What a Savior! When He comes, our glorious King,
All His ransom home to bring, With a new, new song we'll sing,
Hallelujah! What a Savior! I hope in this message we will
see something of the great sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ on behalf
of His people. They are unseen by most, though
some think they know something of His sufferings, and usually
by that they mean His body on the tree. But a few that he's
chosen, the Lord makes to know his soul's suffering. I hope
through this message we will be comforted in our own suffering. And I hope he will show us that
ours are light compared to his. That ours are light compared
to the mercy we've received. He didn't deserve any of this.
Now ours are light compared to the glory that shall be revealed
in us and where we shall be. And I hope as a result of this
it will give us hope, faith, faith, hope to believe
Him that those that believe Him will never be cast out no matter
what because Christ was cast out. And I know that the only way
we can endure whatever the Lord sends our way is in light of
thinking about His sufferings, He who took everything upon Himself
and deserved none of it. Beginning here, look at verse
36. He then cometh Jesus with His
disciples unto a place called Gethsemane. He saith unto the
disciples, Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder. And here
we sit. I hope we're watching now in
prayer. I hope you ask the Lord to bless
me and others and yourself. The Holy Spirit will come, I
hope. We've been studying the Gospel
of Matthew. We've read, we've heard, we've seen many miracles,
many wonders, many glories. We've heard words, blessed words
and sermons out of our Lord's gracious mouth. And now we come
to the reason why He came to this earth. Now we come to the
very climax of the culmination of the gospel, the sum and substance
of the gospel, why Christ came. And it begins here in this garden.
and goes to the end of this gospel. We're going to try to look at,
and I never felt more helpless at a subject than this, but we're
going to try to look at the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ for
our sins. This is the gospel, how that
Christ must suffer. He kept saying that, didn't he?
Ought not Christ to have suffered. Christ must suffer according
to Scripture. And Paul, when he talked about
the gospel, he talked about the fellowship of his sufferings. How that God's people, this is
what they fellowship around, or who. fellowship of His suffering. And the best maybe illustration
of that is when we've all at one time or another gathered
around a bed, a sick bed of a loved one, or a death bed, or even
the funeral of a beloved one, and we're all there for one reason,
aren't we? We all have entered into, we
all love that person, and we've all entered into their sufferings
and even their death, and that's why we're there. But that's what
this is about. That's why Christ's people come. That's the reason, that's the
true reason, the fellowship of His suffering. We're not here
to make much of our suffering. As I said, they were very light
compared to him. Paul, who went through more than
anybody as his greatest gospel preacher, Paul as the greatest
of all the gospel preachers, he said, and he listed all the
things he went through. You remember? He said, they're
light compared to my Lord. I hope we'll see that. The Lord
God became a man made of spirit, soul, and body. Spirit, soul,
and body. A regenerated man, a child of
God, is made up of those three things. Spirit, soul, and body.
Which, by the way, coincide with the Trinity. Father, Son, Holy
Spirit. But our Lord came in a man in
his unregenerate state as just a soul and body. No better than
a beast. But our Lord came, was made a
man in spirit, soul, and body, and He suffered in spirit, soul,
and body, as all of God's people do. But He infinitely more, and
for a different reason. He's suffering not for His own
sins, He's suffering for ours, at the hands of God, so that
we won't. This is the whole reason. And
buddy, this got a hold of me just a little bit, and I'm thankful.
Realizing, just a little bit, that because he suffered, I don't
have to. Because God cast him out. And
our greatest worry, is not the greatest fear and worry of every
true believer, is it not your greatest worry that your sins,
that God's going to hold you accountable for your sins, and
in the end, He's going to cast you out. Is that not your greatest
worry? Well, would you listen to this message? I did for myself,
and it finally occurred to me that if Christ did this for me,
I'm not going to be cast out. If you need to hear that, you
listen. That God has not dealt with us after our sins. Why?
