Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today.

Our special episode about the coming judgment, about the future of God's chosen people, which were Daniel's people that were in captivity, but also how the Gentiles would rule and then obviously the Lord would come back and set up His kingdom. So much in it and I know I've probably told you enough just to confuse you a little bit more. But look at chapter 9, look at verse 13 if you would. it made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand the truth. This is interesting, now this is kind of a freebie, but if you'll notice in verse 13, he says that we might turn from our iniquities and understand the truth.

You know why a lot of people, they say, well I just can't understand the Bible. You know a great reason why we can't fully understand the Bible, because we have iniquity in our life. You always have to get rid of the iniquity, you gotta get your life right to understand the truth. A lot of times there's so much sin in our life as we read the word of God, there's so much sin, the Holy Spirit doesn't have freedom to even teach us the word of God.

We notice here that we have to turn from our iniquities to be able to understand the truth. Look at verse 14, therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil and brought it upon us. Wait a minute, a godly Lord, God himself, without sin, without anything impure, brought evil upon us.

That doesn't seem to make a lot of sense, and let me explain if I can what Daniel is saying here. God didn't create evil, God created man perfect, man sinned, and sin reigns obviously in our lives, and now we are born with a sinful nature. But dear friend, I want you to understand that when God withholds his protection, our life, our culture, our world is only evil continually. So what he is saying here is not that God just created evil and threw it on them, it's the fact that God withheld his protection and their own evil took over themselves. And by the way, that's what happens to you and I without God's protection. That's why you and I have to stay close to God every day because without God's help, our own evil would take over. Notice if you would, and I'm probably explaining things that aren't really exactly what I want to preach about today and I don't want to take all my time, but I think it's good for you to understand. Verse 14, the Lord watched upon the evil, brought it upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth.

So he didn't create the evil, he's righteous in all of his works. For we obeyed not his voice. And now, O Lord our God, thou hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand. We know that story, obviously we talk about it quite a bit.

And hast gotten thee renowned as it is this, or as at this day. In other words, we all know the story, God, of how you miraculously led your people out of Egypt. We have sinned, we have done wickedly. The end of verse 15, verse 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. 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. In other words, the sanctuary that used to be used to worship is now desolate. And God, we need you to hear our prayer and we need you to change things.

And you need to do this for your name'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 righteousness, but for thy great mercies.

Now verse 15 all the way down through verse 18 is basically Daniel describing the different aspects of his prayer, but in verse 19, this is the prayer. 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.

Are you ready for this? Look at verse 20, I guess you're not, but look at verse 20. And whiles I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people, Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God, yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation, and he informed me and talked with me and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications, the commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee, for thou art greatly beloved, therefore understand the matter and consider the vision.

A whole lot here, so let's dig into it quickly. Give you the truth from God's word. Lord, we love you, I pray that you would bless. And Lord, as we have revival upcoming, help us to understand how desperately we need revival, just as Daniel understood here, how badly his people needed revival. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Simple title, today, O Lord. O Lord, what a good prayer. You know, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit literally takes our groanings and our utterings, and even if we don't know what to say sometimes, he knows how to take just those groanings and utterings and turn them into a message to God, to describe our heart.

O Lord, notice number one today, as we have read through this, let me just point this out. Number one, we see the admitting. By the way, revival never happens until there's some admitting. I'm gonna tell you, not just revival, good things don't happen until there's some admitting. You're not gonna have a good marriage until there's some admitting. You're not gonna have good relationships until there's some admitting.

Until there is some taking on the responsibility of our own actions, until we are humble to the point that we acknowledge that we've done wrong. The admitting, notice first that Daniel admits some things. First he says that there's been a lack of prayer. Look at verse 13. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil's come upon us, but notice what he says. Yet made we not our prayer before the Lord. Daniel says, God, we have no excuse. We have not been praying.

And may I say that I think Kirtland's the best church in the world, but I think it would probably be true if all of us were honest that we have not been praying as we should. Good. Three times a day for a meal, well, six times a day for a meal on my sake, but you know, three times a day for a meal. You're supposed to eat six times. You're just supposed to eat some more, but anyway, we wanna go into all that.

