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Watch 2022-2023 online sermons » Doug Batchelor » Doug Batchelor - Cleansing the Sanctuary - Part 1

Doug Batchelor - Cleansing the Sanctuary - Part 1


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TOPICS: Book of Daniel, Bible Prophecy

Tonight's presentation is going to be one that I'm actually combining a couple of studies into one presentation dealing with the subject of the longest time prophecy and the sanctuary. The lesson today is lesson #11, dealing with the subject of cleansing the sanctuary. Now, we're going to go into question #1 and I've got a lot to cover, so you pray for me, I'll pray for you because I'm going to talk fast. I'll pray you can listen fast. This is a very important study.

Alright, question #1, we're going to, this is based on a prophecy in Daniel chapter 8 and it tells us, matter of fact, open your Bibles. We really need to look. If you've got your Bibles with you open your Bibles to Daniel 8. You need to at least introduce this before we dive into the question. Daniel 8, verse 1, "In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, (to me, Daniel), after the one that appeared to me the first time. I saw in the vision, and it so happened while I was looking, that I was in Shushan, the citadel, which is in the province of Elam: and I saw in the vision that I was by the river Ulai. Then I lifted my eyes and saw, and there, standing beside the river, was a ram which had two horns", now he starts to have this vision, he's above the river and he sees this ram and he's wondering 'what does this mean'? And then later there's a goat.

If you read the previous chapter, he says, 'i was in vision and I saw a lion, then I saw a bear, then I saw a leopard'. And while he's wondering what these things mean, the angel comes and explains that these animals represent different kingdoms and empires that will have some dominating influence over God's people during their reign. He foretells the history. You know, in Daniel 2, you remember we studied that? He gave a panorama of the world's history and their kingdoms through that giant metal image. God often repeats these things and uses different parables and dreams to give perspective.

So now in Daniel 8, let's go into this. First he sees a ram by the river, two horns, and one of them was higher than the other "And the higher one came up last. I saw the ram pushing westward, northward, and southward, so that no animal could withstand him: nor was there any that could deliver from his hand, but he did according to his will and became great. And as I was considering, suddenly a male goat came from the west, across the surface of the whole earth, without touching the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes", one notable horn, "Then he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing beside the river, and ran at him with furious power. And I saw him confronting the ram: he was moved with rage against him, attacked the ram, and broke his two horns. There was no power in the ram to withstand him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled him: and there was no one that could deliver the ram from his hand. Therefore the male goat grew very great: but when he became strong, the large horn was broken, and in place of it four notable ones came up toward the four winds of heaven".

Alright, we've got to pause there. We'll come back to this chapter, but I just wanted to read it right from the Bible and now we're going to go in and interpret/study what does this dream mean. Alright, question #1: Daniel has this amazing vision, chapter 8, in which he sees a ram with two horns. Whom does this ram represent? Later in the chapter the angel comes to Daniel and tells him, you can read in verse 20, "The ram which you saw, having the two horns, they are the kings of media and Persia". Later it says one was, one of those horns was bigger than the other, it started out with the median one, but then the Persian kingdom became greater. Later, that empire was just called the Persian empire because of that other horn. Now this should also be remembered that if you're a Jew, what do they do going through the wilderness? What was their occupation? Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David? Shepherds. They were very familiar with sheeps and goats. Jesus compared the judgment to sheep and goats and so here, with these two creatures, he illustrates these two great empires.

Alright, we're going to jump right to question #2. Next Daniel saw the goat with a great horn between his eyes. What does this mean? That's talking about this goat is representing the next king and he attacks the ram. It says he comes from the west. This is the kingdom of Greece coming from the west. It says he comes very quickly, very fiercely, there is no historian that will deny that among the empires, ancient empires, nobody did it quicker than Alexander the Great. He was 32 when he died. From the time he was 19 until about 24 he was conquering the world. Very rapid, his soldiers marched faster and farther than just about anybody else. And so there's this battle between the two and the goat destroys the ram. Alexander defeated Darius and he conquered the Persian empire and overtook their territory.

