SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/2/2023 9:59 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: “Intro to Daniel 2:31-49”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Daniel 2:31-49
Message of the verses: I have decided not to add all of these verses
onto this SD because of the length of them.
It would be very wise for anyone reading this to go to the book of Daniel
and actually read the entire 49 verses of the second chapter. It is my plan to put this Spiritual Diary
onto both of my blogs and also on my Facebook story for today. A little background as to why I am doing
this. First of all I am teaching through
the book of Zechariah and am at the last few verses of the first chapter which
tells of Zechariah’s second night vision, second of eight. In this vision it can be seen that it goes
along with Daniel chapter two as there are similar things seen in both of these
visions. Both visions have to do with the time in which both of these prophets
were living in and go all the way to what is called the millennial kingdom, the
last kingdom that will happen on planet earth.
The millennial kingdom will begin very soon after what is called The
Tribulation, a seven year period that will happen right after the rapture of
the church, and that will end the church age which began on the Day of
Pentecost soon after Jesus went back to heaven.
Now
for the reason that I think this is so important, important enough for me to
put it onto three places on the internet.
Daniel went to Babylon in 605 B.C. the first time people from Judah were
taken from Jerusalem, the last being 586 B.C.
Zechariah and Daniel very well could have know each other but Daniel
would have been much older than Zechariah.
I mentioned that the scope of both of these visions went from the time
Judah was in captivity all the way to when the Millennial Kingdom will begin, a
kingdom where Jesus Christ will rule from Jerusalem for 1000 years. The scope of this SD will be a quotation from
John MacArthur’s second sermon on the second chapter of Daniel, and it will
only be his introduction to his message.
Daniel prophesied 600 years before Christ and MacArthur’s sermon was
done in 1979, but I think that what he is saying in this introduction could be
front page news today. One more thing
and that is if I feel this introduction is going to be too long I will break it
up into two SD’s.
“Turn
with me to Daniel chapter 2, Daniel chapter 2. For our study tonight, we want
to begin to look at the section from verses 31 through 49. The second half of
this second chapter. Now we covered verses 1 to 30 last time. Now, whether or
not we’ll cover the next half of the chapter tonight I really don’t know. But I
do know that God has some tremendous things to say to us in this second portion
beginning in verse 31. Before we get into the portion of Scripture that we’re
going to be specifically concerned with, let me just say some introductory
things.
“We’re
all watching rather sadly - we who know Christ - the fall of the United States
of America. As sad as it is, it shouldn’t really shock us. The reason is
because it has always been and always will be the lot of nations, nations of
the world, that the kingdoms of men will go the way of all flesh and ultimately
end in collapse and ruin. Anything based on the might of man, anything
established on the wisdom of man will suffer the same kind of deterioration
that man himself suffers since the fall.
“Dissipation
is man’s history. It is a devolutionary process not an evolutionary process.
Man is not ascending, man is descending. In 1 Timothy 3:13, God says, “Evil men shall grow worse and
worse.” Things don’t get better, they get worse. We see decay working in our
society everywhere, nationally, socially, domestically, individually,
organically. All things in this world are caught in a process of deterioration
that began when man fell into sin in the garden. And each new combination of
forces or nations that has tried to – to achieve a lasting kingdom invariably
meets the same inevitable overthrow.
“No
matter what the intentions are, no matter what the safeguards are, the
dissolution of manmade effort in inevitable, so that history as studied becomes
a succession of defeat. An empire begins, reaches a peak and fades and dies and
another one is built out of its ashes. We are looking at America. America in
the past reached its apex. We’re on the down side, the back slope. We are
watching a defeat taking place. We see the dissolution of our country on every
hand. Political humanism ruling the government, a government once established
on the principles on the word of God. Godless atheism dominates our education.
International blackmail threatens us all over the world. A lack of conviction
and a lack of courage changes the way we approach problems.
“The
destruction of the family is causing a loss of all orientation among people and
a rise of psychological and psychiatric problems. The – the deterioration of
the family contributed by immorality, living together without marriage, working
women, women’s lib, passive fathers, homosexuality, et cetera. We’ve seen
a steady decline in authority to the point where in many cases there is absence
of authority. In parts of our society we have lost the ability to control
behavior.
“There’s
an ever-increasing rise of crime, lax criminal justice. We are constantly being
corrupted at a faster rate through materialism, alcohol, drugs, sex, total
selfishness. And we can go on and on. We are deteriorating just like every
other nation ever deteriorated. Because built into America is the same basic
problem. We have feet of clay like the image in Daniel. And clay, says Daniel,
represents the seed of men. And wherever anything is built on men, it is built
for dissolution.”
Needless
to say that I will continue with this message in our next SD as I don’t want to
put too many words to read each day, especially when they are as important as this,
and so perhaps we will finish this introduction to Daniel 2:31-49 tomorrow.
8/2/2023 10:51 AM
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