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So it's John 18, John chapter
18, verses 1 to 12. Let's stand together for the
reading of God's word. John 18, verses 1 to 12. And let us hear the word of the
Lord. When Jesus had spoken these things, he went forth with his
disciples over the brook Chidron, where was a garden into the which
he entered and his disciples. And Judas, which betrayed him,
knew also the place, for Jesus oft times resorted tither with
his disciples. Judas then, after he had received
a band of men and officers of the high priests and of the Pharisees,
came tither with lanterns and torches and weapons. Then Jesus,
knowing all things that should come unto him, went forth and
said unto them, Whom seek ye? And they answered him, Jesus
of Nazareth. Jesus said unto them, I am he. Now Judas also, which betrayed
him, stood with them. As soon then as he had said unto
them, I am he, they went away backwards and fell to the ground.
Then he asked them again, whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus
of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I said unto you
that I am he. Therefore, if ye seek me, let
these go their way. This was that the word of God
might be fulfilled which he spake, of them which thou gavest me
have I lost none. Then Simon Peter having a sword
drew it and smote the high priest's servant and cut off his right
ear. Now the servant's name was Malchus.
Then said Jesus unto Peter, put up thy sword into thy sheath.
Shall I not drink of the cup which my father hath given me?
Then the band and captain and the officers of the Jews took
Jesus and bound him. And that ends the reading of
God's word, and let's pray. Father, we ask you would bless
us as we look here, instruct us, give us understanding about
these things, and we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. And please
be seated. Okay, the events in our text
are the immediate sequel to the Passover meal with the disciples.
In other words, as it says, he went out, when he had spoken
these things, he went forth with his disciples. And so they're
there at the upper room, Jesus has spoken to them, he's prayed
his high priestly prayer, and now he goes out with his disciples. So again, immediately following. The location to which Jesus resorted
was a garden over the other side of the brook Chidron. That's
a brook lying north of Jerusalem between Jerusalem and the Mount
of Olives. And so it's a region with olive
trees and in the valley probably as well as the Mount of Olives.
you had these trees growing. The garden is named Gethsemane
in Matthew and Mark's accounts and it was a place frequented
by Jesus and known to Judas as verse 2 tells us here. And so
Jesus was doing something that he frequently
did that was known to his disciples and it was not something uncommon. The high priest, intending to
arrest and condemn Jesus, had given Judas a band of men. And
the makeup of this band in verse 3, notice he had received a band
of men and officers of the high priests and of the Pharisees. Now that band of men probably
includes Roman soldiers because there's a distinction between
the band of men and the officers of the high priests. And so it's
another example of the fulfillment of Psalm 2. In other words, what
we see here is the fulfillment of Psalm 2 as Peter teaches in
his sermon in Acts 2, I think it's Acts 2, should be Acts 2,
24. No, it's Acts 4, 24 to 28. Also, all the prophets, from
Samuel and thenceforth, as many as have spoken, have likewise
foretold And when they heard it, they
lift up their voices to God with one accord and said, O Lord,
thou art the God which made the heaven and the earth, the sea,
and all things that are in them, which by the mouth of thy servant
David hath said, Why did the Gentiles rage, and the people
imagine vain things? the kings of the earth assembled,
and the rulers came together against the Lord and against
His Christ. For doubtless against thine holy
Son Jesus, whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, gathered themselves
together to do whatsoever thine hand and thy counsel had determined
before to be done. Again, it's an example of Psalm
2, the coming to take Jesus is the opposition of the kings of
the earth who set themselves against the Lord and against
His anointing, as Peter applies it in Acts 4. And again, unbelieving
churchmen can join with pagans or Gentiles to conspire against
the Lord. That's a common thing. The only
thing that unites unbelieving men in the world is the hatred
of God. And when God's work is focused
in a person or an event or a circumstance, they are willing to come together
to oppose that thing. And of course, that's what we're
seeing here. Now, central to our understanding of these events
is our Lord's purpose in redemption. and we ought to have that in
our mind. From Genesis 3.15, the seed of
the woman will crush the head of the serpent, and in process
of doing so, his heel would be bruised. And so, among the many
scriptural references to the Deliverer, the Messiah, there
is this account of suffering, the bruising of the heel at the
same time the serpent's head is crushed. Or in a notable text,
Isaiah 53, and this has many of the same
themes in it, but I thought I would read this
as an example of messianic literature. Who will believe our report,
and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? He shall grow
up before him as a branch, and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath neither form nor beauty.
