Thank you, James. The Old Testament
Scriptures are absolutely full of pictures of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And we worship Him and thank
God for Him. Let's go back to the portion
of Scripture that our brother read to us in John chapter 18. In the Old Testament, the work
of the priest basically, basically was a three-fold work. One of teaching, one of praying,
and one of sacrificing. Basically, basically that kind
of summarizes the duties of the Old Testament priests. Our Lord
Jesus came into the world, that One who is God's appointed Great
High Priest for His people. He came forth teaching and preaching. John chapters 14, 15, and 16
sets forth that wonderful work that He did in preaching, teaching,
instructing His disciples. Judas had left. He had gone out
to finish the deed that he had been thinking about that Satan
had laid on his heart. And he would go ahead and accomplish
typhony loose ends pertaining to the betrayal of our Lord Jesus. And so the Savior took those
11 men who believed Him who rested in him, who loved him, who trusted
him. He took those men under his wing,
as he always did, and he instructed them, gave them needful knowledge. He taught them things that they
needed to know, for very soon he would be leaving them and
they would become the teachers. And then, as we looked briefly
last Lord's Day evening, our Lord is seen as that faithful
priest in prayer in John chapter 17. Greatest prayer ever prayed. And that greatest prayer ever
prayed followed the greatest message ever preached. So here's our Lord the priest.
He's been teaching, preaching. He's been praying. And now we
see Him going forth to finish the other duty of the priest. To sacrifice Himself unto God. all the other priests and high
priests who preceded Him, who were but pictures of our Lord
Jesus Christ. The offerings that they offered,
the sacrifices that they killed, the blood that they shed never
put one sin away. We read in Hebrews 10, The blood of bulls and goats
could never put away sin. Now God's Son comes, the one
who is referred to as the Lamb of God. And beginning in chapter
18, He's making His way toward that work that absolutely had
to be done, the work of redemption. the work of offering unto God
the sacrifice that would actually save His people, remove our sins,
satisfy God, and make us righteous. After teaching and after praying,
He's now going to offer the sacrifice, and the sacrifice will be that
of Himself. He will lay himself upon the
altar and give his life a ransom for many. His death will mean the end of
the deaths of the sheep, the goats, the bullocks, the pigeons
and turtle doves, All of those animals that died, which could
never accomplish redemption, they will not be offered anymore,
they will not be received by God, they will not be recognized
by God. God's lamb is going to die. That
brings to an end all of the ceremonial law. His death fulfilled all
of the law of God. And all of his people now are
under grace, not under law in any way, shape, or form. Scripture says God's law was
not made for a righteous man. We are righteous in Christ Jesus. The law is not made for us, made
for the guilty. Not that the guilty could obey
the law and thereby satisfy God. No man can obey the law of God. God gave his law in order to
shut our mouths, and that law of God pronounces us guilty.
That's its job. Never was given as a way of salvation. It never was given as a way of
sanctification. It wasn't given, never was given
to make us more holy. It wasn't given that it might
be a rule of life for the people of God. God gave His law in order
to shut our mouths and leave us guilty before Him. Now our Lord is going to satisfy
the law which demanded perfection or death for imperfection. And though He Himself was always
perfect, He took on Him our imperfections. He took on Him all of our sins. Our sins and our sorrows, He
made them, as we sing, His very own. And he bore the burden to
Calvary, where he suffered, bled, and died alone. And I might say this also about
our Lord going forth to sacrifice himself. He also goes forth not only as
the priest, but he goes forth as the king, who is absolutely
in control of everything that's going to happen to him. He is
the sovereign. The sovereign goes into the Garden
of Gethsemane. The sovereign waits for Judas
and the soldiers and the multitude that came with him. The sovereign
is going to make his appearance before the ecclesiastical, the
religious courts, and then the civil courts. That sovereign
is going to lay down his life, give his life a ransom for many. The good shepherd will give his
life for the sheep. Nobody's going to take the life
of the sovereign from him. If he dies, he'll have to lay
it down himself. And he who laid his life down,
he had the power and the authority, and indeed he did take it unto
himself again. You see, all things have forever
been under his authority. And it was no different when
it came time for him to die. He is still the one having all
authority. and he goes forth into Gethsemane's
garden to meet the enemy. That's the title of the message.
