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Series Code: PU
Program Code: PU000011S
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00:08 will the Anti-Christ appear and make his final move? How can I
00:13 be ready for the final events of earth's history? You'll be 00:16 amazed and encouraged by what the Bible reveals. Join us 00:20 as Pastor 00:21 Brian McMahon leads out in Prophecy Unsealed. 00:31 Welcome again friends to Prophecy Unsealed. We are 00:35 delighted that you are here today to be blessed through our 00:38 study: The Longest and Most Amazing Time Prophecy in the 00:42 Bible. Not only going to put our confidence again in the 00:45 scriptures but it is going to, I pray, help us to get ready for 00:49 Jesus soon coming. The prophecy we're going to study tonight 00:53 revolves around what the Bible calls the sanctuary and the 00:56 cleansing of the sanctuary. Many people have not had an 00:59 opportunity to understand the sanctuary so there's been a 01:01 little time as we begin tonight. Revelation chapter 22 verse 12 01:05 It says: And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with 01:09 me to give every man according as his work shall be. So when 01:14 Jesus comes it says rewards are going to be handed out, so we 01:17 know one thing for sure friends. We know that there's going to 01:20 be some kind of judgment have taken place in heaven before 01:24 Jesus returns to know who gets what rewards. In Acts chapter 17 01:28 and verse 31 it reads: Because he has appointed a day in which 01:32 he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom 01:35 he hath ordained. So the Bible is clear that even though we 01:39 can't pinpoint the time of the second coming we can understand 01:42 that God is going to place this world into judgment before he 01:47 comes. Revelation has a way of referring to this. It says in 01:50 Revelation 14 and verse 7: Saying with a loud voice, Fear 01:54 God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come 01:58 In the Greek it more actually reads, has come, it's arrived, 02:02 it's here. And so we know that some kind of judgment will come 02:06 to this world before Jesus returns. In the book of Hebrews, 02:10 a fantastic book, all about Jesus our high priest and his 02:15 ministry there we read in chapter 8 and verse 1 these 02:18 words: Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: 02:21 we have such a high priest, who is set on the right hand of the 02:25 throne of the Majesty in the heavens; A minister of the 02:28 sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord 02:32 pitched, and not man. So it says Jesus is a minister of the what? 02:35 The sanctuary, and notice it says of the true one. When could 02:40 it be said we're living in the final end of time. In God's 02:45 great prophetic time clock there was a time when the clock struck 02:48 that hour that Revelation could then preach that the hour of his 02:52 judgment is come. So now we go to the book of Daniel together. 02:56 And in Daniel, he's receiving a vision and Daniel is shown 03:01 troubling scenes. He's seeing a sweeping panorama before him. 03:03 He's seeing events, news before it breaks. And it's so troubling 03:09 to him he wishes he could just reach out and shut it off, you 03:14 know because he's seen some very ...he's seeing persecution take 03:17 place. But finally the question is asked, how long are these 03:24 things going to go on? In other words, how long is evil going 03:26 rule before it's finally brought under control? And then there is 03:30 this amazing answer come back in verse 14: And he said unto me, 03:34 Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the 03:38 sanctuary be cleansed. Now that is not unfamiliar language to us 03:46 and now this is a prophecy of the sanctuary being cleansed 03:49 again but this is not talking about the earthly one now. This 03:53 is talking about the heavenly one. And it says: It is two 03:57 thousand three hundred days. And in Bible prophecy one 04:02 prophetic day equals one literal what? Year. That's right. So the 04:05 cleansing of the sanctuary represents the final judgment 04:10 before Jesus returns. We apply this great principle of 04:15 prophetic interpretation which many people miss out on and we 04:17 realize this is not talking about 2300 days which is just 04:20 over six years. It's talking about a long time, 2300 years. 04:25 Okay. So let's go to verse 17 now of Daniel 8. It says: So he 04:30 came near where I stood: and when he came, I was afraid, and 04:33 fell upon my face: But he said unto me, Understand, O son of 04:35 man: for a the time of the end shall be the vision. So the 04:39 vision is pertaining not just to Daniel's day but way down till 04:43 the time of the end. Now as he was speaking with me, I was in 04:47 a deep sleep on my face toward the ground. but he touched me, 04:51 and set me upright. And he said, Behold, I will make thee know 04:53 what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time 04:57 appointed the end shall be. So the angels confirming it to 05:01 Daniel, there's a specific appointed time when the end will 05:05 finally be. The vision of the 2300 days will bring us to that 05:09 appointed time. So it's going to be a long stretch. Verse 26: 05:13 And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told 05:15 is true: wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for 05:18 many days. In other words, not 2300 days but 2300 years. Have 05:24 you ever seen something on TV that was just so terrible you 05:28 couldn't watch it anymore. Just oh! I can't even look at that. 05:31 Well Daniel was seeing all these things and they so overwhelmed 05:34 him. He couldn't just turn it off but his body just shut off. 05:38 He fainted, and when he fainted the angel Gabriel left him. And 05:44 after a while when he was looking back on these things and 05:46 contemplating it he couldn't understand all that was shown 05:50 him. And he's wondering, Lord what does it mean? How long are 05:54 these things going to go on for? How's it all going to fit 05:58 together. And then when Daniel fainted, the angel had left. The 06:06 angel had explained a lot. I'm not going to go through it all 06:09 in Daniel 8 but he was shown nations or kingdoms like 06:14 Medo-Persia and Greece and what followed Greece. He saw a lot. 06:17 But there was still something he wondered about. In chapter 9 06:23 time has passed. And Daniel is contemplating these things. 06:26 There's about 13 years that transpire between the end of 06:29 chapter 8 and chapter 9. Daniel is concerned. He starts to pray. 06:33 He's asking God for understanding about what had 06:36 been shown to him previously. So he's researching and he sees 06:41 a prophecy of one of his contemporaries, the prophet 06:44 Jeremiah, and this is what Jeremiah had said: It says, 06:48 Jeremiah 29:10: For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy 06:51 years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my 06:55 good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. So 06:59 Jeremiah had said that after 70 years God would come and rescue 07:04 Israel out of captivity. Now Daniel's getting down to the end 07:07 of those 70 years. It still hasn't happened yet. And Daniel 07:11 is concerned. Is God extending the time. Is he going to you 07:15 know come after 70 years? What's going on here? So let's pick it 07:18 up here in Daniel 9 and verse 2: In the first year of his reign I 07:21 Daniel understood by books... we would call them scrolls...the 07:24 number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to 07:26 Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years 07:29 in the desolations of Jerusalem. You see Daniel, he had to study 07:35 too. He didn't just get everything handed to him, right? 