Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the gospel according to John
chapter 18, the chapter that we read, and reading for our
text, verse four. Verse four. Jesus, therefore,
knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth and
said unto them, Whom seek ye? And what is specifically upon
my spirit is this word, knowing all things that should come upon
him. John chapter 18 and verse 4. There are those things that we
pass through in our lives that I have found when I have been
thinking upon those things, whether it has been physical pain, I've
been led to consider the physical pain and sufferings of our Lord. And there have been times that
I have felt very tempted, tempted by Satan. And again, I have thought
of the temptations that our Lord endured. Then there's been those times
that Just the very thought of my sin has been such a burden,
a grief, and makes me feel such a pit
in the stomach of wretchedness and sinfulness. And then to consider
what the Lord endured, my trust, for my sin, we can seldom really enter into
another's sufferings until we pass through the same
ourselves. And the scriptures speak of having
fellowship with the Lord in his sufferings. We sung of it in
a hymn just now. deserted, he was too, tempted,
he endured it as well. We do not know the path that
is before us. It's unfolded, it's opened out,
and it's good we don't know. But the Lord did know, and he
knew all that was to come upon him and all that he was to endure. and yet he so willingly and freely
walked in this way. What a difference to us in that. The Lord knew beforehand what
he would have to endure in every minute particular of it. He also, in knowing that willingly,
willingly took the work of redemption, willingly came to this world,
willingly undertook to redeem his people. He says, when he
was but 12 years of age, wished ye not that I must be about my
father's business. And he told in Hebrews 12 that
those things that he endured, specifically the contradiction
of sinners against himself, It was for the joy that was set
before him. In all his sufferings, he didn't
lose sight of that. The joy, what, of having a redeemed
people in heaven, of being able to say, behold, I am the children
whom thou gavest me. I have lost none save the son
of perdition, that is, Judas, who is appearing in this chapter.
that the scriptures might be fulfilled. Truly he was given
the name of Jesus because he shall, not might, but shall save
his people from their sins. And as I was meditating recently,
on these things, these things, these sins and things that are
going on in my own heart and temptations and drawing aside
from the things of God and thinking of my Lord. There are some things
that God's dear children will never, ever, But there are those things that
those who are not God's people, those who are not saved, those
who never have put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, they
will have to endure those things eternally, forever and forever. Sin must be put away. It must be dealt with. either by the Lord Jesus Christ
on the sinner's behalf in his place or by that sinner themselves
eternally. The work of the Lord was a substitutionary
work and in that sense there is aspects of that work that
we will never ever fully endure at all. But there is enough of
the sufferings of the Lord that God's children are called to
walk through with the whole purpose and reason. So they are not strangers
to their Lord. They're not strangers to his
sufferings. They're not strangers to that
which he endured for them. And I want to look this evening
at this word, this verse that is before us and specifically
the Lord knowing all those things that should come upon him. So I want to consider firstly
the Lord's help, the Lord's foreknowledge, knowing all things that should
come upon him. And then secondly, those things
that he knew should come upon him. And that is not just from
this point of our text forward, but it says in our text, all
things. So all things, as he came forth
from the father and returned to the father, all those things. And then lastly, just four sayings
of our Lord as he was taken here in the garden. In our text there
is the first one, the question, Whom seek ye? But there are four
in this part of the Word where our Lord was taken. We want to
consider then firstly the Lord's foreknowledge. Our text says,
knowing all things that should come upon him. The Lord's knowledge of this. With us, sometimes we might know
what is before us. Maybe it's a path that we have
walked before, had before. Some of us have had, for instance,
several operations. And we know, in a way, what to
expect. With the anesthetic, with the
recovery, it's not a new path. We know that by what we've experienced
before. But for the most part, the path
that we go through life is you have not walked this way heretofore. And though right through our
lives, as we gain experience, there are things that are repeated
again and again, but the way is a way that the Lord has chosen
