When Steve was praying just now,
he made this statement. We're wrong. We're bad. We're evil. I wonder how many
people in this room feel that way about themselves. Truly. When God looks in your heart
and sees. Now I think it's interesting
if you read in that prayer of Daniel that I read, the depth
of the confession of his sin. Daniel was an old man at this
time, 80s, maybe 90. And if you read the book of Daniel,
none of his faults are pointed out. he seems to have a sterling
character. Such courage, never fearing the
king, opening the windows to pray, going into the lion's den. I mean, what a man, Daniel. I admire this man. But when he prays, what genuine,
heartfelt, confession of sin before God that there is. Now,
you're going to notice that as we consider his prayer. And in
looking at the prayer of Daniel, I'm going to preach the gospel.
Now, any message that is not the gospel is a wrong message,
no matter how right it is. The gospel is the foundation
of this prayer. of Daniels. Now, do you remember
when the Lord said to Ananias after he gave him life on the
road to Damascus, he said to Ananias, arise and go to the
strait that is street and inquire in the house of Judas for one
called Saul of Tarsus for behold, you know, the rest of the words
he prayed never had before. Now he is. You see, it is only
the believer that prays. Now, if you would have, before
that experience on the road to Damascus, asked Paul about his
prayer life, he might not have said it, but he would have thought
it. It's probably better than yours. I've got quite a devotional life.
I read the scriptures touching the righteousness, which is in
the law. He would have done all kinds of bragging about himself.
But in reality, his prayer was no different than the prayer
of the Pharisee in the temple. The scripture says he stood and
prayed thus with himself. He thought he's praying to God,
but his prayers weren't getting past the ceiling. He stood and
prayed thus with himself. Now, Paul had done a lot of that
before God saved him, but when the Lord saved him, Behold, he
prayeth. Where there is spiritual life,
there will be prayer. Now, how many how-to sermons have been preached
about prayer, how to pray? How many books have been written
on how to pray? You would be best served throwing
them away. Throw them in the trash. Maybe it would be better to burn
them so nobody else will read them. Why am I saying something like
that? You know, I'm still affected by the first book I ever read
on prayer. E.M. Bound's Power in Prayer. And I'm still dogged by the things
that I read in that book about how long, and when, and how early,
and are there notches of holes in the floor
where my knees are on the floor for so long? And the point is,
power in prayer. You know, that phrase is not
in the Scriptures. And it's taken the emphasis on His power. It's
kind of a how-to, how to tap into God's power so you can have
your prayers answered. Fleshly is all it is, nothing
more. And I would really suggest any
book that you have written on prayer, get rid of it. It's no
good, I can tell you. If you pray, the Lord inspires
your prayer. He causes it. I love what David
said, my servant has found in his heart to pray this prayer. Any true prayer you have, the
Lord put it there. You didn't learn it from a book.
It's God's spirit enabling you to pray. Now here we have the
prayer of Daniel and Daniel was a man of prayer. He's called
later on in this chapter, greatly beloved. greatly beloved. And why was he thrown into the
lion's den? Prayer. You remember? When the
King Darius, and I think it was this prayer that's referred to,
when King Darius had that law made, nobody's going to pray
to any God or any man except me. You're not even going to
ask anything. Daniel knew that. He went ahead and opened the
windows three times a day and set his face toward Jerusalem
and prayed anyway, knowing what was gonna happen. And he was
in fact thrown into the lion's den because of this. Now look
in chapter nine, verse one. In the first year of Darius,
the son of Asuerus, that was the king during Esther's time.
You can read that in the book of Esther. of the seed of the
Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans. In
the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by books."
Now he was studying the scriptures. That's a good thing to do. We
know from this passage of scripture he was reading out of the book
of Jeremiah because Jeremiah chapter 25 verse 12 says this
captivity that is given to the children of Israel as a chastisement
against their sin is going to last 70 years. Now that's not
hard to understand. He read it. There it is. It's
true. He also read in the book of Deuteronomy about how the
Lord would drive them out of Israel into foreign countries
because of their disobedience. He was studying the scriptures.
Now, in the first year of his reign, king 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.
Now remember, Daniel was a teenager when he was brought into Babylon.
