Our reading this evening is Daniel chapter 9, verse 1 to 19. Daniel 9, 1 to 19. It's on page 746, if you're using the church Bibles. And just before we get to Daniel chapter 9, I want to read briefly from Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 25. Jeremiah chapter 25 and from verse 8 to verse 16 which just helps provide something of the context against which or in which Daniel was praying in Daniel chapter 9. Jeremiah 25 from verse 8. Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, Because you have not obeyed my words, behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the Lord, and for Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste. These nations shall serve the King of Babylon 70 years. Then after 70 years are completed, I will punish the King of Babylon And that nation, the land of the Chaldeans for their iniquity, declares the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste. I will bring upon that land all the words that I have uttered against it, everything written in this book which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. For many nations and great kings shall make slaves even of them, and I will recompense them according to their deeds and the work of their hands. Thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me, Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among them." We turn to Daniel chapter 9. 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 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 pleas for mercy, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. 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. We have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. 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. 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. To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. To the Lord our God belongs mercy and forgiveness, for we have 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 have 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, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate. O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name. Amen. And may God bless his word to our souls this evening. Let us pray together. Almighty God and our glorious and sovereign Father in heaven, We thank you so much that we're able to come into the sanctuary of your praise and to be able to fellowship with your believing people, to be able to declare your praise together, to be able to experience a foretaste of heaven itself as we join together with those who have been called out of the darkness and into the light those who have been regenerated by the power of your Holy Spirit brought to a knowledge of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to be able to open up your word of holy truth that we might be quickened in our minds that we might be reinvigorated in our walk with you that we might have our faith deepened, our souls sanctified. O Lord our God, we know that you have come to us by your grace, not just that we would be forgiven of our sins and that we would know the great hope of eternal life in your kingdom, but also, surely, That we would be equipped to live for your glory. And so we pray that you would impress upon us this evening by the work of your Holy Spirit in our midst. All that is revealed here in your word such that we would indeed be enabled and equipped to honor you with our lives. to see things as they really are, and to respond in a manner worthy of the gospel. We ask all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. One of the things that has been very much underlined to us as we've been working our way through the book of Daniel over these recent weeks and months is the fact that although God is the supreme and the sovereign ruler over all things, although he is the one who raises up and puts down kings and nations, he is the one who directs the course of all of human history, yet at the same time, man is still accountable to God for his actions. Man is still given the responsibility of living obediently, of responding or living in the context of God's sovereignty with a life that is disciplined, a life that is honoring to Him. And so, for example, God may have been the one who gave Daniel the dreams and the visions, But Daniel still had to be willing to boldly testify to the truth contained within those visions before King Nebuchadnezzar and then later on King Belshazzar. God may have been the one who sovereignly overruled in such a way that Daniel was spared when he was in the lion's den. But Daniel still had to stand firm in God's truth to the extent that he was thrown into the lion's den in the first place. And of all the things that we might think about in the context of that human responsibility, that human accountability before God, one of the most vital things that we're called to do as those who are God's people is to give ourselves to the discipline of prayer. And this is really the great example that Daniel provides for us in the chapter that we're studying together this evening. That not only was Daniel disciplined in his abstaining from the things of the world that would have otherwise compromised his walk with the Lord back in chapter one of this great book, Not only was he steadfast in his loyalty to God, even when it meant being thrown into the lion's den in chapter 6, but here we see that he was also faithful in responding to the truth that had been revealed to him, that was set before him, He was faithful in responding to God's revelation in the way that he came to God with this deep and reverent and humble prayerfulness. The context is that it's the first year of the reign of King Darius the Mede, and so we're actually back at the time of the Lion's Den episode in chapter six. It's 539 B.C. Daniel had been reading the book of Jeremiah, probably that particular portion, or at least including that portion that we just read earlier, Jeremiah 25. And having again familiarized himself with that revelation, what is happening here is that Daniel has basically become weighed down. He has become burdened in his soul. As he thinks about the desolation of Jerusalem. As he thinks about the time that that desolation would