I want to preach both messages
from John 3 today. I want to first just look at the
message that the Lord preached to Nicodemus, and then the second
hour we'll look at the brazen serpent. Now, every word that our Lord
Jesus spoke was vitally important. The Bible is the word of the
Lord. And if you have a red letter
Bible, some may think, you know, we think those are the words
of the Lord Jesus, but this whole book is the word of the Lord.
Everything in it. But when the Lord spoke and He
said, verily, verily, He was telling us something vital. He
was telling us something absolutely true, absolutely necessary. He said in John 3.3, when he
was speaking to Nicodemus, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee. And notice that each time he
says, I say unto thee. Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Verse 5, Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee. except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, born of the word, the washing of water by
the word, the incorruptible seed, and born of the Holy Spirit,
except a man be born again, he can't see or enter the kingdom
of God. And he says, that which is born
of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is
Spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, you must be born again. The wind blows where it listeth,
and you hear the sound, But you can't tell whence it cometh and
whither it goeth, so's everyone that's born of the Spirit. Now
here's where our text begins, verse 9. Nicodemus answered and
said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and
said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these
things? Are you a teacher of Israel,
and you know not these things? These things were plainly declared
in the Old Testament. And Nicodemus had those scriptures
and was supposedly preaching those scriptures. The Lord said,
I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean. And
I'll put My Spirit in you, the Lord said, and you'll live. And
Nicodemus was a teacher in Israel. He was a very moral man. He was
of the Sanhedrin. But he didn't know these things.
He had not been born of God. But listen to the Lord's next
verily right here. Verse 11. Verily, verily, I say
unto thee, We speak that we do know and testify that we have
seen and ye receive not our witness. Christ speaks here as the head
of all His people in whose heart He abides. He is speaking of
all His people. He is the head. He is the representative.
He says we. Maybe He is speaking of John
the Baptist. Maybe some of the apostles that were with Him We're
speaking to Nicodemus as well. But he's speaking here as the
head of all his people. Those in whom he abides. We speak
that we do know and testify that we've seen. Remember when the
Lord went to be baptized of John and John didn't want to baptize
him. And the Lord said, thus it becometh us to fulfill all
righteousness. He was fulfilling righteousness
for us, his people, his elect. And just like it is with everything
our Lord did as our head, Christ is the perfection of our witnessing. He's the perfection of our preaching
and our witnessing of Him. He is the faithful and true witness. We see through a glass darkly.
We know in part. But all in whom He abides, all
in whom Christ abides, He makes us know Him and testify of Him. James said of believers, you
have an unction from the Holy One and you know all things. The unction of the Holy Spirit
has given us faith in Christ. He has given us faith. We have
been born of Him so that we know Christ and believe on Christ.
And brethren, it is through faith in Christ, it is receiving Christ
Himself, believing Christ Himself, it is through faith that He makes
us know and understand the doctrine, the gospel. Hebrews 11.1 says,
Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Faith is the evidence. Listen to this order. Through
faith we understand. It's not the other way around.
It's not we come to the doctrine and we learn all this doctrine
and we understand this doctrine and then we believe on Christ.
We don't understand anything until we believe on Christ. It's
through faith we understand. The Spirit of our Lord makes
us speak that we do know. Testify that we have seen by
faith. David said, the Spirit of the
Lord spake by me and His Word was in my mouth. Now, the Spirit
is not going to make you infallibly be able to write out the scriptures
like he did holy men of old when he was writing the scriptures.
But he does make us know Christ. And he does make us sure of him. We know him. We know him. And he makes you testify of that
we know and testify of that we've seen. It's through faith in Christ
that we understand the things that are freely given to us of
God. It's first believe in Christ.
It's believe in Christ. What was Nicodemus' problem?
The issue was not the things the Lord told him. The issue
was not the doctrine the Lord preached to him. That was not
the issue. The problem was Nicodemus did not believe Christ himself.
