Okay, the Book of Daniel, the
theme of the Book of Daniel, we've been working our way through
the different books of the Bible, and the theme of the Book of
Daniel is that God is king. He rules over all. God rules
over everything. And we see that theme in God's
dealing with the three Babylonian kings in this book. Nebuchadnezzar
learned God rules, doesn't he? God rules over all. Remember
when Nebuchadnezzar was furious, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
they would not bow down to his statue and he threw them into
the fiery furnace. He heated the furnace up seven
times more than it ought to have been heated. The men that threw
the Hebrew children into the furnace, they were burned up
throwing them in. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego weren't burned.
Nebuchadnezzar looked down in that furnace. He said, didn't
we throw three men down there? And they said, yes. And he said,
I see four. One of them's liking the Son
of God. How'd he know that? I don't know, but he did. And
they took those men out of that furnace. The hint of smoke wasn't
even on them. Nebuchadnezzar learned who's
king, didn't he? Those Hebrew children were saved
because the Savior was in that furnace with them. Nebuchadnezzar,
maybe he was slow to learn some things. He learned that lesson
again, didn't he? God turned him into an animal, abased him
until Nebuchadnezzar said, I learned this, God rule it. None can stake
his hand or ask him, what are you doing? God's king. Then Belshazzar
learned God's king. Remember Belshazzar threw that
big party for himself and they were drinking wine from the vessels
that they took from the temple. In the middle of that party,
a hand appeared writing on the wall. God hath numbered the kingdom
and finished it. You're weighed in a balance and
found wanting. Thy kingdom is divided to the Medes and Persians.
That night, the kingdom was taken from Belshazzar. Belshazzar learned
God's king. Then Darius learned God's king. You know, the law of the Medes
and Persians cannot be altered or changed. Darius learned God
is the one whose will cannot be altered. Remember how they
tricked Darius into throwing Daniel into the lion's den and
Darius was up all night worried about Daniel. He came the next
morning to the mouth of the lion's den and Darius found out God
indeed, the God who Daniel served continually is indeed able to
deliver. His will cannot be altered. God
is king. That's the theme of the book
of Daniel. Now in the book of Daniel, there's
some prophecy that we find and most people get very caught up
and get very excited with the prophecy that we find in the
book of Daniel and other places in scripture. But the book of
Daniel is not a book of prophecy. The book of Daniel, just like
every other book that we've looked at, the subject of the book is
the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want us this morning to
look at a passage that very clearly illustrates this point, that
this book is written about our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I want us to look at the prayer of Daniel. We won't make
much comment on it, we'll just read it. But look at the prayer
of Daniel in chapter nine, and then see the answer to his prayer
is Christ. The answer to his prayer is the
prophecy of Christ who will come and be the answer to Daniel's
prayer. So let's look here at Daniel nine, verse three. Daniel
says, And I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer
and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. And
I prayed unto the Lord my God and made my confession and said,
O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant of
mercy to them that love him and to them that keep his commandments.
We have sinned and committed iniquity and done wickedly and
have rebelled even by departing from thy precepts and from thy
judgments. Neither have we hearkened unto
thy servants, the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings,
our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the
land. O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion
effaces, as at this day, to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel that are near and that are far
off, through all the countries, whether thou hast driven them,
because of their trespass that they have trespassed against
thee. O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings,
to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against
thee. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness, though
we have rebelled against him. Neither have we obeyed the voice
of the Lord our God to walk in his laws, which he set before
us by his servants, the prophets. Yea, all Israel had transgressed
thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice,
Therefore, the curse is poured upon us and the oath that is
written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, because we've
sinned against him. And he hath confirmed his words,
which he spake against us and against our judges that judged
us, by bringing upon us a great evil. For under the whole heaven
hath not been done, as hath been done under Jerusalem. As is written
in the law of Moses, all this evil has come upon us, yet made
we not our prayer before the Lord our God. that we might turn
from our iniquities and understand thy truth. Therefore hath the
Lord watched upon the evil and brought it upon us, for the Lord
our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth, for we
obeyed not his voice. And now, O Lord our God, thou
hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with
a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renowned, as at this day
we have sinned and done wickedly, we have done wickedly. O Lord,
According to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger
and thy fury be turned away from thy city, Jerusalem, thy holy
mountain, because for our sins and for the iniquities of our
fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all
that are about us. Now, therefore, O Lord, our God,
hear the prayer of thy servant and his supplications and cause
thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate for the Lord's
sake. O Lord, incline thine ear and hear. Open thine eyes and
behold our desolations and the city which is called by thy name.