07:37 Even the prophet had to do some study. And that's encouraging 07:42 for you and for me. Keep reading here. Verse 3: And I 07:45 set my face to the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplication, 07:48 with fasting, and sackcloth and ashes: And I prayed unto the 07:51 Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, 07:54 the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy 07:56 to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments. 08:00 Remember earlier in our... previously in our prophecy 08:04 seminar I said you'll see these two things brought together over 08:07 and over and over in the Bible, love and obedience. God is in a 08:12 covenant with those that love him enough to obey him. That is 08:16 essentially the new covenant relationship. We love God enough 08:20 to allow him to write his entire law on our hearts and our minds. 08:24 We have sinned, Daniel said, and committed iniquity, and have 08:27 done wickedly, and have rebelled even by departing from they 08:30 precepts and from thy judgments. Then verse 10: Neither have we 08:34 obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws, 08:37 which he set before us by his servants the prophets. Yea, all 08:40 Israel have transgressed they law, even by departing, that 08:44 they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured 08:47 upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the 08:50 servant of God, because we have sinned against him. So Daniel is 08:53 saying Moses promised blessings if they would obey and curses 08:57 if they would disobey. Now they've disobeyed and he's 09:01 saying the many curses that Moses wrote about are coming 09:05 true, they're coming upon us just as he said they would. 09:09 Verse 12:...He...confirmed his words, which he spake against 09:11 us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a 09:14 a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done 09:17 as has been done upon Jerusalem. Verse 17: Now therefore, O, our 09:22 God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, 09:26 and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, 09:30 for the Lord's sake. At this time the sanctuary lay desolate 09:33 from Babylon's destruction. And while I was speaking, and 09:35 praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, 09:37 and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the 09:40 holy mountain of my God; Yea while I was speaking in prayer, 09:44 even the man Gabriel, whom I had 09:46 seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly 09:49 swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. 09:52 Now when did Daniel see Gabriel? It says man Gabriel but it was 09:57 the angel Gabriel. When did he see him in the vision in the 10:00 beginning? He didn't see him in Daniel chapter 2 where it talks 10:03 about Nebuchadnezzar's dream. And Daniel did not see Gabriel 10:07 in chapter 7 when Daniel had a dream. He saw him in Chapter 8, 10:11 and that is so important to connect in your mind and in your 10:14 study, chapter 8 and chapter 9. Keep in mind there were no 10:17 chapter breaks when this was originally written and chapter 8 10:20 just flows right into the events of chapter nine there. But if 10:24 you don't get that connection you'll really misunderstand the 10:26 prophecy that we're looking at tonight. So verse 22: And he 10:31 he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am 10:33 now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. 10:35 What has Daniel been praying about? He's been praying about 10:39 the condition of Israel and now that angel comes back and he 10:43 says Daniel I'm going to give you some understanding. The 10:46 angel has come back to finish the job, right? They don't leave 10:49 things half done. So Daniel fainted. He didn't get all the 10:52 information God wanted him to have and after a period of time 10:54 the angel comes back and in essence he says hey let's finish 10:58 that understanding that God wanted to give to you. 11:00 He got a lot right? 11:01 Gabriel had explained the ram and the goat and the little 11:06 horn but not the time prophecy. That's what was missing. Now 11:10 Gabriel comes back and he's going to explain to Daniel. 11:13 Verse 23: At the beginning of thy supplications the 11:16 commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee; for thou 11:18 art greatly beloved: therefore 11:19 understand the matter, and consider the vision. What 11:24 vision? The vision of the two thousand three hundred days or 11:27 years that Daniel got in verse 14 of chapter 8. He fainted. He 11:31 didn't get all the information. And now when the angel comes 11:34 back look what he starts with. He says consider it and then in 11:39 verse 24 he says this: Seventy weeks are determined upon thy 11:44 people and upon thy holy city, to make transgression, and to 11:47 make an end of sins. The first thing out of Gabriel's mouth 11:50 is the time element, right? Daniel didn't understand the 11:55 timing of it. It goes on: And to make reconciliation for 11:58 iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and 12:00 to seal up the vision and prophecy. Obviously all of these 12:03 things were not going to happen in 70 literal weeks which would 12:07 be just over one year, right? No, this is 70 symbolic weeks. 12:11 It says 70 weeks are determined upon Israel. The word determined 12:16 in the original Hebrew is like an amputation. It means cut off. 12:20 Now time can only be cut off time. So when it says 70 weeks 12:24 are cut off for Israel cutting off 70 weeks from the overall 12:31 time period of 2300 days or years, right. And he's saying 12:36 that is for Daniel's people which would be the Jews. So 12:39 again because we've got a time element, 70 weeks, you've got to 12:43 apply the same key of interpretation to be consistent. 12:46 You've got to apply the day for a year principle and now we have 12:51 70 symbolic weeks, 70 weeks, 7 days to a week. That's 490 days 12:55 total. Apply the day for a year principle we're getting 490 13:00 years, right. So let's go look at it up here on our graph. 13:03 We've got the overall 2300 years that was spoken in Daniel 8:14. 13:08 The angel says to Daniel we're cutting off 70 weeks or 490 13:15 years for the Jews, right? And that leaves us 1810 years. We'll 13:19 find out what happens at the end of that before we're through 13:22 tonight. So a paraphrase of that would be 70 weeks are cut off 13:26 from the 2300 days for your people, the Jews, and for 13:31 Jerusalem. So the angel says we're going to deal with the 13:33 first part, 70 weeks, so that's what we'll do also. We'll deal 13:37 with that 70 weeks first. Daniel was a captive Jew in Babylon. 13:41 And this is specifically reserved for the Jews of 13:46 Daniel's day. So here we find we've got God making 13:49 a covenant with the Hebrew people. 13:50 That covenant was originally designed to bless the 13:56 Jewish people so much that they would become an object lesson 13:59 to the nations around them. The nations would come and say who 14:02 is so great a God as your God. We want be part of that, right? 