this evening, and we're thankful
God brought us together to worship this evening. If you would, open
your Bibles to the book of Hebrews, and I would like to read a few
verses from chapter four. Hebrews chapter four. As we read a few verses here
in Hebrews, the fourth chapter, we discover that our Lord Jesus
has entered into his rest. He has finished that work of
redemption that God gave him to do, and the Savior rested
on the seventh day, even as God made all things in the first
six days, and then having finished the work of creation, He rested
on the seventh day, even so our beloved Redeemer, having finished
the work of rescuing us from all of our iniquities, He rested
on the seventh day, rested in the grave. And he is entered
now into his rest, and his rest is indeed all glory. And it is for you and me now
to enter into the rest of Christ Jesus. You remember the Savior
said in Matthew 11, and I'm sure most all of you can quote this,
He said to come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. And so with that in mind, we
pick up our reading here in Hebrews 4.11, where it says, let us therefore
labor, let us labor therefore to enter in to that rest. You see, the Lord Jesus is our
great Sabbath. And you know the laws of the
Sabbath, they were, the law of the Sabbath was quite simply,
don't labor, rest. Just rest. And that's the way
it is in salvation. You cease from laboring. trying to earn God's favor, working
your way into God's confidence. Just don't do that. Just rest
in the Lord Jesus. And so that's what he says, let
us labor therefore to enter into that rest. lest any man, any
man fall after the same example of unbelief. And of course he
has in the previous verses, even back into the third chapter,
he's spoken about the unbelief of the Israelites. And he says
that they died in the wilderness and the reason was because of
unbelief. They just didn't believe God.
So let's us not be like them. Let's believe God, let's believe
Christ Jesus. Well, then he says in verse number
12, he says, for the word of God
is quick and powerful, and it is sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and
of the joints and merit, and is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. Well, which word of God is he
speaking about, the written word or that one who is the living
word, the everlasting word, even our Lord Jesus? Well, the answer
is both. He's speaking of both. And that's
obvious because you get to the next verse, verse 13. Neither
is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight. But all things are naked and
open in the eyes of him with whom we have to do." Well, then
he says, seeing then that we have a great high priest that
is past and in the heavens, who is it? Jesus. He's the Son of
God. let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
under the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. And would you not agree with
me that every moment of every day is a time of need for us? Let's bow our heads together. Our father, We bow before you
tonight with some understanding, not full
understanding, of course, but we have some understanding of
the vast distance between thyself and us. Lord, you dwell in eternity. We are creatures of time. Your
throne is above the heavens, and we're worms of the dust. Lord, you're great and glorious
in all of your attributes. As for us, we drink iniquity
like water. There's a great barrier that
existed, oh Father, between us and thyself. It was one of our
own doing, our own rebellion, our own trespasses against you. Not only that rebellion imputed
to us by virtue of Adam's transgression, but our own iniquities, our own
personal guilt. Lord, we give thanks to you that
you sent your son to do something about this awful problem of sin. And our Lord Jesus, by his own forfeiture, gave up his life. The scripture says he laid down
his life. for the sheep. Nobody took it
from him, but he gave it up voluntarily
out of love for us to fulfill your eternal purpose of grace,
the salvation of the remnant you gave him in loving election. Lord, the reason and the way
that we come to you tonight is through Christ who is our only
savior. He's the one who settled the
issue when he died for our sins according to the scriptures.
And he was buried and he arose again the third day according
to the scriptures. And after having himself witnessed
and verified by so many hundreds of people, then he went back
to glory. And it is in the name of this
dear one who loved us and gave himself for us that we enter
into your presence tonight. And we fully believe upon the
authority of thy word that when we, Father, approach you through
Christ, our mediator, you will receive us, you will receive
our prayers, and you will receive our worship. Thank you, Father,
for such a glorious Savior. Thank you for devising such a
marvelous, marvelous work of salvation in which all of your
attributes were magnified and our own sinfulness was dealt
with. in a way that satisfied your
law and justice through the death of Christ. It's so good of you
to bring us here tonight. We come from various walks of
life and various locations, but Lord, we're here for one reason.
We're here to worship, we're here to learn, we're here to
obtain mercy, find grace in our time of need, which is always.