We do not present our supplication before thee for our righteousnesses,
but for thy great mercies. O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, hearken and do. Defer
not for thine own sake. Oh my God, for thy city and for
the people that are called by thy name. Now that's a good prayer,
isn't it? That's a good prayer. Daniel,
and throughout this prayer, continually praises God for who he is. Under
thee, O Lord, belongs forgiveness. Under thee belongs mercy. You're
righteous in all your doings. He thanks God for everything
that he's done for Israel. And Daniel admits his sin, and
the sin of the people, and their iniquity. He seeks forgiveness
for his sin. And I want you to look how ready
the Lord is to answer prayer. Look here at verse 20. And whilst
I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin
of my people Israel, presenting my supplication before the Lord
my God, for the holy mountain of my God, yea, whilst I was
speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I'd seen in
the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly,
touched me about the time of the evening oblation. Now Daniel
was praying so intently He didn't even know that the angel Gabriel
was suddenly standing beside him. He didn't even perceive
there was somebody standing beside him. He was so intent in his
prayer, seeking forgiveness and mercy from God. Gabriel had a
touching, so Daniel would know he was even there. I've looked
and looked at that this week and thought, I wish I'd prayed
like that. I wish I'd prayed that intently,
that to see God's face like this intently more often. Now this
is very important and we'll come back to this in a minute, but
you'll notice that Gabriel appeared in answer to Daniel's prayer
and touched him at the time of the evening sacrifice. This is
three o'clock in the afternoon. That's when Gabriel appeared
to Daniel. And when he appears to Daniel,
Gabriel's message is Christ. He came to give Daniel an understanding
of that message, the message of Christ. And that's my prayer
for us this morning, that the Spirit will give us an understanding
of the message of Christ. Because we can't understand it,
we can't believe this message unless God gives us an understanding
heart. And Gabriel came to give Daniel
that understanding heart. Look at verse 22. And he informed
me and talked with me and said, oh Daniel, I've now come forth
to give thee skill in understanding. I'm come to give you an understanding
heart." Now verse 23, at the beginning of thy supplications,
the commandment came forth, and I came to show thee, for thou
art greatly beloved, greatly beloved. Therefore, understand
the matter and consider the vision. 70 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. Now these weeks, that he
mentions here, the 70 weeks. They're 70 weeks of years. It's 490 years is what he is
referring to there. You just take my word for it,
or you can go read John Gill of Matthew Henry. There's several
places in scripture that we see this. It's talking about weeks
of years, and they'll give you a very good explanation of that.
Now, he's giving us a prophecy of 490 years, Now what it seems
to mean here is that in 490 years, Jerusalem will be destroyed.
God's going to bring his people back to Jerusalem, but he will
destroy it again. It doesn't seem to mean here
that in 490 years, Christ will come or Christ will die because
look at verse 26. He says, and after three score
and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself. It seems like what the prophecy
is, is that in 434 years, three score and two weeks, Christ will
die as the sin offering. And Jerusalem will be destroyed
56 years later, a total of 490 years from this time that Gabriel
is speaking to Daniel. And you know, that's exactly
what happened. Exactly 434 years from this point where Gabriel
speaks to Daniel, Christ died. Now, I go through that and tell
you about those weeks because everybody's going to wonder about
them. Don't get hung up on the weeks. Don't get hung up on the
prophecy and all the mysteries of prophecy, either here or other
places in scripture. The amazing thing is not that
there was a prophecy that foretold that Christ would come. All the
Old Testament tells us Christ is coming, doesn't it? And it's
not an amazing thing that God knew the exact moment he was
going to send his son incarnate into the world. Known unto God
are all his works from the beginning of the world. That's not the
amazing thing. The amazing thing is that Christ
is going to come. He's going to come into flesh
to save his people from their sins. The amazing thing is what
the Messiah is going to accomplish for his people when he comes.
There was an exact time that Christ would come incarnate,
a time determined by God, the King, by his father. And there
are exact things. He's not just coming, hoping
to accomplish something. The father's going to send his
son into the world to accomplish some exact things for his people. Now, Daniel was here praying.
