Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all sizes.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nyberg. I'm going to be reading from
Luke chapter 22. I want to begin reading in verse
39. And he came out and went as he
was wont to the mount of Olives. And his disciples also followed
him. And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray ye 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 And he was withdrawn from them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. In Matthew and Mark's
account, we know that he prayed this prayer three times. If you be willing, remove this
cup from me. Let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto
him from heaven, strengthening him, and being in an agony. He prayed more earnestly, and
his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the
ground. And when he rose up from prayer
and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow. Now, I'm going to be dealing
with some things that you and I cannot possibly comprehend
or understand, and yet they are things we must believe. Now, if someone says, how do
you expect me to believe something I can't understand? I go straight
to this. Can you understand how God can
be God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit? Can you understand
how God can be one God and three distinct persons? Of course you
can understand that, but you believe it. You believe it. Now,
the gospel is filled with mysteries, things that we would have never
known unless God was pleased to make them known. And we believe
these mysteries. We don't intellectually, cognitively
grasp them, but we believe them with all our hearts. Now, what
I'm going to be talking about this morning are things way beyond
me and you, but they're things that we certainly must believe. I want to preach on the subject
of Gethsemane. the place where Christ prayed,
Gethsemane. Now, on at least two different
occasions, the Pharisees tried to have the Lord arrested, but
they could not because the scripture said His hour had not yet come. Our Lord was born for a certain
hour, and until that hour came to pass, no one was able to arrest
Him. Speaking of this hour, He said
in Luke 12, 50, I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how
is my soul straightened until it be accomplished? Now, he's
not talking about water baptism. He'd already been through water
baptism. He's talking about being baptized
under the fire of God's wrath. He said in John 12, 27, when
he was anticipating this hour, he said, now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father
saved me from this hour, but for this cause came I into this
hour. This is the reason the Son of
God came. The Lord shortly before the hour
began prayed, Father, the hour has come, this hour that troubled
his soul. Father, the hours come. Glorify
Thy Son, that Thy Son might also glorify Thee. You see, this dark
hour was going to be where He glorified the Father, and the
Father would glorify Him. In Luke 22, 39, and he came out
and went as he was want to the Mount of Olives. And this is
a place he frequented with his disciples. And we know from the
other accounts this place is called Gethsemane. Gethsemane
means oil press. It was a place where olives were
crushed and pressed to get the oil extracted from them, the
Garden of Gethsemane. And we know from the other accounts
that at this time, he left eight of his disciples at the gate
and brought with him Peter, James, and John. He wanted these men
to be with him at this hour. The elect of the elect, some
people have called them. I don't know what to say about
that. But I do know that the Lord chose
these three men to be with him at this time. And he says in
verse 40, And when he was at the place, he said unto them,
Pray ye that you enter not into temptation. Now, the Lord tells
us to pray this every day. lead us not into temptation.
I realize that if I'm tempted, I'll fall. I want to not even
be tempted. And he tells the disciples at
this time, he knew what an awful time this was and how the devil
would be at work. And he said, pray ye that you
enter not into temptation. And at this time, he was heavy,
the scripture says. sore amazed, Mark says, terrified,
very heavy. He said, my soul is exceeding
sorrowful even unto death. Now we're talking about the Son
of God. We're talking about the God of glory. Him saying, my
soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death. He was sore amazed. What in the world made the Son
of God feel that way? I can see me or you being terrified
about something or being sorrowful or depressed about things. We're
weak human beings. But this is the man of such strength,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet he says, my soul is struck
with sorrow. And he wanted these three disciples
to be with him at this time. Verse 41, and he was withdrawn
from them about a stone's cast. Now he's by himself. And he kneeled
down and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this
cup from me. Nevertheless, not what I will,
but thy will be done. And we know from Matthew the
Mark's account that he prayed that prayer over three times. Father, Abba Father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will. But thine be done. And the writer
to the Hebrews tells us that he kept praying more earnestly
with strong cryings and supplications and tears. Verse 43, And there
appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. Evidently he was about to die
right then by thinking about the contents of this cup that
he was getting ready to drink and asking that if there was
any way possible, he wouldn't have to drink. And he was about
to die right then. And an angel had to come down
from heaven and strengthen him and enable him to go to the cross.