Be pleased, O God, to speak to each of us tonight by your Spirit. And when we leave here in a little
bit, may we say, as did the psalmist, it's been good to be in the house
of the Lord tonight. It's been good to open up the
word of God and listen again to the glorious gospel of your
free grace to us through Christ our Redeemer. Bless those who
are absent from us, those who are suffering, those who are
having hardships physically, emotionally, hardships in the
family, Lord, All these difficulties and all these troubles of the
flesh, they often plague your people. We're thankful that,
first of all, you've said you'll never leave us and you'll never
forsake us. And we're thankful, secondly,
that all of these things come upon us by divine determination. For our good, for your glory. And all of these things drive
us, O God, to thee. And so remembering that, we pray
for grace to face every trial. And we're thankful that your
grace is indeed sufficient for all of our needs. Now as we look
into the scriptures, I pray that you'll take the things of the
Lord Jesus, oh Holy Spirit, and would you show them unto us tonight. Be pleased to speak to our hearts
and feed us with manna from on high. These things we ask in
the name of our great and glorious Savior and for his sake, amen. If you would, go to John chapter
18. Tonight, John chapter 18. And
I'll give you just, very briefly, give you kind of a a few words
to speak about, summarize what's been said from chapter 13 up
into the section that I'm going to cover this evening. And from
chapter 13 through chapter 18 and verse, well, verse nine,
basically here are three things that have been dealt with. First
of all, chapters 13 through 16, our Lord Jesus preached to his
disciples. Here we see him the preacher.
Here we see him as the great prophet. This is the one who
reveals the mind and the will and the purpose of God, who speaks
words of instruction and peace to his people. And the Lord Jesus,
from chapter 13 through chapter 16, He deals with a multitude
of subjects. And we would do well as the people
of God, as His disciples, as those who follow Him, as those
who believe Him, we would do well to go through these chapters
and read what He has to say to these disciples and then take
them to heart ourselves. For in these chapters He gives
He gives wonderful instructions and edification. He admonishes
His brethren, His people, His followers, and He gives to us
a veritable education of the things that are vital to us. He spoke to these men about going
away. He was going to the cross of
Calvary in order to save his people. He's going back to the
Father. He told them, don't let your
heart be troubled. You believe in God? Believe in
me. Believe me. Believe me, for I
am God. Believe me, I'm your Redeemer. Believe me, I'm the one who's
going to save you. And when one asked where he was
going to, he said, I'm going to the Father. And he said, I'm
the way to the Father. There is no other way. Man comes
up with a multitude of ways to get to God, but our Lord Jesus,
speaking as that one who is the truth of God himself, he says,
I am the way. It's just one way to God. It's
not the Catholic way or the Baptist way or the Episcopal way, the
Presbyterian way, all of these different ways. No, there's one
way. It's God's way and that's Christ the Lord. And He is the
living way for He who was dead arose again and He ever lives
to make intercession for His people. So he says, I am the
way. And then he tells Philip and
the rest of the disciples, listen, if you've seen me, you've seen
the father. And then of course, we go back
to John chapter 10, where he said, I am the father of one.
So any man who laid eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, he was looking
into the very face of God. and Philip and the rest of the
brethren didn't understand that fully, and yet we know that is
absolutely a fact. That one who walked on this earth,
who was born of a virgin, and lived a perfect life, who died
on the cross of Calvary, he's God in the flesh. No wonder,
therefore, in Acts chapter 20, The apostle Paul is preaching
to the Ephesian elders. He said to them, feed the church
of God, which he purchased with his own blood. You mean God has
blood? Yes. That one who is the son
of God. He's God incarnate. He's God come down from heaven
and he gave his life. He really died. That's a payment
for sin. That's what the law demanded,
death for sin, and that's what he did, he died. And so those
who see Christ Jesus have seen the Father, and we've said before,
all of God we will ever see is the Lord Jesus Christ. For all
the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in Him. And in Him, we
see the Father. In Him, we see the Holy Spirit.
He is indeed the Son of God. He goes on to tell these men
about how the Father loved them. He said, the Father has loved
you as He's loved me. And then he gave these vital
instructions. He said, now, as I have loved
you, that's the way you should love each other. How should I
love you? How should you love all of God's
people? Just as Christ Jesus loves you. That's the command of God. You say, I wish you'd give me
some practical instruction tonight, preacher. There's one. Let's
love one another, not in word only, but in word indeed. You
see, we go over the first John and the Lord said that's the
way we're to love. Indeed, not just in word. Anybody can say, I love you.
I love you. Well, okay, words not gonna feed
me. Words are not gonna make me warm.
