Turn with me now to Daniel chapter
9. Daniel chapter 9. The heading at the top of my
page here says Daniel's Prayer and Confession. That's what this
is. In this chapter, Daniel is going
to pray a prayer to God on behalf of his nation, the nation of
Israel. And I see a picture of Christ
in this. I see a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ in this in there. There are 12 chapters in the
book of Daniel. And. In all 12 of these chapters,
there's not one mention of Daniel doing any wrongdoing. You know, all through the Scripture,
the Lord exposes men's errors and. But there's not one mention of
any wrongdoing by Daniel. He was always obedient to God. And he was obedient to the authorities
that were over him. He was devout. He was honest. He was sincere. He was taken captive in chapter
one. When we looked at chapter one,
Nebuchadnezzar came into Israel and, and besieged Israel. And
at that time it's estimated he was about 15 or 18 years old,
something like that. And now in Daniel chapter nine,
he's somewhere between 80 and 85 years old. He spent his whole
life in Babylon in captivity. But even though there's no wrongdoing
on his part mentioned, we're going to see in this prayer that
he numbers himself with the transgressors. In this ninth chapter, Daniel
is caused to realize something. And that realization is the deep,
indescribable sin of his people, his nation, against God. Their sin against God. And he
cries out to God over it. He intercedes for his people. And the absolute beauty of this
prayer is how he acknowledges himself to be one with them.
Now, Daniel was one with them in the sense that he was a sinner
just like everybody else. But in the picture that Daniel
represents, in the type that Daniel represents, which is Jesus
Christ, Daniel is a picture of Jesus Christ. Christ was sinless. In him was no sin. I find no
fault in this man. But thank God he numbered himself
with the transgressors. So let's read this prayer together
from Daniel and I have some things that have really hit me tonight
that I want to share with you. Daniel 9 verse 1. In the first year of Darius,
the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the meads which was made
king over the realm of the Chaldeans. In the first year of his reign,
I, Daniel, understood by books the number of years whereof the
word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet that he would accomplish
70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem." Daniel was, you know,
he's an old man now. And he was reading the book of
Jeremiah. And Jeremiah, the prophet, lived
at the same time that Daniel lived. They were alive at the
same time. Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Ezekiel
all lived at the same time that Daniel lived. All five of those
men lived at the same time. Jeremiah was older than Daniel
and he died about 30 years or so before this moment. And Daniel
was reading his writings. He was reading the book of Jeremiah.
And while Daniel was reading, he realized that just before
he was taken into captivity, almost 70 years before this moment,
this is at the end of it. He realized Jeremiah prophesied
that it would happen. And then Daniel kept on reading
Jeremiah's writing and he saw that he prophesied that the captivity
would be 70 years, which he is almost at right here at this
moment. Turn over to Jeremiah 25 and
I'll show you what Daniel was reading. Jeremiah 25. Jeremiah wrote this just before
the captivity happened. The heading at the top of my
page here says, Jeremiah foretelleth the 70 years captivity. So verse 1, Jeremiah 25 verse
1, the word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of
Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah. That was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar,
king of Babylon. The witch Jeremiah, the prophet
spake unto all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, saying from the 13th year of Josiah, the son
of Ammon, king of Judah, even unto this day, that is the three
and 20th year, the word of the Lord hath come unto me. And I
have spoken unto you rising early and speaking. And this is the
part I want us to pay attention to. But you have not hearkened. And the Lord hath sent unto you
all his servants, the prophets, rising early and sending them.
But you have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear. They
said, turn ye again now everyone from his evil way and from the
evil of your doings and dwell in the land that the Lord hath
given unto you and to your fathers forever and ever and go not after
other gods to serve them and to worship them and provoke me
not to anger with the works of your hands and I will do you
no hurt. Yet you have not hearkened unto
me, saith the Lord, that you might provoke me to anger with
the works of your hands to your own hurt. Therefore, thus saith
the Lord of hosts, because you have not heard my words, you
have not listened, you have not believed, you have rejected my
words. Verse 9, behold, I will send
and take all the families of the North, saith the Lord, and
Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them
against this land and against the inhabitants thereof and against
all these nations round about and will utterly destroy them
and make them an astonishment and a hissing and perpetual desolations. Moreover, I will take from them
the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the
bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones
and the light of the candle. And this whole land shall be
a desolation and an astonishment. And these nations shall serve
the king of Babylon 70 years. and it shall come to pass when
seventy years are accomplished that I will punish the king of
Babylon and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity
in the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations. And I will bring upon that land
all my words which I have pronounced against it, Even all that is
written in this book which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the
nations, for many nations and great kings shall serve themselves
of them also, and I will recompense them according to their deeds
and according to the works of their own hands." Daniel was
reading this and he realized Nebuchadnezzar is the one who
did bring us into captivity. And Nebuchadnezzar has died.
