In Daniel chapter 9, if you want
to turn your Bibles there with me this afternoon, in verse 24. Daniel chapter 9 and verse 24.
Seventy weeks. are determined upon thy people,
and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an
end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity. to bring in everlasting
righteousness, to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint
the most holy place. I don't know very much at all
about 70 weeks. Those who do know something about
these years and weeks say that you can calculate that from the
rebuilding of Jerusalem to the time of the coming of Christ,
and it's 490 years. That may very well be so. Probably
is so. But even more than that, this
shows us that there was a set time for the coming of the Son
of God into this world. It was no accident He came when
He came. In the fullness of time, the
set time, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman. He puts
these years and weeks and days in there to let us know that
the time was set. And you remember when He came
to this world, many were looking for Him. Many were expecting
the coming of the Messiah. I don't know if they had calculated
these times, but the wise men who lived in the East, they came
searching for Him who was born King of the Jews. The prophet
Simeon who worked there in the temple, he was waiting for the
consolation of Israel. He took the little baby up in
his arms and said, now let me die in peace. My eyes have seen
your salvation. It was revealed unto him that
he had not died. Anna was a prophetess there in
the temple. She was waiting for his coming
and spake of him to all them that was looking and waiting
for redemption in Israel. Even the Samaritans. The Samaritan
woman, she had five husbands. What was
a woman like that doing waiting for the Messiah? But she said
so herself. We have heard. We know that the
Messiah is coming. So there was a general expectation
that Christ was coming, that His coming was near, His first
coming. And we see it here. His first
coming, we are told here in verse 25, that therefore, know therefore,
and understand that from the going forth of the commandment
to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem unto the Messiah, the Prince,
shall be seven weeks, and three score and two weeks." So that
tells us that there was a set time for His coming. And then
in verse 26 tells us also there was a set time for His death.
And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off,
but not for Himself. He was cut off out of the land
of the living. He was crucified. So God has
His times for His Son to come and work and suffer. If you'll
consider the context, this is what makes verse 24 especially
so important. And especially, no doubt, as
Daniel was told this by the angel Gabriel, that the Messiah was
coming and what he was going to do. He had to thrill his soul. Because if you'll study the context
of verse 24, it's the prayer of Daniel. And I want you to
look, let me just read a few verses to you back in chapter
9, beginning here in verse 11. This is just a portion of Daniel's
prayer. Israel had been carried for the
most part captive away, scattered among the nations. The temple
had been burned, the wall had been torn down. They were desolate
people. Those that had any sense of love
about them for Jerusalem, for their Lord, they were heartbroken
over this. Daniel was broken. And he knew
that the wrath of the Lord, the judgment of God, had fallen upon
the Jewish nation. And that's what he was praying
about. And listen to just a few verses of his prayer, and then
we'll look at this prayer, and look at that verse 24 in the
light of this prayer. He humbled himself here before
the Lord, in verse 11, and says, Yea, all Israel have transgressed
your law. even by departing, that they
might not obey your voice. Therefore the curse is poured
upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the
servant of our God, because we have sinned against him. And
he has confirmed his word 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 has been done
upon Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of
Moses, All these evil is come upon us. Yet made we not our
prayers before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities,
and understand thy truth? Therefore has 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 it is this day. We have sinned. We have done
wickedly. O Lord, according to all your
righteousness, I beseech thee, let your anger and your fury
be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain,
Because for our sins and for the iniquity of our fathers,
Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that
are about us. Now therefore, O our God, hear
the prayer of thy servant. Hear my supplications and cause
thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate for the Lord's
sake. O my God, incline your ear and
hear. Open your eyes and behold our
desolation and the city which is called by Your name. For we
do not present our supplication before Thee for our righteousness,
but for Thy great mercies. O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, hearken and do. Defer
not for Thine own sake. O my God, for Thy city and Thy
people are called by Thy name." And he goes on to pray. And when
he's finished praying, The angel Gabriel comes to him and gives
him this vision, gives him this prophecy of the coming of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and what the Lord Jesus Christ is going to
do when He comes. And Daniel finds this out, and
no doubt it's a great comfort to him. Now, I want us to take
up here in verse 24. I want us to look at these six
things There are three things regarding sin, and Daniel sees
in these three things, in these prophecies here, the Lord's complete
description. He gives him a description of
the putting away of sin and how this applies to his people. He describes how the Messiah
will come and put away sin. And then He not only tears down
and speaks of sin, but He speaks of building up. He speaks here
of three things else that the Lord Jesus would do. He says
there in verse 24, the last part, He's going to bring in everlasting
righteousness and seal up the vision and prophecy and to anoint
the holy place. So these six things the Lord
Jesus is going to do when He comes. And it had to be of great
comfort. to Daniel when he considered
the awful, awful shape that his people was in at this time. Now,
I was reading Charles Spurgeon. He had a message on this text.