Because He did deal with Christ after our sins. He's called the
man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He took our sins
and sorrows. We sang that hymn. What sorrows? Sorrows of hell,
He said comes to me about. He suffered in spirit, soul,
and body. He came to Lazarus' tomb and says he groaned in spirit,
was troubled. We try to understand that. I've
heard preachers try to preach that. I have too and don't come
close. We don't understand. His spiritual
sufferings are such that we cannot enter into. The Father knew.
At the table he said to his disciples, he was troubled in spirit, and
said, Verily I say unto you, one of you shall betray me. And
we've never known betrayal like that. And he did, and his spirit
was greatly troubled. He says, They were exceedingly
sorrowful, but not like him. And many saw his bodily sufferings
when he hung on that cross, but they don't understand that those
were the very least of his sufferings. The very least of his sufferings
were his physical sufferings. In fact, there have been some
martyrs suffer in the same way. There have been some men and
women even suffer in the same way. If you've read Foxe's book
of martyrs, you'll see that. That was not his greatest suffering.
His greatest suffering were his soul was made an offering for
sin. And here in this text, he says,
now is my soul exceedingly sorrowful. Verse 38, my soul is exceedingly
sorrowful even unto death because our Lord's soul is being made
an offspring for sin. Now, he left eight of them at
the mouth of the entrance of the Garden of Gethsemane. He
left eight at the entrance of it, we saw. And he chose Peter,
James, and John to go with him into the inner garden, as it
were, the Holy of Holies. And this is like the Holy of
Holies, is it not? And we ought to take our shoes
off, I hope, at least spiritually. Inwardly, we know something of
the sanctity of what we're hearing here. And He chose these three
to be with Him in His deepest sufferings. I hope He's chosen me. Gethsemane was a garden. that he prayed in, he visited
often. He was often found there in Gethsemane.
That's where he loved to go. His delights were in that garden. It was in a garden that God created
man, wasn't it? Adam. It was in a garden that
the Son of God came walking. whose delights were with the
sons of men." They're rejoicing in the habitable parts of the
earth. The Son of God came in the garden
that He'd made to the man and the woman He'd made, Adam. It
was in a garden that sin came. It was in a garden that sin came
upon man, and by sin, death passed upon all men. Well, it's in a
garden that the second Adam came and what began to be made sin
for us. Man was kicked out of a garden
because of sin, and because the second Adam came into this garden
to be made sin, he's going to take us back. He's going to take us back. There
is no flaming sword or angel barring us from the garden now.
The veil, we're going to see that real soon, the veil of the
Temple of Rent. Gethsemane means olive press. Olive press. The fruit of the olive trees
was brought into this garden. The olive tree was shaken. The fruit from that tree is brought
into this garden where it's brought under great pressure. pressed
down until all that comes out of it is liquid, liquid gold,
precious ointment, precious oil that everybody in this arid and
dry country loved and needed desperately. They called it the
oil of gladness. It was not only anointing oil
and precious oil and soothing oil and healing oil, but it was
food. Do I need to tell you what that
is? Christ swept blood in His garden,
brought under great pressure by God the Father. It began to
bear on Him, His soul being made an offering for sin. The weight
of the sins of the world being brought upon Him by God the Father. And it pleased the Lord to bruise
Him and press Him down. And He said, I'm going to die
for Christ. The oil was also made for the
light of the temple. And our Lord gave commandment
to Moses concerning the tabernacle and the temple, and He told him
to make that light, that candelabra, that six-sided light with one
central light in it, and the bowls that contain the oil. He
said, you bring oil, beaten oil, beaten oil, well refined for
the light. It's that oil that brought out
the light in the temple so you could see the glory of God. Well,
in His light, we see light. in light of how sins were made
to bear down on our Lord, in light of how our Christ was made
sin for us, then we see light. That's the only way we see light.
The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
and the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. How it
pleased the Lord to bruise him, put him to grief, made his soul
an offering for sin, and it begins here in the garden. olive press,
and he's going to go to the cross, and that's the wine press, and
he's going to walk alone. He went into this garden alone.
I thought of the story of Abraham and his son Isaac and the men. He took some young men with him,
didn't he? And he told them, what did he tell them before
he took Isaac up to offer? What did he tell the young men?
