This has been a mixed week with
me, had the thoughts and the excitements and the preparations
of having my family and my babies around again, big ones and little
ones, and I've been to two funerals. There's one consistent theme
in funerals these days, or the ones that I have witnessed of
late, And that is that there would have been 20, I think,
20 people on Friday afternoon talk about this fellow and what
he's doing right now. He died earlier in the week after
having a tragic accident, left a wife and two small girls, four
and six, behind. But every speaker that got up
there said two things. They said where he is now. What's he doing right now? He's
with his father who died some years ago, and he's having a
party. And what's the call of them on his life? The call of
them on his life is to keep the beer cold, and to keep the line. He's a great fisherman, a keen
amateur fisherman, and went in competitions and things, all
sorts of stuff. Anyway, to keep the beers cold for all his mates,
and we're all coming to see him. The other funeral I went to had
exactly the same thing. The person who had died is now,
she was there as a witness several days later at a wedding. She
and her father reunited and in warm bonds of fellowship and
friendship. It is a tragedy, a tragedy for
mankind to live in such superstition these days, and to live in such
hope which is ungrounded in anything in reality. But the other thing
that's consistent with them all is that all of them acknowledge
that life goes on after death. They're not prepared to say in
the face of death that what the evolutionists are teaching us
again and again is that you're just a bunch of chemicals, you're
a bunch of chemicals that have been wonderfully and cleverly
put together by themselves over a long enough time, and when
you part from here, you just disappear into nothingness. Because
that offers no hope, but the other hope that people are clinging
to is a desperately, desperately sad hope, isn't it? How, how
have we got to the stage where we treat life, where we treat
life and we treat God and we treat the judgment, and we treat
the convicting work of God on the consciences of people, revealing
himself in creation and revealing himself in their breaking of
his holy laws again and again. We have inoculated ourselves
as a generation in this world against the realities, isn't
it? One of the things that is so delightful about those songs
that we sing, so delightful about the Gospel, so delightful about
the Scriptures, is that God, rather than hiding his character
from people, is in the business of revealing his character to
his people. And He will reveal His character
to His people here, or He will reveal His character to His people
when they leave here, and that He will reveal His character. The Lord Jesus, before He went
to the cross, in John chapter 12, said to His Father, glorify
your name. Glorify the character of who
you are. And the next activities of God
the Father, the next activities of God the Father are to take
that son that he loved from all eternity and take him to Calvary's
tree and crush him to death. Glorify your name. That's what
we gather in church for, isn't it? That the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ will be glorified. The promise of God is that whosoever
shall call, shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
To call upon the name of the Lord is to call upon his reputation,
to call upon his character. The very comfort of God's people
is the character of God. The character of God revealed
in the Lord Jesus Christ as he fulfils the scriptures. A holy
God, a just God. A God who must, because of his
holiness, punish sin. And when he found sin on his
son, he had to punish him because of his name. I don't know, and
we don't, mercifully there's a veil covering what happens
to people, and mercifully judgment is with the Lord and not with
us. But there is a reality of meeting God, and when you meet
Him, you will meet Him as He is. You will meet Him as He is. And
our great hope, and our only hope in this world, is that He
would choose to reveal Himself as He is, and save us from the
delusional fairy stories that are told in the places that I
was in this week. Now the Lord have mercy on us.
Unless he reveals himself, he remains hidden. All the evidence
in the world is not going to convince people of who he is.
The Jews had the most evidence that you could ever wish to have.
