Well, in Daniel chapter 9 today, we're taking up chapter 9, 1 through 20, actually 1 through 19, I'll read through verse 23, and then next time is the very well-known section of the 70 weeks of Daniel. So that is the answer to this prayer. So a very important section that I thought wouldn't be wise to tackle so much today. So we're going to look at Daniel chapter 9 and look at this prayer today of repentance. Page 886, we'll read at verse 1, this is the word of the Lord. In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, by descent Amid, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of the years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, 70 years. Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking Him by prayer and pleased for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and made confessions, saying, O Lord, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from Your commandments and rules. We've 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 to you oh 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 and all the lands to which you have driven them because of the treachery they have committed against you to us oh lord belongs open shame to our kings to our princes to our fathers because we have sinned against you to the lord our god belong mercy and forgiveness for we've rebelled against him 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 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've sinned against Him. 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. 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. 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. 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. O Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city, Jerusalem, your holy hill, because for our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a byword among all who are around us. Now, therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy and for your own sake oh lord make your face to shine upon your sanctuary which is desolate oh my god incline your ear in here open your eyes and see our desolations in the city that is called by your name for we do not present our pleas because before you because of our righteousness but because of your great mercy oh lord hear oh lord forgive oh lord pay attention and act delay not for your own sake oh my god because your city and your people are called by your name while i was speaking and praying confessing my sin and the sin of my people israel and presenting my plea before the lord my god for the holy hill of my god while i was speaking in prayer the man gabriel whom i had seen in the vision at first came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice he made me understand speaking with me and saying oh Daniel I have now come out to give you insight and understanding at the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out and I have come to tell it to you for you are greatly loved therefore consider the word and understand the vision there will end the reading of God's word well one of the great concerns of christ when he walked on this earth and when he was challenging the peoples there must have been a very serious confrontation at times with the masses and even with his own disciples because he was greatly concerned that people were not discerning the time He constantly talked about this. He said, all of you are very discerning when it comes to the weather. We all have little weather gauges, I think, and we constantly look at them on our phones and we know and we're interested in the weather. We know when a cloud is coming. We know when rain is coming. We know when storm is coming. We all talk about it incessantly. It's just a fascinating thing. And some of you are really good at discerning the weather. But Jesus said, how is it that you do not discern the time? In other words, more literally, how is it you do not interpret the time? In general, what Christ was saying was that we see in the scriptures and in the providences of God that happen in the world, certain things, certain things that are happening and certain things that should tell us that demand a certain kind of response that's what jesus was constantly pressing the people with that the general path the general thought of most people in this life is not to interpret what's most important but to ignore those things and to continue in ignorance over the things most important right in front of us how can you not interpret the present time so when you look at the world and you look at what what's happening do you just tuck it away and not think about it or do you think about it and say oh it's so bad what do you do in light of that that's what jesus is challenging us to think about in their case the kingdom of god had come on them because jesus had come in human flesh and all the evidences were he was doing things right in front of them he was healing the sick giving sight to the blind he was preaching the gospel to the poor and they did not discern the time that the messiah had arrived well the same a truth the same truth applies for us the apostles would have been stunned if we could talk to them and say wow we're we're still here in 2023 still here and they would have said you are at the very end of the age as they said in the first century well obviously things are happening on the earth nations are in turmoil evil has escalated in surprising ways the lord told us that prior to the second coming there would be a great falling away and a revelation of an antichrist figure whatever form that comes a falling away from the truth turmoil nations rising up against nations and various things happening on the earth that are all birth pains to the second coming he he said well jesus in the midst of this challenged people to to pray and to not lose heart and said this but when the son of man comes will he really find faith on the earth speaking of the character of the times before he comes nobody's thinking about it I think Daniel is immensely helpful for us today Daniel interpreted that the things that were happening in his day that God was using these things as instruments to wake up His church, to wake up His people and His people who were in Babylon but had stopped longing for the restoration of returning back home. Had stopped longing for the coming of the kingdom in full. Had stopped longing for going home to Jerusalem. And Daniel shows us, I think, something so beautiful today which is really the pathway forward in deep reflection in the times that we live there is an answer i've been trying to press with in this study where people constantly ask what do we do in these