When we shall see him, there shall be no form that we should
desire him. He is despised and rejected of
men. He is a man full of sorrows and
hath experience of infirmities. We hid, as it were, our faces
from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Surely he hath borne our infirmities
and carried our sorrows, yet we did judge him as plagued and
smitten of God and humbled. For he was wounded for our transgressions. He was broken for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes are we healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, and
the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed
and he was afflicted, yet did he not open his mouth. He is
brought as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearer
is dumb, so opened he not his mouth. He was taken out from
prison and from judgment. And who shall declare his age?
For he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression
of my people was he plagued. And he made his grave with the
wicked and with the rich in his death. Though he had done no
wickedness, neither was any deceit at his mouth. Yet the Lord would
break him and make him subject to infirmities. When he shall
make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, and
shall prolong his days, and the will of the Lord shall prosper
in his hand. He shall see the travail of his
soul, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore will I give him a portion with the great, and he shall
divide the spoil with the strong. Because he hath poured his soul
out to death, and he was counted with the transgressors, and he
bare the sin of many, and prayed for the trespasses." Again, that's
an example of the Lord's purpose, the Father's purpose, the Son's
purpose in that the Son of God and Son of Man would die to redeem
men. There are many scriptural references
to that, many messianic psalms, many messianic prophetic passages,
all of these things, in all of them, the sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus stands out. Now, that's what we ought to
see in this section of the text before us. It's not the power
of man on display in the arrest of Jesus. Rather, it's Jesus'
own purpose to redeem a people to himself, to give a ransom
for his own elect in order to reconcile them to God. That's
what's on display. In the words of Revelation 5
and verse 9, He was slain to redeem us to God by His blood. And if you want to know what's
in the mind of the Lord Jesus at this time, after He prays
the high priestly prayer, it's to go out and do what He always
does in order to be taken by men in order that Judas might
come with his band of men and arrest him. Our Lord purposed
to accomplish that. He purposed to do that in order
that he might become a sacrifice for sin. And we have to recognize
that and see that in the text before us. And so the actions
of our Lord are actions of a man who intentionally suffers at
men's hands. And we should Begin with that.
Prophets of the Lord know when to hide themselves from the wrath
of men. Okay, whether that is Obadiah
hiding 50 of them in a cave, you remember that story in 1
Kings 18 verse 4? You know, the Lord said to Elijah,
go show thyself to Ahab. And so he goes and tells Obadiah,
go tell Ahab Elijah is here. And Obadiah says, what? He's looked everywhere for you.
He's tried to find you. He's taken oaths of the kings
of the nations that you're not hiding there. And now you're
telling me, go tell Ahab that Elijah is here. He'll kill me.