I'm doing partly right. Daniel says there's been no praying before the Lord. You know, that's always the start of backsliding. That is always the beginning of coldness coming in and apathy coming in when we begin to lose our heart and our burden and our spirit to pray. Prayer takes work. You've heard me say many times about the one church we were in, and they always started Sunday school, and the organist, they didn't have a piano, and the organist would play, and the guy would lead singing for Sunday school and then start Sunday school and different things, and so he came in that one day, and he said, well, the organist came in and couldn't get the organ to work. He said, well, we're gonna stay, and we're gonna open up in a song, and man, she was trying to turn it on, and it just wasn't working. They were checking everything, and he didn't know what to do. He's still waiting, and she's trying to figure out this organ, you know, and he said, well, let's just pray.

That's always the backup plan, you know. So he bowed his head and began to pray, and the custodian at that point knew what had happened. He had been cleaning the night before, forgot to plug it in, so he rushed up there and plugged the organ into the wall, and he scribbled a note, and he put it up there on the pulpit, and when that teacher got done, that little verse, that little on that little paper, it said, after prayer, the power will be on.

And you know what, folks? Only after prayer will the power be on. There was a lack of prayer, and I'm gonna, that's where you know you need revival.

I don't care how spiritual we think we are, or how much we're accomplishing, or how full the house of God might be. When there is a lack of prayer, there is a need for revival. Second, he said, there was a lack of repentance. Look at verse 13. He said, yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquity.

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked way. He said, there is a lack of repentance. He said, we've not turned from our iniquities. The very thing that got them there is the very thing that was keeping them in captivity. Sin.

And dear friend, the very thing that's gotten you in a mess is the very thing that'll keep you in a mess until you get rid of it. Lack of repentance. More I would say about that, notice thirdly in this verse, there was a lack of understanding that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth. Daniel says, God, we haven't been praying and we haven't been repenting. And obviously because of that, if we don't pray and commune with you, and if we have sin in our life that's blocking communication, we don't understand. And literally our people are to the point that we just don't even understand what you've done for us. We don't understand really your word and we don't understand truth.

And here's Daniel, just a young man that's living in this captivity and literally his people were God's chosen people and now they're in captivity and he's saying, this is why it happened. You know, it's amazing in our churches, people that go in church for years that don't even have an understanding of basic Bible truths. And dear friend, listen, you know, I appreciate Ken and Kristen Harvey as they got here, their pastor is a wonderful man of God and that I in college grew up hearing and he's a wonderful man, Dr. George Grace and they were describing him and you know, here we have a connections class that goes through things that we believe.

We have a discipleship ministry that disciples folks that are willing on Wednesday nights and we go through that in a step by step and all those things where you can learn the doctrine and learn all these things. And Dr. Grace said, you know, up until this point, if you don't know some of these things, that's on me, that's my fault, but we now have these ministries in place and now if you don't know it, that's your fault. And dear friend, we've tried to put things in place here, they're here, they're accessible, but if we don't know certain things, you can't blame the church for this now.

And we need to understand the truth. Daniel says we don't, we haven't been praying and we haven't been repenting, so obviously we haven't had any understanding. And notice this last thing, well not the last thing, but he says there's a lack of obedience in verse 14.

Now we're going somewhere with all this, this isn't all negative, hold on. Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil and brought it upon us for the Lord God, our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth, for we obey not his voice, that's always next. We quit praying, we keep sinning, we lose our understanding and then we just quit obeying.

It's always next that our life just begins this path. Daniel said that's where we are, we've just not obeyed you. I mean come on, by the time that we're not praying and we're sinning all the time, why would there be any motivation to obey? I mean if I start obeying God, I'm gonna have to face the facts that I've got sin in my life that needs taking care of and I've not been praying, I mean who wants to be convicted? Why would I come to church? If I come to church, I'm just gonna be convicted by the preaching, it's better to stay home. So we quit obeying because obedience would simply mean conviction.

Are y'all starting to get it? Daniel says, next he says there's a lack of remembering, look at verse 15, he says thou hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt, has gotten thee renowned. In other words, my very people Daniel says has forgotten all that you've done for them over the years.

Can that happen to you and I? Can I tell you, it can happen to a church. You know we as church, Chrome Baptist Church, we can kind of forget what God's done here over the years. In fact, we can forget what God did in our own life. We can become content to just come and sit and then we got ministries, we got bus routes needing people, we got buses needing drivers, we got nursing home ministry needing people to help and go here and go there and we've got upwards that needs coaches and we've got Awanas that needs helpers and we've got all these different things but we forget what God did for us. It just happens to us, we're human, we're flesh. I'll tell you something, I have a wonderful wife and every once in a while you gotta be reminded and you gotta remember why and where and how and when you fell in love.

