In Luke chapter 22, at verse
39, we go with our Lord Jesus, the Son of God, into His favorite
place of prayer, the Garden of Gethsemane. Let's read beginning at verse
39, Luke 22. And he came out and went as he
was want to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him.
And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that
ye enter not into temptation. And he was withdrawn from them
about a stone's cast, and kneeled down and prayed, saying, Father,
if thou be willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not
my will, but thine, be done." And there appeared an angel unto
him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony, he prayed
the more earnestly, and sweat as it were or as great drops
of blood falling to the ground. And he rose up from prayer and
was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow,
and said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter
into temptation. The word Gethsemane means olypress. What a fitting place Gethsemane
was for this dark, dark night of our Savior's soul agony as
he anticipates being made sin for us, as he anticipates all the horror
of being made what we are. His soul was crushed within him. He wept in agony. He prayed with
a heavy, broken heart. So heavy was his heart with the
anticipation of being made what we are that the pores of his
skin poured out a sweat of blood fall into the ground. I never read this passage or
the others like it in Matthew and Mark lightly. And I never try to prepare a
message and bring a message to you on this tremendous, mysterious
event in the life of our Lord without a sense of utter, utter
insufficiency. I can't imagine attempting to
expound everything that is written here. But this event in the life
of our Lord on the eve preceding his death as our substitute is
recorded by God the Holy Spirit four times in the four Gospels. And it is written there for our
consolation, for our learning, that we, through patience and
consolation of the scriptures, might have hope. And so I want
us to look at what's revealed here, and I'm going to simply
deal with that which is obvious. And I want you to see the obvious
lessons to be drawn from this passage. There's a lesson here
clearly to be learned about our Lord's agony. What was the thing
that crushed his holy heart? What was the thing that terrified
him? And I meant to use the word terrified. Terrified him. It wasn't the
anticipation of physical pain. I don't think that we should
make too much of the physical torture our Lord endured upon
the cursed tree, and yet we must not make too little of it. He
did endure indescribable physical pain as our substitute, but the
anticipation of physical pain didn't crush his heart. The anticipation
of physical pain will terrify any man, but it won't crush his
heart. That's not it. It wasn't the
fear of death. The Son of God had come here
33 years before, assuming our nature specifically for the purpose
of dying upon the cursed tree. It wasn't even the fear of dying
upon the cross, the emblem of a curse that caused him such
horror. That which crushed his soul,
that which broke his heart, was the anticipation of being made
sin for us. He who knew no sin was about
to be made sin for us. Not just made to bear the debt
of sin. No. No. That just can't be. That just can't be. I have no
question. Brother Merrill, if you were
absolutely impoverished, overwhelmed with debt, and your family, your
entire family, including the grandchildren, was about to be
just absolutely devastated because of debt. And I assumed the debt
that would bring me right down to your level, that might be
painful. It would be painful, but it wouldn't
break my heart. paying a debt never broke a man's
heart. That's not what it's talking
about. It wasn't just an anticipation of assuming our sin debt. No. He who is the only man on this
earth, the only man ever to live in God's universe, who knew what
sin is, This man who is himself God looks
upon sin and sees it exactly as God sees it in anticipation
of being made sin, was crushed in his soul. The
holy, harmless, undefiled Lamb of God was about to be made sin
and a curse for us And as such, he is about to be forsaken of
his father. We're told in Matthew's account,
I believe it is, that our Lord Jesus, the Son of God, began
to be sore amazed, to be in great consternation, astonished at
the sight of all the sins of all his people coming upon him
at one time. as he anticipated the black storm
of divine wrath gathering thick before him, the sword of justice
drawn against him that he must soon have shoved into his holy
heart. No wonder he began to be very heavy, very
heavy in agony. The prospect of what he must
endure as our substitute. Just wrung out his holy soul
from inside. Now let me remind you once more,
and I remind you because we must never forget it. The message
of this book is substitution. Everything in this book is intended
to teach us something about the substitutionary atonement, the
sin-atoning sacrifice and death of God's darling Son, our Lord
Jesus Christ, as our substitute and as our surety for the accomplishment
of our eternal redemption. Everything written in the book
is about Christ, our substitute. I recognize that in In this day particularly, there
are many who foolishly imagine that substitution, what happened
at Calvary, that these things are the ABCs of religion and
we move on beyond that to deeper, more profound things. Now there's
no question, these things are the ABCs. But these things are
the X, Y, Z's as well. And there's nothing more profound,
nothing more mysterious, nothing more wondrous, nothing more glorious,
nothing more comforting, nothing more needful to our souls, nothing
