Now turn with me to Daniel chapter
12, the last chapter of this great prophetic
book, this book of Christ. I've entitled this message, Go
Your Way Till the End. Twice Daniel is told by the Lord
through his angel, through his messenger, to go his way. Daniel, go your way. Go your
way till the end. That's verse 13, the last verse. But go thou thy way till the
end. And we'll see what that means
and how it applies to us as we go our way, as we go through
this life. Now let me just say a few words
by way of introduction through these first four verses which
I've already covered. Now, this whole book of Daniel,
you know, a lot of people, they look at the things in the book
of Daniel and shoot it off into the future, even beyond us, to
the very second coming of Christ. And many of the things, many
of the thoughts, many of the symbols, many of the things that
are going on that Daniel sees can be applied to that time in
the sense that what was going on in Daniel's day and what would
go on in the first coming of Christ, the same thing's going
to happen maybe in a greater magnitude in the second coming
of Christ. But let me say this, to understand
the book of Daniel, to understand it properly, you have to see
it as a book of prophecy that foretells the transition from
the Old Testament to the New Testament. That's really what
it's about. That's the mainstay of it. Through Daniel, here's
what God is doing through his prophet Daniel, through his messenger. In essence, it's like he's putting
Israel, the people of Judah, in Jerusalem. You remember they've
been in captivity for 70 years. Daniel had been there that whole
time. Here he is up around 90 years old. The kingdom, the empire had already
changed hands from the Babylonians to the Medo-Persians and then
King Cyrus, who is called God's servant in the prophecies of
Isaiah and Jeremiah. Over in 2 Chronicles in Ezra,
we see him, he was an unknowing servant of God, but they let
him in on a few things and he acknowledged it to a point. But
he allowed them to go back to their homeland, to Judah and
Jerusalem. to rebuild the temple and to
rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. And after we finish Daniel, we're
going to go into the book of Haggai, which Haggai and Zechariah,
they were the first two prophets that went with the people back
to the land while they were rebuilding the temple and all of that, and
then Malachi. But what happens here is God
is putting Israel on notice that things in the future would not
be as they expected. And I thought about that because,
you know, as we preach the gospel and we study the scriptures and
go through the scriptures and I hear people talk about the
second coming of Christ and the future of our day, I think we
do the same thing in essence. We tell people, things aren't
not going to be what you expect. Because, first of all, if you
don't preach the gospel of God's grace, how could it be? If you
don't preach Christ and lift Him up in the glory of His person
and the power and efficacy of his finished work, how could
it be what you expect? People writing books, making
movies, doing plays about the second coming of Christ and about
Armageddon and about things like that. And I want to tell people
from the scripture, and I know I'm not just trying to be a different
bird here. I'm not just trying to say, well,
I know it all and set everybody straight. I know some of these
things, you know, we can differ on. I know that. And I want to
tell people, it's not like you expect, it's not going to happen
like you expect it to be. And that's what Daniel's telling
Israel, telling the people of Judah and Jerusalem. You see,
they expected, now here's what they expected and what they determined
from the prophets and the scriptures in their own minds now, not what
God taught them, but they expected that when they returned from
the exile, from that 70-year captivity, you know what they
thought? They thought everything's going to be okay. There's gonna
be a new age on earth for the glory of national Israel. It's
gonna be a time like you've never seen before. Just like people today expect
in the second coming of Christ. And it's gonna be something,
God's gonna pat them on their back and say, well done, you
good and faithful servants, and set them up as his lieutenants
here on earth. It's kinda like what the Pharisees
expected when Messiah would come, conquer all their enemies, put
them all down, and he's going to rule from Judah. That's what
they expected in Daniel's day for the first coming of the Messiah.
And especially when they go back to their homeland. But it wasn't
so. What Daniel's telling them in
this prophetic transition is that everything in Israel's life
And everything that was going on here on earth during that
time and everything that would happen between the testaments,
that 400 year period between Malachi and Matthew, was all
a preparation for one great, great event. And that's the coming
of Messiah. The coming of Christ. And that
would mark the end of the era of national Israel and the old
covenant, it would be abolished by way of... See, they didn't
expect that. Thought that's gonna go on. That's why they wanted
to keep it in effect. But that would mark the end of
the era of national Israel and the old covenant and mark the
beginning of a new era, the era of the New Testament. Would Christ
say, this is the new covenant in my blood? And so in the first four verses
he kind of summarized, there's five things that would mark this
transition. Let me just go over them briefly.
