Title of our message today is
he purged our sins. He purged our sins. And Numbers chapter 21 is an
account of the children of Israel in the wilderness. And I'll read
from the first verse of the chapter. And we're going to read through
verse nine of the chapter. And when the king Arad, the Canaanite,
which dwelt in the south, heard tell that Israel came by the
way of the spies, Then he fought against Israel
and took some of them prisoners. And Israel vowed a vow unto the
Lord and said, If thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand,
then I will utterly destroy their cities. And the Lord hearkened
to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, and they utterly
destroyed them and their cities. And he called the name of the
place Hormah. And they journeyed from Mount
Orr by the way of the Red Sea to encompass the land of Edom.
Edom was the land of Esau. Jacob's brother. So these were
their cousins in that sense. Edom. And the soul of the people
was much discouraged because of the way. They were going the
wrong way. They had to go backward and now
they're going around the long way to get to where they wanted
to be. So they were much discouraged. And the people spake against
God. And they spake against Moses.
and said, Wherefore have you brought us out of Egypt to die
in the wilderness? There is no bread, neither is
there any water, and our soul loatheth this light bread. They
despised this light bread, the manna. And the Lord sent fiery
serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and much
people of Israel died. So the people had complained
against Moses and against God. They accused God and Moses of
bringing them into the wilderness to kill them, bringing them up
out of Egypt just to kill them in the wilderness. And they were
tired of the manna that God gave. They despised the manna that
God had given them. And so the Lord sent fiery serpents
and they had bit the people and much people, much of the people
of Israel died. already died. Therefore, the
people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken
against the Lord and against thee. Pray unto the Lord that
he may take away the serpents from us. Moses was the meekest
man on earth, and you see it here, what he did. He prayed
for the people who had just complained against him and accused him falsely
and accused God. He prayed for them. Moses prayed
for the people, and the Lord said to Moses, Make thee a fiery
serpent, and set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass that
every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass,
and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass that if the serpent
had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. Now, if you would turn with me
also to the New Testament in the book of Hebrews. And I want
to read just the first three verses in Hebrews, where it says
in Hebrews chapter one, starting at verse one, what God did in
the olden times and what he's done in the last times. It says,
God, who at sundry times, that means different times, various
times, and in divers manners, different ways, spake in time
past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last
days spoken unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of
all things, by whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness
of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding
all things by the word of His power," and listen to these words,
"...when He had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down on the
right hand of the Majesty on high." I want to look at these
words with you this morning. Familiar words, words we've looked
at before, but we need to have them re-emphasized. had by himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty
on high." And the title of the sermon is, He Purged Our Sins. Now, there is nothing, I'm convinced,
there is nothing in the world more important than this. The entire Bible, all of history,
eternity, will prove This to be true, that nothing is of greater
importance than these words here, when He had by Himself purged
our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on
high. These are the words on which
our souls depend. These are the words that we use
that create hope in our hearts. that create confidence that we
might come to God, that give us something to hang on, to hang
everything on, to find satisfaction in these words, when He had by
Himself purged our sins. He sat down on the right hand
of the Majesty on high. Who is this One who had purged
our sins? Who is He? Because if we understand
who He is, then we'll see the certainty of what He's done.
Who is He? Well, He says in the first couple
of verses, He is the Son of God. The Son of God has purged our
sins. God spoke in the times past in various ways to the fathers,
those recorded in the Old Testament by the prophets. When the prophets
would speak, oftentimes God would have the prophets do something,
say something, and do something to emphasize His message. He
had Ezekiel lying at his side. He had various prophets do things. One put dirt on his face. Throughout
the Old Testament, when the prophets spoke, they always acted out
the implications of God's Word to the people and then they brought
the message. And that's exactly what God is saying here, is that
in these last days, God has spoken to us by His Son. The message
is what Christ said. The message is what Christ did. And the messenger is the Lord
Jesus Christ. And who is the Son of God? The
Son of God is the eternal Son of God. God the Father has always
been God the Father. And so, He has always had His
Son. His Son, God the Father, and
God His Son have always stood in relationship to one another
throughout eternity. There's never been a change.
He is equal with the Father. The Jews accused Him of claiming
equality with God when He says, God is my Father. And they were
right. He is equal with the Father.
