David Macdonald - November 4, 2018

Sunday school is in session. Good morning, everyone. Good to be here this morning. Good to hear everybody sing.

It's awesome. The singing has been great this morning. I'm going to get fired up here. I mean, I got my iPad fired up.

I don't get fired up that much. So, never did. Let's talk to the Lord for a moment and have a word of prayer. Father, thank you this morning that we started off singing.

Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? We thank you for the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who died for us, who gave himself for us, and washed us free from sin in his blood. Father, I would think that in a crowd of the size here today, that there may be somebody who has never come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. And Father, I pray that you would deliver them and save them from their loss of state, that they would leave this building knowing that when they go into eternity, they will go into the presence of God.

I just pray for help in looking at this difficult passage this morning. I pray that you would make it relevant to us. I pray that you would speak, not me, and that our hearts would be changed and reached in Jesus' name. Amen.

I'm trying to get used to the new setup. The eyes on the back of the head are working on the thing, so I don't have my TV, so I have my iPad, so I'm kind of simulcasting a little bit with what they're doing with the back there. Last week, we were away, and we were at the church on Sunday morning, and man, that place was alive. I mean, it was awesome.

There was little babies, there was old people, there was everybody in between, and the speaker went for one hour over time. Not an hour, an hour over time. And I was so inspired, but seriously, it really was. I was like before, the Saturday night that had a youth rally there, four young people got saved.

Amazing. And this guy, he's an evangelist, he's originally from Chile, grew up in the gangs in Toronto, and God miraculously saved him at 24 years of age, and just on fire. I mean, just on fire, this is amazing. This guy was just so excited about the church and so excited about Jesus that you're sitting there thinking, I hope this never ends.

I mean, who cares? He's an hour over, but I hope it never ends. Now, I'm not going to have you that excited this morning, but it may seem like it's never going to end. So, all right, we're going to continue in our studies in Daniel, chapter 9, and we're going to look at understanding prophecy.

And we did spend some time in Daniel, chapter 9 a little while ago, and if you may remember, Daniel was in his study and he was reading the book of Jeremiah, and it dawns on him. Well, I've been here an awful long time. And Jeremiah says here 70 years, well, that's normal stuff. We're going to be getting out of here.

So, he was thinking about that in preparation, and then he gets them to prayer and saying, okay, you know, Lord, we've got to go back, but we haven't dealt with our sins. It just pours out his heart to God, and we look at that prayer of Daniel. And then in the last part of that book, a very difficult passage, but probably one of the most pivotal prophecies in all of the Scriptures, verses 20 to 27, that's what I want to look at this morning. It's called, you know, by many, this chapter, the backbone of prophecy is one writer says.

I'm assuming that when I'm looking at something here, that, okay, I can check over there and see if it's up there. Okay. Oh, yeah, I change. Sorry.

I'm blaming these guys back here, but it's me. I have to make a couple of changes there. Okay. So, prophecy, I mean, everybody says prophecy is so hard to understand.

Why do we study prophecy? Like, really? Well, it makes up a quarter of the Bible, a quarter of what is written in the Scriptures are written by prophets and is prophecy. It, it, prophecy gives validity to the Bible.

Everything has been fulfilled that has been asked or has been prophesied, a hundred percent. You see, when a prophet of God makes a prophecy and he comes in at 95% to kill him, or God will say you're a false prophet, because when God prophesies through a man, God is a hundred percent accurate. And when you read prophecies, things like, I like that series that John is going through, because he's talking about the life and the person and the times of Jesus Christ, but you go back and you look and it even tells you what city he's going to be born in. You go back to read in Isaiah 53 and you read all of these things were written hundreds of years before Jesus even appeared.

And they're fulfilled with 50% accuracy? No. A hundred percent accuracy. Prophecy proves the Bible to be true.

Prophecy gives us great hope for an eternal future. You know, I read the book of Revelation and I say, why am I worried today? I know how it's all going to end. I know where it's going.

