Jesus Loves Little Babies, a new fully illustrated children's book teaching God's heart for pre-born children by Sarah Fenn. available at www.godloveswomen.com That is www.godloveswomen.com Oh Sovereign Lord, our Father, You have said, Let light shine out of darkness. And you who have said, let light shine out of darkness, have made your light to shine in our hearts. And you have given us the light of the knowledge of your glory in the face of Jesus Christ. But oh Lord, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. We are earthen pots. We are broken jars so that the all-surpassing power might be of You and not of us. We come to You, O God, with brokenness. with trembling, with weakness. And we pray that the all-surpassing power would be of you. We ask, O God, in the love of Christ we ask, For fathers who need repentance, you turn their hearts to their sons. And to the Lord Jesus, whom their sons worship. For brothers and sisters who are living in darkness and blindness, that You would shine light into their hearts, take away their blindness by the all-surpassing power of the Gospel, and they would be saved. We pray, O Lord, that You bring Your people to weep before You again to tears of joyful repentance again. Bring your church to weeping again, to prayer again. Awaken your church, O God, to pray again. Because you are worthy, because the Lamb who was slain is worthy. so infinitely worthy. In Jesus' holy name, Amen. This morning, The Gospel according to Luke chapter 22, verses 39 through 46. This is the Word of the Lord. Coming out, he went to the Mount of Olives. And as he was accustomed as he was accustomed, and his disciples also followed him. When he came to the place, he said to them, Pray that you may not enter into temptation. And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw. And he knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if it is your will, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done." Then an angel appeared to him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. Then his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground. When He rose up from prayer and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. Then He said to them, Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation." Thus far the reading of God's Holy Word, and we tremble joyfully at it. God has His customary places. He visits Mount Sinai once, and then returns many ages later to visit Sinai again. In one generation, He abandons His temple in Jerusalem, handing over His rebellious city to her just punishments under the violent hands of the Babylonians. In a different generation, He rebuilds His temple in Jerusalem, since Jerusalem is the Lord's holy city, and He loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. The Lord, who has His customary places, frequents the Jordan River, first with the Ark of His Covenant under Joshua, and next with the cloak of the prophet Elijah, miraculously parting the waters of the Jordan, such that both Elijah and Elisha walked through the Jordan on dry ground, and then with the baptism of Jesus, under the baptism of John, to fulfill all righteousness." Again, God has His customary places, and the Mount of Olives is one of them. For it was there atop the Mount of Olives, while gazing, we suppose, while gazing across the valley to Mount Moriah, the spot at which he was called to sacrifice his only begotten son Isaac, that the patriarch Abraham paused and counted the cost of his fearful obedience to God. And also it was the Mount of Olives, which King David ascended, barefoot and weeping, with all of his people weeping with him, as he fled the city of Jerusalem, in order to escape the murderous sword of his own son, Absalom. And therefore, when the Apostle John writes and says in John 7.53-8.1, And everyone went to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. The Apostle is describing one of the customary actions of the Lord Jesus. He oftentimes would evade the crowd by going to the Mount of Olives in order to seek his Father in heaven, in prayer, in secret. O beloved saints, we who love the Lord with a love incorruptible also have our own customary places. When we seek time alone with our God and Father, far removed from the threatening voices of this evil world, we frequent our own customary places of prayer. For are there not particular stretches of river bank on the wide open prairie? Or familiar outcroppings of granite on a mountain hiking trail? Or comforting clusters of towering red oak trees standing mightily like security guards and watching over a green belt near our homes? Where we go habitually to pray, We give thanks to the Lord our God for granting us our customary hidden places of prayer, even those stream beds or forests or winding paths where we go to bring our tears to God and to raise our desperate and pleading supplications to Him. Yet, God's customary places are more than mere habitual haunts of visitation. For they are also prophetic by nature, and even apocalyptic in their significance. And so, Mount Carmel, where Elijah defeated the prophets of Baal, shall be the prophetic landmark that announces the final judgment of God over the nations through the apocalyptic battle of Armageddon. The great war between God and the nations shall be finalized there, even in the valley of Jezreel, at the foot of Mount Carmel. And in like fashion, the Mount of Olives which was the customary place of prayer for our Lord Jesus Christ, shall become the apocalyptic landmark of His glorious Second Coming at the end of the age." Zechariah 14, 3-4. Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations as He fights in the day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives. which faces Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley. Half of the mountain shall move toward the north, and half of it toward the south." Oh dear Christian, do you know the customary places of the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you followed Him to the Mount of Olives? Have you entered with Him into the Garden of Gethsemane? Have you wept with Him in the Garden, beside Him in the Garden, over the sinfulness of man, and over the sorrows of the cross? And having wept with Him in the Garden, Have you begun to prepare your heart fully for the grace that is to be brought to you at the glory of the revelation of Jesus Christ when He plants His feet upon the Mount of Olives once again? Gethsemane which was our Lord's customary place of prayer, is to be a place of prayer for us. Whenever the Scriptures lead us into Gethsemane, we are to devote ourselves to prayer. And in specific, when we enter by faith into Gethsemane, we are to pray earnestly that God would deliver us from temptation. We ask God that we may not enter into temptation. Luke 22, 39-40. Coming out, he went to the Mount of Olives, as he was accustomed. And his disciples also followed him. When he came to the place, he said to them, Pray that you may not enter into temptation. He commands the disciples to pray thus, and then he repeats the command shortly thereafter. They must pray fervently that they may not enter into temptation. Luke 22, 45-46. When he rose up from prayer and had come to his disciples, he found them sleeping. from sorrow. Then he said to them, Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The disciples ought to be praying with urgency that they may not enter into temptation. Instead, our Lord finds them sleeping from sorrow. And this happens not just once or twice, but even three times. According to the account of Matthew, no less than three times he finds them sleeping. Matthew 26, 40 through 46. Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping and said to Peter, what? Could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you fall into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Again, a second time he went away and prayed, saying, Oh my father, if this cup cannot pass away from me unless I drink it, your will be done. And he came and found them asleep again. for their eyes were heavy. So he left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Then he came to his disciples and said to them, Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand. Gethsemane is not a place of rest and repose. For the Lord Jesus is about to be betrayed into the hands of sinners. Therefore, Gethsemane is a place of dangers and temptations. For once the cross comes, then the temptations will come. This is why it is so urgent for the disciples to stay awake and alert in prayer. They must not sleep in prayer. They must not let the enchanted ground of Gethsemane lull them to sleep in prayer. Instead, they must be most watchful, and urgent, and pressing in their prayers. For the hour of darkness is at hand, and the malice of Satan is near. Therefore, they must watch and pray. They must pray against temptation in the very manner in which their Lord has taught them to pray." Matthew 6, 13. And do not lead us into the temptation. but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen." Oh dear saints, the temptations of the devil are real and they are at hand. The enemy of our souls desires to entrap us and to swallow us up in his temptations. For if he can tempt us when we are not found seeking God fervently in prayer, then he surely shall devour us." 1 Timothy 6, 9, But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. And 1 Thessalonians 3 verse 5, For this reason, when I could no longer endure it, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor might be in vain. We then must arise and pray. For the darkness of Satan's hour of temptation cannot be overcome, But by prayer alone, we must pray. We must be found, as it says in Romans 12, 2, persevering in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer, through this present hour of sorrow and darkness. It is prayer, it is biblical prayer, and only prayer which can save us from temptation. And prayer can indeed deliver us from the power of the evil one, because our prayers rise up like sweet incense before the throne of God and before the throne of His Son, Jesus Christ, our High Priest. And when we plead with our High Priest to lead us out of the temptation, He is able, infinitely able, to help us. since he himself conquered the temptation of Satan, when he defeated him during the temptation in the wilderness." Hebrews 2 verse 18. For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to aid those who are tempted. Who has overcome temptation? save our Lord Jesus Christ alone. Who then is able to deliver us from temptation? None can do so, save Christ our Lord alone. And He is able, since all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. And therefore, by His sovereign authority over times and nations and principalities and powers, He is able to guard us from the hour of temptation. Revelation 3 verse 10, Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of temptation. which shall come upon the whole world to tempt those who dwell on the earth." Yet the churches of this