In the book of Daniel chapter
9 is recorded a wonderful prayer by the prophet Daniel on behalf
of the people of Israel and himself and a wonderful answer from the
Lord to him. Daniel chapter 9, I'm going to
read just a few verses of this chapter of this prayer, verses
3 through 6. Listen carefully as I read. Daniel says, And 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, O Lord, the great and
dreadful God, keeping the covenants and mercy to them that love Him
and to them that keep His commandments, 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. Daniel does not ask for one single
material thing in this prayer. He does not ask for health. He
does not ask for wealth, a material thing. But this whole prayer
is a confession of sin and a plea for mercy and pardon. How different
is the true prayer, the heart's cry, the true prayer of a true
man of God, child of God, than what goes by the name of prayer
today. But I hear this all the time
from God's people. For there's one thing needful,
and that is mercy. Scripture says God's mercies
are new every morning to His people. His compassions, they
fail not. And so God's people continually
cry to Him for mercy. Daniel said, I set my face unto
the Lord to seek Him, to seek by prayer. David, another man
after God's own heart like Daniel, David said this in the Psalm,
When thou saidest, Seek ye my face, I said, thy face will I
seek. And Daniel sought the Lord as
do true seekers. sought the Lord, not just blessings
from Him, but Him. And Daniel went on to say, I
prayed unto the Lord my God. Daniel was not praying to be
seen by men so they would know he's a religious man. Daniel
prayed in private. Daniel was not praying unto the
Lord to be heard by men, but to be heard by God. He said,
I made my confession unto the Lord. I prayed unto the Lord
and made my confession. This is what is greatly needed
by our nation. Daniel is praying for his people,
Israel. In Proverbs 28, Verse 13, it
says, He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso
or whosoever confesseth and forsaketh them, his sins, shall have mercy. People, mercy. The word mercy
means not getting what we deserve. Scripture says, God's Word says
the wages of sin is death. That's what we deserve. That's
what's sin. The soul that sinneth. shall
surely die. That's what God's Word says.
And we need to confess our sins. We, America, and every person
and individual, confess our sin. David, in Psalm 51, said, My
sin is ever before me. And David confessed it to God
when he said, Against thee and thee only have I sinned and done
this evil in thy sight. Sin is a transgression of the
law. Sin is against God who wrote it. And we need to confess our sin,
what we are. What we are is the reason for
what we do. God will hear the confession
of sinners to Him. We are to confess to God only.
God only. Repentance toward God. And faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We confess to God, toward God,
by faith in Jesus Christ. Because people, He's the only
mediator, Scripture says, between God and men. The man Christ Jesus. He's the only High Priest. There
is no such thing as a Pope. A spiritual father who can forgive
us our sin. No man. But there is one Great
High Potentate, Jesus Christ, the Great High Priest. We do
have an altar, Paul wrote in Hebrews, but it's not a fleshly
altar. We do not come to the front of
the so-called church building to confess our sin, nor do we
go into a confessional booth to speak to men and confess our
sins before men. No. We go to God through Christ. He is the only Mediator, the
only High Priest, the only one who can absolve us of our sin,
forgive us of our sin, pardon our sin, our sins against God. We confess them to Him through
Christ the Mediator. Daniel here says, I confess,
made my confession unto the Lord. And he says, now here he describes
the God of the Bible. I sure hope someone will listen
to this. This is God's Word. This is the God of the Bible.
This is the God who said in Malachi 3.6, the God who said of Himself,
He said, I change not. The God of the New Testament
is the same as the God of the Old. Jesus Christ, who was with
the Father from the beginning, is the same yesterday, today,
and forever. The same that was with him in
the beginning. The same God. Now here he describes
himself. Here Daniel describes him. He said, O Lord, the great and
dreadful God. Great and dreadful God. Have
you ever heard anyone today describe God as the great and dreadful
God? Or as in the book of Job, He's
called the terrible God? Men fear terrorists more than
they fear God. They fear Satan more than they
fear God. They fear men more than they
fear God. When Scripture says, the fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. God is to be feared
and had in reverence in the assembly of the saints, as Scripture says.
