Turn back where we read there
in John chapter 4. The title of my message this
morning is simply, Worshippers. Worshippers. And I want us to
go back and re-read a few of those verses, beginning in verse
19 with the woman's response. a response to what Christ has
just said about her. The woman saith unto him, Sir,
I perceive that you're a prophet. He knew that she had had five
husbands, and the one that she now lived with was not her husband,
So she knew he knew something about her. I perceive, I think
you must be a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this
mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where
men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman,
believe me, The hour comes when you shall neither in this mountain
nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship you know
not what. We know what we worship, for
salvation is of the Jews. But the hour comes, and now is,
when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him."
God is, and it is literally, God is Spirit. And they that worship Him must
worship Him in spirit and in truth. The woman saith unto him,
I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ. When he is
come, he will tell us all things. And Jesus saith unto her, I that
speak unto thee am he. You know, in our day, as well
as most every day, Anyone who is, quote, religious and who
attends religious services and activities, they would be thought
of as worshipers. They would view themselves as
worshipers. But what is worship? And who is really a worshiper? You see, this woman knew nothing
about what real worship was, but I think it's obvious in the
text that she thought of herself as a worshiper. And that is the
case, I believe, with most people. And even though that was her
state, and even though she was such as she was morally, That
did not keep her from a willingness to discuss worship, to express
her view about worship. And she shows here that knowing
some true things is not knowing the truth. You think about that. A person can know some true things
about God and about themselves, and yet not know the truth. You see, our Lord has been talking
here about a gift. He's been speaking about something
called living water. and he has been talking about
everlasting life. But she did not of her own self
ask him about or for any of these things that he was actually talking
about. And there was a reason for that,
and that reason was spiritual ignorance. If you look down in
verse 10, it says, "...Jesus answered and said unto her, If
you knew the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee,
Give me to drink, Thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would
have given thee living water." You see, he is talking here about
spiritual things. He's talking here not about natural
things. And yet, in every instance, when
he says something, she comes back with something that reveals
that her understanding and her knowledge is limited to that
which is natural. Look down, if you would, in verse
11. "...the woman saith unto him,
Sir, You don't have any bucket, you don't have anything to draw
with. And this is a deep well, so where
then will you get that living water? Look in verse 12. Are you greater than our father
Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and
his children, and his cattle?" What kind of well did Jacob give? Well, it was a naturally man-dug
well. And then if you look on in verse
15, "...the woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water,
that I thirst not, neither come here to draw." She is like so
many, and like all really, apart from the grace of God, she is
blind and ignorant to the truth as it is in Christ. You see,
there is a knowledge that is essential to worship. And Paul confessed that very
thing about his own people, though they appeared religious and very
zealous in their religious and what they thought was worship. But listen to what he says. He
says in Romans 10, "...I bear them record that they have a
zeal of God." They have this zeal toward God. But it is not according to knowledge. Knowledge is essential to worshiping
God. And when Christ begins to speak
pointedly, and very particularly concerning her sin, she responds
by raising the issues, changing the subject, if you will, and
trying to divert him to these religious issues that exist in
every age. That's what we as sinners do
by nature. And so old controversial issues
of religion such as we find her speaking of in verse 20 when
she says, our father said you would worship in one place and
you Jews say you worship in another. But I guess nobody really knows,
do they? Yes, everyone who is taught of
God, everyone who is given understanding of God, and everyone to whom
He reveals the truth of the gospel, they know where worship is. And
then she says on a little farther, she issues this controversial
matter of where they are to worship, and then regardless of her own
obvious moral state and fallen situation, she has no hesitation
or reservation to discuss or offer an opinion in the matter
