Slides for this study

We’re still in Daniel chapter 8.

• It is a really important chapter.

Review of Daniel 2, 7 and 8

• We see how the details all match up so clearly.
• Daniel 2 with all the metals and how the iron continues into the feet and it ends with the stone.
• Daniel 7 – all the beasts and the dragon continues into the little horn and it ends with the fiery throne which gave us a message of judgment.
• Judgment was seen there in Daniel 2 as well – they stoned people when they were found guilty. They judged them first – investigative phase right? And then the stoning itself is the execution of that judgment.
• Daniel 8
  • It forgets about Babylon.
  • Repeat and enlarge.
  • Babylon is not important anymore.
  • And the little horn representing both the Pagan Roman Empire and the Papal Roman empire – the Catholic Church.
  • And how the daily continued from Pagan to Papal Rome.
  • It was baptized and brought into the church and we spent a whole lot of time on that last week as we went through all those slides and pictures showing the transition of all these pagan deities and symbols which were brought into the church.
  • And after that it ends with the cleansing of the sanctuary.
• Daniel 8:14
  And he said to me, “For two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.”
• This event seems to line up with judgment that we see in Daniel 2 and also in Daniel 7.

So let’s study into this cleansing of the sanctuary. What is this all about and how is this related to the whole book of Daniel and what we have been study!

First question:

• What sanctuary is being cleansed here?
• It can’t be referring to the earthly sanctuary for that does not exist anymore.
• It must be referring to the sanctuary in heaven.

YES! There is a heavenly sanctuary.

• How do we know?
• Exodus 25:8-9
  8 And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. 9 According to all that I show you, that is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it.
  • Moses made the sanctuary on earth from a pattern that God showed him.
• And we read this last week as well:
• Hebrews 8:1-2
  1 Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.
• So the cleansing of the sanctuary must be referring to God’s sanctuary up in heaven that will be cleansed.

How do we know it is not referring to something in the past back when the sanctuary did exist?

• Well when you look at the timelines that we have been given in Daniel 2, 7 and 8, what kingdom exists before the stone, before the fiery throne and before the cleansing of the sanctuary?
• It is the Roman Catholic Church.
• And they came into power in 538AD.
• By that time there was no more Hebrew sanctuary anymore.
• It was destroyed in 70AD when the whole of Jerusalem was
• So definitely the cleansing of the sanctuary in Daniel 8 is referring to God’s sanctuary in heaven being cleansed.

So what does the New Testament say about the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary?

• Hebrews 9:23
  Therefore it was necessary that the (earthly) copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these (animal sacrifices), but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
• Why does the heavenly sanctuary need to be purified or cleansed?
• What is impure in heaven?

Well let’s have a look at the earthly, and then we will begin to understand the process that takes place even up in heaven and why it needs to be cleansed since it is a copy of the things in heaven.

So what was the purpose for the sanctuary on earth?

• You see when people sinned, they would have to bring an offering of an innocent animal to the sanctuary.
  • Usually it was a sheep.
• They would kill the animal.
• Collect its blood in a bowl.
• And the priest would bring the blood into the sanctuary and sprinkle the blood on the veil separating between the holy and most holy place.
• What was happening here?
• Symbolically the sin of that person was being transferred from the sheep, and then transferred into the sanctuary.

You can imagine that it got quite filthy after 1 year of sprinkling blood on that veil. So there was need for it to be literally cleansed!

There is actually a day every year that the sanctuary on earth was cleaned. This is called the day of atonement.

• Leviticus 16:16
  So he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, for all their sins; and so he shall do for the tabernacle of meeting which remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness.
• Do you see that word atonement there?
  • The word atonement means to appease, to cleanse, to forgive, to reconcile.
• So a cleansing was taking place here. But for what?
  • It was for the Holy Place.
• What does the word “Holy Place” mean?
  • It means sanctuary.
  • So we see the sanctuary being cleansed.
• But what was the purpose of this cleansing?
  • It was for all the sins of the children of Israel.
• Leviticus 16:30
  For on that day the priest shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the LORD.
• So the purpose of the cleansing of the sanctuary was so that the people would be clean from all their sins.
• Leviticus 16:33
  Then he shall make atonement for the Holy Sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tabernacle of meeting and for the altar, and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly.
• So he would make an atonement, or cleansing, for the sanctuary and for the priests and for the people.
• All this was done on the same day on the day of atonement.

