I'm going to do Scripture reading
first. Yeah, I'm just fudging. Now, we were just singing this
song in the Chorus Book. I really enjoyed the choice you
made there, Craig. It says, I sought the Lord, and
afterward I knew He moved my soul to seek Him seeking me.
It was not I that found, O Savior, true. No, I was found of Thee. My wife is ordering me to take
my seat. Very thankful to your pastor
and his wife. You just always have sweet fellowship
with them in Christ, and they're always very generous and very.
Is very good to me, I'm very thankful for them and for your
pastors faithfulness over the last. 40, 50 years? Man, I don't even know.
I'm just preaching the gospel. What a privilege to be raised,
especially young people, to be raised under the clear sound
of the gospel. What a privilege. David said
in the book of Psalms, I was glad when they said unto me,
let us go into the house of the Lord. And I hope that that's
our sincere prayer and desire this morning. Lord, make us glad
to be here. Make us glad to be here. All
right, for our scripture reading this morning, I ask that you
would turn with me to Matthew chapter 17. Matthew chapter 17, and we're
just going to read the first 13 verses. And I'll make little
to no comment. Matthew chapter 17, we have the
account of our Lord's transfiguration. Verse one, and after six days,
Jesus taketh Peter, James and John, who were the sons of Zebedee,
and bringeth them up into a high mountain park. And he was transfigured
before them, and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment
was white as light. And behold, there appeared unto
them Moses and Elijah talking with him." How did they know
that it was Moses and Elijah? They had never seen them before.
Because when you get into glory, child of God, you're not going
to be wondering, oh, who's that over there? Who's that over there?
We're all one in Christ. And behold, there appeared unto
them Moses and Elijah, talking with them. Then answered Peter
and said unto Jesus, Lord, O Peter, it is good for us to be here,
if thou wilt let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee,
and one for Moses, and one for Elijah. And while he yet spake,
behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. And behold, a voice out
of the cloud which said, This is my beloved son. Hear ye him. This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. Hear ye him. And when the disciples
heard it, they fell on their face and were sore afraid. And
Jesus came and touched them and said, Arise and be not afraid. Verse 8, And when they had lifted
up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only. Save Jesus only. And as they
came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell
the vision to no man until the Son of Man be risen again from
the dead. And His disciples asked Him, saying, Why then say the
scribes that Elijah must come first? And Jesus answered and
said unto them, Elijah truly shall come first and restore
all things. But I say unto you that Elijah is come already and
they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed.
Likewise shall also the son of man suffer of them. Then the
disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.
You can open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 26. That's where I'll
be preaching from. Just leave your placeholder there. Let's pray together. Our glorious, merciful Heavenly
Father, we pray that you would bless this passage of scripture
that we just read. Lord, this passage that shows us our Savior's
divinity, our Savior's Godhead, and His glory, Lord. And we pray that, as we just
sang, Lord, that you would draw us unto thee, that you would
call us by your irresistible grace. Lord, we are so thankful
that your sheep hear your voice. We're so thankful, Lord, that
they who hear your voice follow after you, and they will not
follow another. They will not follow the voice
of a stranger. Oh, Lord, my earnest desire and prayer this hour is
that you would speak to us, Lord. My best preaching is just just
a noise, just the shaking of the bones. But unless you breathe
on us, Lord, breathe in us by your sovereign grace. Oh, spirit
of God, there can be no life. Save us, Lord. Save us from ourselves.
Show us our great need for Jesus Christ. Lord, lay us low in the
dust. Enable me, Lord, to preach Christ
on the throne and man on the in the dust. enabled me to preach
salvation and grace and mercy completely free in the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we ask all these things
in his precious name and for his sake. Amen. Dark was the night and cold the
ground on which the Lord was laid. His sweat, like drops of
blood, ran down in agony, he prayed. Father, remove this bitter
cup, if such thy sacred will. If not content to drink it up,
thy pleasure I fulfill. Go to the garden, sinner, see
those precious drops that flow. The heavy load he bore for thee,
for thee he lies so low. Then learn of him the cross to
bear. Thy fathers will obey. And when
temptations press thee near, awake to watch and pray. The
title of my message this morning is simple. Gethsemane. Gethsemane. And what a glorious
passage of scripture we have here before us in Matthew 26. You see, it was in a garden that
the first man fell through yielding to the wicked one. And it was
in a garden that the God-man conquered through yielding to
the Holy One. And as an introduction point,
I want to give you the definition of this garden, Gethsemane. What
does it mean? What is the significance of the
name of this garden? As many of you, I'm sure, are
aware, Gethsemane means olive press, oil press, or wine press,
wine press. And keep that definition in mind
as we read this passage. Gethsemane means wine press,
wine press. Let's begin reading Matthew chapter
26, verse 36. Then cometh 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 saith he unto them, My soul
is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, tarry ye here and
watch with me. And he went a little farther,
and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass for me, nevertheless, not as I will,
but as thou wilt. And he cometh unto the disciples,
and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could
ye not watch with me one hour? Watch, and pray that ye enter
not into temptation, The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh
is weak." He went away again the second time and prayed, saying,
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. Then cometh
he to his disciples and saith unto them, sleep on now and take
your rest. Behold, the hour is at hand.
