Open your Bibles this morning to Daniel chapter
9. The book of Daniel chapter 9.
I do pray that the Lord would help
me to speak right things concerning
him." I don't have the answer to everybody's questions. I don't have full knowledge or
full understanding. So I find myself like those early
disciples who said they could only speak that which they had
seen and heard. I don't want to say more than
the Scriptures say, but I certainly don't want to
say less than they say. So if you'll look with me, here in Daniel 9, We'll begin reading in verse
20. He says, "...and whilst I was
speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people
Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the
holy mountain of my God, Yea, while I was speaking in prayer,
even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning,
being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of
the evening oblation, or the evening sacrifice. And he informed
me, and talked with me and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth
to give thee skill and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications
the commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee, for thou
art greatly beloved. Therefore, understand the matter
and consider the vision. Seventy weeks are determined
upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression
and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity
and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and
prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy." Man in his never-ending attempts to steal the glory of God, especially
in salvation, in some way or another always insists that salvation
results in one of His acts. It is determined actually by
his responses to God. And he always, at his best day
you might say, still makes faith to be the condition of salvation. But if we believe what we read
in this book, We have to believe that salvation in its entirety
is by the grace of God. It is of the Lord. And the truth is, nothing that
man does in time can change what God has done before time. Nor can it add anything to what
God has done. And God's purpose, His purpose,
and what He does in time, they are one and the same. As a matter of fact, they are
all done at once with God. And that's because He tells us
that He is eternal. And He describes Himself as the
everlasting God. That's not something I made up. That's not something that I want
to emphasize because it's simply my doctrine. God declares Himself
to be the everlasting God. And the psalmist is led by the
Spirit of God to state that so clearly. He says, "...before
the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the
earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou
art God." From everlasting to everlasting. So what the eternal
God does is eternal and is therefore called everlasting. If you read the Scriptures, you
will find David and others speaking of his everlasting covenant. You will find the writer of Hebrews
telling us that Christ's blood is the blood of the everlasting
covenant. He tells us also, that He has
loved His people with an everlasting love. He tells us that the life
He gives to His people, that gift of life is everlasting life,
eternal life. And He describes everything that
He gives to us in grace as an everlasting possession. He is Himself the everlasting
King. And as such, His is an everlasting
Kingdom. And He rules it, according to
this book, by His everlasting dominion. These are all phrases
from His Word. And as the Savior, Christ's salvation
is called an eternal salvation. Not many people want to hear
about this eternal salvation. But it says in Hebrews 5 and
verse 9, concerning Him and being made perfect, He became the author
of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him. And then we read in Isaiah chapter
45 and verse 17 concerning his spiritual people, that spiritual
Israel. He says, "...but Israel shall
be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation." Ye shall
not be ashamed or confounded, world without end." And even
the gospel. The gospel that he commands to
be preached, the gospel by which he calls and comforts his people,
he describes even this gospel as not something new, but as
the everlasting gospel. The everlasting gospel. And his mercy, His glorious mercy,
that plenteous mercy that we read about, He describes it as
everlasting mercy. Not temporary, not something
new, but everlasting mercy. And He says this by the psalmist. In Psalm 103 and verse 17, "...but
the mercy of the Lord..." You need mercy? I need mercy. "...but the mercy of the Lord
is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him and His
righteousness unto children's children." Did you hear that
last part? He not only includes with this
everlasting mercy some things concerning His children's children,
but He says His righteousness is the same. His is the everlasting
righteousness, or the righteousness of the ages. So that when we
come to this verse here in Daniel chapter 9, where Daniel is being
shown and having interpreted for him the vision God has given
him concerning the very age in which you and I live. He tells us in that 24th verse,
that in this predetermined period of time, in this age of grace,
in this gospel age that marks the end of this age, He in these
70 weeks would show a perfect, identified time in which the
Messiah would accomplish all His work One of the things he
says is that he will bring in everlasting righteousness. He would bring in everlasting
righteousness. Now what many people seem to
miss in the Scriptures and in their study of the Scriptures
And I believe it is because they come to the Scriptures with their
own preconceived ideas and notions. And they begin to go to the Scriptures
in search of verses throughout the Scriptures that will kind
of shore up that which they already believe. That's a dangerous thing
to do. And the great danger lies in
this twofold thing. Number one, it always tends to
steal away the glory of God in salvation. And also, on the other
hand, it always tends to take away the real true comfort of
our salvation. because it always leaves it resting,
