Daniel chapter nine. I think I like that song a little more, Dan, now after you sang it. I I don't think I had ever tried to play that one on guitar. So. Speak part of the got you.

Did. That that worked out well though. Worked out well. It sounded like you meant to do it. You had it all planned that way.

Alright. Let's see here. Daniel chapter nine verses 24 through 27, the seventy weeks of Daniel, the 70 sets of seven year prophecy. That seventy weeks is shorter. But verse 24, 70 are determined upon thy people, Daniel's people, that would be Israel, and upon thy holy city, that would be Jerusalem, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring an everlasting righteousness, to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.

Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah, the prince shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks. That's 69 total. The street shall be built again and the wall even in trouble times. And after the threescore and two weeks or the sixty ninth week, you add the seven to it at the beginning, shall the Messiah be cut off, but not for himself. And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, the temple.

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. That is not the Messiah. That is the prince that shall come. That is the antichrist.

And in the midst of the week, in the middle, he shall cause the sacrifice sacrifice and oblation to cease. That is the sacrifices being made in the temple to cease. And for the overspreading of abominations, he shall make it desolate, the temple and the city, even until the consummation or the end, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate, the judgments of God that shall come upon the nations. That is the conclusion of the seventy weeks prophecy. Last week, we looked to the end of the sixty ninth week.

So let's review that quickly. So the seventy weeks is actually not seventy weeks of days, but seventy weeks of years. Right. So four ninety years altogether. It's divided up the first sixty nine and the seventieth.

Okay? The first sixty nine weeks are four hundred and eighty three years. At the conclusion of that four hundred and eighty three years, the Messiah, the prince shall come. So at the end of the four hundred and eighty third year, the Messiah, the prince shall come. The four hundred and eighty third year after what?

After Israel is sent back to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. And that command was given in April. It was given by Artaxerxes to Nehemiah. He was the one who took a group back with supplies to actually rebuild the walls and the city of Jerusalem. The previous two groups that went back under Zerubbabel and Ezra were focused more on the religious aspects and building the temple, but not the city itself.

If you start in April and you add up all those years, you come to AD thirty two. In AD thirty two, Jesus Christ on April 6, gets a donkey and rides it into Jerusalem to the acclaim of a crowd that is gathered there that he is the son of David. Hosanna, the son of David. Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. That is a messianic title.

That group there that day were recognizing by their praise that he was the Messiah as he was presented that day to Israel, and then days later was what? Was rejected as their messiah and hung on a cross. So that happens at the conclusion of the sixty ninth week. So after the four hundred and eighty third year, at the conclusion of it, Jesus comes into Jerusalem. After that time period is concluded, just a few days later, Jesus dies on a cross, rises again from the dead, and then several years after that in AD seventy, the people of the prince that shall come, being the Romans, destroy the city and destroy the what?

The sanctuary, which is the temple. All of that happens after the end of the sixty ninth week. And so, we have the sixty nine weeks, the presentation of Jesus Christ, and then the final seventieth week, the final seven years, at the conclusion of that seven years, this prophecy will be completely fulfilled and the conclusion of it we find in verse 24. So, what happens at the end of the seventieth week? Well, we read there several things.

What were they? To finish the transgression of humanity. To make an end of sins. To make reconciliation for iniquity. To bring in what?

Everlasting righteousness. To seal up the vision of the prophecy and to anoint the most holy. I picked one of those six things here and put it on the thing to bring in what? Everlasting righteousness. Now, if those four hundred ninety seven four hundred ninety years were consecutive years, then that seventieth year that four hundred ninetieth year would have fallen seven years after Christ presented himself as Messiah in Jerusalem.

Have these things on this list been fulfilled? Has as does the world have everlasting righteousness? No. An end of sins? No.

Not yet. Anointed the most holy in his place, in his throne? No. Not yet. Those things haven't happened.

Those things haven't happened. What does that tell us? That this four hundred ninetieth year has not yet what? It's not yet concluded. The seventieth week, and Daniel divides it up in his prophecy, sixty nine weeks and then what?

And then the seventieth week. The seventieth week has yet to happen. In the New Testament, we call that seventieth week, the tribulation and during the tribulation, the things that Daniel is describing here in verse 27 will occur. And at the conclusion of the tribulation, at the conclusion of the seventieth week, who returns? And what does he do?

Well, he finishes the transgression. He makes an end of sins. He brings in everlasting righteousness. He fulfills the prophecy and he has anointed the most holy as is Jerusalem, his holy city. So those things haven't happened yet.

