Priorities-04 Dan 9 — William MacDonald

National Drought and the Attack on Divine Institutions

And I'd like to think with you this afternoon National drought, drought in our country, family drought, family drought in our personal lives its cause and cure. National drought. Think of our country today and think of the divine institutions and principles that are under attack.

Almost everything that is of God that we find in the Word of God is being attacked in our country today, isn't it? Absolutely shocking every time you pick up a paper or hear in the news same thing. Think of the institution of marriage and how it's being dragged in the gutter how premarital sex is being popularized and illegalized.

A country of people living together without being married. Think of the rise of adultery and divorce and now the legalization and the Christians read all about this, they hear about this and they think what can we do?

Should we become involved socially in the affairs of the country? What can we do? I think of capital punishments. How God instituted capital punishment after the flood. He said Whoso sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood he shed.

There's no more capital punishment in the United States. I know there are still men on the death row. But capital punishment as such has fallen into disuse and it's doubtful If anybody will ever die by capital punishment in this country again.

Yet it wasn't man Who devised that it was God who instituted it and now because God did it's under attack. I think of the distinction between the sexes and how God set up this distinction and. So what do we have today?

Break it down, you know, the unisex Movement and every effort being made by men and women to obliterate these moral distinctions that God has set up. I think of the headship of men and the subjection of women that is so clearly taught in the Word of God.

Is this popular today? Yeah, you think of the women's liberation Movement and all of the undercurrents that are flowing. Seeking to undermine the Word of God. Submission of children to their parents taught in the Word of God.

Ephesians chapter 6 verse 1 now We have the children's right right amendment. Being discussed and pretty soon parents will be hauled into court. No doubt if they dare to discipline their children. I think in the Word of God of the prohibition of sexual perversion and how much God has to say about it in the Word and Now the attitude is let's legalize it as long as it's done between consenting adults.

Can you think of one divine institution that God has established that that isn't really under attack today. I Think of how many times in the Word of God I read prohibitions against nudity. Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of is a refrain that goes over and over in the Pentateuch.

So what do we have today? Features set aside. For nudity. I think of the sacredness of life as it's inculcated all through the Word of God. And now the great drive with regard to abortions and violence of every kind.

I think of the prohibitions against drunkenness and now I turn on the radio and hear that drunkenness is a sickness. And must be treated as such. What does it all mean? Did it ever occur to us that God? expects us as Christians to fall on Our faces and confess the sins of the nation as our own sins.

National Confession Through Prayer and Humiliation

I believe this is what the Word of God teaches. Think of a man like Moses leading his people out of Egypt and through the wilderness and how he stood in the gap Before God and Confessed the sins of the people as his own sin and pled for his people to change the course of history.

Didn't it God could do it again. I Think of a man like Ezra who also stood in the breach Came before God and led the people in a great time of confession and prayer made things right. I Cried to God and God shut up the heavens.

So there was no rain. Then the people moved toward God and he prayed again as a rain came in abundance. You say I know it happened all in the Old Testament. It never happens today. But I don't believe that's true.

I believe the reason it doesn't happen today is because nobody's doing it. When our country was in the depths of the terrible Watergate scandal senator Mark Hatfield And some others called for a national day of Confession and humiliation.

Some of you remember that I've tried to track down the date of it. But I have never been able to do it yet, but I remember that we ourselves Set ourselves to pray for this nation to confess the sins of the do God work.

It wasn't very long after that that some of those most explosive Watergate tapes came to light and The abscess was punctured and the pus began to flow. So God is still doing it today still doing it today.

And then last night I told you of that time when a little group of people got together in confession and prayer in San Leandro and Later prayed for the Chad Republic and got over through the government there before the weekend was over.

So I'd like to suggest to you first of all that as far as our beloved country is concerned We can do more on our knees in Confession and Humiliation and prayer than we can do in all the social activism life might come into our mind.

Learn to move men through God by prayer. England years ago named Reese Howell and there's a book about him called Reese Howell Intercessor and it's really interesting to plot to chart his prayers of confession and humiliation.

