Good morning. We knew this weekend would go
quickly. Didn't know it'd be this quick,
but so very thankful to be able to gather together once again
this morning, and our hope is the Lord will be pleased to bless
us once more in preaching of his gospel. I'd like to ask you
to turn with me in your Bibles, if you would, please, to Psalm
62. Psalm 62. We've been preaching through
the Psalms here on Wednesday night for the last at least probably
a year. And this past Wednesday night
we preached Psalm 62 and there was a word in this Psalm that
summarizes what we've experienced this week. And it's found in
verse two, it's found in verse four, it's found in verse five,
and it's found in verse six. And it is the word only. Only. Verse one of Psalm 62, truly
my soul waiteth upon God. From him, from him cometh my
salvation. He only. is my rock and my salvation. He only. Scriptures are full
of onlys, aren't they? God looked down from heaven into
the hearts of men. He saw that every imagination
of the thoughts of their heart were only evil and that continually. When the disciples were on the
Mount of Transfiguration and They saw the veil of our Lord's
humanity taken away in the radiance of his glory. They were brought
to say they saw no man save Jesus only, only. When David looked at himself,
he said, I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of
thine only. The simplicity of the gospel
is the onlyness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord in praying to his father
on behalf of his church said, this is life eternal that they
might know thee the only true God and the only true God and
Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. And when Jairus thought that
all hope was lost, The Lord encouraged him and said, be not afraid,
only believe, only. He only is my rock, verse 2,
and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be greatly moved. And those who don't have hope,
in the onlyness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He speaks to them. How
long will you imagine mischief against the man? You shall be slain, all of you,
as a bowing wall shall you be, and as a tottering fence. They
only consult to cast him down from his excellency. They delight
in lies. They bless with their mouth,
but they curse inwardly. My soul, Wait thou only upon
God, for my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock and my
salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be moved. In God is my salvation and my
glory. The rock of my strength and my
refuge is in God. Trust in him at all times, ye
people. Pour out your heart before him.
God is a refuge for us. Surely men of low degree are
vanity and men of high degree are a lie. To be laid in the balance, they
are altogether lighter than nothing. That's pretty light. Lighter
than nothing. Trust not in oppression. and
become not vain in robbery. If riches do increase, set not
your heart upon them. God has spoken once, twice have
I heard this. What have I heard? That power
belongeth unto God. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth
mercy, for thou renderest to every man according to his work." The works of God's people. are
finished in the Lord Jesus Christ. He looks to us, He's looking
to His Son. His work is perfect. Let's pray
together. Our Heavenly Father, we come before Thy holy presence
in the name of Thy dear Son, looking to Him, as David said,
my only righteousness. For he only is our rock in our
salvation. And how we do hope and pray now
that you would be pleased to lift him up, that as he's lifted
up that we would be drawn into the presence of thy glory. Lord, this is our only hope. And we ask it in the name of
thy dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Tom's going to come and lead
us in number 22. Let's stand together. Number
22 in your spiral hymnal. I'm sorry, 21. 21 in your spiral
hymnal. Number 21 in the spiral hymnal. God the Father and the Son and
the Spirit, three in one, in eternal ages past, made a covenant
sure and fast. God my Father chose His own in
the person of His Son, and ordained that I should be one with Him
eternally. God the Son agreed to come in
the flesh to bring me home. He would keep God's holy law
and retrieve me from the fall. Christ in love so willingly stood
as my great surety. For my price He offered blood
to appease the wrath of God. God the Spirit, heavily dubbed,
promised to come down in love, bringing life and peace and grace
to the chosen, purchased race. He seeks the lost, heals the
lame, and He brings us to the Lamb. By His mighty sovereign
call, God's elect are gathered all. This poor sinner is secure,
for God's covenant will endure. It is sealed by God's own word,
by His Spirit and His blood. ? Blessed holy covenant God ?