He said, you stay right here. You can't go with us. And so Christ went into the garden,
and it's between Him and the Father. And all this pressure
was brought to bear upon Him, being made sin. We're going to
see, and I say this very carefully, and I hope you'll understand
after this is over, how that our Lord right now is entering
into a great spirit of depression. This is the cup that he says,
I'm going to die from this right now. And God heard him and delivered
him from it. But our Lord as a man is being
put through soul agony. The soul that sinneth must surely
die. The soul that sinneth will be
cast into outer darkness. The soul that sinneth will be
cast into a burning hell, where the worm dieth not. But God, beginning here, is making His
Son to be sin for those who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. And because God is making His
soul an offering for sin, We will not be cast out in the
outer darkness. We will not go through hell.
And the way we know that is He did not leave His soul in hell,
but He put Him through hell. And this is what we can't understand. People say things like this foolishly,
blasphemously. I've been through hell. I went
through hell. That's blasphemy. There's only one human being
that ever went through hell. That's Jesus Christ. Our Lord,
as a man, is going through soul agony so we don't have to. His soul is being made an offering
for sin. And He said, I sorrow so exceedingly
sorrowful, He said, that I could die from this right here. Verse
38, unto death. We've even often said things
like this foolishly in our mouths. That's why we need to set a watch
over our mouths. In many things we offend all,
and none more offended than God by our mouths. God's in heaven,
we're on earth. Let your words be few. But we've
said things like this, I thought I was going to die. We go through
something, I thought I was going to die. No. No. You say things, this is going
to kill me. No. It didn't, did it? Well, our
Lord, when He said that, He meant it. Because He's experiencing
something so that we don't have to. He's experiencing something
real. We experience something imagined. I mean, real trials
and real troubles bear down on us and bring us, lay us very
low, but the Lord raises us up, doesn't He? The Lord didn't.
He brought him through this. But then He put him on the cross
and He put him through hell. This is the thing that our Lord
says, I'm going to die from the thought of being cast out of
your presence. I'm going to die from being made sin that my holy
nature recoils again. This is what He's talking about
here, so that we don't have to. And as a man thinking about being
cast out of... The terrors of hell, this is
nothing like this. The terrors of hell that he endured. He's about to be cut off. He
is about to be cut off. We've never been cut off. We
feel like we are. We feel like we're cast out,
don't we? He's going to be. He's really
going to be. And we've never experienced that.
We thought so. David thought so. But he wasn't. In fact, old preachers always
used to say, the time when you feel your worst, the time when
you feel your lowest is when you're probably nearest to God
you've ever been. It's a time when everything's
okay and that you really need to worry about. And he said, Terry, you hear,
and sit here and observe this and watch with me. And here we
sit. How blessed we are to hear this.
Sitting down, they watched Him there at the cross. And He tells
His few disciples, sit here, watch with Me. Did our Lord need
their company? Now hold on before you answer
that. He's a man. Doesn't He need to
experience everything we experience? Huh? Doesn't He? Do you need
each other? If you say you don't, you're
not a child of God. By this shall all men know. Love
one another. Disciples were exceedingly sorrowful,
thinking that one of them should deny the Lord, betray the Lord. And they didn't want it to happen
to any of them, let alone themselves. Our Lord chose three of His disciples. He said, you watch here with
me. You watch with me. He chose them to be with Him
in one of His hours of greatest suffering. And He said, you watch
with me. And He came back as it were, to find a brother watching,
praying for him. They couldn't do anything for
him. And neither can we do anything for each other, can we? But isn't
it good to have one another? And they weren't watching. He's not going alone, isn't He?