Number one is actually the coming of the Messiah to do his great
work. That's number one. The Messiah was going to come.
And Daniel spoke of that all throughout this book, especially
in Daniel 9, the 70 weeks, and then here in verse 1, at that
time shall Michael stand up, that's Messiah, that's Christ
coming to do his great work, where he'd put away sin, he would
finish the transgression, he would bring in everlasting righteousness. The surety that had been set
up before the foundation of the world, Christ, our surety, would
come and actually in time do the duties of his suretyship. And he did it by being made sin.
He was our sin bearer, our sin offering. He took upon himself
all the demerit and all the damnation of our sin, the sins of his people. So that's the first thing. Secondly,
there'd be an escalation of trouble. Remember he said there, and there
shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was
a nation, even to that same time. You see, Judah expected peace
and prosperity when they go back to their homeland. And especially
when Messiah would come later, they expected peace and prosperity,
victory for their nation. But here's what Daniel's telling
them, no. Even when you go back to your homeland after this captivity,
and even when Messiah comes, Judah would continue to be oppressed
by foreign nations and finally come to its end. a time of trouble. You know, the Jews, they had
perverted the law and they rejected God's way of salvation. Paul
summarized it in Romans chapter 9 when he said, they sought righteousness
not as it were by faith, not in Christ, but by their works.
They turned the law of Moses into a legalized system of works
salvation. That's why Christ said, Moses
will be your judge. Moses wrote of me, he said. They
had rejected God's prophets. They wanted to keep the Old Covenant
in effect. They wanted that temple to stand,
the sacrifices to continue, the priesthood to continue. But these
things must end. That's what Daniel's saying.
These things have a... They were given for a purpose.
They were given for a particular time, but then they're going
to have an end. You've missed the message. That's
what he's telling Judah and Jerusalem. You've missed it. Haggai is going
to tell them the same thing. Zechariah is going to tell them
the same thing. Malachi is going to tell them the same thing.
The prophets during that time. You've searched the scriptures,
for in them you think you have eternal life, but there they
which testify of the Messiah, of Christ. And he's coming to
fulfill all that, to abolish that by way of fulfillment. Why
do you need an earthly priesthood when you have a great high priest
after the order of Melchizedek? Why do you need the blood of
animals now to picture that which has already been fulfilled in
the blood of Christ? All that's going to end, you
see. And then here comes what Daniel foretells here is the
destruction of the temple. That's the abomination of desolation
that he spoke of. That's what Christ said in Matthew
24, Mark 13, and Luke 21. When you see that abomination
that makes desolate, usually abomination is something that
is set up for idolatry. Remember Antiochus Epiphanes,
he built a statue of Zeus in the temple and then shed pig's
blood on the altar. They didn't really have an altar.
They had an altar outside, but in the Holy of Holies, they didn't
have the Ark of the Covenant. They had a big rock back there. And
then the Roman government, Herod turned the temple that was being
built in the time of our Savior, his earthly wall, he turned it
into a monument to Caesar. Idolatry. God said, I'm going
to judge Israel for that. I'm going to come along and destroy
it all. That's going to have an end. Trouble. The third thing
that he said would mark this transition would be a time of
great deliverance, a time of great salvation for the true
people of God, spiritual Israel. Remember he said there in verse
one, at that time thy people shall be delivered. Who's thy
people here? Who's he talking about? Is he
talking about every national Israelite? No. Who's he talking
about? He identifies them here. Everyone
that shall be found written in the book, the Lamb's book of
life. spiritual Israel. It's going
to be a time of great salvation. Think about it. Think about those
who came to a saving knowledge of Christ during that time. Think
about Pentecost when Peter stood in Jerusalem and preached that
message and 3,000 were saved and then the next day 5,000.
And think about the gospel going out to the Gentiles and the churches
being established. It was a time where many were
resurrected from the dead in the new birth. They came to see
the light. It was a time of great evangelism. And then the fourth thing is
that, a time of great resurrection. First of all, we see the resurrection
of Christ, but we see many, Jew and Gentile, born again by the
Holy Spirit. And then, fifthly, it was a time
of a great rise and spread of true righteousness, of Christ,
as the people of God went forth to shine His lights and into
the Gentile world, and many were saved. Well, a time of the Old
Covenant coming to its final end and the establishment of
the New Covenant. Look at verse 5 of Daniel 12.