Daniel 8, verse 21 and 22, "The rough goat", the angel tells us, do we have to guess what it is? "The rough goat is the king of (Greece) Grecia:", is how they said it in the King James, "And the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king". Now this is exactly what happened with Alexander the Great. It says he came from the west, that's where he came from, when you're going to fight Persia, and he did it with ferocity. He did it with great speed. In the prior chapter, chapter 7 of Daniel, Greece is compared to a leopard with four wings because his feet didn't even touch the ground. He went so quickly with his conquering. Considering they did not have mechanized armies back then, no army moved faster in history than Alexander the Great's army. It was just incredible. And then it says that at the height of its power, in its prime, the horn, the main, principle horn is broken off. It doesn't wear down, it snaps. Alexander died suddenly.

Though he could conquer the world, he didn't do very well conquering himself. And they're still not sure. They don't, it was after a night of pretty rowdy drinking he fell ill. They don't know if someone tried to poison him. They're still not sure and we may never know until heaven what exactly happened. They don't know if it was malaria. It was a fever. They don't know if it was alcohol poisoning, but very young he died. And on his death bed, I think I told you, his wife asked him 'who will rule in your place'? And he said, 'the strongest'. And that's what happened. It says out of the place of that, you can read here in this next section, "Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation". The four principle generals of Alexander the Great then divided his empire among them into four regions. And then they eventually began to fight among themselves. But the kingdom of Greece then lasted longer even than the kingdom of Persia.

Question #3: then, as you read on it says out of one of those four horns a little horn begins to sprout and it ends up becoming a very big power. What power did this little horn represent? You can see the fulfillment of this during the time of Christ. What empire followed the Greek empire? Rome. Acts 2, 18:2, rather, "...Claudius (Caesar) had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome". He had control over the whole empire and at that point he was suspicious of the Jews and told them they had to leave. So you've got this goat, just to review, and the principle power is Alexander the Great. It's broken off and, from it, four come up, four other horns, four divisions, four generals of Alexander the Great and one little horn begins to come up from among these. But now there's something different about this power. This power is one we want to notice because you read on, it grows into what we later know as the antichrist power.

You read in Daniel 7, verse 8, "...In the horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things". There's something different about it. Later it says it's guilty of blasphemy, pompous words. And it talks about this also in revelation chapter 17, what this power does. Daniel chapter 7, verse 24 "He is diverse, or different from, the first". The first kingdoms that we saw, whether it's Babylon, or Medo-Persia, and Greece, they were your typical monarchies led by a government. But what happened with Rome, Rome not only was the iron monarchy, as the Roman Empire led by Caesars began to fall, in its place, the Roman power was substituted with a religious power. Gradually, as the Roman power began to crumble, the Christian church grew. But it didn't just stay a religion, it became a political religious power as well. You know what I'm talking about.

Question #4: Daniel was told that this little horn would defile the sanctuary. How long would it be until the sanctuary was cleansed? Now we're going to get into the longest time prophecy in the Bible. And you read in Daniel 8, verse 14, "Unto", say it with me, "Two thousand and three hundred days: then shall the sanctuary be cleansed". Now go, go back to your Bibles for a second. If you look in Daniel chapter 8 and if we read down here, verse 12, "Because of transgression, an army was given over to the horn to oppose the daily sacrifices: and he cast truth down to the ground. He did all this and prospered".

So what's happening is the truth of God and the truth of the Bible and the truth of Jesus during this time becomes compromised and yet it prospers. Well, I'm going to give you a little quick history. I won't diverge on this, but I think most of us know that, during this period of time, you know, about three or four hundred years after Christ, originally Christians were persecuted in Rome. They fed them to the lions, right? I used to wonder as a kid. I'd hear how they burned Christians at the stake and they fed them to the lions, you know, they made jokes about that all the time. And then, all of a sudden, Rome becomes the center of Christianity.

And you go, 'what happened? I thought that they weren't allowed there', and then all of a sudden it becomes headquarters. Something obviously changed, right? And really, what happened was, with the conversion of Constantine, I'll say more about this later, what was once considered religio-illicita, forbidden religion, was persecuted, outlawed, they were killed. They built catacombs. They went underground, it suddenly became the state religion and it almost overnight became fashionable, with the conversion of Constantine, to become a Christian. But what happened is a lot of people started coming into the church from the different greco-Roman religions that weren't totally converted, didn't even know the teachings of Jesus, and they tried to bring some of their pagan ideas with them.

