Iran In Bible Prophecy

I want you to take your Bible, turn with you. I have to use iPhone because my eyes very often to read the text of Scripture, but I like to see people with a Bible, something solid in their hand. Thank God for technology and all the rest, but there is something about turning the page of Scripture, of being familiar where books of the Bible are, knowing your Bible, understanding the Bible, and I want you to follow with me because it is a good thing that you study the Word of God, test all things.

You should never just accept something because someone says it or teaches it. The Bible actually teaches, and Paul the Apostle said this, they that are spiritual judge or scrutinize or test all things. It doesn't mean to be a skeptic or a critic of everything or a debater.

That's sin, but actually the Bible encourages a state, a level of maturity where you use your mind. See in the local church where you're not encouraged to use your mind to think, to dialogue, to check and test, there's a problem there. There's a concern there.

We as Christians, it's not a bad mark to judge. You ought to judge me this morning. You ought to test me.

You're allowed to, to weigh things, to test them because you know by that process, you come to realize, I know what I believe. It's not enough to merely hear truth and go, amen, I believe that and not understand. You are meant to be a student of the Scripture.

You're to be able to know, maybe not initially as a Christian, but with time you begin to understand, to savor, to have perception. Well, you know, that's not right according to Scripture or that is right. That's the spirit of God speaking.

And so that's what we do as a church. I want you to turn to Matthew 24 here this morning and like last week, we're going to read the first seven verses, but I'm going to take you to many other Scriptures here this morning. But reading to Matthew 24, last week we began this short series called Wars and Rumors of Wars in the Light of World Events.

Last week, we dealt with our message from Matthew 24 called Wars and Rumors of Wars, dealing with that one statement of Jesus Christ, looking at our world at this present time and where we are in Bible prophecy. I want to go a bit further here this morning as we read in Matthew 24 and here's my title this morning. Part two, I ran in Bible prophecy.

Reading in Matthew 24, verse one to verse seven, and Jesus went out and departed from the temple and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, see not all these things. Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.

And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately saying, tell us when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name saying, I am Christ and shall deceive many. And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars.

We're going to stop there. More to read, but this is our text for these messages here this morning. Let's pray together.

Saints, our world is in chaos, grave danger. The nations of the world are being armed up like never before or certainly in decades. It's a dangerous time.

Many souls, billions hang in the balance, billions of their destiny, where they're going to go very shortly. And we, the church, we've got to be more than we are at present. I want to tell you, we need God.

We need revival. We need something to happen in our own bosoms. I don't likely pray before a message.

We need God. I need him to speak here. I can't rely on academic knowledge, facts, figures, world events.

We need God to speak to our hearts in a religion. Not life is normal. I need God in this hour to disturb our comfort and that we will be earnest.

Let's pray together. You in your seat, let's pray. Father, we need you.

We're earnest. We realize the hour. You've called us as the people of God to discern the hour that we live in.

We're not to be blind. We're not to be ignorant, nor God. There's no blessing in being naive in this hour.

But oh God, we're to study the word of God, the scriptures. We're to be wise unto salvation and nor God. We're to discern the signs of the times.

We're to be able to read the road, to understand, to read what Jesus Christ said, and to understand exactly where we are and what hour it is within our world. Father, I pray for my friends this morning. Will you move upon us? Will you speak to us that your name would be glorified in Jesus' mighty name? Jesus here, and this is my message, part two in this short series, Iran in Bible Prophecy.

Iran is in politics. Iran is in news media. But I want to show you Iran from the Bible, an overview.

I've got enough for a book or to keep you here three days just preaching straight through, but I'm not going to do that. You can relax, but I'll keep you here a few moments because we want to see Iran in Bible Prophecy and what the scripture says about it. Here where we read in Matthew 24 and 6, and we dealt with it thoroughly last week, Jesus said the second sign he lists in 10, the first, what was it, the first sign of the beginning of the end? Deception.

Three times Jesus warns when you want to see the sign that it's drawn close, that Jesus is going to return. What's the first sign you look for? Deception. Not deception in the world, deception in the church.

They are going to seem like they have the ministry of a prophet. They're going to preach. There's going to be many false prophets, not a few, many, and they're not going to come with mere religion.

They're going to come doing mighty signs and wonders that if it were possible, it would deceive the very elect. Deception within the church is going to get to a very high point, but that's not what we're dealing with. We deal with that at various times.

It's this point that Jesus said in Matthew 24 verse 6, and it's the second sign after deception. In other words, I believe it's important how they're listed. Deception first is very important.

Deception in the church, you must be aware. Notice it doesn't say the shepherds are going to deceive. It says the prophets, the gifted ministry of prophets is going to be everywhere in the church of the last hour, and you know what? That's going to be the vehicle of deception within the church with signs, wonders, not talking about a dead liberal church.

It's talking about a vibrant church that believes in miracles and in the power of God, but the second sign that Jesus gave, and he says, and ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. Notice what he says in the Bible. Be ye not troubled for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

It's not the end right now, but you know what? It's the beginning of the end. We're into a very short window of time where we go. We're beginning right into the last days here.

So Jesus gives clear signs. I've heard many teachers say we shouldn't look for signs. That's rubbish, and it's very popular with very good Bible teachers in the church.

They say we're not to look for signs. We are to look for signs. Jesus gave signs.

We're taught to discern the signs, and our word signs, the word for signs is indicators, and I know the Irish almost never use indicators. Do you know what the Irish do? They put their brake on, they begin to move, they begin to turn, they slow down, then they put their indicator on, if they use it at all. That isn't how you use an indicator.

I like not only to teach the Bible, I like to educate a bit about driving. Before you put your brake on, before you slow down, before you move, you're meant to put this thing on, whether pushing it or knocking it, called an indicator. Do you know what it does? It indicates.

It's a sign of what is yet to come. It hasn't happened. We're not there yet, but the indicator, flick, flick, flick, blink, blink, blink, that's called an indicator.

Okay, I'm just emphasizing my point. We're in Ireland. It's an indicator, and what Jesus has given is indicators, signs of what's about to happen.

Not what's already happened, but what is to come, and by that sign, you know what's going to happen. These indicators, ten in number that he gives, are signs of what is just about to happen. In verse six, he says, be not troubled.

It means to be frightened. Over in Luke 21 in verse nine, listen to what he says, and when you shall hear wars and commotions, be not terrified, for these things must first come to pass, but the end is not by. So, notice these signs.

It's not that this is the end. It's the beginning of the end. We're at a period of time.

