The first one, look in Matthew
chapter 26 and let's begin reading in verse 36. Matthew chapter 26 and verse
36. Then cometh Jesus with them unto
a place called Gethsemane, and said unto the disciples, Set
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. Then said he unto them, My soul
is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Tear ye here, and
watch with me. And he went a little farther,
and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me, Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as thou wilt. And he cometh unto the disciples,
and findeth them asleep, and said unto Peter, What, could
you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter
not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak. He went away again the second
time, and prayed, saying, O my father, If this cup may not pass
from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. And he came and
found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. And he
left them and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying
the same words." I want to read two more parallel accounts of
this incident. The next one is found over in
Mark's Gospel, chapter 14. If you want to turn there with
me. Mark's Gospel chapter 14. And look in verse 32. Mark's Gospel 14, 32. They came to a
place which is named Gethsemane. And He said unto His disciples,
Set ye here while I shall pray. And He taketh with Him Peter
and James and John, and began to be sore amazed and to be very
heavy. And said unto them, My soul is
exceeding sorrowful unto death, tarry ye here and watch. And
he went a little forward, and fell on the ground, and prayed
that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And
he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee. Take
away this cup from me, nevertheless not what I will, but what thou
wilt. And he cometh and findeth them
sleeping, and said unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? couldst
thou not watch with me one hour? Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter
into temptations. The Spirit truly is ready, but
the flesh is weak. And again he went away and prayed,
and spake the same words. And the last text is found over
in Luke chapter 22 and verse 39. Luke chapter 22 and verse 39. And He came out and went as He
was accustomed, 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.
And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and knelt
down and prayed, saying, If thou be willing, remove this cup from
me. Nevertheless not my will, but
thy will be done. And there appeared an angel unto
him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony, he
prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was as it were great drops
of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose up from
prayer, and was come to His disciples, He found them sleeping for sorrow. And He said unto them, Why sleep
ye? Rise and pray, lest ye enter
unto temptation." Now, I certainly don't offer apology this morning,
and I'm not embarrassed to come here once again to the sufferings
of our Lord Jesus Christ. The whole Old Testament is filled
with the sufferings of Christ. And without the cross, there
is no glory, is there? There is no glory for Him, no
redeeming glory, and there is certainly none for us without
the sufferings of our Lord. This was the very night when
our Lord was betrayed. Before this night was over, they
would bind Him and take Him to the high priest's house, mock
Him, and before the next day had ended, He was to be tried
and was crucified. And he was troubled this night. He was troubled about his betrayer. He said many things concerning
Judas. He was troubled in spirit and
said, one of you shall betray me this night. And he made several
mentions of this there at the Last Supper. He that eateth bread
with me has lifted up his heel against me. And He said, You
are all clean, but not all. This He spake of Judas who should
betray Him. And then He summed it up by saying,
Woe be to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. And then
He was also somewhat concerned about His own disciples, His
friends, His true friends. He told them this this night.
He said, All of you shall be offended in Me this night. For
it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall
be scattered. All of you shall be scattered
to His own, and you shall leave Me alone, He said. The Lord Jesus took a lot of
comfort in the presence of His disciples. They took a great
comfort in His presence. But you know He enjoyed their
presence. And He took comfort in their presence. He said here
in Matthew 26, 38 that I read to you, He said, My soul is exceeding
sorrowful, even unto death. Could you not tarry and watch
with Me? He mentions that to them, tarry
and watch with me. And he said, Peter could you
not watch with me for one hour? He did take comfort in his disciples. He said in Psalm 69, 20, Reproach
hath broken my heart, I am full of heaviness, I look for some
to take pity, and I found none. I found none. We sing that old
song, In Gethsemane Alone. Tarry here, he told the three,
Tarry here and watch with me, But they heard no bitter moans.
For the three disciples slept, While our loving Savior wept,
In Gethsemane Alone. He was alone. But what troubled
Him more than anything was this cup. Take away this cup from
me, And Matthew and Mark and Luke uses different phrases to
describe the state of his mind. But one thing they all agree
in was this. What brought him to this state
of mind was this one thing, a contemplation of this cup. Matthew says this
about him. He began to be sorrowful and
very heavy and said, My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto
death. Mark says it like this, he began
to be sore amazed. He was startled. He was surprised. He was overwhelmed with astonishment. And Luke says, being in an agony,
he prayed more earnestly till his sweat became great drops
of blood. And it was all about this cup.
