Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.northharris.freechurch.org/sermons/24115/11922-am/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Good morning and a warm welcome to the service this morning. Good to see some visitors with us as well this morning and you're especially welcome if you're able to stay behind for tea and coffee at the end it would be good to get the chance to to meet with you. The intimations have been on the screen before the service began. I'm not going to go through all of them there's quite a few and there are quite a number that occur each week but if I could highlight just a couple of things the first thing is that we have the little fishes normally on Tuesday and we have that again on Tuesday at 10 but there's a mother and toddlers gallic group that meets in the church on Thursday 15th of September that's this coming Thursday at 10 till half past 11 tea and coffee crafts for the older ones and it's Anne Ramsey who who organizes that so that's something that's available and you can be encouraged to to go there if you're if you're able. The communion services we have our communion weekend this coming weekend the 16th to the to the 18th and you have the details there of those who are taking the services. The gallic service will be on Friday at 12 and that will be taken by Donald

[1:22] McDonald. Welcome there's seats there or there's seats over at the front they're always the last ones taken. The seats over here you're very very welcome. So we've got our communion service this coming weekend so Friday we have the gallic service and that service is at 12 and then we have the English service at 7 on Friday and on Saturday we have the English service at 7 it'll be a prayer meeting come service and there'll be a fellowship after that on Saturday night we'll get more details on that over the next few days on the Facebook page and at the prayer meeting on Wednesday and then on Sunday 11 and 6 the normal times and Reverend Ian McCritchie will take the English services over the weekend.

[2:13] There'll be an evening fellowship on Sunday evening too and there's a sign-up sheet at the foyer for those who are able to help with that. Blytheswood shoebox appeal we hope the jam and connect kids will pack the boxes again this year so we're collecting items for them this week we're collecting packets of sweets no chocolate please if you have any spare chocolate I'll happily take it.

[2:36] The ETS Saturday course resumes and you have details of that there also. Deacons court meeting on Monday 19th of September half past six just note for that and the senior Sunday school are organizing a brunch for Blytheswood on Saturday 24th September half nine till twelve come along for brunch support that work put that also in your diary so these I think are all the intimations. We're going to sing to God's praise and we're going to sing this psalm Psalm 46 which is a psalm that has provided great comfort strength as we look to the Lord over the years and especially in times of change and in moments that we recognize to be of great significance we return time and time again to to this psalm where we are reminded of the fact that God is our refuge and our strength and on this particular Lord's day we remember with fondness and with great sadness the passing of our Queen who reigned with great stability and faithfulness over many decades and so we're going to sing this psalm to God's praise and then at the end of that if you could remain standing and we're going to observe a minute's silence as we as we mourn for the Queen's passing as we go into this period of mourning and also as we look to the Lord for his strength at this time and as we look to the future so we'll sing the words of this psalm and then at the end of that we'll stand we'll remain standing for a minute and then I'll pray so let's stand now to sing to God's praise

[4:42] God is our refuge and our strength in six of present day therefore although the earth re-blue we price will not be Oh and ge a And traveled me in over the hills, by swelling sea to shake.

[5:51] A river is two streams to glide, the city of our God.

[6:06] The holy place wherein the Lord most high hath is among.

[6:21] God in the midst of her doth dwell, that they shall her renew.

[6:36] The Lord to her and help her will, and the Trinity grew.

[6:52] The heathen raised tumultuously, the kingdom's new and web.

[7:08] The Lord God attended his voice, the earth did met for fear.

[7:24] The Lord of hosts upon our side, the Lord shall clearly remain.

[7:40] The God of Jacob's refuge, as safely to maintain.

[7:57] And now let's remain standing and let's observe a minute of silence. Thank you.

[8:40] Thank you.

[9:10] Thank you. And we thank you that you are our refuge, that you are our strength. That you are the God who is an ever-present help in all times, and especially times of trouble and turbulence and change.

[9:27] We thank you that we thank you that we thank you for all that we have remembered, even in these moments of silence.

[9:45] We thank you for our grace. We thank you for our grace. We thank you for our grace. We thank you for our late Queen. We thank you for the many years, the many decades of selfless service in this country.

