The Long-Expected Sin Ender - Brandon Scalf

All right, everyone, grab your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Daniel.

To the book of Daniel, specifically Daniel chapter 9.

Daniel chapter 9, and we will be specifically looking at verse 24.

Daniel chapter 9, verse 24.

And as you're turning there, let me pray for our time together.

Father, we thank you. We thank you for your word. And we thank you that you have sent your son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be the propitiation of our sins.

And we ask this morning a special dose of grace, that we might behold your son with a greater awe in our hearts, and that we might fall more in love with you because of the redemptive plan that you have worked out in and through him, and that you would help us to live and love out of that, especially during this season of Christmas.

Help us to stand in awe of this work of incarnation, the

God -man, your son, and the spirit whom you sent to empower his life and ministry, that same spirit who now works in and through us.

And most of all, Lord, help us to stand in awe of your salvation, helping us to understand, to know, and behold the truth that salvation is of the

Lord, and that we all receive it who have received it by grace alone.

And we ask these things in Jesus' meritorious name, amen.

As we begin looking at this passage, we must, of course, ask the question, what in the world does this have to do with Christmas?

Well, just like many passages in the Bible, it has everything to do with Christmas.

And in one of the ways it has to do with Christmas is that it's all about the sovereignty of God and how that sovereign

God orchestrates history in such a way as to bring about the

Christ, the Christ whom we now celebrate that came in flesh and laid in a manger.

And so Christmas, like the rest of life, but especially Christmas, we need to remember that it is not just a season of sentimentality, one where we get caught up in nostalgia as it were, but it's really a celebration of God's sovereignty, especially as it is revealed in and through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The world then, like the world now, was groaning under the weight of sin.

And for centuries, they had, as we have discussed, as we have journeyed through this series in Advent, awaited the arrival of a redeemer, the one who would crush the head of the serpent, as we saw, the one who would be set up as the bronze serpent, and the one who does away with sin, death, and the surety of hell.

And so before we get to Daniel, I want to show you in Luke chapter 2 exactly what

Daniel chapter 9 is pointing to. It's pointing to a lot of things, and we'll get into that in a moment, but here is where the story comes to fruition, where God's sovereignty is unfolding right before the very eyes of those in Israel.

It says, Now it happened in chapter 2 that in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus for a census to be taken of all the inhabited earth.

This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.

Sorry, I lost my place there and went blind for a second. And everyone was going to be registered for the census, each to his own city.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called

Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was betrothed to him and was with child.

Now it happened, verse 6, that while they were there, the days were fulfilled for her to give birth.

She gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped him in clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the guest room.

In the same region, and here it is, friends, there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over the flock by night.

And an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. And they were terribly frightened, and they should have been.

They were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people.

For today, in the city of David, there has been born for you a—what ?—Savior, a

Savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you.

You will find a baby wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there appeared, verse 12, or 13 rather, with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising

God, saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased.

You see, when Jesus shows up in history, when he is born, as prophecy had foretold by the

Virgin Mary, he is immediately called a

Savior. And so, the reality is that Christmas is about, of course, the incarnation of Christ.

And of course, it's about when Jesus was born. But Jesus was born for a purpose.

And that purpose was to save his people from their sins.

And so, you cannot think about Christmas without thinking about the purpose of Christ.

You cannot think about the baby in the manger without the grown man with a crown of thorns wrapped around his head.

And you certainly cannot think about the manger, the crown of thorns, without the crown that the

Father gave Jesus after having accomplished his purpose and ascending to heaven where he now sits enthroned.

To think about Jesus and the reason he came in the incarnation is to think, in other words, of the very gospel itself from beginning to end.

There's no way around it. Jesus is not celebrated on Christmas because he was at one time a cute baby, though I'm sure he was, but because he is

Christ our Lord. And so, with that in mind, think about what

Daniel chapter 9 verse 24 has to do with Christmas. And you should see that it has everything to do with Christmas.

And so, if you would, please stand with me for the honoring and reading of God's holy infallible and all -sufficient word.

This is the word of God. Seventy weeks have been determined for your people and for your holy city 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 holy of holies.

The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Amen? Amen. Go ahead and have a seat and get your eyes back on Daniel chapter 9 verse 24.