more useful to motivate, to inspire, to overwhelm, to convict, to
rebuke, to encourage faith, nothing like substitution. when God took
His darling son, the son of His love, and made him sin. For me, that I might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. He did that for which he created
the world. He did that for which he created
this world. Since the Lord Jesus Christ died
as the sinner's substitute, Since he has met and fully satisfied
all the demands of divine justice for me and for all God's elect,
now believing sinners have no reason ever to fear the wrath
and judgment of God. Not even an accusation can be
made against us before him. We are always suspicious people. It's the folly of our nature. The folly of our fallen, depraved
nature. Always to be just a little suspicious. Does Josh really mean that nice
thing he's saying? Or what's he up to? And sadly, we tend to be suspicious. of God. That's what unbelief
is. This is what he says, there is
therefore, because Jesus Christ has redeemed me and justified
me and put away my sin, there is therefore, now, no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. And when Paul gets done describing
the blessedness of that no condemnation, and all that goes along with
that in the anticipation of glory, and declares to us God's sovereign,
eternal purpose of grace to bring us at last to heaven. He speaks
with such confident faith. I keep praying, God, teach me
to believe you just this way. He said, what shall we then say
to these things? If God be for us, let hell rage. Who can be against us? How shall
he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all,
freely give us all things? He said, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? Who is he that condemneth? Who shall separate us from the
love of God that's in Christ Jesus our Lord? My brother, my
sister, You who believe on the Son of God, you who have been
granted life and faith in Him, looking away from yourself to
Christ alone for all things, no matter what you may be, no
matter what you may do in your corrupt nature, you who believe
have no reason ever to fear God. Christ consumed the cause of
fear and he put it away and made us the very righteousness of
God in him. Since Christ died for me, I cannot
die. And if you are in Christ, for
you there is no possibility of sin ever being charged to you. No possibility of condemnation. No possibility of accusation. No possibility of separation
from the love of God. It was the enormous load of my
sin and my guilt that crushed my Savior's heart in Gethsemane. Surely, He hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem Him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes
we are healed. But there's something else to
be learned. The cause of our Savior's agony was that which
he must experience in being made sin. That being the case, what a horrible,
indescribable, ignominious, vile, despicable thing sin must be. In your mind's eye look yonder
again to Calvary. and see Him who has made sin
for you, and hear Him cry, My God, My
God, why hast thou forsaken Me? And understand that God Almighty
is a purer eye than to behold iniquity. And when God Almighty
beheld sin in His own Son, He said, Awake, O sword, against
one that is my fellow, smite and slay the shepherd. And if God Almighty finds sin
on you, don't you ever imagine He won't destroy you in the terror
of His wrath in hell forever. No wonder David sang, Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute Blessed is this man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Now, what is the meaning of our
Lord's Prayer? Look at verse 42. if thou be willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless,
not my will, but thine, be done." In this time of heaviness, sorrow,
and distress, our Lord Jesus falls down before the throne
of His Father and praise. The first ear to hear our heart's
complaint in any time of need ought to be our Heavenly Father's
ear. The first to hear any groan in
our souls ought to be God our Savior. He may or may not relieve
our troubles as we want, but it's good for us to unburden
our hearts to Him. Preachers love for you to deal with them
as priests. Preachers do their dead-level
best to get folks to let them help them through their troubles. That sounds real good. It sounds
real sugar sweet. And I want to bear your burdens. I do. I want to rejoice with
you when you rejoice. I do. And I want to weep with
you when you weep. And I do. I do. But I don't want you to have
any need to unburden your soul to me. I'm not a priest. I'm not a priest. Unburden your soul to Him who
is your priest. And I promise you, if you unburden
your soul to Him, you won't need to unburden your soul to me.
I promise you. If you seek His direction and
His counsel and His consolation, you won't need mine. It won't
happen. Our Lord Jesus tells us by example
that we should cast all our care upon Him for He cares for us. Let us therefore come boldly
to the throne of grace. That word in Hebrews 4.16, boldly,
it means to come freely. It means to come without pretense. It means come without feeling like somehow
you don't dare come. It means to come to the throne
of grace and just open up your heart. It's not talking about
cocky arrogance and presumption and self-righteousness. I believe
I have real power with God. Now, lots of folks, most folks
wouldn't say that, but most folks really think, I'm a prayer warrior. Oh, I hate that religious nonsense. Come boldly to God like a child
in desperate need, not even a grown-up child. Like a little toddler
who's hurting comes to Mama or Daddy and cries on Mama or Daddy's
shoulder and tells them what's hurting. No matter how insignificant
it may appear to Mama and Dad, that child thinks it's important.
