beenmurdered within Croatia and Serbiaitself,and 240,000 plus Orthodox Serbs had beenforcibly converted to Catholicism.It was a painful chapter in the Balkans.And what happened in the '80s and the'90s?There's reasons for these things.And what happened toAnte Pavelić?Did he face justice?Well, the papacy, as the World War IIwas coming to an end, they establishedwhat they called the PontificalCommission for Assistance. That wasestablished to help Nazi war criminalsevade justice at the end of World WarII.They smuggled through the rat lines ofum monasteries and convents all acrossEurope down through Italy, and then onships down to South America, theysmuggled hundreds of Nazi war criminals,knowing what they were doing, to safetyin Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, andultimately Brazil.The papacy was an active participant inthe Holocaust and the horrors of NaziGermany.But Ante Pavelić, he was helped out.The Pontifical Commission for Assistancesmuggled him out of the country. He washeld in convents mostly in Austria andItaly before he was smuggled to safetyin Latin America.He lived in safety in Argentina untilthe death of President Perón, afterwhich he moved to Paraguay, then hemoved to Spain where he died of naturalcauses in 1959 within a Spanishmonastery.

He was protected to the endof his life despite being one of theworst of the war criminals of World WarII.So, when the Bible talks about teeth ofiron for this beast, the Bible knowswhat it's talking about.And this happened in my father'slifetime.And nobody's been held to account forthese war crimes.And nowadays the papacy just moves onand people assume it's a force for good,but you look at its history and even inrecent modern history the papacy hasbeen a force for evil in this world.So,what are we saying conclusion heretoday?Luther'sspeech at the Diet of Worms in 18th 18thof April, 1521.At that diet, that was the gathering ofall the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire.Um it was an interesting case becauseLuther had already been excommunicatedby the Pope.And so, theoretically, he'd already beencondemned by the ecclesiastical courts,and the Pope said, "Well, if he'scondemned by the ecclesiastical courts,why is he going before the civilcourts?"But the the bit the the nobles ofGermany said, "No, we want to hear himin front of the ecclesiastical courts."So, the very fact that Luther spoke atthe Diet of Worms instead of acceptinghis excommunication in theecclesiastical courts was a rebuke ofpapal authority in and of itself cuzit's a case of jurisdiction.And so, Luther spoke at the Diet ofWorms in 1521. His papal accusersdemanded that he recant, and his speechthere provided the foundation for theliberties of conscience that we enjoytoday in New Zealand.And eventually provided the biblical andphilosophical foundation for the Westincluding New Zealand today.And this is the conclusion of his famousspeech. Some of you know these wordswell. He says, "I cannot submit my faitheither to the Pope or to the councilbecause it is clear that they havefallen into error and even intoinconsistency with themselves.If then I'm not convinced by proof fromHoly Scripture or by cogent reasons,if I'm not satisfied by the very text Ihave cited, and if my judgment is not inthis way brought in subjection to God'sword,I neither can nor will retract anything.For it cannot be either safe or honestfor a Christian to speak against hisconscience."Then he said, "Here I stand. Here Herestehe ich.

I can do no other. Ich kannnicht anders.""So help me God. Amen. Gott helfe mir.Amen." as he said in German there.And that famous speechlaid the foundations for the freedoms wehave today.And it's a courageous man to stand upagainst the tide.Luther was not perfect.If you read his later writings,he laid the foundation for theHolocaust.He wrote a book called On the PerniciousJews and Their Lies. When the Jews wouldnot accept the the ProtestantReformation, he argued that they shouldbe put they should be their mosquessynagogues should be burned, theirbusinesses confiscated, they should beput into forced labor camps separatedmale and female.

That's what he arguedfor.And that became the blueprint for theHolocaust.So, if you talk about Martin Luther to aJewish person,they don't think he's a hero like wethink of him as far as Protestants. So,in the early years of his life he's ahero of faith, but in the later years ofhis life when he's kind of old andgrumpy and used up all his nervousenergy,um somebody wrote a book called TheTable Talk of Martin Luther um where ashe's he had his students staying at hishouse in Wittenberg and they werewriting down his views on the propercare of pigs and the raising of childrenand so forth. It's a fascinating book.It's called The Table Talk of MartinLuther, but in his later years he waskind of an old grumpy man, let's put itthat way.But in this moment here,um he shone for God.And his stand for liberty of conscienceagainst ecclesiastical dominationflowered into these five principles.Sola scriptura,that is scripture alone, not man'swisdom.Sola fide, faith alone,nothing that we earn.Sola gratia, by grace alone,nothing we accomplish.Solus Christus, Christ alone, no othermediator.And soli Deo gloria, to the glory of Godalone, not our glory.And those five principles that came outof the Protestant Reformation um a setfreed the mind across the West for theexplosion that we saw over the next 500years of of intellectual growth andcommercial growth and technologicalprogress and so forth because the Bibleum frees the human mind.It's not designed to control the mind.It's designed to liberate the mind. Godsays, "Come, let us reason together." Heexpects us to use our intellectualcapacities which are created in theimage of God.Ultimately, Luther in his writingspoints backnot to the beasts of Daniel,but in his writings he points to anothervision, that of the Apostle John inRevelation 4:1-10.And there you see in Revelation 5, inthis vision this throne room vision inheaven above, John writes, "And I beheldin the midst of the Lamb of the thronestood a lamb as it had been slain."That lambrepresents Jesus Christ. That lamb isJesus as described 27 times in the bookof Revelation.

