August 19, 2020
FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
CHRIST SUFFERS GOD’S WRATH AGAINST SIN ALONE AT GETHSEMANE
“I have trodden the wine press alone, and from the peoples no one was with Me.”
Isa. 63:3, NKJV.
So prophesied the gospel prophet regarding Christ’s superhuman agony at Gethsemane culminating at Golgotha. The Greek ‘Gethsemani is a transliteration of the Aramaic ‘Gath Shemani,’ meaning, ‘oil press.’ It cannot be mere coincidence that this specially appointed place located in the western side of Mount of Olives was called an ‘oil press’ where Christ would fulfill the prophecy that He would ‘trod the winepress alone’ for our salvation.
“Tarry ye here,’ Jesus said to Peter, James and John, “and watch with Me,’ near the entrance to the garden of Gethsemane.”
“He went a little distance from them—not so far but that they could both see and hear Him—and fell prostrate upon the ground. He felt that by sin He was being SEPARATED from His Father. The GULF was so broad, so black, so deep, that His spirit shuddered before it. This AGONY He must not exert His DIVINE power to escape. As MAN He must SUFFER the consequences of man’s sin. As a MAN He must endure the WRATH of God against TRANSGRESSION.”
“Christ was now standing in a different ATTITUDE from that in which He had EVER stood before. His suffering can be best described in the words of the prophet, ‘Awake, O sword, against My shepherd, and against the Man that is My fellow, saith the Lord of hosts.’ Zech. 13:7, A.V.”
“As the Substitute and Surety for sinful man, Christ was suffering UNDER divine justice. He saw what justice MEANT. Hitherto He has been as an INTERCESSOR for others; now He LONGED TO HAVE AN INTERCESSOR FOR HIMSELF.” [And there was no Intercessor for Him! He had to “trod the winepress alone!’].” E. G. White, Desire of Ages, p. 686.
Once again, dear brethren, contemplate and meditate upon these truths instead of allowing your minds to be controlled by the layer upon layer of confusion, deception, fear and despair that Satan is sowing upon mankind right now! There is only one way to secure our standing in the rapidly approaching final conflict: storing and stocking the pantries of our mind with the “great, testing truths” for these last days! God bless all, NMF