November 11, 2007

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 Scripture KJV

Reverend David S. Huffer

Westwood Baptist Church - 2124 Davis Road
 Waynesboro, VA

Daniel
9:1    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;
9:2    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.
9:3    And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:
9:4    And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;
9:5    We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:
9:6    Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
9:7    O LORD, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.
9:8    O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
9:9    To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him;
9:10    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.
9:11    Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.
9:12    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: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.
9:13    As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.
9:14    Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.
9:15    And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
9:16    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 for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.
9:17    Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake.
9:18    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.
9:19    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.

 

Lessons In The Lion’s Den: Repaint or Repent?

Daniel 9:1-19

 

Story – The Church building needed painting. Not having a lot of money in the budget, the preacher decided to thin the paint hoping to make it go farther.

·         After a hard day of painting, the church building was completely painted

·         During the night it rained and the washed off most of the thinned paint

·         When the preacher arrived for Sunday worship he was horrified at the sight.

·         As he asked himself what to do, a voice from heaven was heard saying: “Repaint, Repaint and thin no more!”

 

We the Church have adopted a soft and superficial view of repentance.

·         Instead of promoting repentance we have promoted a repainting scheme.

WHY? Because WE trivialize sin.

·         We call sin Chance – God calls it choice

·         We call sin Fascinating – God calls it Fatal

·         We call sin Trivial – God calls it Tragic

FRIENDS – We go to great extremes to make sure it is never our fault. Listen to these accident reports:

·         The guy was all over the road. I had to swerve a number of times before I finally hit him

·         The pedestrian had no idea which direction to go – so I ran over him

·         In my attempt to kill a fly – I drove into a telephone pole.\

MY Favorite – I pulled away from the side of the road – glanced over at my mother-in-law – and headed over the embankment!

·         We would rather trivialize our sin – than admit our wrong and repent!

Daniel would not trivialize sin. It was sin in the life of the nation that landed Daniel in Babylon.

DANIEL’S DEVOTION

For 68 years Daniel had been in Babylon serving God and the rulers of Babylon – in that order

·         He was now over 80 years old and we find him in the midst of his daily devotion.

TRUTH – We are never too old for God.

·         Never too old to spend time with God

·         Never too old to have a daily quiet time with God

 

Daniel did not have the Bible we have today.

·         But he did have portions of the Old Testament.

·         Most commentators believe he was reading from the Book of Jeremiah 29:10-11

 

As Daniel read from the Book of Jeremiah something jumped from the pages and grabbed his heart’s attention:

Jer. 29:10-11 – “For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future hope.”

Daniel knew the seventy years were about up and God was preparing a return to Jerusalem.

·         Our response might have been: “Whoopee! We’re going home!”

·         However that was not Daniel’s reply

·         As he read further in the Book of Jeremiah there was another serious matter to be taken care of – REPENTANCE.

Jer. 29:12-14 – “Then you will call upon me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the  nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.

Before packing for home there was work to be done in the heart.

·         Daniel realized the condition of repentance for restoration had not been fulfilled by the people.

REPENT AND RESTORE

The journey to restoration always begins with repentance!

·         This is one condition God has always placed upon His people.

Look at these Biblical examples:

1.       The Children of Israel in the wilderness

2.      Solomon – turn from wicked ways

3.      John the Baptist – “Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand”

4.      Jesus – “Repent and believe the Gospel”

FRIENDS – God requires nothing less of His people today!

·         Repentance always precedes forgiveness and restoration

Unfortunately, the Jews in Babylon were not seeking God

·         They were comfortable with their life

·         They had little interest in returning to Jerusalem to rebuild a culture

·         Therefore, their approach to repentance was a casual one at best

PARAGIGM OF REPENTANCE

If we think repentance is something we can approach casually, we need to take another look at repentance

·         Daniel gives us a paradigm shift for repentance

·         Repentance is more than acknowledging and confessing sin

FRIENDS – Repentance is a change of perspective in how we see ourselves – the world – and God

A. Looked To God – V.3

Daniel when discovering the unfulfilled condition for restoration “set his face toward the Lord God.” (v.3)

·         He willfully, emotionally, and intellectually gave his full attention, his full focus to God

FRIENDS – We live lives where we think and do two things at the same time.

·         We call it productivity or multi-tasking

·         However – repentance is a single-minded activity that focuses upon God

·         Repentance does not begin with “do I have God’s attention, but does God have my attention!”

B. Sorrow – vs.– Sorry – V.5

David Jeremiah - Some words stick in our throats. Among the hardest words to utter are: “I have sinned.”

 

Daniel recognized the sin of the people and began with a confession of sorrow.

FRIENDS - Today – repentance is viewed as simply saying you are sorry.

·         This is a superficial view of repentance

·         This is the “REPAINTING SCHEME” of dealing with our sin.

·         If we could only put another coat of paint on the problem – it will look better.

How many times have we sinned against someone and made up with these words: “Hey, I’m sorry!”

·         And the offended party replies: “That’s OK. Don’t worry about it.”

FRIENDS – That is not repentance! True repentance takes on godly sorrow!

2 Corinthians – 7:9-11 – “Now I rejoice, not that you are made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death. For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner. What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter.”

FRIENDS – Only being sorry is sorrow of the world that produces death.

·         Godly sorrow produces repentance

·         Godly sorrow produces a fruit of repentance.

Matthew 3:8 “Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance”

True repentance begins with a sorrow deep in the heart to know we have sinned against God.

C. Confession of Sin – V.5-13

When sorrow is born in our hearts over our sin, confession follows.

·         Confession is admitting our guilt in specific terms and to ultimately see we have sinned against God.

·         Genuine repentance specifies sin

Daniel confessed the sins of his people

·         V.5 – Turned away from God’s Word

·         V.6 – Did not listen to the prophets

·         V.7 – Covered with shame because of unfaithfulness

·         V.7 – rebelled against God

·         V.10 – Did not obey the voice of God

·         V.11 –All had transgressed the law

·         V.13 – Failed to pray to God

·         V.13b – No repentance from sin

FRIENDS – Confession is not for God’s benefit – but ours!

·         When we confess our sin it makes each of us admit “I am wrong. I am without excuse before God!”

NOTE ON 9:14 – Confession of sin does not guarantee God’s removal of the judgment upon sin (consequences)

·         Genuine confession and repentance of sin acknowledges that God is just to bring discipline into our lives.

D Dependence on God and His mercy - V.16-19

According to William Carr Peel “Ultimately, sin is our attempt to take care of the needs in this world apart from God.”

CLOSE

Repentance is more than turning from our sinful behavior.

·         It is a “mind change” that changes our focus from the world to God

·         As the One true source of fulfillment, safety, and meaning in life.

Daniel was depending on God and his mercy

·         Repentance rests upon God’s mercy and willingness to forgive.

·         Daniel knew that only God could give a new start to his life as well as the nations.

FRIENDS – I believe God is bringing about one last great restoring revival to the hearts of His people.

·         He is going to bring them back to where they belong

·         This is confirmed  over and over through godly people seeking God

If you believe this, the journey to restoration begins with repentance.

 

Understand – it is not the time to “repaint” trying to make things look better

It is time to “Repent” (mind change) and allow God to accomplish His will in your life.

Psalm 139:23-24 – “Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.

 

UNDERSTAND THE TIMES – IT IS TIME TO REPENT!
PRAYER – God I have sinned against you as I have sinned against others.

·         I am looking forward to Your mercy, for only You can forgive me and restore me.

·         Thank You God for allowing the Holy Spirit to work the work of repentance in me.

·         Now help me to produce fruit worthy of repentance!

AMEN!

 

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