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The Shadow of Calvary Chp 4:
Failing Fellow Watchers

Hugh Martin

“What! could ye not watch with me one hour?”  Matt 26:40

If we turn to consider the aspect in which the disciples present themselves in this crisis, the first thought that strikes us is the perfect contrast between their infirmity and failure on the one hand, and the faithfulness and victory of their Lord on the other. It would seem as if the three chiefest of the apostles had been selected on this occasion expressly in order to prove how inadequate for such an hour - “the hour and the power of darkness” - was the utmost human strength. Jesus was engaged in a work in which none could aid him. The three most eminent believers then on earth, far from being able to take part with him in his sore travail in redeeming his brethren, failed even in the commanded vigilance that was necessary if they were even to be mere spectators of the scene. “When he cometh unto the disciples, he findeth them sleeping.”

Now we may consider - the Sin; the Rebuke; the Exhortation; the Apology, or rather the Explanation; the Relapses, and the Issue.

I.  THE SIN

In the first place, then, we are to consider their sin. While their Lord, their Friend, their Saviour was wrestling in an agony of sorrow and of prayer, they slumbered and slept. “When he cometh to the disciples, he findeth them sleeping.” But in this as in most similar cases, the chief matter of interest and especially, of general practical application, lies , not singly in the sin itself, but very much in the circumstances by which it was committed, and the aggravations by which it was characterised. It is when we take these into account that we really understand the case; particularly when, as in this instance, the guilt arises solely from the circumstances in which the deed is done. Their sleep was sinful, not in itself, but from the circumstances in which it occurred. And these were such as to render it grievously offensive to their Lord, and deeply humiliating to themselves. For instance, in the first place:

A Direct Breach

1.  It was a direct breach of their Lord’s injunction. For Jesus had said unto them, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death. Tarry ye here, and watch with me.” Even without this special requirement, the whole position of affairs, and the ordinary principles of Christian prudence, not to say of personal friendship and love to Jesus, ought to have been sufficient to commend to them unceasing vigilance as very specially the duty belonging to the hour that was passing over them. And so with every Christian and in all circumstances: his position and his principles alone - his position in the midst of an alluring world, of spiritual wickedness, and of the rulers of the darkness of the world; and his principles as one separated from the world and consecrated to God - these alone ought to be sufficient to keep him on his watch against temptation. But if, besides proving unfaithful to these, he be found breaking through express precepts of the Lord - not alive to the danger of his position, nor answering to the promptings of his principles; and even over and above that, deaf to special injunctions of the Lord, then surely he hath the greater sin - as these disciples had.

After Special Warnings

2.  Their sin was committed after very special warnings. “All ye shall be offended because of me this night.” There is evil at the door. There is danger approaching. And the time is this night. Ye shall be offended this night. If ye ever watched before - or ever mean henceforth to watch; if vigilance ever had, or shall have, any place with you at all, let it be “this night” - when your greatest crisis comes. Your chiefest hour of peril passes over you. For it will be Satan’s opportunity, and your necessity. The prince of this world cometh. It is the hour and the power of darkness. Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.

Now after such solemn and reiterated fore-warnings, was not their offence deeply aggravated? Alas! this is not an uncommon aggravation of the sins of believers. May not your sin in this respect have been like theirs? It may have been after warnings from the discipline of God’s providence, from the chastisements by which he condemned, and tried to break you from, that sin before. It may have been after warnings given you by experience of the danger of trusting to your own resolution, or leaning to your own understanding. It may have been after very special warning, seasonably and suitably administered in the preaching of the word; warnings borne home on your heart by the strong action of the good Spirit of God, seeking to conduct you to the land of uprightness; and, possibly, after dreadful warnings of the ruinous and fatal lengths to which others have gone by entering on the temptation against which you have not watched. And if these things be so, surely it is high time to awaken out of sleep.