And what he was praying for was temporal blessing. He was praying
for the restoration of the Jews to Jerusalem. He was praying
that Jerusalem would be rebuilt. He was praying that they'd be
delivered from his captivity. And God answered that prayer,
didn't he? But in a much greater way than what Daniel was asking
for. Daniel asked for temporal deliverance. God came and told Daniel, that
he will deliver the nation Israel, but he gave Daniel a prophecy
of the eternal spiritual blessings that God has in store for Israel
and how he's going to give them to his people. God told Daniel
the Messiah is coming. And Daniel, when he comes, this
is what he's going to accomplish. You're going to be able to know
and recognize the Savior when he comes, because there's six
things that he'll accomplish that no one else can do. And
the first one is this. The Savior will come to finish
the transgression. Now, what is transgression? Transgression
is a willful rebellion against God. You know, sometimes we may
break the law and didn't realize we do it because we didn't even
know that was against the law. You know, we sin so much, we
don't even realize we're sinning. But transgression is a willful
rebellion against God. You and I can never say we didn't
mean to do it. No, we meant to. We meant to
sin every time. It's willful rebellion against
God. The commandment of scripture
is come to Christ. Repent and come to Christ. And those who don't are doing
it in open rebellion. It's transgression. They refuse
to come. They refuse to bow. They refuse
to humble themselves in that way. And we can't stop rebelling. I mean, I can tell you the definition
of what rebellion is, and I can tell you, you know, when you
do this, you're transgressed, but we can't stop. We cannot
stop rebelling against God. We can't do anything to appease
God's anger for our transgression, our open rebellion against him.
So God sent his son to do what we couldn't do. God sent his
son to finish the transgression. Now, he didn't come to put away
the transgression of everybody, did he? This is a specific transgression,
the transgression. Christ is gonna come to put away
the transgression of his elect. The transgression means this,
that God made all of the transgressions of his people one. He made it
one enormous mountain of transgression. And then he laid that transgression
on Christ the Savior. And in his sacrifice, the Lord
Jesus Christ finished it. He put it away, he made an end
of it, so that it was never seen by God again. And do you know
when Christ finished the transgression? In exactly 434 years, to the
hour, at the time of the evening sacrifice, three o'clock in the
afternoon, what did the Savior cry? It is finished. And at that moment, the transgression
of God's elect was finished, never to be seen again. The Savior
will make an end, he'll finish the transgression of his people.
Second, the Savior will make an end of sins. This word end
that Gabriel uses here, it means to consume or it means to make
to cease. And that's exactly what Christ
has done with the sins of his people. Now the Savior is gonna
have to come in the flesh to accomplish this because by man
came sin. Sin came into this world through
a man, Adam, in the flesh. He brought sin on all men. Well
then by man must come the end of sin. Christ came in the flesh
to undo everything that Adam did in the flesh. And by his
sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ has made the sins of his people
to end. He's consumed them. And I tell
you this frequently. Normally, the fire consumes the
burnt offering, doesn't it? They would put that animal, they'd
quarter it, they'd put it on the altar, and it would stay
on that altar till it was consumed. Well, when Christ offered himself
to the Father as a burnt offering, a sin offering before his Father,
he wasn't consumed by the fire, was he? He consumed the fire. The Savior stayed on the altar.
bearing the fury, the fire of God's wrath against sin until
the sin of his people that was laid on him was consumed. And the fire went out when the
sin was gone. The fire went out because there's
nothing left to incur God's wrath. He consumed the sin of his people. The Lord Jesus, he could put
away the sin of his people because he had no sin of his own. His
sacrifice could consume the sin of his people because he's holy
and spotless. My death wouldn't accomplish
that for anybody, me or you, either one, because I'm a sinful
man. Christ had no sin. He did no
sin. He knew no sin. So his perfect
sinless blood could blot out the sin of his people. Look here
at verse 26 again. And after three score and two
weeks shall the Messiah be cut off. He's going to die. but not
for himself. Christ was not cut off from the
father. He didn't suffer and die for
his own sin, for anything he did wrong, because he had no
sin. Christ was cut off, the son was cut off from the father,
because the sin of God's elect was charged to him. That's why
the father turned his back on his son, because sin was charged
to him. He was cut off, and he actually
died. When he did, he made an end of
sin. He made, he consumed the sin
of his people. Now that's good news. The father
will never charge you for your sin if he charged Christ for
your sin. Never. If the father charged
your sin to Christ, he can't charge you for it. Because the
Father can't charge you with what's not there. He consumed
the sin of His people. That is the power of the sacrifice
of Christ. No one else could claim to have
done that. He made an end of sin. The sacrifice of Christ
made the sin of His people to cease. He consumed it and He
made it to cease. He made the existence of the
sin of His people to cease. That's the power of His sacrifice.
