I'm so glad to pray to a God who's all-powerful. I'm so glad to pray to a God who's absolutely majestic and controls all the circumstances of the whole world. I'm so glad to pray to a God who's absolutely faithful to his children, who loves them. I'm glad to pray to a God who's utterly and absolutely holy and will always do right. And I'm glad to pray to a God who's gracious and forgives and forgives and forgives.
Welcome to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. What do healthy marriages have in common? What about good parenting? The answer is communication.
you've got to know how to talk to those you love.
Well, it's no different in your relationship with God. To draw closer to Him you need to know how to talk to Him.
So today, John is going to look at the prophet Daniel and his example of fervent and effective prayer. The title of John's current study, Elements of True Prayer. But before the lesson, I have some letters here from listeners who wanted to let us know how God has used grace to you in their lives. Here's what Richard told us. He writes, I remember first listening to John MacArthur on Premiere Radio out of London.
back in the mid-1990s. Out of all the preachers I listened to as a young Christian, and there were a few, I can honestly say John's diction, message, and unwavering desire to reveal God's truth spoke to my heart the most. I thank the Lord for His ministry, His witness, and His legacy. Thank you to John's family and everyone at Grace Community Church and Grace to you for being a beacon of light in this dark world. and he signs it Richard.
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God bless his family, and God bless grace to you.
Well, thank you, Richard and Mariette, for your encouraging letters. And friend, we frequently hear stories like those from people around the world who have been strengthened by these daily radio broadcasts. And that ministry is made possible because listeners like you support us.
So thank you for partnering with us in this global ministry. And thank you especially for praying for grace to you. That's the most important way you can support us. And speaking of prayer, To continue showing you elements of true prayer, here's John MacArthur with today's lesson. Daniel chapter 9 presents to us a great insight into prayer.
First 19 verses are a prayer prayed by Daniel to the Lord on behalf of the people he loved. the people of Israel.
Now in this wonderful prayer, There are 18 verses before he gets to his petition. 18 verses of heart preparation. 18 verses of intercession on the part of Daniel for his people. And I have pointed out to you that there are eight elements that mark genuine intercessory prayer. There are eight elements that mark genuine intercessory prayer.
We see these eight as we flow through this wonderful prayer. It becomes a model for us, in fact, one of the very best in all of the Old Testament. Let me remind you of what we've already learned and go through the first few of these principles that we have examined in the past. Number one, Prayer is generated by the Word of God. Verse 2 tells us that while he was reading the book of Jeremiah, he was prone to pray.
Our prayer life proceeds from the intensity of our study of the Word of God. As we hear God tell us his plans, we respond. We might say then that the first principle, prayer is generated by the Word of God, is simply that we seek to know God's plan. That's where it begins. And we get into the word to find out what God is going to do so we can pray intelligently.
See We said that prayer is grounded in the will of God. It is generated out of the Word of God, and it is grounded in the will of God. We seek not only to know God's plan, but to see it fulfilled. We're not trying to change God's mind. We're trying to identify with what He already wants to do, which is best.
Thirdly, We've learned that prayer is characterized by fervency. Prayer is a passionate involvement in the matters that concern the heart of God. Prayer not only seeks to know God's plan, Not only seeks to see God's plan fulfilled, but it seeks to see God's plan fulfilled at once. There's an earnestness. There's a passion involved.
Fourthly, then, we also saw that. True intercessory prayer, genuine prayer is marked by self-denial. It is realized in self-denial. We see the fervency in verse 3, and we see the self-denial in verse 4, where he says, I prayed unto the Lord my God and made my confession. He doesn't come and say, You need to do this for me because I have a claim on you.
He doesn't come and say, I have a right to demand this out of you, God. He comes and says, I'm a sinner, and in effect, he says, I don't have a right to demand anything. Prayer is at the very beginning a recognition of our own unworthiness. And a sense of self-denial. And so prayer seeks to not only know God's will, not only to see it fulfilled, not only to see it fulfilled at once, but to see it fulfilled no matter what.
That costs me. And then, fifthly, we said that true intercessory prayer is identified with God's people. It's not selfish. I mean, if it's just denied itself, it won't be selfish. It won't be grasping and possessive for its own goals.
And we see as we looked at verses 5 down through 14 how many times he says, We and our and us. and all Israel. And again and again, he is saying, I want to encompass all the people of God, all of us. This is our problem. Minister to us.