The Refusal of a Personal Favour

3.  Their sin was aggravated by this sore consideration, that it was the refusal of a personal favour to their Lord. There were many grounds on which Jesus could have put the duty he enjoined. His own authority as their Lord and Master was enough. Their own danger, which he had clearly explained, should have been sufficient. But giving them credit for true love to his person, he chose rather to request their wakeful diligence as a personal favour to himself. He opened up to them his own rent and wounded heart. He showed before them his trouble. And he implored them, as they loved him, to watch with him in such an hour - the hour of the travail of his soul. Oh! who shall tell all the depth and tenderness of that personal and pathetic appeal which he made to them? “My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death. Tarry ye here, and watch with me.” Surely, by putting the duty upon a ground like this, Jesus consulted best for the likelihood of its being discharged, and addressed himself to the strongest motives that could have engaged them to discharge it. Every one who is alive to the claims of sacred friendship is aware that the recommendation of a beloved friend is far more likely to be observed, when he chooses to bind it up with the truth and evidence of our personal attachment to himself, than when he puts it merely on the ground of our own interest, or, if he be a superior, on the ground of his official authority over us. And when Jesus thus asked their watchfulness as a personal favour, as a tribute of their love which he would be gratified to receive, we feel as if we might almost do well to be indignant at the men who failed to gratify him.

But let us consider ourselves. Has Jesus never asked any personal favour at our hands? And if so, have we never failed as they did? Is it the eleven alone, or is it these three highly-favoured ones among the only, that have it in their power to add this aggravation to their sin? Was such a possibility limited to the few who companied with Jesus in the days of his flesh? On the contrary, Jesus places all our sanctification on the same footing on which he placed this request to the apostles. Over and above the unchangeable authority of God, and the ever-binding obligation of his law as a perfect and inviolable rule of our obedience; not to speak of the promotion of our own comfort and true moral dignity, or of the reward which is found in keeping those commandments which are not grievous; over and above all responsibilities and motives which arise from our relation to God - the Father, Son and Holy Spirit - and from unchangeable principles alike of law and gospel; Jesus has condescended to pour a peculiar tenderness and life and strength and unflagging freshness and welcome over all the obligations of his people, by putting their whole obedience on the footing of a grand series of personal favours to himself. It is this that wakens up the finest feelings of the truly Christian or regenerated heart. It is this, as one element, which differences infinitely the generous and evangelical obedience of those that are freely forgiven, from the selfish self-righteous efforts of those that know not the gospel. It is this, as one element and ornament of gospel holiness, that makes the king’s daughter all glorious within; that justifies as very holy a free justification; and almost sanctifies twice the sanctification of the children of God.

They are enlisted and engaged by the gospel to render many a personal favour to their Lord; to gratify the Son of God, their beloved and their friend; to promote his highest satisfaction; to cause him to see of the travail of his soul; to have a share in causing the pleasure of the Lord to prosper in his hand. For what else does Jesus mean, or on what other footing but this does he place our obedience, when he says, “If ye love me keep my commandments”? And what else did Paul mean but this - this, in all its sweetest and most engaging power - when he said, “The love of Christ constraineth us to live not unto ourselves, but unto him that died for us and that rose again”?

But if these things be so, how aggravated are the sins of believers, implying, as they must thus imply, a rejection of the Lord’s tenderest appeal, a refusal to do the Saviour a pleasure!

Breaking a Confidence

4.  The sin of the disciples was aggravated by this consideration that Jesus had reposed great confidence in them. He had selected them from a whole nation to be his especial followers and companions. He had admitted them to a sacred familiarity and intimacy which ahs almost made them the objects of a holy envy - if the expression might be used - in all ages since. He had, in his late discourse with them at the paschal table, poured out his heart to them in strains of divine truth and tenderness and love, which have been the ever-fresh study and astonishment of spiritual minds, in proportion to their light and holiness and love, ever since they were put on record. He had brought forward these three highly-favoured men nearer to the marvellous scene of his agony than any others, and made them spectators of what he would have shrunk from the rude, unfeeling world beholding. And it was very far from being the first time that these selected three had been allowed to see ad hear things from which the others were excluded. Surely they had been very generously, very confidingly dealt with. Surely it touched their honour very closely that they should not fail in such an hour as this. And if they did, do we not feel that their offence was aggravated by the weighty trust and tender confidence which they belied?

For it is a principle which operates well and powerfully on natures in which generous emotion has any place. To repose large confidence in such a case, is to create or call forth the honour which receives and guards and justifies it. Among the higher order of minds, and often in the humblest ranks, it may be seen to bind the servant to his master by one of the strongest ties, and to give a moral dignity to the relation - He hath counted me honourable, and I will prove that he was not mistaken.