Now sin's gone. The sin of God's elect is gone.
So sin cannot have dominion over you if Christ died for you. Its
power has been made deceased because the sin's been made deceased.
Sin can no more have the power to condemn anyone that Christ
died for because of who died. Christ died. He made an end of
sin. And when Christ died, there's
going to be no more offering for sin. Look here at verse 27. And he shall confirm the covenant
with many for one week, and in the midst of the week he shall
cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease." God is no longer worshiped through
the animal sacrifices, was he? God didn't require the animal
sacrifices anymore, and he destroyed Jerusalem. He destroyed the city,
Jerusalem, to wipe that whole mosaic economy out. It's all
destroyed, never to be put back in place again, because God doesn't
require the animal sacrifices anymore. He doesn't require the
priest to dress up in the robes that are all a picture of Christ
and go through all the ceremonies anymore. Why not? Why not? He has for 6,000 years. Why not? Why don't we offer animal
sacrifices anymore? Because the sacrifice for sin
has already been offered. The Lord Jesus Christ offered
himself before the Father. then there's no more need for
any more sacrifices. You don't need the picture when
you got the real thing. You don't need an animal to be
sacrificed to give you a picture of putting away sin. If Christ
died for you, your sin is ceased. It's gone. Look at Hebrews chapter
10. I'm telling you, that's good
doctrine. That's the truth. But that's good news. Now this
is exciting. He's going to make an end of
the sin of His people. That sin that separated you from
the Father is gone. You come back to the Father because
sin's gone. That's good news. That's something
to be excited about. Hebrews 10 verse 14. For by one
offering, He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Well,
if they're perfected, they don't need to go through the picture
anymore, do they? effectual was Christ to make
an end of sins. Verse 17, and their sins and
iniquities will I remember no more. Now, where remission of
these is, there's no more offering for sin. There's no more offering
for sin. Sin's gone. So having therefore
brethren boldness to enter the holiest, how? by the blood of
Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for
us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. And having
a high priest over the house of God, let's draw near with
a true heart and full assurance of faith. How can you have full
assurance? Because Christ has put your sin
away. You'll be accepted if he's made an end of your sin. And
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies
washed with pure water, Let's hold fast the profession of our
faith. What is it that our faith professes? Christ. We believe Him. We look
to Him. He's all I need. Then let's hold
that fast without wavering, for He's faithful, that promised.
Christ made an end of the sins of His people. Thirdly, what
will the Savior do when He comes? He's gonna make reconciliation
for iniquity. Now, iniquity, is perversity. When you think of perversity,
what do you think of? That's what we are by nature.
Iniquity is perversity. Iniquity is the filth of sin. Well, Christ came to make reconciliation
for iniquity. He came to make reconciliation
for the filth of sin. Reconciliation means a covering
and a cleansing. Now the blood of Christ doesn't
just cover the filth of our sin so that it's still there. God
would see through that and see it, wouldn't he? The blood of
Christ washes away the filth, the iniquity of the sin of his
people. The blood of Christ makes God's elect clean in God's sight,
clean. The Lord Jesus Christ has, through
his sacrifice, has made his people, what does scripture say? holy
and without blame before Him, before the Father. He's gonna
make reconciliation for iniquity. And fourthly, the Savior will
bring in everlasting righteousness. Now there can be no salvation
without everlasting righteousness. If a sinner's gonna be saved,
God requires two things. If God's gonna accept any sinner,
these two requirements must be met. First, God requires sin
be paid for. His justice must be satisfied. Sin must be paid for. We must
be cleansed from our sin and washed white as snow in the blood
of Christ. God cannot accept anyone whose
sin has not been paid for. And second, God requires Perfect,
holy nature. God requires that we be righteous. How righteous? As righteous as
He is. He requires perfect holiness
and perfect righteousness or He'll never accept us. Well,
here's our problem. This is what God requires, but
here's our problem. We have sins, plural, acts of
sin. We have a sin. We have a sin
nature. Why do we have sins? Because
we have sin. We have a sin nature. And the
only way that we can be made righteous is if God gives us