And how often would this cleansing of the sanctuary take place?

• Leviticus 16:34
  This shall be an everlasting statute for you, to make atonement for the children of Israel, for all their sins, once a year.” And he did as the LORD commanded Moses.
• It would take place once a year.

How important was this Day of Atonement in regards to the people of Israel and the sanctuary?

• Leviticus 23:28-30
  28 And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the LORD your God. 29 For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people. 30 And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people.
• On this day they were to afflict their souls and not do any work.
• If they did any work, they would be cut off and destroyed.
• This was a serious day and a serious work!
• This day was Israel’s day of judgment.
• It is still revered by Jewish people as such. On that day it was to be determined who should live and who should die – symbolic of the greater day of judgment at the time of the end that we studied about before.

What happened after the sanctuary was cleansed?

• Here’s the background:
  • Leviticus 16:7-10
    7 He shall take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 8 Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the LORD and the other lot for the scapegoat. 9 And Aaron shall bring the goat on which the LORD’s lot fell, and offer it as a sin offering. 10 But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make atonement upon it, and to let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness.
• 2 goats would be chosen.
  • 1 would be sacrificed as a sin offering on that day.
  • And the other was called the scapegoat which would be released into the wilderness.
• What would they do with that first goat?
  • Leviticus 16:15-16
    15 “Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring its blood inside the veil, do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. 16 So he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, for all their sins; and so he shall do for the tabernacle of meeting which remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness.
  • It was to be used to make an atonement for the sanctuary and for everyone.
• This first goat represents Jesus.
  • He is the One that cleanses us from all sin.
  • He is the One who has made atonement for all of us.
• How about the scapegoat?
  • Leviticus 16:20-22
    20 “And when he has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place, the tabernacle of meeting, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat. 21 Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man. 22 The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.
• So all the sins of the people that had been accumulating for that past year and had been recorded in the sanctuary were now transferred to the second goat that was still alive and it was released into the wilderness.
• The first goat represents Jesus.
• But the second goat represents Satan.
• All the sins that we have confessed are now placed on him. And he will be destroyed one day.

Similarly, today our sins are also recorded in the sanctuary above.

• But the work of cleansing will be more thorough since Jesus is now our High Priest and it is no longer a human mediator.
• But why does the sanctuary in heaven need to be cleansed?
• Jeremiah 17:1
  “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with the point of a diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of your altars.
• There is a record of sin in heaven in the sanctuary.
• Remember the books that we talked about in judgment?
  • The book of life.
  • The book of remembrance of good deeds.
  • The book of sin.
• That record of sin is there.
• That’s why Christ is up in heaven as our High Priest.
• He is the ultimate sacrifice.
• He has fulfilled all the sanctuary – so that’s why there is no longer any sanctuary on earth as we saw in the previous lesson when the veil was ripped in 2 from top to bottom.
• So remember:
  • Hebrews 9:23
    Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

So what does God want to achieve from the cleansing of the sanctuary?

• Daniel 8:14
  And he said to me, “For two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.”
• What does the word cleansed mean?
  • It means to justify, do justice of turn to righteousness.
• What happens when a place is justified?
  • Isaiah 43:25-26
    25 “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins. 26 Put Me in remembrance; let us contend together; state your case, that you may be acquitted.
• You see that work acquitted there?
  • It means to cleanse, to justify.
• So what is total justification or total cleansing?
  • It is blotting out our sins, it is not remembering them anymore.
• Hebrews 8:12
  For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.
  • God’s total mercy is that He will not remember our sins anymore.
• What does the word blot out mean?
  • Deuteronomy 25:19
    Therefore it shall be, when the LORD your God has given you rest from your enemies all around, in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, that you will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget.
  • It means to not remember.
• Who will not remember?
  • Hebrews 10:1-3
    1 For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. 2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. 3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.
  • Total purification is to have our consciousness cleansing from the remembrance of sin.
  • So God wants to blot that from our memories.

Moreover, right now there is that book of record of sin in heaven.

• God wants to be able to just throw that out one day.
• So long as that book is around, there will always be a remembrance of sin in the whole universe and especially in heaven.
• So God will blot it from our memories and from any record throughout heaven and the whole universe.

But before the sanctuary can be cleansed or before it is justified, what must happen?

