Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome here again to our afternoon service at Calvary Baptist Church of Trehearne. And also, once again, welcome to those who tuned in to us via internet at an FM signal here in town. Welcome. Please open your hymnals to number 128. 128, Wounded For Me. Number 128. Wounded for me. Wounded for me. Because He was wounded for me God my transgressions and now I am free All because Jesus was wounded for me Dying for me Dying for me There on the cross, He was dying for me redemption I see, all because Jesus was dying for me. Risen for me, risen for me, come from the grave, he is risen for me. All because Jesus is risen for me. Living for me, living for me. Up in the skies, he is living for me. and praying for me. All because Jesus is living for me. Coming for me. Coming for me. One day to earth He is coming for me. Then with one joy His bare face I shall see. Oh, how I praise Him, He is coming for me. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful that we can sing of the fact that Thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, came to this earth to die on the cross of Calvary for our sins. Thankful that we can also be reminded that He didn't stay on the cross. He was buried, and He rose again victorious over sin and death. He is seated on Thy right hand today in glory, and He's coming back again. We're thankful that for those that are saved, we have that hope of eternal life. thankful that we can look forward to that day when Thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is coming back. And we want to be prepared. We want to have our ears attuned to that trumpet sound. And we pray for those that are listening and not saved that they might see their need to repent toward Thee and to trust in Thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, for their salvation. We pray that thou would guide and direct in their service. Pray that we would honor thee in all that is said and done. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. And over to 234. Two, three, four. Wonderful words of life. 234. Sing them over again to me, wonderful words of life. me more of their beauty. Sing wonderful words of life. Words of life and beauty teach me faith and duty. Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words Christ the blessed one gives to all wonderful words of life. Sinner lists to the loving call wonderful words of life. Also freely gives Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life. Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life. ♪ Sweetly echo the gospel call ♪ ♪ Wonderful words of life ♪ ♪ Offer pardon and peace to all ♪ ♪ Wonderful words of life ♪ ♪ Jesus, only Savior, sanctified forevermore ♪ And over to 481. 481, sunlight. I wandered in the shades of night till Jesus came to me And with the sunlight of his love did all my darkness flee Sunlight, sunlight in my soul today Sunlight, sunlight all along the way Since the Savior found me, took away my sin I have heard the sunlight of His love within The clouds may gather in the sky and bells round me roll However dark the world may be, I've sunlight in my soul. Sunlight, sunlight in my soul today. Sunlight, sunlight all along the way. Since the Savior found me, took away my sin, I have had the sunlight of His love within. While walking in the light of God I sweet communion find I praise with holy vigor and I leave the world behind Sunlight, sunlight in my soul today Sunlight, sunlight all along the way Since the Savior found me, took away my sin I have had the sunlight of His love within. I crossed the wide extended field, the journey, or the plain. And in the sunlight of His love, I reaped a golden grain. Sunlight, sunlight in my soul today Sunlight, sunlight all along the way Since the Savior found me, took away my sin I apply the sunlight of His love within Soon I shall see him, I'll see he's the light that came to me Behold the brightness of his face throughout eternity Sunlight, sunlight in my soul today Sunlight, sunlight all along the way Since the Savior found me, took away my sin Take your Bibles and turn to the book of Daniel. Daniel chapter 9. We're reading there from verse 24 to verse 27. We'll stand please for the reading of God's Word. Daniel chapter 9, beginning at verse 24, it says there, 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, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up division 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 unto the Messiah, the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks, the street shall be built again, and the wall even in troubleless times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself, 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 unto the end of the war, desolations are determined. 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 the abominations, he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful for thy word, thankful again for this passage that Daniel was told to write down. the vision that Daniel was given, the concern about things that were coming that Daniel needed to be aware of, even though it was well beyond his time. And yet it was things that he needed to know, things that the Jews needed to know, the things that the Jews need to know now, things also that the Gentile world needs to know. We pray that as we look at these verses today that we would be able to look beyond the spectacular and see the message that is here of how important it is to know the true God, to know Thee, to live for Thee, and to be able to warn others of the danger that is coming. We're thankful that in the midst of these prophecies that there is a danger coming, there's still opportunity today for people to be saved. And so we pray that as people listen to this message this afternoon, if they're lost today, that they might see the time to be saved is now. The time to begin to walk with thy blessings is now. And I pray that many would wake up and see the importance of thy truth in these days of grace that we still have. May thy will be accomplished, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. The title and message this afternoon is God's Timetable for the End Times. God's timetable for the end times. Now we have mentioned in our study of the book of the Revelation, also in our study of the book of Daniel, we're going to see it as well in the book of Ezekiel, that God talks about several different temples. So I just want to, in our introduction here, because we're going to see it here again as well, We want to just run briefly through the four temples that God talks about in the Bible. Before there was a temple in Israel, God introduced to the nation of Israel the tabernacle. That was during their wilderness wanderings. The tabernacle was like a big tent. It was made with animal skins and wood, covered in silver and gold. And inside the tabernacle were the