[0:00] That's what I said, I did request those first two songs and I was almost kind of scared to request a song because the last time I requested a song he made me come up here and sing it with him so I didn't know but but those two songs that were first played are two of my favorite songs and I will get a little bit more into that here in a second.
[0:25] But first just to introduce myself, my name is John Hoffman. As you've heard I am an apprentice here, one of five that are currently going through the apprenticeship and I've been coming to Christ's family, it'll be a year next, next week.
[0:46] So prior to that I was a police officer down in Griffin, Georgia for a number of years and for the first 21 years of my life I was an atheist.
[0:58] I didn't believe in the possibility of the existence of a God and I was one of those that would say there should be no prayer in public schools and take the Ten Commandments out of the courthouse.
[1:14] And then God was so gracious that he opened my eyes and granted me repentance and has made me a new creature in him.
[1:26] Since then I left law enforcement because I was convicted that I had made an idol out of my career and I came up here to Cleveland to Truett McConnell College to study theology.
[1:41] And my roommate's the one that brought me to Christ's Family Church and the first time I walked in I just thought to myself, okay, gotta go, gotta go, there's too many college kids.
[1:57] But this last year has been incredible and one of the main reasons, one of the main things that God has used this last year in my growth and my walk with Christ has been a lot of college students.
[2:17] I have grown so much and I have come to love many of you. And so I'm very thankful to be here at Christ's Family and I am honored and privileged to be given this opportunity this morning.
[2:32] And so with that I invite you to open up your Bible to Mark chapter 14. Mark chapter 14 as we continue our verse-to-verse exposition as Nathan has been so faithfully leading us for the last while.
[2:53] We come now to Mark chapter 14 and last week we saw how the Last Supper was taking place.
[3:04] And today we will start right at the end of the Last Supper scene. And so our text for this morning is going to be Mark chapter 14 verses 26 through 42 verses 26 through 42.
[3:20] And beginning in verse 26, God's inerrant and infallible word that is sharper than any two-edged sword and is active and living reads to us as such.
[3:35] And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. And Jesus said to them, You will all fall away for it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.
[3:49] But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee. Peter said to him, Even though they all fall away, I will not. And Jesus said to him, Truly I tell you, this very night before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.
[4:07] But he said emphatically, If I must die with you, I will not deny you. And they all said the same. And they went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, Sit here while I pray.
[4:21] And he took with him Peter and James and John and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And he said to them, My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.
[4:32] Remain here and watch. And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you.
[4:48] Remove this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what you will. And he came and found this sleeping. And he said to Peter, Simon, are you asleep?
[4:59] Can you not watch one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words.
[5:14] And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy, and they did not know what to answer him. And he came the third time and said to them, Are you still sleeping and taking your rest?
[5:27] It is enough. The hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand.
[5:38] Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this time together, Lord. And Lord, we thank you for Christ, for what he has done for us.
[5:56] Father, as we look at this night, where this huge battle was fought in the garden, and Lord, I pray that we will all walk away with something today.
[6:17] Lord, that we will be further conformed to the image of Christ. Lord, that your spirit will work, will fall. Father, on us, in this place.
[6:30] Father, I just, I thank you for this opportunity. And I pray that you will speak through me, Lord. That you will work through me this morning.
[6:44] In Jesus' name, Amen. Here's Mark Twain, the popular author and humorist. Christ in the 1800s who once said, the two most important days in your life are the day that you are born and the day that you find out why.
[7:07] And I would certainly agree that there is some truth to that statement. However, allow me to propound the reason why every one of us was born.
[7:21] For the reason is the same for you as it is for me, as it is for the person that is sitting next to you, as it is for the seven billion plus other people living here on this earth.
[7:33] For the reason why every one of us was created was that we may worship the one true God.
[7:44] A.W. Tozer, a pastor and author from the early 1900s, writes in his book, The Purpose of Man, quoting, God's supreme purpose in making man was to have somebody capable to properly and sufficiently worship him and satisfy his own heart.
[8:10] Man fell by sin and is now failing to carry out that created purpose. He is like a cloud without water. It gives no rain. Like a sun that gives no heat or a star that gives no light or a tree that no longer yields fruit.
