with the understanding that came
from the Word of God. That's the first thing I want
us to see. This prayer of Daniel that we
are looking at, that Daniel prayed his prayer, with the understanding
that came from the word of the Lord. Let me read the first three
verses. In the first year of Darius,
the son of Ahasuerus, 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 I'm saying that Daniel prayed
his prayer with the understanding that came from the word of the
Lord. I, Daniel, understood by books
the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to
Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish 70 years in
the desolations of Jerusalem. And I set my face unto the Lord
God to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and
ashes. You see, he understood, and he
understood by the books, the books of the word of the Lord
that God gave to Jeremiah. Now, if you'd like to look back
to one of the passages that he has reference to in Jeremiah
chapter 25, verses 10 through 12, Now remember, Jeremiah lived
until the Israelites were carried into Babylon, carried captives
into Babylon. But Daniel was one of those captives
who was taken to Babylon and lived a long life in Babylon.
But here in Jeremiah chapter 25, this is before they were
taken into captivity, verses 10 through 12. Moreover, I will
take from them the voice of mirth." That is, the Israelites, those
who inhabited Jerusalem, they were singing, they were dancing,
they had plenty of mirth. God said, I'm going to take the
voice of mirth and the voice of gladness and the voice of
the bridegroom. They were marrying and giving
in marriage. This sort of reminds us of what
our Lord said, doesn't it? But when he comes again, there
shall be eating and drinking and giving in marriage until
the trump sounds, until there's a shout from heaven. Things were
going well, it seems like, in Jerusalem for a while. God said, I'm going to take from
them the voice mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice
of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the
millstones, people was grinding their meal, their corn, their
wheat, to make meal, to make bread, buying and selling, 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 seventy years. I, Daniel, understood, he tells
us, by books the number of the years whereof the word of the
Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet. I want to make three points,
three observations Under this heading, Daniel prayed his prayer
with the understanding that came from the word of the Lord. I
mentioned last time, the scripture in 1 John, if we ask anything
according to his will, he heareth us. And if he hear us, we have
what we ask. The importance of the word of
God and prayer, they go together. We need the word of God so that
we will know how to pray, so that we will know what we should
ask for. And even then, we depend upon
God the Holy Spirit because we know not what we should ask.
But he helpeth our infirmities. Daniel, he prayed his prayer
with the understanding that came from the word of the Lord. Three
observations to make on these first three verses. First of
all, Daniel calls the words of the book of Jeremiah, the word
of the Lord. When he read, it wasn't a book
like we have, of course, it was a scroll. And when he unwound
the scroll, however, and read, he knew in his heart, he believed
that he was reading the word of God, the word of the Lord.
written by Jeremiah, that is true, but inspired by the Lord,
that is, God the Holy Spirit. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable, all scripture. No matter if it's
in the first seven chapters of Genesis that people like to say,
well, that's just a myth or something like that. Oh, no. All scripture
is given by inspiration of God, all 66 books in our Bible. He knew, and that's the point
I want to make, that he considered the words which he read in the
book of Jeremiah as the word of the Lord. You and I, we must
never neglect to read the word of God, to believe the Word of
God, and to hear the Word of God taught and preached. The Lord has given gifts unto
His church, and one of the gifts that He has given us are ministers,
pastors, and teachers. And it's our responsibility to
avail ourselves of the Word of the Lord, not only in private
reading the Word of God, but when we have opportunity to come
and hear the preaching of the Word of God, then we should be
here, unless we are somehow providentially hindered. But we should not take
the preaching of the Word of God lightly or for granted. Just remember this, God has chosen
by the foolishness of preaching to save those that believe. Now
my preaching is not foolishness. The world may call it foolishness,
but I know my preaching is not foolishness because I'm preaching
the Word of the Lord. And if you want to call His Word
foolishness, have your turn. But remember, this is the Word
of the Lord. I look today at the various denominations,
so-called Christian denominations that came out of the Reformation. Now there's debate whether the
Baptists came out in the Reformation or not. I tend to believe that
we didn't, even though that name was not around. But the Lord
said, the gates of hell shall not prevail against my church.
