Weekly Bible Study – August 1, 2016

The prophecy of Daniel 9.
The Purpose of the Seventy Sevens or the 490 years in Dan 9:24.

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Prepare yourself for learning the Word of God!

Before we begin, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ (that is; you have believed [trusted] in Him for His promised gift of eternal life), it is important to prepare yourself to learn God's Word so take a moment to name, cite or acknowledge (confess) your sins privately to God (i.e.; with your thoughts directed only to God the Father).

1 John 1:9 says: "If we confess our sins, He (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins (known sins) and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness [unknown or forgotten sins]." NKJV (New King James Version) [italics added]; we call this REBOUND, read the full doctrine as to “why” we need to use 1 John 1:9 to grow spiritually. REBOUND

If you have never personally believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior (that is, believed in Him for eternal life), the issue for you is not to name your sins; the issue for you is to have faith alone in Jesus Christ alone for eternal life:

John 6:47 says: "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me (Jesus Christ) has everlasting life." NKJV [italics added]

Notice again what Jesus said in John 6:47: "…he who believes in Me (Jesus Christ) has everlasting life." It doesn't say, "will have"; it says, "has." Therefore, the very moment you believe in Jesus Christ for His promise of everlasting life, you have it (it's really just that simple; nothing more and nothing less), and it can never be taken away from you (John 10:28-29). Furthermore, the gift (Ephesians 2:8c) of everlasting life (also called eternal life in scripture) is available to every human being; there are absolutely no exceptions.

John 3:14-18 says: "¹⁴ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. ¹⁸ He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." NKJV

Let us now bow our hearts and take a moment to prepare for worship and learning God's Word. If there is any known sin in your life, this is the time to just cite it privately to God the Father with your thoughts directed towards Him. With your head bowed and your eyes closed, you have total privacy in your mind and soul:

Study to show yourself approved to God!

Grace Bible Church
Robert R. McLaughlin Bible Ministries

The Tree of Life is a weekly teaching summary:
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STUDY TITLE:

The prophecy of Daniel 9.
The Purpose of the Seventy Sevens or the 490 years in Dan 9:24.


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Terms & Abbreviations used:

PPOG = Predesigned Plan of God
Human Good = Evil + Good Deeds while not in fellowship with God
Old Sin Nature = Old Sin Nature
TLJC = The Lord Jesus Christ
SSE = Spiritual Self Esteem
PVTD = Positive Volition Towards Doctrine [Bible Truth]
+H - The Happiness of God
NVTD = Negative Volition Towards Doctrine
Doctrine = Bible Truth

To look up other “terms”, go to:

Alphabetical Listing

BEGIN BIBLE STUDY
Unless otherwise noted, scripture quotes and references are from the NASB – New American Standard Bible. However, a few may be corrected translations of the original language.

The prophecy of Daniel 9.
The Purpose of the Seventy Sevens or the 490 years in Dan 9:24.

This section lists six specific things that the Jews or Israel should understand and look forward to. Three of them have negative connotations, three of them have positive connotations.

1. As we have now noted in some detail is the principle found in the phrase in Da 9:24, to make an end of sin which means to bring one major sin to its completion, which is the sin of unbelief.

2. In the phrase in Da 9:24, “to finish the transgression which not only refers to the payment for sin but also deals with the entire OSN, including the good that it produces. This second point of the prophecy not only talks about the payment for sin, but it also talks about what our Lord did about human good as well. You must remember that when our Lord fulfilled the prophecy in Da 9:24-27, He also dealt with our problem concerning human good as well, which most believers have no idea about. You see, most believers do not believe Ps 39:5b (KJV) Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.

Ps 62:9, Men of low degree are only vanity, and men of rank are a lie; In the balances they go up; They are together lighter than breath.

Ps 144:4, Man is like a mere breath; His days are like a passing shadow.

The production of human good is really more of a serious problem then what the average believer really understands. Because of passages like Mt 6:23, “If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness.” What does that mean? It means that a lot of believers who do a lot of good things do not realize that they are living in the darkness of producing human good. For example, you will recall what our Lord said to some unbelievers.

Mt 7:13-21, “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it. Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit; but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in Heaven.”

By the way, what is the will of His Father?

Jn 6:40, “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life;”

Mt 7:22-23, “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.”