of worshiping God. Verse 21, the Lord Jesus responds
to her and says this, Woman, believe Me. Now, I am thankful that when
the Lord Jesus Christ says that to a sinner, He speaks with that
life-giving ability that enables them to believe. Not only is
there a command that goes out when the gospel is preached that
we are to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, when He spoke to
her, He spoke in that life-giving power. He said, Woman, believe
Me. And you know what? She did. She did. "'Woman, believe me,
the hour comes when ye shall neither in this mountain nor
yet at Jerusalem.'" Oh me, you mean to tell me that there is
really no such thing as the Holy Land now? That Christ cannot
be worshiped any more there than He is in Jacksonville, North
Carolina? That God is not more present
there than He is anywhere else? Absolutely. Nor yet at Jerusalem
worship the Father. You worship, you know not what. We know what we worship. And he is here now not speaking
singularly as a Jew, but he is saying, we know this, that salvation,
that is, the Savior, was to come and now is come from the Jews. Is that right? Let me read you
this in Romans 9. Paul said of the Israelites,
the Jews, to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory,
and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of
God, and the promises, whose are the fathers, and of whom,
as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all God blessed
forever." That it was from the Jews. according to the flesh
that the Christ, or the Messiah, was to come, and no other way,
and no other people." And so he says this, "...but the hour
comes, and now is..." Listen to that. The hour has been coming,
the hour is come, and the hour always will be this. The hour
comes and now is when the true worshipers shall, not maybe,
not according to their opinion, not might, But the true worshipers
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father
seeketh such to worship Him." God is Spirit. And they that worship Him must
worship Him in spirit and in Now, he brings up in this text
by this woman the matter of salvation. Because salvation, for which
men worship and praise God, is not bound to a place or to a
way, but to a person. A person. If you remember Simeon
of old, who was there in the temple when they brought in the
Lord Jesus Christ as a young person, he was that man that
God had told that he would not die until he saw the Christ. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
was brought into the temple on that day, He looked toward heaven
and He said, Lord, now let Thy servant depart in peace, because
mine eyes have seen Thy salvation. He was looking at the Lord Jesus
Christ. He was looking with the natural
eye at this One who is called Jesus of Nazareth. But he was
unable to see, he was given understanding to know, he was given faith to
believe, and it was revealed to him by God, this is the Savior. This is the salvation
of God. And our Lord says here in verse
23, He says that the hour comes and now is when somebody is going
to really worship God. You know, we have a lot of instructions
in Scripture to worship God? We have a lot of warnings in
Scripture about the worship of God? Let me read you a few. In Psalm 99, he says, "...exalt
ye the Lord our God, and worship at His footstool." We don't like
to think about worshiping in such a way. We don't like to
think about having to bow down or humble ourselves. He says,
worship Him at His footstool, for He is holy, holy. Here's another one. O come, let
us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our
Maker. And people walk around in this
world this very day. with their chest poked out, with
their lips dribbling off the most foolish and utterly stupid
things, and with great irreverence, talk about the living God." He
says, "...given to the Lord, the glory due unto His name. Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness." He warns in this way, he says, take heed to yourselves
that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside and serve other
gods and worship them. He says, for thou shalt worship
no other god for the Lord whose name is Jealous. is a jealous God. He said, I will not share my
glory with another. And all should worship God as
their Creator, but they can't and they won't because they're
sinners against God. This woman had never worshipped
God. I lived all my life, even to
the point of going to Sunday school and all that stuff, all
my early life until I had enough of those Sunday school pins that
they pinned on you. I looked like Gaddafi does in
his uniform, so-called. and even to the extent of supposedly
leading others in worship and preaching and doing all those
things, thinking that we were worshiping God, but we weren't. Why? Because we didn't know the
true God. We didn't know the God of glory. And you see, only those whose
sins have been forgiven of God and who have received mercy from
God and grace from God, only true saved sinners, and worship
God. I want you to think about that.
