Well we come to John's Gospel
and the first few verses of chapter 18 this morning, and the title
of the message is what you see in verse 8. Let these go their
way. Speaking of his disciples, let
these go their way. In John chapters 18 and 19, the
Holy Spirit reveals to us how the infinite Holy God satisfies
his own offended justice for the multitude of sinners he loved
before the beginning of time, so that they might be qualified.
to be with Him, as we were looking at last week, that they might
be with Him, where He is, to behold His glory. How the Sovereign
God, the God of holiness and justice, whose justice is offended
by the sin of those people, by all sin, but by the sin of those
people yet, grace. This is his way of justifying
them. It's not a way. It's not a way
of knowing the truth. Oh, that's nice for you to live
your life like that. No, it's the one and only way. There isn't another. I am the
way, the truth, and the life, said Jesus in John 14 verse 6. No man comes to the Father but
by me, so don't think there's any other way, for there isn't.
One and only one way. The mystery of godliness, as
Paul writes to Timothy, is very deep. Great is the mystery of
godliness. that the infinite, eternal, unknowable
God, that we who are sinners and mortal and limited might
know the One who is the Creator and Upholder of this universe,
is a complete mystery, isn't it? It's only because of His
revelation that He should be made man in the Lord Jesus Christ
in order to redeem. Redeem? Pay a purchase price,
to buy back, to buy liberty, to buy the freedom of his multitude,
his innumerable multitude, from sin's curse. That's what it's
all about. How deep is that mystery? That
the infinite God should, as the hymn says, be contracted to a
span. Infinite God made man. That He
might do that, that He might pay the price of sin. He might pay redemption's price. In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark,
and Luke, they give the account of the arrest, and the false
trial, and the crucifixion, and the death of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and His burial. They're the synoptic Gospels,
they tell it as a story, they tell it as it was, and they stress
in those Gospels the true humanity of Jesus, the man. God fully
became man. When he was born at Bethlehem,
he fully became man, and those Gospels stress his true humanity. They stress the intense suffering
of his soul made sin, and paying its price to justice. But John
emphasizes his true deity. Here we see the deity of God.
Not the apparent weakness of a man being taken, and bound,
and falsely tried, and cruelly treated, but God exercising sovereign
control over all events. It all unfolds to fulfill Scripture,
exactly as the Scripture throughout, from Genesis, from the Garden
onwards, how it says in the revelation of God
what he would do to accomplish the salvation of his people.
This is the will of God, said Jesus, that of all that he's
given me I should lose nothing. That's the will of God, that's
what it's about, it's the salvation of that multitude the Father
gave to the Son before the beginning of time. And is there any possibility
that he shall not succeed. Isaiah 42 verse 4 says he shall
not fail. The Lord Jesus Christ in his
mission of redemption shall not fail nor be discouraged. If you
listen to the majority of what calls itself Christian religion,
Arminian Christian religion, free will man's will Christian
religion, I'm afraid the salvation of men depends entirely on the
fickle nature of fallen man. I don't even trust myself to
do anything that I decide to do tomorrow. Things will happen
that will stop me. Things will happen that will...
Honestly, would you think God would leave the salvation of
the multitude that he's determined to save, that he said he shall
not fail? Would he leave that to the will of those people?
Of course not. It's all of sovereign grace.
Watch his imperious divine majesty shine through this scene of seeming
capture and disgrace. Here he is, with his eleven apostles
with him, and he's taken, and he's bound, and he's spat upon,
and he's treated terribly, and he's taken to the judgment hall.
And justice? There's no such thing, just like
the justice in this world today. Evil, because of the sin in the
hearts of man. But through it all, you watch
his imperious divine majesty shine through. He's not being
taken against his will, he's decreeing that it should be.