You lose sight of that, all of a sudden you're like, well why are we even together? And dear friend, it's happening all over the place because we forget, we're flesh. Notice the lack that he says and by the way, we can make a sermon out of every one of these.

I could have made this into a two month series but it's hard for our folks to handle two months of anything, all right? Squirrel, okay, look at verse 15, and now, oh Lord God, thou has brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, hast gotten thee renowned as it is this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly. Last thing, Daniel says, God, there's been a lack of restraint, we just can't stop ourselves. Now because of our sin, we've gotten ourselves into this situation and now that we're in this situation, we're mad at the situation and now we literally, to the point that we're just not even stopping the sin because we're sinning, because we're mad, we're in the situation but we're in the situation because we sinned, oh. Isn't it amazing how confused you and I can get? How we become so burdened by the very situations that we've created and the very things that created the situation, we keep doing because of the situation, are anybody else confused?

Poor Daniel, he has the burden of an entire people on him. The admitting, notice second, the asking. By the way, I'm gonna encourage you, if you want revival in your family and in your heart, might as well not ask until you learn to admit. Before we start asking, God, I need you to do this, let's just start admitting, God, I've done this.

I've gotta get this right for you to do this. Look at verse 19, oh Lord here, oh Lord forgive, oh Lord forgive, oh Lord hearken and do. What a great prayer.

Let's break it down a little bit so we can understand it. Notice first, he says, oh Lord here. If you'll hold your, you're open right there to this passage, look if you would at verse 17. Now therefore, oh our God, hear the prayer of thy servant and his supplication, look at verse 18.

Oh my God, incline thine ear in here. Daniel says, God, I need you to hear this. And you say, well, God's word says that God hears, yes he does, but I don't know about you, I get to the point sometimes, I'm wondering if he's even listening. And Daniel says, God, I need to know that you've heard me.

We're desperate. God, hear me. You know what's worse than praying and not getting answered to prayer is for us to continue praying, not getting answered to prayer and we don't care. You and I should get to the point that we're tired of praying and not seeing answers. We oughta get to the point we're so disgusted with that that we're gonna do whatever it takes in our life to make our prayers begin to have power. Daniel says, God, hear me. By the way, the Bible says that our iniquities have separated between you and your God.

There's not gonna be a hearing until we admit, until we repent. Notice the second thing he says, oh, Lord, heal. Oh, Lord, heal. He says, oh, Lord, hear. Oh, Lord, forgive.

Forgive. Look at verse 15. And now, oh, Lord, our God, thou hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, hast gotten thee renowned as at this day. We have sinned.

We have done wickedly. Notice verse 20. And while I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people. Now, it would have been very easy for Daniel here to say, God, my people have been horrible.

And you know what? It would be horrible and it would be despicable, but I could, as a pastor, say, God, I'm disappointed with the way some of our people have acted. Oh, that's real hypocritical. Daniel here says, I'm repenting of my sin. I'm confessing my sin and the sin of my people.

God, forgive me. By the way, that's what healing is, is forgiveness. That's why in the book of James, it says, confess your faults one to another. Pray one with another that ye may be healed. There's not gonna be healing in a relationship until forgiveness shows up. There's not gonna be any healing in our relationship with God until there's forgiveness. Notice the third thing he says, O Lord, hearken.

You say, what's the difference in this? O Lord, hear. O Lord, heal or forgive.

And third, O Lord, hearken. Look at verse 16. I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city. Look at verse 17. Cause thy face to shine upon the sanctuary that is. Look at verse 18. Open thine eyes and behold our desolations.

Are you looking at me? What does it mean to hearken? Daniel's saying, God, listen, I need you to hear me and I need you to forgive me, but hearken means, Daniel's saying, God, I need you to soften your heart towards us. God, I need you to look on us again. God, I know you're disappointed and I know you've about had it because of the way we keep turning our back on you, but God, we need you to look at us again.

We need you to shine your face back on us again. God, we need you to tenderize your heart towards us. We don't have a chance without you, God. We don't deserve it because we've done this and we've gone this route and we haven't prayed and we haven't sought your face and we keep sinning and we're doing all this, but God, I'm asking you, please, would you have mercy? I don't know about you, but sometimes in my life I've just gotta say, God, would you hearken to me?

