You may be seated. Well, good morning once again. As always, it is a great privilege and honor to have this opportunity to worship with you and to preach to you from God's holy and sufficient word. Well, this morning we are continuing in our study of the gospel of Mark, and our text today will be Mark chapter 14, verses 26 through 42. And the title of today's message is Proper Preparation. One of my recurring dreams that I've had over the years, and perhaps you could call it a nightmare, is that I would show up on the Lord's Day and be completely unprepared to preach. There's something very unnerving about being unprepared. It's also very frustrating when someone is unprepared when they're supposed to be prepared that you're depending on. I'm sure we've all experienced that at times when people should be properly prepared but they're not. And what that communicates about a person is that they don't care. They have a lack of love and concern to give their best effort. But the reality is, we should never be unprepared. And that even applies to the things that we don't necessarily plan for. In 1 Peter 4, verse 12, we read, beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. The Word of God and experience teaches us that although we may not know all the specific trials that we must face in this life, that we do know that we will face the following kinds of trials. For example, temptation. You know that you're going to be tempted. Everyone in this room is going to face temptation, and you ought to prepare yourself for that. But other trials that are sure to come upon you in this life are things like this, regret, sadness, depression, anger, betrayal, spiritual, physical, and emotional pain, the loss of things and people that we love, and ultimately, our own death. That's something we've been thinking about the past three months in our Bible study hour, how to prepare properly for our ultimate death. And so the point is, we live in the midst of a fallen world, and God makes it very clear that you will have to face trials and tribulations in this life. Jesus actually says that very thing in the upper room in the Gospel of John in chapter 16, verse 33. He says, in this world, you will have tribulation. And if that be the case, then we ought to be a people who are constantly preparing and preparing properly. Well, in many ways, our passage today is about that very thing, how to prepare properly. And what we're going to see is a contrast between two approaches to preparation. We see the approach of Jesus, who prepares properly, and we see the approach of the disciples, who do not prepare properly. And so with those things in mind, let us now turn to Mark 14, and let's read together verses 26 through 42. This is the word of the living God. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Remove this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what you will. And he came and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, Simon, are you asleep? 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. And again, he went away and prayed, saying the same words. And again, he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were 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? 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. With us, the reading of God's word, and may His people say, let's pray together. Our Father and our most gracious God, As we consider your word today, we do pray that you would help us. You have reminded us in this text that the spirit is willing, but our flesh is weak. Lord, we are so weak. We are so prone to wonder. We're so prone to have our hearts and our minds distracted. Lord, I do pray that you would give us the grace that we need this morning. to seek after you with all of our heart and mind and soul and strength. And Lord, may we leave here today with less confidence in ourselves, but all confidence in you. And in so doing that we might be better prepared to walk worthy of our calling this week and beyond. I ask this in Christ's name, amen. As we begin, I want to take a few minutes to remind you of the context of this passage. Now last week we saw that ever since Mark chapter 8, that Jesus was very plainly preparing his disciples for the fact that he was coming to Jerusalem to die, but also to rise again after three days. He says this very clearly three times in Mark 8 and Mark 9 and Mark 10. And in addition to these very clear statements, he makes several allusions to his death. We saw one very clearly last week in our sermon when Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper and he tells them, this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. He's saying just like the lifeblood of the Passover lamb was poured out, so my lifeblood is about to be poured out. He's saying to them, I'm about to die. You know, in many ways, as I've been looking through this this week, Jesus sounds like a preacher, doesn't he? In fact, he's the greatest preacher there's ever been. And what does Jesus do? He repeats the most important things over and over again. And if there's anything clear in Jesus's ministry to his disciples is that he's letting them know that he is going to die. And Jesus has been in the upper room with his disciples and he's instituted the Lord's Supper and he's been with great care and love and concern teaching his disciples that he's about to die and that he's going to leave. He's preparing them. And if you want to see a fuller picture of what Jesus teaches his disciples in that upper room, you can find that in John's gospel in chapters 13 through 17. But as we come to our passage today, Jesus and his disciples minus Judas have left the upper room and they've made their way across the Kidron Valley over to the base of the Mount of Olives. And so now we come to the exposition of our passage today. And what I want to do is simply walk through the passage and just observe what the passage is teaching us to exposit the passage. And then after that, I want to conclude with two primary application points regarding how we can be properly prepared when the hour of trial comes upon us. And by way of expositing this text, I want us to first consider verses 26 through 31, where Jesus foretells Peter's denial, and then verses 32 through 42, where Jesus prays in Gethsemane. So let's look together once more at verses 26 through 31, and then draw out a few important truths. Verse 26. 