In fact, that's what it says there in the book of 1 John.
So he says, don't love in word only, but in word indeed. Indeed,
because that's how Christ loved us. How do we know he loved us?
He gave himself for us. He died for us. In fact, he would
say to these men, greater love hath no man than this. that he
laid down his life for his friends. And then he told these men, and
he tells us, he said, I'm not gonna leave you comfortless.
Here he's spoken about going away, and now they're wondering,
well, what are we gonna do now? And he says, I'm not gonna leave
you by yourself. Literally, I'm not gonna leave
you as orphans. I'm not gonna leave you as little
children who have no guardian, who have no parent, who has no
one to look after them. He said, I'm gonna send you the
spirit. I'm gonna send you the comforter.
He'll be with you and he will teach you. That's what the Savior
said. And then he said, remember this,
you didn't choose me. He said, I chose you. He taught
him the doctrine of election again. He had often spoken of
that glorious subject. And he brought it up again to
these men to remind them they didn't seek him out, he sought
them out. They weren't looking for him,
he went looking for them. That's the way it is in salvation.
No man seeketh after God, so if any of us are gonna come to
God through Christ Jesus, we've got to be sought out. And that's what we are called,
we're sought out by God himself. And then he warned them of coming
troubles. These men, remember, they had
wrong ideas about the kingdom and they anticipated an earthly
kingdom in which all of their troubles would be over. And Israel
was gonna rule the world again like the glory days of David
and Solomon. He said, it's not gonna happen.
These men have anticipated an earthly kingdom, and now our
Lord has disappointed them. He said, that's not the way it
is. He said, they're gonna seek you out, and they're gonna kill
you, and they're gonna think they've done God's service. No,
it's not gonna be easy for you, he said. It's gonna be tough.
But he said, I'm with you. I'm with you. And so, In these
chapters 13, 14, 15, and 16, here's our Savior, and He's a
preacher, He's the prophet. He's the prophet. And then we
come to chapter 17, which we've covered, and now He isn't preaching
anymore, now He's praying. Now He's praying as our, He's
our priest. He goes to God on behalf of these
men and on the behalf of all those who would ever come to
believe on his name. He prays for his disciples. And
this is part of his work as our high priest. He prays for these
men who followed Him then, but He also prays for all who will
ever follow Him. Are you a follower of Christ
Jesus? Are you a believer of Christ
Jesus? Are you devoted to Him? Do you
rest in Him? Is He your only hope of salvation,
of glory, of righteousness? Is He the one you trust for salvation? Then rest assured, He's praying
for you in this prayer. You're included in this. He said, I pray not for the world.
I pray for those that you've given me. Here is our great high
priest offering these wonderful petitions to the heavenly father. In verse 11 of chapter 17, he
addresses God as the holy father. And then a little further down,
he says in verse 25, look at 17, 25, you're close by there. He says, oh righteous father,
oh righteous father. And these men are listening to
him as he speaks of the father as holy father and righteous
father. And he says, the world hath not
known thee. The world by wisdom, 1 Corinthians
chapter one, the world by wisdom knew not God. The world doesn't
know God. But he says, but I've known thee.
He knows the mind of God. He knows the will of God. He
knows the purpose of God. He knows the ways of God. He
knows the commands of God. He knows the laws of God. He
knows everything about God because he is God. He says, I've known thee and
I've known that thou has sent me. And he says this in verse 26,
and I've declared unto them, I've declared unto these men
thy name. Now they know you. They know
you. You see our Lord Jesus, he is
the priest who reveals the, he reveals the father. And he reveals
the secrets of God. He reveals the gospel. He revealed
the gospel to these men. Now, you know, Judas is not with
these men anymore. He left back in chapter 13. So
here are 11 men to whom our Lord is speaking. And he says, when
he prays to the righteous father, and like I say, the world doesn't
know God. They don't know anything about
righteousness. They don't know a thing about his demands for
righteousness, his insistence upon righteousness. The world
is ignorant of God and ignorant of his righteousness, but he
says, I have declared unto these men who you are. And he's revealed
to these men who the Lord is and all of his attributes. And
he's revealed to them the secret of the gospel. You see, he is
a prophet in that he is a preacher. But he is also, he is the priest
who remembers these men in prayer, and he reveals secrets to them. You will remember in the book
of Genesis, Joseph, who revealed the dreams of Pharaoh, and Pharaoh
gave him another name, Zaphnath-Pionah. which means the revealer of secrets. He's the revealer of secrets.