Why? because they alone have this
real reason and desire to worship God as He says He is, a just
God and a Savior. I don't think it can hardly be
better said than something that an old writer said. Now, if you
remember, in Matthew 15, our Lord rebukes the Pharisees. They were very religious. They were very involved in what
he called worship. He said, this is this. This is
the way it really is. He says, in vain they do worship
me. Their worship is not worship
at all. It's simply zero. It's vanity. It's sin. Why? He said, teaching
for doctrine. the commandments of men. And
natural men and women, though very religious, and that's what
we are by nature, very religious, Cain, as an unbeliever, came
and he came to worship God. Do you remember that? But he
came with the fruits of his own labors. And God refused it. And He refuses all such worship. So here it is, he says, you in
vain worship me, therefore everyone you teach in vain worships me,
because you teach the commandments of men as my doctrine. But let me read you what this
old writer said. He said, to worship in spirit
is to worship spiritually, To worship in truth is to worship
truly. They are not two different kinds
of worship, but two aspects of the same worship. to worship
spiritually is the opposite of mere external rites which pertain
to the flesh. Instead, it is to give to God
the homage of an enlightened mind and an affectionate heart. to worship Him truly is to worship
Him according to the truth in a manner suited to the revelation
that He has made of Himself, and no doubt it also carries
with it the force of worshiping truly, not in pretense, but sincerely. Such and such alone. are the acceptable worshipers. You see, what is called worship
in our day is outward. Oftentimes it is very sensational. It is associated with buildings
and places and ornate surroundings and furnishings and rituals and
ceremonies. I can tell you this. If what
we feel has been moved in our flesh by something that we see
with the natural eye or touch or do in ourselves, it is not
worship. You know, you can look at some
of these big buildings and hear some of this particular kind
of music, and see people dressed in certain robes and what have
you, and wearing certain different pieces of jewelry and what have
you, and you can feel something. Oh, you can feel something. I've heard people talk about
experiencing God. That's not worship. That's not
worship. Because today's so-called worship
is physical and emotional, and it has as a part of it an unholy
familiarity. It is not reverent toward God. There is no sense of all. There
is no real gratitude for sins forgiven in the light of who
God is and who we are. If we ever are enabled to find
out who God really is, and we ever are brought to find out
what we really are, and discover by His grace and by His Spirit
and gospel that we have been made recipients of His free favor
and forgiveness of sin in Christ, then we'll worship Him. We'll worship Him. You see, apart
from the Spirit of God, and apart from the truth of God, that's
what's being said here, there is no worship. Now, what does
he say, the Lord Jesus Christ? He says in John chapter 16, He
said, when I'm gone, I'll send to you the Comforter. Who is
He? The Holy Spirit. But what does
He refer to Him as on that occasion? He said, the Spirit of Truth. And then He says this, and He
will not speak of Himself. In other words, wherever you
find people who are always talking about the Spirit and always exalting
the Holy Spirit this and the Spirit that, he said, he'll not
speak of himself. He said, but he'll take the things
of mine and show them to you. That's what the Spirit of God
does. He takes the things of Christ. He led those prophets
of old. What did they write about? They
didn't write just history lessons, they wrote about the coming Christ. His Spirit directed the New Testament
apostles. What did they preach about? What
did they write about? They wrote about Christ. He said,
and when the Spirit of God works in a sinner's heart, He reveals
to them. not only who they are and their
desperate conditions, but that God has extended His mercy and
grace to them in Christ and has saved them from their sins all
by Himself and all for His glory. So what is left for them to do?
They fall down and they worship Him. They worship Him. You see,
it's not that he is looking for people. Listen now. He's not
saying here that he's looking for some people to see if he
can find them worshiping God in spirit and in truth. He's
saying here that he is looking as the shepherd seeking his sheep
to make them this people who will, who must. worship Him in spirit and in
truth. He said the object of true worship
is Himself. When I look back and think about
the Jesus that I once sought to worship in comparison to the
true Christ of the true gospel, I think to myself, how could
I ever have worshipped such a pitiful, weak one such as Jesus? He could only do what we allowed
Him to do. He, in all His work and death,
only made some things possible. He was under the thumb of so-called
free will of fallen sinners. He was weak and powerless to
accomplish the very thing that his glory depended on. You see, he says, the sacrifice
of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. But the prayer of
the upright, that's his delight. Who are the upright? Those who
are in Christ. What is this worship that he's
talking about? Why do we worship God in Christ? Why is there no true worship
apart from the true Christ? Well, hold your place here and
turn over to Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3, and
listen to what the Apostle Paul, who was naturally himself a Jew
and a Pharisee and all these things. But when the Lord found
him and called him and brought him unto Himself, he confessed
himself that he was before what? A blasphemer. He didn't just
change religions. He didn't just come to higher
doctrine. He didn't just come to a deeper
spiritual life. He didn't just get the victory.