This is his soul sufferings. He said, my soul is exceeding
sorrowful, even unto death. And look at verse 44, and being
in agony. The Son of God, the brightness
of God's glory and the express image of His person, the Word
made flesh full of grace and truth. And being in agony, He
prayed more earnestly. Each time He repeated this prayer,
Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Each time
He prayed this prayer, He did so with more earnestness. And
his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to
the ground. He was under such stress at this
time that he literally sweat blood, bloody sweat fell down
to the ground anticipating the thought of drinking this cup. Verse 45, And when he rose up
from the prayer, He was come to his disciples and he found
them sleeping for sorrow. That seemed so fitting. The disciples
are so weak. Peter, could you not watch with
me one hour? Peter couldn't do it. But this
is something he had to do alone. No help from his disciples. He
was doing this for his disciples and all of his disciples. Now, There are many instances throughout
the history of the church of martyrs dying for the cause of
Christ, burning in the flames, singing the praises of God. We don't find that here. This
death was not a martyr's death. Did you hear me? The death of
the Lord Jesus Christ was not a martyr's death. Now, the death
of the martyrs, they had the presence of God. They had the
sweetness of the grace of God manifest to them. The Lord had
nothing like that because his death was not a martyr's death. Now, the cup he asked three times
to be removed. What was in it? Many have said, well, the wrath
of God was in it, God's judgment against sin, the wrath of God,
the law of God, the justice of God, that He was going to have
to be punished and He was overcome with that. Now, I wouldn't deny
that for a second, wouldn't deny it for a second. But what is
it that causes the wrath of God? One word. Sin. What was in that cup? The sins
of all of God's people. What was in that cup that when
he saw it, when the Father gave him a look at the contents of
that cup and he about died by looking at it, what was in that
cup? Sin. The sins of all of God's elect. Now, sin, I don't know how else
to say this, but sin just doesn't bother me and you that much.
We're used to it. We were born sinners, and we
can't even understand what it would be like to be without sin. We can't go a second without
sin. If you tried to keep your mind pure and clean for five
seconds, within the first second something unclean or wrong would
come out. Sin, we're desensitized to sin.
We're hardened towards sin. We don't really much understand
it. That sin we committed yesterday,
we've forgotten it already. I say this to our shame. But
the Lord Jesus Christ is the one man who saw sin from God's
perspective. Not the way you and I see it,
in a hardened way. But he saw sin for what it was. How that sin is essentially hatred
of God. Every sin has within it hatred
of God. a refusal to bow to him. That's
what sin is. It's rebellion. It's hatred to
God. It's born of no love for God. It's against God. David said,
"'Against thee and thee only have I sinned.'" Now, wait a
minute, David. Didn't you sin against Bathsheba? Didn't you
sin against Uriah when you murdered him? Yet David says, "'Against
thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight.'"
Sin is against God. And the Lord Jesus Christ saw
what sin really was, how He who loved His Father saw that it
was nothing but hatred of His Father, hatred of the Holy God,
and the thought of having to drink that cup into His own body.
You know, the Scripture says He bare our sins in His own body. on the tree. He didn't simply
bear the punishment of sin, He bore the sin itself. He bear
our sins in His own body on the tree. And the thought of bearing
our sins, the thought of drinking that cup, the thought of our
iniquity being made to meet on Him, and Him no longer having
the Father's favor, no longer having the Father's smile, no
longer having the Father's presence, but being left to himself to
bear his Father's awful displeasure against sin. Oh, how he hated
sin. How he loved his Father. How
he hated sin. And the thought of having to
drink that cup was going to kill him. And an angel had to come
down from heaven and strengthen Him, to enable Him to stay the
course and to drink that cup. Now what we're talking about
is the passion of Christ, the sufferings of Christ. You know, several years ago,
a movie was made about the passion of Christ. Maybe you've heard
of it, the one Mel Gibson produced. And it was supposed to depict
the physical sufferings of Christ. And many people saw that movie
and were very moved to think that Christ would go through
those physical sufferings and probably for a time were very
moved by that, but it didn't last. You see, something like
that is flesh. That's all it is. There's nothing
to that. Even a man trying to act like
Christ is idolatry. You're not supposed to make an
image of him. Pictures of Christ are idols. Crosses are idols,
things of that nature. Yes, his physical sufferings
were great, but his soul sufferings were infinitely greater. And this is what this is referring
to, the soul sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah 53.10
says, When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. Now, that word offering for sin
in the Hebrew is only one word. It's also translated in the Hebrew,
sin, guilt, guiltiness, trespass. It's the exact same thing that
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5.21 when it says, for he hath made
him to be sin. Who knew no sin? that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him, when thou shalt make
his soul sin. Now, I realize I don't even know
what that means. There's a reason that the earth
was covered with thick darkness at this time. This is letting
us know that we'll really never understand what was taking place
in this transaction between the Father and the Son when the Father
took the sins of the elect and put them in that cup, and on
the cross Christ was made to drink that cup, and there God
poured out His fury. He unleashed His fury and His
hatred of sin upon His beloved Son. Now, when our Lord was made
sin, he never sinned. His blood was pure blood. It
was spotless blood. It was the blood of the Lamb
without blemish and without spot. He never sinned. He knew no sin,
but he was made sin. Somebody says, tell me what you
mean by that. I don't know. I just believe it. It's what
the Scripture teaches. He was made sin. He knew no sin. And yet He became intimately
acquainted with it on the cross. And He was made to see what it
really was. He bore the filth of it and the
vileness of it. He experienced everything about
sin but the commission of it. And He was forsaken by His Father. He cried out, My God, My God,
why hast Thou forsaken Me? Now, I repeat, I'm talking about
things that I believe that I don't understand, but I know this.