Nobody else knew what the dreams meant, but he told Pharaoh what
the dreams meant. That's our Lord Jesus. He's the
revealer of the secrets of God. The scripture says the secret
of God belongs to those who fear Him. What is the secret of God? The secret of God is how God
can be just and justify the ungodly. And you won't know that unless
our Lord Jesus reveals it to you. And so he says, I've declared
unto them thy name and I will declare it. The reason these
men knew God, I know there was a lot they didn't know, but they
knew God. They knew Christ Jesus, and they
believed Him, and the reason was because the Lord Jesus, He
declared to them who God is. If there's anything that needs
to be done today from our pulpits in America is somebody needs
to declare who God is. This is an ignorant generation.
They don't know God. It's like the Lord said to Israel,
you thought I was exactly like you are. You put me down on your
level. In order to comprehend me, He
said, you liken me to yourselves. He said, I'm not like you. And this world has no idea of
the sovereignty of God, the omnipotence of God, the omniscience of God. He's all knowing, He's all powerful. He does what He pleases, when
He pleases, with whom He pleases. The world is ignorant of that.
But He teaches His people. And then that brings us to the,
here's the third thing. And this is chapter 18. The first nine verses, here our
Lord protects his disciples. First of all, he preached to
them. Then he praised for them, and now he protects them. And
in this, we see him as the king. As a preacher, he's the prophet.
As the one who prays for them, he's the priest. And now we see
him protecting his people, standing up for his people, and he does
so as the king. And I'll just show you something,
and then I'm gonna go back and take in the whole context. But
look what the Lord Jesus says when they come to arrest him.
And we'll get into this, but you're already at least somewhat
familiar with this passage of scripture. Notice what it says
in verse eight. Jesus answered and said, I have
told you that I am. If therefore you seek me, let
these go their way. Here's a command. You want me? Let these go. Where the word
of the king is, there's power. He says in verse nine, that the
saying might be fulfilled, which he spake, of them which thou
gavest me, I have lost none. Let these go. And this is the
doctrine of substitution. If you want me, and they asked
for him, they didn't ask for anybody else. He said, who you
looking for? They said, Jesus of Nazareth.
They didn't say the Christ, because they didn't believe he was the
Christ. They said, Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I am. And they all fell
down. And they dusted themselves off
as they got up again. And he said, I say to you again,
who you looking for? He said, Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I told you, I am. Now, if you want me, you let
these go. That's the word of a king. Now,
let's see how we get to that part where he is the great protector
of his people. Let's see some things that leads
up to this as we go into chapter 18. Here, first of all, is crossing
the brook. The brook is called Cedrum. Chapter
18, verse one. When Jesus had spoken these words,
It's interesting how both chapter 17 and 18 begin, because chapter
17 says, these words spake Jesus, and that's speaking about his
message, his preaching, from 13, 14, 15, and 16. When you get to chapter 18, it
says, when Jesus had spoken these words, now that's speaking about
the prayer that he offered. When he had spoken these words,
when he had spoken to the father, he had spoken, understand this,
and I know you do, but from chapters 13 to 16, he spoke to the people
about God. He spoke to the people about
God. In chapter 17, he speaks to God
about the people. That's the difference. He speaks
to God about the people. Now, when he had spoken these
words, watch the next few words. He went forth with his disciples. He's not reluctant, even though
he knows exactly what awaits him. Look at verse four. Jesus
therefore knowing all things that should come upon him. And
yet it says in verse one, he went forth. He is not hesitant. He's not reluctant to go. He
doesn't kind of dilly-dally around or procrastinate. No, he went
forth. And you know, John is very specific
in always honoring Christ Jesus. And he shows him, in fact, We'll
get into this more as our Lord is going to Gethsemane. Did you
know Matthew, Mark, and Luke, you read Matthew's account, Mark's
account, Luke's account, they all speak of our Lord in the
garden of Gethsemane, praying, asking for, if it be God's will,
let the cup pass from Him. Luke talks about He sweat their
great drops of blood, But you don't read anything like that
in John. Ever thought about that? You
never read any, you can read in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and
all talk about Christ going, pours out his heart to the Father.
