{"id":18409,"date":"2017-09-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-03T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/daniel-034-the-prophetic-timeline\/"},"modified":"2017-09-03T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-09-03T05:00:00","slug":"daniel-034-the-prophetic-timeline","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/daniel-034-the-prophetic-timeline\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel 034 – The Prophetic Timeline"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[72],"series_event":[467],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18409","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-daniel","series_event-daniel","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Daniel 034 - The Prophetic Timeline","sermon_date":"20170903","sermon_month":"9","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":"","sermon_slides":4898,"sermon_mp3":4900,"sermon_id":"93171013233","series_or_event":467,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":72,"chapter_and_verse":"9:24-27","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nGod Answers Prayer\n\n9-3-17\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Daniel 9:24-27\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 34\n\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0 If we could take our Bibles and open them to Daniel, chapter 9 and verse 24.\u00a0 As the events of this week were taking place I started to ask the Lord, is this the end times that we\u2019re seeing?\u00a0 And in the process I was studying our passage in the Book of Daniel and in the process I was studying our passage in the Book of Daniel and I read these words, \u201cthe end will come with a flood.\u00a0 [Verse 26]\u00a0 And I said oh my gosh.\u00a0 Then I saw another passage that said the last trump and I said well, our President is named Trump\u2026. [laughter]\u00a0 I mean, we\u2019re getting close, don\u2019t you think?\u00a0 If you\u2019re joining us for the first time I was joking about all that stuff.\n\nWe are continuing to move progressively through the Book of Daniel.\u00a0 The Book of Daniel was written by a guy outside of his comfort zone having been displaced from his home.\u00a0 You say why doesn\u2019t the Bible apply to our lives at all.\u00a0 Some of you have been displaced from\u00a0 your homes; I know from personal e-mails.\u00a0 And Daniel being displaced from his home, being exported about 350 miles to the east, found out that God\u2019s faithfulness didn\u2019t stop at the borders of Israel.\u00a0 And so I think this is something that Christians in Houston need to be reminded of as we walk through this difficult ordeal together.\u00a0 The faithfulness of God never stops because people have been displaced from their comfort zone.\u00a0 In fact, that\u2019s the time that God really shows up and begins to demonstrate His faithfulness towards us.\u00a0 We\u2019re just not aware of the faithfulness of God\u00a0 until He puts us into situations where we need His faithfulness and that\u2019s what the events of last week I think unfold and I think that\u2019s what\u2019s happening here in the Book of Daniel.\n\nChapter 1 is an introduction to the book; we\u2019ve gone through that. We\u2019ve gone through chapters 2-7 very carefully.\u00a0 We moved into chapters 8-12 which are specifically, as we have said, addressed to the nation of Israel in captivity.\u00a0 We\u2019ve seen chapter 8, that great vision of the ram and the goat.\u00a0 And we find ourselves in the last few Sundays and into this Sunday and the next Sunday at least into chapter 9 which is the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks.\u00a0 Verses 1 and 2 of chapter 9 give us the setting of the book.\u00a0 The setting historically is given there in verse 1; Daniel, as we have said, is living in the year 538 B.C.\u00a0 You might want to jot that date down because he\u2019s going see in our study of the prophecy he received something that\u2019s going to start about 100 years after he would leave the scene.\u00a0 He is, as we have said, in his early 80\u2019s at this time.\n\nVerse 2 gives us the prophetic setting; the nation of Israel had gone into captivity for 70 years.\u00a0 You\u2019ll find that figure in the Book of Jeremiah, chapter 25, verse 11; chapter 29, verse 10.\u00a0 And you say why 70 years, why not 80 years, why not 60 years.\u00a0 Well, as we have said in prior sermons the issue has to do with the fact that the Jews were to allow their land to have a rest on the seventh year, every year.\n\nWhat we discover in the Old Testament is the Jews did not let the land have its rest for 70 sabbaths; there are 70 sabbaths that the nation ignored.\u00a0 So God said okay, you want to play that way then I\u2019ll let the land have its rest without your permission.\u00a0 And He kicked them out of the land for 70 years.\u00a0 That\u2019s where that seventy year figure comes from.\n\nAnd now that 70 year figure is about to come to an end.\u00a0 Daniel knows what time it is prophetically so he begins to pray to the Lord.\u00a0 Now what you\u2019re going to discover with the 70 weeks prophecy is the 70 weeks prophecy involves math.\u00a0 So becoming a good Bible student (I know this is painful) involves mathematics.\n\nLet\u2019s do a little bit of mathematics, shall we?\u00a0 If Israel ignored 70 sabbath years and the sabbath comes up every seventh year that means how many years of total disobedience are we talking about.\u00a0 Well, 70 times 4 equals 490.\u00a0 A 490 year cycle of disobedience was coming to an end.