Truth Project: The Final Kingdom in Nebuchadnezzar's Dream

Welcome to Truth Matters Saturday with Dr. Cheryl Davis. Every power will emerge on earth, bringing us fatally close to the end of this age. It will be the final kingdom in Nebuchadnezzar's dream that is made of iron and clay. This kingdom will be led by Satan himself and made up from a confederacy of nations from the old Roman Empire, bent on the complete eternal devastation of the State of Israel, the annihilation of the tribulation saints, and using every possible means and opportunity to profane and desecrate the Holy Name of Jesus Christ.

Here's Dr. Cheryl Davis, a changing world, a time to make up your mind. If you haven't heard anything else in this teaching, some of you may not be interested in history as, you know, a lot of this has already come to pass. I think you can look at this statue and know that we are living on the threshold of the end of the age. I firmly believe that this statue is a message to Daniel as well as to Nebuchadnezzar showing us the world's history. We have already seen those four confederacies come and we've seen them go until we're at the point of the clay and the iron, which we have not seen.

We are living on the threshold of the end of the age. There's an interesting part of this dream. It's not just the statue, but I'd like to focus on the stone for just a few minutes. In Daniel 2 35, then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed together and became like shaft from the summer's threshing floors.

The wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image brought a great mountain and filled the whole earth. And in 44 and 45, it says, and in the days of these kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the kingdom shall not be left to other people. It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever. And as much as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold. The great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this.

The dream is certain and its interpretation is sure. Notice that the stone is cut out of a mountain without man's hands and strikes the statue and the mountain covers the entire earth. This is the Lord Jesus coming in his glory to destroy all world governments and like a mountain, fill the whole earth. But who is the stone? You know, Jesus is referred to as a stone in a number of parts of the Bible. He is described as the smitten stone in a number of places, and one of those places is Exodus 17, 5 through 6. And the Lord said to Moses, Go on before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel.

Also, take in your hand your rod with which you struck the river and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb and you shall strike the rock and water will come out of it that the people may drink. Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. This is the foreshadowing of Jesus being the smitten stone and the Holy Spirit coming forward in the church age. In 1 Corinthians 10, 3 and 4, the Bible says, And all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drink of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Jesus Christ. Jesus is also known as the stumbling stone. In Romans 9 and 33, And it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. Isaiah 8 and 14 also describes Jesus as the stumbling stone. He will be a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel as a trap and snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. In Isaiah 28 and 16, Behold, thus says the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation.

Whoever believes will not act hastily. He's also known as a special stone, the cornerstone, which is the stone in which the structure is dictated by. His kingdom is supernatural. It's not cut by man's hand, and his kingdom is sudden. The striking blow to the statue, how the statue is built is gradual and it's built on each other, but the statue is destroyed very suddenly, which is the sudden coming of the second coming of Jesus Christ. I would like to spend some time on the second coming of Jesus Christ. The second coming of Jesus Christ will occur in two phases, the first being the rapture. The rapture of the church will remove all believers before the tribulation. It will come suddenly, and currently there are no more prophecies that need to be fulfilled before the rapture occurs.

As I said before, we're living on the threshold of the end of the age. In 1 Thessalonians 4, 16-17, For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be called up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall be with the Lord.

There are only two things that have to happen. First the shout and then the trumpet, and then we are immediately translated. After the rapture will be the tribulation for seven and a half years, but after that seven and a half year time, the second advent will occur. There will be seven years of tribulation, then at the end all believers with Christ will return to set up his kingdom on earth. In Matthew 24, 30, Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. This is the sign in the second coming of Christ, and those that will mourn will see that he is real and that is the truth. And that will lead them to mourning because they have not chosen to be obedient to God. And Malachi 4-1, For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble, and the day which is coming shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts.

That will leave them neither root nor branches. The millennial kingdom will last 1,000 years, and that will be a period of mandatory righteousness where the earth will be regenerated. In Psalm 72, 11, Yes, all kings shall fall down before him, all nations shall serve him, where mandatory righteousness will occur, and this will be Jesus' kingdom.

Will there be no free will in his subjects, only hope for everlasting peace? And this is an important point that I've missed a large part of my life and learned this in a study recently, is that after the rapture there will be no second chance for those who have heard the word of God and rejected Christ. And this is a very important point because I think a lot of people are banking that when the rapture comes then I'll believe that it's real, and then I'll get saved during the tribulation. But in 2 Thessalonians 2, 9-10, The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusions that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness.