He was made a eunuch He had high positions in the country because
of his faithfulness and brilliance. He was a fine man. He'd been
there. This was about three years before
this took place. He was an old man, perhaps 80s,
90s. He reads this passage of scripture
and he doesn't say, well, good, we're going to leave in three
years. No, all of a sudden he pours out his heart in prayer
for God to cause this to take place. Now, here's some truth regarding
true prayer. True prayer is inspired by what
you find in the Word, and that is what you plead. Now let me
repeat that. True prayer, genuine prayer,
prayer that God the Spirit has inspired comes from you finding,
hearing something in the Word, the Word of God, the written
Word of God. Now let me remind you, this book
is the inspired Word of God. Every sentence, every word. Somebody says, well, how do you
expect me to believe that? Well, I do expect you to believe that
God created the universe. I expect you to believe that.
To not believe that is irrational, it's illogical, it's intellectually
indefensible. Something had to cause all this.
You can look at the creation and see that, as the scripture
says, you see His eternal power and God had an all-powerful being
made this place. and he's eternal, nobody made
him. You can see that without just using plain old logic. You can see that. Now, if you
can see that, you can also see that this one who's powerful
enough to make the universe is able to inspire a book and leave
it without error and preserve it. He's able and the scripture
claims this for itself. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God. Now, when we're studying this
book, when we're looking at this book, we're looking at this book
that God has inspired. I have a hard time believing
that. Well, I'm sorry. It's not hard to believe. And
as a matter of fact, if you don't have an inspired word, all you
got is my opinion and your opinion. What good is that going to do
either one of us? Not a bit. This is God's inerrant word. And if we're going to learn anything
about who God is, who we are, and what communion with him is,
it's going to be through this book. And I don't think there's
a greater example of a man's attitude toward God that God
the Holy Spirit has taught in this prayer of Daniel. And it begins with what God had
revealed 70 years. We're going to be in Babylon.
And after that, we're going to come out and look what he did
after reading that. Verse three, and I set my face
unto the Lord God. I made this my resolve to seek
by prayer And supplications, what's the difference between
prayer and supplications? That word supplications means
seeking divine favor, seeking mercy. Seeking mercy. I tell
you what, you can't seek the Lord, not seek mercy. If you
can seek the Lord without seeking mercy, you're not seeking the
Lord. No. He said, I set my face unto the Lord God to seek my
prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. Fasting. What's that? You know
what it is? It's not eating. It's not eating. He was so concerned and desirous
over this, he fasted. Somebody says, should we fast?
Well, the Lord says, when you fast, doesn't He? He does say
that, when you fast. Here's the deal about fasting.
Don't let anybody know about it if you do. It's not fasting.
As soon as somebody finds out you're fasting, it wasn't a fast.
He was, when, by fasting, by, Sackcloth and ashes. Now you've
probably seen on TV or maybe you've been in services where
people would put ashes on their forehead and so on and try to
present something. And I guess they get it from
you know the scriptures where they did that. But that's sackcloth
is the is the clothing of poverty and mourning ashes. Think how
worthless ashes are. Think how powerless ashes are.
They're not good for anything, are they? And when he's coming
into God's presence, he's coming with fasting, I desire this so
much. He's coming with sackcloth, I'm
so sinful. I'm ashes, so useless and powerless
in and of myself. Now, when you come into God's
presence in prayer, you have that awareness about yourself. Verse four. And I prayed unto
the Lord my God and made my confession and said, oh Lord, the great
and dreadful God. Now he didn't come with some
bold familiarity or flippancy, did he? Oh, Jehovah. the great and dreadful
God. Fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom, a respect, a reverence for him. And I made my confession
and said, oh Lord, the great and dreadful God. Look what he
says next. keeping the covenant and mercy
to them that love Him, to them that keep His commandments. Now,
when you come into God's presence, if I come into God's presence,
there's one thing I know I'm in need of, the covenant, the
New Testament. the eternal covenant that God
made with Christ. I can't come any other way but
that. I love what David said, although
my house be not so with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things. And sure, he's talking about
that covenant God made with Christ before time began and he was
included in it. You know, what do you think of
the covenant? What do you think of this covenant I'm talking
about? When God looks into your heart, what does he see that
you personally think about this covenant? Can you say with David,
this is all my salvation and all my desire. Though he make
it not to grow. What's this covenant to you?
Daniel wouldn't dare come into God's presence apart from that
covenant, keeping covenant mercy to them that love him, those
in the covenant love him as he is, and to them that keep his
commandments. Now, a couple of statements about
that, to them that keep his commandments. I've kept them. Lord's not gonna
have anything to do with somebody who hadn't kept his commandments.
