Thank you, Mark and Diane, for leading us again. Good morning to everyone. Special welcome to John and Chris this morning. Good to see you guys. I always have a special time with John. A few times we get together, but I kind of have a little connection to Sweden with all those guys that we guided all those years and realize how difficult a thing that they're trying to do in Sweden. Those guys are, as a people in Sweden, are not very open to the gospel. So we appreciate you being here and look forward to your report.

We are working through the book of Daniel. And we are in chapter 9 this morning. And we're at a crucial point in the study of the book of Daniel. We've just considered the visions Daniel received in chapter 7 and 8. And we're about to study perhaps the most important revelation given to Daniel in the last half of chapter 9 and what God tells Daniel will happen in the future concerning his city Jerusalem and his people Israel.

In our text this morning, in the first 19 verses of Daniel 9, we get some perspective, some solid context to keep us grounded in our interpretation and application of these important studies. This prayer of Daniel and his account of his study of the word of God is set in the context of Israel in captivity in Babylon and now Medo-Persia for 70 years. And we should understand all of these visions and prophecies in this very context concerning Daniel and his people Israel. This book, these visions, these prophecies that we are about to study in Daniel 9 through 12 concern Jerusalem and Israel as God deals with his people and his covenant and his promises concerning that nation.

And the reason he does this, and this is really the message I want to convey this morning from the text, is for his name's sake. And this is so important for us to understand. I'd like for you to turn with me to somewhat of a parallel passage as it speaks of a future fulfillment of God's promises to Israel in the new covenant. It's a familiar passage, but I want you to see it in a broader context in Ezekiel chapter 36. And we will begin reading in verse 22. 

Ezekiel 36:22. God says, therefore, say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for my holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went. 

Let's just stop there for a second. There's a lot of discussion these days in and around the church, and even outside of the church, concerning the nation of Israel. And much of the teaching, at least the Facebook reels I see, the YouTube videos, are about how God has forsaken Israel for all that she has done, that he has done with Israel, that the church is the fulfillment of all the promises made to Israel. And yet we see all of this language in all of the prophets about a future deliverance, an incredible and persistent emphasis on God keeping his promises, keeping his covenant with Israel, and words of future fulfillment. Not only short-term days of the Lord in nearly all of the prophets, such as Joel, as we've studied, but also a future and final fulfillment, as we see in the third chapter of that book of Joel.

And here's what I want for you to understand. It's not because of Israel that God will keep his covenant promises. It's not because of righteous deeds that they have done or how good a people they are. Watch for this language as we study these things. It is for his name. It is so that all the nations will know that he is the Lord. 

We're going to discuss the conditional covenant of Moses with Israel in our text, and why they are in captivity according to Daniel's own words, and what God is doing and chastening them. But apart from this law covenant with Moses, God promises a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. And that is this very context of Ezekiel 36, as well as Jeremiah 31, and many other passages explained in Hebrews 8 and Romans 11. 

So consider these words of Ezekiel with this understanding. Verse 22 again: therefore say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for my holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went. And I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. And the nations shall know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when I am hallowed in you before their eyes. God is pretty clear here as to why he's going to do this great work in Israel when I am hallowed in you before their eyes, the nation's eyes.

Verse 24: for I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments and do them. 

Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers. You shall be my people, and I will be your God. I will deliver you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and multiply it and bring no famine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit of your trees and the increase of your fields so that you need never again bear the reproach of famine among the nations. 

Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and your abominations. Not for your sake do I do this, says the Lord God. Let it be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel. 

Thus says the Lord God, on the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will also enable you to dwell in the cities, and the ruins shall be rebuilt. The desolate land shall be tilled instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass by. So they will say, this land that was desolate has become like the Garden of Eden, and the wasted, desolate, and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited. Then the nations which are left all around you shall know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt the ruined places and planted what was desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken it, and I will do it. 

