and to represent the work of the American Board of Missions to the Jews, Chosen People Ministry. We know that many of you here are acquainted with this work. If you are not, there is a table as you go out with some literature. I'll be at the back, and you may become a receiver of our magazine, The Chosen People. magazine and I hope that you will remember this work in prayer and that you will pray for the peace of Jerusalem because God's word says those that love you shall prosper and dear friends hardly need to say there is seldom been a time in recent history when the land of Palestine has been in such turmoil as it has been in the last few years I read in yesterday's paper that there is great fear again that a war will break out because of the hostilities between the Palestinians and the Jews in the land of Palestine. We pray for the gospel as it goes to our ancient people Israel. I'm reminded even today that right now my two oldest daughters are at snow camp. They were privileged to bring with them a little unsaved Jewish girl whose heart is as open to the gospel as anyone could be. And even now they may be studying God's Word. And her name is Renee Goldberg. And I hope that as God brings her to your mind today that you'll pray for her salvation. We have been speaking these evenings on the book of Daniel, one of the great books of God's Word. Sir Isaac Newton said to reject the message of the book of Daniel is to reject the truth of the Christian faith. Here we see revealed to us in such detail what is to transpire in the future that one cannot for a moment question that This book that we hold in our hands is the inspired living word of the living God. We have seen in the two services that we have had together that the prophet Daniel lays out what will transpire in a period of time called the times of the Gentiles. This word is on the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ in Luke. Chapter twenty-four and verse twenty-one, where our Lord says to the disciples that Jerusalem would be trodden underfoot until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled. This is a period of time, beloved, when God's people Israel shall be set aside because of their unbelief, and God will allow the Gentile nations of the world political and social and economic dominion. social and economic superiority over his people. That period started at the time of Nebuchadnezzar, as we saw on Thursday night, and stretches all the way to the time of the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. Chapters two and seven, we saw that the course of this Gentile rule will see the rising and the falling of four great world empires. Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. We saw that this final empire, the Roman Empire, has two phases. It has an historical phase, one that is past, the time of our Lord Jesus Christ and shortly thereafter, and it has an eschatological or prophetic phase, which is yet future. where there will be the revival of this fourth empire, and one we saw of the significant end-time rulers will arrive. The little horn of Daniel chapter seven, a world political leader will come from this confederacy of nations. He will knock down three of those ten horns as he comes to power. And then we saw that there is one whom Antiochus Epiphanes, this terrible Seleucid leader of the second century BC, who persecuted God's people, who desecrated the temple in Jerusalem by the slaying of a sow on the altar, Kislev, twenty-five, one sixty-eight. There is one who will be his anti-type, a world religious leader who is going to appear on the world scene. and along with Satan this ungodly, this counterfeit trinity will seek to bring the entire world under the worship and the domination of Satan himself. We come now to the ninth chapter of the book of Daniel, and if you have your Bible, I invite your attention to this great text, where God, through his prophet, tells of a time when unrighteousness shall be removed from his people. We will see not only will God pay for the penalty of sin and break the power of sin over those who are his children, but someday, dear friends, we shall be removed even from the presence of sin. Verse one, in the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chalcedonians, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the book the numbers of the years, which was revealed as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely seventy years. So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek him by prayer and supplication with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. Daniel was reading the book of Jeremiah. And as Daniel read the book of Jeremiah, and contemplated its message. He came across Jeremiah chapter twenty-five, verses eleven and twelve. And again, Jeremiah chapter twenty-nine in verse ten. Both of these passages, the prophet Jeremiah speaking through the Spirit of God says that Babylonian captivity for the sin of idolatry for the worship of Baal will be seventy years in length, and then God will allow His people to come back from exile and to return to the land of promise, the land of Palestine. Daniel pray to find out when the end of those seventy years of Babylonian captivity are going to come to an end. for the sin of idolatry. Now, someone might say, Daniel, why do you need to pray about that? You know when Nebuchadnezzar came down and took the Jews into captivity. Why don't you just subtract seventy years from the fall of Jerusalem and you will know when the seventy years are over? Well, those of you who know