[9:58] We thank you for our grace. We thank you for our grace. We thank you for the stability that we have known through the years. you tell us in your word that we are to pray for those that you put in positions of authority so that we will have peaceful and quiet lives where we are able to pursue godliness and we thank you that in great measure we have enjoyed that through the years and we recognize that much of that comes back to the way that leadership is exercised and so we pray lord with thanksgiving for your goodness to us we thank you lord for the witness and the steadiness of the queen we thank you for the opportunities that she took to to point us to jesus and we thank you for the gospel promises that we have that those who believe in jesus shall not perish but have eternal life we pray for our nation as charles is proclaimed king as he prepares to take the throne we pray for wisdom we pray lord that he would have the humility to look to you and we pray that in the period in which he will have leadership that he would direct us to jesus so help us we pray as a nation to look to you to turn to you to trust in you and we pray this in jesus name amen boys and girls would you like to come forward please so i want to speak to you today uh boys and girls about uh about the queen i'm just going to speak to you about something different but with all that's happened in in this last week i want to to speak to you about the queen and you know from watching the news that on on thursday night uh the queen passed away and she uh very peacefully and she very quickly went from this world uh to be with jesus because we believe that those who trust in jesus go to be with jesus and and that makes us it makes us sad when someone dies doesn't it it makes us sad when we think about the queen because i mean not just you but all i can remember and i know you look at me and you just see an old man don't you they're nodding that's all i can remember is the queen and some of the the greatest heads in the church here all through their lives they can remember the queen and so when she passed away on thursday night uh it it made us sad because of the way that she was through the years do you remember how old she was she was 96 michael that's right uh so she she lived quite a long time she saw a lot of changes in her life she lived through a a world war which must have been a a terrible thing uh to have to live through um she saw did any of you remember how many prime ministers came and went whilst the king whilst the queen remained uh in position do you remember it was right 15 so 15 prime ministers came into power and then they went away and the queen

[13:58] she she saw them all and we saw the picture on tuesday where she was shaking hands with the new prime minister and she saw a lot of changes in her life as well these didn't exist when she was your age in fact television i don't think even would have existed when she was your age so life changed completely in the world and in the country so there was a lot of change in her life but the thing about the queen that i remember most is that she was very steady she always stayed the same and when you would speak to people who spoke to her then they would say didn't matter who she was speaking to she was always the same and when some things happened in her life that were really hard she still remained steady and the question i want to think about just for for a second is is who made her steady what do you think who made her steady lois god made her steady let's do a wee thing just now who wants to be a volunteer michael you're first up right so i want you no you can just stand up just now and just stand up there and stand on one leg one leg now just keep standing there for a minute now johnno you come over here you just give him a no no no no no no no stand there stand there one leg and you give him no violence just a wee nudge there we go over he went so michael that's fine you stand back up you stand back up and um i want you on one leg again and now i would like john ronnie to come out i knew you were going to be on steady i don't think you'd be this on steady john ronnie you hold michael you hold it so one leg still but you hold it now johnny just give him a wee nudge right thank you sit down so what we could see there was that when michael was standing on his own on one leg and then john came along gave him a wee gentle brotherly nudge he was straight over and if if we hadn't caught him he'd have been flat down on the ground but when john ronnie came over and held him and he was able to hold on to him even though john was giving him a nudge he was steady and i think that's a picture of how we are if we are christians and that's a picture of how the queen was hard things happened in our life and people wondered how on earth is she going to deal with this and she was steady and she remained the same and the reason she remained the same is because she said it in her speeches she was trusting in jesus and jesus remember is the one who is the same yesterday and today and forever so when jesus is holding on to us even when we go through difficult things as people and even when we might go through difficult things as a nation if we're trusting in jesus if we're

