Well, as I was thinking through this and what to include in it, it occurred to me that Jesus' agony on the night of his betrayal is one of the most vivid proofs we have that the wrath of God is as real and as severe as his righteousness is perfect. This episode, Jesus in the Garden, we're going to look at this morning, Matthew 26, verses 36 through 44. This episode gives us graphic evidence that the punishment for our sin is unfathomable in its infinite horror and that God's judgment is to be feared in the most real and profound sense of holy terror because that's what you see in the response of Christ as he pondered going to the cross and bearing our sin and taking the wrath of God on himself for us. If you don't tremble with alarm at the thought of God's wrath, then you haven't contemplated it carefully enough. And so I want to look at this passage as sort of the closing session in our conference. This has been a fast conference, and I've enjoyed it as much as you can enjoy a conference on the wrath of God. I've certainly enjoyed the fellowship. Thanks for having us. Both Arlene and I have appreciated your hospitality and and getting to know some of you that we've never even met before. So thank you. This is a passage that is frankly very difficult to absorb like every other passage in scripture about the wrath of God. It's difficult to let our minds get wrapped around the enormity of this subject. But I also frankly think this is probably the single most difficult passage in all of the Gospels. This is the passage of course where Jesus prays in Gethsemane on the eve of the crucifixion and he pleads with the father to let the cup pass from him. And it's not an easy text to absorb or explain, not only because it deals with the wrath of God, but because here you seem to have a struggle in the soul of Christ, the perfect God man, and he's struggling with the will of God. I began to look carefully at this vignette from the life of Christ probably close to a decade and a half ago. It was my great privilege to edit the notes on the synoptic Gospels for the MacArthur Study Bible. And I sort of got drawn into that project at the last minute. Somebody mentioned that I edit a lot of John MacArthur's books, and my focus has been on his major books over the years. And when the Study Bible was in process, and it had a very short deadline, the person who was originally tasked to help draw together and edit the notes on the Gospels wasn't able to do it in time, and so I got sort of drawn into that project. And I thought at the time, well, this won't take very long. And it ended up being two months, but some of the best two months of my life. It was great to get paid to just sort of go verse by verse through the synoptic Gospels and and study the life of Christ, basically. And I vividly remember working my way through Matthew until I got to this passage. And in fact, let me read you a portion of the note on Matthew 26, 39 from the MacArthur Study Bible. In verse 38, Jesus tells the disciples, My soul is very sorrowful, even unto death. Why was Christ's soul in such agony? John MacArthur writes this, quote, The next day, Christ would bear the sins of many and the fullness of divine wrath would fall on him. This was the price of the sin he bore and he paid it in full. And I remember I had to stop when I read that and just try to take it in that truth. stuck in my mind and I thought about it for days. And to be honest, I've never really fully come to grips with everything that means. And I doubt I ever will in this life, maybe not even in eternity. This is a huge idea. And then about a year later, I returned to the Gospel of Matthew because John MacArthur wrote a book called The Murder of Jesus. It was a study of the crucifixion and the crucifixion narratives from all of the gospels sort of put together in chronological order. And it was a look at not only the crucifixion but the things that happened leading up to the crucifixion. And I came back to this passage and I was brought again face to face with this agony of Christ in the garden. And it forced me into a very profitable sort of in-depth study of this text. This is an important passage to understand. And it has profound implications for you and for me in our prayer lives. More than any other passage I know, this also helps us to see exactly what it was that Christ accomplished on the cross. If you understand this passage, the only way to understand this passage is to really understand the gospel. And more than Any other passage I know, this one gives us a clear perspective on the humanity of Christ and the implications of his humanity. People who wonder if the temptations of Christ were real temptations need to study this passage. If you've ever wondered whether it's literally true that Jesus has fully experienced the feeling of our infirmities, you need to lay hold of the agony that's described in this passage of Scripture. By now you should have turned to Matthew 26. We're going to be dealing with verses 36 through 44. But first, let me quickly just review the context for you. Again, this is the night of Jesus' betrayal. Earlier this same evening, Jesus had celebrated the Passover with the disciples in the upper room in Jerusalem. And the Gospel of John devotes five chapters, chapters 13 through 17, to giving us a detailed account of what happened that night in the upper room. This whole day, this is Thursday of Passion Week, this is the most thoroughly documented day of Jesus' life. And the event we're looking at this morning occurred at the end of that fateful day, after the eating of the Passover, after Jesus spent that final evening with his disciples. John 18, verse 1 says, He went out