Confession
Made Continued
Daniel 9:8-19
March 13, 2022
“Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are
written for our admonition, upon whom
the ends of the world are come.”
(I Corinthians 10:11)
νουθεσίαν - nouthesian
- admonition; warning; literally putting
in mind.
Compare “In whom the god of this world
hath blinded the minds
of them which believe not, lest the light of the
glorious gospel of
Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them.”
(II Corinthians 4:4)
Start Daniel 9:8-19
What is sin?
The following is an
excerpt from:
SHUTTING, SEALING, AND COVERING; OR, MESSIAH’S
GLORIOUS WORK - Spurgeon Sermon - September 24, 1882
24 “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy
city, to finish the transgression, and to make
an end of sins, and to
make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring
in everlasting
righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy,
and to
anoint the most Holy.”
I. First,
Let us survey the Messiah’s work. According to the text it divides
itself into two grand works, which two works subdivide themselves
in each
case into three particulars.
The first work of our Lord Jesus Christ is the overthrow of evil, and it is
thus described,- “To finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins,
and to make reconciliation for iniquity.” But our Lord’s labor is not all
spent upon down-pulling work; He comes to build up, and His
second
work is the setting up of righteousness in the world, described again by
three sentences: “To bring in everlasting righteousness, and
to seal up the
vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.”
The first work of the Messiah is the overthrow of evil.
This overthrow of
evil is described by three words. If I were to give you a literal
translation
from the Hebrew I might read the passage thus:
According to learned men, those are the words which are
here used, and the three put
together are a singularly complete description of the putting away
of sin.
First, it is shut
up: it is, as it were, taken prisoner, and confined in a cell;
the door is fastened,
and it is held in durance: it is out of sight; held to a
narrow range; unable to
exercise the power it once possessed. In a
word, it
is
“restrained,”
so the margin of our Bibles reads it. The Hebrew word
signifies to hold back, to hold in, to arrest, to keep in prison, to
shut in or
shut up. Its dominion is finished, for sin itself is bound. Christ has led
captivity captive.
Men were looking out for the coming One; for the corn of
earth was ripe
for
the reaper. Men were on the tiptoe of expectation, and wondered when
the
promised Prince would arrive. Alas, they
knew Him not when He
appeared. After this fashion are things at the present moment with
regard
to the Second Advent
of our Lord Jesus Christ. “Of that day and of that
hour knoweth no man;” but it is known unto God, and fixed in the roll of
His eternal purposes. “Known unto God
are all his works from the creation
of the
world,” and especially those grand works which concern the person
of our
adorable Lord Jesus. He shall come as
God hath appointed: the
vision of His glory shall not tarry. He has given us suggestive
hints as to
that glorious appearing; and He has plainly taught us to be looking for and
listening unto the day of the Lord.
(I encourage you to go back and review
last
week’s lesson on the website - # 1e - Future Seen II -
and read the Scripture
references on the Second Coming which I did not get around to,
starting after
the
line drawn across the middle of the page - CY - 2022) Among His last
words are these, “Surely I come quickly”: these are
words of consolation as well
of
warning.
He bids us watch constantly for the coming of the Lord, that it overtake
us
not as a thief in the night; and He assures us that He will descend from heaven
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God:
wherefore comfort one another with the glad tidings, and whenever
your
hearts sicken because of abounding sin, hear ye with the ear of
faith the voice of
promise crying, “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh.” Rest assured
that He cometh who will in the fullest and most manifest sense finish
transgression, and make an end of sin, and bring in everlasting
righteousness. The advent of the Well-beloved is the consolation of His
mourning saints. Both at His first and second appearings
the Lord not only
cometh to drive away the wicked as chaff, but also to comfort and
exalt
His elect: it is a day that shall burn as an oven, and yet
to the redeemed it
will be the gladdest day that ever dawned.
_____________________________________________________________________-
But it is not enough to shut up the vanquished tyrant,
unless he be shut up
forever; and therefore, lest there should be any possibility of
his breaking
loose again, the next sentence is, “To seal up.”
Yet, as if this might not suffice, the next term in the
Hebrew is to cover up;
for
the word to make reconciliation or expiation is usually in the Hebrew to
cover over. “Blessed is the
man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin
is covered.” Christ has come
to cover sin, to atone for it, and so to hide it.