• Deuteronomy 25:1
  “If there is a dispute between men, and they come to court, that the judges may judge them, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked.
• A judgment must take place before something or someone can be justified.
• There must be an investigation into the matter before that person can be given a sentence.

Remember that we saw three phases of judgment.

• Investigative judgment.
• Millennial judgment.
• Executive judgment.

Before sin can be finally destroyed forever from God’s presence, which is represented by the scapegoat being sent off into the wilderness, there has to be a judgment.

• Remember we have already determined in our previous studies that this judgment must take place before the second coming.
• This 2300 day prophecy will give us the exact time when judgment begins.
• But what we’re looking at here is that the cleansing of the sanctuary is the total cleansing of sin from the whole universe.
  • This includes destroying that book of record of sin.
  • That includes destruction of the devil and his wicked angels.
  • That includes the destruction of the wicked that have chosen to continue to persist and live in sin.
  • And that also includes the cleansing of our consciences from the memory of sin on the earth.

And what a wonderful work that God wants to do for us!

• Can you imagine if we get to heaven and we remember all the sins of what we have done back on earth when we were there?
• We would be walking around with guilt consciences and whipping ourselves for all the bad things we did.
• That’s what happens now every so often right?
• Our memories plague us with guilt sometimes from the things that we’ve done 10, 20 or even 30 years ago!
• But God wants us to enjoy heaven and the new earth that He will create for us.
• So in order for us to be in total peace in our minds, He is going to perform an operation to cleanse us from all sin.

But for God to do that, there was something that took place on the day of atonement on earth that we need to experience even today. What was it?

• Leviticus 23:27
  “Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the LORD.
• God wants us to afflict our souls.
• To afflict your souls means to examine your lives, repent, and return to God.

What would happen to one who did not search his heart and repent?

• Leviticus 23:29-30
  29 For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people. 30 And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people.
• Remember, it was a serious day. If you did not do that, you would be cut off, you would be destroyed.
• Those who searched their hearts, who repented and trusted in their High Priest, remained before God.

And so there remains a work for us to do today.

• We need to examine our lives.
• We have to determine if we are walking in the faith of Jesus today or not.
• We need to hold our lives up to examination from the scripture.
• If we don’t do it, others will. And often that is even more humiliating.
• But God wants us to take a very close account of our lives. To judge ourselves. Have a critical eye on our own lives to know if God is guiding us or not.
• This is so important.
• We can’t expect to go through life on autopilot and expect God just to show us when He feels like it. We need to take a quick account of it every day.
• And where we fall short, we need to ask Jesus quickly to forgive our sins.
  • He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness!
• Christ cannot accept those who profess to believe in Him but are unwilling to examine their lives and turn fully to Him.
• Here is a sobering thought from the Bible:
  • Matthew 7:21-23
    21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
• These are speaking of Christian’s.
• They’ve called out Lord, Lord! They go to church.
• But they were practicing lawlessness. They were living in sin!
• They went to church and were not willing to repent from their evil deeds.

Steps in the banishment of sin

• Look at the diagram and the steps.

How should we approach the judgment seeing that Christ is in heaven judging us right now?

• 1 John 4:17-18
  17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
• We should have nothing to fear if we have committed everything to Christ.
• We can have boldness!
• Why? Because we’ve examined our own lives, we’ve submitted ourselves to Christ, and we can have confidence in Him as our Saviour and our Judge!

So what should we be doing now?

• Heb 3:15
  …“Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
• If we hear God’s voice, let us humble ourselves, put aside our preconceived ideas about how we think we should run and live our lives and ask God to help us to walk according to His will and His way.

There is coming a day when Jesus our High Priest will no longer be Priest.

• While He is in the sanctuary, there is still hope for us to change and to repent.
• And when we have sinned, we can look to the heavens for help and have the assurance that He will forgive.
• But when the judgment is finished, there will come a time when man’s day of opportunity has closed and Christ will come as king!
• Revelation 22:11-12
  11 He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.” 12 “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.
• Just before He comes for a second time to give us our reward, probation time will have closed.
• Jesus is no longer priest, but He will now come as king!

So today, how should we respond?

• Isaiah 55:6-7
  6 Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.

Friends, what needs to change in your life today? What sacrifices do you need to make so that God can be number 1 in your life? Have you fully surrendered to the Lord in every way? Let us do that today while God’s Spirit is still calling out to each of us. How do you want to respond to His loving call?