We are right at the end, but we're not at the end just yet. The end is indicated by other clear distinct signs, but this is the beginning of the end, and Jesus emphasized, do not be troubled. Do not be frightened.

Do not be scared. Don't we need to hear that in this hour when they're talking about the third world war, when we see China, Iran, America, Russia, Ukraine, when we see all the European nations arming themselves. Don't we need to hear the words of Jesus? What did he say? When you see this sign, do not be frightened.

Over in Luke, he uses the word to be terrified. The Greek word terrified used here, it means a deep sense of fear, to be traumatized, to such a point that you run away. This same word for terrified is used in Luke 24, 37.

Listen to what it is. It says, they were terrified and frightened and supposed that they had seen a spirit when Jesus came walking in the water. This is talking about the kind of fear that if you were to see a ghost or a spirit walking in the water, you would be terrified.

You'd be scared. See, I'm not scared of things I understand and I've got power over. I'm scared of things that you don't know what's going to happen, and it's way beyond the natural, the normal, or the safe.

And so what Jesus is saying here is that in the world, these wars are going to create a sense of fear, trauma, dread, drawing back, or running. And I want to tell you, the church is not to fear. This is not the hour for us to fear or to hide or make provisions for our own safety.

This is an hour to preach about the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a remarkable hour. In Matthew 24, where we're reading from verse 4 to 14, Jesus deals with general signs.

But in 15 to 26, he deals with very specific signs that have never happened. Listen to me. They've never happened.

And they'll only happen once in world history, and all of history will only happen once. They're unique signs. They show the end.

But these signs that we're talking about here, they're more general. Ten in number. From verse 4 to 14, they are general, and they've been repeated all through church history for 2,000 years.

So what's different about this hour? What is the sign? Well, it gives us it in verse 8. It says, these are the beginning of sorrows. It means the commencement. They're initiated.

This is the beginning of sorrows. Remember what we said last week? The word sorrows is the Greek word for birth pangs when a woman is just about to give birth. I mentioned Naomi, who was heavy with child last week, sitting in the front row.

I said, hopefully she's not here next week. She's not here next week. But birth pangs haven't started.

She had to go into hospital last night. They've been there all night, went home. They're online now watching us, Jason and Naomi.

Birth pangs have not started yet, but she's not here. Do you know what a lady is pregnant for nine months carrying the baby? Everyone knows the baby's coming, but no birth pangs. Is the birth pangs mean you better get your bag packed, run to the hospital? This is it.

This is it. You will never go back to your old life. You won't go through another week.

When birth pangs begin, and I've asked Naomi, I said, I want you to communicate with me. I want you to educate me. I want Shona.

I'm going to sit down with Shona. She's given birth first time that Abel Jeremiah is in church here this morning. Shona has gone through her birth pangs.

Naomi is waiting for it. Hannah is more relaxed. She says, I've at least got several weeks here or a month at any rate, but all these ladies are conscious of birth pangs, pregnant, heavily pregnant, but no birth pangs as yet.

See, birth pangs, what are birth pangs? They begin to come faster and more intensive. That's how you know birth pangs. What's Jesus saying? When wars and commotions and rumors of wars begin to intensify, the space between them intensifies.

It dominates and we're sitting as an audience watching all of these wars. You know what? You better begin to realize this is the beginning of sorrows. It is beginning in our world.

Jesus talks about one of the signs of the end times. Not only deception in the church, but wars and rumors of wars in the world. Have you not seen the rise and the domination of this in this very hour? Here this morning, I want to speak to you about Iran in the Bible and Bible prophecy.

You say, I believe it's included in this verse, but the Jesus is talking about a sign across the nations, war and rumors of war. But the Bible is more specific than that. It begins in other chapters to teach you details, nations, places of what's going to happen.

It's one of the tests of the Bible to show the Bible is true. You see the Bible, when you begin to study it, it not only talks about the nation of Israel and the city of Jerusalem, much has written about the entire nation of Egypt, a pagan nation, an idolatrous nation. And yet for thousands of years, we have the history of the nation of Egypt.

We also have the history of the nation of Shinar. We know it as Iraq today. We read in the Bible about the ancient city of Babylon.

We also read about the formation and creation of the nation of Greece before Greece was even a nation. All of this is in the Bible. And again, we read about Rome, the Roman empire.

It would be marked out as an empire of steel in the Bible. And so I could take you and show you how within our Bibles, we have the best history book. In fact, we have the only authentic history book in the world and the nations of the world don't even know their own history apart from the Bible.

This is a dynamic book, but here this morning, let me show you, I want to take you to the nation of Iran. That's so been in the news both in recent times and during our lifetime. And I want to show you this nation of Iran from the Bible.

But more than that, I want to show you it in Bible prophecy, what has happened, what is happening and what is going to happen in the days ahead. I can authoritatively stand here, not fearfully, not carefully and boldly tell you what's going to happen to Iran. And I'm not a prophet, neither the son of a prophet, but I can tell you with great power and authority and accuracy, what is about to happen and things that you may well see in your lifetime while you live upon this earth.

You may not too far down the road, turn on your television and see this. So let me take you to Iran. We're going to look at a few scriptures.

And as we see all happening on the news and the news media, I want to take you to the Bible. So we as a church can be a biblical church, not afraid. You know why? Because if my God is the God of history, the God of prophecy, he's in control.

He knows what's going to happen. He's written it before it happens. Why should I fear? And you know what? If you're a fearful person, put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is a mighty God. This is a mighty book. And your salvation is a remarkable thing.

And so we look at Iran. The nation of Iran, as it's called today in our world, requested a formal change in its name by international nations in the year 1935. Until 1935, this nation was called Persia until 1935.

And in that year, the Shah of the nation changed the name to Iran. He requested all nations from now on, will you call us Iran and not Persia? Up until 1935, it was called Persia. And in our Bibles, it is called Persia.

His son, in 1959, also made the same stand and said, let's use both names, Iran and Persia. I'm saying this for a reason, because Persia is used in the Bible. His son in 1959 said, we want you to use both names synonymously.

You can use Iran or Persia, but our country is called both names at the same time. But we're predominantly going to be called Iran by the international world. When it came to the second world war, Churchill, speaking to the country said, during the second world war, all the allied forces, we know you're called Iran, but we are during this war, we're going to call you Persia one more time.

And so in world events, she went back to being called Persia once again, in the midst of this world war, when nations were on fire all around her. You can trace back the name Persia to at least a thousand BC, a thousand years before Jesus Christ. So for almost 3000 years, this nation was called Persia.

That was its name, and that's the name in the Bible. When you look at Iran on the map, Turkey and Iran are to its west. Afghanistan and Pakistan are to its right.

