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Scripture reading: Daniel 9:24-27

Let us look at the mystery of Daniel’s seventy weeks as described in Daniel 9.

Daniel 9:24, “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.” Everything will be done to finish the end of the age.

Verse 25, “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.”

If the people in the time of Jesus Christ (the scribes and the Bible men, the Pharisees and the theologians) were really on the ball, they could have pinpointed the time of Jesus’ arrival. God had told them that it would be “seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks” and the Prince shall come. That is seven and sixty-two, SIXTY-NINE WEEKS. From the time that the commandment was given to restore and build Jerusalem to the time of Christ’s coming was sixty-nine weeks. See how simple God made it? They could have calculated it.

Verse 26, “And AFTER threescore and two weeks…” meaning to say, “after (THESE) threescore and two weeks (the “seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks” which equal sixty-nine weeks) shall Messiah be cut off.” “Messiah” shall “be cut off” in the seventieth week. “…Messiah” shall “be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince (meaning the people of the antichrist, the little horn in Daniel 7) that shall come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.”

We can identify from this verse who the people of the antichrist are, because it is the people who will destroy the temple and destroy Jerusalem. Now we know who did that. Titus destroyed the temple and destroyed Jerusalem, and remember, the scripture said it was AFTER “THE MESSIAH, THE PRINCE” CAME, after Jesus Christ. Therefore, it was Titus that did it and Titus was the general of a Roman army. We are looking for the antichrist then to be from Rome.

Daniel 9:27a, “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week.” Jesus Christ will “confirm the covenant…for one week,” that is for SEVEN YEARS. That means that God ordained the seventieth week as the week in which God would walk and talk in a people. Remember the great promise that God gave? Jeremiah 31:33b and c, “After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.” 2 Corinthians 6:16b, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them.” Hebrews 8:10b, “I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts.” God wants a people in whom He can walk and talk – A LIVING, WALKING, TALKING TEMPLE and dwelling place for God.

“He…confirm(ed) the covenant…for one week.” We understand that the covenant is confirmed for a week and that the covenant-keeper, that is the one man who could keep the covenant with God, DIED. Daniel 9:27b, “And in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.” Jesus Christ was slain in the middle of the week. Three and a half years after He started His ministry, He was slain. That means that the promise had to wait, for there was no son to inherit it. As soon as another son is born, we will inherit this promise.

We understand that the birth of the man child will NOT be one man, but will be a many-membered man. This many-membered man is called THE MAN CHILD. This man child will take up the promise of God. The three and a half years that Jesus Christ left for the church will be taken up because we will come forth in the image of Christ Jesus according to the Word of God. Romans 8:29, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. It is God’s will, God’s intention, that Christ should have many children exactly like Himself. There will be those who are moving in that fullness at the seventh trumpet of God, when all the mystery of God shall be finished.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 2, pages 9-11)

Thought for today: Remember, God wants a people in whom He can walk and talk …a dwelling place for God.

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Scripture reading: Romans 11:13-15 & 25-31

In Romans 11 Paul is talking to the natural Jew and he is talking about the natural Gentile. He is telling of the destiny of the Jew and the Gentile. The Jew was cast away by God because He wanted to bring in the harvest of the Gentile. When the harvest of the Gentile comes in, then He is going to again bring in the Jew. God is going to use the Gentile church, THE CHURCH, to deliver the Jewish people from the sin of unbelief into which they have fallen. They are going to have some very convincing arguments from God through the church. Scripture says that through the church the manifold wisdom of God will be preached to principalities and powers, and, of course, to the Jews. See Ephesians 3:9-10.

Revelation 11:2 tells us that for “forty and two months” Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles. We are talking about the Jerusalem of God, not just the natural Jerusalem. Natural Jerusalem is going to be attacked and trodden down and spiritual Jerusalem (the outer court of the church) will be totally destroyed. “Forty and two months” is three and a half years. Other scriptures tell us what is going to happen in these three and a half years. Let us first look at the verse below.

