The Lord is good and merciful
this week. Remember these folks in your
prayer, the Bourne family and the Brown family. Iva Lou passed
away the 17th, and I just got word that Carl passed away this
morning at 3.30. Husband and wife, dear friends
who attended many conferences here over the years, love the
Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Also this week, Brother Carter
Brown passed away. His wife, Joyce, remains. Remember
her in your prayers. It's kind of a sad day in that
sense. For us, a happy day for them.
They're free at last. I thought of this poem written
by Yehudah Levy in the 11th century. He wrote, "'Tis a fearful thing
to love what death can touch, a fearful thing to love, to hope,
to dream, To be, to be, and oh, to lose. A thing for fools, this,
a holy thing to love. For your life has lived in me,
your laugh once lifted me, your word was a gift to me. To remember
this brings painful joy. Tis a human thing, love, a holy
thing to love, what death has touched. Not going to have any music since
we're, this is a COVID virus transmission. So I'm going to
sing a verse of a Cherokee hymn, Amazing Grace. ee-oo-way-jee ee-ay-gah goo-yah-ayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy E-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e- Then cometh Jesus with them unto
a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit
ye here while I go, and pray yonder. And he took with them
Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful, and
very heavy. Then said he unto them, My soul
is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Carry ye here, and
watch with me. And he went a little further,
and fell on his face, and prayed, O my Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as Thou wilt. And he cometh unto his disciples,
and finding them asleep, and said unto Peter, What, couldst
thou not watch with me one hour? Watch, and pray, that ye enter
not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak. He went away again the second
time and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass
away from me except I drink it, Thy will be done. And He came
and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. And
He left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying
the same words. Let us pray. We bless you and
thank you for great grace for sinners. We thank you for the
record of our Lord Jesus Christ and what he did for us and accomplished
for us on Calvary's tree. We thank you for his life, which
was righteous and holy and pure and without sin. We also thank
you that we see him as a real human being. Oh, he was God and
very God of very God. He was also man. A very man,
a very man. Help us to understand and appreciate
that fact. Father, we pray for those who've
lost loved ones. Pray for the Boren family, the
loss of Avalu and now Carl. We're thankful that she and he
are together again in glory. Pray for Joyce Brown at the loss
of Carter. Yes, Lord, you'd be with her.
Give her peace in these situations. be with Brother Stoniker as he
must perform these funerals this week. Also Brother Tate as he
must perform Carter's funeral this week. We ask Lord your help
for them. Help us, Lord, to remember each other in prayer, especially
during these times when difficulties face us, when we are faced with
things that finally teach us and bring us to the place where
we realize we're not in control of anything. Give us grace to
look to you in all things. Help us now to preach the gospel,
we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Here of late I've talked with
several people who are going through trials
and tribulations and troubles, and have reacted to it with tears
and fears, and have asked me if this is an example little
faith or doubt in God. But that's not the case. Just
because you have fears doesn't mean you lack faith, nor does
it mean if you are troubled and tearful that you lack faith.
Our Lord said that He kept our tears in a bottle. And this place
has been dubbed the Veil of Tears. And we know that we'll be crying
until the day when we will go to that glorious place where
there will be no more tears. It is natural for the people,
for human beings to be afraid or at least trepidatious about
that which is unknown and that which is outside their control. Our Lord Jesus Christ was both
God and man, God in human flesh. Paul said it was without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. God manifests in the flesh. We
don't know how far it was for God to come down to unite himself
with humanity. We don't know how great it was
for humanity to unite himself with God. But sometimes we rejoice,
we always rejoice in God's deity, in Christ's deity, in the fact
that He was God and is God and sits at the right hand of the
Father on high at this moment, interceding for His people. But
sometimes it's hard for us to process the fact of His humanity,
because things are said about Him that are almost too wonderful
for us to understand He was our great high priest, and Scripture
declares that He was tempted in all points, tempted in all
points, like we are, yet without sin. We can't imagine that, that
He was tested like we are, yet we have the record that He was
a man of sorrows, and a man acquainted with grief, and that word acquainted
means it was His constant Companion. We often think, does He really,
can He really feel what we feel as poor human beings? And we have the clear declaration
of Scripture that He does. That He does. We find Him here
in Gethsemane. In Gethsemane. Luke's account
says that he sweared, as it were, great drops of blood as he prayed
these three times to his father to remove the cup from him, if
it were possible. Much has been said about what
the cup is, but I think it is explained in Scripture to some
degree. It is something that he was going
to face as a human being that every human being naturally fears
and has an aversion to, and that's dying. None of us want to die. All of us want to live. We're
made to live. I know we're made also to die
at the appointed time, but until that time we are made to live. And so, death is an unknown to
us. Nobody's ever come back from
death and told us what it's like. Our Lord was resurrected, but
He didn't talk about what it was like to be dead. Paul, I
believe, was resurrected at Lystra after he was stoned to death.