Would you just turn back to me and look at me and I need to know you still care. Notice if you would, next he says, oh, Lord, help. Hearken, hearken, hearken, hearken, hearken, hearken. He said, God, we need you to do it. We need help. God, it's not just that you hear us and it's not just that you forgive us and it's not just that you have mercy on us, but we need help.

You're gonna have to do this. We can't do it. We've done enough. We're here because of what we've done.

God, you do it. I don't know about you, but that's what you and I need to ask God to do, is to do it. We have done enough. We have caused enough. We have made a big enough mess in our lives at times.

God, I need your help. Maybe you have a different opinion, but I think that's a really good prayer. Look at verse 14. Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil and brought it upon us.

This is what Daniel says. For the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth. That's why Daniel says in verse 19, God, do it. Look at verse 16.

Because for our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach. God, we have messed it up. We need you to fix this.

We need you to do this. Does this not describe America? We all say amen to that, right? Can I go with, does this not describe North Carolina? Can I go a step further?

Does this not describe the Triad area? Amen. You know where I'm going? Does it describe our church?

Does it describe your seat? God, I need you to do this. The admitting, the asking. Notice last to here, he says, oh Lord, honor.

Honor. See, what do you mean, look at verse 19. Why is he asking God to hear and forgive and hearken and do? Look at verse 19.

For thine own sake. God, you need to do this so that you can be honored. We have dishonored you enough.

Now we need you to help so that you can be honored once again. He says, for thy city and thy people are called by thy name. This is for you, God.

We are making you look bad and we need you to fix us. Look at verse 16. Jerusalem and thy people are become of reproach. Look at verse 17. Therefore, oh our God, hear the prayer of thy servant. Cause thy face to shine upon the sanctuary that is desolate for the Lord's sake. Look at verse 18. But for thy great mercies. It's all about God. It's not about us.

It's about God. We don't need revival so that we can feel better about ourselves. We need revival so that God can be honored. You say, you don't get excited on Sunday mornings.

You might not have some folks come back. Well, then I'm gonna do it now. We ought to be excited about God's word. We ought to preach it like it is. This isn't about us. It's not about making everybody comfortable. It's about God making us uncomfortable. If we stay like we are, we'll never have a change.

And I can't find anywhere in God's word where that's okay. Number three, as we close, you're like, thank God. We see the answer.

You knew that was coming, didn't you? The admitting, the asking, oh, as I always say, this is my favorite part, the answer. Look at verse 20, Daniel says this. While I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God.

Notice those three aspects. It's right there in the verse. Praying, confessing, supplicating.

It's all right there, that's what prayer is. Daniel says, while I was doing this, look at verse 21. Yay, while I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning being caused, notice this, to fly swiftly. All of a sudden he touched me.

Excuse me while I get excited. Notice the answer, Daniel gets here. Number one, God says, I heard you. Oh, look at verse 23. At the beginning of thy supplications, Gabriel says, the commandment came forth.

Are you here? That means Daniel was still praying, but the answer was on the way. Gabriel says way back at the start, when you asked for forgiveness, God sent the commandment down to me and I am on my way. Oh, while you were laying there praying, I was already coming swiftly. You see, it takes a little while from heaven to earth.

You gotta fly pretty swiftly. Daniel says, I was praying. Right in the middle of it, he shows up and I got even better news for you. It wasn't even right in the middle of it when he showed up.

It was at the beginning when he finally confessed his sin, confessed the sin of the people. God took notice. God said, Gabriel, you get down there and do your job.

The answer was already on its way. I heard you. Verse 23, Gabriel says, the beginning of thy supplications, the commandment came forth. Oh, God heard him.

Gabriel, that guy down there needs some help. And I've got the help he needs. But he just admitted that they sinned and he's broken and humble. You get down there and help him. You say, well, does God do that now?

He doesn't have to do this now. See, you and I have God living in us. In the Old Testament, he was beside them. In the New Testament, after Jesus went back into glory and gave the Holy Spirit, he's now inside. Old Testament, he was beside us, now he's inside us. And as you and I begin to pray, God sends the answer right to the Holy Spirit that lives inside of us.

Used to be snail mail, now it's heaven mail. Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kirtland Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web at kirtlandbaptistchurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you.