The Book of Daniel tonight, if you will, please. Book of Daniel, chapter number 9. We've arrived at a passage of Scripture that is one of my favorites in the Word of God. It is not really a preaching passage, per se, in the sense of a message to get all excited about. But it is a very important doctrinal passage in that it lays the groundwork for the rest of all of eschatology, the coming things as far as time is concerned and how God's going to do that. And if a person gets a grasp of this passage that we're going to show you tonight, you will have the grounding that you need to combat much of the false error that is taught by many in our religious circles today as to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the passage, in Daniel chapter 9, we're going to start reading in verse number 21. Daniel says, Yea, whilst I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. And he informed me and talked with me and said, O Daniel, I have now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee, for thou art greatly beloved, therefore understand the matter and consider the vision. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem 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 troublous 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 abominations he shall make it desolate even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate." Let's bow in prayer. Father, tonight, we do thank you for the Word of God. We thank you for its clarity. And Lord, though in this day certainly there are many who stumble at the Scriptures, we thank you, Lord, that you've not given us the book to cause us to not be able to find you, but you've made the Scriptures clear to your children that will dare to seek your face and read this book with a humble heart. We'd ask tonight that, Lord, You'd instruct us and teach us about things to come. Not so much that we could fill some curiosity in our mind and make ourselves feel better that we know something about the future, but, Lord, so that we can understand the importance of what's about to happen, that we could prepare not only ourselves, but our loved ones and others that we come in contact with day in and day out. And also, Lord, so that we can understand have complete confidence in the fact that you have charge of all the future as well as the past. Lord, we're thankful tonight that we can rest in assurance that you're in charge of this world in which we live. That though things may at times seem out of hand to us, Lord, we're glad that in the background you stand with your hand firmly in grasp of every event of human history as well as human future. And so tonight we ask, Lord, You'd speak to our hearts as well as our heads, teach us some things that would help us to walk closer to You in the days ahead. And Lord, we'll thank You for that, for it's in Jesus' name that we ask it. Amen. The book of Daniel starts off in chapter number 9 with Daniel praying and talking to God. This chapter is a chapter dealing with prophecy, with coming things. Let's see if I can move that back over here a little bit. Dealing with coming things, with future events. What will happen? Now, there are those in our day and age who would like to tell you that they have a corner on the market and they know everything that's going to take place. In fact, they've even got the dates worked out. Jack Van Impey has on more than one occasion come up with the date when Jesus is returning. Each time he's done that, the date has come and passed and he's been wrong again. I would not listen to him if I were you on many other issues as well. But there are others who have tried to set dates. The passage of interest that got hold of his heart that day, as Daniel was reading the Word of God, was a passage out of the book of Jeremiah. And as he was reading in the book of Jeremiah, it caused him to begin to pray. That passage, through studying the Word of God, caused him to have an understanding of Scripture. God does not give us His words that we'll be confused. He gives us His Word that we might understand some things. And I think how we misunderstand the Word of God is that we come to this book so quickly as a textbook. We try to approach the Word of God as some kind of a heady, high-knowledge book for us to just pull the knowledge off the shelf and stick it in our head, kind of like a computer, and spit the information back out. This book is not written as a head-knowledge book, though there's plenty there that will give you knowledge beyond your years and beyond your education. But in this book, my friend, it's written for the heart of man first and foremost. And that's why you see with Daniel, as he begins to read the Word of God, here this aged saint, up in his 80s at this point probably, here's Daniel reading the Word of God and what does it do? It drives him to his knees as he begins to pray. He begins to ask God, what does this mean? What's going on? And he begins to confess the sin of the nation and his own personal sin. In that prayer, we find then the prayer of intercession as Daniel begins to pray for his people. He prays earnestly and with confession and reflection and dependence upon God and honoring God in his prayers. And he pleads God's mercy and then he gets hold of God's relationship. And this is the crux of why he asks God to answer his prayer. He doesn't come to the Lord and you and I need to learn this lesson. We don't come to the Lord and ask Him to answer our prayers because of who we are. We don't go to Him and say, Lord, I've done this and this and this, and because of my accomplishments, You owe me. God never owes us anything. It's our relationship as a child of God, as being His people, that opens God's heart to us. And