and appointed for us and as the hymn writer says, providence
unfolds the book and makes his counsel shine. But with the Lord,
to have mapped out in front of him everything. If we were to know at the beginning
of our lives, even if we were lived to in our 90s, and have
mapped out before us everything that should happen in every hour
of the day, and every day, and every month, and every year,
and know all of those things, it's hard for us to to really
picture that. And especially if it was things
that were painful, things that were terrible things, things
that if we knew we would never choose the path, and many of
us may have done that, be able to say at the end, if we'd have
known what the outcome would have been, we would have never
walked that path. But our Lord knew everything. the foreknowledge of the Lord,
that when He, in eternity past, when He loved His people with
an everlasting love, when they were the fathers and they were
given to the Son, and the Son redeemed, and the Son undertook
to redeem those people, He did it knowing all things, all things
that would come upon Himself. in redeeming that people. We must understand that love
of God to be so great to enter upon this, knowing he knew when
he took Israel of old, the seed of Abraham, he knew how rebellious
they would be. He knew all about them. and he knows all what he had
to suffer for all of his dear people. But the Lord's foreknowledge
is not only of what he should suffer for his people, but also
what his people should go through as well. And in the places where
they would have fellowship with him, And may this thought, may
this word, be a help to some of you, some of us, tonight. He knoweth the way that I take. Job said that. When he hath tried
me, I shall come forth as gold. He knew the path. God had appointed
it. And may we know that, your path,
what you are passing through. All of those things have come
upon you, to you, unexpected, but not to the Lord. To you, something of a surprise,
but not to the Lord. You know, when the Shunammite
woman came up to Elisha to tell him that the son that he had
so promised and said should be born to her was dead. And in her distress, she fell
at his feet. Well, Elisha was a prophet. There
was many things that he prophesied, including that child to be born
that came to pass. But he says of this, and the
Lord hath hid it from me. The Lord saw fit not to forewarn
Elisha. He didn't know. He only knew
when the woman came up to him. There are those things God does
reveal to his servants, and the prophecies are full of those
things. But there are those things that he hides from them. It came as a shock. It came suddenly
to Elisha, but not to the Lord. The Lord already knew. and your trial, my trial, your
burden, perplexity, difficulty, fears that you have tonight.
The Lord has known about this. It's in one of his appointments,
one of those paths that he leads his sheep in, his people in,
and a path that We'll have a parallel in the Lord Jesus Christ, that of which we shall be brought
to have fellowship with him in his sufferings. But in this first
point, I want to set this before us. He knoweth. He understands. He appoints. And he doesn't just
do these things to crush, undefeat the sons of men. No, we are told
that clearly in the Lamentations of Jeremiah. The Lord is merciful
and gracious, and that which he does is for a purpose, and
though it is sometimes very hard to understand. And it's good
for us when we have those things and we really struggle with them.
And yes, there are sometimes we may share with a brother,
a sister, a loved one, those things we're struggling with.
But maybe take them to the Lord. Tell them to the Lord. If we've got arguing to do, argue
with the Lord. If we've got complaints, let
us complain to Him. You know, the Lord points us
to the closet and He points us to come to Him that knows the
way. You know, the world, they will
have things that cannot be understood or what is very hurtful. And their first course of action
is not in the closet or not before the Lord, but to proclaim before
the world what a horrible, unjust, and wicked God is over all. They don't serve Him. They don't
look for Him. But when things go wrong, then
it is the Lord's fault. The King of Israel Joram, he
was like that. When they turned the, or gave
them water to drink in the wilderness and the melbines, the nose of
seer that they were going against, they thought it was blood. It
was that time the Lord delivered Israel. But Joram, if you read
that account, all the time, Nearly every utterance he said was blackening
the name of the Lord. The Lord had got an ulterior
motive. He brought them into the wilderness.
It was to destroy them. The Lord didn't. He had respect
to Jehoshaphat, who looked to the Lord, who prayed to the Lord,
who trusted in the Lord, and he delivered them. That we will
have things we struggle with is so evident. We think of Asaph
in Psalm 73. and how that he couldn't understand
how God's people were suffering and how the wicked were prospering.