Christ saved him. Now listen, Philippians 3, verse
3, "...for we are the circumcision." You could say it in this way,
we are the true Jews. He uses circumcision and uncircumcision
as describing those who would seek to be saved by something
in their flesh and those who he describes as being circumcised
of heart. All right, listen, for we are
the circumcision, three things, which worship God in the Spirit. We don't have to have candles
on the wall. We don't have to have crosses.
We don't have to have, what do they call it, worship helps. We don't have to have ritual
or ceremony. We don't have to have soft music
playing in the background. You know what religion is in
our day. We don't have to have all that. We worship God by the
Spirit of God. We worship Him spiritually in
our hearts. All right, second thing. And
rejoice in Christ Jesus. We rejoice in Christ Jesus. We rejoice in who He is. We rejoice
in what He's done. We rejoice in where He is right
now. We rejoice in all the promises
being yea and amen in Him. What's that last one? And have
no confidence in the flesh. We can't add one thing to His
work. We can't do one thing that would
contribute in any way or any part to our salvation. We, in
the future, will not expect to ever do anything to improve our
standing before God. If we are in Christ Jesus, we
will never be able to keep ourselves saved. We have how much confidence
in the flesh? No confidence. Is that where
you are? That's why, man. You see, worship
is the activity of a people who've been redeemed. Now, what were
those Israelites doing there in Egypt? when they were in the
bondage of Egypt, when they were told by their taskmasters to
make bricks. And then when they got to murmuring
about all the difficulty and everything, they were told, well,
now you gather your own straw to make bricks. And they were
told, work and work and work and work and work. And they cried. They moaned and they groaned. But the Scripture says that when
they were brought out of Egypt, when they were redeemed out of
Egypt, when they were delivered from the bondage of Pharaoh,
it says they got out on the other side of that Red Sea and they
sang a song. They rejoiced. And all of Egypt
is just like a picture of Satan in this world. It's a picture
of how all his ministers, as he describes them, that are transformed
as angels of light, they appeared it. But all they're saying to
these people in bondage is this, work, work, work, work, work.
You can never do enough. You can never give enough. You
can never pray enough. You can never believe enough.
do any of these things. But when the Lord Christ delivers
us, we rejoice in what He's done. He's our salvation. And we worship
Him. Christ says in Matthew 15, this
people draw nigh unto me with their mouth, and they honor me
with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But then there was this woman.
There was a woman that he singles out to speak of in that same
chapter in Matthew 15, and it says, "...and behold, a woman
of Canaan came out of the same coast and cried unto him, saying,
Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David." Have mercy on
me. And then in that 25th verse,
it says, "...then came she, and worshipped him, saying, Lord,
help me." She worshipped him. What did she do? Well, outwardly,
she, because he was there, she cast herself at his feet. And the word that is used in
that verse, which is translated in our version as worshipped,
it means to come like a dog. licking his master's hand. Well,
anybody in our day When we are so full of self, so full of our
pride, our excellency, when everybody thinks they are somebody, will
anybody come before God, come before the Lord Jesus Christ
by faith like a dog comes licking his master's hand? There's no
wonder people call a dog a man's best friend. Kick him and fuss
at him and throw him outside, and he'll still come and lick
your feet. That's the word that's given
to speak of worship. As a matter of fact, when our
Lord met this woman, and she asked from Him this help concerning
her daughter, He said, it's not right to give the children's
bread to dogs. The Lord Jesus would never make
a modern-day evangelist. He didn't even ask her to come.
She came anyway. She's wanting some from Him. He said, oh, it's not right to
give the children's bread to dogs. Surely she'll go off in
a huff and a puff. No, she's going to fall down
and worship Him. She said, truth, Lord. but the dogs eat the crumbs that
fall from the master's table." What she's saying is, Lord, you're
exactly right, I'm a dog, but I'm your dog, and I'm going to
lay at your feet, and I'm going to lick your hands until you
feed me, until you have mercy on me, until you have grace.
You see, to worship Him is to fall before Him in our hearts,
to confess Him to be the sovereign Lord, our King, and our God. Worship is the occupation of
the heart with a known God, and everything which attracts the
flesh and its senses detracts from real worship. People come here for the first
time and they say, well, they haven't got much going on here.
