Turning your Bibles this evening to the book of Daniel, we continue to work our way somewhat sporadically of late, but we come to Daniel chapter nine, Daniel chapter nine, and we'll be reading verses 24 through 27. Daniel nine. beginning with verse 24, reading through verse 27. Let's give our attention now to the word of God. 70 weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin. and to atone for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem, to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks, Then, for 62 weeks, it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. And after the 62 weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed, and he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering, and on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator. Thus far, the reading of God's holy word. Let's pray. Father, as we come to these words tonight, we realize quickly these are not easy words. These are not easy expressions to understand, still harder to apply to our own lives. But we ask that your grace, which is always sufficient, will be with us this evening, that you will open our hearts and our minds to your truth. and that in doing so, we will see the glory of our Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, who has redeemed us by his blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and may praise belong to him. We ask for Jesus' sake, amen. Well, when you hear the word prophecy, What do you think of? Do any particular passages of the Bible come to mind along the lines of prophecy? Well, generally speaking, we think of prophecy as being the foretelling of future events. years, sometimes hundreds of years, before they will actually take place. According to one author, there are 1,239 prophecies in the Old Testament. So you have a lot to pick from. An additional almost 600 in the New Testament. And you don't have to read far in the Bible to find one because Genesis 315, interesting words spoken to Satan, contain the first prophecy. And I will put enmity between your seed and the seed of the woman. And you shall bruise his heel. He will crush your head. And my friends, that was thousands of years before it would happen. Many prophecies in the Old Testament are prophecies about Christ, about his birth in Bethlehem, being born of a virgin, riding on a donkey, about his life, about his death on the cross, Isaiah 53. 800 years before Christ are prophecies given in precise detail about the death of our savior. There are prophecies about his resurrection and of course about his return. Now most of those prophecies have already been fulfilled, but there are more than a few that fall into the category, if you will, of the end times. What's going to happen towards the end of time? And that is usually where people place our text this evening. These four verses have become a go-to passage, a key passage, along with passages like Matthew 24, or 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5, and certainly the last few chapters of the book of Revelation. But my friends, one of the things that I want to do tonight is to suggest to you that to think of these words, particularly the 70th week of the 70 weeks of Daniel as something that is yet to be fulfilled may not be the best way to interpret this text. I hope to show you there is a difference and a better way to think about these words. We're gonna look at three sections as you have them outlined there in your bulletin. Number one, we see the prophecy revealed and overemphasized. I'll explain that in just a moment. Secondly, we'll look at the prophecy explained, at least most of it, and accomplished. And then lastly, the prophecy established and confirmed. Let's begin with our first point. The prophecy revealed and overemphasized. Now children, this is not an easy passage for you. This is not a passage that you're gonna quickly understand or even be interested in. Talking about all of these different events may be difficult for you to follow, but here's what I want you to do. I want you to concentrate, number one, on remembering the lessons about prayer in Daniel's prayer in the first section of chapter nine. And as we talk about those things, those are things that you can understand and profit from. Secondly, I want you to think about all that Christ has done to make salvation possible for his people. So think about all these different things that are mentioned and what Christ has done to make salvation a reality in your life and mine. But we have the prophecy revealed. Now it's been several weeks since we looked at the book of Daniel, but you may remember that Daniel chapter nine begins with what? With Daniel reading the book of Jeremiah. And as Daniel reads the book of Jeremiah, he reads of God's promise that after 70 years of captivity in Babylon, God is going to bless and restore and rebuild the Jews and Jerusalem. That promise leads Daniel to pray and here's what I want you children to listen and remember. What kind of prayer does Daniel pray? Daniel prays and it's a prayer of deep, heartfelt confession of sin. He is filled with sorrow because he and the princes and the judges and the people have not listened to God's word. And when we see in our own lives areas where we haven't listened, or we've listened but we haven't obeyed, we need to be sorrowful. We need to go to God and confess those sins. And like Daniel, he not only has deep sorrow in his heart, but he pleads with God for forgiveness. Oh Lord, hear. Oh Lord, forgive. Oh Lord, listen and do. And then he earnestly goes to God with supplications, with requests, with prayers that God would do what he's promised to do. My friends, all you have to do is go back through the Bible and think of all the different promises God has made to you. and then go to God in prayer and say, Lord, hear. Lord, forgive me where I have failed and hear and do what you've promised to do. That's the way Daniel prayed. Then, in response to that prayer, the angel Gabriel, is sent to Daniel. He's sent to Daniel with a message, a message regarding not only what will happen in Daniel's day