Thank you, David. I would have thought more people would say amen, because we all know how it's going to end. Christ wins. We win if you're one of his.

And prophecy makes sense and gives us perspective of the world events as we see them unfold today. If you read about Israel, if you read about things that are unfolding in the newspapers and you see things that are happening, things in technology, things in the Middle East, and you read them and you look at them in light of prophecy and you say, I know why that's written. I know why that's happening today. I know why Israel is where they are.

I know why everybody is set against them. I know why Russia is giving arms to Syria. I know I read it in the scriptures. I read what's going to happen.

It makes sense of that. But if you just pick up the paper and you say, Israel, man, always in trouble, why? There's reasons for that. And the scripture speaks of those days and those things.

I should be on page three of my notes right now. I've just gone down about four lines. So I'm in trouble. Actually, you're in trouble because I'm getting.

So I had one of my favorite professors. I actually phoned this course the first time through. It was Dr. Palapoo at College of Gebrettin.

And Dr. Palapoo taught English. English, what am I saying? That's a chemistry.

Now you know why I failed. That's obvious. I'm not saying that. I was writing sonnets and things like that.

I was supposed to be chemical equations. I'm solving. Okay, sometimes. And Dr.

Palapoo had this way of teaching. And he would get up and it would look like that on the board. And he would turn and he says, and I'm not going to try to imitate his accent because that would be just the dishonor to him. And he'd say, does everybody understand?

And it would be quiet. And he goes, I will move on when I see heads nod. At all heads must nod. And then, I was probably nodding for another reason.

That's why he flunked the class. But when the head was on the board, I was like, I'm not going to try to imitate his accent because that would be just the dishonor to him. And he'd say, does everybody understand? And it would be quiet.

He goes, good. You understand. Next. And then he would move on to what he was going to do next.

Despite his ability to teach, I flunked the course. I took it from him the next year and made the Dean's list. So that was good. I'm slower to get to these places.

But Daniel is like that. You kind of read through this passage of Daniel and you have to say, do I understand? Do I understand? Do I understand?

I'm reading. So even Daniel was slowed to understand three times the profit came to him and he said in verses 22 to 25, he says, and he informed me and talked with me, this is Gabriel the Angel, said, I've come now fourth to give you skill to understand. And then in verse 23, he says, at the beginning of your supplication or his prayers and command to the Lord, I have come to tell you, you are greatly beloved, therefore consider the matter and understand the vision. And verse 25 says, no, therefore, understand.

So this morning I want to talk about understanding prophecy. And this is a hard, most people look at this passage and they just glaze over and say, I don't know what to do with this. I got to get, okay, so I'm on my yearly read through the Bible, it's June, I'm in Daniel, please, I got to get to the next book, which is not going to be much easier for you if you don't understand this one. So three times he's asked, do you understand?

Do you understand? So Daniel, chapter 9 is a technical timetable that deals with the Messiah, the nation of Israel, and it wasn't easy for Daniel to understand. But here's the thing, as it comes together, you'll start to understand when we go through this. There's a story of a dad, yeah, there we go.

Dad comes home from work and he's just bone tired. He's just like, okay, had a long, long day. I just want to sit in my chair, put my feet up and relax. Well, this little boy comes in and says, Daddy, Daddy, let's play.

So Daddy gets the newspaper wrote and a full page, it's a globe of the world. He goes, I know I can get myself a half hour an hour. He gets the scissors and he chops it up all into little pieces and makes a puzzle. He says, son, I'll play with you, but first I have something for you to do.

I need to solve a puzzle. I need you to take this puzzle and I need you to put it back together. It's the whole world. And he's thinking, this is awesome.

I got an hour to myself because he's never going to figure this out. So little boy goes away with the puzzle, he puts it on the kitchen table, he sets it up, and five minutes later he comes back and he says, here we go, Dad. He looks at it, he says, now I've got to play. But how did he do that?

