Those that Joe called out my
name, I don't know what you all did, but it sounded to me like
you were in trouble. And I assure you, we don't have
a discipline committee yet, or at least you haven't let me in
on it, if we have. No, I think they're going to
prepare a special song for us, and that's okay. All right, let's
look back at Isaiah chapter 51. Now, you may have noticed that
Brother Craig read this in verse 17. It starts off with, Awake,
awake, or as we would say it today, wake up, wake up. So I'll just introduce the message
that way. Now, you all wake up, because
I'm going to preach the gospel to you. But you notice back in
verse 9, here we had, now this, you look back at the historical
situation here. Here's Israel. The Kingdom of
Israel is in exile in a foreign country, in Babylon. They had
thought God had forgotten them, that God had forsaken them, that
God had almost gone asleep on them. And back in verse 9, it's
Israel calling upon the Lord to wake up. Well, we know God
doesn't fall asleep. God does not forsake us. God
doesn't even rest on the job or anything like that. He has
not left these people. But sometimes we, in our unbelief,
and because of our own weaknesses, the weaknesses of sinful flesh,
we think God has abandoned us, but He hasn't. So, the Lord here,
in the end of this specific prophecy, beginning at verse 17, tells
Israel, you're the one that needs to wake up. You need to be alert
here. You need to be reminded of some
things. Now, what do they need to be
reminded of? Well, obviously, as I said, this is a wake-up
call. So he's going to show them, first of all, they need to wake
up concerning the reality of his wrath and his anger. The reality of God's wrath. But
most of all, and even certainly more comforting to a sinner who
needs mercy, in the last part of this prophecy, he says, to
the reality of God's grace and God's mercy. So that's what we're
going to deal with. I've entitled this message, The
Cup of Wrath Removed. The Cup of Wrath Removed. There are times when we may feel
like we're under the wrath of God. But you want to know something? We don't even have any smidgen
of an idea of the reality of God's wrath as to our experience. And what's more important is
that we will never have to undergo that. Why? Because our Savior
underwent that for us. He took the full measure of God's
wrath. So let's look first of all at
this wake-up call concerning God's wrath and God's anger.
He says in verse 17, look at it. He says, Awake, awake, stand
up, O Jerusalem, which hath drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup
of his fury, that's the cup of his anger, cup of his disfavor,
if you will. And he says this, he says, not
only have you drunk of the cup of his fury, you have drunken
the dregs of the cup of trembling and wrung them out. What he means
by that is you've drunk it dry. In other words, you've gone to
the bottom, you've heard of the bitter dregs, that's what he's
talking about. You've drunk the bitter dregs
of the cup of His fury. This is the wake-up call that's
directed right at Jerusalem. Now, we realize, according to
the Scripture and what we see in the Old Testament and the
New, that God's people sometimes spiritually fall asleep and need
a wake-up call. Look over at the book of Ephesians,
chapter 5. The Apostle Paul, when riding
to the church at Ephesus, dealt with a very similar theme here. When he's encouraging the people
of God in obedience, in witness, to be bold witnesses for the
cause of the kingdom of God in Christ. And in Ephesians chapter
5, verse 14, he makes this statement. He says, Wherefore he saith,
Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, the sleep
of the dead. And he says, and Christ shall
give thee light. That's why we wake up. To receive
the light of Christ. You don't sleep in the light,
you sleep in the dark. And we don't live in the dark
because we're not children of darkness. When God saves us by
His grace and brings us into the light of His glory in Christ,
we live in the light. There's a time for rest and sleep,
but there's a time to wake up and be alert. Paul wrote in Romans
chapter 13 when he was writing to them of that coming salvation,
meaning their glory. He said our salvation is nearer
than when we first begun. And what he's talking about is
our death. We read in Psalm 116, precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of his saints. That's a sleep, the sleep of
death. And that's a passing over where
we'll be in the presence of the Lord. And that time is nearer.
