The Agony of Christ for Our Salvation

Grace Fellowship Church

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This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.

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I want to open up our time in the text today. You're probably listening to our brother Alex read that text and go,

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How long is this sermon going to be today? 25 verses. But I assure you, even with the number of points that you see in your bulletin, it's not going to be a puritanical sermon.

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We're not going to be here two hours, but we are going to be here a sufficient amount of time to cover the layout of the land.

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I want to begin our time this afternoon by looking at a man in church history, a man who has afforded the opportunity to minister the gospel in probably what

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I would classify as a very unique and very interesting time in the history of the church. Because of the providential timing of this man's life, he had the opportunity to preach the gospel with D .L.

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Moody in the 1800s. He was a good friend of Charles Spurgeon. He ended up being the pastoral colleague and the predecessor of Dr.

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Martyn Lloyd -Jones. His name, if you don't know it already, is Dr. G. Campbell Morgan. He was a

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Baptist minister who was the preacher and pastor at Westminster Chapel in London, England in the early 1900s.

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He once said something about this passage that we're studying today that I thought would be an excellent way for us to frame our study of Mark chapter 14 in verses 27 through 52.

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He says this, he said, All I can say is that as I ponder through that darkened window, that darkened window into Gethsemane, there is a mystic light shining, showing me the terrors of the cross more clearly than I see them even when

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I come to Calvary. In layman's terms, when he looks at Gethsemane, what he sees there is a picture of the cost of the cross more clear, perhaps, even than on Calvary's mount.

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Now some people might hear that and go, that sounds very unusual. Some people might even claim that that is blasphemy.

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But what I want to show us is that when we look at this passage aright, it might be in fact true.

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As a matter of fact, over and over again, expositors and theologians, faithful men alike, have agreed that it is at the garden of Gethsemane that we truly begin to see and to feel the weight of that cross that Christ was to carry on Good Friday.

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John MacArthur frames it this way, he says, in a very interesting light, he says that it is at the garden of Gethsemane that we see the cross, not from man's perspective, nor do we see the cross from the apostle's perspective, but it is at the garden of Gethsemane that we see the cross from Christ's perspective.

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It is here that we see the cross and what it meant to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is in this olive grove of trees that we get to see the cost of the cross, where we get to see a brief glimpse into the soul of our

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Savior as he prepares to be enveloped by the righteous indignation and wrath of the

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Father on the Christian's behalf. This afternoon we're going to study

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Christ's final evening on earth. Maybe you're getting annoyed at this point, but I'm ticking us down every week leading up to the cross and now we find ourselves on Thursday evening still, maybe now early

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Friday morning. And we're going to find today an image of the glory of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ sandwiched again in another one of these

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Markin sandwiches between two accounts of human wickedness and betrayal.

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The Holy Spirit, no doubt, inspired the gospel of Mark to paint a stunning portrait of Christ and humanity.

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And as we inch closer and closer we see more of these sandwiches taking place and we see the bold contrast become clearer and clearer.

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This contrast between the perfect moral uprightness of Christ, the stunning white of Christ's glory contrasted with the darkened hearts and minds of men.

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And it's not a stretch in the slightest to say that these closing chapters, as we begin to dig in deeper and deeper, these closing chapters of Mark become a living parable that unmistakably teaches the doctrine of God's immutable holiness and the doctrine of the total depravity of man.

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God's immutable holiness and the total depravity of man. So we're going to dive into verses 27 through 52 and as we do what we're going to find is this.

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I'm going to, if you look at your insert you can get a bit of a layout of what my mind looks like as we work our way through this.

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We're going to see on one hand a portrait of the infidelity of man. How men are infidels, how we are wretched and wicked and sinful and altogether undeserving of God's love.

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And on the other side of the equation we're going to see the wondrous fidelity of Christ.

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That Jesus Christ is faithful and that he is good and that it was his will to obey the

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Father's will. And as we look at that we're going to look then at the lengths that our

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Savior went to. His long suffering, his grief, his agony of soul to save infidels like us.

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And what I hope is rather than you majoring as I preach on the first half of how we are unworthy.

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That we would major on the fact that Christ would save unworthy people like you and like me.

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And so we're going to see today the cost of the cross from Christ's perspective.

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And there's nothing short of astonishing. And so for today's purposes, if you do have that handout,

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I was thinking about it afterwards. I sent the outline to press last night or early this morning,

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I can't recall. And there's always thoughts afterwards, I could have rearranged this better. I could have rearranged this clearer.

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So just keep that handout on hand so that you don't get lost in case I muddy the waters of my own structure of this.