somehow depending on something that we do or are or feel or
whatever it is in time here in this world. And many people do
not seem to be able to see that where God's elect with all of
our race fell in Adam, They did everyone in Him fall in sin,
and therefore that sin brought forth death. But it did not change
their standing with God. It did not alter their position
before God, which is always said to be in Christ Jesus. You see, He has always been their
righteousness. He has always been their righteousness
and all their standing before God, and they were blessed of
God in Him and looked upon by God as being one with Him long
before time. Long before time. And Christ,
who is described as the righteousness of God, came in time, just as
Daniel's prophecy is declaring here. He did come in time and
revealed how they were always counted righteous in Christ their
Head. Is that not what He is described
as? The covenant Head? The theologians use the term
in showing their relationship as being one with Christ. They
call him the federal head, one man who represents a large number
of men. And so, in this relationship,
they stand in Christ, and as it was said in the book of 1
John, I believe it is, when he says, as He is, so are we in
this world. Do we believe that? As He is,
so are we in this world. But the Scriptures not only say
that, but also they show us that as He was, so were we always
before God. Now turn over to Ephesians chapter
1. We've read these verses many,
many times. But this first and second chapter
of Ephesians especially is one of those glorious tables of food
that the sheep love to come back to again and again. But listen
how Paul describes it in Ephesians 1 beginning in that third verse. He says, blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings. Do you see that? It's amazing how the modern universalist
even some who would go under the banner of grace, seem to
want to separate out some of those spiritual blessings and
mark them as being dependent upon something that was done
in time. But what does it say? He hath
blessed us, with all spiritual blessings. And you can go down
all the list as we find it often done in Scripture, redemption,
sanctification, whatever it is, justification, all these spiritual
blessings. And they make up the sum total
of all these blessings that God gave to His people in Christ. He represented us. He stood before
God in our place. He stood before God as that One
who represents us, and not only that, as the One who was always
responsible for us. Now people like to hear a lot
about man's responsibility. But let me assure you of something,
and that is anywhere in the Bible we find anything concerning man
that shows his responsibility as men say before God, you can
count on this, there is no ability in our responsibility. We may
be responsible as we might be before God to keep His law, but
we're not able. We never were able. So responsibility,
so far as ability is concerned, that responsibility for all of
God's elect, it was Christ a long, long time ago, farther back than
you and I can even imagine. This is what he says, "...Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places," or in the
heavenlies, "...in Christ." Where are they at? They're in Christ.
How could He ever give such to people like we are? Him being
holy, we being sinners, He gave every blessing, all spiritual
blessing, every part and parcel of our salvation and our standing
before God, He gave all spiritual blessing to His people in Christ. Now look at that fourth verse. as He hath chosen us in Him."
There's election. When was that? Before time. When
was the giving of all these spiritual blessings? Before time. According, as He hath chosen
us in Him before the foundation of the world. Every one of God's
people. stood represented by God. Read Romans chapter 5. Every one of God's elect stood
before the world ever was, before they were ever created as living
bodies in this world. Every one of God's people stood
before God and were blessed by God with all spiritual blessings
in Christ before the world. began, before you ever thought,
before ever there was air in this world, before there ever
was this world, before any one man or devil ever did anything. He acted in His own sovereign
will and by His own sovereign authority, and He, because He
would and for His own glory, He blessed that people in Christ
with everything. Everything. And He did it before
the foundation of the world. And men follow that with statements
like, but he couldn't do this, or he couldn't do this, or he
couldn't do this, or he had to do this, or he had to do something
like that, when all the time the Word of God keeps saying
to us that he's already done it. He hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in Christ. before the world began." And
then it tells us, reminds us again and again of this, that
God is immutable. You may give me something today,
you may come back and take it a little later on. I accused
Brother McKee of doing that. He gave me a book, and then in
his haste, talking to somebody else, he took my book and he
gave it to them. God doesn't do that. He doesn't
change. He doesn't alter. He's immutable. And though we change, and do
change daily, though we changed in Adam, He is the same, and
His relationship with His people are the same. You know, you've
got friends one day, and the next day, they're not your friends. Christ has always been the friend
of His people. You know how I know that? You
know how I know that they've always been in this relationship? They've always been His friends,
His people, His children, His church, His body, because He
says that He laid down His life for His friends. He laid down
His life for His friends. And you can go back. You can
go back and listen to what he says in places like Ecclesiastes
chapter 3 and verse 14, where the wife Solomon is led by the
Spirit of God to state this that ought to always be in our mind. He said, I know that whatsoever
God doeth, Whatever God does, it shall be forever, and nothing
can be put to it, and nothing can be taken from it. And God
does it that men should fear before Him whatever He does."