That was the issue. The Lord said repeatedly, I say
unto thee, I say unto thee, and then he said, and you receive
not our witness. He said in verse 12, If I have
told you earthly things, see that, if I have, if I have told
you earthly things and you believe not, you believe not me, you
don't believe my witness, how shall you believe me if I tell
you heavenly things? If we don't believe Christ, it
doesn't matter if he's declaring we're here in basic doctrine,
the earthly things where he works in you in the beginning, or whether
we're hearing of heavenly things. If we don't believe him, we're
not going to understand. We're not going to believe the
rest of the doctrine. The issue, brethren, where folks
are questioning and questioning and questioning, the issue is
not the doctrine. That's not the issue. The issue
is sinners do not believe Christ himself. That's the issue. We must first believe Christ
Himself. We must believe on Him. We must
receive Him as the witness. And then through faith in Christ,
He will give us more light to understand and see Him in greater
light and grow in the knowledge of Him. But it begins with Him. Believe in Him. Remember Nathanael,
look back at John 1 and look at verse 47. Jesus saw John 1.47, Jesus saw Nathanael
coming to him, and he said of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed,
in whom is no God. Nathanael said unto him, Whence
knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto
him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou was under the
fig tree, I saw thee. Now listen to Nathanael. He answered
and said unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God. Thou art
the King of Israel. He believed Christ. He believed
him. He believed him. And the Lord
answered and said, because I sat unto thee, I saw thee under the
fig tree, believest thou me? That's who he believed on, he
believed Christ. And he said, thou shalt see greater
things than these. Believing on Christ, you're going
to see greater things. He's going to give you more light.
And he said, verily, verily, I say unto you, hereafter you
shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending
upon the Son of Man. Everything He teaches us, the
light He continues to teach us, is of Him. It's about Him. And
His mediatorial finished work is our Redeemer. Now look, go
back to our text. Now first, this man, Jesus of
Nazareth, is the Son of God, sent by God to be His true and
faithful witness. This one who stood there in human
flesh speaking to Nicodemus, He's the Son of God. He's the
one God sent to be the true and faithful witness. He says in
verse 13, He said, No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he
that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. The Lord Jesus is declaring He's
the only God-man mediator. He's declaring He is the faithful
witness. He is the truth, He is the word,
He is the revelation of God. No man has ascended up into God's
presence and heard God speak and heard directly from God,
but He has. He came from God. Back in John
1.18 it said, No man has seen God at any time. That's what
he's declaring here. No man has seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father,
He hath declared Him. In Revelation 3.14, He said,
Unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These
things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning
of the creation of God. Look at John 7 and verse 16. I mean, yeah, John 7, verse 16. He says, Jesus answered them
and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man would do his will,
what's his will? Remember he said in John 6, this
is the will of him that sent me, that everyone that seeth
the Son and believeth on him. That's where it starts. seeing
Christ and believing on Him. And He said, And he that will
do his will, he that will believe on Christ, he shall know the
doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself.
He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory, but he that seeketh
his glory that sent him, the same is true, and there is no
unrighteousness in him. That's Christ, brother. Look
at the first part of our Lord's statement back there in John
3. In verse 13, no man hath ascended up to heaven. Now that's true,
brethren. No sinner, no mere man, not even
those saints of old that have died and are now with the Lord.
They didn't ascend up to heaven. The Lord raised them. They entered
into heaven. Enoch was translated that he
should not see death, but it was the Lord that raised him. Elijah went up by a whirlwind
into heaven, but it was Christ that took him up. In the end,
we're going to be, when he returns, he's going to make the dead in
Christ rise first, and then we that are alive and remain shall
be caught up with him, but it's him that's going to do that.
But Christ is the only man who ever ascended by himself, of
himself, he ascended into heaven. Now take the rest of this statement.