My Father, if you will, take away this cup from me. Whatever this cup was, This was
the contemplation of this cup that brought such agony and deep
sorrow to his heart and to his mind. Now there's many cups in
the Scripture. You read the Scriptures, you'll
find the cup of consolation. Jeremiah talked about the cup
of comfort, didn't he? David talked about the cup of
salvation. I will take the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the Lord. Paul talked about the cup of
communion, which is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. But
none of these is the cup that our Lord was contemplating. And
I want to look at different places in the Scripture and examine
with you this morning what was in this cup that so made our
Master, who never feared anything, Draw back at this point and say,
Father, take this cup away from me. I want you to take your Bibles
now and turn with me. Let's look at about four different
places where this cup is mentioned. Look in Revelation chapter 14
with me and verse 9. Revelation chapter 14 and verse
9. And I didn't want to quote these
to you. I want you to turn your Bibles
and read these things for yourself. What is in this cup? What are
the ingredients of this cup? We know it is symbolic. It is
not a literal cup. It is symbolic of something.
And here we find it in verses 9 through verse 11 of Revelation
14. And we are told that in this
cup is wrath, the indignation of God. The reason I wanted you
to turn here and look at these places, these things are incomprehensible
to us. That's why the Lord has to speak
to us in symbols. You and I know what it is to
fill a cup with ingredients and drink out of it, taste it, and
take it into our system. So He uses these symbolic terms
to appeal to our minds to our understanding. So look what He
says in verse 9. And the third angel followed
them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast
and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his
hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God,
which is poured out without mixture unto the cup of his indignation. And he shall be tormented with
fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the
presence of the Lamb, and the smoke of their torment, ascendeth
that forever and ever. And they have no rest, day nor
night, who worship the beast and his image, whosoever receiveth
the mark of his name." What's in this cup? He says here it's
wrath. The wrath of God and the indignation. the anger of the Lord. When you
see these two words, wrath and indignation together, and sometimes
you do, it means fierceness, the fury of God, the anger of
God. It means burning or abhorrence
or hatred. David said he cast upon them
the fierceness of his anger, his wrath and his indignation
and trouble. By sending evil angels among
them, he made a way to vent his anger, and he spurred not their
souls from death." David made this statement about this cup.
He said, ìThe Lord tries the righteous, but the wicked and
him that loves violence, the Lord hateth. And upon the wicked
he shall reign snares, fire, and brimstone, and an horrible
tempest." And listen to what he said. This is the portion
of their cup. So what is in this cup? Well,
wrath is in this cup. What is in it? The anger of God
is in this cup. What is in it? The fierceness.
The fierceness of God's indignation and wrath. Why didn't the Lord
Jesus want to drink of this cup? For this reason. For this reason. He knew more of what was in this
cup than you and I, brothers and sisters, could ever begin
to comprehend. He knew it better than any of
us because He's the Lord. And when He contemplated the
wrath of God and the anger of God, He knew that no man could
stand before such things. and drank this in to his soul. So he prays, O Lord, O my Father,
deliver me, take away this cup. Sometimes we study about hell
in the Scriptures, and it's one of those subjects that we don't
like to study much about. But hell is described to us in symbolic terms,
that we may grasp it in our minds. Let me give you two or three
examples of this. When the Lord Jesus told us about
the rich man in hell, He said that he is tormented, I am tormented
in this flame. We sometimes think of a hell
as a place of fire. But you know it can't be a literal
fire. There's something worse than
literal fire. And hell is a place of outer
darkness, so it can't be fire as we know it, can it? Fire is symbolic of something
else. And Brother Wayne read it to
us this morning in Nahum chapter 1 and verse 6. Listen to this. Who can stand before His indignation? who could abide the fierceness
of his anger, he poureth out his fury like fire." What is
the fire of hell? It's his fury. It's his wrath,
his indignation. And when you and I think of fire,
we think of something that has to be controlled. As long as
we can control fire, we can be around it. But our greatest dread
is to have fire to be out of control because what does it
do when it's out of our control? It devours, doesn't it? What
is in this cup? It's the fire of God's wrath
that devours. It's out of control wrath. It
devours all that it touches. Isaiah said, Who among us shall
dwell with devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with
everlasting burnings? Ezekiel said, I have poured out
my anger upon them and my indignation. I have consumed them with the
fire of my wrath. So you and I are afraid of natural
fire, but there is something worse than natural fire. And
that's God's wrath, the fire of His wrath and indignation. What was in this cup? The Lord
Jesus knew that it was a cup of wrath, would bring such sorrow
to His soul. The Lord Jesus was hanging on
the cross and all of those predictions were fulfilled. Lamentations
1.12 where He said, Is it nothing to you that passed by? Behold,
and seeth there is any sorrow, likened to my sorrow. His soul was exceeding sorrowful,
even unto death. Listen to what he said. Whereby
the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of His fierce anger. That's fire, isn't it? That's
fire. Sometimes hell is set before
us in a symbolic term of the bottomless pit. A bottomless
pit. We're afraid of pits, aren't
we? Boy, if we go up to a pit that we look down in and it gets
dark and you can't see the bottom, that makes us afraid, doesn't
it? Because when you think of a bottomless pit, you think of
a place where all support has been taken away and all you do
is fall and fall and fall. What is it then that a bottomless
pit would represent to us? It represents to us a God who
has removed His support. And what happens when God removes
His support? He upholds us all, doesn't He?