\u00a0 And I think this: Daniel had a misconception in his mind; he thought that the kingdom was going to materialize at the end of the 490 years of disobedience that the nation was just coming out of.\u00a0 After all, he is the one that as a teen ager had seen the statue of Daniel 2; he saw the stone cut without human hands destroying the feet of the statue and growing and growing and growing until it filled the whole earth.\u00a0 And when we were in Daniel 2 we said that is the manifestation of the kingdom of God on the earth.\n\nI believe Daniel thought the kingdom was going to materialize; the 490 years are ending, the kingdom is coming.\u00a0 And what he discovers through an angelic manifestation, Gabriel, dispatched from heaven, said the kingdom is going to come Daniel, that part of it you\u2019re correct on but it\u2019s not going to come as quickly as you think; it\u2019s not going to come at the end of the 490 years you\u2019re coming out of; there\u2019s a future 490 years.\u00a0 See the symmetry there?\u00a0 490 at the beginning of the chapter; 490 at the end of the chapter.\u00a0 There\u2019s a future 490 years, yet future, then the kingdom of God is going to come.\n\nBut Daniel, in his misconception offers a prayer, it\u2019s one of the greatest prayers in the Bible, verses 3-19, Gabriel arrives from heaven to give Daniel the truth, verses 20-23.\u00a0 And what Gabriel puts into Daniel\u2019s lap is the Seventy Weeks prophecy, the prophecy of the seventy sevens.\u00a0\u00a0 I believe this, that the prophecy of the seventy sevens, although it\u2019s not the easiest prophecy in the Bible to grasp at first sitting, it requires some mental work, if you will track with me as I try to (as God gives me grace) unpeel the layers of this prophecy, you\u2019re going to walk away from this mental exercise with two blessings you didn\u2019t have before.\n\nThe first blessing you\u2019re going to have is you\u2019re going to have almost, if not complete, total confidence that the Bible is God\u2019s Word because what\u2019s happening in your school, what\u2019s happening in your office, what\u2019s happening with television, what\u2019s happening on media, what\u2019s happening in American society is\u00a0 you are being portrayed as a member of the flat earth society because you have the audacity to believe the Bible.\u00a0 In reality this prophecy will furnish you and fortify you for those battles because you walk away saying only the Bible could reveal something like this; only God who is omniscient and outside of time and knows the beginning from the end and the end from the beginning could see this in such precision.\u00a0 That\u2019s blessing number one.\n\nThe second blessing that\u00a0 you are going to walk away with is you are going to have something that most of Christendom does not have\u2026 a blueprint of the future!\u00a0 When you get onto You tube, I don\u2019t recommend you do that too frequently by the way, you\u2019re going to find people making one confused statement after another about the end time and the reason people are telling us that we are going to go through the tribulation period, people are telling us that the antichrist is next, not the rapture, some think the Book of Revelation already happened (can you imagine that).\u00a0 On and on the confusion goes and the reason for the confusion relates to the fact that they never started with the foundation; they\u2019re just reading a bunch of scattered prophecies throughout the Bible and they\u2019re trying to make sense of them.\u00a0 And because they\u2019re sitting in churches where their spiritual leaders aren\u2019t telling them anything about prophecy they\u2019re left to their own devices.\n\nAnd yet, if you understand the Seventy Weeks prophecy you have the blueprint, you have the foundation, you have the grid through which all Bible prophecy revolves around.\u00a0 So this is not necessarily a sermon or sermon series that I\u2019m doing here that will pack cathedrals and chapels and fill up audiences but it is something that requires some mental discipline.\u00a0 There are some things in the Bible that are easy to understand but there are other things that are a little bit more difficult to get under the surface and because we live in sort of an intellectually lazy society we have a tendency to check out when the preacher goes too deep.\n\nBut the fact of the matter is in the depth of the study that you are going to be blessed by God in those two ways I just described, ironclad proof that the Bible is God\u2019s Word and the much needed filter or grid or blueprint which all of Bible prophecy revolves around.\u00a0 Put yourself in my position; how would you communicate this prophecy to people that really have perhaps limited understand\u00ading of it?\u00a0 How would you, as a scholar, communicate this at a level, as J. Vernon McGee says, where\u00a0 you could put the cookies on the bottom shelf?\u00a0 That is the great struggle of being a Bible teacher.\u00a0 Anybody can be relevant if they don\u2019t care about being biblical.\u00a0 And anybody can be biblical if they don\u2019t care about being relevant.\u00a0 How do you do both simultaneously?\n\nAnd so as I\u2019ve been praying about it and you\u2019re not the first group I\u2019ve tried to teach this to, what I do to understand this prophecy is I divide it into ten points or ten concepts.\u00a0 Point 2 will build on point 1; point 3 will build on points 1 and 2.\u00a0 Point 4 will build on points 1-3, etc.