So what happened? At the end of the sixty ninth week, Jesus comes. He present himself just as the prophecy foretold. Why didn't all those other things happen seven years later? Because there is a what?

There is a gap between the end of the sixty ninth week and the beginning of the seventieth week. There is a gap between the four hundred and eighty third year and the four hundred and eighty fourth year of the prophecy. That is why those things have yet to be fulfilled. Paul calls it the what? Starts with an m.

What does Paul call it? That gap. He calls it a mystery. He uses that word several times in the New Testament. Romans eleven twenty five, for I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this, what, mystery.

Lest ye should be wise in your own conceits that the blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles become in. Paul describes here and in several passages in the New Testament, he talks about the mystery. The mystery is the church age. The mystery is the gap between the sixty ninth and the seventieth week. It's like looking at those mountain ranges, and that's the valley that's in between the two peaks that you see that might be many miles apart.

But from your vantage point, you don't see it. Paul calls it a mystery. There is a gap. We call it the church age. It's the age in which we live.

While the four hundred ninety years is is determined and defined by God himself in where words where we can understand them and be sure of them, he hasn't given us a time frame for the what? For the gap that is in between. But there is a gap and we live in it. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.

We live in the days of whosoever will may come. After Christ who was crucified on that cross didn't just bear the shame of Israel but the sins of the what? The sins of the world that we might be saved. So that we might know what it is to live the age of grace and under the new covenant and not under the what and not under the old. We live in this gap.

Paul knew these passages. No doubt Paul knew Daniel chapter nine. Paul recognized there was a time frame. He calls that that gap in between those years the mystery. As we discussed before this prop this before, this prophecy is concerning the nation of Israel.

Many of these other prophecies, we're talking about the times the Gentiles. This prophecy is focused on Israel. It's focused on Israel, the coming of their Messiah, and the end of the age when the Messiah would, after a time of great trial and tribulation, bring about an end to the times of the Gentiles and fulfill all his promises to who? To Israel. For which Daniel prayed at the beginning of the chapter if you remember.

That's what Daniel was praying about. God is answering Daniel's prayer as he has brought this message by the angel Gabriel concerning Jesus Christ. But as Paul points out in Romans, Israel rejected their Messiah both before and after his resurrection. They refused him. So where did he go?

He went back to heaven to prepare a place for who? For us who would come to know him by grace through faith in him, the church. And God placed Israel on the shelf, so to speak. God hasn't forgotten Israel, which we can clearly see. While the Edomites, Esau's descendants, are no more, while the Midianites are no more, while the Moabites are no more, where you probably haven't met an Ammonite anytime recently.

While they are no more, there are millions of Israelites, Jews that live in this world who still retain their identity as Jews. They haven't just melted into the rest of society. They have continued to keep their identity as Jews, as Israelites, as the descendants of Abraham. God has not forgotten Israel, but they rejected his their messiah, so Israel was put on a shelf and the gospel was taken to who? To the Gentiles, to us, to whosoever will.

Praise the Lord for it. And it will continue that course until, what's the end of this verse say, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. As you read in Galatians four, it says, Galatians four, four and five, but when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son. When when the time came, God's appointed time, when the time was right is perfect in God's calendar, Jesus came into the world. So there will come a day when the age of the Gentiles, the time of the Gentiles will be what?

Fulfilled. It will come to an end according to God's timetable and the church will be raptured and God will turn back his attention to who? The nation of Israel. He will take them back off the shelf and he will redeem his people who will receive him in repentance and also with joy when he returns at the end of the seventieth week of Daniel, the tribulation. Then will the prophecies be fulfilled concerning Christ that have yet to be fulfilled?

The scriptures concerning his death and resurrection and our redemption, they have been fulfilled, but there are yet others. Isaiah nine six and seven, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. The government shall be upon his shoulder. When Christ came the first time, did he come as a ruler? No.

He came as a babe in a manger and he died on a cross as a sinner. But it says further down, it says, of the increase of his government and peace, there shall be no end upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order and establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for forever Forever, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. This is the culmination of Christ's ministry when he comes back to rule and reign for a thousand years and then on into eternity. Jesus is coming again. The seventieth week of Daniel is coming.

God will turn his attention once again to the nation of Israel. In Daniel nine twenty seven describes what will happen in that final week of God's dealing with his people. It will begin with the signing of a covenant between the prince who is to come and the people of Israel. After three, verse 27, and he, the antichrist, shall confirm the covenant with many for one week. The antichrist, we call him, shall confirm a covenant, a treaty with many, including Israel for one week.

