...fragments of scripture in the Gospel by Luke,
chapter 2, at verse 34, And
Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his
mother, Behold, this child is set for the
falling and rising of many in Israel, And
for a sign which is spoken against, yea,
and a sword shall pierce through thine own
soul, That thoughts out of many hearts may
be revealed.
In the 22nd chapter, the same Gospel, at
verse 31, Simeon, Simeon, behold, Satan asked to
have you, That he might fit you as
sweet, but I made supplication for thee, That
thy faith fail not.
The Gospel by Matthew, chapter 26, verse
31, Then said Jesus unto them, All ye
shall be appended in me this night, For
it is written, I will smite the shepherds,
And the sheep of the flock shall be
scattered abroad.
And the Gospel by John, the Gospel by
John, chapter 17, verse
9, I pray for them, for those whom
thou hast given me, For they are thine,
verse 14, I have given them thy word.
The world hated them, because they are not
of the world, Even as I am not
of the world.
I pray not that thou shouldest take them
from the world, But that thou shouldest keep
them from the evil one.
There are a number of other passages that
I would like to lay alongside of those,
But just one more, in the letter to
the Hebrews, chapter 7, verse 25, For
also he is able to say to the
Atomos, Them that draw near unto God through
him, Seeing he ever liveth to make intercession
for them.
I do want this word this morning to
be an establishing word, Word by which we
shall be strengthened in our life in the
Lord.
And there are two sides to this word,
One which may seem to be the dark
side, And the other the bright side.
These passages which we have read, Which as
I have said are but a selection from
a number of others of like kind, Bring
before us the tremendous ordeal of the cross.
What a lot was going on in the
unseen, During those hours from the arrest of
the Lord to his death.
I mean in the hearts of people, With
all the movement and the activity, The excitement
and everything else on the outside.
There was a corresponding activity going on within
life.
That prophecy of Simeon to Mary was verily
being fulfilled.
In the hour when the sword pierced her
heart, The thoughts out of many hearts were
being revealed.
The heart of Judas was revealed.
The heart of Simon Peter in the judgment
hall was being revealed.
One by one they were passing into this
terrible ordeal.
Until they were all included, all ye shall
be offended.
Because of me this night she will be
scattered abroad when the shepherd is smitten.
And I have not read these other passages
about Judas and about Their all forsaking him
and fleeing or following a power off.
It's all a revelation of the heart in
the hour of the cross.
It does seem, dear friends, that that was
not only true on that occasion.
But whenever the Lord is moving towards something
new, Some spiritual enlargement, something fuller of himself,
In resurrection, in life, in service, Very often
there's an ordeal that has to be gone
through in preparation.
An ordeal of the cross.
That is, those concerned pass through a time
When all sorts of unsuspecting things in their
own hearts Are dragged out into the light,
ugly things.
They would never have believed to be there
any more than Peter would have believed If
he'd been told, and as he was told,
what he would do and what he would
say in that hour.
Not one of them would have believed for
a moment that they would have been offended,
Forsake him and flee, or do whatever it
was that they respectively did.
They wouldn't have believed it.
Peter himself very, very strongly reacted to the
suggestion That he would do anything of the
kind.
And so it is, from time to time,
on the move with God Towards something more,
experiences, something like this take place.
We have a bad time.
It seems a worse time than ever we've
had before.
When things come to light about ourselves and
to ourselves We would never have either suspected
or believed had they been told us.
I don't know about Judas, whether he really
did know his motive, the thoughts of his
heart, Whether if he had been told that
he would perpetrate such a crime As to
deny and betray the Lord Jesus Because, because
he'd altogether failed to set a right and
sufficient estimate upon Jesus.
I think that was really behind it all.
Thirty pieces of silver seem to be of
greater value than the Lord.
An altogether inadequate evaluation of the Lord.
Surely there was something wrong with that heart.
He might not have believed it if he'd
been told.
Peter, well he was told what he would
do, but he wouldn't have it, he wouldn't
have it Because he never suspected the secret
cowardice of his own heart.
Man who can face storms upon the sea
with a good deal of physical courage Very
often breaks down when it's a matter of
spiritual courage or moral courage.
And he perhaps was mistaking his physical courage
for moral courage And never suspected that cowardice
of his own heart And never would have
believed that a situation could arise where with
all his might He would seek to preserve
himself, self-preservation deep in his heart.
He wouldn't believe it, it was all being
brought out into the light.
And then as to the rest, the other
ten, they all forsook, fled.
They would never have believed the infinite perils
of unbelief.
The Lord had told them, told them again
and again what was going to happen And
what would he ventuate from his suffering, death?
No, no, deeply rooted was this unbelief, this
could never happen, this would never happen.