And he said, if I should speak thus, I should offend the generation
of my children. And you might think if I was
to speak or nutter all my heart to God's people, I'd really offend
them. And yet in many cases, you would
find that say, we feel the same, we have the same struggles and
wrestlings. that they might add this, we
take it to the Lord. God is his own interpreter and
he will make it plain. And whether it's a path like
dear Joseph walked, or Jacob, or any of the saints, or Paul
in all of his persecutions and things that he endured, the Lord knows. Jesus, therefore, knowing all
things that should come upon him, he's knowing all things
not only upon him, but upon his dear people as well. And may this then be, be a help
to you, a God to go to who already knows. May it be that God has given
you Even in those things you struggle with, something to pray
about, something to go to Him about. Hard cases, difficult
cases, to us might be impossible cases,
and yet bring it to the Lord who knows all about it. And as we stand in this text
here, regarding Himself, He knew all things, what had gone already
before, he knew before it happened, and those things that were in
front of him now. And so I want to look in the
second place at what the Lord knew should come upon him. What did the Lord know? Maybe just have a few moments
just to think of what the Lord actually knew. When the Lord
came to this world, he came unto his own. The children of Israel
were Jews, the seed of Abraham. In the first chapter in Matthew,
we see the line of the kings. We see the line pointing right
to Joseph, supposed to be the father of our Lord. We see in
that line a diverting off from David to the line that goes to
Mary, the mother of our Lord. Our Lord, when he came unto his
own, he came unto his own nation. Be like those of us that are
English coming unto our own people, our own English nation, or whatever
nation we may be, to go back to that nation that's our own
where we were born, and we can trace our ancestors right back. Well, our Lord came unto his
own, and his own received him not. We are told as many as received
him, To them, he gave power to become the sons of God. Even
to them, they believed in his name. But as a nation, they rejected
him, and he knew that. He knew that that would be the
path that he would have to walk. He knew that when he came, when
he began his ministry, that he should be tempted by Satan. Forty days, forty nights in the
wilderness, we only read of the last three temptations at the
end of it. But our Lord was severely tempted
through all of that time. We know with our first parents,
they had one temptation in their innocency, not as sinners, and
they fell and brought the whole of the human race also under
the sentence of death. But with our Lord Jesus Christ,
not one, but 40 days' temptations. He knew that path. We mentioned about having the
contradiction of sinners against himself. He had endured that
through his ministry. As he taught, there were those
that taught counter, As he made claims that his father was in
heaven, then he was accused of being the prince of devils. Whatever
he said, there was one that would counter the opposite. Our Lord said, when they said,
where dwellest thou? And it was. The foxes have holes,
the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath not where
to lay his head. And we read that he had nights
in prayer in this very garden where he is found here now and
where he oft resorted with his disciples. In this garden he was to have
the sins of all his people laid upon him. We don't read it, interestingly,
in the Gospel according to John. You'd think that John would have
recorded it, but he doesn't, not in the same way that Luke
or Mark or Matthew did. And Luke, especially in the 22nd
of Luke and verse 44, We read our Lord having the cup
that is before him and praying unto his father and being in
an agony he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were
grey drops of blood falling down to the ground. This is the path
that the Lord walked as the sins of his people we have it foretold
in Isaiah 53, he had laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was to be the sin bearer. He was to be the one that was
to carry the sins of his people and to endure the wrath of God
that was due to them. But here before ever comes anything
due to those sins, just the weight of those sins. And you that know
what sin is, that grieve over it in any way, what must it have
been for your sin and mine? Sometimes the devil tempts and
he said, well, the Lord was sinless. So how could the Lord know what
my sins are that arise from my own sinful heart and my sufferings
due to those sins? But the Lord has taken those
black sins of thought and affection, and in the mind, though the thought
of foolishness of sin is sin, the Lord has taken those, and
they have been laid upon him, not making him a sinner, but
a sin bearer. And so the weight of them, the
sinfulness of that sin, he did feel. If we were to take a piece
of coal, black coal, and put it on a black sheet of paper,
you'd hardly notice it. But if you were to put that on
a white sheet of paper, you'd very soon see it. Our Lord was spotless and pure. And what must it have been to
have upon Him laid such filthy, black, evil vile sins for him
to carry and bear. Now if we went to the highest
courts in the land and ladies in all of their finery or men
in all of their attire and you gave them some sacks of coal
to carry or something from the refuge dump, what a contrast. that they should bear that. Our
Lord Jesus Christ here in the garden gives the effect with
the agonies that he was endured, even sweating great drops of
blood. And we find his prayer, if thou
be willing, remove this cup from me, nevertheless not my will
but thine be done. He knew what was before him. He knew that he would be forsaken
by the disciples. They all forsook him and fled.
Yes, we read of John being in the hall and then bringing in
Peter, but Peter, he denies him three times that he knew him.