And I was reading him, and he had been reading one of the old
translators of the Hebrew Scripture. And he translated these three
things concerning sin. finish the transgression, make
an end of sins, and make reconciliation for iniquity. And here's the
way he said one of the translators translated this passage, to shut
up the transgressions, to seal up our sins, and to cover up
iniquity. To shut up, to seal up, and to
cover up. And I thought, now there's a
message in that that you and I can understand. The first thing
I want us to look at is this thought, to shut up the transgressions. To shut up the transgressions.
What a blessing this must have been when Daniel got this prophecy
from Gabriel. that the Son of God is coming
to this earth and He's going to shut up sin in the sense that
He's going to arrest it and lock it away, as it were, in a cell. Daniel looked around him and
he saw how sin was reigning, and it just broke his heart.
It had brought such devastation and death and captivity. He began
to think within himself, is there ever going to be any hope? that
somebody is going to deal with sin. Here, he finds that somebody
is coming to do so. What is sin? I likened it to
an awful, murdering tyrant that's been let loose on the community.
And he breaks into houses and he murders the inhabitants. And
there's nobody there that can stop him. There is nobody there
that can hinder Him or arrest Him or bind Him. Look all through
the Old Testament. Look how sin reigned. And the
Scripture teaches this very thing that sin hath reigned unto death. Look at the nations over which
sin reigned. And nobody could stop it. It
was like an awful monster. that destroyed all the Gentile
world and much of the Jewish world. James says, Sin, when
it is finished, bringeth forth death. It was like a sovereign. It reigned unto death. And you
know, when you and I consider ourselves, you go back before
the Lord saved you and remember how sin was with you. Didn't
it reign over you? It reigned in your heart. It
darkens your understanding. The sin of unbelief, the sin
of rebellion, sin of lust. Paul said, you obeyed
the desires of the flesh and of the mind. It reigned over
us. It had its way with us. And it
was trying to murder us, and murder us it would if grace had
not intervened. But how is it now with you? Everything
has changed, hasn't it? Sin doesn't reign over you like
it used to. Oh, it still burdens you. It
still aggravates you. It still trips you up. It still
brings tears to your eyes. But it doesn't reign in you,
does it? Here's what the Scripture says, sin shall not have dominion
over you, not anymore, for you are not under the law but under
grace, where sin abounded. Now grace does much more abound. Aren't you amazed at yourself?
Sometimes I'm amazed at myself, because I remember when sin,
all kinds of sin, just rained over me. I couldn't resist it. But now, don't you find it easy
when grace comes to avoid sin? Isn't that your heart's desire
to do it? It doesn't reign over you anymore,
does it? It's limited as what it can do
in your life. It can molest you, but it can't
reign. And where do you trace this to?
Where do you trace this to that sin doesn't reign over you anymore?
