This morning I want to share with you a message that, I believe, is timely because a lot of people, um, underestimate the importance of the prophets in the Bible and for for so many years that churches around the world would teach only 70% of the Bible, leaving the last 30% just for the people to deal with all by themselves, because it's either too complicated or we think that we have our own interpretation. So Bible prophecy has been so, so to speak, left aside by many, many different churches around the world. It's interesting because when the disciples who left Jerusalem right there on Sunday morning, all the way down to the village of Emmaus, and they were talking about the events that happened in Jerusalem throughout that weekend, and they were talking and walking, suddenly Jesus showed up. You know, it's a little hard to attend somebody's funeral and then look at him walking right by you. So they didn't understand it's Him. And He's asking them: What is it that you're talking about and you are so sad? They were indeed sad, although that was Sunday morning and the tomb was empty and they already knew about it. And then He asked them that and they told Him: "You're the only one in Jerusalem that didn't hear about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed And we thought He would be the deliverer of Israel." In other words, they had their own understanding of Jesus their own understanding of the reason why He came for. And then Jesus said: “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have said!" In other words, you can be a follower of Jesus physically be with Him for three years, every single day and still not get it if you're not in the Word and if you don't believe in that which the prophets had said. And that is why I felt that it's so important: A) To teach Bible prophecy. But unfortunately, there's such hunger for Bible prophecy that there's so many Christians that are flocking to Bible prophecy, and then they forget about the 70% of the rest of the Bible. I think it's so important that we bring about that balance. One of my favorite characters in the scriptures is the Prophet Daniel, as a very young boy was taken all the way from Jerusalem to Babylon by King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar at that time. And he was taken basically to serve the king among others. Now you have to understand something, What we're about to deal with this morning is something that God is interested that His Children will know. Because in Isaiah 46:9-10, it says: "I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,And I will do all My pleasure,’" God wants His Children to know His plans, He is not hiding them, He declares them. And from the very beginning, He declares the things of the very end. In other words, you don't have to go to a psychic shop and pay somebody to read the future for you. You just need to be in the Scriptures. You need to be in the Word God wants His children to know His plans. Not only that, in Second Peter 1:20-21: "...knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." This is why it's so important that we don't follow after "modern-days-contemporary-prophets". That's why I say, I come from a non profit organization, just so you know that. But it's important that you understand, guys, that prophecy is not somebody's interpretation. God is not asking Isaiah or Jeremiah, certainly not Daniel, what is your opinion about this thing and please write it down because the people would like to hear your opinion? No, we're not interested in hearing Daniels opinion or Isaiah's opinion or Ezekiel opinion. These were holy men of God that were chosen and selected by God to be just vessels or conduits through which the Holy Spirit is speaking the Word of God to the people, that's it. And all that God needed them to do was to make themselves available as Isaiah said: "Here I am, send me." In Hebrew, "Here I am" is "hin-nî". It's a word that I think every believer around the world should know in Hebrew. "hin-nî", say that "hin-nî", here I am, make yourself available, God will use you. Now, you also have to understand it, First Peter 1:10-11. it says: "Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow." In other words, we can see that God wants us to understand the times, and not only the things that happened but the things that will follow. So Daniela, as I said, was a young man taken to captivity. And we know that the Book of Daniel of the 12 chapters is basically divided to two, the first six chapters is historical part of Daniel basically. We're talking about a young man that was taken from being an exiled youth to old-age during three different world leaders of that time. It's quite amazing. And then comes the prophetic part. Now bear in mind, in the first part, he's interpreting dreams of other people, namely the Kings. But then, in the second part, God is speaking to him directly and then he needs interpretation or an understanding that was given to him by the angel. So, Daniel Chapter 9 is that... The portion I'm going to deal with today is from Daniel Chapter 9. Now we have to understand what I love about Daniel is the fact that although he was taken out of his land, although he was away from his languages, people, the Holy Place, the meeting place with God, although he actually suffered from things he actually himself never really did. It's a consequences of the sinful nature of Israel of that time, and he was away because of things that even in Leviticus 26 were already prophecy and told the people of Israel, "I will bring the land to desolation, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it. I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you; your land shall be desolate and your cities waste. Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies’ land." The people of Israel were supposed to keep the Sabbatical year, the Sabbath years, every seven years, yet they didn't. They didn't have the faith that God will provide enough for them on the seventh year that they don't have to work that land. And therefore God punished them; for every year in a span of 70 sabbatical years, 490 years, for every year they didn't keep that, God actually sent them to the exile. And it says that: "the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest and enjoy its sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate it shall rest --- for the time it did not rest on your sabbaths when you dwelt in it." So we know that in Jeremiah Chapter 25, in Jeremiah Chapter 29, Second Chronicles 36, we know that the prophet spoke about the fact that the children of Israel, the people of Israel, will be taken to the exile for 70 years because of that Levitical Law that they never kept. So we know that for a fact. Now, what I love about Daniel is that even though being in foreign land, he was in the Word. Now, in those days, we didn't have Bibles as you have today. You understand? How many of you own a Bible? Please? Okay. How many own more than one? You're all in trouble. You understand that? Because you have no excuse that you don't know the Word, that you don't have the Word. In those days, you had to be a multi gazillionaire in order to own the whole Bible. Nobody owned the Bible. The Bible was a public property in scrolls, in synagogues. And it would be read publicly to the people and the people were very carefully memorizing and chanting and meditating on it day and night in order to remember it. And so you understand, Daniel the prophet remembers the prophecy given through the prophet Jeremiah, and he draws great encouragement from the fact that we are almost at the end of those 70 years. And then he prays to God and says to the Lord, this is it. God, we're coming to that point. Whenever you pray, count on one thing: God will answer. Now He may answer in His own time because you don't give Him your time. but God speaks when people pray. And you understand Daniel already saw some visions before the ninth chapter. In Daniel nine, saw the beasts and in Daniel eight, he saw another one. And the vision and the understandings were given to him in chapter nine by one of the archangels, Gabriel. Now we know that there were only three angels that we know their names, unfortunately, one of them is bad. You have Gabriel, and we have Michael, but then we have, of course, Lucifer, that we know that, according to Isaiah Chapter 14, was casted down because he declared rebellion in the heavenly. Now, Gabriel is the one who is commissioned to give messages. He's the messenger or the message bringer, and he appears in the Bible only five times. In fact, in the Old Testament, only in the Book of Daniel and in the New Testament, the Gospel of Luke as he is the person who brought the message not only to Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist, but also to Mary. In fact, he is the one who told Mary, you are going to have a child, and you shall name Him? Exactly. What a great messenger! Think about it. So we know that the angel comes all the way to Daniel and the Bible says, "Now, while I was speaking," in Verse 20, "praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God in behalf of the holy mountain of my God, while I was still speaking in prayer, then the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision previously, (in the 8th chapter) came to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering. He gave me instruction and talked with me and said, 'O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with understanding. At the beginning of your supplications...'" Now watch this... Now look, he comes and he says, "O, Daniel," In other words, God knows us by our name. It's not like Daniel said, "Hey, my name is Daniel and I come before..." No! The angel comes and knows already that this is Daniel and he says: “O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with understanding." It's not the Angels insight, it's not the Angels understanding, God... It's almost like God calls Gabriel, gave him a scroll and says, Now, go and give it to Daniel. He's just a messenger, and it's interesting because the Bible says: “At the beginning of your supplications..." In other words, God hears us not only when we say Amen at the end, from the very beginning of our supplication, the Bible says: "... the command was issued." Who is the commander in chief? Exactly. So the command was issued, the Bible says, "and I have come to tell you..." In other words, I follow the commands I have come to tell you... "...for you are highly esteemed; so give heed to the message and gain understanding of the vision." Wow. The angel