The master meets the enemy. He goes forth. Now he could have
remained in whatever house that he and his disciples had been
in where he broke bread with them, where he instituted the
Lord's Supper, where he instructed them, and where he prayed his
high priestly prayer. He could have stayed there. He
could have hidden himself. But he didn't hide himself. He
goes forth. There will be no need for Judas
and the band of soldiers. A band was either 500 soldiers
or 1,000 soldiers, plus the religious mob. There wasn't any need for
them to go through Jerusalem making a house-to-house search
for Jesus of Nazareth. The master goes forth to meet
his enemies. They won't have to hunt for him.
He's not hiding Himself from them. The enemy won't have to
search for Him. The work of redemption, the work
He came to accomplish, it was right before Him. This is the
work that he often spoke of. The hour had come, as he said
in John chapter 17, the very first verse of chapter 17. The
hour had now arrived. The hour of redemption. The hour
of reconciliation. The hour that he had been pointing
to from old eternity. This Lamb of God who was Himself
slain from before the foundation of the world, this is the time.
And He goes forth, not timid, not fearful of what awaited Him,
not fearful of the massive group of soldiers, but He goes forth
as the Master, as the King, as the Sovereign. He goes out to
meet them. It's the master himself, not
the enemy who is orchestrating all things here. As he has always done, as he
is doing now, and as he will continue to do, he's always controlling
everything. He will not avoid the enemy.
He will not hide from them. He goes where he had often gone
with Judas, to the garden. And he knew, for he had purposed,
that Judas in his own mind would reason this way. I know where
the master's going. I know where we can find him.
It will be in the garden of Gethsemane. and Judas told those with whom
he made his wicked deal. I guarantee you we can find him
there. Judas is thinking that way, he
speaks that way because our sovereign Lord put that into his thoughts. Our Lord had arranged this meeting. The Word of God certainly says
that he was led as a sheep to the slaughter, or as a lamb to
the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb,
so he openeth not his mouth. But unlike an animal, this God-man,
he has absolute, complete knowledge of everything that will happen
to him. In fact, it even says in verse 4 of chapter 18, Jesus
therefore, look at these words, knowing, verse 4, all things
that should come upon him, went forth. There's no reluctance
here. There's no fearfulness. He's
not trying to avoid this conflict. He must go forth. He must die! Because without the shedding
of blood, there is no remission of sin. He has a complete knowledge of
the enemy. Of the intentions of the enemy.
Of the hatred of the enemy. But he goes forth. He goes forth into the combat,
into this war, to fight with the enemies of darkness, to fight
with that hellish fiend of evil, Satan himself. He goes forth,
our brave conqueror. He's going forth into the conflict. Let me show you four things from
the first 11 verses of John chapter 18. First of all, the Master
does go forth. The Scripture says here in verse
1 of chapter 18, when Jesus had spoken these words, that is,
the words of His high priestly prayer, He went forth with His
disciples. Let's go, men. It's time to move. Time to move on. It's time to
go. The day of recompense against
sin had arrived. That time of putting away the
transgressions of His people. It's here. The year of the redeemed has
come. And His own arm will accomplish
the redemption of His people. And though all the forces of
evil line up, they gather as it were in battle array against
the Son of Man, the Son of God, this will not be a fair fight. Because He who is the Sovereign,
He is going to do as He said He would do back in Genesis chapter
3 and verse 15. He will crush the head of the
serpent. That day has arrived. That fatal
blow He will inflict upon the enemy of God and the enemy of
the souls of His people. He goes forth as a bold champion
into the garden. Have you ever Any of you ever
listened to, have you ever heard of the message by R.G. Lee called Payday Someday? Anybody ever heard of that? Payday Someday. And R.G. Lee was making reference to the
Judgment Day. And he said, Payday Someday. I disagree. That's not payday. because all of the wicked who
will be cast into hell, all of the wicked, they will never pay
for their sins. That judgment day is not payday. Calvary's day, that's payday. Right here, our Lord Jesus going
forth into the conflict, this is payday. This is when He will
pay divine justice, all that justice demands for the salvation
of His people. and he will pay it to the last
farthing. For Jesus paid it all. All the
debt I owed, sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as
snow. In order to get into this garden,
he crosses a brook called Cedron. In the Old Testament, it's called
Kidron. David, who was a wonderful picture
of our Lord Jesus in many ways, he crossed this brook. And every year on the Day of
Atonement, when whoever the high priest was took two goats, cast
lots, one for the Lord, One is the scapegoat. The Lord's goat
died. Pictures the death of our Lord
Jesus. The scapegoat lived with the
high priest confessing upon the head of the scapegoat all of