with his disciples across the Kidron Valley where there was a garden. Matthew 26, 36 says the name of the garden was Gethsemane, which literally means oil press. which suggests this was an olive grove where there was an oil press. It was a secluded place. As far as we know, it's the place that's designated Gethsemane today. Some of you have probably been to the Holy Land and visited the place. It is directly across, opposite the eastern gate of the temple, where there is still to this day a grove of olive trees, some of them as old as Christ. I have visited that very spot and it's amazing to see these ancient olive trees there to this day, some of them more than 2000 years old. Then this garden was a place where Jesus often met to pray with his disciples, and in fact, his pattern of going there was so predictable that that's how Judas knew exactly when and where to bring the Roman troops to arrest Jesus. John 18 verse 2 tells us Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place where Jesus often met there with his disciples. And this particular night, Christ was drawn to that garden to pray through the most difficult struggle he ever waged. He knew he was going to be betrayed. He had already identified Judas as the traitor, proving that he was sovereignly in control of everything that was happening to him. And he knew when he went into that garden that he would be arrested before he left. None of this took Jesus by surprise. And in fact, I want you to see how clearly Jesus foresaw what was going to come to pass. Look, for example, at Verse 18, Matthew 26, verse 18. Earlier that evening, when it was time to prepare for the Passover meal, he told them, my time is at hand. The hour of his death had finally arrived and Jesus knew it. And then when Judas shows up with the soldiers to arrest him, Jesus already knew they were coming. John 18.4 says, Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him. So scripture expressly tells us he knew everything that was going to happen. He came forward towards this band of soldiers and said to them, whom do you seek? And remember, he willingly surrendered to them. Many times in the past, he had sovereignly evaded plots and crowds of people who wanted to kill him. And he could have done so now. And in fact, he said to Peter on this very occasion, Matthew 26, look at verses 53 and 54. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my father and he will at once send me more than 12 legions of angels? But how then should the scriptures be fulfilled that it must be so? It must be so. This was his hour. This was the time foreordained by God. And Jesus understood fully what his dying would entail. He knew all the pain and the agony and the taunting and the humiliation he would have to bear, but he was nonetheless prepared to submit himself completely. And the passage we're looking at this morning is about that submission. It describes how he consciously and deliberately submitted himself to all the horrors of the cross, and it gives us some insight into what that entailed. Not just the physical pains of crucifixion, but much, much more. Despite the agony he felt, despite the sense of unbearable dread that tormented his mind, he consciously and rationally surrenders his human will to the will of God the Father. And this is the process by which he did that. Let me read the passage. Matthew 26, starting in verse 36. Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, sit here while I go over there and pray. And taking Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, my soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch with me. And going a little further, he fell on his face and prayed, saying, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, so could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. And again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, my father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done. And again, he came. and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again." Now, as I said, the great lesson of this passage is Jesus' submission. Here you see, in microcosm, the whole process described in Philippians 2, verses 6 through 8, which tells us that Christ, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death of a cross. And the Matthew 26 prayer in Gethsemane gives us a window into the soul and the heart of Christ. And it reveals what a supreme sacrifice it was for him to die on our behalf. This is an amazing passage. Here we see that Christ was willing to submit himself to the wrath of a righteous God. He was willing to submit himself to the weakness of human flesh. He was willing to submit himself to the will of a loving father. And this morning, I want to look at those three aspects of his humiliation, because here you see in the garden, all three of those in in clear focus. And I'll reiterate the points as we go through them. First, he was willing to submit himself to the wrath of a righteous God. Before I really began to understand this prayer of Christ, I often wondered about it. What precisely is Jesus praying for? Verse 39, My father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. Here's why this is one of the most remarkable and difficult passages in all of scripture and why it's not so easy to interpret. But if we look at it biblically, the meaning is clear. Here's what makes it so difficult. These are some of the questions that come to mind when we read this text. What precisely is this cup that Christ prays to let pass? Our normal inclination is to think of it as the pain of crucifixion. We've already seen that Christ knew every detail of what he was about to undergo. He understood everything the cross