Here's the epilogue. What I've been telling you is
exactly what he's talking about from here to the end of this
chapter, to the end of the book. He says, Then I, Daniel, looked,
and behold, there stood other two. This is the other two individuals,
two angels. The one on this side of the bank
of the river, this is the river Hittikel, the Tigris River, where
Daniel was when he received this vision of the kings. And the
other on that side of the bank of the river, verse six, and
one said to the man clothed in linen, who's the man clothed
in linen? That's Christ. That's a pre-incarnate appearance
of Christ in his glory. That's who Daniel saw back there
in chapter 10. That glorified Christ, the same
that John saw in the Isle of Patmos. Christ in his mediatorial
glory. Christ our Savior, our substitute,
our King, our advocate. And he says, he was upon the
waters of the river. Notice that word upon, it literally
means, you may have this in your concordance, he said he stood
above the water. So here you've got two angels,
his servants, his messengers, probably angelic beings, but
you have the King of kings and the Lord of lords standing above
the water. He's in control. He's the one
who gets the glory. That's what he's talking about.
Clothed in his majesty in the glory of Jesus Christ the righteous,
ruling and reigning over all things for his glory and the
good of his church. Above the waters. These two angels,
one on one side, they're in positions of service. They're ready to
do his bidding. That's what's being pictured
here. They're waiting on the authority
of the one who is above the water. He stands there in linen. You
know, anytime that linen, that's that white linen, that's a picture
of his righteousness. And that's not just his inherent
holiness, he has that, he is holy, but he's talking about
the work that he accomplished on Calvary as related back in
Daniel chapter 9. See, how are we made white? What
are we clothed in? We're clothed in that linen.
We're clothed in that white linen. We're clothed in the blood and
righteousness of Christ. We're washed clean from all our
sins by His blood. So, you see, this is a picture
of comfort and peace and assurance for Daniel. But look at verse
6. He says, one of the angels asked
this question, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?
Now, He says, how long the end of these wonders. And that's
an expression of time. And the expression the time of
the end here doesn't mean the actual termination, but the period
of time at the very end, the last stage of the entire era
of the renewed national life of Israel as they're going back
to their country. When's all that going to end? It's whatever that duration of
the time of trouble in verse 1 is concerning which the Lord
himself when on earth was so deeply distressed and grieved.
You remember he grieved over Jerusalem. It's the same that
our Lord spoke of when he was preaching on Mount Olive, the
Mount of Olives. concerning Israel. And he made
this statement, he said, It's a short period of time. It's
a day of unparalleled distress in Israel. Look at verse 7. He says, and I heard the man
clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when
he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven. Christ
lifted up his hands towards heaven, and usually that means there's
an oath going to be sworn. Talking about an oath, look at
it. And swear by him that liveth forever. Liveth forever. He swore by his father. Swore
by his father. See, this is the mediator speaking.
This is not denying Christ's deity. This is showing forth
his mediatorial servitude to the father for the good of his
people. And they ask, how long's it gonna be? And listen to what
he says. He says, it shall be for a time, times, and in half,
or in your concordance, it may say part. And think about it,
now what is that? Time, times, and a half. Well,
and I'm going to show you this when we get on down here to the
last few verses. Different commentators have different
ways of computing these time periods. And you can't just hone
in on one, but I believe what he's talking about here is just
simply, you know, some people say, well, that's three and a
half years. I don't know where they get that unless they're
talking about some period of time after the death of Christ
and the destruction of the temple, but that was more than three
and a half years. But here's what I think it's saying. I think
it's an indefinite period of time that it runs through our
minds like this. It'd be like this, the first
one is a time, that's singular. Well, we know he's coming. And
then times, it gets longer and longer. And then all of a sudden,
when you least expect it, bam, half a time. And I believe that's
what it's indicating here. It's just a short period of time.
Now, you can make more of it if you want. That's up to you.