And Belshazzar has died. And now Darius is king. And it's been right at 70 years since
we were taken. And right there in the pages
of God's Word, Daniel was told why. Why they were taken into
captivity. It's because they did not hearken
to God's Word. They did not believe God's word.
They did not listen to the truth. They did not bow. They rejected
God. They rejected God's sovereignty. They rejected God's right. Not that any man can reject God,
but they tried. They went their own way with
their own thoughts. And what breaks my heart is That's
exactly the same thing that our nation has done. We have sinned. We have sinned. We have forgotten God. We have ignored God. We have mocked his word. And oh, that God would give me
a heart to pray for the souls of this nation as God gave Daniel
a heart to pray for the souls of his nation. And I'm not talking
about a political thing. I'm not talking about an America
thing. Oh, that God would give us a heart to pray for any soul
in any nation. I cannot begin to describe the
impression that was made on me years ago. I was preaching in
Madisonville, Kentucky, and it was before I was called to be
pastor here, but I was preaching in Madisonville, and a dear older
brother was presiding over the service, just a dear, dear man. He's been there a long time. I'll tell you how long he's been
there. When he was a young boy, his family sat under Arthur Pink,
and he's been under the gospel a long time. And he was presiding
over the service, and he was leading in prayer, and he prayed,
Lord, give us a greater concern for men's souls. And in that moment, when I heard
him say that, I thought, if I'm going to do this, that's what
I need. If I'm going to do this, if I'm
going to stand here and preach, if I'm going to do this, that's
what I need. I need a great concern for men's
souls. Does God have an elect people?
Yes. Yes, he does. Was their salvation
set in stone before this world began and set in stone when Christ
died on that cross? Yes, it was. But he has not told us who his
elect are. And he has told us to go out
and preach to every soul we can preach to as though they may
be one of the elect. That's the means he's chosen
to use to call his elect to himself. They may be wickedly rebellious. They may be wickedly self-righteous. Just like we were. Just like
we were. Just like Saul of Tarsus was.
Just like all of God's people were. But in time, God may make
it clear that they're one of God's chosen elect. So may God
give us a concern for men and women. All men and women. Not
only in our nation, but every nation on this earth. All men
and women. I want to share something with you that is Not normally
the type of thing that I would share with you. I believe this will really help
us to more so enter into this message. I get a fair amount
of what we would call hate mail. And I usually don't tell you about
it because there's no point. There's just no point. But I believe there's a point
in telling you this one. I received some correspondence
concerning a message that I preached a little while back. And it was
mocking that message. It was actually mocking the God
of that message specifically. And no name was given. I don't
know if it was a man or a woman. But the subject matter title
was, three words, God Hates You. All right, that was the subject
that was sent. And this person wrote, and just
listen to this, this person wrote, and again, realize this is him
mocking what he heard, or her mocking what she heard. He hates
everyone except his few elect. The rest he predestinated to
hell. He is a true sadist, which is
a person who takes pleasure in inflicting pain on somebody,
a person who just tortures, just is cruel and enjoys it. He's
a true sadist. This person said, I hope he is
fiction. Otherwise our eternity is horrendous. That's tough, isn't it? When I read that, the first thing
that I thought was, oh my goodness, how far man has fallen from God. And then I thought, what is God
gonna do to this nation for its rebellion against him? What is
God gonna do to this nation? What's the future of this nation?
This is one of my countrymen, or women, What is God going to
do to this nation for its rebellion against Him? And then I thought,
but for the grace of God, there go I. That would be me. This person was angry enough
to write it and send it, but that is the universal mind and
heart of every soul outside of Christ. That is the common rebellion
of every man and woman on this earth. Mankind says that's not
fair. Man hears about God being God
and choosing who he would save. And man says that is not fair. God is not fair. I don't like this God you preach.
A lot of people have said that. A lot of people have said that.
I don't like this God you preach. I don't want this God you preach. I won't have his will. All of
this is irrelevant. This is still God we're talking
about. There's only one God, only one true and living God. I'm not hearing his word. I'm
preaching his word. Well, I'm not hearing his word. I don't believe. I won't bow. I'm telling you, but for the
grace of God, that would be me and you. That's, that's where
I'm coming from with this. but for the grace of God, that
would be me and you. And knowing that, and I know
that's so, but for the grace of God, that would be me. And
I know it's so. And that, knowing that breaks
my heart for this person. It breaks my heart for this person.