Turkmenistan is to its north. It was part of the old Soviet Union. Used to be part of Persia in the old days, but you have the old Soviet Union just to the north and the Arabian sea to its south.

Across the Arabian sea, you've got Saudi Arabia. So all of these great nations surround this one nation of Iran. The word Persia is used 29 times in our Bible, in 25 different verses, mostly in the book of Esther, the prophet Daniel, in Ezra and Nehemiah.

This name Persia is used all throughout this era and is very notable. From about the ninth century to the seventh century, this little nation was under the power of the great empire of Assyria, which is present day Syria and Iraq joined. And this little nation of Persia or Iran was under this great dominion and under this great power.

Few people would have realized if they didn't have a Bible, know that Iran or Persia would rise to be a world power. But see our Bible predicted it accurately on the world stage. You can trust your Bible.

There was a small tribe called the Pars tribe, Pars. It gave its name to the region where they live today. It's the modern day province within Iran called Fars or Pars.

It's where you get the name Persis or Pars or Persia. It's a little tiny province. It's one of the 130.

It's one of the 31 regions of the country of present day Iran. And this little area where the Pars tribe was, was its ancient homeland in the southwest of present day Iran. And it later gave its name after its fall as the Persian empire, it became the Parthian empire in the third century BC.

So the name of this tribe, the Pars tribe gave its name to the Parthian empire. I'm just giving you a few facts here. I'm taking you, I'm walking you through this.

But you see, there was an older name before Persia, before Iran. There was an older name for this country. It was called Alam.

History books record it because as a nation they know they used to be called Alam. It's recorded and they found this in archeology. They found it in ancient texts that the old nation of Samaria, Shinar in our Bibles, remember after the floods? It says the people went down into the plain of Shinar.

That was Samaria. Go to the Berlin Museum. You'll find the artifacts of Samaria.

Go to the London Museum. You'll see their statues, their artifacts, everything of the ancient Shinar or Sumer as the history books call it. But do you know what? In those old ancient texts, this nation is called Alam and its capital was the city of Susa.

That's important because this is going to start coming up in scripture. When you go to your Bible, you find not only Persia written in the Bible, but this older name, Alam. Before it's called Persia, it's called Alam in our Bibles.

And it's used some 28 times, but it's not always speaking of this nation Alam. There was a man called Alam in Israel, so be careful how you interpret it. But let me take you back to the first mention of Alam.

It's mentioned in Genesis chapter 10 in what is called the table of nations. After Noah landed that ark after the flood, he had three sons, Japheth, Shem, and Ham. And out of them came a table of nations or the history of the world.

70 names are mentioned. They are families that became nations of people and they were separated by God to live in a certain place. In fact, the Bible says that God separated them.

This is the origin of nations, their first history. The first son was called Japheth in Genesis 10 verse 5. The second son was called in verse 20. And the third son called Shem.

Listen to what it says in verse 31. These are the sons of Shem after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations. After the entire Bible, there were 70 distinct languages, families of nations separated to a certain place in the world.

God separated these nations. Guess what one of the names are that come from Shem. His name was Alam.

The ancient name of the Iranian people was called Alam. From verse 21 to 31, you have all of these children mentioned. He had five sons and 26 nations came out of him.

But notice this son Alam that came forth. Do you know Shem had another son? And out of him came Eber. All the children of the Hebrews came out of him, including Abraham.

So see how they're connected to Shem here. I just want you to understand some of this history for a moment as we look at this. In Genesis chapter 14, verse 1 to verse 16, you have the first war ever written about in the Bible.

The very first time you have nations going to war. And guess who is there? It's one of the first mentions ever after Genesis 10 of the name Alam as a nation, as an entire people. Let me read it to you for a second.

We read there in Genesis 14 how four kings go out against five kings. There were the five cities in the plain of Jordan that we know as Sodom and Gomorrah. It wasn't just two cities.

It was actually five cities with five kings ruling over them. This was next to Israel, but these five kings, these great cities with their great power and their armies, four kings come up against them in Genesis 14. And the king of Alam, listen to what his name is.

It's called Cheddar Lamer. He actually ruled over these five cities for a period of 12 years, including Sodom and Gomorrah. He's at a great distance in the nation of Iran, but he rules over Sodom and Gomorrah and the five cities of the plain.

12 years, he has power over them. This great king. Then in the 13th year, we read that Sodom and Gomorrah and the five cities, they rise up and rebel against this foreign king and they threw off his power.

You know what he done? He brought his armies against them. We're told in Genesis 5 that he brought Alam. He was the king of that.

That's Persia. Joining with them was Shinar. That's Iraq.

Joining with them also Elisar of Assyria. And then other nations called the Hittites in the Bible. Remember 150 years ago, all the academics and historians said, there's no people of Hittites.

The Bible talks about, there's no history of the Hittites. And then they found the entire culture as they dug it up out of the deserts. Look at these five, sorry, these four kings.

One of them is the king of Iran, joined with Iraq, joined with Assyria, joined with the Hittites. And they joined together to come to fight against the five kings of Sodom and Gomorrah. This is the first war that the Bible ever talks about.

And we've got the nation of Iran or Persia right there in the middle of it called Alam. See from the very beginning, Iran has been right in the middle of things as far as world war. And it's going to be again at the end of time, you're going to see Iran stand on the world scene right in the midst of some of the greatest wars.

And so this is the second mention of Alam ever in our Bibles. First as a nation being birthed and created, second right in the middle of this war. But guess who else you have in this war? You had a man called Lot kidnapped in the midst of this war.

They defeat Sodom and Gomorrah and they take Lot and his family and carry him off. This great large army carried Lot away. Guess who his uncle is? Abraham.

And we read there in that chapter that Abraham, he armed his trained servants who he instructed, who were all born in his own house, 318 of them. This was about the 18th century before Christ. 318 and they pursue after.

And with the wisdom of God and the skill of God, they defeat that entire army. They rescue Lot and all the goods and carry it back. What a dangerous time.

Here you have Abraham, a man of faith, a man of God, right in the midst of this war. He's not a part of it, but he's rescuing souls. He's actually fighting and he was victorious in this.

Notice after a great fight and a great victory, you better beware as the church of God. See Abraham on the way back, he's met with two men. First of all, he's rescuing all of the slaves, all of the servants.

He's bringing back all the wealth. Guess who comes out to meet him? The king of Sodom. And the king of Sodom says, give me all of this.

You keep what you want of the wealth. Remember what Abraham said, I'm not even touching a shoelace. I'm not going to have it said that the king of Sodom made me rich.