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. But after I'm 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. But he said emphatically, if I must die with you, I will not deny you. And they all said the same. Well, we've already covered verse 26 as we looked at the context of our passage. So let's now consider verse 27. And from that verse, I want us to look at three points. Verse 27 reads, Jesus said to them, you will all fall away for it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. Well, in this verse, Jesus foretells a test and that his disciples will fail that test. That's what this verse is saying. So first, what is the test that Jesus is referring to? Well, the test here is no mystery. It is what Jesus has been preparing his disciples for. He is referring here to the fact that he will be arrested, tried, and crucified to death. And he's telling his disciples that when the shepherd is struck, you are all going to fall away. That leads us to the second thing to consider. What is the nature of this test? In other words, what is it about this test that makes it so hard for his disciples to overcome? And I think the answer to this question is twofold. On the one hand, there's the very obvious fact that this trial brought with it the fear of personal harm. The disciples were afraid of death. They were afraid of suffering, and they were afraid of men. If Jesus, our leader, our teacher, can be killed, then certainly we can be killed. And so the desire of self-preservation is a very large temptation with regards to this test. And that's something that we ought to be aware of as Christians. All of us are prone to self-preservation. All of us are prone to being afraid of men. And we are particularly afraid of what people think about us. And thus we need to be constantly reminded that we are not to fear men, but we are to fear God. We're not to fear men who can kill the body only, but we're to fear God who can kill both body and soul. But there's another aspect to the nature of this test that I think is particularly difficult for the disciples to grasp. And that is the fact that not only is Jesus going to be arrested and killed, but that he's going to allow this to happen willingly. Jesus is not going to fight back. He's going to submit. And this is hard for the disciples. If Jesus were to take up arms and fight back, I imagine that the disciples would have took up arms and fought alongside with him. In fact, I believe they would have done so bravely. But I think the part that they struggled with is that when they see Jesus willingly submit himself to this, that they were struggling with unbelief. Remember how the disciples reacted every time that Jesus told them that he was going to die. Well, let's look at that together. If you would, turn with me to Mark 8. And we're gonna notice verses 31 through 33. There we read. And he began to teach them, saying that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. Notice what Peter does. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, get behind me, Satan, for you are not setting your mind on things of God, but on the things of men. Notice with me, if you will, Mark 9, verses 31 through 35. Mark 9 31, where he was teaching his disciples saying to them, the son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise. But they did not understand the saying and were afraid to ask him. And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house, he asked him, what were you discussing on the way? But they kept silent. For on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the 12, and he said to them, if anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all. And then notice with me Mark 10, verses 33 through 37. Verse 33, see, we are going up to Jerusalem, that the son of man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him. And after three days, he will rise. And James and John, the sons of Zebedee came to him and said to him, teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you. And he said to them, what do you want me to do for you? And they said to him, grant us to sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory. Then of course, after this request, Jesus rebukes them and teaches that what they're being called into in this age is a life of suffering and service. And so the disciples struggle with the fact that when they see their shepherd being struck and not fighting back, that their hopes of a restored Israel, their hopes of an earthly kingdom where they would be the rulers, their hopes of this is being dashed before their very eyes. In short, when the shepherd is struck, the disciples are met with a crisis of faith. This isn't what I signed up for. I thought I was signing up to be the ruler in this new kingdom. I didn't sign up to leave everything and follow Jesus just to see him killed like a common criminal and then have nothing left. And so yes, the great temptation before the disciples was would they believe the Lord? Would they trust what the Lord was doing? And that leads us to the next point that we can draw from verse 27, and that is this. Theology is very important. Understanding the nature of God's kingdom is vital. Jesus was clear with his disciples that in this age, they will suffer. that suffering comes before glory. In this age, they will be servants, and the world will not truly see them for what they are in the same way that they did not see Jesus for who he was. And so understand that, dear ones. You are co-heirs with Jesus Christ. That's true right now. But you must suffer with him first before you are glorified with him later. In the age to come, we will reign forever with Christ. Paul says