According to the Scriptures

Guest (Male): Encouraging us to help someone confront their sin, here’s Pastor Damian Kyle.

Damian Kyle: Who do you know that is just about to destroy their life and nothing will be said? Everybody knows, everybody sees it. I mean, they may hate you after you say whatever you say, but somebody's got to say it.

To see something in someone's life and say, "Lord, do you want to use me as an instrument like you used the prophets in the Old Testament? To warn of the need to heed you on an issue that they are no longer heeding you on." That's a part of the immune system of the body of Christ.

Guest (Male): We all know not to shout fire in a theater. It'll cause a panic, right? But what if there is a fire? Or what if someone's life is about to go up in smoke? What's the right and loving thing to do?

We'll talk about that today here on According to the Scriptures. Welcome to the program. As we conclude our study of Daniel's prayer, we're reminded God is faithful to warn. Our part is to listen and sometimes warn as well. To explain from Daniel chapter nine, here's Pastor Damian Kyle.

Damian Kyle: God is always faithful to warn us ahead of time, but we have to listen. I think one of the greatest inadequacies—not the word that I want, but I'll go with it—of the Christian church in the United States of America in this hour in church history is the failure on our part to warn other Christians concerning the cliff that they're about to drive over.

The writer of the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter three, verse 12, "Beware brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God." And then here it is, "But exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." And not only to warn one another concerning apostasy, which is the context of Hebrews, but concerning any sin.

And we certainly don't want to be the Holy Spirit to people, every time they make a mistake we’re there within five seconds. We don't even give them the room to hear the Holy Spirit, repent, take care of it between them and God. We're not wanting to encourage that at all in any of our lives. You want to see people run for their life, become that kind of a Christian.

But when we watch somebody who is clearly not understanding something, clearly not taking the word of God seriously on an issue and you go, "I know where this goes." This is a train wreck. It is always a train wreck. This is going to be a disaster for him, for his marriage, for his entire family, for his entire life. He will one day be willing to give his right leg and his right arm in order to have a second chance in that situation to do it differently.

And yet, to not say anything at all in kind of this privacy that we like and space that we like as Americans, and we like to give people. It's funny where we want privacy and then we've got these dumb things talking to us in our house that can listen to everything that we're doing.

It’s in the papers. I don't have one. I don't want one of these things in my house. You have it and it brings on the song that you want or answers the question that you wanted answered, that’s great. Or on Facebook where every single thing is recorded and then sold in terms of painting who you are as a person.

So it's funny how we're willing to just throw out privacy altogether in one sense for the benefits of technology and convenience. And yet, in the area where we shouldn't be concerned about that, in the area of exhorting one another, it is almost nonexistent.

I'd like us all to just take that to the Lord. I mean, who do you know that is just about to destroy their life and nothing will be said? Everybody knows, everybody sees it. I mean they may hate you after you say whatever you say, but somebody's got to say it.

To see something in someone's life and say, "Lord, do you want to use me as an instrument like you used the prophets in the Old Testament? To warn of the need to heed you on an issue that they are no longer heeding you on." That's a part of the immune system of the body of Christ. Nothing wrong with that at all.

And so the importance of all of this. And then at verse seven, "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 the countries to which you have driven them because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against you. Oh Lord, to us belongs 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."

And here you have another confession by Daniel of the blamelessness of God in all of that. Any spiritual failure that occurs within our lives is 100% our fault and not God’s, and sometimes we just need to be reminded of that. Somebody just needs to tell us that or again the blame-shifting goes on.

I remember when we were down on 10th F, just like when you're a new Christian, so many of those first times you run into a lot of things, that becomes like the most impactful thing that'll stay with you now in that area of the Christian life for the rest of your Christian life. And the same thing happens in any area of Christian ministry and certainly for being a pastor.

And I remember a gentleman came in that was attending the church at that time and it was in the early days and he just kept on sinning. He was like a traveling salesman guy and he’s taking his wedding ring off as he heads out on his routes and all of these things and failing in the area of sexual immorality. And he finally came in and I was unaware of this until I became aware of it and his complaint was that God's not keeping his end of the bargain.

And that's funny, I've met a lot of guys through the years that say, "Well, the Bible kind of applies to everybody else, but I have an extraordinary sex drive. Or I have an extraordinary attraction to alcohol. Or an extraordinary attraction to sin." The Bible talks about the fact that the appeal to sin to each and every one of us is equally strong in our lives. And that kind of lie that people get into and he was very disappointed in God and was blaming God and all.