No man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven,
even the Son of Man which is in heaven. No man has ascended
to heaven but the Son of God who descended." That one who
stood there talking to Nicodemus as the Son of Man, he's the Son
of God. He is God. He's Jehovah's faithful
witness. He's the revelation of the triune
God. He's everything God has to declare
about Himself. That's who Christ is. Notice
that last phrase. He says, even the Son of Man
which is in heaven. That's declaring He's God. While He was on this earth as
a man, He's God and man in human flesh. But being God, He was
in heaven while He was standing here on earth. as a man. And that's who he is. He declares
here he's true and he's faithful. He's the witness of God. He speaks
that which he does know. He knows in perfection. He testifies
that which he's seen with his own eyes in the very throne of
heaven. Everything he reveals concerning
God, he's the faithful witness. He said in John 8.26, he that
sent me is true and I speak to the world those things which
I have heard of him. John 12.44, Jesus cried and said,
he that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent
me. And he that seeth me, seeth him
that sent me. He's one with the Father. He
said in John 5.24, he said, John 5.24, he says, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him
that sent me. Isn't that an odd statement? He that heareth my word and believeth
on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death to life. How do we believe
on the Father? We believe on Christ. He said,
he that believeth on me believeth not on me, but on him that sent
me. See, they're one. Whatever God reveals about himself,
we're going to behold it through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He said, And He has to be the revealer. He said, All things
are delivered unto Me of My Father, and no man knows the Son but
the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son,
and He to whom the Son will reveal Him. No man, mere man, is going
to reveal Christ to us. He is not going to reveal the
things of God to us. Christ is the revealer. He is the revealer. He told those Pharisees, They
didn't believe on him. He said, how can you believe
when you receive honor one of another? Nicodemus, in the state
he was in, Nicodemus was more concerned about not offending
his companions, his religious companions, more so than offending
God. He was more willing to side with
them against Christ than to side with Christ against them. because
he had not yet heard Christ. So, he's the one the Father sent. The Lord said back in Isaiah,
Behold, I've given him for a witness to the people. I've given him
to be a commander and a leader of the people. And so that's
why the Father spoke from heaven and he said, This is my beloved
Son, in whom I'm well pleased. Hear ye Him. That's his first
looking to Christ and believing Him. people will sit and hear
the gospel, and they have all these questions, and they want
to understand all this doctrine, but that's not the problem. The
problem is they don't believe the one that God sent. They don't believe Christ. If
you believe Christ, He'll teach you the doctrine. You'll understand
the doctrine. You'll know the doctrine. But
it begins with Him birthing us again and bringing us to believe
Him. So how are we going to be made to hear and believe Him?
Well, I want to look now just at this overview here of just
this message that the Lord preached to Nicodemus. Here, He said,
you know, the Lord told the woman at the well. He said, the words
that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. When
He purposely, effectually speaks into our heart, That's when we're
going to be born of the Word, the incorruptible seed. That's
when the Spirit of God enters in and gives life. And he's speaking
here to Nicodemus. And, you know, Nicodemus later
believed the Lord. But we're seeing here how the
Lord does this. What's the message He preaches
to His people? Well, the first thing Christ
reveals to us is that He knows us. He knows us. He told Nathaniel
that he knew him. He told the woman at the well
all about her. And he told Nicodemus here that
he knew him. He teached him first that he's
lost. That's the first thing he's going to teach a man, that
he's lost. Nicodemus came talking about
what he knew and the Lord said, until you're born from above,
you can't see these things. You can't know these things.
And he told him, your problem is not that you don't understand
the doctrine, the problem is you don't receive my witness. You don't believe on me. He's
telling him he's spiritually dead. He's telling him he's got
to be born again and he's ignorant and he's lost. Maybe the Lord
had already begun to work a grace in him. Because that's the only
way you're going to hear this and know that you're lost is
if he's already birthed you again. But these are the words the Lord
preached to him by which he gives life. He was preaching the gospel. Now, after He makes you know
you're lost, He makes you know He's the revelation of God. And
I want you to see here, He connects the fact that He's the true witness
come from God. He connects it with the fact
that the way we're going to behold Him and truly see Him and know
Him and know God is beholding His work on the cross. He says
there in verse 13, He said, And no man hath ascended up to heaven,
but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is
in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish, but have freely be given eternal
life. For God so loved the world. This is how God loves His people. The manner in which He loved,
that He gave His only begotten Son. That was the first thing
He told him. No man is ascended up to heaven,
but he that came down, even the Son of Man which is in heaven.