And the changes that took place in the history of the nation and of Europe at that time because a man prayed. But I believe that God is calling us to this ministry today. Conditionally we shy away from it.

From confession. Why is that is it because we know we're perfect now. We know we know that we have enough sin and frailty and infirmity to sink a battleship. But I think that probably it's a reaction against excesses when people gather together to confess and all kinds of Lurid things.

Surface, we don't want that but the principle is here just the same if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and Seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Confessing the Sins of the Church

You know in addition to drought in our nation, we can have droughts in the assembly, too and I really believe that God is looking for men and women today who will stand before him and take the sins of the church and Confess them as our own.

And when I say that I don't mean any particular portion of the church I mean the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ as it exists on earth today. Sometimes we hear of some dreadful thing that happened in some segment of the church and we kind of Freeing our feathers and say thank God it didn't happen through what.

But really if we're going to take a scriptural view We'll have to see those things as affecting the body of Christ of which we are a part. You might turn in that connection to Daniel chapter 9. I think this is one of the most vivid Illustrations of it in the Word of God Daniel.

Daniel is one of the few men in the Bible as far as I know About whom no failure is recorded no adverse comment. It seems he wore throughout the white flower of a blameless light. We know he wasn't sinless, but no failure is recorded of him and yet We read in Daniel chapter 9 Verse 3 what I'd like you to notice in these verses that I'm going to read how Daniel took the sins of his people and they weren't really his sins.

You couldn't say Daniel was guilty of them, but he took the sins of his people and he made them his own. He made them his own. This is known as eating the sin offering. It's very foreign to all of us, but it's scriptural just the same.

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 loved him to them that keep his commandments. We have sinned and you know, I really believe with all my heart that God is waiting for people to confess that today we have sin.

Confession the road to revival. We have sinned and committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from my precepts and from my judgments. Neither have we hearken them to thy servants the prophets which spake in thy name to our kings our princes and our fathers.

And to all the people of that Oh Lord righteousness belongs to 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 has driven them because of their trespass that they have trespassed against the old Lord to us belong as confusion of face. To our kings to our princes and to our fathers because we have sinned against thee.

To the Lord our God belong mercies and Forgivenesses though we have rebelled against him 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 and so he goes on in this most eloquent prayer of humiliation and brokenness.

Before God and then they happen. Yeah. I've brought the people back from captivity. He always does he always does when men will stand in the breach and intercede before him and confess. And humiliate themselves.

God brings his people back from captivity. Think of the situation in the in the church today. Think of the scandalous cases of immorality. Think of Christian leaders who have been corpses have become corpses along the highway of Christian service.

What when we hear this, what do we feel? It should really bow us in contrition before the Lord think of the divorces the separations. The the broken homes today what an advantage the enemy Has gained.

I never hear it in our prayer meetings. Think of the children who have become rebels and even apostates from the Christian faith of the drugs and the liquor and the free love. And think of the terrible tension that exists in so many homes between the children and the parents.

What is this something that we just want to sweep under the carpet and feel that if we say nothing about it It will go away. Well, that's not God's way. God's way is to drag it out of the open and confess it before him and humble ourselves before the Lord.

Spiritual Drought in the Assembly

Think of the desecration of the Lord's Day. I don't know how you feel about the Lord's Day. I I'm afraid that too many Christians. It's just another day of the week, but I don't believe that. I really believe there's a divine principle.

I know that we're not under the law and I know that we're not Sabbath observers. But I believe there's a divine principle there and I really believe that the Lord's Day is a day in which set apart from our secular affairs we can dedicate it to him in a special way that he can't the other days of the week and So what goes through my mind is not is it wrong for me to do such a thing on the Lord's Day?

But how can I give this day to him in a very special way? I really believe if we love the Lord will love his day as well. But largely today the Lord's Day has become a day of recreation and most people wouldn't Allow the local meetings of the assembly to interfere with a trip to the mountains with it.