Does He save? Does He make His people righteous
in Christ? Does He do a work whereby He
brings His people unto Himself, whereby He chooses them out of
this fallen race, whereby He makes them His children, calls
them His friends, all these things? Well, whatever He does, whatever
He did, He did it forever. And His children have always
been His children. He is describing them in Ephesians
2, when he describes them as how they are in themselves. Ephesians 2, he sets forth how
they are in themselves and what he's made them in Christ. What
they are by nature and what they've been made in Christ Jesus. They were dead in themselves,
dead in Adam, but he's quickened them and made them alive in Christ. And he says they were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others. But they were not the children
of wrath. They by their nature acted like
enemies. He describes them as being enemies
in their own minds by wicked works. But when Christ prays,
He's spoken of in Hebrews, they're described as those children.
All father, those children. When he speaks in John chapter
7, he prays, he says, I pray not for the world, but I pray
for these that you've given me out of the world. And Christ
came to save His people and to accomplish that work of righteousness
which their salvation was wholly based on. And there was never
an if. Suppose I've got a car and I
want to sell it. And you say, okay, I'll buy you
a car. But it's going to be a few years before I can pay you for
it. You're going to be a little shaky on that, aren't you? Well,
why not? Why? Why would you be so? Do
you imagine that because there is some great possibility I might
change? Or some great possibility that
I might not be able to come up with the money? That you'd be
a little shaky? That you would want your money
up front? That's my brother's famous phrase,
money up front. That's no possibility with God.
This eternal salvation is all about a relationship within the
Godhead. The Father dealing with the Son. And there is never any possibility
of change or failure or non-accomplishment Missing the mark or anything
like that. You have every reason to doubt
me, but you could not ever have any reason to doubt the Godhead. And not only that, the Father
in this so deals with His people who are in Christ Jesus, He so
totally deals with them through their head, and their representative,
and their surety, and knowing that He will do all that He's
pledged Himself to do in this covenant, He blesses them accordingly. He holds back nothing. He's not
doing it on credit as some people have suggested. He's not waiting
until the time that He actually comes and dies in their place
on the cross. He knows that He will. He cannot
do otherwise. He's God. And so He blesses us
accordingly. He gives to us, shows to us everlasting
mercy. He gives to us everlasting righteousness. There's no possibility of Christ
failing. There's no possibility that He
will not stand and pay as the surety. There's no possibility
He will not satisfy that ransom debt. No possibility of not manifesting
that way of righteousness because He's the responsible one. and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself
with all His covenant accomplishments. When we say Christ, at least
in this place, we're talking about Christ crucified. We're
not talking about some mystical person. We're not talking about
separating the glorious divine person from his successful work. We're talking about what Paul
called again and again, Christ crucified. And Christ crucified
is the Lord our righteousness. He always has been. That's why
He's described as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
He didn't die in His body at that time. He had not taken that
body on Himself. But He surely did, and there
was no possibility that He wouldn't. And so God looked at Him, as
far as that covenant relationship with His people, as the Savior,
their Savior from all their sins, and He called Him the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. So what's wrong with that? I'll
tell you what's wrong with it. It takes salvation totally and
entirely out of our glorious stealing hands. It sets it apart
totally from our sinful fallen selves. It shows it to be where
it's always been, where it is right now, and where it always
will be, because it's the everlasting salvation. That's why man's schemes of evangelism
don't work. Because they're done to the glory
of man. That's why people have no comfort. That's why they have no reason
to exalt and glorify God in their lives and in what they say. Because
they view it all as having started when they made their decision
or something like that. But it's everlasting. From eternity. and the process of his revelation
of it. The process of his revelation
of something does not mean that that's the beginning of it. His people are called the ancient
people. How ancient? That's why I don't
really like this term, when did you get saved? When did you get
saved? Well, have you got a few minutes?
Because salvation in this book may not be in your books of theology,
or may not be in your little Romans Road handbook, but in
the book of God, salvation is spoken of in the past tense,
and in the present tense, and in the future tense. We have
been saved. We are being saved. We shall
be saved with an everlasting salvation. It's not going to
end. It's not going to change. God's not going to take it back.
Let me read to you a verse in Romans 8. You've heard it many times. It's
Romans 8 and verse 30. Paul says, "...moreover, whom
he did predestinate, mark off beforehand, determined to save
beforehand. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called." I mean, get one notion of that word called,
which surely is a part and parcel of this salvation wherein we
are called effectually to Christ through the gospel by the Spirit
of God. But that word called also can
mean named. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified."