He makes himself known by divine, sovereign revelation. He reveals himself. That's what
these songs are about, aren't they? The songs of joy at the
revelation of our God. Simon, will you pray for us,
and then we'll sing our last hymn. Heavenly Father, thank you for
the mercy and grace you show us in your Son. Thank you, Heavenly
Father, for the Word of the Holy Spirit within us. And within
this world, and I've just prayed Heavenly Father at this time
of year, and it seems like so many people acknowledge the birth
of their son and yet do so in such a way, Heavenly Father,
that they're not impacted in their hearts. And we pray, Father,
that this might be one of those times, one of those times when
you just open Give us opportunities to witness
to the people of Heaven and Father. Give us love in our hearts for
their souls, but most of all give us love in our hearts for
your glory so that we might represent you, Heaven and Father, in a
way that would reveal something of your glory to this world. I do thank you for this church
and I thank you for the opportunity to share the gospel faithfully
with Heaven and Father. If nothing else, just sustain
us in that, that we might be faithful again so often to You
in Your glory, Saviour. It is a wonderful privilege,
Heavenly Father, to come and take your approach within Church,
and I pray in your mercy, that you would just really cause us
today to be at peace and over our understanding. I pray you
strengthen our pastor, and I pray these words are words that are
intended for our hearts to refresh us and strengthen us. and over
the slide. ? When a manger no crib for a bed
? ? The little Lord Jesus laid down His sweet head ? ? The stars
in the sky looked down where He lay ? ? The little Lord Jesus
laid down His sweet head ? Oh say does that star spangled
banner yet wave Thank you. You're turning your
Bibles to the book of Matthew. We're going to have a break from
our studies in Acts for a little bit while I unburden myself regarding
the Lord Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. So I'll
read these first Eight verses from Matthew's account. It begins in Matthew 26, 36.
It says, Then comes Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane,
and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here while I go and pray
yonder. And he took with him Peter, and
the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very
heavy. Then he said to them, My soul
is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death. Wait here, tarry
ye here, wait here, and watch with me. And he went a little
further, and fell on his face and prayed, saying, O my father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not
as I will, but as thou will. And he comes to his disciples
and findeth them asleep and saith unto Peter, what, could you not
watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you enter
not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak. He went away again the second
time and prayed, saying, O my father, if this cup may not pass
away from me, except I drink it, Thy will be done. And he came and found them asleep
again, for their eyes were heavy. And he left them and went away
again and prayed the third time, saying the same words. And he comes to his disciples
and said to them, Sleep on now and take your rest. Behold, the
hour is at hand. The Son of Man is betrayed into
the hands of sinners. It's a story we know so well.
It's a story that we recite again and again in our minds as we
read the scriptures and the gospel writers almost give as much attention
to the activities of the Lord Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane
as they do on Calvary's tree, and there are so many things
that are parallel to it. Luke tells us that in the garden
his sweat was as great drops of blood falling to the ground. He goes to this place, but I
love what he says. He says to these disciples, watch
with me, watch with me. Take note of what is happening
to me. Take note. Watch me. Watch me. You've watched me lead you from
that upper room where we instituted the Lord's Supper. and caused
his disciples to eat that bread which represented his broken
body and drink that wine which represented his shed blood on
Calvary's tree. They heard him say those remarkable
words in that prayer. He says, Father, I will. He had a prayer, he had a desire.
Father, I will. I wish 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 loves me before
the foundation of the world. And then he declares God. in
His character, O righteous Father, the world hasn't known Thee,
but I've known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent
me. And I have declared unto them Thy name." He's declared
the character of the Father. He said to Philip a bit earlier
that evening, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. If
you've seen the Lord Jesus Christ, you've seen God. He's declared
the fullness of the deity lives in a body. This is God. This is the only true and living
God. I have declared under them thy
name and they will declare it, which is what we've been studying
in Acts. They will be witnesses to me. They'll declare the character
of God. as revealed in the Old Testament
Scriptures and fulfilled in the life of the Lord Jesus, they
will declare it. And then he says, that the love
wherewith you have loved me may be in them. And then he says
something remarkable, doesn't he? And I in them. Eternal life is knowing the Lord
Jesus Christ. Eternal life is the Lord Jesus
Christ dwelling in you. That's the hope of glory, Colossians
1.29. Christ in you, the hope of glory. So how do those remarkable promises
come to pass? See, Jesus spoke those words
And he crossed that Brook Kidron. He actually was always God in
control, wasn't he? None of what happened to the
Lord Jesus Christ was accidental in any way at all. You see, there
then cometh Jesus. He led them. He says to us, to
watch him as he leads his disciples to Gethsemane. He led them there
to meet with Judas and that crowd of 500 soldiers and others from
the priests. He led them there. He led them
over that brook, that brook Kidron, the brook that he was promised
to drink from in the way, in his way, that brook at the bottom
of the temple where all of that which typified something of the
sinfulness of sin under that Old Testament dispensation, all
of that offal and all of that blood flowed down from the temple. It was a slaughterhouse of hundreds
of thousands of sheep and oxen and goats and things. Bye. birds,
and it flowed down from that temple, and it flowed down across
this brook. He crossed that brook, and Psalm
110 says, he will drink. He drank of that brook. We'll
look at it a bit later on. The cup that he drank is that
cup that represents all of the sins of all of his people. He
says, watch with me. Watch with me. Watch me lead
my disciples to this place where I will be exalted. in my humility
and they will be set free. Watch with him as his soul is
exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death. Watch him pray. Some of the most beautiful passages
in the scripture are where we are let in to see the Son praying
to the Father, and that communication between God the Father and God
the Son. The Psalms are full of it. When
you read the Psalms, read the Psalms as a picture first and
foremost of the Lord Jesus Christ. But so many of them are beautiful
pictures of his interaction with his father. He prayed, he fell
on his face, he was weighed down. Watch him talk with his father.