[8:23] A bird that no longer sings or a harp that is silent and no longer gives off music. Close quote. Because of sin entering this world through the fall, every one of us would be utterly incapable of ever fulfilling our created purpose had it not been for one man who fulfilled his created purpose for coming to this world which was to give his life as a ransom for many.
[8:59] And because of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, those of us who are Christians, those of us who are born again by the power of God's living and abiding word can now begin to fulfill our spiritual worship which is to worship God in spirit and in truth.
[9:22] And as Christians, Romans chapter 12 tells us that our spiritual worship, more specifically, is that we may present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God.
[9:37] To not be conformed to the things of this world, but to be transformed by the renewal of our minds. We are called to live a life of humble submission to God's will.
[9:51] To wage war against the desires of our old nature. To become more like Jesus Christ. And in our text this morning, that is what we will discover as we look at the most important night in the life of our Lord, which is in fact the last night that He lives through before He gets crucified.
[10:13] This is a night that is filled with a variety of emotions. So much drama, betrayal, disbelief, arrogance, pride, fear, sorrow, action, and the greatest war with the highest stakes ever hanging in the balance between two possible choices presented before the Lord, Jesus Christ, on this night.
[10:44] And as we look at this text before us, the most important thing that we all need to walk away with this morning is that we all need to be more like Jesus in our submission to God's will.
[10:56] And for us today, I speak particularly of that part of God's will, which we are told in 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 3, which states that His will is our sanctification.
[11:10] And so what I mean by submission to God's will as pertaining to us is that we must, as we are called to do, work out our salvation in fear of trembling.
[11:24] We are to wage war against our flesh and the desires therein and walk in the Spirit. And in our text, we will see both a perfect example of this type of summation and the complete opposite.
[11:41] And so I've divided this text into four headings, and the first heading is encompassed by verses 26 through 31. Verses 26 to 31. And in these verses, I want you to first notice Peter's prideful resistance.
[11:56] Peter's prideful resistance. Beginning in verse 26. And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Now, we initially find ourselves, like I said, at the end of the Last Supper, in the upper room.
[12:11] Mark moves very quickly through this scenario. So I just want to give you a quick glance, if you would, at the scene presented before us through the lens of the other gospel accounts.
[12:26] before we go any further. The amount of emotions that are running through the upper room episode are just profound. It starts with Jesus reclining at the table, telling his disciples how he earnestly desires to eat this Passover meal with them.
[12:45] They begin the celebrations, and they are all reclining at the table and eating. When Jesus suddenly drops the bombshell that he will be betrayed by one of them.
[12:57] And as they are discussing amongst themselves who that one is, they begin to argue over which one of them is the greatest. They go from being grieved and asking Jesus, or surely not I, to arguing about which one is greater.
[13:20] Jesus then gets up from supper, shows them what it means to be a humble servant, and washes the disciples' feet. Jesus then announces once again his soon-to-come departure, foretells Peter's denial for the first time this night, and we will get back to that because the foretelling that is in our text this morning is the second time that he foretells Peter's denial on this same night.
[13:46] And after all this, Jesus expressing his love for them, pouring out his troubled spirit that he will be betrayed. The disciples' anguish over the betrayal, the self-exalting argument over which one of them is the greatest, Jesus washing their feet and making them feel as small as they really are, Jesus giving them a new commandment, that commandment being to love one another just as he has loved them.
[14:19] After all of this, Jesus comforts them as he tells them in John 14, verse 1, Do not let your hearts be troubled.
[14:31] Believe in God. Believe also in me. He tells them in Luke 22, verses 28-30, You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, and I assign to you as my Father assigned to me a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
[14:59] He declares to them that he is the way, the truth, and the life. And he tells them that from now on they know the Father and have seen him because they know the Son.
[15:14] He says to them, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, all of this happens during the Last Supper. They then sing a hymn praising God, and they leave the upper room and start to make their way to the Mount of Olives.
[15:30] The day here refers to the disciples in Jesus minus Judas, who already left the upper room shortly after Jesus calls him out as the one who will betray him.
[15:45] Now it's also important to keep in mind that everything that Jesus teaches in John chapters 15, 16, and 17, which include the teaching on abiding in Christ, using the metaphor of the vine and the tree branches, the working of the Holy Spirit, and Jesus' high priestly prayer, all take place in between the time that they leave the upper room and the time that they make it to the Mount of Olives.
