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Sunnyside Baptist Church

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February 14, 2022

Sunnyside Baptist Church "Covenant Faithfulness" Pt 3 Daniel 9:1-27

03:55: Welcome everyone. It's good to see you this morning.
04:02: I'm gonna hunt for my bulletin real quick so I can do the announcements. Nope. Okay, here's what we're going to do next week.
04:09: Next week will be the 20th and the week after that is the 27th and that will be our fourth
04:19: Sunday of the month. And on the fourth Sundays of the month, we last Sunday of the month we have communion.
04:25: So be aware of that. Make sure that you can make it here for that special service.
04:32: And that evening we'll be having truth group, which because of sickness last time we didn't have to get to have that last month.
04:39: So this month will be the first truth group of the year. So please be aware of that and make time for that as well.
04:48: Any other announcements that I need to relay to the body over the PA system? Anything at all?
04:57: I think that we might say, welcome back Miss Janice.
05:03: We love you. It's good to see you.
05:10: It warms my heart. All right, wonderful. Okay, we're going to have a time now where we spend some time praying, preparing our hearts for worship.
05:23: And after that time we're going to have an elder come up and pray. Who's up for praying this morning?
05:29: Okay, Brother Ken's gonna come up and pray for us here in a moment. Merciful and gracious God, you who are slow to anger and abounds in steadfast love,
07:01: Almighty God, we praise you that you don't hold your anger against us forever or deal with us according to our sins nor repay us according to our iniquities, but that you are indeed the
07:22: God of mercy and grace, a
07:27: God who forgives, a
07:34: God who in mercy has provided for us a Savior, Jesus Christ our
07:41: Lord. Lord, we could never, we will never even in all of eternity be able to say thank you enough.
08:03: The Lord may even now in this moment, may you stir our hearts that worship would rise from within and give praise to your holy name for your loving -kindness, your steadfast love, your mercy, your grace, your forgiveness in Christ.
08:38: Lord, you have called us to be a kingdom of priests and may we, like the engraved symbol that was upon Aaron's head, holy to the
08:57: Lord. Lord, may we give you praise for you are holy and in Christ you have made us holy.
09:13: So may we worship you today in spirit and in truth. May your praises rise from the lips of your people this morning and we give you glory, honor, and blessing.
09:25: In Jesus' name, amen. Would you stand with me for our call to worship?
09:45: In Sunday school this morning our class was talking about the sovereignty, God's sovereignty that he rules over all and we're gonna see that in this passage, whether it be over the largest creatures in the sea, whether it be over the solar activity processes here on earth, he is sovereign and he is in charge.
10:08: He is ruling over the affairs of men, so whether he's watching over his his children and seeing righteousness as proclaimed throughout the earth, he also does not let the evil ones go unpunished.
10:28: So we're gonna see this in Psalm chapter 74 verses 13 to 18. Read with me together.
10:34: You divided the sea by your might. You broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters.
10:42: You crushed the heads of the Leviathan. You gave him this food for the creatures of the wilderness.
10:49: You split open springs and brooks. You dried up ever -flowing streams.
10:56: Yours is the day. Yours also the night. You have established the heavenly lights and the sun.
11:03: You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth. You have made summer and winter.
11:10: Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs and how foolish people reviles your name.
11:21: And if you would turn in your Psalms for worship hymnal, page 74B, we'll sing verses 7, 8, and 9.
11:34: Yet God my King rings forth. And then our little black hymnals, if you would turn to page 6, we'll sing
14:13: All People That on Earth Do Dwell. Our scripture reading this morning is from the book of Isaiah in the 15th chapter.
17:31: We will be reading the entirety of the chapter. The Burden Against Moab.
17:41: Because in the night, R of Moab is laid waste and destroyed.
17:47: Because in the night, Kier of Moab is laid waste and destroyed.
17:53: He has gone up to the temple and Dibon, to the high places, to weep.
17:59: Moab will wail over Nebo and over Medeba. On all their heads will be baldness and every beard cut off.
18:09: In their streets they will clothe themselves with sackcloth. On the tops of their houses and in their streets, everyone will wail, weeping bitterly.
18:20: Heshbon and Elela will cry out. Their voice shall be heard as far as Jahaz.
18:28: Therefore the armed soldiers of Moab will cry out. His life will be burdensome to him.
18:37: My heart will cry out for Moab. His fugitives shall flee to Zoar like a three -year -old heifer.
18:45: For by the ascent of Luhith, they will go up with weeping. For in the way of Haronim, they will raise up a cry of destruction.
18:56: For the waters of Nimrim will be desolate. For the green grass has withered away.
19:03: The grass fails. There is nothing green. Therefore the abundance they have gained and what they have laid up, they will carry away to the brook of the willows.