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But today we're going to begin by looking at the infidelity of man first of all as point number one.

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And then we're going to look at the fidelity of Christ and then the wondrous results of that. In these 25 verses as we look at first at the infidelity of man.

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I'm going to do a survey of the whole passage. And we're going to look at three ways that the sinfulness corrupts us.

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We see the empty self -assurance of man. We're going to look at the weak prayerlessness of man.

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And we're going to look at the shameful betrayal of man. And then from there we'll make our way to Christ.

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So we're going to look at all of that together. So first, if you haven't already, let's open our Bibles to Mark chapter 14 verse 27.

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And we're going to consider the empty self -assurance of man.

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The empty self -assurance of man. I'm not going to read it all just because we have so much today. So we're just going to dive right into the exposition.

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We see in the very first paragraph, in verses 27 through 31, we find

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Christ leaving the upper room with his disciples. You'll remember that. That scene of the last supper that we looked at last week.

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And then in verse 26, Christ and his disciples sing a hymn. Likely Psalm 118.

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One of the Psalms of Hallel as they're called. Or the Psalms of Praise. And in verse 27, we see them arriving now once more, likely, at the

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Mount of Olives. Opposite the Temple Mount in the Kidron Valley. And Christ here told them, we read, that they would all fall away.

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Mark uses an interesting Greek word that means that the disciples were not going to willfully abandon

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Christ, but instead they were going to fall as if exerted by some other influence.

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Think of it this way, the difference between diving into a pool and the difference between tripping over a stump.

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The disciples were going to trip, they were going to stumble, they were going to fall. And in fact,

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Christ says that their falling away was so sure that it had been prophesied some 500 years earlier.

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By the prophet Zechariah. He references Zechariah chapter 13 in verse 7. It says,

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We saw the significance of that word, all, last week. You will all fall away.

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But as Peter often does, and you really have to appreciate Peter because he's like many of us in many respects.

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He hastens to speak. And Peter rushes in, and rather than listening to Christ's caution from the pages of scripture, he assures

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Christ that even if all the other disciples trip and fall, surely he will not.

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Peter might have thought perhaps even that the statement was a bold statement of allegiance, pledged to Christ, when in fact it was a brash and arrogant statement.

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Just like every time that Christ foretold his death, we see the disciples bickering back and forth about who is the greatest.

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This happens once more just in the open light in front of Christ himself. That when Christ says, all of you will pass away,

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Peter rises to the front above and over the other disciples and says, even if all of them desert you,

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I will not. As if he is the exception to the rule. But as we look on in verse 30, we see that Christ doesn't mince his words.

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Christ speaks emphatically with a sense of immediacy. You know

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Christ is speaking emphatically when he says, truly. You know it's extra emphatic when he says, truly, truly.

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But Christ says, truly, this very night, before the rooster crows, three times,

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Peter will betray him. Now according to the Jewish clock, it's interesting as we go through these gospels, we have to learn the different customs and the units of measurement, the different things.

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What would it have meant for Peter to hear those words before the rooster crows? Interestingly enough, the

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Jews had an expression that they would use, speaking about the cock crow as a unit of time during the day.

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And when the cock would crow, at least according to the Jewish clock, was at the end of the third watch.

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And the end of the third watch of the night was at three o 'clock. And so what Christ is saying here to Peter likely is, before three a .m.,

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you are going to deny me three times. Now if we remember back to last week, we'll remember the layout of a

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Passover meal and how often it was close to midnight when the family would finally sing a closing hymn.

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And so if we were to use that normal timeline of a Jewish household on a regular Jewish Passover, Christ is in essence saying,

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Peter, not only are you going to deny me, but you are going to deny me three times before the next three hours is up.

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Before the roosters crow in anticipation of the morning light. But again, in verse 31, we see

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Peter, and subsequently all of the disciples self -assuredly insist that they would die before they would deny

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Christ. It really makes for an impressive scene. You can picture a scene like Braveheart or some kind of Hollywood movie and the hero or the heroine is standing in the front and all the followers say, we will fight and we will win or we will die fighting.

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And that is the picture. It's an impressive scene of the loyalty and the allegiance and the trust and the courage of the disciples on Christ's part.

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But what's going to become of it? As we saw last week and as we just heard our brother read, if we go fast forward to verse 50, we're told that all the disciples said that they would follow

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Christ, they would die for Christ. But just a few verses later in verse 50, it says this, succinctly, powerfully even, and they left, they all left him and fled.

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Brethren, I want us to see this. Here we see a picture of the inner workings of the soul of every man, the souls of every man, even the most self -confident people in the room, the most confident people in the

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Bible have and will let Christ down. The Bible says rightly that there is none who is righteous.