generation are fast asleep, even while the darkness of Gethsemane falls upon the world. The afflictions of the cross now come upon persecuted brothers and sisters all around the globe. A strong delusion now overtakes all nations, such that those who will not receive the love of the truth are found due to their taking pleasure in unrighteousness, believing the great lie of Antichrist. Men and women everywhere are calling good evil and evil good. They are seeking to uproot the eternal gospel from every nation, tribe, tongue and people where it formerly has been planted. The gospel preaches the fear of God. But Antichrist preaches a passive and permissive deity who is not at all to be feared. The betrayer of the Gospel has come, and yet the churches of God are sleeping. They are dismayed by the speed with which evil has overtaken the world, and so overwhelmed with sorrow and sleeping, even at this present hour. What then shall we say to the churches What is it that our Lord says to the churches? If they have ears to hear, what shall the churches of this our own day hear the Spirit of Christ saying to them?" These are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ to His disciples. Luke 22, 45-46. When He rose up from prayer and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping. from sorrow, and he said to them, Why do you sleep? Rise and pray. Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation. O precious brethren, do you hear the Spirit speaking to us? You hear the risen and ascended Christ speaking to us. He says to us what he once said to his disciples. Why do you sleep? Rise and pray. The King of Heaven summons us to prayer The Lord of all the earth calls us to pray. He who speaks and causes the heavens themselves to shake, speaks now to us, directly to us, and commands us, saying, rise and pray. Dear brethren, The sorrows of this present hour are sharp and fierce, to be sure. Yet do not let those sorrows press you into a deep sleep. Do not, O Beloved, slumber at this present hour, for there is much danger that is near. The threats to the Gospel of God are higher now than ever before. And yet the Church is, according to its many compromises with the world, and so its many sins, weaker now than ever before. If the enemy is at hand, now is not the time to sleep. If the lion is on the prowl, or if the thief threatens to break in and steal, Now is not the hour of slumber. Rise, O church, and pray. Arise to prayer. For what is needed is not a practical analysis of the present spiritual dangers that face our church members, and especially our children and grandchildren. But rather, what is needed is a supernatural strengthening from the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we must rise and pray. As it was in times past, when our forefathers faced times of grave temptation, we as God's people must conquer Satan on our knees again. We must learn to pray with fervor again. We must humble ourselves and repent of our idols and our sins and don spiritual sackcloth and ashes. And so debase ourselves before God and then cry aloud for God to hear us and to save us from temptation. Rise and pray, dear brethren. Awaken to God, our Savior! Be crucified to the world, and so no longer sleep the sleep of the darkness of sin. Instead, arise, you who sleep, and rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light. For you do not know when He will come, but you know that the time is near, And you know that it is high time for you to arise out of your sleep, since the night is far spent, and the day is about to dawn. Should you not cast off the works of darkness, since our salvation is nearer now, much nearer now, than when we first believed? O brethren, the hour of temptation is coming upon the world. Rise then, and pray. And so, pray aloud, lifting up holy hands in prayer, and seeking the illumination of the light of Christ Jesus with all of your heart, and with all of your soul, so that you may not enter into temptation. We enter into Gethsemane to learn how to pray. It is the place of deepest sorrow and of deepest pain. Yet this is the only place where we can learn the very heart of prayer. For it is here in Gethsemane that we hear our Lord Jesus praying the prayer of full surrender to the will of His Father in Heaven." Luke 22, 41-42. And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw. And He knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done. He prays this three times, not once or twice, but three times. He bows his will in prayer to the will of his righteous Father. Knowing full well the coming humiliation, mockings, tortures, and torments of the cross, he nevertheless renounces his own will for the sake of his father's will. Matthew 26, 38 through 39. Then he said to them, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with me. He went a little farther and fell on his face and prayed saying, oh my father, if it is possible, Let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not as I will, but as you will. And then verse 42 of Matthew 26, again the second time, He went away and prayed saying, Oh my Father, if this cup cannot pass away from me, unless I drink it, your will be done. And then verse 44, so He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. He does not want to drink the cup of the Father's wrath against all human sin. Being fully God, He knows that the cup must be drunk, lest all men perish in their sins forever. Yet being fully man, he cannot bear the thought of falling under the father's wrath as the