The hour is at hand. It's finally time. And the Son
of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. Behold, He is at hand that doth
betray me." Now, I acknowledge my own insufficiency to try to
preach on the sufferings of our Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane. I mean, these are things that
we can't fully enter into. I feel like Moses, when he was
standing in the presence of the Lord before the burning bush,
you remember in Exodus 3, and the Lord told him, Moses, put
off thy shoes from off thy feet. for the place, the ground that
you stand on, the place that you're standing on is holy ground.
That's how I feel. I'm not worthy to approach this
passage. I'm just, I'm so insufficient. I don't have the words to express
exactly what our Lord felt and suffered for us here in Gethsemane.
I pray that God would give me the words and that He would bless
it to your hearts, that He would give us some understanding, just
some light, just some entrance into what our Lord actually suffered
here and why He did it and what the accomplishment was. Now, one man said that the four
Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, who have described
this same instance, Jesus' suffering in Gethsemane, have each used
different words in doing so. None of them used the same words.
Some were more similar than others, but none of them used the exact
same words. And this was by way of expressing that the feelings
of Jesus were not something that they could describe in any human
language. We can't fully enter into this. How can God suffer? I don't know,
but he did. Now the first thing I want to
mention is something I must confess that I really didn't think much
of at first glance. And it's the small phrase here
in Matthew 26 verse 37 where it says, and he, that is Christ,
took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee. And the two
sons of Zebedee are James and John. When I came across this, like
I said, I just wanted to pass over. I didn't think that it
was really significant at all. It seemed like it hit me like
a semi-truck. Why did Christ only take Peter,
James, and John with Him? Why not the other disciples?
Why these disciples specifically? And though it seems like an insignificant
detail, it's not. We just read it. Recall who he
took with him to the Mount of Transfiguration. Peter, James,
and John. What's the lesson? He was going
to show them, as I pray he shows us today, that he is both God
and man. He is the God-man, the man-God. He's fully God and fully man. One man wrote that he was fully
God, so much so as if he were not man, and fully man, so much
so as if he were not God. He was both. He was both, and
we're going to see that this morning. See, in Matthew 17 on
the Mount of Transfiguration, these same disciples, Peter,
James, and John, they saw the veil of Christ's humanity temporarily
taken away. So much so they were blinded,
they fell on their faces as we read. They heard the voice of
the father speaking again, just like he did at Christ's baptism. This is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased, hear ye him. The veil of Christ's humanity
was temporarily lifted and they saw a glimpse, a glimpse of his
glory. They saw his divinity, they were
blinded by it. But now Christ is pleased to show them his humanity
like never before. Him being in an agony, being
in sorrow, being in Gethsemane, that place, that wine press. Here's the first lesson. Christ
Jesus is both fully God. And fully man. Fully God and
fully man. His name, the scripture say is
Emmanuel. Emmanuel, what does that mean?
God with us. God with us. Paul wrote in his
first epistle to his son Timothy, son of the faith, he said, without
controversy, without doubt, without debate, great is the mystery
of godliness. And what is the first thing he
lists? God was made manifest in the flesh. God manifest in
the flesh. The infinite fullness of all
of God's character and perfection and divinity and eternality. I don't even know the terms to
use. All of the fullness and the eternality of God's perfectness
and right there in that one man, Christ Jesus. How can that be? How can the eternal be made flesh? How can God, who is invisible,
be made a man? Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was made manifest in the flesh. In the flesh. John tells
us in John 1 that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. And later down, I think it was
in verse 14, John says, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us as of the only one, as of the only begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth, and we beheld his glory. God
was made manifest in the flesh. Christ is called the Word of
God. The Word of God. And I've said this before, but
it's important. What are words? What are words? Words are the
manifestation of my invisible thoughts. You can't know what
I'm thinking unless I tell you it by words. So too is Christ
the Word of God. Everything that we could ever
know about the invisible, eternal God is revealed in His Son, Jesus
Christ. Everything we need to know about
creation, all things were created by Him. Isn't that what the scriptures
say? And nothing that was made was made without, everything
was made by Jesus Christ and for Him. Everything we need to
know about God in creation, in salvation, in redemption, in
mercy, in grace, in providence is found in Christ. He is the
word of God, the word of God. And these things can only be
believed by faith. No man can understand these things by nature.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen. And as this passage so gloriously
displays, though Christ was fully God, he was also a man. And I
feel like sometimes we For whatever reason, maybe out of due respect
to our Lord, Him being God in human flesh, we somehow draw
back from the fact that He was a man. He was a man. And that's not something to draw
back from. It's not something to be ashamed of. Christ was
a man. Listen to this. In John 4, the
Scriptures say, Jesus therefore being wearied. God was tired. in human flesh. Why? Because He was a man. Jesus,
being wearied from His journey, being tired, being exhausted,
sat down on the well. John 19, on the cross, Christ
said, I thirst. I thirst. He was thirsty. Why? Because He was a man. In Matthew 8 verse 24, we find
him fast asleep on a pillow. The God who never sleeps nor
slumbers is found fast asleep on a boat in the middle of a
storm. Why? Because Christ was a man. He was a man. And in another
place, upon seeing Lazarus, the scriptures say that Jesus wept.