[17:59] in the word of god then we'll be steady and boys and girls what i want to say to you as i say to myself is trust jesus she's the only one who can keep us steady through life steady even through death into life that's everlasting the queen she trusted jesus and she was not ashamed even when it wouldn't make her popular to say that she owned and trusted jesus and so let's be encouraged to be like that let's pray lord we thank you for the fact that you are trustworthy we thank you that jesus is the king of kings he's the lord of lords we thank you god that you are the one who is sovereign over all and that your reign never ends we thank you that your reign is perfect we know that every leader in this world will sometimes get it wrong and often there isn't justice and often things are not done the right way in this world but we thank you that you are the god who does all things well and we thank you that we can trust you and that you are worthy of our worship and we thank you that you call us to come to you and when we trust in you we thank you that you promise to hold us and keep us steady so we pray that you would help us as we think about the queen and her steadiness and the way she pointed us to jesus help us to follow that example and to look to jesus to trust in jesus and to seek to point other people also to jesus and we pray this in jesus name amen we're going to sing now and we're going to sing that hymn mission praise 323 i'm not ashamed to own my lord lord lord to defend his cross jesus jesus my god jesus my god i know his name his name is all my trust nor will he put my soul nor let my hope be lost nor let my hope be lost nor let my hope be lost as his throne his promise stands and he can well secure what i committed what i committed to his hands till the decisive hour then where he owned my worthless name before his father's case

[21:44] And in the new Jerusalem Aboid my soul of grace Okay, boys and girls, if you head through to Sunday school now As they go, remember to pray for them And we can turn in our Bibles now to Luke chapter 22, please Luke chapter 22, and we are continuing in our studies in this book

[23:00] And we've reached verse 39 of the chapter So we'll read from verse 39 through to verse 53 of Luke chapter 22 This is God's Word Jesus went out, as usual, to the Mount of Olives And his disciples followed him On reaching the place, he said to them Pray that you will not fall into temptation He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them Knew down and prayed Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me Yet not my will, but yours be done An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly And his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground When he arose from prayer and went back to the disciples He found them asleep Exhausted from sorrow Why are you sleeping?

[24:00] He asked them Get up and pray So that you will not fall into temptation While he was still speaking A crowd came up And the man who was called Judas One of the twelve Was leading them He approached Jesus to kiss him But Jesus asked him Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?

[24:24] When Jesus' followers saw what was going to happen They said, Lord Should we strike with our swords? And one of them struck the servant of the high priest Cutting off his right ear But Jesus answered No more of this And he touched the man's ear And healed him Then Jesus said to the chief priests The officers of the temple guard And the elders who had come for him Am I leading a rebellion?

[24:58] That you have come with swords and clubs? Every day I was with you in the temple courts And you did not lay a hand on me But this is your hour When darkness reigns Amen And may God bless that reading of his word to us We're going to sing again now From Psalm 46 In Gaelic The last two stanzas of the Psalm Verses 10 and 11 I'll read them in English Be still and know that I am God Among the heathen I will be exalted I on earth will be exalted high Our God who is the Lord of hosts Is still upon our side The God of Jacob Our refuge forever will abide These two verses We sing in Gaelic And we remain seated to sing in Gaelic And we are his projets Our Lord of hosts You're a pent toda

[25:58] We are your стала The Lord of two Amen.

[26:49] Thank you.

[27:19] Thank you.

[27:49] Thank you.

[28:19] Thank you.

[28:49] Thank you.

[29:19] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[29:31] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[29:43] Thank you. are not left to try to think our own thoughts or make our own speeches to muse on the circumstances of life and politics.

[29:59] But we thank you that day by day and week by week we return to your word, the word of the living God. And we pray for your help as we do so this morning.

[30:11] We recognise that the same Holy Spirit who inspired the word of God is the one who is our teacher. And without the work of the Holy Spirit we cannot speak, we cannot hear, we cannot respond.

[30:27] And so we pray that we would know the help of the Holy Spirit in these moments that you would speak into our hearts and into our lives that we would hear the voice of God, that we would see our need of Jesus, that we would see the glory and the wonder of Jesus, the wonder of the salvation that has been worked out for us.

[30:49] So take away from us, we pray, every distraction, everything that would cause our eyes to turn from you.

[31:01] We pray, Lord, that you would cleanse us from the sin that spoils our relationship with you. Wash us in the blood of Jesus. Empty us of self. All that would cause us to look in on ourselves and think about the world from the perspective of my experience and my way.

[31:21] Enable us to lift our eyes and to look to Jesus. We pray on for the children. We thank you for them. We ask, Lord, that in their early years they would remember their Creator, that they would trust Jesus as Lord and Saviour, that they would walk with Jesus all the days of their lives.

[31:41] So we pray for them. And we pray for other churches that meet as we do in this place and in different places. Wherever the Word of God is opened and Christ crucified is preached, we ask, Lord, that you would be working, that you would be building your church.