of course, that relationship is built upon one thing, and that is the redemption that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ that was shed for our sin. Then we see his plea as he begins to ask God to restore the nation of Israel back to the promised land. And at the time that Daniel's doing this praying and this writing, the nation of Israel is put away. They're no longer in the promised land. They've been put out of the promised land because of their sin. So God then opens up a section and Gabriel shows up And we see the prophecy of information that God then lays out for Daniel. First of all, he has an announcement. And when Gabriel shows up, it's a monumental event. I mean, it catches his attention. He says that this event of prophecy is going to be accomplished in time. And he tells us here now, in this passage, that this is a Jewish prophecy that we're dealing with. We're not dealing with Gentile times now. We're dealing with the Jews. We're talking about Thy people. God's people are Thy people, and Thy people are the Jewish people. We're talking about Thy city. Thy city, God's city, if you will, is Jerusalem. When we talk about the land, the land, and whenever you talk about directions in Scripture, the directions are always from the land of Israel, from the promised land. The center focus in all the Word of God is always the promised land, the land of Israel. We need to understand that today, when we live now in the time, what's known as the times of the Gentiles, we're prone to forget that God's nation throughout history was always the Jewish people. And we're just living in a little parenthesis of time. God has kind of pulled the Jews aside for a little while, given them a time out, gave them a sit on the bench for a little bit and just rest. And He's put the scrubs in the game for a little while. That's what we are. And He's going to jerk us back out just in time. And He's going to put Israel back in. That day is yet to come. And the Lord will then wind everything up. But in winding everything up, he tells us there that it's going to be to finish the transgression. Here's the purpose of what God ultimately is going to do. He's going to finish the transgression. He's going to make an end of sin. He's going to make reconciliation for iniquity. He's going to bring in everlasting righteousness. He's going to seal up the vision. And He is going to anoint the Most Holy, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, having said all that, and we've spent our time dealing with all of this in the past week or so, tonight what I want to do is to move ahead to the answer to chronology. I want you to see what the Scriptures have to say about the time period of the second coming. Now, the reason this gets very important for us is that some folks do not believe that the Jews are going to be restored as God's people. Other folks believe that the rapture which is going to take place, the rapture is the catching away. The term rapture is never used in your Bible. The idea, the concept is certainly there in 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 13 to 18, as the Lord talks about catching us up to be with Him forever with the Lord in the heavens. We're going to be with the Lord forever. That day is yet to come. That's the catching away, the rapture. And the Scriptures talk about it in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, towards the end of the chapter. And so it talks about us being changed in a moment, being caught up to be with the Lord. But the timing of that rapture, the timing of that catching away, when is it going to take place on God's calendar, is the thing that a lot of people get confused about. the view of Christians through history, the view of Christians until really pretty recently, until about the last 15 years or so, the majority of Christians have pretty much had one mind on this matter. In the last 15 to 20 years, there's been one theory after another theory thrown out there, and now there's a new theory that's been put out. and been propagated by a fellow that used to be in charge of the Jewish ministry down here out of Philadelphia. And he wrote a book on it, and he believes that there's going to be a pre-wrath rapture. In other words, what's going to happen is there's going to be a rapture, but when it happens, it's going to be different than anybody else has ever figured out before. But God has given him a special understanding of the Scripture that all these generations were not able to understand. When you meet somebody like that, you know, you're really probably best to just kind of smile real big and say goodbye and part company. Because you see, God's not in the business of giving you and I some kind of special knowledge nobody was ever able to have before. If what we believe is right, there are going to be people down through history that have believed it as well. If what we believe is wrong, God will show us that if we'll take a careful study of the Word of God. And there is a good chance that through history we'll find that it was not a belief that Christians held. Don't misunderstand. We don't hold what we believe because in history it holds water. We believe what we believe because it's in the Word of God. But if what we believe is right out of the Word of God, we won't be the only people that believe it. Now, our mistake is today, and here's where American Christianity is at. We say, well, what's everybody else believe today? I wouldn't judge what I believe by what everybody else in today's age believes. I would rather judge my beliefs in accordance with history through the ages. What have Christians believed through the ages? Am I in line and in sync with them? Because you see, it's