His glorious merits and substitutionary
sufferings and death put away sin
so
completely that God Himself beholds it no more. He has blotted it out,
cast it into the sea, and removed it from us as far as the
east is from the
west. The two former
sentences speak of finishing transgression and
making an end of sin, and these expressions are full and
complete, while
this third one explains the means by which the work is done, namely, by an
expiation which covers up
every trace of sin. Thus in the three
together we
have a picture of THE UTTER EXTINCTION OF SIN BOTH AS TO ITS
GUILT AND ITS
POWER, AY, AND ITS VERY EXISTENCE! It is put
into the dungeon and the door is shut upon it; after this the door is sealed
and
then it is covered up, so that the place of sin’s sepulcher cannot be seen
anymore forever. Sin was aforetime in God’s sight, but through
Christ Jesus we read,
“Thou has forgiven the
iniquity of thy people; thou has covered all their sin;
thou hast taken away all thy wrath.”. Sin was always breaking loose till Jesus
sealed it up, and now it cannot come forth to lay any accusation
against the justified.
The three words might be put into one word by saying Christ has made
a
clean sweep of sin of
every kind. Whatever may be its special development,
whether it be transgression, which means the breaking of bounds,
or sin,
which is any want of conformity to the law, or iniquity-that is
to say, inequity,
or
the want of equity, a default in righteousness; in all forms in
which it can be described Christ has shut it up, sealed it up, and
covered it
up by His atoning
sacrifice once for all. The depths have
covered it; if it be
searched for, it cannot be found; our blessed Scapegoat has carried
it away
into the land of forgetfulness; it shall not be mentioned against us anymore
forever. Those three words contain infinitely more of meaning than I
have
either space or ability
to set forth.
Observe, dear friends, that the
terms for sin are left in an absolute form. It
is
said, “to finish transgression,” “to make an end of sins,” “to make
reconciliation for iniquity.” Whose
transgression is this? Whose sins are
these? Whose iniquity is it? It is not said. There is no word
employed to set
out
the persons for whom atonement is made, as is done in verses like
these- “Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it”; “I lay
down my
life for the sheep.” The mass of evil is left unlabeled, that any penitent
sinner may look to the
Messiah and find in Him the remover of sin.
What
transgression is finished? Transgression of every
kind. But what sins are
made an end of? Sins of every sort-against law and against gospel, against
God and against men, sins past, sins
present, sins to come. And what
iniquity is expiated?
Every form of iniquity, whatever falls short by
omission, whatever goes
beyond by commission. Christ in this
passage is
spoken of in general
terms as removing sins, transgressions, and iniquities
IN THE MASS. In other places we
read of the objects of His substitution but
here all is left indefinite to encourage all. He gives us no catalogue of
offenses; for where should He write it? The very heavens could not
hold
the
enumeration; but He just takes the whole, unformed, horrible, black,
disgusting mass, and this
is what He does with it-He encloses it, fastens it
up, and buries it
forever. In the words of our version He finishes it,
makes
an end of it, and
makes expiation for it. The Messiah came
to wipe out and
utterly destroy sin, and this is, and will be, the effect of His
work. Put all
the
three sentences into one and this is the sum of them.
As some understand it, our Lord came that in His death
transgression might reach its highest development, and sign its own
condemnation. Sin reached its finish, its ultimatum, its climax, in the
murder of the Son of God. It could not proceed further: the course of
malice could no further go. They had stoned the prophets and
killed
everyone that was sent unto them; but now He came, and God said, “They
will reverence my
Son,” but they did not; on the other hand,
they cried,
“This is the heir; let us kill Him, and the inheritance shall
be ours.” Sin
finished itself when it brought forth the death of the Son of God.
It could
produce no riper fruit, for no supposable crime can exceed the
putting to
death of Jesus our Lord. Now hath sin finished itself, and now
hath Jesus
come to finish it. “Thus far,” saith He, “thou shalt go, but no further: here
in
my wounds and death shall thy proud waves be stayed.” Sin virtually
committed suicide when it slew the Savior, for His death became its
death.
The kingdom of sin was overthrown in that day when it smote
the Prince
of
Peace: then was a period put to the dominion of evil; and, to come back
to
the Hebrew, the Lord restrained
transgression, and Satan was bound
with a great chain. “
Now take the second sentence, which in our version is, “To
make an end
of
sin.” Messiah has come to proclaim so free, so rich, so gracious a
pardon to the sons of men that when they receive it sin virtually
ceases to
be:
it is made an end of. The man that is in Christ, and hath Christ for his
covenant Head, is this day so delivered from all sin whatsoever,
that he
may
boldly ask the question, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of
God’s elect?” If Christ has made an end of sin there is an end of it:
the
matter is ended, and
no more is to be said. Down among the dead
men let
sin
lie, forever buried by the right hand of the conquering Savior.