14:07 Well of course they selfishly hoarded the blessings to 14:09 themselves and God dispersed because of this disobedience the 14:13 10 northern tribes and that left the two southern tribes, Judah 14:17 and Benjamin. Benjamin was much smaller and basically became 14:20 absorbed into Judah and that's why basically the Jews of 14:24 Daniel's day were just called... they were called the Jews after 14:27 the tribe of Judah. So what had God done? He promised blessings 14:33 if they would obey, curses if they disobeyed. They probably 14:34 disobeyed more than they were obedient century after century 14:38 after century and finally God says, I'm going to send you into 14:40 captivity and he did for 70 years, right? And now after 70 14:45 years he says to them, I'm still going to give you 70 weeks or 14:50 490 more years of probation. He gave them a certain amount of 14:56 symbolic time that represents a certain amount of literal time, 15:00 490 years. Isn't God merciful friends? But generation after 15:04 generation after generation, right? When Peter came to Jesus 15:09 and said Lord, how often should I forgive my brother, up to 15:13 seven times. He thought that was doing good didn't he? And then 15:16 Jesus said back to him what. Up to 70 times 7. Now where did 15:20 Jesus get that from? Did he just pull it out of nowhere? What God 15:23 was saying is we ought to be abundant in forgiveness to each 15:25 other just as God is abundant in forgiveness toward Israel, right 15:30 He gave them 70 times 7 more years of probation. So we see 15:36 now that God's agreement with Israel was conditional. And it 15:42 has always been conditional. When God has a relationship with 15:47 people the relationship is conditional that they obey, then 15:52 he can give them is blessing. Now Jesus' second coming is not 15:55 conditional. He's coming whether we are ready for him or not. 15:58 However, the covenant with Adam and Eve, that was conditional 16:03 right? If they obeyed him they could stay in the garden. If 16:06 they disobeyed they had to leave the garden. And they disobeyed 16:08 and had to leave the garden. So, now we see that he made a 16:13 covenant with Israel. So what he's saying to them is that they 16:16 must obey too. Now there are many theologians that will tell 16:20 you that Israel will,...Israel after the flesh will always be 16:23 God's people. That they will never not be God's people. They 16:28 don't read their Bibles very carefully, friends. Let's take a 16:30 look at Jeremiah chapter 18, verse 7: And at what instant I 16:35 shall speak concerning a nation, ...Israel was a nation...and 16:37 concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to 16:39 destroy it; if that nation, against whom I have pronounced, 16:42 turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I 16:46 thought to do unto them. Okay. Now let's look at it the other 16:49 way: And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and 16:52 concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;...in other 16:55 words to bless it...If it do evil in my sight, that it obey 16:58 not my voice then I will repent 17:00 of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit 17:01 them... Now God says when I see to a nation, give them a promise 17:04 and they turn from me am I obligated to fulfill my promise? 17:08 No. He says that promise is conditional upon obedience. 17:11 People will say oh this goes for everyone but Israel. But 17:13 look at what comes next. It says: Now therefore go to speak to the 17:17 men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of...where... 17:21 Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord; Behold I frame evil 17:25 against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every 17:28 one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good. 17:31 So God is speaking directly to Israel when he says this, that 17:34 it was conditional upon their obedience. And Moses understood 17:39 that from the very beginning. And he wrote it in his writings 17:42 there in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. 17:43 It's amazing how many people just 17:45 to seem that they just overlook it. They just refuse 17:49 to understand it. So they did fall into sin and finally God 17:53 has given them an ultimatum. He said I'm going to give you 490 17:56 years to fulfill your covenant agreement with me. Amazing, 18:00 amazing God. We'll go back here. We see that the first part 18:05 of the 2300 years the 490 is spent for Israel, right, and 18:12 we're going to see when this actually ends. There has to be a 18:14 time when all of this begins. Because when you got a time 18:18 prophecy which is what we're dealing with tonight, you have 18:20 to know when it begins. Because if you know when it begins, then 18:23 you know when it ends. So, where do we get our beginning 18:26 point from? You have to have something that tells us that 18:30 it's started. That something is in the very next verse 25: Here 18:33 it says: Know therefore and understand...The word know that 18:36 means, perceive and recognize. Understand means to consider or 18:40 comprehend, so it's saying know and comprehend...that from the 18:44 going forth of the commandment to restore and to build...what 18:46 city? Jerusalem, until Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, 18:50 and threescore...that's 60...and two weeks. So how much time from 18:55 the command that goes forth to restore and build Jerusalem to 18:58 the Messiah? 69 weeks. So when did that occur? We've got to 19:03 leave Daniel for just a little bit here and we've got to go to 19:06 another book of the Bible to get the answer to that. We're 19:09 going to go to the book of Ezra. Now Ezra is placed before the 19:14 book of Daniel in the Bible but the events of Ezra happened 19:18 after the book of Daniel. So we go to the book of Ezra here 19:22 chapter 6 and verse 14 and here's what it says: And the 19:25 elders of the Jews built...and that's what it's talking about 19:28 there in the prophecy...and they prospered through the 19:31 prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of 19:33 Iddo. And they built, and finished it, according to the 19:35 commandment of the God of Israel and according to the commandment 19:38 of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia. So 19:43 you've got a prophecy about building. And it says there are 19:47 three kings that gave decrees: One called Cyrus, one called 19:50 Darius and one called Artaxerxes. Now Cyrus gave his 19:54 decree in 537 B.C. and it was a fairly weak decree. It 20:00 concerned mostly about the rebuilding of the temple. Darius 20:04 came along. He gave his decree in 520 B.C. again concerning 20:08 mostly the rebuilding of the temple. But when Artaxerxes came 20:12 along he especially favored God's people the Jews and he 20:16 gave the most complete decree, the one that the Bible 20:20 concentrates on in Ezra chapter 7 and he talks about the 20:22 rebuilding of the city. In fact, he favored them so much he even 20:26 financed the operation and here we see it in Ezra chapter 7 20:31 verse 13. It says: I make a decree,...here's Artaxerxes' 20:36 decree...that all they of the people of Israel, and of his 20:38 priests and Levites, in my realm which are minded of their own 20:40 free will to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee. So he let everybody 20:45 go who wanted to go back to Jerusalem and he basically 20:47 allowed them to establish a certain amount of autonomy in 20:51 their government and they began to rebuild the city and that 20:54 happened in 457 B.C. Now if you have a Thompson chain reference 20:58 Bible it'll even say in the margin there 457 B.C. I have a 21:02 World Bible Publisher and it says in my Bible right there in 21:06 the column 457 B.C. Now why did they know that date? It's one of 21:09 the most well established dates in archeological history. They 21:13 have the calendar. They have the cuneiform tablets that record 21:16 these things. They know when Artaxerxes decree went forth. 