He's always had a church here and always will till he comes
again. because He has all authority. And there's always been believers
here who have believed what we profess to believe from the Word
of God. And there's always been believers
here who have taken God's Word concerning baptism to mean what
it means, and that is immersion. It doesn't mean sprinkling. It
means being baptized, that is being put under the water and
raised up because it is a picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ
that saves us. And we believe baptism is important. But what I started to say is
I see these denominations who've come out of the Reformation. They were large denominations.
Episcopalians, Lutherans, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, many of these
churches. And now you see how they've gone
away. First of all, they started ordaining
women to be preachers in contradiction to the word of God. They marry
people of the same sex. in contradiction to the Word
of God, and I could go on down the list, but the point I want
to make is they all began this downward course by rejecting
the inspiration of the Word of God. They got too smart for God's
Word. And so they think they know better,
and they can just change things because society has changed,
you know. But remember this, God hasn't
changed. He hasn't changed. So that's
the first point I want to make here. Daniel calls the words
of the book of Jeremiah, the word of the Lord. And what a
blessing. You read church history and you
find out what men have gone through to give us the Bible, God's word
in English, in German, in Spanish, whatever language the Word of
God has been translated into back in the 16th century and
the 17th century and on till today. We have the Word of the
Lord. I believe this. I do. I believe I have the Word of
the Lord here. And I'm willing to stake my whole
eternity and I know you are too, if you know Christ, upon what
this book tells me about God, and about sin, and about myself,
and about the Savior, Jesus Christ. Daniel, he knew he had the word
of the Lord. My second observation is Daniel's
understanding that God had determined the 70 years of the desolations
of Jerusalem. Now listen, did not keep him
from praying. He reads in the book, 70 years
are determined for Jerusalem to be desolate. Well, obviously
the 70 years were almost up. I'm not sure about that. When
Daniel prayed this prayer, it's going to happen. God said it's
going to happen, it's going to happen. But you see, it did not
keep him from praying. From praying and asking the Lord
to deliver his people and to deliver Jerusalem. Daniel was
not one of those who questioned if all things are ordained of
God, and they are. They are. He worketh all things
after the counsel of his own will. I don't believe there's
a tiniest flea in God's universe that is not doing exactly what
God has determined for that flea to do, as long as God gives it
life. And considering the small things,
the smallest of the small things is true of the largest of the
large things. Well, if that's the case, preacher,
and it is, why pray? Why pray? Daniel wasn't one of
those people that argue like that. He wasn't one of those
people. Actually, he knew that God, who
has ordained the end, The end being 70 years are determined,
and then they're going to be allowed to go back and rebuild
the city, the temple. 70 years are determined, but
there's means to the end. And one of the means that God
uses in everything that He does and working out His will is the
prayer of His people. The prayers, rather, of His people. This should be, and it was, an
encouragement to pray. God said, it's going to happen.
I'm going to ask for what God's determined is going to happen.
He said, that doesn't make sense. Well, it may not make sense to
you, but it did to Daniel. It sure did. You see, He did
not see this information as an excuse for inaction. Well, I
don't need to pray. It's going to happen anyway.
No need for me to pray. Oh, no. He saw it as an encouragement
to pray. An encouragement to pray is the
way he saw it. We've all seen that phrase, prayer
changes things. I hope that none, and I don't
believe any would here in our congregation, but I hope that
none of us understand that to mean that prayer somehow changes
God's purpose, because it doesn't. It doesn't change God, it doesn't
change God's purpose. The scripture says, God says
this in the book of Malachi, I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. What hope, what hope would any
sinner have of salvation if God was mutable? God said one thing today and
changed his mind tomorrow. Someone has pointed out, you've
heard this many times, that change is always either for the better
or for the worse. God can't change. What He has
ordained, what He has purposed is the best, His best. We know that. The same principle applies to
preaching and witnessing. Sending out missionaries. Well,
if God has already chosen those who are going to be saved, they're
going to be saved. Why? Why preach? Why send out
missionaries? Because the same God who's ordained
the end has ordained the means. And the means of a person being
saved is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. How shall they
believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of great joy. Good news, the gospel of Jesus
Christ. Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians
just a moment. I had a dear preacher friend
for many years and he was such a blessing to me, but I heard
him say on more than one occasions, he said, if I was assigned a
subject, I was assigned to preach on the doctrine of election.