and time, but what will happen more than 500 years later. God doesn't think, God doesn't work on the same timetable that you and I do. God often thinks generations yet to come. When you think about those wonderful promises in Jeremiah 29, I know the thoughts that I think towards you, thoughts of good and not of evil to give you a future and a hope. That was at the beginning. of the Babylonian captivity. That means before those words would be fulfilled would be 70 years later. And most of the people to whom those words were spoken would not live to see it. But that's okay because God has a purpose and he's working. He's working in people often at distant times and places. And that's what's happening here. Daniel receives this message from Gabriel about what's going to happen 500 years later. Now we come to verse 24. And it is specifically revealed to Daniel that 70 weeks are determined for your people and your city. I'm gonna say more about that expression in a moment, but right now I want you to think about the passage before us. Particularly, look carefully at this chapter. Chapter nine, the book of Daniel. How many verses are given to Daniel's prayer and God's response to that prayer. So you can basically look at it and say, well, approximately 23 verses are devoted to Daniel's prayer and God's response. Now, I want you to look at how many verses are given to this prophecy. This prophecy about what's gonna happen, about this prince that's going to come and destroy the city and bring in desolations and all the rest. How many verses? Four. 23 and four. And of the two, which one do you think captures the most attention? Which one do you think people in our day and generations prior to our day talk about the most? My friends, I don't think I'm overstating the fact to say that here is a prime example. of how an undue fascination, an undue interest with prophecy about the end times captures people's attention. When you think about this passage, and you start talking about wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes and floods, and you start talking about the things we find in these four verses, and I can guarantee you, most people that you talk to, there'll be a sense of excitement, of great interest, and fascination. with all these things about the end times. You realize that whole books, whole books have been written about these four verses. As a matter of fact, entire theological systems have been built around these four verses. And really, just a few of those at that. I want you to realize that the emphasis of the first nine chapters, the first nine chapters of the book of Daniel, what has the emphasis been? Time and time and time again, the emphasis is God is king. God is sovereign. God rules and reigns over the inhabitants of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. He changes the times and the season. Wisdom and might belong to him. He raises up kings and he puts them down as he chooses. That's the theme in the first nine chapters. Do you realize that's quickly? Jettisoned, that's almost pushed aside. Let's talk about war. Let's talk about what's coming. Let's talk about Jerusalem. Let's talk about war in the Mideast. People get fascinated with these four verses. Think about the majority of this chapter. We've already mentioned Daniel's prayer, 23 verses. These issues are critical issues. How to pray in a way that pleases God. The need to humble ourselves when we pray. To come to God with earnestness and zeal, with sackcloth and ashes, Daniel prayed. The need for the confession of our sins. The need to trust in God. to do what he's promised to do. Brethren, those are life-changing, spiritually edifying principles of life, and they are far more significant, far more significant than a few obscure expressions about some future events. That's why I mean it's overemphasized. We need to pay attention to what Daniel's been saying over and over and over to Nebuchadnezzar, to Belshazzar, to Darius, to each king. He has told them God is sovereign. So the prophecy is revealed, but at least in our day, greatly overemphasized. Secondly, the prophecy explained and accomplished. I anticipate most of us in this room tonight would be familiar with the Apostle Paul's words in 2 Timothy 3.16, that all scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. All scripture is inspired. That does not mean that all scripture is equally clear and easy to understand. And we see that here, particularly in the 70th week. Now generally, writers have taken these words to refer to the 70 weeks as literally it's 77s. And so they've taken that to say it's 70 weeks of seven years. In other words, it comes out to 490 years. But here's the problem. When they focus in on that and say, here's the meaning. It's 70 weeks, 70 times seven years. No one, has been able to juggle the numbers quite enough to make it line up with the history books. I think we're in danger again of missing the forest for the trees. I'm not sure that this reference to 70 weeks is intended. It certainly is not meant to focus our attention on a specific period of time. But what is clear and what should be understandable to us is that in this 70 weeks, six things are going to happen. Transgression is going to be finished. There will be a making of an end of sins. There will be making reconciliation. There will be a bringing in of everlasting righteousness. There will be a sealing up of vision and prophecy. and there will be anointing of the most holy. Could be a most holy place, could be a most holy person. I opt for the latter. Now, my friends, if you know the Bible and you look at those six things, you would be hard pressed not to see that all of those things are the work of the Messiah. All of those six elements are accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ. We're gonna look very quickly at these six elements and just a verse or two for each one. Now remember when we read that one of the things that's gonna happen is to finish transgression. Now what does that mean? Daniel has just prayed and he has just acknowledged that all Israel has sinned