We studied the other night about the truth about hell, that people do not go right at death to, before judgment or resurrection, a place of burning where they burn through all eternity. Did we, we learned there is a lake of fire, there is a punishment, but there's misunderstanding that came in from Greek mythology, right? Cast the truth to the ground in practice. The idea of purgatory, this halfway burning place, we found out that that's been renounced. It's not biblical. There's nothing in the Bible about that. The idea that the dead go immediately to heaven as soon as they die and then they come back for their bodies or they're in Abraham's bosom waiting. We found out that's not in the Bible and a lot of other things, the truth was cast to the ground. The idea that you don't need to keep the Ten Commandments anymore because once you believe in Jesus you can somehow ignore his law, that's another one of the truths that was cast to the ground. All kinds of things began to get corrupted during this time. So, when would there be a cleansing of the sanctuary?

Alright, question #5: how did Daniel respond when he saw this little horn power persecute God's people and obscure the truth? When Daniel was getting this information about this vision from the angel, he just, he sees what's happening to his own people and he's heartbroken. And it says in Daniel 8:27, "And i, Daniel, fainted and was sick for days:", he's an older man now, you know, he came to Babylon probably 15, 16 years old, seventy years have gone by. He's in his 80s, maybe even longer, and he has this very heavy vision of God's people being persecuted by this antichrist power and it, he actually swoons, practically. He's sick and he can't understand it and the angel knows he's going to have to come back and finish explaining this prophecy. It's finished in Daniel chapter 9.

Now you can understand, Daniel is a young man. Before he is carried off captive to Babylon, the most beautiful building in the world was not the Taj Mahal back then, it was not even the hanging gardens. The most beautiful building in the world was a multi-billion dollar building built by David, who gathered the money and his son Solomon did the construction. It had golden rooms. It had bronze pillars bigger than any in the world. They even named them, two pillars they were so big, and Daniel grew up as a boy seeing this majestic temple. It was one of the wonders of the world. But he lived long enough to know that it was destroyed. He watched, Daniel watched as his people were conquered. The city was destroyed, Jerusalem, the place that God had chosen, David had ruled. They were scattered as slaves, many were slain, and the yearning of Daniel's heart for the seventy years he was in Babylon: 'When will the Messiah come? When will the son of David come? When will we get to go back to Jerusalem'? At the beginning of Daniel 9 it actually says Daniel is reading the Bible.

Now he didn't have the same Bible we have, but he had the prophecies of Jeremiah, Isaiah, David, all the prior prophets. Daniel is reading the prophecy of Jeremiah, he tells you in chapter 9, and he realizes there Jeremiah says seventy years and God's people will come back and Daniel says, 'Lord, seventy years is up. The king of Persia is now here. When are we going home'? While he's praying, the angel Gabriel comes to him and he says, 'Daniel, I've come to give you understanding in the vision'. And here, here you have that. He says, "At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you", so angel, the angel Gabriel has come to explain the vision. What vision? The one he started having in chapter 8 but he fainted. So this is the one that's actually introducing the coming of the Messiah, the first coming of Jesus.

Question #6: in the next chapter the angel explains the prophecy in greater detail. How long was the time period not previously described in the vision? Now get your Bibles, turn with me to Daniel 9:23. "At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved:", why angels are fast. At the beginning of Daniel's prayer, Gabriel is sent. Angel's don't travel the speed of sound or the speed of light, they travel the speed of angels, the speed of thought, anyway, they're going fast. He's going through the cosmos, "At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved: therefore consider the matter and understand the vision".

Now there's no vision in chapter 9 so what vision is the angel talking about? The one in chapter 8 he didn't get to finish explaining because Daniel fainted, right? "Seventy weeks", here we go, verse 24, Daniel 9:24, "Seventy weeks are determined for your people", who are Daniel's people? Jewish nation, "Seventy weeks", the word determined there means 'cut off' or 'allotted' or 'remain', "For your people", for what? To introduce the Messiah to the world, "For your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins", the final sacrifice for sin would be offered, "To make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness", that's Christ who brings that everlasting righteousness, "To seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy".

You know what the word Christ means? Anointed. You know what the word Messiah means? It's Hebrew for anointed. When the prophet Samuel poured oil on David's head, he was anointed with oil, Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit. He was the anointed of God when God became a man, okay? So he said seventy weeks are determined for all these things to be accomplished. Know and understand. Now here's the starting point for all these prophecies, verse 25, "Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks:" that's a total of 69, "The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times".