But now, the last expression is in English, He hath come
“to make
reconciliation for iniquity”; that is, to end
the strife between God and man
by
a glorious reconciliation, a making again of peace between these twain;
so
that God loveth man, and, as a consequence, man loveth God. In the
blessed atonement of Christ, God and man meet at a chosen
meeting-place.
Christ is Jehovah’s darling and our delight. A slain Savior
is well pleasing
to
God, and oh, how pleasing He is to a sinner who is deeply under a sense
of
sin! Here,
here is that mercy-seat sprinkled with blood where man may
speak to God without
fear, and
where God doth speak to man without
wrath. Here
righteousness and peace have met together; mercy and truth
have kissed each other.
Now, take the Hebrew for it, and read the sentence thus, to cover iniquity.
Oh, what bliss this is: to think, dear friends, that sin is
now once for all
covered! Not as though it lay rankling there beneath some coverlet
through
which fire might burn, or lightning strike; but Christ’s
covering is such that,
if
you could heap hell over sin, it were not so hidden; and if you could pile
worlds upon it, were not so concealed; and if all heaven bowed to
overlay
it,
it were not so out of sight as when Jesus buried it deeper than the lowest
depths, where no
memory can remember it, or mind perceive it.
This is what is to be done with the whole kingdom of evil,
as well with the
power of it as with the guilt of it. As when the darkness flies before
the sun, not a
trace of its blackness is left, so is sin to be destroyed utterly
from the redeemed of
the Lord. It is not merely the guilt of
sin that is shut
up
and sealed and covered, but sin itself, its power, its dominion, its
habit,
its
defilement, the dread that comes of it, and the fear and the burning of
heart which it engenders.
All the foul birds of sin’s filthy cage must fly
away, never to return.
I invite you now for a few minutes to consider the second
work, namely, the setting
up
of righteousness. This is set before us in three expressions: first, in the
words
“to bring in everlasting
righteousness.” And what is that? Why, His own
righteousness which is from
everlasting to everlasting, and will never be
taken way from those
who have it, and will never cease to be their beauty
and their glorious
Jesus. The work of Christ in His life and death is
by God
imputed to His people:
indeed, it is theirs because they are one with Christ.
He is the Lord their righteousness, and they are the
righteousness of God
in
Him. Saints are so righteous in Jesus Christ that they are more righteous
than Adam was before he fell, for he had but a creature righteousness, and
they have the righteousness of the Creator: he had a righteousness which
he
lost, but believers have a righteousness
which they can never lose, an
everlasting righteousness. Nor is that all the meaning of our text: those to
whom God imputes righteousness, to them also He imparts righteousness.
He makes them pure in heart, He changes their desires, He makes them
love that which is
right and just and good, and so He gives them grace to
lead godly, sober,
honest, and holy lives. This righteousness
shall not be
crushed out of them, for the work of the Spirit shall continue
until they
shall become perfect, and be meet to dwell with God in light.
(Psalm 138:*) Happy
are those spirits
to whom Christ gives an everlasting righteousness, for theirs is
the kingdom and in
it they shall shine forth as the sun. They
are right and
they shall be right; they are true and they shall never degenerate into
falsehood; they are God’s own children and they shall go on to
develop the
image of Christ, their elder brother, till they shall be without
spot or
wrinkle or any such thing. THIS CHRIST CAME TO DO! He imputes and
imparts
righteousness, and thus brings in everlasting righteousness as the
foundation of His
kingdom.
Next, in order to the setting up of a kingdom of
righteousness He is come
that He may “seal up vision and prophecy.” That is, by fulfilling all the
visions and the prophecies of the Old Testament in Himself, He
ends both
prophecy and vision. He seals up visions and prophecies so that
they shall
no
more be seen or spoken; they are closed, and no man can add to them;
and
therefore-and that is the point to note-THE
GOSPEL IS FOR EVER
SETTLED TO REMAIN
ETERNALLY THE SAME! Christ has set up a
kingdom that shall never be moved. His truth can never be changed
by any novel
revelation. This, then, is an
essential part of the setting up of that
which is good-namely, TO SETTLE
whereon
we may stand steadfast, immovable. The candles are snuffed out because
the
day itself looks out from the windows of heaven. Rejoice in this, beloved. God
makes you righteous in
Christ and with Christ, and in order that you shall
never be perplexed with
change, He sets aside all other teachers, THAT
CHRIST MAY BE YOUR ALL IN ALL!