He upholds this universe by the Word of His power. What happens
when He removes that support? We fall. We saw that with those
angels. There in the beginning. We saw
it with Adam and Eve in the old world. When God removes His hand
of support, we fall. And there's nothing there to
support us. And that's what was in this cup. It was a removal
of all support. That's why He said, I sank in
deep mire where there's no standing. What happened? God had always
supported him, hadn't He? Always made him strong for Hisself. Devils came against Him. Men
came against Him. But the Father supported Him.
But when the Father removed His support, what happens then? I sank, He said. That was what
was in that cup. Hell itself, I guess we could
say, was in that cup. symbolically called outer darkness. Outer darkness. What does this
represent to our minds? Outer darkness. Have you ever
been in a room where there was no light? Absolutely no light. They say there's no such thing
as total darkness. I don't know if they can create
it, but they say in this life that there's no darkness that's
total. I've been in darkness and you have too where you couldn't
see your hand right in front of your eyes. They say, yes,
that's not total darkness. Perhaps that's so. But you know
what that represents to us? A loss of God's presence. God
is light. And you know, everybody, you
could go to the darkest places of this world and find the most
wicked person that you could find, and you know that person
still has God's presence? He still has light. He's the
light that enlightens men's natural mind, that they can think and
discern and work out ideas and live and have their being. But
when God removes His presence, there's no light. That's why
hell is a place of outer darkness. God is not that. The rich man
lifted up his eyes and that's what he said, wasn't it? There's
no God here. There's nothing here but darkness.
And when the Lord Jesus said, My God, My God, why hast thou
forsaken Me? What was he experiencing? Total
darkness. Utter darkness. That was what
was in this cup. It's an absence of God's presence. Oh, I've never experienced that.
None of us have ever experienced that. There's only two that can
tell you what it's like to be without God's presence utterly,
and that's the Lord Jesus on the cross, and that's those in
hell this morning. They are in outer darkness. Oh, men say here, don't they
depart from us? We desire not the knowledge of
your way. Just leave us alone. They don't know what they're
asking. Oh, God forgive them. They don't know what they're
saying. Because when God departs from a man, there's no light.
It's total darkness. Oh, my Father, let this cup pass
from me. This total darkness pass from
me. So what's in this cup? the wrath of God, the indignation,
the anger, the fury of God poured out without mixture. Look in
the second place, this cut I want you to look at is found in Psalms
chapter 75. Look back over to your left in
the Old Testament in Psalms chapter 75. And look in verse 7 and 8. Here we find this cut. Look in verse 7 and 8. Psalm 75, But God is the judge,
he putteth them one, and setteth up another. And 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 shall drink them." Here's a cup that is full of
mixture. But this cup is full of mixture
of all that's evil. In this life, you and I experience
a mixture of good and evil. That's the way our life is. That's
the way the life of humanity There's justice, but it's mingled
with mercy, isn't it? There's the severity, but it's
mixed with goodness. Sometimes we have our sickness,
but it doesn't last long. It's mixed with a measure of
hell. Sometimes our head may be aching, but our legs and feet
are painless. Sometimes we may be hurting in
our hearts, but at least our bodies are free. Sometimes we're
made to cry, but our crying is mixed with a measure of joy,
isn't it? We have a mixture of good and
evil in this world. But here, when you consider this
cup, it's a mixture of everything that's evil. Everything that's
good has been taken out of this cup and all that's left is nothing
but evil. We can't imagine this, can we?