And all he said was, I knew a man once that went to the third heaven
and heard things that are not lawful to be uttered. He never
said a word about what it was like to be dead. Our Lord here
is interceding, we know, for His people. Great drops of blood
were shed, it said, and this is a wondrous thing, because
when a person is in distress and fear, the blood of the body
naturally goes inward to the vital organs of the body and
not outward. But we know that what Christ
did Everything He did, He did for something else. So here,
in this great time of stress, when His soul was troubled and
sorrowful even unto death, He bled outward. He bled outward. Just like when He was baptized
in Matthew chapter 3, when John said, You need to baptize us. We don't need to baptize you.
The Lord said, Suffer it to be so. For it is incumbent upon
us to fulfill all righteousness. He lives to intercede for His
people. But also, in this passage of
Scripture, we see the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ in a
great way. He said, Let this cup pass from
Me, if it were possible. Nevertheless, not My will but
Thine be done. Here we have a great and wondrous
thing to consider, a thing to ponder possibly for the rest
of our life. Jesus Christ, who is God, saying
to God the Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, but
nevertheless not my will, but Thine be done. His humanity is
real, and it's phenomenal. It's an amazing thing. Scripture
says, that he pleased not himself. And that to me, does that say
his self had an agenda? His self had thoughts as a human
being that he went against his own self in order to please God? These things all speak of humanity. Humanity. Our Lord Jesus Christ
was a human being. There's something about a human
being, self that is naturally averse to the unknown? Of course there is. I remember many times when our
children would get on the bus here in Big Cove on a snowy or
icy day and go to school. They don't do much of that anymore.
They pretty much cancel school for a raindrop. But I remember
them getting on the bus and us standing there, Debbie and I,
looking out the window Both of us looked at each other and what
our thoughts were was, gee, I hope this thing don't end up in the
river. Hope this thing don't slide off the road. These are
things unknown and they trouble us because our mind works in
that way. Our mind can develop many scenarios. What was our Lord thinking when
He said, Let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not my will
but thine. Was his will opposed to God's
will? No, as the perfect human being,
his will was where it's supposed to be, subservient to God's will. He was to trust the Lord as a
human being, and he did trust the Lord as a human being. The
Old Testament Scriptures declare that in Psalm 22, I've trusted
thee from my mother's womb. These things are so. But the
mind can develop scenarios with our Lord thinking, what's it
going to be like to die? He who was life, what's it going
to be like? We know that He came to die.
We know that He sent His face like a flint to Jerusalem to
die in the room instead of His people. And yet as He faced these
things, He said, Lord, let this cup pass from Me if it be possible. Not my will. but thine be done."
What does that say about the human will? It says to some degree
that it's always, regardless even if it's a perfect human
will, is not God's will. It's not God's will. God's thoughts
are not our thoughts, neither are His ways our ways. His thoughts
are higher than the heavens and His ways also than our ways. Not my will. What he was saying
was this, I'm a human being and I submit my will to you. If it
be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not thy
will, my will but thine be done. What is the human will? I hear
it many times at hospital I hear it many times when people are
sick. I hear them talk about people's will to live. That's
pretty much our will. That's pretty much the human
will summed up to live, to preserve, to carry on. We're that way. We're made that way. One person
said to a friend with cancer, there's only two choices you
have here. You can live with cancer or you can die with cancer.
And that's the case and every human being will choose to live. Every human being will choose
to live. This was our Lord Jesus Christ
as he cried and wept and was very sorrowful and troubled in
his soul even when he prayed thrice the same prayer to God
Almighty. Being human. Being human. If you are a human being, don't
fret because you weep. Don't fret because you're fearful. Don't fret because you're afraid
of what might happen, because that is a very natural thing
to be. In Hebrews, chapter 5, When it talked about the humanity
of the Lord Jesus Christ, it said this in Hebrews chapter
5 and verse 6. It says, As he saith, and he's
talking from Psalm 110, Thou art a priest forever after the
order of Melchizedek, speaking of Jesus Christ. Speaking of
Christ, he says, who in the days of his flesh, that's while he
walked upon this earth as a human being in human flesh, tempted
and tested in all points like as we are a man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief, who in the days of his flesh, when he
had offered up prayers and supplications, speaking of Gethsemane, with
strong cryings and tears unto him that was able to save him
from Death. He was heard in that he feared. He was heard in that he feared. Being a human being with God-given
faith, we may trust that if the perfect human being was heard
in that he feared you will be heard as a child of God. When
you fear, trust this. Trust the Word of God. Faith
falls upon what is written and what God has said. And oftentimes, especially in
these days, I find myself going back to the words of Isaiah in
Isaiah chapter 43. But now thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not,
for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou
art mine. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they
shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall thy flame be kindled. upon thee. And then in chapter
48 of Isaiah, he says, Can a woman forget her suckling child, that
she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea,
they may forget, and yet will I not forget thee? Behold, I
have graven thee upon the palms of my hands, thy walls are continually
before me. Brethren, in times like these
of stress and fear, your being afraid does not mean that you
are not a child of God. What it means is that you are
a human being. Our Lord was a human being. Father, bless us to understand
and we pray in Christ's name. Amen.