[0:00] Let us join together in the worship of God by singing to his praise in Psalm 103. Psalm 103, and we're going to sing from verse 8 to verse 13.
[0:21] The Lord our God is merciful and he is gracious, longsuffering and slow to wrath in mercy plenteous. He will not chide continually, nor keep his anger still. With us he dealt not as we sinned, nor did we quite our ill.
[0:38] For as the heaven in its height, the earth surmounted far, so great to those that do him fear his tender mercies are. As far as east is distant from the west, so far hath he from us removed in his love all our iniquity.
[0:55] Such pity as a father hath unto his children dear, like pity shows the Lord to such as worship him in fear.
[1:06] We can sing these verses 8 to 13 of Psalm 103. The Lord our God is merciful and he is gracious. The Lord our God is merciful and he is gracious.
[1:33] The Lord our God is merciful and he is gracious.
[2:03] The Lord our God is merciful and he is gracious.
[2:33] The Lord our God is merciful and he is gracious. The Lord is most Nordic, and he is Of course Youρεu. The Lord is flying with us and Thank You for thanks for having usoples that do him for his συng глав incubation.
[2:52] ZANG EN MUZIEK O Lord wraths you from as you live in Wladim O Believe Such fictitious The Lord shall bow the Lord unto His children dear.
[4:03] Like the Lord shall bow the Lord unto His children dear.
[4:27] We're just joined together in prayer. Let us say, gracious God, we are thankful that we can sing of the God who is a God of mercy.
[4:43] A God who is slow to anger and who has repeatedly had to deal with sinners.
[4:57] Sinners such as we are who forget what belongs to us as a people who bear your name.
[5:10] And who readily depart from the path that you have mercyfully set before us. A path of obedience.
[5:22] A path that you have promised would yield a super abundance of good things. We bless your name for the way in which your word teaches us.
[5:37] Of the many pleasures and privileges that your people enjoy. And why they themselves have reason to bemoan the way in which they neglect these provisions.
[5:56] And rather seek other alternatives that are not so pleasurable or so beneficial.
[6:07] And they discover to their heart. And they discover to their heart how often they are in receipt.
[6:19] Rather than the good things that God has. That the things that they desire are less so.
[6:29] And in fact they are responsible for many griefs in their life. We pray that as we gather in your name at this evening hour that you would presence yourself in our midst.
[6:44] Allowing us to know that you are here. Allowing us to discern your presence. Allowing us to hear your voice. Allowing us to hear your voice.
[7:24] Allowing us to hear your voice. Allowing us to hear your voice. And we pray that you would remember us mercifully. And visit each one of us according to the need that is our. Not just temporal need.
[7:36] Although there may be many. And although there may be many. They may also be vexatious. And they may in and of themselves be of great weight.
[7:50] nevertheless there are greater still worries and woes that are before us in the light of the great eternity we pray that you would encourage us as we come before you to seek truth and to find it imprinted upon our hearts so that we could with your grace apply it to our lives and to seek with greater grace to pursue it earnestly we remember your people with all their varying needs, those present and those many who are unable to come to God's house because of their failing flesh those who are confined to their homes by reason of the frailty of the body the great decrepitude of the mind we remember them to you and pray that you would visit them where they are even through the marvel of your spirit ministering to them in the depth of their being be they at home or being cared for by others elsewhere we remember them to you remember the grieving and the sorrowful your voice is frequently heard in our midst reminding us of the fact that we are but sojourners in the world so easy for us to say that but the the fact of our brevity of existence is not something that we can overlook every time we hear of death you are speaking to us through that death soon you will speak to others through our death we may distance ourselves from that we may deny it we may resist even our thoughts dwelling upon it but the truth is that every one of us is on the same journey and we pray for your assistance as we journey on and that we would have your constant companionship until the end even as your people pour out your spirit upon us as a sin-signation remembering those who are under the gospel and yet who have not embraced that gospel remembering those who go out to proclaim it may their voice be heard may their mouth be filled from on high so that it is not a word that falls upon deaf ears but rather upon ground that is prepared even well prepared by your own hand that the seed sown may yield fruit in your time and that right soon no one of us can afford to neglect the voice of God speaking to us hear our prayers so that all who have gone out today would know the blessing of God upon their labours that they would have souls for their hire no matter where their lot is cast throughout the world remember all the nations of the earth especially the places where the gospel is an alien thing where the preacher of the gospel is someone who comes with foreign outlandish truths that no man should hear where they are persecuted for lifting up