vessels, the laver, the brazen altar, the lampstand. And there was the holiest place, which had the Ark of the Covenant and the mercy seat. The tabernacle was made in such a way that the nation of Israel could take it down quickly and put it back up quickly. All the pieces were measured. and marked so that they didn't have to stop when they were going to put it up and wonder now which piece goes where. They knew exactly how to put it up and it didn't take them long to put it up. And they had that as the place in the tabernacle was a picture of the fact that God was with them. The tabernacle was a place where the nation of Israel was to bring their offerings to. It was where the priests, the incense altar was there, and the incense, as the smoke went up from the incense altar, that was a picture of the prayers of the saints going up to heaven. So everything in that tabernacle was a picture, including the tabernacle itself, was a picture of Jesus Christ. That tabernacle was with the nation of Israel until they entered the promised land. After they entered the promised land, we seem to lose track of where that tabernacle was. God doesn't give us much record of it. We know that when, in the time of Eli, when King Saul was, no, this is before King Saul was the king, that Eli, his sons, took the Ark of the Covenant into battle with them. They were fighting against the Philistines and they were not being successful, so Eli's sons, who were not God-fearing men, decided to take the Ark of the Covenant and take it into battle with them, and God allowed the Philistines to capture the Ark of the Covenant. It spent, I believe it was, seven months in Philistine territory. And while it was there, God taught the Philistines the importance of the fear of God. Everywhere the Philistines moved that ark, the people got sick. They got tumors. And at one point early on when they had it, their false god was knocked down and broken in the presence of the Ark of the Covenant. Now the Ark of the Covenant was just a box made with wood, covered with gold, but it was a representation of God. And so God allowed the Philistines to capture that ark But when it was in their territory, he showed them his power. The Jews at that time, they had rejected God. Eli's sons were ungodly men. They were defiling the law of God, and Eli didn't stop them. When David became the king after the death of King Saul, David wanted the ark back in Jerusalem. He wanted the ark not back, but he wanted to bring it into Jerusalem. And we read in the Bible, in 2 Chronicles chapter 13, verse 6, that the ark at that time was in Kerjaf Jireh. Now, we're not told if the tabernacle was there. It's quite possible that it was. But we're not told that. But we're told that the ark was there. And David wanted to bring the ark up to Jerusalem. The problem with David's intent was that he was copying the Philistines in how to move the ark. God had given very clear instructions to the nation of Israel with regard to how that ark was to be moved. It had four golden rings on the four corners. And there were two staves for that ark. And the two staves were to put two on, one stave through two rings, the other stave through the other two rings. So now you've got four handles for the ark. And the priests were to carry the ark. It was not to be put on a cart. They were to carry it. David, in bringing the ark to Jerusalem, he put it on a new cart. and he had the oxen pulling the cart. He followed what the Philistines had done. The Philistines had taken a milk cow that had just calved, separated her from the calf, put her in front of the cart, and sent the cart away. And they said, the Philistines said, if the cart goes back to Israel, we know this is God's doing. If the cow and cart just wander around and don't go anywhere, really, we know it just was a happenstance thing. Well, that cow, which is very unusual, a milk cow that has just freshened, wants her calf with her. And if she doesn't have her calf with her, she goes looking for her calf. But this cow, went straight back to Israel. So this was definitely God's working. However, the Philistines weren't people of God. They didn't know how to move that cart around. They sent it out on a cart. But David should have known better. He had the scriptures. The Bible says that the kings were to write themselves a copy of the law and they were to read it and meditate in it every day. So David had no excuse for putting that ark on a cart and having it pulled by cart into Jerusalem. The result of David doing that was as that cart was being moved, it stumbled across the threshing floor In Obed-Edom, Obed-Edom is where it stayed. I didn't write it down here. When the cart was being moved, the oxen stumbled and there was a danger of the ark falling off of the cart. And the Bible tells us that Uzzah put out his hand to steady the ark, which would be a pretty natural thing to do. You see this thing wanting to fall, you want to keep it from falling. But it wasn't the right thing to do. Because the ark should not have been on a cart. And Uzzah should have known that as well. And so Uzzah, God struck him dead when he touched that ark. He had no business touching it. David was upset with God about this. He didn't like what God had done. But David learned something from that. He learned that that ark needed to be moved by the priests. And so after that ark had stayed in Obed-Edom's house for a while, and after David heard how that God was blessing Obed-Edom's house, David made a second attempt to bring that ark into Jerusalem. Only this time he moved it properly, and God blessed that move. Now David, he wanted to build the temple in Jerusalem. He told Nathan the prophet, I want to build a temple. Nathan says, go for it. God's going to bless you in doing that. But God spoke to Nathan that night and said, no, Nathan, David's not going to build a temple. You go and tell him he's not to build a temple. His son is going to build a temple. So Nathan went and told David he was not to build a temple. And so David was humble enough to listen to God and he didn't build the temple. But Solomon did. First Kings chapters five through eight tell us about the building of the temple around 1000 BC. That temple, the first temple, stood in Jerusalem until around 586 BC when Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians. That's the first temple. So that temple was destroyed. The second temple was built under God's command to Ezra. You read about it in the Book of Ezra. Haggai also has some things to say about the second temple. That temple was built around 515 BC. Remember, in the Old Testament, numbers are counting down to zero. So the first temple was destroyed in 586. The second temple was built in 515 BC. That temple was the temple that was on earth when Jesus was on this earth. That was the temple that King Herod spent 46 years rebuilding. Now some people