\u00a0 So these points are logically arranged; if\u00a0 you\u2019re lost on point 1, I would recommend you take a few Sundays off and checking back in when we finish this prophecy.\u00a0 You have to stay with me, every point will follow the prior point.\n\nSo I\u2019ve divided this into ten points.\u00a0 Now obviously I can\u2019t teach all ten points today\u2026 well, maybe I can actually, I didn\u2019t get a chance to preach last week. \u00a0[Laughter]\u00a0 I\u2019ll just double the sermon, is that okay with everybody?\u00a0 No, I won\u2019t do that to you!\u00a0 I\u2019m going to try to cover points 1-4, if we\u2019re fortunate points 1-5 today and we\u2019ll be picking it up next time.\n\nSo here we go, the prophecy of the Seventy Sevens.\u00a0 Point number 1 is the focus of the prophecy is the Jews and the city of Jerusalem.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, Daniel 9 and verse 24.\u00a0 \u201cSeventy weeks have been decreed for\u201d Sugarland Bible Church\u2026. Oh, it doesn\u2019t say that!\u00a0 \u201cSeventy weeks have been decreed,\u201d Gabriel speaking to Daniel in Babylon, \u201cfor your people and your holy city\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 The prophecy concerns the nation of Israel.\u00a0 Notice what it says, \u201cyour people\u201d and your \u201ccity\u201d.\u00a0 The prophecy is directed towards Daniel; Daniel was a Jew.\u00a0 The whole prophecy revolves around the Jewish people and the city of Jerusalem.\u00a0 It is not a panorama of world history.\u00a0 That\u2019s not why the Holy Spirit gave it.\u00a0 It\u2019s not even focused on the church.\u00a0 In fact, when you get into Paul\u2019s writings in the Book of Ephesians what you\u2019ll discover is the church was a mystery at the time this prophecy was given.\u00a0 This prophecy has nothing to do with the church.\n\nThe whole clock that Daniel is about to receive from Gabriel concerns specifically the nation of Israel.\u00a0 And as honestly as I know how to say this, most people when they misinterpret the prophecy and there are many people today misinterpreting it, miss that fundamental point, as simple as it sounds.\u00a0 Robert Culver, in his commentary on Daniel says, \u201cLet the postmillennial and amillennial commentators\u201d now those are the people who believe that the church is Israel and the church has replaced Israel and we\u2019re in the kingdom.\u00a0 If we\u2019re in the kingdom now I don\u2019t know how in the world you\u2019d explain the events of last week.\u00a0 \u201cLet the postmillennial and amillennial commentators look long and steadily at this fact.\u00a0 This prophecy is a prophecy for Daniel\u2019s people and Daniel\u2019s city.\u00a0 No alchemy of Origenistic spiritualizing interpretation can change that.\u201d\u00a0 [Daniel and the Latter Days<\/em> (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1977), p.\u00a0 149]\n\nYou say well, what is \u201cOrigenistic spiritualizing\u201d?\u00a0 If you\u2019ve been tracking with our Sunday School series on The Protestant Reformation you already know exactly what that is.\u00a0 It\u2019s a practice that started in Alexandria, Egypt.\u00a0 The bottom line is people look at the Bible and say it doesn\u2019t mean what it says, it means something else.\u00a0 That is a method of interpretation that you have to reject to understand the nuts and bolts of not only this Bible timeframe that Daniel is being given here but any prophecy in the Word of God.\u00a0 And because people will not accept at face value what it says right on the outset, this is a prophecy concerning Israel, they misconstrue the whole thing.\n\nSo fact number 1, the prophecy concerns the nation of Israel, the Jews, the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and specifically it concerns their city, the city of Jerusalem.\u00a0 All right; so far so good!\n\nFact number 2, the prophecy consists of a 490 year time period.\u00a0 You have to picture this like a stop watch that God gave to Daniel (through Gabriel) and there happen to be 490 years on the watch.\u00a0 Now look back, if you could, at Daniel 9:24, \u201cSeventy\u201d what? \u201cweeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city,\u201d now some of your Bible versions will say \u201cSeventy sevens have been decreed for your people and your holy city.\u201d\u00a0 The word translated \u201cweek\u201d or \u201cseven\u201d is the Hebrew word\u00a0 shabua<\/em> and all it means is a\u00a0 unit of seven.\u00a0 It\u2019s sort of like the way we use the word dozen; when we\u00a0 use the word dozen we\u2019re talking about a unit of what?\u00a0 Twelve.\u00a0 So when the Hebrew word seven, or week is used it\u2019s talking about a unit of seven.\n\nSo just like the word dozen, we say a dozen what?\u00a0 A dozen months, a dozen days, is it Valentine\u2019s day and I give (or get) a dozen roses.\u00a0 How about my nutritious breakfast from this morning, a dozen donuts?\u00a0 So what are we talking about?\u00a0 A dozen of what?\u00a0 That\u2019s how you have to look at this word \u201cseven,\u201d seven what exactly.\u00a0 The word \u201cseven\u201d there is referring to a\u00a0 unit of seven years.\u00a0 How do I know that?\u00a0 Well go back, if you could, to the beginning of the chapter, Daniel 9:1-2, and notice how many times the word\u00a0 \u201cyear\u201d or \u201cyears\u201d emerges.\u00a0 It says, \u201cIn the first\u201d what? \u201cyear of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans\u2014[2] in the first\u201d what? \u201cyear <\/u>of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of\u201d what? \u201cyears <\/u>which was revealed as<\/em> the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely,<\/em> seventy\u201d what? \u201cyears<\/u>.