Don't you know that I hid 50 prophets in a cave and fed them
with bread and water when he slew all the prophets? So that's
Obadiah. Go tell Ahab that Elijah is here. He thinks his life's in danger,
and he's holding up. He said, look, I saved the prophets. What are you telling me? Don't
tell me to go tell Ahab. So again, Obadiah knows how to
hide prophets, and the prophets know how to be suckered and hidden
in caves. Elijah himself knows how to flee
from Jezebel in first Kings 19. And Elisha, as an example, smiting
the armies of the king of Syria with blindness in 2 Kings 6,
is still hiding himself, in a way, but by a prophetic power. They
come, they surround the city to take him. There's thousands
of them around the city. And his aide says, oh, what are
we going to do? Elisha prays. He says, oh, well,
open his eyes, Lord. And he sees the fiery chariots
around the army of the Syrians. He just goes to those ears. Look,
this is not the city and this is not the place. Let me take
you to the guy that you're looking for and come with me." And he
takes him down to Samaria and they find themselves in the middle
of Samaria, surrounded by Israel's armies. Now that's still Elisha
hiding himself, only he does it with a little bit more power
than even Elijah did. you know, at that time. But the
prophets know how to hide themselves. There have been many examples
of this throughout scripture. I'm only sampling a few. But
in verse 1, Jesus deliberately chooses another course, and that
is of changing nothing. So he knows that, he's told Judas,
go out and what do you do, do quickly. He knows what Jesus
is going to do. He has divine knowledge and understanding. Judas is betraying him. He's
going to come with a band of men. Now, if he wanted to hide
himself, he could have. He had perfect knowledge of what
would happen, and he had many places he could go. In fact,
he'd already hidden himself at times in his ministry because
of the circumstances. He did not walk openly in Jewry
because he knew that they wanted to kill him for a time. So the point is, it's of a purpose
here that he doesn't change anything. It's of a purpose here that he
goes out, crosses Kidron, goes out to Gethsemane, you know,
in the shade of the Mount of Olives, and that's where he is,
to be found at a place that Judas knows to come and bring these
band of men. So he kept up his old customs,
deliberately exposed himself to capture. allowed Judas the
opportunity to stay his course and complete his betrayal. Now
that's an aspect of this too. You're going to betray me? Okay. Let me give you the opportunity
to do that. You're going to get the men?
You're going to go with the men? You're going to come to me? In
other words, he allowed Judas to go through with the betrayal
rather than hiding himself from the man who was doing it. He
allowed the Jewish leaders, the enemies of God, to exercise their
malice. And again, if he had hit himself,
they wouldn't have had the opportunity to do that. No, he gave them
that. Give Judas the opportunity to betray me. Give the Jews the
opportunity to arrest me. And all of that cost him his
own life, but again, he purposed that. It was the purpose of redeeming
a people to himself. Now, John's account is not trying
to be exhaustive in the details here, as we have said before. Remember, we looked at that in
the beginning, how John's not one of the synoptic Gospels.
It's adding things with the emphasis on Christ's deity in person.
So he's not trying to be exhausted in details, and omitted from
this account is the time of prayer before the band arrived. So Jesus
went forth with the disciples, he went to Gethsemane, and then
if you turn to Matthew 26 at verse 37, He took unto him Peter and the
two sons of Zebedee, and began to wax sorrowful and grievously
troubled. Then said Jesus unto them, My
soul is weary, heavy, even unto death. Tarry ye here, and watch
with me. So he went a little further,
and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not as I will,
but as thou wilt. after he came unto the disciples
and found them asleep, and said to Peter, What, could ye not
watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that ye enter
not into temptation. Spirit indeed is ready, but the
flesh is weak. And again he went away the second
time and prayed, saying, O my father, if this cup cannot pass
away from me, but that I must drink it, thy will be done. Again, you're looking at a man
who is praying concerning this thing, and that is to emphasize
the personal cost and the personal distress of being captured and
ultimately crucified, and he knew what was going to happen.
There's a personal cost in allowing your enemies to triumph over
you and to slay you, and it's no small thing, and Christ in
facing this, had the personal fear of it, if you want to call
it that, he knew what it was about, and could express that
in prayer to the Father. So it's no less a thing for the
Son of God to contemplate and experience torture, crucifixion,
and death, and so to deliberate such a course of action magnifies
God's love for his people in redemption. Now all that is to
say that Christ did this deliberately. He could have hidden himself.
He could have made it impossible for them to find him. Many times
in his ministry, when his hour wasn't yet come, he did that.