Christ, the Christ, had a capacity for suffering that you and I
could never have because of who he was, the sinless one, the
one who knew no sin. And oh, what a heavy burden and
grief it was to him. Looking in that cup, He thought,
I'm going to die right now. And the Father sent an angel
from heaven to strengthen him so he could go to the cross and
drink that cup and drink its contents, which would kill him. Ye who look at sin but lightly,
nor suppose the evil great, here may view its nature rightly.
Here its guilt may estimate. Mark the sacrifice appointed. See him bear the awful load. Tis the word, the Lord's anointed,
Son of man and Son of God. We don't see the evil of sin
by looking with our own hearts. We don't see the evil of sin
by reading the newspapers. We see the evil of sin by looking
at the Son of God's reaction to that cup in Gethsemane's garden. Now, this is a blessing. The
Lord prayed three times that this cup might be removed. And
that lets me know that I'm allowed to pray about the same thing
over and over again. I don't care what it's about.
You're encouraged. Men ought always to pray and
not to faint. The Lord prayed this prayer three
times. And in this, I see that in the
Lord Jesus Christ, there's two wills, a human will and a divine
will. Somebody says, explain that to
me. But in the God-man, He's fully God and fully man. He had
a human will and a divine will, and the human will became overcome
and struck with terror at the divine will, the will of the
Father for Him to drink that cup as the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. This is the reason He came into
the world. He knew that, but just the thought of being separated
from His Father from being made sin and being made to lose his
father's presence and his father's favor. He bore the full equivalent
of an eternal hell on Calvary's tree. And he knew that's what
was ahead of him. And that's why he prayed this
prayer. Now, see how evil sin is. Now, I'd like to look at John's
account in closing. John 18. When Jesus had spoken
these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook
Cedron, where was a garden, speaking of 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. This was a garden he frequented
with his disciples. Judas then This is after he had
prayed this prayer. This is when Judas comes. John
doesn't give us the details of what Matthew, Mark, and Luke
give of him praying, Father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass from me. He doesn't give us those details.
But after all this had taken place, Judas comes. Judas then,
having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests
and Pharisees, cometh hither with lanterns and torches and
weapons, as if he was some kind of dangerous thief. Jesus therefore
knowing all things that should come upon him. He knew everything. He's God. He's the lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. And he came for this hour to
be the lamb slain, to be the sacrifice for sins, to be the
substitute for sinners. Jesus, therefore, knowing all
things that should come upon him, went forth and said unto
them, Whom seek ye? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am. If you have a King James version,
you'll notice that he is in italics. It's not in the original. I am. You know whose name that is? Jehovah. the self-existent one,
the one who spake to Moses from the burning bush, I am that I
am, the utterly independent, self-existent one, the God of
glory. Not I was, not I should be, not
I could be, not I want to be. I am that I am. It's even been
said that the implication of that statement is I save in the
manner which I save. God is known by the manner in
which he saves. I am that I am. The Lord said,
I am. And Judas also, which betrayed
him, stood with him. And as soon as he had said unto
them, I am, they went backward and fell to the ground. You see,
the Lord is letting them know at this time, he's not a victim. He's in complete control of this
situation. They went backward at his voice,
I am, and fell to the ground. Then asked he them again, Whom
seek ye? Can you imagine the different
way the words came out? Jesus of Nazareth. They were
scared to death. Jesus answered, I've told you
that I am he. If therefore you seek me, let
these go their way. That wasn't a request, that was
a command. that the saying might be fulfilled
which he spake of them which thou gavest me, have I lost none? You see, our Lord is a successful
Savior. Everyone he died for must be
saved. Then Simon Peter, having a sword,
drew it and cut the high priest's servant and cut off his right
ear. He was trying to cut off his
head and the servant ducked and the ear came out and we know
from Luke's account that the Lord healed it. That was the
Lord's last physical miracle, that man who got his ear cut
off, he took it and healed it, mercy even to the end. And then
he made this statement, then said, Jesus unto Peter, put up
thy sword into thy sheep, the cup which my father hath given
me, shall I not drink it? No more let it be, if it'd be
possible, let it pass. No, by the grace of God, by his
father's help, he knew he was gonna drink it. And drink it
he did on Calvary's tree. And you know what happened as
a result of him drinking it? He put away, he made not to be
the sins of everybody he died for. You look in that cup, what's
in it? nothing. He drank the dregs of
that cup dry and put away the sins of all who believe. And
my dear friend, if you look to Him only as everything in your
salvation He drank that cup for you. Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved. This is Todd Kniper praying that
God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. That's our prayer.
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