says, God heard you from the moment you open your mouth, He sees your heart, you are highly esteemed, and I was called to the chambers, I was given something and I just came. And I want you to know there is a message here, I'm going to give you the message and the understanding. Very interesting. And then he says: “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city..." Wow, Now it's interesting. Daniel is thinking about the 70 years that the Prophet Jeremiah was speaking about. He is looking forward to the end of that time where God gives him something much greater and much bigger vision about 70 weeks, which are actually 70 times of seven years, 490 years he's talking about. He was speaking at the end of a 70 year period, interesting, and he said to him, “Seventy weeks (what?) have been decreed for (what?) for your people and your holy city..." Who are the people? People of Israel. What is the city? The city of Jerusalem. Now pay attention. He is far away. Yet God is telling him, "I'm going to deal with Israel and with Jerusalem, pay attention. That which I'm about to do with Israel and with Jerusalem determines everything." This is the big picture. So you can live in Euless and you can live in South Lake and you can live in Dallas and you can live in Fort Worth, still, that which God is about to do with Israel and with Jerusalem will matter. It is part of the big picture. And so we're talking about Israel and we're talking about Jerusalem, and the vision is that there will be 70 weeks... and look what he says. He says this... So he says, First of all, the 70 weeks are... what? To finish transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place. And then he says: “So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. Then after..." So first of all, we're talking about 7 weeks, then 62 weeks, and after that 62 weeks, which means after the 7 and the 62, how many are we? 69, he says. Then after that, he says, I will... again, “Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood..." Now, pay attention. First, God tells Daniel there will be 7 years, and the 7 years is the 7 years to rebuild Jerusalem than 62 more weeks. And then Messiah has to come and be cut off. Wow. Now, you have to understand. 70 weeks is 70 times seven. It's 490 years. The seven first weeks were building the walls and restoring the city and plus 62 weeks. We get 69 weeks. But then he said to him, I'm going to tell you when you need to start counting. Isn't that great that God is giving us a vision but he's not leaving us hanging in the air? He said, now let me tell you exactly when to start. What is the starting point? "...from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem." Verse 25. Now do you have to understand there were several kings from Babylon then the Persian Empire all the way until the end of of the Persian Empire. In 536 BC King Cyrus commanded the rebuilding of the temple according to Ezra 1:1-4 So in 536 the command of Cyrus is (what?) to rebuilding of the temple. That's 536 BC. Then, in 519 BC king Darius commands the rebuilding of the Temple, Ezra 6:1-12. Then in 548 BC Artaxerxes is commanded the beautification of the temple, and that is Ezra 7:11-27. So we see that there were already three different decrees, but none of them has to do with the city, all of them have to do with the temple only. But what was the starting point that Daniel received? ...from the command to build what? ...not the temple, but the walls and the city of Jerusalem. And that could only be in 445 BC when Artaxerxes, the same king allowed Nehemiah to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. Nehemiah 1:5-8. That's the key. This is the year and the month of Nisan. So we have the month and we have the year and start counting. Beautiful. So now we're talking about 7 weeks plus 62 weeks, 69 weeks, altogether is 483 years. You understand that? 483 years. 69... last time I checked, times 7, 483. Do we agree? Good. Now I'm not here to teach you math, but I'm here to tell you that you may be right, but you're all wrong. Why? Biblical years are different than today's counting. Because the Jewish people in the time of the Bible never counted a year by 365 days. They're counting was always lunar, therefore, it was only 360 days per year. So we don't even have to look into the actual years in our own calendars, We just have to take 69 times 7 times 360 and you get 173,880 days. Now You divided to our years of today and what you get is 476 solar years, and you actually come all the way directly to the year 31AD. to the month of April to the time of Passover when Jesus entered Jerusalem. Do you understand? God gave Daniel a far broader picture of what is going to happen to the people of Israel and to the city of Jerusalem, far beyond what he really had hoped. He talked about the end of the exile. God tells him, I'm not dealing with you at the end of the exile, I'm giving you a much bigger picture. That's why I sent Gabriel to talk to you, to give you an understanding, because it's a little bit complicated. Now, it's interesting because we must try to understand. Where are we now in the timetable that Daniel received from the Lord? Now take a look at this. Daniel saw two different periods, and he literally divided them. He dealt first with the 7 and the 62 