He hid himself and passed through the midst of them one time. One
time he wouldn't walk open in Jewry. Another time, various
different things. OK. But again, he deliberated
this course of action, and it magnifies God's love for his
people. Now secondly, so that's the first
point in this. If we're going to analyze this
and show the nature of this action, we've got to understand that
what he did, he did deliberately. He didn't just get there to the
garden and make it, and Judas get there with a band of men
by accident. It's something that he knew was
going on and he deliberately did it. All right, secondly,
Jesus displays his authority and dignity in the way that the
events transpire. Now look at verse four of our
text. Then Jesus, knowing all things
that should come unto him, and there's the self-consciousness,
went forth and said unto them, Whom seek ye? So he presents
himself to them. It's not like he's with the disciples,
and here comes this band of men, and he says, go find out who
they are, like I'm cowering, or like I want to think about
what I want to do. No, he presents himself to them.
He goes forth. He's not hiding. He's not sending
someone else to inquire. He is openly exposing himself
to the band that has come to take him. So, here's a band that's
come to take him. He knows that. He's deliberately
there so that it may be done. And so, when they come, he goes
forth and speaks to them. That means the disciples are
behind him. Okay. Exposes himself to them. Now, Jesus doesn't have to ask
them whom they seek for his own information. He knows whom they
seek. It's him. So he asks them, he
makes them own up to the fact that they're after him. Whom
seek ye? Jesus of Nazareth. So they have to own up to the
fact that they're there for that reason. And, of course, he knows
it's him, but he makes them own up to it. Again, as one being
wronged by this clandestine effort, they have to make a public testimony
of what it is they're doing. And of course there was the calling
of them into account for this, that's also in the parallel text,
Matthew 26 and verse 55. The same hour said Jesus to the
multitude, ye be come out as it were against a thief with
swords and staves to take me. I sat daily teaching in the temple
among you and ye took me not. And again, that's exposing to
them, and to the disciples who can hear, the fact that this
is a clandestine operation, there's a duplicity here. Why do you
have to do this secretly? Why do you have to do this in
the middle of the night? Why do you have to do this when
I'm alone, isolated from the people? I was with you daily,
you could have taken me anytime you wanted. But again, it's an
exposing of them and their motives. So this is an aspect of the dignity
and the manliness of Jesus. He's purposed redemption, he's
ready to die, he goes there, but he makes these cowards own
up to all that they're doing. He exposes all that they're doing,
and he exposes it to those that can look on, to us, to whom it's
written for, but to themselves as well. They have to own up
to the things that they're doing. Now, it's not only dignity of
his person as a matter of carriage. The way he carries himself, the
fact that he goes forth, that he makes them own up to it, that
he rebukes them for it. There's a certain dignity in
the way he presents himself to them, dignity of his carriage.
But the dignity of his person is not merely that, it's the
testimony of his own deity that is on display in verses 5 and
6. When he says, I am he, they fall
backwards to the ground. And those words, I am he, take
us all the way back to Moses and the burning bush. I am that
I am is God's revelation of himself, the revelation of his eternal
power and Godhead that he makes to Moses when Moses says, well,
who shall I say has sent me? Well, the God of your fathers,
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, you know, well, who shall I say?
What's your name? You know, who shall I say? I
am that I am. I am the self-existent one. So when Jesus says, I am He,
it's the same kind of thing. When these words come forth from
the Lord, they come forth with power, and the enemies of God
fall backwards in the presence of Jesus speaking those words. That's a revelation of Christ's
deity. And the posture of men in the
presence of God is also a theme in Scripture. And so what you'll
find is that the redeemed of God fall on their face in the
presence of God. Okay, so 1 Kings 18 and verse
7. And as Obadiah was in the way,
behold, Elijah met him, and he knew him, and fell on his face
and said, Are thou not my lord Elijah?" Okay, now again, that's Obadiah
in the presence of Elijah, but it's Elijah is symbolic of the
Lord himself, so again, he falls on his face. It's a friendly
encounter. It's not the encounter of a man
with his enemy. It's a friendly encounter, but
there's the honoring of Elijah in this friendly situation. And
so that gives you an example of the thing. Well, there's Joshua
5 and verse 14. And I'll start at 13. When Joshua
was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked. Behold,
there stood a man against him, having a sword drawn in his hand.