He's in agony. He's in agony. He's in a conflict
with the devil. And Satan would tempt him to
forget the cup. Forget what you're gonna have
to go through with. And he's just, he's stirred up in his
own mind and in his own heart. In fact, the scripture says,
God sent an angel to strengthen him, figure that one out. But when you get to the book
of John, you don't read anything like that. John doesn't mention
him weeping in the garden. John doesn't mention sweating,
as it were, great drops of blood, the agony in the garden. John
doesn't mention any of that. Why not? Because John's purpose
has been to present Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of God. And
he always presents Him in a royal way. In a way in which He is
the one who is in control. He is the one who is dominant.
He is the one now who goes forth with His disciples knowing full
well what awaits Him. The beating, the mockery, the
crucifixion, the agony of the cross, the wrath of God that's
gonna fall on Him, bearing the sins of all of His people in
His own body on the tree, knowing all of that's going to confront
Him, He goes forth boldly and courageously. This is our Savior. And this is how John presents
him. And he goes forth with his disciples, and they'd been with
him all week. In fact, they'd been with him
pretty much three years. And they go forth across the
brook, the brook Cedron, which in the Old Testament is called
Cedron, Cedron. which is, that's from a Hebrew
word translated into the English, this is from a Greek word translated
into the English. And if you would, go with me
to 2 Samuel 15. Because here we find about another
person who went across this brook, Kidron, or Cedron, and it's David. I'll tell you just a little bit
about this book, Cedron, or Kedron, depending on whether you're reading
the Old Testament or the New Testament. It means black. And
it wasn't a full flowing stream of water, except during the wintertime. Most of the time it was a ditch.
Think of it as a ditch most of the time. And into that ditch,
all the excrements of the temple sacrifices were released. That's where the ashes of idols
were dumped. It was a filthy, filthy brook. It's called black. And many years
before this, that one who was certainly a picture and type
of Christ, David, he also crossed this brook. He also had been
betrayed. Remember our Lord Jesus has been
betrayed by Judas. David has been betrayed by one
of his friends, Ahithophel. And David's son Absalom, he's
got a following. And most of the nation seems
to be following Absalom. And David, in disgrace, barefooted
with his followers, he goes across this exact same brook. 2 Samuel chapter 15, verse 23.
2 Samuel 15, 23. and all the country wept with
a loud voice, and all the people passed over. Where are they coming
from? From David's palace. He's leaving the palace. The
king also himself passed over the brook Kidron, and all the
people passed over toward the way of the wilderness. In other
words, David is leaving the enemy. He's leaving those who are opposed
to him. He's leaving the city. If you'll
look down verse 30, David went up by the way of a scent to Mount
Olivet and he wept as he went up. He had his head covered and
he went barefoot. And all the people that was with
him covered every man his head and they went up weeping as they
went up. Everybody's crying. David's crying. It's a sad time. But you get
over here in John chapter 18. Here's that one who fulfilled
the type of David. He's not running from the enemy.
He's going toward the enemy. He's going into the conflict.
He is our great champion. He is our great conqueror. And
he's not staying away from it. He's not retreating out into
the wilderness as David did. Here is David, David's Lord and
David's son. And he goes forth, goes forth
to meet the enemy. The enemy is our sin. The enemy
is Satan. He goes forth to deal with the
law of God on our behalf. And he goes forth willingly and
anxiously to take on work of redemption. And so he goes across
the book, Cedron. Verse one, where was the garden?
The garden of Gethsemane. The garden of Gethsemane. Which,
that comes from a word that means a dark valley, or excuse me,
it means to be squeezed, like olives were squeezed. And our
Lord Jesus, he's gonna be oppressed by the wrath of God. And that
which will come forth from him will be the juice of life for
all of his people. And he entered into this garden. He crosses the brook. He crosses
the brook. Here's our Savior, willingly
going toward the conflict. Now look at verses two and three.
And here we find about Judas, and he knew exactly where the
Savior was going. And Judas also, which betrayed
him, and literally would be which was betraying him. He was right
then in the act of betraying him. He knew the place. Oh yeah, he knew the place. The
scripture says that our Lord had virtually every night for
the past week or so, He had gone to this garden to pray. And Judas,
he had gone with him. He knew exactly where the Savior
could be found. Because it says, for Jesus oft
times resorted thither with his disciples. Then, verse three, Judas then,
having received a band of men, a band of Roman soldiers, which,
well, depends on which, encyclopedia or a dictionary or commentator
that you might check out, varied anywhere from 600 soldiers down
to 200 soldiers. Most say it was 600. So he's
received a band of 600 Roman soldiers and officers from the
chief priests and Pharisees. In other words, these are the
temple police, which usually numbered at least a couple of
hundred. They come to thither with lanterns and torches and
weapons. We're talking about nearly a
thousand people who are after one man who is unarmed. A thousand people with lanterns
and torches, and you know who they've come after? That one
who's the light of the world. But they're still in their darkness.