19:14: For the cry has gone all around the borders of Moab. It's wailing to Eglayim and it's wailing to Bir Elim.
19:25: For the waters of Daimon will be full of blood because I will bring more upon Daimon.
19:32: Lions upon him who escapes from Moab and on the remnant of the land.
19:40: Would you pray with me? Lord God, surely the man and the peoples and the nations that raise themselves up against you and your people and your anointed one, surely they will find themselves in a perilous position under the justice of your judgment.
20:15: But as we see in our passage this morning, not only do you hold the Wiccan in their derision and you laugh at the futility of their rebellion, you also take no pleasure in the death of the wicked.
20:37: Please forgive us when we foolishly think ourselves more compassionate and more merciful than you are,
20:44: Lord. Forgive us when we rejoice in the day of wrath reserved for the wicked without a hint of grief for their plight or concern for their souls.
21:03: For such were some of us blasphemers and idolaters, backbiters and revilers, but we have been washed and we have been sanctified.
21:15: We have been justified in the Lord Jesus Christ and through his Holy Spirit. We are not worthy of your loving kindness, but your loving kindness has made us worthy in your beloved
21:31: Son. You have made us children of God, made us heirs of glorious promises, made us citizens of an unshakable kingdom.
21:48: Thank you for your word. I pray that you would grant us understanding that we might learn from it.
21:56: And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. As we read scripture, it's very clear of our state as fallen sinners.
22:25: And my sins, there are many, yet God's mercy is even more.
22:32: Grace that is greater than our sin. But if you would, I believe there was a handout in the back.
22:39: I was able to get one. We're going to sing, His Mercy is More. And then we'll go right into page 186, the
22:46: Old Red Cross. Patient all -knowing,
23:10: He counts not their sum. Longer and stronger than darkness.
23:42: Through every morn, our sins, there are many, His mercy is more.
23:52: What patience would wait as we constantly roam?
23:58: What fatherless tender is calling us home?
24:04: He welcomes the weakest, the vilest of all.
24:11: Our sins, they are many, His mercy is more.
24:18: Praise the Lord, His mercy is more.
24:30: Stronger than darkness. Through every morn, our sins, they are many,
24:39: His mercy is more. What riches of kindness
24:49: He lavished on us. His blood was the payment,
24:56: His life was the cost. We stood near the debt we could never afford.
25:06: Our sins, they are many, His mercy is more.
25:15: Praise the Lord, His mercy is more.
25:27: Stronger than darkness. Through every morn, our sins, they are many,
25:37: His mercy is more. Praise the Lord, His mercy is more.
25:52: Stronger than darkness. Through every morn, our sins, they are many,
26:01: His mercy is more. Our sins, they are many,
26:07: His mercy is more. If He's at last
26:28: I lay down. I will cleanse and exchange it someday for a crown.
26:48: Of suffering.
27:17: Where the dearest and best of sinners was slain.
27:31: So I'll check to see if He's at last
27:43: I lay down. I will cleanse and exchange it someday for a crown.
28:13: Despised by the world as a wondrous attraction.
28:25: For the glory of God to bear it.
28:38: Your Calvary. So I'll cherish the old rugged cross.
28:53: Till my trophies at last I lay down.
29:02: I will cling to the old rugged cross.
29:11: And exchange it someday for a crown.
29:19: In the old rugged cross. It was so divine.
29:28: How wondrous beauty I see.
29:36: For it was on that old cross. Jesus suffered and died.
29:45: To pardon and sanctify me.
29:53: So I'll cherish the old rugged cross.
30:02: Till my trophies at last I lay down.
30:08: I will cling to the old rugged cross.
30:20: And exchange it someday for a crown.
30:50: Be someday to my home far away.
30:57: Where His glory I'll share.
31:06: So I'll cherish. Let's go to the
32:31: Lord together in prayer. Heavenly Father, we give praise to your name here today.
32:43: For you are righteous and you are true and you are good. You are from everlasting to everlasting.
32:52: And you are not a man who would change his mind. Nor a son of man that you would lie.
32:59: But you are perfectly true. Righteous in all that you do.
33:06: And you have given us an unfailing and flawless word. All about your son
33:11: Jesus Christ. Brought to us by your
33:17: Holy Spirit. That we may worship you. That we may conform our lives to you.
33:25: Our maker. We ask today that you would help us as we read your word. That you would rejoice our hearts with the truth of your word.
33:37: That you would nourish us and feed us. Strengthen us. That you may have the glory in our lives.
33:46: And we pray all of these things for these mercies. Looking to Jesus Christ, the one with whom you are well pleased.
33:53: Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Daniel chapter 9.
34:01: Daniel chapter 9. We have taken a couple of weeks just getting started into the themes of this chapter.