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No, there is none who, I'm going to butcher this. There is none who are righteous.

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All have gone astray. Together we have become worthless. You can say that on the avenue and preach that and people will be offended.

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But in a room full of Christians, no one is offended. But let me go a little bit further.

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There is none who is righteous. But even so, there is none who is truly bold and courageous apart from the grace of God.

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There is no truly great man of God. No, not even one. But every man is dependent upon God at every hour for every strength, for every ounce of strength for the task that is at hand.

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There are many who talk a big game. But when the hammer falls, we must agree with God.

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When God says, for instance, in Psalm 103 in verse 14, For he knows our frame.

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He remembers that we are dust. Oftentimes we have a habit of putting people on pedestals.

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Maybe the person on your pedestal is the Apostle Paul or John Calvin or Johnny Mac or Paul Washer or Elizabeth Elliot or Amy Carmichael.

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Preaching the gospel in the face of death. Writing bold letters. Massive intellects for the cause of Christ.

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But they are dust before God. And brothers and sisters, so are you.

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There may be some people in this room that think, like Peter, that you are the exception to the rule. You tell yourself, surely if there is one faithful man or woman who is willing and able to stand in the gap, it is surely

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I. But there is none who is righteous and none who is truly bold.

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We must all humbly acknowledge that we are not all that we claim to be. We're not all that we act like on Sundays.

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But by God's grace, working in the inner man, sorry, but by God's grace, working deep in our inner man, all of us would have fled from Christ in that moment, just like the disciples.

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You're going to realize really quickly I'm painting a bleak picture of humanity. I'm doing that intentionally.

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So just see where we take it. Secondly, we see the weak prayerlessness of man.

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So you have empty self -assurance. And now the weak prayerlessness of man. We see this in the paragraph that spans from verse 32 to the end of 42.

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And here we find, interestingly enough, one of the only recorded times when Christ invited his disciples to come alone with him to pray.

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You know, we read all those times where Christ himself went alone to pray. When he would draw up to the top of a mountain or go somewhere or pray all night apart from his disciples.

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But here the disciples finally get the invitation to join

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Christ in prayer. He invites his inner circle,

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Peter, James, and John to pray with him. And on three separate occasions, he encourages them in this garden of Gethsemane.

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Now we've heard about this garden of Gethsemane. Where do we find it? If we were to travel to Israel today, one of the things that I love about Scripture, unlike perhaps the

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Book of Mormon where it speaks about elephants being in North America and different things that are completely unverifiable, is we can travel to Israel today and we can stand in the

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Mount of Olives. Or you can stand on the Mount of Olives. You can stand in the Garden of Gethsemane.

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And if we were to travel to Israel today, we could go down from the Temple Mount into the Kidron Valley and back up the west side of the

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Mount of Olives. And there we would find, still today, the Garden of Gethsemane.

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With some trees as old as a thousand years old. Some scientists have tried to prove that some of those trees are even 2 ,000 years old.

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Supposedly the only way you can find out is by cutting one in half and counting all of the rings. And so maybe we'll know one day.

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But trees that are almost timeless. And there

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Christ took his disciples into the midst of that olive grove amongst the massive trees that would have been there.

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And in the silence of that garden, the

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Lord Jesus Christ went to the Father in prayer. But in every instance, as he invited his disciples to pray with him, in every instance as he went to his disciples, what did he find them doing?

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Kids, what did he find them doing in that garden? Were they praying? They were resting, they were asleep.

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Now granted it was probably late, it was probably after midnight. But they were asleep and the

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Lord had invited them to join him in prayer to the Father.

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That he had just told them what was to occur. They've been getting hints all now of at least the last year of Christ's ministry.

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This is the final night. This is the hour. It almost reminds me a little bit of when my wife, we had our first child,

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Noah. I remember there was a time when she went into labor. Brother, you're going to have this opportunity, don't make the same mistake that I did.

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She went into labor and I thought, I need to rest up. I need to be at my best for when she's in the hospital.

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Because that's when I do all the massages and all the interesting things that I learned in the prenatal class.

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That first night, she was on the couch, I sat next to her, but I slept like the disciples.

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In the early morning hours when we went to the hospital, they gave her the epidural. She chose to have that.

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I realized right away that I had slept through my window of opportunity. I was supposed to be doing the massaging when

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I was sleeping. I was supposed to be doing all the good things that I had learned before she got the epidural.

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It's humorous, but here the disciples are in the hour of opportunity.

