1608-28P 1
THE NUMBER OF YEARS IS UP (2)
(Daniel 9:1-3)
SUBJECT:
F.C.F:
PROPOSITION:
INTRODUCTION:
A. C.S. Lewis wrote a truly fascinating book called The Great Divorce. It is a bit of fantasy imagining a bus trip from hell to the very edge of heaven. The people from hell are mere shadows, smudgy, see-through, smoke people. Hell itself is flimsy and composed of shoddy materials because people simply imagine a home or building and it pops into existence. But it’s of such poor quality that it does not keep out the wind or rain. One enterprising ghost from hell thinks that if he could only drag something real back from heaven he would be rich, and he would be right if it were possible because it would be utterly unique, and so, rare and priceless. But hell, it turns out, is so tiny and microscopic and inconsequential that nothing from the robust reality of heaven could possibly fit into it.
B. The Word of God is something that is utterly rare and unique, incomparably so. There is nothing like it on earth. And I tried to argue this point last time by showing that Daniel recognized both the completeness of God’s Word and the sufficiency of God’s Word. Even though he was a mighty prophet in his own right, the interpreter of dreams and signs and the seer of great visions, even one of the very select few ever to serve as an author of sacred Scripture itself, when it came to an important question for himself and for his nation, he did not ask for additional revelation, nor did he seek understanding from any other source. Rather, he simply did what we are to do: he read the Bible. He read the book of Jeremiah which he considered to be a part of sacred Scripture because it had clearly been authenticated by the fulfillment of predictive prophecy. And that was not a test he dreamt up on his own, but a test he also read about IN THE BIBLE from Deuteronomy 18.
C. In our day we are surrounded by professing Christians who have, quite frankly, lost their nerve. They see the challenges to the authority of God’s Word leveled by the Bible’s critics, challenges God’s people have actually faced in every age since Eve was tempted to question God’s Word in the Garden of Eden. Yet, instead of standing firm and confident as did so many of the generations before us, many have run scared: “The church has never faced this kind of rationalistic, pluralistic, modern or post-modern menace before in the history of the church!” they complain. “This time we have no choice but to cave in and capitulate.” So, many within the church today have compromised on the Scriptures as the unique and authoritative Word of God written in two areas we considered last time. Either the Scriptures are not complete, or they are not sufficient.
I. “THE WORD OF GOD IS NOT COMPLETE.”
A. The first capitulation is the more well-meaning, I suppose, though it is still a grave error. It assumes that the Bible is good enough in so far as it goes, but that we need a more updated and specific word from God. The Bible addressed people long ago, but it doesn’t give me specific guidance for the individual questions I may have today. What we need is some “Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire,” some new word from God.
B. I’m referring to what is collectively called the “charismatic movement,” a new direction in the church that began in the early 1900s and stresses what the Bible calls the “sign gifts” of miracles and dramatic healings, predictive prophecy, and speaking in tongues and their interpretation. Old Testament scholar Alec Motyer said he once went to visit a church carrying his Bible and was told at the door, “We don’t need those here. God speaks to us directly.” It’s kind of ironic, but in Daniel 9 we find the opposite. Daniel was one of whom we could truly say that God spoke directly to him, but when he had a question for God, he read his Bible. What inevitably and invariably happens in these churches is that the “fresh word” of the prophecy or interpreted tongue receives far more interest and attention than the living Word of God itself.
II. “THE WORD OF GOD IS NOT SUFFICIENT.”
A. On the other hand, we have those who think that the Scriptures as the Word of God is not sufficient. And we explored one prominent example of this when it comes to psychotherapy. And if I would be very generous and put the best face on this, I would explain that this loss of nerve, this capitulation came about this way.
Several decades ago, Christians began to notice the rise of the soft science of psychology, and how many non-Christians were receiving psychotherapy and extolling its wonders. Now let’s just think for a moment about what was happening. Sinners in rebellion against God were feeling the true misery of their sin and shame as they should have. But they refused to find real relief in Christ, you know, repenting and turning from sin, seeking God’s forgiveness, adoption by God as our loving heavenly Father, the inexhaustible, indwelling Holy Spirit, the abiding hope of eternal life, and the confidence of knowing your life has been redeemed from the useless futility you once lived in and that you are now living a life with eternal purpose.
So, apart from all that, their psychotherapist assured them that it their problems were not their fault, that others, probably their parents or a rigid morality were to blame for their feelings of shame and inadequacy, and that they just needed to accept themselves or forgive themselves, and perhaps gain some minor organizational or communication or conflict resolution skills to boost their self-esteem so they could finally celebrate the wonder of who they really are. And in this delusional fantasy, yes, they found some temporary relief from their guilt and from their empty hopelessness, and then boasted about how much psychotherapy helped them.
B. And some Christians lost their nerve and imagined that there must really be something to this very popular psychotherapy, and so they began to study it and practice it, sometimes making a few adjustments to make it seem more Christian. Of course, almost all of the key players in the development of psychotherapy, starting with Sigmund Freud himself, were atheists and were covertly, sometimes overtly hostile to biblical Christianity. So, obviously, some adjustments had to be made in order to practice this in a Christian context. Or in some cases, people became trained in psychotherapy and then went back and “discovered” these principles in the Bible and created something called “Christian psychology” or “Christian psychotherapy.”
As we saw last time, in order to justify all of this, they had to create a third component to the human person, the soul, so that people are tri-partite. If you have a bodily need, you go to a medical doctor. If you have a spiritual need, you go to an elder or a pastor. But if you have a soulish need, an emotional or psychological need, you must go to a doctor of the soul, a psychotherapist.