Now, Daniel chapter 9, as well as many other chapters in Daniel, are hotly debated.

And they're hotly debated because they speak of what is known as apocalyptic realities, or in other words, prophecies that are either to be interpreted or have been interpreted by various different scholars.

And of course, when you look at the nature of prophecy, when you look at prophecies, when you look at anything that really seems, at least to our earthly eyeballs, vague, it leads to controversy.

And my hope and my prayer on Christmas Sunday as I was thinking through which text to preach was not, let me throw a grenade so that everybody on Christmas can get home and start arguing.

That is not why I wanted to look at this passage. In fact, I want to state on the front end that if we differ in interpretation on the matter, look at the meat and substance of what's being said.

We can wrangle about specific years and so on and so forth, but the reality is this text is about Christ.

And we know it's about Christ, one, because it's very evident from the exegesis, but secondarily, because Jesus tells us in the

Gospels after he has risen from the dead that everything points to him.

Everything shows him to be beautiful, glorious, and the

Savior of the world. And so as we look at this passage, let's look at it in a way that is unifying as opposed to dividing.

It is true Daniel chapter 9 verse 24 is in many ways the Mount Everest of Messianic prophecy.

As we see just at a cursory read -through, it literally lays out

God's eternal plan centering on the arrival of the Messiah, the sin -crushing, prophecy -fulfilling

King. This text is nothing less than the blueprint for Christmas, the arrival of the long -expected sin -ender.

By the way, that is the title of today's message, the long -expected sin -ender.

But I will say on the front end that there are people who actually look at this text and they see, and I don't know how they get here if I'm quite honest, prophesying of the

Antichrist, speaking about a future tribulation that will happen in our future, not just Daniel's future, not even the future of the

New Testament. But there are many reasons to reject that notion. Firstly, because it says

Messiah, it says there's a covenant in preceding verses, verse 26. Then after 62 weeks, the

Messiah will be cut off, you see here, verse 27, and he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week.

This is not language that is fitting for anyone else other than the Lord Jesus.

I understand that what they're trying to do when they say that is to protect God, as if he needed our protection, from looking mean.

Because it says in verse 27 at the end, and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.

We don't want our Jesus to make anything desolate, to bring destruction on anything.

But the reality is the Bible shows us over and over and over that Jesus is not this one dimensional creature.

He is the God man who is both the savior and the judge. And so we must look at this and we must see

Jesus. We must see Jesus. Now, as far as context is concerned,

Daniel here, and you know Daniel, Daniel in the lion's den, right? Daniel is a prophet and he was used mightily by God in a time period known as the

Babylonian exile. And specifically here in Daniel chapter 9, Daniel is praying.

And he's praying on behalf of the people of Israel. He was meditating on Jeremiah's prophecy that talked about the exile that they were in.

And right before exile was to end, Daniel is noticing some things about this prophecy and was praying for his people in light of them.

Namely, that the 70 years that they were to be in exile was almost up.

And God promised to restore them and to get them out of exile so long as they were repentant.

But Daniel's looking around and he's saying, my people are not repentant.

They have transgressed against the Lord. They seemingly hate God. And God, you're the only one.

You're the only one who can get your people out of this mess.

Now this is important. It's important for a couple reasons. One, because it shows us the state in which the human heart genuinely and generally consists.

We are quick to sin and slow to repent. That's the nature of our condition apart from Christ.

But more than that, another reason that it's important is because we have to interpret this text in light of the context that exists in it.

All the people that come up with these half -brained ideas about this text, they do so not thinking about the context in which it exists.

Daniel is praying, Lord, help my people who are unrepentant because we need the temple.

We need you. We need your presence. And he says, okay, actually

Gabriel winds up responding to this prayer. And he responds saying a lot of things.

But we pick up in verse 24 and he says, and this is my first point that I want you to consider the sovereign timeline.

He gives the sovereign timeline for God's fixing of the problem.

God's fixing of the problem. It says in verse 24, 70 weeks have been determined for your people and for your holy city.

Now this is where the controversy begins when it comes to interpretation. What in the world is going on here with the 70 weeks, especially in light of the fact that you get down to verse 26, there's 26 more weeks.

And then there's another week in verse 27 that is also split in half. What in the world is going on here?

Well, there are a myriad of different ways that theologians and people have sought to interpret this.