times how do we behave in these times what is the most crucial thing that we can do in these times and that's why daniel 9 is so so important in the midst of all of these enigmatic visions that we have this beautiful prayer so that's what we're looking at briefly this morning the reason for daniel's prayer the content and the answer so let's um look at verse 1 here today uh to see how Daniel moves forward in the midst of all this in the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus a descent by descent of Mede who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans in the first year of his reign I Daniel notice this perceived in the books the number of years that according to the word of the lord to jeremiah the prophet must come to pass before the desolate the end of the desolations of jerusalem namely 70 years that's a really important introduction to what is to follow here it must have been an incredible revolution to live through can you imagine this we've studied now babylon has fallen we studied the rise of the medes and the persians and we've been looking at that through some of these visions the scary times you know the whole kingdom of chaldea the whole kingdom of babylon the greatest and mightiest kingdom in the earth at the time in one day had fallen and they're in the midst of this and a regime change happens and now the Medes Darius the Mede is ruling in Chaldea you think people would finally wake up if something like this happened think about it for a minute we looked at the symbols of nations last week under these beastly figures we talked about the bear and the dragon what if the bear and the dragon cast down the eagle and russia took over and putin was your new president and united states as you knew it was over would you wake up prosperity taken would you discern the times well I said last time that might be people's greatest concern but that wasn't Daniel's Daniel saw everything differently what he understood was that everything that was happening has a set time assigned to it from the throne room in heaven because he's the one that rules among the kingdoms of men. And all the kings in the kingdoms have appointed times that they are allotted under the sun for the glory of their kingdoms and they should give praise to the Lord. They don't. They get judged. But they rule until this appointed time is taken away from them and we're not much in control of that are we i'm not much in control of the united states remaining in power but in the midst of the revolution it what just happened in babylon with this regime change and this new nation that had taken seat and all the changes of laws that had come with that what does Daniel do what does Daniel see how does he behave himself first thing he does he goes to the scriptures and in his mind things are moving things are moving there is no explainable way that Babylon itself could have fallen in Daniel's eyes unless God had judged that nation. And there is no explainable way in Daniel's eyes that Judah should have ever been subjugated to Babylon's power if God was not judging his people. He rules in the kingdoms of men. He gives the kingdom, as we've been learning, to whomever he will. But the things that most disturbed Daniel was the question of how Judah got in this mess to begin with. Because for them to be subjugated under pagan rulers and pagan kings and having the temple burned and the land taken from them, that was a horror that could have never been dreamed of. What happened? And in Daniel's mind was, how long is this going to continue? It can't continue forever. Do you know why? Because he promised to return us. He promised to show mercy to us. So this has to turn around. How long will we be oppressed? How long will the season be like this? And Daniel goes to Jeremiah 25, and I'll just read it for a minute. This is exactly where he was discerning from Jeremiah the prophet what would come to pass. And this is the record. Daniel, he goes to the scriptures. And though the Lord has sent all his servants, the prophets, to you again and again, you have not listened or paid any attention. They said, turn now each of you from your evil ways and your evil practices and you can stay in the land the Lord gave to you and your ancestors forever and ever. Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them. Do not arouse my anger with what your hands have made. Then I will not harm you. But you didn't listen to me, declares the Lord, you have aroused my anger with what your hands have made and you have brought harm to yourselves therefore the lord almighty says this because you've not listened to my words i will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant listen to this and my servant nebuchadnezzar nebuchadnezzar was the lord's servant king of babylon and i will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn. I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole country will become a desolate wasteland and these nations will serve the king of Babylon 70 years. But when the 70 years are fulfilled, I'll punish the king of Babylon and his nation. The land of the Babylonians for their guilt, declares the Lord. And I will make it desolate forever and an everlasting ruin. Daniel says, we're there. Babylon just fell. It's time. Time to go home. The time has come for us to go home. discerning it from the scriptures, discerning the times. How could they not see that what had happened and what they had done brought about all this turmoil as a result of never listening to the word of the Lord? And I've always thought, why is the Old Testament an example for us? Why do we have to get here to have such chaos for people to finally wake up? Why won't they take seriously that word before this happens? You know what it means, of course. The time's at hand. Daniel just saw Babylon fall. And because God had promised deliverance back home, that means we're at the end of the 70 years. Daniel represents the prophet awake to what's happening. Daniel represents the alertness that the scriptures call us to. Can you see right now in the world that things are moving? Can we see it? What does all the chaos and what does all the turbulence say? Most of all, what do the scriptures tell us to look for before the coming of the kingdom? It tells us to be awake. It tells us to be alert. They tell us that there will be a celebration of lawlessness in the world. They tell us that people will cast down the truth. Have you ever seen a society cast down the truth like this? I think our Lord would say to us, how is it that you don't discern the times? 