in Corinthians, do you not know that you will judge angels? And Jesus tells his disciples in Matthew 19 that when the Son of Man sits on his throne in the new world, that they will sit on 12 thrones as judges. But that time is not yet. And so you must prepare yourself for suffering. Don't think that because you are a Christian that you get to bypass suffering and go straight to glory. We walk by faith in this life, not by sight. And yet the faith we walk by is a faith that is trusting in a God who is trustworthy. And that's the Christian life in this age. When everything in your life is going wrong, when everything in this world and in your flesh is screaming at you to not trust God, true Christian faith, trust in God. The disciples, when the shepherd was struck, they lost sight of that reality. And that's why they fell. They were living in that moment by sight and not by faith. Let's now consider verse 28. It reads, but after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee. Well, in this verse, Jesus foretells of his triumph over death, and he hints at his future restoration of his disciples. And so let's draw three truths from this verse. And don't worry, I'm not gonna draw three truths from every verse, but I do wanna draw three truths from this verse. First in this verse, we see we see Jesus's love for his weak and failing disciples. Jesus knew that although his disciples would fall, every one of them, he says, will fall, and yet this knowledge did not cause Jesus to shrink back. He was still going to that cross for them. And he knew that after he was raised up, that he would go before his disciples to Galilee and that he would restore them and that he would give them a great commission. Think of that. These same weak and failing disciples, Jesus is already telling them, I know you're gonna fall, but I love you. And I'm not gonna give up on you. In fact, I'm gonna entrust you with a great commission. Dear ones, think of the love of Christ for you. Despite all of your weaknesses, despite all of your sins and your failings, Jesus poured out his blood for you and he has brought you into this kingdom and he has sent you out to be his witnesses in all the world. That's amazing, dear ones. Paul says in 1 Corinthians that we are fellow workers with God himself. We don't deserve that privilege. And we all need to understand that there are no great men or great women of God, but only weak and stumbling men and women who are loved by and used by a great God. It's amazing that God's plan includes using us weak and sinful little humans. And so surely God gets all the glory when anything is done for him. And that leads me to a second truth we learned from this verse, and that is, if Christ has loved us that way, we ought to love one another in the same way. Dear ones, I want you to know this. If you serve with any Christian long enough, every Christian will let you down eventually. You will not make it through the Christian life without being disappointed by your fellow Christians. And yet, we're to love them. We are to be patient with them, and we are to be kind to them, and we are to recognize that there be anything in them that's worthy of praise, that God is the source of that. And so let's be like our Lord. He knew that they were going to fail him, but he would not give up on them. J.L. Packer once said that the church is like a hospital where no one is completely well. and anybody can relapse. That's who we are, dear ones. There's nobody in this congregation that's completely well, not one. And all of us are subject to falling. We need to remind ourselves of that. If you're gonna make it through a lifetime of serving God's people, you need to understand that reality. As I said, nobody in the church is completely well, and anybody can fall at any time. And just like anybody who works, for example, in a hospital setting, or some setting where you're dealing with people who are unwell, that can take it out of you. But may we persevere in love for our broken brothers and sisters, even as Christ continues to love us. And then lastly from this verse, I think we see just how blind God's disciples can be. What did Jesus say every time he was preparing his disciples for his death? He told them three times, I'm going to die. But he also said what? And after three days, I'm going to rise again. And he says it here again, in verse 28, after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee. And yet, that did not seem to register in the hearts and the minds of the disciples. J.C. Rowe once again says, they have heard of it frequently with the hearing of the ear, but had never made any impression on their hearts. Sometimes God's children can hear the truths of God's word over and over again, and yet it doesn't seem like it makes any impact. This should not surprise us. This should not shake our faith. Parents, especially those who have adult children, how many times did you tell your children something and it seemed like it went in one ear and out the other? My fellow pastors, don't be surprised when you preach sermons that it goes unnoticed and unheeded. Jesus was the best preacher, the Bible says. Never a man spoke like this man. And yet even His words went unnoticed and unheeded by His disciples. And so we learn from this that if we are going to parent well, if we're going to lead well, if we're going to pastor well, we need patience. Because the reality is truths that are often neglected at first will bear fruit later. Parents, don't get discouraged. if your children don't seem to be listening to you. Those who are leading and ministering don't get discouraged when the people you are ministering to don't seem to be reacting like they should. Pastors don't get discouraged when the congregation doesn't seem to be listening. Remember, God is the one who gives the increase. He is the one that takes the truth and plants it deep within the heart. And so be faithful. continue to speak truth, continue to pray, and trust that God will not allow his word to return to him void, and