But in actuality, that's not really the point of the passage, but let's look at it momentarily.

The words 70 weeks here are somewhat misleading. And I hate to say that about the legacy standard

Bible because it's nearly perfect. But alas, there are some areas where it is not to remind us that the only perfect thing out there is the

Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. But some translations get this right. But instead of weeks, it's actually sevens.

So it's 70 sevens. And so this in some ways is a translation choice.

They're assuming that the last seven is a week. So there's 70 weeks of seven.

But people still interpret it as weeks in some places.

But most people, even the ones who say that they hold to a very literal interpretation of this passage with no symbolics needed, abandon their first principle by doing just that by saying, well, the sevens must be years.

It must be an extended amount of time. And so many people who

I tend to agree with will say that this represents a series of years, 70 times seven, which equals 490.

Now before you start asking the question, and you should be asking the question, right? Why in the world would we just assume that seven is the number?

Well, it's there. But then secondarily, when we think about timeframes and we think about numbers, remembering that this is apocalyptic literature, and we've discussed this as we went through various different passages in the past with Revelation chapter one, for example, it talks about the seven spirits.

And what did we say about that? Or if you think about Jesus and he says that we are to forgive 70 times seven, is he giving us a math equation?

And then once we do the 70 times seven amount of forgiving, then we just don't forgive anymore because we fulfilled the letter of the law?

No. The Bible speaks symbolically and metaphorically all over the place, right?

There's not seven spirits in the Godhead. There's one perfect spirit.

And seven is perfect or holistic or completed in biblical imagery.

And so this might be talking of specific years, and I believe that to some degree it is, although I think there's some room to be flexible here depending on which interpretation you go with.

But the idea here is in the fullness of time. When God meant for it to happen in his sovereign timeline, it happened, and it happened perfectly, it happened completely, and it happened amazingly.

But just so you know where I land, and just so you know where I think the

Bible lands, this is speaking the 70 weeks here of a time frame that existed in the past.

And it culminates in the coming of the Lord Jesus in the first seven weeks.

You know, there's this division, and this division is important.

You have the 70 plus the 62 plus the 1.

So Daniel 9 is a response to Daniel's prayer, and it has to do with how to respond to unrepentance and the exile.

And so the period, and I'll just say this quickly, and we can talk about it after the service, but I want to get to the meat of what's being said in this passage, is that the 70 weeks represent the period of time between the decree to rebuild

Jerusalem in 457 BC and the completion of this work under Ezra and Nehemiah in 408

BC. And then it continues on in the second division, the 62 weeks, another 434 years, that has to do with the coming of the

Messiah. This period spans from the completion of Jerusalem's rebuilding of the temple to the arrival of the

Messiah. It covers the intertestamental period and culminates in the first century ministry of Jesus, identified as Messiah Prince.

And it leads all the way to, and like I said, we're not going to get into this fully, but the destruction of the temple in AD 70, where he is the one,

Jesus Christ, who brings judgment on Jerusalem for rejecting the Messiah and living in rebellion against God.

And if you understand this, you really start to understand the book of Hebrews, for example, where Jesus has died, and yet there are people wondering, hey, the temple's still here, and are we to still keep offering sacrifices?

And so Jesus comes in AD 70 in judgment and destroys the temple, getting rid of all of these old ways of doing things.

And of course, being cut off in this passage refers to his death. But like I said, let's get to the meat of the matter.

However you parse this out, whatever years you use, the reality is that the 70 weeks refers to a divinely ordained period of time that symbolizes the completeness of God's redemptive work and his sovereignty over history.

So when we think Christmas, when we think Advent, when we think Christ in the manger, what we should be thinking about is

God's sovereign work and history. Acts 1 -7, it says, But he said to them,

It is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has set by his own authority.

Of course, he's speaking here of his second coming. But the truth remains, things about which

God does, we ought not get too zero down in the minutia unless we have it available to us and we can do that deep diving.

But he is the one who has authority. But more specifically as it pertains to Christmas, Paul says in Galatians 4 -4,

But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, and he did it to a specific people.

The decree is specifically for Daniel's people and for his city. It's for Jerusalem and then to the ends of the world.