very possible for Christians today to come up with new ideas and get adopted by the wide majority of the Christian community and be totally wrong and at odds with all of history. And there are many views that we could talk about in that very light. But tonight what I want to do is I want to pick up here in Daniel chapter 9 with you, and I want you to see this second coming of Christ and the timing period that we have here. Well, I don't have... Oh, maybe I do. Here we go. Great. I'm in business. Terrific. Daniel says that he's come in order to help them to understand the matter. He says here in verse 24, he says, 70 weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression. Now, note if you will here, The chronology is what we want to spend some time with. And I hope that you'll try to follow along tonight, not just kind of daydream. Because if you daydream, this message this evening is going to go right over your head. You get lost halfway between and kind of daydream, you won't be able to pick it back up. So pay attention here just a little bit, and I think it will be profitable to you as a Christian. He talks about 70 weeks. That term weeks, when you and I think of a week, of course, in our American understanding of the word, What do we think of? We think of seven days, right? And a week is made up of sevens. But the term weeks in Bible terms, in Bible days, was used in a way that meant seven sevens, or in this case, a week was sevens, if you will. Kind of like our term dozen. A dozen means what? Twelve. A baker's dozen is what? Thirteen. See how we know exactly what we're talking about now? What do we mean when we say a dozen? What is a dozen? Well, we say it's twelve, but we know how many a dozen is. Now, what is a dozen? A dozen what? A dozen donuts? You know where my mind is? A dozen eggs? A dozen cars? A dozen Shoes, a dozen ties, a dozen eyeglasses, a dozen... I mean, you name it, whatever you want it to be. But you see, you have to define what a dozen is. If somebody said to you, your wife said to you, Joe, go to the store and get me a dozen. Do you think Joe would pick up and just go? Some of you think he would. Joe, they don't have much confidence in you. Yeah, he'd come back with half a dozen. What would he say? What would be his first response? Go get a dozen. What would he say? Dozen what? Now, if they're talking about something, the context, his wife's talking about, oh, we've got to get all these ingredients down. Oh no, I don't have any eggs. Joe, go get me a dozen, would you? Now what? Dozen eggs. We understand because of the context of what's going on. What's the context of our passage? Back in chapter number 9, verse number 1, Daniel says, In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by books the number of the what? The number of the years. And he says here that he's talking about years, and then he comes down and he says, I was reading Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish 70, what's that word? Years in the desolations of Jerusalem. The main thought on Daniel's mind, the context of everything he's thinking about, praying about right now is, there's a 70 year period that God's put on my people. 70 years, and that 70 years as he goes back to the start of the captivity and he counts forward, he realizes that the 70 years is about to come to an end and Daniel's all excited. God's made a promise in Jeremiah that it's only going to be 70 years of captivity, and he's counting all this up. The 70 years is almost over, and Daniel starts to pray, Lord, forgive us of our sin. It's our sin that put us in captivity. Lord, forgive me of my sin. God, please deliver your people. What's he saying? God, make your promise true. Bring your promise about. This 70 years, I want it brought to an end." Then, the angel Gabriel shows up. The angel Gabriel comes and he starts to talk and he says, 70 weeks are determined upon thy people. 77's are determined upon thy people. And we sit back, we read that, and we scratch our head and we say, 70 weeks. What's he mean? 70 weeks of what? 70 weeks of years. That's what the context is all about. And you say, well, do they ever do this in Scripture anywhere else? Do they ever use the term week in Scripture to mean something other than seven days? Turn to the book of Genesis. Hold your place in Daniel, but turn to the book of Genesis, chapter number 29. I'll show you what I mean. This is where we have to be very careful as Christians that we don't try to carry our American culture into the Bible and make the Bible read like we try to read it and like we think. We need to go back to the Bible and understand their culture and how they dealt with things. Look at what it says here in chapter 29 and verse 26. It says, and Laban said, it must not be so done in our country to give the younger before the firstborn. What's happened? Well, Jacob fell in love with Rachel. He got a promise from Laban, who was to be his father-in-law, that if he'd work for seven years, he could have Rachel for his wife. The seven years were up. He walked down the aisle, said, I do. The preacher said, you're done. And he reached over and pulled the veil back and he said, oh no! It was the wrong one. It was Leah. Now, Leah's not in here, so don't you tell her I said this. The word Leah in the Bible means tender-eyed. Now, you know what that means? It means when you look at Leah in the Bible now, not the Leah Kasarowski we know. When you look at the Leah in the Bible, it means ugly. Tender-eyed meant it hurt to look at her. Can you imagine falling in love with Rachel and thinking you're marrying her? Pull the veil back and you get Leah instead. Now, please do not tell Leah Kaczorowski, I explained the Bible that way, okay? No