If you have your bulletins and want to follow along there, it's on page four, the outlines on page five. This is God's Word. And he came out and proceeded, as was his custom to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples also followed him. And when he arrived at the place, he said to them, pray that you may not enter into temptation. And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw. And he knelt down and began to pray, saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me, yet not my will, but yours be done. Now an angel from heaven appeared to him, strengthening him, and being an agony, he was praying very fervently, and his sweat became like drops of blood falling down upon the ground. When he arose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping from sorrow, and said to them, why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not enter into temptation. While he was still speaking, behold a crowd came, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was preceding them, and he approached Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus said to him, Judas, are you betraying the son of man with a kiss? When those who were around him saw what was going to happen, they said, Lord, shall we strike with the sword? And one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus answered and said, stop, no more of this, and he touched his ear and healed him. Then Jesus said to the chief priest, the officers of the temple and elders who had come out against him, have you come out with swords and clubs as you would against a robber? While I was with you daily in the temple, you did not lay hands on me with this hour, and the power of darkness are yours. Okay, this is one of those messages that's kind of deep, so you're going to have to stay with me. You know, if the Bible is what the cover of most say, holy Bible, if we compare this text to the temple, the whole Bible is like the temple, and this is like the Holy of Holies. This entering in now to the time where Jesus is tempted all the way through his crucifixion and resurrection. I have been impressed this week by this text, and in a sense just really felt like I had to take my shoes off to study it, and thought about doing that before you as I preached, but I thought it might be seen as cheesy and not reverent, so my shoes are on. Nevertheless, this is deep stuff. I think we can all understand it, it's not difficult, but you'll need to stay with me. The title, entering into temptation, I believe adequately connects to the text as I read it to you, and certainly it connects with the words I want to say to you. It fits well that way, but if we were to expand this text into considering it from the scope of the whole Bible, I would want to change the title to, in the garden, take two, because in a sense this text draws us back to Genesis chapter three, and the temptation of Adam and Eve. Genesis one and two, if you remember, tells us the great story of creation, how God made all things, and how especially he made man, man and woman, male and female after his own image. He made them good, able to do good, inclined to do good, yet able to sit, they reflected something true about the image of God, but there was this ability to sit, and it was as though there were a probation period, and temptation did come. And when Genesis chapter three comes along, we find that the serpent, the evil one is there, lying and twisting what God had said in a way to tempt to sin. Genesis three says, the serpent said to the woman, you will surely not die, for God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil, and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate, and though our first parents were made good, and able to do good, and inclined to do good, they entered into temptation. They believed the lie, and distrusted God, and thrust themselves into all their children into a life where they were no longer good, no longer able to do good, but inclined to evil, not as bad as they could be, but for a very long time changed. And all their children, all of us, find it easy, I hope it was easy for you to identify with the Apostle Paul, the good that I would, I do not do, but I do the very evil I do not want to do, I find this principle that sin dwells in me, the one who wants to do good, the one who agrees that the law is spiritual and right, but I find this problem of sin dwelling in me. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all the sons and daughters except one were corrupted by the fall, and it's our Lord Jesus who's the one, right, who is the eternal Son of God, eternally begotten, not made of one being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made, who for us, and for our salvation became man. He came man and was incarnate, made flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary and was born of her, right? He was the exact image of God, the radiance of the Father's glory, and he came to live for us the perfect righteous, obedient life that none of us had lived, and then to die the sinner's death for our sins. Our passage, the focus of our time today is right there as he enters into paying for our sins, and he tells his disciples, it says, though we're in the garden again, and Jesus, the perfect one, must earn for us that obedience before the Father, and we're at the edge of it, the temptation is there, and if he fails we are all plunged into hell for eternity. Holy ground. It's a holy passage. It's intense. Now, I'm taking as the proposition, the main point that I want to make this morning, from Jesus's own words, in verses 40, where he first says, pray that you may not enter into temptation. He says it again in verse 6, when he wakes up at the disciples and says, why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not enter into temptation. That's what I want us to focus on this morning, and we'll do so by looking at the temptation that Jesus faces, and then the disciples, and then we'll look at this, pray, pray that you not enter into temptation. That's how we're going to move through the text this morning. Let's start with the temptation Jesus faced. Now, he tells his disciples, pray that you may not enter into temptation. That's very clear. And then it is as though Luke, who gives us a very concise picture of what's going on here, all four gospels talk about the temptation of Christ, or Jesus telling his disciples to pray, and Jesus betraying him with a kiss and all that, all four gospels talk about it. Luke gives us a concise version, and it says, though he says, look, this is what I'm telling you to do, pray that you may not enter into temptation, and then let me show you what that looks like. Luke says, see how he models it, and we find him praying himself in verse 42, father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me, yet not my will, but yours be done. He's doing exactly what he's instructed his disciples to do. He is praying that he may not enter into temptation. I want to show you how that is. So, and we need to do that by at least looking at a cursory level at his prayer. We'll look at it again at the end, but for right now, there's, there's in a sense, we could say three parts, father, if you're willing, but that's kind of, I'm going to say two parts, that and at the end, not my will, but yours will be done. That's one part, the will of God. And in the middle, let this cup pass. That is the prayer, right? Let this cup pass, but not my will, your will be done. What does he mean? Let this cup pass. What's he talking about? Well, when he talks about a cup, this symbolic nature of that in the scriptures is not all together evident. Sometimes it's used in a positive way, like in Psalm 23, my cup runeth over. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. There is the cup of blessing that the Lord gives to his people, in the Lord's supper, in this idea that God has given us a good cup, a cup of blessing. That's in the scriptures, but that doesn't fit the context at all of this text. It's the context is another way the scriptures use the imagery of the cup, and that is of judgment. And I've got two examples from the scriptures for that. One is in Jeremiah, chapter 25, in verse 15, which reads, for thus the Lord, the God of Israel says to me, take this cup of the wine of wrath from my hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it, cup of wrath. Also, in the book of Revelation, chapter 16 and verse 19, we read, the great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon, the great was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of his fierce wrath. There are other examples of how this cup is the cup of wrath, or there is this cup of wrath that the scriptures use. And I want to suggest you that that's what fits the context. The wrath of God, I believe, starts on verse 47, with the kiss of Judas. When Judas comes to kiss Jesus, that's where the wrath starts. And I'll explain why I think that way. I think it goes from the kiss through the crucifixion, just so you have that in mind. It's not a small time, but that's when it starts. Let's think about the wrath of God. Let's say, okay, this cup is the cup of the wrath of God, that Jesus is saying that this cup past. What does the wrath of God look like? How does God exercise wrath? Well, you know, the first time that's recorded in scriptures where God expressed wrath. Remember, it's in Genesis, and the text starts in chapter six this way. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of this thought was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on earth and was grieved in his heart. And the Lord said, I will blot out every man and all the animals. You remember, it was the flood. And God exercised wrath through using nature. He brought the floods. There's another example that's clear when God decided to judge Sodom and Gomorrah. You remember, he rained down fire and brimstone nature. He used the creation to bring judgment. We don't see that per se. I mean, we can't talk about the crucifixion. The cross is being part of that for sure, but it's at least not the main focus. It's not how God seemed to be bringing his wrath to bear. There's another way, though, that the scripture speaks about God bringing wrath. And this may surprise you, but he uses people to express his wrath. One example, I think we've talked about this fairly recently, is that when God brought Israel into the promised land, their job was to bring God's wrath against the Canaanites. The iniquity of the Canaanites had reached its fulfillment. God says, there are wicked nation. I want you people of God to go in, not because you're better than them, but because of my covenant relationship with Abraham. And I want you to destroy them and not enter into their idolatry and these sorts of things. And God used his people Israel to exercise wrath on the Canaanites, on the people living in the land. Seven nations stronger than Israel. How do you feel about that? You like that? I can see in your face as well. No. Well, too bad it gets worse. There's another place where God says he's going to use a more wicked people to punish his people, a less wicked people. Look up, Habakkuk is all about that. If you have a Bible, you may want to read this later on. If you have a Bible that has kind of the study notes or the who's talking, you know, breaks it into its sections, that'll be helpful. But let me read to you what Habakkuk says, chapter 1 verses 5 and 6. And then I'll skip down to 12. Habakkuk has been complaining about how ungodly Israel has become. And God says, look among the nations, observe, be astonished, wonder because I am doing something in your days, you would not believe if I were to tell if you were told for behold, I am raising up the Caldeans, that fierce and impetuous people who marched throughout the earth to seized dwelling places, which are not theirs. It speaks about their wrath and their ruthlessness and such. And then in verse 12, Habakkuk responds to God, you know, Habakkuk complains, God, everything's a mess. Why are you people like this? And God says, I'm going to judge them. I'm bringing the Caldeans. And Habakkuk responds, are you not from everlasting, O Lord, my God, my holy one? We will not die. You, O Lord, have appointed them to judge. And you, O rock, have established them to crack. He's astounded. And he goes on to talk. And ultimately he says, all right, I'll wait and see. And sure enough, the Caldeans and the Babylonians are used by God to exercise God's wrath. So that Isaiah in his prophecy would later write comfort, comfort, ye my people, you know, a text we think about at Christmas time, you've paid for double your sins. You've experienced something of the wrath of God. That fits our text. That fits the betrayal of Judas. That fits this mock trial that Jesus goes through by the chief priests and the temple guards and these sorts of people. That fits the crucifixion. God is using a sinful people to express his wrath on Jesus. Not for Jesus's sins. He's holy righteous and undefiled, but Jesus becomes sin for us. But there is more. God does exercise his wrath in a more personal or direct sort of way. Jesus taught this more than anyone else about the flames of hell and the torment that is there. Just one example from Luke's Gospel chapter 16 where it tells us about this story about the rich man and Lazarus. You remember that and they both die and the rich man is in hell and it tells us that in hell where he was in torment, he looked up, hell, torment. He looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus. He asked Abraham, he's in Lazarus to me and have him dip his finger in cool water and come cool. My tongue because he says because I am in agony in this fire. And there is a picture of the direct wrath of God personally visited on the earth. He's really visited on the sins of this rich man. And that's a picture of hell. So what I'd like to suggest is that when Jesus is saying Father let this cut pass, he's saying the wrath of God as it is exhibited in what's going from the kiss to the crucifixion. And going on at the same time as this I believe the Scriptures would tell us the personal wrath of God to ward him. You know how it is. Have you ever had a pain in I don't know a slipped disc or a bulging disc or a frozen shoulder or even a sunburn that's real bad and you're wearing a t-shirt and no one sees it. It's invisible until they watch until they touch your shoulder or whatever and they see you wins and pain. It's invisible. It's an invisible pain. When we look at what happened to Jesus in his suffering at the hands of wicked men, the punching and beating and scourging and crucifixion, that's true pain. There's no doubt about it. But what's invisible is going on too as he suffers with an intensity of God's wrath something that's invisible to our eyes. We only have to put together from the Scriptures that it's there, the intense hatred of God towards sin, his promise and pledge that he will punish it with eternal flames of hellfire. So what's the temptation for Jesus? We've just kind of looked at what does it mean let this cut pass. What I'd like to say it is is this. He is at the edge. He has to do what God has commanded him to do, which is die for the