[11:38] Christ in opposition to the myriad host of idols and false gods that this world abounds in we think of the races of the world who have such gods the vast populace of the continents where there are the evils of Buddhism and Hinduism and all other forms of of religion that deny God and that pay homage to the depths of hell itself we pray Lord for deliverance and that the name of Christ would have a rightful place amongst them and that those who are even in their homes fearful of being recognised for the love that they have for Christ that they may know much of that love and that they may be able with your help to avail themselves of provisions made for them by which the gospel is within their grasp we give thanks for the technology that allows the word of Christ to be disseminated in different parts of the world that otherwise would not be reached may the blessing of the most high God be upon all that is done all the tongues and all the cultures that are forbidding of the gospel of Christ may they be touched healingly and may they in time be turned to believe in the Lord
[13:22] Jesus Christ to the saving of their soul remember those who are in need this evening because of war we think of Hungary we think of Romania we think of places in the world where we might not be aware of the effects of war but these very places are places where war has left its own mark and has scarred the people just as surely as it is the case that the Ukraine in their active resistance of the oppressor are suffering because of that think of parts of the world that have spent the resources in arming themselves and have left their children impoverished and starving we see the wrong that is in the world and we pray for the God of heaven who is alone righteous to correct these wrongs and measurefully do what no other can remember
[14:30] Lord our world the places that are affected by the ills that are perpetuated by sinful men of all descriptions may you resolve the need of man even as you have resolved the need of man as sinners through the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Christ of the gospel the son of the most high God who embraced the frailty of the human flesh in order to encounter sin and to triumph over it we bless you for his great name lift him up before us a short time we're together and cleanse us from every sin in his name amen we shall sing now to God's praise from psalm 80 psalm 80 verses 1 through to 6 hear
[15:34] Israel's shepherd like a flock thou that does Joseph guide shine forth thou that does between the Jedubins abide in Ephraim's and Benjamin's and in Manasseh's sight oh come for our salvation stood up thy strength and might turn us again oh Lord O God and upon us vouchsafe to make thy countenance to shine and so we shall be safe oh Lord of hosts and of all mighty God how long shall kindled be thy wrath against the prayer made by thine own folk to thee thou tears of sorrow give'st to them instead of bread to eat yea tears instead of drink thou give'st to them in measure great thou makest us a strife unto though neighbors round about their enemies among themselves at us do laugh and float these verses one through to six of psalm to hear
[16:36] Israel's shepherd like a flock thou that does Joseph guide vor бог the love Of Christ's Christmas Einhone'hal-dousa, please The� бог and the prince of the eye In Israel, San Benjamin, San Bernardino,
[17:37] Stays thy, O come for thy salvation.
[17:52] Stir up thy strength on mine. Turn us again, Lord God, O God, upon us, our gift to me.
[18:24] Thy heart in us to shine, and so we shall be there.
[18:41] O Lord, the Lord, so mighty daughter, and long shall give me thy wrath, but thou give'st a greater day.
[19:12] By thine own hope to thee, thou carest of sorrow, give'st to them, which cannot grant to thee.
[19:41] Yet here shins set your thing, thou give'st to them, and men should be.
[20:00] Thou mayest just a striver to, our faithful strung of heart, our enemy, Nathan that is a приш parthime.
[20:41] We are going to read in the Old Testament Scriptures from the book of Daniel in chapter 9. Daniel chapter 9, we will read from verse 1 to verse 19.