for us than when we first began the race of grace. For some of
you, it's nearer than others. And that's not a time to go to
sleep. That's not a time for the soldier in the army of God
to put down his weapon. Some people say, well, he's a
tired old soldier. Well, you know, the Bible says,
spiritually speaking now, I know physically, I know what we can
get physically and the way we can get in our minds. But spiritually
speaking, that's the time to wake up. That's the time really
to go to work. That's the time to lead. You
may not be physically able to lead the way you used to, but
you can certainly lead by example and by the wisdom of the Word
that God has given you. So back here in Isaiah 51, he's
saying, wake up, you who have drunk at the hand of the Lord
the cup of His fury. Now, this nation had suffered
some hard consequences because of their own sin, because of
their own unbelief and idolatry. We call it the cup of God's anger,
even his wrath at the hands of the Babylonians. God had used
that nation, that idolatrous nation, to punish his own people.
And God's wake-up call was for them to remember this. When you
drank of the bitter dregs, that's what he's talking about, you've
drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, you're only suffering
the consequences of your own unbelief and your own sin. And
not only did Jerusalem drink the cup, they drained it, drinking
it down to the dregs at the bottom of the cup. And they had experienced
the desolation and the destruction and the famine and the sword.
And this was God's cup for them for His purposes. Now, one thing
that you see from this is this. There is no partial judgment
from God. Whatever God intends in this
cup of fury is going to be full. And it's going to be drunk down
to the dregs. In other words, it's going to
complete what work it has. But look at verse 18. He says,
"...there's none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath
brought forth, neither is there any that take of her by the hand
of all the sons that she hath brought up." Just like a staggering
drunk in the street, she has no one to guide her. She has
no one to carry her. No one to take her by the hand
and lead her. She's just staggering through.
And that was true of Jerusalem, literally understood at the time
of her at the time of her exile in Babylon, they were in the
dark because of their own sin. That was certainly true of Jerusalem
at the time of their complete destruction in A.D. 70 after
the Lord had come and after they had rejected the Lord. They didn't
have anybody. There was no king, there was
no prophet, there was no priest, no one to counsel, no one to
direct, no one to defend her, no one to protect her. No one
to guide her to God's Word, because they've rejected God's Word.
Well, look at verse 19. He says, "...these two things
are come unto thee. Who shall be sorry for thee?"
Now, these two things, number one, nobody's going to sympathize
with you. You're going to be afflicted
at the hand of God, and deservedly so, though by means of enemies,
the Babylonians, later on, the Romans, But you're not going
to have anybody to sympathize with. And what that means is
this. That means you have nobody to
comfort you. There's no comfort for you in this affliction. What's
the Lord telling them here? Well, we're going to see. Wake
up to the comfort that only God can give. Now, there's no one
to comfort. And here's the second thing.
He says, desolation and destruction and the famine and the sword,
by whom shall I comfort thee? In other words, there's no comfort,
but there's no friends to help, there's no support, there's no
help. It's only desolation, destruction,
and famine. So look at verse 20. He says,
"...thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets,
just like a wild bull in a net." Or an elk in a net, either one.
"...they are full of the fury of the Lord, the rebuke of thy
God." Those who should be strong, thy sons, he says here. Those
who should be valiant guides. For God's church, they've fainted.
They've left. They've abandoned you. They're
like those false shepherds who are hirelings, who left when
time of trouble came, when time of fury came. And he says, like
a bull caught in a net, rather than bowing to the will of God
and just saying, God be merciful to me, the sinner, What do they
do? They try to get out themselves.
They try to accomplish their own deliverance rather than wait
for it to take its full course as God has ordained it. And here's
what they do. They make matters worse. That's
us in trouble by nature, isn't it? We're going to find a way
out, even though we deserve what we get. We're going to find a
way out. We're not going to turn to the Lord. We're not going
to turn to His Word. We're going to make our own way.
We're going to seek help from the flesh. We're going to seek
help from the wisdom of men. And what happens? We're worse
off, like that bull in the net. That's the picture there. The
more he struggles in the net, what happens? The more entangled
he gets. We've seen pictures of that in
the Scripture before. People who seek help from men,
and they end up worse off than they were before. People who
seek help for their sins from religion, the religion of man,
like the Pharisees going out to encompass sea and land to
gain one convert, and those people come to them seeking help, they
get them in their false works religion, and what happens? They
become two-fold more the child of hell than the ones who preach
to them. You remember that woman with
the issue of blood? In one of the accounts of that,
it says she went to many doctors, And she came away worse than
what she was before. The only one who could heal her
was the great physician, the Lord Jesus Christ, you see. Now
that's the picture he set this up with. Now wake up to that.