34:08: Which are robust and helpful. Encouraging for the
34:13: Christian life. Verses 1 through 3 have been helpful in setting the stage for Daniel's prayer.
34:23: And of course he's praying to God that the Lord would return the
34:28: Jewish exiles to their land. That the worship of God would be restored in Jerusalem with a rebuilt temple.
34:37: These are the desires of Daniel and all the faithful old covenant saints there in exile in Babylon.
34:45: But before Daniel makes his specific request. Before we hear the details of his supplication.
34:54: He humbles himself before the Lord and confesses the shame and the sinfulness of his people.
35:03: And that's what we hear in Daniel chapter 9 verses 1 through 10.
35:09: I invite you to stand with me as I read the word of God. These are the words of our
35:14: Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through his spirit by his prophet Daniel.
35:19: In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus the lineage of the
35:25: Medes. Who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans. In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by the books the number of the years.
35:33: Specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet. That he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
35:43: Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make requests by prayer. And supplications with fasting sackcloth and ashes.
35:52: And I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession. And said oh Lord great and awesome
35:58: God. Who keeps his covenant and mercy with those who love him. And with those who keep his commandments.
36:05: We have sinned and committed iniquity. We have done wickedly and rebelled.
36:12: Even by departing from your precepts and your judgments. Neither have we heeded your servants the prophets.
36:18: Who spoke in your name to our kings and our princes. To our fathers and all the people of the land.
36:25: Oh Lord righteousness belongs to you. But to us shame of face as it is this day.
36:33: To the men of Judah to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel. Those near and those far off.
36:39: And all the countries to which you have driven them. Because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against you.
36:45: Oh Lord to us belongs shame of face. To our kings our princes and our fathers.
36:51: Because we have sinned against you. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness.
36:57: Though we have rebelled against him. We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God. To walk in his laws which he has set before us.
37:04: By his servants the prophets. And this is the word of the
37:10: Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. We have a great need for confession.
37:29: Confession has been at the center of the lives of the people of God.
37:36: For a very long time. To understand what confession is. And what it looks like in our lives will be our task today.
37:44: As we look at Daniel's prayer and how he starts. And as we hear
37:51: Daniel praying on behest of his people. And describing the shame and the sin of not just really himself.
38:00: But his generation and not really his generation. But even the generations that came before him.
38:07: You might wonder. What gives Daniel the right to speak for all these people in that way?
38:14: I mean what if some of those people and even a majority of them. Thought differently than Daniel.
38:22: And here's Daniel speaking for them. And saying things about them that they may disagree with.
38:28: But it is important for us to remember. That Daniel is not speaking for the people. He is speaking for God.
38:36: He is using God's words to describe the matters at hand.
38:42: And he's doing so in prayer. And that's the essential nature of confession.
38:50: That might initially seem offensive to post -modern sensibilities. I mean shouldn't
38:56: Daniel think for himself and speak for himself? Isn't God all about our autonomy?
39:04: Doesn't God want us free to make up our own minds about values and truth and so on?
39:10: Well that certainly is what Satan suggested to Eve in the garden.
39:16: And as soon as she and Adam became free thinkers. Determining good and evil for themselves.
39:25: What did they do but start parroting the father of lies?
39:33: Discontented to be like God. Ungrateful to be made in the image of God. A man exchanges the truth for the lie.
39:41: Does he become wise? No. But he flails in folly.
39:48: Merely confessing the absurdities that have been whispered into his ear by demons.
39:56: Now confession, confession in and of itself is not taboo in our pagan culture. We're all made in the image of God.
40:03: So imitation or verbal imaging or confession is just inevitable based on how
40:09: God made us. It's not whether we will confess but what confession we will make.
40:19: There's lots of pagan confession going on today. But because pagans do not confess according to God's covenant.
40:29: Because the paganized do not confess according to God's covenant. They're only left with false standards.
40:38: Folks confess and mourn all sorts of things today. They confess and mourn their wealth or their whiteness or their westernness.
40:46: And not just theirs. They'll confess for whole groups. And they'll confess all kinds of guilt and shame and sin.
40:55: Acknowledging standards transgressed. Repeating lines that they have been taught to say.
41:00: Feeling burdens they have been taught to embrace. And because despair is the religion of paganism.
41:07: There is no salvation. Only the unending crises of race and health and the environment.
41:16: And so science has become a confession. Not a process. It's a confession that you must repeat.
41:23: Pronouns are a confession. No longer antecedents. And so confession is everywhere.
41:28: You see confession, confession, confession. Everybody must confess. At every convulsion in our society, the paganized take up their liturgy.
41:38: And bow their knees to the relevant gods. And repeat their lines. Because they will not have
41:44: Jesus Christ as Lord. They have a dozen lords. Scores of lords to whom they must confess.