[16:19] And I mention all this just to show the gravity and the vastness and the greatness of the substance of the teaching and the warnings that they receive from our Lord right before this great spiritual battle takes place in the Garden of Gethsemane.
[16:37] And so after the high priestly prayer, they cross the Kidron Valley, which is on the eastern side of the city, and it separates the Temple Mount from the Mount of Olives.
[16:49] And they make it to the Mount of Olives. But now before they reach the Garden of Gethsemane, which is on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, we read in verses 27 and 28, And Jesus said to them, You will all fall away, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.
[17:12] But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee. This is Jesus in His omniscience saying, This will happen. And listen to what the disciples all said to Jesus right before, just a few minutes before they reached the Mount of Olives.
[17:31] In John 16, 30, the disciples, all in agreeance, say to Jesus, Now we know that You know all things and do not need anyone to question You.
[17:45] How quickly they changed their minds. It's incredible. And Peter here reverts to his old ways, sets his mind not on the things of God, but on the things of man, and drunk in his own self-exaltation, notice now Peter's prideful resistance in verses 29-31.
[18:07] Peter said to Him, Even though they all fall away, I will not. And Jesus said to him, Truly I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.
[18:25] But he said emphatically, If I must die with you, I will not deny you. And they all said the same thing. And as I said before, this is the second time Jesus warns Peter of his coming denial.
[18:41] The first one actually took place in the upper room during the Last Supper. Please turn with me as we read in Luke chapter 22.
[18:52] Luke chapter 22. Luke chapter 22. In verses 31 and 34, this is in the upper room during the Last Supper.
[19:17] And Jesus says, starting in verse 31, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat.
[19:31] But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.
[19:42] But he said to him, Lord, with you I am ready to go both to prison and to death. And he said, I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know me.
[19:58] Now there are a few things I want to point out here. Behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat. The imagery here portrays almost a violent shaking.
[20:09] Almost as it's described in Amos 9.9 where it says, For behold, I am commanding and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations. as grain is shaken in a sieve, but not a kernel will fall to the ground.
[20:27] And also, something else I want to point out here is, where else in Scripture do we see Satan demanding permission to sift an upright, God-fearing man?
[20:41] One example is in the book of Job. In Job chapter 1, we see Satan entering the throne room of God and is given permission to test Job's faith.
[20:56] And that is exactly what is happening here. As Jesus tells him that Satan has demanded permission to sift you, this is a test of Peter's faith.
[21:09] It is a trial. And so also, let me state that at this point, Peter was in fact already a believer. He was no longer dead in his sins and trespasses.
[21:23] He had a new nature, capable of loving and obeying God. And I prove this to you for the sake of time, simply by stating what Jesus says in verse 32 here in Luke, But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.
[21:42] For those who are not of God have no God-given faith.
[21:55] And so as a believer, Peter had a choice to make. To either submit himself to the will of God and put to death the deeds of the flesh or pridefully resist and give into his flesh.
[22:14] And he chooses the latter. As he arrogantly almost tells Jesus, you are wrong.
[22:26] I would never deny you. Peter did not heed the countless warnings given to him like the one in Luke chapter 21 verses 34 to 36 where Jesus tells them, Be on guard so that your hearts will not be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life.
[22:50] And that day will not come on you suddenly like a trap for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth. But keep on the alert at all times praying that you may have strength to escape all the things that are about to take place.
[23:13] And like Peter, you and I have that choice presented before us probably more often than you're aware of.
[23:23] And we ought to learn from Peter's mistake and we should be on guard and not let our hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life.
[23:38] So we ought to resist and fight our fleshly desires and temptations and we can learn much from the example that our Lord Jesus has left for us.
[23:52] And so as we begin to look at the example that Jesus has left for us, please notice our second heading this morning in verses 32-36 of Mark chapter 14.
[24:05] And our second heading is Christ's humble submission. Christ's humble submission. Beginning in verse 32, And they went to a place called Gethsemane.
[24:20] And he said to his disciples, sit here while I pray. Now, in Luke chapter 22 verse 40, we're also told that at the same time he also tells them, pray that you may not enter into temptation.