I am yours by ties of blood ? Ties of grace and ties of love ? Hold
me to my God above Please be seated. Let's turn to that hardback
hymnal now and we'll sing hymn number 222, 222. There is a fountain filled with
blood Drawn from Emmanuel's veins And sinners plunged beneath that
flood Lose all their guilty stains Lose all their guilty stains
Lose all their guilty stains. And sinners plunged beneath that
flood, Lose all their guilty stains. The dying thief rejoiced
to see that fountain in his day. And there may I, though vile
as he, wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. And there may I go vile as He. Wash all my sins away. Dear dying Lamb, thy precious
blood shall never lose its power. Till all the ransomed Church
of God be saved to sin no more. Be safe to sin no more, be safe
to sin no more. Till all the ransomed Church
of God be safe to sin no more. E'er since, by faith, I saw the
stream, Thy flowing moon supply. Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die. And shall be till I die. and shall be till I die. Redeeming love has been my theme
and shall be till I die. When this poor lisping, stammering
tongue Lies silent in the grave Then in a nobler, sweeter song
I'll sing thy power to save I'll sing thy power to save I'll sing
thy power to save. Then in a nobler, sweeter tone,
I'll sing thy power to save. Lauren Culber is going to bring
special music now. Come on, Lauren. Loved with everlasting love,
led by grace that loved to know, spirit breathing from above,
Thou hast taught me it is so, O this full and perfect peace,
O this transport all divine. In a love which cannot cease,
I am His and He is mine. In a love which cannot cease,
I am his and he is mine. Heaven above is softer blue. Earth around is sweeter green. Something lives in every hue. Christless eyes have never seen
birds with gladder songs or flow, flowers with deeper beauty shine. Since I know, as now I know, I am his and he is mine. Since I know, as now I know,
I am his and he is mine. Things that once were wild alarms
cannot now disturb my rest. Closed in everlasting arms, pillowed
on the loving breast, O to life forever doubt and care and self-resign. While he whispers in my ear,
I am his and he is mine. While he whispers in my ear,
I am his and he is mine. His forever, only his, Who the
Lord and me shall part, Ah, what rest, a rest of list, Christ
can fill the loving heart. Heaven and earth may fade and
flee. Firstborn light in gloom decline. But while God and I shall be,
I am His and He is mine. But while God and I shall be,
I am His and He is mine. That was sweet. Thank you so much. Song of Solomon
is just the most delightful passage of scripture. I am His and He
is mine. He first owns us and then we
know that we're owned by Him. Thank you. And as you turn in
your Bibles to John chapter 18, we'll go back to the Garden of
Gethsemane. I just wanted to express my thanks to everyone. I know there are so many people
behind the scenes that make all of these things happen and I
just wanted to say a warm thank you. I appreciate the warmth
of your encouragement and your welcome. As Greg said, this congregation
is easy to preach to because they drink in the gospel. We've
had a feast of the gospel this weekend. I thank my brothers
Chris and Todd. It's wonderful to us to know,
isn't it, that the Lord Jesus Christ pursues his own and he
recovers all. It's lovely to know and hear
again that the work is perfect. The work is perfect on Calvary's
tree. And I'm so thankful that the
road is narrow, because my biggest problem is myself. And if the
road is narrow, then I'll get pushed back into the narrow road
again and again. We're hedged in by our great
God, and he's brought us here together to hear the gospel. We're here, as the sign says
at the back, that we might see the Lord Jesus Christ. In Gethsemane's
garden we see him both in the glory and the wonder of what
it is for him to be fully God in a human being. To be fully
human such that he could suffer as he did in Gethsemane's garden. As God, as God he understood
exactly what was in that cup. He understood that it was the
sins of all of his people promised to be his responsibility from
before the foundation of the world. And he bore those sins
in his body on the tree and he bore them all the way to the
extent now that they're gone forever. But in Psalm 110 it
says that he will drink of the brook by the way, therefore shall
he lift up his head And so when we see him in the depths of his
humanity when he's crushed and his heart is broken by the weight
of your sins and mine, the weight of your sins and mine right now
were where crushed him, crushed him and drew blood from a broken
heart. But in John chapter 18, John's
gospel focuses on the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here
in this passage before us, we see the Lord Jesus Christ in
the glory of God. We see his humanity, but we see
the glory of God. Let's just read these first 11
verses together. When Jesus spoke these words,
he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where
there was a garden into which he entered and his disciples.