entailed by way of pain and suffering, and it would have been perfectly natural for him to want to avoid it, except for one thing. This is precisely what Christ had come into the world to do. John 12, 27 describes another prayer that Jesus prayed near the end of his public ministry with a crowd of people standing by. He prayed out loud. Now is my soul troubled? And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this purpose, I have come to this hour. See, dying was the very purpose for which Christ had come into the world. His crucifixion was no accident. He was no martyr. He said this in John 10 verses 17 and 18. For this reason, the father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my father. And so The death of Christ was an act of obedience to the Father, planned by the Godhead in eternity past, agreed to by Christ before he ever came to earth, which is exactly what we are taught in Hebrews 10, verses 4 through 7, which says, For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired but a body you have prepared for me. In burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book." In other words, Christ was incarnated as a man precisely so that he could die. And this Hebrews passage teaches that his death, Christ's death, was the kind of atonement that the blood of bulls and goats could not provide. real forgiveness for sins, a true atonement. And it was for this cause that he had come into the world. It's the very thing his body was prepared for. And so it's a little bit hard to imagine that Jesus would be having second thoughts or or trying to back out at this point. Whatever is going on here, it's not that. And in fact, notice that Christ's trauma right here in the garden had taken him to the very brink of death. Remember, in verse 38, he says, My soul is sorrowful, even unto death. Luke 22, 44 says, Being in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. So this was unspeakable agony. I've heard certain Bible teachers suggest that the cup Christ prayed for relief from was the threat of a premature death that night there in the garden. According to them, he was praying that the plan of redemption might not be derailed by his dying in the garden before he reached the cross. And according to them, God answered Jesus' prayer so that he didn't have to drink the cup because the cup he was praying to be removed was a premature death. In fact, I used to think that argument had some appeal, but it seems a bit contrived. And in fact, that's not what this passage is teaching. Notice what Jesus says in John 18, 11, when the soldiers come to arrest him, you remember Peter takes out his sword and he whacks off a guy's ear and Jesus says, put your sword back in its sheath. Shall I not drink the cup that the father has given me? And so the cup did not pass after all. After this prayer, Christ had his answer and his own words reflect the fact that the cup was something the father did give him to drink. After all, he expressly speaks of the cup that the father has given me. See, I think there's a clear biblical explanation of what Jesus is speaking of when he asked for the cup to pass. It was not the cross in general. It was not the physical pain or the humiliation. It was not the horrible thirst or the torture of having nails driven through his body or the disgrace of being spat upon or beaten. All of those things were secondary. And in fact, in the scope of all that Christ suffered, those things are inconsequential. Those things were passing, temporal, relatively insignificant sufferings compared to the cup of woe that prompted this kind of dread in the soul of Jesus Christ. Remember that in Matthew 10, 28, Jesus himself said, do not fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, he says, fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Now, Jesus is telling us not to fear those who can kill the body. He himself certainly was not fearful of what mere men could do to him. He'd already said, look, nobody takes my life from me. I lay it down in my own accord. But I think this is all very clear, really, when you think it through and study it in context. What Jesus dreaded most about what was coming to him, the cup which he asked to be delivered from, if at all possible, The cup was the outpouring of divine wrath he would have to endure. And that's why this passage fits into our theme. This is all about the wrath of God. How do I know that? Well, the terminology is significant. The cup is a well-known Old Testament symbol of divine wrath against sin. Isaiah 51, 17 says this. 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 through 18, says this, 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 I took the cup from the Lord's hand and made all the nations to whom the Lord sent me drink it. Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and officials, to make them a desolation and a waste, a hissing and a curse as at this day. And verses 27 and 28 go on to say this. 