Forgiveness and Forsakenness - the meaning of the cross explained (2)

[0:00] Please turn, if you would, to Matthew chapter 26, to the passage that we read. And today's message is all about forgiveness and forsakenness.

[0:21] On Monday afternoon I was travelling somewhere in the car and I was listening to the radio on Cain, a programme on Radio 4 called Beyond Belief. It's on every week, it's a religious programme and this week they had an evangelical Anglican and a radical liberal discussing the state of the Anglican Communion at the current time.

[0:43] Some of you may have heard it. It began by questioning the evangelical who gave a classic Orthodox Christian position on all matters of the Gospel, on sin and salvation, on relationship to God through Jesus Christ.

[0:56] And so on. Then he turned to the radical liberal theologian who claimed that in essence he was in agreement, but then went on to describe something that really was so different as to be a different religion altogether.

[1:14] There was no uniqueness of Christ as God. There was only the sense that Jesus was a man who had a special experience of God that he could share with others.

[1:24] There was no need for repentance, no hope for transformation of human lives through God's grace. Just a God who affirms us as we are because he's a God of love.

[1:39] Most telling of all, halfway through the programme was an interview with a self-confessed humanist, an atheist. He had begun, he told us, as a keen Christian at secondary school.

[1:53] But it all began to go wrong when he went to university to study theology. He had gone from school hoping to perhaps go into Christian ministry, but came under the influence of liberal theologians, the kind of people who extol and encourage doubt and disbelief.

[2:09] And he became fairly liberal in his views himself. And then at last he said, I followed the logic of the journey that I was going on and ultimately became a humanist and an atheist.

[2:23] What do you make of liberal Christianity, he was asked. Well, he said, I have a lot of sympathy because I can see that they are halfway down the road to being atheistic humanists like me. I find that very tragic.

[2:39] And yet very honest and true. And there it was, coming from somebody who had completed that journey. It was extraordinary then that after that we listened to the liberal theologian blithely going on to extol going on faith journeys and how good it is that people move on from a simplistic biblical faith to more, quote, open thinking.

[3:04] It seemed absolutely extraordinary given that we just listened to a man tell us where that journey's ultimate destination is. One of sheer unbelief. Now the point is plain, isn't it?

[3:18] There's no room for any naivety in the Christian church. We have to recognize that as soon as you begin to displace the central aspects of the Christian gospel, we're playing with fire.

[3:31] We're in great danger. It's a road that leads only ultimately to one place and that is rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ as the unique Lord of glory.

[3:42] So we have to be on our guard. And that's why doctrine matters. It's knowledge of the truth, says Paul to Timothy, that leads to salvation.

[3:55] For there is one God, one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all. That's the message of the saving truth that leads to salvation, says Paul, no other.

[4:08] And it's that truth that Timothy is to guard, that all believers after him are to guard and to pass on to others and to make sure that others are able to teach to others because that is the way of salvation.

[4:20] That's the gospel. And it can't be tainted. So Paul says again and again in the New Testament, we must always be on our guard because falsehood will come even in and among the strongest Christian circles.

[4:37] And that is something that we've constantly seen through history and it's something that we're seeing today, sadly, among some very influential people in the evangelical world.

[4:47] Some of you are aware of the controversy that's arisen around the writings and statements of Steve Chalk. Steve Chalk is a very influential person in the evangelical world.

[5:00] He's very involved in Spring Harvest. He's chairman of the Oasis Trust and very often on television. He's very clever. He's very good. He's very attractive. He's very likable.

[5:13] And you'll see his books very prominently in our bookshops in Wesley Owen down the road there. And that's why I mention him, because I hesitate to mention somebody personally.

[5:24] But he is a very well-known voice in evangelicalism today, especially in the media. But sadly, in recent years, he has moved very significantly away from the orthodox teaching of scripture on the cross of Christ.

[5:42] He wrote a book called The Lost Message of Jesus. And in it, he strongly repudiates the idea that Jesus' death could be a substitute for sin, or an atonement for sin.

[5:54] Indeed, in a notorious phrase, he likens any such idea, and I'm quoting, to cosmic child abuse. Such ideas, he says, are, I'm quoting, moral dubious and a huge barrier to faith, and so should be rejected.

[6:09] Of course, the cross has always been a stumbling block to those who are perishing, to those who are blind to the truth of God.

[6:22] Nevertheless, it is the message of the crucified Savior, who is crucified for us, and in our place, that is the power of God for salvation to all who will believe.