He looks at it, it's perfect. And the little boy says, well, that's because, oh, I'm not advancing with my, I should be just broadcasting my, because on the back of the page, there was a picture of a man's face. And when I put the man's face all together, the whole world came together. You see, if you take the puzzle of Jesus Christ and you put him together, you put him in his right place in his right perspective, the whole world will come together for you.

You will understand the world much better than you do without him. Nothing makes sense without Jesus Christ. It's really where you can turn this on just doing from my iPad. You can?

Well, it's not then. Okay. So when you get Jesus Christ right, the whole world comes together. So we want to understand Daniel chapter 9 in perspective, and it'll bring all the rest of prophetic literature together.

Now, this morning, I'm still on my introduction. We'll have a mathematical equation we have to solve. I've never sat down to study for a message and actually have a calculator on the table in front of me, and I did. Yesterday I was just crunching numbers and thinking, okay, that makes sense.

So I'm putting numbers together. I'm trying not to scare you to death. I thought I might have when I first said about the, yeah, thanks. I thought at first when I said that the speaker went an hour over and I was greatly inspired that maybe that was the first fear thing, but fear is this that I'm only down here now and distracted, grossly distracted.

So, yeah, this is what I'm advancing. So this morning I want to look at this prophecy and I want to, first of all, we want to understand it generally as the prophecy is written. I want to understand it specifically to whom it is written and what it's about. I want to understand it in light of Messiah.

Messianically is not a word. It comes up with a red underline on it and you right click on it and it gives you an auto-corrected. It's nothing even close to that, so that's a made up word, but it fits. And futuristically, I want to look at it and then finally, practically, if we do all of this and don't look at it practically, what's the use?

So, Daniel has been reading the book of Jeremiah and he falls to his knees in prayer. And it's amazing. I wish we had time to just go into some of the stuff that's written here, it talks about how long it took Gabriel to actually fly from heaven to come down to be with Daniel or wherever he came from to fly to be down with Daniel in Daniel's presence. And it's amazing, but he's reading this prophecy and he falls to his knees in prayer and then it's in the year 538 and Daniel is about 86 years old.

Okay, this doesn't match Matt, what's up there? Okay. Oh, thank you. Bear with me for a second, I'm sorry.

I'm really sorry about this. Yeah, okay. So, first of all, the general understanding of this, it's an answer to prayer. Daniel's praying.

Daniel's trying to figure out, he's reading this in the book of Jeremiah and probably specifically in Jeremiah 25 and Jeremiah 29. And he's trying to understand this. And Gabriel comes to help him with this. Now, the second thing, generally, this is for the Jewish people, the chosen nation of God.

You read that in verse 24 and we're going to read specific parts in a few minutes. This is God's chosen nation. You know, God said in Genesis chapter 12 to Abraham, he said, I am going to make you a great nation. I will bless you and I will bless your seed.

I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you, he says. You know that the world population, and I just checked this on Friday, is about 7.61 billion people. In the world, right now, there's 14 million Jews, 0.18 of 1% of the world's population are Jewish, 0.18 of 1%, not 1.8, 0.18. One third of all Nobel prizes have been given up to Jewish people.

Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing? That is a nation that God has blessed. There is no doubt about it.

Israel is about one-three hundredth the size of China, but gets probably 30 times the headlines. It's an amazing nation. You know, Adolf Hitler tried to target and kill 6 million Jews, he tried to get rid of them all. Iran and much of the Middle East would like to wipe them all off the face of the earth.

But this is a special nation for God. God has chosen Israel as his nation. He has chosen the Jewish people. God's desire for his nation is that they could be saved through the Messiah through Jesus Christ.

That's his desire. That they come and they come to know him and say, but it's only one way to Jesus Christ. It's not by being Jewish. It's not by obeying the Jewish laws.