How beautiful it is to find every fine feeling of our nature seized upon and sanctified and impressed into action by the gospel! That glorious gospel of the grace of God finds the sinner not trustworthy at all towards God - an apostate, an enemy, a traitor: and it slays his enmity; reverses his apostasy; sweeps away all his treachery and guile; transforms him into a trusty and a loyal child of honour; simply by at once reposing in him the highest confidence. It finds him bankrupt - dishonourably so, destitute, his character broken, his credit gone. And it gives him a character by giving him some of the jewels of the crown royal of heaven to keep. It gives him freely, in his unworthiness and untrustworthiness, a plenary forgiveness of all his sins, and a rich reconciliation to his offended Father in heaven; and hopes that he will not abuse a mercy so large and liberal. It gives him free access to the great covenant treasure chest of the unsearchable riches of Christ; and hopes that he will never spend them on his lusts, or sin that grace may abound. It gives him great consolation and good hope through grace, reversing all his destiny and his inheritance; and making him a free son of God without money and without price, it hopes that he will walk worthy of the high vocation wherewith he is called. It gives him a clean heart and a right spirit, and the indwelling of the Spirit of our God, and hopes that when entrusted therewith he will keep that good thing which is committed to him through the Holy Ghost that dwelleth in him. It deals bountifully with him, and trusts that he will live and keep God’s law. It places in his hands the honour of his God, necessarily committed in his own character as a professed child of God, bearing the heavenly Father’s image; and hopes that he will give no occasion to the adversary to blaspheme, but rather cause men to glorify God on his behalf and to take knowledge of him that he has been with Jesus. In fine, it gives him Christ, to be his for ever, to dwell in his heart by faith, the fountain and pledge of all - and then leaves it to himself to cry out, “What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits towards me?”

But if, by negligence and wilfulness, he belie a confidence so generous, how aggravated and heinous must be the believer’s iniquity - even as was that of these disciples in Gethsemane!

Violation of their Lord's Example

5.  We must remark yet another aggravation of their sin. They failed to discharge a duty for which they had both an example and an encouragement, in the work in which Jesus himself was engaged. Had he retired into the garden for repose; courting the relief of sleep from the fatigues and anxieties of the day, and the still more dread prospects of the morrow; leaving them, the while, to act as sentinels to guard his privacy, or forewarn him of the enemy’s approach - even in such a case, with all the duty of unlimbering wakefulness devolved on themselves alone, while their master sought repose; they ought to have been animated by such holy jealousy to guard their post of honour as would diligently have warded off, or at least eagerly and early descriedDESCRY v.t. to catch sight of, to successfully discern. all signs of danger, and challenged all comers with the challenge of the Bride in the Song, “I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up nor awake my beloved till he please.”

But the case was very different. Their commanded wakefulness was not designed to minister to his ease or protect his comfort. It was only to second, very faintly, the intense action of his own infinitely trying duty. He left them, himself to pray: “Tarry ye here, while I go and pray yonder.” And they had to lay aside every weight and their heaviness, and the sin that did beset them, literally looking unto Jesus. For he was immediately within their view. He was under their very eye, himself watching unto prayer - very eminently “praying with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for al saints.” Ah! he assigned them no work which he shunned himself. And still he assigns his people no difficulty, no duty, unknown or foreign to his own experience. This very duty of watching and praying that ye enter not into temptation, when enjoined by Jesus, ought surely to be felt as coming with all gracefulness and all the enforcement which example may carry, over and above what may be derived from authority. He was himself intensely wakeful and prayerful. He had an agony of wakefulness and prayer. The disciples ought to have seen this; ought to have kept their eye upon it. They ought to have stimulated themselves, quickened themselves, shaken off the bands of their neck and the spell of slumber, by the sight - the thought - that he was himself assailed as they were; that he too, like them, yea infinitely more, was the mark of Satan’s fiery darts; that the skirtsie:
the outskirts of the battle only of the cloud of battle troubled them, while its central terrors were wrestling with him, who in watchfulness and agony of prayer was wrestling with the very power of darkness. And still the same is true of every tried believer. He ought to watch and pray as at the gate of Gethsemane; as in the view of Jesus’ wrestlings; in the remembrance of Jesus’ temptations. Is it not to this very end that such frequent assertion is made to the effect that he himself hath suffered being tempted - to assure us also that he is thus able to succour them that are tempted?For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.
Hebrews 2:18 Is it not to make us watch and pray, as in the very wake of our Lord’s own vigilance and prayer, that we are assured we have not an high priestFor we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Hebrews 4:15 who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin? Ought it not to have inspired the disciples with unquenchable persistency in watching unto prayer, that they was the Captain of their Salvation precisely so engaged himself with the powers of evil? Was it not enough to nerve them with endless resistance - that they could not possibly fall or fail while they might thus participate in the success which the Lord’s own watchfulness and prayer were achieving? So that to fall from his example and fellowship was to fail of his triumph, and to refuse the dominion over evil which Jesus was procuring for them! For when he called them to “watch with him” - to watch simultaneously with him, after the example and in the concert of his own watchfulness and prayer - did not Jesus impy that they should in that case conquer in and with his own conquest? And still, when with this model before them - a model that is strangely fraught, as no other is, not merely with the elements of an example, but with the power of a triumph and the pledge of a deliverance - when this model was before them, believers shun the contest or slumber in it, surely, like the disciples, they have the greater sinThe failure of the disciples in the garden, in spite of their Lord’s command, and his supreme example, represents an unchallengeable answer to the theories of the atonement which suggest that the Cross was a noble example, to inspire us to a like obedience. It just doesn’t work. Fallen men cannot obey in like manner with the holy, harmless, and undefiled Son of God. To suggest that this is the true nature of the cross is to expose oneself as not understanding the word of God’s testimony in regard to fallen human nature, and also of never truly examining oneself in the light of God’s holy law. They are ignorant of Scripture, ignorant of themselves, and ignorant of Christ himself. And their theories will perish with them.!