Wake up and realize what you are. Wake up and realize where
you are. Wake up and realize what you
deserve. You've drunk of the cup of the
dregs, even to the dregs of God's fury. But look on. Now here's
the next part. Here's a call to hear the word
of grace. He says in verse 21, Therefore hear now this, thou
afflicted and drunken, but not with wine. Now their problem
wasn't drinking too much wine. Their problem was that they were
in trouble. Their problem was that they were in the dregs of
pain and sorrow and affliction. And the reason God says they
were there was because of His fury as they deserved because
of their sin. So they're drunk with affliction
from God. They're drunk with affliction
from persecution of men. And so he says, now listen to
this. This would be a good verse for you to underscore in your
Bible. Thus saith thy Lord, the Lord. You notice how he puts
that? Thy Lord, the Lord. What does
that mean? Simple. The Lord is our Lord. In other words, what he's saying
here is set it up like this. The Lord, the sovereign Lord
of this universe, is our Lord, our Redeemer, our Savior. Whatever trouble we're in, for
whatever reason, there's only one way out. Thy Lord, the Lord. Not just there is a God. There
is a God, one God. Not that He is just a powerful
God and a just God. He is powerful and He is just.
But that He is my Lord and I am His. Back over in verse 16, speaking of the prophecy of the
Messiah here, when He says in the last part of that verse,
Thou art my people. We belong to God. We belong to
God by divine electing grace. We belong to God by justifying
grace. We belong to God by redeeming
grace. And we belong to God by regenerating
grace. We're His in every way. So he
says in verse 22, Thus saith thy Lord, the Lord, and thy God,
that pleadeth the cause of his people. Now that's what we need. We need one who will plead our
cause. Now what does that mean? Well,
that doesn't mean that I need someone to stand up and speak
for me and just bellow out my accolades or my worthiness. I have a cause. Now, what is
that cause? Here's my cause. I'm a sinner
in need of God's grace. That's my cause. That's the reason
I'm where I am. That's my cause. That's the reason
I need God's power and grace in Christ. If I stand up and
speak for myself, all I'm going to do is just bring myself in
guilty. That's why the law brings sinners in guilty and stops their
mouth. If somebody else stands up for
me and doesn't know my cause, and he or she just stands there
and just says, now let me tell you why Bill deserves to be saved,
all that's going to do is condemn us both. I need one to please
the calls of his people, sinners, who are in need of God's grace.
And listen to this. He says, Behold, I have taken
out of thine hand the cup of trembling. Even the dregs of
the cup of my fury thou shalt no more drink it again. The Lord Jehovah is my God. He pleased my calls. And he takes
away my trouble. He says, see, I've taken out
of your hand the cup of trembling, the dregs of the cup of my fury.
You shall no longer drink it. You know, the Lord knows when
to give the cup, and he knows when to take the cup. And he
speaks of the time of their redemption and for the shame of their enemies.
So the Lord promises, he says this, now look at verse 23. He
says, I'm going to put it into their hands, but I will put it
into the hand of them that afflict thee, the very ones that afflict
the people of God. He's going to put the hand, the
cup of fury, the cup of trembling into their hands. He said, now,
who are they? He said, which have said to thy
soul, bow down, that we may go over. And thou hast laid thy
body as the ground and as the street to them that went over.
What does that mean? That means that those who have
conquered Israel for their own selfish purposes and have said
to Israel, now you lay down and I'm going to walk all over you.
That's what he's talking about. He said, I'm going to put the
cup of wrath, the cup of trembling into their hands. They're going
to perish. But I'm taking it out of your
hands. Now let's read verse 22 again. I want to give you some
thoughts on this. He says, Thus saith thy Lord, the Lord, and
thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have
taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling. Even the dregs
of the cup of my fury thou shalt no more drink it again. You know, drinking from a cup
is a powerful image in Scripture. There are cups men must drink. Look at Psalm 75 with me. Psalm 75. He speaks of a cup
here in the 75th Psalm, the great psalmist of Israel. And he says here, look at verse,
it's down at the end of the verse here, but let's look at verse
7, Psalm 75. He says, but God is the judge.
