Would you turn back to Mark chapter
14? I've entitled the message for
this evening, The Arrest of the King. What was the accusation brought
against the Lord Jesus Christ? He wasn't accused because of
his healing, because of his miracles. Listen to this scripture from
Matthew 27, 37, and they set up over his head his accusation. Jesus of Nazareth, king of the
Jews. That was what they accused him
of. You're saying that you are the
king. Now the Lord was still in Gethsemane's
garden. I think it's interesting. The
garden of Eden is where sin began. It was in another garden, the
garden of Gethsemane. where sin was being made an end. Isn't that wonderful to think
about? The Garden of Gethsemane is where
the Lord drank the cup to make an end of sin. All four gospel
writers give different details of the arrest of the king. and
we're going to be drawing from all four accounts. But look in
verse 41 of our text in Mark 14, and he cometh the third time
and saith to them, sleep on now. I came the first time, they were
asleep. He came the second time, they
were asleep. I don't know why I find that
encouraging, but I do, because it's rare that I preach a message
where I don't put somebody to sleep. But the Lord comes to
these three, or these disciples, and the third time, and they're
all asleep. And he says, sleep on now. Take
your rest. It's enough. The hour is come. Behold the Son of Man. is betrayed into the hands of
sinners. Rise up, let us go hence. Lo,
he that betrayeth me is at hand. Now he foretells his betrayal.
You know why he foretells his betrayal? Because he purposed
his betrayal. And Judas was doing exactly what
he willed to be done. The reason this is taking place
is the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God. He had
to be arrested. This was all a part of God's
purpose. And I think it's glorious the
way he announces it's going to happen before it happens. And
while he is speaking, here comes Judas Iscariot. Now we read in
verse 43, and immediately while he yet spake, cometh Judas, one
of the 12, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves
from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. Now, from what I have read, this
great multitude was anywhere between 400 and 1,000 men that
came to arrest him. And the reason the number was
so great is the Roman army at that time, during the Passover,
always had extra people there to take care of any trouble that
could arise because trouble would always arise with the Jews. There'd
be some kind of conflict. And along with the Roman army,
you had the Jewish people carrying clubs and staves there for the
arrest. And Judas had told them previously,
the one I kiss is the one. How? Heartless. But notice he
said, let him away safely. Did you notice that? Kind of
like I don't want any bounds done to him. He was not knowing
what he wanted. But when he comes to kiss the
Lord, the Lord said in one of the accounts, friend, he called
him friend. And he was his friend. This is not just hyperbole. He
was his friend. Whence comest thou? And then
he kissed him. And the Lord said, Judas, betrayest
thou the son of man with a kiss? Now, I don't understand how he
already knew that Judas was the son of perdition. He said that
early in his ministry. He said, he's the son of perdition. He said, have I not chosen you
12, but one of you is a devil. He understood that, yet when
he called Judas friend, it was not insincere. This was his friend,
and this was prophesied in the Old Testament where David said,
my own familiar friend has risen up his heel against me. Now,
Judas comes with the multitudes. Now, I want us to go to John's
account for a moment, John chapter 18. John chapter 18, when Jesus had
spoken these words, speaking of chapters 13 through 17, we're given the Lord's last message
to his disciples before his betrayal. It's such a glorious passage
of scripture ending up with John 17, the Lord's great priestly
prayer for his people. When Jesus had spoken these words,
He went forth with his disciples over the book Kidron, where was
a garden. That's talking about the garden
of Gethsemane into the which he entered and his disciples. And Judas also, which betrayed
him, knew the place. For Jesus oft times resorted
thither with his disciples. Now this is a place that he and
his disciples would come quite often. And I love to think about
that, them sitting there, listening to him talk and so on. Verse
13, Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from
the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns
and torches and weapons. Now look at the majesty of this
language. Jesus, therefore, knowing all
things that should come upon him. He knew everything because
everybody involved in this, while they're held responsible for
it, they were his pawns doing his will. And you know, that's
life right now. Everybody is doing his will,
accomplishing his purpose. That is true with regard to everything
and everybody. Somebody says, everything, everything,
everything. If you leave you out of anything,
he's no longer sovereign. He is sovereign. And he is acting
as the sovereign of the universe at this time. Now, verse four,
Jesus, therefore knowing all things that should come upon
him, went forth and said unto them, whom seek ye? And the Lord knew they were seeking
him. but he is going to make it to
where he can speak what he says next. Look, they answered him,
Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am. Now notice he is in the italics. put there by the translators
supposedly to make it more understandable, but here is a place where that
was definitely not a good place to put something like that. This
is the same one who spoke from the burning bush that could not
be consumed. In Exodus chapter three, verse
14, where he said to Moses, I am. that I am. Tell them I am hath
sent thee. And I think that burning bush
is one of the most glorious illustrations to us of what Jesus
Christ really is, who he really is. Moses sees this great sign
this bush that burned that wasn't consumed. Maybe he looked at
it and looked away and thought about something else. Maybe some
lightning had struck it. That wouldn't have been unusual.