[21:01] Verse 1 down to 19. In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the relin of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign, 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 seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
[21:34] And I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed unto the Lord my God and made my confession.
[21:49] And said, O Lord, a great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments.
[22:01] We have sinned and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments.
[22:14] Neither have we heathen unto thy servants the prophets, which spaken thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
[22:27] O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces. To our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers.
[23:05] 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.
[23:25] Yet all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice.
[23:36] Therefore the curse has poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.
[23:47] 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.
[23:58] For unto the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil has come upon us.
[24:11] Yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth. Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us.
[24:27] For the Lord our God is righteous in all his works, which he doeth, for we obey not his voice. And now, O Lord our God, that has brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and has gotten thee renowned as at this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
[24:50] O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city, Jerusalem, thy holy mountain, because of our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers.
[25:06] Jerusalem and thy people have become a reproach to all that are about us. Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant on the supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake.
[25:26] O my God, incline thine ear, and hear. Open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name.
[25:37] For we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies. O Lord, hear.
[25:49] O Lord, forgive. O Lord, hearken and do. Defer not for thine own sake. O my God, for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.
[26:05] Amen. And may the Lord add his blessing to this reading of his word, and to his name be the praise. We're going to continue singing to God's praise from Psalm 80.
[26:20] Taking up where we left off at verse 7. Psalm 80 at verse 7 down to verse 11. Turn us again, O God of hosts, and upon us vouchsafe, to make thy countenance to shine, and so we shall be safe.
[26:38] A vine from Egypt brought thou hast by thine outstretched hand, and thou the heathen outdidst cast to plant it in their land. Before it thou a room didst make, where it might grow and stand.
[26:54] Thou caused it a deep roof to take, and it did fill the land. The mountains veiled were with its shade, as with her covering.
[27:05] Like goodly cedars were the boughs, which out from it did spring. Upon the one hand to the sea her boughs she did out send.
[27:16] On the other side unto the flood her branches did extend. You can sing these verses 7 through to 11 of Psalm 80.
[27:26] Turn us again, O God of hosts, and upon us vouchsafe. Turn us again, O God of hosts, and upon us vouchsafe.
[27:52] Turn us again, O God of hosts, and upon us vouchsafe. Turn us again, O God of hosts, and upon us vouchsafe.
[28:22] I find the strength to come. Allow the heat of the church to plant it in their land.
[28:50] Before the ministers' take away at my eyes and friends, The crosshairs dimroved to the county of the land.
[29:27] The mountain's real dwell with its shade.
[29:39] I'll sweep the dark of the day. Like earthly seeders with the vows which shall lift its spring.
[30:06] Upon the one hunter, she harvest, she did ascend.
[30:25] On the other side, under the blood that she did extend.
[30:43] Amen. Forgiven of this man of God and his experiences under God's hand.
[31:22] Throughout the book, it demonstrates repeatedly that through power only lays with God.
[31:34] And despite being taken captive along with others and experiencing the trials that such captivity brings, he remains unshakable in his conviction that God is God and that his purposes will prevail.
[31:57] If you remember, those of you who were here last week, we looked at chapter 8 and he describes to us the content of a vision that he received from God.
[32:10] Where he saw how the various world powers as they were at that time would rise up and then experience demise.
[32:30] We saw how the mighty Babylonian empire had given way to the Medo-Persian empire. And then following that, the Macedonian nation under Alexander.
[32:47] And following the demise, the demise of Alexander and following the demise, the short reign of Alexander. No matter how renowned his expansionist empire was, it came to a very quick end.
[33:01] It was followed by the rise of four other nations that were less influential or powerful than Alexander.
[33:12] And God saw all these events and proclaimed them even through the very strange pictures that were conveyed by way of vision to God's servant.
[33:30] We know that at the point at which we take up the story here in chapter 9, we are reminded, as you would expect, that this man of God, because he is a man of God, he is someone who turns to the word of God and who familiarizes himself with the content of that word.