talk about the temple that Herod was building as the third temple, which it wasn't. It was the second temple that Herod rebuilt. Remember, Herod was a king, a Roman king. He was a politician. He wanted the Jews to be loyal to him. He didn't want to fight with them all the time. So he tried to figure out, what can I do for the Jews so that they'll be loyal to me? And he observed that the temple was important to the Jews, even though most of the Jews at that time didn't believe in God. But the temple was very special to them. And so he took it upon himself to use taxpayer money to rebuild that second temple, and for 46 years they were building it. Now Solomon, who built a much better temple than the second temple, was seven years in building the first temple. So think of how long Herod was taking, 46 years compared to seven years. And of course, we know that the disciples were quite impressed with that second temple, Matthew 24. They talked to Jesus about it, and they want Jesus to take note of this temple. Well, Jesus noted that temple, and he said that temple was going to be destroyed. And yes, in 70 AD, the Romans destroyed that temple. So you go to Israel today, you don't find a temple. You don't even find the ruins of a temple. Now it's possible that if the Jews were allowed to dig on the Temple Mount, they might find some of the ruins. But we know that the Muslims who have the Al-Aqsa Mosque up on the Temple Mount, We know that they have done some excavating underneath that mount, and they have removed some of the things that were there because they want to destroy any evidence that might be there that there was a temple there at one time. You see, the Muslims, they're not dumb, but they are dumb. They reject God, but they also know history. And they know that that place is where the temple was. They don't know the exact spot, but they know that place is where the temple was. But the Muslims, they don't recognize a true God. They don't recognize the Jews as a legitimate people. And that's why when you look at the Eastern Gate, which is the gate the Bible tells us that Jesus is going to enter through, the Messiah is going to enter through later on yet, he's gonna come through the Eastern Gate into Jerusalem. So guess what the Muslims have put outside of the Eastern Gate of Jerusalem? A cemetery. Because biblical law says a priest cannot go through a cemetery. but they forget that Jesus is God. So it doesn't matter, cemetery, no cemetery. He can simply look at it and it's gone anyway. It's not a problem, but the Muslims think that they have fixed it so that Jesus cannot come back through that eastern gate. That shows you how dumb they are. They know these things, but they think they can circumvent God's plan. But anyway, that second temple was destroyed and there is no temple in Jerusalem now. In Matthew 24, as well as in our text that we read, Jesus talks about, in Matthew 24, let's just go back there, go there in our Bibles just to give you the right wording there. Matthew chapter 24, Jesus is warning in that passage of the time of the tribulation. The disciples are excited about the temple that's standing there at that time, which was destroyed in 70 AD. But in Matthew 24 in verse 15, it tells us there, when ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, that's in chapter 9 in verse 27, we read that today. When you see that, it says, stand in the holy place, whoso readeth, let him understand. So in order for the abomination of desolation to take place, there has to be a third temple. There has to be a temple in order for that abomination to take place. And that third temple is going to be built by the Antichrist under his rule. Not that he personally will build it, but it'll be built under his rule. So we know that that temple is not going to be nearly as fancy as Solomon's temple because the Antichrist only has seven years. His total time is seven years. In the first part of that seven years, three and a half years, that temple is going to be built and being used already in that first three and a half years. So that temple is going to go up rather quickly. And then the midpoint, that's what Daniel, Jesus is talking about here in Matthew 24 verse 15, the midpoint of that tribulation time period, the Antichrist is gonna defile that temple, the abomination of desolation. He's gonna defile that temple, he's gonna declare himself to be God sitting on the throne that's in that temple. So that's the third temple. And then Ezekiel chapters 40 to the end of the book of Ezekiel, Ezekiel is given details there by God of the fourth temple, the final temple on earth, the one that is going to be built at the beginning of the millennium under the rule of Jesus Christ. So that's the fourth temple. So it's very important that we understand these things as we look at the Bible. We need to look at all the details of what's given. And again, we need to be careful not to spiritualize or allegorize something that is not meant to be allegorized, something that is not symbolic. And we need to also understand the purpose of these things. As we move on now into Daniel's prophecy here, or the revelation of the vision he got, as Gabriel is giving him understanding, we are talking about here in verse 27, we're talking about the second temple, which was not there when Daniel was writing this, but it would be built under the direction of Ezra, and Haggai would have impact on that as well. Because when the Jews went back to Israel, they started building the temple, they got discouraged, they stopped building the temple, and built their own houses. They left the temple as a partially rebuilt thing, and were building their own houses. You can see what the spiritual nature of the people was, even after spending 70 years in exile, Their desire was not to worship the true God, but their desire was to get back into the commercial side of things. Build houses, get into business, make money, and so on. But that temple would be standing after time, after Haggai would be rebuking the people and getting them back to the task of rebuilding, or of building the second temple. And then that temple would be destroyed, it would be eventually destroyed. Now we're gonna come to a man yet in chapter 11 by the name of Antiochus Epiphanes. And he's going to be one that is going to go into that second temple and he's gonna be a type of the Antichrist. He's not the Antichrist, but he's a type of that. And he is going to defile that second temple and it's gonna have to be cleansed again before the Jews can use it again. So that's coming yet as we study the book of Daniel. But as we move into our text, we wanna look first of all at God's plan for the purifying of the Jews in verse 24. Verse 24, I have a typo here. Put down verse 27, it's supposed to be verse 24. All right, so it says in verse 24, 70 weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city. So we know that this 70 weeks is pertaining to the Jews. Gabriel says to Daniel, upon thy people and upon thy holy city. So thy people is the Jews, thy holy city is Jerusalem. So this is a specific prophecy to the Jews. Keep in mind as well the tribulation time is a time when God is going to be turning his attention back to the nation of Israel. In the New Testament time that we're living in, Jesus said, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Upon this rock, I will build my church. The rock is not Peter, as the Catholics say. The rock is the confession that Peter made. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. So the churches are built upon Jesus Christ, true churches. Not all churches, but true churches. So the 70 weeks, it's very important for us to understand the 70 weeks. They are not literal seven-day weeks. We need to understand that. If you had 70 weeks times seven, what does that give you? Hm? 490. Right. But it gives you 490 weeks. So that's about a year and a half, right? It's not, it doesn't fit. What we have here doesn't fit with a year and a half. So we have to understand prophetic language. So the word weeks here is really talking about sevens. And the text, the context will tell us what kind of sevens are we talking about. And so when we look at Let's go back in the Bible and see how that God has prepared the thinking of the Jews to understand what Daniel is talking. Daniel understood. He didn't understand all of the vision, but he understood what was being said with the 70 weeks. How would he understand that? Well, Daniel, we know from the first part of chapter 25, or chapter 9, I mean, in Daniel 9, we know that Daniel was one who studied the word of God. He paid attention to the scriptures. Go back in your Bibles to Leviticus, chapter 25. Leviticus, chapter 25. Leviticus, chapter 25. We'll start at verse 1 just for the sake of the context, but in verse 1 it says, and the Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a Sabbath unto the Lord. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof. But in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land, a Sabbath for the Lord, that thou shalt neither sow thy field nor prune thy vineyard. So here we have a different definition for the Sabbath than what we normally have in the Bible. This was a Sabbath year. Not a Sabbath day, one in seven, but a Sabbath year. The seventh year was a Sabbath year. It was not a weekly Sabbath. The entire year, the land was not to be sown, the trees were not to be pruned, the grapevines were not to be pruned, the land was to lay idle. And God would provide for the nation of Israel in the sixth year to give them enough grain in the sixth year to carry them through to the eighth year. Because in the seventh year they would not sow, they would then not reap. So in the eighth year they would sow, but the crop wouldn't come off until the fall. So they have to have enough for grain and grapes and all the rest of it, they have to have enough to get them from the end of the sixth year to the end of the eighth year. And God would give them the increase in the sixth year to take them into the eighth year. God is good. When God makes a law, he makes provision for us to be able to live within his law. We talked about that at noon, about the farmer who's pestering and saying, well, you gotta work on Wednesdays, you gotta take it off when it's busy season because the farmers need to have their fertilizer, need their grain and whatever, blah, blah, blah. Well, if a farmer plans his time properly, he can order his fertilizer in such a way that he has it in time and he can take off Wednesday night for Bible study and not miss anything. if he plans his time, if he honors God and plans his time right. God will look after him. Same goes with the harvest. But if a farmer is lost, all he can see is dollar bills. That's all he can see. And how can I have more dollar bills? He's like the foolish farmer that Jesus talked about that had a good crop and tore down his barns and built bigger, thinking that he's going to finally have an easy time of it. And this particular farmer that I'm thinking of right now, he's already a cripple. He's not enjoying his older years, but he's a greedy man. And if he doesn't get saved, he'll have all of eternity to regret his greed. You won't have any money, because nothing in this world goes beyond this world. You won't take nothing to the grave with him. But back in our text again, this was a Sabbath year that the nation of Israel had. It was a year that was set aside. So then in verses eight and nine of Leviticus 25, And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years. Notice that? Seven sabbaths of years unto thee. Seven times seven years. And the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. So it even tells us here how to understand that. seven Sabbaths of years and that space is 49 years. So God is telling the nation of Israel, this is not your normal Sabbath, and here's how it works out. And it says in verse 9, and thou shalt cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month. In the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. and ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto the inhabitants thereof. It shall be a jubilee unto you, and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family." And it goes on there, and what it's talking about is in the fiftieth year, all debts were erased. So someone that had had a tough time, like in the land of Israel, the land was divided into the tribes. And in the tribes, every family in the tribe was given a piece of land. Now, that land belonged to that family. For all of eternity, that land belonged to that family. If that family, the father dies, they get sick, crop failure, whatever it is, and they have to find a way to survive, they might need to sell their land to a neighbor. And with the money that they get for that, now they can buy food and whatever else. And God said, yes, you can do that. But in that 50th year, that land that you bought from that poor neighbor, you have to give it back to him debt-free. So the Jews need to understand that. If the land is worth $10,000, and I buy it in the 50th year, In the first year of the 49 years, I've got 49 years to make money off that land. If I buy that land in the 48th year for $10,000, I have to give it back in the 50th year, no strings attached. That way, even if the land had to be sold from time to time, it always had to go back to its original inheritor. That's how God kept things straight in the land of Israel. That's what he's telling them here. This is how you function, different than we do today. We buy a piece of land, we have that piece of land, we might sell it to somebody else, it doesn't necessarily stay in the family. Now there are some places you can drive around the country and you find a century farm. And