And Joshua went unto him and said unto him, Art thou on our
side or on our adversaries? And he said, Nay, but as captain
of the host of the Lord am I now come. Then Joshua fell on his
face to the earth and did worship and said unto him, What saith
the Lord unto his servant? Now again, that's the appearance
of the Lord Jesus Christ, captain of the host of the Lord. That's
what Joshua is. That's what I thought I was.
Oh no, not spiritually in the sense that Christ says to Joshua. So Joshua, in that presence of
the Lord, falls on his face. Okay, there's Ezekiel 1 and verse
28. And again, these are the visions
of Ezekiel the prophet. And in verse 28, well it's 29 in the 1599 Geneva, this
was the appearance of the similitude of the glory of the Lord. And
when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of
one that spake. So again, this is the appearance
of the glory of the Lord to Ezekiel, and Ezekiel, in the presence
of such revelation, falls on his face. And then, of course,
Matthew 26 and verse 29. I say unto you, I will not henceforth
drink this fruit of the vine until the day when I shall drink
it anew with you in my Father's kingdom." Doesn't seem to be right. Alright,
not sure what I was driving at there. But at any rate, then
there are the enemies of God. Let's take the opposite approach
to the enemies of God. Isaiah 28 and verse 13, Therefore
shall the word of the Lord be unto them, precept upon precept,
precept upon precept, line unto line, line unto line, there a
little and there a little, that they might go and fall backward
and be broken and snared and be taken." And again, it's the
enemies of God, it's those who will not accept the Word of God
that quote-unquote fall backward. Okay, and so the picture of that
is 1 Samuel 4 and verse 18. This is the death of Eli. And when he had made mention
of the ark of God, Eli fell from his seat backward by the side
of the gate, and his neck was broken, and he died. For he was
an old man and heavy, and he had judged Israel forty years."
So again, when Eli hears that the ark is taken, and his two
sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, he falls over backwards. Again, pictured in Isaiah, that
they might go and fall backward. Well, that's Eli's death, and
of course that is the band of men with Judas in the presence
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who says, I am He. So again, you
get the significance of these things. So it's the power that
through these men backwards, a divine testimony to the deity
of Christ. as was the incident of Peter's
cutting off the ear of Malchus, and Jesus having to do a miracle,
healing it in the very presence of these men. So here's the band
of men coming to take him. And they're coming to take him
because they deny he's an imposter. They deny the very thing that
he has taught. They deny his deity, that he
is the Son of God, that he being a man make it himself That was
their claim. And as the band comes, he in
dignity presents himself and gives the same testimony once
more to these people. I am, and they fall backwards.
And he does a miracle to heal the guy's ear when his own servant
unadvisably takes up the sword to try to deliver him. what more ludicrous a scene can
be presented to us than this man coming to arrest him as an
imposter and that set over and against the display once more
of his divine dignity and his power as the son of God. So you
can't have more of a contrast than those two things. Down to
the very hour of his taking. It is clear to anyone who has
ears to hear, eyes to see. But all of this magnifies God's
own purpose in this. And again, look at Acts 2 now at verse 22. Ye men of Israel, hear these
words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you, with
great works and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst
of you as ye yourselves also know him I say being delivered
by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God after you
had taken with wicked hands you have crucified and slain whom
God hath raised up and loosed the sorrows of death because
it was impossible that he should be holden of it. God has his own purposes in this
thing, and those purposes are magnified for us in the circumstances
of Jesus' arrest. And then also we can remember
John 10, Jesus' own teaching on the point. John 10 beginning
at verse 14, I am that good shepherd and know mine and am known of
mine. As the Father knoweth me, so
know I the Father and lay down my life for my sheep. Other sheep
I have also, which are not of this fold, them also I must bring,
and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one sheepfold
and one shepherd. Therefore doth my father love
me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No
man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power
to lay it down and have power to take it again. This commandment
have I received of my father." Again, no man took his life from
him. He laid it down. He laid it down
in order to redeem a people. And the laying of it down is
testified in all the circumstances of Jesus' arrest in that Garden
of Gethsemane. Well, in application of this,
we can first remember what is the price of our redemption.