But He did. He chose them to watch with Him
and behold Him and pray with Him. In verse 39, He went a little
further and fell on His face and prayed, saying, Oh, my Father. Oh, my Father. Do you know why we can call God
our Father? Because Christ said so. And the Holy Spirit It gives
us the spirit of adoption. But it's because of the first
begotten, first born among many brethren that we call God our
Father. All men are not God's children, but the believers in
Christ are. He said, after this matter, pray
ye, our Father. And so He did as a man. Oh, my
Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, If it
be possible, he's not talking about the cup of God's wrath
that he said, I must drink. He said, the cup which my father
hath given me ought not, I must drink it, he said, I must. The
cup of his wrath. He set his face like a flint
to go to Jerusalem and die on the cross. He said, for this
cause came I into the world. Didn't he? He knew. He was destined
to die from his birth, and he knew that, and that's why he'd
come. That was the business he was
sent by his father. He's not talking about the cup
of wrath, that the winepress of God's wrath that he has to
bear, and he and he alone. The cup of indignation against
our sin. The cup of God's fury that the
prophet spoke of. He knew he was going to drink
that, and he's going to drink all of it. And he's going to
drink it dry. That's not the cup he's talking
about. But right now, he's talking about what he's going through
right now. The thought of being made sin
and being cast out of God's presence. Let me ask you, isn't it often
the case, most often the case, that our worst sufferings are
the waiting? Our worst sufferings are the
worrying? Our worst sufferings are the
watching. As David wrote in Psalm 130, he said, My soul waited
for Thee more than they that watch for the morning. Disciples
fell asleep, and one of the Gospels says they fell asleep for sorrow.
How many times have you fallen asleep, cried yourself to sleep? And under a sense of great depression
and sorrow and anxiety, worrying about tomorrow. Worrying. How
many times? Our Lord is going through them.
And I say all this very carefully because known unto God are all
His works from the beginning. But as a man, and this should
be comforting to us, as a man, he had to experience everything
we go through. Are you with me? Oh, this would be such a comfort
to us if we knew this, especially that He's being made sin, but
He's touched with the feet of our infirmities. This is not
unbelief. He's going to be made sin. He's
going to be cast out of God's presence. As I said, that's our
greatest fear and worry, but that's unbelief on our part.
We don't need to think that. That's unbelief. We don't need
to think that. Our Lord said over and over again,
He promised, He that believeth. He's saved. He that hath the
Son is saved at life. He that believeth on me shall
never perish. How many times do you have to tell us that?
It doesn't say he that worketh. It doesn't say he that cleans
his life up. It doesn't say he that quits
sinning. It says he that believeth. That's
about all I can do. And He promised God who cannot
lie, I promise that. But now Christ, this is not unbelief
on His part. He's going to hell. He's going
to hell. Do you understand that? I just
got a hold of that. He is going to hell. We worry about going there. We're
not going. Why? Because He did. Do you hear me? I'm hollering loud
enough so that maybe I can hear this. And I worry, I lose sleep,
I'm under a state of depression all the time. That's unbelief. This is why He came. Every one
of them are going to leave Him. The people want Him dead. He's going to save 3,000 of them.
He's going to hang on the cross and pray for the ones that wanted
Him dead. This is why He came. But He's going to hell. And He
knows it. He's going to be separated from
God. And He knows it. And He's sweating blood under
such pressure. Depression is the same thing. Being brought under such pressure,
cast down. This is what David meant when
he said, Why art thou cast down within me, O my soul? He said,
I am. David was constantly cast down.
Why? Because of his sins. And as I said, it's our unbelief
that God's not going to leave our souls in hell, or what we
think He is, and not going to cast us out, because He put Christ
through hell. What did Christ do when He was
under this great sense of pressure and distress? What did He do? What's He doing? Praying. Praying. He didn't win. Three
times. One thing needful. Three times. Same thing. We often worry, don't
we? We often think, oh, I can't pray. All I pray is the same thing.
Don't you, man? You call on to pray and you say,
all I do is ask for mercy. That's right. And that's what
he did. He's a man. God is not going
to leave us because He left Christ. Luke's Gospel says He prayed
the more earnestly, the more pressure was brought down on
Him. The more downcast He became, the more earnestly He prayed.
And you know what it says in Luke's Gospel? It says an angel
came and ministered to Him. An angel. There's only one way out of your
stress and depression and greatest fears, and that's to call on
the name of the Lord. And you know what? He sent you
an angel, if I may so say. If you come in here, He'll bring
you out of this distress. But he's going to leave Christ,
and this is the cup of sorrow he's talking about. It's full,
and he said it's so full, I can't take anymore. Verse 39, he went a little further
and fell on his face and he said, let this cup, if it possible,
let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.