Can you imagine looking and all your eye sees is evil? Can you
imagine hearing and every word you hear is something evil? Every thought that you think
was an evil thought, can you imagine what it would be like?
That all good would be removed from you. We cannot imagine that.
But that is what was in this cup. All the good had been taken
out and all that was left was this mixture of evil. That is what the Lord Jesus drank
upon the cross of Calvary. And His heart was so tender He
is so meek and lowly, and yet every good thing was removed
from Him. And all that was left was that
which was evil. God had mixed the cup and says,
drink it. Drink it. One preacher said he
did not look out over that crowd and catch a beam from somebody's
eye that said, I know what you are doing there. I thank you
for it. All he saw was the eyes of an
angry mob. Or he saw the eyes of confusion
from his friend and laughter from his enemy. Oh, a mixture
of all that was evil came upon our dear Savior. Afflictions
of body, of his soul, of his spirit. These aggravating circumstances
of the ignorance of this mob. The shame of His nakedness, the
spittle, the mockers, the darkness, all this and more, indescribably
more, evil came upon the Son of God upon that cross. And when it's talked about ingredients
in a cup that you can drink, that means He took it in. He
tasted this evil. He took it down in his soul.
He felt this evil. He experienced the evil that
was in this cup. Let me quote the next cup to
you. It's found in Ezekiel chapter 23 and verse 32 if you want to
read it sometime. This is something else about
this cup. Listen to what Ezekiel said. Thus saith the Lord God,
Thou shalt drink of thy sister's cup. It is deep and it is large. You shall be laughed to scorn
and had in derision, for this cup containeth much." It's a
large cup. It contains much. Listen, not
only a tempest, but a horrible tempest. Not just sorrow, but
much sorrow. My soul is exceeding sorrowful. Not just wrath, but the fierceness
of God's wrath. Not just a worm, but a worm that
never does die. Much, much. Not just darkness,
but out of darkness. Not just a pit, but a bottomless
pit. Not just punishment, but everlasting
punishment. Not just smoke of their tarment
ascending up, but ascending up forever and ever and ever. The cup is so large, that's why
those can't quit drinking it down in hell. It's got too much
in it. You never can drink it dry. That's
what's so amazing about the Son of God when He drank it. He drank
it until He drank it dry. If the mere anticipation of this
cup threw the Son of God to the ground on His face in astonishment,
what in the world will it do to unbelievers, to the wicked,
when they're made to drink this cup? If this did this to the
Son of God in our humanity, as strong as He was, what will it
do to weak and vile, sinful man, unless repentance prevents and
they're made to drink of this cup? I love that old song that
we hum sometimes, You who think of sin but lightly, Nor suppose
the evil great, Here may view its nature rightly, Here its
guilt may estimate, Mark the sacrifice appointed, See who
bears the awful load, Tis the Lord, God's anointed, Son of
man and Son of God. Two more places I want you to
turn to. Fourthly, look in Isaiah 51. Isaiah 51. And look in verse 17. Isaiah 51 and 17. This is called here a cup of
trembling. The ingredients of this cup are
calculated to make a person Look here how the Holy Spirit says
it in verse 17. Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem,
which has drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of His fury. Thou hast drunken the dregs of
the cup of trembling, and wrung them out. The cup of trembling. The Lord Jesus, Mark said, began
to be sore amazed. That word means startled. It
means to astonish, surprise, and shocked. He was shocked. One of the reasons I think that
these poor disciples slept, the Bible says they slept for sorrow. They had never seen Him like
this before. They had never seen the expression on His face that
was on His face here in the garden. He was fearless, wasn't He? He wasn't afraid of anything.
He faced devils and never flinched. Hundreds of them, thousands of
them never made Him afraid. He faced nature, the storms of
a raging sea. He always told His disciples,
fear not, but now look at Him. Now he's afraid. Now he's crying. Now his lips are trembling. Now
he's astonished. Now he's surprised. And the disciples
couldn't believe their eyes. They didn't know what was happening.