You trace it back to the cross, don't you? It was there that
our Lord Jesus took our sins to Himself. And those monsters
rose up against Him to slay Him. To slay Him like it was going
to us. But I tell you, when they attacked
Him, those murdering tyrants, they found their match in Him,
didn't they? And he said to them, like he did the waves of the
sea, here the two shall you come, but no farther. I'm going to
stop your rain this day. I'm going to lock you up, and
you'll never have free course again. I don't know how this
happens. I really don't know how it works,
but I just know it works. Peter said Christ Himself, bear
our sins, those reigning tyrants, Those murdering tyrants, He bore
those in His own body on the tree. And because He did, now
we are free from sin. That is, we're free from its
reign. It doesn't reign in us anymore.
Because He locked it up, He shut it up in its prison house, as
it were. Now, He says, you can live unto
righteousness. There's people that's trying
their best today, in and of themselves, by their own power, to stop the
rain of sin within them. And some of them have done a
pretty good job outwardly. And you can stop the rain of
sin in your members. You don't have to murder anybody.
You don't have to rob a bank. You don't have to go commit physical
adultery. So we can subdue this old man
outwardly, but you know that's not our main problem, is it?
Sin reigns in the mind. Paul said, you fulfill the desires
of the flesh and of the mind. And that's where sin reigns.
But the Lord Jesus put a stop to it. And that's the way you
and I put a stop to its reign. When we look on it to Calvary,
it has a strange effect upon us. When we look to Him who shut
it up and put it in prison, its reign is stopped in us. Ain't
that amazing? Looking outside of yourself to
Him stops the reign of sin in us and shuts it up in us. Spurgeon had a little comment
on this and I want to read what he said in a message that he
preached on it, in a way really of examining ourselves by this.
He says this, Dear brother, Christ has come into the world to do
all this good work, but has He done it in us? And then he says
this about our sin in regard to their not reigning in us anymore. Is your sin shut up? as to its power. Sin shall not
have dominion over you if Christ is in you. How is it between
you, your soul, and evil? Is there war or is there peace?
Once you love sin, you cannot have enough of it. How is it
now? Do you still delight in evil?
If you do, the love of God is not in you. Can you still put
forth your hand to iniquity as you once did? No. Then do not
pretend that Christ has done anything for you if you can do
so. If you are a believer, your sin
may not be absolutely dead, but it is shut up for dead. It is
fast helped in a condemned cell. It may still breathe, but it
is crucified with Christ. how it tugs to get its hands
loose from the nails, how it struggles to get its feet down
from the tree, but it cannot. For he that nailed it there knew
how to drive the nails and to fasten the offender firm to the
tree. Do you begin to grow weary of
iniquity? Is it distasteful and displeasant
to you? And when looking over the day,
you perceive where you have spoken unadvisedly, or acted hastily,
or in any other way soiled your character, or do you not feel
that you could wash each spot with your tears? If it be so,
Christ has begun in you. He has come to shut up your sin
in you and put an end to its reign. It shall no more have
dominion over you. It may be in you, but it shall
not be on the throne. It may threaten you, but it cannot
command you. It may grieve you, but it cannot
destroy you. You are under another master. You serve the Lord's Christ."
Ain't that wonderful? Jesus Christ said, I'm going
to shut up sin as to its reign. I'm going to shut it up. And
He did so. And He does it in us when He
converts us, when He saves us. But there's something else here.
Not only does it say that He shut up our transgressions, but
He put an end, that is, He sealed up. He not only put him in jail,
as it were, but he put a seal upon that jail cell. Now, that's a wonderful thought.
And here's one of the reasons I say this. I remember a few
years ago, well, it was not long after the Lord converted me,
and I was so afflicted with something, I couldn't get it off my mind.