[6:33] And nothing else is the power of God for salvation. And that's what's at stake, you see, the power of God for salvation. If we rob the cross of its real power, if we rob it of its objective, effectual achievement for the sake of sinful people.

[6:53] It's not just a quibble over some theory of the atonement that has been thought up by some theologians at some time. No, it's something that strikes at the very possibility of there being salvation at all.

[7:12] If the cross of Jesus is merely, and I'm quoting again, a symbol of love, or a vivid statement of the powerlessness of love, that's all the cross is, a demonstration of something, then it doesn't do anything for sinners, does it?

[7:29] It doesn't say to us, well, I feel your pain, or I share your weakness. Let me put it this way, that's not what you want from a surgeon, is it?

[7:40] When your problem is that you've got a life-threatening tumour. It's wonderful, of course, if he's full of empathy and feeling for you, and feels your pain. But what really matters is what he can do for you.

[7:55] Is he actually able to cut out that tumour and heal your body? It's no good if he can make you feel better about yourself, if he can't make you better by removing the cancer.

[8:08] You see, it's just the same with the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. What matters fundamentally is not what Jesus' death teaches me about love and faithfulness and obedience to God and love for our neighbour and that sort of thing.

[8:24] Of course it teaches us all of these things. Of course it sets us a supreme example. But none of that is of any value at all if my greatest need isn't addressed.

[8:36] The problem of my objective guilt. Guilt before a holy God who can't look upon sin, who must condemn me for my sin, who must condemn me for the fact that I have failed to live up to his calling upon my life as an image of God.

[8:54] No, what I need is not just a teacher, although I do. What I need is a saviour. I need someone who can actually do for me what I cannot do for myself.

[9:08] Who can actually make me right with God. Who can reconcile me with God. The God that I'm estranged from because of the objective reality of my sin.

[9:21] And unless that is the message of the Gospel, then there's no good news. None at all. It's nothing. That's why Don Carson has to conclude in a recent book that he's written of the position of Steve Chalk and others who would take that view.

[9:41] He says this, if words mean anything, they've lost the Gospel. And that's why it's so important for us to see that this Gospel, the historic Gospel of the historic Christian faith, isn't just some arbitrary interpretation dreamed up by one branch of the Church at one particular time.

[10:01] That's the sort of claim that's made. Therefore, it's no better than any other theory of how the Gospel works. No, rather, it's the theology and the interpretation placed on the cross by the Scriptures themselves, by the Old Testament law and prophets, by the Apostles and the Gospel writers, and by the Lord Jesus himself.

[10:22] Remember 1 Corinthians 15, Christ died for our sins. That's the interpretation. It's a death for sins. For our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.

[10:34] That roots the interpretation in thousands of years of history and revelation that prepares for Christ's coming. And it clearly tells us what it's going to mean when it comes. It's going to be a sacrifice for sins.

[10:51] And we saw clearly last time that Matthew is saying that in this chapter. He's clearly pointing to Jesus' death as a prophesied, sacrificial death.

[11:01] It's the Passover. It's the thing that delivers God's people out of their bondage into their true destiny forever. He delivers them through the blood of the Passover lamb, the blood of deliverance, and the blood of the new covenant that actually achieves real and lasting forgiveness.

[11:20] Verse 28. This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out from many for the forgiveness of sins. But Jesus is also telling us more and Matthew means us to understand more just by the way he preaches his message to us in these verses.

[11:37] He wants us to see how that forgiveness is actually achieved. He wants us to see how all that the many sacrifices that the Old Testament pointed forward to could actually at last become real in history and real in our experience.

[11:59] To use Paul's words from 2 Corinthians 5, Matthew here is showing us that God made him, Jesus, to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

[12:13] He's showing us that in Christ God was actually reconciling the world to himself. God was doing something in the cross of Jesus Christ. And he was doing it in Christ for us.

[12:28] And that whole concept of substitution of Jesus as the vicarious sin-bearer, the one who bears sins in our place on behalf of his people, that's something that runs right through Matthew's whole book.

[12:47] The whole priority of Matthew's gospel is taken up with the issue of sin at last being dealt with in fulfillment of everything that had been promised in the past.

[12:59] Remember right back in Matthew chapter 1 when the angel speaks to Joseph. His name will be Jesus. Hosea in the Hebrew, the Lord saves because he will save his people from their sins.

[13:14] Remember at the start of Jesus' ministry, he is baptized with a baptism of repentance to signify that he is standing in the place of sinners as the bearer of their sin in their place.