They neither believed in his death nor his
resurrection But they wouldn't have said they didn't
believe in it There was something there, unsuspected,
was it the strength of unsanctified ambition?
A kingdom in this world and a place
in it?
Was that covering up so much more that
they could not believe in his death?
Their kingdom went, if that happened, well, it
was a tremendous night, a terrific ordeal And
really, it's a wonder that anybody survived.
Only one man did not survive, Judas, Judas
did not survive.
And the Lord Jesus said to them, them
have I kept, them that thou gavest me
None of them, none of them is lost
except the son of perdition.
Now I'm not going into the story of
Judas But let it be said here, that
if anybody ever should And sometimes Christians do
get into a state where they do take
hold of Judas And arrange themselves alongside of
him as absolutely hopeless And having committed the
unpardonable sin There's no forgiveness Remember that Judas'
was a lifelong, calculated, coldly calculated course
The word in Hebrews, which so many people
do take up in their dark time About
it is impossible to restore such a one
again to repentance Has connected with his death
Remember this, seeing that they willfully, they
willfully It is a matter of willfulness And
it was willfulness with Judas It was willfulness
Well you can decide whether you are a
willful, deliberate, calculating Betrayer of the Lord Jesus
With no estimate upon his worth and value
of God's thirty pieces of silver If that's
your state, well it is pretty hopeless isn't
it But leave Judas aside, leave him aside
Take these others We are surprised, we are
amazed are we not That any of them
survived And came out And the wonderful story
is written about them afterwards What a story
Why?
Why did they survive?
Why did they have such a glorious afterwards?
Why with all this terrible self-disclosure Enough
to shatter anyone And anyone's hope about himself
or herself Why?
I have prayed, said the Lord Jesus I
prayed for them I prayed for them So
he said in that matchless prayer of John
17 I prayed for them To Simon But
I prayed for them That thy faith fail
not And then for us all Seeing he
ever lived To make intercession Well that's the
bright side you see There may be the
day, the dark ordeal When the Lord is
having to make us in the first place
Realize more than ever What a need of
his salvation and his grace there is In
our own lives Oh how much we need
the grace of God For everything depends upon
How much we realize the need of the
grace of God To him that's a tremendously
important thing You and I are just wrecked
upon the grace of God So that really,
really out of the depths We say but
for the grace of God Where should I
be?
No we don't realize that all at once
When we first come to the Lord Some
do come out of the depths And are
able to say at once Oh the grace
of God is unspeakably wonderful But there are
a large number who do not have That
deep consciousness to begin with But we've got
to have it sooner or later That our
whole position Our whole future Our whole hope
Rests upon the grace of God And that
has to be not words, not doctrines But
something that is wrung out of A deep
experience and consciousness And to bring that about
These times of self-disclosure seem to be
necessary That we might learn more The meaning
of his grace But oh when we are
going through Well Peter, how shattering it all
was To him to realize What was there
all the time What had been there all
along How shattering it was And no doubt
that was true of the others Who would
never have believed Or suspected Now it's all
so true They are just like that after
all Just like that No one would have
believed it about themselves Just a shattering thing
Is this self-discovery How shall we get
through Well dear friends The establishing word is
That he who prayed for them The eleven
And he who prayed for Simon Peter The
one And got them through By prayer Ever
living to make intercession for us And will
get us through Solid ground under our feet
Is the intercession of our Lord Which is
going on now What is our hope Where
is our hope What is our confidence Just
like that When we cannot pray ourselves Sometimes
that's true For ourselves And when we seem
to be At the end of being able
to pray For someone else He ever liveth
To make intercession Thank God For the prayer
life of the Lord Jesus It does not
relieve us of responsibility Or exonerate us From
carelessness in this matter But when we have
reached the end And can do no more
He ever liveth To To make intercession He
lives To make intercession Why does he live?
Why is he alive?
To make intercession Until he has got us
You read that prayer in John 17 And
look at there He says All ye shall
be offended Because of me this night For
it is written I will smite the shepherd
And the sheep of the flock Shall be
scattered I pray that they all may be
one Yes scattered Hither and thither Like a
broken vessel With its pieces, its fragments All
over the place And then after his resurrection
He collects the pieces From every place And
brings them together And the prayer is answered
That they may be one And Peter standing
up With the 11 They of Pentecost The
prayer answered They are one They are one
Well There is virtue and efficacy In the
prayer of the Lord Jesus The cross reveals
much Which disheartens And disconcerts And Would bring
us To despair But for His faithfulness In
prayer for us He that Hither this while
Neither slumbers nor sleeps He ever liveth Let
us draw more upon What he is doing
now for us Rely more upon him And
if you feel Any one of you feel
You can do no more That you prayed
yourself To a standstill About yourself Or someone
else Or some other Don't give up Don't
cast away your confidence Remember He is going
on He ever liveth To make intercession