the sins of all of the people of Israel. And symbolically,
they were transferred to the goat. that scapegoat, and a worthy
man called a fit man would be selected by the high priest who
would take that scapegoat and lead him out into the wilderness,
but not before he crossed this brook. He will cross the brook Kidron,
or Cedron. And our Lord Jesus He must cross this brook. He
will die for our sins according to the scriptures, and he will
do what was pictured by that scapegoat being taken off into
an uninhabited land by a fit man. He'll take our sins into
a land of forgetfulness, a land uninhabited. But he'll have to
cross this brook. Most of the year, the Brook Seed
Room was dry. It was a ditch used where water
flowed during rainy season. But more than that, all of the
sacrifices that were offered in the temple, the blood from
all those sacrifices, it was funneled down into this dry creek
bed of cedron, smelly, foul, quite full of odor. Our Lord
Jesus crossed it. Because He's going to go take
care of all of our smelly, awful, stinking sins. He's going to
wash them all away with His blood and make us totally whole and
perfectly clean in the sight of God. And so He goes forth. His teaching is over and His
praying is over. This is the time of sacrifice. And I'm saying his praying was
over. That is, as far as his high priestly
prayer. But we know from Matthew, Mark,
and Luke that he stopped in the Garden of Gethsemane. And there
he prayed. He told his disciples. He said,
y'all come aside with me. He said, now sit here and wait
for me. Peter, James, John, come with
me. And they go out a little ways
about a stone's throw, and He says to those three favored disciples,
now you men, you stay here and you pray. And I'm going a little further.
Our Lord went further and he began to pray. You see, his high priestly prayer
of John 17, it preceded his agonies in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Now John doesn't record those agonies. Matthew, Mark, and Luke
do. So if you want to read about
the words that he uttered and how his heart was troubled, Father,
if it be thy will, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not
my will but thine be done." If you want to read those accounts,
read them in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. But you won't read that
in John. So we wonder why John doesn't
record those things that happen. Well, I'll just venture two guesses. And I'm pretty sure the first,
I know the first one's right. He wasn't inspired to write about
it. That was left to Matthew, Mark,
and Luke. Father, if it be thy will, let
this cup pass from me. But it wasn't God's will, and
that shows you that without the shedding of blood, there's no
remission of sin. And some who have said, well,
God could save sinners any way He wanted to. He could have just
said, I forgive all of you. No! That's not right. Because the Savior said, Father,
if it be Thy will, let the cup pass from me. No, it can't pass
from you. You've got to drink the cup of
damnation dry. He said, I have a baptism wherewith
to be baptized. He said, my soul is straightened
until I fulfill it. He must die. I'll let others, if they dare,
enter into the conflict and the agony of his soul. And men have debated and, well,
was His, the will of, and His will as man and His will as God,
were they battling within Him? I'm not gonna go into that which
God doesn't go into. And we would do well not to proceed
any further than the Word of God takes us. Otherwise, we will
be found to be fools. I really believe that. That applies
to me and you and everybody else. I cannot, and it is not my job
to begin to explain how our Lord felt. I just, I read he agonized. That's got to be enough for us. But John didn't write about that.
And he didn't write about it, number one, because he wasn't
inspired to write about it. But secondly, and I'll venture
this, I know the person was right, he wasn't inspired. But the second
one, I would venture to say that the reason he doesn't go into
that, because John's purpose in writing was to set forth the
deity, the greatness, the Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ. He
wrote that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of the living God. And so he skips over this. He doesn't mention the agonies
in the garden. The Spirit of God didn't lead
him to write about it. And it doesn't really fit with
the tone of the book. Because John is always showing
him in charge. The sovereign. That's his goal. And it seems to me like perhaps,
and I've no authority on this of course, I've just put a little
thought into it and after I've kind of analyzed it in my poor
brain, this is kind of what I come up with, this wasn't John's intention. Matthew shows him as king, Mark
as a servant, Luke as the son of man, John shows him as the
son of God, the son of God. But he goes forth. And into the Garden of Gethsemane
he agonizes. Now he goes in knowing full well
that Judas is going to meet him. Judas. Boy, what opportunities that
man had. He sat at the feet of the Lord
Jesus three years He was himself a teacher, a preacher, the treasurer
of the group, a trusted friend. When our Lord Jesus mentioned
that one of you is going to betray me, one of you is going to sell
me out, nobody said, I know who it is, it's Judas. Oh no. They
didn't know who it was. They were not suspicious of him.