[34:02] Or so it seems. 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, Daniel understood by books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet.
[34:22] It seems that the best understanding of that statement is that Daniel was reading the scriptures. And he was at the point at which he came across the prophecy of Jeremiah.
[34:43] Maybe not for the first time. I doubt very much if Daniel would have been equipping himself as a man of prayer without fueling that prayer life.
[34:55] And he is clearly described to us as somebody who prays often. And in this chapter, we're going to look at one such prayer.
[35:06] And all you have to do is read through the prayer. And you'll find that the prayer is a prayer of somebody who knows God's word. And God's word flows out of that prayer.
[35:20] It could be a good exercise for you. I think it would be a good thing for every one of us to be familiar with this prayer.
[35:31] There's no prayer quite like it in the whole of scripture. It's really one of the greatest of God's people's petitions and prayers that's recorded for us in the Bible.
[35:44] And we would do worse than be often considering its content to allow ourselves to have such an interaction with God.
[35:56] But if we read it and if we go through it, I think you would find more than ample evidence that Daniel is somebody who knows the word of God.
[36:08] He knows the Psalms, he knows the prophets, he knows those who have predicted events under God's instruction before.
[36:18] So he's able to lay claim to these promises and these predictions that God has made concerning his own people and their future.
[36:31] We know that that is the case here because he quotes or he mentions the word of Jeremiah the prophet and something that Jeremiah the prophet says.
[36:48] That he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. And that seems very specific. That means to Daniel that he was one of the first, along with others, to suffer being taken from his homeland to Babylon as a young man.
[37:15] And the prophet Jeremiah says that the duration of that experience would be 70 years.
[37:29] Now, it may be that he would be uncertain about not the length of the duration, clearly 70 years or 70 years.
[37:42] But where do you measure it? How do you begin to measure it? At what point is the 70 years begun? And at what point is the 70 years to end?
[37:57] If you know there's a beginning, then the end is easily marked. But if you don't know when the beginning was, then the 70 years may be uncertain for the point of fulfillment to be discovered.
[38:17] Now, that may be the problem that Daniel had at that moment. He had discovered, he had been reminded of the fact that God would accomplish his purpose with regard to this people.
[38:36] And the sufferings that they were to endure would be brought to an end. So, he sets his face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications and so on.
[38:54] Now, we know that if we go to the scriptures that what he says is found there. Jeremiah 25, 11. Just for the sake of what we have here.
[39:07] Jeremiah says, this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment. And these nations shall serve the king of Babylon.
[39:23] Three, 70 years. Very specific. And then, two or three chapters after that, Jeremiah again says, For thus saith the Lord that after 70 years has been accomplished at Babylon.
[39:40] I will visit you and perform my good word towards you in causing you to return to this place. So, he knows the word of God.
[39:50] He knows the prophecy that came from Jeremiah. So, that is the motive. Well, that is what stimulates his prayer. And his prayer is what we want to focus on this evening.
[40:08] We want to think about what his prayer contains. There's two sides to it. It speaks to us of the sins of the people.
[40:22] And it speaks to us of the God of the people. And whichever way you look at it, both of these elements are contained within the prayer.
[40:35] And it reminds us of the burning necessity that inspired the prayer in the light of his understanding that the 70 years that God promised were going to come to an end.
[40:49] Which meant, from the second prophecy, that God was going to visit the people again. Now, he didn't know what that meant.
[41:02] He had no idea what that meant. That God was going to visit the people. But he could have had a good idea. That when God visits his people, how he finds them will determine how he deals with them.
[41:19] And with that understanding, he prays. As we said last week about the vision that Daniel saw, some people dismiss that vision as being a vision that is presented to us with the light of hindsight.
[41:43] In other words, it is a record of events written down after they have taken place. Very often with the attitude of some towards prayer, what they say is, it is so right it must be wrong.
[42:03] It is so right it must be wrong. Because the Bible says one thing, and you couldn't imagine what the Bible says to have been written prophetically.