reflection on her at all, or any other Leahs we have running around here, by the way, too. But anyway, some of you are thinking about naming your next daughter Leah. You might think twice now, huh? He says here in verse 27, he says, "...fulfill her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me, yet seven other..." what? Years. See what a week was? A week was like a dozen. It was sevens. And he specifies here in verse 27 in the context, you fulfill her sevens. You fulfill her week. And her week, her sevens, are seven more years, just like you fulfilled for Leah. Now, seven more years, I'll let you have Rachel. And so what we've got here is an instance in Scripture where the term week was actually used to denote seven years instead of seven days. So what we're talking about then is, as we study Scripture, that Daniel is dealing with a period of seventy sevens of years. Okay, I'll explain that here in a minute. Seventy times seven. Seventy-sevens. Follow me now. If you have seventy-sevens, like seventy-dozen You take the 70 times 7 and you get a total of 490 years. The Lord is saying here in verse 24, 77's or 490 years are determined upon thy people. Now, those 77's, those 490 years, is what he is talking about is needed to finish the transgression, to restore them to the promised land, and ultimately to anoint the Most Holy. Now, an interesting concept in Scripture is that there are four 490-year periods in the Word of God for the Jewish nation. I just mention this in passing, but from Abraham until the time that they take the promised land, Canaan, is 490 years. From the time of Joshua taking over the nation of Israel to lead it until the time of the kingdom with the king is 490 years. From the time of the kingdom until the time of the captivity is 490 years. And then from the time of the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem under Artaxerxes and under Zerubbabel and all the rest, Ezra, Zerubbabel, Nehemiah comes along in that period. From that time of the rebuilding until the millennium is 490 years. Now you say, wait a minute, more than 490 years has gone by since Jesus died and they built the temple long before that. You're right. But the Lord explains it all to us in this passage. The 490 year periods are determined upon who? Thy people who are who? The Jews. We're dealing with the Jewish people. Are we today in the time of the Jews? Are the Jews God's chosen people for today? No. They will be again. They were in the past. But there's a period in which God pulls the Jews aside, sets them on the bench, and He says, Scrubs, you're in the game. Get moving. And that's where we're at tonight. So look with me then as we think about this. He says in verse 24, 70 weeks are determined, or 490 years are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. Know therefore, verse 25, know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, That's the starting period of the 490 years to rebuild and restore Jerusalem. This is when it's going to start. When did that happen? It was April 455 B.C. It happened under Artaxerxes the king. It happened in the book, if you will, of Nehemiah. It's spoken of in chapter 2, verses 1 and 8. As they came in to rebuild the walls, He tells us here in verse number 25, "...know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem unto the Messiah, the Prince." Now, who is Messiah, the Prince? Messiah, the Prince, is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, watch what he says here. Follow the chronology, verse 25. He says, 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." Okay, let's try it. Seven weeks and three score. What's three score? Sixty. And two weeks equals? Sixty-nine weeks. Now, he said a week is what? He's talking about years. Seven years. So, the 69 weeks of years equals 483 years. Now, watch. Get this, from the time of the rebuilding of the city Jerusalem, Zerubbabel came first to rebuild the temple. Ezra came behind him to finish the job. But it was Nehemiah who came to build the city. From the time of the rebuilding of the city under Artaxerxes 455 BC until the time of Messiah the Prince shall be 483 years. And if you'll take the timing from the time that the city was rebuilt, begun to be rebuilt, until the time of the Lord Jesus Christ coming into the city of Jerusalem in His triumphal entry as He rode on the back of that donkey and the people stood at the streets along the roadways and cried out, Hosanna to the King! You'll find it to be 483 years. Now, do not misunderstand, and this I think we need to just touch on. I'm not going to spend any time here. But in Bible chronology, a year was always 360 days. A month was always 30 days. You didn't have any 28 days, 29 days, 30 days, 31 days. You didn't have any of that. It was always 30 days. 30 days to a month, 360 days to a year. That's Jewish chronology. Our chronology today is all messed up. It's one of the reasons that people get a little confused when it comes to trying to figure out Bible prophecy according to years, is because the way we reckon time is different than the way they reckon time in Bible days. Now, I just mention that and want to run right on. So he tells us then, that from the time of the rebuilding of the city Jerusalem until the time of Messiah the Prince will be a total of 483 years, and that's exactly when Jesus came. Then he says, next of all, that there will be one week. Note what he says. He says in verse 25, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah, the Prince, shall be 483 years, the streets shall be built again, and the wall even in troublous times." Verse 26, and after the three score and two weeks, after all this period is over with, shall Messiah be cut off. What happened