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And what are they doing? But they are asleep. Every time

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Christ checks on them, in fact, they are asleep. Mark chapter 14 and verse 34 we see.

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He said to them, just here, this is God the Son. This is not a play.

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This is not an act. He says to his disciples, my soul is very sorrowful.

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Even unto death. Here is one who is acquainted with sorrows.

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Acquainted with much grief. And he is here, perhaps, before the cross at least, at his worst.

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In the throes of agony. He says, remain here with me and watch.

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But in verse 27 he finds them again sleeping. He goes so far as to remind

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Peter of his need for God's strength. You just said you're not going to deny me. He says, watch and pray, in verse 38, that you may not enter into temptation.

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The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. But in verse 40 he found them asleep again.

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We're told their eyes were heavy. And in verse 41 he came to them a third time and said, are you still sleeping and taking your rest?

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And he invites the disciples to get up. The betrayer is at hand. Perhaps not coincidentally, three times

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Christ instructs Peter to pray. Just a few hours later.

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Three times Peter would deny Christ. And see this with me. Many of us would admit that we struggle in our prayer lives.

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We don't pray the way that we ought to pray. We like to have ambitions, great ambitions to pray.

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To organize our affairs. But even at the end of the day we go, I still have not prayed as I desire to pray.

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As I know the Lord expects me to pray. As the Lord has commanded me to pray. And what this account shows us,

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I think, at the very minimum, is that there is nothing new about this phenomenon.

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That we desire to pray and yet we don't pray as we ought to. And this is perhaps why we begin to see the pattern of the disciples' sinfulness in this case.

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And we see this because fallen man, even redeemed man to some extent, has a foolish and vain confidence that he is altogether divorced from reality.

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Sinful man is inclined to neglect God in prayer. Because you think you can do it yourself, you don't think that you need

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God. And self -sufficiency, when it is fully grown, picture this, it's like the gremlins.

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Self -sufficiency when it's fully grown gives birth to the ugly child that is prayerlessness.

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We are prayerless because we are self -sufficient. We are prayerless because, like Peter, we think we don't need it.

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We are prayerless because, like Peter, we think that we are the exception to the rule. Christ's disciples neglected prayer and we neglect prayer.

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Not because we don't love God, but because we think we don't need God. Like Peter, we think that we are the exception.

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Not unlike the disciples, though. We are weak. We are faint. We are, at every hour, headed for temptation.

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And yet we refuse to come to God for the strength that we so desperately need.

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And this pattern of prayerlessness is pervasive. It's an old survey, but I think that the survey is probably, the results are more optimistic or more positive than what we might get today.

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But Donald Whitney, who's written a great book on the spiritual disciplines of the Christian life, he tells a story about a survey that was conducted in the 1980s, where they went to a seminar on prayer.

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Now, what kind of person goes to a seminar on prayer? But the kind of person, I would think, that wants to pray.

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The kind of person who desires to pray, who likes to pray and would like to improve their praying.

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And amongst 17 ,000 people that were surveyed at this seminar on prayer, it must have been maybe several seminars, that's a lot of people, what they found, when they completed the whole survey, is that the average person at a prayer seminar amongst evangelical

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Christians prays a total of five minutes per day. Now, five minutes per day.

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Amongst that same seminar, they pulled 2 ,000 pastors and pastors' wives.

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And how long do you think those pastors and their wives devoted to prayer? They had to confess that the average that a pastor and his wife prays is about seven minutes per day.

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What a travesty. What a neglect of the blessings of prayer.

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And yet, brothers and sisters, this is the climate in which we live.

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And this is perhaps amongst modern Christianity and even amongst ourselves. We must admit that our daily time in prayer is closer to five minutes than it is to 30 minutes, or one hour, or two hours, or three hours like Martin Luther, who was so busy he needed at least three hours to pray.

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So here we see humanity, self -sufficient, in no need of God, and as a result, in no need of prayer.

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And then we see, lastly, not only this foolish self -assuredness and this prayerlessness, but in verses 43 through 52, we see the shameful betrayal of man.

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The shameful betrayal of man, or you could say, the shameless sin of man.

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When self -sufficiency gives birth to the ugly stepchild that is prayerlessness, it then gives birth to the act of every sin and foolish stumbling that can occur.

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In verse 43, we see this. While Christ was still speaking with his disciples,

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Judas came with his mob to betray and arrest him. As we've seen over and over again in this

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Gospel of Mark, it's really interesting. We begin to see that these honorific titles mean absolutely nothing at all.

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And these honorific titles, if anything, are more negative than positive. And so, Judas comes to Christ in verse 45 with this flattering title,

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Rabbi, meaning teacher or master. And with a kiss, this betrayer, as the passage calls him, he almost goes without a name.