what that means is that farm has been in that particular family for 100 years, that's what century is. So it's 100 years. Somebody has one maybe for 150 years. So that's what that is. But that's not that often that you find that. So we take that kind of information, and we bring that back over to Daniel chapter 9 and verse 24. And we understand that the 70 weeks are being calculated based on what the nation of Israel was taught back in Leviticus chapter 25. So in Leviticus chapter 25, we've got a 70 year in Daniel chapter 9 and verse, the beginning of the chapter there, which verse was that? Yeah, verse 2. In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by books the number of the years. Wherever the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. Now those 70 years, 2 Chronicles chapter 36 and verse 21 tells us that those 70 years were to cover for the 490 years that the nation of Israel did not keep the Sabbath years. The nation of Israel became greedy. They said, we don't need to let the land rest every seventh year. We're going to bypass that law. We're going to do things our own way. So God says, after they kept doing that, he says, OK, you're going into exile for 70 years to cover for your disobedience to me over all these other years. So we bring that teaching as well into our text here, and we understand that the 70 weeks are 490 years, not days. The 70 weeks are 490 years. So then the next question that we have is what's the length of a year? Now on our calendar, our calendar we have 365 days. However, every fourth year is a leap year. What does that mean? Every fourth year, February has an extra day. Understand that next year, the calendar has February 29. This year, we had February 28. So every fourth year, there's an extra, because our calendar, there's 365 and a quarter days in a year. So every fourth year, you have to make up that quarter. So every fourth year, they add a day. So what did they do in Bible times? In Bible times, the year was 360 days. So every so often, they had to add an extra month to their calendar to equalize, to fix things, to straighten things out. If we go back to Genesis chapter 7, this is going to be a little longer study today. So I hope you got your seatbelts fastened, because we need to cover this, but we need to try and give some detail. And it may still be a bit confusing for you, and we can go over it again. But this is what we're going to be doing today. So we go back to Genesis chapter 7 and verse 11. And we see there, in the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, the 17th day of the month, the same day where the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven opened. So that's the second month, the 17th day of the month. That's in the 600th year of Noah's life. So then we go to chapter 8 and verse 4. Chapter 8 and verse 4, and the ark rested in the seventh month in the 17th day of the month upon the mountain of Ararat. So from chapter 7 verse 11 to chapter 8 and verse 4, we've got a period of 150 days in verse 3 of chapter 8. And the waters returned from off the earth continually. And after the end of the 150 days, the waters were abated. So what is that? What's the big deal? Well, if we go again and look at when the flood started, the second month, when did it end? Not that they came out of the ark, but when did the rain stop? The seventh month. From the second month to the seventh month, how many months you got? Five, right? Divide five into 150. How many days in a month? 30. No, but what is it here? Not usually, what is it here? It says in verse three, it's 150 days that the floods waters were going up and staying up. 150 days, five months. That's 30 days in a month. So if we take 30 days in a month times 12, how many days have you got? 30 days times 12. 360. Times 30. 3 times 12 or 3 times 12 times 3. 12 times 30. It's 360. It's 360. You get a piece of paper. 360. So the average year, the biblical year, even back there, God taught the nation of Israel the year in Jewish, well, that's even before the nation of Israel was chosen, but it was 360 days. So that's the length of a year. So in Daniel chapter 9 and verse 27, We're gonna come there, but we'll look at it now. Daniel 9, verse 27. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week, that's seven years, and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice of the oblation to cease. And for the overthreading of the abominations, he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured out upon the desolate. Revelation chapter 13, verses four to seven. How long is half of the, in the midst of the week, it says. How long is that? Okay, Revelation chapter 13. We're running around in the Bible a bit. If you've got pencil and paper, you can make note of these things. Revelation 13, verses four to seven. And they worshipped the dragon that gave power unto the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, who is like unto the beast who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things, and blasphemies, and power was given unto him to continue, how long? 40 and two months. How long is that? Three and a half years. 30 days in a month, that's three and a half years. Okay, there's 12 months in a year, so 12 times three is 36, another half, half of 12 is six, 36 and six is 42. So we've got the time we're coming up to here, again, and the same thing goes, okay, let's go back to Revelation chapter 12 and verse six, in case you're not following me. But in chapter 12 and verse six, it says, of Revelation, verse six, it says, and the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared of God, and they should feed her there, how long? 1,203 score days. 1,260 days. On a 30 day month, that's, again, three and a half years. So, That's, again, talking about the tribulation, the last half of the tribulation. So we know that when we're talking about the 70 weeks, which are 70 years, and how long is a year? It's 360 days. So that's what we're talking about in verse 24 of Daniel chapter 9, 70 weeks. So 70 weeks. In that 70 weeks, what's the purpose of that 70 weeks? Tells us. If you wanna mark this in your Bible there, six things are gonna happen in that 70 weeks. Okay, here they are. Again, it's upon thy people, upon thy holy city, upon the Jews, upon Jerusalem. Number one, to finish the transgression. It's right there in verse 24. That's the first one, to finish the transgression. The second point, the second thing that God's gonna do in that time, make an end of sins. Make an end of sins. Number three, make reconciliation for iniquity. All of this is pertaining to the Jews, not to the world, to the Jews. Number four, to bring in everlasting righteousness. To bring in everlasting righteousness. Number five, to seal up the vision and prophecy. That's all, you'll see that all, I'm just taking it straight from the verse. Seal up the vision and prophecy. And then