21:19 457 B.C. You can look it up for yourself. So there it is. It 21:26 went forth in 457 so what we're going to do, we go back to our 21:29 graph here. We know a beginning date. You know unless you start 21:32 right nothing else is going to work. But when you get the right 21:36 date everything unfolds very naturally with no forced fitting 21:39 or guess work. Have you ever seen people try to give 21:41 prophecy and it seems like they're twisting a date or force 21:45 fitting. You got a jig saw puzzle and you're trying to get 21:47 apiece to fit and you unnn to make it fit there but no it 21:51 doesn't. In the same way they try to force prophecy in many 21:54 ways and it just doesn't go but when you get the right date 21:58 everything else just unfolds beautifully, no guessing 22:01 involved, no forcing involved. Let's go back to Daniel. 22:04 We'll do a little bit of arithmetic here. Don't worry if 22:06 you didn't do well in your math class. We'll do it for you okay? 22:09 So we start in 457. Artaxerxes decree goes out in the fall of 22:13 457. We to forward 490 years into the future and we should 22:19 see something significant happen at the end of those 490 years. 22:25 Or 70 weeks. That brings us down to the year 34 A.D. Moving out 22:31 there's no zero year right so 457, come down 490 years, or 70 22:36 weeks. We come to 34 A.D. According to the prophecy the 22:41 covenant that God make with the nation of Israel was to end in 22:46 that year. So what took place in that year? In that year, there 22:50 was a man, a holy man, named Stephen, a deacon in the early 22:53 church. And filled with the Holy Spirit, he began to preach to 22:57 the leadership of Israel. And he was going through their history 23:01 and he was convicting very much so showing them how God had 23:07 outlaid their history. And as he could see that they were 23:08 rejecting what he was saying, he gave an rebuke to them and you 23:12 know that old saying when they don't like the message they kill 23:15 the messenger. Right? Well that's exactly what they did 23:18 with Stephen. They didn't like what he was saying and so they 23:20 took him out and it says in verse 59 of Acts 7: And they 23:23 stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying Lord Jesus, 23:28 receive my spirit. So the Sanhedrin, the supreme Jewish 23:32 council of the day passed a decree that they rejected 23:36 Christianity and the signal event of their rejection of 23:38 Christianity was the stoning of Stephen, this devoted follower 23:43 of Christ, in the streets of Jerusalem. And who was the main 23:46 culprit behind that? He was a man whose name started with S 23:48 and that was what Saul and he later became converted and 23:52 became known as Paul, right. So Saul was behind this. It says 23:58 that Stephen became that first martyr and then when he was 24:02 stoned or martyred the Gospel then went out to the Gentile 24:05 people completing the 70 weeks of probation that Daniel had 24:10 talked about. Let's pick up the story here, Acts 8 verse 1. And 24:13 Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there 24:16 was a great persecution against the church which was at 24:18 Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad throughout 24:22 the regions of Judea and Samaria accent the apostles. So the 24:26 result of that was actually a good thing. They were huddled in 24:29 Jerusalem up to that time, but now because of persecution, they 24:31 went out to the far reaches of the world and they took the 24:34 gospel of Jesus with them. And then verse 3: As for Saul, he 24:38 made havoc of the church, entering into every house and 24:41 haling. That means to compel... men and women committed them 24:46 to prison. So now Saul here is persecuting. But he has this 24:52 great conversion and now he is sent to the gentile world. So as 24:55 he goes out to the Gentile world and he's preaching the gospel of 24:58 Jesus look what takes place here in Acts 13 verse 45. It says: 25:04 but when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled 25:06 with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken 25:10 by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. So they're 25:12 countering everything that Paul's trying to do. Then Paul 25:15 and Barnabas waxed bold, and said,...Look at those next three 25:18 words...It was necessary that the word of God should first 25:22 have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and 25:24 judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to 25:28 the who?...the Gentiles. right? So why would Paul say to the 25:33 Jews it was necessary that the gospel first is preached to you. 25:38 Because their probationary time had not yet fully closed. They 25:41 still were within the confines of the 70 weeks. So because they 25:45 were originally God's people they should have been the first 25:47 to accept Jesus as the Messiah. They had the scriptures. They 25:50 had the sanctuary. They had the knowledge if they would only 25:54 look into it. They should have known. They should have known. 25:57 What warning did Jesus give His people? What did he say in 26:03 prophetic tone to them what was going to happen if they 26:07 continued to rebel? Matthew 21 verse 43. It says: Therefore say 26:10 I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and 26:14 given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. The Jews 26:18 were a nation and now it was being replaced by another nation 26:22 right? So he's telling them, you were supposed to bear the fruits 26:25 of the covenant agreement that God had with you. But because we 26:28 received nothing from you God is going to take that covenant away 26:32 and give it to another nation. So Jesus told this in the 26:37 parable of the vineyard. So he talked about another nation. Who 26:40 was that nation? We actually have an answer to that right 26:43 here in 1 Peter chapter 2 and in verse 9. I love it how the Bible 26:49 explains the Bible. Here it is. Peter says regarding the 26:52 Christian he says, but you are a chosen generation, a royal 26:55 priesthood, an holy what friends? Nation, a peculiar 27:01 people, verse 10, which in time past were not a people, but are 27:05 now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have 27:08 obtained mercy. Who are the people of God now? Not the Jews 27:13 after the flesh or not Israel after the flesh but now here's 27:15 another type of Israel. Here is another nation. Here is the 27:19 people who were once a scattered people all over the world 27:22 disconnected but now they come together connected. Why? because 27:26 they share something. They share a faith in Jesus as the Messiah. 27:31 In Romans 11 Paul speaks very clearly about the branches of 27:37 the tree being cut off because of unbelief speaking about the 27:40 Jews as a corporate body, but then he says the wild branch 27:43 speaking of the Gentiles, they were grafted in because they 27:46 believed. And then he said to Israel, You too can be grafted 27:48 back in again if you believe, right? So in 34 A.D. the door 27:56 of probation with Israel having a covenant agreement with God 27:59 was swung shut. But does that mean that they can never be 28:04 saved? No it doesn't mean that. How can the Jews today, Jews 28:08 after the flesh be saved. They're saved the same way 28:11 everyone else is saved. By grace through faith in Jesus the 28:15 Messiah, amen? Huh? They're saved the same way. So if you've 28:19 heard of Messianic Jews or Jews for Jesus. These are Jews after 28:23 the flesh that believe and therefore they're accepted into 28:26 the covenant. So probation ceased for Israel in 34 A.D. as 28:31 the covenant people of God but now he has another covenant 28:34 people of God as he says here are the Gentiles who were 28:37 brought together by faith. Okay, let's keep going. Romans chapter 28:41 2 verse 28 and 29. Paul says: For he is not a Jew, which is 28:45 one outwardly;...Outwardly