Lawlessness is the noun anomos (an’-om-os); which means against the Jewish law; wicked; transgressor. Sometimes the word can also refer to the production of human good. Remember passages like Ro 8:8, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. In other words, a second part of the prophecy in Da 9:24 that our Lord would fulfill would be to reveal the fact that God the Father, the author of the divine plan, would reject human good or the good deeds man could perform without help from the character and nature of God.

So far then the first two points that we see concerning the prophecy is this:
The first part of the prophecy deals with the sin of unbelief.

The second part of the prophecy deals with our Lord dealing with the entire OSN and all of the transgressions of the human race including the production of human good which is also called transgressions or evil. Therefore, with this in mind let us look at The Doctrine of Human Good.

Point 1. Definition and Description.

Human good must never be confused with morality or the legitimate production of the believer. There is legitimate morality and there is legitimate production of good called divine good. However, the problem is that there is also the arrogance of morality. That is the self-righteousness of life described by the apostle Paul as being piles of dung in Php 3:8, I conclude all things [Paul’s pre-salvation human celebrityship and achievement] to be loss because of the surpassing greatness of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have forfeited all things, also, I keep on concluding them to be piles of dung in order that I may win for Christ.

Human good is the production of the believer who lives in the cosmic system and who does not rely on the filling of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, human good is not valid in God’s eyes. Human good is the production of evil. Whether it is altruism or any form of asceticism or some system of self-sacrifice, human good is the production of the believer in Satan’s domain or kingdom, called in the Bible the cosmos or the world system. Altruism is an unselfish regard for or devotion to the welfare of others.

Now, that’s good, it’s a good thing, but it does not impress God especially if it’s the result of what the flesh or the OSN produces. Not because it makes God angry but because it makes man feel that there is something good about him that impresses God. When in reality, God says Ro 3:10-20, as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one. Their throat is an open grave, With their tongues they keep deceiving, The poison of asps is under their lips Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; Their feet are swift to shed blood, Destruction and misery are in their paths, And the path of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”

This is why to advance in the spiritual life, you must distinguish between human good and divine good.

For example, the writer of the book of Hebrews says in Heb 5:11, “Concerning Him [the Lord Jesus Christ] we have much to say [this refers to the CONTEXT which is the doctrine of the High-priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ and the universal priesthood of the believer] and it is hard to explain [difficult to teach].
In this passage, the writer is addressing those under the influence of human good and legalism, and therefore they are very difficult to teach. Relying upon human good and entering into legalism produces pride and pride makes one stupid.

Ps 94:8, “Listen, you senseless among the people; And when will you understand, stupid ones?”

Je 4:22, “For My people are foolish, They know Me not; They are stupid children, And they have no understanding.”

So the recipients were in no position to receive advanced doctrine. They were ignorant of doctrine, and added to that they had become involved in human good and the religious activity of their day. And so he gives the reason why doctrine is hard to explain to certain believers, Heb 5:11, Concerning Him we have many doctrines to communicate [is the corrected translation] and hard to explain because you have become dull of hearing.

They had become dull or hearing. They were not like that before. They were positive for a while, then they would peel off, then they would come back, then they would peel off, then they would come back.

Finally, they advanced, or should I say regressed, to the place where they became dull of hearing. Once you repeat certain actions over and over again, you reach a place where you just continue to exist in that state or action.

So, in Heb 5:12, For though by this time you ought to be teachers, [or teaching other people] but you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God [basic doctrines all over again], and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness not self righteousness but divine righteousness.

And, notice next, the reason is stated, because he is a babe, or immature. Therefore, verse 14, Heb 5:14, But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

The Greek word for good is kalou which refers to the believer with positive volition toward doctrine producing and recognizing divine good, it means that which is excellent, virtuous, admirable, excellent in its nature and characteristics. The Greek word for evil is kakou which refers to the function of the royal priest or the believer in carnality, the word means intrinsically worthless, evil motivation. The background to this passage is legalism and relying upon human good for acceptance with God. However, the problem is that human good and spirituality can appear to be the same thing overtly but they are not the same in the eyes of God or inwardly.

Pr 14:12, There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

So, the discernment needed today is the same as it was then. Solid food or advanced doctrine produces the ability to discern between being involved in grace and truth or being involved in legalism, human good and self-righteousness. And this discernment only comes from the intake of Bible doctrine or positive volition toward doctrine. Only the believer with positive volition toward doctrine can distinguish between grace and legalism or honorable good and the human good.