number six, to anoint the most holy. So in my Bible, what I did is I just took a pencil and over those phrases in the Bible, I put one in a circle, two in a circle, three in a circle, so that I can see it there as to what we're talking about. All right, so that's the purpose. That's what God's going to do in the 70 weeks. Now, the second point that we want to go to in our text is the first 69 weeks of years. Verse 25. Verse 24, the complete time, the total time is 70 weeks. Now in verse 25, it says there, 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. So that's a total of 69 weeks. Seven and 62 is 69. So in that time frame, it tells us that the street shall be built again and the wall even in troublous times. Okay? So in that time, verse 25, that God is talking about here, 69 weeks, the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem is going to be completed. So when, the question we have is when, when was the command given to rebuild Jerusalem? Now, there's a couple of suggestions that are made, but they're not all right. One suggestion is that it's from the book of Ezra. It's the command given by Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes. But that command, if you want to write these references down, I'll give you these references. You can check them out yourself. Ezra. These are all from Ezra. Ezra chapter 1, verses 1 and 2. Chapter 4. Ezra 1, verses 1 and 2, and then chapter 4, verses 1 to 5, and comma, verses 11 to 24, so that's still in chapter 4, then a semicolon, chapter 6, verses 1 to 5, and then a comma, verses 14 and 15, then a semicolon, chapter 7 verse 11 and comma verse 20 and comma verse 27. So I'll give you those once again just to make sure you have them all. Ezra chapter 1 verses 1 and 2 semicolon chapter 4 verses 1 to 5 comma 11 to 24 then semicolon chapter 6 verses 1 to 5, comma, 14 and 15, semicolon, chapter 7, verse 11, comma, verse 20, comma, verse 27. So that's the one suggestion, but it's not the right one. Because the context of that command is to rebuild the temple. But if we go to Daniel, chapter 9, verse 25, it says to restore Jerusalem. not the temple, Jerusalem, the street and the wall. It says that right in the text. So what's the other option? Nehemiah, write this down, Nehemiah chapter one, verses one to four, and then semicolon two, chapter two, verses one to eight. So what's the command given there? The command there by Artaxerxes is to rebuild the walls. So that's from the time that we're looking at. The time that we're looking at is from the time of that command in the time of Nehemiah to rebuild the walls and to rebuild the temple, or not the temple, to rebuild Jerusalem. So now what we have to do then is to determine what is that time. And again, there are two options depending on who you look at. James Usher, who is a very dependable chronologist of Old Testament history from the time of creation, He puts the time of Nehemiah of Artaxerxes' command in Nehemiah 2, he puts that time as 454 BC. So that's most likely the most accurate time that we have. The other time that we have is by a man, just let me get here. Robert Anderson is the other man. Robert Anderson wrote a book called The Coming Prince. And in that book, he suggests the time of 445 BC. So we've got nine year discrepancy there between which time are we going to go by. And it depends on who you want to follow, whether you want to follow Robert Anderson, Sir Robert Anderson, he was an Englishman, or James Usher. Now, as I mentioned, James Usher, he has a very good chronology out of the Old Testament. And he goes from the date of creation and counts things back. And he was also an Englishman, a very studious man. And so he came up with the date of 454 for the time of the command that was given to restore Jerusalem. So why is that important? Well, we count down now, if we take 454, and we count down, and it tells us that in verse 26, and after three score and two weeks, so in verse 26, Daniel does not include the first seven weeks, okay? Chapter 25, remember? Seven weeks and three score and two weeks. Chapter or verse 26, it's only the three score and two weeks. That doesn't mean that the seven weeks aren't there, but he doesn't include them. So again, we're counting after the seven weeks and after the three score and two weeks. So after the 69 weeks, it says Messiah will be cut off. who's Messiah, that's Jesus. So what's it telling us there? It's telling us that from the commandment to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and the city to the time of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is 490 years. That's what it's telling us. So now we count down, and if we take Usher's number of 454 and we count down 490 years, it brings us to the year 29 A.D. That's when Jesus was crucified. Now, the common thinking, we oftentimes think that Jesus Christ was born at A.D. 1. However, the common chronological thinking is that Jesus was born in B.C. 4, before the first of A.D. That's the common thinking now again. You want to argue that I guess you can argue it We can fight over that if we want to but it's not going to make any difference But it's telling us this detail here for the sake of the Jews Daniel is being given this prophecy this he gave was given this vision and Gabriel is now explaining it to him for the sake of the Jews and so that they could determine, and this was helpful for them, when Jesus came, again, when the Jews put Jesus on the cross, they were guilty because they were told the time of the rebuilding, and they were told when the Messiah was gonna be cut off, so they knew when they were crying out, crucify him, crucify him, they knew they were killing the Messiah. They knew that. He was not an imposter. That's what the Pharisees tried to convince, and the chief priests tried to convince the people, this guy's an imposter, we gotta get him out of here. But the Jews, if they would have studied the scriptures, and if the chief priests would have been doing their job and teaching the scriptures, they would have known Jesus was the Messiah. and they were killing the Messiah. Now it was God's plan that Jesus went to the cross and shed his blood there, that's not the point. But the point is those Jews, and that's why the book of Revelation and Zechariah talks about that when Jesus comes back at the end of the tribulation, the Jews of that time are gonna recognize Jesus as their Messiah, the one that they had pierced. they're going to recognize it. They're going to realize all these centuries they have been guilty of killing the Messiah. Rejecting him, killing him, and trying to get him out of the way. So again, as we look at, this is a lot of information we're getting today. And it's all recorded. It's all going to be on our website. So you can go back and listen to it there again if you want to. It'll be up tomorrow, probably. And so you can go back and listen