He wept. And those who saw it say, oh,
how he loved him. Upon seeing Lazarus in the grave,
Jesus wept. How could God cry? He was a man. Aren't you thankful that we have
a high priest who is touched with the feelings of our infirmities?
He knows exactly what you're going through, child of God.
He felt every feeling, every emotion that the human body,
the human soul could ever feel to an extent that we will never
be able to experience. He felt it all. And we're going
to see that here in Gethsemane. He was exceeding sorrowful. He
knows what it is. He knows what you're feeling. He knows what you're experiencing.
He knows your struggles. He was a man. All these instances,
among many more that I don't have the time to list, prove
that Jesus was a man who, as the scriptures say, was tempted
in all points, such as we are, yet without sin. He had no sin
of his own. No sin of his own. And Christ's
divinity is also clearly displayed in many examples through scriptures.
You remember when He fed 5,000 men and women, besides children?
He fed 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fishes,
and there were 12 baskets full left over. What does that tell
you? He had to make something out
of nothing. He had to create. He's God. Christ is God. He's a man, but
He's God. He's God. Again, Lazarus, right
after, and this is the glory of the scriptures, they present
Christ as the God-man, both God and man. Right after he wept
over seeing Lazarus in the grave, because he loved him, he said,
Lazarus, come forth. And he came forth. He brought
a man back to life who was dead for four days by simply saying,
come forth. Why? Because he's God. He's God. He walked on water. No man can
do that. And He knew all things. How many times we read in the
Gospels? Jesus perceiving their thoughts. Jesus knowing all things
that should come to pass before they came to pass. He knew the
thoughts of all men at all times. He knew what was going to transpire
and happen. He was God in human flesh. You see, He had to be both because
if He were not a man, He could not represent man. He didn't
make himself in the form of an angel. The angels need no redeemer.
He made himself of the seed of Abraham. A body thou hast prepared
for me. He came as a man to redeem fallen
men. Chosen men. Not all men. Like
you said, not all men. He died for a certain people.
Certain people. You see, if Christ were not a
man, he could not die. If He were not a man, He could
not die. And if He were not God, His death and blood would have
no power. He had to be both. He had to be both fully God and
fully man. Truly, great is the mystery of
godliness. God was made manifest in the
flesh. The next thing we see in our...
That's the first thing I want us to see. Why Christ brought
Peter, James, and John. And why specifically these three?
Because in Matthew 17, He showed them His divinity, and now He's
showing them, and all of us here this morning, His humanity, His
suffering in Gethsemane, in the wine press, that place that...
Man of sorrows. What a name. What a name for
God in human flesh. If there was one name you could
give Christ, what would it be? Scriptures tell us, the man of
sorrows. The man of sorrows. Our Lord,
and that's my second point, our Lord was a man of sorrows. Hold your place here in Matthew
26 and turn to me to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. Probably one of my
favorite passages of scripture. And though, as we see in our
text, Christ suffered in Gethsemane in a unique and special way that
he had not suffered previously, we must understand that Christ's
entire life was a life of suffering. His entire life was a life of
sorrow. Look at it, Isaiah 53 verse 1. Who hath believed our report? You ever ask yourself that question?
Why are there so few that believe? Who hath believed our report?
Who hath believed our doctrine? Who hath believed our gospel?
And the next question is the answer to that first question.
And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he, speaking
of Christ, shall grow up before him as a tender plant. And as
a root out of a dry ground, he hath no form nor comeliness.