Watch him being ministered to by an angel. The angels must
have been wondering in awe and horror at what was going on.
Watch him talk to his father about that cup. He says, this
cup, the cup, the cup that the father gave him to drink. a cup
that he took. Watch him being faithful, committing
his soul into his father's will. Watch him with his heart broken. His heart broken and great drops
of blood fell. Watch him all alone. It's really interesting, isn't
it, that the Lord's agonies in his body and soul that had been,
his soul agonies had been part of all his life. He was a man
of sorrows and familiar with suffering. But in this particular
episode, he begins in the darkness of a garden. It was a full moon,
but there would have been shadows there that were dark. And he
finishes his time on Calvary's tree in darkness, And part of
the reason for the darkness is firstly that the great transaction
of the salvation of everyone's soul who will be saved is the
transaction between God the Father and God the Son, as recorded
and witnessed by God the Holy Spirit. And therefore it's hid
from prying eyes. The darkness also shows us that
if we're going to see in that darkness those things which are
hidden from the rest of humanity, we're going to see as God reveals
them to us by His Word. His Word is a lamp, His Word
is a light, His Word guides us. And it's hidden from the prying
eyes of men who come in unbelief. They come in darkness and they
stay in darkness. He came, verse 36, He came to
this place called Gethsemane. He came and He called on His
disciples. He broke up this band of 11,
didn't he? He left eight, and he took another
three with him. He had those three there as witnesses
to be close. These words were witnessed by
them. These words are witnessed by
the Holy Spirit. And he wants them to watch with
him, to watch with him. It is the desire of all God-sent
servants that you would just look to Him. Don't look to the
opinions of men. Don't look to the traditions
of religion. Don't look to your own activities,
your own works and your own worth and your own wisdom. Don't look
to your own religious activities. Look to Him. Look to Him. Watch with Him and witness this
great transaction. When God commands us to do something
like watch, there's going to be a blessing in watching him,
to watch him. And he took these sons of Zebedee
and began to be sorrowful, verse 37, and very heavy. The word
Gethsemane means olive press. It means literally a valley of
oil. For the Jews, it was called the Valley of Hell. It was where
David crossed when he was betrayed by his son and his close counsellor. David was fleeing from a rebellious
son. Here we have an obedient son
going to the very place of the will of his father. My soul is
exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death. There is a lot of physical
pain in this world. Some of us encounter much more
than others, and it's a grievous thing. But nevertheless, there's
something that is more painful, more painful than pain of body,
and that is pain of soul. It was said of the father in
Isaiah 53, he will see the travail of his soul. God the father witnessed
the travail of the son, the soul of his son, and he says he will
be satisfied. As I said earlier, he came with
a purpose. He came as God. He went to the
place where he was going to be betrayed and he went there and
he set his face like a flint. He wasn't there as a victim.