For probably two or three years, I was afflicted with this. I
kept thanking to myself. What if I suddenly had foreknowledge? What if I could look five years
down the road to see where I was five years from then? And I saw
myself having left my wife, I saw myself as a sorry drunk, and
I had left my profession of Christ. And here I was again with sin
reigning over me like it used to. And that thought afflicted
me so bad. But after a few years went by,
I began to think, well, it hasn't happened yet. It hasn't happened yet. I'm still
on the way. Though I struggle with sin and
though I sometimes fall, it hasn't reigned over me. Not only is
it shut up in its power, but it's sealed up there. It'll never
get out to rain again. And what a thought that is! Twenty-five
years, or thirty years, or forty years, you've been on the way. Did you ever dream you could
have made it this far? Don't it feel like sometime that
sin is going to come back and say, I'm returning to my house
from which I came out? And I'm going to get on the throne,
and I'm going to begin my reign again. I was just gone temporarily,
but I busted out of jail, and now I'm going to reign again.
But here's the blessing behind it. When the Lord Jesus shut
him up in jail, He put such a seal upon the bars, sin cannot get
out. He cannot get out. Glenn, He'll
never reign in you again. Never reign in you again. Oh,
ain't that a wonderful thought? And not only sin and its power,
that's not the only thing, but sin and its condemning power,
sin and its guilt will never reign over you again. Paul said,
there is therefore now no guilt, no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus. But what about next week? That's
now. But what about next year? What
if I live to be 90 years old? What about guilt-pain? Well,
here's what the Lord Jesus said about that. He said, No, I have
so sealed it up that he can never condemn you again. He that heareth
my word, and believeth on him that sent me, has everlasting
life, and he shall never come into condemnation. He'll never
have to suffer the guilt of sin and condemnation of sin again. As Jesus Christ shall shut up
sin in you. Has he? I think he has. Some
of you have been on the way a long time. A long time. Don't you imagine, Daniel, as
he looked around and see how sin was reigning, and here comes
Gabriel. He said, Gabriel, he says, Daniel,
listen, O beloved of the Lord, the Messiah is coming. And when
he comes, this sin that you see reigning, oh, he's going to arrest
it. He's going to put it in the cell.
He's going to put a seal of it on it, and he'll never reign
again as it's doing now. And I tell you, he not only put
a seal and arrested sin, but he arrested Satan too, didn't
he? He's bound him. He's not free as he used to be
in the Old Testament. He's bound now. And he will be
bound. And he'll stay bound. until the
Lord Jesus loosens him just for a little season. So our sins
have been shut up and they have been sealed up. They cannot reign
and they will never reign in their power and their guilt as
they used to. But he says something else here
thirdly. Not only did he shut up our transgressions and sealed
up our sins, but he covered up our iniquities. He covered up
our iniquities. Our iniquities is what brought
division. It brought separation. That's
why he uses the word, Jim, reconciliation. He's going to make reconciliation. And how is he going to make reconciliation? He's going to cover up that which
brought separation. You know, I have one of the most
heartbreaking things, especially if you're a pastor or you're
a minister and you marry a couple and they start having trouble.
And you try to talk with them, and you see their marriage is
gone. I tell you, that's one of the
most heartbreaking things I think I've ever experienced. The wife,
she's committed some awful thing. Maybe she's committed adultery.
The husband can't get it out of his mind. He said, I'd be
reconciled with her, but every time I think about it, this comes
to my mind. I can't go through this. The
husband's being caught up in some awful sins. Maybe he's gambled
away their financial security. And the wife can't get past that.
I can't trust him anymore. And sometimes you just wish it
could come a big snow and just cover all those filthy places
and all those transgressions. And they couldn't see those things
anymore. cover up everything that caused divisions and caused
their minds to be evil affected. And all they could see was the
whiteness. The snow had covered everything. That's the way the
Lord Jesus Christ has done with our sins that cause division
between us and the Father. I used to read Romans chapter
4, that verse that says, Blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven. and whose sins are covered. I used to read that
and I thought, I don't like that. I don't want my sins to be covered.