The implications of him coming to Jerusalem extend globally, which is why when we get to Matthew 28, it says,

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. So he comes through the

Davidic line, fulfills those promises that have been given, and then the effects of that reverberate like a rock on water.

God is sovereign over history. He is sovereign over any timeline, and it is a beautiful reality.

So when he came as a babe, Jesus, he came to fulfill the sovereign plan of Almighty God.

Children, would you look at me? I want to help you understand what I'm saying here. History or just where we're living right now, we're thinking about the future.

All of that, time, all of that, God has control over all of that.

I want you to think about it. When you're playing with your friends, you might actually pick up blocks and start building a building, maybe a house, maybe you're playing house, and you build a house or you build a castle, and you sit back and you think, that is a really awesome and beautiful house or castle.

I built this from top to bottom. God does that.

He does that with time. He does that with history, which means everything matters, everything has a purpose, and it serves

God's plan to redeem his people, and Christ is right at the story of everything.

That's why in a very cliche way, history is often called his story.

The way life goes, whether people believe in God or not, is exactly the way God wants it to go, and he's writing it.

There's only one hero in this story, and his name is Jesus.

When you think about this heritage, when you think about how God orchestrates things to come to pass, and he does so in the fullness of time, and he does so according to his own timeline, does that encourage you to trust his timing in all things?

If God's timing was perfect for the Messiah to come and to put an end to sin, which we will see here in a moment, can we not trust him in every situation?

Can we not trust him while we are waiting? You see,

God does not do anything by accident, nor does God do anything by responding in bewilderment.

Just as the birth of Christ was no accident, neither are the events in your life.

They are actually being used to point you to the one who came.

It's all about Jesus. Everything is all about Jesus, and it's all according to his plan.

Now, the purpose to which he came is what matters the most. Not necessarily when or how many years or which specific years led up to it or whatever.

Christ came. That's what matters. And it's going to tell us in this verse six reasons that Jesus came.

Six reasons that Jesus came, three of them spoken about in the negative and three of them spoken about in the positive.

So why did Jesus come on Christmas? Well, the first one, it says here, if you look back with me at verse 24, 70 weeks have been determined for your people and for your holy city to what?

Finish the transgression. In other words, after these 70 weeks, there's going to be one who comes in the culmination to tie up rebellion.

What transgression is being spoken about here? Well, first let's ask what transgression is.

The Hebrew word that is used here is speaking of sin.

And finish is a very fitting word, and I'm so glad that the LSB decided to use this because what it's trying to say here is essentially that though man is sinful and rebellious against God, God has sent his son to put an end, a complete cessation, a cutting off, a removal of sin.

This begins to make sense when you consider what we read in Luke chapter 2, that Jesus is coming to be a

Savior. He's coming to be a Savior because eventually he will grow up, and he will grow up, and he will die on a cross.

And he will say very similar words to this on the cross when he says what?

It is finished. Jesus came not just to start something but to finish something, and to finish what?

According to this text, especially to finish the transgression.

He bore the penalty, and he broke the power of sin. When you think about this, in John chapter 19, verse 30,

Jesus is hanging on the cross. They put some sour wine on his mouth, and he said, of course, as we've already said, it is finished.

He bowed his head, and he gave up his spirit, and he did that. Why? Because there was nothing else that needed to be done in regard to the work that he had to do while on the earth as the

God man. Now, what does that mean?

Does it mean that he is going to make it impossible for any person from that point on to not sin?

Well, no, everybody sins, right? Romans chapter 3. We all sin and fall short of the glory of God.

We're sitting in these pews because we need a Savior. You're sitting there because you need to be saved.

You have been saved, or God is willing you to save you, hopefully and prayerfully. But the reality is, salvation is necessary, and he came to finish, not sinning the consequences that we would experience because of sin, so long as we trust in the

Lord Jesus. Now, there is another contextual element here, meaning that there's also, if you think about it in the time of redemptive history, he's putting an end to Israel's transgression, particularly as it involves the breaking of their covenant and their rejection of him as Messiah, and the destruction of the temple in A .D.

70 was essentially God saying, it's over.

It's a very startling claim in Matthew chapter 23 and 24. Where Jesus looks at the scribes and the

Pharisees, and he says, I have come to take the kingdom away from you and give it to a people bearing the fruit of it.