\u201d\n\nNow as you read through those two verses how many times do you see the word \u201cyear\u201d or \u201cyears\u201d?\u00a0 Four times. \u00a0What\u2019s my point?\u00a0 My point is Daniel had been thinking in terms of years.\u00a0 He was not thinking in terms of days because when Daniel says days he uses the word days.\u00a0\u00a0 You guys with me on that?\u00a0 Daniel 10:13, what does it say there, \u201cBut the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty-one days<\/u>;\u201d when Daniel says days it means days, he writes the word \u201cdays.\u201d\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t write that here in Daniel 9; he just says the unit of seven, seven years, because Daniel had been thinking in terms of years.\n\nNow you say well, wait a minute, Pastor, is that word \u201cseven\u201d or shabua<\/em>, is it ever used of a seven year increment elsewhere in the Bible.\u00a0 And the answer to that question is\u00a0 yes.\u00a0 Genesis 29:27, this is talking about the Patriarchs, is it Isaac who served Laban to gain Rachel\u2019s hand for how many years?\u00a0 Seven\u00a0 years; that\u2019s the Hebrew word shabua<\/em>.\u00a0 Genesis 29:27 says this, \u201c\u2018Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which you shall serve with me for another seven years.\u201d\u2019\u00a0 Genesis 29:27 uses the word \u201cweek\u201d or \u201cseven\u201d and everybody, in context understands that that is talking about a unit, not of seven days, not of seven months, but seven years.\n\nSo when you see this expression \u201cweek\u201d in Daniel 8:24\u00a0 you have to just mentally\u00a0 substitute in your mind a seven year time period. \u00a0This can\u2019t be months or days for the simple reason that there\u2019s not enough time to accomplish everything that this prophecy says must be accomplished.\u00a0 So most people understand this word \u201cweek\u201d as a reference to a seven year period of time.\n\nNow let\u2019s get our calculators out again; what does it say here?\u00a0 Not just week but how many weeks?\u00a0 Seventy, seventy sevens; seventy times seven is what?\u00a0 490 years.\u00a0 The prophecy consists of, fact number 2, a time period of 490 years.\u00a0 God gave to Daniel, back in the sixth century, a stopwatch.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t have sixty minutes on it like ours does, sixty seconds, it had on it 490 years.\u00a0 And every good stop watch has a start button, a pause button and a stop button.\u00a0 That is exactly what Daniel has been given here.\u00a0 The revelation of a 490 year stop watch with a start, pause and stop button.\u00a0 The whole thing symmetrically is designed to clear up Daniel\u2019s misconception that he thought the kingdom was going to come after the 490 years that the nation of Israel was emerging from.\u00a0 No, no, no!\u00a0 The kingdom will come Gabriel says to Daniel, but it won\u2019t come after the 490 years\u00a0 you are coming out of; it\u2019s going to come at the conclusion of another 490 years that you know nothing about.\n\nWell, gee, can you give me some information about this 490 years that I know nothing about.\u00a0 Thank\u00a0 you for asking.\u00a0 That\u2019s what the seventy weeks prophecy is all about.\u00a0 Fact number 1, the prophecy concerns who?\u00a0 Now don\u2019t get lost too fast on me, let\u2019s try that again.\u00a0 Fact number 1, the prophecy concerns who?\u00a0 Israel.\u00a0 Fact number 2, the prophecy consists of how many years?\u00a0 490 years.\u00a0 You guys with me?\u00a0 So far so good?\n\nNow you\u2019re going to listen to this one, you\u2019re going to say who cares (some of you are saying that already).\u00a0 This, number 3, won\u2019t make a lot of sense to you until I finally get to point 6 so you might listen to this and say well, it\u2019s no big deal.\u00a0 It\u2019s a BIG deal, with a capital B, and a capital I and a capital G.\u00a0 But you won\u2019t recognize it as a BIG deal until later on in the presentation, most likely next week.\u00a0 Fact number 3, each year of the prophecy does not\u2026 does NOT consist of 365 day Gregorian calendar years, which is our normal calendar, but 360 day prophetic\u00a0 years.\n\nIn other words, when God deals in judgment He does not think about 365 days per year; He thinks about 360 days per year.\u00a0 You say well how do you know that?\u00a0 Well, one way we can tell is looking at the two time periods in history, one future and one past, where God has intervened in judgment.\n\nNotice Revelation 11:2-3, it says of the end times, \u201cLeave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months.\u201d\u00a0 Revelation 11:3 says, \u201cAnd I will grant authority<\/em> to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.\u201d\u00a0 One thousand two hundred and sixty days!\u00a0 Isn\u2019t this interesting that one verse says half of the tribulation period is 42 months; oh, and by the way, half of the tribulation period is 1,260 days.\u00a0 So with those two numbers I can put 1,260 days into the numerator and 42 months into the denominator and I can figure out how many days per month we\u2019re talking about.\u00a0 So when you do the division how many days per month are we talking about?\u00a0 Thirty days per month.\u00a0 How many months in a year?\u00a0 Twelve.\u00a0 So let\u2019s multiply 30 times 12\u00a0 and we get the number 360.\u00a0 When God thinks about judgment He is thinking in terms of not 365 day Gregorian calendar years that we\u2019re accustomed to.