You know, the Bible says God always judges according to truth.
He put us down one, and setteth up another. For in the hand of
the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red, and it is full
of mixture, and he poureth out of the same. But the dregs thereof
all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out and drink them.
But I will declare forever, I will sing praises to the God of Jacob,
and all the horns of the wicked also will I cut off, but the
horns of the righteous shall be exalted." For in the hand
of the Lord there's a cup." Now what he's saying here in this
psalm is this, we who are sinful preachers never have any reason
to be proud of our works or ourselves. The watchword for sinners is
humility. Humble yourselves before God.
We have no reason, we have no grounds for which to act proudly
before God. And for by the cup are meant
afflictions, calamities, judgments, which are measured out according
to God's appointing in his hands." It's at his disposal. And he
says this wine in that cup is red. That's an emblem of the
wrath of God. This cup is full of it. It's
spoken of in the book of Revelation chapter 14. It's called a cup
of fury, a cup of trembling, a cup of indignation. It's the
cup of God's wrath. And what he's saying here is
this, that's exactly what we deserve. That's exactly what
we deserve. It's full of mixture now. Here
on earth, now think about this, here on earth, God's wrath towards
the wicked is mixed with longsuffering, even His goodness. The Bible
says it rains on the just and the unjust. His chastisements
towards His children, like Israel here in the Old Covenant and
spiritual Israel in the New Covenant, is mixed with grace. Did you
know that? It's mixed with grace. But there
are two times that God's wrath is said to be without mixture.
There's no mixture of longsuffering, no mixture of temporal blessings,
no mixture of grace. There's two times. What are those
two times? Number one, in the end of this
world when the wicked are judged for their sins and cast into
outer darkness, perish eternally. There's no mixture there. They will experience the full
measure of God's wrath without mixture for their sins. Now that is a frightening thought. Somebody asked me one time, what
is hell like? And I say to you tonight, and
I say it to them, I don't know. I really don't know. I could,
I remember as a child seeing that movie called The Burning
Hell. You may have seen that. It's not a very pleasant movie.
And of course, religion uses that, listen to what I'm saying,
to scare the hell out of children. That's why they use it. Because
you can get, you show a kid that, you'll get him down the aisle,
you'll get him in the baptistry. I'm telling you, it's a horror
movie. And I say to you that one, that that one movie couldn't
even begin to describe the full measure of the unmixed wrath
of God against those who die without Christ. That's right,
without a Savior. But I can't tell you what else.
Like I know this, it's eternal separation from God. It's eternal
perishing, eternal damnation. But I'm going to tell you something,
that's one time when there is absolutely no mixture of the
full measure of God's wrath against sin. But, thank God, there's
another time when there was no mixture of the full measure of
the wrath of God. And that's when the wrath of
God was poured down upon our Savior at Calvary for our sins. He experienced the full measure
of his Father's wrath without mixture against the sins of his
sheep. Now, can you get hold of that?
Or as I said Wednesday night when I was talking about, can
that get a hold of you? Because it's got a hold of me,
and I can't get it off my mind. That's what he's talking about.
It says here, he poureth out the same. His judgments, God's
judgments upon men in this world in all ages, on some more than
others, less as he sees fit. You ever wonder why somebody
who is just an out and out rebel, who just openly, an immoral person,
will prosper in this life sometimes? You ever wonder why? Have you
ever walked away thinking, well, why didn't God just stamp that
guy out, you know? Why didn't God just put the wrath
on him right now and drop him right into hell? Like He did
back in Moses' day, when Moses come down off the Mount. You
know the answer? God alone determines those things. And then you might see somebody
who is just a shining example of a believing sinner, of the
grace of God, who might suffer and suffer and suffer. Why? Why? Because only God has the
wisdom and the goodness and the power to deal with these things
in these ways. All we can do is just run around
and ask them why. And if anybody comes and tells you they have
the answer, don't you listen to them. Don't you listen to
them. They're trying to play God when
they do. But here's what we know. Just
like David in the Psalms, he said, why do the heathen prosper?