[24:37] Now, back in Mark verse 33, we continue and he says, And he took with him Peter and James and John and began to be greatly distressed and troubled.
[24:50] And he said to them, My soul is very sorrowful even to death. Remain here and watch.
[25:02] Have you noticed the military-like tactical undertones here? they all go from a steep valley across the Kidron Valley to the slopes of the Mount of Olives.
[25:19] They go to higher ground. They then enter the Garden of Gethsemane, which probably had a wall enclosure. He leaves the majority of the disciples in one place, perhaps at the entrance, where they can have a good view of the valley and the eastern wall and of any possible approaching enemies, hostiles.
[25:42] Then Jesus goes further in with Peter, James, and John, the leaders of the disciples, almost like in old battles where the warriors would be formed and ready for battle towards the back, and a handful of the higher ranking officers would go into the battlefield to meet and discuss with the enemy before fighting commenced.
[26:09] And Peter and James and John are here told what the details of the battle are to be. When Jesus tells them of the conflict that is within him, that is bringing him to the very threshold of death, and he then gives them their orders, remain here and watch.
[26:35] much like a command that would be issued to a soldier. But then Jesus goes in a little further, and on his own fights the greatest war that he has ever fought, with the greatest consequences hanging in the balance of the outcome of a choice between two options, to either humbly submit to God's will or to resist it.
[27:04] And that which was hanging on the balance of those choices tonight, on that night, was our eternal security. And this war, with such eternal consequences, it's an internal battle that Jesus fought.
[27:25] It was a battle against his own human nature, a battle against the greatest temptation that he ever faced. For not even the face-to-face temptations from Satan in the desert begin to scratch the surface of the temptation that he went through in the garden.
[27:50] John Calvin writes on the temptation in the garden, we have seen that our Lord formally contended with the fear of death. But as he now fights face-to-face with temptation, such an attack is called the beginning of grief and sorrow.
[28:08] Hence we infer that the true test of virtue is only to be found when the contest begins. For then the weakness of the flesh, which was formerly concealed, shows itself, and the secret feelings are abundantly displayed.
[28:25] thus, though God had already tried his son by certain preparatory exercises, he now wounds him more sharply by a nearer prospect of death, and strikes his mind with a terror to which he had not been accustomed.
[28:49] Close quote. He also goes on to quote Cyril, an old saint, saying, having been made flesh, he allows the flesh to feel what belongs to it.
[29:03] And therefore, being truly a man, even Christ himself has the sufferings and fears which belong to a man.
[29:17] But the word who is united to him raises him to a fortitude which is worthy of God.
[29:29] Close quote. Now back to verse 35, we read, and going a little further, he fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.
[29:44] And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what you will. And here is the question that we should all know the answer to.
[30:01] what was in that metaphorical cup. Because whatever it was, whatever was in that cup, is the thing that made the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings tremble and seized him with anguish and affected him with grief and sorrow almost to the point of death that he sweat great drops of blood while in agonizing prayer as he asked that it may be taken from him because in that cup was the pure, holy, earth-shaking, mountain-melting, nation's obliterating wrath of God the Father.
[30:57] Ezekiel chapter 23 verses 32 to 33 says, Thus says the Lord God, You shall drink your sister's cup that is deep and large.
[31:10] You shall be laughed at and held in derision, for it contains much. You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, a cup of horror and desolation.
[31:23] Isaiah 51 17 Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl the cup of staggering.
[31:44] Jeremiah 25 15-16 and 27 Thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me, Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.
[32:00] They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among them. Then you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, drink, be drunk and vomit, fall and rise no more because of the sword that I am sending among you.
[32:25] These are just to name a few. The cup was the total summation of the wrath that we all deserve for our sins.
[32:39] And Jesus made the choice that night to drink it on our behalf as he submitted himself to the perfect will of the father.
[32:52] Please turn with me to psalm 89. Psalm 89. Psalm 89. Psalm 89. And let's read verses 38 through 48.
[33:24] 38 through 48 in Psalm 89. For some theologians have said of this psalm that it is prophetic of the agonies of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane.
[33:35] And so, as we read, try to imagine Jesus as He is in the garden. And try to imagine as if these are the very thoughts that were going through His head as He is in His moment of agony.