Or am I being too frank? I don't like to step on toes very muchlessness. Think of the prayerlessness in the church today the terrible blight that is over our churches and over our Assemblies are occupied with everything else and prayer is the last the last resort.

Has it really come to this? I'd like to suggest to you that in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ today. We we have a great deal of ministry without function. You know what I mean? We go through our meetings.

And the meeting is over. And we gather around we joke we talk about the baseball score and really we don't go home smitten. Before the Lord knew me. I'm sorry to say that in all too many cases. It's just a rehash of the obvious and The meetings are ho-hum meetings.

So I feel this is something we have to come before the Lord. I I really believe today that we're suffering a famine of the Word of God. And I think the famine of the Word of God is worse than the drought that the nation is experiencing today.

The famine of the Word of God. Where will God find men? Where will he find a family who will bow before him and Confess. I think of some of the dull worship meetings. You know, I think there's nothing Nothing more wonderful than New Testament principles when they're carried out in New Testament power.

But God help us when we have the forms without the power. There's nothing worse than that. Sometimes I feel that some of the meetings need nothing more than closing down really so. Taken up with TV. Which incidentally is very poor preparation for a worship meeting, isn't it?

Very poor preparation For a worship meeting and we come there and we're dumb priests. We have nothing to say no basket offering to bring to the Lord. I Think of the few that are being saved in the day in which we live and you know.

It's wonderful how we can become so accustomed to it. We don't think anything of it. We just Accepted this being well, you know, we're living in the last days a day of small things. Don't despise the day of small thing.

But really it is a tragedy when you think of how we can be accustomed to seeing souls going down to hell and not really care. I think that we should get before the Lord and and Confess as far as our assemblies are concerned the sin of Sodom.

You see what's the sin of Sodom? Well, it says in Ezekiel 16 verses 49 and 50 that the sin of Sodom was pride fullness of bread and Prosperous ease and that where we are today pride fullness of bread and prosperous ease.

Well, it's easy to get discouraged and think there isn't any hope but there is hope and wherever God gets a man or a woman. Or men and women will really lay hold of him and and come before him in confession of these sins.

Taking the sins of the church and making them our own God works. Some years ago on an island off the northwest coast of Scotland. There were two elderly women. You say what can two elderly women? Well, I tell you these women could pray and they were really appalled by the conditions on that island.

In some ways it's the island of Lewis. It's rather an unusual island. The children learned the Word of God in the school. Somebody said they know more about Ezekiel and they know about mathematics. So it gives you an idea under the background anyway of the people.

I don't think you could find many people on that island that didn't know the gospel but these women were really are really consumed with a Call of the sin of the people and they started to pray. They prayed that God would visit this island with his mighty power and After some time God gave them a promise that he was going to do that.

But he was going to sweep that island with his reviving power. There was that subjective Knowledge that came to them that God had answered their prayer and God was going to work. And so they wrote to a man on the mainland named Duncan Campbell.

He's connected with a faith mission there in the mainland and they told him that they had prayed Confessed to God and bowed in humiliation before him and God had given them assurance that that he was going to work and they said they felt that he was God's man to come over at that time and minister to the people.

Well, Duncan Campbell was having a crusade there in the mainland and he wrote back and told them so sorry. You know having a great crusade here in the mainland and I can't come. Well, they dipped their pens in acid and wrote a tart letter back to him.

They said whether he came or not. God was going to work and if he didn't come he'd missed the blessing and when when. When their second letter reached Duncan Campbell his crusade had evaporated. There was nothing left and he got on the next he got on the next ship and crossed that little body of water between.

And when he got there God was already working. The people were in the churches till four o 'clock in the morning praying people were getting saved right and left. Here's a drunkard and he's walking home and nobody talking to him.

He bowed by the side of the road. He saved before he ever reaches home. Out there in the moors the men often they have little huts out there. They call them bull hens and they go out there and drink. I have that great drinking parties out there.

And they were going to go out while this revival was going to go out what's going on. They were what some of them were going to go out to one of these bull hens and have one of their drinking boats. And so they said to one of the fellows now, it's your turn to buy the liquor.