If you want to go into all that, that's up to you. But that's,
you know, this is mentioned before in the book of Daniel, back in
chapter 8, for a short period of time. So, in other words,
it's not going to be long, Daniel. And I know, you know, when we
think about the second coming of Christ, we say He's coming
soon. And He is coming soon. But now,
from our viewpoint, it may seem like a long time. But you know,
in God's scheme of things, his way of looking at time, it's
no time at all. And I thought about this, you
know, it's kind of like the sleep of death for a believer. The
reason it's called a sleep in the scripture is because when
you go to sleep and you wake up the next morning, if you've
had a good night's sleep, it's like no time at all has passed,
isn't it? And that's the way it is here. And the last act, now here's
what he said, look at verse seven. Now, after this short period
of time, the last act of this period of time would be this,
look at it. He says, and when he shall have accomplished to
scatter the power of the holy people, those people, that nation
which he set apart, all these things shall be finished when
he scatters Israel to the four winds, to through the earth.
That's what he's talking about. And I believe that's referring
to what Christ spoke of over in Luke 21. Turn over here to
Luke 21. Now, you know, Luke 21 is Luke's account
of the preaching of Christ on the Mount of Olives. You can
parallel this with Matthew 24 and Mark 13, but Luke 21, look at, let's look
at verse 24, well, look at verse 22. Or verse 20, yeah, 22. He's talking
about in the last days, you know, the disciples asked, when shall
these things be? He talked about the destruction
of the temple. He talked about the great apostasy.
He said, for these be the days of vengeance. That's God's justice
on Israel for their part in rejecting and crucifying the Messiah. And
again, I always caution people when we think that way now, don't
think that lets us off the hook. Fallen humanity was the instrument
that brought Christ to the cross. He didn't die for all without
exception, but he died for those fallen in sin. And he didn't
go there for himself, he went there for his people. And it
says that all things which are written may be fulfilled, but
woe unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in
those days, for there shall be great distress in the land. Remember
Daniel said there, trouble like you've never seen before. wrath
upon this people, and they shall fall by the edge of the sword,
and shall be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem
shall be trodden down of the Gentiles," that's when Rome destroyed
Jerusalem, "...until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."
Now that's what I believe Daniel's talking about over here in Daniel
12, 7, when the people were scattered. That happened in AD 70, historically.
and in scattering them throughout the nations as a judgment upon
them for their sin." Now think about this. Here's where the
encouragement comes out of such things. In scattering them throughout
the nations as a judgment upon them for their sin and unbelief,
the Lord also accomplished the scattering of the gospel throughout
the nations. To the Jewish nation, it was
an act of judgment for sin, but for God's people, especially
among the Gentiles, it was salvation. That's what Paul's talking about
in Romans 11. Remember, he talked about in Romans 11 how their
fall ended up being our salvation. He mentions that several times.
And all of it's in fulfillment of the promise that God made
to Abraham in that covenant back in Genesis chapter 12 when he
said, you'll be a blessing to all nations. You see, this gospel
of grace is not going to be confined to one group of people, one geographical
area. God meant for it to go out. That's
why He told His disciples, go into all the world and preach
the gospel. The Jews perverted that. They imagined themselves
blessed just because they were Jews and wanted to confine it
to Judaism, which was a false way of salvation. But God brought
judgment on them and He scattered them. Now look back at Daniel
12, look at verse 8 now. He says, and I heard, but I understood
not. Now Daniel heard these things,
but he didn't understand all the intricacies of these things
that I'm telling you because you remember back there in verse
4? Look at verse 4, he said, but thou, O Daniel, shut up the
words and seal the book. That's the book of God's providence.
It's the same book that Christ opened in Revelation. We're talking
about that in our studies of Revelation. And he says, even
to the time of the end, many shall run to and fro and knowledge
shall be increased. You see, Daniel didn't know many
of these things that we know because we're looking back on
it. Knowledge has been increased in that sense, prophetic knowledge.
I believe there in verse four, he's talking about knowledge
of the gospel in evangelism because many would come to a saving knowledge
of Christ But I also believe he's talking about the prophecy
too. Knowledge will be increased. God increases knowledge. You
think about it, you know, the Old Testament believers as compared
to New Testament believers. We all knew, they knew the gospel
back then. They knew Christ, but there were
things about the workings of God's providence in history as
it relates to the church that we know that they didn't know.