to it. And you can pause it as many times as you want and try to figure it out there and whatever. And hopefully that this stuff, this is going to make sense because God gave it to us for a purpose. So he wants us to understand this. So that's where we're going to go with the second point. Now the third point, it says, Messiah shall be cut off, verse 26. It says, after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself. What's that telling us? It's telling us that Jesus Christ, who we know is the Messiah, was going to be killed, going to be cut off, but not because of his sin. He was not a criminal. Daniel is being told this more than 490 years before it was going to happen. Daniel is being told this before the command was given to rebuild Jerusalem. Messiah is going to be cut off, but not for himself, and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Who's that talking about? It's not talking about the Jews. It's talking about the people of the prince that shall come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Who destroyed Jerusalem? Well, in 70 AD, it was the Romans that destroyed Jerusalem. In the end of the tribulation, it's going to be the Antichrist, or not the beginning in the tribulation time, it's going to be the Antichrist that's going to defile the temple and try to destroy Jerusalem. So it's a double meaning to verses 26 and 27. Verse 27 is not a double meaning. Verse 26, I should say. 26, talking about the people of the prince shall destroy the city and sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a flood. So that part there, with the flood, if we go and we look at Revelation chapter 12. Keep in mind that God is giving Daniel a prophecy here in very short form. There's a lot of detail that Daniel is not given, and we'll see that as we move on in the book of Daniel. A lot of detail that Daniel is not given about this time period. that God gives us later on in the Bible. But in verse 15 of Revelation chapter 12, it tells us there, and the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. The Bible tells us that the earth helped the woman, opened up and took the water so that it didn't destroy the Jews. But back in our text, in Daniel chapter 9, verse 26, it says there that the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a flood. And not to the end of the war, desolations are determined. So what have we got in the Middle East right now? War. What have we had all of my lifetime in the Middle East? War. We have a few years of relative peace, but never really peace, because there's always been suicide bombers, always been terrorists trying to terrorize the Jews. There's always been war. And that's going to continue that way until the end of the Tribulation. Continuing war. Why? Because the Jews have rejected Jesus Christ. The Arabs, They hate the Jews. They hate God. They love Allah. They want everybody to worship Allah. So they're going after the Jews and their goal is also to go after Christians. Same thing Hitler did. No different. Hitler, there was two groups of people Hitler hated. Jews and Christians. And he tried to destroy them. Didn't work for him. Not gonna work for the Antichrist. But he's still gonna try. So again, as we look at verse 27, and he shall confirm the covenant. This is Antichrist. He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week. That's the Antichrist. So this is now the 70th week of the 70 weeks of verse 24. Remember, we've covered 69 weeks takes us to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Then in between there, we have the church age, which is not mentioned here. But between the 69th week and the 70th week, we have the church age, however long that age is. We're still in that time right now. But in verse 27, and he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week. Again, this is seven years. And in the midst of the week, and again, we have the book of Revelation, so we know, this midst of the week is when the Antichrist breaks his covenant with the Jews. And he's going to, it says, and he will cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. Now, how can he cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease if there's no temple? Israel is not making sacrifices right now. They can't. There's no temple. They're longing to have a temple. But they understand enough, even though they're not listening to God, they understand they can't just decide we're going to go to a mountain and start making sacrifices because we want to make sacrifices. They're not doing that. They're waiting for the temple to be rebuilt. And the Bible tells us that the Antichrist is going to build the temple. That's temple number three. He's going to build that temple. And in the midst of the week, three and a half years into the tribulation time, he's gonna cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease. He's gonna stop the Jews from sacrificing in the temple. How's he gonna do that? He's gonna do that by going into that temple, declaring himself as God, and defiling the temple. And it's suggested that he's gonna defile the temple by sacrificing a pig in there. But one way or another, he's going to destroy that temple. I mean, not going to destroy it, but he's going to make it so that the Jews will not go in there. And then also at that point, he's going to decree that everybody has to take his mark. Nobody buys and sells without the mark. And he's going to turn against the Jews and try to wipe them out in that last three and a half years. And that's what it says. And for the overspreading of abomination shall make it desolate. Even until the consummation so from that point the midpoint of the tribulation until the end of the tribulation No, Jew is going to go into that temple It's going to be defiled and He's going to enter is going to be chasing after them So nobody's going to even have the opportunity if they wanted to they couldn't go in there to clean it up Because they're going to be hiding they're going to be running for their life because he's going to try and kill them all and and he will kill many of them. So that's what's going on in that passage. Now, we look at the world today, we look at the Middle East today, and the UN has been trying now for over a week to get a resolution passed that would try to force Israel to stop the war against Hamas. And it's interesting that the UN, with the assistance of Canada, have already, they didn't pass a resolution, but they passed a, I can't remember what they call it now, but they passed some kind of a statement that they strongly suggested that Israel should stop the war. Not that Hamas should stop the war, but that Israel should stop the war. The UN, there are two groups called, one is called UNWRA, U-N-W-R-A. I can't remember the meaning of that now, but you can Google it. And the Red Cross, both working in the Gaza area. Both of those groups are working