[42:18] To have been written predictably. To have been written in so detailed a way. And yet, Daniel is clearly not one of those people.
[42:29] He knows when he reads God's word. And when God's word, through the prophet, says that God is going to visit the nation again.
[42:39] When 70 years are past. There is no question in his mind. But that is what is going to happen. God has promised that he will come and visit the people.
[42:52] So Daniel considers his own predicament. The predicament of the people spiritually. As they must prepare for that event.
[43:03] So his prayer is born out of that. That is the understanding that you must have of this prayer. Now, as I said, when I looked at the prayer, you can see the acknowledgement made by God's servant.
[43:25] Of what is true about himself. And about the nation of Judah. And at the same time, there is an appreciation of what is true about the God to whom the prayer is offered.
[43:40] And throughout the prayer, you've got this balancing act, as it were. An awareness of his own sin and the sins of the people.
[43:53] And an awareness of the holiness and the righteousness and the justice of God. And when we begin to look at it, I think what amazes many people is this.
[44:09] That the person praying this prayer is Daniel. Because of all the saints of the Old Testament, even the saints of the New Testament, there are few that compare to him as far as his personal holiness is concerned.
[44:27] He is a saint. And a saintly saint at that. And yet the saintly saint comes to God with this, what is clearly throughout an acknowledgement of sin.
[44:43] An awareness of sin. An awareness of the need for the mercy of God. And people would look at that prayer and they say, Well, Daniel, you're a hypocrite.
[44:54] You're only just praying this prayer in order to elevate your own standing in the eyes of people. But I don't think you could ever argue that position.
[45:10] I think what we don't understand, what we find more difficult to understand is, the holier a person is, the more, the closer their relationship to God is, the more sin is obvious to them.
[45:37] The more it is something that concerns them. The more it disturbs them. The more it convicts them. The more they are so aware of how holy God is.
[45:52] Now that might appear to us to be quite a dot with our usual understanding. You would imagine, you know, if you're not a Christian, you would imagine that a godly Christian is somebody who has mastered sin.
[46:13] A godly Christian is somebody who no longer is concerned about sin. Because sin is in the past. Sin is not something that troubles them.
[46:27] But that's the way you would think about it, humanly speaking. That's not the way it is. In real life.
[46:38] In the experience of a true Christian. The holier they are, the more troubled they are by sin. Their own sin and the sins of others. And that is why Daniel comes and prays this prayer.
[46:53] And when he prays the prayer, he doesn't pray for them out there. He doesn't pray for the nation out there. He includes himself in the prayer that he brings to God.
[47:08] He is at the heart of it. He is not excluded. He is very much involved in the confessions of sin that is made to God.
[47:18] It is in that sense an intensely personal prayer. So, when we look at what he confesses, we find somebody who confesses sin.
[47:37] We spoke of it at length in the morning, and maybe you're saying, for goodness sake, there's enough for one day to talk about sin or the sins of the people.
[47:50] But, what we find is that he begins this prayer alerting us to something that should concern us.
[48:03] because it awakens in us an awareness of of the reality of sin. And it does this in a very roundabout way because he begins, notice how he begins his prayer.
[48:20] I set my face unto the Lord God to see it by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed unto the Lord my God and made my confession.
[48:33] and so on. Now, what he is doing is that when he comes to God and bearing in mind the knowledge that he has of the urgency of having God disclose to him when he is going to come as he promised to set light upon it to give insights into what he should expect rather than get to the crux of that by saying, well, tell me, let me know how this is going to come about.
[49:11] he approaches God with the understanding that in his approach to God he knows who he is approaching.
[49:23] Do you get it? Do you understand? His approach to God is the approach of somebody who is coming knowing that he is somebody who should be clothed in sackcloth and ashes.
[49:42] He should come with supplication with fasting and so on. He comes into the presence of God as we find so often spoken of a God who is holy a God who is high and lifted up a God who Daniel himself has encountered as a God of holiness.