that he will bring forth a harvest of righteousness from the truth that has been planted and watered by his servants. Let's now turn our attention now to verses 29 through 31. And here we see Peter's self-confidence and Jesus' prophetic warning. These verses read, 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. But Peter said emphatically, if I must die with you, I will not deny you. And all the disciples said the same. Well, from these verses, we can learn many truths, but I want to just mention two with you at this time. And first is, we learn from these verses that we should never be self-sufficient. The scriptures are playing on this reality. Pride comes before destruction and a haughty spirit before the fall. Let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. Clearly, Peter is haughty here. He is full of pride. Not so much in saying that he doesn't want to forsake the Lord, but in the fact that Jesus says to him, you're going to fall, Peter. And Peter should have responded to that by falling on his face before the Lord and pleading with the Lord to help him, to deliver him from this temptation, to give him the strength and the faith that he needs to withstand this temptation. But no. Peter's confidence, at least in this moment, was not in Jesus, but rather it was in his self. And then even when Jesus doubles down and tells Peter, not only will you fall, but you're gonna deny me three times this very night, Peter, this should have shook Peter to his very core. And yet Peter says, if I must die with you, I will not deny you. Such self-confidence in this man. Perhaps this is why Peter, later in his life, writes the following in 1 Peter 5. He says, likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another. For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you. Peter eventually learned his lesson, but his failure here has been recorded for our instruction. We cannot be confident in ourselves, dear ones. None of you. If God takes his hand off of you, all of you will fall and you will fall in a moment. So let's be ever mindful of that reality. Which leads to the second truth we learn from this passage, and that is that we are to be completely dependent on Jesus's help. You don't want to know what probably our biggest problem is, all of us? Our biggest problem, everybody in this room, your biggest problem is this, that you're too strong. You're not weak enough. Didn't Paul hammer that truth over and over again? He would say, in my weakness, I am made strong. I'll give you this analogy. I remember when I worked at a group home in Brunswick, we had a swimming pool on campus, and we had to watch the kids when they were swimming. And we were told to be very careful with how you help a child if they were panicking and thinking they were drowning. And we were told that you don't just run out there and try to grab them because if you do so, they can pull you underwater. They would possibly drown you. Now, it wasn't because these children were stronger than me. I was bigger and stronger than these children. But when they were panicking, they had the strength in that moment to drag a grown man underwater. Now, what makes it where a drowning person has that much strength? Well, quite simply, it's desperation. A drowning person is not self-confident. That's the last thing a drowning person is. They are afraid. And it is that sense of desperation that causes them to grab hold harder than they ever could do otherwise. But in the same way, the strongest Christians are the ones who are the weakest, because these are the ones who are depending on Jesus more. The more you see your need of Christ, the more tightly you will cling upon him and depend upon him, and the more you'll be able to stand strong in the hour of trial. Well, now that we've taken some time to work through verses 26 to 31, let's now turn our attention to verses 32 through 42, where Jesus prays in the garden of Gethsemane. Let's read those verses once more to get them fresh in our minds. And they went to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, sit here while I pray. 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. Remain here and watch. And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible that I were might pass from him. 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 he came and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, Simon, are you asleep? 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. And again he went and prayed, saying the same words. 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? 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. As we take time to consider this passage, we need to realize that we are treading upon holy ground. William Hendrickson writes, it is with profound reverence that one approaches the Gethsemane narrative. J.C. Ryle writes, the history of our Lord's agony in the Garden of Gethsemane is a deep and mysterious passage of scripture. So with that in mind, I want us to notice from this passage four truths. First, the weight of our sin upon the heart of our Savior. Secondly, the example of Jesus. Third, a theological note on the two wills of Christ. And fourth, that even the best Christians are weak. So first, let's notice the weight of our sin upon the heart of our Savior. In verse 33, we read that Jesus began to be greatly distressed. And in verse 34, he says to his closest disciples, my soul is sorrowful even to death. Remain here and watch. Dear ones, as we consider our Lord's great sorrow in this passage, we must ask the question, what is it that would make our Lord so sorrowful? Sorrowful even to death, it says. And I don't believe this is hyperbolic language here. There's never been a man more full of sorrow than our Savior in this garden. Because in this moment, the weight of what was about to happen to him pressed heavily upon his soul. We've all experienced grief at different levels. I can tell you recently having Dominic and Riley leave our home was a grievous thing for me. And if you've ever been