God gave His only begotten Son. He's declaring to him, that's
who I am, Nicodemus. And then he declared, and I must
be lifted up on the cross. And here's why, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Nicodemus
heard him declare he's the God-man mediator, he's the true witness,
he's the one sent from God, he's the Christ. And then he heard
him declare how that he must be lifted up just like that brazen
serpent in the wilderness. He must be lifted up. That might
have been the first time, here's Nicodemus, been a master teaching
in Israel, and had the Old Testament Scriptures that spoke of the
brazen serpent, and that might have been the first time Nicodemus
ever learned that that brazen serpent pictured Christ. And the Lord said, I must be
lifted up. He heard him declare that he
was being made sin in the place of his people, to bear what we
are. that He was made a curse in place
of His people to redeem us from the curse. God has to do something
for Himself before He can do something for us. God's got to
be just in what He does. And He's going to be the one
that gets the glory for doing the justifying. So He's declaring
to Nicodemus that the only way you're not going to perish in
your sin, it's not through all these religious works you do
in Nicodemus. It's not through all this You
appear righteous outwardly, but it's not going to be through
your works that you're going to be saved. You're going to
be made righteous through faith in Christ. Believing on Him is
the only way you will not perish. And then he heard the Lord declare
that those who believe on Him shall not be condemned. It's
those that believe not that are condemned already. You think
about how this came to Nicodemus. He just told Nicodemus, You haven't
believed on me. You haven't received my witness.
And then he tells him this, verse 17, God sent not His Son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him
might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not
condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because
he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. It gets serious. It gets real
serious when the Lord speaks into the heart and reveals to
us that we've not received His testimony, that we've not believed
on Him. It gets serious then. This thing
becomes much more than the outward form of religion.
It becomes serious. It becomes real. He that believeth
not is condemned already. He fell in Adam, He's a sinner,
He's already condemned. It's only through faith in Christ
that we're redeemed from the curse. Can you imagine how He
heard that? You who believe know how He heard
that. Because you know how you heard that. The Lord's going to make us know
that it's only by believing Him that we're going to be saved.
And He makes you know, this is your sin, you've not believed
on Me. He said, when the spirits come, He's going to convince,
He's going to persuade in the heart of sin. Why? Because they believe not
on Me. That's what He's doing here,
teaching Nicodemus. And then He declares what the
condemnation is. He says in verse 19, and this
is the condemnation. that light has come into the
world, that light has come, that light spoken of throughout the
scripture, that light has come into the world. And men loved
darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Now here's
Nicodemus, who is, nobody would have looked at Nicodemus and
said this is an evil man. Nicodemus was, he was a very
outwardly Holy man, I mean you would thought he was righteous
in all that he did. But our Lord is here declaring
to him and declaring to you and me that it's not our religion,
it's not our works that make us righteous. In fact, that's
darkness rather than light if we don't have Christ. It's darkness
and those deeds are evil apart from Christ. They're evil. It's not sin keeping us from
Christ. It's not sin that keeps a sinner
from coming to Christ. When a man's made a sinner by
the Spirit of God and made to know he's a sinner, that man
will behold Christ and sin laid on Christ and he'll come to Christ. What keeps a sinner from coming
to Christ? It's holding on to religious
works and religious deeds. thinking himself worthy, and
thinking himself to have merited God's favor, and thinking that
God's going to be pleased with him because of something in him,
or something by him. And that's the evil, that's wickedness,
darkness. He'd come to Christ, Nicodemus
had come to Christ, but only in body, not in faith. And one of the telling things
was, he came by night. He came by night. I don't know
if that showed an earnest desire to see Christ, that He came even
late at night to see Him, or what I tend to think is He didn't
want to be seen. And He came at night. But I think
that's why the Lord said what He said next. He said in verse
20, Everyone that doeth evil hates the light. He won't come
out to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. That probably
struck Nicodemus. He's standing there in the dark
of night and had come to Christ in darkness so that his religious
cronies wouldn't see him. And that probably struck home
to Nicodemus. He's saying, the reason you believe
not on me is you love your evil self-righteousness. If you come to Christ to like
those those deeds are going to be reproved, that refuge is going
to be torn down. And that's what Christ was doing
here as he's speaking to Nicodemus. Don't you know in Nicodemus'
heart, he's just stripping him of all his false refuge. every
bit of his refuge has been stripped away. Nicodemus thought he was
somebody because he had learned some doctrine that he understood
and thought he was really zealous for God and the righteousness
of God. Remember what Paul said? I bear them record, they have
a zeal of God. Nicodemus was a zealous man,
no doubt. But it wasn't according to knowledge.