His doctrine was right. His words were right. As far
as the other disciples were concerned, his actions were right, but his
heart was wrong. And I'll tell you this, let's
all be careful here, because you can get the right knowledge,
head knowledge, you can know tulip, You can know about the
so-called doctrines of grace. You can be, as men say, Calvinist. You can be Orthodox. You can
know about your confession of faith, your denominational confession
of faith. You can tell every reason why
this is correct and that's wrong. but we've got to know this salvation
is not knowing some things, it's knowing him. That's where people
miss him. They don't know him, whom to
know, his life everlasting. Judas knew a lot, but he didn't
know Christ. Oh, he knew him by sight. He recognized him. He had been
with him, but he didn't believe him. He did not really believe
in his heart he's the son of God. He didn't trust his poor
soul to Christ. He's a wicked man. He is an example of a person
who's very religious, who knows a lot, but doesn't know God. And the Savior said in His high
priestly prayer, this is life eternal, to know Thee, the only
true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. Judas didn't
know God. He didn't know Christ. He had
some right doctrine. Hey, I'm not the enemy of doctrine.
I'm all for true doctrine. But it's our Lord Jesus who gives
the life to doctrine. Doctrine is like the skeleton.
Our Lord is the breath of the body. He's the life of his people. But Judas knew, Judas knew Our Lord goes forth. Here's the second thing. The
master leads his men. Matthew records that after our
Lord had prayed the third time, that agonizing prayer in the
Garden of Gethsemane, he went to his disciples and said, rise, let's be going. The enemy is
at hand that doth betray me. Once again, no effort to avoid
the mob. He's willing to meet the enemy. He's not trying to hide. We know
Passover always happened under a full moon. Lots of light. He's not lurking in the shadows.
The moon is full. There's a light in the garden
when they come after Him. In addition, they have lamps
and torches, lanterns and torches. So they have artificial light. And may I say that's the only
light these religious fools had was artificial light. They didn't
have any spiritual light. And with lanterns and torches
they come seeking Him who is the light of the world. And the Master leads His men.
Here's a dozen men. Our Lord Jesus and the 11 disciples. And here's a multitude who's
got bloodthirsty hearts. One is like a procession from
heaven. The other one is a procession
from hell. One group walks in the light
as He is in the light and have fellowship with God. The other
group walks in darkness. Just as it was in the Garden
of Eden that man got himself into a big, big terrible mess,
it's in another garden that the last Adam, the first Adam got
us in the mess, the last Adam, he goes in the garden, he's going
to make things right. And furthermore, he's going to
die in a garden. And he's going to be buried in
a garden. And he's going to be raised in
a garden. Two groups, a dozen men, and
then a multitude that's ungodly. And our Lord goes forth. He knew
what awaited Him. He knew what was in the hearts
of these men. But He goes forth. And as they approach him, he
goes to them and says, who are you looking for? He takes the initiative. No other prisoner, no other person
who's going to be taken prisoner approaches the legal authorities
this way. Hey, who are you looking for?
Me? Here I am. He said, who are you looking
for? And they answered him, verse
5, Jesus of Nazareth. And Jesus said unto them, I am
He, and notice the word He is italicized, which means our wonderful
translators, we appreciate the good job that they did, But the
idea is just, I am, and then they inserted he. I am's the name that our Lord
attached to himself in Exodus 3, as I mentioned this morning,
speaking from the burning bush to Moses. He said, I am. And Judas stood with them. John
puts that in there at the end of verse 5. And as soon then
as he had said unto them, I am, they went backward and fell to
the ground. Fulfillment, I'm sure of. You
don't have to turn here if you don't want to, but Psalm 27 and
verse 2, When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came
upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. And they fell backward. They
didn't fall toward Him as though bowing in submission to Him. To worship Him, they fell backward. Just the power of His voice in
announcing His identity, that was enough to knock well over
a thousand people on their backsides, just knock them down backwards. I am. One old writer said, if when he came to be judged
himself, he spoke and his enemies fell to the ground, What will
happen to his enemies when he actually comes to judge them? If when he steps forward to be
judged by them, they get knocked backwards, what's going to happen
when he comes to judge men? And John says he's going to call
on the rocks and the mountains to fall on them and hide them
from the into the face of the angry Lamb of God. I'm glad we'll never look into
the face of the angry Lamb of God, aren't you? He's at perfect
peace with us. Always has been, always will
be. Here's the third thing. The Master
orders the salvation of His people. Look at verses 7-9. Verses 7-9. Then asked he them
again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus answered, I told you. Here's the sovereign. I told
you. I told you that I am. If you
therefore seek me, let these, I command you, let these go. Because you can't have me and
my people. And that's the way it is with
the justice of God. Justice? Take me. All of their sins, all of their
iniquities, they're charged to me. They're mine. Psalm 69. He said, they're mine. These
men are innocent. You can't have me and them. Let these men go. That's the
words of the Sovereign Savior. You can't have me and them. I absolutely, and I've gone on
record a number of times, I absolutely detest, as the fellow says, with
every fiber of my being, that awful, heretical belief of universal
redemption. It's just an awful, awful thing
to announce to people that Jesus died in your stead and paid your
debt. And if you'll believe him, it's
really put away. But it's up to you. What that
does is make you your own savior. That is error. I hate that doctrine. I hate it, won't stand for it.