through grief, you know that grief comes in waves. And I knew that the boys were gonna be leaving our home before they left. And so even weeks before they left, waves of grief would come upon me, sort of like a hurricane. You know how in a hurricane you have the outer bands that come way out in front of the storm? And sometimes even the outer bands can be just as bad as the eye wall itself. Well, in many ways, the Garden of Gethsemane is like the intense outer bands that are crashing upon the soul of Jesus before the eye wall of the full fury of the wrath of God be unleashed upon him on that cross. And this answers the question for us of why Jesus was so sorrowful. It is because he knew what he was about to experience in just a few short hours. In verse 35, he falls to the ground and prayed that if it'd be possible that the hour might pass from him. And in verse 36, he prays, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Well, it's in this little phrase, remove this cup from me, where we see the source of Jesus's sorrow. What is in this cup that Jesus, quite frankly, begged His Father to remove? Well, the Old Testament makes frequent use of this metaphor of the cup. And I want to read in your hearing three such passages. First, Psalm 75, verse 8. It says, For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs." 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. And then Jeremiah 25, verses 15 and 16. 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. They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among them. So clearly the cup which caused Jesus to be exceedingly sorrowful is none other than the cup of God's wrath against sin. See, dear ones, it wasn't that Jesus was going to suffer a physical death. That was not the cause of His sorrow. The Bible says that Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us. Our sin, our iniquity, our wickedness was laid upon Him, and He bore our sins. The immense weight of all the sins of all of His people was upon His back. He was carrying our griefs and our sorrows, as the prophet Isaiah says. And he knew that he would have to pay the penalty for every one of our sins. Because God is a just God. He cannot turn a blind eye to sin. Every sin must be punished. The full weight of justice must be exacted for every single sin. and the wages of sin is death. It is the unmitigated wrath of an almighty God. And Jesus knew that he would have to drink down this cup to the very dregs. Not a drop of God's wrath will be spared upon him. Dear ones, we really have no way to comprehend the weight that Jesus bore in his soul that dark night in Gethsemane. But may we not walk away from this account with a low view of sin. One theologian writes, sin is a subject of which the faults of professing Christians are far below what they should be. May we never make light of sin. The weight and the guilt and the shame of our sin was pressed upon the soul of our Savior, and he bore that willingly for us. And so when you think of Gethsemane, may it have a sanctifying effect upon your soul. Secondly, we see in these verses the example of Jesus. Four times in this passage, it mentions that the Lord Jesus is praying. Now, I won't spend a lot of time here because I want to return to it in our conclusion, but in Jesus, we have the perfect example. At the beginning of the sermon, the point was made that in this life, we are to expect trouble and temptation and trial and tribulation. And we see that our Savior, the captain of our salvation, the perfect man, when He was faced with these things, what did He do? He prayed. And we ought to do the same. As James says in James 5.13, is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Dear ones, never underestimate prayer. The source of all of our strength, the source of all of our blessing is God. And how can we bring our needs and desires before God? Well, there's only one way that I know, and that is through prayer. And next, by way of example, in this passage, we see that Jesus submits to his Father. He asked the Father to take the cup, if it is possible. And then he says, yet not what I will, but what you will. Here we see perfection personified. To submit to the will of God is the highest aim that we can have as Christians. If you really think about it, what is Christianity at its very core? It's submission to God. It is to trust God, even when it's hard to do so. If you want to diagnose your spiritual health, I think the best way is to look at your life and ask yourself, are you submitting to the will of God? And primarily what this means is, are you submitting to the revealed will of God? And what that looks like is this. No matter what situation you're in, you turn to the word of God to see what God would have you do, and then you submit to it. You obey God, you keep his commandments. Jesus knew that it was God's revealed will to crush him. And although it was hard, he submitted to that. Well, this leads to the third observation I want to make from this passage. And that is I want to make a theological note on the two wills of Christ. There's much confusion regarding the person of Jesus Christ. And there have been historically, there have been many, many heresies that have been taught regarding who Jesus is. We need to understand that the ability to will is a function of a being's nature. So what that means is this. For example, in the Trinity, our God is a triune God. But in the triune God, there is one being, there's one divine nature or essence. And in this one divine being, he has one divine will. And so although there are three persons in the Godhead, there is but one will in the Godhead. It's not that the Father has a will and then the Son has a separate will and the Spirit has another will. It's not three separate wills that are in harmony together. That would be triotheism. No, the one divine being has one divine will. But when it comes to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, in what we call the hypostatic union, that's a fancy word, what we have there is we have two