This is Christ’s
work, for which He came, and for which
He ascended on
high, to set up the truth, to set up righteousness, and to
make it
everlasting by the dwelling of the Holy
Ghost in the
in the midst of
the sons of men.
Heaven rings
with the praises of the Messiah who came to destroy the work
of sin, and to set
up the kingdom of righteousness in the midst of the world.
Furthermore, are the prophecies and visions sealed up as to
you? Are they
fulfilled in you? When God declares that He will wash us and make us
whiter than snow, is it so with you? When He declares that He
will cleanse
our
blood, which has not yet been cleansed, is it so with you? When He
says, “A new heart also will I give them, and a right spirit will I put
within
them: and I will write my law upon their hearts”; is it so with you?
Nor is this all: are you anointed to be most holy to the
Lord?
Are you set apart that you may serve Him? Has the
Holy Spirit come upon you,
giving you a desire to do good? Have you a wish to rescue the
perishing, a
longing to bring the wandering sheep back to the great Shepherd’s
fold? Is
the
Spirit of God so upon you today that you can truly say, “I am not my
own;
I am bought with a price?” Jesus, the Messiah, came to do all these
things, and if He has not
done them to you, then He has not come to you;
you are still a
stranger, still far off from Him. Oh, may
the Lord make you
desperately unhappy till you come to Jesus: may you never know what
quiet means till you find it at the pierced feet! From this hour
may you
breathe sighs, and may every pulse be a new agony of spirit, till
at last you
can
say, “Yes, the Messiah was cut off, and cut off for me, and all that He
came to do He did for me, and I am a sharer and a partaker in it all.”
Concerning
security. How can that man be lost whose
transgression is finished, and whose sin has ceased to be? What is there
for
him
to dread on earth, in heaven, or in hell? If Christ has put away my sin, I
cannot die; if Christ has washed away my guilt, I cannot be
condemned; I
am
safe, and may triumphantly sing
And now, inasmuch as you are secure, you are also reconciled to God, and
made to delight in Him. God is your friend and you are one of the friends
of
God. Rejoice in that hallowed friendship, and live in the assurance of it.
And now, inasmuch as you are secure, you are also
reconciled to God, and
made to delight in Him. God is your friend and you are one of the friends
of
God. Rejoice in that hallowed friendship, and live in the assurance of it.
Now you have the anointing, do not doubt it. Christ has
made it yours by
His death. The Spirit of the Lord resteth
upon you; you are fit for service;
set
about it without further question. The anointing is upon you; you are
most holy to the Lord; so let your life be wholly consecrated. God dwelleth
in
you, and you in God. Oh, blessed
consequences, you shall soon dwell
with Him
forever!
But now suppose when I put the question you had to shake
your head and
say,
“No, it is not so with me.” Then hear these few sentences. If the
Messiah has not done this for you, then
your sin will be finished in another
way-sin, when it is finished, bringeth
forth death. An awful death awaits
you-death unto God, and purity and joy.
If Christ has never made an end of your sin, then mark
this, your sin will soon
make an end of you, and all your hopes, your pleasure, your boasting, your
peace
will perish. Oh, terrible end of all that is hopeful within you. You shall
be a
desolation forever and forever.
Has not Christ reconciled you? Then mark this, your enmity
will increase.
There is no peace between God and you now, but soon will
the war begin
in
which He must conquer, and you, never yielding, will continue forever
more to hate God, and to find in that hate your utmost torment, your
fiercest hell. Have you never had the righteousness of Christ
brought in?
Then mark this, your unrighteousness will last forever. One
of these days
God will say, “He that is unholy, let him be unholy still:
he that is filthy, let
him
be filthy still.” That will be the most awful thing that can ever happen
to
you.
Where death finds
you, there judgment shall find you, and there eternity shall
leave you. Oh,
wretched soul, to have nothing to do with the everlasting
righteousness of Christ!
Lastly, will you never be anointed to be most holy? Then
remember,
holiness and you will stand at a
distance forever, and to be far off
from
holiness must necessarily be to be far off from heaven and
happiness.
Sin is misery; in
it lies both the root and the fruit of ETERNAL WOE!
Purity is paradise: to be right with God is to be right
with yourself and all created
things; but if ye will not be holy, then must ye by force of your
own choice
be
forever tossed about upon the restless sea of wretchedness. God save
you, brothers and sisters; God save you for Christ’s sake.
Amen
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