Every believer in Christ Jesus has kept his commandments. I don't try to keep the law,
I've kept it in the beloved. and keeping his commandments,
his faith in Christ. This is his commandment that
you believe on the name of his son and love one another as he's
given us commandment. First John chapter three, verse
23. Now look at his confession. Verse five. 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
the servants, thy servants, the prophets, which spake in thy
name to our kings, our princes, our fathers, and to all the people
of the land. We didn't listen to them. O Lord, righteousness
belongs unto Thee, but unto us confusion of face, shame of face,
nothing but that which to be ashamed of, as it is this day
to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel
that are near and that are far off, and all the countries, whether
Thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they trespassed
against Thee. O Lord, to us belongeth shame
of face, to our kings, to our princes, to our fathers, because
we have sinned against Thee. to the Lord our God belongs mercies
and forgiveness, though we've rebelled against him. Neither
have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God to walk in his laws,
which he said 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. That's why we're where we're at. and the oath that's
written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, because we've
sinned against him. And he hath confirmed his words
that 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 to Jerusalem. As it's written in the law of
Moses, all this evil has come upon us, yet it hasn't done us
any good. We're just as bad as we ever
were. We haven't improved a bit, yet. Made we not our prayer before
the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities and
understand thy truth. 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've not
obeyed his voice. And now, O Lord our God, thou
hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with
a mighty hand and has gotten thee renown, as as this day we've
sinned, we have done wickedly. Now this is this very special
man, and he's an old man. Look at his personal confession
of sin. Somebody says, well, he was just
entering into the sins of Israel. He wasn't guilty of all. No believer
feels that way about himself. Every believer knows we're wrong,
we're bad, we're evil. That is what he is saying. When is the last time I have
confessed my sin before God? Taking sides with God against
myself, guilty as charged. May God enable us to do that
because the scripture says if we confess our sins, And let me remind you, that doesn't
mean audibly speaking each one of them to the Lord. Number one,
you don't know what most of them are. Number two, there's not
enough time in the day for you to do that. If you confessed
all your sins, you'd be confessing sins 24-7. Isn't that so? Sure it is. Sure it is. But oh,
this confession of sin by this man of God. Another thing that I would notice
about this prayer is how careful he was to justify and vindicate
God. Look at verse seven. Oh Lord, Righteousness belongeth
unto thee, but unto us confusion of face, as at this day to the
men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to all the Israel
that are near and far off, through all the countries where thou
hast driven them because of their trespasses, they trespass against
thee. O Lord, to us belongs confusion of face, but righteousness belongs
to thee. Think of David when he's confessing
his sin in Psalm 51. He says, against thee and thee
only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou mightest
be justified when you speak and clear when you judge. He's right. I'm wrong. Let me repeat that. He's right. And I'm wrong. And Daniel justifies
God in all that he does. Look in 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 have not obeyed his voice. Now, whenever I hear people complaining
with God's salvation or with God's providence, how could it
be fair? How could it be right? for Him
to choose one and not choose another? How could it be right
for Christ to die for one and not die for another? Or even
complaining with His providence, how could it be right for Him
to do this with me? How did this happen? My dear friend, you're barking
at the wrong tree. Whatever He does is right. And if you find
fault with Him, you think you've got something coming from Him.
You think you've got an entitlement with Him. You think that He owes
you this. No, sir. He's right. And we are wrong. There's no true prayer taking
place with that true vindication of God. Whatever he does is right. Prayer always bows to sovereign
grace. Look in verse nine. To the Lord
our God, belongeth. mercies, and forgivenesses, though
we've rebelled against him, it's in his hand. It's his to give,
and it's his to withhold. Whatever he does is right. Now,
if you sin against me, and you come up to me and say, forgive
me, it's the right thing for you to do, I'm gonna have a real
hard time forgiving you. You know, I thought Christians
forgive, forgave. You ever heard that? Christians are supposed
to forgive. You're having a problem forgiving. I'm not going to treat that real
well. Neither will you. If I do that
to you, you will neither. But if somebody comes up to you
and says, I've sinned. I'm guilty. Would you please
have mercy on me? How are you going to respond
to that? If someone's sincere and they
say, I've sinned, I'm guilty, would you have mercy and forgive
me? That's the person you're going to forgive, isn't it? Now
you want to forgive everybody. I realize that. And I want to
be able to forgive somebody that doesn't ask for forgiveness,
you know, because Lord didn't forgive me because I asked for
forgiveness, but for the Lord's sake, for Christ's sake, but
we acknowledge forgiveness. Mercy is in his hand. And if
I come any other way, if I say, well, you ought to forgive me.