your Old Testament history realize that Jerusalem was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar three times. He came down first in six oh six, six oh five BC and laid siege to the city of Jerusalem. And while he had the city under siege, word reached him that his father Nabothalassar had died and that he should return home and accept the crown as the head, as the king of the Babylonian Empire. And so he took some of the vessels that were in the temple in Jerusalem and some of the finest of the young men. Among that first deportation were Daniel and Mishah El, Azariah and Hananiah, men that you know better by the names Shadrach, Meshach, and to bed me go. Ten years later, Nebuchadnezzar came down and again he laid siege to the city of Jerusalem. And he was unable to bring about the fall of that city and he had to return home again with some captives. And in that deportation, he took the prophet Ezekiel with him. And ten years later, in five eighty-six, five eighty-five BC, Nebuchadnezzar came down and he laid siege to the city of Jerusalem. And on the ninth of Av, interestingly enough, the exact day in the Jewish calendar where the second temple fell, the ninth of Av. On the ninth of Av Nebuchadnezzar was successful in entering the gates of the city, destroying that beautiful temple. which had been built by Solomon, and taking captives back to the land of Babylon. So what Daniel is doing, dear friends, is praying and asking God from which one of these sieges the seventy years of Babylonian captivity begin. Did it begin with the first siege or with the last siege? Or did it begin with the second siege? And remember I've said along these various messages that one cannot help but admire Daniel the prophet. We read that he gave himself to seek God by prayer and supplication and fasting and sackcloth and ashes. If Daniel was a lad in his teens when he was taken from... the land of Palestine to Babylon, then chapter nine occurs when Daniel is in his late eighties and or early nineties. I know many of you in the audience can identify with what kind of health, what kind of physical condition Daniel might have been in. But you'll notice Daniel recognized that if you want to receive God's communication. If you want to be God's prophet, you cannot short circuit. You cannot try to get around God's provisions. You have to do things God's way. Most of us would have excused Daniel if Edith said, well, look, at my age, sackcloth and ashes are far too troublesome and to fast at my age. Goodness, it wouldn't be good for me. But Daniel goes all the way with God. And in verse four through verse nineteen, we have one of the great prayers of the Bible. We'll not have time this morning to speak in detail of this prayer, but let me encourage you to study it. Interestingly enough, in all three exilic books, There are great prayers in chapter nine. Daniel nine, Nehemiah nine, and Ezra nine. Three exilic books in chapter nine all possess great prayers on the part of God's spokesman. And in verses twenty to twenty three, we read that God sent Gabriel with the answer to the prayer of Daniel. And it is to verses twenty-four to twenty-nine that we want to give our attention. Verse twenty-four says seventy weeks or seventy groups of seven or seventy weeks of weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city. to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place, or possibly the most holy one. So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, There will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will be built again with moat and plaza even in times of distress. Then after the sixty-two weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood. Even to the end there will be war and desolations. are determined. And He will make a firm covenant with many for one week. But in the middle of the week, He will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering. And on the wing of abomination will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete desolation, one that is decreed is poured out on the one who makes desolate. Beloved, as Daniel prayed, and meditated and thought about the conclusion, the end of Babylonian captivity which God brought upon his people for the sin of idolatry. As God often does, God gave him a prophecy of far greater scope and far greater importance. Daniel was concerned about the end of seventy years of captivity. God gives him a prophecy that covers seventy weeks of years or four hundred and ninety years, a period of time when God will not only remove from his people the sin of idolatry, but he will remove from his people unrighteousness altogether. We see that summarized beautifully in verse twenty-four. If you like to take notes or write in your Bible, you can put by verse twenty-four summary of seventy weeks. We read seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city. Now, these are not seventy weeks of days. These are not Seventy weeks of years, but these are seventy weeks of weeks. Now you see, in the Semitic mind, you can have weeks of days, you can have weeks of years, or you can have weeks of weeks of years. Now let me show you what I mean. In the Jewish mind, there was a week of days, the seventh of which was the Sabbath. Got some people who were right on target. You could have weeks of years, the seventh of which was the sabbatical year, right? And you could have weeks of weeks of years, the fiftieth year which was Jubilee. And the word here is not the usual word for weeks. It is a Hebrew word that means heptads or groups of sevens. And