I don't want anything of it. Not a thing, not a thread. It was the second man come out to meet him at the same time.

This man was called Melchizedek, king of Salem. That's Jerusalem. King Melchizedek come out to meet him and he brought bread and wine for Abraham.

Notice these two men meet Abraham after he defeated Iran, Persia, Iraq, Assyria. Do you realize what's happening here? This is a first ever war and you've got a man of faith there and here comes Melchizedek. You remember what it says in Hebrews 17, he is a type, a shadow, a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.

These are dynamic things that are happening in this chapter in Genesis 14. First mention of war, first mention of priesthood, first mention of kingship, in fact 19 times. First mention of communion, first mention of the most high God and the first mention of tithing.

Do you know he rejected the wealth of Sodom and the king of Sodom but here's Melchizedek bringing wine and bread. What does he do? He tithes to Melchizedek. It's a real tithe and in it Levi who's in Abraham is tithing to Melchizedek.

Over in Hebrews 7 it calls it real tithing to the Lord Jesus Christ. These are amazing things that you're seeing here. You've got the nations, you've got Israel, you've got Jerusalem, you've got a type of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You've got all of these things right at the beginning of the Bible and they're a shadow, a picture of things that are yet to come in our world. Let me take you further into our Bibles. This nation of Elam, this is its beginning, this is its first war but do you know what? It's going to be called Persia.

Now let me jump over a thousand years to that time that it's called Will you begin to see Iran or Persia rise in Bible prophecy? Because why would I believe future prophecies about Iran if past prophecies have never come to pass? Let me take you into the book of Daniel to three different chapters. Three different chapters talk about Persia, their kings, their wars, their victories and their failures and what's going to happen to them. See God is a great God.

When you come to the book of Daniel we are told it's the Lord, the king of all kings who rules over the earth. Men don't rule, Nebuchadnezzar doesn't rule and you mustn't forget on this are wars, rumors of wars, chaos, national uprisings, all manners of racism breaking out in our world. You better realize we serve a great God.

If all you see is men and wars you're going to be scared in this hour and you ought to be scared in this hour if you don't have faith in God. But I want your view here as we consider Iran and Bible prophecy. I don't want you just to see Iran.

I want you to see God. He authored this. He's got power.

He knows history. He knows the future. He knows everything that's going to happen.

You need to walk with God in this hour. There's wars and rumors of wars. Walk with God.

Be a man of prayer. Be a woman of faith. Be someone who believes in the blood of Jesus.

Make sure you're forgiven. Make sure you're born again. Make sure you're anchored in Christ.

Make sure you're in the word of God daily. Wash your mind with the word of God. Stay near the blood of Jesus Christ.

Let's look at Iran and Bible prophecy here. When you go to Daniel chapter 2, listen to what it says in verse 1. And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams wherewith his spirit was troubled and his sleep break from him. This was about the year 605 or 603 thereabouts.

Notice what it says about Nebuchadnezzar. He was the king of ancient Babylon or what we call present day Iraq. He's the greatest king of the greatest empire until that point.

And he has a dream this night. He's a great king. He's a king of kings.

The Bible says that. God actually put him in place. He's not a godly man.

He's not a worshiper of God. But you see, God raises up kings and he dashes them down. God has a plan he's working out.

They can't just do what they want to do. God isn't powerless. He can dash down a man without a thought.

He has the power to do that. Notice it says his dreams were plural. He dreamed dreams.

Not just one dream. He was dreaming dreams. And these dreams were troubling him.

In verse 4 it says, my spirit was troubled to know the dream. He was so disturbed he said, I've got to understand this dream. What is a dream? It's not a natural thing.

It's a supernatural thing. These dreams that he was having were not pizza late at night. It wasn't that.

It was God was giving him a supernatural dream. There was a divine message from God. God was revealing things.

No man knows the future. But God was revealing to Nebuchadnezzar what is going to happen all through history with the Gentile nations. This is the history of the nations of the world in a very dynamic way.

He was disturbed because he couldn't understand them. God was speaking to him. Revealing things to come.

Making him know about the rise and fall of nations. Yet he wasn't saved. Notice that.

He's a pagan king. An idolater. He's unsaved.

He's in government. You know God has often spoken to unsaved kings. I wonder if he still does it.

He done it with Nebuchadnezzar. It's not kings. Not a holy.

It's a proud man. I can laugh at people that say he's proud. Surely God can't have him in place.

Of course he can. Of course he can. He done it with Nebuchadnezzar.

One of the proudest men. But he brought down his pride. See God works behind the nations.

He doesn't ignore them. They're not free just to do. He can remove a man without a thought.

We read in Genesis 20 how Abimelech the king of Gerar had a dream from God. We read it in Genesis 41 again. How Pharaoh had a dream for God.

Do you know about the famine? Do you know Abimelech was going to sleep with Abraham's wife. God appears in a dream. Says you do and I'll kill you.

He had a dream from God. God spoke to him. Then he goes and rebukes Abraham.

Says why didn't you tell me that was your wife? Why would he speak to a pagan king like that? When Abraham's not telling all the truth. Do you see how God works to protect his church? Don't you think God is very jealous even when we aren't careful over ourself? God is watching the church even when the church is negligent. He's watching over and he'll even inform kings and rebuke kings and warn kings in order to put the church right or protect the church.

And so it was in the days of Joseph. God actually uses Pharaoh's dream to raise up Joseph to great power and to save the entire nation of Israel. There's only about 70 of them.

Remember what the Bible says? God rebukes kings for your sake. Talks about Israel. Says Israel's the apple of my eye.

You see we're dealing with the real God. And Jacob was a bit of a conniver at times. And yet you have God.

Do you know why God's protecting? Because he's got a plan and he's got a purpose and he's got something that he's going to do in the earth. He is watching over all of this more than you can imagine. In Daniel chapter 2 the first 24 verses we have the dream.

And if you don't understand this dream you do not understand Bible prophecy. You will never understand revelation if you don't understand Daniel chapter 2. If you don't understand this dream this is the ABC of Bible prophecy. It's key.

It's essential. It's also a key to unlock world history and the rise and fall of entire nations. It is the key to Bible prophecy and history.

It is one of the most comprehensive dreams in the Bible. Detailed and it was given to a pagan king. It is the backbone of Bible prophecy.

How you approach this will affect your entire interpretation of Bible prophecy. If you misunderstand Daniel chapter 2 you understand all the prophecy in the Bible including the book of Revelation. If you put this in place and you understand it you're going to begin to understand world history and all of the workings of God right down to the end days.