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Judas betrays his master with a kiss. Now, if you were in the Middle East, I'm not sure how this is in Brazil.

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I think, brother, you're so affectionate. There's probably some holy kissing happening there.

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But in the Middle East, it was not uncommon to greet people with a kiss. Some might greet you with a kiss on the hand.

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Others might greet you with a kiss on the hem of your garment. Maybe even, in special reverence, they would greet you with a kiss on the feet.

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How would you like that, kids, if we greeted everyone at church with a kiss on the feet? We'd really hope that they had good hygiene, right?

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But here, it seems from the language in front we see in the passage, that Judas greeted

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Christ here with a kiss on the cheek. And this would have conveyed the greatest of love and affection to the recipient.

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As a matter of fact, a kiss on the cheek was reserved only for those who were of the closest human relationships around you.

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And one commentator rightly notes, he says this, for Judas to betray Christ with a kiss, perhaps even a kiss on the cheek, he said he could not have chosen a more despicable way to identify

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Jesus than with this warm, honorific greeting and a kiss on the face.

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But it seems that's exactly what Judas does. And it's reminiscent of other passages in scripture, particularly in the

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Old Testament. If we look back to 2 Samuel, chapter 20, you might remember that in that particular scene,

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David's son, Absalom, had risen to power and David departed from Jerusalem.

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After David defeated Absalom, his army defeated Absalom, maybe even to his own dismay, they made their way back into Jerusalem.

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And the commander of David's army, Joab, greeted the commander of Absalom's army,

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Amasa. And in 2 Samuel 20, verses 9 and 10, it says, And Joab said to Amasa, Is it well with you, my brother?

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And Joab took Amasa by the beard, I should use my right hand, with his right hand to kiss him.

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But Amasa did not observe the sword that was in Joab's hand. So Joab struck him in the stomach.

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And what a graphic picture. And spilled his entrails to the ground without striking a second blow.

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And he died. What a picture of betrayal. To greet someone with a kiss.

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With one hand by the beard, that must mean something. We talk about good, rugged manliness.

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To take him by the beard and to greet him with a kiss. And with the other hand to thrust a sword into his stomach so that his entrails come out.

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That greeting was probably on par with Judas Iscariot's greeting of Christ.

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And so after offering that most pitiful display of supposed solidarity and loyalty to Christ, not only

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Judas, but now the disciples fled from Christ. Verse 51 and 52 tell us about one man who followed

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Christ. Who had nothing but a linen cloth to cover him. Something akin to a bed sheet.

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And many scholars believe this man was Mark himself. Mark, after all, is the only one that includes this naked man in his account.

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And it's a rather strange inclusion. And perhaps even a humiliating one. And so another gospel writer might not write about someone who's following Christ in the nude with nothing but a bed sheet.

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But here Mark includes that. And so very likely, very possible that it was

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John Mark himself. Where the upper room might have been hosted in his home.

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In his mother's home. And here again we see this picture of humanity. That is painted on Christ's final night.

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You have this self -assured group. Perhaps even better, a self -deceived group.

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A sleepy and prayerless group. And a shameless group at that. A shamelessly sinful group.

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To deny Christ. To reject Christ. Is in a lighter form to betray

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Christ. And this picture that is painted is that of a dysfunctional and needy people.

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And what we should realize, hopefully you see the picture that I am painting here, brothers and sisters.

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Is that these disciples, as ugly as they are in these accounts on these pages of scripture.

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Are no different from all of us. That the very disciples that were in that page, save a few details.

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The same fallen humanity that we see in Mark chapter 14. Is the same fallen humanity that we find in 2023

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Edmonton. Or Alberta, or Canada, or beyond. Brothers and sisters, we are these people.

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It's like the, this is what happens when you ad hoc mention things.

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Do I abandon it? I think I must abandon that illustration.

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Because I'm not going to get it right. But if we were in that crowd.

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Not redeemed by the blood of Christ. Not born again. Not regenerate. Not only would we flee

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Christ. But we would shout, crucify him. With the rest of the crowd. And you've heard me say that before.

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That people often say, if I could go back in time. I would go back and meet Jesus Christ. And I say,

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I don't think you would like to do that. Because even his own disciples fled from him.

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It's not just the heart of humanity. Now, this isn't very encouraging, is it?

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Where am I going with all of this? I want us to show, in contrast to the fallenness of man.

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The fidelity of Christ. I want to major on that now for a little bit. The fidelity of Christ.

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What we're going to do is, we're going to look back at those three accounts. I've already done a good amount of the exegesis that needs to take place.