That's what happened during the time of Nehemiah. They rebuilt the street and the wall during troublous times. "And after the sixty-two 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 a flood, and till the end of the war desolations are determined". Jesus talks about the abomination that makes desolate. "Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week:", now the 'he' that confirms the covenant, there's two people here, one you've got Messiah the prince coming, the other you've got a prince that comes to destroy. 27, he's going back to the Messiah the prince. He will "Confirm a covenant with many for one week: but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abomination shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate".

So we need to understand this. Jesus said, in Matthew 24, second coming, Jesus talks about the abomination of desolation. He says 'written of by Daniel the prophet. Whoever reads, let him understand'. Jesus is telling you and me tonight, 'i want you to read and understand this'. Okay? So this is the prophecies he was referring to in Matthew 24 that he says we should understand. Alright, we just read it. Now let's go back to our screen here. In the next chapter, chapter 9, the angel explains that the prophecy, from chapter 8, in greater detail. How long was the time period not previously described in the vision? You can read that in Daniel 9:24. He says, how much? "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon the holy city to seal up the vision and the prophecy".

Now how many days in a week? Seven it's always been that way. How many days is seventy weeks then? Seven times seven is? Forty-nine? That is four hundred and ninety, right? But in prophecy a day equals a year. I'll show you some scriptures on that in just a minute. So God is telling Daniel there are four hundred and ninety prophetic years that are going to be allotted to your people to fulfill their main vision, the main mission of the Jews was to introduce the Messiah. God said to Abraham, through your seed all the world would be blessed. How is the whole world blessed through his seed? Principally through Jesus, right?

Alright, so question #7: what is the starting point for the 2,300-day and seventy -week time prophecies? He tells you right there in Daniel chapter 9, verse 25, "Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the prince", from this point to this point, "There shall be seven weeks and three-score and two weeks", three score and two is sixty-two, right? A score is twenty. Sixty-two plus seven is how much? Sixty-nine. So you've got one week missing. He tells us what happens in the midst of that last week, he makes the sacrifice cease. So he breaks it up like that because there's the first seven weeks. They're building the wall and the street. Then you've got another sixty-nine weeks and at the end of that sixty-nine week period it says that the Messiah is going to be anointed and begin his ministry.

So until Messiah the prince, seven weeks, three score and two weeks. The starting point is from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem. Can we know, from all the dusty, musty records of history, when did that happen? Good news. It's given in your Bible. It's in Ezra 7:7. You can remember that. Good number. Ezra 7:7, the decree of king Artaxerxes, that king gave a decree that allowed them to go back. It was the most prominent variety of decrees that came saying that they could rebuild the city and the walls and the temple and that is 457 B.C. it is a very clearly established date in history. So you've got the starting point, 457, and he says now it'll be sixty-nine weeks until the Messiah begins his ministry.

First there'd be the seven weeks, forty-nine years while they're building the street and the wall in troublous times, then there'd be another sixty-two weeks, a total of sixty-nine, right? Now when you're interpreting Bible prophecy, what is the principle that you're supposed to use? A day equals a year. You can read this, there's several verses in Ezekiel 4:6, "I have appointed thee each day for a year". You can read numbers 14:34 "Each day for a year", even Jesus established this. One time they came to Christ, I think it's Luke 13 and they said, 'you better be careful, Jesus, John the Baptist has been arrested'. This was about six months into Jesus' ministry and Jesus said, "Go tell that fox I teach, do cures, cast out devils today, tomorrow, and the third day I will be perfected", or completed.

Jesus didn't teach three more days: he taught three more years. But he made a prophecy and he used the day for a year principle. So when you interpret these prophecies, that's the only way it even comes close to adding up. So now did it happen? If you go, a day equals a year in prophecy, if you go 483 years from 457 B.C. it comes to the baptism of Jesus in 27 A.D. when I was up in the cave and I read this, I was so excited when I realized how true prophecy is, I literally got up, I couldn't sit down anymore because I was so excited. I'm all by myself and I just started jumping up and down and praising God.

I said, 'wow, Christ came right on time the first time just like he said he would. Why don't more people believe the Bible'? So we've got a couple of charts here that we're going to put up just to review what we're looking at. First we know, from 457, you've got sixty-nine weeks, that would go 483 years to the point of his baptism. That would be 27 A.D. And it happened right on time. And then it tells us, "After three score and two weeks shall Messiah be", what? "Cut off. But not for himself". Who was he cut off for? For you, for me, he was cut off from the land of the living. Jesus laid down his life. In his prime he died for us.
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