Somebody said, well, God couldn't justify you until Christ came.
Or God couldn't justify you until you believe. Or that justification
is somehow dependent on faith. Do you see anything about that
in that verse? He also justified. What does
that mean? Declared righteous. And then
it says this, "...and whom He justified, them He also glorified."
What does that mean? I'll tell you what most people
think it means. Most people think it means He made them better,
or He's going to make them better. But did you notice it's all in
the past tense there? Glorified. When you read that
word glorified, and find out exactly what it means, and especially
define it in the light of how it's applied to Christ. He's
asking the Father in John 17, Father, glorify me. Is the Father
going to make the Son better? Is He going to make the Son to be
less sinful? No. But one definition for that
word glorified means to cause the dignity and wealth of some
person or thing to become manifest and acknowledged. You see, that's what God's doing.
He's not only doing it concerning His Son. He's making manifest
the real saving glory the real deity, the real accomplishments
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's making it made known. But He's also doing the same
thing to His people. He's also making His people known. How's He making them known? By
bringing them to believe the truth. The goats will never,
Believe the truth. The ghost will never trust in
this everlasting righteousness. But the sheep will. The sheep
will. He makes manifest to them what
God has done for them. And before we can ever believe,
Which is what faith is, believing. Before we can ever believe that
God will do something for us, we have to first begin by believing
what He tells us He's already done for us. And He reveals these
things to His people in time by the Spirit of God, who takes
the things of Christ and shows them to us. There He stood. our covenant
head. For you and I can even begin
to think or imagine, before there was ever this thing we call earth,
bodies, life, the One who is called the wisdom of God, He
stood there as that wisdom of God, as how God can be just and
justify these people in Himself, And He stood there, the righteousness
of His people. And so God sends good news. He
sends what He calls glad tidings. He sends the everlasting gospel. And He tells us of the gift of
righteousness. Romans 5 again. The gift of righteousness. And we preach that everlasting
gospel which Paul says, in this gospel is the righteousness of
God revealed. And he tells us how God is righteous, was righteous, always shall be
righteous to declare His people righteous, through Christ and
Him crucified. But like I said, we all are by
nature sinners. Even God's elect. Even this people
that the Father loved with His everlasting love, and the Son
came and died for. We're all by nature sinners. And we're all by nature. Do like
Paul described his own people. He said, they're always going
about to establish their own righteousness. And they have
not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God in Christ. You notice he didn't say, they
haven't accepted the righteousness of Christ. He said they haven't
submitted to it. They haven't bowed to the righteousness
of God in Christ and acknowledged that it is the only righteousness. It's always been the only righteousness. Going about to establish a righteousness
before God, when God has already told them in themselves, they're
non-righteous, no, not one. And He already said, all your
righteousnesses, they're as filthy rags. Just filthy rags. You see, our righteousness is
because of our union with the Righteous One. I knew a fellow. He had an old
truck. I've told you this probably before.
He had an old truck. He was so proud of that truck.
It was ragged. And so he asked me one day, he
said, how do you like my truck? I said, well, if you took a hundred
dollar bill and taped it to the hood of that truck, that truck
would be worth a hundred dollars. And here you and I are nothing.
And we're only righteous because God, in old eternity, united
us to His Son. Made us one with Him. So that
as He is, that's the way we are. So that David, who trusted in
that everlasting covenant. He said, although my house be
not so with God yet, He's made with me an everlasting covenant
that's ordered in all things insure. And he'd go on in the
Psalms to say, blessed is the man to whom God imputes righteousness
without works. Paul would come along in Romans
4, guess what he'd say? He'd quote David, blessed is
the man to whom God imputes righteousness without works. Somebody said,
you can't tell people that. It'll just make them go out and
sin. Well, nothing makes you and I sin more than being told
again and again that we ought not to sin. Nothing makes us
sin more and show the natural rebellion, which is exactly what
Paul talks about in Romans 7, than being told again this law
principle. It will make us Pharisees, but
it won't make us righteous. And the only true motive The
only true ground upon which to seek, to please and honor and
obey God is that standing, that ground upon which we are in in
Christ Jesus being made righteous in Him. As a matter of fact, those two verses in Jeremiah
23 Jeremiah 33, they say it all. Because He uses those two names,
Judah and Israel. Did you know they were the same
man, basically? One was what we are by nature.