They took up stones to stone Him when He said, I and My Father
are one. And in verse 8 of this same chapter,
God the Father speaks in the Psalms to His Son. He says, My
throne, O God, is forever and ever. The Lord Jesus Christ is
God Himself. But He's not just God, He's God
the Son. And as the Son of God, God sent
Him into this world. He says, in these last days God
has spoken to us by His Son. Now, in John chapter 1, it opens
up almost the same way when it says, In the beginning was the
Word. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's called the eternal Word of God. He personifies the Word. And he says, He was in the beginning.
He never had a beginning. He Himself was always there.
As far back as you can go, the Lord Jesus Christ has always
been the Word of God. It says, He was in the beginning.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. He
was distinct from God, and then it says, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. And then he says, almost just like in Hebrews 1, all things
were made by Him. All the power of the Word of
God, spoken, created the vast universe, the earth, the heavens,
everything that is in them. He did it by Himself. Invisible
things and visible things. Material and immaterial things. Every realm and kingdom, He set
it up. He Himself created it by His
own power, the power of His Word. What He commanded stood fast.
And it says that in Hebrews chapter 1, this is the One through whom
God has spoken. The Son of God has come into
the world. He who is God. He who is the
Son of God, who is equal with God, who is one with the Father,
the One whom God has said, Thy throne, O God, is forever and
ever, the One who was in the beginning with God, who is Himself
God, He was made flesh. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. And that's the way God has spoken
to us in His Son. God has spoken in His Son by
His Son becoming flesh. taking on the nature of His people,
taking on their case and their cause, and coming to them and
telling them what He would do and what He did, and the glory
of His Father in doing that. And that's what this is about.
The One who has by Himself purged our sins. Notice in Hebrews 1,
He's the One who made the world. Everything stands by His command,
the power of His Word. And He's the One who upholds
the world. by His power. Everything that comes about,
everything is administered by Christ, the Governor over all.
He does everything and upholds everything by the authority and
the power of His Word. This is the One who purged our
sins. And then it says, He's the brightness
of God's glory. He's the outshining of God, but
not just the outshining of God's glory, He's the very brightest
part of God's glory. He who is the Son of God, coming
in the flesh, living, suffering, dying and rising again, this
is the brightest glory of God Himself. When you see the one
who is the shepherd, laying his life down for the sheep. The
one who was the master, stooping and taking up a basin of water
and washing the lowest part of the lowest vocation of men, the
fisherman's feet, and doing that as a servant. You see, the master
serving those that he came to save. He gave his life, a ransom,
for them. He loved them from the beginning
and he loved them to the end. This is the one who made the
worlds and who is the brightness of God's glory, when we see the
Lord Jesus Christ laying His life down, serving His people,
humbling Himself, taking on their nature, and not just for a space
of time, but for eternity, laying aside His equality with God and
taking on the nature and the service of men and serving His
people, According to the will of God, we see the greatness,
we see the supremacy of God. It says in the Psalms, in Psalm
113, that God has to humble himself in order to behold the things
that are on the earth. He has to humble himself to behold
those things. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ humbled
himself not only to behold them, but to come and to dwell among
men. Solomon said when he built his
temple, he said, Will God indeed, will very God indeed dwell with
men upon the earth? This is exactly what Christ did. He who is God in very deed came
and dwelt with men on the earth. He's called Emmanuel, God with
us. God with us, not just a man who
was created, but God Himself with us. And so, He who is high,
who sits on the throne of eternity and is in the heavens and none
is higher, He dwells with those who are poor and needy. And He raises up those who are
on the dunghill in order to sit among princes. This is the One
who came and by Himself has purged our sins. You see, He who is
the Word of God could not do by His Word what was required
to save us from our sins. And this is the amazing thing,
that the Word of God, to whom all must give an answer, Even
the non-existent things that He called forth by the command
of His own Word, and brought forth creation by His own will,
when He spoke the words, when He said to the land, be separated
from the water, and when He said to the sun and moon and stars
to hang in the heavens, all the things that Christ did by His
Word, All the power of His Word and the authority that He commands
in His Word, He could not accomplish our salvation by merely speaking. He must come Himself. And so
when it says, when He had by Himself purged our sins, it's
talking about the omnipotent God, the all-powerful God, the
all-wise, all-knowing God, the One to whom nothing is impossible. He had to come. He had to set
his face like a flint to go to Calvary in order to purge us
from our sins. If such was required in order
to purge us from our sins, how great is the evil of our sin. Not only that, but how certain
is it that Christ was successful in what He intended to do? He
purged our sins. Now, look at this verse again.