The will of God. We often say this, we seek His
will, but I doubt it. Too much, knowing myself and
you're honest. You know what God's will is?
Number one. You want to discern God's will? Number one. You're
way down the list. You're the last on the list in
considering God's will. Number one, His glory. What is going to give God greatest
glory? Seeking God's will. This is it.
What gives Him the greatest glory? Number two. The cause of Christ,
the cause of the kingdom, the gospel of the kingdom. Seeking
His will, Christ did. This is the will of God to come
down here and do this for His people. Great sacrifice to give
my life for God's people. That's number two. Number three,
the church, spiritual family. Our Lord ignored, didn't ignore,
but in favor of God's people, He told His earthly family, you
have to wait. These are the ones I came for.
This is God's will. And lastly, me, my spiritual
good. That's the will of God. And that's
what He did. And everything He did in the
will of God was for others. That's the will of God. That's
the will of God. And that's what He did. And He
did this not for the righteous, not for the good, but while we
were yet sinners, ungrateful. They're asleep, verse 40. He
came to His disciples and finds them asleep. Oh my! And we'll deal with this more
on Wednesday, how weak we are. Asleep. How much of Christ's sufferings
have we slept through? Oh boy. And he said to Peter, he said to Peter, why did he
address Peter? They all were asleep. Why did
he address Peter? Because Peter's the one that spoke up. Peter's
the one that got lifted up. Peter's the one who lifted himself
up above his brethren. And so Peter's the one that he
first addressed and rebuked. What? Couldn't you watch with
me? Could you not watch with me one
hour? You said you were going to die
with me. Aren't you glad that we're not
held accountable for every idle word? Every broken promise, every vow? Huh? You know why we're not held
accountable for our broken vow? Because Christ didn't break His.
That's it. We promise everything. We say
this, we say that. It doesn't matter. It's what
He prays for. They were asleep. You know, and
it says they were asleep for sorrow. This was real, this was
real sorrow. They were greatly, exceedingly
sorrowful. And, you know, we sometimes think
no one cares and cut off, cut ourselves off is what we do.
And we may even experience being forsaken by friends, but He truly
was. Our Lord, He truly was. He came
back to them in the garden, and again, I say this very carefully,
but Brother Spurgeon brought this out too, that He came to
find some comfort from them, and He couldn't find it there. I did not, David, pray this. All my friends and lovers are
aloof. They're aloof from what I'm going through. They don't
know what I'm going through. We all think that. Oh, but no,
no. We know because we're similar.
And our Lord did though. He knew what it was like to really
be forsaken by everybody. God, by God. And he says in verse
41 again to them, watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak. How gracious our Lord is, how
loving, how kind, how merciful, that even His rebuke is full
of encouragement. He said, you're so weak. Here
you are asleep while I'm suffering, exceedingly sorrowful, and yet
you're asleep and couldn't watch with me, but yet I know you.
I know you like a little baby. I know." And in a minute, He's
going to tell them to sleep on. Verse 44 and verse 42, He came,
He went away again the second time and prayed, saying, Oh,
my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me except I drink
it, Thy will be done. this cup, and he came and found
them asleep again. Their eyes were heavy. He knew
their Frank. He knew their Frank. He knows
our Frank. And he left them, verse 44, again, again he left
and went away again, and prayed the third time saying the same
words. Now I want you to go with me
to the Psalms, and I'm going to close this, I promise you,
a few more comments. Go to the Psalms with me, Psalm
31 first. And I hope you'll see and read the Psalms from now
on as you've never before. Often we look at Psalms like
Psalm 22 and others and say, this is a Messianic Psalm, the
words of Christ from the cross. Well, yes, that's true. Well,
you know, all of them are. All of them are. And we read
them, we can't understand them. Maybe you'll understand a little
more after this, okay? I think I did. Our substitute
had to enter into weak flesh. He just said, you're weak. He
had to be crucified in weakness. He had to feel this weakness.