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. And if they refuse to accept the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, thus says the Lord of hosts, you must drink. And so the cup symbolizes a judgment that God forces the wicked to drink. I hope you can see the parallels between those prophecies and what Christ is praying about. God forces the wicked to drink this cup of judgment. They drink until they become drunk and sick and then they vomit. And the King James Version says they spew. I like that because it's more forceful and it reflects in a graphic way the intensity of the cup of judgment. You know, it's not just vomiting, it's projectile vomiting. It's as if God says to the sinner, you like sin, fine, drink your fill. And he makes them keep drinking of the consequences of their own sin so that the very thing they sought after becomes the judgment he force feeds them. The thing they love becomes the thing that makes them sick and ultimately it destroys them. And I just read you a few samples. You will find the imagery of a cup used as judgment also in many other texts in the Old Testament, including Lamentations 4, verses 21 and 22, Ezekiel 22, verses 31 through 34, Habakkuk 2, verse 16, and all through the Old Testament. This is a very common Old Testament symbol. And the meaning of this would be clear to anyone who knew the Old Testament prophets. When Christ prayed that, if possible, the cup should pass from Him, it was the cup of divine judgment He was speaking of. Now, I don't believe for a moment that Christ feared the earthly pain of crucifixion. I don't think He trembled at the prospect of what men might do to Him. I don't think there was one ounce of the fear of men in Him. But He knew that the very next day He would bear the sins of many, Hebrews 9.28, and that the fullness of divine wrath would fall on him, that he would drink the cup meant for us. And in some mysterious way that our human minds cannot fathom, could never fathom, God the Father would turn his face from God the Son and Christ would bear the full brunt of divine fury against sin. Isaiah 53 verses 10 and 11 says, Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief when his soul, that's the soul of Christ, makes an offering for guilt. He shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous. And he shall bear their iniquities. That is that's got to be one of my favorite passages in scripture. It was from Isaiah 53 that I first really heard and learned the gospel. And what it's saying is that when Christ hung on the cross, he was bearing the sins of his people. He was punished in their place and it was God who punished him. Second Corinthians 521 explains the cross in exactly the same way. It says he, that's God, made him, that's Christ, to be sin for us who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. And in other words, on the cross, God imputed our sins to Christ and then punished him for it. That was the price of the sin that Christ bore, and he paid it in full. You remember the cry of anguish in Matthew 27, 46, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That reflects the extreme bitterness of the cup Christ was given. No wonder he sought, if possible, to have it pass from him. Now, you might be saying, well, still, though he came for this purpose, he was sovereign, he knew everything that was coming to him. Didn't he already know that there was no way for this cup to pass? Of course he knew that. So why does he pray for it here? If Christ already knew that the cross was unavoidable, that he would have to bear the wrath of God, why does he pray this prayer in Gethsemane? And I can think of several answers to that question. It moves us to our second point. Not only was Christ willing to submit himself to the wrath of God, point number two, he was willing to submit himself to the weakness of human flesh. He was willing to submit himself to the weakness of human flesh. When Christ was incarnated into human flesh, he took on himself all the natural weaknesses of humanity, except for those that are inherently sinful. He got everything about us that makes us weak, except our fallenness. Hebrews 4 15 says we don't have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. That yet without sin part is important. But the rest of it's important as well to see that Christ suffered every weakness that we suffer from, except for the ones that have to do with sin. Every infirmity of human nature, except for sin itself, he shared, meaning he grew weary. He was hungry. He felt pain. And here in the garden, he experienced the deepest kind of sorrow and dread and the troubling of his soul. I keep going back to verse 38. My soul is very sorrowful, even unto death. And he's not exaggerating there. He's saying that the weight of sorrow he felt was enough to kill him. This prayer is an outpouring of those human feelings. It shows us the humanity of Christ as clearly as anything in Scripture. And he's simply speaking honestly here according to what he felt. Now listen carefully. You and I have a sinful nature. We're born with a bent towards evil. We struggle with lust and covetousness and all kinds of evil desires. Jesus had none of those evil desires. The weaknesses we see on display here are not sinful weaknesses, but normal human desires. In fact, there would be something seriously wrong if Christ had a masochistic love of suffering. There would be something inhuman about Christ if he didn't look forward to the cross with a deep uneasiness and a dread of what was to come. And when you put what was to come in its proper perspective, realizing that what he was about to suffer was not just nails and thorns and taunts. It was the full weight of God's infinite wrath. Of course he feared that. Of course he dreaded it. This is not a craven fear. It's the same kind of dread and foreboding any of us would feel when we know we're about to undergo something extremely painful. But in Jesus' case, that dread is infinitely magnified because of the nature of what he faced and because he understood full well what was involved in the outpouring of God's wrath. Proverbs 19 verse 10, I keep quoting, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. Even Christ, in the perfection of his eternal wisdom, feared God. And we see the most vivid evidence of that fear in the agony he suffered in the garden. Furthermore, because his knowledge of the Holy One, his own father, was