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And so, we're going to look at those three passages again. But instead of honing in on the utter inability of man.

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We're going to look at the long suffering of Christ. We're going to look at the prayerful submission of Christ.

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And we're going to look at the righteous agony of Christ once more. And so, if we rewind and go back to verse 27.

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I want us to see that while the disciples are filled with empty self -confidence.

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Here we see the merciful, long -suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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The merciful, long -suffering of Christ. In verses 27 -31. In these verses, our

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Lord speaks again of His coming death. And with the authoritative word of God as His guide.

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You've got to think, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Filled to the brim with the word of God. Don't we aspire to that?

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That you can recall texts from even the minor prophets. With a moment's notice.

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With the authority of God's word as His guide. He attempts to lead and to caution

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His disciples. To prepare for the very difficult road that is ahead. Who knows what

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Christ would have said. If Peter had not interrupted Him with His own pledge of allegiance.

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Who knows what Christ would have said to His disciples. If they had not interrupted Him with their self -confident assertions of their own bravery and courage.

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But see this with me. In the face of this folly, Christ knew that His disciples were going to depart from Him.

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That they were going to flee from Him. Christ knew in Zechariah's day, 500 years earlier, that His disciples were going to flee.

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He knew from eternity past that His disciples were going to flee. And yet look at the kindness that He shows.

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In the face of this folly, Christ remains silent. He doesn't chastise them, but He offers instruction where that instruction is needed.

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And then graciously, He speaks of a future day when He would visit His disciples again in Galilee.

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And then He sought, with these men, still with Peter's confidence assertion, to take them into the garden.

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To seek the Father's face in prayer. We see at times that the stubborn sinfulness of man in Christ's ministry was almost too great for Him to bear.

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And we see that in passages like Matthew 17. In verse 17, when Christ came down from the

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Mount of Transfiguration. He found the demon -possessed boy and the disciples and the crowd arguing.

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And what did Christ say during that time? He said, oh faithless and twisted generation, how long am

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I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? But see with me here.

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That even while humanity tested the very limits of Christ's righteous patience.

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As if He could sin, I'm not suggesting He could. But a man tested

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Christ. So many of those temptations, when He was tempted in all things. Came at the hands and the mouths and the minds and the actions of sinful man.

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But see with me here. The patience and the long suffering of Christ for His disciples in this passage.

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And as those who are like His disciples. Oh see the patience and the long suffering of Christ for you in this passage.

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How often, much to our own dismay. Because we have the Spirit of God.

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And we've been born again. How often do we look at our lives and say, I am such a hypocrite.

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In the sight of God. To say, to do this and to act this way on Sunday. To pray like this at the prayer meeting on Thursday.

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And then to give God this on Monday. To implode on Monday.

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To implode harder than the Titan submarine that we just heard about recently. To just crater under the pressures of the world and our own sinful temptations.

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We talk a big game. We make great claims. And then we implode.

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And yet brothers and sisters. God who knows that we are but dust.

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Rather than sweeping us into the cosmic dustbin of the universe.

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Wherever that might be. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to die for you.

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It almost seems blasphemous to say. But to die for dust. To die for the puny and the little ones.

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And the hypocrites like you and I. Oh see how He patiently bears with us.

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Oh see how He forgives us in Jesus Christ. Oh see how He instructs us.

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Oh see how He calls us and draws us near to Him in prayer. And just as He did with His disciples.

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One day He will return to be with us forever. Brothers and sisters, you are but dust.

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But be encouraged that the Lord Jesus Christ takes great pleasure in redeeming those who are nothing to the world.

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And who sometimes often feel like nothing in this world. How this ought to encourage us when we see that we are just like the disciples.

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And when Christ was with the disciples. Yet He still went to the cross. He didn't fold up the tent at Peter's final assertion of bravery.

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But He took them into the garden and He sought the face of the Father. Next I want us to see the prayerful submission of Christ.

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In verse 32. I'm not going to belabor this too long.

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But in verse 32 He says, Sit here while I pray. In verse 34,

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My soul is very sorrowful even to death. Remain here and watch.

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It was an invitation to watch with Him. In verse 36

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He says, Abba, Father. That word Abba.

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That expression. To translate that into our modern language. It might be akin to saying

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Daddy. It's a term of endearment. Of dependence. Of submission.

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He says, Abba, Father. All things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me.

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Yet not what I will. But what you will. The remainder of that paragraph filled with Christ praying.

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Watch and pray. Why are you still sleeping? Here we see in the midst of those olive trees.