I already know my text. Here it is. Second Thessalonians
chapter two and verses 13 and 14. But we're bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. When God
loves someone, my friends, he loves them with an eternal love. And nothing can ever change or
separate God's love from his people. We're bound to give thanks
to God. Always to God for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation. You see, election comes out of
love, out of God's love. He has chosen you to salvation
through the sanctification of the Spirit. Now that, of course,
is the new birth. This Holy Spirit comes Thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power. Inexplainable, isn't it? How
people may be sitting in the same church building, sitting
under the same ministry, hearing the same message, and one goes
out rejoicing in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. And the
other sitting right next to him maybe thinks, oh, I can't wait
to get out of here. I'll never come back. Who makes
the difference? The Holy Spirit does. Sanctification
of the Spirit. And notice, that's not the end
of it, is it? And belief of the truth. Now the truth is the gospel,
isn't it? He is the truth. The way, the truth, and the life. belief of the truth. Now notice,
whereunto he called you, he called you to the truth, whereunto he
called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, Daniel's understanding that
God had determined 70 years of desolations of Jerusalem did
not keep him from praying. And I want you to look at another
verse. If you turn to Ezekiel, turn
back from Daniel to Ezekiel, and let's go to chapter 36. And in this chapter, God speaks about the new covenant. What he will do, verse 25, then
will I sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean from
all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse
you. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put
within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh
and I will give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit
within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall
keep my judgments and do them. And we could read on, but we
won't, and you will see other I wills. God speaking, I will. But notice down in verse 37,
thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by
the house of Israel. I will yet be inquired of by
the house of Israel. What I'm saying is the same God
who's ordained the end has ordained the means to the end. And we
should never, and God have mercy on anyone who would do this,
but we should never use the truth of God's sovereignty as an excuse
for laziness and slothfulness in the service of the Lord. God
have mercy on any of us if we do that. Now here's a third observation
I want to make. Daniel set aside time to pray. Notice that in verse 3, it said,
and I set my face unto the Lord God. Now, what this means is,
Daniel, we know from previous chapters, chapter 6, verses 1
and 2, Daniel had set times to pray. He prayed three times each
day. We know that is what landed him
in the lion's den, wasn't it? The fact that he opened the window
and prayed toward Jerusalem and his adversaries knew he did it,
he prayed three times a day. But here, Daniel is saying he
set a special time for prayer. And we know that because he mentions
fasting and ashes and sackcloth. This was a special time that
he set apart. He prayed every day, obviously. but he set aside a special time
to pray. Now you say, well, Daniel must
have been one of those monks living in a monastery if he had
time to pray three times a day and then set aside time to pray.
No, he wasn't, my friends. Daniel was a very busy man. Daniel
was just under the king. There was 120 provinces, I believe, in the kingdom, and there was
a president over each one of those provinces, and then there
were three presidents over all of those other presidents, and
Daniel was one of those three presidents. He was a man of government,
a man who was a counselor to the king, King Darius. He was
not a man who just had a life of ease, no. He was a man engaged,
just like you are and I am. He had a job, he had work, he
only had 24 hours in a day like all of us, but yet he set aside
this time to pray. What a lesson for all of us.