superior to any other human who has ever lived, his fear of God's wrath was more perfect and more intense and more vivid than any holy fear you or I could possibly have ever felt. Here is living proof that when Scripture calls for the fear of God, it's not merely talking about some antiseptic brand of high church reverence. You know, you hear people constantly trying to explain away what Scripture means when it says we should fear God. This is real fear. This is telling us that the fear of God should be true fear, causing a holy terror, righteous dread, sanctified trembling. That's what we see in Christ. And that is an appropriate response for any man or woman thinking about facing God in his righteousness. And incidentally, nowhere does the Bible ever declare that Jesus deity makes him something more than a man or something other than human scripture never allows the divine nature of Christ to overshadow or diminish his human nature. And on the contrary, everything Scripture says about Christ's role as our Savior and mediator depends on the fact that he is fully and completely human. He's a man. 1 Timothy 2.5 makes it as clear as it can possibly be. There's one God and there's one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. The emphasis on his humanity. Hebrews 2.17 also underscores the essential truth of Christ's humanity. He had to be made like his brothers, it says, in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Jesus was not merely playing at being human. He was human in the fullest sense. He took on all of our infirmities except for our sin. And at this moment in the garden, his humanity manifest itself as clearly at any time ever as any time in his ministry. He was struggling with many of the same things you and I struggle with daily. Horror at the prospect of what God wanted him to do. Consternation over the anticipation of what this would cost him. And a very real desire to avoid it if there was any way possible. Those desires are normal human desires. They are not sinful ones. But they had to be consciously, deliberately surrendered to the will of God. The desires themselves were not sinful, but they would have been sinful if he had insisted on fulfilling those human preferences at the expense of the Father's will. Jesus knew that. And his entire life was lived with that sort of voluntary, premeditated submission to the will of the Father. He said, he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him. John 8, 29. My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. John 4, 34. I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge and my judgment is just because I seek not my own will, but the will of him who sent me. John 530. For I've come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. John 638. He says it over and over again. He's not functioning by his own will. He didn't do anything he did willfully. At least not in the power of his own will. He did it in submission to the will of the Father. And so this prayer is an honest expression of the human feelings of Christ. He sincerely dreaded the prospect of the Father's wrath, and he wished to avoid it if there was any possible way. Now, still, you might ask, so why does he pray this particular prayer that night in the garden? He had already agreed to do the Father's will. Surely he knew this was unavoidable. Why weren't these issues settled in his heart long before? And the answer is, of course, they were. But now facing the prospect of what would happen, he felt the burden in a way he'd never felt it before, as all the weight of human sorrow, human apprehensions, human emotions, all of this is welling up in him as he stands on the threshold of taking up the cross. I also think there's a second reason and perhaps a more important reason why he prays this prayer. Of course, he knew there was no possible way to avoid the outpouring of God's wrath. I'm certain there was no real question or doubt in his mind about whether these things were avoidable or not. I think he was praying this prayer for Peter's sake. Let me explain what I mean. There's an amazing statement in the prayer Jesus prayed at the raising of Lazarus. Just before Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, he prayed aloud. And his prayer on that occasion is recorded in John 11, verses 41 and 42. And here's what he said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around so that they may believe you sent me. Interesting. So he's talking to the Father, But he's saying these things out loud for the benefit of the people who are listening to the prayer. A few minutes ago, I read you John 12 verses 27 and 28, where Jesus says, Now is my soul troubled. What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this purpose, I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name. And scripture says immediately after that, a voice came from heaven. I have glorified it and I will glorify it again. And so that's God the Father speaking in an audible response to Jesus' prayer. And then Jesus turns to the people and he says this about that voice from heaven, John 12, 30. This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. See, frequently we see Jesus praying aloud for the sake of those who are listening. And I believe this prayer in the garden was prayed aloud like this. And he said these things primarily for Peter's sake and for the sake of the other apostles. Notice in verse seven that Jesus had specifically taken Peter, James and John deeper into the garden with him so that they could watch with him and pray with him. And they were supposed to be listening to him. And he asked him to wait nearby and to watch with him. According to Luke 22, 31, he knew