Plain white walls, just plain pews to sit on, and all they
do is sing a few hymns, and a man stands up and preaches, and,
oh, there's not a lot happening here. I'll tell you what's happening
through worship, because the gospel of Christ is preached. The glory of Christ is sought
to be sung in every hymn, and spiritual worship is what those
who worship, who truly worship here, are involved in. By faith
we look to Christ. We have no other hope. We rejoice
in Him and we have no confidence in the flesh. Would you know
where the first mention of worship is in this book. I've tried to
teach you over the years that one of the most wonderful things
that you can do, the most beneficial things in regard to any subject
or any doctrine or anything, is go to the first place in Scripture
that it's mentioned, that first place of worship, although it's
not the first place of worship, but the first place we have that
word worship is in Genesis 22. Why don't you turn there, Genesis
22? Because in Genesis 22, we have
a man by the name of Abraham and his servants and his son
And he's about to do something. He's about to worship God. Look
down in verse 5. And Abraham said unto his young
men, Abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder
and worship and come again to you. What are you going to do,
Abraham? You know, Abraham is described
as the father of them that believe. What are you going to do, Abraham?
I'm going up on Mount Moriah, that big mountain right there,
me and this boy, and we're going to worship God. Well, why are
you going to go up on that mountain and worship? Because God said
to. But now keep listening. And Abraham
took the wood, The reason why they had that donkey along with
them was they had a big stack of wood on him tied to it. They
took him up, they took that wood, and he said, and he took the
wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac, his son.
He made Isaac carry that wood up there. And he took the fire
in his hand, he had a torch of some sort, and a knife, and they
went both of them together. What you'll find is that Isaac
is in complete agreement with this. He didn't say, Daddy, this
wood's too heavy for me, or what are you going to do with that
knife? He didn't say any of those things. Listen. And Isaac spake
unto his father, and he said, My father, and he said, Here
am I, my son. And he said, Behold, the fire
and the wood, Now, I see you've got the fire and you've got the
wood for the altar and everything, but where is the lamb for a burnt
offering? If you want to know something
about what a parent is to teach their children concerning, it's
how God is worshipped. Abraham had already taught this
young man Isaac the only way that God was worshipped. He knew
it. And so he looked when he saw
no lamb for sacrifice. He saw everything that was needed,
the knife, the fire, the wood. He said, but where's the lamb
for the offering? And Abraham said, my son, God
will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. Abraham, Because
God had commanded him to take Isaac, his only son, up on that
mount and offer him, he thought that God was going to require
him to take his own son and offer him as that sacrifice. But he
also thought that God would raise him back up from the dead, because
he said, me and the latter come back. And so he took the wood
and put it in order, And he laid Isaac on that wood and bound
him, and he drew back the knife, and you can imagine. Somebody
said, well, if he loves Him, he won't do that. If he loves
God, he'll do what God says. If he believes God, and he's
about to stick that knife into the chest of this young man,
his son, his only son. But God stops him. And he points
to him a ram who's hung by his horn in the thicket. And he says,
you take this ram, release your son, and offer this ram. And what's all this saying? It's
saying this, God is only worshipped through a sacrifice, number one,
that He appoints, Number two, that He as a holy and just God
will accept. And number three, that He provides. What do we need? We need an offering,
a sacrifice for our sins that God as this holy God can accept
in full satisfaction in the matter of our sins. It has to be that
sacrifice that He Himself has appointed and said He would accept. It has to be that one that He
provides. All of this picturing Christ
crucified. That's why Paul said, I determined
to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We're preaching nothing but the
cross. That's not a wooden piece. We're
talking about the death of the cross as the only way by which
God saves sinners. You see, Abraham, looked by faith
to Christ. I'll never forget hearing a preacher
say, one that's supposed to know something, he said, Abraham didn't
have a clue about what was really taking place, what substitution
really was there. But I'll tell you what our Lord
says in John 8. He says, your father Abraham
rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad." He looked
down at that boy and when he was taken up off of that altar
of wood and that ram was put in his place as a substitute
and slain in his place and that boy went free, he said, Abraham