[13:26] ever since Peter comes to the understanding that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah in chapter 16. What has Jesus been teaching us about? The Christ must suffer.

[13:39] He suffers as the servant of God, Isaiah's servant who will be wounded for the transgression of others all through Isaiah 53. and now just immediately prior to his death again here in verse 28 we're just reminded it's all about forgiveness of sins.

[14:00] That's the very heart of his mission and the cross is where everything is going to be accomplished once and for all and Jesus is determined that his disciples should understand what it really means.

[14:12] If they don't understand that they'll never have a gospel to preach. This is where Peter and the other disciples got their theology of the cross. And this is where we too must get our theology of the cross else we won't have any gospel to preach at least no gospel that has the power to save, to transform, to bring real deliverance into the life of the kingdom of heaven.

[14:39] So I want us to see that however much some people today may object to the very idea of Jesus' death as a substitutionary death for sins, a death that actually bore the just penalty for the sins of his people by suffering the justice of God and the wrath of God in his own person.

[15:00] However much people may howl in derision at that very thought, that is exactly what Jesus is teaching his disciples in his last hours with them.

[15:11] and that's exactly what Matthew is at pains to point out in his gospel in the way he presents these last hours. He's telling us plainly in this chapter that Jesus' death isn't just a promised sacrifice, the Passover sacrifice that all the shadows pointed to, but also it is a purposeful substitutionary atonement for sins.

[15:37] Jesus' death is a purposeful substitutionary death for sins. You see how Matthew has made that so clear for us in the way that he records all this.

[15:52] You see that he puts side by side in this chapter that we read two vital experiences that Jesus has with his disciples in these last hours. If you read through by the way you'll see that that phrase with them with him is repeated again and again.

[16:06] It's very, very important. They must be with him to understand this. You see the two scenes? First there's the upper room and then there's the garden of Gethsemane.

[16:18] And each account centres on a cup that's to be drunk. Do you see that? In the upper room it's verse 28. It's a wonderful cup of forgiveness that's poured out for the many. But in the garden of Gethsemane in verse 39 it's very different isn't it?

[16:34] It's a terrible cup of forsakenness. Not for the many but for the one. For Jesus. See Matthew's giving us a tale of two cups. It's a story of forgiveness on the one hand and forsakenness on the other.

[16:52] Just look at first at the cup of forgiveness. The whole story of the Last Supper is that Jesus' death is a wonderful death for many. Verse 28. It's a death that works forgiveness despite the unfaithfulness and the wickedness of the human heart.

[17:08] You see that both of these encounters both the upper room and Gethsemane they're preceded by a graphic reminder aren't they of the unfaithfulness of humanity even in Jesus' closest disciples.

[17:22] In the one Judas is the representative in verses 20 to 25 and in the other in verses 31 to 35 it's Peter that's to the floor. And Judas you see flags up doesn't he the sheer perversity of human sin.

[17:37] Willful rebellion against God here is the Son of God betrayed by one who even shares his dish with him his own food. It's the epitome of betrayal of course isn't it?

[17:51] And yet that is really the essence of all human sin. We're all rebels we're all betrayers we have been since the very beginning that was Adam at the very beginning the sheer perversity of someone who had deep intimate relationships with God and yet totally betrayed his love and trust.

[18:13] And here it is at the end it's exactly the same Jesus is betrayed by the leaders by the priests by the people by the Romans even by his closest band of twelve disciples. In verse 22 all the disciples say is it I?

[18:28] Could it be me? Of course in a very real sense the answer is yes. You're all betrayers and they do they all run away at the end. They're all perverse rebels against God.

[18:42] They're all unable to have fellowship with the Father that verse 29 speaks of drinking and eating at the Father's house and the Father's table. They're all rebels and can't have that unless there is a real and a radical forgiveness.

[18:59] because sin has a penalty the penalty is banishment from the Father's house. Remember the Garden of Eden God said disobedience will bring death.

[19:12] And it did it brought physical death but far far more it brought death as the exclusion from God's presence. The angel with the flaming sword was there at the gate of the Garden of Eden there was no way back even if you wanted to go back.

[19:24] banished. And that's the real problem for mankind who's betrayed the Lord our maker. It's an objective problem and it's a problem of God's making.

[19:38] It's not just a subjective experience of our own it's the penalty for sin. And the way back to God's presence is impossible without an objective problem being dealt with and God is the only one who can do that.

