Thank you. Greetings, then. The Gospel by John chapter eighteen, reading at verse six, or especially for verse six, but to get the real scriptural connection and also the historical part of this most famous, yet regrettable so far as man's concern, because of the action of man makes it a very regrettable portion of Scripture. Yet, the Bible tells us the dark side as well as the favorable side. And especially, is this true, in connection with the Lord Jesus our Savior? Because to become Savior meant the way of the Dolorosa the way of the cross, the way of suffering, the way of torment, the way of burdens too great for a man to bear, the means the way to death, the way of rejection, the way of loneliness. Surely this was depicted by one life only, to its fullest extent, and that is the life of the Lord Jesus while here on earth. It is a dark path. In the first verse of this chapter gives us the introduction, when Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples, and the Scripture tells us where he went. Yes, it wasn't just a night of passage. It wasn't just going down the road. But it was a special part of that great path that led from the throne of God in heaven to Bethlehem's manger and then through all the various avenues of the world in which he traveled down to the cross and the grave and then back to heaven. That path uncheared by earthly smiles led only to the cross. And that path led where no vultures I had ever seen, while where the lion's whelps had not ever trodden, we read in the Old Testament. And unless we're acquainted with the Old Testament, then we can't get too much out of the New Testament because the two are interlocked and they form the whole story. And we get much in the Old Testament that gives us what? The value and the meaning and the worth of the New Testament is to the believer, to the reader, to the one who will accept the Lord Jesus as Savior. Where did he go? He went forth with his disciples over the book Cedron. C-E-D-R-O-N. Where was a garden into the which he entered and his disciples? And this garden was the Garden of Gethsemane, where you remember one of the two places where he was prostrate, where he lay down. Here he is prostrate on his face in the Garden of Gethsemane, and he swept, as it were. great drops of blood falling down to the ground. The agony of the shadow of the cross. Just the shadow here was appearing to the Lord Jesus. Yet his perspiration was blood. Blood. He shed his own blood at Gethsemane, one of the places. Now, the brook-seedron here in the Greek is exactly the same as the book Kidron, K-I-D-R-O-N, in the Old Testament. And in the Old Testament we have the book Kidron mentioned at least a dozen to fifteen times. And each time it's a dark story, it's under a dark cloud. Each time it has judgment with it. Each time it has sorrow with it. Each time it has mourning with it. And its real meaning is mourning. M-O-U-R-N-I-N-G. Weeping, sorrow, sadness. It's the self-same brook over which David had to travel. In Second Samuel... the fifteenth chapter, when Absalom, his own son, rose up against them. And what a parallel here in measure. Here in the Second Samuel, David's own son Absalom rose up against his father, the king. stole hearts of the people of Israel away from the king, and now the king has to flee, King David has to flee his royal palace, and he crosses over this very same brook. He crossed over the brook Kedron in Second Samuel, chapter fifteen. He passed over it, escaping from his own son, Absalom. Absalom. So it was a great day of mourning for King David. And all of his household, all of his retinue. They had to pass over this book. What a story the book tells. Each time mentioned, it is in connection with mourning, with suffering, with weeping. It says in verse twenty-three of the fifteen chapter, Second Samuel, and all the country wept. It was a universal mourning, with the loud voice, and all the people passed over, the king also himself passed over the book Kedron, and all the people passed over toward the way of the wilderness. No, into the wilderness. The mirass of loss, of hiding, of losing identity now, and contact with the outside world. And what a contrast here with the Lord Jesus. King David was fleeing from his own son. Oh, how solemn. And here's the Lord Jesus Christ is not fleeing. yet he's going to suffer for all mankind. The very people that he made and put on this earth, the very people that he kept alive every day and stilled up, the very work of his own hands, and of his own will, men, women, children, they rose up against him. Absalom rose up against his father, King David. But the world of people made, kept alive, fed, clothed, cared for, for moment by moment, over their lives, the Lord Jesus was the one who gave them all the hand. But the people turned against the Savior. And he is here across the Brook Kedron, Seedron. He passes over the Brook Seedron. And when he does, then he meets a representation of the world hostile to himself. The world for which the Lord Jesus came into to say, The world that God loved, sinners, yes, but God loved them. He did not love their sins, their evil ways, their rejection, nor does He steal. He sent the Lord Jesus into the world. As the parable says, I'll send my son, they'll receive him. He'd sent servants, but the ones to whom he had given a charge, and his farm or his fruit, whatever it was, they were to keep and cultivate. And he said, and he sent his servants at harvest time to receive his due, but they rose up and they slew them. And then they stoned them and refused to give them the portion. as men and women today refuse to give the Lord Jesus his portion in the way of their life and the way of their homage to him, their worship and praise and thanksgiving to him. Men have denied the Lord Jesus all of this. And here, when he crosses the brook Kidron, Cedron in the Greeks, he's on his way to Gethsemane to suffer. And when he does, when he goes there, Knowing all things that should be accomplished, should come upon them, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye? Here is the whole band of people, and they come out with Judas. Judas is going to betray him. It did betray him. And the Pharisees and the officers and the chief priests, all of the great men of the day, leading the mob against the Lord Jesus. And... When he saw them, he went forth to meet them, and he asked them whom seek ye. And they answered him in verse five, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said unto them, I am he. Here is the great I am of deity. Oh, they didn't understand that they didn't know him. They refused to know him, and they rejected him because they didn't know him. And that's why people reject the Savior today, and do not make him their own. They refuse to know him. They refuse to do so, because if they wish to, they could receive him right now. He's the great I am of deity. They didn't know they were doing, that they were coming to the deity at all. They didn't recognize him as God, but he was God manifest in flesh, truly a man. but also truly God. This we must consider further the Lord willing. Blessed Father, we thank thee for the great I am of deity, the great I am of eternity, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who never had a beginning, and will never have an end, the one with whom man must have to do at the end of the road of life. Father, we pray for our great country, we pray for our great governments, We pray for all the officials of it. Grant, our Father, they will live for thee, and honor thee, that the world of sins, the world of peoples in this great country, might be blessed. Our President, we pray for him, all who are in authority, in our cities, and our states, wherever. We ask, Lord, thy blessing upon the mayors, the governors. In our great city, Washington. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.