And when we shall see him, there is no beauty. that we should
desire him. You see these blasphemous pictures
of Christ everywhere trying to make him look like some handsome
man. Usually he looks very effeminate. They try to put some glow about
him. They think he has a halo over his head. If you saw Christ
in the flesh while he was on this earth, there is no beauty
in him that you would desire him. Who is this man? Can any
good thing come out of Nazareth? His beauty was within him. He is despised, verse 3, and
rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. Acquainted. He knew grief. He knew what it
was all too well. That's all he ever experienced
on this earth. He was friends with grief, you
could say. He was acquainted with it. He was used to it. Man
of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces
from him. He was despised. He was despised,
and we esteemed him not." You remember in John chapter 8 when
the Lord was talking to those Jews, telling him that he was
sent of the Father, and that no man could know the Father
except the Father which hath given me draw him. They said
to him, oh actually right after Jesus said, Abraham rejoice to
see my day, Abraham rejoice to see me come into the flesh, Abraham
rejoice because I'm the fulfillment of the promise that God made
all the way back in Genesis. And after he said, Abraham rejoice
to see my day, those Jews responded, thou art not yet 50 years old
and hast thou seen Abraham. Why did they say thou art not
yet fifty years old? Christ was no more at this time
when they said that to Him and in His ministry on this earth.
He was no more than thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three years
old. No more than thirty-three. But yet they said He's about
fifty years old. Why? His life was a life of sorrows
and if you looked upon Him, He would He would have wrinkles. He would have no form or comeliness
in him. His sorrow, the pain and suffering that he felt, knowing
all the sin of all of these sinful men around him, all their thoughts,
being a holy man in a sinful world that despised him. He was
a man of sorrows. And it caused him to look older
than he really was. You see, his entire life was
a life of sorrow because he knew every thought, purpose, intent,
word, and way that proceeded out of the heart of man. What
did Jeremiah say? Jeremiah 17 verse 9, the heart
is deceitful above all things. What's the most deceitful thing
in the world? My heart. And the heart is not just the
physical pumper of blood. The heart is the whole man. We
use that, you've heard that term, it's the heart of the matter.
The heart is the whole man, the whole man. The heart of man in
his entirety. He is deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked, incurably wicked. That's what the word
means. Who can know it? Who can know it? Hebrews 12 verse 3 says, for
consider Christ that endured such contradiction of sinners
against himself. And now Christ was suffering
as he had not suffered before in Gethsemane, which serves as
a prelude, a prelude to what he was about to suffer at Calvary.
Keep that in mind. Everything we see here was just
a prelude to what was about to happen. Everything was done in
anticipation to what he would have to suffer on the cross at
Calvary. Which brings us to our next point.
Christ was made to feel very heavy. Very heavy. Not just heavy, very heavy. Look
at it. Back in our text. Hold your place
here in Isaiah 53. We'll come back to it in a minute. While you hold your place in
Isaiah 53, look back at Matthew 26, verse 37. And He took with
Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be sorrowful
and very heavy, very heavy. And I ask you, heavy from what? Heavy from what? Heavy from the
anticipation of being made sin for me and for you, child of
God. Heavy from anticipation, from
the anticipation of our sins, not only being made His, but
being laid upon Him. Being laid upon Him. I told you
to hold your place there in Isaiah 53. Look back at it. Look at
verse 4 of Isaiah 53. Why was Christ made to feel very
heavy Isaiah 53 verse 4, Surely He
hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem
Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted, but He was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. Our iniquity was
laid upon Him. You see, the truth is, me and
you, we can't even bear one sin before God. If I was to stand
before God on the day of judgment with only one sin of my own,
the weight of that one sin would crush me down into a devil's
hell for all eternity. I can't bear one sin. I can't
bear one of my sins before God. And if one sin is that heavy,
I ask you, how heavy then? must an innumerable amount of
sins of a multitude which no man can number be. How heavy
must Christ have felt? How heavy must our sins and our
iniquity which were made his truly be? If when laid on the
back of omnipotence, he says they're heavy. If when laid on
God in human flesh, he says he was made to feel very heavy. You don't have to turn there
in Luke 22, talking about this subject of feeling heavy. Luke
22, verse 44, Luke tells us, And being in an agony, Christ,
being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat
was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground.
great drops of blood. Here's the picture. Here's why
I told you what gets somebody met. As wine gushes out of grapes
in the wine press. that are pressed down, so too
did drops of blood gush out of our Savior when pressed down
with the anticipation of being made sin for us." He was in such
an agony. He was so heavy in anticipation
of what he must suffer on Calvary that he sweat, as it were, great
drops of blood. That's not hyperbole. That actually
happened. How can we explain these things?