And Judas also, which portrayed him, knew the place For Jesus
oft-time resorted thither with his disciples. Judas then, having
received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees,
cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons. Jesus
therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went
forth and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered him, Jesus
of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed
him, stood with them. As soon then as he had said unto
them, I am he, they went backward and fell to the ground. Then
asked he them again, whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you
that I am he, if therefore you seek me, let these go their way,
that the saying might be fulfilled which he spake, of them which
thou gavest me, have I lost none. Then Simon Peter, having a sword,
drew it. and smote the high priest's servant and cut off his right
ear. The servant's name was Malchus. Then said Jesus unto Peter, put
up thy sword into the sheath. The cup which my father hath
given me, shall I not drink it? Don't you love in the Scriptures
these pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ in his deity revealed? It says when Jesus had spoken
these words, and the words he'd spoken are in John chapter 17,
that great high priestly prayer where he prayed for his disciples
and he prayed for us right now, brothers and sisters, that we
might believe, we might believe that he might by the declaration
and the proclamation of himself, come and visit us and bring salvation
with him. There's an amazing verse in John
chapter 12, verse 26, before I get to this that I'd like us
to just briefly look at because it's amazing. It's a great picture
of what's happening in church where the gospel is preached
throughout time and throughout this world. It says, if any man
serve me, let him follow me. and where I am, there shall also
my servant be. See, the Lord Jesus Christ goes
first, brothers and sisters, and then His servants are there.
If you want to meet with the Lord Jesus Christ and you want
to hear from Him, you go to where His servants are, because He's
been there beforehand. And He will be there and bless
their words and bless their message to the hearts of His people.
We want to see Him. That's what our verse up there
says. We want to see Him. And you'll see Him. You'll see
Him as He's proclaimed in the gospel. We want to see Him. What great words. What great
words in John chapter 17. He makes petitions to his father,
doesn't he? He says in verse 24, I will,
father, I will, that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with
me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast
given me. For thou lovest me before the
foundation of the world. Oh, righteous father, righteous
father. He calls him holy father earlier
in this prayer. Oh, righteous father. The world
hasn't known thee, but I have known thee and these have known
that thou hast sent me and I have declared unto them thy name. The great preacher of the gospel
is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. I have declared unto them thy
name. and will declare it that the
love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them. In Gethsemane's garden, in Gethsemane's
garden on Calvary's tree, he does all that is absolutely necessary
from a holy God for him to take up residence in us. sinners like us. After he'd spoken these words, he went forth. He went forth
with his disciples over the brook Cedron, or Kidron. As we saw
earlier when I spoke to you on Friday evening, that Kidron brook,
and especially at Passover time, was a bloody sewer. Kidron means
black. It's a sewer. It's a sewer which
takes the blood that represents the curse of the broken law.
The wages of sin is death. It carries the vengeance of offended
justice. It carries the wrath of eternal
God. They are bitter waters. This
wasn't a pretty scene. He crossed that brook. He crossed
that brook and took his people across that brook and he drank
from that brook. all of the curse of God's broken
law, all of the sins of all of God's people were in that cup. The cup that he says in the passage
here we're looking at, the cup the Father gave him. And that cup couldn't pass from
him unless he drank it. He crossed He crossed that picture
of what we did in our father Adam. We left Jerusalem. We left Zion. Zion means a monument
raised up. What a great picture of our God.