The essence of true intercessory prayer is that it's bigger than any individual. That when we really pray, self has been set aside and we are lost in the needs of others. And we reminded you of 1 Samuel 12:23, which says, God forbid that I should sin in ceasing to pray for you.
So we might say that true intercessory prayer not only seeks to know God's plan. not only seeks to see it, Fulfilled, not only seeks to see it fulfilled at once, not only seeks to see it fulfilled at once, no matter what it costs me, but seeks to see it fulfilled. for the sake of others. For the sake of others. It isn't, Lord, please do this because I'd like to have it so.
It's please do this because you're people. would be blessed. And then sixthly, True intercessory prayer is strengthened in confession. It is strengthened in confession. Confession isn't a flippant thing.
It is a recognition that you have offended holy God. And if things aren't right in your life, It's because you have brought it upon yourself because God is righteous and must react against unrighteousness. True? It's only His grace that keeps us from being consumed.
So Daniel is praying a prayer of confession. And he acknowledges that the captivity, the seventy years, and all the judgments and punishments. are deserved because of the sins of the people. The end of verse 15, I think, sums it up. We have sinned.
We have done Wickedly. Verse 60, 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. It isn't anybody's fault, but Our own. Let me sum it up. True intercessory prayer is generated by God's Word.
Grounded in God's will. Characterized by fervency, realized in self-denial, identified with others, and strengthened in confession.
Well, two last points briefly. Number seven. True intercessory prayer is dependent on God's character. It's dependent on God's character. You know, if God was like the gods of the Philistines.
It really wouldn't do a lot of good to ask for forgiveness because their gods were evil, cruel. gods in their own mind. But not so our God. We pray our prayer of forgiveness, our prayer of confession. We call on God on the behalf of his people.
We intercede for needs of others because we believe God. hears and responds, right? All prayer, then, is based on the character of God.
Now notice how that character is developed, beginning in verse 4. I prayed to the Lord, my God. and made my confession. And said, now watch, O Lord. the great and awesome God.
First of all, he says great.
Now that word means powerful. In other words, I pray to God because God is powerful enough to respond. He's not impotent. He can turn the circumstances. He has all of the resources infinitely at his disposal.
He is the God in verse 15 who brought his people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand. It's wonderful to pray to a God who is. Omnipotent, isn't it? I mean, wouldn't it be awful to pray to a God who was only the second most powerful deity? and had to work everything through another one?
What a hopeless situation. But he is Powerful. Secondly, He is awesome. That means. Majesty.
Not only power, but majesty. It means he is to be honored, he is to be glorified. He is to be exalted. He is to be lifted up. He is to be praised.
He is worthy. He is the most powerful. And he is the most majestic. Look, what else? Keeping the covenant.
Keeping the covenant. Not only do we see his power and his majesty, but his faithfulness. When God makes a promise, he keeps it. And he made a covenant with his people that he'd never forsake them, right? And if they repented, he'd forgive them.
And if they obeyed him, he'd restore them. And God keeps his promises. The Bible says, Call upon me, and I'll answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. And we believe that, don't we? The Bible says that if our hearts are pure and our sins are set aside and we call upon his name, he'll respond to our call.
We pray because we believe God has the power to fulfill it. Because he is the most majestic one in the universe and is worthy of our prayers, and because he is a faithful God who will keep his promises. Notice also in verse 4, it says that he has mercy to them that love him. Mercy to them that love him. Let me just say that the word mercy there is really love.
He will forgive because he loves. He will grant us what we ask in His will because He loves. It's one thing to be powerful.
Something else to be majestic. It's especially wonderful to be faithful. But what encompasses faithfulness is love. Love. And then notice further as you go down.
Verse seven. Oh Lord. Righteousness. belongs to thee. Is holy.
He'll do what is right. Not what is wrong. How wonderful to know that. God can never do a wrong thing. Always right, always right, always right.
No matter what he does, it's right. It's right, it's right, it's right. Isn't that great to have that kind of God? Never makes a mistake. Never has a folly, never a blunder.
Our God is powerful, majestic, faithful, loving, and absolutely holy. And then How wonderful to know that he is merciful and forgiving. And that may be the heart of it all. In verse 9, it says, To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses. I like the fact that forgiveness is in the plural, don't you?