It's not by coming to church. It's through Jesus Christ. But God has taken this nation as a special nation. He sent his own son to be a Jewish man to come and die for that nation.

The third thing, it sets out a time of 70 weeks here. It's determined, it says, in the text. It's determined means cut out. A specific period of time is cut out.

God is very precise. His timing is always perfect. The Hebrew in this verse, let's read through a couple of verses in a second here. The Hebrew in this is Shabuah Shabim, which means 70 sets of seven.

It's not necessarily seven weeks. It's 70 sevens. So it's specifically speaking of days. Don't know.

Weeks, don't know. Most translators and most Jewish translators interpret it as 70 weeks of years. So let's open up your text and we'll read part of Daniel chapter 9. Verse 24.

It says, 70 weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city. Daniel was Jewish, so it's to those people. To finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring everlasting righteousness and seal up vision and prophecy, to anoint the most holy. No therefore, and understand that from going forth of the command to restore the building of Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks, seven weeks and 62 weeks, so together that's 69.

The street shall be built again and the wall even in troublesome times. And after 62 weeks, Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself. And the people of the Prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with flood till the end of the war, desolations are determined.

Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week. But in the middle of the week, he shall bring an end to the sacrifice and offering on the wing of abominations, one who makes desolate, even until the consummation which is determined is poured out on the desolate. So this is the 70 weeks, it's a time period, it's 77s that are cut out of time. So God cuts out this time and reveals a certain period of time to Daniel.

He shows us what's going to happen in that specific time. The thing is about God, he is 100% accurate. God is in control of all things. You probably will run into a lot of people and I'm sure John Warren and others have run into people who say, I believe in God, down down, they'll say that, I believe in God, but I just don't believe in God, you believe it.

I mean, God trying to figure him out, he's not really in control of things, he's not personal, he's kind of wound things up, sat back and let it run and we'll see how it goes. But you know what the thing is, the prophecy how it's fulfilled so accurately tells me that God's in control of every moment of every day of every time. God is in control. God is 100% in control.

Our God is one who is very precise and he keeps perfect time and you'll see that from this passage. Now in the Hebrew, as I said, it doesn't say 70 weeks, it says 70 sets of seven something. It could be days, it could be years. In the West, we tend to mark our time in tens, in decades.

We talk about the 70s when most of the good music was made. And then we talk about the 80s when it started to go downhill, then the 90s when you get a cassette player because the radio is no good. And then you get into the 2000s and who knows whatever happened after that. So we measure things in 10 years of 10.

In Jewish thought, it's in seven, periods of seven. And it has its basis in the Sabbath. So you go back to when God created the heaven of the earth, six days he created everything, come out on the 16th and hear all about that. And then on the seventh day, what did God do?

He rested. And then he also gave instructions to his people, firm your land for six years. And then on the seventh year, just let it lie there and don't worry, I'll still provide. You can eat whatever comes up out of the ground.

And then you plow it in on the eighth year and you go on. And then the problem was Israel was going through times and getting bumper crops and saying, yeah, let's ignore that one because look at the crops we're getting now. So I know it's year seven, but wow, what a harvest we have. Not thinking that maybe God gave him a great harvest so that they could enjoy those crops.

But so for 490 years, 490 years Israel just ignored that whole Sabbath rest for the land. And God says, you're going to pay for that. You're going to pay for that. And back in Chronicles, we say 2 Chronicles, chapter 36, 20 to 21, he says, for that you're going to Babylon.

That's why Daniel is where he is right now. It goes back to not keeping the Sabbath rest for the land. Time is important to God. And that's where the sevens come in on the time.

God's lost, six in one. Work for six, plow the land for six. Let it rest for one. So now they're at the end of the seven years.

But Gabriel the angel tells him of another time that's going to become even greater than that captivity. So let's understand this specifically. 70 years he determined for your people, for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. So six things are remarked out here that are going to be fulfilled.