And that's really speaking to us now. We know that we're on the eve of the end of the age, and there are a number of sinners that have turned a deaf ear to the word of God and have turned a deaf ear to the truth. But a backup plan to survive the rapture and get saved at that point is not going to be possible, because here we see in the word that those of us that are left behind that do not believe and take pleasure in unrighteousness will be turned over to strong delusions and that we will believe a lie. Now is the time to get saved before the rapture.

We need to take advantage of it now, as this is the time for the Gentiles to come to Christ. And in the end of chapter 2, verses 46 through 49, Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face, prostrate before Daniel, and commanded that they should present an offering and incense to him. The king answered Daniel and said, Truly your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, since you could reveal the secret. Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief administrator over all the wise men of Babylon. Also Daniel petitioned the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon.

But Daniel sat in the gate of the king. We see when there is obedience, when a man purposes in his heart not to defile God, God rewards him. And we see that Nebuchadnezzar also had his first encounter with a true God. He says with his mouth, Truly your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, since you could reveal the secret. So he perceives within his mind on some level that God is the God of gods.

But we'll see throughout the chapter whether this is a shallow commitment or a deep commitment, and whether his commitments to God last. But nevertheless, he promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts, but Daniel was made ruler of the whole province of Babylon. And this is God's remnant in which he's working even within captivity to take care of his people, that a Jew who is held captive in Babylon is promoted to be the ruler of the providence. So because of that favor, he then petitions Nebuchadnezzar for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to be put over the affairs of Babylon, furthermore, ensuring that God's plans will go forth and that the Jews will be cared for through captivity so that they can return to their home.

There are a number of key points that we covered in chapter two, and I'll go through them. The purpose of the dream of Nebuchadnezzar was to witness the transferring of the world's power from the Jews to the Gentile rulers. We see four empowers of the world's kingdom, and they were given the authority to rule the world. This statue has a lot of meanings, the first one being human government stands on a delicate foundation. Human government is deteriorating. The statue declined by power of government. God's standard for government is the theocracy in which he offered to the Israelites, but they chose to ask for a monarchy, in which God gave them what they asked for, but is not what they needed. When they did that is when their future really started going downhill and their moral depravity began when they asked for Saul. This statue also shows us that there's a disintegrating family of government and the developing force of government, that as you go down the statue there's going to be more pull or push between the iron and the clay-like voice of the people. We're seeing that playing out in our current society today, and we'll see more of that in the future.

But the stone that strikes the statue strikes the statue during the clay as well as the iron location at the feet, and the stone is not cut out with a man's hands. It is a supernatural kingdom that will come and where Christ wins in the end. But most importantly, and like I said before, that if you do not listen to anything that we've said in chapter two is to remember that we are on the eve of the end of this age, that the rapture could come at any moment, and having a backup plan to get saved after the rapture, 2 Thessalonians tells us that those that enjoy unrighteousness during this time will be given to powerful delusions if we reject God and his righteousness. So we're just waiting on the shout and the trumpet. The church is just waiting on the shout and the trumpet, because when that happens, the dead in Christ is going to rise, and then those of us that are alive are going to be caught up and will be with Christ. And we see in the end that Daniel was rewarded for his faithfulness and his obedience to God, and I'm here to say today that God will do that in our lives.

We need to be people just like Daniel that will purpose in our heart not to defile ourselves with the world, to be in the world but not of the world, but to remain obedient and live a righteous life so that we can see the mighty moves of God. At the very end, Jesus will appear in Jerusalem, and when he does, every soul on earth and in heaven will bow before him, openly confessing that he is Lord. Kings, presidents, and prime ministers will surrender their crowns to him, mayors their cities, generals their armies, and admirals their navies. The old things of earth will pass away, and behold, all things will be made brand new. No longer shall the people of God live in fear or face perilous or hard times, as Jesus restores the beauty of earth and destroys the work of Satan.

It will be a new day, a day like we have never known. As we approach this glorious time, it's important that you make the most important decision ever, the decision to follow Jesus. If you are caught between faith and doubt not knowing what to do, Dr. Davis would like to help you.

Take that step of faith today and let Jesus come into your life, making you into the person he has called you to be. If you are caught between faith and doubt, Dr. Davis would like to help you. You can reach her by email at CherylDavis at ProjectTruthMatters.com, or connect with her on Facebook at Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis. Or you can write to her at The Truth Project, PO Box 159, St. Paul's, North Carolina 28384. Please join us again next Saturday at the same time for Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis, where biblical truth truly matters. This has been Truth Matters, a production of The Truth Project.