sins of the world. Those of you who like the theological terms remember the covenant of redemption that before the creation of the world, God the Father called on God the Son to come to the earth and to redeem a people for God and Jesus said he would do it. It's written in the scroll of the book. I come to do your will. He came. He had promised that he would redeem God's people. And yet as he looks at the cop in the Father's hand as the Father gives it to him, he's at that edge where it's going to happen. He recoils. The temptation is to not take the cop. We may have to ask this question. Was it a sin for him not to want to take the cop? Well, we know he's no is the quick answer. But let's think about it just a little bit. I think it helps us to understand what Jesus did for us in my my prayer this week is that we just love him a whole lot more. Let's consider Jesus as desires. What does he want? Because he says not my will, but I will be done. And whether we like it or not, there's some sort of contradiction. There's an adversity. Not my will, but your will be done. Is it that is there a sin in Jesus that he doesn't want God's will? Well, no, he, he prefaces it. Lord, if it be your will, and he finishes it, I will be done. So no, well, what about this desire in the middle? Well, let's think about it. Jesus from all eternity has enjoyed perfect bliss, perfect fellowship, perfect communion, perfect love, perfect affection for the Father and vice versa. There has never been a greater or fuller joy and delight as there is between God the Father and God the Son. For Jesus to desire the Father's pleasure and delight is a pure and holy desire. For him to want to take on sin is a repugnant thing to him. Here is a man who has always hated sin. Here is the God man who has eternally hated sin. Now, think about this. Think about one of your sins. I'm not just anyone. One of your secret sins. One that you're so ashamed, you've never told anyone. You have one of those? You know it's disgusting. And you're ashamed of it. And you don't want to say anything to anyone about it because it's so horrible. That's just one. He didn't die for just one of each of our sins, beloved. But all the sins of all the elect from all times are laid upon him. He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf. And how could he desire that? How could he want that? No! He recoiled just from the idea of being tainted by that which he hates. And then you add to that the sheer delight he has and the Father and the Father's good pleasure in him to say, I will take your displeasure. I will be what we hate so that you can hate me and pour out your wrath. Oh, that's holy. His desires are holy. His struggle is real. Beloved, we face this. Sometimes we have desires that are legitimate desires that are in relative terms pure are holy. But they become sin when we put them before his will. And that's what he's facing and he does not enter into temptation. He earns for us by his praying that he not enter into temptation and God delivering him from entering into temptation and him taking the cup and drinking it. He earns for us the kind of righteousness that we are required to have. But his command to his disciples in the moment and to us is still binding on us. Pray that you may not enter into temptation. He gives us not only his perfect righteousness, but he is the example. We see in him how it is done. We have a negative example in the disciples. Let's look at that for a minute. In our text, the disciples, I don't know if they pray or not. The text again, Lucas is small. He tells them to pray. He goes away and prays. And when he comes, they're sleeping. Does that mean they prayed a little and then fell asleep? Or just went straight to sleep? I don't know. When you read Matthew's gospel, you see that it wasn't just one time, three times. Jesus prayed similarly, Father, if you're willing, let this cup pass comes and finds them asleep, wakes them up, says, pray that you may not enter into temptation. Second time goes and prays. Praise again. Lord, if it's not possible, lest I drink it, I will be done. Comes back, finds them sleeping three times. It tells us he finds them sleeping. No time does it say that they were praying, just sleeping. But I'm saying maybe it's not that they didn't pray at all. It's that they prayed a little and then fell asleep. It's possible. That's all I'm saying. But that they failed is awfully clear. Is it not? They fell into temptation. And for us to consider, what is it for them not to fall into temptation? It seems to me the easiest way to get there is to say, well, how did they fall into temptation? And that's how we'll look at this. There's three things that I see. The first one is this. In verses 49 to 51, we can say it's the temptation to fight. When those who were around him saw what was going to happen, they said, Lord, shall we strike with the sword? And one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear. Now that this was not right is clear from what Jesus says next, but Jesus said, stop no more of this and he touched his