And we left in the Garden of Eden when we sinned. We sinned
individually in our father Adam. We sinned in the Garden. And
we come forth from our mother's womb speaking lies. And what? What we have earned by our rebellion
and our transgression and our iniquities against our God is
what that Kidron brook carried in that filthy stream. And it
carried that brook, terminated in Gehenna, the perpetually burning
hell. One of the things that has weighed
heavily on my heart, and I trust the Lord causes us to in some
way enter into the reality of the Lord Jesus Christ in Gethsemane's
garden, feeling in his body the sinfulness of sin. We live in
sin like fish live in water. We have absolutely no idea of
sin in its horror. There's only one man that ever
knew the horrors of sin. The only one that ever knew Because
sin is only ever measured properly when it's measured against infinite
and absolute holiness of God. Only an omnipotent God could
look into that cup and see what was in it. Only a holy God could
look into that cup and see the absolute horror of what was in
there. Only an omnipotent God could
carry all of that. He carried our sins. He bore
our sins in his own body on the tree. He bore them. He bore them. This is the place
that he went often. He took his disciples there very
often. He came there, it says, Jesus
knowing all things. Knowing all things, verse four. Knowing all things that should
come upon him. Our God never learns anything. Our God is never surprised by
anything. Our God. I love Isaiah 46.10. It says that he's declaring the
end from the beginning, saying, my counsel shall stand and I
will do all my pleasure. This is the will of Him, isn't
it? This is God's will, isn't it? This is the will of Him that
sent me, John 6 40. That everyone which seeth the
Son and believeth on Him may have everlasting life as a possession. And I will raise Him up at the
last day. Jesus knowing all things that
should come upon Him. Acts 15, Paul declares it, isn't
it? Peter declares it. No one unto
God are all his works from the beginning of the world. Our saviour
went there as a sovereign saviour. This was no accident. This was
no conspiracy of men, even though men conspire against him. He
knows all things. He knows all men. He wouldn't
entrust himself into men in John 2. Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believed not and who should betray him. All of the Lord Jesus' activities
are musts and shoulds. People say in religion that we
need to confess our sins. We don't have a clue about our
sins. At the very moment you think
of confessing them, you're sinning more. And you're offending God
by thinking that you can name them and list them. To confess your sins is to say
the same. That's what the Word says. It's
to agree with God that sin is what we are. And sinners, real
sinners, can do nothing but sin. And real sin, for real sinners,
is weighed and measured by what the Lord Jesus Christ bore and
did. He knows all things. We just lay your life out before
him, brothers and sisters, There's nothing, there's no point, there's
nothing in your life that he doesn't know with far greater
intimacy and accuracy and detail than you can possibly imagine.
I love the illustration of Hezekiah. So often we are like Hezekiah,
aren't we? We're surrounded by an army,
185,000 troops outside and someone writing nasty letters to you
saying, you just give up like the rest of them. We've just
crushed every city on their way down here and we can deal with
you as well, you pathetic little wimp in there. And Hezekiah. Hezekiah takes that letter, doesn't
he? And he takes it into the temple
of God, and he lays it out before him. And he says, this is the
situation. I can't do anything. I'm powerless. It's a good thing to practice,
isn't it, brothers and sisters? Just lay your life out before
him. This is what I am. I can't get any better. And if
you're like me, the older you get, the worse you are. We get
better at covering it up, but in reality, if we know anything
of our hearts, if the Lord shows us anything of our hearts, we
need to be laying it out again and again and again. And what's
impossible with man is possible with God. One angel slew 185,000
of those troops that night. and sent that Sennacherib back
to be murdered by his sons in his temple. One angel. The Lord Jesus Christ had at
his disposal at this time legions of angels. He goes as a conquering,
conquering saviour. He goes as that perfect substitute. In all of this, he knows all
things He knows all that should come upon him and he went forth. I love that description of him.