So, human good is the result of function inside the cosmic system. Human good is often a reaction, e.g., helping someone because you dislike a person who wasn’t helping that person, or showing someone how much better you are by your Christian production. That’s functioning under arrogance. People often even give because they are unhappy or trying to make themselves look good. The point is that the believer performing human good can be motivated by cosmic one or cosmic two. The cosmic system is Satan’s plan as the ruler of this world to control believers and unbelievers. It is His policy for the rulership of this world. And Satan’s cosmic system is composed of two separate power domains.

Cosmic one is Satan’s exploitation of believers through their own arrogance. This is his means of controlling the human race. Satan invented arrogance, for arrogance was his original sin.

Cosmic two is Satan’s propaganda and indoctrination college to educate and promote antagonism toward anything related to God, especially the grace of God.

Cosmic one emphasizes arrogance and abnormal preoccupation with self.

Cosmic two emphasizes antagonism and intolerance toward the plan, purpose, and will of God, as well as toward all Christians executing it.

The target of cosmic one is yourself; the target of cosmic two is Bible doctrine. In cosmic one, we destroy ourselves. In cosmic two, we become antagonistic toward Bible doctrine. This is why we are told to stay away from the cosmic system.

1Jn 2:15, Do not love the world [cosmic system], nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

The word kosmos means the order, or the government, the system developed by Satan which is alienated from God, and therefore hostile to the cause of Christ. It doesn’t mean that you have to hate the world as such, but it means that you despise those systems designed by Satan which are evil. Can I enjoy earthly goods? Can I enjoy riches, advantages, pleasures, etc.?
Absolutely!

We are talking about that satanic system of deception, where even believers think they are living the spiritual life, but they are not.

1Jn 2:15-17, Do not love the world [cosmic system], nor the things in the world [cosmic system]. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father [personal love for God the Father] is not in him. For all that is in the world [kosmos or the cosmic system], the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever.

Loving the cosmic system means deception of your motivation, of your thought pattern, of your decision making and of your action. In verse 16, the lust of the flesh is the old sin nature seeking to control the soul. The lust of the eyes is motivational evil in cosmic one. The boastful pride of life is the arrogant pattern of life, the functional evil of the other forms of arrogance in cosmic two. As the leader of all fallen angels and as the ruler of planet earth, Satan has been able to compile a cosmic system which is a mass of thoughts, opinions, speculations, systems of false doctrines, panaceas, plans, systems of all categories for deceit, policies, and objectives by which Satan seeks to control the world which he rules.

However, although Satan is the ruler of this world, he does not necessarily control the people of this world, that depends upon individual volition. Eph 2:2, “In which sphere [real spiritual death] you formerly walked according to the lifestyle of the cosmic system [world].”

In the sphere of real spiritual death from birth, all unbelievers reside in Satan’s cosmic system and are influenced by it to some degree, depending upon their adherence to the laws of divine establishment. So human good is a part of Satan’s deception because he wants man to think that God is impressed with human goodness. Human good can be characterized by fanaticism and arrogant concentration without doctrinal inculcation. Fanatics can produce human good.

There are three classifications of human good:

a. From the believer living in the cosmic system.

b. Human good of establishment orientation. This is really not human good, but establishment good. An example is the unbeliever who honors the laws of establishment.

c. Then there is human good of the unbeliever registered in the Book of Works. Human good is a reference to anything produced by man apart from the grace provisions from God.

Anything God provides in grace for production becomes divine good. Human good and divine good are antithetical and mutually exclusive. This is why knowledge of human good and evil is not needed for a relationship with God.

Ge 2:17, “But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.”

Lewis Sperry Chafer made this statement that really goes along with our doctrine of human good. “The value and delusion of a counterfeit are increased by the nearness of its likeness to the real.”

Human good is very near and like divine good. Human good can be very deceitful because of Mt 6:23 “But if your soul-perception is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness or [skotos, your spiritual blindness]!”

So human good is not just a simplistic doctrine but also a very significant one with very serious repercussions. And this same principle is stated in 2Co 11:13-15, which also has a warning about that which appears to be good overtly but in reality is nothing more than the production of human good.

2Co 11:13-15, “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their deeds.”