You buy the liquor. He said that how much do you want me to buy and they told him and he said him. He said I think you better buy more than that. He said I have a feeling this is the last time I'll ever be coming and it was and before the next time he was swept into the kingdom of God.

And I had a cousin named Norman Morrison. He had come back from the war and he had a plate in his head is he had shrapnel had lost the sight of one Eye shrapnel in the other eye and he had a plate in his head.

If he leaned over he lost consciousness couldn't get a job and he started to drink and he became a drunkard and His mother used to see the fellows come by and take him off at night and she knew that he'd come back tanked.

But this revival came along. He didn't want to go to those meetings, but he went power of the Spirit of God came upon him and he went to the meetings and he was gloriously converted and Afterwards when he'd be walking down the street of the village the people that pull aside the curtain and look and they'd say word sin abounded grace did much more abound and literally hundreds of people Were saved and swept into the kingdom of God.

At that time and very few of those who were saved at that time have ever gone back into the world. There was a real moving of the Spirit of God even girls from that island that were working down in Glasgow and in London.

When the revival was going up in the northwest of Scotland and they're working down there. The Spirit of God would come upon them and say you better go back to Lewis and they'd go back to Lewis and they'd get Saved.

How do you account for it? Well, I'll tell you how I account for two old women Got before God in confession of sins. They confessed the sins of that island and of the church as their own. They cried to God and God heard from heaven and he healed the land and he saved so.

It's real. And it could happen here in the United States, too. And I believe when we take God at his word, we'll see these things have no drought. Personal drought comes right down to our own lives. It's so easy for me Just to think well here I am and I'm going along and everything is well and nothing to be worried about.

Personal Drought, Worldliness, and Television

But really I think if we look at ourselves today We'll realize that we're a pleasure-loving people. Is it true a pleasure-loving people lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God? And whenever the cross Moves up in the pathway ahead of us We can find all kinds of retreats all kinds of escape routes to avoid the sharpness and pain of the cross.

The Lord deliver us. How many living double lives today. You think of the coldness and the bitterness and the cynicism that's so easy to come in Among us as people of God Don Norby mentioned in his prayer.

Think of the gossip and the backbiting that goes on actually tears local churches apart local fellowships. What's the answer to this. All the answers given to us in the verses we've read tonight we have become a People who are TV worshippers.

Really I don't know how you feel about it, but I really feel that that TV Has detrimental value of unspiritual life today that few of us really realize. I don't say there aren't things on TV that are Interesting and educational and all the rest, but I'm thinking taking it as a whole.

It's a mass of filth and certainly not edifying. In the days of the early church devotedness to Christ was seen in people willing to die. I think today devotedness Is seen in people willing is willing to get up out of an easy chair and go off and shut off the TV.

I Think it takes the same kind of spine and it's the same kind of backbone. May the Lord deliver us and may the Lord deliver our children. From the terrible brainwash. Every magazine secular magazine I pick up today tells about the detrimental effects of TV.

Really the secular magazine last issue of readers diners. Why why Johnny can't write. I think and TV is very prominent. And why Johnny can't write. Why do we have a nation of crime and violence. Well because we learn it on TV.

And every magazine you pick up has something like that and yet on we go. We're really largely a worldly people. What does it mean to be worldly? I think a worldly man is a man who's Has a love for passing things a love for passing things, and this is a blight on the church today.

I think of the personal feuds and Animosities that have been among the people of God. And what's the solution? Oh. The solution is brokenness being willing to go to one another and concess and say those words that are so hard to come by.

I was wrong. I am sorry I think of the materialism that has come in among us is the people of God today. And I really believe that God is waiting to hear us say what Daniel said in Daniel chapter 9. Sinned I don't know any incident in the whole Word of God.

The Prodigal Son and the Promise of Revival

That is more relevant and timely and true to life than the story of the prodigal son. It comes back to me all the time I can identify with him like I can identify with a few people in the Bible. Goes off everything.