In the destruction of the temple in A .D. 70, everything changed, but it changed first because their sin was dealt with, but in doing that, in God's selfific plan, according to his timeline, his work on the cross paid for their sin and our sin and everyone's sin who would place their faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ. That is why he came.

And he goes on, not only to finish the transgression, to bring it to its completion, but to make an end of it, to finish it and to make an end of it, to make atonement for iniquity.

The phrase here, to make atonement for iniquity, points to not just the culmination of this sin, not just putting an end to the consequences, but also it points to the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ himself.

In Christ, God's wrath is completely and fully satisfied.

The wrath that burned against Israel, the wrath that burned against all of us for living as God haters and God's law transgressors, wearing our own self -made crowns and suppressing the truth in unrighteousness, and he reconciles us because of that death to the

Father. This is what theologians have called substitutionary, penal substitutionary atonement.

It's penalty absorbing. It is substituting his life for our life.

Martin Luther called this the great exchange, and we can see it most beautifully and most clearly in 2

Corinthians 5, verse 21, when it says that he, that is, God the Father, made him, that is, Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf so that, purpose clause, we might become the righteousness of God in him.

So you see here, Jesus was born. He was prophesied to come, prophesied to be born, and then he was born, and the reason that he was born was so that he could, in fact, finish transgression, make an end of sin, and make atonement for iniquity, to forgive it.

That's scandalous. He who knew no sin was made to be sin.

In other words, though he was sinless, God looked upon him and treated him as if he was you.

Calvin really brings out, when he's commenting on this, this word treat, and how it should drive you to worship.

Jesus came to be treated like a sinner. He came to be treated like you.

All of the wrath, all of the anger that was to be poured out on you, those who would trust in Christ, to feel, to take all of that, so that you wouldn't have to.

And what is more, he doesn't just stop there.

He then, in Christ, treats you as if you were Jesus, as if you had lived perfectly, as if you only pleased

God all of the time. You, who could not please God apart from Christ, for one second of one day, he treats you as though there was never a time where you did not live and repent and believe perfectly.

And he doesn't just treat you that way so that you get out of hell. He treats you that way forever, for eternity, so that you might dwell in the house of the

Lord forever, that you might dwell in his presence. Then he goes on.

Not only does he do that, he brings in everlasting righteousness.

So he says, 70 weeks have been determined, a predetermined time for your people and for your holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, and what?

To bring in everlasting righteousness. Part of that substitutionary work is also the extension of an alien righteousness, which brings me to my third point.

The provision of righteousness. The provision of righteousness.

We've seen the sovereign timeline. We have seen the end of sin.

Now look with me at the provision of righteousness. Remember, Daniel has prayed for repentance.

He's prayed that his people would turn back to the Lord and that they would be righteous and that they would be freed from exile.

And so this promise here becomes all the more relevant to his context, but also to the gospel itself.

So what is he saying here? There's going to be one who will come who will not only do away with sin and its consequences and so on and so forth, but one who will give the righteousness required.

You see, we have a God who demands righteousness, and if you will not be righteous, you will perish.

And that same God says, that righteousness required, I will provide.

I will give. What God demands and commands, he gives.

He makes possible. And he makes possible in a way that is completely heart -shattering and mind -blowing.

Why can God say in Romans chapter 8, for example, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus?

How can he say that? How can he say that there is no condemnation?

Because Psalm 5 tells us that God hates all who do iniquity. That he abhors the bloodthirsty and those who engage in iniquitous decrees.

That his wrath is pointed at those who suppress the truth and unrighteousness.

And if he is to be a good God, and if he is to be a just God, then he cannot let the sinner go free.

Because he would cease being good, and he would cease being just. Children, I want you to think about it this way.

If there was somebody who did a lot of harm to you or to your family members, and he got arrested by the police, and he went to court to be sentenced to go to jail, and the judge who oversaw the case just said, you know, we're just gonna forgive him this time.

And let him go back out on the street. We would say, what about that judge? We would say, well, he was an evil man.

He did not serve, and here's the key word, justice. And so if God is just going to wipe the slate clean, if he's gonna do away with sin, if he's going to let

Jesus trade places with us, what does that even mean? How does that work? And how can he even do such a thing?

The answer is found in these words. To provide not just some righteousness, not some righteousness attained by following the law, but an everlasting righteousness that will never be wiped clean because of Christ.