God said, it is my will that they do, but you consider their
end. You consider how it is all going
to end up. The dregs thereof, all the wicked
of the earth shall wring them out and drink them. The whole
cup that God has measured out and filled up shall be poured
out at last, and all will be drunk, the very dregs of it,
by the wicked of the world when they be punished with everlasting
destruction. But now listen, that is one cup. No matter what we're going through,
no matter what pain we're experiencing, no matter what sorrow, no matter
what trouble, that is one cup that we who know Christ and trust
in Him will never have to drink. Not even a drop. I want you to
look at John chapter 3 with me. When we speak of the wrath of
God, It's a very difficult thing to speak of, not because of the
intensity of it necessarily, but the understanding of it.
We know that all sin deserves death and wrath. We know that. He says here in John chapter
3, and look at verse 18, Christ speaking to Nicodemus. This is
after he spoke to Nicodemus about the new birth. He said, he that
believeth on him is not condemned. That is, those who believe on
Christ, who rest in Him, those who are washed in that fountain,
there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins,
and sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty
stains. That's what Christ means right
here. Those who rest in Him, who are washed in His blood and
clothed in His righteousness, are not condemned. Well, we know
we deserve condemnation in ourselves. But you see, God doesn't see
us in ourselves according to His law and justice. He sees
us in Christ. So much so that he can say honestly
and justly, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
Who can condemn us? It's God who justified us, it's
Christ that died. Christ goes on to say, but he
that believeth not is condemned already. In other words, his
unbelief is just evidence of his condemned state before God
because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God. Someone says, well, where does
that leave me? Well, look at verse 19. He said, this is the
condemnation, that light Christ and his gospel has come into
the world. And men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. Their religious efforts
is what that's speaking of the deeds of the law. You see, if
I'm trying to save myself by my efforts to keep the law, what
does that reveal about me? And if I never come to know Christ
and die in unbelief, what does that reveal? It reveals that
I have died in a condemned state. And the light that exposes my
evil deeds for what they are, by nature we hate it. But God,
in His mercy and in His power, He comes along by His Spirit
and His Word, and He puts in us that new heart that we spoke
of this morning. and gives us a heart to love
the truth, love the light, and hate the darkness. Look over
at verse 36 of John 3. He says, He that believeth on
the Son hath everlasting life. Now, we didn't get everlasting
life because we believed. You see? We believe because we
have been given everlasting life. You see, faith doesn't bring
life. Life brings faith. That's what
he's teaching here. Do you believe on the name of
the only begotten Son of God? Do you rest Him as He all your
wisdom, your righteousness, your holiness, and your redemption?
What he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. But
look on, he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but
the wrath of God abideth on him. Now, he may today be on top of
the mountain. But the wrath of God abides on
those who never come to know and believe in Christ. That's
what that's talking about. He may have nothing but a bed
of roses his whole physical life, but he's going to die. And those
who die in unbelief. You see, that's why he said in
Psalm 116 about the cup of salvation. What is it to take the cup of
salvation? It's to rest in Christ. It's to lay hold of Christ. and
therefore precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His
saints. But that's not so with the unbeliever. That's not so
with those who believe not. The wrath of God abideth on them. He may not know it. Look over
Romans chapter 1. You know, the book of Romans
is such a fundamental book of the very heart of the Gospel.
How God saves sinners by His grace sovereignly, mercifully
and justly through the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And
so when the Apostle says in verse 16 of Romans 1, he said, I'm
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. I'd no more be ashamed
of the good news of how God saves sinners through Christ than I
would be if I were a What is a cancer doctor? Oncologist?
If I were an oncologist and I had the only cure for every cancer,
would you think he'd be ashamed of that? He certainly wouldn't. He'd be shouting it all over,
it'd be in every headline in the world, wouldn't it? So we've
got the only cure for the cancer of sin. So he says, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. It's the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth. to the Jew first and also to
the Greek, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith, and as it is written, the just shall live
by faith." Now, why do I need the righteousness of God? Why
do you need it? Well, here's why, verse 18. For
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
That's why. That's why. Look at Ephesians
chapter 2. You say, well, have we ever been
under the wrath of God? Well, we need to be careful there. I've heard people say, well,
we have been. I know we fell in Adam. We're condemned by the
law in Adam. That's why we need salvation.