That's what I've been doing all these years, covering my sin
up. But I want them to be atoned for. I want them to be purged. Well, that's so. But then I begin
to see the blessing in that word, covered. Covered. Your sins are covered. And you
was the blessing in it for me. I could still see my sins. I still saw them. I thought about
them, Clarence. Oh, look at my past. Look what
I've done. Oh, sometimes a guilt would come tumbling in remembering
and seeing my sins and looking upon them. Oh, I see them. But
you was the blessing. God couldn't see them. They were
covered in His eyes. I love that as opposed to washing
them away, because when you think they're washed away, you say,
but wait, I can still see them. But I tell you, when you talk
about being covered, they may not be covered from your eyes,
but they're covered from God's eyes. Everything that caused
separation, everything that caused division, everything that caused
the judgment of God upon you, it's all been Like a white snow. And when God looks upon you,
Glenn, when He looks upon your past, all He sees is the white
snow. And He says, I don't see any
iniquity. I don't see any reason to be angry with Glenn. It would
be unjust to be angry with him. Reconciliation has been made.
Because that which brought division has been covered. You've read
this. I know you have. But look over
here in Numbers with me. Old Daniel chapter 9, just for
a minute. And look in Numbers chapter 23 and verse 20 and verse
21. Numbers chapter 23 and verse
20 and verse 21. Here's the blessing behind this. Here's where Balaam went forth
to curse the children of Israel. And God says to him, you can
curse all you want to, all I'm going to do is bless. And finally,
old Balaam the false prophet just threw up his hands. Verse
20, Behold, I have received commandment to bless, and he hath blessed,
and I cannot reverse it. Look at this. He, the eternal
God who sees all things, hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob. Neither hath he seen perverseness
in Israel. The Lord his God is with him,
and the shout of the king is among them." Ain't that a wonderful
thing? You see it in yourself, don't
you? Of course you do. But he don't see it. And when
we know that he don't see it, that it's covered, and here's
the key, here's the blessing, What's it covered with? It's
not covered by our denial of it. It's not covered by our sweeping
it under the rug. But it's covered with the blood
of Christ. With the obedience of Christ.
With the righteousness of Christ. And I tell you, that covers everything.
It just covers everything. Now we can go to our Father.
And we can be reconciled to Him. We don't have to be afraid of
coming into His presence now, because we know He can't see
our sin. It's covered. If I could believe,
Glenn, He could see them, I ain't going to Him. No way am I going
into the presence of the Holy God if I know He can see my sin.
I ain't going to do that. I'm afraid to. I'm afraid to. But when I know that Christ dealt
with my sins upon the cross, and now the Father says it's
all covered. Now I can go say, you're my father. And he can
say, you're my child. There's nothing between us. What
sin are you talking about? I don't know what you're talking
about. I can't see it. Oh, he's going to shut up. He's
going to seal up and he's going to cover up. What a blessing
this must have been to poor Daniel. Over back now in Daniel chapter
9. He's been dealing with sin, now
He's going to deal with three more things. He's going to bring
in everlasting righteousness. And He's going to seal up the
vision and prophecy and anoint the most holy place. And let's
look at these three things right quick. He's going to bring in
everlasting righteousness. Now this is something, if you
and I think about, There's only been two men in
the history of all the world that were righteous. Just two. Adam and Jesus Christ, the Son
of God. Only two men that's ever been
righteous. Adam was created righteous, and
Jesus Christ was born holy and lived a righteous life. And every one of us here this
afternoon, has the righteousness of one of these two men. We have
the righteousness of Adam, or we have the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's the difference. Adam's
righteousness was the righteousness of a creature. God created him,
and He created him upright. He created him righteous. The
righteousness of Jesus Christ is the righteousness of the Creator.
That's the difference in their righteousness. A creature's righteousness
and the righteousness of the Creator. Adam's righteousness
was a temporal righteousness. It was based upon his own obedience,
and because it was, he fell by disobedience and lost his righteousness. Jesus Christ's righteousness
is an everlasting righteousness, and He was obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross, and His obedience is finished. And therefore, this righteousness
can never be reversed or disallowed. Therefore, this righteousness
can never be lost. It resides safe with him in heaven
on the right hand of God. And this righteousness not only
resides with him, but it comes unto and upon every sinner who
believes in him for it. And once the poor sinner has
it through faith, he can never mower it, he can never lose it,
Because it's not based upon His work. It's not based upon His
own obedience, but the obedience of Him who finished it in the
days of His flesh, and who lives everlastingly to give it to those
who believe on Him for it. Now, ain't that a wonderful thing?