But Paul's indictment against his day and the same indictment
against our day is this. There is no fear of God before
their eyes. And I blame it on preachers.
I blame all this on preachers who tell men and women and young
people without exception that God loves them. Smile, God loves
you. He has a wonderful plan for your
life. And all this evil and all these calamities and all these
things that are happening to you, God didn't want it to happen,
but it's happening. It's that evil person called
Satan. But God's standing over on the sidelines, a bystander
in the affairs of men, letting things happen to them. But He
loves you. It's all a lie, people. It's a lie out of hell is what
it is. And those who say that to men
without exception, that God loves them, are liars, false prophets. God is the great and dreadful
God to be feared. to be feared. Fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. And all these things happening
are happening to the United States of America like they were happening
to Israel of old because of their sin. He said on down here in
this chapter, he says in verse 10, we have not obeyed the voice
of the Lord our God. And verse 11 says, therefore
this curse is poured upon us. The curses told by Moses in his
book, by God through Moses in his book. Curses, blessings for
obedience and curses for disobedience, because we have not hearkened
unto the word of the Lord, he said. He said we have sinned,
in verse 6 he says, because we have not hearkened unto the prophets
And he goes on in verse 7 to say, O Lord, righteousness belongs
to Thee, but confusion of faces to us. We're confused. And all these things, these calamities,
disasters happen to us, and we don't know why. And the only
people that seem to acknowledge it are insurance companies who
say it's an act of God so they won't have to pay the damages. People, do you not understand?
But from the beginning, God Almighty has been the wrath, and Romans
chapter 1 clearly says the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all unrighteousness and ungodliness. The wrath of God. God is not
just love. God is angry with the wicked
every day. God hates all workers of iniquity.
That's the Bible. That's God's Word. If you don't
believe it, throw it away. Throw the Bible away. If your
preacher is not saying that, throw him away. Go find you a
man that is preaching God's Word, the true and living God, what
God says. The wrath of God, Romans 1 18,
is revealed from heaven. People, calamities, disasters,
hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, disasters, Pestilence,
famine, what happened to Egypt of old? Huh? The Egyptians didn't have a clue
what was happening, although these plagues were coming down
upon them. The people of God did. Israel
knew it was God's hand upon them. And the same today. Throughout
history, God has judged men, has poured out His wrath upon
them by withholding the rain. If God simply withholds the rain,
that water that comes down from heaven, that gift of God that
this planet, the life of this planet is sustained by, water
from heaven, a miracle of God, all God has to do is withhold
it. Oh, we have all our scientific reasons, this cloud and this
moisture gathers and so forth. Oh, hath not God made foolish
the wisdom of this world, professing themselves to be wise? They became
fools. God Almighty is the one that
withholds the rain and dries up this planet, and men, all
they do is curse Him for it. They don't acknowledge His hand
when He sends it, His goodness. And it goes on to say there in
Romans 1, verse 18, it says, ìThe wrath of God is revealed
from heaven. against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men." Have you ever heard anybody today say that Katrina
was a wrath of God against that ungodly place called New Orleans? Well, here's one preacher that
says it. God who controls the wind and the floods and the seas
sent it and wiped them out. Would anybody say that? No. No,
we all go on our little missions down there to rebuild it and telling them
how much God loves them didn't want this to happen. Abraham didn't say that of Sodom,
nor should we. The wrath of God. And I'm not
saying New Orleans is any worse than Rocky Mount, Virginia. It's
just more widespread. And he goes on to say in Romans
118, they hold the truth in unrighteousness. They've got a Bible in their
hands, Bible in their lap, The preacher's got a Bible in the
pulpit, but they're not preaching it. They're not listening to
it. They're not heeding it. And so Daniel, a godly man, a
true man, a true prophet of God, warning the people, telling them
who God really is, confesses his sin. Yes, he's a sinner.
And he confesses the sins of his people. Oh, may the Lord
have mercy upon the United States of America. and us individually. If he does not, we are goneers.
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven. Confess your sins
and forsake them is my message. Amen.