He goes forth, our Lord Jesus Christ. He's not passive in the
activities of salvation. He's a good shepherd. Read Ezekiel
34. He goes over hills and dales
and he searches them out. He takes them out of all the
places where all the false teachers have entrapped them and he sets
his prisoners free and he gathers them to himself and he makes
them to rest. He makes them to lie down. He
makes them to rest. He went forth. He went forth
in eternity as the surety of that eternal covenant. And in
this passage here before us, the father gave him two things,
doesn't he? He says, in verse nine, he says,
of them which thou gavest me, have I lost none. I love that promise from our
God. Lost none. And then in verse 11, he says
to Peter in rebuke, doesn't he? Put your sword away. You don't
need to fight the battles of God with carnal weapons, brothers
and sisters. Our battle is a spiritual battle,
not by might, not by strength, but by my spirit. God will build
his church and God will get the glory. But there is, it's the
cup which my father hath given me, shall I not drink it? So he's given two things, isn't
he, brothers and sisters? He's given a people and he's
given a cup. And he can't have the people. and live in them as he declares
in John chapter 17, that I might be in them until that cup is
drunk and all of their sin is completely taken away. Brothers
and sisters in Christ, you that have been brought to believe
we are perfectly fit habitations for a holy God, the holy God
of Mount Sinai, the holy God who created this universe and
rules all things, the holy God has made us to be a perfectly
fit home because he drank that cup and on Calvary's tree, the
fire of God's eternal wrath was consumed in the body of that
extraordinary saviour that we have. just so that we know that he's
absolutely sovereign, and just so these people would know, and
just so his disciples would know. We go back and we realize that
Judas came, the Lord Jesus knew that Judas was coming, he went
there to meet Judas. And Judas, which betrayed him,
knew the place, for Jesus off time resorted there, verse two.
And Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from
the chief priests and the Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns,
and torches and weapons. Isn't it remarkable? On a night
with a full moon, they come with lanterns to find the light of
the world. They come with weapons to subdue
the Prince of Peace. And he goes, he went forth, verse
four, he goes forth, he goes forth. and said unto them, Whom seek
ye? God knows all things. He's not
asking questions so that he can get information from the likes
of us, brothers and sisters. He's not seeking information,
but he's drawing from his enemies the confession of who he is. Whom seek ye? I just love the
picture of it. And all through the gospel accounts,
if you go back and recollect them, whenever the disciples
were in a situation that was difficult, the Lord Jesus Christ
stands between all of the enemies and them, doesn't He? As a good
shepherd, He stands between them. He goes forth and He speaks to
them. He initiates all this. Whom seek
ye? And they answered, Jesus of Nazareth. And he said unto them, I am. And you'll note in our translations,
I trust that you delight in it as I do. It's an honest translation. The word he is in a traptalics. It wasn't there in the original. It's just there so that the sentences
flow better in our English language. He's just simply declaring himself
to be God. He is saying that I am the God
that met with Moses. I am the God who destroyed the
nation of Egypt to take my people out of there. I am the God of
Mount Sinai. I am, I am. John's gospel is full of declarations
of this I am and all of them, all of them are sweet, aren't
they? to needy sinners. He's, I am
the bread of life. I am the bread of life that came
down from heaven. I am the living bread. I am the
light of the world. I am from above. Before Abraham
was, I am. It's a declaration that he's
the eternal God. He is the door of the sheep.