We think we're so busy. We think we live in a time when
everything's different now. No. Things may be different,
but Satan has always done all that he can to hinder God's people
to keep them from prayer. I don't care if they lived in
the 12th century, the 6th century, the 20th or 21st century. We're
all so busy. Daniel was busy, but he made,
he set apart time to pray. Now, the second thing I want
to deal with here in this prayer, Daniel prayed his prayer, which
consisted of the confession of sin. That's the second heading
I have. Daniel prayed his prayer. which
consisted much of the confession of sin. If you notice the first
part of verse four, and I prayed unto the Lord my God and made
my confession. I have three observations to
make on this. Number one, he began his prayer
acknowledging God's greatness. Notice that in verse four. O
Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and
mercy to them that love him and to them that keep his commandments. He begins his prayer acknowledging
God's greatness. We do that. We should do that. Why would we pray to any being
who is not great? We're asking, and we'll see more
of this in just a moment, but we're asking for great things. You know that one verse which
tells, open thy mouth wide. Open it wide. God's great, all
powerful, all riches. Open thy mouth wide and the Lord
shall fill it. Daniel recognized he was praying
to God Almighty, the great and terrible God. That word terrible,
of course, has changed its meaning since the King James translation
was used. We would never use that word,
maybe thinking of someone as being terrible, but it's his
majesty, his greatness, his power, the terrible God. But you notice he speaks of his
greatness and he cites, I want to point this out, he cites three
of God's attributes. His faithfulness, his mercy,
and his wrath. Three of God's attributes. His faith, God's faithfulness,
God's mercy, and God's wrath. We see these three. First, his
faithfulness, he says, in keeping covenant. His mercy. And then, if you will, down in
verse 12, still part of the prayer. 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. His wrath. We live in a day when men like
to hear about God's mercy. Oh yeah, preacher, talk to me.
Talk to me about God's mercy. That's what I'm going to do.
I'm going to count on God's mercy. But listen, many times people
who say that, they fail to recognize and accept the truth that God's
mercy for sinners is in Jesus Christ and in Him alone. He said, I just trust in the
general mercy of God. I'm just going to throw myself
on the mercy of God when I stand before that tribunal. His mercy
comes to sinners through his son, Jesus Christ. God be merciful. God be propitious
to me, the sinner. do not care so much about his
faithfulness, and men have no interest at all
in hearing about God's wrath. Arthur Pink in his book on the
Attributes of God, that chapter on the wrath of God, and I quote,
a study of the concordance will show that there are more references
in scripture to the anger, fury, wrath of God than there are to
his love and tenderness. Look over towards the New Testament
a few pages to the little book of Nahum, this prophet Nahum. Chapter 1, verses 2 and 3, the
Lord is slow to anger, great in power, and will not at all
acquit the wicked. The Lord hath his way in the
whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his
feet. He rebuketh the sea and maketh
it dry, and dryeth up the rivers. Bashan languisheth, and Carmel,
the flower of Lebanon, languisheth. And also look down to verse Six
and seven, who can stand before his indignation and who can abide
in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire
and the rocks are thrown down by him. The Lord is good, stronghold
in the day of trouble and he knoweth them that trust in him. Second Thessalonians, the apostle
Paul writing, When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven
with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them
that know not God and that obey not the gospel of the Lord. When
men think of wrath, they think of loss of self-control and outburst
of anger. And that's often true of men,
but never true of God. Let me say that again. When we
think of wrath, we think of man's face turns red, you know, and
his veins stand out on his deck, and there's anger, wrath, loss
of control, flies off the handle, says things, mean things, curses,
curses God, angry. That's often true of men. But
listen, never true of God. That's not the way we think and
we are to think of the wrath of God. What kind of God would he be
if he took as much pleasure in evil as he does in good? What kind of a God would he be?
The scriptures teach us that he loves righteousness, he hates
iniquity. One writer reminds us of two
truths about God's wrath. First, it's always judicial.