My heart is broken over the condition of this person. I don't even
know who this person is. But my heart is broken over the
condition of this person. And it makes me want to pray
for this person. And it makes me want to pray for any other
person who has this same attitude toward the true and living God.
It makes me want to pray for myself, Lord, keep me and don't
let me go. It makes me want to pray for
my family. It makes me want to pray for you. It makes me want
to pray for your family. It makes me want to pray for
these children. Dear God Almighty, don't let
them grow up and go off into the way of this world. I am not mad at him or her, this
person who sent this. I'm not mad at him or her. I'm
not. The fact is, he or she is not
mad at me. They're mad at God. And it's heartbreaking. It's
truly heartbreaking. In the natural flesh, all of
God's people were in this condition. All of God's people come from
this condition. And they're there until God conquers
each one of them. And that's what has to happen.
They're there until God breaks each one of them. God broke me. And God broke you. And that way is there until God
puts the fear of this thrice holy God in each one of his people.
Fear. That's what we need is fear. That way is there until God gives
an understanding that we need to be crying out to this God
for mercy. Clearly by what this person said,
he or she heard what I was saying, which was amazing to me because
a lot of times people don't really hear what you're saying. But
when you have a response like this, that person heard what
I was saying and he or she was wrong on some
of it, but it is true. All of the love of God is in
Christ Jesus. That's true. Does God love everybody? No,
God loves Christ and every soul he placed in Christ. All of God's love is in Jesus
Christ. If we want to be recipients of
God's love, we're going to have to be in Jesus Christ. And only
God's elect are in Christ. Only God's elect people are in
Christ. The only way a sinner can be
in Christ is if God, in mercy and grace, puts that sinner in
Christ. And that's election. God selecting and placing and
doing what he wants to do with his own. This person is wrong
on the fact that God did not predestinate men and women to
hell. Man secured that on his own. Man did that to himself. Man cannot blame God for man's
own sin and the punishment that's owed to man for man's own sin.
We can't blame God for that. We can't be mad at God for that.
This person is also wrong on the fact that our Lord does not
take pleasure in the death of the wicked. He doesn't. But this person is right about
the fact that if God does not have mercy, if God does not have
mercy, if God does not break, if God does not reveal the truth,
if God does not cause us to bow, if God does not cause us to believe,
our eternity will be horrendous. It'll be horrendous. The eternity
of every soul outside of the blood of Christ is going to be
horrendous. We need Jesus Christ. We need
the blood of Jesus Christ. We need the mercy and grace that
can only be found in Jesus Christ. That's what we need. Lord, have
mercy on us. Cause us to realize what we're
doing. Cause us to hear you. Cause us
to hear your word. Give us the ability to believe
on you. Give us the ability to cast our
all on you. You're our only hope. Cause us
to know that. Cause us to know that. Clearly
this person heard what the truth was saying. And that response
that the person gave is called kicking against the pricks. That's
what it's called. You have the pricks of God's
sovereignty and the pricks of God's right and the pricks of
God's whatever God has done. It pricks and it pricks and it's
called kicking against the pricks. Saul of Tarsus did that. And
I would imagine many of us here right now did that. And if the Lord in mercy, if
he ever does stop the kicking. If he ever takes out that heart
of stone, if he ever puts in a heart of flesh. I want this
person to know it'll be open arms right here. If he ever does
show mercy. If he ever does reveal the truth,
if he ever does show Christ. If he ever does break and calls
a person to say, oh my God, what have I done? Lord, I need mercy. If that ever happens, it's open
arms right here. We'll cry out to God for mercy
together. But God be merciful to us. God
be merciful to us. God be merciful to men and women.
God be merciful. I don't have time to read them.
I don't have time to read. Well, yeah, I'll just go to Daniel. Let me see what I have time to
do. Let's just read this, all right?
Let's just read this. With that, maybe making this
a little closer to home. Let's just read this and hear
Daniel's cry. And let's see the gospel in this,
okay? Daniel 9 verse 1, in the first year of Darius the son
of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the meads which was made king
over the realm of the Chaldeans. In the first year of his reign,
I, Daniel, understood by books the number of the years where
of the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet that
he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
And after seeing why, Daniel read in Jeremiah, after seeing
why, all this came upon them, verse 3. Daniel said, I set my
face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with
fasting and sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed unto the Lord my
God and made my confession and said, oh Lord, the great and
dreadful God. keeping the covenant and mercy
to them that love him and to them that keep his commandments.