I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the
life. I am the way, the truth and the life. I am the true vine. And he says in John chapter 8
to those Pharisees, he says, if you believe not that I am,
you shall die in your sins. As much as the Lord would allow
us when we're preaching the gospel, we are really trying to define
his character. When it says, whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord, the name of the Lord is a description
of his character. God is not ashamed or embarrassed
about his character. He's not embarrassed about being
an electing God, a choosing God. He's not embarrassed about being
absolutely sovereign over all things. In fact, In the salvation
of sinners, God magnifies his name. He magnifies his name. He's not in the business of hiding
it. He loves, and God's children love, the fact that he's absolutely
sovereign. We love the fact that on Calvary's
tree, he didn't make an offer of salvation. He really did save
his people from their sins, as he promised. Our God displays himself before
these enemies on this night to make sure that we now would know
that he went there as a willing sacrifice. There are two great
Issues of the gospel aren't there? Substitution and satisfaction. He went there as a willing sacrifice
and he went there as a sovereign God. In verse six, it's remarkable
the response, isn't it? It is the response throughout the scriptures when
people meet God. Both believers and unbelievers. We'll do this. Judas was standing there with
them, verse five, and as soon as he said unto them, I am, they
went backward and fell to the ground. He just prayed to his
father, hadn't he? Just an hour or so before this,
he says, thou has given him power over all flesh that he should
give eternal life to as many as thou has given him. He has
power over all flesh. Brothers and sisters, he is in
absolute perfect control of everything in this universe. We get troubled
about politics and we get troubled about the strife in the world.
He's got power over all flesh. Not a single thing wriggles in
this universe unless he says for it to wriggle and how much
it'll wriggle. whether it's the tiniest little,
whatever you might call it, electron, and the farthest reaches of the
universe that you can imagine, or the biggest things. He's sovereign. He says in Psalm 27.2, when the
wicked, even my enemies, my foes, come upon me to eat up my flesh,
they all stumbled and fell. It's a picture, isn't it, that
the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment according to Psalm
1-5. It is this stone that the builders
rejected is now the head of the corner. There is, there is in
the Lord Jesus Christ, just by a word, absolute sovereign control
over all humanity. I just love that. I just love
that. The power, the power of the name
of God revealed. The power of the word of God
spoken. I just love thinking about what
happened when people met, really met God in the scriptures. And
if you've met him, you'll meet him like these people in some
way or another and it'll be a repeated experience in your life. What
did Job say when he met him? Behold, I am vile. He abhors
himself and he repents in sackcloth and ashes. Isaiah met the Lord
Jesus Christ in the temple. He says, woe unto me, woe unto
me. I'm a man of unclean lips and
I dwell amongst a people of unclean lips. Daniel, remarkable character
Daniel. Not a blemish on his character
according to the word of God that we have. He was a sinner,
there's no question about it. He owned that he was part of
the sins of his people. But when Daniel met the Lord
Jesus Christ, his comeliness, the beauty, turned to corruption. Peter met the Lord Jesus Christ
when there was a glimpse of his deity shining through his humanity. He said, get away from me. I'm
a sinful man. I love the picture of John in
Revelation. There's John, an old saint who
knew that he was loved by the Lord and he gets to meet the
Lord Jesus Christ in Revelation and he falls to the ground as
a dead man. See, God will have his people
to bow. He'll have his people to bow
at the revelation of himself. and he'll do to every single
one of his people, having humbled them, he'll do what he did to
John and he reached out his hands and he lifts them up. The power of our God. They all
went backwards. People like our friend Mr. Hawker
described this as one of the greatest miracles in the scriptures.
I think the most remarkable miracle about this is that they went
backwards and they fell to the ground and he asked them again,
verse 7, whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.
The remarkable miracle of this is that they were able to stand
up again and they were able to speak again only because he gave
them the power to do so. I remind you that this man who
spoke, this man who spoke was covered in the blood and his
vesture was dipped in the blood of the weight of the anguish
of all of that sin upon him. We must try and expunge from
our minds all these thoughts that the Lord Jesus Christ was
some pretty figure. He was marred beyond human likeness. He carried the infirmity of people
in such a way that as a man in his mid-30s, he looked like a
50-year-old. And then he makes this wonderful
declaration in verse 8. You see, you think it might be
a request of them. There's no way in the world this
is a request. This is a command. I have told
you that I am he. If therefore ye seek me, let
these go their way. You can have me, but if you have
me, my people are going free. What a glorious picture of substitution,
brothers and sisters. You can have me. But all of my
people are going free. Let these go their way. These men, these men that came,
this band that came, was possibly 500 men with their lanterns. They brought a small army to
interrupt a prayer meeting to capture the Son of God. And he,
he was in sovereign control of all of it. If you seek me, let these go
their way, that the same might be fulfilled which he spake. Of them which thou hast given
me have I lost none. He says, he says to the law of
God, these men, sat in Moses' seat. They represent that law,
and they had come down from Jerusalem, these men that sat in Moses'
seat. They were children of the devil, and they were led by someone
whom Satan had entered, Judas. But the Lord Jesus Christ In
all of his negotiations, he's not negotiating with men, brothers
and sisters. He's negotiating with his father.
