Gethsemane: Shadow of Golgotha #2

In this part of the sermon: The sermon transitions to the heart of Gethsemane: Christ's prayers. Martin first examines Jesus' physical posture—falling to His knees and then prostrate on His face—as an…

Martin uses the concept of body language, citing Genesis 4, to explain how physical posture reveals inner states, connecting it to Christ's prostration in Gethsemane.

And this is true in all three accounts of the Gethsemane experience. God has so made us as body-soul entities, that there is indeed an intimate connection, between the inner state of the soul, and the outward posture, or positions, or actions of the body. And although the term body-language is of relatively recent origin, the reality of body-language is as old as the words recorded in Genesis chapter 4. Why is thy countenance cast down?

12:27 - 13:09 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The sermon transitions to the heart of Gethsemane: Christ's prayers. Martin first examines Jesus' physical posture—falling to His knees and then prostrate on His face—as an…

He gives an example of a preacher with hands in pockets, leaning casually, to illustrate how body language conveys a message of ease, contrasting it with the gravity of his own sermon.

Body-language is a part of human experience. For example, had I unbuttoned my jacket

13:09 - 13:19 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin focuses on the crucial qualification: 'how be it not what I will, but what thou wilt.' He explains that Jesus expressed His holy human will to avoid the cup, but ultimately…

Martin uses the analogy of a child turning away from disliked food or slapping a spoon away to highlight the difference between petulant refusal and Christ's holy submission to the Father's will regarding the cup.

But that's the only way I desire to have it removed is if you remove it. How many times have you, as parents, in feeding your little ones, you put a spoonful of a certain food they don't like right up to their lips and what do they do? Whoops, they've lost their glasses. Let them go.

45:58 - 46:19 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The first application addresses the question of whether Christ's aversion to the cup was proper. Martin argues it was both human and godly, as recoil from suffering and divine…

He quotes Hugh Martin's 'The Shadow of Calvary' at length to argue that Christ's earnest longing to escape suffering was not a weakness but a necessary expression of His true humanity and holiness in the face of God's wrath.

No one knows the Father save the Son. Therefore knowing fully what the fury of holy wrath would be it would have been indeed ungodly for our Lord not to have shrunk back. Any other response than the one recorded would be both inhuman and ungodly. Listen to the saintly Hugh Martin an old Scottish theologian who has written the most profound work in the English language

59:18 - 60:02 Read in full sermon

The point: When faced with a dimension of God's will to which there is a natural or holy aversion, learn not to be governed by those aversions but to say, 'not my will, but Thine be done.'

Martin shares his personal experience of depression and aversion before leaving his family and flock for missions trips, using it as an example of overcoming natural affections to obey God's will.

in providence how we must learn not to be governed by our natural and even our holy aversions but to say concerning everything not my will but thine be done do you think there is no aversion in my heart as I anticipate going over to Australia and the Philippines for three weeks and leaving this flock and my wife and my children and grandchildren you think I say oh boy I can't wait for August to come get on the plane preach three four times a day whoopee

66:19 - 67:03 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not draw back from doing the will of God because of fear, as 'the fearful' are listed among those who go to hell.

He extends the previous illustration to the families of Pastor and Mrs. Dixon and Pastor and Mrs. Barker, highlighting the 'wickedness' of allowing natural affections to deter them from God's call to missions.

but if I allow that to deter me from what we have judged in prayerful deliberation to be the will of God how wicked how evil is the grace of man of marriage and of children and grandchildren and pastor to flock those very noble God-given bonds to deter me from doing the will of God now multiply that many times over when you think of Pastor and Mrs. Dixon and when you think of what Pastor and Mrs. Barker face in the anticipation of Jonathan and Allison how wicked

67:45 - 68:30 Read in full sermon