saw my day. How did he see it? He saw it
by faith. He did. You see, worshipers today
see Christ and believe on Him through the hearing of the gospel
of Christ crucified. Isaac is on the one hand a picture
of Christ. He's taken and he's put on that
altar. He is at the same time a picture
of those who are in Christ because he was raised from a certain
death, and they are raised in Him, and they go free." If you
look back in our text at verse 25, the woman saith unto him,
I know that Messiah is coming, who's called Christ, and when
He's come, He'll tell us all these things. You see, she's
brought by Christ, from all the where, and the how, and that
kind of stuff, to the who. He says, that speak unto thee,
am he." That's why all of his sheep, he says, they hear my
voice and they follow me. One of the very first things
I remember when the Lord began to reveal the true gospel, this
gospel that gives all the glory to God, was a witness in my heart
Though there were many things that I was yet to understand
and many things to this day that I don't have a grasp of. But there was a sure and unchangeable
witness in my heart that this is the Christ. This is the Gospel. And that's been over 30 years
and to this day I've never felt, I've had lots of questions, some
of which the Lord has been pleased to answer for me from His Word,
some I'm still struggling with a little bit maybe. But when
that Gospel came to me, the Spirit of Christ came to me and said,
this is me. This is me. Here I am. This is
the Jesus that is called Jesus because He shall save His people
from their sins. You say, if that's the way it
is, why aren't all these people doing it? Well, I'll let you
go back in Scripture and you just read what Christ said. He
said, straight is the gate, narrow is the way, few there be that
find it. Wide is the way, gate, broad is the way that leads to
destruction, and many there be that go in. And when the apostle
Paul, an apostle of God, he stood in various places and he preached,
He preached as one who had experienced grace, who had understanding
of Judaism and all that kind of stuff, but who had met Christ,
been taught of Christ. And they said, he's a heretic. We're not going to worship such
an ogre of a God who does what he will, who saves who he will. We will not do that. But you
know what he said? He said, this is what I'll confess
to you, that after the way which they call heresy, they call it
heresy, so worship I, the God of my fathers, believing all
things which are written in the law and in the prophets. They call this heresy, but that's
how I worship the living God. I come to Him as a sinner. I
have no other hope. I have nothing to give, nothing
to bring that He'll accept. I come to Him through this one
God-provided, God-accepted sacrifice, His Son, Christ in Him, crucified. He did by His one offering of
Himself put away the sins of His people forever. And He's going to bring all of
them to worship Him. They'll worship Him privately. They're riding down the road
in their car. They're thinking about Him. The Spirit of God
brings The gospel, the scriptures to their heart and mind, they
worship Him when they pray in private. And they gather together
publicly. That's what the church is. They
assemble and they worship Him publicly. Why do we preach the
gospel again and again? To worship Him. We need to be
reminded, we're like leaky vessels, we need to be reminded of who
He is and what He's done for us in His life and death. For
what? We worship Him. You say, well,
I'll just tell you, preacher, this is just too good to be true
that God would look upon me before the world began in purpose to
love me and save me and do all this for me, even my sin. Well, think about this woman.
It said, he must needs go through Samaria. I love that. He must. Why? Because it is his eternal
purpose to save this sinful woman from her sin. He's going to do
what's necessary. And every time she was reminded
what he said, who he was, what he'd done for her, he worshipped
him. He didn't need a help. He didn't
need soft music. He didn't need anything that
would distract from thinking about bowing down before the
Lord Jesus Christ. You see, what we learn about
Christ, what God is pleased to teach us about Himself, He is,
as the Infinite One, revealing these things to the finite. Though
we come to a certain point, We see something of His glory and
something of His grace, and we're just kind of overwhelmed by it
all. And we're just in awe of His grace to us. What will we
do? We'll just fall down like His
dog, and lick His feet and His hands, and worship Him. My prayer is that God will make
each one of you, and certainly myself, a worshiper. Our Father, this day we do worship
You in spirit and in truth. We do rejoice in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and we have no confidence in this flesh. He does not save
us. If He did not save us, if He
does not save us, we'll perish. We pray that You might, in Your
Great Sovereignty, be merciful to us through Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. We thank You and pray that You'd
bless Your Word to our hearts. For we pray in Christ's name,
Amen.