I'll give you a plain example. Think about Abel. Abel brought
the blood of the Lamb. He knew Christ. He knew how God
justifies the ungodly on the basis of a righteousness imputed
to him. Abel knew that, but I'll tell
you what Abel didn't know. He didn't know that the Messiah
was gonna come of the seed of Abraham. He didn't know that
back then. He knows it now, but he didn't
know it back then. He didn't know that Messiah would
come out of the tribe of Judah. See, those are details he didn't
know, but he knew Christ. And that's what I believe is
talking about here when Daniel says he didn't understand. But
look at verse 8. He says, I heard, but I understood
not. Then said I, O my Lord, what, and it says, shall be the
end of these things. What the end of these? What's
the end of these? Daniel didn't understand all
these things concerning time, times, and half a time, so he
inquired further, what shall the outcome be? Now, that first
question that the angel asked, how long, that's a question of
time. Daniel's question is not a question of time here, he's
wanting to know the outcome. How's it all going to end up?
That's what he's asking. And look at verse 9. He says,
and he said, go thy way, Daniel. That's why I entitled this message,
Go Thy Way, go your way. For the words are closed up and
sealed till the time of the end." Now, this shows that it's not
vital that we understand all these details of time and history
in perfection. God knows. For the words are
closed up and sealed. God knows it all. He knows the
end from the beginning. He's the God of predestination.
But Daniel, and maybe even we ourselves, We don't know at all
in these areas. We know the gospel now. Don't
take that too far. I've heard preachers go too far
with that. Well, we don't know nothing. Yeah, we know some things.
John said we did. Read 1 John. He said we know. We know the Savior. Paul said,
I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he's able to
keep that. which I've committed unto him
against them." We know some things. The Son of God hath come and
given us an understanding. We know everything that a sinner
needs to know as taught by God the Holy Spirit concerning who
God is, concerning who we are in our sins, concerning who Christ
is in the way of salvation. The Bible says that if a sinner
is ignorant of or not submitted to the righteousness of God in
Christ, that sinner is lost. Romans chapter 10, read it. For
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believe it. So if we don't know Christ, we don't know anything.
We're lost. That's what it is to be lost.
But there are some details. And we may not know. There's
some things here, I think I know what they're talking about, but
I could be wrong. But that's okay. That's okay, don't let
that alarm you. We're learning. This first time
I've ever gone through the book of Daniel. I preached out of
the book of Daniel. It's different, especially the
lion's den and the three Hebrew children and the fiery furnace,
things like that. Preached out of Daniel 9. But
I haven't gone verse by verse through Daniel like we've been
doing, and I've been learning. People, you don't tell me how
much, I'm learning too. We're learning together. See,
that's what we're doing. And I try to study and research
as much as I can, you know. But, you know, I may find out
something later on that might give me a different view of a
particular verse. There's no shame in that. And
you all know me well enough that if I come to a place I don't
know, I'll tell you flat, I don't know. And there's no shame in
that. If that destroys my credibility
for you, then I'm sorry. You thought I was a know-it-all.
But you were wrong. But I believe I've got a handle
on this thing now when you put it all together and weigh Scripture
with Scripture now. And this is what he's saying.
Daniel's saying, I don't know at all, but what's the outcome of
these things? Now, let's talk about the second coming a little
bit. I don't know at all about the second coming. We're studying
Revelation in our Sunday school, and I believe I know what these
things are talking about, but I could be wrong on some details,
and there may be a believer who will disagree with me on what's
going to happen in the end time, but I'm like Daniel. I don't
understand it all, but what's the outcome? That's the key now,
and that's where we live. Now, what's the outcome? I know
the outcome. Now, Daniel's asking that about
his nation. What's the outcome of it all?
Well, look at verse 10. Now, he said, go thy way, Daniel. Now, I'm going to come back to
that, but we'll get to it down here in just a moment. He says,
well, verse 10, now look at verse 10. He says, many shall be purified
and made white and tried, tested, but the wicked shall do wickedly.
And none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall
understand." Look how he answers him about the outcome. What's he talking about here?
He's talking about sinners being saved by the grace of God in
Christ. That's what he's talking... He
says, "...many shall be purified." How are many purified? Well,
they're going to get religion and get baptized. No. The whole
context of this is the coming of the Messiah to do His great
work. That's how sinners are purified
by the blood of Christ. That's how He started this whole
thing. This vision of the kings with
a great vision of the glorified Lord, the savior of his people
who had done his great work in his death, burial, and resurrection,
standing as an advocate and a surety, the Lord our righteousness. How
are sinners made white? What does that mean to be made
white? That means to be justified before God. That's what that's
talking about. How's that happen? It happens
by the righteousness of Christ, freely imputed, which we by the
power of the Holy Spirit receive by faith, and we put Him on by
faith. You know, the Bible in Galatians
chapter 3 and verse 27 speaks of putting on Christ. What does
that mean? It means believing in Him, resting in Him, trusting
Him. This is the important thing here now. You may not, listen,
you may, right now, you may have in your mind what time, times,
and half mean, and you may disagree with me totally on that, but
right here, if we're believers, we agree on this one. How's a
sinner purified before God? By washed in the blood of Christ. My sins charged to him, and he
drank damnation dry, and he made me white, justified me in the
sight of God. Who can lay anything to my charge?