41:51: Endlessly and on. Jesus says, come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden.
41:59: And I will give you rest. Now, this absurdity makes for funny moments.
42:09: And one example was the other day I was watching a football game. And professional football players were playing.
42:15: All in the name of end racism and stop hate. And they have the little logos on the back of their heads.
42:21: And it was really hilarious to watch these football players. With the slogan stop hate on the back of their helmets.
42:27: Getting into a fight and trying to choke each other out. And trying to stab each other in the eye. And try to injure each other as hard as they could.
42:34: Because they were getting along so well. Absurdities.
42:42: It's not whether you will confess. But which confession you will make. Whose version of history are you going to repeat?
42:49: Whose standards are you going to receive? Whose perspective are you going to adopt? Pagan confessions are fungible.
42:55: They're temporary. They're incomplete. Godly confession is based upon the character. The perfect character.
43:02: And unchanging nature of God. As revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ. He is the light of the world.
43:10: So when we say things his way. It results in clarity and in truth. Now God's covenant faithfulness manifests in Christ for all the saints.
43:21: By his light we make our confession. We've been looking at an old covenant prayer in verses 1 -19.
43:28: This is Daniel's prayer. But he's praying according to the principles, the truths, the hopes, and the promises.
43:35: That have been given to him. And we should do well to read this in the lens of Christ.
43:41: Not our current sociopolitical situation. We should not allegorize
43:47: Daniel's words to ourselves or to the church. But we should see how Daniel's old covenant concerns are answered in the new covenant promises of Christ.
43:59: So that's the setting of old covenant concern. But then right now we're looking at the shame in verses 3 -10.
44:05: The shame for Israel's covenant breaking. And Daniel comes before the
44:11: Lord in humility. In humility. Daniel sets his face toward the
44:19: Lord. And he does so in a humble way and prepares to pray.
44:27: And now we come to what do we say when we pray? What does Daniel say when he prays?
44:33: How does he get going? Well he gives honor to God. He gives honor to God in his confession.
44:39: Verse 4. So Daniel has set his face toward the
44:53: Lord. He has looked to the west. He has faced the direction where once a temple stood.
45:02: Promises of God were that when his people would turn to the place where he has set his name. That he would hear their prayers and respond.
45:09: And even though there's no temple there. And even if there were, Daniel's too far away to see it. He looks by faith to the shadows of Christ.
45:18: Knowing that he will be heard by his mediator. So look at this confession to God.
45:25: I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession. I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession.
45:35: First things first in prayer. Know who you are praying to. Right? Who are you praying to?
45:44: Daniel confesses to Yahweh Elohi. The Lord my God.
45:50: The Lord my God. Daniel prays to Yahweh of specific name of God.
45:57: The name by which he revealed himself to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Daniel does not pray to idols.
46:04: He does not pray to little statues. He does not pray to ancestors or to departed saints. He lights no wick for the dead.
46:12: Neither does he make his appeal to angels. Daniel prays to Yahweh.
46:18: He prays to the Lord. The previous verse says he set his face toward the Lord. To the place where he determined that his name would be manifested.
46:27: So Daniel knows to whom he prays. But more than that. Daniel prays and knows that the
46:32: Lord is God. Baal is not God. Marduk is not
46:38: God. Yahweh is God. And that was revealed to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses.
46:45: And everywhere we read about the name of the Lord. His name is synonymous with covenant faithfulness. That God always keeps his promises.
46:51: What he says is true. He always follows through. That he loves his people based upon who he is.
46:57: And not based on who they are. And he has set that name. That name of covenant faithfulness.
47:02: In the midst of his people. To be worshipped at the temple in the heights of Jerusalem. Decades of exile.
47:10: Notice this for Daniel. Decades of exile. Have not washed away
47:16: Daniel's faith. Yahweh is his
47:22: God still. And he would be forever. Notice he prays.
47:29: I prayed to the Lord, my God. I prayed to the
47:35: Lord, my God. Long before we've had problems with pronouns.
47:41: We failed to deal with the problem of this pronoun, my. A lot of dangers of this first person singular possessive pronoun.
47:51: That we're not properly dealt with. And now we've got other pronoun problems. We should not be confused by the use of my in this text.
48:01: Daniel does not speak as a pagan. Either ancient or modern. This is not the existential my
48:08: God. That I have assembled. Like a piece of furniture from Ikea.
48:15: This isn't my God. That I have acquired from the vending machine of pluralism.
48:22: This isn't my stock God. That I modify to my liking.
48:28: This is not my preferred God noun. This is not the epistemological my.
48:35: Coupled with the my truth and your truth. My experience and your experience.