When He had by Himself purged our sins. To purge our sins,
what does it mean to purge our sins? Well, first of all, It
teaches us that we're defiled by sin. We're polluted by sin. We've profaned ourselves by our
sins. We've corrupted ourselves. And
the Bible gives many examples of that. One of them is leprosy.
A man who has leprosy, his flesh rots. It stinks. It's dying. He's dying from the outside in. And that's what leprosy is. It's
a disease that starts on the inside and shows up on the outside,
and then it causes the man to rot away and is grotesque. And
it's revolting when we look at it. And yet, so much worse is
our sin. It's like a plague. Solomon says,
a man needs to understand the plague of his own heart. Our
sins need to be purged from us. And this is why Our sins and
the evil of our heart is so deep. It says in Genesis 6, 5 about
the sons of men that every imagination of the thoughts of their heart
was only evil continually. That's how dirty we are. Our
sins have made us so filthy, so vile in the sight of God.
that it's through and through. God says in Isaiah chapter 1,
that from the sole of our foot to the crown of our head, there's
no soundness in us, only wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. And then He also says in Jeremiah
chapter 17, that the heart of man is above all things, more
than anything is deceitful. And not only is it deceitful,
But the chief thing about it is its deceit. Deceit is what
oozes out of the heart of man. And in Jeremiah he says that
we cannot change ourselves, that we're like a leopard who can't
change his spots, and like an Ethiopian who cannot change his
skins. We have no power, no will, no desire. to overcome our sins
before God. The issue is not our habits. The issue is not a practice.
The issue is the root of what we are, and that before God. God Himself has to do something
so great that it required the Son of God to come in human flesh. He who commands the world to
actually come and live and take on our nature forever and stand
in our place becomes sin for us and by this to purge us from
our sins. We are so defiled. that it required
the Word of God made flesh to take away our sins. And He purged
us from our sins. It says here, when He had by
Himself purged our sins. This is something that took place
in time. It's something that occurred at a time in history. There was a particular place
on the earth outside of Jerusalem. There was a particular time In the events of the world where
the Lord Jesus Christ stood once and removed sin from His people,
that which defiles and corrupts us and has caused us to have
this inbred evil that we can't be
rid of. We have no power over and our
servitude to sin. The Lord Jesus Christ came at
a time in history and purged us from our sins. Notice, it
says, when. That has reference to a point
in time when He had by Himself purged our sins. He sat down. When did the Lord Jesus Christ
sit down on the right hand of God, after He rose from the dead. He came, He suffered, He died,
He was risen from the dead, and then God sat Him at His own right
hand. And when did that occur? When
He rose up before His disciples. He was talking to them, and He
ascended up into heaven, and He sat on the right hand of God.
This was at a time in history. But it says before that, before
He rose, before He reigns in heaven on the right hand of God,
He actually purged our sins. When He had purged our sins,
then He sat down on the right hand of God. You see, the sequence
there is important. Something occurred. Our sins
were removed. It says in Leviticus chapter
16, One of my favorite verses in that chapter, which gives
an account of what the high priest would do on the day of atonement.
He would do something without the people in the Holy of Holies. He would do it all by himself,
according to the will of God. And it says in Leviticus 16,
verse 30, On that day shall the priest make an atonement for
you. to cleanse you that you may be
clean. from all your sins before the
Lord to make an atonement." It means that God received from
the high priest's hand a sacrifice, an offering that gave satisfaction
to God, appeased His wrath and caused Him to turn, therefore,
and blot out the debt of sins we owed, remove them from us
expunge them, the filth of them, and take them away from us in
the record of heaven, so that God would see our sins no more. The Lord Jesus Christ really
and actually purged us from our sins when He hung on the cross.