It is very very important to understand this Bible prophecy because it gives us an outline of world history. And so look here for a moment. Nebuchadnezzar's rise to power was the greatest in history to that point.

But he fears the future. He's disturbed over these dreams. And then Daniel a man of God is in his palace and can give the interpretation.

All the sorcerers all the wise men of Babylon they couldn't. But this young man that was taken captive at 16 years old he has the wisdom of God and the ability to interpret this dream. And you know what? God has set Daniel there for this time.

Let's look at it for a minute. The first empire is Babylon. Remember what God said to Nebuchadnezzar you're the golden head.

Remember the statue? It's golden head. It's breast. It's thighs.

It's legs. Down to the feet the ten toes. This is an outline of all world history right down to the days just right in front of us now.

That's the ten toes. But the head of it was the first king. The first empire.

Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. And God's speaking through the dream through the interpretation said Nebuchadnezzar you're the head of gold. You are that head but it's also your entire empire.

But let's go to the second one because that's Persia. Listen to what it says. Verse 39.

And after thee. After you Nebuchadnezzar. It's a prophecy.

After thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to you. This inferior kingdom in this dream is depicted in the statue in verse 32 as his breast and his arms of silver. On Babylon's last night before it fell its king Belshazzar received a message from God.

Do you remember what it was? A hand writing on the wall. And when it was interpreted that strange tongue it said this. Thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.

Listen that's in chapter 5 verse 28. This kingdom led by Cyrus the Great replaced Babylon. It's talked about in chapter 1, chapter 6, chapter 10.

But also several times in chapter 6 it's mentioned as the Medes and Persians are what we call the Medo-Persian empire that came after the Babylonian empire. It's talked in Daniel very accurately. But you know what? Before it arises it's prophesied by Daniel through the dream in a dream given to a pagan king.

When Nebuchadnezzar is here it's still going to have various kings before that little empire arises. Before Persia arises to power nobody at this stage would even consider Persia. But God is speaking to Nebuchadnezzar and saying I'm telling you about the empire that will one day replace your kingdom.

You're the beginning of your kingdom. I'm showing you it's going to come to an end. It will fall and another little empire is going to rise.

Listen to what happened here for a moment. In the year 539 Cyrus the Great who's mentioned 24 times in our bible and in fact mentioned in prophecies 150 years before he existed or he done any of this. Isaiah the prophet speaks about him by name in Isaiah 44 28.

And listen it says he will give a command to rebuild Jerusalem. This is 150 years before. This is before Israel went into captivity.

This is before Jerusalem was burned down. Before the temples destroyed 150 years before. And God has given the name of the king who's going to give the command for the rebuilding of the temple.

The temple hasn't even burned down yet. Do you realize what an amazing book that we actually have? It begins to speak about the first king of the Persians or the Medo-Persian empire. It gives this accurate name.

God actually calls him my shepherd in chapter 45 verse 1. It says God would subdue nations before him. When you go to the history books Cyrus was nephew of Darius the Mede and married his daughter. Later he identifies the Medes and the Persians as one kingdom by name.

This is in Daniel chapter 5 chapter 6 chapter 8. One empire. But they weren't like that at the beginning. When Cyrus was born there are two different kingdoms.

He's a Persian and guess what? It's a small empire. Insignificant. Unnoticed.

No chance of beating Babylon. Not a chance when Cyrus is born. But you see Daniel's already prophesied.

Oh no there's coming an empire that's going to overthrow Babylon. Isaiah prophesied the first king by name very accurately. And so you have Cyrus being prepared.

Listen to what Isaiah prophesied. I will loose the king the loins of kings to open before him the two lead gates and the gates shall not be shut. I will go before thee.

I will make the crooked places straight. I will break in pieces the gates of brass and cut and sunder the bars of iron. Babylon had a hundred brass gates.

This is a prophecy over a hundred years before saying I'm going to break down the brass gates in front of you. I'm going to give you the city. I'm going to raise you up and when I do you'll give a command for my people to return to their land.

To rebuild the temple whenever they haven't even been scattered yet. Their temple is still intact and there's no sign of this happening. You see this is the God we serve.

If you begin to understand what we read in these books you're going to begin to see the power of your God. Why should you be scared of wars and rumors of wars in this hour? China. Iran.

Russia. America. There's no God and no bible prophecy.

You better be scared because this world is about to be plunged into horrific things. But you know what? I believe the bible is true. I believe it's very very accurate.

See this is the only part of the dream and vision that came to pass in Daniel's lifetime. He is going to see this new empire come 40 years later in the year 559. Daniel not only prophesied this but he lived long enough to see this.

That a new empire would arise out of utter obscurity. This same empire of Persia is mentioned in Daniel chapter 7 verse 5. Listen to what it says. This is a now a vision of four wild beasts.

The first is a lamb. The second is a bear. It's Persia.

Listen to what it says. Daniel 7 verse 5. And behold another beast a second like to a bear and it raised up itself on one side and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth and they said unto it arise devour much flesh. In the year 559 Cyrus became the king of Persia.

Listen to this carefully. 559. Ten years later in 549 he takes his army and conquers the Medes which is a much larger nation.

All he has is a ragtag bunch of a few thousand men and yet he conquers a stronger nation. Then he he marries the daughter of the king of the Medes making it into one nation. The Medo-Persian empire that Daniel prophesied very accurately.

Ten years after that in 539 he conquers the city of Babylon and so Cyrus the great the Persian in a very short time arises creates this new empire called the Medo-Persians and within 20 years marches against Babylon and guess what they didn't even fight. They actually came in through the water. They didn't fight.

They took the entire city. They didn't even have to besiege it. They took it because God's hand was in this.

An entire empire fell in one single night. Remember Belshazzar? You've been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Tonight your kingdom departs from you and will be given to the Medo-Persians.

I wish he'd prayed that night and humbled himself before the Lord God of Israel because it happened exactly according to prophecy. It was a remarkable thing. Belshazzar was the king that night and it was divided from him.

A few thousand Persians at the beginning Cyrus had and yet when he marched against Babylon 20 years later from an army of a few thousand ragtag nobodies he had an army of 40,000 cavalry horsemen. He had an army of 150,000 foot soldiers marching against this one city. Some historians said he had an army of a million and that his army was like a great vast sea.

You know what says in Daniel 7? See the four wild beasts? The beast that's going to replace the lion. You know what? He's going to be a bear. Remember this Iran? What Iran is today? This is its ancient history.

This is God saying I'm going to raise up Cyrus. I'm going to raise up the Medo-Persians. They are going to become the next empire on the world scene.