to Jesus after the triumphal entry? He was taken, tried, illegally I might add, and then crucified. He was cut off. Watch what else he says. He'll be cut off, he says in verse 26, but not for himself. Who did Jesus die for? He died for us. He didn't die for himself. He wasn't cut off for himself. At any moment he could have called twelve legions of angels to come and rescue him. But he did not, for he died for us. He died in our place. Now hang on, watch what else he says. See, people read the Bible and they think, well, the Bible is just another book, you know. I'll tell you what, this book is so fascinating, with prophecy after prophecy that has already been fulfilled, as well as multitudes of prophecies yet to be fulfilled, that even before our very eyes tonight, are beginning to happen. Look what he says, verse 27. I'm sorry, verse 26. He says here, Messiah shall 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." Now watch what we're looking at here. The prince that shall come, you'll notice, and I believe rightly so, the word prince is in small letters. This is not the prince the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the King of Kings, this is that false king who will try to set himself up as Christ. He will come and he will be, and scripture calls him, the Antichrist. Now the Antichrist, often we think of the Antichrist as somebody who is going to come and throw everything of Christianity out the door. But the Antichrist can also mean the idea of embracing everything that is Christian, but being false at the same time. It is my firm belief that the Antichrist of Scripture will be both. That he will come first, embracing all of Christianity and pulling in all kinds of false religions and cults, and then begin to openly ridicule the things of God and set up his own cult. This is going to be a real interesting thing, which I had time to really deal with it. But notice, if you will, as we look at this, he says that until the time that Jesus is cut off will be 69 weeks or 483 years. But what was it that we were told? We were told 490 years would be determined upon the Jews. And we're saying here only 483 years have been determined. Where is the other week? The other seven years? Look in the next verse, in verse 27, and he shall, this prince that shall come, this Antichrist, he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week. Here it is. The coming of this Antichrist, the coming of this Prince that shall come, will happen during this one-week period. This Antichrist that will come is coming during this seven-year period, and this seven-year period, my friend, has not yet taken place. Now, let me explain a couple of things as we think about that. A gap in Scripture is not uncommon. And that's exactly what we're dealing with. In the same verses, as we read these verses, there's a gap there. God doesn't say, now there's going to be a long period of time in between here and then the 70th week will begin. He doesn't tell you that. He glosses over it. He goes right over it, almost as if it's all in one breath. But you understand, in God's eyes, it all is in one breath. For God is from everlasting to everlasting. He always has been. He always will be. And when God looks down on human history, the life of a man, a century even, is nothing to God. And watch what God does. It hops right over. As we talk about it here, and we could look at Psalm 34, 16 and 1 Peter 3, 2, we'd see where the Bible talks about the Lord comforting His people, and it talks about the Lord judging the wicked in both those passages. But have you looked around? Do you know any Christians today that get comforted? Any Christians you know of that are comforted by God? Does the Lord meet your needs in your life? He does mine. But if you looked around, have you seen any wicked getting away with their sin lately? Noticed any murderers turned loose? Isn't it a sad situation in our country today when we start looking for murderers and we put them on the stand and we turn them loose based on, well, you know, maybe he had a good reason. Maybe he didn't understand what he was doing when he did it. Let's let him go do it again Then we'll know. Give Him another chance. I'll tell you, I get a little bothered with where our judicial system is. But I look around and I say, I know wicked people that are getting away with their wickedness and their sin. I know wicked business people in our world today that get away with their sin. And they look like they're prospering. Have you ever sat back as a Christian and scratched your head and said, Lord, why do you let them prosper and I've got to struggle so much? You ever feel like that? Read Psalm 73 sometime. He'll get right down where you're living, because that's what he talks about. How come the wicked prosper? Why aren't we reimbursed better by God at a time like this? And the wicked ought to be slain. Why does God let them get away? Well, the Lord says one day He's going to get them. He's going to deal with them. The wicked will be judged. But you see, in that verse where it talks about, in the very same breath in that verse, the comfort of God and the judgment of God, they're in the same breath. But they're a long ways apart. Our comfort is now, but their judgment is yet in the future. And it's because of that judgment being in the future in some people's lives that they figure, well, you know, maybe it does pay to be wicked. Maybe it does pay to live in the world. Maybe it does pay to forget God. But I'm here to warn you, and God's Word is here to warn you tonight, my friend, it doesn't ever pay to ignore God. It never pays to sin. Never. And so we're told that there's a gap. In Isaiah 61, verses 1 and 2, Jesus stands in Luke chapter 