But technically speaking, you'd have to say the people of God
have never been under the wrath of God. What is the wrath of
God? I'd like somebody to define that for me. I'll tell you what
the Scripture speaks of, the wrath of God. It's hell. That's the wrath of God, isn't
it? Now you say, well, I might be hurting today. You know, I
might have a headache. Was that the wrath of God? Well,
my friend, you haven't even begun to get to know, to experience
what it even remotely is. Whatever suffering we go through
here on this earth, Our Lord experienced the wrath of God
on the cross. Have you ever gone through anything
like that? Have I? No. So, technically speaking,
we say we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world. We were always in Him. We fell in Adam. What does that
mean? Well, look at Ephesians 2 and
look at verse 1. He says, "...and you, happy Quicken, who were
dead in trespasses of sin..." It means we were born dead. spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins. We had no spiritual abilities
or faculties by which to understand, lay hold of, receive and love
spiritual things. That's why we must be born again
or we cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven. We cannot believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ without having been born again. Why?
Because you were dead in trespasses and sins. You see that? All right,
go on, verse 2, wherein in time past you walked according to
the course of this world. That's the only thing you could
do. Now, you could have been religious now. When you see that
walking according to the course of this world, don't just think
of that as being the drug pushers and the whoremongers and all
that, the bank robbers. The Pharisees were walking according
to the course of the world. Those who are religious, who
make professions, Some who even start orphanages are walking
according to the course of the world. Without Christ, any sinner
is walking according to the course of the world. And he says, according
to the prince of the power of the air, that's Satan, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience, that's unbelievers,
among whom also we all had our conversation in time past. In time past, in the lust of
the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,"
and listen to this, "...and were by nature," that is, as we were
born, "...the children of wrath, even as others." Now, what does
that mean? Here's what it means. By nature, we didn't deserve
anything but the wrath of God. That's what that means. You say,
but I was chosen in Christ before the foundation. That's right,
but in ourselves, as we were born in this flesh in Adam, We
did not deserve anything but God's wrath. That's right. Even our best efforts, what do
we deserve? What does that mean? It means
salvation by grace, through Christ. He's worthy. I'm not. And I've
told you this in the past two weeks. We never deserve it. We never deserve salvation. Salvation
is always, at every stage, at any time, a free gift of God. based upon what Christ earned
because he went under the wrath of God for his people. We don't
deserve it. We're by nature children of wrath
even as others. Even those who die in unbelief
and suffer the consequence of eternal damnation, we are no
more deserving of salvation and eternal life and glory than they
are. Well, where's our hope then?
Look at verse 4. who is rich in mercy for his
great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in
sin, hath quickened us together with Christ by grace, you say."
You see that? Look over with me at Matthew
26. Our Lord spoke of this cup of
God's wrath. He spoke of it when he instituted
the Lord's Supper. And he spoke of the cup of salvation
there, didn't he? When he said, this is the cup,
this cup is the New Testament in my blood, the shedding of
His blood for the remission of sins. That's His death. Under
what? The wrath of His Father. This
cup is the New Covenant, the New Testament in my blood. He
spoke of that cup when He set His face to go to Jerusalem,
and His disciples tried to discourage Him. Remember, He's saying, for
this reason I came. This is why I came, shall I not
drink of this cup? Drinking of that cup? And then
here in Matthew 26, this is the Garden of Gethsemane. Now, I
want you to look at this. Matthew 26, look at verse 36. He says, Then cometh Jesus with
them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples,
Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him
Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and
very heavy. Now what follows this is awesome. And there's been a lot written.