Yes, this sin was exceeding sinful. They slumbered while their lord was in his sorrow; they did so in breach of his express injunction; in defiance of special warning; unto the refusal of a personal favour solicited by their Lord; unto the belying of great confidence reposed in them; and in violation of their Lord’s own example as it transpired before them.

No wonder, then, that this exposed them to the rebuke which might well carry some indignation in it -

II.  THE REBUKE

“What! could ye not watch with me one hour?” “And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter: What! could ye not watch with me one hour?”

We mark, at once, the just severity with which this rebuke, addressed to all, was specially pointed to Peter. What! Thou that didst so lately speak so resolutely: “Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will not I be offended” - “Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee.” Is your valour, and is your love, come to this so soon? “He saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou couldst not thou watch one hour?” (Mark 14:37). Alas! on whom then can I rely?

But while rightfully pointed especially to Peter, the rebuke was addressed to all; for what Peter had said, the same “likewise also said all the disciples.” Nor were there any among them whose consciences could refuse it as a merited and seasonable reproof - a word profitable for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that they might be led the better to furnish themselves for good works.

Mark the varied emphasis of this rebuke, applicable in almost all its force to slumbering believers in and circumstances.

Could not ye watch with me one hour?

1.  "What! could not ye watch with me one hour?" Could not ye watch with me? ye who have sojourned with me, and suffered with me, and been interested deeply in me; and are interested, more than ye know, in my sorrows and my trials, and my successful endurance of them - my contests and temptations and my triumphant victory over them. Ye who have cast in your lot with me; who have forsaken all and followed me; who have periled all you hope and all your happiness in me. Oh! who can be expected to watch with me, if it be not such as you?

And still all these elements of emphasis may be found in the Saviour’s rebuke to every negligent or backsliding believer. Cannot ye watch with me, who have been taught to know me; to believe in me; to love me, to cast in all your lot with me; to count me all your salvation and all your desire? Be it so that the unawakened world sees little in temptation to break their slumber or arouse them to prayer: could not ye, who have been differently dealt with, and have otherwise learnt Christ; could not ye watch unto prayer? Ye who have been admitted to my fellowship, entrusted with my honour, partakers of my love, aspirants to my Father’s kingdom on high - could not ye watch with me, that ye enter not into temptation?

Could not ye watch with me one hour?