Looks so attractive there in the world and he goes off of the world. Comes to the end of himself. Pain would have filled his belly with a hop that the swine did each he thinks that is of. The servants in his father's house faring better than he's bearing.

And he says I know what I'll do. I'll arise and go to my father's a father. I have sinned against thee and against heaven and thy sight of no more worthy be called thy son make me I pray thee as one of thy hired servants and off he went.

After he went to the father goes out to miss him to meet him and pretty soon. He knows the father's kiss. The arms flung around his shoulder. The best robe the ring on his finger the shoes on his feet.

The fathered calf the joy that began never ended. That's what God is waiting for us to say. I really believe it if my people who are called by my name if we'll just humble ourselves before the Lord take that low place confess our sins the sins of the church and Claim the promise of the Word of God.

There was a promise in the word that was especially meaningful at the time of the Lewis revival. And I just like to share it with you this afternoon. And maybe some of us will take this promise from God's Word and lay hold of it make it real in our lives and seek God answer it.

Isaiah chapter 44 and verse 3. Verse that is precious to me. Isaiah 44 and verse 3 it says for I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods Upon the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thine offspring.

On what kind of ground does God promise to pour the water on thirsty ground? Floods on the dry ground. I wonder our Our hearts thirsty today. For better things are we willing really to humble ourselves before the Lord and cry out to him to come in and revive the work in the midst of the years.

Corporate Confession and Prayer

Shall we just look to the Lord in confession in prayer. Oh Lord, we can honestly say with Daniel. We we have sinned and committed iniquity. And have done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments.

And Lord, we would come before you this afternoon and we would confess to you the sin of our nation but we have the terrible scandal and disgrace of Watergate. But all the reproach that is brought upon this people in the weakening of the nation in international affairs.

We confess it Lord as sin. And I say we think of the bribery on every hand. We think of the corruption Lord as a way of life and we think of how all of our Government seems to be built on the big lie.

We think today Lord of that the absence of that righteousness that exalts a nation and father in this 200th year of This nation we pray. Oh God have mercy upon our land. We pray that the gospel might go out with renewed power as it has not before.

We think Lord of our business lives Lord we think of how often our lips are sealed by our lives by our conduct. Think of how often we use the wisdom of this world instead of the wisdom that comes from above.

How brainwashed We often are. We think Lord of how we give priority to the dollars rather than to spiritual Values. We pray Lord that you will anoint our eyes with divine. I saw that we might see things the way you see them.

That we might be radicals for the Lord Jesus adhering human strictly. To the line of the word we think Lord of our assembly life today Lord. We would confess to you our Self-satisfaction. Oh God Forgive us for our comfort and ease in Zion.

Forgive us Lord that we're so blissfully unaware of the low state of spirituality in our midst today. Forgive us Lord that we have a greater interest in the sound of music than in the sound of praise.

Then in the meetings of the assembly Lord Send a revival. We pray into our assemblies and Let it begin with us. We pray Lord concerning our formal eyes. We think of the unequal yolks on every hand. They think of the separations and divorces.

Think of wayward children today and The abandonments of the family altar Lord. We think back to a day when in many Christian homes that motto was on the wall. We pray that it might become a Reality again that Christ is the head of this house unseen guests at every meal the silent listener to every conversation.

May may our homes Lord be like that house of Lazarus Mary and Martha in Bethany where the Lord Jesus loves to be. And then Lord we think of our Personal lives. We think of our Materialism our gross materialism and our covetousness.

Lord we pray that will they hold of these words that godliness with contentment is great gain. We confess to him that we are a pleasure-seeking people occupied with a world of trivia and passing things.

And Lord we think in our personal lives how we have neglected the Word of God. They didn't get once again of the gossip and the backbiting and the prayerlessness. But all the rest and all God we pray that We as men might go forth from this Retreat a different way than the way we came.

You pray that your spirit will come upon us in power and We pray that men will take knowledge of us. That we have been with Jesus and so we would come this afternoon Lord. And we would really eat the sin offering in your presence.