\u00a0 He\u2019s thinking in terms of 360 day prophetic years.\n\nNow this mathematical reality is not just true in God\u2019s judgment yet future, it\u2019s also true in God\u2019s judgment yet past.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, the flood.\u00a0 You say I\u2019ve already noticed that, I\u2019ve been pushed out of my house\u2026 no, I\u2019m talking about THE flood.\u00a0 Notice if you will Genesis 7:24.\u00a0 Notice what it says here, it says, \u201cThe water prevailed upon the earth one hundred and fifty days.\u201d\u00a0 You think our flood was bad, you ain\u2019t seen nothing yet!\u00a0 150 days it took for the water in the global deluge, as recorded in the Book of Genesis, to recede.\n\nNow notice, if you will, Genesis 7:11, it says, \u201cIn the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.\u201d\u00a0 The flood, as recorded in the Book of Genesis, began on the seventeenth day of the second month.\n\nHaving said that, take a look at Genesis 8:4, \u201cIn the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested upon the mountains\u201d plural \u201cof Ararat.\u201d\u00a0 The flood started, the waters came the seventeenth day of the second month; the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat the seventeenth day of the seventh month.\u00a0 In other words, the waters lifted the ark on the exact same day of the second month and the seventh month.\u00a0 Now how much of a time period is there between the second month and the seventh month?\u00a0 Seven minus two is five months.\u00a0 So you see what we\u2019ve got here.\u00a0 Genesis 24 says the flood lasted 150 days.\u00a0 Of course we know it rained 40 days and 40 nights but for the water to finally recede it took 150 days.\u00a0 One verse says that.\n\nAnother couple of verses, putting them together, tell us that that same time period was five months.\u00a0 So let\u2019s do this again; let\u2019s put 150 days in the numerator, five months in the denominator; let\u2019s do the division and how many days per month are we talking about?\u00a0 Thirty days per month.\u00a0 How many months are in a year?\u00a0 Twelve. So twelve times thirty equals\u2026. Drum roll please\u2014360 days per year.\n\nSo both in Genesis, the flood, and the Book of Revelation, judgment yet to come, the way the Creator thinks is not 365 day Gregorian calendar years the way we think, but 360 day prophetic years.\u00a0 How many years total on this prophecy?\u00a0 490.\u00a0 Let\u2019s do some more math.\u00a0 Let\u2019s multiply 490 years by 360 days.\u00a0 Anybody know the answer to that?\u00a0 176,400 days.\u00a0 God says to Daniel I\u2019m giving you a time clock that consists of 490 years, and oh, by the way, that translates into 176,400 days.\u00a0\u00a0 And you guys are saying when is he going to finish and we get dismissed for lunch.\n\nFact number 1, the prophecy concerns who?\u00a0 Israel.\u00a0 Fact number 2, the prophecy consists of how many years?\u00a0 490.\u00a0 Fact number 3, each\u00a0 year the prophecy consists of how many days?\u00a0 360.\u00a0 You guys with me so far?\u00a0 Fact number 4, what\u2019s going to happen when the prophecy runs its course?\u00a0 What\u2019s going to happen when the time clock reaches the end of 490 years?\u00a0 What is going to happen?\u00a0 And the answer to that is six prophecies will be fulfilled for the Jewish people, which read as follows:\u00a0 \u201cSeventy weeks have been decreed for your people and\u00a0 your holy city, to\u201d number 1, \u201cfinish the transgression,\u201d number 2, \u201cto make an end of sin,\u201d number 3, \u201cto make atonement for iniquity,\u201d number 4, \u201cto bring in everlasting righteousness,\u201d number 5, \u201cto seal up vision and prophecy,\u201d and number 6, \u201cto anoint the most holy place.\u201d\n\nGabriel, through God, saying to Daniel is when the clock reaches 490 years this is what you can expect to happen.\u00a0 So let\u2019s look at these six things and see if we can understand this a little better.\u00a0 The first three are negative in the sense that these three things will stop.\u00a0 The bottom three are positive in the sense that these three things will be implemented.\u00a0 Through who?\u00a0 Fact number 1, the Jewish people.\u00a0 Of course, the great Hebrew scholar, Arnold Fruchtenbaum helps us a lot with deciphering these Hebrew phrases.\u00a0 What is meant here when he says in verse 24, at year 490 there will be a finishing of transgression.\u00a0 What that simply means is the Jewish people will stop rejecting Jesus.\u00a0 The Jewish people, the nation of Israel, will be in faith as real as you and myself, I, us, are in faith today\u2014the conversion nationally of the nation.\u00a0 Don\u2019t expect that to happen until you get to the conclusion of this 490 year period.\n\nWhat does this mean, \u201cto make an end for sin\u201d?\u00a0 What that simply means is Israel\u2019s daily sins will be over; they\u2019ll be a thing of the past.\u00a0 This nation that has been so obstinate against God throughout biblical history and even today continues to be obstinate, that obstinacy will be over.\u00a0 The daily sins of Israel will end.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because Israel has a covenant called the Abrahamic Covenant.\u00a0 The Abrahamic Covenant gives to the nation of Israel three\u00a0 blessings: land, seed and blessing. The blessing component is amplified in what is called the New Covenant in the book of Jeremiah, chapter 31:31-34, it is talking about the born again regenerated experience of the Jewish people.