I've needed it more than once. Have you? Forgiveness says mercies And so we can say our God is a gracious God. He is powerful, majestic, faithful, loving, holy. And gracious.
Now that's the kind of God we Seek. In our prayers. As we look at the cross. We see all of those things. As I look at the cross, I see his power because on that cross he conquers sin and death and Satan and hell, right?
That's power. As I look at the cross, I see His majesty. For there He is, a victim in appearance of the Romans and the Jews, and yet step by step controlling every single thing that's happening on the cross. And one standing afar off and watching him control his own dying and control every event to fulfill prophecy, uttered in absolute astonishment: truly this was the Son of God. He was majestic even in dying.
I look at the cross and I see his faithfulness. He said that He would die for us. He said that he had to go to the cross. He said the Son of Man had to die. And even though in the garden he agonized about it, he kept his promise.
He's faithful. I look at the cross and I see his love. Because he shouldn't have been there, I should have been there. But because he loved, he took my place. I look at the cross and I see his holiness because it is holiness that put him there.
He couldn't just forgive sinners, he had to pay the price to deal with the sin because he cannot tolerate sin. Its penalty must be paid. And I see his mercy and forgiveness there. He is gracious. You see, all that God is to Daniel, God is to us.
And Daniel knows it from his dealings with his people. And we know it from the cross. We see his power, his majesty, his faithfulness, his love, his holiness, his grace. And that's the basis of our prayers. I'm so glad to pray for a God who's all-powerful.
I'm so glad to pray to a God who's absolutely majestic and controls all the circumstances of the whole world. I'm so glad to pray to a God who's absolutely faithful to his children, who loves them. I'm glad to pray to a God who's utterly and absolutely holy and will always do right. And I'm glad to pray to a God who is gracious and forgives and forgives and forgives.
So genuine intercessory prayer, you see. Is generated by the Word of God. Grounded in the will of God. Characterized by fervency, realized in self-denial, identified with God's people, strengthened in confession, and dependent on God's character. A final thought.
Intercessory prayer finally. consummates in God's glory. It consummates in God's glory. Look at verse 16 and just follow as I read. Through 19.
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.
Now stop there for a minute. He says, God, Jerusalem. Your city. Zion, your holy mountain. Because of us.
Has had to receive your fury and your anger. Turn from that. For your people have become a reproach to you. In other words, don't do it for us, do it for you. See?
All prayer consummates in God's glory. Do it for you. Verse 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 what? Lord's sake. Not for our sakes, O Lord, but for the Lord's sake.
Verse 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. We're not making claims based upon our own righteousness.
We're saying, do it that you might manifest your great mercy. This city is called by your name and your reputation is at stake. And verse 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. You see, it's all over those four verses. Do it for you, not for us. You see, the captivity of Judah. And the non-existence of the Jerusalem sanctuary was interpreted by the nations around it to indicate that Judah's God was either powerless or a delusion altogether.
And Daniel is saying, God, vindicate your name. Don't let your name be smeared. Don't be evil spoken of. Don't let our sin corrupt your reputation. Boy, that is a mature prayer.
Forgive us for your sake. I tell you, people, we live in a day when prayer is an infinitely far cry from that kind of thing. People are praying only for their own ends. God is to be glorified. Jeremiah says the same thing.
Jeremiah 29, 17, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, I'll send upon them the sword, the famine, the pestilence, make them like vile figs that can't be eaten. They're so bad. And I'll persecute them with the sword and the famine and the pestilence, and deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and a horror, and a hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations to which I have driven them. Because they have not hearkened to my word, says the Lord, which I send unto them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them. But you would not hear, saith the Lord.
God says, I'm going to wipe you right out for a period of time. Because of your evil. But the prophet says, God. Don't prolong it. It's so horrible.
We are a hissing among the nations, and it's your reputation that's at stake. We bear your name. The psalmist calls upon God in the same regard. I think it's Psalm 102. Let me check to be sure.
Verse twelve, but thou, O Lord, shalt endure forever. And thy remembrance to all generations. Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion. For the time to favor her, yea, the set time is come. For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favor the dust thereof.
So the nations shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth, thy glory. When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory. He will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer. This shall be written for the generation to come, and the people who shall be created shall praise the Lord. For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary, from heaven did the Lord behold the earth.