48:41: Claiming we all have a conception of God. But my understanding of God is just as valid as your understanding of God.
48:49: This is the essential my. It is not a my of possession and control.
48:57: It is not a my of possession. It is a my of the possessed. Pagans own their gods.
49:04: They pick them up and they carry them off. And they bring them out occasionally to flash around signaling their virtues.
49:11: However, the saints do not own God. He is our
49:18: God. He is Daniel's God. He is my
49:23: God. But how? In the sense that a creature says, you are my creator.
49:32: In the sense that a slave says, you are my master. In the sense that a sinner says, you are my savior.
49:45: In the sense that a child says, you are my father. How often in the history of the nation had the children of Israel halted between two opinions.
49:56: Was Baal their God? Or was Yahweh their God? What of you?
50:03: What of you? Is the Lord your God? It's not about you owning him.
50:16: The question is, does he have you? It's not about you repeating the lines that you know you're supposed to say.
50:25: It's about him writing your name on his hand and his name on your head.
50:34: This is a vital consideration because prayer can be awfully frustrating for people who do not know to whom they pray.
50:44: Prayer can seem to be a futile exercise. And it's frustrating when you don't know to whom you pray.
50:51: If you pray to an unknown God. If you pray to a God that is not genuinely known by you.
51:00: Can you say with your own mouth, my God. When it comes to prayer, there are plenty of grieving and hurting and desperate folks.
51:11: Who are willing to try out a few requests to a God. Even to the
51:18: God. But can the frightened woman say, the Lord is my God.
51:23: Can the reeling man say, the Lord is my God. We live in a world today where plenty are willing to own up to praying.
51:34: But are they willing to be owned by the one to whom they pray.
51:43: Is that disgusting to you? Friend, that's salvation. To be purchased by the blood of Christ.
51:53: To be owned by God as creator and master and savior and father.
52:02: Can you say by Christ, by his righteousness and his redemption, by his resurrection and by his reign.
52:10: That the Lord is your God. You don't have to toss whimsies up and hope that they land right.
52:17: And who knows. You can set your face toward God through Jesus Christ.
52:23: Believe upon him. Believe upon him. He has come to save sinners.
52:30: Flee your idolatry. Trust him alone. He died upon the cross. He is the righteousness of God for us.
52:38: God has made him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf. That we might become the righteousness of God in him.
52:46: He has bore our sins upon the tree. And the certificate of guilt and shame and debt that was written against us has been taken out of the way.
52:57: And he has been raised from the dead as our justification and for our eternal life.
53:05: The promise of the scriptures is this. If you confess the son by the spirit, you have the father also.
53:11: And you may say, he is my God. Confession is central to the life of the saints.
53:23: We begin with knowing to whom we pray. And then what do we say? What about this communication that goes along with the relationship?
53:32: I pray to the Lord my God and made confession. Made confession. How does one make confession?
53:41: How does one make confession? Well, what you do is you wait for your lawyer to look over the document.
53:46: And then you sign and plead the lesser charge. Right? No?
53:53: No. What you do is you wander into a Roman Catholic shrine and enter a two -sided booth. Where you bare your soul to the vicar who will render forgiveness to you upon the proper price of penance.
54:05: Is that how you make confession? No. Biblically, to make confession in your prayer is to tell
54:15: God how it is. Not how you see it. But how he sees it.
54:22: Confession simply means to tell God how it is. Not based on how you see it. But on how he sees it.
54:30: The Hebrew term for confession speaks to a hand that is outstretched and that is opened.
54:36: Here is everything of me to the one who is everything to me according to everything that you have said.
54:48: That's confession. That's confession. It's being in agreement with God based upon his own terms.
54:58: Now isn't that the opposite of little children in trouble? The pensive look upon the face.
55:05: The fist behind the back. The not -so -subtle walkabout trying to avoid prying eyes.
55:15: What do you say? Hey, come here. What do you got? What are you hiding? And depending on the age of the child, you may have to actually pry the fingers open to find the contraband.
55:28: No, that's the opposite of confession. Do we think that we can truly hide anything in our lives from God?
55:37: There is no creature hidden from his sight. But all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
55:45: Hebrews 4 .13 You know, God did not call to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden because he did not know where they were.
55:52: He did know where they were. He called them because they were not where he was.
55:59: Hands open, confessing his glory with clean hearts. You have heard it said that communication is the key to good relationship.
56:10: I tell you, confession is key to your relationship with God. When the scriptures talk about relationship with God and abiding with God and being at peace with God, confession is always central.
56:26: Let us fear the Lord and come to him in prayer. Hands open. Nothing to hide.
56:33: Now, the question for our text is why is Daniel making confession? Why is Daniel coming before the
56:39: Lord, hands outstretched and open, grasping the word of God and praying to God and confessing sinfulness and shame?