meaning of the flesh...But he 28:48 is a Jew which is one inwardly how? Inwardly. Inwardly meaning 28:51 of the heart and mind. Inwardly means when they had a conversion 28:55 experience, he says that person who goes through the conversion 28:58 experience. He says that person is a true Jew. Let's see it 29:01 again, Romans 10 verse 12: For there is no difference, Paul 29:04 says, between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over 29:07 all is rich upon all that call upon him. God is not a respecter 29:12 of persons. Anyone who comes to him by faith, he accepts and he 29:17 will cleanse and he will treat as a son and daughter of God. 29:19 Now if those weren't clear enough these ones of Galatians 29:24 just fantastic for clarity. Galatians 3:29. Paul says here: 29:28 And if you be Christ's, that means if you are a converted 29:32 Christian, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the 29:37 promise. The Jews and Jesus were having a discussion one day 29:40 and the Jews said to Jesus, We are Abraham's children. You know 29:46 what Jesus said? Your father's the devil. Boy that's talking 29:50 straight, wow! He said your father's the devil. He said if 29:53 you were Abraham's children you'd do the works of Abraham. 29:55 So who are the true children of Abraham according to the Bible? 29:59 It says it's one who are Abraham's seed and they inherit 30:05 the promises, right? It goes on. They are the ones that are 30:09 converted. So we become Jews or spiritual Israel when we are 30:12 converted. Here it is: Galatians 3 verse 6: Even as Abraham 30:16 believed God,...that means he had faith in God...and it was 30:19 counted unto him for righteousness, righteousness by 30:21 faith. Then verse 7: Know ye therefore, don't miss this folks 30:25 that they which are of faith, the same are...the what?... 30:30 children of Abraham. You can't get more plain than that friends 30:32 Those that believe in Jesus, they exercise faith towards the 30:35 true Messiah, it says those are the true children of Abraham. 30:39 So the true children of God are no longer Israel after the flesh 30:43 after the blood line, but those who have the faith line of 30:47 Abraham. Abraham believed and those who also believe are the 30:50 spiritual children. Galatians 6:15, just a couple more on this 30:53 and then we'll move on. I spend a little more time on this 30:56 because so often people don't see this. So Galatians 6:15: For 31:00 in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything, 31:03 nor uncircumcision, but a new creature...that means being born 31:07 again, right. And it says: And as many as walk according to 31:11 this rule,...what rule? Being converted into Christ...peace be 31:15 on them, and mercy, and upon the ...what friends?...Israel of God. 31:23 So He called the converted Christians Israel. They're the 31:26 Israel of God. You can't get any plainer than that friends. When 31:29 Jesus said salvation is of the Jews, right? Christians today 31:32 don't think they're outside of salvation because they are 31:36 spiritual Jews. A spiritual Israel, a new kind of Israel 31:38 after the new covenant. Romans 8:14: For as many as are led by 31:42 the Spirit of God, they are the what? Sons of God. All right. 31:46 So if you belong to Christ you're part of Abraham's seed 31:49 and you inherit all the privileges, and responsibilities 31:52 by the way that were given to the Jews. So what do we see 31:55 here? Seventy weeks are coming to an end. Stephen is the first 31:59 Christian martyr. The Jewish leaders reject the gospel and 32:01 then the gospel goes to the Gentiles. Back to Daniel 9:25. 32:04 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the 32:07 commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah 32:10 the Prince. How much time from the rebuild from the command 32:13 to restore Jerusalem too the Messiah? 32:15 It goes on: Seven weeks and threescore... 32:18 that's 60...and two weeks. Okay that's 69 weeks. So you got 69 32:24 seven days to a week, 69 times 7 is what? Just in case you 32:31 weren't sure there it is. Can we help you out? 483. So it says 32:36 483 days, we apply the same principle, a day for a year, 32:40 from the decree that goes forth to rebuild Jerusalem all the way 32:44 down to the Messiah, the Prince. We want to apply that same 32:47 principle, be consistent, one prophetic day equals one literal 32:49 year. So when the decree goes forth the time clock starts and 32:56 then come down to the Messiah. In the Hebrew the word Messiah 33:02 means the Anointed. Interestingly enough in the New 33:06 Testament Greek the word Christ also means the Anointed. So you 33:11 got Messiah in the Old Testament and Christ in the New Testament. 33:13 They both mean the anointed so, we're supposed to come down this 33:16 timeline 69 weeks or 483 years and the brings us down to the 33:21 year A.D. 27. Now, keep in mind if we didn't start right, 457, 33:26 then we wouldn't end right. Now let's take a look at what happens 33:30 here. What took place in 27 A.D? Keep in mind. Let's go to Acts 33:39 10 and verse 37. Here it says: That word, I say, you know, 33:42 which was published throughout all Judea, and began from 33:46 Galilee, after the baptism which John preached how God anointed 33:48 Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went 33:51 about doing good. So the Bible now ties in the Baptism of Jesus 33:56 with the anointing of Jesus. They're one and the same. He was 33:59 anointed at his baptism. We saw that just in our previous 34:02 session together didn't we. So again the word Messiah means the 34:05 anointed. When was Jesus anointed? Let's go to Luke 34:07 chapter 3, verse 1 starts off this way: Now in the fifteenth 34:12 year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being 34:15 governor of Judea, and then it goes on from there. Have you 34:17 ever read words like this and you say to yourself, huhhh, in 34:22 the 15th year in the reign of... Why is that in the Bible? You 34:25 know. You know is that just superfluous stuff. You know that 34:28 this is the only time in the ministry of Jesus that it is 34:34 directly tied into an event in history? So it's very, very 34:36 significant. This gives us the time of Jesus baptism. What 34:43 follows right after this we know what year it was because we know 34:47 what year the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar was. 34:50 And historians will tell you that was 27 A.D. Now that's very 34:56 important for the prophecy that we're studying tonight. So we go 34:58 here keeping in mind that Jesus had to fulfill this prophecy 35:02 with exactness folks. There were many babies born in Bethlehem 35:06 other than Jesus. There were many people crucified in history 35:10 other than Jesus. But Jesus had to fulfill the specifications of 35:14 the Messianic prophecies exactly or he wouldn't have been the 35:18 anointed one. So there's no doubt about it here. Let's go to 35:22 Luke 3 verse 21, and it says: Now when all the people were 35:24 baptized, it came to pass that Jesus was also being baptized, and 35:28 praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in 35:30 a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from 35:33 heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well 35:36 pleased. So here, friends, is the anointing of the anointed one. 35:39 And it happened in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar 35:42 it happened in 27 A.D., the voice of heaven spoke. God the Father 35:50 was there. The Son, the second person of the Godhead, was there 35:56 The Holy Spirit in the form of a dove was there. This is evidence 36:00 of the Godhead in that all three came down to this very special 36:06 moment friends. What the Father was saying when he said, This is 36:08 my beloved Son, he's saying in essence of all human beings 36:12 that shall ever roam on the face of the earth, out of the 36:17 millions and even billions of humanity, he's saying this man 36:20 here in the Jordan with John the Baptist at this moment of time 36:24 this one solitary man, Divine as he is, he will redeem humanity 36:33 back to heaven. This is one of the most important moments 36:36 in all of human history, friends. 