And because it's important to the child, the child just assumes. It's important to mom or dad. Listen to me. What hurts you is important to
God your Savior. Come boldly to the throne of
grace for this purpose, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. James said, is any among you
afflicted? You got trouble? What do you
do with your trouble? Well, let me get an appointment
with the shrink. Let me go to the doctor. Let me go to the
preacher and let him be my counselor. Is any among you afflicted? Let
him pray." But what was our Lord praying
for in the garden? What was He asking for? If thou be willing, remove this
cup from me. Matthew and Mark tell us in their
accounts that our Savior uttered this prayer in much the same
words three times. Luke adds the details of his
bloody sweat and of the angel coming to minister to him and
of him being in agony in the garden. John doesn't tell us
anything at all about those things. John doesn't even mention the
bloody sweat. He doesn't even tell us about
the prayer. But six days before this event
in Gethsemane, John tells us that even then our Savior began
to experience in his soul these things in John chapter 12. He
said, Now is my soul exceeding sorrowful. What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour,
but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy
name. And then John tells us that the
sorrow had something to do with what he anticipated when he was
going yonder to Calvary. Turn back to John chapter 12.
Let me show you. John chapter 12. Verse 31. Our Lord Jesus said to those
folks who thought they heard a thunder, This voice came not
for me, but for your sakes. And now He braces Himself up
and He seems to stand up again and go on toward the cross, knowing
His path must go through Gethsemane. And it says in verse 31, now.
Now is the judgment of this world. Now God judges the sins of His
elect throughout the world. The word might mean turning point,
the hinge. The door hangs on a hinge, but
this is how it turns. This is the turning point of
history. Now is the prince of this world
cast out. The great angel came down from
heaven with a mighty chain in his hand and he bound the old
serpent and the devil and cast him out. Now is the accuser of
our brethren cast out. Satan who blinded the Gentile
world is now held in chains of darkness so that he sees the
nations no more. Now look at verse 32. And I,
if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what
death he should die. Now while our Savior has this
in mind, obviously he was not asking in the garden that he
might be kept from that which was his appointed work to which
he agreed before the world began. Many have the idea that the Lord
Jesus somehow was here asking that the Lord God might find
another way to redeem and justify his people. Now theologians may
foolishly imagine that God could have saved another way. To suggest,
Darwin, that God could redeem our souls and put away our sins
in some other way, and yet he put his son through hell to do
it, is to make God truly a monster. That's utterly ridiculous. No,
no. Our Savior knew there's no other
way by which God could be just and justify the ungodly except
by the satisfaction of justice, and he knew that none could do
it but him. The Lord Jesus was not here praying to be saved
from dying in our place as our substitute, bearing our sins. Well, what then was he praying
for? Turn to Hebrews chapter 5. I think the Holy Spirit sheds
a little light for us. From the time that he came into
the world, our Savior was assaulted. by Satan. Now what Satan is convinced
of and not convinced of, I don't know. But I know that Satan knew
exactly what the Son of God promised Eve in the garden. I know Satan
knew exactly what God declared in the bush when he spoke to
Moses. I know that Satan knew exactly what God Almighty had
purposed it had been declared to him. He would be crushed by
the sacrifice of God's darling son, who was made the seed of
woman for us when he was put to death upon the cursed tree.
And Satan constantly assaulted him. No sooner was our Lord baptized,
telling John's subject to be so now, for thus it becometh
us to fulfill all righteousness. Proclaiming that by his baptism,
he symbolically proclaims that which is necessary for the fulfilling
of righteousness, his death and his rising again. Our Lord Jesus,
just as soon as that happened, was driven into the wilderness
and was tempted of Satan. Tempted of Satan. And now Satan
makes one final assault upon his soul, and would here defeat him from
the purpose for which he had come into this world. He would
here have caused the Son of God to be crushed to death with the
anticipation of being made sin. Now look here in Hebrews chapter
5 and verse 7. Our Lord Jesus was fearful of
dying, not fearful of dying upon the cross, not fearful of suffering
the wrath of God, not even fearful of being made sin for us. He
was fearful of dying before he had finished his work for the
glory of the Father, for the saving of our souls for which
he had come into this world. who, Hebrews 5, 7, in the days
of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications
with strong crying and tears unto him who was able to save
him, able to save him from death, and was heard. Lots of modern
translations translate that word, feared. in that he referenced,
in that he worshipped. It's translated exactly right.