And it will eventually burn out. But I guess he looked at it an
hour later, it's still burning. An hour later, it's still burning.
That bush could not be consumed. And that's when he said, I want
to go see this great site. Now, that bush that burned with fire
did not need the energy from the wood to keep burning. What that speaks of is the independence
of Jesus Christ. Do you know that Christ does
not have any needs? Because he's God. God has no
needs. He's utterly independent. You think of how dependent you
and I are. He is utterly independent. That can only be said of God.
That bush did not need that wood to keep the fire going. It kept going because he willed
it. He has no needs. And the next thing that you would
notice about that bush, it couldn't be consumed. It kept burning. and kept burning and could not
be consumed. Now, what that speaks of is the
perfect humanity of Jesus Christ. Do you know the wrath of God
couldn't consume him? He consumed the wrath, but the
wrath of God could not consume him. His perfect humanity as
the God man. And when the Lord says, I am,
That's the same voice, the same person that came from the bush. And look what takes place next. And Judas also, which betrayed
him, stood with them. And as soon then, as he had said
unto them, I am. They went backwards and fell
to the ground, an invisible omnipotent hand pushed them to the ground. They fell backwards and the Lord
is letting them know at this time, I'm in control of this,
not you. I'm not a victim. You're doing
my will and I'm letting you know this ahead of time. They fell
Backwards, what do you reckon was going through their mind
after that took place? I mean, just forced by omnipotence
to fall backwards, not knowing what had happened. You reckon
they were scared to death? Who is this one we're trying
to arrest? What have we got ourselves into? Then he asked, verse seven, then
asked he them again, whom seek ye? I wonder what their tone was
now when they said Jesus of Nazareth. And look what the Lord says,
verse eight. Jesus answered, I've told you that I am. Once again, he is in italics,
isn't it? I've told you, I am. If therefore you seek me, let
these go their way. Now that is not asking them to
let them go. That's telling them to let them
go. If you seek me, let these go
away. Now what this tells us about
is the nature of the Lord's arrest and death. What he was doing,
he was doing as a substitute. Listen, if He died for you, if
He lived for you, if He's your substitute, you must be set free. It's necessary. You know, when people present
the death of Christ as Him shedding His blood for everybody, you know what that is? That's a denial
of substitution. If he can shed his blood for
you and you end up not being saved, you've made his substitutionary
death meaningless. It is without value. It's a waste
of time. Now listen to me. If he died
for you, you must be set free. Your sin is paid for. Listen,
there's not a... Somebody that preaches that Jesus
Christ died for all men, making salvation possible for all men,
but it's up to you. That person doesn't know the
gospel, doesn't preach the gospel. Somebody that believes that has
never heard the gospel. Christ's atonement is successful. Let, if you're seeking me, let
these go away. that the saying, verse nine,
might be fulfilled, which he spake, of them which thou gavest
me. Have I lost? What? None. This is the will of him
that sent me, that everyone that he has given me, I'm not gonna
lose one of them, but raise them up again at the last day. Then, verse 10, Simon Peter,
and I'm trying to think of Simon Peter at this time. You know,
I bet at this time he was kind of emboldened. I mean, he saw just what happened
to those guys, and he felt, I could take care of this. After seeing
what happened to them, I'm not worried about it. So he comes
at one of these guys, and I have no doubt he was aiming to take
his head off. And the guy ducked, and his ear
came off. And the Lord healed it. Verse
10, then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and smote the
high priest's servant and cut off his right ear. The servant's
name was Malchus. Then said Jesus unto Peter, put
up thy sword into thy sheath. The cup which my father hath
given me, shall I not drink it? Then the band and the captain
and officers of the Jews. This is almost ironic. They took
Jesus and bound him. What do you reckon they were
thinking while they were doing that? I mean, they just experienced getting
knocked backwards by omnipotence. I can see them getting back up,
trying to pick up their swords and their staves, and maybe their
torches had gone out. I don't know what all was involved,
but how do you reckon they felt as they were binding omnipotence. He was bound that we might be
set free. That was His purpose. He was
bound that we might be set free. Now, Matthew's account says that
after Peter cut off the ear, the Lord said, Put up again thy
sword into thy place, For all that take the sword shall perish
with the sword. Thinkest thou not that I can
now pray to my Father, and He will presently give me more than
12 legions of angels? Now, you know how many people
are in a legion? 12,000. 72,000 angels. And I
like to think at this time, angels in heaven just They're wanting
to come and smite, aren't they? They're just being held. Why
is this happening? They didn't really understand.