A remarkable passage concerning the extent of the Satanic counterfeit and the promotion of good. Notice that in verse 13, “false apostles, deceitful workers, are transforming or disguising themselves into the apostles of Christ.” Then in verse 15, they are “servants or ministers of righteousness.” Here are Satan ministers teaching people how to be righteous and humanly good. The purpose of this deception is to imitate the real ministers of Christ and to blind people from the true righteousness of God which is imputed as a gift from God’s grace and cannot be earned or deserved by man. What they do is to gather into their message every available “form of godliness” or really “so-called godliness” and promote the production of human good rather than divine good.

They are promoters of “human good works and righteousness” and they will be very attractive and deceptive since Satan controls them. And why does Satan do this? He does this because he wants to promote creature credit over creator credit. Satan figures that if creatures can impress the creator then he is the greatest creature ever created and therefore should be worshipped as such.

Ro 1:25, For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

Therefore, these servants or ministers of righteousness will be very well respected in society and their lives will undoubtedly be free from the great scrutiny and temptations that come from the kingdom of darkness toward those who communicate truth. However, it should also be noted that many times these false ministers do not necessarily know the real mission they have. They can be sincere, preaching and teaching the best things the angel of light, their energizing power, is pleased to reveal unto them. Their gospel and teaching is based on human viewpoint and appeals to human resources. There can be no appreciation of divine revelation in them because they are not filled with the Spirit and 1Co 2:14 says, A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

They are ministers of righteousness, which message should never be confused with the doctrine of grace. One is directed only at the reformation of the natural man, while the other aims at regeneration through the power of God. They are also usually sincere and full of humanitarian zeal. They are always talking about helping others and doing good etc. However, any counterfeit system of doctrine which would omit the power of God and the grace and knowledge which accompanies that power, is used by the strategy of Satan to force some secondary truth which blinds one from the real truth. By secondary truth I mean something that is true, however, it is not being taught or referred to properly. For example, 2Co 7:10 says, For Godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation.

That’s a true statement, however it is not saying that you have to feel sorry for your sins to be saved. It is saying that recognition of your need can lead to repentance toward the person of Christ. So, human good is the production of the believer who lives in the cosmic system and who does not rely on the filling of the Spirit. Therefore, human good is not valid in God’s eyes.

Point 2. The Source of Human Good is the Area of Strength of the Old Sin Nature.

All human good in history will be judged because it comes from the same source as sin, i.e., the old sin nature.

Ro 6:6-14, knowing this, that our old self [the old sin nature] was crucified with Him, that our body of sin [the sin nature] might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to the sin nature; for he who has died [positional truth and being crucified with Christ on the cross] is freed from sin [the bondage of the old sin nature]. Now if we have died with Christ [and we have through union with Him], we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to the sin nature, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let the sin nature reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For the sin nature shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.

We were crucified with Christ as Ga 2:20 teaches, however, although we were crucified with Christ on the cross through positional truth, human good was not judged on the cross so that it could continue along with evil as the issue in the angelic conflict. Therefore, human good was rejected at the cross.
Human good will have a day when it stands before God and is judged and evaluated by the perfect holiness and integrity of God, for the believers of the Church-age, 1Co 3:11-15 2Co 5:10. It will be judged or evaluated for Old Testament saints and Tribulational martyrs, at the end of the Tribulation and the Second Advent, Da 12:3; Jn 5:29; Re 20:4; and then the millennial saints at the end of the Millennium, sometime before the Great White Judgment, Re 20:15.

1Co 3:13, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire; and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.

2Co 5:10, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

Da 12:3, “And those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

Jn 5:29, and shall come forth; those who did the good {deeds} to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil {deeds} to a resurrection of judgment.

Re 20:4, And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

All of these passages teach that God will evaluate human good someday in the future. Human good continues because Satan still rules until the Second Advent. And Human good will continue in the Millennium to prove that its source is the old sin nature and not the presence of Satan. Human good is totally divorced from the integrity of God. Therefore, it never accomplishes what it seeks to accomplish. It never fulfills its objectives of improving anything.

Man had relationship with the integrity of God in the garden through creation and divine provisions not through good deeds.

The following link is to a good news message describing how one can receive eternal life:
Ticket to Heaven, it was written for anyone not absolutely certain about their eternal future.