to support Hamas. The UN is supposed to be a body put together after the Second World War to work out grievances in the world to stop that there's no more world wars. But the bulk of the UN is being controlled by Muslims. So they are supporting Hamas and Iran and Hezbollah. And the Red Cross, which is supposed to be a non-partisan group that's supposed to be there to care for the physical needs of humanity, that's what they're supposed to be about, and yet they are using their ambulances to cart terrorists and weapons around for Hamas. Canada, I think it's last year, gave $32 million to UNRWA, U-N-W-R-A. 32 million of our tax dollars. I don't remember any politician calling me up and asking if I was in favor of that. Did they call you? No. They don't ask for our permission to support terrorists. Our government is acting very much like unions do. Union dues, they force the employees to pay union dues. But what does those dues go for? Unions support criminal ventures. They're corrupt organizations. And that money goes to support NDP, Green Party, and other criminal junk that goes on. But the union worker has no say as to where that money goes. He's just told, pay your dues. If you want to work here, pay your dues. Hillary Clinton recently came out trying to convince her Democratic Jewish friends to pressure Mr. Netanyahu to stop the fighting against Hamas and Hezbollah. It's interesting to me that in the United States there's a large group of Jews that support the Democrat Party. Why? Only because they're blinded. by their rebellion against God. Why else would they support the Democrats who hate them? Same with Canada. Why are there liberals in Canada that would support the Liberal Party when it does not support them? Again, because they're blind because of their rebellion against God. So these are the pressures that Israel is facing, that Netanyahu is facing at this very time. But again, he's facing it because he, Mr. Netanyahu, has rejected the true God. But this trouble, as we see here in verse 27, is going to be a part of the nation of Israel and of the Middle East until the end of the tribulation. So it doesn't matter what kind of resolutions anybody passes. It doesn't matter how many people get out in the streets and protest. And every weekend, there are protests in Toronto, in Calgary, in Vancouver, protests in Montreal. Most of those protests are pro-Hamas protests. Some of them are pro-Israel, but far more of them are pro-Hamas. It doesn't matter how many protests there are. It doesn't matter what kind of laws are passed. The Bible says until this thing is settled by Jesus Christ, the Middle East is going to be a hot spot for trouble. That's the reality. And so our politicians would be wise to get on their knees and repent and be saved and then start to look at what's going on over there based on what God says. Instead of thinking that if enough of them put their heads together, they can force Israel to stop fighting and they can get Hamas to wipe Israel off the map. It's not gonna happen. It's not gonna happen. There's going to be trouble in the Middle East, yes. Lots of it, yeah. But Israel is not going to be destroyed. God says so. There are Jews being killed. There are Jewish soldiers being killed right now in the fighting. Netanyahu just talked about that today again. Jewish soldiers that have been killed by the terrorists. And so he's going to keep fighting until he can stop that. Well, he's not going to stop it. He can keep fighting. He's not going to stop it. Because there are lots of terrorists. Young children. They raided one school, and underneath that school, they found military vests, not for adults, for children. For the Muslim children to be dressed up like soldiers, and those children are being used by Hamas to transport weapons from one place to another. So if the Jews find out that there's this convoy of weapons going and they bomb it, then the Muslims can, look at all these children that they killed. Yeah, but what were those children doing? They had been brainwashed into being used by Hamas to further their war effort. So the news isn't telling you that. The media this week, I can't remember what day it was, they had this picture there of the Muslims and all these bodies covered in white sheets, you know, suggesting that all these Muslims were innocent people killed by the Jews. They don't tell you what those so-called innocent people were actually doing. They don't tell you that. And the media is brainwashing the population and the population, I can't remember the number, but it's a high number of people in the United States that say, yes, the problem is Israel, need to get rid of Israel, and then we'll have peace there. They're being brainwashed by the left-wing media. But why are they being brainwashed? Because they don't believe the Bible. If they would believe the Bible, if they would go to good churches that teach the truth, they would know. that yes, Israel is not the totally innocent party here, but war is deadly. That's what war is. If you live in a war zone, and if you want to take the wrong side in a war zone, you're open to be killed. So that's a reality. But the Muslims are the instigators here. and they're not gonna stop until they destroy Israel. They're not gonna be allowed to do that, but that's their aim. So what are we told to do? For Christians, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. How are they going to find peace when they know the Prince of Peace? So that's our goal in our prayers, that Jews would be saved. to know God's peace and to serve Him faithfully. So we have a task to do while we're on this earth, to witness and to seek to help Jews and Gentiles to know God's forgiveness. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we're thankful that we have Thy word, thankful for the truthfulness of Thy word. It's a deep passage you've been looking at today. I pray that it would help us. that we would understand thy hand in what's going on today in the Middle East and what's coming yet for the Middle East and how that we need to, those of us that are saved, need to be praying for the peace of Jerusalem, that Mr. Netanyahu, that his cabinet, that many other Jews would see their need to repent and be sane, to know thy peace in their hearts. and to realize that that October 7th party that was going on as they were being invaded was of the devil. And we pray that there would be many Jews that would be saved in these last days. Pray that many Gentiles across the world would be saved as well. We pray, Father, for those of us that are saved that we would be faithful to Thee and that we would be knowledgeable of the truth so we can help others to see things as they really are. That people might want to repent, know thy forgiveness and peace in their hearts. May thy will be accomplished in these days of grace. May we glorify thee, we pray in Jesus' name.