In other words, the righteousness spoken about here is a righteousness that is not human in one sense, but divine.

It was accomplished by the God man who was in human flesh, but it's not a righteousness that you can attain.

Why? Because Romans says again, chapter three, that there is no one righteous. No, not one.

You need God's help to be righteous. You need

God's help to be righteous. Who cares if God does away with the penalty of sin if he doesn't also give you what you need to continue to live before him and ultimately with him forever?

Forgiveness of sin, doing away with sin, is just getting you back to zero. You need righteousness.

You don't just need the negation of something you're not. You need the promotion of something you also are not.

You need righteousness because apart from Christ, you don't have any. So much so that the prophet

Isaiah says what? That even our best deeds are like menstrual rags before the

Lord. And now if that is wild imagery to you, it's supposed to be. It's supposed to be.

The righteousness that is given is one that is perfect righteousness, and it's a perfect righteousness that comes from Christ that is imputed.

It is given so that you might securely stand before a holy

God, that you might dwell with him, that you might be his people.

And that is the Lord's provision, and it is a permanent provision because it is everlasting.

It's true that it is everlasting, but it also is signifying the reality that it is sufficient forever.

You will never be able to improve upon Christ's righteousness imputed to you.

Never. Never. And if you think you can, you've just weakened and cheapened and masked the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

It's supposed to be scandalous. You don't deserve this.

Salvation has been given to you and has been predetermined before the foundations of the world according to Ephesians 1, and it has been planned and has been told to Daniel that this is going to happen, and it's been worked out throughout history.

And unlike the fleeting sacrifices of the old covenant, which Daniel would have been very familiar with,

Christ's work is final, and it is unchanging, and it changes everything. That's why it's the new covenant.

This passage should make you more Baptist, which really just means more

Christian and more biblical, right? We're not trying to erect teams here, but it's so much better than what

Daniel had available to him in that system. In this new covenant with Christ, there is complete and utter transformation of heart and a righteousness that is not achieved to keep land in place, to keep

God's favor, but rather a gift of God's grace given supernaturally that changes the very heart, and it is a covenant that is not only new, but it is a covenant that has a new and better mediator, and he fulfills all of these things.

That's why Hebrews says he's the better Moses. He's the better sacrifice.

In the old covenant, sacrifices had to continually be made for sin. Not anymore, because Jesus is the one who offers himself as a sacrifice.

Think of it this way. Think of a spotless wedding garment gifted to a bride. She wears it.

Why? Children, do you know why brides wear white on their wedding day, why their dress is always white?

Do you know that? It's not because we decided as a society that it just looks better, and I'm sure there are plenty of women here who would rather wear something else so that if they spilt something on their dress, it wouldn't be so evident for everyone to see, but the reason is it's because it's supposed to speak of purity.

It is about purity. And women should be pure before they come and marry a man.

But likewise, the church, God's people, have been given this new righteousness, and it has been freely given it to them, and it's as if we, the church, his bride, are just covered in a gigantic, perfectly suited, eternally secure wedding dress.

And if that makes you uncomfortable, you're going to have a hard time reading the Puritans. It's given.

A dress is given to a bride. This alien righteousness is given to us.

Now, let me ask this. Do you believe this? I ask that.

I know that seems elementary, but do you? On your best days, when you feel like you're nailing this thing, when you feel like you're repenting of sin the way you need to repent of sin, you're growing the way you need to grow, do you realize that even that is weak sauce?

And do you believe that on your worst day, you're probably not too far away from your best day, and that Christ covers it all, and he has paid for it forever and finally?

And that's what he came to do. You are never further away from God or closer to him because of Christ's finished righteousness, his imputed righteousness for you.

Do you believe that? You have to, because if you don't, then you don't believe the gospel, but rest in it.

If you believe it, keep believing it, rest in it, rest in his finished work. We are saved, in fact, by works, but it's his works.

It's his works, and he has come to bring everlasting righteousness.

Philippians 3 .9, Paul is trying to get this across to the church in Philippi, and he says that he wants to be found in him, speaking of Christ, not having, quote, a righteousness of my own, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, of the righteousness, which is from God upon faith.

So how do you get this righteousness? By saying a bunch of prayers?