I took him to second Peter chapter one verses two and three, which says, "Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as his power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue."

And I explained to him that God has given us all that we need in order to live a godly life, and everything that pertains to all of that. And the failure is not found in God, but it was a failure on his part, a self-deception. And with that and other things that happened within his life, he began to turn things around.

But that's always true. If you find yourself in a place tonight where you are absolutely dominated by sin and somehow you are disappointed with God over his failure, some failure of his power, his grace, his love, his promise toward you that you remain in that position, it's important for you to realize that God isn't failing you at all, but this is 100% a failure on your part.

And if you look at it and you say, "Well, I don't even know where to begin to dig out from where I am now." And that may be because you don't have a good understanding of the Bible. Well, make an appointment with one of the pastors here at the church, say, "I listened to what Pastor had to say related to that, I've been blaming God thinking I'm this extraordinary kind of Christian for whom the Bible doesn't work." And I realize that that isn't true, now begin to help me to see this in a biblical way. And they'll be very, very happy to do that.

You notice in verse 10, he said, "We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God to walk in his laws which he set before us by his servants the prophets." Again he confesses, "God, you told us and you told us and you told us." And it's like the person that's raised in church, "I heard sermon after sermon after sermon related to that thing, God, it’s not like I didn't know and you didn't warn."

Isn't it interesting what we remember related to sermons? You do remember something related to sermons, I hope. Okay. But these things where you listen to maybe a 45-minute sermon and there's like one to three things that stick with you. Now, sometimes for good and that's just the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

And it's always important to pay attention to anything we hear in a sermon where the Holy Spirit is giving that point extra life in our spirit as we hear it. It’s having an especially impact upon our lives because it means that God is speaking to us. And that can be in the form of encouragement or as is the case here in the form of warning.

And when you sit and you say, "Boy, I squirmed all the way through that sermon," whatever the sermon might be. And that wasn't squirming under some pastor, that’s squirming under the ministry of the Holy Spirit trying to do in our lives individually what God tried to do in the nation of Israel as a whole.

And then you notice in verse 11, "Yes, all Israel is," as Daniel is continuing his prayer, "yes, all Israel has transgressed your law and is departed so as to not obey your voice. And therefore the curse and the oath written in the law of Moses, the servant of God has been poured out upon us because we have sinned against him."

And Daniel just straightly confessed this long period of time that they had been in their sin before God had judged them and before they had repented of it. And there had been this very, very long period of time. And he acknowledges that fact.

I like the old saying concerning brokenness, and brokenness before God should be something that we long for as a characteristic in our lives as Christians. And someone has said that brokenness in our lives is directly proportional to the time that elapses between the moment that I sin and the moment that I confess that sin and repent of it.

So when you sin, whether deliberately or you didn't intend to and flying off the handle on something or whatever it might be, when you sin and immediately there is that conviction of sin in that moment, and so often we feel like I can't go to God now and in the light of what I've just done, I've got to give him a few minutes to cool down, maybe a few days.

Of course he doesn't need any time to cool down. That conviction and that longing to confess sin and repent is an evidence of a beautiful brokenness within your life. Always come to God immediately in that way. It's when we can sin and it takes weeks or months before there's any conviction on it that is an indication of a severe lack of brokenness within our lives. We're out of tune with him.

And so this recognition of this in verse 12. And as it is written, verse 13, in the law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us. Yet we have not made our own prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand your truth. God had made it very clear all the way through the law of Moses and crystal clear at the end of the book of Deuteronomy, the last of the five books of Moses.

Before they go into the land, Moses preached to them—I don't know how long that sermon was, but it was a long sermon. And he preached to them all of the blessings that God would bring upon them if they would simply obey his word and all of the blessings and the curses that God would bring upon them if they rebelled against his word. And all of it came completely true.

God’s word will always come to pass. It never fails to. And so what we want to make sure is that we're always on the blessing side of those promises and not on the chastening of the judgment side of those promises. Daniel here is speaking to that.

And then notice verse 14, "Therefore the Lord has kept the disaster in mind and 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, oh Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and have made yourself a name as it is this day, we have sinned and done wickedly."