God gave him something to do. He came to do it. Thy will, O
God, is in my heart. And he came, he said in Hebrews
10, sacrifice an offering you would not, but a body hast thou
prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin, you had no pleasure. Then said I, the Lord Jesus said,
when he comes into the world, I come to do thy will, O God.
And He takes away the Old Testament and fulfills it in Himself. He
Himself was made an offering for sin. He Himself hung on the
cross. He Himself was made sin. Every sin of every person for
whom He died was imputed to Him, charged to His account. And when
He hung on Calvary, when He hung their suffering, He was suffering
for actual sins. It wasn't pretending like it
was in the Old Testament. All the animals and sacrifices
for the hundreds of years before Christ came, it was a pretend. It was something that just was
a shadow of the truth. But when the Lord Jesus Christ
came, the real sins of His real people were laid upon Him. They
were lifted up from them and put upon Him, and He Himself
bore them on the cross under the wrath of God. The fire of
God's wrath and God's fiery wrath purged those sins. It actually
extracted from Him the full penalty those sins deserved in us. And
having done that, God's law saw and God's holiness saw that those
sins were actually justly taken away. They were purged. They
were removed. When we read there in Numbers
chapter 21, when the people complained against Moses, complained against
God, and they thought in their heart, God is only leading us
out here to kill us. They even hated the symbol of
Christ coming in His work of atonement as the bread of life
to give life to His people. They hated that, and they were
tired of it, and they complained against God, and God sent serpents,
and many of them died. And then he raises up, by Moses,
he raises up this one serpent on the pole. And he says, whoever
has been bitten and looks, looks to that serpent on the pole,
shall live. And so when the people who were
bitten looked at that serpent, they lived. They were bitten
and they lived because they looked. And God is drawing our attention
in this small verse here. at the very same thing. Here
we are, so infected by sin. It's filled our system like a
poison. It's killing us. Many have died,
and God has lifted up His Son upon the cross, laid our sins
upon Him, brought the curse of the law upon Him that was due
us for what we had done. We were the ones who complained
against God, hated His Son, and did all that we did. for ourselves,
opposed to God throughout our lives. And God has said, here's
the thing, I want you to take your eyes off of all that you
are, all that you are infected with, and everything that you
have in yourself that's defiled you and made you filthy in God's
eyes, your impotency to overcome it, and I want you to change
Your focus and look upon what God has done in Christ. That
is life. That is everything. He, by Himself,
purged our sins. Notice the little phrase, by
Himself. When the priest made atonement
in Leviticus 16, there was no man with him. He went in to make
atonement. He offered the blood on the mercy
seat and laid his hands on the goat outside and sent him away.
There was no man with him until he came out and had actually
made atonement. When the Lord Jesus Christ purged
us from our sins, He didn't do it by giving us grace to do something. Salvation is not God giving you
the ability to do something. Salvation is in what Christ has
done for us. When the Spirit of God is given
to us, He teaches us what Christ has done for us. And so God directed
the attention of those bitten by the serpents to the one on
the pole, the serpent on the pole, who is represented Christ
having been made a curse for us. And so when God lifts up
the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross and lays our sins on Him
and extracts from Him the full penalty of our sins and removes
them from us and purges those sins from us. He does it by the
Lord Jesus Christ alone. He doesn't do it by enabling
us to do something, or even by giving us repentance, or encouraging
us to live a certain way, or by causing us to change our lifestyle. None of those things can take
away our sins, because the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God, had
to become flesh, had to take our sins in His own body and
bear them up to the tree, and having died to sins, He fully
removed them." And when the Bible says to Moses, when God told
Moses, tell the children of Israel to look on the serpent on the
pole, He's really saying, believe. Because Jesus told the same thing
to Nicodemus. He says, whoever believes on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and let me read that to you in John 3,
chapter 3 and verse 14. He says, in this way, in John chapter
3. And Nicodemus was completely confused and befuddled when Jesus
said, You must be born again. And he began to try to figure
out, How do I do that? It's got to be something I've
got to do. Just like everything else, Nicodemus thought, I've
got to do something. I've got to do something. And
Jesus said, No. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so the Son of Man must be lifted up. That's on the cross. Lifted up
before God. Cursed by God. And then he says
that whosoever believeth on Him, looks to Him. What does it mean
to look? It means to look at Him. It means to consider Him. What
virtue is there in you by looking at what Christ has done? You're
giving all credit to Him. All honor goes to Him. He's the
one who did the work. And not only is it looking to
Him for all things, but it's letting. In your conscience,
in your heart, letting what Christ did be everything that God requires
to heal you of the infection of your sin. You see, God made
Christ the answer for our sin. He laid that sin on Him and He
fully poured out His wrath upon Him. And that's the way God purged
us from our sins. And God says He did it by Himself.