There's only one way of salvation, and that's God making substitutionary
atonement and applying it to us. And that's because the soul
that sinneth, it must die. You and I are sinners. and we
must die, we are liable to death, and either we ourselves die,
and by die that means eternal separation from God, either you
and I must die or there must be an atonement made, a representative
death on our behalf, accepted by the Father. A sinner can't
die for another sinner, only a perfect one can. And it would
be one-to-one if this wasn't the Son of God who gave himself
to redeem men. And so, you and I are sinners.
God has made an atonement. He has given a representative
death, an acceptable representative, one who would die to redeem a
people to himself. And that simply maintains that
God is both just and the justifier of him that believes in Jesus.
So God has maintained His integrity as judge. He has accepted a replacement
in the person of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, that He might
maintain His justice and at the same time justify the one who
turns to Christ, who believes in Him. who has been wrought
upon by God." And again, that's the way of salvation. There's
one way alone. All of this comes to the forefront
in that Christ gave himself to redeem men. It all comes to the
forefront in the fact that Jesus purposely went, purposely gave
himself into their hands, even while displaying his deity, his
divine power and knowledge. He gave himself in order to redeem
a people. And if we recognize then the
price of redemption, what it has cost, the life of a man,
the life of a man who is our brother, then we can take the
implications of that. And here it's Paul in 2 Corinthians
5, beginning at verse 14. For that love of Christ constraineth
us, because we thus judge that if one be dead for all, then
we're all dead. And he died for all that they
which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto
him which died for them and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know
we no man after the flesh. Yea, though we had known Christ
after the flesh, yet not henceforth know we him no more. Therefore,
if any man be in Christ, let him be a new creature. Old things
are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. And all things are of God, which
hath reconciled us unto himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given
unto us the ministry of reconciliation. And, of course, the demand is
a simple one. If the price of redemption is
the life of the man, then we who are redeemed no longer can
claim our lives to ourselves, to live for ourselves in the
way that we want as sinners. We have to recognize the price
of redemption. And then, thankfully, God tells
us what He wants, death to sin and death to self-will. that is set against God, that
is apart from Him, a new life that is defined for us in the
Word of God. And that life is displayed in
the life of Jesus, who is our pattern, and it's to be the pattern,
the one that we pattern ourselves after. And so again, let sin
not therefore reign in your mortal bodies, you should obey it in
lust thereof. you know, over and over again,
we're called to a certain setting apart, we're called to a conformity
to the life of God that was evident in the life of Jesus, that is
revealed for us in the commandment of God, in the words of God.
And in that word, as we turn to the word, we're told how to
live and what to do, although we are given our lives in which
to do it. And that just means that we're
bondservants to the Lord Jesus Christ, even as we've been set
free from sin. And we ought to view it that
way, we ought to think of it that way. If the Son of God deliberately
gave himself to redeem us, it requires of us a life and thankful
response. And that's, as well, an application
revealed for us in the Word. And then thirdly, I think it
requires of us a certain dignity of persons as well. And again,
the contrast here is the duplicity and cowardice in the bands that
come to arrest Jesus and the dignity of Jesus who goes out
and says, who do you look for? And so they're cowards, they
have to do it in the dark, they have to do it in the night, they
have to do it with a band of men, as if a band of men is of
any use against God. You know, I mean, there have
been times already, you know, when they sent forth the band
of men, now was this Elisha? I think it was Elisha too. You
know, when they said, man of God, come down here. And he said,
well, if I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and
consume you when you're 50. And fire comes down from heaven.