[31:59] We pray for the Church of Scotland this morning in particular. We pray for Ian Myrtle in hospital in Glasgow. And we ask, Lord, that as he has tests and receives treatment, that you would be near to him and lay your hands of healing upon him and be with those who care for him and be with the family and the church family.

[32:21] We commit them to you in prayer. And we pray for Scalpy Congregation as well. As Stuart opens your word, prepares to open your word shortly, we ask, Lord, that you would speak through him and that he would know your help.

[32:39] And for all other places, the congregations we're connected with, those visiting with us, the fellowships that they have come from, we bring them to you in prayer. And places across this nation, some who will go to church today for the first time, perhaps in a long time, to pay their respects and to think about the significance of the circumstances that we're living through.

[33:04] We pray that as the word of God is read and preached, that you would be speaking to those who may normally have no thought of you. And we pray for brothers and sisters across the world who don't have the luxury of a building and protection around them.

[33:23] We pray for those who are persecuted, who, if they are found, would be charged or even killed for the name of Jesus.

[33:35] We are thankful for the for the freedom that we have to worship, but we remember those who do not have that. And we ask that you would be near to them. We continue to pray for those who are not with us, some who are sick and struggling with their health.

[33:54] And we ask, Lord, that you would draw near to them. We pray for others who are up in years and whose desire is to be amongst your people, but who cannot be, but who watch and listen at a distance.

[34:07] And we ask, Lord, that your presence would be also with them. And we pray for those who who go through trauma and difficulty.

[34:17] We pray for places where there is war. And people who are anxious for loved ones in the midst of that. We are thankful for the peace that we enjoy here at this time.

[34:30] But as we see conflict in Ukraine and in different parts of the world, we pray that they would know that you are God and that you are with them. We pray for them to know that you are the refuge and strength who cares for us as we come to you.

[34:47] So hear our prayers. Take away our sin, we ask. And help us as we open your word. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. As we return to Luke chapter 22, we are coming to the final hours of Jesus' life in this world.

[35:13] Lord, this is the last day that we would spend in this world.

[35:27] if we were told this is your last day on planet Earth, I wonder what you would do with your time. I wonder how the day would be ordered for us.

[35:41] John Wesley, the 18th century revival preacher, hymn writer as well, he was asked that question. this was your last day, Mr. Wesley, how would you spend it?

[35:56] And without hesitation, he replied, at four o'clock, I would have some tea. At six, I would visit Mrs. Brown in the hospital. Then at seven thirty, I would conduct a midweek prayer service.

[36:11] At ten, I would go to bed and I would wake up in glory. That's how he replied. I suppose what he was saying is, I would do what I usually do.

[36:23] This is my last day in this world. I would make no great changes to my routine. I would just do what I usually do. I'm ready.

[36:39] And here, in Luke 22, as Jesus comes to the end of his life in this world, we see in the first instance that he does what he usually does.

[36:52] If you look at verse 20, verse 39, it says there that Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives. Remember, he's been teaching his disciples in the upper room.

[37:06] He is preparing to go to Gethsemane. he knows the cross is coming close. And it says that he went out as usual to the Mount of Olives.

[37:18] So what was he doing in the Mount of Olives? Well, the answer was very clear. He was praying. And the first point that we come to today is we see Jesus, he has the custom of prayer.

[37:34] We see, first of all, that Jesus, he has this custom of prayer. If you've got the ESV, which a lot of you do, I know, it says in verse 39 of the ESV, and he, that's Jesus, came out and went as was his custom to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him.

[37:56] Now, when we hear words like custom and habit or routine, in the spiritual realm, we become very suspicious of that.

[38:07] We've come to think of customs and duties and disciplines as kind of bad things, non-inspired things.

[38:19] Everything today in the spiritual sense seems to be very feelings-driven. If you don't feel it, you don't do it. But it's clear from these verses that prayer was a custom for Jesus.

[38:35] The Greek word in verse 39 is the word ethos, which we've taken into the English language. You know, when we talk about ethos, we're talking about something that's ingrained deep into our character and our lifestyle, but literally it means, in this verse, habit or custom.

[38:58] So it was Jesus' custom to go to the Mount of Olives. And when he went there, the disciples knew he was going there to pray. It was a godly habit that Jesus developed through life.

