Let me call your attention this morning to the Word of God as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 26. Matthew, chapter 26. We'll begin our reading at verse 30. Chapter 26 of Matthew begins with the plot to kill Jesus. The chief priest, the scribes, and the elders of the people assemble, and they plot it to kill our Lord. This chapter, we also find this woman who had an alabaster flask, a very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on his head. He was anointed by this woman with this oil, We find Judas agreeing to betray the Lord here in this chapter for just 30 pieces of silver. Jesus celebrates the Passover with his disciples at the Institute of the Lord's Supper. And we read in verse 30 these words. And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus said to them, all of you will be made to stumble because of me this night, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee. Peter answered and said to him, even if all are made to stumble because of you, I will never be made to stumble. Jesus said to him, Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. Peter said to him, Even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you. And so said all the disciples. Then Jesus came with them to the place called Gethsemane and said to the disciples, Sit here while I go and pray over there. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then he said to them, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful even to death. Stay here and watch with me. He went a little farther and fell on his face and prayed saying, oh my father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, What, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Again, a second time, he went away and prayed, saying, oh, my father, if this cup cannot pass away from me unless I drink it, your will be done. And he came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. So he left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Then he came to his disciples and said to them, are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand." Thus ends the reading of God's holy word. In 549 BC, the fierce battle of Thymbra issued outside of Sardis between Cyrus of Persia and Croesus, the king of Sardis. Colin Hemer recounts the event as passed down from historians, and he writes, on the arrival of Cyrus, an indecisive battle was fought. Croesus, having the smaller army, withdrew to Sardis, dismissed for the winter season his powerful allies from Egypt, Babylon, and Sparta. and summoned them to reassemble in five months. Meanwhile, he disbanded all but his Lydian troops, never expecting that after so close fought a campaign, Cyrus would venture against Sardis. Cyrus, however, followed unobserved. Croesus caught off guard, led his formidable Lydian cavalry just desperately into battle. But the horses were thrown into confusion at the sight and smell of the camels which Cyrus had posted in the front of his army. Croesus then summoned his allies and prepared to endure a siege in his precipitous stronghold. But on the 14th day, Sardis fell. An enemy succeeded in climbing to an unguarded post. where no guard was stationed, for there was no fear that it would ever be captured at that place, for the Acropolis is sheer and impregnable there. This history would no doubt be in the minds of the church in Sardis as they received the letter from the glorified head of the church exhorting them to be watchful and strengthen the things that remain that are ready to die, Revelation 3.2. These words were written and sent by the Apostle John, who himself no doubt remembered the Lord's words to him and his brother James, and to Peter, whom the Lord addressed directly in the garden. What, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. This morning, I'd like to focus our attention on verse 41. Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak. However, brother, this verse does not come to us in isolation, but it is couched in one of the most painful passages in all of scripture. As they approach the garden, the Lord tells his disciples what is about to take place. He tells them what they are going to do in this dark hour. And he quotes from Zechariah 13, verse seven. I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will scatter. William Hendrickson brings the agonizing loneliness of this period of our Lord's life into sharper focus with these words. As the story develops, we notice that it was especially this one thought, namely that he, a most tender and sensitive soul, is more and more being driven into isolation. Many of the people have already left him, John chapter six tells us. His disciples are going to forsake him. So you read in verse 56 of this chapter. Worst of all, on the cross, he will be crying out, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? He did perhaps here in Gethsemane see this tidal wave of God's wrath because of our sins coming. Nonetheless, brethren, Our Lord takes his three disciples, who had accompanied him in the house when he restored the 12-year-old girl to life in Mark chapter 5, and who had witnessed him speaking with Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration, and also heard the Father's voice from a cloud in Matthew chapter 7. He, the God-man, takes these friends. to be with him in the garden to pray. And it was visibly obvious that he began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. And being a real man, he not only stood in need of food and drink, shelter and sleep, but also of human fellowship. The words of Hebrews chapter 4 says this, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. One commentator said he needed these men even more they needed him. Job needed his friends in his time of anguish as we've been listening in the nine o'clock hour. And brethren, so do we need our friends in times of difficulty and trials. We were designed by God to live in community. God has united us together as his people in the church. Never let us think that we can Take on this journey all alone and without close