for the purpose of salvation. The final teaching of Jesus in
the chapters from the end of 13 to the end of 17, and the
prayer, that high priestly prayer in chapter 17, there completed. It was all on that one evening
before the crucifixion. It was all on that evening before
the Passover celebration. The long-awaited hour has come. The long-awaited, here it is,
he's there. And they've gone out, they've
gone out into the garden. So first of all, the first point
is in verse one. In verse one, when Jesus had
spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook
Kedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered and his
disciples. A garden and a brook. Scripture
is God's declaration to His beloved people of their salvation from
the just curse of sin. The curse of sin is the soul
that sins, it shall die an eternal death. It shall come under the
judgment of God. Salvation is to be saved from
that curse. Scripture is God-breathed. That's
what Paul writes to Timothy. Scripture, all scripture is God-breathed. It's inspired. That's what the
word inspired means. Written by sinful men, yet divinely
inspired. And it's impossible to plummet
step. You can't get to the bottom of
it. We see glimpses, we understand so much. It's impossible to get
to the bottom of it, even in eternal glory without sin. It
will be an eternal fascination. this theme of redeeming grace,
but as the scripture says on many occasions, you know, this
that we've discovered, it is marvelous in our eyes. We don't
understand it, but it's marvelous in our eyes. The angels desire
to look into it. The first Adam was created in
a garden, in the Garden of Eden, Genesis 1, 2. In that same garden,
in Genesis 3, Adam, the first Adam, surrendered God's kingdom,
of which God had made him viceroy, vice-king, to Satan. He surrendered it in that garden,
he handed it over to the command and control of Satan. And now,
here, In John 18, the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ,
because all, all, are either in the first Adam or the second
Adam as their federal head. Now the second Adam goes to a
garden, another garden, to submit to God's sovereign purposes.
He who is God, but God made man, with all of the characteristics
of human flesh except for sin, He goes to a garden to submit
to God's purposes, to undo for his people that which Adam's
fall did for the whole of humanity. In Acts 2.23, the Apostle Peter,
one of the eleven that went with him into this garden, and not
really understanding, and about as fervent as he was in his love
and devotion to Jesus, yet so capable of betraying Him in denying
Him three times before the cock crew that morning. He preached
this on the day of Pentecost, about forty days later, Him being
delivered, Jesus being delivered. By what? not by the gang that
came to arrest him, but by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God. This was God's purpose, to accomplish
his design of redemption. He says, it was all in the sovereign
purpose of God, but you, you Pharisees, you rulers, you scribes,
you Romans, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified
and slain. He comes to this garden. He crosses
the brook Kidron. That's the same brook as we read
about in the Old Testament as Kidron in the Hebrew. This is
Greek, but in the Old Testament it's Hebrew. So it's the brook
Kidron, K-I-D-R-O-N, in the Old Testament. And that brook, outside
of Jerusalem, in the garden outside of Jerusalem, is a foul stream. It's a revolting stream. The
name of it, Kidron, means turbid. It means blackness. Into this
stream, you imagine all of the temple sacrifices that were going
on, and the blood that was being shed, all picturing redemption. All of that blood had to go somewhere
and it ran down the hill into the brook Kidron. It was a foul,
stream, and all of the detritus of the temple sacrifices, the
remains were burnt there, outside of the city, outside of the wall. It was over this brook, Kidron,
this foul stream, that on the Day of Atonement, every year,
once a year, the scapegoat, symbolically loaded with the sins of the people.
You know, they laid their hands, the priest laid his hand on the
head of the scapegoat, as a symbol of the sins of the people being
put on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah. And that scapegoat
takes them away. That's where we get the expression
from, taking the sins away as far as the East is from the West.
The scapegoat is led by a fit man over the bruchedron into
a wilderness and chased away to take it away, as if the sins,
symbolically, are being taken away. Over this brook, 2 Samuel
chapter 15, David, who is a picture of Christ, King David, the king,
fled from his son Absalom when Absalom had raised an army to
try and take the kingdom from him. David fled across this brook. David's greater son now crosses
this same brook, this same foul stream. It was here in the days
of King Asa, 2 Chronicles chapter 15 and verse 16, that Asa, his
mother was an idolatress, she had idols, and he burned his
mother's idol there at this stream. It was there where good King
Josiah cleared the idols out of the temple. The temple had
been profaned with idolatry. And Josiah, good King Josiah,
sought the Lord and he took all of this out of the temple. 2
Kings chapter 23. It was here at this brook Kedron
that Hezekiah cleansed the filth of the temple. 2 Chronicles chapter
29. And all of it pictured what Christ
would do in cleansing sin. What sin am I talking about?
the foul stream of his people's iniquities. Look at Psalm 110
that we read earlier. It says in verse 7, did you notice
at the end? He shall drink of the brook in
the way, therefore shall he lift up the head. Who shall drink
of the brook? The Lord, lowercase, capital L, lowercase. The Lord,
the Messiah, the manifestation of the Lord, small caps. the unknowable God, the manifestation
of Him to His people. He, in His bodily form as a man,
shall drink of the brook in the way. Of course, He didn't literally
drink the foul waters of the brook, but the Father, God the
Father, had given the Son a foul cup of His people's sins, and
the divine fury for which those sins called, that He should drink
it. that he should drink that cup
to the dregs, that none of it should be left. Look at verse
11 of our chapter. Then said Jesus unto Peter, when
he'd cut off the ear of Malchus, put up thy sword into the sheath.