which is the 69. And then he left at the very end of that prophecy, the last week, and the last week, he speaks of what we call the rise of the Antichrist. But in the first 69 weeks, he saw events that will eventually lead to the coming of the Messiah, His crucifixion. Therefore He's cut off, and He's cut off for nothing that He really did wrong. So take a look. To mountain peaks right here, and he literally separated them. Now Daniel is not a scholar, Gabriel never attended the Baptist seminary. He gives him a message, and what they understand is what they're being given, two different things. Obviously, the separation has to do with the fact that something is in between. Let me now on this chart, give you the events of the past, present and future. So Let's put it on. What we see in the red is Daniel's 70 weeks. But then you see that right there when Messiah was cut off and then resurrected and then ascended to heaven, Jesus in the light green ascended to heaven, then He sent down the Holy Spirit. And we start a period of what we call "the church era" in which we live right now. We live in the valley, between the mountains. You understand that? And it goes all the way you can see down below that the church is here and the Holy Spirit is here. I hope it's here. The Holy Spirit was given to us the minute that the disciples were in one accord in Jerusalem, in the upper room, If you remember that. Now, up until then, the address of the Holy Spirit was Heaven Street #3, Paradise, Holy Spirit changed. address, came all the way down. And now people are no longer having the Holy Spirit upon them, they're sealed with the Holy Spirit, so different. You know, David, in his time as a king, could have the Holy Spirit but the Holy Spirit could leave him. That's why he begged God, do not take your Holy Spirit from me. It's a valid prayer in those days, but now as believers, not only that we received but were sealed with the Holy Spirit. So now with the Holy Spirit, as long as the churches here is with us. But then what happened? The Bible says that the day will come and prior to the appearance of the Antichrist in Second Thessalonians, Chapter 2, the thing that will cause him to really appear and show his true face is the fact that the Restrainer is being removed out of his way. And we believe that the Restrainer being the Holy Spirit is taken. and then we, obviously, the temple of the Holy Spirit will be taken to the clouds. Jesus comes to the cloud, we go up to the cloud and we meet in the clouds. How about that? Christ returns... see, people mix the second coming with the rapture. These are two different things. Christ first comes for the church and the meeting point is in the air. And then Christ comes with the church and the meeting place is on Mount of olives. So we see that there is the two mountains that Daniel could see. And remember, Daniel is not speaking about you, about the Gentiles. What is he talking about? 70 weeks have been determined or decreed for your people and your city. He's speaking about Israel. The focus was on Israel If you remember that. And then the focus is now changing. For 2000 years, God gave you the opportunity to get to know the Lord and become believers and then the time will come we're out of here and the focus will be shifting back to Israel throughout the tribulation. And what is the purpose of this Revelation? Remember, it says 70 weeks are Determined for what? For your people in your city, what? to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. Very, very interesting because if you really think about it, the first three are fulfilled in the first coming of Jesus. But the second is fulfilled in the second coming of Jesus, that angel just gave him everything, and Daniel saw everything. But we must remember that this is exactly what many prophets did in the past. That's what Reverend Clarence Larkin saw and and and actually put a beautiful diagram of what we called "the mountain peaks of prophecy". I don't know if we have the chart of that one, but the mountain peaks of Bible prophecy is basically you see, you're talking about the main events, but all that you see is the peaks, you cannot see the valley that is in between. So he was speaking about that which will be established in the first and that which will be established in the second one. But of course, that is what it happens. So just like the first 69 years or 69 weeks, the last week is also all about Israel. You have to understand, guys, the Gentiles were received 2000 years, and the time of the gentile is about to come in. The Bible says in Romans, Chapter 11: I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness is going to be!" In other words, He's leaving the door open for the Jewish people, it's not the end. It's not replacement theology, Church did not replace Israel. God is not done with Israel. If God is done with Israel, then He changed His mind, and if God changes His mind, He might change His mind about you! And it's interesting, in verse 13 it says: "For I speak to you Gentiles; as much as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?" And verse 25 says: "For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And then all Israel will be saved..." There's a time for the Gentiles, but that time is going to come in. There will be