You know why? I've got a plan because this man's going to become my shepherd to send a command to send Israel back. Guess what? You can go to the London museum and you've got this little cuneiform clay tablet sent by Cyrus commanding that they go back and rebuild their temple. It's in the London museum.

You can go and see it's just a short small thing and it's written there. They dug that up out of the sands of time. See our bible is very very accurate since you need to get a grip of the God of prophecy in these days because we're living in dangerous days.

Days of wars and rumors of wars. The nations are going to be in chaos but you need to know who you believe in. You need to know who your God is and so in Daniel 7 Iran or Persia is seen as a bear.

What is a bear? What's a bear like? Don't try to outrun a bear. Don't try to wrestle a bear. Don't get out of your car if there's a bear around.

You know we're over in America recently. I want to be sure there's no bears around. There's none in Ireland but I don't know about California.

See a bear is a very powerful animal. It is ferocious and this is used by God. This nation, this new kingdom of Cyrus and his great army is like a bear.

He's not a bear. He's like a bear. There's power.

He's ferocious. Look at the size of him. Look at his devouring appetite.

A bear has an appetite I want to tell you. He's less swift, rather cumbersome, rather large, not so glorious as a lion. He's only second to lion in the animal kingdom.

And notice in the vision what it said. He is actually leaning on one side. He rises up on one side.

He's lopsided. He's awkward. He's dominated by Persia, a smaller nation.

Persia is dominating media, a larger nation. They have become one nation but there's an awkwardness here. It's dangerous.

It's large. It's ferocious. It's insatiable but it is lifted up on one side.

It also said he has three ribs in his teeth. What does that mean? It's the nations they devour. See this was one of the most powerful kingdoms of the hour.

The three nations are the three ribs. Do you realize Medo-Persia? Persia defeated media in 549. That's the first rib.

549. It defeated Lydia, a great empire, in 546. And it defeated Babylonia in 539.

These are the three ribs in the mouth of the bear. You have this great enormous bear, ferocious. And listen to what God says to this bear.

Arise and devour much flesh. Do you know what that means? It's not going to be satisfied even after conquering Babylon. It's not going to stop.

The son of Cyrus took Egypt next of all. Then King Darius of the Medo-Persians, he reached the Indus Valley in India. And then King Artaxerxes, the first of this Persian empire, he conquered Greece.

See it's a bear. It's ferocious. It's not going to stop.

It just keeps going and going and going. It began in Daniel's day and it lasted 200 years until the year 331. Who replaced them? Who was next? Who was the hips? Who was the thighs? Greece.

Alexander the Great. Next was going to come. This great cumbersome bear is actually going to be defeated.

All of this was prophesied by Daniel in his book accurately, clearly. Nation after nation after nation. Remember what the fourth one is? It's a kingdom of iron.

That's the fourth. That's the legs. A kingdom of iron.

Who's that? Rome. It's going to rise to power. This kingdom is revealed in a separate vision.

So Greece that's coming after it. Remember through the history of Persia, Greece isn't even a country. They're not unified.

But God gives the prophecy in Daniel saying, I'm going to tell you who the very first king of the Greeks is going to be who'll replace Persia. And Persia the bear is going to fall to this brand new king. A new king.

The first king of Greece. And Greece is going to be united for the very first time. So this kingdom is revealed in a separate vision.

That's chapter 8. Daniel speaks there about Persia not Babylon. And listen he talks about two animals. This change from Persia to Greece is given in another vision.

Two more animals. In this vision the first is a rough goat which would replace the Medes and Persians. The Medes and Persians are seen as a ram.

Of a ram and a rough goat which would replace the Medes and Persians. Listen to what it says. The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of the Medes and Persians.

Who's the ram? The Medo Persian empire. The Persians. It's Iran.

Present day Iran. The two horns speak about these two kingdoms joined together. It's a ram.

It's a rough wild. You don't want to fight with a ram. Fight with a sheep.

Don't fight with a ram or you're going to have serious trouble. It's a dangerous animal. And the rough goat.

Listen this is written in Daniel 8. The rough goat is the king of Grecia. When Daniel wrote this there is no Greece as a nation. There is no king of Greece.

He's prophesying saying the goat that's going to replace the world empire is the king of Grecia. And the great horn that is between the eyes of the rough goat is between his eyes is the first king. And so the belly and thighs of bronze which would replace the Medo Persian empire and bear rule over the whole earth was Greece and its first king Alexander the Great.

That happened in the year 334 BC. It was dynamic. There's one other chapter in Daniel that speaks about this nation of Medo Persia.

It's very interesting. In Daniel chapter 11 it says this in verse 2. And now will I show thee the truth. Behold there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia.

See this is in the days of Cyrus. Daniel is alive. The king of the Medo Persian empire.

He is serving in the palace of the Medo Persian empire. He's no longer in Babylon in Iraq. He is now in Persia in Susa in the palace there.

He is serving the new king. But look at the prophecy that he is given from the Lord. After Cyrus three more kings are going to arise.

Listen to what it says. And then the fourth shall be far greater than they all. And by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia.

Do you know there's a prophecy of four kings after Cyrus? And he gives the exact order and he says the fourth one is going to be used by God to stir Greece to become a nation and to arise against Persia. He's talking about wars. Listen mate.

Our Bible is filled of prophecies, predictions. Why does God do that? We know the Bible says to us New Testament Christians, love your enemy, pray for your enemies. Don't live by the sword.

Don't do that. God's kingdom is not a kingdom of the sword. We love our enemies.

We bless those that curse us. We act totally different. So why has God detailed and prophesied predicting wars and things will happen? One nation invading another because he's the God of history.

He doesn't love it. He doesn't tolerate it. He doesn't desire the death of any man or of the wicked.

The Bible's clear. That's why I'm not a hyper Calvinist or a Calvinist. He doesn't delight in the death of the wicked.

Limited atonement. I don't agree with it. Jesus bled for all.

He provided for all. God loves all. I believe that there's a heart in God.

But you know what? Men's hearts are evil, but God never released his power. See, God desires all men to repent and come to faith in him. But you know what he does? He is the God of prophecy and he's saying, I am God.

See, I'm the God of salvation, but I'm the God of nations. I can tell you everything that's going to happen in our world in the future. I can even count the kings.

And so those four kings, listen to what happened after Cyrus. The first king in our history books is called Cambyses. The second one is called Gudama or Smyrdas.

The third king is called Darius I. You heard of him? Darius I or Darius the Great. He was famous for the battle of Marathon in 490. But the prophecy is the fourth king, who's he? Artaxerxes or who we know as Xerxes.