[39:17] And it was a habit, it was a spiritual discipline, it was a custom that Jesus was trying to instill into the lives of his disciples. notes. Look at verse 40.

[39:32] On reaching the place, the Mount of Olives, Jesus said to them, pray that you will not fall into temptation. He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed.

[39:50] There's two things here to note as we watched Jesus pray. Two points that kind of jumped out to me in preparation.

[40:01] We see in this custom of prayer that Jesus had that there was a place that he had that he routinely went to pray.

[40:12] It's the Mount of Olives. And that place took him away from the crowds. And in that place, on that day, it tells us that Jesus, he even stepped a distance away from the disciples because he wanted to be alone with his father in prayer, in this special place that he had.

[40:35] And then we can see that Jesus, he has a particular posture as he prays on this occasion. He's kneeling. It says that he knelt down and prayed.

[40:48] And we might not think too much of that, but on in that day, that was highly unusual.

[41:00] You didn't kneel to pray. You stood to pray. That's what they did. But on this occasion, Jesus, he kneels as he prays.

[41:11] Why does he kneel? Well, I think in part it's to do with the focus and the intensity with which Jesus prayed. He wasn't looking at the disciples.

[41:22] He wasn't looking at anyone else. He is with his father in that great intensity of prayer. He's kneeling down and yet there's more to this as well.

[41:33] As Jesus kneels down, he's starting to feel the weight of my sin and yours pressing down upon him. So he can't stand.

[41:46] He doesn't have the strength physically to stand. He's been pushed down into that posture where he is feeling the weight of suffering as he prepared to go to the cross.

[42:04] So we see here the custom of prayer. And I want to ask the question in application. Do you and I have a custom of prayer?

[42:20] Is prayer something, if we take the Greek word there, is prayer an integral part of the ethos of our lives?

[42:36] And would the people who know us best would they know that? Would they know that we have this live, real, crucial custom of prayer?

[42:52] The disciples, when Jesus goes to the Mount of Olives, the disciples don't turn to him and say, why are we going there? What are we going to do there? They know this is the place that you go to pray.

[43:08] Judas, as he determines to betray Jesus and bring to effect this plan that he's been working on, he doesn't have to wonder, where will I find Jesus?

[43:31] He knows that he will be on the Mount of Olives and he will be engaged in prayer. So do you, do the people who know you and the people who know me, do they know that at particular times in the day we're going to be praying?

[43:56] and do people know that on certain nights of the week we're going to be praying?

[44:11] Do people know that on Sunday night at six o'clock there's an opportunity for us to come together, gather around God's word and pray? So they don't say, well, we're going to do something else tonight.

[44:22] this is our custom. This is a godly habit which we need because we are weak people. And we've been told, don't give up on this habit, encourage each other because you need it.

[44:42] On a Wednesday night, do people know that we're not available for a picnic or a walk to the park or whatever because we'll be in the place of prayer.

[44:52] I remember one of the guys here telling me about one particular season where there was quite a number of young men who came to faith in Jesus, more so in Lewis and Harris and a high proportion of these young guys were good football players and so there was training sometimes scheduled on a Wednesday night, sometimes there were cup games scheduled on a Wednesday night.

[45:25] But when these guys came to faith, those who were organizing the game said, we're going to have to change this on a Wednesday night because we know these guys will be in the place of prayer.

[45:36] prayer. And so there was a compelling witness at that time when football had to shift for prayer because it was the custom.

[45:50] It should still be the custom of every believer to be committed to pray prayer. In the quiet place where no one is watching, where we are a stone's throw away from anyone else, and in the public place where there's the opportunity for us to come together as the people of God to cry out to God.

[46:20] So there's the custom of prayer. That's the first thing that we see. The second thing we see here is that there is a cup that Jesus was passed as he prays.

[46:33] Look at verse 42 to 44. We're given insight, we're allowed to hear what Jesus is praying in this moment.

[46:44] And we hear Jesus saying as he is kneeling down in prayer under the weight of the impending suffering that he was beginning to feel.

[46:55] He cries out to his father and he says in verse 42 Father if you are willing take this cup from me yet not my will but yours be done.

[47:08] An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him and being in anguish he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

[47:25] do we have this picture of this cup that Jesus is handling as he is in prayer.