They love the son of God and they were ready to smite and
one angel could have wiped out the whole bunch without any problem.
Don't you think I could pray and the father would send 72,000
angels and wipe everybody out? Aren't you thankful he didn't
pray that prayer? What if he would have? Where would that
have left us? Turn back to Mark chapter 14. Verse 47, and one of them, we
know it's Peter from John's account, that stood by, drew a sword,
and smote a servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.
And Jesus answered and said unto them. Now remember, these soldiers
had already been knocked backwards. We know that from John's account.
They'd already been knocked backwards. And Jesus answered and said unto
them, are you come out as against a thief with swords and with
staves to take me? I was daily with you in the temple
teaching and you took me not. Now, the reason you didn't take
me is because it was not my will at that time. And the reason
you're taking me now is because it is my will for this to take
place. Oh, the majesty and glory of
the Savior. I mean, he's letting them know
that everything is happening according to him saying it. And
look what verse 49 says. I was daily in the temple teaching
and you took me not, but the scriptures must be fulfilled. That is why all this is taking
place. The scriptures must be fulfilled. Now, turn with me
to Luke 22, to Luke's account for just a minute. He gives us
a detail that Matthew, Mark, or John do not give. Verse 52, Luke 22, verse 52. Then Jesus said unto the chief
priests and captains of the temple and the elders which were come
to him, be ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves. When I was daily with you in
the temple, you stretched forth no hands against me, but this
is your hour and the power of darkness. Now notice what he
said. He's letting them know of their
complete responsibility in this action. This is your hour. My
hour is your hour. And the power of darkness. This is when men were doing what
they wanted to do. Look in Luke 23, verse 25. And he, speaking of Pilate, released
unto him, talking about Barabbas, that for sedition and murder
was cast into prison, whom they had desired, but he delivered
Jesus, where? To their will. Now there's the
will of man. That's what men want. He delivered
Jesus to their will. Now, while God is sovereign, This is men doing what they want
to do, acting out of a hatred for Jesus Christ. And he says,
this is your hour, and this is the power of darkness. And these men are not victims
of God's sovereignty. I think that's the way a lot
of people feel when they hear of God's sovereignty. They think,
well, if He's sovereign over all my actions, what can I do
about it? I'm a victim of that. He's sovereign. What can I do? That's very much
like the man in Romans 9. If God has purpose to save, I
will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will harden whom
I'll harden. Scripture says that. Doesn't
it? Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, whom
he will he hardens. Thou wilt say unto me, why does
he yet find fault? who has resisted His will, if
He has hardened my heart, and He's purposed to harden my heart
so I can't do what I'm supposed to do and what I do is wrong,
and He hardened my heart so I did it, how can He hold me responsible
for my actions? How can I be held responsible?
That doesn't seem fair. Nay, but oh man. Who are you
to reply against God? Since when do you have the ability
to sit in judgment over God and say, I agree with that or I disagree
with that? He's God. All he says is true. All he does is right. And I love
saying this, he doesn't do it because it's right. He doesn't
have a law over his head that he has to conform to. It's right
because he does it. We're talking about authority
right now. This is authority that humanity doesn't know anything
about. Power belongeth unto the Lord. And you can't question and I
can't question and we do. We're foolish when we do it.