2 Peter has told you, people think life is going to go on as it always has and always will. everyone asks, what do we do? What do we do in the midst of this? What is the answer in the midst of this? And Daniel thinks, there's only one way out. There's only one way out. And then I turned my face to the Lord. And I sought Him by prayer. and please for mercy with fasting sackcloth and ashes this is everything we've been told in the church we shouldn't come to church and do today by the way i made a prayer of confession and what follows is this powerful intercessory prayer of the prophet indeed showcasing what happens before the Lord restores the fortunes of Zion and its repentance in the elect. It's serious turning to him. God revives. This is such an important point we see all throughout history and the scriptures. Before God's deliverance, what we see is, which is part of the deliverance, is that God revives his people to call upon him just before the deliverance comes. Excuses are gone. The compromises, the playing the fast and loose are over. And prayer begins with deep confession. Oh Lord, great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments. Daniel begins with adoring his Lord in prayer. Confessing how great his covenant love is and how that covenant love has been shown to his people throughout history toward those who were called to honor his will as their king. But the problem comes in verse 5. That's the heart of this book. I'm convinced for the turning back. But we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. If this, I could just hear today the response to this, oh, you guys are so negative about sin all the time. That just shows where people are. That's a big display because that's not what we see when the Lord is ready to act and turn things around. Notice the confession here. We didn't listen to your prophets. We didn't listen to your pastors. we hardened our hearts to it we wrote the whole thing off as just the ideas of the prophets the prophets would give us the commands of the lord and the people simply because the prophet spoke the command they would directly harden their heart against everything that the prophet spoke and daniel you know says you raise them up who preached to us and they told us your rules they told us they told us to honor the sabbath day and keep it holy and our people said oh that's so strict ridiculous don't need to do that they purposely we purposely didn't listen daniel references the law of moses the arrangement on sinai we we broke your law that we promised to keep Daniel says we you know so many times he says that we've sinned we've rebelled against you that most um certainly applies to Israel in the old covenant um under the Sinai arrangement and that covenant but I I want to say it's meant to teach us something important the whole history of the church something important about repentance I mean even Nebuchadnezzar was called to repentance whenever you see god's mercy shown and when the blessings of a church are restored and where there is reformation the grace begins with a drawing back of god's people to him like this broken and contrite hearts the arrogance and pride of thinking we knew best and knew it all that's just gone we've tried it, we've done that and the thing went south this was David sinning in adultery with Bathsheba he didn't see a thing for nine months and then God sends a prophet God sends the pastor and the pastor preaches and tells a little parable and Nathan says you're the man and David says notice the whole change here I've sinned against the Lord none of that was there before how could you go on so long and never confess your sin David represents the beginning Daniel here represents the beginning of the turning of Israel back to the Lord and this is where it begins in the church and this is where it begins in your life and mine we stop talking and we start repenting this is what deeply affected me this week what daniel is discerning here are the times the reason that the curses of the covenant had fallen remember the visions last week and the little horn is ruthlessly conquering nations and lands but then he turns to the glorious land why would he turn to the glorious land why why would the little horn why would antiochus epiphanies turn to the glorious land and then why would antiochus epiphanies assault the sanctuary and stop the burnt offering and profane the sacrifices and ruin the church and in the middle of that vision remember what was said all that happened why because of transgression Daniel's explaining that in this prayer under the whole heaven there has never been anything done like what had happened in Jerusalem and this has brought all this calamity on earth wow I think what most moved me this week in this passage was this all the curses of the law of moses fell on us verse 13 and none of us sought i'm using a little different translation none of us sought or entreated the favor and mercy of the lord our god you see there was a lot of complaining but who is calling to the lord i think that's the spiritual gauge of of us you know are we repenting more than complaining about everything i was uh saw a quote by john flavel this week that just made me very convicted it's easier to cry against a thousand sins of others than to repent of one of your own sins i know no nation is under covenant like israel was with a law like this yet there is a direct appeal to us in the church today to recognize throughout church history there have been really bright periods uh and then there have been really dark periods periods where it seemed like the light almost went out and it seemed like you know as the belgic says the number is very small on the earth of the remnant but then you see these periods of great light in history and you know post tenebrae lux after darkness light and we see people praying and we see the the works that come out of of people the writings and they're praying and they're trusting and calling upon the lord and they're taking sin seriously and they're repenting and they're worshiping worship has become the center again of everything it's in their hearts it's in their minds they're praising the lord deeply asking for His mercies again. When we see darkness, when we look at the state of things and say they're bad, I would suggest that in tandem with that, in correlation with that, there's a lot of lack of prayer and little discernment and excuses not to listen to the Lord and little calling upon the Lord in the recognition that the reason the state of things are the way that they are is because we have brought a lot of hardship on ourselves for not listening to his word or taking his truth seriously. That's what Daniel's recognizing here. Why can't people see