[47:39] Now if you glance back just a few verses to verses 17 and verse 20 we see Jesus handling another cup. Remember it's the meal, it's the Passover meal which evolved into the communion meal and we see Jesus at that Passover meal and he's passing a cup to his disciples and that cup was a cup of blessing, it was a cup that reminded them of what God did years and years ago where he saved his people from death because the blood of the lamb spared them.

[48:15] Remember the houses that had the covering of the blood of the lamb, they were spared death by God and they were blessed and so as they had that Passover meal they thought all the way back to that day, they thanked God for the wonders of what he had done for his people in years and generations gone by and then in that meal Jesus, he goes from looking back to pointing forward and he makes clear to his disciples that the blood of the lamb of God was soon to be shed, his blood would be shed so that all who believed in him would be saved from the second death and receive eternal blessing.

[49:06] So I could put it this way, the cup that the disciples were being handed by Jesus in that meal, it was a cup of blessing but for that cup of blessing to reach sinners like them, like us, a cup of wrath, a cup of punishment for sin would first have to be passed to, handled by and drained by Jesus.

[49:52] Dale Ralph Davis, the Old Testament scholar, says the cup image has its root in the Old Testament where it appears as the cup of God's wrath and judgment upon human sin.

[50:03] You can go to Psalm 75 or Isaiah 51 or Jeremiah 25 to see that. I'm not going there today. that this cup has all the imagery of God's wrath upon sin.

[50:23] And we see that's necessary, don't we? A just God must punish sin. There are things that happen in this world, sometimes they happen to us, and we feel the injustice of it.

[50:43] There are people who suffer on the battlefield, war crimes are committed, and they want to see that justice is done in some court somewhere, and a judge has to have a concern for justice, or he's not worthy to be a judge.

[51:07] And so a just God, a God who is worthy of worship, must punish sin. And if you and I are not to be punished for our sin, for justice to be done, someone else must take that punishment.

[51:29] There must be a substitute. And that's why Jesus came. He came to be our substitute. Remember the words we often sing, bearing shame and scoffing rude in my place.

[51:47] Substitute. Condemned, he stood. And Jesus is experiencing all that in these moments.

[52:01] Jesus, in this moment in prayer, he's looking into this cup. And so there's anguish that we see in verse 44.

[52:13] There's horror, there's an intensity of suffering that words can't express and that we cannot fathom. I mean, just think for a moment.

[52:26] Think about your life as I think about my life. Think about all the sin that has accumulated in our lives. Think about every wrong thought, every wrong word, every wrong deed.

[52:42] Think about every fall, every failure, everything that we look back on and we cringe over. picture the punishment for that, poured into one concentrated cup.

[53:01] And the ugliness of that, as I think about my life, the toxicity of such a drink where all the punishment for my sin is poured in, it's inestimable.

[53:13] but multiply that by every sinner who's ever repented.

[53:26] All these sins that have been removed from us have been poured into this cup that Jesus is now holding.

[53:39] as he wrestles in prayer. So of course he's going to ask in prayer, is there another way Father?

[53:53] Can this cup be passed on? Of course he's going to recoil in horror from such a cup.

[54:03] of course he needs the heavenly support of the angel as his body almost shuts down with the suffering and the sweat drops like goblets of blood from her as the capillaries burst under the pressure.

[54:33] And yet in that moment Jesus, out of love for sinners and obedience to his Father, he takes the cup.

[54:50] He doesn't pass it on but he takes it and he continues to the cross. So what's the application here?

[55:06] Well the application is simply and is profoundly this. Jesus loves you. Not with some fluffy, slushy, meaningless love.

[55:24] Jesus loves you enough to take hold of this cup and persevere to the cross for your salvation and mine.

[55:37] We're going to sing at the end. For me it was in the garden. He said not my will but thine. He had no tears for his own griefs but sweat drops of blood for mine.

[55:53] And we need to think about this. We need to meditate upon this as we prepare to go to the Lord's table.

[56:06] We need to think about the wonder of what Jesus was doing and has now done to make it possible for us to be saved and lift the cup of bless next weekend if we see it.

[56:28] And take the bread that speaks of his body and remember him. The cup that Jesus was passed in prayer, the custom of prayer, the third thing very briefly is the call to prayer.