continue on for. And as he thinks about why that desolation was actually happening in the first place. Now where it says there at the end of verse 2 that the end of the desolation would come after 70 years, that could be symbolic language. For example, in 2 Corinthians 36 it speaks there of 70 years as a time for the land to enjoy a Sabbath rest. And so here it could simply be referring to the fact that God was ultimately the one who determined the times and the seasons for this particular period of desolation, however long that period of desolation happened to be or happened to last. On the other hand, There are almost exactly 70 years as it happens between the year when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple in 586 BC and when it was later rebuilt in 515 BC. There are a range of views around this particular point. The truth is we don't really know But whatever is being said, the bigger point here is that Daniel had read the promises of God's word, the revelation that came from the Lord. He had been deeply convicted. He had been humbled by the realization that the desolation of Jerusalem was not yet nearing its end. And as a result of that word of prophecy, concerning the disaster that had been inflicted upon God's people, his response is to cry out to God in prayer. And what is very helpful in all of this is that not only is that response in itself surely a challenge to us, because it maybe highlights our own relative indifference to the many difficulties that are faced by God's people even in our own day, if we're being honest with one another. But also, what we basically have here in this chapter is really a wonderful model outline for what we might describe as the humble and reverent prayer of the righteous. In other words, as we look out to a world where Christian men and Christian women are being persecuted and vilified in many parts, as we look out to a nation where liberalism and great wickedness has overtaken much of the professing church, it's important, is it not, that we not only have the conviction to pray, but that we know how we are to pray. And so this evening, I want to simply work through this prayer of Daniel with all of that very much in mind under three headings. First of all, invocation. Secondly, confession. And thirdly, supplication or petition. First of all, invocation. He says in verse 3, Then, that is, after reading the words of Jeremiah concerning Jerusalem and Israel, I, Daniel, turned my face to the Lord God, seeking Him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes." In other words, he's not just saying the words. He is genuinely sorrowful. He is actually in mourning over the state of the church. Then he says, I prayed to the Lord my God saying, O Lord, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments. Now sometimes we read words and we read phrases like these and we just kind of skim over the top of them. We think, you know, Daniel's just kind of warming up. He's offering a few platitudes before he gets into the real meat of the thing. But that's not what's happening here at all. Instead, this is Daniel expressing a reverence for God, and he is coming before the Lord in accordance with who he really is. First of all, in verse 3, you notice that the Lord there is in uppercase for Yahweh. Daniel isn't just addressing any God. He wasn't just calling on an unknown deity or the mysterious all-things-to-all-people God of the multi-faith movement. Instead, he is calling on the one true and covenant-keeping God who is real and personal and like whom there is no other. Second, he acknowledges the greatness of the Lord. He says in verse 4, O Lord, the great and awesome God. Third, he declares the great love of God, his faithfulness towards his covenant children. O Lord, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments. Again in verse 9 where he says, to the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness. And then, in verses 7 and verse 14, he speaks of the holiness or the righteousness of the Lord. God is righteous in all the works that He has done. He is declaring. He is speaking of. Who this God really is. Now, why is this invocation of God, this declaration of who He is and what He's really like, why is that so important? Well, it's important, first of all, Because it is an expression of the fact that we're not just coming before the Lord with a spirit of over-familiarity or flippantly or with a sense of casualness. That we are actually coming before the Almighty Creator of the heavens and the earth with reverence, with an understanding by faith, an understanding of who He really is. That's the first reason. The second reason is that this personal acknowledgement as to what God is actually like, it actually then informs the way that we then proceed with our prayers and the things that we actually ask Him for. First of all, it's on the basis that God is this holy, that He is this righteous, that He is this good, that we're able then to recognize and acknowledge the wickedness of the people. We're able to see the contrast between who He is and what His people are like. And secondly, it's on the basis that He is loving and He is kind and He is steadfast in His covenant mercy that we're able to continue calling upon His grace in the face of that same wickedness. And so we can see then that this calling to mind the character of God is not just a kind of going through the motions. but it actually provides us with the basis on which we're able to make reverent and appropriate and biblical requests of Him. Now having said all of that, we mustn't become overly legalistic about all of these things in our individual prayer lives. There is no set formula for prayer. The Lord, He urges us, He wants us to come to Him at all times as children before our Heavenly Father. The Apostle Paul says, pray without ceasing. Sometimes mini prayers, sometimes big prayers and so on. But nevertheless, the principle, the principle still stands. that what we believe to be true about God and what we call to mind concerning who He is will then inform both the extent of our reverence in prayer and the nature of the things that we pray for. The second part of Daniel's prayer is confession. And