against God. He said, our princes have sinned, our kings have sinned, our priests have sinned, our leaders have sinned, and all the people have sinned. And brothers and sisters, you and I are included in that list. You know what Paul says? All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We've all sinned. But these words seem to suggest that the idea of dealing a final blow to our transgressions It's the idea of seeing the remedy for those transgressions that God has provided fully and finally. He has finished dealing with transgressions. And do you remember the last words that Jesus uttered on the cross before he died? It is finished. The work of dealing with our transgressions is finished. There's no more sacrifice needed. There's no more offering needed because Christ has paid in full our transgressions. He has paid the penalty that we deserve. Nothing more is needed. Along the same lines, the second thing, to make an end of sins. Here it's not just dealing with or binding up or dealing finally with transgression. Here is the idea of taking sin away. Here is the idea of removing those sins from God's view and from our view. Listen to those extraordinary words that we find in Micah chapter seven. When he asked in verse 18, who is a God like you? Pardoning iniquity, passing over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage. He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in mercy. He will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. I've mentioned this illustration before. I don't know if you've ever dropped anything into the ocean. But if you do, it's not coming back. You're not gonna find it. And our Savior has cast our sins. He's made an end of those sins. He cast those sins into the depths of the sea, never to be heard from again. And then we read that it would be to make reconciliation, to make reconciliation for iniquity. Reconciliation refers to enemies, people that are hostile towards one another, angry with one another. They have bitterness between one another. And reconciliation is bringing those two people who are at enmity with one another and bringing them together in peace and unity. Our Savior makes reconciliation. Here the bitter enemies, us and God, come together in peace. And my friends, there's only one way that can happen. and that is through the work of Christ upon the cross. So Paul in 2 Corinthians 5.19 says God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. We were at enmity with God, but we have been reconciled by the work of Christ. And then he says to bring in everlasting righteousness. Not only does Christ remove the source of hostility between us and God, but he then makes us positively righteous. Paul in First Corinthians in chapter one in verse 30 says, but of him, of God, are you in Christ Jesus, who is made unto us wisdom and righteousness? and sanctification and redemption. The whole salvation complex is ours in Christ. He makes reconciliation, but then he makes us like himself. He makes us righteous. He makes us holy like himself. Fifthly, he says to seal up visions and prophecies. I believe most likely this is a reference to the end of the way God commonly dealt with his people. in the Old Testament, through visions, dreams, and prophecies of things yet to come. But Hebrews one, verses one and two tells us that the way God used to deal with his people, God who at different times and in different ways spoke to the fathers in times past, now speaks to us by his son. the brightness of the Father's glory, the express image of Himself. My friends, Christ now speaks by His Word and Spirit, making known to us the will of God. We don't need visions, we don't need prophets and prophecies. because Christ now has spoken by his word. And then lastly, to anoint the most holy. Could be a reference to the temple? I don't think so. If it is a reference to the holy place, I believe it's to the holy place in heaven that the earthly temple was a copy of. But as I mentioned, I prefer that this is a reference to Christ himself, and that can be what the text is designed to communicate, to a holy, most holy one. And remember what happens at Christ's baptism? The Holy Spirit comes down and rests upon him. And at his first public appearance in the temple after that baptism, what does he say? For the Lord has anointed me to preach the gospel. I believe that is what we're seeing here. So Luke 4.18, quoting from Isaiah 61.1, is a reference to Christ himself being anointed by the Holy Spirit. Now there are certain obscurities with these phrases. There could be nuances here that we're missing altogether. But one thing, my friends, is absolutely clear. And it's this, all six of these things that must take place in those first 69 weeks, all six are strictly, strictly messianic. They are fulfilled. by the Lord Jesus Christ. A few more particulars that Daniel mentions as part of this prophecy, and he says in verse 25, Jerusalem will be rebuilt and restored during the first 69 weeks. Now, why does he divide it up between seven weeks and 62 weeks? I have no idea. and that really doesn't matter to me. I'm not sure why he does that, but we know that there's 69 weeks, and during those 69 weeks, Jerusalem is going to be rebuilt, and the people of God are going to be restored, and that began under Ezra, and later with Nehemiah. And it all happens in the midst of various times and places of troublesome times. The period concludes with the coming of the Messiah. Verse 26 tells us two things. Number one, 62 weeks and Messiah is going to be cut off. So that's the first thing we have in verse 26. Messiah is going to be cut off. My friends, that is Old Testament language for being put to death. You may remember how Isaiah in chapter 53 uses that very language. In verse 8, he was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare his generation? For he was cut off from the land of the living. It simply means he's going to die. He's going to be put to death. The second thing is the people of the prince, not the prince mentioned in verse 25, which is Christ. So there are different princes here. The