2.  “What! could not ye watch with me one hour?” What is it to be “with me”? - in my company; not alone; not in your own cause or battle; not in your own skill nor your own strength; but in every sense “with me.” When your watching is to be an act - a trying act it may be, but still an act - of fellowship with me? When it is required in order that you may in all things be conformed to me; that you may not lose the blessing of conformity, the bond and benefit of fellowship “with me?” In such circumstances “could ye not watch?” I send you on no warfare at your own charges. I send you indeed on no warfare of your own. I shall myself be your leader, your prototype, your forerunner in the battle - the wakeful prayerful battle - of temptation; in all your afflictions myself afflicted; in all points tempted like as you are; suffering in being tempted. And when you watch “with me,” you shall triumph if I triumph; if you suffer with me, you shall also reign. Yes, this is the singular secret of the Christian’s success in all things: he is in all things “with Christ.” He links on, by faith, his very temptations with those of Christ, and finds therefore all the victory of ChristHugh Martin has a most helpful chapter on this subject in “The Abiding Presence”, entitled
“The Temptation, and its Perpetual Triumph”.
He considers the temptation of Christ by Satan in the wilderness, and shows, first, that our temptations are of an identical nature, and, second, that our defence against temptation ought to be identical with that of Christ - the Word of God. He then, thirdly, proceeds to show that in victory over temptation, our immediate refreshing and ultimate reward has a marked identity with that which Christ enjoyed.
Of course, our victory over temptation can only be won through union and communion with Christ himself. “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, THROUGH HIM THAT LOVED US” (Romans 8:37). his own. He watches with Christ; and then in his blindness Christ is eyes to him in the wilderness. He prays with Christ; and Christ is intercessor and merit for him in his unworthiness. The watchings and the prayers of Christ in the days of his flesh are not only his example but his inheritance; and he has more than the disciples could have asked or thought - he has on his side the vigilance of Israel’s shepherd, now watching in the power of an endless life; he has the intercession of one who has laid aside his tears and agonies, and bespeaks his people’s welfare in glorious and august state at the right hand of the majesty in the heavens. So that, ever as the believer is true to his position as one in communion with Christ, he may be tempted with Christ nevertheless he shall triumph, yet not he but Christ that dwelleth in him, and the life of trial that he lives in the flesh shall be a life of triumph by the faith of the Son of God, who was tried and triumphed for him. If I am called to no temptation but after this rule, well may wonder and indignation be expressed if I resile and refuse. What! can you not watch, when you are called to keep watch with me?

Could ye not watch with me one hour?

3.  And, “Could ye not watch with me one hour?” Is your vigilance already overpowered; your resistance already gone? I gave you to wit that the night would be eventful; that this whole night would call for special anxious wakefulness; that ere its watches were all transpired - by daybreak or at cock-crowing - all might not be among you as it ought to be! But, “Simon, couldst not thou watch one hour?” I marvel that ye are so soon removed from me! Where is the constancy you spake of? For I bear you record that, if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and have given them to me. “Who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth” tempted, watching unto prayer in an agony? Ah! is not this rebuke often needed? Could you not watch with Christ one hour? Your heart warmed with some strong and tender feeling of the love of Christ; coming to him at his gospel call and finding peace and joy in believing; pouring out your heart before him in the first prayer of guileless Sonship, so very different from all that went before in the spirit of bondage; you gave yourself to Jesus as one whose decision was for ever irrevocable, and you vowed that though all men should forsake him and his cause, yet would not you - as for you and your house you would serve the Lord. You did this as honestly, as sincerely, as ever the eleven bound themselves to Jesus; with as little reservation as they, on this eventful night, when acting, at least for the time, as Israelites indeed in whom there was no guile, they avowed their resolution that they would not be offended in their Lord. But too soon, like them, you felt the action on your whole nature of an evil power which, in the hour of warm-hearted, generous fealty to Jesus, you had forgotten to calculate upon: and erewhile the withering spell of worldly influence, and close-cleaving infirmity, managed by the subtlety of him the beguiled Eve, brought you down from the lofty elevation of your holy purpose; weakened you out of the energy with which you started on the Christian race and by which for a little “you did run well” - a slumber, the same in its nature, though in degree never again so complete, as that from which the grace of God had awakened you, overtook you once more; till roused by the sting of conscience, or the stroke of Providence, or the word of Scripture - any or all of these together - you heard, by means of them, Christ’s painful but righteous reprimand: “What! could ye not watch with me one hour?” Are ye so soon removed?

Was it not well that he came to you at all, in however great severity he spoke? Better far that Jesus should come and find you sleeping, than that he should leave you sleeping and cast you off. Is it not good, if he comes to thee, believer, in this word of reproof and warning now, if such be now thy state of backsliding; especially when he comes to renew his exhortation, and give you as it were, in his grace, a fresh lease of your opportunity to vindicate your integrity, to renew the love and faithfulness of your youth?

