Daniel: The Prayer of a Righteous Man
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Open to Daniel Chapter 9, Daniel Chapter 9 and we will be in verses 1-15 this morning.
This last Wednesday we read of the eye witness acounts to a theophany. A theophany in and of itself means nothing, its just a figment of someones imagination. Greek literature for example is full of supposed theophanies.
But when coupled with the veracity and historical accuracy of scripture w can be sure theophany is no figment of imagination.
If it were a matter of reason, even to most unreasonable person would be forced by the seer volume of truths in scripture and its consistence with creation to admit it’s truth.
But its not about reason, "The righteous shall live by faith.”, (Ro 1:17, ESV)
Those images that are loved, like Nebuchadnezzar, can only be removed be thee Iconoclast himself.
He removes the images, he removes the heart of stone, he give the heart of flesh.
However, only a few men have had Nebuchadnezzar’s experience in this life.
God’s normative, and nature plan for our liberation from idols is seeing him more and more though his word.
And it has always ben that way.
Daniel shows us what that looks like in the first part of Chapter 9, so
Let’s Read
1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. 3 Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. 4 I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 5 we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. 6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. 7 To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you. 8 To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. 9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him 10 and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. 11 All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice. And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him. 12 He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity. For under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what has been done against Jerusalem. 13 As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not entreated the favor of the Lord our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth. 14 Therefore the Lord has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works that he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice. 15 And now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have made a name for yourself, as at this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
May God Bless the Reading of His Holy, Infallible, and Sufficient Word
Let’s Pray
Transition
Transition
Daniel’s faithfulness to pray is legendary and we see that his drive come from the Scriptures in the first 2 verses of this chapter.
Body
Body
Confidence in the Word
Confidence in the Word
1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.
There are some interesting things to not about the time line here, but the most important is that the time of fulfilment is already here and this is after the fiery furnace, this is after the lions den.
Daniel doesn't turn here to what he has seen, though no doubt an encouragement, Daniel turns to the the promises of God in his word.
Faith is active, and it actively relies on God’s word.
Daniel see that God has promised to do something and he know God will do it.,
This truth does not drive Daniel to apathy, rather it is spires fervency.
Calvin said it like this, “WE began to say yesterday, that the faithful do not so acquiesce in the promises of God as to grow torpid, and become idle and slothful through the certainty of their persuasion that God will perform his promises, but are rather stimulated to prayer. For the true proof of faith is the assurance when we pray that God will really perform what he has promised us.” [1]
Daniel here shows faith by his works, as James calls for, his prayer does not turn to vain claiming but to the heart of the matter God will fulfil his word and we need to remember that that fulfilment is all of his.
You might say to me, we have sound doctrine here Aaron, we don't do that vain claiming stuff here, so which i say good. But what about the apathy that has griped you often, Jesus said, I am coming soon, do you pray like it? Do you witness like it? Do you love one another like it?
The answer is that you do not. Some of us are better at it than others and if our comparison was amongst ourselves no doubt some would convince themselves they had. But the comparison is Christ, he is the archetype, he is the the great example of which we all fall short.
But saying we fall short leads to another out, we say I tried my best, no can fault me, its just the way I am.
Transition
Transition
But the truth is we a often lazy servants who are down right treasonous. Notice verse 3-7 this how Daniel describes the people and he include himself.
Treasonous Dog’s not Worthy of Forgiving.
Treasonous Dog’s not Worthy of Forgiving.
3 Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. 4 I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 5 we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. 6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. 7 To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you.
I read a post on Facebook this week, saying, your soul must be so valuable because the devil pursues it and Jesus died for it.
This is not what Daniel did,
Prayer, fasting, confession,
Why is it that so many people today, believe this lie? IDOLS!
This is why the Doctrines of Grace are so often reviled.
They are biblical and they tare down those idols.
Notice how Daniel doesn't fully quote the second part of the second commandment.
“O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments.” (Da 9:4, ESV)
Who could quote it? When you read that part in Exodus 20,
“I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me.” (Ex 20:5, ESV)
How could there be anything but trembling. Knowing that have time and time again hated his good law and turned to our own way.
I want to take a moment here to draw out attention to how Daniel confesses.
Calvin “Here Daniel relates the substance of his prayer. He says, He prayed and confessed before God. The greater part of this prayer is an entreaty that God would pardon his people. Whenever we ask for pardon, the testimony of repentance ought to precede our request. For God announces that he will be propitious and easily entreated when men seriously and heartily repent. (Is. 58:9.) Thus confession of guilt is one method of obtaining pardon; and for this reason Daniel fills up the greater part of his prayer with the confession of his sinfulness.” [2]
RC Commented on Daniel’s prayer saying “The prayer is grounded on God’s promises (v. 2) and offered in a spirit of contrition and humility (v. 3). It is a model for the appropriate elements of effective prayer.” [3]
If you look at verse 6 we see that he said, we, again he does exclude himself,
I can raze my hand and say I think Daniel was a more righteous man than I am. If he does exclude himself I def dont get to but, he is guilty of not listing to the prophest not much more any I guilty when I dont listen to the Son.
“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” (Heb 1:1–2, ESV)
If he was guilty for not obeying the law given through moses, how much more am I when I neglect this great salvation?
“how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?(Heb 2:3, ESV)
Hebrews, stire up to love and good works (Hebrews 10:24), laying said every weight and sin. (Hebrews 12:1)
That is what we are doing here. That is why we confess together, at the start of our service. That is why we will end with the Lord supper
God normative means for conforming you to his image is the word of God expended in fellowship with one another.
That is why I am here even though I am sick, its that important.
Its worth risking life and lim as many of out brothers do around the world do weekly, because we cannot do it a long. Alone we get apathetic, alone we fall into all kinds of traps.
“treachery that they have committed against you.” (Da 9:7, ESV)
Our minds will resist this thought, especially the untrained mind. The Mind not renewed over and over again in the scriptures.
Notice I am not saying that the unrepentant unregenerate, person resists this thought, of course they do, but I am talking about you bothers and sister, the same WE that Daniel uses. WE resist this thought, we think to our selves, I am not that bad, we need to come gather and remind ourselves remind each out yes, indeed you are that bad. But Christ redeemed you,
Resist the apathy, resist the lies that are plentiful today, like the Facebook post I talked about earlier or the “Christian” councilor that told their client you are generally a good person you just were in bad circumstances and make some mistakes.
This is what is passed of as Christian in our world, this is not some minority but the majority.
Transition
Transition
Its shameful, look a verse 8-15.
Forgiveness is of the Lord
Forgiveness is of the Lord
8 To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. 9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him 10 and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. 11 All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice. And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him. 12 He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity. For under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what has been done against Jerusalem. 13 As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not entreated the favor of the Lord our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth. 14 Therefore the Lord has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works that he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice. 15 And now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have made a name for yourself, as at this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
The reality is that, this treachery is most shameful, its not against some government or king that barley did anything for you besides take taxes and waist them on government bureaucracy or lavish life style.
Notice verse 15, “who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand”
This king provides, he take nothing from you, he needs nothing from you, everything he give is out of he own forgiving, loving, perfections.
See verse 9, “To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness.” (Da 9:9, ESV)
They belong to him because they are him.
Boy could we rabbit trail on the attributes of God right now.
But we are focused on prayer right now.
Verse 12-13, “12 He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity. For under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what has been done against Jerusalem. 13 As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not entreated the favor of the LORD our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth.” (Da 9:12–13< ESV)
The prayer of the believer ought never to be, why is this happening to me, it ought always to be Lord, what I deserve is so much worse then this and you will tern this to my good.
The deduction of Jerusalem reminds the people that God is faithful to his word.
Your pray should demonstrate the confidence and competence with scripture.
Conclusion
Conclusion
A competence that knows the word,
A confidence that God will keep his word
A clear understand of who you are from the scriptures and who God is.
This should lead to fervency, and not apathy in prayer.
The concluding thought for today is, When James says, “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” (Jas 5:16, ESV)
Do you pray like it?
Benediction
Benediction
20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
References
References
[1] John Calvin and Thomas Myers, Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Daniel, vol. 2 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 135.
[2] Ibid, 142–143.
[3] R. C. Sproul, ed., The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) (Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015), 1483.
Bibliography
Bibliography
Calvin, John, and Thomas Myers. Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Daniel. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010.
Sproul, R. C., ed. The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition). Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015.