Three are past, three are negative, and three are in deal with sin. Three are future, and they're positive, and they deal with the kingdom. So let's look at the first ones, the past ones. It says right in this verse that I put up here.

First of all, finish the transgression, singular. The sin, the whole principle of sin will be dealt with in this period, in this time that he's speaking up. To make an end of sins. You know what?

Transgression is one thing. Transgression is just the whole world of fence against God. When I start talking about sins, that gets a little more personal. That's me.

Sins, I have a mountain of them. Sins, that's you. You have a mountain of them. And they need to be forgiven.

So this is talking about a period where sins are going to be forgiven. This is why this is coming. And then to make reconciliation for iniquity. We are more than conquerors.

Do we see in boldly eye approach this morning? No, we didn't. Oh, it's on the list. We'll have to do it tonight.

So boldly eye approach. I can come to God, boldly I can approach God. Why? Because I now have been reconciled.

You know, if I'm at work and I have a problem with my boss and then we just blow up all the phone down the phone down the door. I think I can pick up the phone tomorrow and boldly approach him. No, we need to be reconciled. You see, we've offended God, a holy God, with our sin.

And people go through rituals of praying and they think they're coming into the presence of God and just going to do whatever I want and come to him on my turn and walk into the presence of God and speak to him. It doesn't work that way. We need to be reconciled to God. Jesus Christ came to reconcile us to God.

All of these three things that are listed here. Finish transgression. Make an end to sins. Your sins, my sins, and make reconciliation for iniquity.

They have all been done on the cross of Calvary. That's our past event. It's done. And we look forward.

So the three that are mentioned for the future is to bring in everlasting righteousness. Last time I checked that hasn't happened. We don't have everlasting righteousness in our world today. That's coming.

Jesus Christ is going to come and he will rule with a rod of iron. And when he does come in a second coming and rules with a rod of iron, there will be righteousness through this whole world. Sin will not have its reign. People will not walk into synagogues or churches and shoot people out.

People will not do the things that they're doing today because Jesus Christ is going to rule this world. He will bring in a state of righteousness. Seal up the vision and prophecy. All of the prophetic things that have been written, all of the scripture, will be 100% fulfilled when Jesus Christ comes the second time and anoint the most holy.

Now, interesting because that's actually translated most holy place. It speaks of a temple. You see, the day is coming when these things will be fulfilled 100%. It's believed that that holy temple is perhaps referring to what's mentioned in Ezekiel 40.

I'm kind of out there on that. I don't know what to fully understand from that, but I'll just leave that for you to go home and study. Ezekiel 46, too. But you see, the thing is I look at the first three and I rejoice.

100% of that has been fulfilled to make an end of sins or to finish the transgression, make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for inequity. You see, what's your greatest need? What's my greatest need? Your greatest need isn't money.

Your greatest need is not intelligence or new technology. Your greatest need is not more pleasure. Your greatest need is a savior. And God knew exactly what you needed and he sent a savior.

If he wanted us to be entertained, he would have sent an entertainer. If he wanted us to be filled with information, he would have sent a scientist. If he wanted us to be rich, he would have sent an economist to tell us how to save and spend her money, but he knew that those are not our problems. Those are not our greatest needs.

Our greatest need is for a savior. And he sent Jesus Christ to finish the transgression, to make an end to sins, and to make reconciliation for us with him. Now next, I'm not sure why that displays like that on there. It doesn't know my computer at home.

They've answered your hand until that, didn't you? All right, Microsoft. Okay, so verse 25, it says, no therefore, an understanding from going forth to the command. This is where we're going to do math.

To restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah of the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and 62 weeks. So together I put this in the text, equals 69 weeks. The street, okay. The street shall be cut, shall be built again, and the wall, even troublesome times.

And after 62 weeks, Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself, and the people of the Prince who is to come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end shall be with the flood until the end of the war of desolation is determined. So there's 69 periods that we're talking about here. And I'm going to break it down into three to make it easier to understand.