4 and He reads. He quotes from that passage. But He stops short. He doesn't read it all. He stops short. Why? Because the very last statement, The very last statement is a statement of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he stopped short because Jesus knew when He came the first time, He didn't come as the reigning King. He came as the substitute, as the sacrifice for our sin. He understood there was this parenthesis in time, this period in which He would not be here. He would be killed. He would die on the cross. He'd raise again from the dead, ascend back to the Father, and be gone for many years until ultimately He's coming back to this earth. He's coming back again. But that, my friend, was a gap which the Bible doesn't say anything about in Isaiah chapter 61. We understand today because we have a completed revelation in the Word of God. but they did not understand until later. The gap is for the Gentiles. And this gets important. Let me just give you the passages here and you can take a look at them. I want to turn over there for just a moment. Our time will fly away. But in Matthew 21, verse number 43, the Scripture says, Therefore, I say unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof." Who is Jesus talking to? He's talking to the Jewish people. He's saying to them, you've rejected Me, and because you've rejected Me, I want you to know something. The kingdom you've been looking for, you've been looking for a king to come and deliver you and set you free. I'm telling you something, folks. I'm taking that kingdom away from you. It's going to be given to somebody else that will appreciate what I'm giving them. Now, if you'll turn over there to the book of Romans chapter 11 and verse number 24, Paul is writing. He's talking to the Gentiles who are beginning to get cocky. Paul's been talking to the Jews and he's been telling them off. You folks have rebelled against God and God's judged you. The Gentiles are starting to get a little cocky. Boy, we're something. Look at us. We're serving the Lord. They aren't. We've got the kingdom because we're somebody. Look at this. Look at what Paul says in verse 24. He says, "...for if thou wert cut out of the olive tree, which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, How much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graft into their own olive tree?" Here's the analogy he's using. The Lord had a beautiful olive plant growing. And the nation of Israel, which was one of the branches coming off of this beautiful olive tree, began to produce corrupt fruit. And the Lord said, I've had it with you. He pulled out His knife and He whacked them off. He tossed them over in the side for a little bit. Then he came over here to a wild olive tree, one that wasn't what it should have been, and he took a branch and he whacked it off, and he brought it over here and he plugged it in to the proper olive tree. He bound it up, caused it to get grafted in, caused it to begin to get its nourishment and grow. Now the picture, the obvious picture here is that the good olive branch off the good tree, the good tree is Lord, and the olive branch that He cuts off is Israel. He cuts them off. He took the kingdom away from the Jews. They didn't respond when Jesus came to this world. They wouldn't listen. They rebuked Him. They turned Him away. And ultimately, they put Him on a cross. They wanted nothing to do with Him. And so Jesus says, the Father has taken and cut you off and put you aside. But Gentiles, He came over here and He cut you off. You didn't come from the right stock. But by God's grace, and how we ought to be thankful for this, He graft us in. You and I don't have any reason to be over here except the good grace of God. It's the only reason we're over here. The Lord tied us in and gave us salvation. What a wonderful thing. And here we sit tonight as Christians, and the majority of us here tonight, if not all of us tonight, are Gentiles. Thank God that He saves Gentiles. What a wonderful, wonderful thing tonight. The Lord saved us. Do you realize if the Jews... I mean, if you'd been living back under the Jewish economy, the Old Testament, the Jews would have been the people of God. You would have been nothing more than a Gentile dog outside the city. And the best you could have hoped for would have been maybe forgiveness from God, but never have been grafted in, never have been a part of what God was doing, never been able to really be a part of God's program. God took and cut the Jewish people off and set them aside and pulled those Gentiles and plugged them in, and that's where we are tonight. God's dealing with the Gentile peoples. Now watch. Gentiles start getting cocky. Aren't we somebody? He got rid of them because they weren't as good as us. No, no, no, no, he says. If God was willing to reach over here and take a branch off of a bad olive tree, a wild olive tree, and plug it in, don't you ever make the mistake of thinking that because God cut the Jewish people off and set them aside, that He won't pick them back up and graft them back in, because that is what He is going to do. Read the next verse, verse 25. He says, For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery. Now, mystery in the Bible is not something we can't understand. A mystery in the Bible is something that up until this point in Revelation had never been revealed. Paul's revealing it. A mystery is something you can understand today. Watch what he says. I don't want you to be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in the part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. The blindness to Israel tonight, the reason the Jewish nation as a whole has turned their back on the Lord and