Sermon Manuscript

Daniel 9:24; An End To Sin ~ 20220828 ~ Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

08/28_Daniel 09:24; An End To Sin; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20220828_dan09_24.mp3

Daniel is praying, confessing his sins and the sins of his people. He is presenting his plea for mercy, that the Lord would turn away his anger and wrath from his city Jerusalem, and that the Lord would make his face shine on his sanctuary. Daniel’s prayer is interrupted at the time of the evening sacrifice by Gabriel with a word from the Lord.

Sabbath Rest for the Land

Daniel was reading Jeremiah, and he discerned that 70 years were decreed for the desolations of Jerusalem, and he understood that this time period was coming to a close. 2 Chronicles 36:21 recounts that one of the purposes of God for this seventy year captivity was to allow the land to enjoy its Sabbaths.

Just like the weekly Sabbath day of rest, God had instructed his people in Leviticus 25 to give the land a Sabbath rest. Every seventh year they were not to plow, plant, prune or harvest, but to live off the plenty produced in previous years. In Leviticus 26 he warned that if they disobeyed, he would send them into captivity so that the land could enjoy its Sabbath rest.

Apparently for 490 years they had not observed this command, so God sent them into captivity for 70 years, to give the land its rest. Daniel understood what brought this punishment on God’s people, he understood that this time was coming to a close, and he is praying, asking God to defend the honor of his great name.

Daniel is praying, and the Lord sends an angelic messenger with a word to interrupt Daniel’s prayer. But this is not simply an answer to his request.

Daniel 9:24 “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, ...

Daniel was inquiring about the seventy years, and God informs Daniel that there is something bigger going on. Seventy sevens are decreed. A week is a unit of seven; it could be a week of days or a week of years. There was 490 years of disobeience that brought on the Babylonian captivity. There is another 70 sevens or 490 years decreed for God’s people and his holy city.

Jerusalem-Centric

Notice that this prophecy is specifically directed toward the Jewish people and the city of Jerusalem. Throughout Daniel’s prayer his focus has been on God’s chosen people and his land, specifically his city and his holy temple in Jerusalem. The word that he is given in response to his prayer is also very clearly Jerusalem centered. The ‘seventy-sevens are decreed about your people and your holy city’.

Cycle of Sin

And this word addresses the root of the problem. Throughtout the prayer, Daniel is confessing his sin and the sins of his people. Daniel says ‘we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside, we have not listened, committed treachery, sinned, rebelled, not obeyed, trnansgressed, turned aside, refuising to obey, we have sinned against you, we have not turned from our iniquities, we have not obeyed, we have sinned, we have done wickedly, it is because of our sins and iniquities…’

If we understand anything about the history of Israel, they were stuck in a cycle. They would sin, the Lord would punish, they would cry out, he would rescue, they would enjoy rest and so they would sin again and repeat the cycle. Soil, wash, rinse, repeat; soil, wash, rinse, repeat. The northern kingdom of Israel had gone astray; the Lord sent prophets to warn them, and he sent the Assyrians to punish them. The southern kingdom of Judah did not learn from their example. They had gone astray, the Lord sent prophets to warn them, and then he sent the Babylonians to take them captive. They were stubborn and rebellious, with hearts constantly going astray. This is why they were in captivity in Babylon. This is why God’s anger and wrath had come upon them. Daniel affirms the righteousness of God to punish them for their sins.

This background is what makes the announcement of the angel Gabriel so staggering. There are six purposes of God in this declaration. The first three are negative; to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity. God is going to break the cycle! This is a bigger answer to Daniel’s prayer than he could have imagined. He was confessing his sins and the sins of his people, knowing that his people had a history of sin – confession – forgiveness; sin – confession – forgiveness. Daniel knew that without a real change of heart the cycle would continue. Daniel knew that even in captivity his people were hard hearted, refusing to listen to the warnings of the prophets (v.10), refusing to turn from their iniquities, refusing to gain insight by God’s truth, failing to entreat the favor of the Lord (v.13). Daniel knew that even if God brought his people back to the land, the cycle would repeat itself and they would find themselves back under God’s anger and wrath. His vision in chapter 8 already foretold of a then future little horn who would be allowed to take away the regular burnt offerings because of the transgression of God’s people. Here God makes the stunning promise that he will finally and forever dig out the root of sin.

Finish Transgression

Transgression is the rebellion of the people of God that caused them to be given into the hand of the little horn in chapter 8 (v.12-13). Rebellion, transgression will be firmly restrained.

Psalm 103:12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

End Sin

Daniel confessed his sin and the sins of his people in verses 5, 8, 11, 15, 16, and 20. God will put an end to sins. God’s people will not sin any more. Just think of that! God will put an end to sins! Never again will we miss the mark. God will put a stop to our sinning!

Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

Atone for Iniquity

Daniel confessed iniquity; twisting, perverting, making crooked God’s straight paths in verses 5, 13 and 16.

Psalm 130 starts out:

Psalm 130:3 If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.

And then it concludes:

Psalm 130:7 O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. 8 And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

God will atone for or cover over our iniquity. Atone is the root of the word that described the mercy seat, the lid for the Ark of the Covenant that covered God’s broken law; as he looked down from above the mercy seat or atonement cover, he saw the blood splattered to cover sin and his wrath was appeased. He will once for all finally and forever atone for iniquity.

Isaiah 53 tells of a coming one:

Isaiah 53:5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. ... 8 ...he was ...stricken for the transgression of my people.

Peter in 1 Peter 2:24 says

1 Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

Paul tells us how God put an end to sin in Colossians 2

Colossians 2:13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Everlasting Righteousness

Where the first three are negative, to finish, put an end to, cover transgression, sin and iniquity, the next three are positive.

To bring in everlasting righteousness. Daniel has said that ‘to you O Lord, belongs righteousness’ (v.7). He affirmed that all God’s acts are righteous (v.16). He acknowledges that he is not pleading his case on the basis of our righteousness, because we have none (v.18). But here God says that he will bring in everlasting righteousness.

Paul agrees. In Romans 3, he says:

Romans 3:10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;

He says the purpose of the law was:

Romans 3:19 ...so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

But then he goes on:

Romans 3:21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. …

Not one of us is righteous. God alone is righteous. But God’s own righteousness is given to those who believe in Jesus. God’s righteousness is counted as ours, credited to us.

Romans 4:4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; 8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

Romans 5 says:

Romans 5:19 For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.

2 Corinthians 5:21 puts it this way:

2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Even Isaiah saw this:

Isaiah 53:11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

God’s everlasting righteousness is counted as ours, and we are counted righteous in Christ.

Sealing Vision and Prophet

To seal both vision and prophet. A seal was placed on a document to prove its authenticity and ensure that nothing could be changed or altered. The seal proved the authority and authenticity of what was written. In John 6, Jesus said that God the Father set his seal on the Son of Man.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:

Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

Jesus came not to abolish but to establish, to accomplish, to fulfill the Scriptures. He came to set his seal to them, to sign his name in blood. He said in John 5

John 5:39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

Paul writes of Jesus in 2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 1:20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. 21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

Not every promise is realized yet, but every promise is secure, sealed to us in Jesus.

To Anoint a Holy of Holies

Daniel 9:24 “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.

Daniel had prayed that God would make his face shine on his sanctuary, which is desolate. God says here that he will anoint a holy of holies. This could be pointing to what Hebrews is talking about:

Hebrews 9:23 Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Jesus purified the heavenly holy of holies with his own blood once and for all.

But this may also be pointing to a future Jerusalem temple where sacrifice and offerings will be made, where as Jesus said ‘you [will] see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place’ (Mt.24:15).

Application To Us

These seventy sevens are decreed about Daniel’s people and Daniel’s holy city. This word of the Lord is directly for the Jews, and it will one day be true of the Jews when, as the Lord says in Zechariah

Zechariah 12:10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.

Revelation looks forward to this day

Revelation 1:7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.

On that day these words will be fulfilled,

This is primarily and ultimately for the Jewish people, but it’s bigger than that. In God’s unsearchable wisdom, “through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous” (Rom.11:11).

Romans 11:25 Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”; 27 “and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”

God will fulfill these promises to Israel, but by God’s amazing grace we Gentiles have been extended mercy, we have been grafted in, we become fellow heirs of all these promsies in Christ Jesus through the gospel (Eph.3:6)!

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2022.08.28 Sermon Notes - Daniel 9:24; An End to Sin

Seventy years captivity gave Sabbath rest to the land

Leviticus 25; 26:27-28, 32-35, 43; 2 Chronicles 36:21

The cycle of sin

Judges 2:11-19; 3:7-9, 12-14; Daniel 8:12-13

Three negatives:

-Finish transgression

Psalm 103:12

-End sin

Isaiah 1:18

-Atone for Iniquity

Psalm 130:3-4, 7-8

Isaiah 53:4-6, 8; 1 Peter 2:24; Colossians 2:13-14

Three positives:

-Everlasting Righteousness

Romans 3:10, 19-25; 4:4-8; 5:19; 2 Corinthians 5:21

Isaiah 53:11

-Seal vision and prophet

John 6:27; 5:39-40; Matthew 5:17-18; 2 Corinthians 1:20-22

-Anoint a Holy of Holies

Hebrews 9:23-26; Matthew 24:15

This is primarily about the Jewish people

Zechariah 12:10; Revelation 1:7

but in God’s grace we are included!

Romans 11:11, 25-27; Ephesians 3:6

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Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org