The cup which my father hath given me, shall I not drink it?
the cup of the wrath of God, the just punishment of God for
the sins that were to be loaded onto the Son of God at the cross
of Calvary that He might pay for them. He'd given Him that
foul cup of His people's sins and all of the judgments that
should come upon them, that He should drink it. Here we see
infinite God, for even in this man at this moment dwelt the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. Here we see Him bearing His people's
sins, and paying the price of that sin for liberty of those
people from the curse, the curse that says they must die, and
He pays the price for their liberty from that punishment, that condemnation.
Why does He do it? To accomplish what His Word says
throughout. We can only dip in. Isaiah 51
and verse 22, listen to this, listen to this. Thus saith thy
Lord, the Lord, and thy God. Look, it's there again. The Lord,
the first one, is lowercase. The second one is capital letters. Thus saith thy Lord, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Lord, the unknowable God, and thy God, that pleadeth
the cause of his people. Behold, I have taken out of thine
hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury. Thou shalt no more drink it again.
Child of God, or person conscious of your sin before God, and conscious
that there is a cup of judgment coming your way, it is appointed
to man to die once and then the judgment, God there says that
the Lord Jesus Christ has taken that cup out of your hand and
drunk it in your place. Just as Galatians 3, you know
verse 10 says this, the curse of the law, cursed is everyone
as it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things
that are written in the book of the law to do them. God demands
absolute perfection, not a good effort, a good effort's no good.
The best of efforts is no good. The best of efforts does not
cut it with the justice of God. Cursed is everyone that does
not continue, always, forever, without ever slipping up. all
things in the book of the law to do them perfectly, continually. Read three verses on. And Christ
has redeemed his people from the curse of the law. He's paid
the liberty price from that curse that they must die. How has he
done it? By being made a curse for them. By bearing that curse
as their substitute, in their place, as their surety. We see,
secondly, In these verses 2 and 3, Judas also which betrayed
him knew the place, for Jesus oft times resorted thither with
his disciples. Judas then, having received a
band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees,
cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons. It just
shows how ignorant man is by nature. Here is the sovereign
God. in his state of humility. And here comes a crowd of people
to arrest him. You know, people think today,
religious folks think, ah, if only Christ were here now, then
people would believe in him, wouldn't they? If only he walked
down this lane here and, oh, everybody would be flocking out
of their houses to believe him, wouldn't they? You ask any of
the religious people around here, they'd say, oh, wouldn't that
be wonderful? No. No. In Luke chapter 16 and verse
31, Jesus is telling the parable of the rich man and Lazarus,
you know, and their state in eternity. And there is the poor
beggar that had a dreadful life, he's in glory in Abraham's bosom. And the rich man is in great
pain and torment, for he knew nothing of God and wanted nothing
to do with God. And he cries out, to Lazarus,
please, please send somebody to my brothers who are still
alive and warn them about this place because if they hear, then
they will believe and they will turn from their wicked ways that
they come not to this torment. And Abraham in the parable replies,
They've got Moses and the prophets, they've got the scriptures. Listen
to what God says in his word. No, but if only somebody should
rise from the dead, pleads the rich man in hell. And Abraham
says this to him, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither
will they believe if one should rise from the dead. It is exactly
the same today, exactly the same. The hardness of the hearts of
men and women, don't underestimate it. We are sin. That is what we are by nature.
And sin, do you know what the fundamental sin is? It's not
anything you do, it's the fact that you call God a liar. You
do not believe God. Here is God, the fullness of
the Godhead bodily, in a body, with his eleven apostles. And
they're arrayed in this garden against Judas the betrayer, who'd
spent three and a half years with him, it seems, in intimate
contact, had even gone out and preached the gospel that he was
bidden to go and preach. And with him, it says a band
of soldiers with him, armed. You often think that it's maybe
a dozen or so. Don't be fooled. This was hundreds. men armed. This was a great force. They gave them, you know, I don't
know whether it was a legion, but it was a large number of
Roman soldiers. And they come to arrest him,
to be sure. You know, he's escaped them so
many times, we'll make sure he doesn't get away this time. So
they sent a big band. And all of these people, like
Judas, even as close as he got to Christ, there is a broad way
to eternal destruction. on which Christless multitudes
amble along ignorantly. That's a fact. The world around
us, they're ambling along that broad way that leads to destruction.