\n\n[Jeremiah 31:31-34, \u201cBehold, days are coming,\u2019 declares the LORD, \u2018when I will make a new coven\u00adant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, [32] not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,\u201d declares the LORD. \u00a0[33] But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,\u201d declares the LORD, \u201cI will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. [34] They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, \u2018Know the LORD,\u2019 for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,\u201d declares the LORD, \u201cfor I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.\u201d]\n\nJust as you at one point trusted in Christ and were revolutionized from within because the Holy Spirit came into you, that same reality is going to happen for the nation of Israel wide scale.\u00a0 Jeremiah predicted, \u201ca new covenant I make with the house of Israel and the house of Judah \u2026 My covenant which they broke\u2026 I will put My law\u201d where, \u201cwithin them, and on their heart I will write it.\u201d\u00a0 They will know me.\n\nWhy is it that to an unsaved Jew and to you a born again Gentile the unsaved Jew looks to you as some kind of enigma or mystery?\u00a0 The answer is very simple; you have the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit that they don\u2019t have.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit the only thing you\u2019re left with is legalism which has no power.\u00a0 What the human race desperately needs is a revolution from within; the theologians call this regeneration or the impartation of divine life which takes place the moment a person places their personal faith in Christ. \u00a0If that has never happened to you it doesn\u2019t matter what denomination you go to or are involved with.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter how many good works you have done.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter what your grandparents believed or what your parents believed, if you have never been born again you are not a Christian, period!\n\nBorn again Christianity is not a denomination within Christendom.\u00a0 Oh, there\u2019s the born agains over there, just like the Baptists and the Presbyterians and the Methodists.\u00a0 That\u2019s a totally wrong way of thinking.\u00a0 If a person is not born again I don\u2019t care where they go to church, they could be Metho-Catho-Bapterian for all I care.\u00a0 Or they may be a Bapti-costal-fundamatic, whatever they are if they have not been touched by the Spirit of God which enters a person at the point of faith alone in Christ alone, you are not a Christian.\u00a0 So this born again reality, according to the promise of the New Covenant is going to cover the nation of Israel in a nationwide revival.\u00a0 But don\u2019t expect it to happen until we hit the end of Daniel\u2019s clock of 490 years.\n\nAnd something else will happen for Israel; they will \u201cmake atonement for iniquity,\u201d they will accept Jesus Christ as their Savior, because the atonement of Christ, the shed blood of Christ is a valuable thing but it doesn\u2019t do anybody any good until they receive it by faith.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter that Jesus died on a cross for the sins of the world, as we heard Alex Garcia so beautifully articulate this morning, it doesn\u2019t matter if that happened, if a person has never received that.\u00a0 I\u2019m not talking about what their family does, what their church tradition does, I\u2019m talking about you and what you do with it.\u00a0 It has no value to you until you trust in it.\n\nAnd at the present time the bulk of the Jewish nation has not trusted in that atonement and so as I speak today, with the exception of the very small number of Jews that get saved in the church age, the nation of Israel continues under the judgment of God, never having received what Jesus has done for them. \u00a0Oh but how different it\u2019s going to be once we hit year 490 and the thing wraps up.\u00a0 You can expect a regeneration of a nation.\u00a0 That\u2019s what Isaiah is talking about.\n\nCan a nation be born in a day?\u00a0 The answer would be yes.\u00a0 You want to talk about revival, awakening, we pray for revival all the time for our country.\u00a0 God has sent us out of mercy various revivals at various times of history but let me tell you something, \u201cyou ain\u2019t seen nothin\u2019 yet.\u201d\u00a0 You think the first awakening in America was a big deal, or the second great awakening in America was a big deal?\u00a0 It pales\u2026 PALES \u00a0in comparison to what God has in store for the nation once they get to year 490.\n\nWhat else is going to happen?\u00a0 What will be brought in, verse 24, is \u201ceverlasting righteousness.\u201d\u00a0 What is that?\u00a0 It is the establishment of the long awaited kingdom of God on the earth in and through the Jewish nation.\u00a0 Isaiah spoke of this kingdom, \u201cFor a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us and the government will rest upon His shoulders\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 Verse 7, There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his\u201d what? \u201ckingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s what Daniel 9:24 is talking about when it speaks there of everlasting righteousness.\n\nIt\u2019s the same kingdom that Jesus taught us to pray for.\u00a0 \u201cThy kingdom\u201d what?\u00a0 \u201cThy kingdom come.