Why? Where's the knowledge come from?
Christ is the wisdom of God. Treasures of wisdom are hid in
Christ. And he didn't know Christ. And
so the Lord is just stripping away his false refuge right here. A man doesn't know Christ by
memorizing the five points of Calvinism any more than he knows
his sin by learning the Ten Commandments. It's got to be revealed. It's
got to be revealed in the heart. And only Christ can do that.
But then he declares what it is to do truth, what it is to
do righteousness. Nicodemus thought he was doing
righteousness. He would have argued with you
he was doing truth by all his works. And the Lord says, verse
21, he that doeth truth cometh to Christ the light. Why does he do that? that his
deeds may be made manifest, he wants his deeds to be made manifest,
that they are wrought in God. Remember 1 John, and John kept
speaking about doing truth and doing righteousness? What is
that? It's believing on Christ. It's
coming to Christ, laying down all our self, and all our self-deeds,
and all our self-merit, and all our self-worth, leaving that,
repenting from that, and coming to Christ, and casting it all
on Christ. Why does faith do that? Why does
the believer come to Christ? What's he saying when he comes
and believes on Christ? He's saying, all my righteousness,
all my deeds, were not done by me. They were done by Christ. All of them were wrought by Christ.
They were all wrought in Him. I was in Christ and everything
He did, I did. I was in Christ and when He was
crucified, I was crucified. And He comes to Christ confessing
and even now I live, yet not I, but the life I now live in
the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son
of God. My works have even... My deeds of even coming to Christ
and believing on Christ were wrought in and by Christ. That's
what faith is confessing. It might have been then that
God did for Nicodemus what He said He would do. Remember in
Zechariah 12.10, He said, I'll pour upon the house of David
and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplications. I'll pour upon them the spirit
of grace and supplication, and they shall look upon Me whom
they have pierced." Nicodemus may have for the first
time actually seen the Kingdom of God. He might have actually
seen Christ right then. They will look upon Me whom they
have pierced and they will mourn for Him. They will mourn for
Him. They'll mourn as one mourns for
his only son. They'll be in bitterness for
him. Why? Because you see Christ laying
down His life in your room instead, bearing your sin. And that's
what makes you hate your sin. That's what makes you mourn your
sin. You mourn for Him. And it's a true mourning. It's a
true longing for Him. Like one would mourn for his
only son. That's a true, deep, constraining love that He puts
in you. And He said, and in that day
there will be a fountain open to the house of David. A fountain
open to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. Believe it on Christ. Trust in
Christ. It's just like if you were totally
filthy. Head to toe, and every center
is, from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head, we're
just full of wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. God spells
it out to us as vile as He can what we are. We're putrefying
sore. We're covered in just filth. Believing on Christ is just like
if a man's old body is covered in mud and he dove into a fountain
and just came out completely clean. It's the blood of Christ. When you believe on Christ, the
Lord imputes. He strips you of your vile garment
like when Joshua the high priest stood there And Satan was accusing
him and accusing him and accusing him. And he said he was disputing
about the law of Moses. The body of Moses. What was he
saying? He was taking the law and the devil was accusing Joshua
of being a sinner. And the Lord interceded for him.