It's the wrath of the judge administering justice. Justice. And number two, it is always
what men bring upon themselves. You read through this prayer
of Daniel and you see he doesn't try to accentuate excuse in any
way. They were in captivity, their
city was desolate, and they had brought it all upon themselves. I mentioned in a message last
Sunday evening talking about the final judgment, that men
who go away from that judgment into eternal perdition, that
everyone will go away knowing I'm receiving exactly what I
deserve. I'm getting exactly what I've
earned. The wages of sin is death. And those who go away into heavenly
joy will confess and know that they're getting exactly what
Christ merited, everlasting life. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Number two, he continued his
prayer confessing God's righteousness and the nation's sin. Notice
he says in verse five, we, we have sinned. Who does he include
in that pronoun we? I'll tell you, he's talking about
everyone he could think of. He's talking about their kings,
you read through it, their kings, their princes, their fathers,
the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, all Israel, and
myself, Daniel. He confessed, he continued confessing
God's righteousness and the nation's sin. And the third thing, he
asked his prayer, and don't miss this. Look down to verse 17. He asked his prayer for Christ's
sake. Notice that in verse 17. Now
therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his
supplications cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that
is desolate for the Lord's sake. You see, this just reinforces
what you know and what you've heard me say so many times. There
has never been but one mediator between God and man, the man
in Christ Jesus. He was promised through that
Old Testament time, and then he came, and now he's exalted
at the Father's right hand. But think about this. As I said,
He began his prayer acknowledging God's greatness. And he did so
because he had a great petition. He had a great petition. Notice
that in verses 16 and 17. O Lord, according to all thy
righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury
be turned away from thy city, Jerusalem. and 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 is desolate for the Lord's
sake. He began his prayer acknowledging
God's greatness because he had a great petition He asked the
Lord that he would turn away his anger, that he would cause
his face to shine upon his sanctuary. Why? Why should God forgive Israel? If you put yourself back into
that time as an Israelite, why should God forgive Israel? Surely
there was no reason to be found in them. Why should God forgive
you? Why in the world would he ever
forgive me? There's only one reason, my friends,
for Christ's sake. That's the only reason. Be ye
kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. That's the only
reason. Maybe you've heard the story
of a man, a very wealthy man, And he had great, great works
of art. And he announced they were going
to auction these paintings off. He had paintings by different
masters, the Dutch masters, French, English, Spanish. So the day of the auction came
and everyone was assembled there. And you could tell by the way
the people dressed, they were wealthy people coming to bid.
They knew the man's collection, what he had, and they were bidding. There was one man in the room
who looked out of place. He was standing back against
the wall. You could tell by the way he dressed, he was somewhat
out of place. But this man had worked for this
wealthy man years before. And so he came to the auction
more out of curiosity, never expecting to bid on any painting. He had a few dollars in his pocket,
but that was about it. When the auction started, you
know the story, don't you? The first painting that's put
up for auction, those art critics recognized, I'm not going to
bid on that. If I were to bid on that, people
would think I don't have any understanding, any knowledge
of of artwork, because obviously that's a painting by an amateur.
Doesn't look all that good. But the auctioneer demanded,
this painting must be sold first. What am I bidding for? Well,
the person I said who looked out of place, he recognized that
painting. He recognized that that painting
had been painted by the wealthy man's son. who he had watched
grow from a boy to a man and go off to war and be brought
back in a coffin, his body. And so he bid. Maybe he had $5, $10, whatever
it was, he bid. Going once, going twice, the
gavel comes down, sold. And the next word was, the auction
is over. We're dismissed. No, the auction is over. The seller gave these strict
words, this strict command. Whoever bought that first painting
gets all the other. They're all his. I know there's
a lot about that illustration that you can say isn't Something
we should use, maybe, speaking about Christ. But I know this,
my friends. Christ is all. I know that. And if you have
Christ, you have every benefit and blessing that God has to
give. If you don't have Christ, and
the only way to have Christ is to believe in Him, trust in Him. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. You might say, well, what
right do I have to call? You have every right. In fact,
God commands you, this is his commandment, that we believe
on him whom he has sent and love one another. You have every right
to believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. If the Lord wills that we come
back here next Sunday, I want to bring one other point from
this message, from this prayer of Daniel. But Christ is all. Amen. Let's sing a couple of verses
of number 255. 255. Let's stand as we sing. Let's sing the first and the
last verse.