Would you turn back to Daniel
9? And in this passage of scripture,
particularly verse 24, we read of six things that Messiah has
done. Now, notice, I did not say six
things that he's doing. I did not say these are six things
that he will do if we, I know where that'll go. Six things
which he has actually done. And you and I can identify the
Messiah if we're hearing him preached by these six things
that he's done. Messiah that has not done these
six things is a false Messiah and a false Christ. Now read
these with me together in verse 24. 70 weeks, 77's, 490 years
are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city Number one, to finish the transgression. Number two, to make an end of sins. Number three, to make reconciliation
for iniquity. Number four, to bring in everlasting
righteousness. Number five, to seal up the vision
and prophecy. And number six, to anoint the
most holy. Now, any Messiah I hear of that
doesn't actually do these six things is a false Christ with
no saving power. Now, this is speaking of the
Messiah. Look in verse 25. Know therefore
and understand that from the going forth of the commandment
to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall
be seven weeks and three score and two weeks. between the rebuilding
of Jerusalem that Nehemiah and Ezra did and the cutting off
of the Messiah will be 483 years. And they could read that within
verse 25. And after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be
cut off. What Messiah has done. Now the idea of Messiah And the
New Testament Greek word is Christ. It means the anointed. The idea of the Messiah has been
around for a long time. You remember that the woman at
the well? As she said, I know that Messiah cometh. And when
he comes, he'll teach us all things. You remember how John
the Baptist sent his messengers to the Lord and said, art thou
he that should come? or look we for another. They
were looking for the coming of the Messiah. You remember Simeon
in the temple. The scripture says, he had had
it revealed to him that he should not see death until he had seen
the Lord's Christ, the Lord's Messiah. They had read the prophecies
of his coming. I love this. Somebody once said
the Old Testament can be summarized by this. Somebody's coming. The
New Testament. He's here. The epistles. He's coming again. They knew
what town he would be born in. Bethlehem. It was foretold in
Micah chapter 5. They knew about when he would
be born because of this prophecy. 483 years from the building of
Jerusalem. I don't know if that means that's
when he'll be born or that's when he'll die, but they were
given some idea. And when those wise men came
from the East, that's actually from Babylon where Daniel had
been. And they had been reading the scriptures, studying Daniel,
and they knew that this was the time of his appearing. That's
why they came. They had read that he would be
born of a virgin. It's in the scriptures, Isaiah
7, 14. They'd read, Isaiah 9, 6, for
unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government,
the rule, the dominion shall be upon his shoulders. But they were thinking of one
who would deliver them from the national tyranny of Rome. That's
what they were thinking at this time. They were under the thumb
of the Roman government, having to give much of their money that
they made to Rome. and they were thinking the Messiah
would come and deliver us from this oppression and make us top
dogs once again. We'll no longer be the ruled,
we'll be the rulers. We'll be on top and everybody
will be under us. Now that was the idea of wanting
this Messiah to come to restore to Israel the glory we had under
David and under Solomon and to be delivered from all this political
tyranny that we're underneath. Oh, they longed for the coming
of the Messiah. Now, they wanted their plight
to be better. And you know, there have been
countless movies with the idea of a Messiah. I think the most
recent one are the Matrix movies where the I can't remember what
the guy's name was but they called him the Chosen One. He was the
one who was supposed to deliver everybody. The Mad Max movies
were all about him being some kind of Messiah. And it's just
a thought that people have. We're in this bad condition and
somebody is going to come and help us out and make us to be
in a better place. Looking for the coming of the
Messiah. Now, let's back up to verse 20. And while 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, we considered that last week, the prayer of
Daniel. Yea, while I was yet speaking in prayer, even the
man Gabriel. Now this is the angel that appeared
to Joseph and Mary. This is the angel that appeared
to the shepherds at night, the man Gabriel, to announce the
birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, in Daniel's day, 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 or sacrifice. And he informed me and talked
with me and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill
and understanding." I'm going to reveal to you what all of
this means. Now, the only way that we're
ever going to understand the scriptures is if the Lord reveals
them to us. And if you'll remember, this
chapter started with him studying the book of Jeremiah, and he
knew that there would be a 70-year captivity, and that time was
almost over, and it was almost time for the children of Israel
to go back to Jerusalem. And if you start into that next
chapter, he said, I was mourning for three weeks. He heard about
all these wonderful things that the Lord was going to do, and
he doesn't seem to be happy at all. He's upset. He's mourning.