36:38 The anointing of the Messiah. The 36:42 reality of Jesus' place in history, you cannot deny it. You 36:46 know that the greatest art work, the greatest music, the greatest 36:51 writings, the greatest sacrifices have all pointed to Jesus as the 36:56 Messiah, Amen. The Holy Spirit signifying this, and it came in 37:01 27 A.D. Now Mark writes his gospel. He picks up on this in 37:05 the very first chapter, verse 14 It says: Now, after this, John was 37:08 put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of 37:11 the kingdom of God. And saying, ...what is Jesus saying...The 37:15 time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: 37:19 repent ye, and believe the gospel. What time is fulfilled? 37:21 Not this time. Not time on a wristwatch. Not that kind of... 37:27 Prophetic time. What Jesus is saying friends is 69 weeks of the 37:32 70 weeks have been fulfilled, right? That's over. The 37:36 anointing of the Messiah has come. Come out and receive the 37:41 gospel message. So what Jesus is saying is 69 weeks is over. 37:46 There's only one prophetic week left. Jesus was baptized right 37:51 on time friends. Have you ever wondered why Jesus waited till 37:56 about 30 years of age to be baptized and start his ministry? 37:59 Well, let me tell you something friends. Jesus did not give up 38:02 carpentry on a whim. Amen. He didn't just get up one day and 38:05 say you know what my body is starting to hurt. I think this 38:08 is getting too hard for me. Carpentry was pretty hard back 38:11 then. They didn't go down to a lumber yard. They had to cut 38:13 down the tree, right? It was hard work. But Jesus didn't 38:17 leave because it was hard work. He put down the hammer, and he 38:20 put down the saw, and he put down the wood for a reason. He knew 38:24 prophecy, and he knew the right time to go on down to the Jordan 38:28 River and be baptized and be anointed as ruler. You know a 38:32 lot of young ministers today, they start at 21, 22 years of 38:35 age. Jesus started around 30. That was the age for the 38:37 age for the rabbinic priesthood, right? But also because of the 38:41 prophecy. Jesus understood time. He understood he had to be 38:47 anointed right on time. But Jesus also understood that he 38:50 had to die right on time. How did the Messiah, or we should 38:57 say it another way: How did Daniel predict the Messiah's 39:01 death. All right. Let's go back to verse 26 of Daniel 9. Here's 39:05 where we were earlier, but it says: And after threescore and 39:07 two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself. Who 39:10 did he die for friends? Not for his sins but for our sins. And 39:14 the people of the prince that shall come, shall destroy the 39:16 city and the sanctuary. Notice it says cut, he'll be cut off 39:20 Prophecy in Isaiah uses the same terminology. It says here he was 39:26 cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of 39:29 my people was he stricken. So, the term cut off is reserved for 39:34 the death of the Messiah. Verse 27, He shall confirm the 39:37 covenant with many for one week: Here is the final week of the 39:42 70 weeks folks. In the midst of the week he shall cause the 39:45 sacrifice and the oblation to cease. So, it says in the midst 39:49 of the week he will cause sacrifice and oblation to be 39:54 over. The midst is the middle. So we have seven more weeks from 39:58 the time time of his anointing to the end of the covenant 40:00 agreement with Israel and the midst of seven would be three 40:03 and a half. So three and a half years into Jesus' ministry it 40:06 says he'll be cut off. You take Artaxerxes decree going out in 40:11 the fall of 457. That means Jesus was anointed or baptized 40:15 in the fall of 27 A.D., Take three and a half years from the 40:19 fall of 27 A.D., you come to the spring of 31. Some people say 40:24 Jesus died in A.D. 30, and some people say Jesus died in A.D. 32 40:28 Why do we know it was A.D. 31? Because if you come three and a 40:32 half years into the ministry from the fall of 27, you've got 40:36 the spring of 28, spring of 29 spring of 30, the spring of 31. 40:40 Bible prophecy never misses friends. God is always on time. 40:45 He is always accurate. So you've got his anointing in 27. Three 40:50 and a half years into his ministry, it says he's going to 40:54 be cut off, that means his death on the cross. That was in 31 40:57 A.D. Three and a half years after that, the covenant with 41:02 Israel ended, and the gospel went to the Gentiles. So have you 41:05 ever noticed that over and over in Jesus' ministry they tried to 41:08 take him, they tried to capture him, they even tried to kill him 41:11 and Jesus would say my hour is not yet come, right. But then 41:14 when it did come it's very clear Romans 5 and verse 6 it says: 41:20 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ 41:24 died for the ungodly. God is not working by coincidence friends. 41:29 This didn't happen by happenstance. Jesus' death in 41:34 31 was exactly according to prophetic time. All right? So 41:39 now we established that, let's go back to our graph, three and 41:43 a half years in the middle he died. And what else is going to 41:45 happen at that time? When he died in Mark chapter 15 verse 38 41:49 it says the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top 41:51 to the bottom. Right. It says sacrifice and oblation were to 41:56 cease. So God was giving Israel a great big clue right on cue. 42:04 He took that veil, if we were to rip that veil it would probably 42:05 be from the bottom to the top. But this wasn't a thin veil. It 42:08 was a very, very thickly woven veil maybe up to even four 42:12 inches. And God took it and by his hand he ripped it from the 42:14 the top to the bottom exposing the Most Holy Place. Horrifying 42:19 for the Jews at the time I'm sure. But God was giving them 42:22 the great big clue that all of these things now were to come 42:25 to an end. Why? Because the true Lamb of God had just given 42:29 his life on Calvary. So did they take that clue? Sadly they sewed 42:34 up the veil and continued to offer sacrifices. So finally God 42:37 took the whole thing away in 70 A.D. Totally destroyed, not just 42:43 the temple, but the entire city. So, from the moment Jesus died 42:46 everyone gathered there should have understood that all of 42:50 these things had now come to an end, and a new era had been 42:56 established. Jesus' ministry was shifting from the earth to the 43:01 heaven. Okay? Jesus was who he said he was friends. You know if 43:05 were to meet an atheist, if you were to meet an agnostic or even 43:11 a Buddhist, or a Muslim, or especially a Jew, a person who's 43:15 practicing Judaism and your wondering how do I show them 43:18 that Jesus was the Messiah. How do I show people that he was the 43:23 Christ? This would be the prophecy to pick right here. 43:26 This would be the one to pick because you've got this 43:29 wonderful prophecy in the Old Testament which the Jews accept 43:33 that shows the exact time that the Messiah was to be anointed, 43:37 the exact time that the Messiah was to give its life 43:40 as a sacrifice, give his life. 43:42 The exact time that the gospel of the Messiah, 43:46 the good news of