No. By doing better than the guy next to you? By believing, by trusting the work

Christ. There's confidence found there, confidence to slay sin, confidence not to act as some sort of litmus test for how every other

Christian should act or behave. It helps us in the context of the local church, and the reason that I bring this up is because we have been walking through the book of Ephesians, and we've been thinking about how we should be and act as the church.

I saw a post that a friend of mine made. He's a pastor in another state, and he quoted

James Rinnehan. He's like the 1689

Baptist pope, and he says this, and I want you to hear this in light of everything we've just said up to this point.

He says, A lot of pastors see members of their church first as sinners, always considering how they might be failing and what needs correction.

Okay. I think that's probably true, but that's also probably true of everyone else, not just pastors.

We look at everybody else as sinners, always considering how they might be failing and what we can do to correct them.

Now, of course, believe everything that we've said in the book of Ephesians. It's our job to bear our brother's burdens. It's our job to help people see sin.

They may not see. All these things are true, but I want you to hear the next thing that James says. He says,

Instead, pastors, and I would say, comma, church members, should first see how people are progressing and encourage them forward into Christlikeness.

Well, how in the world can you begin looking at people like that? Not looking for their faults, but looking at their growth and being excited when you see it, even if you feel like you're further ahead in a particular area.

How can you do that? Well, you can do that when you understand that the cross, the reason

Jesus came, the reason that Jesus was born, acts as a gigantic beacon that says, not one of us could measure up.

Not one of us could get out of this thing without a substitute. Not one of us was gonna go to heaven apart from Christ descending and dying on our behalf.

When you think about Jesus dying on the cross, you should think, yes, God sovereignly did that. He did that.

And yet, if it wasn't for me, you hear what I'm saying? If it wasn't for me, he would not be hanging there.

Not if it weren't for my husband or my brother or my coworkers.

Christ came for you and us, but that's how you get there.

That's how you can show grace because you've been shown grace, the likes of which you don't deserve.

No condemnation? Are you kidding me? I deserve all the condemnation.

You deserve all the condemnation. We deserve all the condemnation. And what do we get instead? Alien righteousness.

So I don't care what you think Daniel 9 means in terms of how this plays out eschatologically because it's about alien righteousness.

Now, I hope you come upon the right interpretation, which is where I'm at, right?

But if we disagree, it's fine. I say that in jest for people who may not know me yet, but this is what it's about.

It's about Jesus. It's all about Jesus. It is all about Jesus because we've come to somewhat of the end of our time.

Let me just handle these last two points quickly because I want you to see them, though really the meat of what

I wanted to say is right there. Jesus, he came to do away with sin, to put an end to sin.

He came to make atonement for iniquity. He paid the price that we deserve.

He atoned for our sin to bring about everlasting righteousness.

But he also came to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the holy of holies.

So my fourth point is the confirmation of prophecy. Now, I could spend a lot of time here, and you know

I would normally, but this is speaking of how

Christ fulfills, confirms, validates, and vindicates

God's word. Another reason why this cannot be the antichrist.

Antichrists don't come to validate, vindicate, and confirm the word of God.

One, because they're not the author of that word, but two, that's not their purpose, his purpose.

Also, by the way, the whole idea when people keep saying antichrist, I know what they mean by that, but like John tells us that there is not an antichrist.

There are many antichrists, and he says what in his letters, that they're even here now, and who are they?

They're anyone who denies the Lord Jesus Christ. There's antichrists all over the place, and it's not some towering figure that acts and looks like the devil, okay?

Now, to some degree, there is something in Thessalonians called the man of lawlessness. Sometimes people mean that when they say it, and that's another sermon for another time, but here's the deal.

Here, what's being said, when it says to seal up vision and prophecy, and this should be a good word to our charismatic brothers and sisters, is when he came, he was the fulfillment of every messianic promise, and prophecy is always pointing to Jesus.

Throughout the Old Testament, the prophets were trying to get people to see there's a Messiah coming. From Genesis to Malachi, the scriptures testify of Jesus.

We see that in Luke 24, 27, when Jesus says, then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures.

Everything points to Jesus. Everything's about Jesus. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, and Jesus said so, and so what's being said here, and if you look into the original languages here, there is really just the idea, not necessarily that prophecy will cease, although it's certainly implied, but that it's completed, that it's summed up, right?