The wonder of our salvation is all tied up, and wonderfully
so, in the transaction between God the Father and God the Son,
applied to the hearts of people by God the Holy Spirit. He's saying to the law of God,
you can have me. You can have me. but let these people go. He's
saying to the infinite, eternal wrath of God that must be poured
out when God meets sin. When a holy God meets sin, He
must pour out His wrath. He must be just. He must be righteous. He must honor His name. The Lord
Jesus said, prior to all these events, He says, Father, glorify
Your name. He says to the law, you can have
me. He says to the demand of the
law that it requires absolute perfection. It's simple, isn't
it? God's requirement for you to
be in his presence is really simple. You have to be holy.
You have to be as good as God to be in his presence. Nothing
gets into heaven unless it's perfectly holy. He says to the
demands of law on both sides of those tables and he says,
the demands of the law that it must punish sin. He says, you
can have me, because in my hand is this cup the Father has given
me. And in that cup are all the sins
of all of my people. He knew exactly what they were.
He's an omniscient God. He knows the sins that you've
been committing. He knows the sins that you will
commit. And all of them are in that cup. He says to that law,
you can have me, but you can let these others go. He says
to the very righteousness that God demands, you can have me
and you can let these people go. Let them go their way. He'll lose none of them. He'll
lose none of them, brothers and sisters. What a way they had to go that
night. What a way they had to go. One
of the most remarkable stories, I love Peter. He had foot and
mouth disease and he had a whole, I just love the way, I love the
way Peter said things that we would say and we're too embarrassed
to admit it. I just love the fact that he was just out there.
in all of the wonder. He was just a human being. He
was just flesh like us. Sometimes he did the most remarkable
thing. What extraordinary courage to
take off Malchus's ear with a knife. It wasn't a big sword, it was
a little knife. He wasn't aiming at his ear. What remarkable courage. What
a remarkable picture of us. Just an hour later, before a
little damsel girl, he was denying the Lord Jesus Christ. And not
only denying him, but he was cursing and swearing to establish
that he hadn't been with this righteous holy man. But in Luke 22, the way of God's
people, isn't it? Simon, Simon, Luke 22, 31. Simon,
Simon, behold, Satan has desired to have you that he may sift
you as wheat. I lived on a farm. You know what
a sieve is, don't you? It's a round thing with wire
on the bottom of it crossed over. And when you're sieving something,
if you want to sieve it properly, you are stirring it up in a really
violent way. Satan has asked to sift you.
And then the Lord Jesus makes a promise.
But I have prayed for you that your faith fail not. And when
thou art converted, when thou art turned back, strengthen thy
brethren. How does someone who is such
a public, miserable failure, so evidently, how does someone
like that strengthen the brethren? It's grace, brothers and sisters.