So the command to rebuild Jerusalem has to go out for this to begin. Okay, so remember, Daniel's in captivity. Jerusalem has been flattened by the Babylonians. It's just flattened.

It's done. So there has to be a command to go back and rebuild the city. Now, 69 weeks it says 483 years after the command to rebuild, Messiah will be presented. That's pretty precise.

I mean, if you're wrong on that, you're really wrong. If you're wrong on that, I'm taking Daniel out of my Bible. Right? I mean, seriously, if you've messed that up, then he's messed it all up.

So there's going to be three periods. The first one, it says 7-7, 49 years. That will be the rebuilding of Jerusalem. And then the second period is 62-7s, it says right there in the text, and you add that up.

It's 434 years if those are weeks of years. Messiah will come, die, and the city of the temple will be destroyed. And then the third period is 1-7, it's 7 years when a 7-year treaty is broken midway through. So when is this going to happen in the timetable?

Well, you know, there are four commands to return that were given. Ezra gives three of them, and Nehemiah gave one in chapter 2. The three in Ezra are for the rebuilding of the temple. The one in Nehemiah is for the building of the city.

It took 49 years to rebuild the city. Huh, exactly what it says, 49 years. Now, Nehemiah goes back, rebuilds the city of the temple, and 49 years it's accomplished. Now we know actually when that command was given.

Oh yeah, I forgot to bring things up there. So the command was given by Artes Erxes, and he was a Persian, on March 14, 445 BC. That was the date that the command was given by Artes Erxes. Historians validate that that is the date when Artes Erxes gave that command to go and rebuild the temple.

Oh, go rebuild the city. 69 weeks, 483 years after that command, it says here according to Daniel, Messiah is to appear. So this man is up in the corner. His name is Sir Robert Anderson, and I did a little research on him on him because here somebody has done all this work and so on, you think, who is he?

Well, he actually was a Plymouth Brethren guy who was with Darby at one time, and then he went into the open assembly, so he's over in the UK. And he was a chief inspector with Scotland Yard, knighted by the Queen at the time, and a brilliant detective, actually, he was around during the Jack the River Days. And he played a primary role in that. So he was also a theologian.

And I got the book. I just said it to David that I said that to you the other day, I think, called The Coming Prince. If you want it, I can send it to you electronically. You can read it.

The Coming Prince. There's all kinds of different things in it, but what he did was he meticulously sat down, he started marking out time one week, two weeks, and came to the conclusion that it's been validated that in exactly 173,880 days, which is 483 years, you arrive at April the 6th, 32 AD. Well, do you know what happened? On that day, well, you do because I put it up here.

Jesus Christ, a set of the Mount of Olives, you read it in Mark 11, he wrote a donkey into Jerusalem, part way down, he wept over the city, and as he went in, they cried out, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, and he's presented as the one who comes in the name of the Lord. He wept over the city, he said, you should have known about this day that it was for peace. How should they have known about it? It's in the book of Daniel, if you look at the numbers.

Right to the day, right to the day from when the command was given, and you count ahead 483 years, which is your 62 weeks as it's said here, right to the day the Messiah is presented in Jerusalem. I don't know about you, but that's pretty accurate stuff. This is a heavenly vision that's revealed to Daniel. To make it easier for you, the picture is worth a thousand words, I just used a thousand 12 words.

You'll see 70 years of exile, then you've got 69 weeks, seven weeks for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, 434, the time leading to the Messiah, Messiah comes, and then we're going to read about this being cut off, and we're in this period called the Church Age, which I will talk about in a minute. So to further understand this, it says that the Messiah will be cut off, it says this in verse 26. In verse 26 it says, after the 62 weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself, and the people of the Prince of the Com shall destroy the city and the sanctuary and so on. The Messiah shall be cut off.

The Hebrew word is karath, it means to cut off, but it also implies by the cutting of flesh. Messiah will die. Daniel predicted that Messiah will die, not just come, but die. And it says not for himself, Jesus did not die for himself.

Jesus did not end up on that cross because of some Roman travesty of justice. He ended up on that cross to die for others. He died there for you and died there for me. Daniel predicted this exactly as it happened.

And then we read of the people of the Prince who was to come shall destroy the city. While in AD 70 Titus, Vespasian took over Jerusalem, he killed a million Jews, he starved over 100,000 Jews, and totally flattened and decimated the city of the temple. The accuracy in this is amazing. When Daniel wrote this, there was no temple in Jerusalem, remember, he's writing about a temple.

There's no temple. There's no sanctuary in Jerusalem. He's predicting events that will take place after a temple is rebuilt and predicts that the Messiah has to arrive somewhere before 70 AD. It's an amazing, amazing accuracy.

We need to understand it futuristically. First of all, the final seven-year period, there's a gap. There's a final week of seven years, but before that, there's a gap. And I put this up so you can try to understand it graphically.

The gap that is there, we are in that. It's the church age. The church age is from when Messiah is caught off until we hit this final seven-year period of world history. We're in it right now.

We're in that gap right where that blue arrow is pointing. When that period comes, there will be a final seven weeks, and there's somebody going to come, a revival of the Roman government, the Roman Empire, in that final seven weeks. They're going to make a pact with the people of God. They're going to make a pact and say, you can go rebuild your temple.

You can start your sacrifices again. You can go back into your land and so on. And in the middle of it, it's going to be cut off. This is, this is, even Jesus speaks of this happening being fulfilled in Matthew 24, Jesus spoke of this event, Matthew 24, 15 to 30.

Read that for yourself. It's amazing. And he says, as told by Daniel the prophet, not Daniel, the guy who made stuff up, not Daniel, the historian, but Daniel the prophet. Jesus Christ believed Daniel was a prophet telling what was going to happen in the future.

So we are in that church age, and then in this last seven weeks, there is going to be, or the last seven years rather, there is going to be a pact made, and then halfway through it's going to be broken. Now, I'll read the verse from Daniel. This is Jesus said, or from Matthew, rather. Jesus said, when you see the abomination desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, there will be great tribulations such as not been seen since the beginning of the world, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

You see, that's the greatest part. We know how it's going to end. We know how it's going to end. I look forward to my Savior coming with great power and with great glory.

Now, I believe in I am actually closing here. So what? So what? I mean, here we are.

It's 2018 and it's ticking away. If we just walk out of here and say, well, that was a lot of great facts and figures, and I guess you proved a few things, and that was kind of cool. Then you know what? That's all for nothing.

If it doesn't make a difference in us right here right now today, then why are we studying scriptures? We have to learn from this. The first thing we learn is prayer. Daniel, reading the word of God, I found it hard to understand, and he prays, he cries out to God.

What happens? God answers his prayer. God sends Gabriel. And he speaks to Daniel.

He answers his prayer, gives him more interpretation of what's going to happen, shows him his future, gives him security. You know, Daniel was not in an easy, easy time. Daniel was a captive. Everything he knew was taken away from him at the age of 14.

You know, we talk about, oh, I'm going through such a hard time. And I'm not trying to downplay it. You probably are. I've gone through it too.

And sometimes we go through great difficulties in our lives. I just want you to know that Daniel went through great difficulty in his life. And when you read of this, you understand how God works in the life of people going through difficult times and answers their prayers. He answered his prayers.

Secondly, I asked, do you enjoy spending time with God? You know that Daniel's prayer takes three minutes to read. That's it. Often we'll say, I'd like to pray.

I don't have time. I just, I got to get going here. I say that you say that, but I do that. That's what I do sometimes.

I like to stop and pray, but I don't have time. I got to go. You know, I'm praying your car. Pray on the way to work.