God is just to justify me because Christ died. And that's applied
to my conscience, you see. I can come to God as a sinner
with a pure conscience. How in the world can I do that?
Through the blood of Christ. That's it. The blood of Christ
takes all my guilt away. Did you hear what Jesus said
to me? They're all taken away. Your
sins are pardoned and you're free. They're all taken away. Who's he talking to when we sing
that song? He's talking to sinners who are purified by the blood
of Christ, who are made white by the imputed righteousness
of Christ. And then he says they're going to be tried, they're going
to be tested. Don't think, listen, don't be like Israel thinking
it's all gonna be a bed of roses when you get back to your homeland.
No, there's gonna be some trials, hard trials. Saving faith will
be tested in the fires of persecution. Now that's up. You can expect
it. Persecution and trials do not
produce faith, they reveal faith. And what is that? It drives us
to Christ for relief. And don't think that all the
trials are just going to be the big atom bombs of your life.
The trials are the day-to-day living. Isn't it? Every day. Each day. A struggle. A fight. When's this trial going
to end? When the next one begins. I've
said that. And there may be a double or triple up on them at some
times. But this is the outcome. But
here's what he says now. He says, but the wicked shall
do wickedly. Those who don't have any knowledge
of Christ or any desire for Christ, any desire, they'll go on just
like they've always been going on. And none of the wicked shall
understand they'll never come to saving faith in Christ. But
the wise shall understand. Now, who are the wise in the
Bible? Matthew chapter seven, those who build their house upon
the rock, Christ Jesus. That's the outcome. And if you
wanna talk about the final, final, final outcome, think about it
this way, judgment. Upon what are you going to stand?
You stand in anyone but Christ. What would be the outcome? Well,
the outcome for the wise is a declaration of the grace and the mercy of
God into glory in Christ. The wicked, they don't understand
that, but the wise do. We understand the way of salvation
by God's grace, and we understand something about our sin. We don't
understand that all, the magnitude of it, the depth of it, but we
know what God's Word says, and we know the Holy Spirit conviction
of our sins, We know that God would be just to send any one
of us at any time to hell based on anything in, of, or through
us. How about that? Our best. Lord, if thou, Lord,
shouldest mark iniquities, who would stand? You see, that's
what keeps us from judging our brethren so harshly. When we
realize that if the Lord were to judge us in the same way,
what would we be? We'd be damned forever, and deservedly
so. We understand something of God.
Now, we don't know the depths of God's nature. You know, I
hear these men here in the past several years, people arguing
about God's eternal mind and time and eternity, and poor old
souls, they don't know what they're talking about. You can't figure
out the eternal mind of God. But we know. that God is holy
and he must punish sin. And he who is a God of mercy
and grace is also a God of justice and he must be both a just God
and a savior. And my friend, think about Christ,
the glory of his person. what he accomplished on Calvary.
I hear people talking about what he went through in Calvary and
man groping in the dark trying to describe it, trying to figure
it out, trying to theologize it. You can't do that. You can't
climb into the Savior's mind while he was on the cross. All
you can do is read what's written. You believe that? He said, my
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Separation between the father
and the son. Now, I really cannot doctrinalize
that for you, but I know what the scripture says. He did it
because sin was charged to his account. And as a result, righteousness
is charged to my account. All this gospel. That's what
Daniel didn't know, and that's what the Lord told him here.