substitutionary lamb slain for sinners. He cannot bear the proposed sentence of feeling forsaken by his father. Yet even so, He submits Himself to this act of drinking the cup full of blood-red wine, fully mixed, even down to its wrathful dregs. He does this because He loves the world, which He has come to save. But even more so, because He loves the Father, whom He always has and always shall obey. because of His infinite love for the Father. John 18 11 So Jesus said to Peter, Put your sword into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which my Father has given me? Who can understand the depth of the sorrow of this prayer. O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not as I will, but as you will. Again, who can comprehend the height of the love of this prayer? O my Father, if this cup cannot pass away from me unless I drink it, your will be done. If the angels of heaven can neither understand nor comprehend these things, then how shall we? The heart of true prayer is a full surrender to the will of God. in which that full surrender is freely given to God out of a pure trust in God and a complete love for Him. Again, it is surrender. It is saying, your will be done, when that will crosses our own. It is David barefoot and weeping atop the Mount of Olives, saying to Zadok the priest in 2 Samuel 15, 25 through 26, carry the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me back and show me both it and his dwelling place. But if he says thus, I have no delight in you, here I am. Let him do to me as seems good to Him. Who then are the greatest men of prayer in all of history? They are the men who, out of their sheer love of God the Father, surrender themselves to the will of Christ Jesus their Lord. Even when such surrender brings them into the afflictions of the cross. We see then the mighty Abraham, surrendering his only begotten son, Isaac, lifting him up onto the altar of sacrifice, and with tears rushing down his cheeks, praying, Not as I will, but as you will, even as he raises the knife over his son. But behold David, the doting father, holding his baby boy, the son of Bathsheba, in his arms, even as the babe is sickly and dying. And through many sobs of love, Praying to God, not as I will, but as you will. We witness the Prophet Elisha, upon seeing the chariot of fire, driven by horses of fire, taking his beloved master from him. And crying out and saying, my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen. And then through torrents of tears, Praying to God and saying, not as I will, but as you will. We hear the Lord speaking to the prophet Ezekiel and commanding him, saying first in Ezekiel 3.25, they will put ropes on you and bind you with them, so that you cannot go out among them. And then later, warning him that his wife, the desire of his eyes, would have to die suddenly, in an instant, as a prophetic warning to Jerusalem. And we hear the prophet recount the event in the deepest sorrow, saying in Ezekiel 24, 18, So I spoke to the people in the morning, and at evening my wife died. And the next morning I did as I was commanded. Yet Christ is the greatest man of prayer. For Christ prayed with the greatest surrender, even a perfect and sinless surrender, to the Father's will. And why did Christ surrender so perfectly and sinlessly? He did this because His love for the Father was perfect and sinless and complete. John 5 verse 30, I can of myself do nothing, as I hear I judge, and my judgment is righteous, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me. And John 6.38, For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. Christ lived this way and prayed this way, even knowing full well that the will of the Father was for Him to give His back to those who would strike Him, and His cheeks to those who would pluck out His beard. And that he should not hide his face from shame and spitting. He knew that it was the father's will for him to be taken by oppression and by a lying judgment. And so he would be cut off from the land of the living. And so for the transgressions of his people, he would be stricken. Yet knowing all of this, he still prayed out of his love for the Father in heaven, Your will be done. Who prays in such a manner in this present generation? Who loves God with this kind of love? such that he would pray in this kind of manner. Where are the saints today who are willing to pray, not as I will, but as you will, when such a prayer means the full crucifixion of their worldly pursuits and dreams and plaudits and comforts? and in the face of suffering, even cross-sized suffering, who today loves the Lord Jesus enough to pray as He prayed, not as I will, but as you will? Oh, praying Christian! Oh, bereaved and mourning Christian! The Lord on high beholds your sacrifice of surrender. He gathers your tears into His wineskin. He treasures the perfume of your suffering that you have poured out on His feet. Your surrender to Him, even as you bleed and weep your way through the surrender, is pleasing. to Him. And so even as the world belittles you and scorns you on account of your surrender to God, your Father in Heaven shall lift you up and crown you with His crown of affection and love in the Kingdom of God, in the Kingdom of Heaven. Gethsemane is the place of prayer, and so the place of victory. For the battle of the cross is won well before our Lord Jesus Christ takes up the cross upon His flogged and bleeding shoulders. That is, even before His arrest and torture and crucifixion, the Lord Jesus already has