And they can't see who He is. They can't perceive His real
identity. John has already said back in
the first chapter, He came unto His own and His own received
Him not. He came to His own world, His
own nation, His own family, and they received Him not. They're
in the dark. And this is the one who is the
light of the world. And here they come fully armed,
armed to the teeth. after an unarmed Jewish carpenter
and miracle worker. It's a massive number who come
to arrest him. They anticipate that perhaps
he'll do something as heroic as he had done earlier in the
week. He had entered into the temple at Passover time and he
turned over the money changers tables and he drove thousands
of people out of the temple. They're not going to risk him
doing any such thing ever again. He did that at the beginning
of his ministry. He did that at the end of his
ministry. And so the temple police and the chief priests and the
Roman soldiers, we're gonna be prepared this time. We'll be
armed. and he won't be able to do that
again. But here's what they didn't understand. This was his hour
for death. This was the time he had often
spoken of. Now I know before he slipped
right through their fingers when they tried to arrest him, but
not this time. This is when our debt due to
the justice of God, our debt was due. payment was now required. And so he crosses the brook,
even though he knows what's ahead of him. And he knows Judas is
there. And you notice it talks about
the chief priests and the Pharisees, they came with lanterns and torches. You know what that is? Artificial
light. And that's exactly what false
religion is. It is artificial light. It is light that men have come
up with themselves. And there's the one who's the
son of righteousness, standing right in front of them. Well,
look here, here's the third thing I wanna show you. from verses
four through seven, Jesus confronts the mob. Look at verse four,
Jesus therefore knowing all things that should come upon him, he
went forth. It's like taking the bull by
the horns. This is our magnificent savior. And again, I remind you,
John is presenting him as the king. John is presenting him
as the one who is in charge and in control of this total situation. These men, all the Roman soldiers,
600 of them perhaps, the temple police, a couple of hundred of
those, the chief priests, and all the other dignitaries, and
then the common people who join in as the mob march toward the
Garden of Gethsemane. They're not in charge. It's the
Savior. Here's the King. He's got this
situation well in hand. Oh, it will result with His death,
but that's what He's purposed all along. Because He's the Lamb
who was slain before the foundation of the world. And so here they
come, and He's not trying to hide. You say, why do they have
the lanterns and the torches? Because it's still dark. And
the Lord Jesus and His disciples would have dressed very similar
to one another. And so there are twelve men here
in the darkness and people are trying to see. Which one is he? Judas said, I'll kiss him on
the cheek and tell you, which he does. It isn't recorded here,
but most likely, probably between verses eight and nine, that's
when it happened, though John doesn't actually record that
it's happened. But he goes to them, here's this
big mob, and he says, whom seek ye? And they answered him, Jesus
of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am. You notice the word he is italicized. Which means those who translated
the King James translators who did an outstanding job and I'm
still persuaded it's the best translation ever. They put this in thinking it'd
kind of make it a better sentence, better grammatically. But the
word he, our Lord didn't use the word he just said, I am,
I am. And that's, of course, the same
name that the Lord told Moses when the Lord identified Himself
to Moses. The Lord spoke out of a burning
bush, and Moses said, who shall I say when I go to Israel? And
I tell them, well, I've got instructions to lead you out of your captivity. Who shall I say has sent me?
The Lord said then, tell them I am has sent you. And our Lord
Jesus does not hesitate to take that same name of divinity. I am. And then before we go on,
there's a little statement at the end of verse five that's
truly sad. And Judas also, which was betraying
him, stood with them. Isn't that sad? He stood with
them. He stood with them. For three
years, He stood with the Lord Jesus. He stood with His brethren. He stood on the side of truth. He stood for the gospel. He stood
for God's honor. But He's not standing with the
Lord anymore. He's with the enemy. He's over here on their side.
Moses said, after he had destroyed the golden calf that he had made
upon the insistence of the Israelites. And Moses came down, the calf
was destroyed, ground up, put into water, made the people drink
it. Moses looked at the people and said, now who's on the Lord's
side? Who's on the Lord's side? And I can just hear Judas saying,
not me. Isn't that sad? Not me. I was over there, but
I'm not on that side anymore. I'm not on the side of truth.