[56:46] When he arose, verse 45, from prayer and went back to the disciples he found them asleep exhausted from sorrow. Why are you sleeping? He asked them.

[56:58] Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. So Jesus is calling his disciples to pray and this is a repeated call.

[57:10] If you flick back to verse 40, Jesus has said to them in verse 40, pray that you will not fall into temptation and now at verse 45, verse 46, he's saying get up and pray so that you won't fall into temptation.

[57:29] And Jesus says this because he knows temptation is coming. He knows how much they are going to need the help of God. He knows how much they cannot stand in their own strength.

[57:42] But as the disciples are sleeping, the devil is wide awake and he's crouching at the door and he's like a roaring lion.

[58:03] This is that dark hour. He's ready to pounce. That's why Jesus is calling them. continually to pray.

[58:17] Now when we face trouble, we need to pray. But the difficulty we have is that we don't often recognize when trouble is coming.

[58:31] We don't have that foresight to know when temptation and trouble is coming. Because it usually comes at the times we least expect from the places we least expect.

[58:45] Because we don't have that foresight, we need to be fixed to this custom of prayer. We continually need to be praying.

[58:57] We continually need to be hearing and acting on these repeated calls of Jesus to them and to us to pray. Think of the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples.

[59:15] He said, when you pray, say this, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. prayer. And that wasn't a once-in-a-lifetime prayer that Jesus was teaching them to pray.

[59:29] That was a day-by-day, hour-by-hour prayer. The call to prayer. Finally, the cost of answered prayer.

[59:42] Now we know and we are thankful for the fact that the offer of the gospel is a free offer. you don't come here today and hand over a check because you think that salvation is something you can buy.

[60:02] The offer of the gospel is a free offer. We know that in order to be saved from sin, in order to receive eternal life, in order to have the promise of a place in heaven, all we have to do is ask.

[60:18] Romans 10, 13. says, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Ephesians 2, verses 8 and 9, that reminds us that we're saved by grace.

[60:30] It's the gift of God. It's not by works. All we have to do if we want to be saved is believe and ask the Lord to save us and he will answer us.

[60:52] It's his promise. But that salvation that we ask for, it came at a cost. Not to us, but to Jesus.

[61:09] And we see the beginnings of how much it cost Jesus as he prays, as he has passed this cup of judgment for our sin and his prayer.

[61:25] And then we see more and more of the cost of our salvation as this account progresses. Look at verse 47.

[61:36] while he was still speaking, a crowd came up and the man who was called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them.

[61:51] He approached Jesus to kiss him. Now, even think about the suffering and the pain and the cost of this.

[62:05] I mean, for anyone who's had a friend, you know, or someone who's close to them, someone that they've given themselves to and loved, suddenly turn on them and betray them.

[62:17] There's pain in that. You know, when people that we don't know and who are cruel to us, when they snarl and snap, we expect that.

[62:28] But when someone you love and someone you've spent time with and you give yourself to, when they turn on you, and when they do something like this, there's pain in that. And Jesus has spent three years with Judas.

[62:43] He's poured his life into Judas. And there's pain for Jesus in seeing Judas approach him with this betrayal in his heart.

[62:58] Jesus asked him, verse 48, Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?

[63:12] Why did Jesus ask this? Did he not know what Judas was doing? Well, of course he knew what Judas was doing. We know that from the previous verses. So why did he ask?

[63:24] Well, I think the reason he asked, I've never actually seen this before, but I think the reason he asked is because this is Judas' final, final, final, final chance to repent.

[63:44] Judas, are you going to do this? I think this is a final hand going out to Judas. but Judas doesn't take it because he can't let go of this bag of silver coins.

[64:05] He's got an idol in his hand. He has a secret sin that he's cherishing, that he's holding on tightly to, and it stops him from being able to hold on to Jesus because he's clasping this bag of money.

[64:20] He can't take hold of Jesus in repentance and faith and so that sin, these few coins that Judas would never actually spend, cause him to perish.

[64:33] and it's a solemn, solemn lesson but it's one we must learn and it's this, we cannot hold on to our idols, our secret sins and expect to be saved by Jesus.

[64:48] we need to sing what we sang last Sunday night. Cowper, the hymn writer, wrote, the dearest idol I have known, whatever that idol be, help me to tear it from thy throne and worship only thee.