And He says, now look. Look at Him. Look and be healed. Whoever looks. Jesus interprets
the word look. He says, whoever believes on
Him should have eternal life. When they looked, they lived. And when we look, this truth,
as the preacher once said, let this truth be the whole truth
about the way things are between me and God, that the Lord Jesus
Christ has purged my sins. He's removed them all. Every
sin in the past, in the present, and in the future, taken to Himself. Where were you when Christ hung
on the cross? Not even born, and yet He took
our sins on Himself. The sins of our attitude, the
sins of our imagination, the sins of our thoughts, our motives,
our actions, our words, our deeds, everything, every sin. Sins towards
one another. All sins are against God. And
He took them all. There's not one left. So that
when He finished the work of our redemption, hanging on the
cross, He cried, it is finished. Every sin has been taken by Him
and paid for by Him. It's all been removed. And how
do you know that that's exactly what happened? Look at the verse.
When He had by Himself purged our sins, he sat down on the
right hand of the majesty on high. You see, seating, being
sat on the right hand of the majesty on high, is the greatest
stamp of pleasure and approval that God the Father could put
on anyone. King Ahasuerus asked Haman, what
shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?"
And wicked Haman thought in his heart, who would the king delight
to honor more than me? And he said, Let the king take
his own robe and put it on the man, and put the ring of authority
on his hand, and put him on the king's horse, and have him led
to the kingdom by the most noble man in the king's service. And let that man cry, This is
what shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.
And that's what God did for His Son. He delighted to honor His
Son, because what He did brought such satisfaction to God, and
God saw such perfection in what Christ did, that He could add
nothing to it. He was fully satisfied. All that
God required was completed in what the Lord Jesus Christ did. And God is teaching this to us
by His own Spirit. When He records these words for
us here, when He had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down. God raised Him from the dead.
Everything that He said, everything that He did received God's stamp
of approval. And God set Him at His right
hand and He said, This is My beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased. hear him." This is the one through
whom God has spoken. This is the final word. This
is the big word. Nothing greater than this. Nothing
after this. Everything is wrapped up in what
Christ has done on the cross God Himself couldn't take away
sins unless Christ came and was made sin and took those sins
and bore the wrath for those sins, felt the guilt of them
and the filth of them and the shame of them and bore them away
before God so that God would be fully satisfied. God would
look on what He did and be completely satisfied. And God is telling
us, Behold me, behold me, God says. Behold, God is my salvation. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith for the joy that was set before Him,
endured the cross and is set down on the right hand of God.
Look to Him. What do we see when we look at
Him? We see God, the Son. We see God made flesh. We see
God serving His people. bearing their sins, paying the
ransom, He Himself offered Himself as the propitiation, the satisfaction
to God, the ransom price paid for us. He did it by Himself
and He actually purged them. Could God undertake to do something
so great that would require eternity? to put in place the plan and
all the events of the world orchestrated and administered to bring about
his death, and so that Moses and Elijah speak with him on
the Mount of Transfiguration about the death which He should
accomplish. And He accomplished that death.
He was raised from the dead by God Almighty, sat on God's right
hand. And that not be the pinnacle
of everything in time and eternity and importance to our soul? This
is everything to God and it's everything to His people. And
God says, look, look at this. Look at this One who has by Himself
purged our sins. What should we do in light of
this? Is there anything that we need
to do? Is there anything that we need to bring? Anything of
ourselves? Is there any reluctance that
we should have in venturing the whole weight of our souls upon
the Lord Jesus Christ, One who loved so much that He would give
Himself for His people under the curse of the law? under the
burden of sin, under the wrath of God. One who would be so faithful
to carry out every minute detail in the will of God by his own
life and death and becoming man and living, interceding for his
people throughout eternity, standing before God as their advocate,
as their intercessor, as their king, as their deliverer. This
is what He did. He's the eternal High Priest.