A lot of it goes under the name of Christianity. A lot of this
broad way goes under the name of Christianity. I saw something
that somebody posted on a social site in the week, and I thought
it was really, really good. It was something that Charles
Spurgeon wrote, which must have been 150 years ago, and he was
lamenting the state of the church, the so-called church, and he
said, the day is coming and now is almost upon us, when instead
of in the churches you will see shepherds feeding the sheep,
Instead of that, you will see clowns entertaining the goats. If you look around this country,
the United Kingdom, those places that look like and call themselves
churches are filled with clowns entertaining goats in the name
of religion. Oh, that's a harsh thing to say.
It's the truth. It's the truth. It's exactly what God says. Are
you with them on that way? or will you come out from them,
as His word calls for, and seek the truth of God and that alone?
Will you seek Christ and believe Him while He may be found? For
that's the only way to the Father. So an ignorant crowd, and it
goes on to this day, plenty of it, but we see a sovereign Savior
with a purpose. In verse 4, Jesus therefore,
knowing all things that should come upon Him, went forth and
said to this crowd, he went to meet them. The Son of God knew
from the beginning what must be accomplished. Before time
began, he undertook in the covenant of grace to be a substitute for
his bride, to be the substitute, the surety for his bride, the
people he would save. He knew the injustice to which
fallen man would subject him, for he was without sin. He knew
what was coming, knowing all things that should come upon
him. He knew that he would be subject to scourging. Did he
deserve it? Of course not. He knew he would
be subject to spitting and vile comments. He knew that a crown
of thorns would be pressed on his head. He knew that he would
bear a cross unjustly and be crucified with the cruel nails.
He knew all of these things were coming upon him, the vinegar
to drink. But he also knew the justice of God must fall on him
when made the sin of his people. As a man, he shrank back from
it. In the other Gospels we read
of him, sweating as it were great drops of blood, praying in the
garden before they went to meet this crowd, praying, if it be
possible, Father, if it be possible that this cup might be taken
from me, nevertheless not my will, but thine be done. And
what is the will of the Father? That of all that he has given
him, that all the Father has given the Son, he should lose
nothing. The Son should lose not one of them, that every one
of them should not only be saved, but should be saved to the uttermost,
qualified to be in heaven. But here, John shows him as God. not subdued, but voluntarily
stepping forward. He knew all things and he went
forth. They didn't have to come and
subdue him and bind him and tie him up against his will, he voluntarily
stepped forward. Why did he do that? Why? Hebrews
12 verse 2 tells us. It says, for the joy that was
set before him. He endured the cross, despising
its shame, not being deterred by the shame. The cross was a
shameful death. You had to be a particularly
nasty criminal to die, to deserve the death of the cross. For the
joy that was set before Him, what joy? What joy was set before
Him? The joy of leading His children
into glory. You know, we quoted it last week,
Isaiah 8 verse 18. Behold, I and the children whom
he has given me. Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory
shall come in. This is the joy that's set before him, the Lord
of hosts, leading his children into glory. For that joy set
before him, he voluntarily stepped forward, enduring the cross,
despising its shame, So they don't find him and subdue him,
he steps forward and asks whom they seek. They answered him,
Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said unto them, and Peter
read it correctly, the he is in italics, that's what the translators
have put in, but I'm sure he said, I am. And Judas also which
betrayed him stood with them. As soon then as he had said unto
them, I am, they went backward and fell to the ground. He doesn't
reply, I am he, but I am, which is the name of God. Exodus chapter
3 verse 14, the burning bush. Moses comes to the burning bush
and God says, you're going to lead my people out of Egypt,
out of the bondage in Egypt. and go to them and tell them
that God has sent you. And Moses says, well, when I
go to them and say, God has sent me to call you out of Egypt,
they shall say to me, what is his name? What is God's name?
What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I am,
that I am. And he said, Thou shalt say unto
the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. He's the
great I am, the one who is preexistent. You know, when we say I am, it's
an expression of the fact that we have a life. God is the great
I am. He is the origin of life. And
when he said that, this man, no comeliness that we should
desire him, he just looked like a man. They said, you're not
yet 50 years old. And have you seen Abraham? He
said, when he said, I am, that name of God, this band of hundreds
went back and fell to the ground. What a display of divine power.
Do you not see what an enormous miracle this is? You know, like
when Jesus cleared the temple, when a man like him cleared a
thriving marketplace going on in the temple. He cleared it.