56:47: Well, he had seen in the Bible, he had seen in the prophecies of Jeremiah this promise of a 70 -year time frame.
56:56: Daniel knows God's word to be restored to the land. Indeed, to return to the worship of God and blessed communion with him, confession is necessary.
57:05: And this was known all the way back from Leviticus, Leviticus 26, verses 40 -42. God speaking through Moses about a sinful and rebellious people.
57:16: But if, but if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, and Daniel does that, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to me, and that they have walked contrary to me, and that I also have walked contrary to them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies.
57:36: That's where Daniel is. He's living in the land of his enemies, with the exiles. If their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they accept their guilt, then
57:47: I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and my covenant with Isaac, and my covenant with Abraham. I will remember,
57:53: I will remember the land. So confession is necessary.
58:00: Here they are in a foreign land, they have generations of sin and covenant breaking, and Daniel is praying for the
58:08: Lord, representing the people, and he's saying, Lord, we are full of shame, we are full of guilt.
58:14: You were right to exile us because we were contrary to you. This is what he's confessing in his prayer.
58:23: God asks his people in Amos chapter 3, verse 3, Can two walk together unless they are agreed?
58:32: Can two walk together unless they are agreed? It's going to be a beautiful day tomorrow,
58:38: Lord willing. Valentine's Day, perfect time to take a walk. But you know, if you and your beloved can't agree on what direction to walk, it may not turn out so swell.
58:53: I want to walk this way. No, no, no, I want to walk this way. Well, have fun. That's not communion.
59:03: That's not a loving relationship. How can two walk together unless they are agreed?
59:08: And it wasn't that God stepped off the path and went the wrong way, it was his people who broke covenant with him and rebelled against him.
59:17: God walked, remember, he walked with his image bearers in the garden in the cool of the day until Adam and Eve rebelled against God's word.
59:26: They stopped confessing. They stopped being in agreement with him. And so he exiled them.
59:33: And then God pitched his tent among his people in the wilderness and he indwelt his house among his people in Jerusalem.
59:40: And there God's people lived in God's place, blessed under his rule. There they were in agreement.
59:47: But when they rebelled against his word, when they stopped confessing God's glory and their sin and God's provision and their need, like Adam and Eve, they were exiled.
59:57: And the only way back is to confess, to come back into agreement with God, who is the standard.
01:00:06: Unless they came back into agreement with God, how could they walk together again? How do we come back into agreement with God?
01:00:17: How do we come back to God? Jesus Christ is the
01:00:23: Word of God. Everything that God wants to say about himself, he has said through Jesus Christ, who is the exact representation of God, the fullness of his glory.
01:00:37: If you want to know who God is, you look at Christ. Jesus says to Philip, have you known me this long, Philip? And you don't know.
01:00:44: If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. Jesus Christ is the Word of God, the exact thing that God wants to say, all that he wants to say about himself, he has said through Christ, and everything we need to know about who
01:00:56: God is and to be in agreement with God, is there in Jesus Christ. He is fully God and he is fully man, and in the new covenant he does everything that is required to bring holy
01:01:06: God and sinful man together again in agreement, walking together in peace.
01:01:13: 1 Peter 3 .18, For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.
01:01:21: He brings us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.
01:01:28: We're going to see by the end of Daniel chapter 9, what we already know from Matthew 1 and Romans 5 and so on, the exile ends in Christ.
01:01:42: He is the Word that we must confess. By his light we know both our sins and we know his sovereignty.
01:01:51: We know our wretchedness and we know his redemption. And what else are we supposed to confess as sinners? But these truths, who
01:02:00: God is and who we are according to what God has said. Romans 10, 8 -10, but what does it say?
01:02:06: The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith which we preach, that if you confess with your mouth the
01:02:13: Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
01:02:19: For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Confession, being on the very same page, saying the very same thing that God says.
01:02:31: I'm in agreement with God. I even take God's side against myself. And the
01:02:38: Spirit says again, 1 John 1, 8 -9, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves from the truth that's not in us.
01:02:45: If we confess our sins, the Greek word homolego, the same word, we say the same word that God says about our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
01:03:00: So confess, lay it all out. According to God's own terms, agree with him. Let the amen come from your own soul that you're in agreement with God.
01:03:13: Now, Daniel says, I'm going to confess, which means I'm going to lay everything out, tell God how it is according to how he has said it.
01:03:19: I want to be in agreement with God. I'm going to say things his way. Where does he begin? He doesn't begin with himself.
01:03:28: He begins with the Lord. Notice he speaks to the character of God. He says, oh,
01:03:33: Lord, great and awesome God. That's how he begins. What is this?