Revelation 11:3, “And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.”

During the time when the outer court is being trampled under foot, the holy of holies is going to be riding high and really battling the enemy. “I will give power unto my two witnesses Take that picture. One part of the church is being trampled, and the other part they cannot touch, they are afraid of them. We will see also, as we go on further in the study, that there is yet another part that is going to be protected and not touched at all. THREE PARTS – one part will protect the other, and the outer court, which is indefensible, will be trodden down by the enemy.

Daniel 7:21 and 22, “I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints (this horn is the antichrist), and prevailed against them; Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.”

Further light comes on this subject in verse 25. “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time” (until this three and a half years). This is the time when the saints will get power and begin to show forth their authority. They will not have the final victory over the enemy until the end of the three and a half years. One part of the church will be suffering during the three and a half years, the other part will be a fighting church overcoming the enemy, and the other part will be a hiding church being preserved and hidden from the enemy. This all depends on the power that this section of the church has.

The outer court people will have no power against what Satan is going to throw against them, because they have not been submitted to Christ. The holy place people will have the power, but they will have the power to escape and to be hidden and preserved. The holy of holies people will have the power to stand before the enemy and drive him from them, until finally they gain the victory over the enemy, over Satan and his hosts, and the world and all their technology, after three and a half years.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 2, pages 7-9)

Thought for today: Let us strive to be part of the Church that cannot be touched and is overcoming the enemy.

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Scripture reading: Revelation 3:21 & 20:4,6

The outer court has to be destroyed because the outer court, or the people who dwell in the outer court, have not learned to make Jesus their Lord. They cannot walk in holiness. They believe that they must sin every day, and one day God is going to blow a great trumpet, and there will be a lifting up, and they will be caught up and fly away. Most of the people in the outer court believe this. Brethren, God ordained you to reign and rule on the earth with Him. See Revelation 3:21; 20:4, and 6. I do not know where you will be flying to if Jesus is reigning and ruling on earth. Where would you want to fly to, apart from being caught up into Christ?

I want you to understand that the outer court, therefore, are people who do not obey God. If you obey God, if you are an ardent Christian, obedient to Christ, then you are IN CHRIST. Christ is your head. You have no other bishop that is going to tell you what to do even when you know it is wrong. You have no other pope over you. You have no person, no human being that is so much over you that he blocks Christ from your vision.

I am not saying that we must not have elders over us. GOD HAS ORDAINED ELDERS. See Acts 14:23. Elders under God function differently than elders or bishops or pastors or popes who are under a system. Please accept this as a word from the Lord. If you cannot accept it as from the Lord, you are in trouble. Go pray. Let God tell you what is right from what is wrong. My Bible tells me that if any man desires to know the truth that God will teach him the truth. He will not leave him in darkness. See John 7:17.

The angel said, “measure it not; for it is given to the Gentiles” to be destroyed. Let me explain why this has to be. God comes to a person, who is in the outer court, who is learning to do His business, who has a doctrine of how to do this or that, and God says to that person, “I want you to go to that crossroads and begin to preach the gospel,” or sing a hymn or whatever. When God gives such an order, it means that at the hour that God has ordained for you to be at such a place, ANGELS will be gathered around you to do their part. You have a part. Your part is to preach the gospel, to let the sound out. God’s part is to bring the right people there, to touch them, and to bring them into Christ. If you said, “That corner is a bad corner. I think I had better go to another corner,” and you went to the other corner, the angels of God would be at the right corner waiting to do the will of God, and God would have to take somebody else to DO HIS WILL. Then you would be the loser.

An outer court person cannot be controlled. In case of a crisis, God has to tell you quickly to move to the right or move to the left, and, therefore, in a battle condition, a crisis situation, God cannot defend you. So the outer court is going to perish because Satan will have the power to do anything that is not in Christ. God says the outer court will be destroyed.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 2, pages 5-6)

Thought for today: Let us seek God to receive the understanding of God’s plan to bring us to perfection.