fullness of the Gentiles, there will be, "That's it, no more," than God will move back to deal with Israel. And yes, it will be very unpleasant because it will be a time of testing. And they will have to decide if they're following the wrong messiah or the right one. And those who will follow the right one will flee from the wrong one. And then He will come back and get them, according to Isaiah 63, from Bozrah and bring them all the way back and He will come back and they will see the one whom they pierced, the Bible says, and they will look at Him and they will mourn and they will cry and they will receive Him. You understand that we're looking into a prophecy that basically says to the whole world today: your days are numbered. God is going to deal once again with Israel. Now He already started. The average age here is about 25, am I right? So most of you, most of you never really see... don't remember the days before Israel was established as a state. I want to tell you something, guys. For almost 2000 years, the Jews were out of their land and that valley that we talk about as a church age, it was a desert for the Jewish people. And out of the blue He spoke fertility to the land in the late 1800's, in Ezekiel 36 He says: "I speak to you, O mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to My people Israel, for they are about to come." And then He saved the remnant from the Nazis, and then He brought the remnant back to the land which He healed prior to the return. And then, in 1967 He gave them back Jerusalem to their hands. God started dealing with Israel in the physical realm. The next is we're out of here and He will deal with them in the spiritual one. He says first I'm gonna bring them back then I will pour my Spirit upon them. So you see, we are on the very verge of being out of here because He already started dealing with them. The door is about to be closed, the fullness of the gentiles about to be fulfilled. These are exciting times.
Don't look so depressed. We're gonna change address soon.
We're not of this world, are we? We are citizens of the Heavenlies. It hurts me to see that so many gentiles actually wants to become Jews. The Bible says that through their fall, in order to provoke them to jealousy, salvation is given to the Gentiles. So many gentiles are being provoked by the Jews to jealousy and want to become Jews. You don't need to. We don't need more Jews. In fact, you are so privileged because if 90% of people of Israel are not priests, you are being given now the status of what? Priests! Every Jew should be jealous of you. So it's time for us to understand that God is in the business of fulfilling His promises, not just to the people of Israel, but also to the family of God. Jesus said, I'm not gonna leave you as orphan, I'm going to send the Holy Spirit. And then He said, I will come back and receive you unto myself, so wherever I am, you are going to be also. And the Day is approaching. So I want to challenge you this morning. Are you ready? The 70th week is around the corner. The valley has been long traveled through. We are at the very end and from this point on is going upwards. Are you ready? Is your life reflecting someone who lives, worships and serves the Lord? Are you the wise virgins that have oil in their lamps? Are you the people that when Jesus said He's coming back He wants to find us doing His business? Or are we just dealing with our own business? Are we just doing whatever we want? See, God gave America, I believe, a time of grace as a nation. And I believe individually He's speaking to so many people around the world right now. I get thousands of emails of people receiving visions and dreams from young ones through the older ones about the very soon return of Jesus Christ. We must understand that we cannot say we didn't know. He gave those Words to the Prophet Daniel ,more than 2500 years ago. He gave those words through Jesus himself 2000 years ago, and He gave us the Holy Spirit so we can look into the Scriptures and instead of having our own interpretation which is not interested in understanding that God is in the business of preparing the church to be taken. I say, I always tell people, we live in the days of the feast of trumpets, I believe that. At the last trumpet we're out of here at the last one. But God commanded Moses to have two silver trumpets. I believe that these are Israel and the Church. For the first time since 1948 both of them exist, as long as Israel existed as a nation in the past, there was no church. And for the last 2000 years there was a church but there was no Israel back in their land. And only since 1948 the trumpets are sounding their sound. Israel is back in the land, Jerusalem back in our hand and the last trumpet -- we're out of here. The Bible says, Are you a trumpet? Because if a trumpet makes an uncertain sound who will prepare for a battle? So I challenge you this morning as we wrap it up, in light of the prophecy of Daniel and in light of what we're going to hear in the coming message about Gog and Magog, I want to challenge you: Search through your heart this morning. And if you're not ready, you don't want to leave this place today without the assurance not only of your salvation, but of your soon gathering to be with the Lord and meeting in the air.