ear and healed him. It's like this is not the way. And the gospels make this clear. And John's gospel, we find out a little more. First of all, that it's Peter. And I can just hear maybe John or Bartholomew are saying, Lord, should we take swords while Peter is going and slice him for the head. And Jesus is ready to say no and it's a stop and you see how it's going. And in John's gospel, Peter, who is doing this, it tells us in in 18 verse 11. So Jesus said to Peter, put your sword into the sheath, the cup which the father has given me shall I not drink it. You see he's got the cup. It's in the arrest and he tells him to stop. And he tells him in Matthew's gospel in the same context or do you not think I can appeal to my father and he will at once put it my disposal more than 12 legions of angels. But then he says, how then will the scriptures be fulfilled which say it must happen this way. You see he knows the will of God. He knows what the scriptures say that it must be this way, not fighting. They fell into temptation by fighting. There may be times in the Christian's life where the fight is right, but this isn't it. The next one, if we were to keep with the illiteration with F, it would be a fright. It's where Peter is afraid and denies the Lord three times. That's in verses 54 through 62. And we'll look at that next week where he denies the Lord three times. We'll leave that for now and just move to the third time. There's the fight. There's the fright. And there's the flight where they run away. And we know that they're fleeing is a sin this way because Matthew, this is how I'm interpreting it anyway. Matthew 2631 tells us then Jesus said to them, you will all fall away that I'm taking to be a sin falling away. Because of me, this very night for it is written strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. So they flee three ways they fell into sin. No or little prayer and they fall into sin. There's a lot in that that I'm not saying I'm hoping you catch it. So what would it have looked like if they had not entered into sin? I think it would be summed up in the word follow. They should follow their Lord. If they, if Jesus calls for the sword, they pick up the sword. If Jesus does not grab a sword but just moves toward them and says, what do you want? They stand at Jesus's side. If they arrest Jesus and they want to arrest them, they follow. If they crucify Jesus and they want to crucify the disciples, they follow. It has to have an eternal perspective to do that kind of obedience, don't you? To not fall in sin that way. You remember if you were here last week, we looked at how the Apostle Paul took this idea of how we ought to live a truly great life and how it's found in Christ. And we talked about at the very end from Philippians chapter 3 what it means to be found in Christ. Paul puts it this way that I may be found in him not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is on the basis of faith. We receive Jesus's perfect obedience in what he does in this passage as being a gift of God to us. Is that I may know him the text continues that I may be found out having a righteousness of my own, but that which is my faith in Christ, that I may know him and the fellowship of his sufferings. The fellowship of his sufferings were to be okay with that being conformed to his death that we may somehow attain to the resurrection. That's what the Apostle Paul says. And that's chapter three in verse and chapter one he says it's a gracious gift that we would be considered worthy to suffer for his sake. Kind of scary, isn't it? The will of God not entering into temptation that takes a little bit of prayer, doesn't it? Let's look about, let's look at prayer for a minute and talk about the effective prayer of a righteous man. And by that I do mean our Lord Jesus. I've got three things to say and the first thing has three aspects. It won't take long, don't worry about that, but just so you know where I'm going. Three things, first thing has three things, three is my number. I don't know, it's a trinitarian sermon. The first thing, the first big one that I want to talk about that has three parts is three ways not to pray. Okay, so three knots. The first one is this, do not pray about temptation this way. God, I know what I'm about to do is wrong. Please forgive what I'm about to do. Wait a second, why are you laughing? Have you never done that? You have done that and we're not supposed to, but we know that enough said. The second one is don't think that you are going to get anywhere if you pray by road, not road, not praying by road. In other words, if you say ten are fathers, then you're okay. Like that's it. That will not work. I'm all for the are fathers. The Lord's Prayer is beautiful. If you meditate the rest of the day on the Lord's Prayer, you will see that Jesus has all of it in mind. Not just that I will be done, but how would be thy name thy kingdom come and deliver us this day from the evil one? There's a lot there. Not to mention forgiveness from him who is the bread of life, but wrote prayers aren't going