friends. Friends that will bow the knee with us in our time of distress, who will pray for us. We need each other, brethren. The Bible calls us to be along one another's side and exhort one another day by day. as long as it's called today, lest any of us be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Let your brethren minister to you in your time of sorrow. And if we need to sit with you quietly like Job's friends did at the first, we can do that too. The Bible calls us not only to rejoice with those who rejoice, it calls us to weep with those who weep. And our Lord here needed his friends, his close friends to be by his side in this time of anguish and sorrow. Our Lord is not just visibly troubled, but he expresses it with painful words. If you look at verse 38, then he said to them, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with me. Don't ever think that this sorrow and anguish wasn't real. As if Jesus was like Superman. And the experience of his humiliation wasn't really sorrowful or painful. Like he was just going through the motions. Like he was a phantom. Jesus was a real man. And he experienced pain. And he experienced sorrow. And he experienced grief. So much so, it's the kind of grief that we see when people are so wracked with fear that they begin to tremble uncontrollably. I know illustrations are so far removed from biblical and eternal truths, but they kind of help us grip what's going on here. Consider children who are told that they must go to the dentist. And the date has been set. The child's scared of the dentist. The child trembles a little, nervous. But as the day approaches, the nervousness increases. The child is scared to go to the dentist. And so it makes Anna and Bethany Arena's job a little more difficult because they've got to calm down these children just to clean their teeth. Not to mention the distracting techniques and the sedation methods that Dr. Tom must employ before he can pull a tooth or fill a cavity. But it's not just children. Adults, too, have fears. and are trembling at the thought of what's to come. Adults, I say, are filled with grief. And I'm not just talking about undergoing certain medical procedures like going through cancer treatment. Some folks tremble at the thought of having hip replacement surgery or knee replacement surgery. Before Dr. Bacon can take his scalpel and cut your flesh, Dr. Bill's got to put you to sleep with anesthesia so you won't feel a thing. And then maybe part of the fear is because all these doctors that I've mentioned are retired. And they haven't been in practice for a while. Perhaps we need to stick with Dr. Alex. He's still practicing. But with that aside, the anguish Jesus endured was of infinitely greater agony than any visit to the doctor. There was no sedation. There was no anesthesia. For the Son of God, who came to drink the full, undiluted, holy wrath of God to make satisfaction for our sins, saw the cup. So awful was the sight of what was in the cup that he went a little farther and fell on his face and prayed, saying, oh, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. What was in the cup was frightening, even for the God man. Jesus was a real man. And he saw the wrath, the punishment, which we, his people, deserved and will be meted out. And so he stands in the stead of his elect. And he's looking at our sin and the punishment it deserves. And he trembles. Listen to Linsky. The agony suffered in Gethsemane will always bear an element of mystery for us because of the mystery involved in the human, in the union of Christ's two natures. For one thing, we have no conception of what sin, curse, wrath, death meant for the holy human nature of Jesus. Because he was sinless and holy, he willed to die for our sin. The death of Jesus was far different from that of the courageous martyrs. They died after Jesus' death had removed their sin and guilt. The sting had been removed from their death through Jesus' death. But Jesus died under sin and its curse. The sting of death tortured him with all its damnable power. Meditate on that. Because Jesus died, the sting of death has been removed. We tremble at the thought of dying or how we're going to die, but we needn't fear this, the sting of death when we pass out of this life because our Lord has borne it on the cross. If you're here today and not a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, you don't have a substitute. and you will one day suffer the torment of God's almighty wrath on your own, all alone, eternally, in darkness. In that place where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. A place where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Some people hear those words of scripture and they say, preacher, what are you trying to do, scare us into heaven? Oh, that it was that easy. But we are scared, and you ought to be scared, and you ought to fear, and you ought to tremble. If the Holy Son of God trembled at the wrath of God, does it not become a testimony to us, to our deadness and our blindness, that we are not trembled by the Scripture's testimony of what shall happen to those who do not trust Christ Jesus as Lord? But there's good news. You may not have a substitute right now. You may not have one standing in your place and who has taken your sin. And if that's you this morning, that's not the end of the story. There's good news. Jesus came into the world's sinners to save, and this is a faithful saying and worth being accepted. 1 Timothy 1.15. This is the testimony of the Father. And if you don't believe God, the Bible says you've made Him a liar, because you've not believed the testimony that He has given concerning His Son. Made God a liar? Yeah, you're calling God a lie. You don't believe this testimony about His Son, whom He sent into the world to save sinners. This is the testimony. God has given us eternal life. And that life is in his son. He that has a son has life, but he that does not have the son does not have life. This is God's testimony. Is it something that you believe or is it something you just pass over as religious talk? He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. that we might become the righteousness of God in him, 2 Corinthians 5, 21. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that through his poverty, you might become rich. 2 Corinthians 8, 9. He was rich, but he became poor, that those of us who were poor might become rich. What kind of a person does that? To leave the realm of glory and take a body and live in a sin-cursed world and be ill-treated. Who does that? Imagine, if you will, someone who has worked a good portion of their lives, has been very frugal and very, a good steward of the things that God has entrusted them with, and they have been able to purchase a mansion in a gated community. Everything they've ever wanted in a house. all the room to entertain guests and to have family in when they come in from out of town, all these things, and the security of that gate, beautiful landscape, kind neighbors. Then that person turns outside the gate and decides to go. into the crime-infested, rat-infested ghettos of the inner city to live. Who does that? Our Lord did it. He was appointed and He was anointed by the Father to come and to rescue and to bring home all His elect. And so he had to come here in this sin-cursed world, in this fallen world, to bring his people home. For when we were without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us much more than having now been justified by his blood. We shall be saved from the wrath through him. Romans five, six through nine. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He who believes in him is not condemned. He who believes in him is not condemned. But he who does not believe is condemned already. If you don't believe in Christ, you're already condemned. Because he has not believed in the name of the only Son, the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is coming to the world. And men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they are done in God. God has sent a Savior, and this Savior is approaching that moment and that time in his earthly pilgrimage to now give his life and shed his blood, a ransom for many. So in the time that remains, look with me at verse 41. My approach might seem a little awkward, but I'd like to open this verse in reverse order. And I hope that this general rebuke of our Lord will be to the encouragement of our souls. And I'd like to consider this verse under three heads. First, the reality of our redeemed humanity, spirit and flesh. Two, the danger that confronts our redeemed humanity, temptation. And thirdly, the divinely prescribed remedy for our redeemed humanity, watch and pray. If you'd like a shorter outline heading for the ease of memory, consider in our Lord's words these, a person our danger, and our help. Our person, our danger, and our help. First consider our person or the reality of our redeemed humanity. The Lord describes his people here in verse 41 as being spirit and flesh. What is meant by spirit and flesh? One is rightly said that the true disciples are no longer simple, but altogether complex personalities. Regeneration has produced the spirit in them, the new life, the new divine life. The 18th century professor of divinity, Henry Schugel, refers to this as he does in his title of his book, The Life of God in the Soul of Man. Hendrickson says, in the present passage, spirit indicates man's invisible entity viewed in its relation to God. As such, it is the recipient of God's favor and the means whereby man worships God. And here we see true communion with God. Communion is giving and receiving and God bestows and gives his blessings upon his people and his people in return give back to God what he desires and what he is due. Obedience and trust and love. So we commune with God and we do this through our spirits. The spirit is the product of the new birth. what our Lord calls in John 3, being born again. There are many in our day who profess to be Christians who were never born again. And they make no qualms about it. Because they believe this born again thing is some higher class of Christians. And people often sneer at those who refer to themselves as being born again. But if you're not born again, you're none of his. But as Thomas Boston said, regeneration is a real thorough change whereby the man is made a new creature. Second Corinthians 517 tells us, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away and behold, all things have become new. Now, this change made in regeneration produces things in the life of a believer. And the spirit that's energized by God brings certain qualities. And if you claim to be born again, these things must be true of you in your life. A change of qualities, a disposition. Vicious qualities are removed and the contrary dispositions are brought in, in their stead. And so we read of, in Ephesians chapter four, this putting off and this putting on. There's a change that must have needs taken place in your life. Your evil disposition, he says, should have changed because of the work of the Holy Spirit. Secondly, it's a supernatural change. He that is born again is born of the Spirit. It is not a work of man. It is not just signing a card, as the pastor was saying earlier, or just coming and joining the church, or doing your dues and your responsibilities, all the things that good church folks do. No, this is a change of heart. It's not just the accumulation of doctrines and knowing how to say the right things. Do those right things that we've learned from the scripture come by aid of the Holy Spirit and energize us to live in accordance to what we have learned. In regeneration nature, our nature itself has changed. It's not just turning over a new leaf. We become, in the words of 2 Peter 1.4, partakers of the divine nature. We're God's children. There's something different about us. We look like everybody else, but there's something different about us because we belong to God. It's a change into the likeness of God. 2 Corinthians 3.18 says, but we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image. Those