[65:08] Judas wouldn't sing it. He's got hold of the idol. The idol's got hold of him and so he will not repent.

[65:21] When Jesus' followers, verse 49, saw what was going to happen they said, Lord, should we strike with our swords? And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear.

[65:33] We know that was Peter. But Jesus answered, no more of this. And he touched the man's ear and healed him. The last miracle that we see Jesus do is to heal the ear of the man who will bring forward his execution.

[65:53] Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders who had come for him, am I leading a rebellion? That you have come with swords and clubs?

[66:05] Every day I was with you in the temple courts and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour. when darkness rains.

[66:21] And you know, the poise of Jesus, the composure of Jesus, the grace of Jesus in this scenario as he is arrested and as legal proceedings begin, that will take him to the cross.

[66:41] the poise, the composure, the grace of Jesus is breathtaking. See, the battle has been won in prayer. And so now as he goes into the eye of the storm, there's composure.

[67:04] And although Luke doesn't tell us this, all this happened in the garden of Gethsemane, which is an important thing. You know, if we think back to the very beginning, Genesis 3, the first Adam fell in the garden, and sin came in.

[67:28] And here we see Jesus, the last Adam, not fall, but stand and allow himself to be taken away so that he can rescue us from sin.

[67:48] So let me say again as I finish, our salvation is free. If you want to be saved today, all you have to do is ask.

[67:58] if you want to have your sins forgiven today, if you want to know that you are secure for time and eternity today, before you walk out that door, all you have to do is ask.

[68:18] All you have to do is call on the name of the Lord and you will be saved. Our salvation is free, but it was not cheap. And our prayers that God will save us, when they are sincere, they will be heard and they will be answered.

[68:38] But the cost of that answered prayer was the death of God the Son. We need to see that.

[68:50] The cost of our answered prayer to receive salvation was the death of God the Son. He took my sins and my sorrows were just about to sin.

[69:04] He made them his very own. He bore the burden to Calvary and suffered and died alone. the question that connects all this to our lives and the question that impacts our eternal destiny is do you believe this?

[69:32] Not how do you feel about this, but do you believe this? the price of salvation is paid, the work is done, Jesus has done it, but do you believe that he did it for you?

[69:56] Will you ask him to save you? And if we see next Sunday, will you come forward to the table and tell others that he has saved you?

[70:15] We'll pray. Our heavenly father, we thank you for the fullness of salvation that is promised to us in and through Jesus.

[70:32] We thank you that we simply have to call upon the name of the Lord and we have the promise that we will be saved. We thank you that the gift of grace is a free gift that is promised to all who will come to Jesus in repentance and faith.

[70:53] And so help us to come. Help us Lord as we feel the weight of our sin to come to Jesus and to know that our sin has been poured into that cup which Jesus drained at Calvary.

[71:12] Help us to know that our sin has been dealt with on the cross and that we are forgiven because of all that Jesus has done.

[71:25] and for any here who hear this and who know this intellectually but have never yet called on the name of the Lord we pray that they would do that even now. What a price has been paid for our salvation.

[71:41] What a cost has been met. Enable us to be those who do not neglect such great salvation but receive it and live our lives in thankfulness for all that Jesus did to purchase it.

[71:59] And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We'll sing to finish 296 submission praise. I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene.

[72:10] of Jesus the Nazarene.

[72:33] I wonder how he could love me a sin with death and claim.

[72:44] How marvelous, how wonderful land my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me.

[73:05] For me it was in the garden, he prayed not my will but lie. He had no tears for his old griefs, but sweat drops of blood for mine.

[73:26] How marvelous, how wonderful land my song shall ever be. me. How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me.

[73:47] In which the angels beheld him, and came from the world of light, to comfort him in the sorrows he more for for my soul that night.

[74:07] How marvelous, how wonderful land my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me.

[74:29] He took my sins and my sorrows, he gave them his very own. He bore the burden to Calvary, and suffered and died alone.

[74:49] How marvelous, how wonderful land my song shall ever be. me. How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me.

[75:10] With the ransomed and glory his face I at last shall see. To lead my joy through the ages to sing of love for me.

[75:30] How marvelous, how wonderful land my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me.

[75:52]  And I may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, the fellowship of God the Holy Spirit be with us all now and forevermore. Amen.