If a band of men wasn't any use against a prophet, is a band
of men of any use against the Son of God? So in their cowardice,
they think that a band of men is going to be useful. Nevertheless,
it's a band of men because we need safety and numbers and we've
got to have all these things. So again, that's a contrast. And we can emulate this dignity
of person that is evident in the Lord Jesus and set it over
and against the cowardice in these bands of men. There's a dignity in a carriage
that refuses to bow to them. It refuses to fear them. And 1 Peter 3 at verse 13, I think is hopeful on that point. That's 14 in the Geneva Bible. Notwithstanding, blessed are
ye if ye suffer for righteousness' sake. Yea, fear not their fear,
neither be troubled, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and
be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you
a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and reverence. So he says, don't be afraid of
their terror. Don't let them terrify you. Don't let the bands
of men and the numbers and the threats and anything else terrify
you." And that seems to be a constant refrain in my experience, you
know, in having to deal with men and having to deal with men
who want to oppose me in something. And then, you know, the game
is, can we terrify you into doing something? And when you stand
up and you won't be terrified, they cower in their attacks. And so, I mean, I can think of
example after example of this. I don't want to tell you it's
my whole experience in life, but I'll pick maybe just a couple. When Jeff Black and I were attacked
for our doctrinal teaching, concerning the Confederacy, the war between
the states, the southern slavery issue, and all of that. The first attack that came out is that
we were going to be examined by Presbyterian and questioned
on our views. And we were going to have to
appear before this court and face this examination. And Jeff
and I basically said, OK, let's be examined. And I'm thinking,
this is going to be fun. Well, maybe we were supposed
to be terrified. I don't know. Maybe we were supposed
to be afraid. Now, I'm standing with John Calvin
and with John Murray. and with Dabney and Thornwell,
you know, in the period. I can quote all these people.
I can defend everything that I've taught. I don't have anything
to fear, but I'm not afraid of the men themselves, you see,
and that's the difference. And I'm saying the same for Jeff,
you know. So who's afraid and who's not
afraid? Well, there was no fear in this
thing. It's an examination. Okay, I'll
give explanation. I'll make a good explanation.
I can make a compelling explanation. I can make an explanation that
convinces me. Well, by the time we got to the
meeting, all of that had changed. Who was fearful? The men were
fearful to examine these two pastors. They were fearful to
put their theology against ours. And so they didn't want any parts
of the threat that was at first set against us. And then it was
about, okay, well, we've doctored, we have this statement that we're
going to make, and so the examination went away by the time of the
meeting. They were, I guess, afraid to examine, and so they
had crafted a statement But the statement was so poorly done
that it needed to go to a committee to be perfected. And I wrote
a verse in my little song about the meeting that I thought was
really cute. There's just one more thing before
we go that we must tell the world about, but we cannot say too
much too clearly, or we'll let the secret out. And that's basically
what that crafted statement was all about. Now that's an example
of the fact that it's the cowards that are exposed by manliness
And I'm not touting my own horn, I'm just saying, you know, maybe
it wasn't self-conscious even, you know, but I'm just saying,
when you stand up to them, when you won't take their fear, when
you're not afraid of them, when you're not afraid of the face
of man, you expose their cowardice. And we're called to that. And
again, whether it's some theological argument with the big board and
the guys that view themselves as doctors or whatever, or it's
masks on the street of Paris, or some other thing, when you
won't take their fear, you call their bluff and you find out. who has dignity, who has courage,
who are men, and who are cowards. And of course, that's our Lord's
exposition. He's exposing that in the garden,
and that's something we can emulate in our world as well. Let's pray. And Father, we do pray that you
would give us the vision of these things. In the first place, of
the price of our own redemption. that we might marvel, that we
might think upon the fact that a man gave his life to redeem
us to you, and that we might honor and esteem what our Lord
has done to redeem us, and that that would move us in our lives
to live in a way that is agreeable to your word, that we would take
you as our commander, our redeemer, as the one who has called us
and that we would no longer live for ourselves, but view ourselves
in the tension of the fact that he died for us, and we ought
to live for him. And thirdly, that we might see
in that redemption, in that work of our Lord Jesus Christ, a pattern
as we face the world, as we look at other men, as we look at the
fear of other men, the terrors that other men would put upon
us, we pray we might take our Lord's example here. and improve
it and use it for your glory. And we pray it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Jesus' Arrest
Series Gospel of John
| Sermon ID | 21211734462623 |
| Duration | 48:46 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | John 18:1-12 |
| Language | English |
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