natures in one person. There is the divine nature, and there is the human nature. And thus, because the ability to will is a function of our nature, we must conclude that there are two wills in the one person of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is the divine will and the human will. And so in verse 36, Jesus says, not what I will, but what you will. And so the important question to ask in this verse is, is this referring to the divine will of Christ or the human will of Christ? And the answer is as follows, and I'm taking this directly from J.C. Rowe. He says, there are two distinct wills in Christ. And although they be truly distinct from one another, they are never at odds with one another. The human will of Christ is always subject to His divine will and most ready to be ordered by and ruled by it. Therefore, here we see that Christ submits His will, that is His human will, to the divine will of the Father, which divine will of the Father is also Christ's own will. So to summarize that for you, in this passage, the person of Jesus Christ, according to his human nature, submits his will to the will of God. And that's important for us to understand and affirm because it protects us from a whole host of heresies regarding the person of our Savior. And so now we come to the last observation I want to make from this passage before I move to some concluding applications. And that is in this passage we see that even the best Christians are weak. Jesus took with him who to the garden? He took his three closest disciples, Peter, James, and John. The three that he poured the most into, the three that he labored the most with and was the closest with. And he told them multiple times in the garden to watch and pray. And three times, Jesus comes and finds these disciples asleep. Now think about how disappointing this must have been for Christ. Remember, he was sorrowful even unto death. And he brought his closest friends, his closest disciples with him, the men that he trusted the most, to watch and pray with him in his hour of great need. And yet the very disciples that said that they would die with Christ will not even stay awake with him for an hour to pray. And there's much that we can learn from this, and we don't have time to unpack it all, but there's one obvious lesson in this, I think, and that is this. Even the best of men, or men at best, even the best Christians are weak and frail and faulty, and they are in need of much grace. And so may we learn from Peter and James and John that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, and thus may we never overestimate ourselves. We are always in need of the grace of God. Well, at this time, I wanna bring our sermon to a close by making two, I think, obvious applications. Remember, the sermon title was Proper Preparation. And so from verses 26 through 42, we see that the disciples' preparation and Jesus' preparation were not the same. The disciples prepared poorly, whereas Jesus, our Lord, prepared properly. And so the first application of this passage is we learn, we learn this from observing the prayerlessness of the disciples. The disciples ultimately proved that they were unprepared for the trial. When the shepherd was struck, the disciples scattered just as it was predicted. Peter, as we shall see, denies the Lord three times that very night. So the question is, why were the disciples so unprepared? And I think the ultimate answer to this lies in the prayerlessness of these disciples. One theologian once wrote that prayerlessness is the worst sin. Now, why would that be the worst sin? You might think, well, murder is the worst sin, or adultery, but why would prayerlessness be the worst of sins? Well, because ultimately, do you know what prayerlessness is? At its very root, prayerlessness is independence from God. To be prayerless is to not depend upon God, is to be self-sufficient, self-reliant, self-confident. It is to put trust in yourself, which is at its very heart a violation of the first commandment. You shall have no other gods before me. So dear ones, if we would be properly prepared for the temptations and trials of this life, you must be a man or woman of prayer. Which is to say, you must be a man or woman who trust in God and not in yourself. And may we be such people by the grace of God. And this leads me to my final point this morning. And that is in this text we see the prayerfulness of Jesus, our Savior. And from his prayerfulness, I think two things ought to stand out to us. On the one hand, Jesus is our perfect example. He is the perfect man, and we are to imitate Christ. Christ prepared properly for the trial that he was about to undergo, and he did so by seeking God in prayer and by depending upon God for help in his time of need. And so maybe we learn from his example, but we must not stop there. Because if all you get out of this sermon today is that you should be more like Jesus and pray more, Well, that's great, but that's not the gospel. The gospel is not imitate Jesus. The gospel is not do better and pray more. No, from our text today, we see that Christ our Savior is the sinless one. He is the perfect one. He is the one who obeyed the will of God perfectly. And he has done so on our behalf. And so dear ones, I point you to Christ. Look at Him today in our text. The Jesus who prepared Himself properly to be our atoning sacrifice, He is a worthy Savior. And so come to Him today. Repent of trusting in yourself. You are not better than Peter or James or John. You are a weak person and you have sinned against God. You have not resisted sin even to the point of shedding blood like Jesus did. So turn from yourself and turn to Him. For he is your only hope. May God bless you. Let's pray. Holy Father, we come to you now. Having spent the past hour in your word. Lord, would you apply your word to our hearts? Would you cause us to leave here as a people who are not trusting in ourselves or our own ability, but rather wholly trusting in Jesus, our Savior, in whose name we pray. Amen.