[33:52] Beginning in verse 38. But now you have cast off and rejected. You are full of wrath against your anointed. You have renounced the covenant with your servant.
[34:06] You have defiled His crown in the dust. You have breached all His walls. You have laid His strongholds in ruins. All who pass by plunder Him.
[34:18] He has become the scorn of His neighbors. You have exalted the right hand of His foes. You have made all His enemies rejoice.
[34:30] You can see here, this is Jesus feeling that separation that is part of that cup.
[34:41] The separation that He felt as the wrath of God poured over Him on the cross. We continue.
[34:52] You have also turned back the edge of His sword. And you have not made Him stand in battle. You have made His splendor to seize and cast His throne to the ground.
[35:03] And just a little bit ago, we read how He just threw Himself on the ground in the garden to pray. You have cut short the days of His youth.
[35:17] You have covered Him with shame. How long, O Lord? Will You hide Yourself forever? How long will Your wrath burn like fire? Remember how short My time is.
[35:29] For what vanity You have created all the children of man. What man can live and never see death? Who can deliver His soul from the power of Sheol?
[35:43] And as He is going through that agony, through that temptation, this is also what is going through His mind. Who can deliver His soul from the power of Sheol?
[35:58] Because He knows that only He had the power to deliver us from the wrath to come.
[36:12] And He had a choice. The choice to drink the cup in our place or to allow us to drink our portion and be eternally and justly condemned.
[36:32] Yet not what I will, but what You will. He made His choice. Although He had every right, every just excuse to change His mind, He fought temptation to the point of shedding blood.
[36:54] And He humbly submitted Himself to the will of the Father. Del Datus of Nevers, a 7th century bishop, writes of Christ's agony that it was, quote, a purely natural desire by which, as a man for a short moment, He apprehended and shunned death and torments, but quickly recalled Himself to obedience by deliberate will to submit Himself to God.
[37:24] Close quote. Could there be a better example for us to follow? This reality should be what drives us to our knees in grateful, in passionate, adoration and worship and submission to our Lord.
[37:51] And we should keep watch and be on the alert and resist temptations and be transformed by the renewal of our minds and not be conformed to this world in our idleness.
[38:08] And we ought to do it out of love for Him, for what He has done for us, remembering what He suffered for us, and that He suffered because of us at the individual level.
[38:27] John Flavel, a Puritan from the 1600s, writes, Oh, what has He suffered and suffered upon your account, your pride, your earthliness, sensuality, unbelief, hardness of heart added to the weight of the burden of His sorrows in that day.
[38:56] Close quote. Because He did that for us, we should wage war against our flesh. And to lead into that, please note our third heading in verses 37 and 38 of Mark chapter 14.
[39:12] The war against the natures affirmed. The war against the natures affirmed. Beginning in verse 37. And He came and found them sleeping, and He said to Peter, Simon, are you asleep?
[39:29] Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
[39:41] And here Jesus affirms to us that there are two natures within believers that are at war. the spirit and the flesh. Paul says in Galatians 5 verse 16 and 17, Walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
[40:01] For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit. And the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For those are opposed to each other.
[40:12] To keep you from doing the things you want to do. Romans 8 verse 7. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's will.
[40:32] To God's law. I'm sorry. There are two natures and submission to God's will is a key distinctive in identifying which one you are falling under at any given point.
[40:51] For one submits and the other one does not. Listen to what John MacArthur says about the two natures. He says, Every Christian then who has a right understanding of his or her nature understands that we live in a very dangerous place.
[41:12] Not just the world around us, not just the current culture that threatens us, but we live as new creations in a very dangerous personal situation.
[41:25] For we are contained within our own fallenness. Therein lies the spiritual struggle. Close quote. And here back in our text again we see Peter's prideful resistance.
[41:41] He fell asleep. while he should have been waging war. And I think that it was out of pride. The pride has something to do with it because look at the warnings he gets from Jesus.
[41:53] You will deny me three times. But he arrogantly professes if I must die with you I will not deny you. And here in the garden Jesus tells him watch and pray.
[42:06] Why? Why watch and pray? Verse 38 that you may not enter into temptation. But Peter already believes that he is strong enough.