stays alienated from the Father, and the reason God is still using us tonight is because God has a plan for us, but listen, God's going to unplug us soon. We're going to get unplugged and they're coming back again. So don't get too wise. Don't get too conceited. Don't get too puffed up thinking you're somebody. We're somebody. We're nothing. God just took a little parenthesis. Like I said earlier, He put the scrubs in the game. And we ought to just be glad that we got to play for a little while. That ought to just thrill our hearts. Got to get out on the court and shoot the ball for a little while and make monkeys of ourselves. But bless God, we got in anyway. And guess what? We're going to be part of the winning team when it's all over with. That's good news. But it doesn't end here now. This is going to happen. These Gentiles are going to be grabbed in and the Jews are set off in the corner until the time of the Gentiles has come to an end. Until it comes to an end. Read the next verse, verse 26. And so, all Israel shall be saved. As it is written, there shall come out of Zion the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. You know what he's saying? He's saying there is a time period here. Jesus died. There was the Jewish economy. There is going to be a point in time when the Lord is going to catch His people home. This is the Gentile period. But the other side of the Gentile period, the Jews get grafted back in again. For how long, you say? Well, how many years are left in the 490 years that were supposed to be determined upon thy people? Seven years. There is only a seven-year period until the Lord makes an end of transgressions, until the Lord brings it all to an end and comes back triumphantly to march into His city and take charge of what rightfully belongs to Him. Somebody says, why do you believe that there is going to be a rapture before the Antichrist shows up? Because that one week... Let's go back to Daniel and we'll finish up with this. Daniel chapter 9. The Bible talks about the abomination of desolation. In Daniel chapter 9, let's drop down to verse number 27. He talks about this prince that shall come. He's coming here during this week, this seven-year period, verse 27, and he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week, for seven years. And in the midst of the week, in the midst of the seven years, he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations, he shall make it desolate even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. You say, wow, that's a mouthful. What is he saying? Let's walk through it, okay? He's talking about the Prince that shall come. That Prince that shall come is the Antichrist. He's the one that will show up. He'll try to make Himself as Jesus. He'll get people to follow Him, and people will follow Him. The book of Revelation has a lot to say about Him. The book of Daniel has some to say about Him. We know He will be a Jew. We know that He will be a homosexual. Now think about that for a moment. In the day of homosexual rights, do you not see how the stage is being set today to accept such a person? He will be a person who will be in charge of countries globally, ten nations to be exact, global economy, global citizens. Have you not noticed on bumper stickers driving through your own town Think globally. They're educating our students in the public schools even today to think globally. The barriers to countries are breaking down. The GATT treaty, NAFTA, break down the barriers. The Prince that shall come, He will confirm the covenant for one week. Revelation 6-1, we don't have time to turn there, but in Revelation 6-1, the Antichrist comes riding. He's riding on a horse, on a white horse. Somebody says, well, that's Jesus. No, sir, that's not Jesus. For you see, the one that comes there is one who comes promising peace, but he doesn't deliver it. He's a faker. He's a liar. He's a cheat. He's an usurper. He's the Antichrist. He's not the Christ. He's the Antichrist. And as he comes, he comes promising peace. And literally what the Scriptures say at the beginning of the seven years is he makes a covenant, he makes a treaty with the nation of Israel, with the Jewish people. We're back on the Jewish economy now. This is why the Gentiles, saved people that God is working through now, must be lifted up and taken out of this world because God's taking us out so He can graft back in the Jewish people that He's going to use. The Antichrist will come along. There'll be all kinds of battling going over in the nation of Israel. And there'll be the battles in the Jewish nation. The people will be all unsettled and bothered because they'll be wondering, do we have peace? How are we going to get peace? We want peace at any price almost. Can you see how things could easily erupt in the Middle East to cause the Jews to feel that way? In fact, I don't think it'd take much of a push right now to get them to accept somebody that would guarantee them peace if they really believed in the man. And for seven years, one week, he will guarantee peace. But guess what? In the midst of the week, in the middle of the week, exactly in the middle of the week, which is what Jesus said in the book of Matthew 24, look out when you see the abomination of desolation. When you see that, don't you come down into the house to gather up your clothes to get your food. You just hop off the housetop and you go running for the hills and hide yourself. Because the judgment has come. It's when the wrath of God gets rolled out on this world like never before. And most of the judgments in the book of Revelation all take place during the latter half of the seven years. That first three and a half years is going to be kind of a relatively peaceful period. But right at the smack dab middle three and a half year mark, the Antichrist It shows who He is. He stands in the temple in Jerusalem that will be rebuilt, by the way, on the same site. He stands there and declares Himself to be Almighty God. No, no amen to that. It's all coming to an end right there. He claims Himself to be God and everybody better run for the hills because the judgment of God is going to fall like never before. One week, and in the midst, he breaks it. I point you back again to verse number 24. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people. What's going to happen at the end of this 70th week? He says here, he'll confirm the covenant with many, verse 27. In the midst of the week, he'll cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. And for the overspreading of abominations, Can you imagine how angry God will get at some man who would dare to stand in the temple that's supposed to be built to recognize proper worship to Almighty God? And a man would dare to stand there and say, forget that God, I am God, worship me. Can you imagine the righteous Indignation and anger of Almighty God at a period like that. And he says, the overspreading of abominations, he shall make it desolate. Desolate? Everybody's gone. Why? Because when the Jews see it, they're going to know something smells like a skunk. They're gone. Even until the consummation, and that determined, shall be poured upon the desolate." How long? Until the consummation, until the end, until Jesus comes back at the end of that seven years of tribulation. That seven years of tribulation, my friend, is not for Gentile people like you and I in the sense of saved Gentiles. It's for the people on this earth that have rejected Christ. It's for those that have turned their back on the Lord Jesus. And you say, well, who's going to be witnessing during the seven years of tribulation, then, if we're gone? Ah, you see? This seven years is determined upon thy people, upon the Jews. And if you go to the book of Revelation, chapter number 14, you'll find out that the Lord has twelve tribes in the nation of Israel, still numbered, and He has set aside twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes, and they're going to be His evangelists. And they're literally going to crisscross through this world preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. They're going to preach, and my friend, the Antichrist is going to try to kill them. They're going to have bullets, and they're going to be pointing bazookas at them. They're going to pull out .357s and try to blow them away. And you know what's going to happen? Have you ever seen Superman on TV when you were a kid? I guess they've still got him on now too, but you know, the old Superman, you know, the real one. Bullets would bounce off, you know? Couldn't hurt him. Take a crowbar, hit him over the head and it'd just bend. Didn't hurt him at all. Those guys are going to be like that. They will not be able to kill them. Twelve thousand from every tribe. Now, somebody scratches their head and says, how's the Lord going to know what tribe they're from? And where's the Lord going to find all those people? Hey, my God could cause them to come up from the rocks in our parking lot if He wanted to. He knows where they are. He knows who they are. I don't have to worry about those details. If He said He's going to do it, I'll guarantee you He's going to do it. That's just the way it's going to be. How can you be so blindly believing? How can you be so blind and stupid not to believe God's Word? Friend, this book is a believable book. It's a logical book. It makes sense. For a man to turn this book away, He's ignorant. And I don't mean that in a mean way. I mean that just in a very, very truthful way. He's ignorant of what this book teaches. This book is believable, provable, truthful. And if it be truthful, it is, if it be truthful, the next event on God's calendar, my friend, is the catching away of the Gentile saved population in this world, taking us out of here. And then, literally, all hell will be let loose on this earth. Satan will be let loose to do whatever he wants to do. God's judgment's going to be poured like we've never imagined before. And when everything's said and done, the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back and He's going to clean the mess up. He's going to take His rightful place. And friend, I'm going to be right there with him to watch it all happen. I can't wait to see Judge Ito and Judge whoever here in this town and see them stand before the Lord and the people that made the judgments and the people that wrecked and ruined our laws. I can't wait to see our Lord. Now you say, is that some vengeful thing? No, sir, it's not. I just want my Lord to make things right. Right ought to matter to God's people. Father, we thank You tonight. Lord, I pray this evening You'd remind us again that as wild as this world may get, as hard as it may be to believe some things, as we look and see what man does to man, help us never to forget that, Lord, ultimately You've got the upper hand, nothing's out of control. Lord, I pray that as Christians, instead of walking through this world like we're defeated and everything's over with, Lord, help us to recognize that you're coming back again. We've got every reason to rejoice as your children. And though we may not be happy about the sin that abounds on every hand, Lord, certainly we can be joyful about the fact that one day it'll be made right, and until then we can snatch some brands from the burning if you'd be pleased to use us. Help us, Lord, to point others to the Savior that we love. We'll thank you for it in Jesus' name. Amen.