[19:53] Do you see we're being told here there is a way of fellowship again through real forgiveness. Even for undeserving and perverse human beings through the blood of the covenant that's poured out for forgiveness the blood of the Passover lamb.

[20:13] And it's real it's objective it's something that God does in the death of Jesus so that he can offer it to sinners through the death of Jesus.

[20:25] It's not something sinful people do it's something sinful people receive. It's something Jesus gives and we receive from him by drinking the cup of forgiveness that he offers by eating the bread of his body given for us.

[20:43] There's nothing mysterious or magic about the bread and the wine it's perfectly obvious Jesus isn't saying that these are his actual bread and body he's there in his own flesh and blood right in front of them.

[20:53] That's preposterous. There's not a shred of the hint of these kind of bizarre ideas that we'd want to point to the Lord's Supper as a saving thing in itself. Do be absolutely clear about that.

[21:08] Jesus' work on the cross does not point us to the Lord's Supper as the real place of forgiveness the real transaction of salvation. It's quite the reverse isn't it?

[21:20] The Lord's Supper points us to the cross as the one great event that actually saves us. The Lord's Supper preaches the cross to us and it assures us that its work is real not the other way around.

[21:34] What Jesus is saying here so plainly is that real forgiveness is not something that can be got any other way. Not something that can come from within ourselves. Not something that can come from imitating Jesus.

[21:49] It's something that can only come by receiving forgiveness from God alone. Receiving it at the hands of Jesus as the fruit of his death as the sacrifice as the atonement for sin.

[22:03] It must be made ours personally of course. We must drink the cup he says. We must trust him. But it must be given by him. That's what it means for Jesus to be a saviour.

[22:16] salvation. It's not salvation from poverty or from loneliness or from low self-esteem or anything like that although it may include that. But it's salvation from sins.

[22:29] From something objective that stands between us and God because God put it there. And that's every person in the greatest need. That's been Jesus' message and Matthew from the beginning of his gospel.

[22:43] Because the day of God's kingdom is coming. It's the day of salvation but it's also the day of his wrath, his judgment. That's why John the Baptist right at the beginning of the gospel, his message was flee from the wrath to come.

[22:58] That's why Jesus' first message was repent for the kingdom is at hand. And you see, without forgiveness, well on that day what Jesus says of Judas here in verse 24 is true of all betrayers of Jesus.

[23:17] It's true of all the world. Better know it to have been born. Why? Well because sin against God has a penalty. A just and a terrible penalty of utter separation from God.

[23:35] It's what Jesus keeps calling all the way through Matthew's gospel the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. The punishment of eternal fire. Those are Jesus' words, not my words. But the glory of the gospel is that there is a way of escape.

[23:50] There's a way of great deliverance from all bondage. There is a Passover from the guilt and the power and the tyranny of sin. Into the glorious fellowship of the table of the Father in heaven.

[24:04] Into the reality that verse 29 speaks of. Reigning and rejoicing in the Father's house forever, drinking his cup. But it's only through the cup of forgiveness, the wonderful death of Jesus for many, for all, who will drink that cup, who will make Jesus their own.

[24:26] That's the way. But you might ask, well, how can that be? How can the unfaithful one forgive, receive forgiveness from Jesus like that?

[24:40] how can God be just and just wipe away sins as though they don't matter? Surely sin must be paid for. Surely justice demands it. Well, yes, it does.

[24:53] And the answer lies in the second cup that must be drunk. Drunk by Jesus, the one who is utterly faithful for his people who are not faithful and who cannot be faithful.

[25:05] And this cup is not the cup of forgiveness, but the cup of forsakenness. The other side of the wonder of the upper room story, that's what we see here in the Garden of Gethsemane.

[25:17] It's a cup that speaks of a terrible death of the one in place of the many. Not a cup of wonder, but a cup of sheer horror, a cup of death for sins as the penalty for sin.

[25:31] Full of all the sheer dread so that our Lord has to pray three times, let this awful cup pass from me. If there be any other way possible, I shrink from this.

[25:44] It's a cup of utter forsakenness. It's the only thing that makes sense of Jesus' agony in the garden. His sorrows so terrible, verse 38 says, is almost fatal.

[25:59] He's prostrating, verse 39, just thinking about what awaits him. That cannot be the physical death alone that he's fearing. We know that when that comes, he is serene, he's silent, he's calm.

[26:14] We know that many martyrs of the faith have been just like that in the end. No, this is not physical death that almost destroys emotionally the Lord Jesus Christ.

