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.