what he did was to go to the world. It exactly 43:51 fits friends. God didn't want us guessing about it did he? If 43:54 everyone could look into this with a sincere heart, they would 43:57 know that Jesus was who he said he was, Amen? No question about 44:01 it. But if we didn't start out right, 457, we would not end 44:05 correctly, but notice how every one of these events fits 44:07 perfectly with no forcing at all It follows down through time 44:10 it clearly understands that Jesus knew his role. Okay. 44:15 Believe it or not, folks, you know that it is this very prophecy 44:20 that we're looking at tonight that is not only misunderstood 44:24 but absolutely twisted out of its context. And people say that 44:31 the 70th week that fits so beautifully here between the 44:37 anointing of the Messiah and the gospel of Messiah going out to 44:40 the world, they've taken this last week and they're placing it 44:45 2000 years into the future and they're saying it applies to a 44:48 time of the antichrist rather than to Jesus. Now by the way, 44:51 it doesn't take a Bible scholar to understand that in this 44:57 prophecy if week 68 follows week 67 and week 69 perfectly 45:03 followed week 68, it would make sense, it would be reasonable to 45:05 assume that week 70 would follow 69, true right? You would think 45:09 we'd understand that. But they've lifted this 70th week 45:13 out of its proper context and they throw it 2000 years into 45:17 the future, and they say it belongs way down there. Now we 45:19 know that is simply not true friends. Why do we know? Number 45:23 One: There's no Biblical precedent to do that. There's 45:27 nothing in the Bible to say separate the 70th week off and 45:30 throw it 2000 years in the future. There's just nothing to 45:33 say that. Number two: We realize it said In the midst of the 70th 45:37 week the Messiah would give His life. Now if you say that the 45:42 70th week is no here yet that is a denial of the Messiah. It's 45:47 basically saying that Jesus is not the Messiah because it's 45:49 saying...because the prophecy says the Messiah will give his 45:52 life in the midst of the 70th week. So we don't want to go 45:56 there. Now the third thing is it never says that the 46:00 antichrist makes a covenant with anybody does that? 46:04 You hear preachers talk about it You see it in Left Behind books 46:07 and all those kind of things. Does the Bible ever say an 46:09 antichrist is going to come along and make a covenant for 46:10 seven years. No. But they read into it what they want to read 46:13 into it. It always says that God makes the covenant with humanity 46:17 Christ makes the covenant but if humanity falls into sin, which 46:21 we did God would send his Son into the world to die for the 46:24 sins of this world. And when Jesus died on the cross that 46:27 was the ratification of the covenant, amen! You can say 46:32 amen louder than that, friends. All right, come on now. Hit 46:36 those points. The prophecy was about bringing in everlasting 46:40 righteousness, and that was the Messiah's work to do that and 46:42 the devil knew friends that this prophecy would point to Jesus. 46:46 And so what he does is he takes a part of it, and he confuses 46:54 people to apply it to the second coming and lo and behold it's 46:57 just as effective as what he did in Jesus' day, because in Jesus' 47:00 day he took texts that talked about the second coming, and he 47:04 caused them to apply it to the first coming. Now he takes a 47:07 prophecy that deals with the first coming, and he causes them 47:09 to apply part of it to the second coming. Lo and behold, it 47:12 does the same thing, confuses people. So very cunning on the 47:16 devil's part. But I honestly don't know why it's so easy for 47:22 people to believe things that are not in the Bible, and so hard 47:25 for people to believe things that are in the Bible. But 47:27 nevertheless, we just all have to do more study. Here is the seven 47:31 year rapture theory. We brought this up in our previous session. 47:34 It's all about how there's going to be this secret rapture of the 47:37 church. We know that's not Biblical. It says there's going 47:40 be seven years of tribulation. And then there's going to be the 47:43 glorious coming followed by the millennium. Now again you can 47:45 carefully read your Bible, you can study Bible. It's logical, 47:50 it's clear. This is nowhere found in scripture. It is a made 47:53 up theory, this whole idea of seven years' tribulation. Will 47:56 there be tribulation. Yes there'll be tribulation to come. 47:59 Will there be seven years of tribulation? No. They get the 48:02 idea of seven years from the 70th week of Daniel put 2000 48:07 years into the future, and they say it applies to the antichrist 48:10 Now, to be fair, be fair in this, I'm going to show you where some 48:14 of the misunderstanding comes. Right. No problem showing both 48:17 sides of this. Let's take a look at verse 27. Notice the pronoun 48:23 he. The pronoun he is the key pronoun here: And he shall 48:28 confirm the covenant with many for one week, and in the midst 48:31 of the week he...there's the second usage of the pronoun... 48:34 shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for 48:37 the overspreading of abominations he shall make it 48:39 desolate,...there's a third usage of the pronoun he...even 48:43 until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon 48:45 the desolate. So what they do is they take this third pronoun, he 48:48 and they say now wait a minute this is talking about 48:51 abomination that makes desolate, the abomination of desolation, 48:55 they say that's not Jesus. That's not Jesus' work, and so 48:58 if that's not talking about Jesus, then they're saying the 49:01 first two pronouns can't be talking about Jesus. All right? 49:04 Because they're lumping them all together. The problem is in the 49:08 translation here, because in the original, the third pronoun is 49:12 not there. Unfortunately in the King James it supplies it here. 49:15 But let's go take a look if we can from a different Bible 49:17 version, one that's also very respected, the New American 49:19 Standard Bible, and it says here a very accurate translation of 49:26 this passage which Bible scholars say is one of the most 49:29 difficult passages in the Bible to actually translate. But it 49:32 says: And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one 49:35 week...no problem there...but in the middle of the week he... 49:37 again referring to Jesus...will put a stop to sacrifice and 49:39 grain offering. There's two uses of the pronoun. But now take a 49:44 look at this: And on the wing of abominations will come one 49:47 who makes desolate...the pronoun he is missing here because it's 49:51 not there in the original...Even until a complete destruction, 49:54 one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes 49:57 desolate. So it's saying that because of the abomination that 50:01 was committed by putting the Messiah to death there will be 50:03 desolation come upon it in the future, upon those people. So, 50:09 it eliminates the third usage of the pronoun, there's no problem, 50:12 the confusion is eliminated and we have no contradiction there 50:16 at all. But can you see that we had to start out with the right 50:20 date? Because if we didn't start out with the right date, 457 BC, 50:23 we wouldn't have the exact year of the anointing of the Messiah, 50:27 Luke 3 verse 1, the exact time of the death of the Messiah, and 50:33 we wouldn't have the exact time of the Gospel of Messiah going to 50:37 the world. You had to start out right. God himself confirmed the 50:42 validity of the start date three times in the 70 week prophecy 50:47 and why is that so important. 