What was happening? This cup and the ingredients
that's in it is calculated to make a man tremble. If there
is ever a place in the Bible that shows us that Jesus Christ
had indeed a real humanity, it could be right here. Because
look how He was afraid. Look how He drew back. I think the Holy Spirit was very
careful to let us know that our Lord Himself struggled at this
place. Let this cup pass from me, if
you're willing." And he shakes, and he cries, and tears is running
down his eyes, and he's afraid. What a statement! The Son of
God! The Bible says he feared. He
feared. We sometimes see people, these
young teenagers, sometimes poor things, Put these words on their
t-shirts. Sometimes you see it on a bumper
sticker. No fear. No fear. I'm not afraid of anything. I'm
not afraid of anybody. You will be afraid. You will be afraid. Because I called and you refused,
God said. You said that not all my counsels
were none of my reproof. I'll laugh when your calamity
comes. I'll mock when your fear comes. And it will come. It will
come. This cup will make a man tremble. All our preaching, all our pleading
with some people, all our prayers for some people will not arouse
them and make them concerned and anxious about their lost
estate. But I tell you, this cup will
awaken a man. Those in hell this morning that's
drinking of this cup, they are fully aware of why they're there. They've been convinced of how
they lived in this world and all the wickedness they did.
Here they won't listen when you tell them. There they'll listen.
And there they'll tremble. Because that's what this cup
is calculated to do. It's a cup of Trembling. People want to know why you get
so anxious. Preacher, why are you so anxious about this? Because
I don't want to see anybody drink of this cup. This is serious,
isn't it? For a man to spend 70 years or
90 years or a woman spend 100 years in this world and spend
eternity trembling? I don't want that to happen to
you. That's why we pray. That's why we plead with God
to have mercy upon poor sinners for Christ's sake. One more passage, look at John
chapter 18, and we'll close with this. John chapter 18. I'm so thankful. that I can end with this note. John chapter 18. Look in verse 4. Jesus, therefore knowing all
things that should come upon Him, He went forth and said unto them,
Whom seek ye? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. And Jesus said unto them, I am
He. And Judas also, which betrayed
him, stood with him. And as soon as he had said this
unto them, I am He, they went backward and fell to the ground. Then asked He them again, Whom
seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus answered, I have told you that I am He. If therefore you
seek Me, let these go their way, that the saying might be fulfilled
which ye spake of them which thou hast given Me, I have lost
none. Then Simon Peter, having a sword,
drew it, and smoked the high priest's servant, and cut off
his right ear. And the servant's name was Malchus.
And verse 11, Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword
unto the sheath, the cup which my Father hath given me. Shall
I not drink it? Shall I not drink it? Oh, listen, this man is your
child of God. He drank it. Everything that
we've been describing in this cup this morning. He said, I
drank it. My Father gave it to me, that
which belonged to you. And I drank it. What's in it? Everything that we've been looking
at. Damnation was in it, wasn't it? But He drank it. And you know something? He drank
it dry. There was not one single dreg
left in that cup. He drank damnation dry. If anybody's wondering this morning
why we're so convinced of particular redemption, it's Scriptures like
this. It's this whole concept. There's
a cup, and somebody's going to have to drink it. I must drink
it or somebody must drink it for me. And there is no such
thing in the Scriptures as somebody drinking it for me and then me
having to drink it too. There is nothing left in the
cup, Wayne. Shall I not drink it? And bless
His name, He drank it dry. And there is no damnation for
the saint. There is no judgment for any
believer. There is no condemnation. Why
would they be condemned? Why would they be punished? He
bore it all in their stead. You are here this morning and
you are longing to cast your soul upon the Son of God? Well,
do it. Do it. Give yourself up. Give your soul, your poor sinful
soul, up to the Son of God to save you. After undergoing such
a cup, drinking it dry, would He reject anyone who cast their
poor sinful soul upon Him? He'll never do it. Oh, this is
the ground of assurance, is it not? This is our hope that we'll
never be punished for our sins. Somebody has been punished in
our stead. The old writers used to write
much about this. One said this, Wrath divine,
no more we dread. Vengeance smote our surety's
head. Legal claims are fully met. Jesus paid the dreadful debt. Sin is lost beneath the flood. drowned in the Redeemer's blood. Zion, oh, how blessed art thou,
justified from all things now." Oh, we love to think about the
Redeemer drinking the cup that belonged to us. Believe it, dear
soul. Believe it. Take it into your heart. Just
as He took the cup of cursing for you, take His blessings into
your heart. Give yourself up to the Lord
Jesus Christ.