The Agony in Gethsemane

The following is from Spurgeon's sermon,
"The Agony in Gethsemane" #1199. Luke 22:44

"My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow
to the point of death." Matthew 26:38

"And being in agony he prayed more earnestly:
and his sweat was as it were great drops of
blood falling down to the ground." Luke 22:44

See the excellence and completeness
of the atonement of Christ!

How black I am, how filthy, how loathsome in
the sight of God; I feel myself only fit to be
cast into the lowest hell, and I wonder that
God has not long ago cast me there.

But I go into Gethsemane, and I peer under
those gnarled olive trees, and I see my Savior!

Yes, I see him wallowing on the ground in
anguish, and hear such groans come from
him as never came from human breast before.

I look upon the ground and see it red with
his blood, while his face is smeared with
gory sweat, and I say to myself, "My God,
my Savior, why do you suffer so?"

I hear him reply, "I am suffering for your sin."

Now I can understand how Jehovah can spare
me, because he smote his Son in my stead!

Sinner as I am, I stand before the burning throne
of the severity of God, and am not afraid of it.
Can you scorch me, O consuming fire, when you
have not only scorched, but utterly consumed
my substitute?

All hell was distilled into that cup of which
Jesus Christ was made to drink. The woe
that broke over the Savior's spirit, the great
and fathomless ocean of inexpressible anguish
which dashed over the Savior's soul when
he died, was inconceivable.

Our Lord's main suffering lay in his soul. His
soul-sufferings were the soul of his sufferings.
His position as a sin-bearer, and the desertion
by his Father engrossed his contemplations.

The bloody sweat of Jesus came from an
utter faintness and prostration of soul.

He was in an awful soul-swoon, and suffered
an inward death, whose accompaniment was
not watery tears from the eyes, but a
weeping of blood from the entire man.

He could say with David, "The pains
of hell got hold upon me."

All God's waves and billows went over him.
Above him, beneath him, around him, and
within, all, all was anguish.