This is why I said I can't explain them. Mr. Robert Hawker said this,
and I quote, the sweat which forced itself through the pores
of his sacred body was, as it were, great drops of blood falling
down to the ground. And this was at a time, now listen
to this, this was at a time when in the night and in the open
air, and when we are told that the servants of the high priest
and Peter had found it so piercingly cold outside that they were compelled
to start a fire to keep themselves warm. If it was so cold outside, how
could Christ sweat great drops of blood? He was in an agony,
an agony which no man, an agony that we can't enter into. He was about to be forsaken of
His Father. We don't know what that is. We
don't know what that is. People try to explain. I think
it was John Calvin. It's a funny story. He went up once and read that
passage of scripture, I think it was from Matthew's Gospel,
where Christ reads, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
He got up, read it, and here was his sermon. This is how short
it was. God forsook God. No man can explain it. And then
he sat down. I can't explain these things.
How can God forsake God? How can Christ, who knew no sin,
be made sin that we might be made the righteousness of God
in Him? I don't know. But like we saw in the last message,
we bow by faith to what God's words say. And all God's people
say amen. We don't understand things in order to believe them.
We understand through believing them. How could He sweat in this great
piercing cold outside, in this night, in the garden of Gethsemane?
How could He sweat such great drops of blood? Because He was
pressed down. He was very heavy. He was in an agony. He was exceeding
sorrowful, even unto death. Such agony that we cannot even
begin to imagine. Back in our text, Matthew 26,
verse 38. Then saith He unto them, my soul. That's what I want us to look
at. My soul is exceeding sorrowful. Now I've heard many messages
on the... I've heard many men preach messages on the historic
facts of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. And it's
very easy for them to just talk about how Christ as an innocent
man suffered unjustly at the hands of sinners and They talk
about Christ's physical sufferings only. And they bring people to
tears. His physical suffering is not
what made him agonize. His physical suffering was not
what made him so sorrowful, even unto death. It wasn't a physical
suffering. It was a soul suffering. It was
a soul suffering. And that's what hell is. It will
be an eternal soul suffering. His suffering was a soul suffering
and it made him very heavy and put him in such an agony that
he sweat great drops of blood. And we see in our text again
here in verse 38, He said, My soul is exceeding sorrowfully. He puts these modifiers before
these words. He's not just sorrowful. He's
not just sorrowful. He's exceeding sorrowful. His
sorrow exceeded all sorrow. You see, it pleased God that
Christ should have the preeminence in all things, yea, even in suffering. You hear people say, man, nobody
knows what I'm going through. That's just self-righteous. Let's
just stop feeling pity for ourselves. We cannot imagine what the God-man
suffered, not only in his life, but in the garden, and especially
and primarily on Calvary. He suffered like no man ever
suffered. In Lamentations 1, Jeremiah,
speaking prophetically of our Lord, said, Is it nothing to
you? Is it nothing to you, all ye
that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow. which is done unto me, wherewith
the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger." What was it that made him exceedingly
sorrowful? What was it that made his soul suffering so exceedingly
sorrowful? I see four reasons from God's
Word. Number one, like I said, anticipating being made sin for
his elect. Number two, being forsaken of
the Father. This made his soul suffering
exceeding sorrowful. Number three, what made his suffering
so exceedingly great? Christ felt and experienced the
full extent of sin as a holy man. As a holy man. He didn't have any sin of his
own. He lived in a world and around
a people who did nothing but sin and were nothing but sin.
Christ was, as the Scriptures say, holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners. And we can't enter into this
because you and I experience sin as sinners. We look at sin through a sinful
lens. We can't see the full extent.
One man once said, The thief on the cross. He was in the worst
shape he could be in. He was in bad shape. He was at
rock bottom. And a wiser man responded, there
is no bottom. There is no bottom to the depths
of my depravity. I can't see it. But somehow Christ
felt it all. Why? Because he suffered as a
holy man. He knew the full dreadfulness
and wickedness and evil of sin. I grow so comfortable in my sin.
I'm ashamed of it, but it's true. Is it not your experience, child
of God, that the deceitfulness of sin causes your heart to grow
cold and indifferent so quickly? Now, the thing that bothers me
the most about my sin is that my sin doesn't bother me the
most. Why doesn't my sin bother me as it ought to? How often have you heard people
say that? That's saying, well, that's no big deal. That was
just a little white lie. A little white lie. There's no
such thing as a white lie. They're all black as hell. You want to find yourself a little
sin, you find yourself a little God. God is holy beyond our comprehension. He shall by no means... What does the Scripture say?
By no means clear the guilty. He's not going to compromise
His holiness to save you. Sin must be put away. Somebody had to die. Blood had
to be shed. That's what made His sorrow so
exceedingly great. That's what made His soul-suffering... That's what made Him in an agony.