there's really three things to say about Daniel's confession. First of all, notice the honesty of language which is used. He says in verse 5, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled. Then in verse 7 he basically says, to us belongs open shame. Why? Because of, he says, the treachery which has been committed against the Lord. I was reading a news item recently about another one of these mega church pastors in the United States. Very sad story about how this man had fallen into immorality and sin and subsequently he'd had to leave his church. But what was so striking about this story was there were some quotes in the story from this particular pastor himself. And his entire tone, his language, was all about recovery and healing and being in a season of renewal. He spoke of taking some time out to recover before making some sort of a comeback. Nothing about rebellion or sin Or having acted wickedly before the Lord. Having brought the name of God into disrepute. And friends, that is a very common problem in our day. I blame the preaching. Because if we don't use biblical language for these things in our preaching, then this is surely going to be the consequence. And you see, this is where Daniel is such a good example for us. There's no attempt here to redefine sin, to smooth over the rough edges of what has actually been committed by the people of God. He calls a spade a spade. There is honesty. There is transparency before the Lord. There is directness and integrity as he speaks of the problem in precisely the terms that God himself would speak. Second thing about his confession is how specific Daniel is about the particular sin which has actually been committed. In verse 6 he says, 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. Then in verse 9, to the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness for we have 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. First he's saying we have not listened to the word of the Lord And secondly, because that is the case, we have not obeyed the word of the Lord. In other words, the issue was not that God had not spoken. God had spoken loudly and clearly. But the people, in their hardness of heart, in their rebellion, had not taken heed of his warnings, and therefore they had not walked according to his commands. And friends, what is very solemn about all of this is that this is precisely the case when we think of our own land specifically, And when we think of the Western world generally, the reason that the vast majority of people in Scotland today have absolutely zero knowledge of Scripture is not because God has not spoken in this place. Of all the countries in the world, It's arguably the case that we have been given more in terms of Bible, preaching, theological heritage than anywhere else. But what has happened? Over the years, we have shunned that revelation. Generation after generation has not listened to the voice of God. Instead, it has listened to the philosophy of the so-called enlightenment. It is listened to the voice of liberalism in the 19th and the 20th centuries. It is listened to the voice of secular humanism, the political correctness of our day. And that is why very few people are walking according to his commands in the days in which we live. Notice here that Daniel is not only specific in this confession about the nature of the sins committed by God's people. Coupled together with that, he also acknowledges that this is the very reason why calamity has come against Jerusalem in the first place. In verse 12 he says, he has confirmed his words. which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us by bringing upon us a great calamity." In other words, Daniel didn't respond to all that was happening to that covenant nation of God's people. by simply saying, Lord, please intervene and help us because, you know, these terrible unbelievers are just so evil in what they're doing to your people. Instead, he humbly and solemnly recognized and acknowledged that the very reason that all of this was happening was because of God's own displeasure with his people. Sometimes, you know, we cry out to God for revival in the church. Of course, we should do that. But I wonder, is there an open and humble acknowledgement within that request of the fact that the reason we are where we are is because of the great sins which have been committed against the Lord down through the generations and indeed in our own lives? Are we praying to God with this level of sincerity and transparency and directness? Or are we treating the Lord like some sort of sugar daddy in the sky? Who's just there to satisfy our own western brand of lukewarm Christianity. Daniel was honest about the wickedness, the rebellion, of the day. He was deliberate and specific about the actual transgressions committed by the people and he was acknowledging of the fact that this God would not be mocked. The question is, are we? Are we? Now the final part of this prayer is then the petition itself, which comes to us in verses 16 to 19. And again, there's three things I want to highlight very briefly. First of all, you notice that in these verses, Daniel is very bold. He is very bold in terms of the actual requests that he makes of God. And the reason that he is able to be this bold is because he's just being honest and direct about the problem. There is, it seems to me, a direct correlation between our ability to come boldly to the throne of grace and the extent to which we are being honest and real and biblical about what is actually taking place around us and in our own lives. Psalm 66 verse 18 says, If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. James chapter 1, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously, and it will be given. But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind, for that person must not suppose he will receive anything from the Lord. Always this link between honesty, biblical conviction, transparency on the one hand, and our ability to speak boldly and be heard by the Lord on the other. Second, we must notice what it is that Daniel actually asks for. He's not asking here for an easy life. He's not asking the Lord for personal success in the world's