He's the eternal King who delivers His people from their enemies,
their sins, death, and all the consequences of it. And this
victorious acclaim of His is what we're to look at. We're
to find all of our comfort in this. We're to draw from what
Christ has done all of our confidence before God, all of our standing. All of our hope for eternity
lies in this. Who shall separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus? It's Christ that died. Everything stands and falls on
what happened on that cross. And God tells us this, that we
might look at it, we might lay all of our hopes upon this, all
the joy in our heart, should be tied to His victory on the
cross. All the praise and worship that
springs from us comes out of this. Salvation is of the Lord. It's what Christ has done. Nothing
in our hands we bring, only to the cross we cling. And we know
that what He did had to be done right, because God doesn't do
anything partially. He only does wonderful things.
He cried himself, it is finished. If he lied, he wouldn't have
risen from the dead. If he lied, he couldn't sit on
the throne of eternity and judging all things and all men and angels
and all places. But he says, it's finished. He
completed the work. He put away our sins. We're forgiven
for Christ's sake. He stands there as our advocate
and our intercessor and our high priest because he's able to have
mercy on the ignorant and those that are out of the way. And
he tells everyone bitten, look, look on him. who sits on the
throne, who overcame, who purged us from our sins. Look at this
verse in Revelation chapter 1. Here are these people. They have
just witnessed those who were on the left hand, Christ having
spoken to them and sending them out into eternity. And they stand
in awe and tingling wonder. And they speak in verse 5 of
Revelation chapter 1. They say, They say this from
Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness. Remember, God has spoken
in these last days by him. And he's the first begotten of
the dead. God raised him from the dead. And he's the prince
of the kings of the earth. And here's their cry of worship
unto him that loved us and washed us. That's the word purged. washed us from our sins in His
own blood. Nothing is more glorious than
that. Nothing is more important than
that. Nothing will cause us to love God but that. If we love
God for any other reason than that, we love God by going around. what Christ has done. Who could
possibly do that? Why would God send His Son and
His Son serve His people, give Himself up under the wrath of
God, if it weren't all-important and all-accomplishing? This is
the work. We could never do what God required.
Christ did it all by Himself. Everything has been done by Him. And this is what we need to know
this. When the Lord Jesus says in John
15, Abide in Me, this is what He's saying. Don't go beyond
this. As you've received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. who serve the flesh, serve the
flesh because they don't walk in the Spirit. To walk in the
Spirit is to look to Christ. It's look to Him for everything.
To find in what Christ has done everything I need, all my desires,
all my contentment of life finds its contentment in Christ. Why
do I lust? Why am I angry? Why do I... Why
am I discontent? Why do I fear? All these things
ultimately have the bottom, the answer to that problem in not
finding contentment and satisfaction in the Lord Jesus Christ, that
He purged me from my sins. The worship of those in heaven,
He who loved us and gave Himself for us and washed us from our
sins in His own blood. And that's why we worship God.
That's why we meet. That's why we proclaim this.
Because it's not about us. It's about Him. It's not about
my strength. It's about His strength. Not
about my goodness. It's about His. It's all about
Him. It's about He who loved us and
has done this. It's God. The Lord Jesus Christ
says in Isaiah 45, 22, Look unto Me, all the ends of the earth,
and be ye saved, saith the Lord. That's God's command to us. Look
and live. Let's pray. Father, we pray You
would cause us, like those bitten in the wilderness, to look to
Christ and look only to Christ. Not look to our tears. Not look
for more sorrow from our heart. Not look for more repentance
from us. Not look for greater faith or
greater understanding from us. But look at the Lord Jesus Christ.
See His magnificence in what He's done. His greatness. His glory. Lord, our sins are
many. Like the publican, we are the
sinner. Like Paul, the chief of sinners. deserving of all that You've
said in Your Word sinners deserve, even the fiery flames of hell
itself. And Lord, yet we pray that You
would have received from the Lord Jesus Christ in His death
the purging of our sins, and His seating at the right hand
of God would be our King and our High Priest reigning and
interceding for us. Lord, help us to find all we
need in Him. And worship God because of Christ. Receive us for His sake. He is
our only hope, our only plea. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.