01:03:41: I mean, Daniel is in sackcloth and ashes. He's fasting. He woke up that morning in exile in a foreign land, one more day in decades of judgment.
01:03:51: And he's praying towards a pile of rubble where once the mercies of God were beautifully displayed. Why doesn't he begin with himself?
01:03:57: Why doesn't he begin with his problems? Why doesn't he begin with where he's at? The mountain of shame and sorrow is a tempting starting place, but this landmark is covered in fog and is a treacherous place.
01:04:11: Daniel begins properly considering who God is. Daniel does not begin with himself.
01:04:19: The heart of man is desperately wicked. Who can know it? Personal experience is an ever -spinning compass.
01:04:26: Sorrow is a snapped anchor line. Shame is a rotted rudder.
01:04:32: Self -loathing is a blind watchman. Comparing ourselves amongst ourselves is a broken lighthouse.
01:04:40: But the fear of the Lord is the north star. The fear of the Lord. Daniel says, you are great and awesome.
01:04:51: We have destroyed the word awesome in the modern American tongue.
01:04:59: The older word was awful. Full of awe.
01:05:06: Dreadful. Full of dread. These are the words which used to speak to reverence.
01:05:18: So Daniel confesses that the Lord is great and dreadful. He is mighty and fearful.
01:05:24: He is too much. I can't take it. However you translate this confession, the honest reader comes away with the undeniable sense that Daniel is saying,
01:05:35: God, you are not safe. We are but the dry timber of his wildfire.
01:05:43: The debris of his F5 tornado. Whatever we may think about ourselves, we don't have a hope of getting it right unless we begin with the intensity and the immensity of God.
01:05:57: It is the fear of God which gives us our heading. In confession we are often reeling in our need.
01:06:04: We are drunk in our grief. We are staggering under sorrow. We are possessed by our shame.
01:06:09: Where do we even begin? How often do we come to the Lord and say, where do I even start? Where do
01:06:17: I even start? Even if we are broken and gripped by godly sorrow.
01:06:25: We are burned by our own sinfulness and for the wickedness of our nation. Let the first words of our mouth be honoring to God.
01:06:35: In our peril, in our dire sorrows, may the initial sobs of our grief be laced with praises to our
01:06:45: God. What did Jesus say when he taught us to pray, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
01:06:55: Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We begin with God.
01:07:02: We begin with God. And Daniel does that. He begins with who
01:07:09: God is and then he advances to how God has determined to relate to him. He begins to talk about God's covenant.
01:07:17: Who keeps his covenant and mercy with those who love him and with those who keep his commandments.
01:07:24: So God is not safe. He is great and he is awesome. But God is good.
01:07:33: And he demonstrates how great and fearful he is by keeping his covenant.
01:07:41: God is determined to keep his good promises. He will persist in his mercies toward who?
01:07:48: What does the text say? Who does God keep covenant with? Those who love him, those who keep his commandments.
01:07:59: Now those who hate him and those who rebel against his commandments, God promises to cast off and reject.
01:08:06: And there's plenty of passages that talk about that. And if it were not for the long suffering of God and his desire for the glory of his name, he would have wiped out
01:08:15: Israel more than once. Israel, corporately altogether,
01:08:21: Israel stood as the mediator of the old covenant. They were designed to display the light of God to the nations and compel them to come to Zion and teach the world about who
01:08:32: God is. And they did not do a good job.
01:08:39: Israel failed to love God. They did not love him as they were to love him. And they did not keep his commandments.
01:08:46: They broke his commandments. They rebelled against him. And everybody who lived in Israel, even those who groaned at all the wickedness, like Jeremiah and others, because they were in Israel and because Israel was a covenant -breaking mediator, everybody in Israel suffered the full spectrum of promised consequences.
01:09:05: All the promised curses for covenant -breaking. If you were in Israel and Israel was unfaithful, you experienced the curses.
01:09:13: And if you were in Israel and Israel was faithful, then you would experience the blessings.
01:09:19: And the blessings and curses rose like this, up and down, up and down through the history. Oh, they had a good king.
01:09:24: Oh, they had a bad king. Oh, things were going well. Oh, things were going badly. And why? It all depended on how faithful Israel was being as the mediator of the old covenant.
01:09:36: And Daniel prays according to the established covenant, the old covenant, and he confesses the corporate failure of Israel, and he seeks the mercy of God for yet another opportunity to repent and return to faithfulness and restore the worship of God there in Jerusalem, that they may again experience the blessings of God according to his promises.
01:10:01: That's what he's seeking for. And then God shows Daniel something even bigger than what he's asking for.
01:10:08: And isn't it great that God will give us more than what we ask for? Better than what we can envision.