that Satan had solicited permission to sift Peter like wheat. And so Jesus' prayer here is a model for Peter. Peter could have learned a lot from listening to Jesus pray. But look what happened. Matthew 26, 40. They fell asleep. And Jesus had to awaken them and urge them to stay awake with him. And so he says to Peter, so could you not watch with me for one hour? Now look at what he says to Peter. Verse 41. Watch and pray that you might not enter into temptation. The Spirit indeed is willing But the flesh is weak. The flesh is weak. Jesus knew that very well from firsthand experience, because at this precise moment, he was battling the infirmities of his own flesh. Again, these are not sinful infirmities, but normal human passions and normal physical weaknesses, which, if not subjugated to the divine will, can lead us into sin. Peter sinned because he slept. It's no sin to sleep. But at this moment, Christ had given him work to do. He was supposed to be awake and watching and praying with Christ. And so Peter's fatigue, which is not sinful in and of itself, but that fatigue needed to be submitted to the will of God. Peter's spirit certainly was willing. Look back at verse 33. He had promised Christ that even if everyone else abandoned him, he would never fall away. And then Christ warned him about what was about to happen. Peter was overconfident, and ultimately he failed because of the weakness of his flesh. And I'm convinced that if he had followed Christ's example here in the garden and simply prayed for the strength to endure, If he had submitted his will to the Father's will, he never would have failed. He was too willful and too fleshly, and that's why he failed. And this is my third point this morning. We see in the prayer of Christ that he was willing to submit himself to the will of a loving father. Look at verse 39 again. And going a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed, saying, My father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. And verse 42 again for the second time, he went away and prayed, My father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done. Now, we know that Christ did drink the full cup of the wrath of God. Someone will ask, well, does this mean here's a prayer of Jesus that God didn't answer? No, God answered his prayer. Well, does it mean he didn't give him what he asked for? Look again. What did Christ ask for? Verse 39. If it be possible, let this cup pray for me. He knows it's not possible. And then he adds this qualifier to the end. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. That's what he's praying for. The will of God. This is the operative phrase of Jesus' prayer. This is the main lesson we need to draw from it whenever we pray. This is his prayer request. Verse 42, let your will be done. And God answered that request with an emphatic yes. Christ's prayer was not for the cup to pass at any cost. He asked to be relieved of the cup only if there was some other way to accomplish the plan of God. And God's response to this prayer proves to us definitively that there was no possible way to achieve the redemption of sinners short of the sacrifice of his own son. God didn't send Christ to die frivolously. If there'd been any other way, he would have done it. But there was no other way. And that's why the cup did not pass from Christ. There was no other way. And that's why the doctrine of substitutionary atonement is so crucial. Try to do away with it and you've done away with Christianity. Now, again, I'm confident that when Christ prayed this prayer, he knew very well that it was not possible for the cup to pass. That whole question was worked out in the eternal counsel of God before the foundation of the world, long before Christ ever came to earth. He knew that if he was going to be the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world, then that meant he must endure the wrath of God in the process. And that brings up another reason why I think Christ prayed this prayer. I've given you two already. First, it was a true expression of his human passions. It reflected a real dread and a sincere horror at the thought of what the cross would mean to him. Second, it was an important lesson for Peter and the other apostles, not to mention you and me. This is a pattern we should follow in our own prayers and the underlying request in all our prayers should be the same thing Jesus prayed for. Thy will be done. And now third, a third reason, I think it unfolds for us the mystery of what took place in eternity past between the members of the Godhead. As they discussed the redemption of fallen humanity and made their plan to redeem the elect, they covenanted between themselves that Christ would pay the price. That he would die to pay the price. Titus chapter 1 hints at this. Paul opens that epistle to Titus with these words. Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began. And that's talking about eternity past. So think about this. If God promised eternal life before time and creation ever even began. To whom did he make that promise? Have you ever thought about that? What's the promise here and to whom is it made? And the answer is crystal clear. This describes a covenant that the father made with the son to redeem the elect. Now, obviously, we can't know fully the mind of God. First Corinthians two sixteen for who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him. But we have the mind of Christ. Scripture gives us enough of the mind of Christ so that we can peer into the mystery of it and learn from Christ's wisdom. And again, this prayer in the garden gives us that window into the relationship between father and son. And here we can understand In terms of human passions, the exchange that took place in eternity passed between the father and the son before the world began. As abhorrent as it must have been to think of the son becoming human so that he could die such an ignominious death and worse than that, the father pouring out his wrath on the son, the son willingly, deliberately submitted himself to the Father's will and the path to the cross was set. In eternity passed. And that's why Peter says in Acts 2.23 that the crucifixion happened according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. That's why in Acts 4.27 and 28 it says that both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, all of them acted together in the crucifixion, listen to this, to do whatever God's hand and his plan predestined to take place. This was the plan of God from the beginning and his prayer. You see a picture of how Christ willingly accepted his part. Which still leads one question one hard question unanswered. Why does Jesus seem to contrast his will with the Father's will. He prays in verse 39. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. Does this imply some conflict between the persons of the Godhead? Is Christ's will different or in contradiction to the will of the Father? Listen carefully. The members of the Godhead do have separate, distinguishable wills. That's one of the attributes of personality. Each person in the Godhead has a unique will. And yet, there is always perfect harmony between the members of the Godhead. Christ's will is never at odds with the Father's will, and the will of the Spirit is never out of step with the Father and the Son. They are always in perfect union. And I think that's part of what Jesus must have meant when he said in John 10 30 in John 10 30. I and the father are one. They're one in substance. They're also united in will. He was not saying that they're one in the same person. He's not taking it. He's not teaching us modalism here, but he was emphatically denying that there is any kind of disagreement or disharmony or difference in the character, the will or the purpose between the heavenly father and his only begotten son. There is no conflict in their will. So when Christ prays, nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will, we're not to think that there's any disparity between the will of the father and the will of the son. But instead, what you see here is the son consciously, deliberately, voluntarily subjugating all his natural human desires and passions to the perfect will of the father. Remember that string of verses I read earlier about how the son committed himself to doing the father's will all through his life. Let me read a few of them again. My food is to do the will of him who sent me. I can do nothing on my own. I seek not my own will, but the will of him who sent me, I've not come down from heaven to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me and so on. This prayer in the garden, nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will graphically reveals to us how Christ in his humanity voluntarily surrendered his will to the will of the father in all things precisely so that there could be no conflict between the divine will and Jesus humanity. And there's a great practical lesson in this for Christians. Think of it like this. Christ had no sinful appetites. He had no inclination to do wrong ever. He had no desires that were perverted by sin. And yet, if he had to submit his appetites and his passions to the will of God with such deliberate, purposeful dedication, how much more should we concentrate on surrendering our hearts and lives and wills, all our infirmities, our desires, our appetites, our very wills must be consciously submitted to the will of God if we expect to be able to live our lives to the glory of God. Now, let's be honest with one another. Even with our best efforts and our most diligent praying, we can't live our lives perfectly to the glory of God. We don't do that. But this episode in the life of Christ isn't recorded merely to give us a good example to follow. It does give us a good example. But if that's all we got with it from it, we'd be without hope. And if this passage has any message at all, it's a message of blessed hope for fallen sinners. And this is the best, most encouraging truth at the heart of our text. It reminds us what a high price Christ paid for our redemption. All that he feared, all that he ultimately suffered, he did to redeem us from our sins. He paid in full a price you and I could never pay. If we suffered in hell for all of eternity, we wouldn't have begun to be able to pay for the price of sin. And so Jesus paid the price in full on our behalf. Then he rose from the dead, signifying that God was pleased and the wrath of God fully satisfied. By the price he paid. And so that all who trust in him. Will find in him salvation, no matter how deep our guilt, no matter how dark the stain of our sin, Christ gives eternal life freely as a gift. to all who lay hold of him by faith. It's a simple truth. That's the gospel. And it's the only way of salvation from our sins. But the promise of scripture is straightforward. Romans 10 9. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. I love that truth. Let's pray. Lord, as we ponder your wrath, it does make us tremble. And yet we glorify you and are unspeakably grateful for the knowledge that Christ bore that wrath in full on our behalf that he has satisfied the penalty of sin forever. And by grace we are saved. We glorify you for that. We thank you for it. We pray that you would help us to live our lives in accord with your will after the example of our Savior. In whose name we pray, Amen.