I won't call anybody a brother who preaches it or believes it.
That's just how, we won't do that where we are. We won't. He said, you take me. You take
me, these men right here, don't you lay a hand on them. That's
what he says to the justice of God. Take me! Take me! But don't lay a hand on these.
Because all of their sins, all of their debts, all of their
iniquities, all of their transgressions, they have been put to my account.
Take me! Gotta let these go free. Oh,
the glorious truth of substitution and satisfaction. And this is His command. You
see, the condition for salvation has never rested on us. Always on Him. He's all my hope. He's all my
salvation. Here's the last thing. The Master
corrects His servant's thinking, verses 10 and 11. And then Simon Peter, having
a sword, drew it and smote the high priest's servant, cut off
his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus.
And Jesus said unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath,
the cup which my father hath given me. Don't you want me to
drink it? Peter, do you understand what
you're doing? You're trying to interfere with things much bigger
than you are. I'm about my Father's business.
I've already told you that. I've already told you. I had
to go suffer. I have to bleed. I have to die.
And I've already rebuked you one time on this. I told you,
get behind me, Satan. You don't savor the things that
be of God. Would you interfere with my redemptive
work, the work that I purpose to do from old eternity? The
work the Father sent me to accomplish? This cup of wrath that I've got
to drink dry, would you interfere with me drinking it? Would you come between me and
the eternal purpose of my Father? Would you try to interfere with
the greatest event of all time? Are you trying to put a stop
to my death? Poor Simon Peter. Sometimes by word and sometimes
by action. He's just too quick to speak
and too quick to move. Quick, too quick to do, gotta
do something. Well, you don't always need to
do something and you don't always need to say something. You know, Simon in his misguided zeal, that's
what I'll call it. Try to be nice to him. Misguided
zeal. If he had done what he wanted
to do, cut off that man's head. If he had done that, most likely you're talking about
mob violence. All of them. These Roman soldiers
that had jumped all over these disciples, especially Simon Peter. And the Lord, who still is orchestrating
all things. I mean, Peter is responsible
for what he did, While he does bear responsibility for his foolish
act, it all works into the purpose of God because our Lord Jesus
is going to teach a couple of things to Simon Peter here. Number
one, Simon, you're going against the government.
Do you see me fighting the government? The Lord Jesus wasn't going against
the government. What they wanted to do to him
is totally unfair. But he bowed to the authority
of the government. Simon Peter should have as well,
knowing that the powers that be are ordained of God. He needlessly put himself and
his other buddies, his other friends, the other disciples
in jeopardy. But our Lord uses this, and it
shows you how the Savior uses even our blunders. And boy, I've
made and continue to make and will continue to make a bunch
of blunders. But He'll take even the foolish
mistakes of His people and use it for good. Because behold the
great tenderness of our Savior. Here's one of the men who was
in the mob, who hates the Savior. And Luke records this, Luke 22,
51. Our Lord touched the man's ear
and he was healed. Oh, how full of tenderness and
compassion is our Savior. As far as Simon Peter is concerned, he was foolishly brave then,
but as Brandon read, the Lord's words to him earlier
are fulfilled. He's a coward. He's a coward. It's one thing to stand when
you've got others standing with you, There is strength in numbers.
I got ten other men here and plus my master. I'll pull out
my sword." Then he gets off by himself. It's a cool night. It's
very early in the morning. He decides to warm himself by
the fire with false religionists. And I'll tell you this, if you
try to warm yourself by the fires of false religion, it will get
you in trouble. And you'll do things and say
things that you'll regret. Best thing to do is stay away
from them, stay out in the cold if you have to. But don't warm
yourself with the enemy, because they'll suck you in. Our Lord is the Master. He goes
forth. He takes charge of this situation. And it will all turn for the
glory of God, the glory of the Son of Man,
and the salvation of all of His people. And we say Amen to that. Get your black folders out again. And I know this song is in the
song book, but we're going to go to number 21, page 21, Amazing
Grace.