01:10:14: For by the end of Daniel chapter nine, we discover that God's expression of mercy and grace and love and keeping his promises will not be restricted to the mere building of a brick and mortar second temple for the
01:10:28: Jews. Although there will be 70 years and then restoration, there will actually be 70 weeks of years and something better than a brick and mortar temple will come.
01:10:40: Something better than the restoration of the shadows of the old covenant will come. After 70 weeks of years,
01:10:47: Messiah would come and he would establish the new covenant, wherein
01:10:54: Israel is no longer the mediator for the shadow has been replaced with the substance who is
01:11:00: Christ. Now, look back at the verse. Who does God keep covenant with?
01:11:07: With those who love him and those who keep his commandments. Who loved the father perfectly?
01:11:18: Always saying what the father wanted him to say. Always doing what the father called him to do.
01:11:26: Always speaking in loving, affectionate, glowing, reverent ways of his father.
01:11:37: Who always kept his commandments, who always obeyed in every respect so that there was no sin in him at all.
01:11:45: Who was that? It is Christ, the mediator of the new covenant.
01:11:51: And as in the old covenant, your ride of blessings and cursings were entirely dependent on how well
01:11:58: Israel as a whole was doing. In the new covenant, here's good news. Christ is not up and down, all over the place, sometimes failing, sometimes succeeding.
01:12:12: All who come to Christ will find their curse taken away.
01:12:19: And the blessings of the covenant keeping mediators are ours by faith in Christ through the spirit.
01:12:25: We will know the blessings of the covenant as we abide with Jesus.
01:12:32: Abide in him, he is the vine, we are the branches. Abide in him, he is the head, we are the body. Abide in him and you will know the blessings of being in communion with God.
01:12:45: So Daniel prayed according to the old covenant that looked forward to Christ. We should pray according to the new covenant that has been brought to pass by the blood of Christ.
01:12:54: And as we're told in the New Testament and promised in the old, that new outclasses the old in every respect.
01:13:02: The old has passed away. Behold, all things have become new. So when we pray, pray according to God's revealed standard, mediated in Christ as our savior and as our sovereign.
01:13:18: And we can pray personal prayers and confess our sins by the light of Christ, who is our savior, by whom we have forgiveness.
01:13:30: And we can ask for him to supply all that we need to follow him as our king. And we can pray bigger prayers.
01:13:37: We can pray as we see about in our nation today and in our community. We can pray about things going on with our extended families.
01:13:45: And we can pray about things that we see going on across the world. How are we going to pray? Let's pray according to the light of Christ.
01:13:55: We can pray for the salvation of sinners. We can pray for the new birth. We can pray for God to bring a revival in which he brings the grace of repentance and faith to people all over this world and in our country.
01:14:07: And we can pray that Christ's sovereignty and his reign will continue and increase so that every enemy of Christ will fall before him in submission.
01:14:21: We can pray that all things will be reconciled by the blood of Christ's cross and that he will have the preeminence in all things.
01:14:31: Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you for the time you've given us in your word. I pray that you would help us to be confessing people.
01:14:39: That we would confess Christ. That we would confess your truth.
01:14:45: That we would say things your way about our own lives and about everything else going on around us.
01:14:53: Lord, I pray that you would remind us to pray starting with who you are in all of your glory and splendor.
01:15:00: And we pray these things for Christ's sake. Amen. Will you stand with me for our song of benediction?
01:15:16: David, in the book of Psalms 51, when he's confessing to God his sin of adultery and murder, says,
01:15:24: It requests the Lord wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. And then
01:15:29: Isaiah says, Though our sins be as scarlet, they shall be as snow.
01:15:43: Though they be red as crimson, they'll be as wool. So sing with me together, whiter than snow.
01:15:58: Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole.
01:16:06: I want thee for heaven to live in my soul.
01:16:14: Break down every idol, cast out every foe.
01:16:21: Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
01:16:31: Whiter than snow, yes, whiter than snow.
01:16:39: Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
01:16:48: Lord Jesus, look down from thy throne in the skies and help me to make a complete sacrifice.
01:17:07: I give up myself and whatever
01:17:12: I know. Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
01:17:24: Whiter than snow, yes, whiter than snow.
01:17:32: Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
01:17:42: Lord Jesus, for this I most humbly entreat.
01:17:51: I wait, blessed Lord, at thy crucified feet.
01:17:59: My faith for my cleansing, I see thy blood flow.
01:18:07: Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
01:18:16: Whiter than snow, yes, whiter than snow.
01:18:24: Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
01:18:33: Lord Jesus, before you
01:18:39: I patiently wait. Come now and within me undo or create.
01:18:51: Do those who have sought you who never say no.
01:18:59: Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
01:19:08: Whiter than snow, yes, whiter than snow.
01:19:17: Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
01:19:31: May the love of the Father and the grace of the Son and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all.