I don't have people who pray on the way to work. Read aloud in the car. Nobody else is there except them and God. Three minutes.

Daniel took for prayer here. Can you find five? Can you find ten? Can you find a period in your day to pray to spend time with God?

Secondly, we learned about his providence. We learned from this at the hand of somebody, I like this the way somebody put it. The providence is the hand of God in the glove of circumstance. God is working in circumstances.

God is working behind all of your circumstances. You may not see what he's doing, but he is working. Daniel's trying to figure this out. But here's God working behind it all.

He feels to him a whole future of humanity. Daniel walked with God for 70 years in trial and captivity. 70 years. Sometimes we look and think, I just want this trial to be over.

That's the way I am. I get a flu and I'm thinking, I'm going to die. Maybe if I just die, this will be better. And you realize that two days into it, you're starting to feel a little bit better, but I don't want to be just a little bit better.

I want to be a whole lot better. Man, I'm sick for five days. Crisis. Get the red button and push it.

That's the way we live. Daniel was 70 years. 70 years in a regime that hated God, that worshiped false gods, that worshiped devils. Daniel grew up there for 70 years, but yet he walked with God for those 70 years.

Can you walk with God in your circumstance? Can you walk with God through your hardship? Is it five days? Is it 10 days?

Is it 50 years? Is there difficulties in your life? But can you walk with God through those difficulties? If you can, he will be with you.

The other thing we know about Providence is that he uses powerful rulers to do his will. Titus, Artyserxes, Cyrus, you name it, Nebuchadnezzar. God just used those as pawns on the chess board to bring about his will, and he will continue to do that. You know, there's verses about the kings of nations.

They're like dropping the bucket to God. You know, when they start running for office in the US and the ads are starting out for the midterms, but when they start running for office, they should really read those verses and think, you know, what? Drop the bucket as far as God's concerns, and humble yourself before God. God moves the rulers of this world.

And then finally, precision. God makes these kind of precise predictions. If God can be that precise with the history and the future of the world, can I not trust him with my future? Can I not trust him?

Will you trust your life to him, your eternity, your family? To a God is that precise? I'm telling you that you can trust your whole eternity to God. Do you know him?

Are you sitting here this morning? I have to ask you, as we close up here, do you know him? There's nothing, nothing more important than to know him. We pass out those little parrots downtown.

I just think that's a brilliant part. It's my favorite. When you put that into the hands of somebody, as soon as they see it, you don't even have to tell them what it's about. Do you know him?

Is this about Jesus? Yes, it is. 100%. No apology.

It's about him. Rip, rip, rip, rip, or toss, or I don't want to take it back. Why? Do you know him?

No, you don't, obviously. You need to know him. If you don't, you will be judged by God. If you don't, you will be set apart from God for all eternity.

But if you know him, you will understand and know the blessings of God through all of this life. He will walk with you through every trial, whether it's seven days, seven weeks, or seven years, whatever it may be. He will walk with you through every trial if you know him. And then in eternity, you will be with him forever.

Do you know him? Final question. Do you know him? Father, thank you this morning.

As we come and we consider your word and thank you for being so concise. When I read a passage like this and we understand what's behind it all, how can we not but trust you? We're so precise, so accurate, so caring and so loving. Father, one more incident here that shows us that everything in the scriptures point to one person, the Messiah.

We thank you Father for that one who came. We read that he was cut off, but not for himself. Father, it was for me. I pray that every person here this morning can say that.

Jesus died for me to put an end to my sins. Father, I pray if there's a soul here this morning who does not know you, they will come to trust you and have their sins forgiven today. I pray for those of us who struggle, we all struggle. Some of us admit it more readily.

Some of us just keep it to ourselves, but we all struggle with something. I pray that we will trust you. I pray that we will walk with you as Daniel walked with you for these 70 years. We ask all of these things, giving you thanks.

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Twenty after I apologize, gone late, but we started late. Can we sing a song? All right.