people of this prince are going to destroy the city. They're going to destroy Jerusalem. This prince is not Christ, it's not Antiochus Epiphanes, which was 200 years before this happened. It is not the Antichrist in the tribulation period. The people who destroyed Jerusalem were who? They were Romans in 70 AD under the Emperor Titus. So there are desolations and wars that take place all around Jerusalem that wipe Jerusalem down to the ground. My friends, if you have a copy, if you don't, see if you can find one of the writings of Josephus. And read this Jewish historian's accounting of the wars of Jerusalem in 70 AD. It is uncanny. You can almost lay his description over the book of Revelation point for point. It's a very fascinating description. But these two things, Jerusalem will be rebuilt, restored, Ezra and Nehemiah. Later, Messiah will be cut off and put to death. The people of the prince will destroy the city. And that is Rome in 70 AD. Lastly, the prophecy established and confirmed. So in verse 27, We hear, then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week. Here is where things get kind of interesting. Because the question is, who is the he who will make a covenant with the people of God? Well, many of you, like myself, may have been taught a view of these things known as dispensationalism. According to this very popular approach, the he of verse 27 is the Antichrist, the man of sin. who will make a covenant with the Jews during the tribulation period, but he will break the covenant and suspend religious worship, cutting off sacrifice and offering. In other words, they teach that there is a gap now between the 69th week and the 70th week, an unspecified parentheses. My friends, let me just note, there is not a single time in the history of God's people, 40 years in Egypt, or 40 years in the desert, 430 years in Egypt, seven years of famine under Joseph, and a host of other time periods, not one time, one time is there a gap that's not mentioned. But that's the idea here, this unspecified gap. Is that what the text says? And the answer is no. As Sinclair Ferguson points out, the Reformed view is that the 70th week comes right where you would expect a 70th week to come, right after the 69th week. The He that is mentioned here is not the Antichrist. It's the Christ. And they say that for three reasons. Number one, grammatically, The prince, in verse 26, is not a prominent figure. And his activity is not prominent. He is only mentioned in a subordinate clause. The people of the prince. The people are the ones who destroyed the city of Jerusalem. The prince himself is really not in view. The fact is, this entire passage is about the Messiah. It's about what Christ is doing. He, Christ, performs everything that's being mentioned here. Redemption, my friends, from start to finish, is His work and His work alone. So grammatically, It's not likely. Two, textually, the text says, or does not say, he will make a covenant. It actually uses the word for confirm a covenant. He is going to confirm a covenant. Usually the way the scriptures describe making a covenant is cutting a covenant. So when God makes a covenant with Abraham, he cuts the pieces in two and walks between them. He cuts a covenant. That's not what we have here. We have a different description. The idea here is one of confirming, one of establishing, one of making the promises of the covenant certain and effectual. That's why the ESV says he will make a strong covenant. It's going to be an effectual covenant. Now who is the one in scripture who is constantly making or confirming covenants with his people. It's God himself. And Christ is the one who confirms this covenant. So Hebrews tells us Christ is the mediator of the new covenant. He is the one who makes the covenant. He is the one who puts an end to sacrifice and offering, not because he wants to stop religious worship, but because he is the final sacrifice. And he accomplishes and makes and establishes and makes certain the covenant that God has promised to his people. Thirdly, chronologically, the teaching that the he of verse 27 is some future wicked leader just doesn't fit. Because the people of that prince destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD. How is it that 2,000 years or more this same prince is gonna reappear and be the one who breaks this covenant with the people of God. What we have here, at least from a reform perspective, is that this covenant is confirmed and established by Christ. He brings an end to sacrifice because the work of Christ is perfectly sufficient and adequate for it all. Listen to the words of Romans 15 in verse eight. Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made to the fathers. The promises of the covenant that God made to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob have been confirmed by Jesus Christ in His work and ministry. One final verse from Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 12, which tells us verse 11, Christ came as a high priest for good things to come. with a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is not of this creation, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, he entered the most holy place, once for all, having obtained eternal Redemption My friends whatever else you may see in this passage these four verses are all about Christ They're all about his work of redeeming sinners, of bringing the covenant people of God safely into a place of everlasting and eternal blessedness. And may we give glory to our Redeemer who has done this for us. Let's pray. O Lord, our God, we thank you. We thank you for sending the Lord Jesus Christ in might and glory and power to destroy the works of the devil and to deliver the people of God from sin and transgression, to reconcile us to our God and Father, and to bring us safely home. Lord, we bless you and praise you for the great work of Christ on our behalf. And may our hearts and may our lives reflect our joy and thanksgiving. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Let's take a few moments revel in the glory of our Redeemer.