this? And I believe the whole thing becomes like David himself in your lives and in the church and in my life. That when we care about the kingdom of God and when we seek the Lord in prayer. And we are people on our knees and we are confessing our sins. And we are asking him for grace. I mean, have you noticed so far in this prayer, there's no refusal from the Lord on this. The Lord is eager. I'm going to get there in one second. He's so eager in the scriptures he's presenting himself to answer this prayer. Well, God's people just pray it. Can you imagine if the Escondido URC, if we all got on our knees and prayed like this, and I speak to myself. There's hypocrisy here that I haven't prayed enough. praying like this humbly and and thankful for all he's done for us and repenting of sins in our lives and and and stopping the complaining and confessing together the ground would shake in the escondido urc i'm convinced of it kind of metaphorically i think that's the encouragement of this vision daniel pleased with the lord even though we've done great sins the worst sins in our lives the greatest of abominations lord ready would you turn from your anger and your wrath against your city jerusalem your holy hill because of our sins here are please for mercy for your own sake let your face shine upon us again on your sanctuary which is desolate incline your ear open your eyes and see we don't ask for help because we deserve it for our own righteousness oh lord listen isn't this isn't this last line so powerful oh lord here oh lord forgive oh lord pay attention act don't delay for your sake because of your city and your people called by your name sometimes i think we think god won't do anything when we pray to him or that he doesn't hear or how could God hear of a prayer of a little widow even though he inspired a whole account of a little widow praying how could God hear the prayer you know it could be the little widow's prayer in this church that turns everything around I'm not saying in any situation the prayer of a righteous man avails much Gabriel says at the beginning of your prayer for mercy. Listen, do you hear what Gabriel says here? At the beginning of your prayer for mercy. At the beginning. Not at the end. At the beginning. When you uttered your first word, a word went out for you are greatly loved. You are loved. He didn't want just Daniel to think he's the only one loved. When you pray, he wants you to know you're loved. he hears you the answer was at the beginning of your prayer decree went out it's time to go home that's what the 70 weeks we're going to be looking at but it's time to go home it's time to rebuild the city and you see God ultimately heard Daniel's prayer when you call upon him beloved the Lord wants you to know you're loved and you're loved so much that God would send His Son here and His Son would recover what you could never recover. His Son would live what you could never live. His Son would do what you could never do. Jesus Christ would fulfill all righteousness where you never could. He Himself who knew no sin became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. And then He would intercede and He would say this. Father, I pray. Think about this beautiful prayer. You granted Him all authority over all people that He might give eternal life to those You've given Him. This is eternal life that they know You, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in the presence with the glory that I had with you before the world began. Father, I want those whom you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory and the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them. And that's the new covenant. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ has prayed for us. And so we should pray in our day for the recovery of the church. we should pray for the good of the kingdom of God. We should pray as we look around in the things and the distresses that are happening in the earth that the Lord would deliver us and that the Lord would make his gospel known to the ends of the earth. We should begin, however, not with looking at everyone else's sins and failures. We should begin by confessing our own. What are our sins? In what ways are we hardening our hearts to the Lord? In what ways are we in our lives not listening to Him? What way, when He gives us the message of His Son, are we turning from the gospel of His Son in our lives? How are we as a church doing that? This is what Daniel led his people in. So let us do the same. Confess our sins. Believe the gospel and know this. Before you've said a word, he's answered. Before, while you were yet sinners, Christ died for you. You are deeply loved by the Lord. He cares for you and he promises to come here soon. So be discerning of the times. See what's happening. See that it's moving. It's moving to the end of all things. And may that lead us all together in prayerful confession to call upon the name of the Lord and he promises that he will hear us and he promises that he will answer us and he promises ultimately that he will restore us. What a wonderful covenant God we have. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we have sinned. We have so easily turned aside from your commandments. We have listened to the lies even in the church today that this is strict and that this is old school and that this is, Lord, only about us being happy. And we have bypassed repentance and confession. And we see that as a great assault of the evil one. And so today, O Lord, we take ownership of that. We all have sinned in great ways. We all have not listened to, Lord, your word in our lives, we all have done things in secret that have been shameful, we all have pursued things that have brought dishonor to your name, we all have complained about everyone else's sins and failures except our own, and we have not humbled ourselves, Lord, before you like we should, and yet you have been so gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and truth not giving us as our sins deserve and in the fullness of time giving us your son so we turn this day to you and we ask oh lord that we would enjoy your mercy that we would have true joy and peace that we would be responding vessels to your covenant love and to know lord when we call upon you in faith like this you heard us before the first word went out. Thank you, O Lord, for such blessing, and thank you for restoring your people. Strengthen the Escondido URC and your promises, and let us be, Lord, discerning of the time. Let us be a people of prayer, trusting in the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Help us for we're weak. In Jesus' name, amen.