And when he references God delivering them out of Egypt, he is essentially saying to God, "God, we know that we are not in the situation and the fix that we're in because of any lack of power on your part or any lack of faithfulness or motivation on your part. You already demonstrated that in Egypt. We are here because of our sin and our wickedness."

"And oh 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 of our sin and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people are a reproach to all of those around us."

And so this plea for mercy, this plea for grace that continues in verse 17, "And now therefore our 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."

In Jerusalem, the temple was destroyed, the temple was, it was all desolate. Would you make your face shine upon that place once again? And this concern that he has for that. And for the Lord's face to shine upon us means for the face to shine or glow in favor toward another person.

When you meet someone that you are so happy to see and you want to bless, your face shines upon them. And it's a mark of your favor and he prayed for this same thing from the Lord toward them.

And now therefore our God, oh my God, incline your ear and hear, open your eyes and see our 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.

And that's why he approaches God in just the low point of the Jewish people in the entire Old Testament here, this captivity. And when he reappproaches God for a second chance on behalf of the nation, he does so not on the basis of any kind of works or human effort or self-righteousness, but on the basis of the mercy and the grace of God.

That’s our only hope as sinners in being restored, and we approach him in the same way. We don't have to go and help old ladies across the street for six months and then come to him and say, "Now look at that and then hear." It had nothing to do with that. I approach you solely on the basis of your grace. It's my only hope in my situation.

And it's wonderful to know that the grace of God is that inexhaustible that Daniel could on behalf of the children of Israel—they’re murdering their children in Jerusalem. They're murdering their children in Jerusalem, the people of God. They are murdering people in order to steal property in law cases.

They are oppressing the poor. They’re bearing false witness in the courts so that innocent people would die and guilty people would live. This is happening among the Jewish nation at the time that they were going to go into captivity.

And you go back through those major prophets and you look at what Jerusalem and Judah had become and it was awful, indescribably awful. And yet Daniel recognizes that the grace of God is greater than even the greatness of their sin. And he feels free to approach in the light of that. And God’s grace is greater than all of our sin. What would we do if that wasn't true?

"And oh Lord hear, oh Lord forgive, oh Lord listen and act. Do not delay for your own sake my God, for your city and your people called by your name." But the subject of prayer and the subject of intercession and the subject of confession of sin is so important that I'm glad that we could just spend some time and hunker down on this and look at these practical aspects of prayer.

Guest (Male): Indeed. And speaking of prayer, Pastor Damian Kyle will be back in just a moment to lead us in prayer. You want to stick around for that. Here on According to the Scriptures. In the meantime, just a couple of things to briefly mention.

Our phone number where you can order this series on CD is 209-545-5530. Again, we can be reached at 209-545-5530. By the way, you can also find our studies in Daniel on our website at accordingtothescriptures.com, as well as oneplace.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

Another way to access teachings from Damian is through our app. It's available on all platforms and free. Simply search for Calvary Chapel Modesto. Pastor Damian would love to hear from you. Shoot him an email today, let him know if you appreciate the teaching you’re receiving here on According to the Scriptures.

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Well, as promised, let's look to the Lord in prayer with Pastor Damian Kyle, shall we, as we close out our time together.

Damian Kyle: Father, thank you for this time in your word to really brood upon the subject of prayer and to be able to look at it so practically from a position of failure, to be able to look at it from the vantage point of a man as spiritual and as in love with you as Daniel was.

And we just pray that you would continue to shape our prayer life with you and to recognize these same things in our own life for things that aren't there. And Lord we pray that not a single one of us would live one more minute, certainly not one more half hour, failing to have confessed sin to you that occurred so long ago within our lives, or that we would continue in sin because we've been handed a bunch of excuses by our mom or our dad or our husband or our wife or by our culture or by our friend.

And concerned about being right with all these other people, but failing to be concerned about being right with you. We pray that you would release us from all of that by bringing us into a current place in our relationship with you concerning all of these things.

Father we thank you for the power of Jesus's sacrifice and his blood and his crucifixion and his burial and his resurrection that has turned your throne, astonishingly so, into a throne of grace for us from which to receive the grace and mercy that we so desperately need in our pilgrimage. We thank you for your grace and for your commitment to what you have begun in each of our lives and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): We’ll spend more time in Daniel chapter nine the rest of this week on According to the Scriptures with Pastor Damian Kyle, a presentation of Calvary Chapel Modesto.