And I believe I know why. Because most of the children
of Israel had no desire to go back to Jerusalem. They had been
there 70 years. They had their homes. They had
their family. They had their jobs. They had their prosperity.
Things are going fine. Why would we want to go back
there in this devastated Daniel? because he wanted to go back
to the place where the temple was, representing the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I think that's why he was so upset. The Lord had
revealed all these glorious things are going to take place in the
children of Israel, but we're fine where we're at. We don't need
to go back there. And he was greatly upset. Verse
23, at the beginning of thy supplications, the commandment came forth and
I'm come to show thee For thou art greatly beloved. Well, I want that to be me and
I want that to be you. Greatly beloved of the Lord God. And that is said of every one
of his people. Greatly beloved. He spared not
his own son for you. Greatly beloved. Therefore understand the matter
and consider the vision. And we're gonna come back to
verse 24. I'm gonna read it without saying much. 70 weeks are determined
upon thy people, that's 490 years, and upon thy holy city to do
these six things, to finish the transgression, to make an end
of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting
righteousness, to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint
the most holy. Know therefore and understand
that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and
to build Jerusalem, that's what Nehemiah and Ezra did, unto Messiah
the prince shall be seven weeks and three score and two weeks,
69 weeks, 483 years. Now, is that talking about when
Christ would be born or when he would die? I'm not sure, nor
is anybody else, but evidently the Magi thought it was the time
he was to be born because they were there and I guess that's
what it meant. And the street shall be built again and the
wall even in troubleless times. This is talking about the rebuilding
of Jerusalem, which was getting ready to take place after this
70 years of captivity during Ezra and Nehemiah's day. The
prince will come and the wall will be built even in trouble
times, verse 26, after three score and two weeks shall Messiah
be cut off, talking about his death. on the cross, but not
for himself. It was a substitutionary death.
And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy
the city and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with
a flood, and the end thereof the war of the desolation is
determined." That's talking about the leveling of Jerusalem that
was going to take place in 70 AD. It was completely destroyed. And he shall confirm the covenant
with many for one week And in the midst of the week, he shall
cause the sacrifice, and I believe this is talking about the Antichrist
he's speaking of in chapter eight. 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. And for the overspreading
of abominations, he shall make it desolate, even into the consummation,
and that determined, I love that word, that determined, shall
be poured upon the desolate. One of the things I love about
the book of Daniel is he knows that God is in control of everything. It didn't keep him from being
sad over seeing people's response. He mourned for three weeks in
this next chapter, but he knew that God determined everything
that the Most High ruleth over men. You know, I hear people
talk about a Christian worldview, and somehow it kind of annoys
me when I hear that, the Christian worldview of economics or the
Christian worldview. Here's the Christian worldview. God rules, and His will is always
done. He's in complete control of everybody. everything. Now that's the Christian
worldview. Christ is all. God created the
world for the glory of His Son and everything He does, He does
for the glory of His Son. Christ Jesus is glorious. He's
going to win the victory. That's the Christian worldview
and all this. But in verse You know, let me
make this too. Out of this verse, I don't know
if you all have ever heard of dispensationalism and different
dispensations and when Christ comes back, they're gonna rebuild
the temple and they're gonna reinstitute the sacrifices and
all this kind, this all comes from this passage of scripture.