Israel is what we are by grace. In His days, Judah shall be saved,
and Israel shall dwell safely, and this is the name whereby
he shall be called the Lord our righteousness." He's the Lord
our righteousness. So much so, that he says again
in another chapter, "...in those days shall Judah be saved, and
Jerusalem shall dwell safely, and this is the name wherewith
she shall be called." The Lord our Righteousness. His name is
our name if we're His people. His name is the Lord our Righteousness.
What's your name? Well, I'll tell you what it's
not. It is not Mrs. Adam Jesus. Women sometimes,
they want to hold on to a name. But it pictures our relationship
with Christ. He's the Lord our Righteousness.
And He's all of it. Paul says it like this in 1 Corinthians
1. Speaking of these very spiritual
blessings, he says, "...but of Him, that is, of God, are you
in Christ Jesus?" Where at? In Him. I don't want to be seen
anywhere else. But are ye in Christ Jesus, who
of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord." God's people don't have anybody else
to glory in. Like that hymn we sang, how can
it be? We're still amazed at God's grace
to us, that He actually has counted us righteous in Christ and blessed
us accordingly since before the world began. Oh, we receive it
by faith. We come to know it through the
gospel, but it's from old eternity. It's the everlasting righteousness.
It's always been in Christ. It'll always be in Christ. and
also those who are found in Christ. God must give us the faith to
believe it, to receive it. It's like here's a big bucket
of water. There's a little pipe that runs out the bottom of it.
The only way you'll ever get in is through this pipe. But
the pipe is not the water. Then Paul writes in 2 Corinthians
5, verse 21, he says, "...for He," that's God again, "...hath
made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him." Nowhere else. You may think you're improving
a little bit. I hope you do. But you better not trust in it.
You better not imagine it's righteousness, because it's not. You see, Christ
brought it in when He came. He already was it, but He brought
it in when He came. And He showed the way of righteousness
when He went to that cross in the place of His people, put
away their sins. According to Paul, we bring it
in every time the true gospel is preached. That's what I want
to do. I want to bring in that everlasting
righteousness. I want to preach the Lord our
righteousness. You see, the righteousness of
God in Christ who has made their righteousness is the everlasting
righteousness. And all who preach God's gospel
are like Noah that God describes as a preacher of righteousness,
and like Abraham whom God called righteous long before Christ
ever come into this world. God called a man by the name
of Abraham righteous. How could that happen in Christ? But I'll tell you there's something
more amazing than that. He had a nephew by the name of
Lot. And Lot was most likely pretty
disobedient. He's in a place where he ought
not to have been most likely. And God was about to destroy
that land. So Abraham says, He's talking
to the Lord and he said, surely you won't destroy the righteous
with the wicked, will you? No. He said, if there be fifty
righteous people in this city, you won't destroy them with all
the wicked? God said, no. And Abraham begins
to bargain a little bit. He said, forty? Thirty? Twenty? One? There was one righteous man in
that city. And God brought him out. Sent
angels down there and they led him out of that city. And then
God destroyed that city. The angels said, Lot, you've
got to get out of here. We cannot destroy this city as
long as you're here. Why not? Because he's a righteous
man. And there's only one way he could
be righteous. It's in this everlasting righteousness in Christ. Abraham called by God righteous,
Lot called by God righteous. The righteous see it, receive
it, and they have everlasting joy through believing on Christ. What name do you want to be called
by? Mr. Church member? Mrs. Good woman? Mrs. Nice person? Mr. Giver, Mr. Baptizee, this is the name whereby
she, his bride, shall be called the Lord, our righteousness. The Lord Jesus Christ, He always
has been, He is, and always will be, the everlasting righteousness
of His people. And they will be manifested in
this world in time through hearing and God bringing them to believe
on Him for everything. The more I studied and read,
I kept coming up with that word
everlasting. And the more I read it, the better
it sounded to me. We're finding ourselves more
and more these creatures of time that wither and fade and get
sick and weak and wear out. But He is always all we need
before God. God help us to be found in Him. Paul said, I was a Pharisee and
I was this and that and the other, but it's just all nothing. I want to be found in Him. Not
having that righteousness which would be imagined to come by
my obedience, but the righteousness that He gives and enables His
people to receive by faith. Father, this day may all the
glory, all the glory be to You. Thank You so much to the Lord
Jesus Christ for His everlasting righteousness, and for every
comfort that flows out of it, especially in the matter of our
constant sinning. Thank you that your Apostle reminds
us that when any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous. We pray and ask everything and
give you glory and thanks in His name. Amen.