[26:28] This is death as no other. This is a death of untold horror as the wages of human sin. sin. This is what the law and the prophets foretold. True sacrifice for sin, true atonement must be by substitution because judgment demands, justice demands, that sins should be punished.

[26:50] Every single sacrifice in the Old Testament was based upon this symbolism. The great central sacrifice of the day of atonement encapsulates everything.

[27:01] there was the two goats. You remember the one goat is slain and its blood sprinkled on the cover above the Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat, signifying that the penalty of sin is paid.

[27:16] And the other goat, you remember the scapegoat, sent out and driven far away into the wilderness, bearing the sins, signifying removal of sins into the desolate place, the place away from the presence of God and his people.

[27:29] And Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, knew that his death was the fulfillment of all of these shadows. It was the substitutionary death.

[27:41] It was the real thing. He was the servant of the Lord, as Isaiah said. He would be wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities.

[27:52] It was God's will to crush him when he makes his soul a guilt offering for sin, said Isaiah. That's why Jesus was in such an agony of sorrow.

[28:04] He, more than any man ever, knew exactly what this cup meant. He knew its burning intensity against sin. You can read in the prophets again and again about this terrible cup, the cup of the wrath of God Almighty.

[28:19] Just read Jeremiah 25 or Ezekiel 23 or many other places. Jesus knew that this was his to drink to fulfill all the promises of redemption.

[28:32] Verse 24 says, The Son of Man goes as it is written of him. Jesus knew. And he knew it meant utter forsakenness, separation from his father, cut off because he was to become sin for his people.

[28:52] One scholar says that the word for troubled in verse 37 has its root in a word meaning far away from home, utterly desolate.

[29:06] It is the cup of forsakenness. The absolute abandonment of hell was what faced our Lord Jesus Christ in the garden.

[29:16] He was to be the scapegoat, cast out to bear sin far, far away, walking alone in the wilderness, separated from God, utterly.

[29:29] That's the cup that Jesus must drink as the Christ. So that there would be, so that there could be a cup of forgiveness to be offered to his people.

[29:44] He must drink our cup of unfaithfulness, and betrayal so that we might drink his cup of faithful obedience. Again, you see, so starkly the contrast of the disciples' utter unfaithfulness and Jesus' complete faithfulness.

[30:01] This time it's Peter to the fore in verses 31 to 35, isn't it? Full of bravado and promises, we'll never fail you Jesus. But they're all fine wanting yet again, aren't they?

[30:14] See, sin isn't just perversity and rebellion that deserves punishment. God's law doesn't just have a penal sanction for disobedience.

[30:25] It makes positive demands for obedience, for faithfulness, and even at our very, very best, we fall short of what he asks of us. That's the shocking thing that we discover about ourselves, isn't it?

[30:41] Even our best intentions are beyond us. we may become convicted of our sin and rebellion against God, we may want to change and be obedient and get back to God, but we find we can't.

[30:53] We can't undo the past, can we? We can't be what we're meant to be even if we want to be that. You know that. That's the way it is with the disciples here.

[31:06] They've betrayed Jesus, not here by outright wickedness, it's by weakness. It meant well that they all failed him. See how Matthew makes the contrast so obvious?

[31:19] Three times, he says to Peter, you'll deny me Peter, yes you will, three times. Three times the disciples fail and fall asleep, while three times Jesus, bearing the sins of the world on his shoulders, facing the hour of darkness in agony and distress, three times he prays, thy will be done.

[31:42] They can't even do the one thing that the Son of God asks of them in his time of need, just like in another garden at the beginning. Couldn't you be faithful to me in just this one command, Adam?

[31:56] Just this one thing? But in this garden you see, not like Adam and Eve who had the closeness of their own fellowship and comfort, who had the fellowship and intimacy with God himself, but alone, in agony, and by the forces of hell themselves, tempting him in the weakness of his human flesh to take an easier way, pressing him to go a different way from the way of the cross.

[32:24] Yet this man, the proper man, the last Adam, he's faithful, he grasps obediently with both hands the cup of wrath set before him for his people's sins, so that he could set his cup before us, the cup of forgiveness in his blood, through his faithfulness to the very, very end to his Father in heaven.

[32:54] You see the completeness of that double exchange? There's the negative side, he bears the punishment, he bears the penalty of sin. And there's the wonderful positive side, his perfect faithful obedience fulfills every positive demand of God, every desire of a human being to be the perfect image of God.

[33:17] All that is ours becomes his, and all that is his becomes ours. That's why that hymn is so great, bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned, he stood, sealed my pardon with his blood.