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 You say well, I\u2019m kind of confused about this idea of the kingdom, do you have any good sources you could recommend on that?\u00a0\u00a0 This is my shameless plug for Wednesday nights where we are developing carefully the doctrine of the kingdom, beginning again this Wednesday.\u00a0 I invite you to attend either physically online.\n\nBut what Daniel is saying, what Gabriel to Daniel is saying is once the clock hits the end of the time period, which is 490 years, the visible manifestation of the kingdom of God will exist on planet earth.\u00a0 So then if that\u2019s true why would I try to set it up before that 490 period has elapsed?\u00a0 You see how this prophecy clears up so much confusion in what people are trying to bring in today through human power?\u00a0 It\u2019s a waste of time.\n\nIn fact, if you\u2019re trying to set up the kingdom of God now and the next kingdom on the prophetic horizon is not God\u2019s kingdom but the antichrist\u2019s kingdom, which God will overthrow, who are you working for without even knowing it?\u00a0 The devil!\u00a0 The devil is a pretty sneaky guy.\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t that be something, if he could convince Christendom or a sector of Christendom to doing his work for him.\u00a0 Well, the devil doesn\u2019t work like that, does he?\u00a0 Well, just ask the Apostle Peter about that.\u00a0 He opened his mouth one time, Jesus, don\u2019t go to the cross, Jesus says to Peter, \u201cGet behind me Satan.\u201d\n\nYou don\u2019t think the devil can use a Christian?\u00a0 If that weren\u2019t true why are we told to put on the full armor of God, the belt of truth, the helmet of salvation?\u00a0 So that we will not be deceived.\u00a0 Christianity is deceived today.\u00a0 It\u2019s been deceived, as we\u2019ve been studying, going back to the Dark Ages.\u00a0 People are all confused on this because their shepherds are not teaching them prophetic truths.\u00a0 They\u2019re teaching them about any number of subjects, maybe some of them important, but they\u2019re not talking to them directly about prophecy.\u00a0 So what are the sheep supposed to do?\u00a0 They\u2019re left to their own devices.\u00a0 Well, I know the Bible says something about the end times; I know where I\u2019ll go to find truth, that great theologian, Facebook, or You-tube, and their minds are a kaleidoscope of confusion.\n\nWhat else is going to happen?\u00a0 There\u2019s going to be a sealing up of vision and prophecy for who?\u00a0\u00a0 Israel.\u00a0 What does that mean?\u00a0 It means that all of Israel\u2019s covenants will be in fulfillment at the end of the 490 years.\u00a0 All of Israel\u2019s prophecies will be in a state of fulfillment and realization at the end of the 490 years.\u00a0 Everything that God said He could and would do for Israel, all of the unfulfilled promises will be an abject reality.\u00a0 And how much of Christianity today, it would be shocking to discover, teaches the doctrine that God is finished with Israel; Israel\u2019s promises are null and void.\n\nLet me tell you something; that is an attack on the character of God, who cannot lie.\u00a0 If God can cut Israel\u2019s cord, which many people today say He can, then He can cut your cord and any promise He\u2019s made to you about eternal security is not worth the paper it\u2019s written on.\u00a0 You throw out Israel, you throw out the character of God and you cut the spiritual legs, the spiritual foundation right under your feet.\u00a0 See folks, theology, you might look at it as just pie in the sky stuff but this stuff speaks to daily life because right now you\u2019re going through problems and you need to\u00a0 know, are these promises from God true or not?\u00a0 When I see the Jews in the Middle East regathered I say there it is, the faithfulness of God.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t make me want to boycott Israel; that\u2019s insanity.\u00a0 It reminds me that God means what He says, says what He means, keeps His promises and if He\u2019s going to keep His promises to wayward Israel He\u2019s going to keep His promises to who?\u00a0 To us.\u00a0 That\u2019s why this matters.\n\nNumber 6, there will be an anointing of the most holy place which is a reference to the temple.\u00a0 The temple will be functioning and in operation during the millennial kingdom.\u00a0 In fact, the Book of Ezekiel says the very shekinah glory of God that entered the Solomonic temple and later departed from the Solomonic temple will go right back into that temple.\u00a0 There are, in Jewish history, four temples.\u00a0 The first temple was built by Solomon and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.\u00a0 Daniel is living after that first temple was destroyed.\u00a0 Temple two would be rebuilt by the exiles returning from the seventy year captivity.\u00a0 That was the temple that was functioning during the time of Christ as it was beautified by Herod.\u00a0 And who destroyed that temple?\u00a0 The Romans, A.D. 70.\n\nBut there\u2019s a third temple coming; this is the temple of the antichrist.\u00a0 This is the temple that he will desecrate midway through the tribulation period.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be saying a lot more on that as the study unfolds.\u00a0 What\u2019s going to happen to that temple?\u00a0 I think it\u2019s going to be destroyed in the seventh bowl judgment which is a description, Revelation 16, of the greatest earthquake in human history.