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In that garden of Gethsemane. Christ prayed. Not only did He pray. He poured out

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His soul to God. He modeled perfect submission to the Father. He laid down His life once more.

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We get to see for a moment behind the curtain. That it was Christ there. Suffering already before the cross.

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For the lost people that He would save. I find it really interesting.

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That in the midst of all of this. Christ encourages His disciples to pray.

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Again and again and again. In verse 37.

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You might not have noticed this. But you see two names side by side. At least in the ESV. And He came and found them sleeping.

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And He said to Peter. And why would the Holy Spirit inspire this?

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He said to Peter. Simon. Are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour?

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Why would He call Peter Simon? In that instance. We know that Christ had given Simon Peter that name.

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At His great confession. When He said on Mount Hermon. He said and you are the

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Christ. Is it possible that Christ said that?

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Because in this hour Simon was not living up to His name. Brothers and sisters.

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Just as we as Christians often do not live up to the name. That we have been given in Christ.

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Christ is so patient and gracious for us. That even as He was praying in the garden. Brothers and sisters.

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He was praying for our good. That He might lay down His life for us. Reminds me of something that someone once said.

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They said you know that Jesus Christ died for Christians too. Often times we think of Jesus Christ dying for the unrighteous man.

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That Jesus Christ died for the wretched drug addict. That is somewhere downtown at this very moment.

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That is very well true. But I want us to see brothers and sisters. That Jesus Christ died for Christians too.

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And He died for Christians who struggle to pray. And He died for Christians who are weak and sleeping in their praying.

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And He died for Christians who don't pray as we ought to pray. If you struggle to pray.

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If you are not living up to the new name. The name of Christian that you have now. Take comfort in this that Christ died for you.

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It is a trustworthy saying that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners like you.

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What a wonderful Savior. And in light of that we shouldn't say well if Christ died for me even though I don't pray then

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I won't pray. But what a reason to draw near to the Lord your God. That even while you were prayerless

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Christ died for you. And then lastly here we see the righteous agony of Christ.

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In verses 43 through 52. Oh excuse me. Again in verse 32 through 42.

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What's really interesting is that name Gethsemane. Kids do you know what the name Gethsemane means?

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Looks like you probably need me to ask you a question. What does the name Gethsemane mean? It means an oil press.

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Seems to make sense because you'd make oil from the olive trees there in the garden. But here we see almost

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Christ in that oil press. When he says again to highlight verse 34.

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My soul is very sorrowful even to death. There's a great deal

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I could say. I'm just going to quote a couple things here but Ambrose. One of the early church fathers who fiercely defended the deity of Christ against the

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Aryans in the 4th century. A stalwart for the faith. He said he grieved for me.

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Who had caused no grief for himself. And laying aside the delights of the eternal

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Godhead. He experienced the affliction of my weakness. John Murray.

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Another great reformed writer. He said he did not by flinching evade any of the strokes.

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Now as Christ prayed in that garden in verse 36. And he said Abba Father all things are possible for you.

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Remove this cup from me. What was he speaking about? I was reading one commentary in my studies this week.

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And one of the commentaries said that what Christ was most concerned about. Was the physical torment that he would experience on the cross.

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That what he was most concerned about was the nails being driven into his hands. And hanging there in the nude.

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In the hot sun. Until he should go to be with the Lord. That is not at all what

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Christ was concerned about. If we survey the annals of church history.

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Excuse me. If we survey the annals of church history.

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What we find is men and women going to the cross singing. Those who preferred to be crucified upside down.

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So that they would honor the Lord even in their death. Christ was not worried about the

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Roman cross. He was not worried about the nails being driven into his hands. What he was most concerned about is what you read in the

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Old Testament. In reference to the cup. Isaiah 51 17 says this.

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Wake yourself. Wake yourself. Stand up O Jerusalem. You who have drunk from the hand of the

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Lord. The cup of his wrath. We sang earlier about the rage of God.

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Being poured out on Jesus Christ. It is not an overstatement to say that the very rage of God.

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God's total and utter distaste for sin and sinfulness and sinners. Was poured out on Christ on that tree.

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Jeremiah 25 15. Thus the Lord the God of Israel said to me. Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath.

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And make the nations to whom I send you to drink it. I had a friend.

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I still have a friend. Who has rejected the idea of penal substitutionary atonement.

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And he now has adopted the view of Christus Victor. And he argues that on that cross.

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What Christ was demonstrating was his victory over sin and Satan. He believes in what's called also the ransom theory.

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That on that cross. Christ paid a ransom to Satan. So that he could buy back believers from the devil.

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That is not at all what Christ is speaking about here. But what Christ is speaking about here.