It's not what it teaches, but all that weird stuff, that dispensationalism,
comes out of these verses of the temple being rebuilt and
the sacrifices being, and the seven-year tribulation. We talked
about that seven years. There's supposed to be a seven-year
tribulations where all the taken books comes from, if you've heard
of that. all the Christians will be raptured
up and then there'll be a seven year period of, of torment and
torture, but God's giving everybody another second chance. And maybe
you can be saved during that seven year period. It's that
all comes from this passage of scripture. It's just amazing
that the things that come out of it, but, um, um, the verse
24, now here is what the Messiah will do. These six things, He
is going to finish the transgression. He's going to make an end of
sins. Notice the transgression, singular,
and sins, plural, and to make reconciliation, and that's the
word generally translated atonement, to make reconciliation for iniquity,
and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up, to fulfill, the
vision and the prophecy and to anoint the most holy. Now the Messiah, the Christ,
the sent one, the son of God, the lamb, the savior, the son
of David, the son of Mary, the lion of the tribe of Judah, Jesus
of Nazareth. I love saying that, Jesus of
Nazareth. The Lord of Lords and the King
of Kings was sent to do these six things. And I repeat, any
Christ that I hear of that has not completely accomplished these
six things is a false Christ. And him actually doing these
six things is my only hope of heaven. All my hope is found
in the accomplishments of the Lord right here. Now, here's
the thing he mentions first. He's come to finish the transgression. Now notice the transgression. I think that as much as anything
else, he's referring to the transgression, Adam's sin. But you also have
to understand that sin is the transgression of the law. He satisfied the law by keeping
it perfectly. He never sinned. Can you imagine that? I mean,
I imagine him never sinning because of who he is, but I mean, as
far as, can you imagine an earthly existence without sin? He kept God's law perfectly,
and he did what only he could do. He satisfied its demands
for death. Now, the soul that sinneth according
to the law shall surely die. The reason hell is eternal, the
reason we're not annihilated if we go to hell, that it goes
on forever, is because no sinner can actually satisfy the justice
of God. It's not enough. It's not enough. It's an infinite evil committed
against an infinite God. And the easiest way, not easy,
but the best way I can understand this is if somebody killed my
daughter, I don't care what amount of money they offered me to say,
will this satisfy you? It wouldn't be enough. It wouldn't
be enough. I don't care if it was all the
money in this world. It wouldn't be enough to satisfy
me. regarding what took place. But
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ did something that me or you
could never do. He actually satisfied the justice
of God so that God said, I am satisfied. I don't need anything
else. I don't need any more. And the
resurrection of Christ is the proof of that. God said, I am
satisfied. When he said, it is finished,
Transgression was finished. It was put away. It was gone. And what he did was successful. Now I think of the fact that
he said the transgression because he because he said the transgression.
I think he's talking about Adam's sin. Now me and you were in Adam. He put all that away. He made
it to where we do not have any connection with Adam's sin. It's called justification. If
I'm justified before God, that means I never sinned. I'm perfect
in God's sight. I've never committed a sin. I've
never done anything to displease God. I'm perfectly accepted in
His sight. If I'm justified, that's what
justification means. It's not merely forgiven. It's
not merely pardoned. I've got no guilt. I have no
connection with Adam. I have no connection with sin.
He finished the transgression. You see, what he did must be
successful. It's not possible that anybody
that he died for could ever have to stand before God and give
an account for their sin in any way. You know why? There's no
sin to give an account for. finished transgression. Now that's
what he did. That's what he did. You know
what that means? That means my transgression is
finished. It's gone. Look at the next thing. He came to finish the transgression
and to make an end of sins, sins in the plural, sins. Now it would
be vain and impossible for me to, or you, to compute just how
many sins you've committed. I mean, even thinking that you
could means you don't really much understand what sin is in
the first place. If you think I've had this many sins or about
maybe 173 million or what, no, it doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way. it
would be impossible for us to be able to count our many sins. But the scripture says, he made
an end of them. He made, there are a whole lot
of them, aren't there? And I have no way of knowing
how many, I don't even know which ones to confess. But the scripture
says that he made an end of them. their sins and their iniquities,
I will remember no more." Now, here's something I don't understand,
but I believe. In heaven, when I stand in glory,
the Lord is not going to look at me and remember things I've
done. I'm not going to remember them
either. but the Lord's not gonna look at me and the reality of
the things you've done and that I've done, the sin against him,
he's not gonna look at me or you if you're a believer and
say, I remember that. How could that be? There's only
one reason. There really is nothing to remember.
He put them away and every believer stands before God without sin. He made an end of sin. And let
me repeat this about justification. Justification is not just as
if I never sinned, because if it's just as if I never sinned,
I sinned. Justification is I never sinned. I never sinned. Now somebody says, how could
that be? How could that be that he's made, he's finished transgression
and he's made a complete end of sins so we don't have to stand
before God in any way guilty, have nothing to feel guilty about?
Well he tells us in the next statement. Here's the third thing
that Messiah has done. He's finished the transgression
and he's made an end of sins and here's how he did it. Verse,
the third thing, to make reconciliation. And that word reconciliation
is the word that's generally translated atonement. He made
atonement for iniquity. Now, that word atonement, it's
translated here, reconciliation. And I think it's interesting
how the word is not found in the New Testament. I know it
says in Romans 5, 10 or 511 by whom we've received the atonement,
but the word is actually reconciliation. But it's the same idea. He atoned
for sin. He made it not to be. And that's
how, here I am a sinful person while I'm talking to you, yet
before God there is no sin. The transgression is finished.
It's put away. The sin, he's made an end of
it because the Lord Jesus Christ made an actual atonement on Calvary's
tree. When he said it is finished,
the transgression was finished and an end was made of sins. Now, let me show you a couple
of verses in the New Testament. Turn to Romans 8. These are very
familiar verses. Verse 31, what shall we then
say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? Who can bring anything to our
charge? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up
for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us
all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who is he that condemneth? Bring
it on, what Paul's saying. Come on, somebody bring a condemnation
against me. I dare you. It's Christ that died. That's
the only answer that's needed. It's Christ that's died. Yea,
rather that's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God,
who also maketh intercession for us. I'm justified. My sins have been atoned for.
They are no more. Turn to Colossians 1. Verse 20. Pretend like you've never heard
this before. And having made peace through
the blood of his cross. He made it by Him to reconcile
all things unto Himself. By Him, I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were sometime
or before time alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath He reconciled, made atonement reconciled in
the body of his flesh through death, that death that satisfied
God. And here's what comes as a result
of his atonement to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. Now that's atonement, isn't it?
That is the result of his glorious atoning work on Calvary's tree. Now, somebody described him as
holy and unblameable and unapprovable. They have no connection now with
Adam's sin, do they? Because it was ended. It was
finished. It was put away, purged, blotted
out by the blood of Christ. Now look at this fourth thing. back in Daniel 9. He finished transgression. He
made an end of sins to make reconciliation or atonement for iniquity. And
here's the fourth thing he did to bring in everlasting righteousness. And here's the fourth thing he
did, Messiah, that he accomplished for his people. He's brought
in everlasting righteousness. Now let's think about Adam's
righteousness. It sure wasn't everlasting, was
it? It began with him. It was not eternal. It began
with him. And I don't believe it lasted
very long. He lost his righteousness. Obviously, it's not everlasting.
And consequently, the righteousness of all of his descendants are
described by Isaiah, our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. But the Lord Jesus Christ brought
in everlasting righteousness. It's a righteousness that has
no beginning. It's a righteousness that has
no ending. Everlasting righteousness. Now, it is not a righteousness that
we are enabled to perform by grace. Understand this. It's very important for me to
understand this righteousness that we're speaking of. This
is not a righteousness that the grace of God enables us to perform. Two scriptures out of Jeremiah
chapter 23 verse 6 and chapter Jeremiah 33 verse 15. The one
in chapter 23 verse 6 This is the name wherewith he
shall be called, the Lord, our righteousness. And Jeremiah 33
verse 15 says, this is the name wherewith she shall be called. The exact same name, the Lord
our righteousness. What's your name? The Lord our
righteousness. That's the name I go by. I'll
take that name. How about you? You see, according to the scripture,
Listen to this scripture. And we use it generally to talk
about the horror of what the Lord endured on the cross. And
indeed, it should be understood in that light. But 2 Corinthians
5, verse 21 says, for he hath made him to be sin for us who
knew no sin. Watch the rest of the verse.
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And that's what Messiah did.
He brought in everlasting righteousness. Not only did he make an end of
sin, not only did he finish the transgression, Not only did he
make reconciliation for iniquity, he brought in everlasting righteousness
so that every believer is nothing less than the very righteousness
of God. Now, my righteousness is not
like his righteousness. My righteousness is not equal
to his righteousness. My righteousness is the very
righteousness of God. And that's the one Messiah does.
Now, if the Messiah you believe doesn't do that, it's not the
Messiah of scripture. He brought in everlasting righteousness. And then fifthly, it says he
came to seal up, to finish. to fulfill the vision and the
prophecy. Now this is interesting. The
Lord gives us the whole Old Testament to see if the Christ we're hearing
measures up. Well, he shall be born of the
seed of woman, virgin birth. That's, there it is. I mean,
you just go on and on and on through the scriptures, how he
matches all of these descriptions in the Old Testament and he fulfills
the prophecy of this book. He's going to come at the time,
483 years or 490 or whatever it is, he's going to come. The
best scripture I think of is Christ died for our sins according
to the scriptures, according to the Old Testament scriptures.
And we can look at all the Old Testament scriptures and see
if our Messiah lines up exactly with the one of the Old Testament
scriptures. with the one of Isaiah 53, with the one of the Passover.