And there's been a lot of times that people tried to explain
it. And I want to tell you something, I think we're better off not
to do that. I've had, there's some people who say this, they'll
say that our Lord actually sinned here in unbelief. That is not so. You can mark
that down, that is not so. Had he sinned at any place in
his life here on earth, he would have been disqualified to go
and drink this cup. But here's where our Lord in
His humanity. Now let me tell you something
about humanity. Even the humanity of Christ, there is weakness
in His humanity because it's created. It's flesh. Yet He had
no sin. And I cannot explain to you all
that's going on here. I can't tell you all that was
going through His mind. But I know this. He was feeling
the burden of the experience that He was about to go through
in suffering. like no human being has ever
suffered. And it just came down upon his
humanity, even so much so that the angels had to come and minister
to him. Look at it. It says, then saith
he, verse 38, unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even
unto death. Some say, well, he thought he
was going to die right there. I don't think he did, because
he told them he had to go to Jerusalem, be crucified, and
buried and risen again. He says, tear you here and watch
with me, talking to his disciples. And he went a little further
and fell on his face and prayed, saying, Oh, my father, if it
be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as
I will, but as thou will. You see, he knew. Even under
the sorrowful, painful suffering that he was going through, where
he sweat great drops of blood in Gethsemane, he knew it was
not possible for that cup to pass from him. He knew that if
God was going to contend for his people, as we read in Isaiah
51, and take that cup of wrath away from them, he knew that
he had to go to Calvary and drink that cup. He had to suffer. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. And he was about to experience
things that he had never experienced before, even as God-man. That's
what I believe it means in Hebrews chapter 2 when it says that our
Savior learned obedience by the things which he suffered. That
doesn't mean that he gained knowledge, but it does mean that he experienced
things in his humanity that he had never experienced before.
And I want to tell you something, this is ground that I don't think
we need to dig down into too deep. We just need to see it
for what it is. It's the suffering of our sovereign
Savior for our sins. Go into the cross. Listen to
it. He says, verse 14, He cometh
unto disciples, He findeth them asleep, saith unto Peter, What?
Could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you
enter not into temptation. The Spirit is indeed willing,
but the flesh is weak. And he went away again the second
time and prayed, saying, O my father, if this cup may not pass
away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done." What's
the lesson here? Number one, God must be just
when He justifies. That's right. He must be just
when He justifies. Secondly, we need a substitute
to stand in our place. We need a High Priest to represent
us, but He must have a sacrifice to present. There must be blood
on the Holy of Holies. Christ is our High Priest. He's
our substitute. And listen to me. Listen to me. It was His perfect obedience
unto death that establishes the righteousness of God, which is
charged to His people. He was made sin. That's what's
happening here. He was made sin. Not a sinner
now. He wasn't a sinner, never was
a sinner in any way, in any shape, form or fashion. He was not made
a sinner. He was made sin. And He took
the burden of that sin on Himself so that when He went under the
wrath of His Father and drank that cup, He did so in a way
that was just and righteous. And yet God is merciful to save
us from our sins. And he says, and he came and
found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. Talking
about his disciples there. Well, we'll never have to drink
the cup of God's wrath. That's what Isaiah is preaching
over here. God's telling them, I'm going to take it out of your
hands. We'll never have to drink that cup because Christ has drank
it for us. But there are cups that we who
are saved must drink here on earth now. The hand of the Lord
holds a cup for us. It may be a cup of joy. It may
be a cup of sorrow. But I'll tell you what, for God's
people in Christ, it's always a cup of faith. You know, when
He told His disciples at the Lord's Supper, He said He took
the cup and He gave thanks and He gave it to them. He said,
drink ye all of it. You drink of my blood. Believe in Him.
And in order for us to drink from this cup, we have to be
clean. We can't be like the Pharisees who made clean the outside of
the cup and of the platter, but with them we're full of extortion
and excess. How are we going to be clean? We must be washed
in the blood of Christ. We must be clothed in His righteousness. And then He fills us with His
Spirit. If we lift up a clean cup to the Lord, He'll fill it.
We lift up a clean cup only when we come to God as sinners, pleading
His Son, the marriage of Christ, His blood and His righteousness.
And that's why He said, Blessed are they which do hunger and
thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. David said,
Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Runneth
over with what? The grace of God. Why? Because
he took the full measure of the wrath of God in our stead. And in Christ, our cup is a cup
of salvation. It's a cup of blessing. It's
communion with the blood of Christ. That cup of wrath has been taken
away by Christ. And we get in return nothing
but blessing Salvation. Alright.