Do you know who else he is? He's in the Bible. He's mentioned in the book of Esther. He's Esther's husband.

His name was Ahasuerus. Remember the plot of Haman trying to annihilate the Jews? That was in Iran. That's Persia.

That's at the end of the kingdom. Remember when Nehemiah goes into the king, king Artaxerxes, and it says his queen is sitting beside him. Who do you think that is? That's Esther.

This is after this. Nehemiah goes in there. This is a great queen.

She's a Jew in Persia on the throne, married to the king. You know what else the Bible says? In Daniel prophesied this king will be the richest of them all, and he's going to provoke the Greeks. I was about to preach this once five years ago to this church.

I was preparing to preach the sermon. I preached all through Daniel, and it got to chapter 11. That's a bit down the road, preaching all through Daniel.

It got to chapter 11. It was Christmas time. I went up north.

We had Christmas night. I turned television on, and it was a whole document. I went, this is God, the timing of this.

I believe God works in that. I walk into a bookshop and go, Lord, lead me to the right book, because I've seen him do it. Lead me to the right person.

I've seen him do it. I'm sitting there in Christmas after a Christmas meal, and I sit down to relax, to doze. I ain't dozing.

This is about Artaxerxes, the fourth king, and it's all about how the Persian medieval empire invades. I'm going, this is God. I'm about to preach.

This is my next sermon. God has actually given me all this historical information, accurate, that's prophesied way before this. God knew the history of Persia.

He knows the kings, what he's going to do through them. He'll be the richest. He's going to provoke Greece, and Greece is going to begin to arise, begin to arise, and become a nation that's going to lead to their first king.

So you can go to the history books and read about this. He'd be far richer than them all. Single-handedly, he had a hoard of gold, the like of which you can't even imagine.

He had a huge army of hundreds of thousands, not a hundred thousand, hundreds of thousands. He marched 200,000 men across the Hell's Pump. He managed to build a bridge across it.

He brought hundreds of boats. He invaded Greece, burned down Athens to the ground. You know what? God's behind this because he says, Greece is going to arise as a nation.

Their temple, their city is going to burn. They'll get invaded by this great army, but they're all separate tribes, and they can't even agree together. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to use Persia to stir up the nation of Greece to become a nation, which is suddenly overnight going to become a great empire, and it's going to conquer nations in the most unbelievable way.

It says also about him, and by his strength, through his riches, he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia. And I could tell you much more about it. Then there's a gap of 150 years.

And the next verse, 11 verse 3, it says, and a mighty king shall stand up that shall rule with great dominion and do according to his will, and he shall stand up. It's talking about Alexander the Great, and it explains about him elsewhere. He's going to stand up and replace the Persian empire.

It talks about him and says his empire. Very briefly in this chapter, it says his empire is going to be broken, split in four parts. It's the Grecian empire.

Let me finish. There's other prophecies in the Bible about Persia. Again, in Jeremiah 25 verse 11, at the end of 70 years, we read that he understood Daniel.

It's the end of the 70 years. That command's going to be given to Cyrus. Jeremiah understood his Bible.

He read his Bible. He understood Bible prophecy. He said, this is it.

This is the end of the 70 years. I know what's happening. I've read my Bible.

I've read Daniel. I can count. I can understand Bible prophecy.

See, Bible prophecy helps you spiritually, and he began to pray. Lord, release your people from captivity. It's the 70 years.

You know what God done? God moved in the heart of Cyrus. The people are released. First, Ezra is released.

Then, Nehemiah is released, and they go back and begin to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. Then, the walls of the city. Cyrus was caught up in this.

It was an extraordinary thing that God begins to work in all of these events. You have Persia mentioned in Isaiah chapter 11. Listen, chapter 11, chapter 13, chapter 21, and chapter 22.

Then, in Ezekiel, it is also ... I'm not going into these prophecies. Then, it's also mentioned three times in Ezekiel. Ezekiel 27, Ezekiel 28, and finally, Ezekiel 38.

What's Ezekiel 38? Ezekiel's war. It's a war that's never happened in history, but it's about to. See, all this was previous prophecies.

I'm telling you about Iran, Persia, and what's just about to happen to it. What does Ezekiel 36 talk about? Well, in fact, the entire book of Ezekiel, it says this statement 72 times, and they shall know that I am the Lord. Ezekiel is all about events that are going to happen with Israel and the nations where you're going to know God is real.

Extraordinary events, and they're prophesied in detail. Here, for a second, as we close, let me finish with Persia, how God is going to use Persia very shortly to show that He is God, to prove that He is the God of the Bible. As you look at Persia, you're going to see beyond any shadow of a doubt Bible prophecy is true, the Bible is true, and if that's true, the message of salvation is true accurately.

There's no doubts about this. We read in Ezekiel 38, how in verse 8, that they're gathered out from all nations, that Israel is brought out. Just before this, in the chapters leading into this prophecy, chapters 36 to 37, Israel's regathered from all nations of the world.

It's only happened once in history, 1948, only once in history. This prophecy is given 2,600 years before. Sorry, I rolled my glasses, so they're a bit squint.

You've got accurate prophecies here about what is just about to happen, a prophecy that never has happened in world history, but it's about to. What does it say there? It actually talks about Israel is going to be restored to her land. It's going to begin to blossom.

She'll be back in her land after being scattered in all nations, and we know that was for 1,900 years. They've got to be back in their land. Literally, physically, it's going to be restored.

Israel back in the land. Then here's the setting of Ezekiel 38 and 39, an alliance of several nations, which are named specifically, joined together. All those several names are mentioned in Genesis 10, where we began with Elam.

All the names are mentioned specifically as the sons of Japheth, Ham, and Shem, as real nations that are on the world scene. This has never happened yet, but it's going to happen, and those nations are mentioned. They existed.

They were created of God. They're separated. They were given birth to, but each of those nations are going to be mighty armies with bands of forces.

Listen, the first one's called Magog. That's Russia. How do I know it's Russia? It says in Genesis 10, sorry, it says in Ezekiel 38, the first nation to lead them is Magog.

Magog, if you go back to your map to the days of Ezekiel, 600 BC, and if you look on the map, Magog is to the north of Turkey and Iran, in the area between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, or between the Caucasus, or it's called the Russian steppes in our day. In Ezekiel's day, that is where they were. In Josephus' day in the first century, they're called the Scythian tribes on the Russian steppes that become later the Russian people.

So here's a prophecy about this nation is going to lead the way, and in fact, arm all the other nations it mentions with military power. This is a prophecy 2,600 years old that has never happened, and it's about to happen. In fact, it talks about Magog, that it's going to come from the north three times.