so this period of time spoken of in this prophecy is not four hundred and ninety days, not even four hundred and ninety weeks, but it is four hundred and ninety years. And it has a reference to your people and your holy city. Now, who It is always important, dear friends, to note the addresses of a text. You can get yourself in endless trouble. Do you think this has to do with Jacksonville and the assembly here at Keystone Heights, at Park of the Palms? No. It has to do with whose people, Daniel's people, who were the Jews, and Daniel's city, which was Jerusalem. Got a good group here this morning. Lord bless you all. And, you know, there, let me tell you something. There is an interesting debate going on here. I don't know whether you noticed or not. Let your eye drop back to verse nineteen. In this great prayer of Daniel, Daniel ends by saying, God, Have mercy on your city and on your people who are called by your name. I want you to remove the captivity and to restore them for your namesake. He says, your city and your people. And look at what God says to Daniel in verse He says, no, Daniel, you have it wrong. They're your people, and it's your city. When God's people, Israel, are in unbelief and in sin, God says to the prophet, no, they're your people, and it's your city. Look at what's going to take place. There is going to be the finishing of transgression. There is going to be the making an end of sin. There is going to be making atonement for iniquity. There is going to be the bringing in of everlasting righteousness. There's going to be the sealing up of vision and prophecy. And there's going to be the anointing of the most holy play. In this four hundred and ninety year period, we said, God is not just going to wipe away the idolatry from his people, but he is going to remove unrighteousness from his people altogether. And it's interesting, those six infinitive phrases can be divided into two groups. If you look at them carefully, the first three are negative. The last three are positive. The first three have to do with the taking away of sin and unrighteousness. The last three have to do with the establishment of taking away of iniquity. The last three have to do with the establishment of righteousness. So God is going to take away the sin of his people, and he is also going to impart his righteousness to them?" Now someone asks, is this four hundred and ninety year period completed? Well, the answer to that I think quite clearly is no, and you can always test an interpretation in terms of its fulfillment when it's prophet, when it's prophetic. Now I realize that most of you live in a much more sedate community than I do. that you all live in this wonderful heavenly Zion called Keystone Heights, Florida. But if tomorrow you were to get on the plane and return to Chicago, Illinois with me and we were to go down into that city, I think it would not take us very long to decide that everlasting righteousness had not been brought in. But now, let's look at the details of how this is going to take place in verses twenty-five through verse twenty-seven. Now, listen carefully to what I'm going to say. In verses twenty-five through verse twenty-seven, this seventy-week period or this four hundred and ninety year period is divided into three groups. Hear that? Three groups, seven, sixty-two, one. Seven, sixty-two, and one. And if we translate that into years, forty-nine years, four hundred and thirty-four years, and seven years. in seven years. In verse twenty-five, beloved, we have week one to seven and weeks eight through sixty-nine. Here is what Daniel writes. So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince There will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will be built again with plaza and moat, even in times of distress." Let me again emphasize that God desires that we understand the prophetic word of God. There are some people today, if you hear them talk about prophecy, if you hear them talk about the prophetic word of God, you would think that God was playing a neat trick on all of us. He gave us this stuff in enigma, wrapped in a mystery, and that what these texts mean is anybody's guesses as good as anyone else's guess. Dear friends, it ought to be a source of enormous encouragement to us to read like this first phrase of verse twenty-five. So you are to know and discern. God intended his children who study his word to understand the prophecy of Daniel the prophet. Now notice this four hundred and ninety year period begins with the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. Now, a lot has been written about which decree that period of four hundred and ninety years begins with. Let me suggest to you that there are two, in my judgment, which are possible. The first is a decree issued in the seventh year of our exerxes, in the year of four hundred fifty-eight Four hundred fifty-seven BC. Spoken of in Ezekiel chapter seven. Second decree is a decree that was issued in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes in four forty-five, four forty-four BC. One time I thought the latter decree was better. I now think the former decree is correct. that this period of four hundred and ninety years began with a decree issued in the seventh year of Artaxerxes in four hundred fifty-eight, four hundred fifty-seven BC. Now watch. Said three periods. Now let's watch them. The first period was over in seven weeks of years or in forty-nine years. When did it come to a close? Look at the last phrase of verse twenty-five. It will be built again