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Collierville First Baptist Church
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So let's begin by reading the prophecy again, okay?
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Daniel chapter nine, verses 24 to 27.
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70 weeks have been decreed for your people, whose people?
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This is Jewish people. It's the nation of Israel, okay?
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Not the world, the nation of Israel. Now, remember, 70 weeks is literally 77s. 77s, or 490 years.
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490 years, God says we have to see the fulfillment of everything He's planned for Israel.
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I tell you what this prophecy should do. It should absolutely kill the idea of replacement theology that God is through with Israel. God's not through with Israel. This prophecy proves He's not through with Israel, okay?
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So 70 weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city to do six things, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin,
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to make atonement for iniquity,
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to bring in everlasting righteousness,
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to seal up vision and prophecy,
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and to anoint the most holy place. And some scholars feel, and I almost feel the same way myself,
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to anoint the most holy one that would be Jesus, okay? Verse 25.
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So you are to know and discern
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that from the issuing of the decree
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to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. Now, you ought to underline that. That's a key part of this prophecy.
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It's when the 70 weeks start. When does a 70 week, the 490 years, when do they start ticking away? Well, it's when the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem has been made, okay?
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All right, so you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks, that seven sevens are 49 years, 49 years, okay? There will be seven weeks and 62 weeks, that's 62 sevens. You add those two together and you come up with 483 years, okay?
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It will be built again. Now remember, when Daniel received this prophecy from Gabriel, Jerusalem was in shambles. It had been destroyed. Nebuchadnezzar had gone in there and just wiped the place out,
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destroyed the temple, destroyed the city,
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took the Jewish people into captivity.
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It was a mess.
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So he says here, "So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and 62 weeks, it will be built again." Remember, that's one thing in Daniel's prayer,
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he was praying, he was just so burdened for Israel, for Jerusalem,
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and he's crying out to God in this prayer, earlier in this chapter, for a restoration of Jerusalem, a restoration of the nation of Israel and the Jewish people.
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Verse 26, excuse me, "It will be built again with plaza and moat even in times of distress."
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Now remember this, if you study the book of Nehemiah,
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and you study about rebuilding the wall,
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you know that every stone that was laid, that they had to have a sword in one hand, a trowel in another hand.
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I mean, it was tough, their enemies came against them,
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it was a mess.
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Then verse 26, "Then after the 62 weeks,
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that 62 sevens, okay,
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the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing,
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and the people of the Prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary,
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and its end will come with a flood,
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even to the end, there will be war, desolations are determined, and he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week.
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But in the middle of the week, he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering, and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction,
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one that is decreed is poured out on the one who makes desolate."
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Now here's an interesting note you might wanna follow away.
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This passage here in Daniel chapter nine is the only time in the Old Testament that the word Messiah is used.
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It's the only time, okay?
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Now Jesus is called Shiloh in Genesis 49.10, he's called the root of Jesse. In Isaiah chapter 11 verse 10, he's called the righteous branch. In Jeremiah 23.5, he's called the Prince of Peace. In Isaiah chapter nine verse six, he's called Emmanuel in Isaiah chapter nine verse six, and other places have other names for Jesus. But the only time that the word Messiah is used in the Old Testament here is here in Daniel chapter nine.
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Now, Daniel's prayer in Daniel nine three to 19 refers to the fulfillment of a specific 70 year period,
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70 year period. Remember, when God sent the Jewish people into exile,
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he, through the prophet Jeremiah,
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he promised them that their exile would last for 70 years,
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70 years.
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Just take your Bible, flip over to Jeremiah,
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go to your left, Jeremiah,
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chapter 29.
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Look at verse 10.
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Thus says the Lord,
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when 70 years have been completed for Babylon,
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I will visit you and fulfill my good word to you and bring you back to this place.
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So Jeremiah the prophet, speaking the word of God said, you've got 70 years in Babylonian exile.
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And Daniel knew that, Daniel studied the scroll of Isaiah and he knew that the 70 years was within about three years of being fulfilled. So he knew time was getting close
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for God to deliver his covenant people.
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Now, Daniel received the 70 week prophecy in response to prayer.
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I've got here down here in bold,
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there are two sections of this first part of the prophecy. It's like seven year periods, that's 49 years, 62 seven year periods, that's 434 years. Add them up and you come up with 483 years. Now there's one more, there's one more seven.
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Okay, one more seven year period.
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And that makes the 490 years that God talked about from the very beginning.
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Now notice this period concluded on the day of the triumphal entry, just as Christ was cut off, that is crucified.
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When Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem
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for the triumphal entry, he fulfilled a prophecy
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and he fulfilled Zechariah chapter nine, verse nine, look at it. "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem, behold, your King is coming to you. He is just and endowed with salvation, humble and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey."
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Now look at verse 25, Daniel 9.25.
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"So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until Messiah the Prince,
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there will be seven weeks and 62 weeks."
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Seven weeks and 62 weeks.
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It will be built again, that's 49 years and 434 years, right?
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It will be built again with plazun, moat, even in times of distress.
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Now, the first two segments of this 490 year period, the 7 sevens and the 62 sevens, ran consecutively with no interval in between, okay?
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You say, well, what's the significance of the seven sevens, the 49 years?
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Well, the 49 years was the time it took the Jewish people to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, okay? Once a decree was made, they went back, they began to rebuild the city. It took 49 years for them to rebuild the city. That's the significance of the seven sevens or the 49 years.
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Now, notice this, I got it in bold. It's very important statement. You ought to put a star by it. They totaled 483 years and extended, look at this.
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Look how specific this is. From March the 5th, 444 BC to March the 30th, AD 33.
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Now what happened around AD 33?
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Jesus was crucified.
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He made his triumphal entry and four days later, he was crucified.
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And this was prophesied over 500 years before it ever happened.
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I don't know about you, that just leaves me slack-jawed.
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Look at, the city and the walls will be rebuilt,
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but there would be trouble in doing it.
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Now look at page three.
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Look at the first part of verse 26.
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Then after the 62 weeks,
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the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing. So after the seven sevens and the 62 sevens, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing.
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Now, what does that mean? What does it mean the Messiah will be cut off?
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What does it mean that he will have nothing?
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Well, according to this verse,
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the anointed one, that's Jesus by the way, was not cut off in the 70th week.
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Do you rely, look at me just a minute. We've not even gotten to the 70th week of this prophecy. It's still future, all right? We're in an interval, we are living in the interval.
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Okay?
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Now,
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there's an interval between the 69th and 70th weeks.
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All right? Dr. Harold Honer, professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, came to the following conclusion. I quote, "The 70 weeks of years
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began on March the 5th, 444 BC."
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After you make the, now you say, well, how do we know that?
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Well, understand that when these kings like Nehemiah, not Nehemiah, Artaxerxes, the king of Persia,
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when they made decrees, that went into historical records. Okay?
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So it's a date that's in history.
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And so when Artaxerxes made this decree
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that the city would be rebuilt,
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that started the clock ticking, March the 5th, 444 BC. After you make the appropriate adjustments for moving from a Persian calendar to a Jewish lunar calendar, to the Julian calendar we use today, the end result is that the 69th week
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does in fact end precisely on March the 30th, AD 33,
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the day of the triumphal entry.
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Does that not amaze you?
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The day of the triumphal entry, the very exact day,
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Jesus was crucified four days later,
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which is after the 69th week, just as the angel predicted.
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Now, this interval was anticipated by the Lord Jesus
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when he prophesied about, he said, "I will build my church." You realize that the Old Testament,
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they had no concept of the New Testament church,
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none, but Jesus prophesied that he would build his church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it.
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This necessitated the setting aside of the nation of Israel for a season
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in order that our Lord's new program for the church might be instituted.
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Take your Bible, look at Matthew 21.
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Matthew 21,
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verses 42 and 43. (Pages Rustling)
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It's a, the context is a parable of a landowner.
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Let me just read that parable to you. Look at verse 33. "Listen to another parable. "There was a landowner who planted a vineyard "and put a wall around it and dug a winepress in it "and built a tower and rented it out to vine growers "and went on a journey.
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"When the harvest time approached, "he sent his slaves to the vine growers "to receive his produce.
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"The vine growers took his slaves and beat one, "killed another and stoned a third.
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"Again, he sent another group of slaves "larger than the first and they did the same thing to them.
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"But afterward, he sent his son
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"to them saying, they will respect my son.
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"But when the vine growers saw the son, "they said among them, said, this is the heir, "come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance. "And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard "and killed him. "Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, "what will he do to those vine growers?
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"They said to him, he will bring those wretches "to a wretched end and will rent out the vineyard "to other fine growers and who will pay him "the proceeds of the proper season.
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"Jesus said to them, did you never read in the scriptures
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"the stone which the builders rejected?
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"This became the chief cornerstone
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"and this came about from the Lord "and it's marvelous in our eyes. "Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God
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"will be taken away from you and given to a people "producing the fruit of it."
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That's when, listen, Jesus is saying
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that there's coming a time very shortly
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when God will put the nation of Israel to the side for a while, not forever, but for a while,
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he will build his church and the fulfillment
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of this parable is seen in the building up of the church.
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Let me tell you something, you studied the Old Testament prophecies
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and God's made some amazing promises
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to the nation of Israel that can only be fulfilled in the millennial kingdom,
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the thousand year reign of Christ on the earth.
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And when the anointed one would be cut off, Daniel was told,
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he would have nothing, what does that mean? He would have nothing. Now, the word cut off is used of executing the death penalty on a criminal.
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And so when it says cut off, the anointed one being cut off, it's talking about the crucifixion of Jesus. So here we are over 500 years before Jesus Christ was even incarnated and God opened his calendar and allowed Daniel to see his calendar and see that the Messiah would be born 500 years in the future, amazing.
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And even not only incarnated, but he would be crucified,
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bearing the sin of the world.
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And then the prophecy says that he would have nothing.
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He would have nothing in the sense that Israel had rejected Christ
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and the kingdom could not be instituted at that time. The millennial kingdom could not be instituted at that time. Therefore, Jesus did not receive the royal glory that the King of David should have received
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on David's throne over Israel.
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But Jesus knew all about it. John 1, verse 11, John wrote, "Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, "he came to his own," that's the Jewish people.
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"And those who were his own did not receive him." They did not receive him. Luke 19, 41 and 42,
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when Jesus approached Jerusalem during the triumphal entry, he saw the city and he wept over it. Verse 42 saying, "If you had known in this day, "even you the things which make for peace,
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"but now they've been hidden from your eyes."
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So I want you to get the picture here.
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It's like the prophecy here we're studying in Daniel chapter nine, verses 24-27, is picturing God setting Israel aside for the time being.
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Jesus building his church, offering himself as a sacrifice for our sins, being resurrected from the dead, to send him back to heaven.
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And the Lord Jesus is waiting for that moment when the Father says to come again. And when Jesus comes again,
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it begins the 70th year, the 70th week, okay?
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Now, look at this.
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Daniel chapter nine, verse 26, the last part of the verse, "And the people of the Prince who is to come
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"will destroy the city and the sanctuary."
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What in the world is that? "And its end will come with a flood, "even to the end there will be war, "desolations are determined."
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God's, see, what I want you to understand
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that this prophecy is so important to other prophecies, okay? They're tied together, they're linked together.
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And if you don't have somewhat of an understanding of this prophecy, it will hamper you in understanding other biblical prophecies.
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But that's why we're doing what we're doing, right?
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Now, God's judgment follows from what Gabriel calls the people of the coming ruler,
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the people of the Prince who is to come.
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I believe this is a reference to the Romans
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and to Titus, the general Titus,
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who in AD 70, AD 70, brought the Roman army into Jerusalem and absolutely ransacked and destroyed and decimated Jerusalem, ransacked, destroyed, and decimated the temple.
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That's exactly what that's a prophecy about.
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And that's 35, 40 years after Jesus was crucified and resurrected.
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So it's amazing the tentacles of this prophecy, how far it goes.
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The city of Jerusalem was demolished, the temple was destroyed and desecrated, it was a tragic, horrible war with enormous Jewish casualties.
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Look at this, even to the end, look at verse 26 again, "Even to the end, there will be war."
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Desolations are determined.
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You see, when the sovereign God decrees something,
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you can go to the bank with it. It's going to happen.
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It's going to happen.
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When I read this, "Even to the end, there will be war." In Matthew 24, we talked about the signs of the times.
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And Jesus said, "One of the signs of the times "is wars and rumors of wars."
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Think about Israel.
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Think about the number of wars that they've been associated with. They fight for their life every single day. I pray for them regularly. I pray for the nation of Israel. I pray for the Israeli leaders. Because do you realize that they are surrounded by people who want to absolutely mutilate them and throw their bodies into the Mediterranean Sea?
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And so here 500 years before Jesus was incarnated, God reveals that there's going to be wars,
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that the Jewish people are going to face wars.
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Wars like the one in October a few years ago where Hamas came out of Gaza and killed over a thousand Jewish people and took hostages and treated them unmerciful. That kind of stuff is a part of a world that's gone mad. Our world has gone mad. You do understand that, don't you?
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And it's getting crazier every day.
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But all of this does not catch God by surprise.
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We're peeking into His calendar. And He's going to be a part of that. We're going to be looking into His calendar
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and we see the things that are on the horizon.
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And some of this stuff that we're looking at tonight in this prophecy is still future. In fact, we're in a verse that's still future.
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All right.
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All right.
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Verse 27, look at it, page four.
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"And He will make a firm covenant with the many for one week."
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Now, you know where we've gone now?
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We've gone all the way to the end.
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We've gone all the way to the 70th week.
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Daniel's 70th week. Remember, we said there's an interval
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between the 69th week and the 70th week. All right.
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Do you know what that interval is? It's seven years.
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It's the tribulation.
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It's the tribulation period. The Bible says, in Matthew 24, you see how all this ties together?
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You remember when I preached through Matthew 24 and after Christmas, I'll come back and I'll preach verse by verse through Matthew 25.
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And we'll finish the Olivet Discourse.
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So all of this is right here before us.
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Now, the He here in verse 27 refers to the Antichrist.
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In fact, Daniel 9.27, "And He," you ought to write Antichrist above that pronoun, He.
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It's Antichrist.
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"And He will make a firm covenant with the many for one week." One week equals what? Seven years.
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Seven years.
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Now, who is He making the covenant with?
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Well, I think primarily He's making the covenant with the nation of Israel.
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What's the one thing the nation of Israel wants more than anything?
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Peace, security, right?
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And the Antichrist will know that.
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He may very well be alive right now.
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Now, you gotta understand that the Antichrist and the devil cannot look at God's calendar.
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We get to look at it because right here in the Word of God.
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But they can't look at God. They don't know what's gonna happen when, okay?
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And down through the ages since the time of Christ, the devil has always had to have a Antichrist-type figure in the wings in case God's end-time program kicked off.
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I believe, I believe, I don't have any proof, but I believe that the Antichrist is alive today because I believe we're at the very end. I believe the interval is about over and we're about to move into the 70th week, the seven-year tribulation period.
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Now, he will make a firm covenant, except let me say this.
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This is a misnomer here because when the Antichrist makes a covenant, it's not gonna be firm.
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He's not gonna keep the covenant.
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He's gonna promise peace and security to the nation of Israel.
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He may even promise the world that he'll solve all the economic problems of the world,
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but he won't keep it.
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So he'll make a firm covenant with the many for one week. That's seven years. But in the middle of the week, he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering. That's why I believe there's gonna be a third temple in Jerusalem.
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There's got to be a third temple.
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Now, what's the middle of the week? If a week is seven years, what's the middle of seven years? Three and a half years, right?
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Three and a half years. So at the three and a half year mark of that seven-year period that Daniel's 70th week,
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in the middle of the week, he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering in the temple, and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate. Now take your Bible, look over to Matthew 24. Matthew 24.
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Look at verse 15.
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Here's what Jesus said.
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Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation,
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which was spoken of through who?
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Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, let the reader understand.
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Now, what does that mean?
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Well, the Antichrist is the little horn in Daniel chapter seven, verse eight. We've already talked about the Antichrist in our study.
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He's a deceiver and a persecutor of God's people.
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Now, he's gonna claim, he's gonna go into the temple,
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and he's gonna claim to be God.
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To be God, he's going to make sure that everybody worships him and no other God.
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He's gonna stop the grain offering, the sacrifices in the temple. Everything is pointing to him,
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and he has the false prophet to prop him up.
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Now, take your Bible, look at Revelation 13 just a moment. Revelation 13.
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Look at verse 11.
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Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth,
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and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke as a dragon.
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He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast whose fatal wound was healed. The first beast is the Antichrist, okay?
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He's the Antichrist.
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Now, look at 2 Thessalonians 2. 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 3 and 4.
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This Paul writing to the church.
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Now, we request you brethren with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him
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that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by spirit or message or letter as in from us to the fact that the day of the Lord has come.
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Let no one in any way deceive you for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed. That's the Antichrist. The man of lawlessness is the Antichrist. You say, where's all this lawlessness coming from in our nation? It's coming from the Antichrist, coming from the devil himself.
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Verse 4, "Who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called God or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of God displaying himself as being God."
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That's what's gonna happen
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in the middle of Daniel's 70th week, okay?
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Now, Stephen Miller's comments here are pretty helpful. Let me just read them to you. "One who makes desolate refers to Antichrist,
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who will forbid worship and thereby make the temple area desolate. Rather than being an object that desolates in this context, it appears to be the Antichrist himself who desolates. This person's terrible atrocities
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and the fact that he caused the temple to be desolate because of religious persecution results in the judgment announced in the latter part of the verse.
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This will be a terrible period in the world's history,
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but the Lord has decreed that these atrocities will not continue forever." Aren't you glad of that?
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Antichrist's wickedness will last
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even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed is poured out on the one who makes the desert. God is going to judge the Antichrist.
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Poured out here picturesquely describes a flood of judgment that will overtake the Antichrist.
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Look at Daniel 7, verses 9 to 11.
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Daniel 7, verses 9 to 11. (Paper Rustling)
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I kept looking until the thrones were set up
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and the ancient of days took his seat.
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His vesture was like white snow and the hair of his head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames. Its wheels were burning fire. A river of fire was flowing and coming out from him and thousands upon thousands were attending him and upon marriage were standing before him. The court sat and the books were open.
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And I kept looking because of the sound of the boastful words which the horn, that's the Antichrist, was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain and his body was destroyed and given to the burning fire.
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So that's what's gonna happen to the Antichrist one day.
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The Bible says in Revelation that when Christ comes, that he will cast the devil, the false prophet and the Antichrist into hell itself, into the flames of fire, where they will be tortured and judged forever.
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Dale Davis said this, a final ruler
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then exalts himself, imposes his authority,
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forbids true worship, instigates idolatrous worship and runs into the meat grinder. I like that statement. The meat grinder of God's decree, predetermined on target certain.
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Let me tell you this.
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In the end, God wins.
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You need to know that.
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Evil does not win.
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God wins.
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Okay, so here we are, we're in the 21st century and maybe you're saying, well, pastor, why are we studying this?
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It's too complicated.
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I've tried to make it as simple as I know how.
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And you've got notes and you can go over it and over and over it and ask the Holy Spirit to help you to grasp it. And I would encourage you, don't throw these notes away. Okay, there's blood, sweat and tears on these notes. All right.
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So let me give you a few reasons why it's important
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that we study stuff like this.
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Number one, God's purposes for Israel remain incomplete. God's not through with Israel.
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Now, the thing that drives me absolutely bonkers
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is these pastors, these scholars, these people,
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like Tucker Carlson, good gracious.
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He has thrown Israel under the bus.
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Kirk Cameron.
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These are what the world would call important people,
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but they're missing, I'm telling you, they're missing it.
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God's not through with Israel.
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They're in that interval period.
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In fact, the Bible says that God placed a veil over their eyes temporarily. But one day he's gonna remove the veil and they're gonna see Jesus and know that he is a Messiah and they're gonna believe in him.
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All right.
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Look at Daniel 9.24.
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70 weeks, that's how many years? Tell me how many years 70 weeks are.
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490.
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70 times seven, okay.
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490 years, 70 weeks or 490 years have been decreed for your people and your holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin,
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to make atonement for, see, God has six things he's still doing with Israel or will do in the future. Six things are right here in this verse.
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He's not through with Israel. He has not put Israel on the shelf. He's not put Israel out to pasture and rejected his covenant people.
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To make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place. I think I've got the scripture right. Turn to Isaiah chapter 60, just a minute. Isaiah 60, go to your left.
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Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah.
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Isaiah 60 talks about the millennial kingdom.
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Look what it says.
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Arise, shine, for your light has come. He's talking to Israel here.
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And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness of people, but the Lord will rise upon you, upon Israel.
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And his glory will appear upon you. Nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes round about and see. They all gather together. They come to you. Your sons will come from afar. Your daughters will be carried in the arms. Then you will see and be radiant and your heart will thrill and rejoice because the abundance of the sea will be turned to you. The wealth of the nations will come to you, to Israel.