He was there as a conquering, conquering saviour. He came because our souls are incredibly precious. Our souls are extraordinarily
expensive to redeem. The liar here said to Job, he
will deliver his soul from going down to the pit. The only way
a soul can be delivered from going down to the pit, according
to the word of God, is if God finds a ransom. If God, a ransom
is a price paid to set a captive free. It's similar to the word
redeem, isn't it? To redeem is to buy back something
that's been sold into bondage as you redeem something from
a pawnbroker. Souls, the value of souls and
the evil of sin is revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. the anguish of his soul. He was
very sorrowful. He said, my soul is exceedingly
sorrowful even unto death. The fleshly agonies and the soul
agonies of the Lord Jesus Christ were very, very real. Mark says
that he was sore amazed and very heavy. It means that he had horror
of mind. Horror of mind because of fear
and consternation. Luke says that he was in agony. He was in combat. He was in the
convulsions, as it were, of death. John says his soul was troubled. That word troubled is the word
the Latin speakers get their word hell from. His soul was troubled. What troubled
the soul of the Lord Jesus Christ? Let's read on in Matthew 26.39,
and he went a little further. and fell on his face. He was
weighed down with those sins and the wrath of God upon him.
He fell on his face and he prayed, saying, Oh, my father, if it
be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as
I will, but as thou will. His soul was exceedingly sorrowful,
even unto death. He had, in the words of Psalm
110, he had crossed that brook, Kidron, and he had drunk. He
drank from that brook in his way. He drank from that brook. This cup, He says in other places,
remove this cup from me, let this cup pass from me. He says
in verse 39, if you look down there, if this cup may not pass
away from me except I drink it, thy will be done. It shows so very clearly, wasn't
it, that the cup was with him. The cup was with him. The cup
was in his hands. The cup was given to him by his
father. He says in John 18, 11, will
I not drink? Will I not go through with the
cup that the father has given me? The cup was given to him
by his father. He said in that high priestly
prayer of his, he says, O righteous father, when the father gave
him the cup, it was a righteous act. The glory
of the salvation of the souls of sinners is that a holy God
and a righteous God and a just God put his son to death. It's the only hope for our eternal
souls. It's the only hope that a righteous
God, a righteous God, this cup was his. So what was in this
cup? All the sufferings, all of the
guilt, all of the shame, all of the sins of all of God's people. God made him who knew no sin
to be sin for us. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. It was all of the sins and all
of the shame and all of the guilt of all that sin condensed, as
it were, into one cup. The curse of the law, the infinite
wrath of God. Our God is a consuming fire. It was something of that fire
of God that caused him to sweat on that cold night when Peter
needed a fire to warm himself a little bit later on. The Lord
Jesus Christ sweated in that garden and sweated great drops
of blood. It's the cup of fury, the cup
of cursing, the cup of trembling, it's called. No wonder he says,
if it be possible, if it be possible, take this cup away from me, if
it be possible. It's not possible. The cup was
his. The cup was his in eternity. It was a cup that was given to
him before the foundation of the world. promised when he became
and stood before his father before the foundation of the world as
the surety of the eternal covenant, he said to his father, I will
be responsible for all that you give me. and I will take full
responsibility for all of their sins, for all of the shame and
the guilt of all of their sins, and I will bear those sins in
my own body, and I'll bear them under the infinite wrath of Almighty
God. The holy infinite wrath of God
is poured out on His Son, such that the sins have gone completely." It's not possible that this cup
is taken from him. The cup was rightfully his, and
the cup was the cup he took. And he says in verse 42, O my
father, if this cup may not pass away from me, if the cup was
to pass away from me, the cup must have been with him. It is
the cup that the father gave him, and it was the cup that
he took. As I reminded you earlier, he
went there as a willing, a willing sacrifice. He didn't hide his
face. He went there to meet Judas.
He went there with his face left like a flint to go to the cross
of Calvary. But this cup must be drunk completely
for it to pass from me. Many people have been in travail
of soul. Many martyrs have died under
the wrath of man. But there is a difference in
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and the sufferings of the Lord
Jesus Christ from all the sufferings and the soul sufferings of men.