with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. Why is this seven-year or forty-nine, seven-week period or forty-nine-year period set off from the other sixty-two? I think, beloved, because in that period, the city of Jerusalem and the sanctuary was to be rebuilt. During that period, the city with plaza and moat was to be rebuilt, and Daniel the prophet says, even in times of distress. Now let me tell you something, beloved. As I said, no wonder liberals want to tell you that the book of Daniel was written in the second century BC. They don't want us to believe that it was written in the sixth century BC, because only the Spirit of God knows the future in this kind of detail. About the end of the fifth century, about four hundred BC, the city and the sanctuary had been rebuilt. in fulfillment of this prophecy, and it had been done in perilous time. Read Ezra and Nehemiah. When does the next period end? It ends, beloved, with the coming of Messiah the Prince. Weeks eight through sixty-nine come to a close. with the coming of Messiah. If you take four forty-five, four forty-four BC, you generally take the close of this second group of weeks, sixty-two of them, to end on the triumphal entry of our Lord Jesus Christ. And as I said, it is possible that that is correct. I don't think it's the best, and my reason for thinking that, beloved, is that it would put the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in the year thirty-two AD, which I think is an extremely unlikely year for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. If you begin, though, with four fifty-eight, four-fifty-seven BC, When does this second group end? Well, between one BC and one AD is only one year. And if you subtract four hundred and eighty-three years, that's seven and sixty-two, you will get twenty-six AD, which if you take thirty AD to be the year of the crucifixion of our Lord, Twenty-six AD would have been the year that our Lord Jesus Christ entered into His messianic ministry. It would have been right at the time of His baptism and His temptation. Verse twenty-six. Then after the sixty-two years the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing. The people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary, and its end will come with a flood. Even to the end there will be war. Desolations are determined. Verse twenty-six is after week sixty-nine before week seventy. You see, between the second group of weeks and this third group of weeks, There is an interval of time. And the Spirit of God says that during that interval, two important things are going to occur. Messiah is going to be cut off and have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The two things that are going to happen in that interval are that Messiah will be crucified and that the city of Jerusalem and the sanctuary there will be destroyed. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the word that is used in verse twenty-six for cut off is a very violent word in the Hebrew. It means to die a violent death. It would be a word that would well depict crucifixion. The Messiah who has come will be cut off and have nothing. What does that mean? He came to offer himself as Israel's king to assume the throne of his father David. He was rejected. And in seventy AD, the city of Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed. Sixty-seven AD, a rebellion was fermented where the Jews tried to gain freedom from the Romans. Titus, the station, was sent to put down that rule, that rebellion. While he was in Jerusalem in the Holy Land with his troop, word reached him that Nero had died and that he was to return to Rome to assume power as the Roman Emperor. He left his troop with specific instructions that they were not to destroy the temple. And on the ninth of Avs, seventy AD, A soldier in the excitement of battle through a torch into the temple mound. And that magnificent temple that had been rebuilt after the time of the exile and had been expanded and enlarged and beautified by Herod went up in flame. Beloved, let me say this. to you. Verse twenty-six has been used of the Spirit of God to lead more unsaved Jews to faith in Jesus Christ, I think, than any other text in the Bible. The man who was the founder of the mission I represent this morning hour, Rabbi Leopold Cohn, was reading this text and he saw that Messiah had to have come before the destruction of the temple in the city of Jerusalem in seventy AD. And he saw that it was wrong to look for the first coming of Messiah. And he began to study who best fit the Old Testament picture of the Messiah before the destruction of the city of Jerusalem in seventy AD. And he came to believe that it was Jesus of Nazareth. verse twenty seven and he will make a firm covenant with many for one week but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering and on the wings of abomination will come one who makes desolate even until a complete destruction one that is decreed is poured out on the one who makes desolate here we have the final segment of this four hundred and ninety year period. Verse twenty seven says, And he will make a firm covenant with many for one week. Beloved, here's what makes Bible study both difficult and interesting. Verse twenty seven begins with a pronoun. Do you remember when your high school English teacher said to you, When you have a pronoun, find what? The antecedent, right? Two antecedents have been suggested. The first is Messiah the Prince in verse twenty-four. And there are some who believe that the reference in verse twenty-seven is