In other words, the psalmist says, God, when you come back and rebuild your city, the people will look back and say, the Lord is great. Do you pray like that? Do you pray that God will do certain things in your life and in this church and in the lives of others that He might be glorified? In John 14, our dear Lord said, as we saw so many times in the disciples' prayer, he said, ask. And you shall receive that the Father may be what?
Glorified in the Son. Daniel says, we've sinned. and we've brought the reproach and we've corrupted your name. And that's not fair. Turn it around, God.
Forgive us. And restore the virtue and the holiness and the majesty of your name in the eyes of the world. We bear your name. Vindicated. And I think that to me, this is a personal word as we close, to me, it is the most severe element.
of sin. that it brings reproach upon the name of God. Whose name I bear, right? If I was only trying to protect my own reputation, I'd be more prone to fall into sin. But it's God's.
Reputation. That is the issue. A series of verbs climax this passage. Hear, forgive, hearken, do, and defer not. Do it, Laura.
And what have we learned? Prayer is generated by the Word of God, grounded in the will of God, characterized by fervency, realized in self-denial. identified with others, strengthened in confession, dependent on God's character, and consummated. In God's glory. And that kind of prayer, beloved, gets an answer.
And I mean not just any answer, but an answer so absolutely overwhelming that it may be the most glorious prophecy in all the book of Daniel. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you that we've been able to share. This final look at The prayer of Daniel, help us to pray as you. taught Daniel to pray.
While your heads are bowed for just a moment, let me suggest a prayer to you. That you might pray, Merciful Lord. Pardon all my sins of this day. Sins of omission and commission. of morose, peevish, and angry tempers, of lip and life and walk.
Sins of hard-heartedness, unbelief, presumption. Pride. Sins of unfaithfulness to the souls of men. Of lack of bold decision in the cause of Christ. Sins of deficiency and outspoken zeal for your glory.
Sins of bringing dishonor upon your great name. Sins of deception. Injustice. Untruthfulness. Sins of impurity in thought, word and deed, of covetousness.
of substance unduly hoarded. and improvidently squandered. and not consecrate it to the glory of Thee, the Great Giver. Sins in private and in the family. in study and recreation, In the study of thy word and the neglect of it.
In prayer irreverently offered and coldly withheld, Sins and time misspent. Sins in yielding to Satan's wiles. and opening my heart to his temptation. Sins in being unwatchful when I know he's nigh. Sins and quenching the Holy Spirit.
Sins against light and knowledge, against conscience and the restraints of thy spirit. Sins against the law of eternal love. Pardon all my sins, known and unknown, felt and unfelt, confessed and not confessed, remembered and forgotten. Hear, O Lord. and hearing forgive.
That's our prayer, Father. That as we examine our own hearts, we might sense You're speaking to us. Revealing those sins that we need to set aside. and revealing to us the path of obedience. In Christ's name.
Hey, Matthew. You're listening to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. I trust today's lesson has helped encourage you to pray with greater boldness, as John looked at Daniel's example of bold prayer. Our current study is titled Elements of True Prayer. And friend, as I mentioned before the lesson, we are able to broadcast lessons like today's because listeners like you stand with us.
If you would like to partner with Grace2U and help connect God's people across the globe with verse-by-verse Bible teaching, get in touch with us today. You can express your support when writing to Grace2U, Post Office Box 4000, Panorama City, California, 91412, or call us at 800-55 GRACE to make a tax-deductible donation. Our address again, Box 4000, Panorama City, California, 91412, and our phone number, 80055 GRACE. You can also donate online at gty.org and thank you for praying for grace to you as always that is your most critical ministry to us. And keep in mind, at our website, gty.org, you can download John's current study called Elements of True Prayer free of charge in MP3 and Transcript Format.
In fact, all of John's sermons covering 56 years of pastoral ministry are available free of charge online. That's over 3,600 messages. Take advantage of all that free content today. Our web address again, gty.org.
Now for the entire Grace to U staff, I'm Phil Johnson with a question. What's the connection between God's compassion and your prayers? Be back tomorrow to find out. It's an amazing perspective to consider. We're continuing John MacArthur's study called Elements of True Prayer with another 30 minutes of unleashing God's Truth one verse at a time on Grace to You.