a new nature. This old nature, the sin nature
that we have by birth can't be changed. It can't be propped
up. It can't be fixed. It can't be changed in anything
because it's flesh. It's sinful. So God gives the
new birth, and in the new birth, God imputes the righteousness
of Christ to his people. The Father imputed your sin to
Christ at Calvary, and he imputes his righteousness to you. And
if Christ's righteousness is imputed to you, the Father says,
you did everything that the Lord Jesus did when he walked this
earth. Well, when the Lord Jesus walked this earth, what did he
do? He obeyed God's law perfectly. And if you're in Christ, so did
you. Every time Christ obeyed every
thou shalt of the law, you did too, if you're in him. And every
time he didn't do every thou shalt not of the law, you didn't
do it either. His righteousness is imputed
to you. In the new birth, the righteousness
of Christ is imputed. And in the new birth, the righteousness
of Christ is imparted into the heart of a believer. In the new
birth, God causes a new man to be born, a new nature to be born
in his people. The new birth doesn't mean just
I've got a legal document that says I'm righteous. In the new
birth, we're actually made righteous. I don't have to have a piece
of paper to tell me I'm righteous. I've got a nature that is. God
gave it. In the new birth, we receive
a nature that cannot sin. That's the nature God requires.
We can't produce it, so He gives it. Now look in Romans chapter
10. Now God's elect are righteous
in Christ. Now how is that? It's through
faith, through faith in Christ. It's not through us keeping some
selection of the law, you know, it's not an annotated version
of the law, no. We're righteous through faith,
faith in Christ. Romans 10 verse four. For Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Now
Christ is the end of the law. He's the goal of the law. The
law is not given to show us how to live. The law is not given
to give you a template on how to live in this earth and please
God. No. The law is given as an indictment
against us. To show us our guilt and to drive
us to Christ who did what we couldn't do. He kept the law
for us as our representative. Christ is the end of the law.
The goal of the law is to drive us to Christ. And Christ is the
end of the law. Christ is the termination point
of the law. God's elect are not made righteous
or kept righteous because they keep the law. Who does Paul say
are made righteous? Not those who do, those who believe. Those who are given faith in
Christ They're the ones who are made righteous. Christ, the Messiah,
the Savior brought in everlasting righteousness for his people.
Fifthly, what's the Savior gonna do when he comes? He's gonna
seal up the vision and the prophecy. When Christ comes, he's gonna
fulfill every Old Testament type, every Old Testament picture,
every Old Testament shadow of the Messiah. So we'll know. beyond
a shadow of a doubt that this is he that should come. This
is he that God promised to send. When John the Baptist was in
prison, he sent his disciples to the Lord asking, are you he
that should come? Do we look for another? And our
Savior listed all the things that he'd done. All those things
were fulfillments of Old Testament prophecies. These are things
no mere man can do. This is the Messiah. And John
didn't ask that question for his own information, he knew.
He asked it so his disciples would hear straight from the
mouth of the master, this is the Christ, so they'd follow
him. In John 1, when Philip found Nathanael, you know what he said
to him? We found him. Who? Him of whom Moses wrote
in the law. And the prophets, all the Old
Testament, this is he that they wrote of. He's Jesus of Nazareth. This, we found him. He's the
Messiah. He fulfilled the vision and the
prophecy of all of the Old Testament scriptures. And then last, the
Savior, when he comes, will anoint the most holy. Now Christ came
as the most holy. He is the Holy One of Israel.
He had the Spirit without measure. He's anointed with the Spirit
without measure, because he's God. But now the Lord Jesus came
as a representative name. The representative man didn't
come to make himself holy. He's already holy. What did he
come to do? To anoint his people. He came
to make his people holy. He came to make his people most
holy. Think I can say that about myself
now. In Christ you can. Through union with him, you are
as holy as the most holy. Now this is the Savior. Gabriel
told Daniel he's coming. In 490 years, Jerusalem's going
to be destroyed. In 434 years, he's going to give
up the ghost, cry it's finished. My message to you is he's come.
He's come. He's fulfilled the prophecy.
He's fulfilled everything Gabriel said he'd do. Now look to him. Believe him and rest in him and
follow him. If God ever sends his spirit
to reveal him to you, All right, Lord bless you.