to Messiah who will make a covenant, the new covenant with his blood, with many. Now, there are two reasons why I think that is wrong. The first is that Messiah's covenant with many is not for one week. It is an eternal covenant. Secondly, if the referent is not the prince who will come, there is no reason that he should be mentioned at all in verse twenty-six. In other words, if The prince who is to come is not the antecedent of the he of verse twenty-seven, then Daniel simply should have said, a people that will come are going to destroy the city and the sanctuary. Who is this prince who's going to come? Friends, he's none other than the little horn of Daniel chapter seven. He is this world political leader. He is going to make a covenant with many for one week, for seven years. What he's going to do is to guarantee the social and the religious autonomy of the Jews. He's going to allow them to establish sacrifice and grain offering, which is an Old Testament way of saying, to reinstitute the sacrifices and the mosaic system of the worship of God. But notice, in the middle of the week he will put a stop to this, and on the wings of abomination will come one who makes desolate even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate, a difficult phrase. But dear friends, I think what that means is this, that when this political leader stops sacrifice and grain offering, there is going to be placed on one of the portals of the temple, the abomination of desolation, which is an idol, and the... sanctuary of God, beloved, is going to become the center of satanic worship. So that this seventieth week is not the week of Messiah, but it is the week of Antichrist. Listen to this. He will have success until a complete destruction that is decreed upon him is poured out. Read II Thessalonians II. When the Son of God comes in his glory, he will destroy the works of these satanic masterpieces. Beloved, listen to this. How is God going to remove unrighteousness from His people. Posing quickly notice, first of all, He is going to remove the penalty and break the power of sin by the coming of Messiah, verses twenty-five and twenty-six, who will die as God's Lamb on Calvary's cross. How is He going to remove us? from even the presence of unrighteousness. Well, beloved, God has set limits on the power and the success of this ungodly Trinity in the Edentines. God says, you will be successful. You can only go so far and then no farther. And Jesus Christ is going to return and destroy the power of the beast and the false prophet, and he is going to establish his kingdom on this earth. Beloved, unlike Yeshua, Joshua, the Son of Nun, who sought to lead his people into Canaan, but the writer of the book of Hebrews tells us, They never entered into rest because of disobedience and unbelief. This greater Yahshua, the Lord Jesus Christ, when he comes to break the power of Satan, will lead us, beloved, not to some earthly Canaan where we will be free from even the presence of sin. But the writer of the book of Hebrews says that there is a rest for God's people that is yet future. Listen to what John has to say as he closes the revelation. He says, And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth passed away. And there was no longer any seed. And I saw the holy city new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from man, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and he shall dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be among them. and he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes. And there shall no longer be any death. There shall no longer be any more mourning or crying or pain. The first things have passed away. And he who sits on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. And he said, Right, for these words are faithful and true. Verse fourteen of chapter twenty-two, blessed are those who wash their robes, that they shall have the right to the tree of life, and may enter into the gates of the city. Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons. and the murderers and the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices lying. You see, someday, when God breaks the power of this wicked one, we shall be removed even from the presence of sin and unrighteousness. The last message John pens in the Revelation is this, and the Spirit and the Brides say come, And let everyone who hearsay come, and let one who is thirsty come. Let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost. Oh, believer, we're headed for the heavenly Canaan, where we will not only be free from the penalty and the power of sin, but from its very presence as well. If you're here tonight and you're not on this morning and you're not on your way to the heavenly Canaan, to you the Spirit of God says, come. We here today, this morning hour, say come. If you're thirsty, come and take of the water of life without cost. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you for this great prophecy. Prophecy of the promise of the coming of Messiah. to be caught off and have nothing that he might make redemption for our sins. The promise of the second advent of Messiah, when he shall break the power of the prince of this age, and we shall be removed then even from the presence of sin. May we not be disobedient that we should miss out. on the rest that is promised. Should there be someone here this morning hour who does not know Christ as their personal Savior, speak to their heart, we pray. We say with John, even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen. Amen.