For it is thus that he mingles his painful reproof with profitable instruction in righteousness; enjoining once more the duty that had been forgotten: “Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation.”

III.  THE EXHORTATION

We have said this is the same duty enjoined anew. For, combining the informations given by all the Evangelists, we find from Matthew and Mark that before leaving them at all, ere yet he entered the garden, Jesus enjoined on them the necessity of vigilance: “Tarry ye here, and watch with me”; while we learn from Luke that at the same time he enjoined on them the necessity of prayer: “He came out, and went, as he was wont, to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples also followed him. And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation” (Luke 22:39,40). So that Jesus had really nothing new to say to them - no fresh or additional advice to give them, but the same which they had heard from the beginning.

And there is a lesson in this. For in the decay or slumber of your Christian life, it is not something new that is to revive you; not some novel doctrine; not some unheard of, or lately discovered, Christian exhortation; not some singular and striking advice, prescribing some royal road different from that in which the usual footsteps of the flock are marked, not prescribing even any means or method of revival hitherto unknown to yourself. No: there is a great snare hid under any such expectation as that. You are to stand in the beaten path, and inquire for the good old ways you trod before, if you would find reinvigorating grace and rest unto your soul.

It is to be desired, indeed, that this old commandment to inquire for the good old way may come as a new commandment to you now. It is to be hoped that by a fresh baptism of the Spirit, and fresh humiliation and sense of danger, and quickened spiritual perception on your part, it may have almost the aspect, in its anew discovered suitableness, and in its striking seasonableness of an absolutely new commandment. But it is the same commandment that ye have heard from the beginning of your Christian life: “Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation.” Yet it need not seem to you and old commandment or if old, yet it should be welcome as an old and faithful friend. For realise only, in the light of your experience, and especially of the sins and failings that have made it needful that Jesus should come and re-issue to you this injunction - realise your weak and defenceless state, and with this the multitude and power and assailing force of those that are enemies to your soul - and realise your own fearful want of wisdom of experience in spiritual warfare - which is almost the only thing which your incipient experience has taught you: think of the subtlety and wiles of the devil, and of the manifold conjunctures in which you are found of him at great disadvantage, as when weak and hungry in body, and faint in mind, even though pursuing: think how the enemy can turn all such disadvantage to account; and realise especially the terrible and fateful issue, if you cannot conquer, in so much that if this battle be finally lost, you are lost: and does it not come upon you with the joy of a great and fresh discovery that the old injunction is still as suitable as ever; that while ever, it may be, surrounded by temptation and assailed, you have ever the liberty - I shall not say the duty - but the privilege, the liberty, the warrant, the high right, to watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation at all; and the high assurance that as the prayer of vigilance and faith moves for your protection the infinite wisdom and love and power and faithfulness of God, this old, this new commandment, be it only observed and obeyed, will, even in the midst of innumerable and more than visible dangers, gird your soul with the glad assurance of a present safety, and the almsgiving hope of a final triumph?

Watch

“Watch ye, therefore, and pray that ye enter not into temptation.” For what Jesus said to them, he says to all: Watch and pray. Watch: be vigilant. Be thou a faithful sentinel on thy post of duty - thy post of honour. Let the eye of faith and spiritual wisdom be wide open on your position; and you shall see much that the world can never see, much that it concerns you very greatly that you yourself should see. And first of all - duty particular to sentinels and soldiers in the warfare of faith - watch and know thyself. Keep thy heart with all diligence and vigilance, for out of it are the issues of life. Arrest its traitorous lusts and besetting sins: condemn and crucify them. If they will not die at once, as they seldom will, watch them all the more; double the guard upon them, and put them under the surveillance of conscience in its highest force and honour. And while thus, on thy faithfulness and honour towards God, they are crucified and watched, and their dominion prevented. Let not their presence prevail to cast thee out of communion with the Holy One, but rather let the peace of God garrison thy heart and let it rule there, to the which also thou art called.

Watch the dangers of your special callings - your companionships - your particular connections with the world - your objects of personal attachment.

Watch very specially the sources and causes of past unfaithfulness and failure. Watch the enemy’s approaches - his methods of trying you. He goeth about like a roaring lion. He changes himself into an angel of light. Watch, that you be not ignorant of his devices.