[50:05] And that's what he identifies and acknowledges in the very first instance. Before he comes to speak of anything the reason for his knowledge of sin is to do with who God is and what God is about.
[50:22] Martin Lloyd-Jones when he is speaking of prayer says that all the prayers of the Bible that you ever read every single one of them that that the petitioner comes and he comes with an act of invocation.
[50:45] In other words he comes to God acknowledging that what he is doing is a privilege rather than a right.
[51:00] The words of praise are integral to even his petitions for forgiveness of sin.
[51:12] How can I say that? Well I can say that because what would it be like for you to come and confess your sin to God if the God you were confessing your sin to was a God who was unwilling or incapable of dealing with your sin?
[51:31] How could you come into the presence of such a God with confession of sin if the God that you came to were a God you didn't know and a God that you probably feared would not deal with you in any other way than to dismiss you out of his sight forever?
[51:54] You know the God of the Muslim is a God like that. It's a God like that. The Muslim cannot depend upon the kind of God that will meet them when they pray.
[52:14] If they pray because he can just as equal just as soon deal with them for no other reason than he cares to do that.
[52:30] Just destroy them obliterate them out of sight because that is the kind of God that they are taught in their holiest book is the God Allah.
[52:45] Now maybe you're not supposed today to speak of other gods like that but that is the understanding that their world conveys to us about the kind of God that they have.
[53:00] A God who can treat mankind at will without any thought or forethought given to the kind of people that he deals with.
[53:13] Now you can't say that about the God of the scripture because the God of the scripture is described to us as not just a holy God who cannot tolerate sin but a God of mercy, a God of grace, a God who is righteous, a God who is just, a God who doeth all things wealth and that is the God that Daniel knows and that is the God that he proclaims when he approaches him and acknowledges that his need is great.
[53:50] I don't know how you approach God with your prayer, sure if you do pray, I'm sure if you're a Christian you do pray, but how do you pray? how do you approach God?
[54:03] Is it something like you're going to the chemist with your prescription and you put it on the desk, on the table there and say there's my prescription, you provide me with the medicine.
[54:18] And some people's approach to God is something like that. It's not Daniel's approach. God identifies this God as a God that he knows to be holy and a God that he knows to be merciful and a God that he knows to be just and righteous and that he can come to with his petitions and come to expectantly knowing that that is the God that is awaiting you.
[54:45] God. 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.
[55:06] And he says what is true about this God, O God, you are a great and dreadful God. He is holy, a great and a dreadful God.
[55:21] People may think that it is wrong to have a dread fear of a holy God, but no, that is not right. there should be a dread fear of the holiness of God if we ourselves are coming and our sin is brought into the presence of God.
[55:43] But what encourages him to come is this, that he is a God who is a covenant keeping God. We'll come to that.
[55:55] I would say there is a determination on the part of Daniel to come, a purpose, I set my face he says.
[56:08] There's composure, there's preparation, there's appreciation of what was ahead of him and what God could provide. Does this prayer strike a chord with any one of us?
[56:26] If we sat down and read through the prayer carefully, does it in any way resemble how we come before God with our prayers?
[56:39] Imagine the words of verse 5 on your lips. We have sinned, we have committed iniquity and done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments.
[56:57] Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets which speak in the name to the king, to our kings, our princes and our fathers and to all the people of the land.
[57:08] do you recognize such a confession? Do you recognize these words as words that belong to your mouth and my mouth repeatedly?
[57:23] We have sinned, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly, we have rebelled, we have gone away from your laws, judgments, we have gone away from your judgments.
[57:38] You say, oh Daniel lived in a different day, well my goodness, does he not live in a day that's so like your own? Do the confessions that he comes with, do they not compare to the confessions that we ourselves have to come to God with so often?
[58:01] We're guilty of repeated disobedience resulting in what should be true of us in verse 8, oh Lord to us belongs confusion of face to our kings, to our princes, to our fathers because we have sinned against thee.