See, when Christians suffer, they have the presence of God
with them. The Lord Jesus Christ had his
Father's face hidden from him. When Christians suffer, they
have the assurance of the presence of God with them. They have the
presence, they have the assurance of his promised presence and
his promised love and the promise of him working all things for
their good, that he loves them and he cares for them and this
will be good. They have the love of God shed abroad in their hearts.
Those martyrs when they met their deaths at the stake all those
years ago, if you had known, if you had known what it is to
have the presence of God at a time like that, rather than feeling
sorry for them, you would be envious of them. You would be
envious of them. Such is His presence. His presence
takes away all of that. God's children have the love
of God shed abroad in their hearts. The Lord Jesus Christ had the
wrath of God poured out on Him. There are several things to note
that I trust are a comfort to your souls if you consider this
cup, as it rightly should be considered, the cup of the indignation
of the Lord, the cup of His wrath, the cup of His fury upon sin,
the cup of death that sin must extract from people. If it's
with Him, then it can't be with us, brothers
and sisters. And if he drank it, then we can't
drink it, brothers and sisters in Christ. And if he drank that
cup, then the contents of that cup became one with him. One of the beautiful things about
the Lord's Supper, taking communion, isn't it, is that the wine and
the bread become one with us. They become hidden from the world.
They are a reflection of so many things. They are a reflection
of Christ in us, that in a way, in a very real way, our lives
are sustained by his broken body and his shed blood. He drank that cup. The scriptures
make it abundantly clear that he was on his own. He was left
alone. Ultimately, on Calvary's tree,
he's going to be abandoned by his father as well. He drinks
the cup alone. The cup's in his hand, and it
can't be in our hand. He drinks it all alone, and he
drank that cup empty. Therefore, there is nothing left
for any of God's children to ever drink. And he says, if this
cup be removed from him, the cup is removed by his drinking
it to his death. He no longer bears it either.
And we can never bear it. It was taken away, it was passed
from him. He says to us, as he said to
his disciples, watch, watch with me. The things that are the most
valuable in this world are the things that cost the most. See, what did it cost the Lord
Jesus Christ to glorify his Father? What did it cost the Lord Jesus
Christ to glorify His bride? What did it cost the Lord Jesus
Christ to present His bride to His Father again, wholly spotless,
unblameable, unreprovable in His sight? The Lord Jesus said
to those Pharisees who were accusing Him, He says, they who have been
forgiven much, love much. The Lord Jesus Christ suffering
in the garden is a picture of the horrendous evil of the sin
that we are. Sin is more than the things we
do in the scriptures. Sin is a description of us as
people. It's a noun, a noun as well as
a verb. The Lord Jesus Christ in Gethsemane's
garden and on Calvary's tree is revealing the horror of sin. The horror of sin. We only ever see how sinful sin
is when we see the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We only ever see it with any
clarity as it's seen in Him. How much have you been forgiven? How much did it cost him to bear
your sins away? It cost him, it cost him the
sufferings of his soul. It cost him to be separated from
his father. It cost him hell. He owned the sins of his people
as if they were his own, because in the eternal covenant of grace,
they were his own. He describes the sins that took
hold of him, the sins that crushed him to the ground. He says in
Psalm 40, and it's quoted in Hebrews 10 as words of the Lord
Jesus Christ, he says, for innumerable evils have compassed me about.