The Kingdom of God

This message entitled “The Kingdom of God” was given by Brother Cecil duCille in 1972.

For more audio messages please visit Audio Messages – Foundational Teachings.

The Outer Court Is Gone

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Scripture reading: Revelation 11:1-2

The outer court in this last-day church that we are looking at in Revelation 11:1-2 IS GONE. It is going to be gone. It will be “given unto the Gentiles” and they will “tread (it down) under foot forty and two months” – for three and a half years. There must be a reason, of course. The outer court is indefensible. God cannot defend the outer court. Why?

Let me explain to you what the outer court is. God told Moses to build a Tabernacle with a gate. This gate led into a big yard which was 100 cubits by 50 cubits. This yard had a fence around it and was called the outer court. In this place there was sometimes a lot of confusion with animals being killed and sacrificed, animals fighting for their lives, and men holding the animals, roping them onto the horns of the altar. Sometimes there was shouting and struggling in the outer court and a lot of blood. They would kill the animal and take out the guts and dung and wrap it into the skin of the animal and take that outside the camp to burn. It was not a nice smelling, beautiful place like a temple should be. The outer court was where all the preparation was made.

Let us now apply this to the gospel. The outer court church, therefore, is where the believer is being prepared to go into Christ. Some churches have camped in the outer court and have no intention of going any further because their doctrines say they have got it all. God is a God of progress. There was no way that God was going to give you everything at one time, and perfect you, in the outer court. When you accept Jesus Christ, you are fresh from sin, A FRESH SINNER. You come right into God and God washes you with the Blood of Jesus, but when He washes you with His Blood, He also has to LEAVE A SPACE for you to apply what He has given you, and for you to MAINTAIN the Christian, godly cleanliness which He gave.

Many brethren, after they accept Jesus as their Saviour, relax and do any old thing and feel that Jesus Christ will take care of it. One sister told me that she would divorce her husband and then go to God and pray about it. You cannot deliberately sin and go and pray about it. That is called presumptuous sin, and there is very little leeway for you to repent. You have to go down in sackcloth and ashes and repent of that sort of behavior before you can go any further in God.

The majority of the church is in the outer court. When we talk about church, when we talk about Christianity, the majority of Christians are in the outer court. There are two works of grace in the outer court. First, accepting Jesus’ Blood that was shed and giving our hearts to God. The second work of grace is beginning to clean up that which we have had from the world, which God came in to clean. He calls it baptism. At baptism, we have to die a death. Only salvation (accepting Jesus) is a free gift. You were as dirty, as wretched, as awful as a human being could be, in sin, and Jesus came and He applied the Blood and INSTANTANEOUSLY your sins were forgiven, but your NATURE was not completely changed. It has been arrested. The Blood of Jesus Christ is a tool given to you to clean up your mind, your emotions, your will, and your desires.

Some Christians let their emotions loose in a freedom that is not Christian. Even married people sometimes do not understand that they cannot behave any old way with their partners. They need to restrain and control and train their emotions and their desires and their will. The mind is not the mind of Christ. It is still the human mind. You have the tool to work it out and make it the mind of Christ. Consecration and sanctification are part of this cleaning.

The believer in the outer court is expected of God to prepare himself or herself for going into the holy place – to prepare himself or herself for going through the door, going into Christ, becoming a part of Christ’s body and a part of Christ’s function in the earth. Then you are really set to go places with God. However, if you have a doctrine that you must not receive the fullness of baptism (some say water baptism is not necessary), then you cut yourself off. Not being obedient to righteousness gives you nothing. You say that there is no baptism, and therefore you cuss, drink, commit any sin, and feel that you are all right because you have no covenant with God. Baptism is a covenant that the believer makes with God and it is permanent.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 2, pg. 2-5)

Thought for today: Let us prepare ourselves in sanctification and consecration in order for us to go into Christ.