I'm not on the side of the gospel anymore. And you know, I've known
people who've left the gospel. It's a sad thing. Now they stand on the other side. And the only reason we still
stand with the truth is because the Lord is preserving us. He's
keeping us. Oh, Lord, don't let us go, or
we'll go to the other side. He said, I am. Look at verse
six. As soon in as he had said unto
them, I am, they went backward and fell to the ground. Oh, such
power. This is truly omnipotence. I am. Listen, he spake and the
world came into existence. There's power in his words. And
he just spoke three letters. I am. Two very, very short words. I am. And they all hit the 1,000
people find themselves on the ground. at His Word. And you would think after that
happens, somebody would get up and say, let's get out of here.
I'm leaving. I don't wanna deal with this
man. But deal with this man, everybody must. Because on the day of judgment,
oh, what power He will demonstrate in that day. Depart from me. I never knew him. Well, I guess they got up, kinda
dusted themselves off, and then ask he them again, whom seek
ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Again, I wanna remind you, they
didn't say, we're looking for the Christ, because they didn't
believe he was the Christ. They believed he was an imposter. Then Jesus answered. And here's where he protects
his own. He speaks up for his own people.
Though all the cross of Calvary awaits him, he still is the king
who has on his mind and on his heart the protection of his people. He answered and said, I have
told you that I am. If therefore you seek me, let
these go their way. He's insistent upon it. And so
here's the last thing, Jesus protects his own. Now you'll
remember, look back in chapter 17. Look at chapter 17, verse 12. In his high priestly prayer,
he said, while I was with them in the world, I kept them in
thy name. Those whom thou gavest me, I
have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition,
the son of ruin, the son of destruction, that the scripture might be fulfilled. He said, I've kept your people. And now he says, Let these go their way, verse
nine, is the fulfillment of what I just read back in chapter 17.
That the saying might be fulfilled which he spake. Of them which
thou gavest me, I have lost none. These men are very specific in
asking only for him. None of the disciples were included
in the arrest warrant. You see, in the book of God's
eternal purpose, the Lord had ordained that his son, the Lord
Jesus, be arrested and put to death in the stead of his people. The justice of God has always
looked to our Savior for full satisfaction. The law has always
looked to Him for the answering of all of its demands. And in
this work of redemption, our Savior says, let these go. You want me. I'm the one you're
looking for. Let these go. It cannot be that
the Lord Jesus died and that these, his people, die also. See, here's the truth of substitution. Our Lord Jesus died in the stead,
in the place of all of his people, and none of his people can perish. He steps forward. Take me, but
let these go. Let these go. Let these go their
way. You see, our Lord Jesus must
suffer, bleed, and die alone. First of all, he must suffer,
bleed, and die alone because nobody else could do the work.
He said, I have trodden, Isaiah 63, I've trodden the winepress
of God's wrath alone. He said, there's nobody with
me. Who else could redeem Him? Who could aid Him in the work
of reconciliation? Nobody could. This is a work
only Christ the Lord could do. So these must be released. And I'll tell you something else.
It cannot be that they would die with Him. Now, would they
die? Yes, later they would, right?
He talked about that. When he talked about drinking
the cup, he said, are you able to drink the cup? He said, you'll
drink it one day, but not with me. You see, if the disciples,
if Peter and John, say Peter, James, and John, if they had
been also arrested and taken with the Savior and they had
died, you know what people would say? We have four saviors. Because
men are idolatrous by nature. No, it cannot be that anybody
would die but the Savior. Just the Savior. Now would these
men die? Oh yeah. James is going to be
beheaded. Simon Peter is going to be crucified
upside down. And the rest of the disciples,
with the exception of John, will die. A martyr's death. But the
death of our Savior, it's not the death of a martyr. No, His
is not the death of a martyr. His is the death of the Savior.
Because He goes forth, not timidly, not sheepishly, not like dreading
it. He goes, He crosses the brook.
There he goes, and here's this great mob, and they don't know
who he is. Why, he could have just snuck
behind the rest of the disciples and gone out in the bushes and
gone his way, but no, no, he's not going to evade this. It was for this purpose he came
into the world, to give his life a ransom for us. He's the Savior. This is how he saved us. by confronting
the enemy for all of his people. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. And that's our next song, our
last song for the year.