Put Him in an agony. Made Him sweat, as it were, great
drops of blood. all these things. And number
four, we see in our text that He was
void of all human comfort. He was void of all human comfort. Christ was alone. His disciples
were there, but they did not fellowship with Him. They were
asleep. Christ was all alone without the comfort of His disciples. The tender heart of the man of
sorrows yearned for fellowship and His most trying and great
heaviness, His most trying hour. But His disciples could not rise
to the occasion." That sounds like me. Just useless. Lord, I can't do anything. Lord,
I can't do anything. And after Judas Iscariot betrayed
Christ, all of His disciples also forsook Him and fled. Look
at it, Matthew 26, verse 56. Matthew 26, 56, but all this
was done that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.
Then all the disciples forsook him and fled. I looked on my right hand and
beheld, but there was no man that would know me. Refuge failed
me. No man cared for my soul. All these things worked together
to cause Christ, to cause His soul's suffering to be exceedingly
great, to be exceedingly sorrowful. And the next part of verse 38
in our text says, even unto death, my soul is exceeding sorrowful,
even unto death. Christ felt as if he would die
right then and there, just from the anticipation of the tremendous
weight and guilt of our sin being made his. He felt like he was
just about to die. One writer said, at this time,
our Lord felt all that human nature could feel. And all this was done that it
might be fulfilled what the scripture say. Yet it pleased the Lord
to bruise him. He hath put him to grief when thou shalt make
his soul. This is what we're talking about,
his soul suffering. When thou shalt make his soul
in offering for sin. He suffered like no man ever
suffered. And his suffering was a soul suffering. Look at verse 39 of our text,
brings us to our next point. And Christ went a little further
and fell on his face and prayed saying, Oh my father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass for me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as thou. And my next point is this. I must say emphatically, Christ
was not having second thoughts about dying for us. Christ was
not, like we saw, some scriptures may appear to contradict themselves,
but they don't. Christ was not having second thoughts of dying
for his people. Our Savior did not fear dying
on the cross. He did not fear physical suffering.
He was not asking his Father to excuse him from going to the
cross and accomplishing redemption for his people. In John chapter
12, Christ said, now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father saved me from this hour,
but for this hour came I unto the world. This is the reason
I'm here. This is why, this is why you prepared a body for me.
This is why I came into the world for this, for, for this day,
for this time, for this appointed place to die at Calvary. He was not afraid to die for
his people. See Christ died because he wanted to. He died because
he was a willing, Sacrifice. Look down at verse 53. Verse 53 of Matthew 26. Thinkest
thou that I cannot pray to my Father, and He shall presently
give me more than twelve legions of angels? If Christ prayed,
Lord, send me angels. They would come down, they would
wipe the whole multitude off the face of the planet just like
that. What does he say? Verse 54, But how then shall
the Scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be? It must be.
It must be this way. If thou be the Christ, come off
the cross and save thyself. Could Christ have come off that
cross? Sure He could. But He couldn't have done it
and saved me. He did these things because the
Scriptures must be fulfilled. He suffered and died because
He wanted to. What then is the meaning of our
Lord's prayer that he prays three times in our text? At the very
least, it means this. God would have us to know that
Christ did not esteem the redemption of our souls from sin as a light
or easy thing. And we often talk about and rejoice
to, and I encourage it, often talk about the freeness of salvation. It is free for us, but it wasn't
for him. What did He not give to have
me? What did He not sacrifice to put away my sin? Christ did not die an ordinary
death. He was about to be made a curse for us. This is why He
prays this prayer. Number one, because He didn't
esteem the work of redemption on the cross as a light thing.
And number two, because He was about to be made a curse for
us. Christ hath put away the curse
of the law, being made a curse for us, Paul said. For as it
is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth upon a tree. He was not only cursed on the
cross, he was made a curse. I can't explain these things. His prayer also shows us how
He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. You see,
our Lord Jesus is our representative before God. He obeyed God perfectly
from the cradle to the grave, and I obeyed God perfectly in
Him. He's my representative, as by one man, the first that
in sin entered into the world. Also by this one man, Christ
Jesus, many are made righteous. Why? Through the acts of his
obedience. His obedience to the Father's will. Lord, nevertheless,
not as I will. That's why he prayed this prayer.