All of those thousands that he'd fed, all of those that were miracles
upon, where are they all? All gone. And then falsely accused. accused of insurrection, being
a king, in competition, as it were, to Caesar. This is Jesus,
the King of the Jews. Our Lord testifies, my kingdom
is not of this world. But he was brought as a malefactor. And not only that, but there
was a murderer And they chose the murderer to
let free rather than the Lord. What would we think if we were
completely innocent of something and someone else was openly guilty
of something? But the people of the land, they
said, we let the one that is guilty go free and you'd be punished
even unto death. Wouldn't we think that? an injustice,
a hard thing to bear? Our Lord knew that he was to
go through that. He knew that he was to be scourged,
back torn. We have it prophesied in Psalm
129, the ploughers, they ploughed upon my back. To have his hands
and his feet pierced crucified, hung upon the cross, mocked,
spat upon, derided. All of these things he knew that
he was to go through. But he was also to have upon
him for the sins that he was bearing that man could not see. And this is the reason why he
was silent. when accused, he knew those for
whom he was standing. But the wrath of God then fell
upon him. I think one of the most vivid
types of the wrath of God falling upon our Lord was on the top
of Mount Carmel when the altar was made and Elijah prayed that
the fire might come down from heaven that they might know that
thou hast turned their hearts back again. Remember that altar
was made of stone, they'd poured the water all over it, and yet
that fire, it came from heaven, and in such a great sheet of
fire as to completely consume the sacrifice, the bullet, the
wood, the stones, the water, and lick up the dust as well.
everything consumed. And of course the altar, the
sacrifice, is all the time of our Lord Jesus Christ. His sacrifice
was a propitiation for sin, a wrath-ending sacrifice. Therefore the wrath
of God fell upon him. And this is one of the things
that he knew, knowing all things that should come upon him. the
wrath of God was to fall upon him. And this is the thing that
I said at the beginning. The God's people shall never
ever know that. They shall not know the wrath
of God falling upon them for their sin. They shall be chastened,
they shall be corrected, but they shall never know the real
wrath of God due to their sin. But those outside of Christ They
will, they will for eternity. Sin must be put away. God hates
sin. And when it was upon his dear
son, then that wrath fell upon him. And the father hid then
his face from him. You hear his voice, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? What a path that was before him. And then on top of that, then
he must die. None of us have yet died, not
literally. May we have died unto sin, but
literally no. And our Lord had not passed that
way, you might say. A completely new path really
is all that he walked through. It was to experience what he
could not experience, and this we reverently, could not experience
as God. He must be God-man, God-manifest
in the flesh, so that he could suffer and bleed and die. And in the flesh, this is what
he did do. And Paul, in writing to the Philippines,
is very clear that he became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. Jesus knew these things beforehand. and yet he went through them
all so willingly for his people. How clearly he says in John 10,
I lay down my life for the shame. The reason why he came was for
his people. The reason he was given the name
of Jesus was that he might save them from their sins. putting
away their sins, taking away the wrath of God, and in time
delivering them from the power and dominion of sin, so that
they love Him and righteousness and hate sin, though they wrestle
with it here. And sometimes it seems it almost
gets the mastery of them. Yet the Lord has taken away the
power Satan's head is bruised, but
in bruising his head, our Lord's heel was bruised. The sufferings
of our Lord, so intense, how can we fully enter into it? Blessed it is then, if those
things that God has called us to walk through here below, are
used to bring us, by God's grace and by his power and blessing,
to have some fellowship with him in his sufferings, so that
we are not strangers to him, so that we do understand a little
of what he went through. And the Lord knew these things
were coming upon him. Jesus therefore knowing all things
that should come upon him. And what love we see in his going
through these things, though he knew them beforehand. Well, I want to look then in
the third place of four things that are said here beginning
in the word of our text. Four sayings that the Lord spoke
as he was being taken and taken to the judgment hall. In our
text we read these words, Whom see ye? And I put this as a question
to you and a question to me. In this account, it's a solemn
account. Judas, one of the disciples,
and he's betraying the Lord, he's bringing those to take him. But there will be, and there
is a blessing on those that will be, true seekers of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We may ask ourselves then, who
are we seeking? Are we seeking the Saviour? Are we seeking the Lord Jesus
Christ? Not to betray Him, not to array
Him before the judgment, not to accuse Him, but that we might find Him. and
be forgiven and pardoned, and that we might receive the blessing