I've asked. Isn't that what you're there for? To forgive me? You
ought to forgive me. You ought to have mercy on me.
I've asked. That's coming to God on the footing of merit.
You think you deserve something. Because you did something, He
ought to give it. No. There's always an attitude. This
is not just a doctrine. This is an attitude of the heart
where you know forgiveness is in His hand. What? It's His. And it's up to Him. That's the
way you come into His presence. And notice also in verse 15 in
this prayer, He pleads what the Lord has already done. Look in
verse 15. And now, O Lord our God, thou
hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with
a mighty hand. He talks about what He's already done. Brought them out with a mighty
hand and has gotten me renowned as is this day. We've sinned,
we've done wickedly. Now you brought them out. He
is pointing to the Lord what the Lord's already done in His
Word. You brought that miserable bunch
out. And all they did was sin the whole time and murmur the
whole time. And what renown, what glory you've
got in saving them. Turn with me a second to Numbers
chapter 14. Now, when we pray, we're trying
to see what the Lord said he'd do in his word, and we plead
it. Here's a real simple example.
Lord, you said it. Your son came into the world
to save sinners. You said that, not me. You said it. I'm a sinner. Save me. Now, that's not presumption. That's taking God at his word.
That's David saying, do as thou has said. Now, Numbers 14. This is after the Lord said he
was gonna wipe them out when the spies came back from the
promised land and said, we can't go in there, it's too dangerous. The Lord tells Moses, I'm gonna
kill them all, verse 15. This is Moses speaking to the
Lord. Now if thou shalt kill all these people as one man,
then the nations which have heard the fame of thee, well, they
heard about how the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, part of
the Red Sea, brought them into the promised land, Then the nations which have heard
the fame of thee will speak, saying, Because the Lord was
not able to bring this people into the land which he swore
unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.
That's what folks are going to say if you kill us all. And now
I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great according
as thou hast spoken, saying, The Lord is longsuffering and
of great mercy. forgiving iniquity and transgression,
and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity
of the fathers unto the children of the third and fourth generation.
Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people, according to
the greatness of thy mercy, as thou hast forgiven this people
of Egypt even until now." Now, Daniel's bringing that up. And
he said, do that for us too. do that for us, too. Now, if
I'm ever going to pray, I'm going to find out what God has said
in His Word, and that's what I'm going to plead. And that's
what Daniel did at this time. Salvation is of the Lord. Now, here we have the gospel,
verse 16. And the gospel's throughout this, but listen to this. I think
this is amazing. according to all thy mercy and
grace. I beseech thee, let thine anger
and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem. Now, I didn't
read that right, did I? He didn't say, I beseech you
by your mercy and grace. He said, I beseech you by your
righteousness. Now, the only way that statement
can be understood is in light of the gospel. God made a way in the Gospel
to be just and righteous and justify somebody as evil as me. And this is what He's calling
upon him to do. By your righteousness. You see, the Gospel is the... I'm not ashamed of the Gospel
for it's the power of God unto salvation to the Jew first and
also to the Greek for therein in the Gospel righteousness of
God revealed. What is it the people were ignorant
of who were not saved? They being ignorant of God's
righteousness. They're ignorant of his righteous
character or they wouldn't try to be saved by their works. They're
ignorant of His righteousness in damning them and passing them
by. And they're ignorant of His righteousness in saving them
through the Gospel of Christ making them righteous. But He's
pleading righteousness. That's the only... Not just mercy.
Lord, save me in a way that honors and glorifies Your righteousness
and all Your character. That's what He's asking. He's
pleading the righteousness in the Gospel. "'O Lord, according
to all Thy righteousness I beseech Thee, "'let Thine anger and Thy
fury be turned away "'from Thy city Jerusalem, Thy holy mountain,
"'because of our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers
"'in Jerusalem, and Thy people have become reproached "'to all
that are about us. "'Now therefore, O our God,' "'hear the very heart
and soul of the gospel. "'Now therefore, O our God, "'hear
the prayer of Thy servant and his supplications. And cause
thy face to shine upon the sanctuary. He's talking about the temple
that's desolate and it represents the church. The habitation of
God. Cause thy face to shine upon
thy sanctuary that's desolate. For the Lord's sake. I'm not presenting this prayer
because of anything in me. I'm nothing but wrong, bad and
evil. That's what he's saying right
now. I'm not talking about the way I used to be. I'm talking about the
way I am right now. This is Daniel's confession. And he was an old
man when he was praying like this. Somebody said, well, it
seems like when folks get old, you know, their sinful desires would
go down some and they wouldn't be. No, no. He is expressing
the reality of his heart. There's nothing phony about this.