Not as I will, but as thou wilt. He came as the perfect servant
of God. He came as a man. And I obeyed God perfectly in
him. Substitution and satisfaction. That's the gospel. And perhaps
most importantly, our Lord's prayer in verse 39 teaches us
this, that there is no other way, there
was no other way that God could save his people from their sins,
except by the way of the substitutionary death of Christ on the cross. There was no other way. If anything,
that's what this prayer teaches us. There was no other way. There
was no other way. There's no other way that God
can still be God. There's no other way that God
can be both just and the justifier of the ungodly. And Christ had
to die. I must knees go through Samaria,
and he must knees go to Calvary. He must knees. The cross of Christ is where,
as David said, Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness
and peace have kissed each other. You know, if you're in a courtroom
and there's a man who committed a crime and all the evidence
is against him, and it's so obvious, so unmistakably clear that he's
guilty of the crime that he's accused of committing, and the
judge just says, well, I really don't care. You can go free.
There's no justice in that. How can God both be just in punishing
my sin and yet being merciful to me? Christ. Christ is the answer. Christ
is all. Christ is all and in all. He's
all in the Word of God. He's all in salvation. He's all
to the Father. He's all in eternity. He's all
to the believer. Whom have I in heaven but thee,
Lord? Whom have I on the earth but thee? He's all. Christ is
both the power and the wisdom of God unto salvation to everyone
that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. But I
stress this fact again, Christ died because he wanted to. He
was a willing sacrifice. He wasn't having second thoughts.
As many writers, as many people would have us to believe. You
see, the writer of Hebrews wrote, looking unto Jesus. Now listen
to this, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. who for the joy that was set
before Him endured the cross." Let's just... Lord, help me enter
into this. That when you were going to Calvary,
I was on your mind. That when He was there, hung
between two thieves, that when He was there, forsaken of His
Father, crying, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? When
He was there, being made a curse for me, put away the curse of
the law. When He was there suffering the
full unrestrained wrath of God for my sins, He was thinking
about me. Who for the joy that was set
before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is sitting
down at the right hand of the throne of God. Here's what I
want us to see and be convinced of. Christ was not the victim
of unfortunate circumstances. He was not a victim. God is sovereign. We saw that. God is sovereign.
And this man, he is God in human flesh. He is in control of all
things. When Judas betrayed him, he knew it. He knew it. He that
doth betray me is at hand. Isn't that what he said? When
the devil, when Satan wanted to tempt Job, who did he come
to? He came to him. And the Lord
said, you know, I give you permission. I suffer you to do this. Satan can't do anything without
our Lord's permission. Satan is God's devil. He's sovereign. He's sovereign over all things.
And here, even in his most trying hour, he was still God. He was
not a victim of unfortunate and unforeseen circumstances. He
was always in control of all things as the God-man mediator,
even giving strength to those wicked men who drove the nails
in his hands. Remember in John 18, you can
read, I suggest you do read it when you get home. John chapter
18, the first 12 verses or so of this same account. When Judas
came back, the betrayer, with those Roman soldiers to arrest
Christ while he was in Gethsemane, it says that the Lord went to
them. The Lord, knowing that all things should come to pass,
went to them and told them, Whom seek ye? Does this sound like
a victim to you? He went to them. Who are you
looking for? Who are you looking for? And
they said Jesus of Nazareth. I am. They fell backward. Read it. They all fell backward.
That same voice speaking to Moses in the burning bush in Exodus
3 when Moses said, Lord, when I go to the children of Israel
and they ask who sent me, what do I tell them? He said, I am
that I am. Tell them that I am has sent
thee. He's the eternal I am. He's immutable. Whom seek ye? Jesus of Nazareth. I am. I am He. And they fell backwards.
Does this sound like a victim to you? He is sovereign. He's God. And though he was in
his most trying hour, though he was suffering like no man
ever suffered as a man, he's God. He's God and he is in control
of all things. Don't forget what our Lord also
said in John chapter 10. No man taketh my life from me.
He was not some, oh, you hear people say, oh, poor Jesus. He
suffered wrongly. He did suffer wrongly, but he
was in control of all things. God is sovereign. Man is responsible.
No man taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down,
and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my Father. He has power. He has power as
the God-man mediator. No man took his life from him.