[58:21] To us belongs confusion of face which means that we should be ashamed when we come to God with our prayers.
[58:33] We should experience the sorrow and the grief of heart that those who are guilty of such sins should experience.
[58:45] Sins of formation, sins of commission, apostasy, rebellion, wickedness, you name it. And some have looked at this and they say, well, if we go to the penitential psalms and we examine what the psalmist says in these psalms, you're almost able to pick these expressions after the psalms.
[59:08] And as we said, Daniel was somebody who was familiar with the scripture and there's nothing wrong with borrowing from the psalms or quoting from the psalms where they conform to our experience, words, where they conform to our sorrow of heart.
[59:30] Not just suitable words that are not really meant. Not just empty words that we understand but we don't really mean.
[59:44] That's not why Daniel is using these words. confessing openly the guilt that belongs to those who live a godless life.
[60:00] Even those who have God as their God where he is displaced, where they have a disassociated relationship with him.
[60:12] Where he is their God but he is not. Where they confess his name but they don't live according to the confession that they make. I'll go through the prayer.
[60:30] And it's not an empty prayer, it's not a meaningless prayer, it's not a prayer that's left on the shelf for another day, but a prayer that every one of us can have every day of our life because that's the kind of people we are.
[60:47] that's the kind of people God knows us to be. And that's the kind of people that need to bow the knee knowing him to be our God.
[60:59] Well, what God does Daniel know? Such a confession would be worthless, would it not, for the God to whom the confession is made.
[61:12] he is the Lord God, but not just the Lord God, he is the Lord my God. He is the God of the covenant. He is the God who is great and dreadful, but also a God who is willing to reveal himself measurefully and undertake for him in ways that no other can.
[61:37] you know, we mentioned in the morning how the experience of sin affected Adam when Adam sinned.
[61:50] I can't really, I've often, and I've said it before and I've said it again, you cannot really understand the effect of sin on an individual without delving into the experience that Adam had and the consequences of that experience.
[62:13] It's so difficult for you to imagine what it is like to live in a relationship with God that was harmonious, that was based upon trust and understanding of who God was and living in the light of his countenance permanently, being fed by him spiritually, sustained by him bodily, always in his presence and then to decide not to live in that way, to go against that God.
[62:50] Whatever the consequences, Adam sinned and Adam fled. Adam sinned and Adam fled from the presence of God.
[63:06] And what a transformation if you can call it that. Well, it's really beyond words. They ran from God, they hid from God.
[63:21] It's amazing how the knowledge of God before they fell was lost or seemed to be hidden from view.
[63:34] But this is the Lord of the covenant. And those who know him as such can go to him. There's the difference.
[63:48] Adam's understanding of the covenant was a complex one because he himself was a covenant head and a covenant breaker.
[63:59] And the covenant of grace did not come into his experience until God dealt with him graciously. His understanding of it was clearly lacking as our shoes until God teaches us what the covenant of grace is all about.
[64:22] But as a believer, Daniel was someone who understood the God of heaven to be holy and just. And even as a sinner they could go to him as a God that they knew to be merciful and willing and able to deal with their sin.
[64:44] That's the thing. He knew to take his sin to God because God was able to cleanse it, remove it, blot it out.
[65:00] How precious the words of the psalm that we sang of to God's people. The Lord of God is merciful and he is gracious, long suffering and slow to wrath, in mercy plenteous.
[65:14] how often have you cherished that statement, the mercy of God is plenteous.
[65:29] just think what it would be like if all you had was a vessel that was full to the brim and every time you threw out of that vessel that it was getting less and less and less and soon exhausted.
[65:56] well if you're like me the mercy of God if it was contained in such a vessel it would soon be scraping the bottom.
[66:09] But it's not. He is someone who is abundant, whose mercy is plenteous and that is what Daniel understood and that's why he came to such a God.
[66:32] You know verse 7 exalts that God. O Lord righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of face as at this day. And to all Israel that are near and that are far off through all the countries within those driven in because of their trespasses that they have against thee.