surrendered himself to the will of the Father. And therefore, Satan has been defeated in Gethsemane. He has been defeated by the prayers of Christ, even while sweating great drops of blood in Gethsemane. Luke 22, 43-44, then an angel. appeared to him from heaven, strengthening him, and being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. Then his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground." The spiritual battle in Gethsemane is so fierce that an angel from heaven is sent to Christ to strengthen him in prayer. He knows this angel by name. For the angel now sent from heaven to bring strength to him in the battle of prayer formerly worshipped him, the very Son of God, when the Son sat at the right hand of the Father in the throne room of heaven. And this angel, who formerly fell on his face many times to ascribe glory and honor and thanksgiving to the eternal Son of God, now sees his Creator and Lord. full of agony in prayer in Gethsemane. And so that angel strengthens him in prayer. However, before the battle is over and the prayer is finished, his sweat becomes like great drops of blood falling to the ground. This is unfathomable suffering. His agony over His coming death, such that once He is upon the cross, He will feel forsaken by His Eternal Father, is so immense that it causes His sweat to become like drops of blood falling to the ground. Yet this is also His great victory. For His blood is His victory. And Christ surrendered to the Father's will even unto death on a cross. The gospel of His victory over sin and death is secured. For sin caused the first woman to labor in childbirth with great pain and with much blood. And yet Christ's sweat has become like great drops of blood falling to the ground. And also sin caused Adam to eat bread by the sweat of His face. And yet now Christ's sweat has become like great drops of blood falling to the ground. He bears the curse of Eve's sin and of Adam's sin in His own body. Moreover, the full punishment of the curse of sin is expressed only through death. For God said to Adam in Genesis 3.19, In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground. Till you return to the ground. For out of it you were taken, for dust you are, and to dust you shall return. Sin caused Adam to die, to face death, to return to the ground. Yet now Christ's sweat has become like great drops of blood falling to the ground. That is, Christ shall taste death for Adam. He shall die our death in our stead. Do you have ears to hear then the victory of the Gospel in Christ's sweat, becoming like great drops of blood. Hear it in this great pronouncement, Hebrews 9.22, and according to the law, almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission. Again, hear the apostles say in Colossians 1, 19 through 20, for it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And once again, hear the gospel of His glory declared through the giving of His blood. 1 John 5, 6. This is He who came by water and blood. Jesus Christ, not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. Therefore, when the armies of heaven, even His redeemed saints, come with Him to judge the earth, riding on white horses, What color of garments shall they wear? They shall be clothed in fine linen, white and clean, for their sins have been washed away by His blood. Yet when He Himself comes to judge the earth, riding on a mighty war horse, a white horse, what shall His own robe look like? He shall be clothed with a robe dipped in blood. For he went to the cross and dipped his own robe in the blood of the cross, so that we might wear white and clean robes in the paradise of God. Yet by this gospel the wicked shall be judged. For they who scorned His cross and rejected His blood shall face the full fury of His sword and the unrelenting fire of His divine wrath. His robe shall be dipped in the blood of their judgment. and their own blood shall flow under the sharp two-edged sword that proceeds out of his mouth, and they shall be tormented forever and ever in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. And then Christ himself shall be exalted over all. In the kingdom of heaven he shall sweat no more, Nor shall blood flow from his brow or his side, but he shall wear the high priestly robes of heaven, and be crowned with the many crowns of the high King of heaven. And we, his saints, who have been washed in his blood, shall praise him forever and ever, even him who won the battle over Satan in Gethsemane. And who shall return to stand upon the Mount of Olives, in eternal glory and victory. And thus the angels shall sing, worthy is the Lamb who is slain. And the saints shall sing, blessing and honor and glory and power be unto Him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb. and the singing shall go on and on, and the joy shall be unending, unto the praise of the glory of His grace, forever and ever, world without end. Amen. And so this is a table of surrender. As we close and come to the Lord's table this morning, we come remembering our King, whose sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground. And all for the Father's glory, and for the forgiveness of our sins. Before we come, here is the doxology. Praise be to God, our Father, who has his customary places. Praise be to our Lord Jesus Christ, who prayed to the Father and said, not as I will, but as you will. And praise be to the Holy Spirit, who calls us to prayer, strengthens us in prayer, and gives us the victory of Christ's atoning sacrifice through prayer. Amen.