He had to be touched with a feeling of our infirmities in all points. He had the sorrow. In Psalm 31,
look at verse 1. In thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. Our Lord lived by faith as a
man. Let me never be ashamed. Deliver me in thy righteousness.
Bow down thine ear to me. Deliver me speedily. Be thou
my strong house and house of defense to save me. Thou art
my rock and my fortress. Therefore, by thy namesake, lead
me and guide me. Pull me out of the net. They've
laid privately for me. Thou art my strength. Into Thine
hand I commit my spirit. These are the words of Christ.
As a man, He prayed. We're going to see that in Hebrews. Look at Psalm 32. Psalm 32. We just looked at this today.
Blessed is the man whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Well,
the Lord did impute iniquity to him. He is that blessed hand. Well, look at verse 4, Psalm
32. Day and night thy hand was heavy
upon me. Who's that? Christ. My moisture's turned into the
drought of summer. Did He not cry on the cross,
I thirst? We've never thirsted like He thirsted. Thirst for
the living God. He said, My soul thirsteth for
Thee. As the heart panteth after the
water brook, Psalm 42, so panteth my soul after Thee, the living
God. Who's that? That's crying on the cross. God's forsaken
you. Verse 5, I acknowledge my sin
unto Thee, mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I'll confess
my transgressions unto the Lord, and Thou forgavest the iniquity
of my sin. You say, that kept me crying.
Hold on now. Hold on now. How can we say this
verse is Christ and the next was not? Why would it change? Look at Psalm 38 with me. Go
over to Psalm 34, verse 4, I sought the Lord. Psalm 34, verse 4,
I sought the Lord and He heard me, delivered me from all my
fear. You say, Christ feared? Hang on, you're going to see
it. Yes, He did. Didn't He say, I'm going to die
right here? Psalm 38, go over to Psalm 38 verse 1, "...Lord,
rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
Thine arrows stick fast in me." Doesn't the lamentation say,
"...the Lord has set me for a mark, His bow." Doesn't it say that?
Who's that? That ain't Jeremiah. It's Christ. He's Aaros of God's
wrath within him. Verse 2, "...they stuck in me
fast. Thy hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in my flesh
because of thine anger." What was Christ enduring on the cross? Anger of God. "...neither is
there any rest in my bones because of my sin. My iniquities are
gone over my head as a heavy burden. They are too heavy for
me. My wounds stink." Verse 6, I'm
troubled, I'm bowed down greatly, I go mourning all the day long.
The disciples saw Him in the garden like they'd never seen
Him before. They'd never seen the Lord like this before. They'd
never seen Him like this before. They'd never seen Him troubled
like that, greatly distressed. They'd never seen Him. That's
part of why they were so full of trouble. They didn't understand.
They didn't understand. After the fact, they did. being made
sin. Verse 8, he says, I am feeble
and sore, broken, I have roared by reason of the quietness of
my heart. Our Lord cried with a loud voice,
Lord, all my desires before Thee, my groanings not hid from Thee,
my heart panteth, my strength faileth, the light of mine eyes
is gone from me, my lovers, my friends stood aloof, my kinsmen
stand afar off. Who is that talking about? Jesus
Christ. Sin, He was made sin so really, so completely, that He became
us. He became us. And God, see God
laid up the iniquity of us all on Him. God made His soul an
offering for sin. Somehow or another it entered
into His soul. He bore our sins even in His own body. No, He
committed no sin. Let me say that very distinctly
and very clearly that Christ committed no sin. He thought
no sin, but somehow God made Him so really to be sin for us
who know no sin that God punished Him justly. He can't punish a
righteous man. God can't forsake a righteous
man. But Christ hadn't become unrighteous. He hadn't become
sin. And the thought of that His holy
nature, so recoiled, His sweat blood. And He said, I'm going to die
right here in the garden before I get to the cross. The thought
of this. Now go to Hebrews 4 and I'll
close with this. Hebrews 4. I think you'll marvel
at this. I hope so. Hebrews chapter 4. This is why He went through what
He did. Hebrews chapter 4, in the garden,
this is why he went through this. See, we have a great high priest,
verse 14, Hebrews 4. We have a great high priest that's
passed into the heavens. Who is he? He's a man, Jesus,
the Son of God. He's a man in glory. He knows everything about us.