This is inspired by the Spirit of God when he's confessing his
sin like this. Do this for the Lord's sake.
Oh, my God. Verse 18. Incline not here and
here. 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. It's quite clear we don't have
any. but for thy great mercies. Oh Lord, hear. Oh Lord, forgive. Oh Lord, hearken and do. Do something
for us. Defer not, don't delay. for thine
own sake. Oh my God, not because of anything
about me, not because of any righteousness I'm presenting,
not because of any promise I'm making that I'm gonna quit doing
this sin and I'm gonna start doing this good thing. No, I'm
not gonna come into your presence in such hypocritical language,
not at all. I'm asking you to do this for
this one reason, your own sake. Be kind, tenderhearted. forgiving one another even as
God, for Christ's sake, had forgiven you. He didn't forgive you because
you asked for forgiveness. He didn't ask you because of
the sincerity of your prayer. He didn't forgive you because
your promise to do better or the things you could do for him.
He did it for Christ's sake. 2 Samuel 9, 1. David said, is there any of the
house of Saul, my enemies, the ones who ought to be put to death,
is there any of the house of Saul that I can show the kindness
of God to for Jonathan's sake? God says, is there any of the
house of Adam that I can show the kindness of God to for Christ's
sake? First Samuel 12, 22, Samuel says,
the Lord will not forsake his people for his great namesake. It pleased the Lord to make you
his people. Psalm 23, verse three, he leadeth
me. I love that hymn. He leadeth
me, O blessed thought. He leadeth me in paths of righteousness. Why? For his namesake. Psalm 25 verse 11, for thy namesake,
O Lord, pardon mine iniquity. For it's great. My iniquity is
such that there's no reason for it to be pardoned, but for your
name's sake, for Christ's sake, for His glory, for His honor,
to exalt Him as the Savior of sinners. Psalm 108, verse 8. Nevertheless, in spite of what
they were, in spite of what they did, nevertheless, He saved them
for His name's sake. that he might make his mighty
power know. Psalm 143, verse 11. Quicken me, O Lord, give me life. I'm dead. Quicken me for thy
name's sake. Isaiah 43, 25, this is God speaking. And he says, I, even I, am he
that blotteth out thy transgression for my own sake. Not because
of anything you could provide, not because of anything you do,
I'm doing this for the glory of my holy name. 1 John 2.12, John says, I write
unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven. for his
name's sake. That's why God forgave me of
my sins. For Christ's sake. Certainly not because I'd be
a preacher. That's foolish the way people think in terms of
what I can do for God. Nothing. You're like Daniel. Ashes, sackcloth. That's me. Daniel comes into God's presence
as a sinner seeking his mercy for Christ's sake, confessing
his sin. Now in this beautiful prayer,
it began with the scriptures, didn't it? It began with a promise
from God's word. And what fear and humility, not
a irreverence, he demonstrated in coming into God's presence.
His only hope was found in the covenant. That's it. His only hope was found in that
covenant that God made with Christ before time began. That's what
the New Testament is. And we talk about the New Testament
and people usually think that's Matthew through Revelation. Well,
it's a lot more than that. It's the eternal covenant. The
eternal testament, the blood of the everlasting covenant.
How he confesses his sin. There's no phoniness about it.
How he confesses his sin. How he vindicates God in whatever
he does. How he extols forgiveness being
in the Lord's hand. His sovereign grace. He pleads
what he's done in the past. He pleads God's righteousness.
Do this in a way of righteousness. Not just mercy, but righteousness.
and his only hope that this prayer will be heard is for the Lord's
sake. And my dear friends, that is
the gospel. Let's pray. Lord, You said in your word that Christ
came to save sinners. And Lord, we know that's what
we are. We're so sick of it. But that's what we are. How we
thank you for this promise in your word, because. If we're
sinners, that means your son came to save us. And Lord, we know he doesn't
make an attempt at anything. What he does is always successful.
And teach each one of us to look to him only and cause the prayer
of thy servant Daniel to be the prayer of our heart by your spirit.
In Christ's blessed name we pray. Amen.