[33:36] Hallelujah, what a saviour. But there's more, you see, because there's the positive side. Guilty, violent, helpless, we, spotless Lamb of God was he. Full atonement, can it be?

[33:48] Yes. Full atonement, full salvation, his cup, all of it. The penalty and the perfect life is yours. Yours becomes his.

[34:05] That's why the writer to the Hebrews in chapter 5 says, Jesus offered up prayers and supplication with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death. And he was heard because of his reverence.

[34:16] Although he was a son, he learned obedience. That is, he learned the sheer cost of obedience. He learned it by what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of salvation to all who obey him.

[34:31] That is, to all who will drink his cup of forgiveness. Who will accept his offering in your behalf. You see, Jesus' death is a sacrificial death.

[34:44] Long promised, now achieved, it is a Passover. It brings deliverance from bondage into destiny. It is a substitutionary death.

[34:55] Purposed by God. Completed at Calvary. And that's why it is a saving death. Only thus can God be God, holy and just, and also the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

[35:12] It's only through Jesus and in his death that we receive reconciliation with God. God did the reconciling in Jesus Christ and in his death.

[35:26] But he offers it to us. He holds out the cup of forgiveness in his blood. And that's the heart of the gospel of grace. Without that great exchange, there is no good news.

[35:37] Without that, we're still in our sins. But with it, there is reconciliation. Reconciliation. With it. There is the joy of the Father's house and the Father's table offered to us.

[35:53] Just as I finish, I want you to see so clearly what that means for your life and for mine. What is Matthew really wanting us to take away with us here?

[36:08] Well, first is a sobering reality check, isn't it? When it comes to ensuring that we get right with God, that we stay right with God. We can't trust ourselves.

[36:20] And we can't. That's the honest truth. We're all betrayers, aren't we? We're all just like the disciples. We may not think that we've sunk as low as Judas. But with some of us, I guess, know that the truth is that we have.

[36:37] But can any of us really say that we've outstripped all the disciples and Peter? We've all let Jesus down, even at our very best, with our best intention. And we'll do it again.

[36:50] The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. That's what Jesus says. And we must be real. We can't trust ourselves, can we? We're all weak. And we all prove unfaithful all the time.

[37:03] And, friends, until we swallow that truth about ourselves, until we're really honest about ourselves, we're living, we're hiding in a make-believe world, just like Judas and Peter were.

[37:14] We need to read on to find out what happened to them. No, you can't trust yourself. That's what Matthew's telling us. Then he's saying to us something wonderful.

[37:27] You can trust the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the wonderful message that shines so brightly in this chapter. Surrounded by betrayal, whether it's through wickedness or weakness, Jesus Christ is faithful.

[37:41] He won't betray his father. He won't betray his own calling as saviour. And he will not betray his people, his followers.

[37:54] And that means he'll never betray you. That means you can trust him because he's committed to you. You can trust Jesus Christ. He will never let you down.

[38:07] Although you will again and again let him down. You can trust him for your past. Whatever your betrayal, whether it's been through weakness or absolute wickedness and rebellion, his cup is for you.

[38:24] And your cup is his. And that's the way it is forever. My saviour's obedience and blood hide all my transgressions from view.

[38:34] That's what we sung. You can trust Jesus Christ for your past. You can trust him for the present. He's committed to you now. He'll never let you go. You will still disappoint him, but he will be the faithful one to you.

[38:49] Eternity will not erase your name from the palm of his hands. Even as Jesus is telling his disciples in this passage about them falling away, he says, After I have risen, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.

[39:04] I'll be there with you. Even after your betrayal. And even in the midst of your stumbling, your falls, your failures for him, he's committed to you.

[39:20] His cup is yours. You can trust him for the present. You can trust him today. He will be there. And you can trust him for the future. If you've really drunk his cup of forgiveness now, you will drink the cup of joy with him in the Father's house.

[39:36] However dark your experience may be at some stage in your life, however forsaken by God you may feel now or in the future or at any time, however you might fear that at the very end when death approaches, you will be forsaken.

[39:54] It cannot be ever. And it will not be ever. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because he has been forsaken for you.

[40:09] But you will never be forsaken by God. Those who drink his cup can never, ever, ever be separated from him.

[40:22] You can trust the Lord Jesus Christ for the past. You can trust him today and you can trust him to the very, very end. Because it was for you that he said in agony in the garden.

[40:41] Thy will be done. You can trust him. You will trust him, won't you? Let's sing.