He, not with a band of soldiers, not with a machine gun, not looking
like Arnold Schwarzenegger armed to the teeth, he cleared the
temple with a word. This is God in power. This is
a miracle, just a word, as his word had said in Psalm 27, which
I love this Psalm 27. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Listen
to this. When the wicked, even mine enemies
and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled
and fell. Is that not Christ talking about
this incident in the garden of Gethsemane? They stumbled and
they fell. These events didn't just happen. These events are ordained of
God for his purpose. Did they not see that this was
God? Did they not see that they come
with a great band and weapons to be sure to arrest him, and
yet with one word, I am, and they fell backwards. They were
impotent to restrain him, except he voluntarily submitted. Do
you not see this? Do you not see here is God not
speaking to you by His Spirit through His Word? Do you not
see this? Here is God who speaks a word, and force of arms falls
backwards. This is God willingly paying
redemption's price for a multitude. And here's the question you must
ask yourself. Am I among them? Am I one of these for whom He
came to die? If you truly believe, that says
that you are among them. The sign that you are among those
for whom Christ paid the price of justice is that you believe
Him, as Paul said to the Thessalonians. You know, we know that you're
beloved of God, we know that you're chosen of Him, what? By
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Next
point, justice demands freedom. Verse 8, Jesus answered, I have
told you that I am, Therefore, if you seek me, let these go
their way. I am the one you seek, not these
disciples. Take me, but in return, these
must go free. They must go free. Look at Isaiah
chapter 61. Isaiah 61, Jesus, when he went
back to the synagogue in Nazareth, and they gave him the scroll
of the prophet Isaiah, and these are the verses that he read,
and he said, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing today.
The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath
anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me
to bind up the brokenhearted, listen, to proclaim liberty to
the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are
bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, that's the
year of jubilee, that's the year of freedom, that's the year of
cancellation of all debts, that's the year of release of all captivity. the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn
in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, and the oil of joy
for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness,
that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting
of the Lord. that he might be glorified. These must go free. He came to
proclaim liberty. These must go free. If his people's
federal head has paid the price of their lawbreaking, there is
no more charge to answer. Did you hear that? Let me say
it again. If his people's federal head, the Lord Jesus Christ,
has paid the price of their lawbreaking against the justice of God, which
demands punishment, then if he's paid it, there's no more charge
to answer. Jeremiah 50 verse 20, the sins
of Judah and of Israel shall be sought for, they'll be looked
for on the day of judgment. And what does he say? They shall
not be found. Why shall they not be found?
Because he has borne them. and there's nothing left to pay.
The accounts are wiped clean because he has paid it. Romans
8, 33 and 34, who shall bring any charge to God's elect? God's
justified them. Who shall bring any charge? Christ
has died. There's no more death to be paid.
As we sang in Top Lady's hymn, if thou hast my discharge procured
and freely in my room endured, in my place endured the whole
of wrath divine, he did it in my place. payment God cannot
twice demand. First at my bleeding surety's
hand, and then again at mine. If God demanded that you, having
been saved from your sins by the death of Christ, should pay
again any element of the charge against you, God is unjust. God
cannot do that, and that's the gospel. That is the gospel. God's justice has taken him who
submitted voluntarily for love of his bride, leaving the bride
with nothing to pay for freedom from the curse of the law. Can
you see it? Do you believe it? In John 3,
36, Jesus said this, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting
life. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
He that believeth on the Son has everlasting life. So why
does God demand their freedom? Verse 9, Why did He say that? Let these go their way, that
the saying might be fulfilled which He spake, Of them which
thou gavest me I have lost none. The will of God, as we know from
John chapter 6 verse 39, this is the Father's will which hath
sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing,
but should raise it up again at the last day. In John chapter
17 and verse 12, 17 verse 12, while I was with them in the
world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me, I
have kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition,
Judas Iscariot, that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now,
in verse 9 of chapter 18, of them which thou gavest me, have
I lost none. The apostles' freedom from the
justice of the mob that came to get Jesus was but a symbol
of their standing before the bar of God's justice on that
day of judgment, on that last day. Not one of the innumerable
multitude that the Father loved before the beginning of time
that Christ redeemed in the middle of time, that the Holy Spirit
regenerates and calls with His irresistible grace, willing in
the day of His power throughout time, not one of them shall fail
to be with Christ where He is, eternally beholding His glory. All of it is of grace from start
to finish. Amen.