It's not about Peter and his works. The Lord Jesus had those
sins of Peter in that cup. And he drank that cup. Those
sins were his. He says in Psalm 40, innumerable
evils have compassed me about. And then he says, mine. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than
the hairs of my head, therefore my heart faileth me. So we strengthen
our brothers and sisters as sinners, don't we, by declaring that that's
what we are. and salvation is free, and salvation
is by grace, and salvation is of the Lord. If the Lord is looking
to you and your works for anything, you'll go to hell. I promise
you. The great glory of the gospel,
isn't it? is that God's children find their
satisfaction and find their rest and find their peace in exactly
the same place that God the Father finds it. And we don't ever look
anywhere else. And we don't wish for anyone
to look anywhere else. Just very briefly, I want us
to also remember that the greatest enemies of our souls are pictured
by these people that come They come from Jerusalem with the
law in their hand. We have a law, they said. We
have a law. The greatest attacks on the church
in the early days weren't from the Jews and weren't from the
Romans, but it was the attack from within by legalistic religion
that says that somehow, some little thing that you can do
can somehow initiate your salvation or maintain it or at the end
of the day get rewards in heaven. The number of people that told
us when we got back from India, you're going to have some extra
jewels in your crown. Dear, oh dear, what a load of
rubbish. What a denial of what we're reading in these verses
here. It was the great battle of the Jerusalem Council, wasn't
it? Do we put people back under some
obligation of works? And Peter makes that wonderful
declaration in Acts chapter 15, doesn't he? That God has purified
their hearts by faith. And faith looks out from us.
There's nothing in here. Peter, you're gonna fail miserably. Satan will sift you and you'll
fail, but But two things are going to happen, aren't they? I've prayed for you. That's enough,
brothers and sisters. I've prayed for you. And when
you come back, when you are returned, you can strengthen your brothers
and sisters by reminding them yet again that we are nothing
but sin. We just confess what we are.
And then we look to a saviour. He does all things well. And just in closing, I'd like
us to think in verse 12 that they bound the Lord Jesus Christ. They bound him. It's remarkable,
isn't it? He was bound as our covenant
surety in all eternity, he was bound. And when they bound those
bloodstained hands, they bound that cup to that hand, didn't
they? They bound him. He was bound
in eternity as our surety. He was bound in love for his
bride. He was bound by the great desire
of his heart that he'd glorify his father's name. He was bound
by love to his bride. He's loved them with an everlasting
love. Everlastingly, therefore with
loving kindness has he drawn them, drawn them to himself. It's remarkable to ponder, isn't
it, that this band, which must be let go, this same band that
were given to him of his father, what an extraordinary thing it
is for a holy God to give to His Holy Son. What would He give
Him other than something which is extraordinarily precious to
Him? The relationship between God
the Father and God the Son is just one of extraordinary. It's
beyond our comprehension and imagination. In Psalm 110 verse
3 we often read the first bit of that verse, that thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power. Then the next phrase
is, in the beauties of holiness. What a remarkable description. But in the beauties of holiness,
he gave these people. They're precious. They're precious
in his sight. They're precious to the father.
They're precious to the son. He loves them everlastingly. The cup which my father hath
given it, shall I not drink it? You were bought with a price.
You were redeemed with precious blood. And the fire of God's wrath on
Calvary's tree was consumed in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's interesting in the scriptures, isn't it, when they set up the
tabernacle and had the altar and they laid things out, that
it was the fire of God that set the altar alight. Man kept it
going, but God. It's a picture, isn't it, that
in that altar, that altar that we have, It is God's fire that
burn. And it's perfect. And it's complete. And it burned all of those sins
in his own body. And there's nothing between God's
children and him forevermore. He's sovereign. He's sovereign
and holy in His love. He says to everything that's
required of us, you bind me and let them go. Amen. Tom is going to come and lead
us in number 19 in your spiral hymnal. The title of this hymn is Pleading
for Grace. And Angus, as you were preaching,
I was thinking of what the Lord said when He said, Every knee
shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. Some will bow now, willingly,
by His grace. Others will feel the rod of God's
wrath on the back of their knees, causing them to bow in judgment,
unwillingly. Nevertheless, every knee shall
bow. Lord, make me willing. Make me
willing. Pleading for grace, sovereign
ruler, Lord of all, Prostrate at your feet. I fall. Let's stand
together. Number 19, in your spiral hymnal.
Thank you, Angus. Sovereign ruler, lord of all,
prostrate at your feet I fall. You are holy.