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A multitude of camels will cover you. The young camels of Midian and Ipha, all those from Sheba will come. They will bring gold and frankincense. They will bear good news of the praises of the Lord. All the flots of Qadar will be gathered together to you. The Rams of Nebaioth will minister to you and they will go up with acceptance on my altar and I shall glorify my glorious house. Now listen, all of that, that's the millennial kingdom.
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Revelation chapter 20 talks about the millennial kingdom, the thousand year reign of Christ on the earth.
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When all the promises and covenants that God has made with Israel reach their fulfillment,
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we're not there yet.
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We will get there. It's gonna happen, I promise you. So I just wanted you to see that. I think it's so important that you understand that these six things right here in verse 24 are things that God wants to accomplish
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in the covenant people of Israel in the 490 years, including the interval between the 69th and the 70th week, okay?
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Now, number two, why should we study this kind of stuff?
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Well, you need to know and I hope and pray
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that our young people will grasp this.
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Modern day Israel fulfills Bible prophecy.
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One of the greatest prophetic fulfillments
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that has taken place, I started saying in my lifetime, but it predates me.
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It doesn't predate some of you.
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Brother Bob was around when Noah's Ark was here, you know. (Congregation Laughing)
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But 1948, May the 14th, 1948,
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the nation of Israel became a nation again. For 2,000 years, or almost 2,000 years, they were scattered across the world.
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And May 14th, 1948, they became a nation.
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That is a huge prophetic fulfillment.
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So modern day Israel fulfills Bible prophecy.
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Now, number three, one reason we need study, there's got to be a seven year period of tribulation.
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It's gotta happen because that's Daniel's 70th week. And during that time, he's gonna turn his attention to Israel and bring a remnant of his people to repentance.
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Jeremiah calls it a time of Jacob's trouble.
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Number four, fourth reason we need study, is a witness to the truth of the Bible, divine revelation.
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Let me just read this paragraph, I think it's important. These words given by Gabriel to Daniel in 538 BC, 538 BC, describe in detail certain events that would not happen for hundreds of years,
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even thousands of years.
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These events include the death of Christ,
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the sacking of Jerusalem by the armies of Rome.
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What is remarkable is that in these verses, God ties himself to a definite chronology
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regarding the future of Israel.
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According to some scholars,
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this passage pinpoints the exact moment in history
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when the Messiah would present himself to the Jewish people
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at the triumphal entry.
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And it does so over 500 years before the event took place.
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Now, one of the greatest proofs
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of the truthfulness of the Bible, the inerrancy of the Bible, is prophecy, fulfilled prophecy.
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And boy, this prophecy right here is jam packed full
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of fulfilled prophecy and prophecy that is, or yet to be fulfilled.
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So I hope and pray that you have a better understanding
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of this prophecy. I hope and pray that you sense the importance
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of this prophecy, especially these last four things that we went over.
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And let me encourage you with some.
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When you run into something in the Bible
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that's a little bit difficult to understand,
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don't give up, pray.
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Ask the Holy Spirit to give you insight and understanding and wisdom to properly understand that text and to properly apply and interpret that text. Okay?
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There's no telling how many times I've studied this prophecy right here.
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I look back at some notes from, I think it was 2010,
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the last time I taught this.
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And man, I understand it a lot better today than I did then. Just let me put it like that, okay?
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So don't give up. Keep your eyes on Jesus.
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He's coming, he's coming.
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Everything that's happening in the world indicates that his coming is near,
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and we're about to launch into the 70th week of Daniel. All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for the men and women in this room.
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And I pray, Lord, that you would just help us to grasp
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what we need to grasp out of this text and apply it to our life. Lord, don't let us be scared of prophecy.
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Lord, I pray that we would have a hunger and a thirst for prophetic truth and that we would study it and we would pray over it until the Holy Spirit gives us understanding.
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Lord, I thank you that you've allowed us to peek at your calendar.
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I thank you, Lord, that you have saved our souls. You've prepared a place for us in heaven. And Lord, we're gonna be with you one day and it's gonna be absolutely glorious.
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Thank you, Lord.
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So I pray that every person in this room and every family represented here will have a Merry Christmas this year and that you would bless them and their families and protect all the families from any kind of drama, Lord. Let it just be sweet fellowship. We love you and thank you in Jesus' name, amen. So Merry Christmas to all of you.
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And we won't meet, I think the next time we meet will be January the 9th, I believe. January the 9th, okay? All right.