to be that way. I've shared with you one time when I got, I borrowed my grandmother's car for a little joy ride and wrecked it and parked it. And the friend who was with me when we did this, ran to his house, got, took everything off the coffee table, put two candles, made it look kind of like an altar, kneel down and pray, oh Lord, do not let us get caught. I could pray our Father all day long and I would be way out of bounds. It just wasn't going to happen. No wrote, no, forgive, forgive what I'm about to do or in this case don't let me get caught for what I did. Here's the third one. And this one I need to nuance just a little bit because we need to be careful with it. We should not pray, Lord get me out of this mess. And I want to nuance that a little bit. First let me say the positive of what I'm getting at. It is often God's way to take us through things, not just miraculously deliver us from the problem. Yeah, and woe and sadness too, but that's the way you often works through it. And we need to be okay with that. Now here's the nuance. The Psalms are full of places where the Psalmist says Lord how long deliver me, provide an escape, rescue me. This is not right. And we can't pray that way for sure. Even like our Lord Jesus, Father, if it is possible, take the cup. I don't want it. Just as long as we say, yet not my will, but your will be done. Second point is this, when Jesus prays, there is such intimacy. The kind of praying that Jesus is calling his disciples to requires incredible faith and a love relationship. It's the only way he can say what he says. It's very personal. It's very relational. He has a living relationship with God. It's not mechanical. It's not theoretical. It's personal. And then number three, the last thing I need to say about this, this is hard. It's just hard. Verses 23, 43 and 44. Now an angel of heaven appeared to him and strengthened him and being an agony. He was praying very fervently. And his sweat became like drops of blood falling down upon the ground. Now I don't know. I'm told that medically speaking this is possible that capillaries can burst in such a way that a little bit of blood comes out with the sweat. So it's, I think it's medically possible for this to happen. And that may be what Lucas indicating happened or maybe when he says like that he means this is just a very intense situation. That part is clear. praying the kind of prayer that Jesus is calling us to pray that you may not enter into temptation is hard prayer. It's not easy. If it was difficult for our Lord, it will be difficult for us. And if we don't think so, we will like the disciples sleep and fail. And it takes the kind of life. If we, one of the things that makes it difficult is some of the things God calls us to do in this fallen world, the context of a fallen world hurts. It's hard to say. I will drink the cup. I will do the hard thing you call me to do. I want your will more than my own. But beloved, there's no way we will grow in spiritual maturity without learning to trust the will of God not only in the good time, but in the pain and the sorrows and the suffering needs to be Lord there too. And we must trust that even when God uses evil people more wicked than we are to do something that hurts us, his design for his children is good. We need that eternal perspective who for the joy set before him endured the cross. If all we have in this life, it ain't worth it. But there is this eternal perspective and we must learn to live there. Now let me just conclude by saying, have you received this perfect obedience that Jesus offers? I'm sure you know the failure of the disciples, but have you received the perfect obedience of Jesus? Have you been reconciled to God by saying, God, I receive Jesus's perfect obedience on my behalf? I receive his drinking from your hand, the cup of wrath that I deserve. He took it for me. I don't deserve it. But I want you and I receive Christ so that we can be reconciled. Have you ever done that? Well, don't you think you should? Let me ask you please, God sent his son to do for you what you can't do for yourself. And he commands you to turn to him and receive his son. Don't add to your sin failing to receive Jesus or Jesus's life. And he drank the cup of the wrath of God so that you don't have to. You can drink the cup of blessing instead. Just pray. Pray while I'm closing in prayer and ask him, I want Jesus. I received the gift. Receive it by faith. Let's pray. Lord, I pray for your people. I pray that we would just love you all the more. For what you did for us. That we would be in awe and humbled before you and that we would receive life by receiving Jesus, all of Jesus and be reconciled to you and know you and walk with you and learn to pray that we may not enter into temptation. Knowing that he did it perfectly for us and that we can make great progress ourselves through him. So make us to love Jesus more because he did it for us and make us a Lord more zealous to say, I want to follow my Lord and learn to pray like he prayed and learn to resist and not enter in like he did.