[42:20] He has no need whatsoever to watch and pray. And isn't it interesting that Jesus comes and finds him sleeping three times?
[42:32] And three times he will end up denying him. He was given the opportunity to fight in prayer for each denial that was to come.
[42:45] But instead he sleeps and gives into the flesh. The reason for Peter's failure to come is found here in the garden. Just as the reason for Jesus' victory to come is also found in the garden.
[43:04] The war between the two natures is real. And the disciples instead of fighting slept. They rested. They relied on their own strength.
[43:16] They did not pray. They did not agonize. And so they did not overcome. Jesus had just finished telling them in John 16 24 until now you have asked nothing in my name.
[43:32] Ask and you will receive. And once in the garden he tells them to ask. All they had to do was ask.
[43:44] But they did not. And that leads us to our fourth heading this morning. In verses 39 through 42. Our fourth heading which is the strategy for victory.
[43:59] victory. The strategy for victory. Starting in verse 39. And again he, meaning Jesus, went away and prayed saying the same words.
[44:11] Herein lies the key to victory against temptation. Here is the greatest weapon that we have in our armory. Yet it is the most neglected.
[44:25] Prayer. Persistent, humbly, submissive prayer. And ignoring prayer is like deliberately choosing to take a knife to a gun fight.
[44:39] Just because a gun is more complicated. It might take more time to learn to use it. Or because it's more dangerous.
[44:52] And in the end, that state of mind will cost. earlier this week we watched in the news as terrorists, a group of terrorists, went into a newspaper organization building and they killed a number of people.
[45:19] And as they were coming out, the first two officers at least that responded to the scene, the first two police officers in France had no gun.
[45:31] They had no firearms. And they responded to a group of terrorists murdering people with AK-47s. They showed up unprepared and it cost them their lives.
[45:47] Those two officers were killed because they had nothing to defend themselves with. Prayer is a powerful weapon.
[46:03] And as I've heard it put before, every battle in our Christian lives can be won on our knees.
[46:15] The bending of the knee is the caulking of the hammer to the most powerful weapon that the Christian is armed with.
[46:29] And with it we must work out our salvation in fear and trembling. We must discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness, deny ourselves and take up our crosses daily and follow Him.
[46:43] Brothers and sisters, we are without excuse. As the warning had been given to the disciples, it has been issued to us as well.
[46:56] And look at the response of the disciples when they were confronted by Jesus about their sleeping. What was their excuse? In verse 40 we read, And again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy, and they did not know what to answer Him.
[47:13] They did not know what to say because they had no excuse. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. But let's be clear about something.
[47:25] The flesh is weak, but you who is a new creature in Christ are not. Martin Lloyd Jones once said, and I quote, If you are a Christian, the Holy Spirit of God is in you, and He is working in you, and He enables us, He gives us strength, He gives us power, so that the Christian must never complain of want of ability and power.
[47:59] For a Christian to say, I can't do it, is utterly and entirely wrong. No Christian must ever say, I've got no power.
[48:12] I've got no strength. It is a denial of the truth concerning himself. Close quote. It should be a joy for us to willingly fight the battle, to run the race, to wage in the war, and resist the devil firm in our faith, to humbly submit ourselves to the Father's will, and to take to heart the lesson that Peter had to learn the hard way.
[48:49] As he warns us to action in 1 Peter chapter 5 verses 6 through 10. 1 Peter chapter 5 verses 6 through 10. He says, Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you.
[49:15] Be sober-minded, be watchful, your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist Him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brothers throughout the world.
[49:36] And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
[49:54] And our Lord, having won the war on His knees in prayer, stands in victory, confirmed, strengthened, established, and resolved to drink that cup that belonged to us.
[50:14] As He says in verse 41, It is enough. The hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going.
[50:28] My betrayer is at hand. Are you finding victory in your battles? Are you satisfied with your prayer life?
[50:41] Are you satisfied with your knowledge of God and His Word? Are you using your time wisely?
[50:54] Are you taking advantage of opportunities that are presented before you, such as our prayer mornings? How much of God do you want?
[51:12] Is following Christ the thing that defines you and drives you? I pray that we may all look upon Him for strength, that we may surrender ourselves over completely to Him in humble submission.
[51:33] Let's pray.