Watch your graces - what state they are in, what strength they are in, what danger they are in. Watch especially your repentance and your faith. Oh! keep them ever fresh. See if the vine flourish, or if the little foxes spoil the tender grapes. Watch what the Lord hath given you - the gracious and contrite heart, the meek and quiet spirit, which are of great price. Watch the treasure of your renewed heart, that you may be ever able to bring forth good things therefrom. Keep that good thing which is committed to you, through the Holy Ghost that dwelleth in you. Be not deceived into any slumbering, at any time, for Satan by subtlety may beguile you. Be thou ever aware of the disposition of the enemies’ powers. Set thee with the prophet on thy watch. Yea, watch thou with Christ on thy tower. Watch with him. Abide thou in Christ, and watch with him.

Pray

Pray also: yea, with all prayer and supplication, watching thereunto with all perseverance. Pray that of God’s grace you may be preserved from being tempted or supported and delivered when you are tempted. He can, if he please, prevent you, not only from entering into temptation, from falling into its snare and seducement, but even from being assailed by temptation at all. And, doubtless, often in answer to the appeal of conscious weakness and holy fear, the Lord dispenses with the discipline of temptations, with which, but for such frame of humble holy depreciation, it might have been indispensable to try his people and prove them. Pray, therefore, in subjection to the wisdom and the will of your Father, that he would prevent temptations from framing and forming themselves against you. But in any issue, pray that they may not form themselves against you and prosper. Pray that he would let you know when temptation is at hand; that he would always forewarn you of every special danger. Pray that he would make you not unwise in these things, but understanding the wiles of the devil and the will of the Lord. Pray that he would make you strong in himself and in the glory of his power. Pray for armour, and put it on. Put ye on the whole armour of God, praying always in the Spirit. Pray, above all - if you would not enter into temptation - in the name of him who was in all points tempted like as you are, yet without sin: and let them remembrance of the temptations of the Lord feed your faith with nourishment of new life and hope, in the assurance that he is able and willing to succour them that are tempted.

Watch and Pray

Thus, “Watch and pray,” doing both. Yea more; not only combining, but blending them.

Pray to be enabled to watch. Watch that you may know what to pray for. Pray for the grace of vigilance. Watch for materials of prayer. Watch that you may know temptation by its mere presence: and pray that your eyes may be purged from dimness, and anointed with eye-salve, so that you may see afar off, and may discern good and evil. And then watch with keen and piercing eye, that you may see the answers to prayer. Watch the efficacy of prayer. Pray for success in watching. Watch, if you would be kept on the alert to pray. Pray that you may be kept alert upon your watch tower. The enemy is subtle: you must watch his movements. You yourself are weak: you must pray for strength. If you could keep yourself, it might be sufficient to watch, but as God only can keep you, you must join prayer with watchfulness. If God would keep you any otherwise than by strengthening and guiding you to keep yourself, it might be sufficient to pray; but as it is, you must combine watchfulness with prayer - watching for your salvation with fear and trembling, the Lord working in you and enabling you to watch of his good pleasure. Thus he persuaded both the “watch and pray that you enter not into temptation.”

Such is the blessed exhortation which Jesus graciously gives, even when he comes to reprove and rebuke his disciples.

IV.  THE APOLOGY OR EXPLANATION

Jesus added, in his tenderness, a gracious apology or explanation. For as a father, even when he punisheth, pitieth his children, and maketh all due allowances for true heartedness and love, even so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Jesus admitted their integrity, while he indicated and condemned their infirmity. “The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak.” “Ye are willing according to the spirit, but weak as regards the flesh.” “The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and ye cannot do the things that ye would.”

Now this agrees with the testimony of Luke, who assures us that they were sleeping for sorrow. “And when he rose up from prayer, and was come unto his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow” (Luke 22:45). They were not heartlessly indifferent to their Lord’s sorrows. They sympathised in them all, as their own. They, too, were exceeding sorrowful. But as fools watch not the dangers of buoyant prosperity, they foolishly watched not the dangers of depressing grief: and their very sorrow, in its heaviness, put them off their guard and sank them in untimely slumber. Alas! for the wiles of the devil, wherein, alike from our levity and our heaviness of heart, he can find occasion for his malice.

Yet when Satan sifts the faithful, not grain of wheat shall be treated as chaff. The grace which really lives in the hear renewed, even though for the time it may be overpowered - the eyes of the Lord are upon it continually. Jesus saw their sorrow; and he interpreted it as proof that the spirit was willing, even though the infirmity of their flesh prevailed.