Verse five, he said, we have sinned. We've sinned. We are sinners. Daniel said,
I'm pleading your covenant of mercy for we have sinned. And here's the, here's the part
I want to stress. We Verse 5, we have sinned and
have committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled
even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments. Neither
have we hearkened unto thy servants, the prophets, which spake in
thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the
people of the land. O Lord, righteousness belongeth
unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces. as at this day to the
men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to all Israel
that are near and that are far off through all the countries,
whither thou hast driven them because of their trespass, that
they have trespassed against thee. O Lord, to us belongeth
confusion of faith, to our kings, our princes, our fathers, because
we have sinned against thee." All of us, that's what he's saying.
All of us by nature, we are all in confusion of faith. That means
shameful idol worshipers. And that's what we are, if we're
not worshiping the true and living God, we're shameful idol worshipers. But he said, your righteousness,
we are confusion of face, your righteousness. Verse nine, to
the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we
have rebelled against thee. Lord, your righteousness, you
are mercy, you are forgiveness. All we are is sinners. Confused,
rebellious sinners. Verse 10. Neither have we obeyed
the voice of the Lord our God to walk in His laws, which He
set before us by His servants, the prophets. Yea, all Israel
have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might
not obey thy voice. Therefore, the curse is poured
upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses,
the servant of God, because we have sinned against Him. And
He hath confirmed His words which He spake against us, and against
our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil. For unto the whole heaven hath
not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem. As it is written
in the law of Moses, all this evil has come upon us. Yet made
we not our prayer before the Lord, our God, that we might
turn from our iniquities and understand that truth. What he's
saying is after all this time, we still have not turned to you. We still have not cried out to
you now. Daniel did. It's what got him
thrown in a lion's den. They told him, stop calling on
your God. And he wouldn't do it. But he's identifying with the
sins of his people. Verse 14, Therefore hath the
Lord watched upon the evil and brought it upon us. For the Lord
our God is righteous in all his works, which he doeth. For we
obeyed not His voice. Our Lord punishes sinners, not
because He takes pleasure in it, but because His justice demands
it. His justice demands it. Holy and just is He. Verse 15,
And now, O LORD our God, thou hast brought thy people forth
out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten
thee renowned, as at this day we have sinned, we have done
wickedly. We, we. That's the place that
our Lord Jesus Christ took with us. In our sin and in our condemnation,
in our captivity, we we I just read for a scripture reading
Psalm 40. Those are the words of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And in that psalm, he calls our
iniquities. He said, they're my iniquities
praying to the father, he said, mine iniquity. I thought he knew
no sin. He did know no sin. But he numbered himself with
us. Isaiah 53 says he numbered himself with the transgressors.
All we like sheep have gone astray, but the Lord laid on him the
iniquity of us all. He's our high priest. He's our
intercessor. And I'm going to read four more
verses. And let's listen to that intercession, all right? Hear
the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ in this, all right? Verse 16,
listen to Christ. Oh Lord, according to all thy
righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thine fury
be turned away from thy city, Jerusalem, thy holy mountain. because for our sins and for
the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are
become a reproach to all that are about us. Now therefore,
O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant and his supplications
and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that it is desolate
for the Lord's sake. Can you hear him crying that
from the cross of Calvary? Father, deal with me and let
them go. Deal with all their iniquities
in me and let them go for the Lord's sake. Verse 18, Oh my
God, incline thine ear and hear my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Incline thine ear and hear, open
thine eyes and behold our desolations in the city which is called by
thy name, for we do not present our supplications before thee
for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies." We're
not pleading man's self-righteous works. We're pleading mercy in
the blood of the Lamb. Verse 19, O LORD, hear, O LORD,
forgive, O LORD, hearken and do. Defer not for thine own sake,
O my God, for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.
That's a message right there. Hear, forgive, hearken and do. Don't put it off. Defer not for
your own sake. Oh my God, for your name's sake,
save us. Lord, for your name's sake, save
us. Now that's Daniel's prayer. The next time we're in Daniel,
we're gonna hear the answer to the prayer. That's his prayer,
and we'll hear the answer to the prayer, but I'll go ahead
and tell you what it is. The throne of God, I just, I've always
loved this. The throne of God, it says, that
the moment Daniel started crying this on behalf of his great concern
for the souls of men and women, it says, the moment he started
crying this, and again, this is a picture of Christ crying
on behalf of His elect. But the moment he started crying,
the command was given from the throne to an angel named Gabriel. You go tell him, this is what
I have to say. And he flew as hard as he can.
And he said, salvation is coming. Deliverance is coming. There's mercy and there's hope
for rebels against God, Daniel. Oh, Lord, we're all rebels against
God. We all hate God. We're all. There's hope for rebels
against God. Hear the word of the Lord and
your soul shall live. Believe, bow, cry out for mercy. Every soul who does will evidence
being one of God's elect who he loves and has a wonderful eternity
for him or her.