In 38.6, it says, from the north quarters. Verse 15, from thy place out of the north parts. In 39.2, it says, come up from the north parts.

Don't just say north, that could be Assyria, but it says north parts. The word parts there are quarters. It means the uttermost parts, the far north, the furthest coast away from Israel.

Guess what's there? Russia, Moscow is in a direct line. This army not only comes from the north, but from the far north, and there's an amalgamation of other nations. Guess what's the next nation? Turkey.

We won't go there. Guess what's the nation after that? Persia by name. In Ezekiel 38.5, it says, all of God's army, and this is part of it.

Persia is no stranger to this. It's part of this army. When the prophet Ezekiel lists the names in verse 5, Persia is listed first.

The nation of Persia is going to join with Russia and Turkey to become an army to invade Israel. Since this is a prophecy that is about to happen, all the other prophecies about Persia has happened. Persia began in its conversion to Islam in the 7th century AD.

In 1979, it become the Islamic Republic of Iran, when thankfully to the CIA, they caused a coup. It was a mild, peace-loving nation, and the CIA and the British services worked in it to bring about a coup, and it brought radical Islam to the force in Iran. Since many things have happened in our world, and since then, it's history.

Iran's long conflict with Israel, it's been sanctioned by the U.S. and Europe for many years. The greatest fear for many years in international politics was that Iran would get a nuclear weapon. Up until 2015, there was an expected preemptive attack from America and Israel that would stop this.

This would have been with the purpose of preventing Iran from having nuclear power. But the Iran nuclear deal through Obama, signed in July 2015, in which Iran promised to limit its nuclear capability for 10 years, until this year, they promised. Obama gave them billions, and they built all the equipment with the money over the years.

This allowed the West, temporarily, to lift all their sanctions on Iran, and to allow it to rise again, financing world terrorism. All of this is going on, and the rest is history. You're watching it.

You're watching this prophecy come to pass. It was only in 2016 that Turkey, Iran, and Russia signed an agreement, a covenant to work together in the Middle East. 2016, for the first time in world history, these three nations aligned.

Because Turkey and Iran don't get on, but they do now. They do now. What are you seeing? You're watching all of the nations come into place.

You're watching everything being put in place in this hour. But you know, the Bible also talks, like in Isaiah 2, that the hill of the Lord is going to be established and exalted in the last days. And listen what it says.

It shall be exalted in the hills, and all nations shall flow onto it. The prophet Zechariah speaks of the same thing in chapter 8. He says, strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem. What a blessed time that's going to be, when the Elamites, the Medes, and the Persians, or the Iranians, remember, in the day of Acts.

See, in the book of Acts, go to chapter 2. You'll read about the Elamites, Elam, the Medes, and the Persians being there in the day of Pentecost. Some people got converted from those nations on the day of Pentecost. What happens after Ezekiel's war? Lots of people say, it's the rapture.

No, it's not. All the prophecy preachers today say, the rapture happens. Ezekiel's war is an indication of rapture.

No, it's not. They're utterly wrong. Show me it in the Bible.

It's an indication that there's going to come a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit that starts in Jerusalem. Israel is going to turn to the Lord, and we're going to see it. That's what the Bible says, and it's not far away.

There's going to come a movement of God. But saints, in the millennium to come, Persia's going to go up to worship the Lord. There's psalm after psalm that talks about the nations going up to worship the Lord together.

Persia, Iran, is going to be there. Our Bible talks about Iran, Persia. It talks about China, mentioned in the Bible, talks about Israel, talks about the nations of the world.

I believe it's even indicated the Western powers. Saudi Arabia is mentioned. What's going to happen in this war? In fact, it says one of the things that happens is fire is going to fall on some of the isles of the sea as a fallout from this.

It says that after this war happens, all of these nations, five out of six of their soldiers are going to die in the mountains of Israel. That's actually part of what's claimed by the Palestinians today. It even gives the mountains where that entire army of Russia, Iran, Turkey, Libya, Ethiopia, and all of these amalgamation where they're going to fall.

Why do you think God's saying this? Do not fear. We're smack in the middle. That's only one of the wars in the Bible.

Only one war the Bible talks about. But Jesus in Matthew 24 says, I'm coming. Saints, are you ready? Is your lamp trimmed? Is it filled with oil? Do you know that you love Jesus with all of your heart? Are you ready? Are you excited, saints of God? Don't be scared of world events.

It is scary. It is in turmoil, but our Jesus is coming again. He has all power, all authority, and he saves the sinner.

You call on him, he'll save you. You'll be born again. Our God is the God of history, the God of prophecy, the God of nations.

He can raise kings up and dash them down, and we're just about to see some of the most horrific sites in world history. We are in an age of the third world war. We are in a time that's very dangerous, but do not fear.

Put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Walk with him. And like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you can walk through fire.

The fourth man will come and walk with you in the fire. This is real. I know you're small.

I know you're nobodies. This God is real. Stand with me this morning.

Let's just love him. Let's just worship him. Let's magnify him as we close this gathering.

Just adore him where you're standing. Saints, we're going to live through some of the most momentous things. I am ready to meet the Lord Jesus.

I am looking up. I am preparing myself. Saints, I am only preparing to get going.

Many things have come to hamper, to hinder, to dampen, but I want to show you it's time to get on fire for God. Wars and rumors of wars are a sign that Jesus is coming. It's not the end.

It's the beginning of the end. It's a time where the gospel is going to go to all nations. It's a time of evangelism.

It's a time to be led of the spirit of God. People need Jesus Christ in this hour. Let's pray together.

Father, we pray right now. Lord God, we need our garments to be clean and white. Lord God, we need to be dressed in white linen.

We need our lamps to be filled with oil. Father, I pray for a move of God in this church. What a strange series to use, where you'd stir our hearts to be filled, to be revived, to be restored again.

Lord God, to be burning, to be evangelistic. My God, this is one of the indicators that you are preparing to come, that you're in control of all the nations. Lord God, even Iran, Persia, America, China, Russia, all these nations are not out of control.

They may be rebellious and proud and arrogant, yet you have your eye on the church of Jesus and upon world mission. Lord God, this is our greatest hour to shine as bright lights, to love in an unlovely world. When men hate each other and kill each other, we can shine as the church of God, holding forth the love of God and the grace of God, being kind when others aren't.

My God, will you prepare us to be a vessel in this hour? We know that you know all things, predicted all things, that all history is held within your hands. And Lord God, you're such a wonderful savior. We love you here this morning in Jesus' name.

Hallelujah. Jesus.