How? He became us. Hold fast now,
profession of your faith. Verse 15, we have not an high
priest which cannot be touched with the feet of our infirmity,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin,
tried under great pressure. Let us therefore come boldly
to the throne of grace. You see, it's the throne of grace.
We come meekly and mildly and humbly, don't we? We do because
we are sinners. But get a hold of this, people.
Hold fast to this profession that we may come boldly into
His presence. How? The blood of Christ. He
is there now waiting on us. The Son of God entered within
the veil to find grace, to help in time of need. Read on, verse
chapter 5. Every high priest taken from
among men is ordained for men. That's why Christ came, for His
people, in things pertaining to God. He may offer gifts and
sacrifices for sin. Our Lord offered one sacrifice.
And He can have compassion on the ignorant, them that are out
of the way, for that He Himself is compassed with infirmities.
Our Lord took these infirmities. And by reason hereof, he asked
for the people also for himself to offer for sins. And no man
takes dishonor under himself, but he that is called of God,
as was Aaron. So Christ, stay with me now, stay with the Word.
So Christ glorified, not himself, to be made an high priest, that
he that said unto him, Thou art my son, today have I begotten
thee. As he saith also in another place,
Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. who
in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and
supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able
to save Him from death in the garden, He was heard. and that he feared. Though he
were a son, yet he learned obedience by the things he suffered and
made perfect the author of eternal salvation and all that obey him. He was heard. He prayed with
strong cryings and tears and sweat as it were great drops
of blood an angel sent to minister unto him. And in our text it
says that He came to His disciples and found them asleep again,
and here's what He said. He said, sleep. Sleep on. The last time He came to them,
He said, sleep on. And we're going to sleep. Precious
in the sight of the Lord. Before, He rebuked them, but
now He says, sleep. Rest. And I don't know how long
he watched over them as they slept. They were asleep and finally
he let them sleep. He said, sleep on now. Sleep
on now. Take your rest. And so he sat
there over them. He's going to hell. He's going to the cross to be
made sin for them. They're sleeping. He that keepeth
Israel shall never slumber or sleep. He's watching over them. They're not watching. They can't.
They're too weak. He's not weak. He had weakness,
but God heard Him and strengthened Him again and put in Him this
strength. He's got to go to the cross.
Why? For them. For them. They don't deserve
it. Oh, He knows that, but He's not
ashamed to call them brethren. And he's going for them. So God
undergirded him now. And now he's strong again. He
didn't sleep for three days. He didn't sleep for three days.
Until he was at his weakest. Like when he faced Satan, forty
days without bread. He was without sleep. You're
at your weakest. Your mind's not working. Not him. And he
went to that, he set his face like a flint. And he told them,
you sleep. You rest. I'm watching. I'm watching
over you. And then He said, the Son of
Man is betrayed in the hands of sinners, the hour is at hand,
and then He finally told them, rise up, we're going, we're leaving. And our Lord went to that cross,
and we're going to see from here on what all He endured without
the slightest fear. No more tears. No. No. No more depression or
stress. God undergirded him for this,
gave him the strength, and he's going to do it. He's going to
get the job done. So I said in the beginning, I hope this will
see something of his great suffering. It will comfort us in hours,
show us that the hours are very light, aren't they? compared to the mercy He's given
us, compared to what we deserve, compared to the glory that shall
be revealed someday. And I hope this will give us
courage to endure whatever. You know, the only way we can
endure insult and injury and offense and people against us
and people... The only way we can endure people
bearing false witness against us and rising up against us and
persecution for the truth's sake. One way. One way. considering Him. We haven't yet
resisted under blood striving against sin, Scripture says,
but He did. And so we look unto Him, author
and finisher of our path. Made perfect. Alright, now let's
try to sing that hymn again. 452. For me it was in the garden,
He prayed not my will but Thine. 452. We'll stand as we sing. Stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene, And wonder how he could love a sinner condemned
unfleeing.