Thus says the Lord God: I will also let the house of Israel inquire of me to do this for them. I will increase their men like a flock, like a flock offered as holy sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem on its feast days. So shall the ruined cities be filled with flocks of men. Then they shall know that I am the Lord. When will this take place? When they believe Jesus, and only when they believe Jesus. 

And we will see that this will take place in Daniel's prophecy as we're going to study in the upcoming chapters. Why? Because Israel is so good and great? No. Because God wants to get the church out of here so we don't have to endure the wrath of Antichrist? No. Because the day of the Lord is about Israel, and God is going to turn back to Israel and chasten her one more time and bring her in faith to himself so that his covenant and his word is shown to be trustworthy and true, not because of Israel, but for his great namesake, so that all will know that he is the Lord.

We're going to look at this more in depth in our study this morning, but I just want to mention an important truth here, a truth we observed and struggled and studied in depth in our study of eschatology. Daniel, in our text, is wondering how long this captivity of Israel will last. He's searching the word of God, seeking answers concerning the deliverance of his people Israel from Babylon. And he comes across this passage in Jeremiah, and he gets his answer.

Now, what I want to remind you of is the pattern that God has established in his word in the history of the Old Testament with Israel concerning the day of the Lord. We've had several studies and messages on the day of the Lord over the years. In the temporal days of the Lord and God's dealings with Israel in the Old Testament, we find a very clear pattern for our understanding of the final day of the Lord that is yet to come. 

We see this with Egypt. We see it with Assyria. We see it with Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Every time the same pattern: disobedience, idolatry, spiritual adultery concerning Israel, then God raises up a chastening agent, a nation or a king. Then God appeals to Israel to turn back to him and promises deliverance for repentance and faith. And then God delivers Israel from their temporal torment and punishes the chastening agent. This is the pattern. 

I just want to keep that fresh in your mind as to why we understand the future day of the Lord the way we do and as we approach the revelation given to us in Daniel chapter 9. Let's look briefly at Jeremiah 25 because it's at the center of our text this morning, Jeremiah 25:5. 

They said, repent now every one of his evil way and his evil doings and dwell in the land that the Lord has given to you and your fathers forever and ever. Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them and do not provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, and I will not harm you. 

Yet you have not listened to me, says the Lord, that you might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt. Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, because you have not heard my words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, says the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around and will utterly destroy them and make them an astonishment, a hissing and perpetual desolations. Moreover, I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. 

And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years. Verse 12: then it will come to pass when the 70 years are completed that I will punish the king of Babylon in that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, says the Lord, and I will make it a perpetual desolation. So I will bring on that land all my words, which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied concerning all the nations, for many nations and great kings shall be served by them also, and I will repay them according to their deeds and according to the works of their own hands. 

The very text that revealed to Daniel that the time of captivity in Babylon would be 70 years explains to us again the pattern of God raising up Nebuchadnezzar. We studied his providence in that. Remember Pharaoh Necho coming in the Battle of Carchemish and all that that we studied and how Nebuchadnezzar rose to power and Babylon became the dominant kingdom. He raised him up, think about this, all that that God did among all the nations of the world to raise up the greatest kingdom on earth ahead of gold for what, 70 years. For why? To punish Israel. 

God did all that and controlled all those details. Are you worried about the nations of the world? I will raise up Nebuchadnezzar to chasten Israel for their iniquities, to bring them back to himself, to restore them and prosper them as we see in the rebuilding of the wall and the temple and the coming back to the land. 

And then we see a punishing of the chastening agent, Babylon, so that all may know that he is the Lord, that there is a God in Israel. It's about God's name, it's about who he is and his character and nature and his sovereignty over all things to show, to demonstrate and manifest his great name and power through his people. Through you, he says, I'm going to do this so that the nations may know. 

This is the context we must keep in mind as we come to Daniel nine. So let's look at that text. I want to read that again in Daniel nine verses one to 19. It says, in the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus of the lineage of the Medes who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. 

Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make requests by prayer and supplications with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession and said, oh Lord, great and awesome God who keeps his covenant and mercy with those who love him and with those who keep his commandments. We have sinned and committed iniquity. We have done wickedly and rebelled even by departing from your precepts and your judgments. Neither have we heeded your servants, the prophets who spoke in your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. 

Oh Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but to us shame of face as it is this day to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off and all countries to which you have driven them because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against you. Oh Lord, to us belong shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers because we have sinned against you. 

To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness though we have rebelled against him. We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God to walk in his laws which he set before us by his servants and prophets. Yes, all Israel has transgressed your law and has departed so as not to obey your voice. Therefore, the curse and the oath written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, has been poured out on us because we have sinned against him and he has confirmed his words which he spoke against us and against our judges who judged us by bringing upon us a great disaster for under the whole heavens such has never been as what has been done to Jerusalem. 

As it is written in the law of Moses, all this has come upon us, yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand your truth. Therefore, the Lord God has kept the disaster in mind, brought it upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works which he does, though 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 made yourself a name, as it is this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly. O Lord, according to all your righteousness, I pray, let your anger and your fury be turned away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain, because for our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people are a reproach to all those around us. 

Now therefore, O God, hear the prayer of your servant and his supplications, and for the Lord's sake cause your face to shine on your sanctuary which is desolate. O my God, incline your ear and hear, open your eyes and see your desolations, and the city which is called by your name. For we do not present our supplications before you because of our righteous deeds, but because of your great mercies. O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, listen and act. Do not delay. For your own sake, my God, for your city and your people are called by your name.

I've given you four points on your outline: First, I understood by the books. Second, the curse of the law of Moses. Third, Jerusalem, Israel, the need of salvation. And fourth, your city and your people are called by your name.

Well, I wonder, when was the last time that you were diligently studying the Word of God, immersed in it, pondering, meditating on something, and studying it out, and God revealed to you through his Word some great truth, some detail or nuance you'd not seen before that so greatly encouraged you? 

I can remember when I was first saved, and in those days I was working as a federal trapper for Wildlife Services, and Bobby was teaching school. She was home in the summer, and then I was home in the winter with my two little girls at that time. And that first winter, after I was saved, God gave me a burning desire to know the truth. I felt as though we had been deceived all of our lifetime in religion, and I didn't want to be deceived again. I wanted to know the truth from God's Word, and the blessing was that I did not know anything about commentaries or systematic theologies. I didn't even know there was such a thing as Christian radio. 

And that winter, I would study, sometimes for hours in a day, and my study was primarily in the book of Romans, and focused in on chapters 5 to 8. And I spent months in those chapters, and the riches of those words caused me to rejoice, to sing praises, sometimes to literally stand up and dance around my chair, because I was so excited about what God was showing me. It was so profound, so encouraging, so edifying to my understanding of the Christian life, and who I am in Christ. 

And since that time, all those years ago, there have been times like this in my study in the Word, and time in fellowship with God, as He reveals wonderful truths by His Spirit through His Word, that you just get so excited, and so encouraged, and you want to share these truths with brothers and sisters in Christ, and anyone who will listen. 

I imagine this is how Daniel felt in the context of despair, waiting, not knowing how this would end, when Jerusalem would be restored, the temple rebuilt, etc. And studying and reading in Jeremiah 25, and coming across that great text we just read, 70 years, captivity in Babylon for 70 years was the plan of God revealed through Jeremiah, and then calculating in his mind, and coming to the conclusion that it was time. 

The 70 years were up, and this study of God's Word, and this great truth revealed to Daniel concerning His people and His city Jerusalem that produced the prayer before us in our text. A right prayer before the Lord, for Himself and His people Israel, based on the truths of the Word of God. This is how it should be for us, in studying the New Covenant truths we now enjoy, and the amazing words written to us, particularly in the New Testament letters for the church, but certainly the whole of the Word of God. 

Daniel says, I understood by the books, I understood by studying the Word of God. This is such an important thing for us to understand, that's the only way we're going to understand, is by the study of the Word of God. 