He cried out to God, who was able to save him, not from the
curse tree, not from death upon the curse tree, but from death,
right here, right now, in the garden, as his heart poured out
blood through the pores of his skin. as he suffers agony of
soul. He's heard in that he feared. Now I recognize that for learned,
brilliant fellows who understand more than I do, that's just impossible
to consider. For this simple-minded sinner,
Oh, how sweet to understand that He who is God my Savior really
is a man as well as God Almighty and knows every temptation I
know, and every trouble I know, and every emotion of heart I
know. And this one who has endured
all, including fear, including fear, now sits on the throne
of grace, being touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
and bids us come to him and cast our care upon him. The hour from
which our Lord prayed for release was not the hour for which He
had come into the world, but this hour right here in Gethsemane. The cup that He prayed might
pass from Him was not the cup of God's wrath, but the cup of
His present sorrow and sufferings. Now, turn over to 1 Peter 2. Not only did our Lord teach us
something about prayer, As we behold him in the garden,
he teaches us something about true godliness. What men call practical holiness.
I hear people talk about practical holiness. Let me give you a better translation of those words. Practical
self-righteousness. Practical works that will cause
you to look at me and say, boy, isn't James Jordan a fine Christian.
Every time folks talk about practical godliness, I promise you, in
the general course of religious folks, they're talking about
things by which I can make you think I am somebody and I am
really a good Christian. Practical godliness, in its essence,
is a willing surrender of my heart and life down to my will,
to the will of my God." Our Lord Jesus said, nevertheless, not
my will, but thine be done. Now the Holy Spirit explains
that for us in 1 Peter 2 verse 21. For even here unto where ye called,
because Christ also hath suffered for us, Leaving us an example
that you should follow in his steps. Who did no sin, neither
was guile found in his mouth. Who when he was reviled, reviled
not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.
Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.
That we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness. By whose
stripes ye were healed. This is our Savior's example
of godliness. He committed himself to him who
judges righteously, surrendering his will to his Father's will. The surrender of my will to God's
will in all things is godliness. To bear patiently whatever my
father sins is godliness. To desire only what my father
desires and has purposed is godliness. To want nothing but that which
my father wills is godliness. To prefer pain to pleasure, if
that's my master's will, is godliness. To willingly be as passive before
God, as wet clay in the hands of the sovereign potter, that
is godliness. And all that men talk about being
godliness is just self-righteousness. Nothing can make us happier in
this world than submission to our Father's will. Do you want to be a happy man?
You want to be a woman who lives in peace? You want to walk through
this world with some measure of contentment and delight? Whatever you know God has revealed
in this book, bow to it. Whatever God brings to pass in
His providence, bow to it. And seek that His will in all
things be done. Eli was a man with many faults. He was a lenient father. He had
lots of faults. Faults for which much trouble
came. But oh, what a man of godliness Eli was. When he found out, his sons were
killed. His concern was for the ark of
God. His concern was for Christ and
his salvation and his glory, nothing else. And when he found
that his sons were killed, he said, it is the Lord. Let him
do what seemeth him good. That's godliness. I've said enough about our shame
already, as it's exemplified here in Peter, James, and John's
sleeping, where they ought to have been keenly awake. Come
back to Mark. Mark's account of this blessed,
blessed, wondrous mystery in Gethsemane in Mark 14. And let me show you a reason why even such fickle, indolent, careless, unconcerned,
unbelieving, hard hearts as we are. Why we should give thanks
to our God continually. Mark 14, 41. He cometh the third
time and saith unto them, sleep on now, take your rest. It is enough. It's done. This trial is over. I've finished
now all the work of my obedience. I'm going now to perform the
work of my sacrifice. The hour has come. Now is the
appointed hour of my death. The appointed hour of your redemption
has come. Now I must finish the work my
Father gave me to do for you. I must go yonder and die in your
place. The son of man is betrayed into
the hands of sinners. Rise up! Let us go. Lo, he that betrayeth me is at
hand." Isn't that remarkable? He who just a little while before is crushed in his soul, filled
with fear before God Almighty in anticipation of what would
be done, but in anticipation of the possibility of being stuck
in His tracks before the work is finished. And now, with communication
from His Father and an angel ministering to Him, He stands
up. He said, Come on, boys. I've
still got something to do. Let me go now to the place of
execution. Let me go now to accomplish redemption. Let me go now to put away your
sins. Nothing could keep Him from Calvary. Nothing could keep Him from dying
for us. Nothing could prevent Him from
accomplishing that death at Jerusalem for which He had come into the
world. And blessed be His name, nothing can keep Him from saving
those for whom He suffered the wrath of God upon the cursed
tree. Now, did you catch those words,
those last three words in verse 41? It is enough. It is enough. His obedience is
enough. His blood is enough. His grace
is enough. Blessed be His name. He is enough. Sleep on. Oh, but Pastor, we must watch
and pray, yeah? Yeah, we must watch and pray. We need that.
But our Lord Jesus says, Sleep on now. Sleep on. Take your rest. Everything's
alright. I've taken care of everything.
It is enough. Amen.