50:49 Because of what happens next. When you have 50:51 the right start date of the 2300 years, because they both start 50:55 at the same time. When the 70 weeks started the 2300 years 51:00 started. Now we know because we've started right we're going 51:03 to end right. So just as surely as he was baptized on time, just 51:08 as surely as he died on time, just as surely as the gospel 51:10 of Jesus went to the world on time so the final act of this 51:17 prophecy where he goes into the Most Holy Place to start his 51:21 judgment right on time, we know we will be accurate. What 51:24 happens at the end of the 2300 years? Here it is, verse 14 51:27 again. Let's do a little review here. The angel says to Daniel 51:30 Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the 51:33 sanctuary be what again? Cleansed. So there's going to 51:36 be a cleansing of the sanctuary which is just another way of 51:39 saying, the final judgment will begin in the Most Holy Place of 51:44 the heavenly sanctuary. There was a Day of Atonement on earth 51:47 and because the earthly one is simply reflecting that which 51:51 goes on in the heavenly, we know there'll be a final day of 51:54 atonement in heaven too where Jesus our great high priest will 51:58 minister in the heavenly sanctuary. So now let's go back 52:02 to our graph here. It got the start, we've got the 52:06 1810 years left after 490 years 52:09 have already been figured in or calculated in 52:11 and all we have to do is count on down and that makes it very 52:17 clear that when the cleansing of the sanctuary, the final 52:19 judgment begins it ends in the year 1844. Easy math, you just 52:25 have to complete the 2300 years. In 1844, the middle of the 19th 52:29 century we've been living what the Bible calls the hour of his 52:33 judgment. Revelations call the hour of his judgment has come. 52:37 I want you to think about that for a minute. You know God could 52:41 do the judgment in a millisecond if he wanted to couldn't he? God 52:45 could do it in a moment but he allows time to go on for a 52:49 reason. How much time did he give in Noah's day when the ark 52:51 was built, right? A hundred and twenty years. He could have 52:56 you know spoken an ark into existence and had a flood right 53:00 then I suppose. But he gave 120 years for people to repent and 53:06 decide to get on that ark. God is being more merciful with our 53:12 generation than he was with Noah's generation. Did you know 53:14 that? Peter said that God is long suffering not willing that 53:17 any should perish but all should come to what? Repentance right? 53:21 So God is so merciful, friends. Daniel 12 and verse 4 it says: 53:26 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even 53:28 to the time of the end: Now what's going to happen at the 53:30 time of the end? Many shall run to and fro, and...what shall be 53:33 increased? Knowledge shall be increased. The term run to and 53:36 fro is a Hebrew expression that means observing and thinking 53:39 upon the times. That's what it actually means. It doesn't mean 53:42 sports cars, okay? And then verse 4, knowledge shall 53:47 increase: That means knowledge shall increase regarding that 53:49 time period. But you know, just in our meetings and seminars, just 53:53 like this, discussing the book of Daniel, right, understanding the 53:57 prophecies are a fulfillment of this very prophecy that we are 54:00 opening it up again in the time of the end. Knowledge is coming 54:04 to us about what those prophecies mean, and we can 54:06 observe and think upon the times in which we live. An angel says 54:10 there's an appointed time when the judgment is going to begin 54:15 and the sanctuary is going to be cleansed. Now we've been living 54:18 in that time for a while and keep in mind again, it hasn't taken 54:25 God, this long except for the fact that he is merciful and he 54:28 is patient, and he wants as many for heaven as possible. Would 54:32 you agree? First, Jesus came to earth as a prophet. He showed us 54:37 God's will, he gave us his example of what God is like, 54:41 right? And then he went to the cross as the Lamb of God. After 54:44 his resurrection, he ascended to heaven, he took up the role of 54:47 priest. And then in the final judgment, he is our advocate. He 54:53 stands beside us. He pleads our case. He represents us to the 54:57 Father, right? He is the one who is our advocate. And then after 55:01 the judgment is over, sins are blotted out, praise the Lord, 55:06 and he comes as King of kings and Lord of lords. So this takes 55:09 us through the ministry of Jesus friend. Now, as you look at this 55:12 prophecy here, the first part of the prophecy, the 70 weeks, it's 55:16 to prepare the world for the first coming of Jesus. By and 55:19 large the world missed it. The second part of the prophecy is 55:22 to prepare the world for the second coming of Jesus. Folks we 55:26 don't want to miss it, amen? We don't want to miss it. The 55:30 message of Revelation was to be preached. God is going to raise 55:33 up a people to preach that message. But keep in mind 55:36 something here. Both events are tied together. The first part of 55:40 the 2300 years, the 70 weeks, and the latter part, the 55:45 judgment beginning, they're tied together. How are they tied 55:48 together? The first part portrays Jesus as the Lamb of 55:52 God. The second part shows Jesus ministering in the Most Holy 55:58 Place for those who have accepted what he did in the 56:02 first part, right? So the second part reveals have we really take 56:06 it into our hearts and lives what Jesus did in the first part 56:09 as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. 56:13 Revelation says in the time of the judgment the temple of God 56:16 was opened in heaven. The only time the door of the Most Holy 56:20 Place was opened was in the time of the judgment. Something had 56:25 to happen here on earth and sure enough prior to 1844, the message 56:31 of Revelation was never preached Nobody on earth preached it. 56:34 Since 1844, it has not ceased to be preached even to this very 56:39 day. God had risen up a movement to preach that very message 56:45 friends. There was a time for the judgment to begin on earth. 56:49 There's a time for the judgment to begin in heaven. Absolutely. 56:54 Bible students, you know when we read this prophecy, it should 56:57 burn in our hearts. Did you know that? Because this is a solemn 57:00 time in earth's history, isn't it? You know, back in Israel's 57:04 day before the day of atonement they blew on silver trumpets 57:06 10 days before. They were to examine their hearts and lives. 57:08 They were to know Lord, am I totally surrendered to you. Is 57:13 there anything I haven't given over to you? And this is the 57:14 same for us today, friends. Would you like to say with me today 57:18 Lord, I give you my whole heart and I want to be submitted to 57:26 you. Oh Lord, I want nothing between my soul and the Savior. 57:29 Lord, I want to confess you here on earth. Dear Father in heaven, 57:34 how good it is to know that you are on our side. In the judgment 57:41 day you are our advocate. You want people in heaven. We know 57:48 that with Christ as our Savior, with Christ as our great high 57:52 priest, with Christ as our Advocate we know we cannot 57:57 lose in the judgment. Jesus has never lost a case that was given 58:02 over to him. We are so grateful heavenly Father that as we give 58:06 our lives to Jesus we have nothing to fear. May our hearts and our 58:11 minds be faithful to him from this day on till the day that he 58:16 comes. This is our prayer, this is our desire, in Jesus' name 58:21 Amen. |
Revised 2025-09-23