But whatever he does is right. And it's always good too. Everything
he does is good, right, just, holy, and true. But yet he says
to these people, this is your hour and the power of darkness. What darkness is displayed in
all of this? The prince of darkness and his
hatred of Christ. He thought he's putting him out
of business. He thought he was defeating him. The darkness of
evil that would cause men to desire the death of Christ. Now
this is human nature unrestrained. This is me, this is you. If God leaves me and you to ourselves,
we will be guilty of what these men are guilty of. Because the
Lord makes this statement, they hated me. And this shows the
wickedness of human nature, the wickedness of Satan, they hated
me without a cause. They hated me freely. They hated me because they enjoyed
hating me. Now one of the things, one of
the reasons hell is eternal, is because there's no reformation
that takes place in hell. After 10, I know you can't talk
about years in eternity, but in hell, after how long they've
been there, they still won't love Christ. They'll hate him
just as much. They hated me without a cause. Now, two things about that. God's
just in sending a man to hell, isn't he? But number two, and
I like this better, what amazing grace that he would love people
like that. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that he
loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sin. Now turn back to Mark 14. I was daily with you in the temple
teaching and you took me not, but the scriptures must be fulfilled. Now I want us to look at the
high honor that the Lord Jesus puts on the scriptures. What
is his comment about all of this? All of this is taking place,
every bit of it. All of this that is taking place
is that the scriptures, the holy scriptures, the Bible must be
fulfilled. You know, there's a couple of
scriptures in the New Testament that I think show the awesomeness
of the scripture. One is there in Romans 9, where it says, the
scripture saith to Pharaoh. A scripture hadn't been written
yet, had it? But the scripture's eternal. The scripture saith
unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up.
Now you can use the scripture and God interchangeably. Scripture's
God's word. What about there in Galatians
chapter three, where it says, the scripture, foreseeing that
God would justify the heathen by faith, preached before the
gospel unto Abraham. Well, the scripture hadn't been
written yet. The scripture is the eternal word of God, the
mind, purpose, will of God. He said, the scriptures must
be fulfilled. Verse 50, and they all, now this
is talking about the disciples. They all forsook him and fled.
Now, do you remember how the Lord says, if you take me, let
these go their way? Why was it they didn't follow
after the disciples and get them? Because the Lord wouldn't let
them. They fled. They forsook him. But you know,
even this isn't in answer to the scripture. Awake, O sword against my shepherd,
against the man. that is my fellow." That's what
God said with regard to Christ. The man that's equal with me. Awake, O sword, smite the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered, and off they go. Off they go,
every single one of them. And you see the Lord's wisdom
in this. You know, we said this a couple of weeks ago. If any
of them stuck around, we'd be talking about them to this day,
how brave and courageous they were, what good things they did.
But can't say that about any of his disciples. They didn't
help him out. You see, when he was on the cross, he was there
alone. He didn't have any of the disciples turning around
saying, thank you for doing this for us. We're so thankful. No.
He, by himself, purged. our sins. He didn't have any
help from you. You forsook him. I forsook him. He didn't have any help from
us. He by himself purged our sins. The king is arrested for
this purpose. Thou shalt call his name Jesus
for he shall He shall save his people from their sins. Now he was arrested as Isaiah
and Daniel said he would be unjustly tried, crucified. And here's what takes place out
of this by one offering. He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. And I say to every child of God
here, the sin that you're troubled by has been put away and it's gone. And you stand before God right
now, present tense, perfect. Can't take that far enough. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for our
King. How we thank you for his arrest. And for his purpose in allowing
himself to be arrested. and betrayed and taken into the
hands of sinners. How we thank you for his manifestation
of his glory even at this time. How we thank you that he's the
great I am, the self-existent one, the one who has no needs,
the one who consumed your wrath so there's no wrath left for
any of thy people. He put it all away. Lord, give
us the grace to believe on him. Lord, cause us to look away from
ourselves. Cause us to look away from our
experience. Cause us to look away from our
lives and our doings and our not doings. And Lord, cause us
to look wholly to him. Our shepherd that you smoked. that we would be set free. In
His blessed name we pray, amen.