That it's vindicated, this word, this prophecy, these visions.

It is true in Christ. God's word is proven true. Every prophecy finds, according to the scriptures, yes and amen and him.

For instance, 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 10, for as many as are the promises of God, in him they are yes.

Therefore, also through him is our amen to the glory of God through us.

That's what the book of Hebrews is pointing to as well. So the

Old Testament is pointing to Jesus, the entire children.

How many of you have done a puzzle recently? Have you seen a puzzle? In the

Old Testament, the prophets would point to Jesus and they would give us small little pictures.

But these little pictures, especially once we see the end of the story, really become very illuminating.

But at the time they don't seem like much, and what I mean by illuminating is they become clear. But you know how when you get a little piece of a puzzle, you have no idea what that is part of?

You're thinking that could be part of a car, and then by the time you get to filling some stuff out, you're like, oh, that's actually like part of a snout of a dog.

Didn't see that coming, right? But if you had known how to look at that piece or if you knew the end from the beginning, it would have been clear.

So Jesus is saying, look, it's all about me. And this prophecy here is saying, when this happens, when this

Messiah comes, he is going to seal up all that prophecy and all those visions.

He's going to cause it to be fulfilled. His name is going to be vindicated.

The word is going to be vindicated, validated, and confirmed. And of course, there's the presence of his glory.

He goes on and says, and to anoint the holy of holies. This is the inner sanctum of the temple that would be destroyed.

And there's a lot that could be said here about the temple and how Christ himself is the ultimate holy one, the dwelling place of God among men, as John 1, 14 says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as to the only begotten from the father, full of grace and truth.

What's important here is this word dwelt among us actually means tabernacled among us, which is where God's presence dwelled.

There's a famous part of the story where Jesus dies on the cross at Golgotha when he gave up his spirit.

The next thing that happened, it says what? It says what? The veil in the temple ripped, and there was an earthquake that split it.

Well, if you're not keyed in to what's being prophesied in the Old Testament and the story that's developed, specifically the redemptive historical movement, you don't know what's going on there.

That just sounds like, okay, cool. The temple had a rip, and there was an earthquake. Okay, I see what happened there. No, God has changed the way that we relate to God forever, to Jews first and to the

Greeks. Now we don't go to a place, we go to a person who's grace and truth, who has given us alienist righteousness, who has done away with sin and secured for us a relationship forever.

That's why Hebrews chapter 4 verse 16 says, Through Christ the veil separating man from God is torn.

We now have bold access, it says, to the throne of grace.

It says specifically this, Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that, purpose clause, we may receive mercy and find grace to help in a time of need.

What does that say? It's saying that the reason that Jesus came and was born in a manger was, yes, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, vindicating scripture, and to anoint the holy of holies, and in so doing, makes it to those of us who are sinners to be able to run to God as Father, to run to God at all with confidence, without fear.

You don't run to your Father, at least you shouldn't run to your Father in fear, but knowing that He is protecting, that He is loving, and that He is caring.

This is the access we have to God through Christ.

He's not distant, He's near. You draw near to God in Christ with confidence.

So as we close, do you see what

I'm saying? Christmas is not about a manger. It's not.

As wonderful as that picture is, and as needed as that picture is, it's about torn access granted.

It's about salvation. It's about now, us being reconciled.

When Jesus showed up, when He was born, when the incarnation happened, when Advent was over, and it was finally here, no more expecting.

Here, God had begun the in real life mission of the

Son of God to do away with that which separates us from Him.

So I'll say again, like I said at the beginning, Christmas is just, it is not just a season of sentimentality, but a celebration of God's sovereignty as it is deployed in the perfect work and life of Jesus Christ.

And that is why we say, along with the New Testament saints, glory to God in the highest.

Peace on earth, a moment. Peace with God, peace with others, and that's a beautiful, beautiful reality.

Knowing that one day, our truth will become everyone's truth. And what

I mean by that is, in Philippians chapter two, verse 10 and 11, it says, that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is

Lord through the glory of God. Jesus will get everyone, either willingly or being pressed to the dirt, recognizing.

But the sad reality is, those who are made, they do not get confident access to a father.

They get punishment. Praise be to God for those who trust in the

Lord Jesus Christ, who came as a babe in all humanity, and all