That they were indeed spiritual men, true believers and faithful brethren, Jesus took for granted both in rebuking and exhorting them, and he framed his rebuke and exhortation accordingly. But for this - but for the spirit being willing - he would have expressed neither wonder nor indignation at their want of vigilance. The very point of the reproof - “What! could ye not watch with me on hour” - lay in the fact that he was addressing spiritual and “willing” men (Ps 110:3) - men renewed in their wills or in the spirit of their minds. Such a reproof would have been out of place to a worldly or unreeled heart. And the exhortation, as well as the reproof, proceeds upon the same consideration. It is not at all suitable, and is not addressed in the first instance, to the unconverted. To you, Christ’s first address is not, “Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation.” Ye have never been out of temptation nor out of sin. Ye are in the flesh and dead in sin. His first searching question and rebuke to you is, What! why will ye die? And his first exhortations are like these: Flee from the wrath to come! Come out from among them and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing. Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead. Repent and believe the gospel. There can be no watchfulness in the spiritually blind - no prayer against temptation in the spiritually dead.

But if ye be willing according to the spirit but weak according to the flesh, then this exhortation is exactly to the point. For it is possible that it can be obeyed, only because “the spirit is willing”; it is necessary to be observed because “the flesh is weak.”

Mark, then, to whom this exhortation is given and consider whether it be an admonition to which you can immediately and at once address yourself. Amidst the weakness of the flesh, is the spirit really willing? Is the prevailing bent of your most cherished desires towards universal holiness unto the Lord? Consider and know. See what is really your true and inner man. See what is the real hidden man of the heart, whether it be the old man ungratified or the new man in God’s own image longing after that image of God in its full perfection. See whether in your failures you seek to draw with pleasure, or with sorrow, on this very verdict of Jesus: “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” And when you do apply this relief or mitigation, is it to deepen or is it to dispense with repentance? And when you sorrow over your failures, your inconsistencies of Christian character and walk, is it with regret and remorse merely for having failed of what conscience said was duty? Or is it with the special grief for having failed and been thwarted in what your heart tells you - and what God who is greater than your heart knoweth - was not only your duty, but your generous and upright and still unshaken desire? This last will be true when the spirit is willing.

V.  THE RELAPSES

Finally: Be warned by the fate of the eleven. They relapsed again, and yet again; and they lost this battle utterly. Jesus had at last to give up exhorting them, and hand them over to be taught by stern and sore experience. “Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; behold, he is at hand that doth betray me. And while he yet spake, lo! Judas, one of the twelve, came, and a multitude with swords and staves.” And Jesus, who had watched and prayed, met them with dignity and peace and unshaken constancy. The eleven had lost the opportunity of so arming themselves.

Ah! how was Peter hereby prepared for his greater fall - the others for forsaking Jesus and fleeing - all of them for being guilty of sin and laden with sorrow, till they should be forgiven and restored by a risen Redeemer! Who can trace how very different their conduct and their comfort might have been, during that terrific time, had they watched and prayed like Jesus, and as Jesus had enjoined? They escaped with their faith indeed still in life: for the watching and prayer of him with whom they would not watch, had been for them even more than for himself. They escaped, yet so as by fire. Even so may you reach heaven at last, if indeed you are Christ’s. For if ye are Christ’s, the Spirit of Christ dwelleth in you. Otherwise ye could be none of his. And if the Spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you, you are renewed in the spirit of your minds, and the spirit is willing though the flesh is weak, and the Lord will not break his covenant with you. Every true believer, whatsoever may befall him by the way, shall at last appear before God in ZionThey go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.
Psalm 84:7, and dwell where neither sorrow nor sighing nor sifting can come anymore - where the inhabitants shall not say, I am sick, for those that dwell there are forgiven their iniquities, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. But even though the spirit may be willing, yet if you fail to watch and pray against the weakness of the flesh, and so fall into temptation and a snare, you may reach heaven in the end, but it may be by a path in which no joy of the Lord shall be your strength until the end come - a path in which you may be left to pierce yourself through with many sorrows, and in which God may mingle for you many a cup of bitterness and trembling - “the wormwood and the gall!”

Watch ye, therefore, and pray that ye enter not into temptation.

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