And you know what he did? He stripped him of his vow raiment
and he clothed him in a new suit of clothing. That's what He does
through faith. He makes you know in the court
of your conscience. When He purges your conscience
from dead works, what is that? That's Him making you know there's
nothing in you that is righteous. There's nothing in you that is
godly. Everything in you, in your flesh,
is sin. In my flesh dwells no good thing.
And when you come to Christ, He makes you know that. But He
also makes you know He has stripped you of that. He has put that
away. When Christ was crucified, that
body, that man, that old sinful man died in Christ, really died
in Christ. And now your life is Christ. And He makes you to know He's
robed you from head to foot in the garment of Christ's righteousness.
He, Christ, abides in you so that you are like the king's
daughter, within and without, wrought gold. It's beautiful
to the Lord. And He receives you. That's the
only way He can receive us. And He makes you know that. And
when He does that, brethren, you cry, Abba, Father. And you
know some things. You know. And you begin to testify
of things you know. I'm not speculating about this.
I know this is so. I know what I'm telling you is
so. It's absolutely so. Because as Paul said to the Galatians,
Jesus Christ was crucified among you. He was evidently set forth
before you, crucified among you. What's the evidence? By faith. You see Him by faith. You see
Him. You're an eyewitness by faith
of what Christ has done. And verily, verily, we speak
that we do know and we testify that we've seen. Go to Romans
10. I want to end with this. And
I'm going to show you. This is what the Lord told him
is what the Spirit of the Lord made Paul preach over here in
Romans 10. Look at Romans 10 verse 6. He said, Christ is the end of
the law for righteous to everyone that believeth. And then he says,
the righteousness, verse 6, the righteousness which is of faith
speaks on this wise. Say not in your heart, who shall
ascend up into heaven? No man has ascended to heaven,
but he that came down. That is, to bring Christ down.
Who? He's come down. Or who shall ascend in the deep?
That is, to bring up Christ again from the dead. He's risen. He's
ascended. It's done. Faith is not grasping
for something. It's not coming like Nicodemus
and said, well, I don't understand. Explain all these things to me
and let me get all my doctrines straight. Then I'll believe on
you. That's not faith. What says it? What's the word
of righteousness? The word is nithate. It's in
your mouth. It's in your heart. The word
of faith which we preach. that if you confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God
hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with
the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, Whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. And the Lord declared
that to Nicodemus. He said, Whosoever Jew and Gentile. He saved the people from Jew
and Gentile. Whosoever. Why? For there is no difference
between the Jew and the Greek. The same Lord over all is rich
unto all that call on Him. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. And He tells him there
what He told him about being a witness. How are you going
to call on Him who you not believe? How are you going to believe
of whom you've not heard? How are you going to hear without
a preacher? How are they going to preach except they be sent?
Christ said, I was sent of the Father. And I'm telling you what
I know. I'm telling you what I've seen.
And when He speaks that into your heart, you know. You've
seen it. You've seen Him. And you speak
that which you know. You testify that which you've
seen. That's faith. That's how he gives faith. Amen. All right, let's stand together.
Our gracious Lord, thank you for bearing witness in the heart
of your people. Thank you for making us know
Christ. Behold Him. Thank you for making us to know
that in us dwells nothing good. It's only in you that we're righteous.
It's only in you that we're accepted. Lord, speak now and make us know. Speak and make us see and behold
and know that this is so. We ask you, Lord, to speak to
the heart of one of your lost sheep and do the work that you
did for Nicodemus. Do the work you've done for these
brethren that believe you. Lord, we need this from you.
We need you to speak and reveal yourself to us. Turn us from
this flesh. Turn us from everything below. Make us behold you at the right
hand of God and make everything else fade into obscurity. Make
us see the one thing needful, the one thing that matters. Keep us looking to him, stayed
upon Christ, that you might keep us in peace, Lord. And Lord,
shut every tongue and every mouth that would turn us from Christ,
and turn us to our flesh, and turn us to the law, and turn
us to ourselves. Keep us looking to Christ. We
ask it in Christ's name, amen.