Now, do you think that means seven days or seven years? Seven years because we're still in that context here in the prophecy. So, he'll sign a covenant that is to last supposedly for seven years. This king, this prince, is seen in Daniel seven as the little horn that comes out of the beast. If you'll turn back to Daniel seven and verse eight.

So Daniel seven verse eight. I considered the horns, that is the horns of the beast, the Roman Empire, and behold, there came up among them another little horn before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth, speaking great things. I beheld till the thrones were cast down. And the ancients of days did sit whose garment was white as snow and the hair of his head like pure wool.

His throne was like the fiery flame and his wheels is burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him. Thousands of thousands ministered unto him and 10,000 times 10,000 stood before him, the judgment was set in the books were opened. Now, back to the antichrist, the little horn here in verse 11. I beheld then because of the voice of great words which the horn spake.

I beheld even till the beast was slain, the the Roman Empire and the future form of it and his body destroyed and it was given to the burning flame as concerning the rest of the beast, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season. And so here in Daniel seven, we have description of the little horn, the little horn that comes out of the future form of the Roman Empire that will speak great things about against God, but will be defeated and cast into the what? Into the fire, the lake of fire with the false prophet as we read in the book of Revelation. Something catastrophic will vault this man into power, And the world world will, out of desperation, look to him for guidance and deliverance. He will be a messianic figure.

People will look to him as a savior to save them from whatever is going on in the world in that day. This catastrophe may well have something to do with the rapture itself along with other forms of political and economic collapse. Seems to me we maybe were on our way there in the world in which we live today. Our world just as gets getting more crazy by the day, in The Middle East in particular. Our leaders continue, it seems, to make decisions that make you scratch your head and go, what in the world are they thinking?

And sometimes our conclusion is they're just dumb and ignorant, but I don't think that's the case. I think the leaders of this world know what they're doing, and they're not doing what what God wants them to be doing. And we're headed to a collapse, and we're headed to a time of judgment that's described in scripture that will open the door to whom? To the little horn, to the prince that shall come, to this great messianic figure that is going to jump on the scene and say, I've got it. I'll save the world.

It is the signing of this, treaty that he makes with Israel that officially starts the clock ticking again on the what? On the seventieth week, at the end of which Jesus comes again. This antichrist, the son of perdition as he is called in Thessalonians, will deceive the world And even Israel for a time, he will likely he will likely broker a deal which will lead to the rebuilding of the temple on the Temple Mount because as you read, you find out there is a temple. Three and a half years into the Daniel seventieth week. There hasn't been a temple on the Temple Mount since when?

Since AD seventy when Rome did not leave one stone on top of another as Christ foretold. But there will be a temple three and a half years into the tribulation. It may very well be that the antichrist part of this deal he is making results in the rebuilding of that temple somehow on the Temple Mount. Israel, many in Israel are looking for this. The Jews are pleading for this.

They want their temple back. A matter of fact, so much that I've been told that they already have all the construction materials. So much so that I've been I've read that they have all the clothing, apparel for the priests all ready to go. So much so I read the other day, they are breeding red heifers. They may say, well, what does red heifers have to do with it?

According to the Old Testament, in order to cleanse, to anoint a new temple, you do it with the blood as God ascribed, the blood of a red heifer. You know how many red heifers there are? Not many. Not a common breed, but they're breeding them because they are preparing themselves for that temple to be built. And when they get the go ahead, I'm guessing it won't take long to build it.

For three and a half years into this treaty, this covenant, what happens? In the midst of the week, he shall cause the sacrifice sacrifice and oblation to cease. Like his predecessor Antiochus Epiphanes, that Greek ruler back in the time of the Maccabees, like his predecessor Antiochus Epiphanes from Daniel nine, he will defile the temple and he will place his own image there to be worshiped. Second Thessalonians two, three, and four, let no man deceive you by any means for the day shall not come. That is the day of Christ's return except there shall be a falling away first and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.

Who is that? The little horn, the prince shall come that the antichrist who opposeth and exalted himself above all that is called God. We had that description of here here in Daniel eight or that is worshiped so that he, as God, sitteth where? In the temple of God showing himself that he is God. He will, at this juncture, come out in the open and say, I am who?

I am God. Worship me. And he will erect an image along with the false prophet to put in the temple there, an image that will speak to be worshiped in his place. We're told about this in Revelation 13. Revelation 13, lest you think I'm making it up.

Revelation 13 and verse 14. And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live. The beast being the antichrist. And he had power to give life under the image of the beast that the image of the beast should speak and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be what? Should be killed.