C. The implication is that the Word of God is not sufficient for all our needs. “Oh, the Bible may be useful for some, few, small spiritual needs, like ‘asking Jesus into your heart as your personal Savior.’ But most of our real and urgent needs are psychological.” And what has happened, as we saw last time, is that emotional desires are blown out of proportion and re-labeled as emotional needs. And all needs, of course, must be fully met to my specifications and to my satisfaction. And I argued that #1) we have no soul as distinct from the spirit, so #2) we have no real psychological or emotional needs, and #3) many, many of our emotional desires are simply sinful passions which we have mistaken for or misconstrued or mislabeled as “needs.”
It is widely assumed, for example, that all people have a need for “intimacy,” which would include sexual intimacy. Do you believe that people have a need for intimacy? I do not. Oh, people certainly may have a desire for intimacy. In some instances that desire is a good and legitimate desire. But watch what happens if you elevate this mere desire to the level of a need. Because everybody knows that needs MUST BE FULFILLED. In fact, WE HAVE A RIGHT to have our needs fulfilled. But if you allow that, then what of the person who says, “I have a need for intimacy, but I am attracted to people of my own gender”? They have a “need,” and “needs must be fulfilled,” and we have a “right” to fulfill all our needs. So…we have what we are now witnessing: homosexual “marriage” (which is a logical impossibility) in all 50 states and a host of churches and professing Christians blessing the same.
D. And you see where all this began. It began when some professing believers lost their nerve and forfeited their confidence that the Bible is the Word of God, fully sufficient for all life and godliness. To cover its spiritual bankruptcy, the world invented this new category of the soul or the psyche and located our true problems here, which the world said it could cure, without God’s help, thank-you very much. And many foolish Christians bought it, swallowed it whole, hook, line, and sinker, and struck off to cure the imaginary psyche because they believed the lie, and because they refused to believe in the sufficiency of God’s Word, as Daniel did.
Again, how do you meet a need that doesn’t exist? It’s not possible. In truth, all manner of evil results whenever we elevate desires to the level of needs that must be fulfilled. The Bible has a category for elevating a desire to the level of a need. The Bible calls that idolatry. And when someone looks to an idol for life and satisfaction, there can only be death and a continual craving that can never find fulfillment.
But here we come to the part that we did not get to last time, what is truly profound and astonishing about this text.
III. WE MUST STAND FIRM ON GOD’S INFALLIBLE REVELATION.
A. Daniel was convinced that God’s Word was complete and sufficient. and he did not despise what God had already said through the prophet Jeremiah, but studied it diligently. So how convinced was he of the reliability and full authority of the Scriptures as the Word of God? He was willing to stake his life on it. How do we know?
B. Well, let me ask you what is the most famous story in the book of Daniel? If you ask most people they would associate Daniel with the lion’s den. So when did this famous episode take place? Well, it took place at the very outset of Darius’s reign, most likely in the first year. And when did Daniel first consult Jeremiah and calculate that the years of exile had been completed? We are told that specifically in 9:1-2: “1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.” This startling discovery then propelled Daniel to urgent prayer. Do you see the connection yet?
C. Well, let me ask you this question: What specifically sent Daniel to the den of lions, ostensibly to his death? His rivals had concocted this scheme whereby they convinced Darius to make a law that all must pray to him for a period of thirty days. Daniel, however, knowing all about this law, nonetheless continued to pray to the Lord God. Do you see the connection yet?
D. Well, let me ask you this question: “For what was Daniel praying so ardently that he could not be interrupted? And, obviously, he was praying the content of Daniel 9, confessing the sin of his people and asking God to fulfill his promise and bring an end to the exile. This matter was so crucial that he could not be delayed or dissuaded for anything, and he literally risked his life to keep on praying. Again, what was it that set him to this urgent prayer that he risked his life to continue? It was his confidence in the Word of God. After the momentous upheaval of the overthrow of Babylon, he went back and studied the Bible, the book of Jeremiah. And there he learned that the time was at hand. And acting upon the truth of God’s Word, he began to pray, and literally imperiled his very life by doing so.
In other words, he stood firm on God’s infallible revelation. And even though he found it would be costly, nonetheless, he faithfully acted on what God had said. When’s the last time you risked your life because you were so confident in the infallibility and full authority of God’s Word. I don’t mean to be so pointed, but when’s the last time you risked anything of real value in order to stand firm on God’s Word?
CONCLUSION
But we’re not quite done yet. Daniel courageously trusted God and prayed in response to God’s Word. And when it became costly, he was not phased in the least. And when it came time for him to pay the price, it was King Darius himself who prayed that God would protect him. And when the Lord did miraculously protect him through the night, this so impressed the king that here is how he responded: “25 Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: “Peace be multiplied to you. 26 I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God, enduring forever; his kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end. 27 He delivers and rescues; he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, he who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions.”
And do you know what King Darius did next? We read about this at the end of the book of 2 Chronicles. Beloved, he didn’t wait very long: “22 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: 23 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the LORD his God be with him. Let him go up.’”
So Daniel was fully confident in the completeness and the sufficiency of the Word of God. He diligently studied his Bible. He then prayed in response to what God had said. He even risked his life to keep on praying. And when God spared him, the King was so impressed that he proclaimed the greatness of the Lord God. And in the very same year, he decreed the return of the exiles to Jerusalem. God used Daniel’s faithful confidence in the Scriptures as his very Word to become the means, the instrument by which he answered that prayer and brought an end to the disgrace and the misery of the exile of his people.
How confident are you in the Scriptures as the very Word of God written? And what are you willing to risk in order to remain true the Word? And what good thing is God planning to when you do?
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