You know, Christ was the only man who had to give death permission
to take him. Because he's God. He was the
only man who death had to have his permission to take him. How
do I know that? Father, into thy hands I commend
my spirit. He gave permission. He's God. He's not a victim. My next point. Christ suffered all these things
and gets so many alone. Alone. Like I said, He had no
comfort or fellowship from His disciples. Here's what this passage
shows us. Christ suffered alone, just like
He would at the cross. Remember, this is a prelude to
what was about to happen at Calvary. Everything that's happening here
in Gethsemane. Christ suffered alone. And all glory is His alone. And God's people say, Amen. We'd love to have it so. Not
unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory
for Thy mercy and for Thy truth's sake. I'm completely passive. We, we were, you must be born
again. How much, how much do we, how
much do we contribute to our second and spiritual birth as
the children of God? Just as much as we contributed
to our first birth. Absolutely nothing. We're completely
passive. We are completely passive. And because Christ suffered alone
all glory and majesty and salvation, He must have the preeminence
in all things. He suffered as no man ever suffered, so He could
have the glory as no man ever had. It was due to the foolishness
of His disciples that He was left alone. Yet, it was always God's purpose
for him to suffer alone. Yes, we're responsible for being
so foolish and selfish to be falling asleep when Christ said,
watch and pray. What, could you not watch for an hour? You're
so useless, Peter. Dennis, you're so useless. You
can't even pray for an hour. And though it was our fault and
due to our own sinfulness and foolishness that he had no comfort.
Yet it was always God's purpose, always God's sovereign purpose,
for Him, as Isaiah said, to tread the winepress alone. He must
tread the winepress alone. Christ must endure God's wrath
alone. God must put away sin alone. Why? So that no flesh could glory
in His presence. So that when God's people get
to heaven, they're not going to be able to say, Christ did most of the work,
but I made this decision. I made this choice. I at least
prayed a prayer. I at least walked the aisle.
No, He did it all. Even when He was suffering in
Gethsemane, I couldn't rise to the occasion to comfort Him. No flesh will glory in His presence. No flesh will boast. And lastly,
turn with me to Mark 14, I'll close. Mark chapter 14. Here's
Mark's account of the same instance here, Christ in Gethsemane. Mark
chapter 14, verse 40. And when he returned, he found
them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. Neither wist
they what to answer him. And he cometh the third time
and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest. It is
enough. It is enough. Child of God, I'm
here to say this morning, if Christ did that for you, it is
enough. If Christ suffered for you, It
is enough. If Christ died for you and put
away your sins, if Christ prayed for you, as He did in His high
priestly prayer in John 17, I pray not for the world. I pray not
for the world. He didn't pray for all men. I
pray for them which thou has given me out of the world. If Christ
did that for you, it is enough. He's sufficient. Christ is all. Christ is all. In John 18 verse
9, Christ said, Of them which thou hast given me, I have lost
none. When we get to glory, we're going
to realize that all for whom Christ died and shed his blood
are in heaven. He didn't lose one. He didn't
shed his blood for one that's going to end up in hell. Why?
Because he shall not fail. He can't fail. Why? He's God.
That's why. He did not, he will not, and
he cannot fail. And lastly, in conclusion, I
take the words of a faithful and very dear brother of mine.
Dear brother in Christ, I take his words as my closing statement.
And I quote him in the Garden of Eden, Adam sinned. In the
Garden of Gethsemane, the Savior suffered. In the Garden of Eden,
the whole human race was lost. In the Garden of Gethsemane,
the whole of God's elect were redeemed. In Eden, Adam took
the forbidden fruit from Eve's hand. In Gethsemane, Christ took
the bitter cup from his father's hand. In Eden, God came and sought
the man. In Gethsemane, the man came and
sought God. What glorious things. What glorious
things. Christ suffered as no man ever
suffered. He put away our sin. And in conclusion he says, sleep
on now, take your rest, it is enough. Everything I did for
you is enough. Is Christ enough? Only if He's
all you got. He'll never be enough if it's
Christ and. How can I know that I've done enough if some part
of salvation depends on me? You can't know. There's no rest
in that. Christ will only be enough if He's all you got. And
that's where the rubber hits the road, as we heard our brother
say. Is Christ all you have? Is Christ the only thing you
have? Pray God would make it so for
us. I pray that God would make Christ the only thing I have
nothing in my hand. I bring simply. To his cross
I claim. Let's pray together. Oh God, our Savior. We're so
thankful. That you suffered the suffering
that should have been ours. That you died the death that
should have been ours. That you put away our sin as
far as the East is from the West and not even God himself can
find them. Lord, we realize that we cannot
fully enter into these things, Lord. How the God man Christ
Jesus can suffer as a man, how he could die, how he could bleed.
How he could weep. But we do rejoice that our Savior
was not only God, but he was a man. Lord, remind us and comfort us
in our trying hours, Lord, that we have a high priest who is
touched by the feelings of our infirmities. Lord, teach us that
we can suffer no thing that Christ hath not already suffered for
us to a degree infinitely further than we can possibly imagine.
Lord, teach us to lay hold on these words to lay them close
to our hearts, Lord. We thank you for your irresistible
grace, Lord, and we pray that you would save those who yet
do not know you. Lord, save us and teach us that
Christ truly is enough. That Christ is all. And in all. For instance, for it's in his
precious name we ask these things. Amen.