When I see the blood, I will pass over you. The great day
of atonement, on and on and on. He will fulfill every prophecy,
every vision. There's a reason he was born
in Bethlehem. God said he would be. There's a reason he went
down to Nazareth. God said he would. There's a
reason he went down to Egypt. He said, I called my son out
of Egypt. You know, if you read the account of the death of Christ,
it's almost like they looked up, what are we supposed to do
next? And then they'd do it. Now, they didn't realize that, but
that's exactly what they were doing. They were fulfilling His
will. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. you have taken him with
wicked hands of crucified and slain. For of a truth against
thy holy child Jesus, whom thou has anointed both Herod and Pontius
Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered
together to do whatsoever thy hand and my counsel determined
before the people. He completely fulfilled every
prophecy of the scripture. There's a reason why his hands
were pierced. There's a reason why they stripped him of his
robe and tried to gamble for his clothing. I mean, everything
was exactly as he said it would be. And then, I love this, the
Messiah will anoint the most holy. If He's the Messiah, this is
what He'll do. He will anoint the Most Holy,
the Holy of Holies. Now, God dwells in the Holy of
Holies. Now remember what happened when
Christ died? The veil of the temple was rent
from the top to the bottom, separation, and there was entrance into that
holy of holies. But more than that, not only
entrance into the holy of holies, what did John say? You have an
anointing. an unction from the Holy One. You have been made holy. He anointed you as holy to where
you can come into the presence of a thrice holy God and be embraced. Christ is made unto us. holiness. We are said to be partakers
of His holiness. He anointed. That's what it says. You have an unction, an anointing
from the Holy One. Now, listen to me, child of God. You probably came in here feeling
bad because of your sin. I do too. I understand that. You're holy. You're holy. David said, I am
holy. You know, it's hard to say that,
isn't it? It's hard to say, but it's what Scripture says. Born
of the Spirit, given a new nature. And the reason we have it is
because He anointed us by His Spirit and brought us into the
very holy of holies. Now, these are the things that
Messiah has done. Now, I've had people come up
to me and write to me and things like that saying, what's God
doing in your life? And I just cringe when people say that.
I don't know. I really don't. I don't know what he's doing.
He does, and I'm fine with that, but I don't know. And somebody
says, God will do this if you do that. Well, that really leaves
me in a bad place, because I know where that's going to end. But
what has he actually done? What has he actually done? Well,
this tells us the Messiah finished the transgression. He made an
end of sins. He makes reconciliation, atonement
for iniquity. He brings in an everlasting righteousness
to seal up the vision and the prophecy and to anoint the most
holy. Now in closing, turn to Mark
chapter five. Now this is the story of the
Gadarene demonic whose name was Legion and had thousands of demons
in him that the Lord cast out. You remember they went into 2,000
pigs and the pigs ran and went off a cliff into the ocean and
all drowned. And the man that was so... They tried to tame
him. They did everything they could
to tame him. But he couldn't be tamed when sin would call. His plight was awful. He was naked, cutting himself
with stones. He was in such a bad condition. And the Lord did something for
him. We read in verse 15, this is
what he did. And they came to Jesus and see him that was possessed
with the devil and had the legion. sitting, clothed, and in his
right mind. Here's an inscription of a believer.
Sitting at the feet of Christ, clothed in his very righteousness,
and in his right mind. You see, if you don't look to
Christ only, you're crazy. You're crazy. The only people who are
right-minded are people who are enabled by the grace of God to
look to Christ only. Anything else is just plumb crazy. Go on reading. They were afraid. Here's this guy sitting at the
feet of Christ, clothed in his right mind. They didn't like
it. They didn't like it. They were still crazy. And David
saw it, told them how it befell to them that was possessed with
the devil and also concerning the swine. They began to pray
him to depart out of their coast. We don't like this. They asked
him to leave. And he was coming to the ship.
He that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he
might be with him. He wanted to go with him. He
knew the Lord was going back and he wanted to follow him.
He didn't want to stay there. Wherever the Lord was, that's where he
wanted to be. How be it? Jesus suffered him
not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends and tell them
how great things the Lord, what are those other two words? Hath
done, hath done for thee and hath had compassion on thee. Well, I can tell you what he's
done. He's finished my transgression. He's made an end of my sins. He's made reconciliation for
my iniquity. He's brought to me everlasting
righteousness. He's fulfilled everything in
this book and he's anointed the most holy. That is what Messiah
has done. Let's pray together. Our Father, how we thank you for your Christ,
the Christ, the Messiah, and what he has done for us. And Lord, truly, when with the
ransomed in glory, his face we at last shall see, it will be
our joy through the ages. to sing of his love for thee
and for us. How beautiful is the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Messiah, the Christ, and how thankful we are that
he was cut off for us, and how we thank you that what he's done
for us. Now bless this message for your
glory and for our good. In Christ's name we pray.