Adapted from a Daily Devotional, “Discovering Christ,” Donald Fortner, September 9 Today’s Reading: Daniel 9-10

2. In our previous
we saw how all Scripture point to Christ & Him
crucified. Remember Philip’s excitement?
NIV Philip found Nathanael and told
him, “We have found the one Moses wrote
about in the Law, and about whom the prophets
also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of
Joseph.”

3. Peter writes those who prophesied of the
coming Messiah searched for when & in what
conditions their prophecies would come to be.
Even the angels didn’t know!
They were longing & wanting some hint or
revelation as to when & how these prophecies
would come to pass.

4. NIV Concerning this salvation, the
prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come
to you, searched intently and with the greatest care,
trying to find out the time and circumstances to
which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when
he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the
glories that would follow. It was revealed to them
that they were not serving themselves but you, when
they spoke of the things that have now been told
you by those who have preached the gospel to you
by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels
long to look into these things.

5. In our previous sermon we learned Gabriel told
Daniel when Christ would appear.
NIV “Know and understand this:
From the time the word goes out to restore and
rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the
ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and
sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets
and a trench, but in times of trouble.

6. Gabriel assured Daniel of the coming of Christ
and of His great accomplishments as our Savior
at God’s appointed time.

7. NIV While I was speaking and
praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my
people Israel and making my request to the Lord
my God for his holy hill— while I was still in
prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier
vision, came to me in swift flight about the time
of the evening sacrifice. He instructed me
and said to me, “Daniel, I have now come to
give you insight and understanding.

8. As soon as you began to pray, a word went
out, which I have come to tell you, for you are
highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the word
and understand the vision: “Seventy ‘sevens’
are decreed for your people and your holy city
to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to
atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting
righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy
and to anoint the Most Holy Place.

9. By the accomplishment of these six great feats
of grace, the “Anointed One, the ruler” is
identified.
He who accomplished these things is the Christ,
the Son of God, our Savior.

10. 1st, Gabriel told Daniel that when the Christ
appeared, He would, by the sacrifice of Himself,
“finish transgression.”
That is precisely what our blessed Savior did
when our transgressions were laid on Him and
borne by Him, and He carried them all away in
the stream of His precious blood when He made
satisfaction for us.
They shall never be seen or brought up again!

11. 2nd, the Lord Jesus came here in our flesh to
“put an end to sin.”
Yes, our blessed Savior abolished the sins of
His people forever when He paid to the full the
price of our ransom, by the sacrifice of Himself!
He made an end of all the sins of all His
redeemed forever.

12. NIV But you know that he appeared
so that he might take away our sins. And in him
is no sin.
NIV Blessed are those whose
transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are
covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the
Lord will never count against them.”
( )

13. NIV “No misfortune is seen in
Jacob, no misery observed in Israel. The Lord
their God is with them; the shout of the King is
among them. God brought them out of Egypt;
they have the strength of a wild ox. There is
no divination against Jacob, no evil omens
against Israel. It will now be said of Jacob and
of Israel, ‘See what God has done!’

14. No charge can be brought against us.
No, the curse of the law cannot reach us.
No sentence of the law can be executed upon
us.
No punishment can be inflicted upon us.
We are entirely and completely saved from all
our sins and all the evil consequences of them
forever!

15. 3rd, the Son of God came into the world “to
atone for wickedness,” saving His people from
their sins by making blood atonement for it.
By His precious blood, by the sacrifice of
Himself, by His sufferings and death, the law
and justice of God were fully satisfied; full
reparation was made for the injury done by sin.

16. NIV Therefore, if anyone is in
Christ, the new creation has come: The old has
gone, the new is here! All this is from God,
who reconciled us to himself through Christ and
gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that
God was reconciling the world to himself in
Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.

17. And he has committed to us the message of
reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s
ambassadors, as though God were making his
appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s
behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him
who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him
we might become the righteousness of God.
For all our iniquities, our dear Savior has made
complete reconciliation!

18. 4th, our dear Savior came here “to bring in
everlasting righteousness” for His people,
righteousness by which He magnified the law
and made it honorable.
He brought in this perfect righteousness for us
by His perfect life of obedience to the law and
will of God as our Representative, even His
obedience unto death as our covenant Surety
and Substitute.

19. This is the righteousness He bestows upon His
redeemed, the righteousness we have received
by faith in Him, that everlasting righteousness
in which we stand and shall forever stand
before the holy Lord God in the perfection of
beauty!

20. This righteousness is a robe of righteousness
that will never wear out.
Its virtue to justify will continue forever.
It is perfect righteousness, the very
righteousness of God; and it is ours in Christ
Jesus!

21. 5th, by His obedience unto death and His
resurrection from the dead, our Lord Jesus
Christ “sealed up vision and prophecy.”
That is to say, He fulfilled it all — All the Law —
All the Prophets — All the Types — All the
Promises — All the Old Testament!
NIV

22. 6th, Christ came here “to anoint the Most Holy
Place.” Christ’s ransomed ones, God’s elect, His
Church (poor, ruined, wretched sinners like you
and me), are here called “the Most Holy.” —
Imagine that!
Washed in the blood of Christ, clothed with His
righteousness, and sanctified by His Spirit, we
are in union with the Lamb of God,
“the Most Holy!”

23. Consider this; the Most Holy Place in the
Temple was where God dwelt.
Where is God’s Temple & dwelling place today?
Is it not within each person who belongs to
Christ, Christians?

24. NIV Now it is God who makes
both us and you stand firm in Christ. He
anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us,
and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit,
guaranteeing what is to come.

25. The operation of God's Spirit is here seen under
three distinct figures: the anointing, the seal,
and the earnest. Prophets and priests and kings
were anointed for their office. They were
anointed with oil. We are anointed with the
spirit, as Christ, the anointed, was at His
baptism. This qualifies us for service. The seal
is the sign of possession. We belong to God.
The earnest is that small instalment of the spirit
which we have received, which is the pledge of
its fullness in the day of deliverance. (AEK)

26. NIV But you have an anointing from
the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.
NIV As for you, the anointing you
received from him remains in you, and you do
not need anyone to teach you. But as his
anointing teaches you about all things and as
that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it
has taught you, remain in him.

27. NIV Peter replied, “Repent and be
baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus
Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you
will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

28. NIV Or don’t you know that all of us
who were baptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized into his death? We were therefore
buried with him through baptism into death in
order that, just as Christ was raised from the
dead through the glory of the Father, we too
may live a new life. For if we have been united
with him in a death like his, we will certainly
also be united with him in a resurrection like
his.

29. Can anyone be found who accomplished all this
in the history of the world?
Search the world over!
Learn all that can be learned & you’ll find no one
except Jesus born of the virgin Mary in
Bethlehem.

30. “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your
people and your holy city to finish
transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for
wickedness, to bring in everlasting
righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy
and to anoint the Most Holy Place.