[66:53] You know he understands that there is good reason for God not to deal with them in any other way than to be a God of wrath but he knows that God to be righteous.
[67:06] To the Lord our God belongs mercy and forgiveness even though we have rebelled against him. He's a just God, a holy God, a righteous God, a loving God.
[67:21] when I give a row to my grandson, he knows that I'm giving him a row and he'll cry.
[67:33] But then he'll come to me with his hands open, out, because the person that's giving the row to him, he knows. But my mercy is nothing like God's measure.
[67:49] God's people come to that God because they know him as their God, a God that does this with them in order that they return to him again and again.
[68:07] Even though that repentance is slow in coming, even though their confession and contrition and everything that accompanies is something that they despair, because of its lack.
[68:22] But look at how these words, the time is gone, how he finishes this prayer and words that tells us that the relationship that Daniel has with God is a healthy relationship.
[68:39] relationship. A healthy relationship. O my God, incline thine ear and hear. Open thine eyes and behold our desolations and the city which is called by thy name, for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.
[69:03] O Lord, hear, O Lord, forgive, O Lord, hearken and do, defer not, for thine own sake, O my God, for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.
[69:14] I think these are wonderful words. What God does for his own name, for his own name sake, for his own glory, for the good of his son, and all who are his will experience his grace.
[69:35] God's people do not embolden themselves to sin in the light of that. They come with their head bowed and ashamed every time because they have the same need to come.
[69:54] Is that not it? How often have we said, have I said, I've learnt my lesson, I've learnt my lesson, you know, through the bitterness of tears, through the heartache of having done wrong, and having God probe me with his eye and say, you are the man, you are the one who has done this, and I feel his eye upon me, and I feel his hand touch my heart, and I feel the sorrow, and I say, I don't want to be going through this, I don't want to experience this, and I won't, I promise, I won't, I'll go on, never again will I allow myself to have this shame and this sense of failing God, but he is faithful, for as I'm not, and I need to come with this prayer, and this confession, and this claim upon the God who has given his name to a people who don't deserve it, who are not worthy recipients of it, who often behave as if they are no better than those who have never heard of him, and yet
[71:29] God remains faithful to us, Daniel was a wonderful servant to that God, and yet his confession, he would say, that's me all over, whatever you are, whatever others are, this is what I am, and we are grateful, thankful to God that his prayer is before us, again this evening, let us pray.
[72:07] Lord, help us to understand that we are sinners, and that your grace is what keeps us from experiencing a lost eternity, that is what we deserve, not your mercy, not your grace, not your face, to be lifted up before us in favour, but what you have given to us, we do not deserve, we do not deserve the least of your mercies, but we receive it constantly, remind us of that, direct us to the greatest mercy of all, Christ the Lord, that we may see him, and marvel at him, forgive us in his name, amen, amen, and closing psalm, psalm 91, psalm 91, verse 13, upon the adder thou shalt tread, and on the lion's throne, thy feet on dragon's trampled shell, and on the lion's young, because on me he set his love,
[73:26] I'll save and set him free, because my great name he hath known, I will him set on high, he'll call on me, I'll answer him, I will be with him still, in trouble to deliver him, and honour him, I will, with length of days and to his mind, I will him satisfy, I also my salvation will cause his eyes to see, upon the adder thou shalt tread, and on the lion's throne.
[73:58] look on the adder thou shalt tread, and on the lion's throne, like it on the god's throne, the child, the kind, her Valley's young thing else, year-end, the ship, and on the tulip, and on the han shore, on the side, him his job, It was my good name, he had known my purpose, and all night.
[75:12] He'll call on me, I'll answer him, I will be with the share of him.
[75:33] How but to be different, I'll call him in my rhythm.
[75:50] With men so distant to his mind, I will not be right.
[76:09] I'll ask for my salvation, where God is thy beauty.
[76:32] May grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit rest and abide with you all now and always. Amen. Thank you.