Whose righteousness would you rather have? If you're an Adam today, you
still have his righteousness. But he's filthy rags now. It'd
been good to have his righteousness if he was still there in the
garden. I'd take that. I'd rather have this, though. Adam lost that. You can't lose
this. You can't a bit more lose this
righteousness than he can lose it. Because it's not yours. It's His. It's His. Ain't that a wonderful thing? It was not imputed. It was not
written that it was imputed to Abraham's sake alone. But to
us also, to whom righteousness shall be imputed, if we believe
on Him, that raised up Jesus, our Lord from the dead, who was
delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. This same faith that believes
Jesus for righteousness, this same faith also justifies us. And this same faith purifies
our hearts and makes us lovingly obedient. Righteousness, everlasting
righteousness. Thy blood and righteousness,
my beauty, are my glorious dress. In flaming worlds and these arrayed,
with joy shall I lift up my head." Oh, hear these poor Jews were.
They had broken the law of Moses. And what a mess they were in.
What a contempt they had brought upon God and ashamed of themselves.
Gabriel says, Daniel, it's going to change. It's changing. It's going to change soon. The
Messiah is coming. He's going to bring in another
righteousness. One that can't be mired, can't be lost. Fifthly, Gabriel told Daniel,
here when the Messiah comes, He is going to seal up the vision
and prophecy. He's going to seal up the vision.
He's going to seal up the prophecy. This word seal here, it means
to bring an end to. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
came into this world, He brought an end to those Old Testament
visions and those Old Testament prophecies. He put a stop to
them. There's no more prophecies, there's
no more visions concerning the first coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. He put an end to all that. He
put a stop to it. You know, ain't it an amazing
thing? I just wonder if the Jews, who some of them are still looking
for the Messiah to come, I just wonder if they ever think some
time. You know, we ain't had a new prophecy. We ain't had
a new revelation for 2,000 years or more. I wonder why that is. If the
Messiah hasn't come, surely God would still be giving prophecies
of His coming. But He's not being there. They
don't even claim that they've got any new revelation. But you
know why there's no new prophecies that Christ is coming? You know
why nobody's receiving any visions from God that the Messiah has
come? He's already come. He's ended those prophecies.
And you know not all of the Old Testament prophecies concerning
his first coming. But in a very short time, he
sealed up the New Testament. There's no new visions, there's
no new prophecies. He sealed it all. We've got it
written here in this little tiny book. And aren't you glad it's
so tiny? What if we had a whole library
of prophecies and visions? We can't even hardly cope with
the little book we've got, Kevin. What if we had a thousand books?
Aren't you glad that he's limited to this one little book? And
sealed it up? And says, listen to me, right
here is all I'm going to give you. This is enough for you. If somebody comes to you and
says, wait a minute now, we have found some golden plates. Tell them to go to the law and
to the testimony. If they don't do that, it's because
there's no light in them. If some prophet named Mohammed
rises up and says, wait a minute, I've got some new revelations
and I'm going to put it down in the little book of Quoram,
pay no mind to them. If somebody comes and says, here's
Christ, there's Christ, tell them the prophecy has been sealed.
There's no new visions. Aren't you glad for that? I tell
you, if there are any new ones to come, you may see some changes
in the old ones, mightn't you? Aren't you glad that everything
we need to know is already written down and sealed and there are
no surprises? There are no boogie traps. There
are no boogie traps here. It has already been given, Glenn,
and finished. When the Scripture says, all
we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to His
own way, and God hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. That's sealed. That's settled.