So the false prophet and the antichrist will erect this, will demand that everybody bow the knee to the antichrist, and whoever refuses to bow the knee and take the mark will be killed. This will begin at the midpoint three and a half years into the seventieth week of Daniel into the tribulation period. Jesus also spoke of it in Matthew 24. So, if you wanna turn back to Matthew 24, Matthew 24, we'll look and see what Jesus had to say. His disciples said, Lord, what are the signs of your coming in the end of the age and Jesus began to speak of things that will happen during leading up to and during the tribulation or the seventieth week of Daniel at the conclusion of which he shall return.

And if you look in verse 15 of Matthew 24, it says, when you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, whoso readeth, let him understand. So when you see this that Daniel's talking about, this when the antichrist breaks the covenant, when he defiles the temple, when he places an image there to be worshiped as though he is God, then no. We're at the midway of that seven year period. And the beginning, the first three and a half years are nothing to be compared to the devastation and the judgment that's coming in the what? In the last three and a half years.

Because as Christ, as God is pouring out his judgments, opening the seals and the trumpet judgments, the bowl judgment as God is bringing judgment upon the kingdoms of the Gentiles and the kingdoms of Satan, the antichrist will be focused on one thing, the annihilation of who? The annihilation of Israel. That will be his focus. He will gather armies together. He will begin a campaign to eradicate Israel once and for all.

And even today, is there not an appetite for that? From the river to the sea. What is that? That's the land God promised, at least a portion of it that he promised to Israel. And there's many who want them out of it.

The antichrist will turn the world against them. He will come up against them, but and it will be it will be a devastating time for Israel. Verse 16. Matthew 24. Then let him well, verse 16.

Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains. Why? Because the armies, the antichrist is coming down on Jerusalem. Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house. There, stairways were on the outside of the house.

So, don't just come down and flee. Don't go back in the house to get stuff. You don't have time. Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes and woe unto them which are with child and to them that give suck in those days but pray you that your flight be not in the winter neither on the Sabbath day, for then shall for then shall be what? Great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time nor nor ever shall be.

As God's judgments are poured up on the nations as the antichrist in a panic is attacking Israel to try to destroy them once and for all, will Christ return. It's at this point at the end of the seventieth week of Daniel that Christ appears. And Jesus said in Matthew 24, don't when somebody says, I'm the Messiah and I'm here and I'm there, he said, don't go there. Don't listen to them because the return of Jesus will be unmistakable. Every eye shall what?

See him when he comes back. And we read in Revelation 19 that he will destroy the armies of the enemy with the words of his what? With the words of his mouth. As he comes to the aid of his people, Israel. As he turns back, the armies of Satan.

As he takes his place on the throne in Jerusalem. Jesus is coming again. And when he returns, what will he do? He will finish the transgression, make an end of sins, make reconciliation for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up the vision in prophecy, and anoint the most holy at the end of the seventieth week when Jesus returns. Look if he would once again in Matthew 24 and verse 32.

Now learn a parable of the fig tree. When his branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves, ye know that the summer is nigh. So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near even at the doors. Verily, I say unto you, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

Does that include the words he gave to Daniel in Daniel chapter nine? Does that include the words he gave to Paul in second Thessalonians chapter two? Does that the words that Christ spoke to Matthew and the disciples in Matthew 24? Are those the words that Jesus that that God gave in a vision to John on the Isle Of Patmos that he recorded in the Book of Revelation? Yes, it does.

They will not pass away. They will come to pass just as he has said. But verse 36 says, but of the day and of the hour knoweth no man. No, not the angels in heaven but my father only. So when somebody says, I know the day, should you listen?

No. You can see the signs of the times. You can see the changing of the what? The seasons. You can know that the time is drawing near and it is.

But no man knows the day or the hour but our father in heaven. But as the days of Noah were, so also shall the coming of the son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark and knew not until the flood came and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the son of man be. Then shall two be in the field, and one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill, and one shall be taken, and the other left.

Watch therefore, for you know no for you know not what hour your Lord doth come. What is God's message to us? Be ready. Be ready. Tell others that they might be ready.

Choose the winning side Trust in the Lord. And he shall bring it to pass. Let's pray. Dearly father, thank you Lord for your word this evening for this passage that reveals to us what is to come in the latter days. Thank you Lord for Jesus Christ that he came just as you foretold the first time, and he will come again.

Your prophecy is sure. Lord, help us to find our place in it today that we might bring glory to our father which is in heaven. In Jesus' name, do pray. Amen.