He's surrounded by evil. Mine iniquities, mine iniquities,
he says, have taken hold upon me so that I'm not able to look
up. They are more than the hairs of my head, therefore my heart
faileth me. In Gethsemane's garden he fell,
he fell with his face to the ground because those sins were
being made his. He owned them as his own. Look what he says, mine iniquities. My heart faileth me. It broke his heart. And that
broken heart was sweated as great drops of blood in that garden. We keep praying that the Lord
would remind us again and again of this cup. This cup that he
drank is drunk dry. This cup is a particular cup. It was all of the sins of all
of God's people in that particular cup. We take the cup of salvation
because he drank the cup of all of the wrath of holy God. People often say and talk about
serving the Lord. The wonder of the gospel is that
God in the Lord Jesus Christ serves his people. He'll serve
his people. And then they'll say in the words
of Psalm 116, what do you do in response? What shall I render
unto the Lord for all of his benefits toward me? I will take
the cup of salvation. And I'll call upon the name of
the Lord. I'll take the cup of salvation
and I'll call upon the name of the Lord. I'll call upon him
as the righteous father. It was a righteous activity in
Gethsemane's garden, a righteous act. a holy act of a holy God. The great transaction of the
salvation of the souls of men is a transaction between God
and God. And if it's not understood as
that great transaction between God the Father and God the Son,
we'll end up in the same superstition that I witnessed at funerals
this week. We see also, finally, we see
the faithfulness. How faithful do you need to be? How sorry for your sins do you
need to be? See, the reality is that you
can never be sorry enough for sin, because we have no idea
of sin. The wonder of union with the
Lord Jesus Christ is that when He was faithful, I was faithful. When he bore my sins, I was there
with him. What did Paul say? I am crucified
with Christ. What's the faithfulness that
God requires of you? Ultimately, if you're looking
to your acts of faithfulness, God requires perfect faithfulness. Paul, in those verses in Galatians
2.20, says, the faith, the life I now live in the body, I live
by the faithfulness of the Son of God. God grants faith to his
people, but that faith rests in an object, it rests in a person. He was faithful. What extraordinary
faithfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ displayed to his Father. In the midst of him drinking
that cup of the wrath of God and drinking that cup of sin,
he still distrusted his father. He says at his death, into my
hands I commend my spirit. He commits himself to the father. Not my will, not my will, but
yours be done. In the garden, when sin entered
the world, it was a desire that we would have our own wills that
Satan tempted us with. And all of the sin that's come
into all of the world has been willful sin. And yet this man,
this glorious God-man, took that sin and drank damnation dry. The wrath of God fell on the
Lord Jesus Christ. The infinite, holy wrath of God
fell on the Lord Jesus Christ because He was made sin. And
if the wrath of God has fallen on the Lord Jesus Christ because
of that cup that He drank, and that cup has now passed away
from Him, then one thing is absolutely certain, is the wrath of God
can never ever fall. on that same place again. Why? Because God is righteous and
God is holy. And that's why it is so necessary
for us to declare again and again the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. When He took that cup, brothers
and sisters, He knew everything. As God, He knew every single
sin that every one of His people From Adam and Eve and Abel through
to the last one that's ever born, he knew exactly everything. God
doesn't learn anything. God is never surprised by anything. He knew all of the sins and all
of the guilt and all of the shame and all of the wrath of God that
would fall on all those sins and he had them in that cup.
It was in his hands and he drank it. with one tremendous draft of
love. He drank damnation dry." And we can sing. God's people
can sing. We can sing because His prayer is answered. He says
to his father, glorify your name. And the father glorified his
name by putting his son to death. It pleased God. It pleased God
to crush him. He will make his soul an offering
for sin. The offering for our sin is not
something that we do. It's an offering between God
the Son and God the Father. And God the Father accepted it
and raised his Son gloriously from the grave. to triumph in
this world, for us to know that our sins are gone forever, and
a righteous God, a righteous God has taken them away, a holy
God has taken them away in the death of his Son, and all of
God's people must be saved. If the Lord Jesus Christ died
for you, you will be in heaven. That's the gospel. The Lord Jesus
Christ bore your sins. A holy God cannot punish you
for those sins ever again. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we pray as we contemplate and watch your Son in Gethsemane's
garden and take these elements that remind us of a broken body
and that shed blood. Our Father, we pray that you
might grant us the wonder of redeeming love, causing us to
look unto Him as He's promised and be saved. To look away from
ourselves, to look to your Son, to look to Him in His birth,
to look to Him in His life, to look to Him in His suffering
and His death, to look to Him buried in that tomb, to look
to Him rising glorious, look to Him seated in the heavens
right now. Look to Him coming again. Oh,
our Father, we praise You. We praise You for the redeeming
love of Your Son. We praise You, Heavenly Father,
that You, in His death, have found a ransom, and therefore
the souls of Your people cannot ever go to the pit. Heavenly Father, reveal your
Son to us through your Word again and again. And may we be caused
to eat and drink in faithfulness, our Father, looking to him. For
we pray in his name. Amen.