Well, next we also see the curse of the law of Moses, Daniel 9:11. All Israel has transgressed your law, departed so as not to obey your voice. Therefore the curse and the oath written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us because we have sinned against him, and he has confirmed his words which he spoke against us and against our judges, who judged us by bringing upon us a great disaster for into the whole heaven, such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem. 

As it is written in the law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we've not made our prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand truth. 

Well, Daniel lived under the covenant of Moses, the law of covenant, and he's speaking about the curse of the law of covenant. Turn back to Deuteronomy 28 with me and we'll look at that briefly. Deuteronomy 28 at verse 1, and this is the Lord speaking about this law of covenant to his nation Israel, he says, Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all his commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth, and all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you because you obey the voice of the Lord your God. 

And then he lists all these blessings and prosperity from the hand of the Lord, crops and rain and children and all these great things, but in verse 15 he says this, But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all his commandments and statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. 

Curse shall be in the city, curse shall you be in the country, curse shall you be your basket and your kneading bowl, curse shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and offspring of your flocks, and he goes on and on. Verse 25 he says this, The Lord will cause you to be defeated by your enemies, you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them, you shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. 

And the list of cursings for breaking the covenant of the law of God is quite ominous, but this is the economy in which Daniel lived, in which the nation Israel lived, and this is what Daniel articulates in his prayer. Israel has forsaken God, not heeded the words and warning of the prophets, they had sinned and God was right to chasten them in Babylon in order to turn them back to himself. 

And this is the appeal of Daniel in this prayer: mercy. He's appealing to God's mercy, not for works of righteousness they had done, they had sinned and forsaken the covenant, mercy was the appeal for the restoration of the nation, the land, the temple, and why? For God's namesake, for his glory. Because Israel had become a reproach to all the nations around.

This is a right prayer for Israel in the context of the curse of the law covenant which they had broken and deserved what had come upon them. Now I have good news for you, my brother, my sister in Christ, turn over to Galatians 3 with me, please. 

Galatians chapter 3 at verse 10. You'll understand the context of the book of Galatians and what Paul's doing concerning the legalistic Judaizers who were perverting the gospel. In verse 10, in his argument, Paul says, for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. 

But that no one is justified by the law on the side of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith, yet the law is not of faith, but the man who does them shall live by them. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. 

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, taken away the handwriting of requirements that was against us. That's good news. That's good news. 

We now live under the new covenant blessings of the unconditional promises made to Abraham of the new covenant that we read about in Ezekiel 36, the new covenant made with the house of Israel. But Hebrews 8 teaches us that there's a pre-fulfillment of these promises in the church and we are supported by the root, the blessings promised to and which will be fully and finally fulfilled in Israel for the sake of the fathers, for the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 

But praise God, we live in this new covenant time which Jesus instituted at the cross and his blood. And now we do not live under the curse of the law, but experience blessing in Christ as he has made us accepted in the beloved, and now we live for him because he first loved us. He saved us. He recreated us. He regenerated us and even came to live in us as we became partakers of the divine nature and Jesus lives his life in and through us as we walk out by faith.

Praise God that we do not live under the blessing and cursing system of the law. But this is the context of the prayer of Daniel, the context in which Israel lived as a nation in covenant with God. If they obeyed, they would be blessed as a nation. This is a major difference between the church and Israel. 

Israel was a nation made up of mostly unbelievers, as well as some justified by faith personally under, but they lived under the law covenant as a nation. The church is not a nation. The church is believers from every nation, all believers by definition, not under the law covenant but under grace and the new covenant. If Israel disobeyed, the curses would come upon them in the days of the Lord judgements that we see over and over through the Old Testament by the chastening of the nations that God raised up for that very purpose. 

But here in Daniel, we're at the end of one of those times, and the deliverance of Israel from Babylon was at hand, and God was going to exercise the mercy that Daniel prayed for for his people, for his holy city Jerusalem in the near blessing of the rebuilding under Cyrus and so forth and Nehemiah and all these things God was going to do, but what we see also in answer to Daniel's prayer...