of eternal life. Whom seek ye? What a question! Seek ye the
Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near. Yet
let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts,
and let him turn unto the Lord. May we be in that beautiful word
of our Lord. Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock,
and it shall be opened unto you. Blessed souls that are truly
seeking the Lord, and you know what? The Lord knows those that
are seeking Him, and He knows them because He has bid them
seek Him. And he has said that none come
unto me except the Father which sent me, draw him, and I'll raise
him up at the last day. It's real encouragement if we
feel drawn to seek the Lord. And remember, if we're seeking
something, we begin with not finding it. We begin with it
being lost. We begin with it being out of
our sight. We begin Not knowing it, but
we're seeking it. May we be helped to be able to
answer this. They answered, Jesus of Nazareth. May we seek this same Jesus,
Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, God's beloved Son, Well,
the second word that he says is, he answered them. When they
answered him, Jesus of Nazareth, then he said unto them, I am
he. I am he. In their seeking, they came upon
this man. He asked them who they were seeking. and he told them clearly, I am
he. And we read a miracle that he
wrought in verse six, as soon then as he said unto them, I
am he, they went backward and fell to the ground. Then he asked
them again, we have the same question again, whom seek ye? Again they say Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you
that I am He. Three times He has said, I am
He. Dear Peter, three times you say,
I know not the man. But three times our Lord says,
I am He. I am the one that you seek. May the Lord speak that into
your soul tonight. I am He. I am He. Whom thou dost seek, Jesus revealed
to us, shown to us. You know, the eunuch, when Philip
met with him, understandest thou what thou readest? And he says,
who speaketh the prophet this in Isaiah 53? Is it of himself
or some other man? You know, under Philip's preaching,
Our Lord said to the eunuch, I am he, I am he. What was his testament at the
end? I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. What a blessed revelation to
him. The third thing that he said
is in verse eight. Jesus answered, I have told you
that I am He. If therefore you seek me, let
these go their way. There's something very beautiful
in this. Here is our Lord saying, you
seek me. I am to suffer the wrath of God. I am to be taken. I am the one
that you want. Let these go free. And the whole
gospel is summed in that. The Lord saying, I will take.
their punishment, let them go free. I will bear their sins,
let them go free. The substitutory offering of
the Lord, the willingness of the Lord, the Lord's word in
this. There cannot be twice payment
demanded, once at the hand of the Lord and then at my hand.
The Lord says of those of his dear people, brought to know
something of his sufferings and fellowship with him in his sufferings. Let these, let these go their
way, if you see me. May we be set free by the Lord,
redeemed, set free by the payment of a price. Loose him and let
him go. With this one last word, One
last thought too, in verse 11. Peter had had a sword, and he
drew it and smote the high priest's servant, cut off his right ear. But the Lord has a word for Peter. Put up thy sword into the sheath,
the cup which my father hath given me, shall I not drink it? Already before this time, when
our Lord was speaking of his coming sufferings, he said, This
shall not be unto thee, Lord. And the Lord returned to him
and said, Get thee behind me, Satan, thou saviour'st not the
things that be of God, the things that be of men. Peter, as it
were, was trying to stop the sufferings of the Lord, not realising
how necessary they were to him. Remember when Peter also said
about having his feet washed? He said, I'll never wash my feet.
But when he realised that if the Lord didn't, he would have
no part with him, then he said, not my feet only, but all of
me. We can be like that, can't we?
Well, Peter, he loved his Lord. And so, no, he didn't want this
suffering. We can be like that also with
our loved ones, with our children, with our parents. We can in effect
say, no, we don't want this. So we don't want you to walk
this path. We need to ask ourselves sometimes,
with words that we speak one to another, how we seek to help
each other in the pathway, in the walk, Is it helping to make
us submissive to the will of God and his purpose toward us? Or is it really making us to
fret and rebel and to think our lot is a hard lot? And sometimes we can be like
dear Peter and we can draw the sword and we can start to fight
and start to resist and start to kick against the Lord's dealings
and will and way. But the Lord has this simple
word and may we go home with this. And the Lord knows how
it may be needed tonight. Our dear Lord, put up thy sword
into the sheath. And may we be able to say with
the Lord, the cup that my father hath given me to drink, shall
I not drink it? His way was much rougher, much
darker than mine. Shall my Lord suffer, and shall
I repine? So may we think of these words. These four words that the Lord
spoke, and some of them three times over, as he was being taken
in the garden, to suffer and bleed and die for the sins of
his dear people. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen.