book is in chapter 9. This is after the lie of then, it's after the fiery furnace, those exciting stories, and it's a story, just a story of Daniel alone in prayer. And I find his prayer fascinating. Listen to what he says. He prays, O Lord, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled. To you, O Lord, belong righteousness, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame to all Israel, those who are near, those who are far away in all the lands to which you've driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you. Now, what kind of prayer is this? This is a prayer of confession, just like we have every Sunday here, at River Oaks, a prayer of confessing sin, a very articulate prayer of confession, and yet it's interesting that Daniel uses this one word here. We, he says, we have sinned against you, and then he goes on to talk about who the we is, the whole country of Israel.
Those who have been basically judged by God, and those who are far away in all the lands that you've driven them, what's he doing? He's confessing sins of other people, of a whole country. Right? And sins that for the most part, he had no part in committing. Right? Daniel did pretty much everything right, and yet he's interceding here. And so we have to ask the question, why? Why would Daniel confess the sins of other people, of a whole nation? Why doesn't he just confess his own sins, let other people confess their sins? I mean, after all, aren't we just responsible for what we do? How can we be responsible to take responsibility for other people too? Well, we're in the middle of a series on the 10 Commandments, so far we've looked at one and a half of the Commandments. The first commandment is about who to worship? I've no other gods before me, worship me alone. The second commandment is about how we worship. And Ricky last week he talked about how second commandment prohibits us from making idols or pictures of God to worship. And the bigger intent of the Commandment is to keep us from trying to imagine God or fashion God into what we want him to be, but to force us to meet God on his terms for who he is. But then the second half of this second commandment, it almost feels like a digression, right? God starts talking about being a jealous God, visiting a niquity of fathers on children. We're going to spend some time talking about what that means this morning and how we are connected to one another. And so if you're able, please stand for this reading of God's word from Deuteronomy chapter 5, beginning in verse 1. And Moses summed all Israel and said to them, here, oh Israel, the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today. And you shall learn them and be careful to do them. The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horib, not with our fathers that the Lord make this covenant, but with us who are all of us here alive today. The Lord spoke with you face to face with the mountain out of the midst of the fire while I stood between the Lord and you at that time to declare to you the word of the Lord for you were afraid of the fire and you did not go up into the mountain. He said, you shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them for the Lord your God, I the Lord your God, I am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. This is God's word which was written down for our instruction and for our encouragement. Amen, please be seated. God says that he visits the iniquity which is another word for sin, right? The iniquity of the fathers of fathers onto their children to the third and fourth generation. Now this is a practical way of saying that our sin washes into our children's lives, whether we want it to or not, kind of like the tide coming in after dark to destroy all those sandcastles as the kids have been building. Our sin washes into our children's lives. Now one of the big words in Daniel's prayer of confession I just read in Daniel 9 is the word covenant. He says that God is a God who keeps covenant with those who love him. Now Moses uses this word as well here in Deuteronomy 5. When he talks about really the 10 commandments is being part of a covenant that God is made with Moses and with the people. And so the question is what is a covenant? What is a covenant? Now I'm going to put on my professor hat for a couple of minutes to talk about this. And by the way I've also been writing a series of blog posts on our website about what we call covenant theology. I've written I think eight posts now. I'll be posting the ninth one this week on the new covenant if you want to learn more and kind of dive deeper into this. What is a covenant? A covenant is an all-found relationship between two or more parties. Now we today can kind of think of a kind of like a a peace treaty or a pact. But covenant that was the typical word back in biblical times. It was very normal practice and it happened a lot when two countries or two tribes went to war and the leaders of those tribes afterwards when the war was over the conflict is over. The victorious king the victorious leader would drop a covenant which would talk about basically how the two parties would live together. And he would basically impose it on the the king and the group that had lost. And it would end with oaths and typically a ceremony together as well as sanctions. If you will keep this law if you will keep this covenant you'll be blessed but if you don't you'll be cursed in these ways. Well the word hasn't totally gone out of fashion. We sometimes still hear the word in some neighborhood associations that use the term covenants to talk about those things that homeowners are living the neighborhood can and can't do with their property right. But in the Bible we see we are switching. Thank you. Sorry about that. In the Bible we see one big covenant of grace that begins in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sin right they eat the forbidden fruits and God tells them that they're going to be consequences to their sin right. Work is going to be hard. Relationships are going to be hard but then he also promises then he makes them a startling promise. He says that someone in the in Eve's line Adam and Eve's line a descendant of Eve a male descendant is going to at some point crush the head of the serpent which is really a symbol for evil and so he is giving this promise of victory of good over evil of God's people over Satan's people they're in the Garden and then as you read on in the Old Testament you see God making more covenants with his people which is in a sense progressively revealing who he is how he would have us to live with him and telling us more and more about this covenant of grace. Now the last couple months our students teenagers have been given a challenge by Pastor Ross to read through the Bible as much as they could and they got prizes for the ones who read the most and I'm sure students as you read it you know as you read the Old Testament it can be weird right very strange lots of just odd stories genealogies random people seemingly events happening but one way to really to view the the story of the Old Testament is the story of God's covenant being worked out and God's people breaking it over and over and God coming and rescuing them that's a big part of the story with Noah God told us that he wouldn't destroy the earth by flood again and his mercy would triumph over his justice with Abraham God promised he would grow a massive people group dedicated to himself and give them a land in which to dwell and find rest with Moses God gave us the law to help us to live free and to live well in his kingdom and it goes on with David and eventually with Jesus okay so that's covenants you say okay that's nice what does that have to do with the second commandment well a couple of things the first thing first off we see that the ten commandments don't just come out of thin air right God doesn't just all the sense that you know what I need to give these people some rules are they're going to get out of control right the ten commandments are part of the biblical the larger story of God's dealings his historical dealings with his people and again they flow from all its come before him all the way back to the beginning of time secondly though we need to see these covenants got made we're not just with those people with whom he made them right just as with Adam and Eve and all of their descendants so with Moses and the people there and this covenant was made for their children and their children's children for all who come after them in the family of faith which means it's also for us right this covenant these ten commandments are given for us as we follow after Moses and these people who trusted God see we're connected through the generations even thousands of years later by God's covenant with his people his promises are for us and those people sin affects us as well now big question and they ask us well how much do they affect us right what does God mean I'll visit the inequity the fathers and the children that doesn't seem very fair does it seem very fair to the children and kids here you like that well we need to balance this with something that God says in Deuteronomy 24 he says this he says fathers shall not be put to death because of their children nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers it's good huh each one shall be put to death for his own sin in other words God is saying in a court of law right you are only responsible for your own crimes this is part of the case of Israel you're only responsible for what you crimes you have committed fathers can't be tried and condemned for what their children have done and vice versa children with their fathers now okay so let's compare that passage with the second command when we're God says I'll visit the iniquity and we start to see that what God is talking about what he's saying in the second commandment is not so much a word of judgment as it is a word of warning
your sin will affect those who come after you your sin patterns are not just held onto your life they sometimes get sent ahead of you may affect future generations I know a lot of you've heard the phrase hurt people hurt people we know statistically that people who as children were exposed to and were victims of domestic violence they're almost about twice as likely to be involved in violent relationships as those who are not exposed to domestic abuse as children alcoholism has a very strong genetic component to it right many many people who struggle with alcoholism it runs in their families racism sexism get passed down from one generation to the next and guess what religion does too right your God is likely the God that your children are going to end up believing and I'm talking about your real God right not not maybe the one that we say we believe but your functional God what you truly put your faith in see there are a lot of people who go to church go to places of worship and say they they believe and trust in that God but who when they leave church they never seek him out they never pray they never seek his will they dedicate their lives to making money being successful in a comfortable life for themselves in their family and guess what a heart's children your children know what God you really trust in they're probably not going to follow God they know their parents didn't really follow we are not held accountable for other sins but we are affected by their sins we're not culpable for other people's sin but we are often corrupted by it this is why we do corporate confessions of sin this is partly why Jesus says in the Lord's Prayer what forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors lead us non to temptation this is why our denomination has twice repented for the sins of our forefathers one time for the sin of slavery in the 1800s the press hearing church did not do much to dismantle slavery in some ways kept it going and then the second time in the 1900s for condoning segregation now you say well why would we today why would I I wasn't alive in 1800s I wasn't alive during Jim Crow time right and yet I am covenantally related to my forefathers it's part that part of that denomination their iniquity has in some ways been visited on us there are still some churches in our denomination older ones that the black community knows oh that's the church the black people weren't allowed to go to it their sins affect us and we have our own sins that will affect our children and the generations that come after us and like Daniel what our forefathers did blazing our lives and we have to figure out how to change those generational patterns how to move past them I think what's going on around our nations and protests and demonstrations I know people have very different opinions about what's going on but what's happening is there about a history there's not about an isolated incident right it's not a history of injustice and oppression and these protesters are about trying to reckon with our history and trying to change things for future generations there's another generational pattern though I think that as though we like a lot more there's a lot easier to talk about I'm going to sweat a lot less talking about right we hear when God says he will show steadfast love the thousandsth generation of those who love him if our practical terms this means that God's salvation comes in waves see when God saves a person he is not just thinking about that one person's life he's thinking about their family both living and on into the future in the book of Acts when Lydia and then further along the Philippian Jailer are saved they get baptized along with their whole household everyone in their household right God was was not just giving those individuals new lives he was reshaping family traditions family trajectories and histories and I know we don't think of it this way right in America I have my iPhone I have my iPad I'm going to choose my own identity and my future like Frank Sinatra I did it my way and yet when you stop to think of it so much of your life is predicated on your parents right my skin color my eye color my height the way I talk right my dad was a preacher I didn't mean to become a preacher but God somehow called me into it and people who hear me priest they all you sound so much like your father we are connected to them you want to think about the connection of generations look at the country of Ireland today nearly 85% of people in Ireland claim Christianity as their faith he's they yeah of course it's very Christian the history there well it wasn't always so right at one point 0% of Ireland claimed Christianity right and the people that live there they worship nature they worshiped multiple gods they were polytheists until 432 when Patrick came we know him as St. Patrick he came he preached the gospel to the island and people were converted in massive amounts in the island became Christian now 1600 years later it has remained faithful at least in Baptizing and and carrying on the faith among families there Bible very clearly teaches us that salvation has a strong corporate aspect to it right Romans 5 is one of my favorite passages in the Bible it talks about two individuals and the difference in what they did it talks about the one act that both did that was Adam and Jesus and the apostle Paul says he says as one trespass led to condemnation for all men so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men but let's look let's think about that for a second what is that one action what's the one trespass let's Adam eating them forbidden fruit right rebelling against God that brought sin and death into the world and condemnation for all people coming after Adam and Eve but Paul says he compares that to the one act of righteousness what's that Jesus's death on the cross after one act of righteousness that now undoes the condemnation of Adam sin for all who would trust in Jesus Adam sin brought death Jesus's obedience brings life and every single person there there's only two kinds of people in the world right right now and in all of history there are only two kinds of people there are those who are in Adam in covenant with Adam and in his rebellion and in his sin and condemnation and those who are in Christ who are trusting in what Christ has done for us and in the life an eternal life that he gives there are only two kinds of people Paul says that's how the covenant works we're in covenant with one of those men and we're all covenant breakers after Adam but Jesus kept the covenant for us that's how God can now give mercy show mercy to a thousand generations again our sin is deep and it is serious and it gets all over other people but the good news of the gospel is that God's grace is deeper than our sin it's deeper you know I think there are some people who think of the Bible is really just a lot of nice people doing nice things you know pious people saying pious things you read the Bible though that's not at all what the Bible's about is it the Bible is a record in story of people doing very bad things continually rebelling against God and God showing up and rescuing them and putting them back on the path to do things right and them jumping off the path and getting it wrong and hurting each other and God having to come back and rescue and over and over here in this passage throughout the souls we hear God's people and they're just calling out for God's steadfast love which is another way of saying God's covenant love remember your covenant you made with your people you made with Abraham and with Adam to save us to rescue us from our sin
and we need to ask a very practical question okay well what do we do then about our sin and how do we keep it from affecting our children how do we keep it from destroying them if possible and I think the first thing to do is to recognize it right to be honest about it this means sometimes confessing our sins to our children right confessing the things that we've struggled with to them letting them know the family secrets when when appropriate right because those things that get swept into the rug they don't go away they tend to grow and fester in the dark which is recently I was reading a story about a football coach who dealt with mental illness for much of his life and he hid it he didn't tell anybody except his wife who helped him to be able to cope with it stay on his medicine and be able to continue to coach football but finally last year after decades of dealing with it hiding with it he decided that he needed to talk about it he needed to tell us children more about it he needed to help other people who are struggling with it so he began to talk he began to volunteer the national alliance on mental illness you know I read that story and I realized that I need to talk to my children more about my own struggles with mental illness
because that's genetic and no mental illness is not on the face sinful but it can be very harmful and they need to know about that but listen if you're worried about your children give your word of encouragement remember that they are God's children first that he is able to save them from even the sin and disease that you can't save them from you can trust him when closing I want to look at all look at the numbers in this passage do a little math for our math people like Lisa and Jamie are math teachers because there are two numbers here right God says I will visit the iniquity of the fathers and children to the third or fourth generation but show mercy steadfast love to a thousand generations of those who hear me now there are two things to know about that number one thousand in the Bible when you see it it's typically symbolic right it typically means a number so big that it's really hard to count but this number one thousand also and and putting in relationship to generations brings to mind is the covenant with Abraham when God told Abraham I'm gonna give you descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky I'm gonna make you a father of many nations we hear those words echoing when God says I will show love and mercy to the thousand generations probably we also hear some echo of God's covenant with David when David says someone from your line your son grandson it on and on will sit on the throne of the kingdom forever thousand generations in other words God what God is indicating is years there will be a limit to the effect of your sin but there will be no limits the effects of my mercy my your sin will at some point be stopped but my love and my mercy will go on into eternity but let's just suppose that maybe he did mean for us to take those numbers literally literally a thousand generation that is mercy ago to the thousand let's say our sin reaches to the fourth generation that's a difference of 250 a multiple of 250 right that means that God is 250 times more intent on showing his love and mercy than he is in making us feel the consequences of our sin now over the years I have sometimes been told that in my preaching and my teaching that I talk about Jesus too much I talk about his justifying grace too much and I don't talk about the law enough I've also been told I use movie illustrations too much I am using this morning and I want to learn from constructive critique but I need to say this I am not an antinomian right I am someone who believes that we must and should follow the moral law that I call every people every week our confession of sin and every time I preach to give up their sin and I believe in mortifying the flesh and making every effort to follow after Christ and to destroy your idols and keep his law but for all the joy I find in keeping the law I am 250 times more joyful in how Jesus has kept the law for me as much as I love God I know that God loves me 250 times more than I do at least as grateful as satisfied as I am that my family is following Jesus I should be 250 times more satisfied more grateful that Jesus has given us those feet to walk and showed us the path as much as I would boast in my own righteousness I would boast 250 times more in the righteousness of Christ imputed to me by grace through faithful
God's mercy stretches to a thousand generations oh the deep deep love of Jesus vast unmeasured boundless free rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me underneath me all around me is the current of my love leading onward leading onward my glorious rest above let's pray Lord God you are a covenant God who keeps his promises and his intent on loving and blessing his people no matter what and Father you show your steadfast love to a thousand generations of those who fear you Father let us not take sin lightly to make every effort to root it out and to destroy it Lord may we know we can only do that as we trust in your power as we trust in your grace and your gospel working itself out in our lives Father show us the way to walk give us hearts to know you and to love one another and teach the next generation your ways the name of Christ our Savior we pray amen amen I would you stand we're to sing our next couple