And we will pray concerning the physical drought that's in our land to Lord send the rain but even more than me and the Physical material rain we pray that you'll send the showers of reviving blessing Into our midst we ask it in the Savior's name and for his sake.

Amen. So try to get through these questions rather quickly so that we'll cover them all. The first question is is do you see a promise for the giver in 2nd Corinthians chapter 9 verse 10? 2nd Corinthians chapter 9 verse 10 Says now he that minister of seed to the sower.

Both minister bread for your food and multiply your seed sown and increase increase the fruits of your righteousness. Yes. Well, of course It is a prayer and it says it the same God who provides the seed for the farmer to plant his crops Is able to provide bread for you and give you seed for sowing that you might have an abundance Harvest and so it definitely is a promise for the giver.

Giving, Stewardship, and Heavenly Treasure

I think A Similar promise is found in the 8th verse. Don't miss the 8th verse. It says God is able to make all grace abound toward you. That you have always having all sufficiency and all things may abound To every good work.

And if I can just paraphrase that in simple language It says that God is able to give you the ability To be an investor for him if you really want to be. That's what it says. If a man really has the desire to give to the work of the Lord, the Lord will fulfill that desire.

I really believe that's true too. God is able to make all grace abound to you that you always having all sufficiency and all things may abound to every good work. So let's claim these promises from the word.

Question two. How do you feel about? Investments. Provided the income goes totally toward the Lord's work. Well, what do you think about that in the light of Matthew? Chapter 6 verse 19. I have to ask you are those investments laying up treasures on earth?

If they are the answer is Put them to work for God not the interest on them. I know these are hard sayings. But what else can I say in the light of verses like like Matthew 6 19 says lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth.

Or moth and rust of corruption where thieves break through and steal. Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. So send those lovely investments on before you. Do your giving while you're living then you're knowing where it's going.

Salvation by Grace and the Lordship of Christ

Some brethren say that accepting Christ as one Savior and Making him Lord of my life are necessary conditions of salvation. This has caused me a great deal of confusion. Since I have always thought salvation is by grace alone.

Did you explain how salvation is contingent on making him Lord of my life? Well, of course there are. It's quite a debate goes on in this subject or those that say that you're saved by Grace through faith plus nothing.

And others say that really in the act of salvation you must crown him Lord of all. If he's not Lord of all then you're not. Then he's not Lord at all. Well, I take great comfort in the fact that God is sovereign and he's greater than all our little debates down here and.

And There are problems here. For instance, if you say that in order to be saved you have to crown Jesus Lord the question comes up. How much? How much do you have to crown him Lord? Remembering that that nobody Crowns him Lord completely, you know.

After we've done the very best we're still unprofitable servants. So if you make The Lordship of Christ a condition of salvation you do run into problems. On the other hand if you say that you can Trust Christ as Savior with a mental reservation that you're not going to make him Lord while you're running into problems there, too.

You're running into problems there, too. So I take real comfort in this fact that whenever God sees that That that spark of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, he saves the soul. And he's bigger than I am and he can sort out all these things.

He really can certainly the Lord Jesus should be Lord of our lives. And that begins with a process and with a crisis and should go on to a process. Please make suggestions as how a Christian family should handle TV viewing by both parents and children.

Television, Children, and Spiritual Discernment

Well, if you really want my honest answer, I think the best way I imagine you do I really think the best way to handle this to get rid of it now. That sounds hard at all. McDonald, you know way up but.

But seriously, I know non-christian families. Who have got rid of TV and extoll the practice? But I think it's the greatest thing that's happened to their families non-christians. They got rid of it and they extoll the practice.

They recommend the practice to others. Is that does that answer? As what said earlier may his tribe increase when I was serving the Lord in Ireland. There's a company in Ireland that sells TV and their motto is brings the world into your home.

One Irishman ordered one. An Irish Christian ordered one and he saw the truck pull up and he looked up and said brings the world Into your living room and he said if that's what it does. I don't want it.

He sent it back. Well, I think that's the simplest answer to the problem if you do have TV, it certainly should be controlled with the children and.