born of God bear God's image. When you look in the mirror, do you look like Christ? When you look at your life throughout the week, your interaction with family and friends and coworkers, And then you go back to the Scriptures and you read through the Gospels and you see how Jesus interacted with people and how he dealt with his relatives and even those who were his enemies. Can we see something of a likeness between us and our Savior? It's a universal change. All things have become new. Original sin affects the whole man. were dead in trespasses and sins. We were born the sons and daughters of Adam, and every fiber and everything about our being has been affected by the fall. But regenerating grace, which is the cure, goes as far as the disease. There's no reoccurrence here. But grace goes and attacks every area of our lives where sin is. Sometimes we go to the doctor and we get treatments and all kinds of things for medications and that. And we hope that the medicine would do its work in our body and reach those places where the cancer is or where the tumor is. And sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. But regenerating grace always finds sin in the believers. And God deals with the sin in our lives. And it's a universal, it covers everything in our lives. And we are a people who are desirous of universal obedience. Yet, fifthly, it is but an imperfect change. It's true, but it's not complete. Regeneration brings a perfection in parts to be brought forward in the gradual advances of sanctification. So we as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that we might grow by it. And so day by day, though our outward man is perishing, our inward man is being renewed day by day. And we must be able to look back and see there's some growth going on. There's some progression. I'm not what I want to be, but I thank God I'm not what I used to be. I'm not as sinful as I was yesterday. I've actually conquered some sins and God has given me direction in his holy word how to, by the spirit, mortify the deeds of the flesh. And I'm obeying his word and I'm doing that and I'm becoming more and more like Christ. But when we come to a study like the Ten Commandments, And we see not just the surface words of the commandments, but we see the implications and the applications of those commandments and how deep they are. It reveals a whole lot more sin in us than we are comfortable with. So we have to get in our little groups and kind of discuss these mince oats and talk about how they apply to us. We'll come to the fourth commandment, a commandment that is a great topic for discussion and debate and controversy in many circles. But God's word is true and it's going to come home to our hearts. How are we going to receive God's word when it comes home from that man who stands and rightly divides the word of truth in our presence? But we desire to grow. And whatever God says and demands and commands of us, those of us who are truly his, we will seek to obey his word. Lord, this is hard. I've thought this way all my life, or I've believed this all my life, or I didn't even know that. Some of us were just wrestling with these minced oaths and saying, I didn't even know that's what that meant. That's not what it meant when I was growing up, or in my culture, in my ethnicity. But the Word of God is opened, and we're being made knowledgeable of the truth of God's Word. What will we do with that truth? To whom much is given, much is required. We should be growing in our knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, brethren, it's a lasting change which never goes away. The seed is incorruptible. So the creation that is formed of that holy seed remaineth. 1 John 3, 9. Now the Lord says in our text that the spirit is willing. Some translations say he's eager. The spirit is eager. And herein is the greatness. and the gentleness of this rebuke by our Lord. He encourages them with the reality that even in their stumbling, they are still truly His. Some of you, because of your battles with remaining sin, find it difficult that you really are a child of God. You say, how can I be a son or daughter of God if I do this or if I do that? And I'm not just done at once. But the prayers I prayed last month and asked God to forgive me for, I'm praying them today. And there's a battle, a struggle going on in your soul. And you fall and you stumble. And our Lord comes and he comes to these disciples who stumble. And he encourages them and he tells them about the spirit that dwells in them is a willing spirit. It's a desirous spirit. It's a spirit that wants to do his will. His spirit is indeed a sincere and unhypocritical spirit. And this willing spirit causes the people of God to keep his commandments. causes us to desire to do His will. His commandments are not grievous. Or some of your translations say, His commandments are not burdensome. They're not too heavy to be borne. This willing spirit causes the child of God to echo from the heart the words of the Messianic Psalm 40. I delight to do your will, O my God. and your law is written within my heart. And we imitate our Savior because we have willing hearts. Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Is that your food? Is that your support and the sustenance of your life to do the will of God? Or are your pursuits something else? Do other things occupy your dearest thoughts and aspirations? To have this or to do this? Or is it to do the will of God? For I have come down from heaven, our Lord says, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me, John 6.38. And even in our text here, we find these words, oh, my father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. This is just a glimpse of the willing heart, a true heart, an unhypocritical heart. And these sleepy disciples, in all their faults and frailties and sin and stumbling, possessed willing hearts. Peter really did believe that he would not deny the Lord and even die if need be. And when Jesus asked James and John, can you drink the cup that I drink of and be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized with? They really believed that they could. And they answered, we can. But in the space of one hour, none of them could stay awake to watch and pray. Carnal self-confidence is not incompatible with a sincere and willing heart. Sometimes pride seeks into the hearts of even those who have willing spirits. Self-confidence. And here we see the other side of the redeemed humanity. The flesh is weak. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. So when we come back again next time, we'll talk about what this flesh is and discuss its weakness. This is how the Lord describes his redeemed people. They are willing spirits, but they are people who have weak flesh. Listen to Gurnall as he speaks to this. Even when failure is the result of our best efforts, willingness speaks success to God. When a father asks his small son to bring him something, an obedient child does not complain that the command is too hard, but runs to do it. And even if he uses all his strength, but miscarries the simple mission, yet the willingness of the child pleases the father. So that his weakness rather stirs up the father to pity and to help than reproves him or chides him. Thus Christ throws this covering over his disciples' infirmities. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. But this, brethren, does not give us an excuse for laziness. But does our Lord excuse this weakness, this weakness of the flesh in his disciples? He uses that very weakness as an argument for watchfulness and prayer. He shows them what they really are, as we shall see in the days to come, the danger that they are in, and then we'll also see the remedy or the prescription that Christ gives to his disciples, that they not enter into temptation. when he calls them to watch and pray. I'd like to open these things up in a deeper fashion that we might understand the nature of temptation and how temptation is the forerunner of sin, that sin that displeases God. And if we learn to nip it in the bud, as it were, to deal with being equipped and armed not to enter into temptation. We'll keep ourselves from many sorrows and many sins, and we'll live joyful lives. And we won't be walking around with our heads hung down because of our sin, because we've incorporated the things that God has prescribed in his book and his word to keep us in the way as he brings us home to glory. So he calls us to watch. He calls us to pray. The hymn writer, I often quote this hymn. I love this hymn by Charlotte Elliott. She says, Christians seek not yet repose. Cast thy dreams of ease away. Thou art in the midst of foes. Watch. and pray. It's not a time to rest. We're the church and militant. We have to fight till the day is done. We are in the midst of enemies, enemies without, enemies within, and we must watch. principalities and powers mustering their unseen array. Wait for thine unguarded hour. Watch and pray the enemy as Pastor Sean spoke of this morning of that lion who was so patient. He's not swift, but he's crafty and he's patient. As he spies out his prey and the evil one does the same, he walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And our Lord tells Peter that he has desired to have you, that he might sift you as wheat. Those are not words just for Peter, they're words for us. The enemy is about seeking our demise. We're in the midst of foes. Watch and pray. Gird thy heavenly armor on, wear it every night and day. Ambush lies the evil one. Watch and pray. Don't leave your armor in the closet, brethren. Pastor Greg preached a message, a series of messages on that armor. Pull those sermons up and see what God calls us to put on, that we might be fit for the battle. We might quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. Hear the victors who came, still they marked the warrior's way. All with one sweet voice exclaim, watch and pray. Those who've gone before us, if they had our ear, they would tell us to watch and to pray. Hear above, O hear thy Lord. Him thou lovest to obey. Hide within thy heart his word. Watch and pray. Watch as if on that alone hung the issue of the day. That's your responsibility. But pray. Pray. Pray. Don't be like the disciples who were self-confident and thought they could accomplish these things in their own strength. Pray that help may be sent down. Watch and pray. And let us pray. Our Father, we thank you. And time will not permit, and the weakness of our flesh and the inadequacy of our vocabulary cannot express the depth of joy and the praise and the thanks that you deserve from those of us who have been redeemed. But we offer these words which we have, Lord, thank you, for all that you have done for us in Christ Jesus, our Lord. We thank you for sending your spirit into the world. We thank you for his work in our lives and showing us our sinfulness and opening our blinded eyes. We thank you for the comfort that he gives. We thank you for the strength that he gives us to battle our sin. We thank you that you've made provisions for us in our pilgrimage. And oh, Father, we thank you for this community of saints in this place. Father, help us to love one another. Help us to love you. Help us, Lord, to not be slothful or lazy or indifferent to the danger that is all around us. Father, we pray that we might aid one another in our pilgrimage. Help us, Lord, to lift one another's arms in the midst of this battle. We thank you for our great champion, the Lord Jesus, who put away our sin. We thank you he has issued that death blow. We thank you that we are no longer the slaves of sin. Sin does not have dominion over us. It is no longer our master. Help us, Lord, to reckon ourselves indeed dead to sin, but alive to you. Oh, God, we pray that we would not just be a good church, folks, but, oh, Lord, we pray that we would look more and more like our Savior and be bright and shining lights in a dark world. that your name might receive all the praise and all the glory. And we ask this in the matchless name of our great Savior, even the Lord Jesus. Amen.