There's no new prophecy to annul that. When He says, God shall
seal the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied, I will
give you a new heart and a new spirit, that's settled. That's
settled. When Jesus came, He sealed it
all up. He stopped it. He said, you've
got it all. Ain't going to give no more.
Don't worry about some fresh vision coming on. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. That's fixed. Well, I've received
a new prophecy. I think I'll hang on to the old.
Don't you? I'm going to hang on to the old. I tell you, if you can read it
in God's Word, You latch on to it by the hands of faith. Don't
let it get away. Because it's settled. It's settled. When Jesus Christ came, He sealed
up the vision and the prophecy. And lastly is this. And to anoint
the Most Holy. This is what the Lord Jesus did
when He came. Everything about the kingdom
of God seems to be anointed, seems to have a sweet smell about
it. The scripture says that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with
the Holy Ghost. He gave him the Spirit without
measure and he went about serving God and doing good. And on the
day of Pentecost it seems to me that Jesus anointed the church
with the Holy Ghost. He poured the Holy Ghost out
upon the church. And we know that every believer
is anointed. He has received the anointing
of the Holy Spirit. Listen to John. The anointing
which you have received of him abides in you. And that same anointing teaches
you of all things, and it's true, and it's no lie. And even as
it has taught you, you shall abide in Him. He's anointed every believer.
What with? The Holy Spirit. He's given you
the Holy Spirit. Are you in the kingdom? Are you in the kingdom? You know
that kingdom has been anointed. It has the sweet aroma of Christ
on it and His sacrifice. You remember when Noah and his
family came into the New World? Noah built an altar and burned
some clean beast, and the Scripture says God smelt a sweet aroma. And God said, I will never again
curse man. I never send a flood to destroy
man anymore. He smelt that sweet aroma in
the new world. And this is a new kingdom, the
kingdom of God, and it has the sweet aroma of Christ upon it. Christ loved us and gave Himself
an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling Savior. He's anointed. He's anointed
Himself and He has anointed His people and heaven itself. We
are unto God a sweet savor of Christ. Our meditations are accepted
and sweet to Him. The words of our lips, our works,
our messages, our sermons, our preaching of Christ, It's a sweet
savor of Christ. He has anointed everything in
this kingdom. Somebody was talking about the
lilies of the valley that the Song of Solomon talks about.
And they were talking about what a sweet scent these lilies emitted. And it said the rabbits were
very wise when the foxes used to get after them. They would
run in these lilies. And the scent on these lilies
were so strong that it would drown out the scent of the rabbit
and the foxes couldn't track them. Well, I tell you, brothers
and sisters, Jesus is the lily of the valley. And when He pours upon you Himself,
His sacrifice. You smell just like Him. To God
and to one another. You know what you smell like
to me? You smell like Christ. That's what you smell like. That's
what we smell like one to another. Christ. Look over here in Hebrews 9 and
we'll close. Look in Hebrews 9. Look here in verse 19. Hebrews 9 and verse 19. When
Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to
the law, he took the blood of calves and goats with water and
scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all
the people, saying, This is the blood of the testament, the covenant,
which God hath enjoined, commanded you. Moreover, he sprinkled with
blood the tabernacle, the vessels of ministry, and almost all things
are by the law purged with blood, and without shedding of blood
is no remission. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of
things in heaven should be purified, cleansed, anointed with these. But the heavenly things, they
were anointed, they were cleansed, they were perfumed. with better
sacrifices than these, cows and goats and so on. For Christ is
not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are only
the figures of the truth, but he is entered into heaven itself,
now to appear in the presence of God for us. Now yet that he should offer
himself often as the high priest enter into the holy places once
every year with the blood of others. For then must he often
have suffered since the foundation of the world, but now, once in
the end of the world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself." He's a sweet-smelling Savior,
ain't he? And he's in God's presence now. And I tell you, heaven smells
of His aroma. Smells of His aroma. He anointed
the holy place. Let's pray.