\u00a0 And yet that antichrist temple will be replaced by the glorious, beautiful, functioning of the millennial temple that will function for a thousand years.\n\nYou say well, you don\u2019t really get into the details like this do you?\u00a0 I mean, you don\u2019t get out a measuring stick and measure it, do you?\u00a0 Read Ezekiel 40-48 and tell me if there\u2019s not mind-numbing detail in those chapters.\u00a0 In fact, on your one year Bible reading program people get to Ezekiel 40-48 and hit the panic button because there\u2019s so much detail that is describing the millennial temple.\u00a0 That is what Daniel says will manifest itself when we hit year 400 and conclude the year 490.\u00a0 That\u2019s the temple he\u2019s talking about there in verse 24.\n\nNow I want you to see something and I\u2019m getting ready to conclude, believe it or not.\u00a0 When Daniel had this vision there was no functioning temple.\u00a0 Daniel had this vision in which\u00a0 year?\u00a0 538.\u00a0 Well, when was the Solomonic temple, temple one destroyed?\u00a0 586.\u00a0 When would that temple be rebuilt by the returnees?\u00a0 515.\u00a0 When Daniel had this prophecy there was no temple and yet what is Daniel seeing in this vision?\u00a0 He\u2019s seeing temple four, Daniel 9:24.\u00a0 He\u2019s seeing temple three, Daniel 9:27.\u00a0 He is seeing temple two, Daniel 9:26.\u00a0 Daniel prophetically is seeing in his vision three future temples although not one was in existence at this time.\n\nHow would we summarize fact number four?\u00a0 I would summarize it this way: the political and spiritual restoration of the nation will be fulfilled at the end of the 490 year clock.\u00a0 You put all of those facts together and that\u2019s what it\u2019s saying.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the Jews today cannot be a fulfillment of this prophecy because although they\u2019ve been regathered politically they are not yet birthed spiritually.\u00a0 I think what we are seeing today is largely stage setting for the fulfillment of this prophecy but it is NOT the whole thing.\n\nFact number one, the prophecy concerns who?\u00a0 Israel.\u00a0 Fact number two, the prophecy consists of how many years?\u00a0 490 years.\u00a0 Fact number three, each year the prophecy consists of how many days?\u00a0 360.\u00a0 Face number four, what is going to happen at the conclusion of this 490 year time clock would be the political and spiritual rebirth of the nation of Israel.\n\nSpeaking of time clocks mine just elapsed so we will continue this study next week.\u00a0\u00a0 But you know, there\u2019s another temple we haven\u2019t even talked about.\u00a0 The apostle Paul says your body is the what?\u00a0 The temple of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 How does that happen?\u00a0 A person trusts in Christ, the Holy Spirit enters a person at the point of faith, and their body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t that be great if on a day\u00a0 like today when we\u2019re talking about past temples and future temples that you yourself became the temple of God.\n\nHow does that happen?\u00a0 That\u2019s what we call the gospel, which means good news; it\u2019s good news because Jesus did everything in our behalf in terms of His sacrifice and His resurrection from the dead. We trust, not in ourselves but what he did in our place.\u00a0 If a person will simply place childlike faith in the completed transaction of Christ then their body at that point becomes the temple of the Spirit of God; they become alive spiritually.\u00a0 The Shekinah glory of God enters you just as real as the Shekinah glory of God entering the Solomonic temple, just as real as the Shekinah glory of God entering the millennial temple.\n\nSo if the Spirit is placing you under conviction our exhortation to you here at Sugar Land Bible Church is to believe the gospel.\u00a0 As Harry Ironside so well said\u00a0 years ago, the gospel is not good advice to be obeyed, it is good news to be believed.\u00a0 That is the requirement that God makes for salvation.\u00a0 You\u2019re not following a self-help course, you\u2019re believing and trusting in what He has done and if it\u2019s something you need more information I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\n\nAnd then for the rest of us that have been regenerated by the Spirit of God, if the Holy Spirit is really living inside of me maybe that should change the way I live.\u00a0 What do you think about that?\u00a0 Maybe I shouldn\u2019t be participating in impurity, gossip, all sorts of other impurities, slander, unresolved bitterness, because when you participate in those things as a Christian you involve God in it because the Spirit of God is in you for how long?\u00a0 Forever!\u00a0 And that\u2019s what a teaching like this does; it reminds us of our need to be spiritually born and if we have been spiritually born it reminds of our need to live according to the new identity which we have in Christ Jesus. Behave holy because holy because God Himself is holy.\u00a0 Shall we pray.\n\nFather, we\u2019re excited about this prophecy and the things it\u2019s going to reveal to us as we continue to work our way through it.\u00a0 We sympathize with people that are going through great difficulty now in the Houston area and we ask that we could be a blessing to them as a church.\u00a0 We ask that they would walk with\u00a0 You through this great difficulty.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give You all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026 Amen.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t