Not as a beast withhorns, but as a lamb.Like 27 times it's emphasized Jesus isthe lamb. He is the lamb of God thattaketh away the sins of the world. JesusChrist is the final, you might say,animal or beast orYou've got the beasts of Revelation, butthe final animal we see is Jesus as thelamb of God fixing world history inRevelation chapter 4, 5, and onwards.And this Lamb of Godin the throne room vision of Daniel ofRevelation chapters 4 and 5, there is ascroll in heaven above, and the scrollhas seven seals on it.And in Jewish mystical thinking,um the Jewish rabbis believed that ifyou wanted to come into the presence ofGod, they believed that there were sevenheavens.And between to get from one heaven tothe next there was a gate guarded by twoangels.And in order to get into the firstheaven, you would have a scroll with aseal on it, and when you broke the seal,it gave you the password to get throughthe first set of angels. And you brokethe second seal, and you come into thesecond heaven, and you break the thirdseal, and you come into the thirdheaven. And when you break the seventhseal, you come into the throne roompresence of God himself.

This was a partof what was called Merkava mysticism. AMerkava um this modern day Israeli umbattle tank is called Merkava, but IElijah went to heaven on a heaven on aMerkava, a fiery chariot. That's whatthe word means, a fiery chariot.And so, Jewish mysticism had this ideathat you could come into the presence ofGod with a scroll with seven seals onit.And Jewish rabbis would take these tripsto heaven.And there are well-documented cases ofrabbis who did this. Uh one one group offour rabbis did it. One committedsuicide, one went mad, one never spokeof what he saw again, and onedisappeared.So, there are these cases in in Jewishhistory in the first and secondcenturies AD of Jewish rabbis trying tocome into the presence of God.

Andwhat's interesting is that John sees aseven a scroll with seven seals on it aswellin Revelation 4 and 5. But this scrollis not on planet Earth, but the scrollis in the throne room of God himself.And the question is, who is worthy toopen that scroll?And it says the Lamb looking as it beenslain is worthy to open the scroll. Andthe Lamb breaks the first, the second,the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, theseventh seals, and by the time you getto the sixth seal, you have the comingof the the Lamb of God, Christ in allhis glory in the second coming, and theseventh seal is the rest of humanhistory.And so, the message of Revelation isthat of all the beasts on planet Earth,these empires, these kingdoms that haverisen, that have persecuted the saintsof God,um it is the Lamb of God who controlsthe flow of human history.And he alone will open that scroll, andhe alone will will will control the flowof human history from the time of Johnall the way down to the second coming ofJesus Christ and beyond.So, Lutherand the Apostle John,they pointed us to the Lamb of God whotaketh away the sin of the world.Because of all the animals in scripture,it's only the Lamb of God has control ofhuman history.And it's only the Lamb of Godwho actually brings us into the presenceof God.All the other powers will seek to denyaccess to God, but the Lamb of God,instead of like the Jewish mysticscoming into the presence of God, in inJohn's gospel, the the Book ofRevelation, now God is breaking intohuman reality.Instead of us climbing to God, now Godis coming down to earth in the secondcoming of Jesus Christ.And he has the authority to controlhuman history.And he has the authority to control yourlife.He has the authority to guide your life,the power to the providence to guideyour life ultimately to heaven above.In that heavenly rescue mission forfallen humanity.So, that Lamb looking as if it'd beenslaughtered is the Lamb of God thattakes away the sin of the world, thattakes away my sinand your sin.That Lamb, not the beasts of Daniel, isthe only one that opens the scroll ofhuman history,controls the flow of human history,and he alone can write that history foryou today.So, on this Friday afternoon as we comeinto the Sabbath hours,whether you're watching online or you'regathered here with me with us heretoday,I want to appeal to you tonot focus on the beasts of worldhistory,the men who shed a lot of blood,but focus on one whose blood was shedfor you.To focus on the one who alone can bringthe presence of God into our lives.The one alone who died in order that wemight have eternal life.The one alone who can control the flowof history, who raises kingdoms andtakes and takes them down, and who isone day, as we go back to Daniel 7, thevery beginning in the explanation of theangel, that yes, there are these earthlykingdoms, but one day the saints of theMost High will receive an eternalkingdom.And they'll have dominion over it.And you can be among those saints todayby accepting Jesus as your Lord andSavior.So, does anybody here today want to givetheir lives to Jesus Christ?Accept him as Lord and Savior. I havesome hands going up here. Yes, praisethe Lord.Praise the Lord.

I have hands going upthere at the back. Thank you, brother.Thank you.You know, it's the it's the bestdecision you're going to make.Somebody's going to rule in our lives,either the powers of this world or theKing of kings and Lord of lords.Let's bow our heads and close with aword of prayer.Heavenly Father,Lord, I thank you that you've not leftus alone to fight the beasts of thisworld.Lord, you've given us these propheciesso that we know we may know what ishappening and why it is happening andwhen it's going to happen.But Father, you've given us theseprophecies because ultimately they pointus to the Lamb of God,slain from the foundation of the world,who died to take away the sins of theworld,who is coming again to give aneverlasting kingdom to those who arefound in that Lamb's Book of Life.Today, Father,we thank you for this prophetic voicethat we have in our midst, the gifts ofDaniel and Revelation.We thank you beyond that for the deathof Jesus on Calvaryas our sin-bearing and soon-comingSavior.And we pray today, Father, that you willcleanse us of our unrighteousness,that you will forgive us of the sins ofour past.We ask that you anoint each one of usafresh today with the gift of your HolySpirit,that you will lead us and guide us.I pray that when you see us, you willnot see our filthiness, but you'll seethe purityof Jesus Christ.I pray, Father, you will not hold ourgood or bad deeds against us, but youwill see the righteousness of our Lordand Saviorwhen you look upon us.And Father, when you come in the cloudsof glory,with the voice of the Archangel, whenthe dead in Christ are rising first,when the Son of Man is seated at yourright hand in glory unimaginable.We humbly pray today, Father, thatyou're coming for each one of us.This is our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.