terms. The entire focus is on the restoration and the renewal of God's covenant people. He says in verse 16, turn your wrath away from your city Jerusalem, your holy hill. Verse 17, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary which is desolate. Open your eyes and see our desolations and the city that is called by your name. Now again, that doesn't make it wrong for us to pray concerning our many and varied individual needs. God is our Father in heaven. He invites us to come with our burdens, with all of our needs. Cast your cares upon the Lord and He will sustain you. But do you see that the great and depressing thing on Daniel's heart was not just his individual circumstances in this place of exile, as difficult and bewildering as that might have been. Instead, it was on the restoration and the prosperity of the church. I wonder, as we look out to a land where maybe less than 2% of the population are Christians, where the church is ravaged by false teaching, where immorality is even now endorsed, is this the primary concern that we have when we come to the throne of grace in prayer? That the Lord would restore the fortunes of Zion. That he would purify his bride. that he would prosper his covenant people. Because friends, that is what we should be praying for. The thy kingdom come, the thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven always comes before the give us today our daily bread. And notice here, just before we close, the third thing about this petition, this supplication, is not just what Daniel prays for, but why. Why does he pray for this? He says at the end of 18 and then 19. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. In other words, we're not asking for this because we think that in any way we deserve any of this, because we know deep down that we do not. And he's just said all of that by humbly confessing the sins of the people. But then in 19, Oh Lord, hear. Oh Lord, forgive. Oh Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not. Why not? Why should he not delay? Why should he forgive? Why should he pay attention? For your own sake. Oh my God, because your city and your people are called by your name. Do you see the ultimate desire on Daniel's part? His motivation for petitioning the Lord is not just that the people would be restored. but that by their restoration, through their restoration, God himself would be glorified for your own sake, he says, because your city, your people are called by your name. Your name, your glory is at stake in all of this. In other words, it is all about the honor and the magnifying of God's supreme worth and His glory on the earth. The church of Jesus Christ exists for the declaring of His praise and His glory. So that whether we think of the physical destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and the land of Israel all those years ago, or whether we think of the destruction that is caused today by poisonous theology, by false teaching, false prophets, the great need of the hour, friends, is for men like Daniel and women like Daniel who see things as they really are. And who therefore pray earnestly and accordingly that God would again have mercy on his people. That he would restore the walls of Jerusalem. And that by doing so he might receive the honor and the glory which is due to his name. May we as a church take heed of this solemn and yet privileged call. Let us pray. God, our Father in heaven, the one who sees all things, who knows all things, the end from the beginning. Lord, we thank you for the way in which you have been so faithful and loving and kind towards us in the gospel of your Son. We thank you for the great blessings that you have poured upon not just our own lives, but upon our own land in years gone by. And yet we recognize before you and we confess that this same prayer in so many ways could have been written precisely for our own day. For we look out, O Lord, and we're able to see so much that is wicked and ungodly. So many men and women living in darkness, in rebellion against your holy law. O God, we find it solemn. We find it so deeply and desperately humbling to recognize your sovereignty in these things. To recognize that perhaps that same judgment which came against your covenant people of old is in many ways upon our own land. And so we pray this night, our Father, we pray that you would have mercy upon us. According to your steadfast love, we pray that you would restore your church. We pray that you would prosper your gospel and the people of your covenant of grace. And as we ask for this, O Lord, we very much echo the words of Daniel, that you would do all of this not because there is any righteousness within us in and of ourselves, but because of the righteousness of your dear Son and for the glory of your name. O Lord our God, we pray that you would silence false teachers. We pray that you would cleanse your bride. Purify the church from that which is evil. We pray that you would enable us to be faithful and to be prayerful, to be loyal to you in the course of our own lives. Father in heaven, as we go into another week, we are conscious as we bow before you that you are As we've been thinking about this evening, that God who is merciful and kind and who is willing for his children to come with our burdens before you because you care for us. Lord, what a wonderful truth this is. That you should care for us, we who had gone so far astray. We who have done so much evil in your sight, and yet you care for us because of all that you have done for us in the person of Jesus Christ our Lord. Father, we thank you so much once again for the opportunity to open up your word of truth. And we do very much, Lord, covet your mercy upon our land And upon the church, we pray that you would revive your people for the glory of your name. We pray that you would enable each one of us in the course of this coming week to keep our eyes fixed on our Lord Jesus Christ. to keep walking forwards in the things of holiness, to be heavenly minded as we press on towards that great prize for which you have called us heavenward in your beloved and wonderful Son, in whose name we pray, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.