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Is the act of being a substitute. A penal substitute in the place of Christians.

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Going to the cross to take not the love of God. Not the glory of God. Not the triumph of God.

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But the wrath of God. The full cup. Full strength.

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The cup that we deserve. It was the wrath of God that was satisfied on that cross.

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And Christ who in John's account we're told. Likely went to this garden of Gethsemane frequently.

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This Jesus Christ who walked in close fellowship with the Father at every hour.

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Was to be forsaken altogether by the Father. You know there's that song.

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I come to the garden alone. While the dew is still on the roses. And he walks with me.

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And he talks with me. And he tells me that I am his own. And the joy we share as we tarry there.

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No other has ever known. I'm not sure if you're familiar with that song. That song really doesn't speak to the

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Christian's experience. But it certainly speaks to Christ's experience. And the joy we share as we tarry there.

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None other has ever known. Well I tell you a Christian cannot sing that song. Because there's one who has known a joy far greater than the one that we know.

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And we tarry there. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Who was in the very presence of God. Not only for his whole earthly life.

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But for his eternal life. His immortal life. His immortal existence. Walking with and in communion with God the

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Father. For all of eternity. And Christ knew on that cross.

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And the thing he feared most. The thing that brought him the most agony. And the most anguish was to know that in that hour.

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In those hours. He would be forsaken of the Father. And that he would truly bear the wrath for sin.

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Brothers and sisters. He did that for us. He did that for ones who are just like his disciples.

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It's really interesting that Mark. The Holy Spirit could have inspired Mark. So that we just see pictures of triumph.

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The whole way leading up to the cross. But what we see is almost this alternating effect.

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You've got the loveliness of Christ. His beauty. His majesty.

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His grace. His holiness. Choose an adjective. Choose an attribute.

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And then you've got the betrayal of man. And the wickedness of man. And the fallenness of man.

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And the unworthiness of man. And the undeservingness of man. Alternating one after the other.

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After the other. And what we see then is this wondrous result.

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That I want to draw our attention to briefly. John MacArthur has rightly called this garden experience.

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The garden of glory. It's been rightly observed that the real truth.

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Is that while he came to preach the gospel. The chief object in Christ's coming. Was that there might be a gospel to preach.

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When we understand this passage in its context. We see that even as Christ was preparing to go to the cross.

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He was preparing to go for people like his disciples. This is good news for those of us who are unworthy.

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We don't live the way we want to live. We don't live the way we are commanded to live.

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We don't pray the way that we are to pray. We fall into sins. We know better than to fall into.

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But it is a trustworthy saying. Deserving of full acceptance. That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

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Of whom we are the foremost. We haven't even gotten to the cross yet.

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But here we see Christ in the garden. Behind the scenes. We're going to see.

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We're seeing what he is about to endure. And we have so much more to look forward to.

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But brothers and sisters. See this with me. If you are an imperfect sinner.

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If you are an imperfect saint. If you fall short every single day.

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And you do. Christ died for you. He knew what you are.

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He knows what you are. He knows what you are going to be. He knew then. He knows now. And he died for you.

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If you see in the insert in our bulletin. There's a hymn there. I'm going to close with these words.

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We haven't sung this hymn. But we're going to sing it one day. I just didn't have enough time to get it all together.

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I didn't even ask Sam. But it says this. Oh Christ. And follow along if you would.

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Because it's a bit complicated. Oh Christ. What burdens bowed thy head?

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Our load was laid on thee. Thou stoodest in the sinner's stead.

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Didst bear all ill for me. A victim led. Thy blood was shed.

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Now there's no load for me. Death and the curse were in our cup.

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Oh Christ. T 'was full for thee. But thou hast drained the last dark drop.

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Tis empty now for me. The bitter cup. Love drank it up.

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Now blessings draw it for me. See the imagery here with me. Jehovah bade his sword awake.

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Oh Christ it woke against thee. Thy blood the flaming blade must slake.

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Thy heart its sheath must be. All for my sake his peace to make.

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Now sleeps the sword for me. God's wrath.

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The sword that God makes ready. For everyone who rebels against him.

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Brothers and sisters. It is in its sheath. And that sheath is not on God's hip.

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It's in God's son. For me. Lord Jesus thou hast died.

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And I have died in thee. Thou art risen. My hands are all untied.

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And now thou livest in me. When purified made white and tried. Then glory then for me.

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Brothers and sisters we see behind the curtain. In this passage and we see. That if you're in Christ.

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Why would the Lord God make his son go through this. Just to put you through it again. If Christ has gone to the cross on your behalf.