Look at verse 11 now. He says, and from the time that
the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination
that maketh desolate, said there shall be a thousand two hundred
and ninety days. That's twelve hundred and ninety
days. And verse 12, he says, blessed is he that waiteth. Now,
waiting there means persevering. It means enduring. Remember Christ
said in the Mount of Olives, in Matthew 24 and Mark 13 and
Luke 21, he that endureth to the end, That's that's the perseverance
of the Saints. That's what that's talking about
those who are saved by the grace of God will persevere Because
we're preserved by so he that waiteth endureth and cometh to
the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days Wow What
are you gonna do with that? All these numbers. Well as I
told you first of all, look at what he's talking about He says
the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away. I When did
that happen? Well, they say, this is history
now, sometime around AD 66 is when the Roman government, the
Roman onslaught and their armies came in and they stopped the
worship of the temple. They stopped it. Now you remember,
now Christ, when he was on the cross and he said it's finished,
you remember how the veil was rent into from top to bottom?
That's when all the sacrifices ceased. You know, there's a difference
between the sacrifices ceasing and them being taken away. They
ceased because they were fulfilled. Christ fulfilled it all. The
Old Covenant was over. Listen, the Old Covenant was
finished before A.D. 70, before the temple was destroyed. But apparently, They tried to
sew that curtain back together and start it up again. And then
in AD 66, that's when the Roman army came in and began their
onslaught against Jerusalem, and they caused the daily sacrifice
to quit, to stop. Remember that daily sacrifice,
what that was? Back in Exodus 29, Moses commanded
him to bring the lambs on the morning and in the evening. They
had to do that every day. That was a picture of Christ.
That's a picture of our continual need of Christ. We don't need
Christ just one day, we need him every day. the continual
preaching of the gospel. Now, when those sacrifices are
taken away, that shows contempt for Christ, contempt for the
worship of God, contempt for the gospel. Now, it's true that
they had technically ceased when Christ finished them. That's
when it was over. But they tried to start them back up again.
A.D. 66, they came in and they stopped that. The Roman government
stopped it. All right? Now, he says here,
From that time, until the abomination that maketh desolate, that's
the destruction of the temple in AD 70. He says it's gonna
be 1290 days. And that's, I mean, you can compute
it different ways, but that's just about what it was. From
the time that the Roman army commanded those, the Roman generals
commanded those sacrifices to cease, to the time of the destruction
of the temple was 1290 days, and the temple was destroyed.
That's the preciseness of God's word. Well, what about the next
one? Blessed is he that endureth and
cometh to the 1,305 and 30 days. Well, if you add that up, that
ends up being about 45 days more than 1,290, 1,335 days. What happened there? Well, they
destroyed the temple, and then 45 days later, the Roman army
stopped their onslaught. They stopped their destruction,
and a pardon was issued to everybody that was left over. What's that picture? It's picturing
God's judgment coming through and consuming all who are without
Christ, and when that judgment is over, everybody that's left,
all for whom Christ died, all for whom He was buried and rose
again the third day, a pardon is issued. They're pardoned in
Christ. That's what that picture is.
That actually happened. So you got all these days. Now,
like I said, different commentators, they'll compute them different
ways, but let's close it down. Verse 13, he says, now, Daniel,
go thy way till the end. Go your way. What was Daniel's
way? It was the way of the Lord. It was the way of Christ. Christ said, I'm the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. It was the way of God's grace. Salvation by the
grace of God. Go thy way, Daniel. You may not
understand all these details, but you know your way because
your way is the way of righteousness. Righteousness, justification
by the blood and righteousness of Christ. Lord, teach me thy
way. That's the way. There's a way
that seems right unto men and the way leads to death. And then
some say there are other ways, but there's none other name given
among men whereby we must be saved. There's no other way but
Christ. There's no other way to God. And he says, Daniel,
you go your way. You keep looking to Christ. Now
this is going to happen. You may not understand all the
details of it, but you keep your eyes focused on Christ. You run
this race of grace, that's your way, looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of your faith. And he says, for thou shalt rest. You're going to rest in Christ.
He's our Sabbath. He's our surety. He's our peace. And stand in thy lot. That's
your allotted portion at the end of the days. In other words,
when all this is over, you're going to share in an eternal
inheritance. The life and the glory of Christ.
that which god has a lot of them to his people in christ inheritance
incorruptible go your way go your way study god's word you're
like me i get in these things i do try to figure out you know
i don't like to let let any stone go on turn but here's the point
whatever whatever we do don't let any of this divert you from
that way the way of god in christ go your way preach the gospel
You know? If we knew Christ was coming
back tomorrow morning, what should we do tonight? Preach the gospel.
Worship God. Go our way. That's what he's
telling Daniel to do. Alright.