As we meditate in his word, let
us turn to the Gospel of John, chapter 18, and we'll read verse
11. The Gospel of John, chapter 18,
and reading verse 11. Then said Jesus unto Peter, put
up thy sword into the sheath, the cup which my father hath
given me Shall I not drink it? As we read the words in this
chapter, we recognise that the fulfilment of that great work
of salvation is coming towards an end. the Lord Jesus Christ we see
is so willing to obey the will of his Father a glorious example
we have in the Saviour and how wonderful it is for us tonight
to realise that the Lord Jesus Christ was willing to come into
this sinful world and to die that sin atoning death so that
you and I might be blessed with a hope of eternal life, because
without it, without the life and death and resurrection of
the Saviour, there would be no eternal bliss for any of us. And so, may we thank God for
all that the Lord Jesus Christ did, and much, of course, of
what occurred in the Saviour's life for the first 30 years we
know virtually nothing about and then as the Lord was revealed
and was baptized by John the Baptist in Jordan and commenced
his ministry we then see some of those things which occurred
during those next three years. But the principal elements of
course were reserved really for the last few days of his life
upon this earth. And those last few days were
full of wonderful truth. Last few days were wonderful
to read of what the Lord Jesus Christ did and how he responded
to the questions and the opposition which he faced and how he continued,
notwithstanding all the difficulties, to pursue that work that his
Father had given Him to do. It is a glorious testimony for
us today as you and I walk on the earth many years afterwards
and yet you see that we are classified as Isaiah clearly said, ye are
my witnesses, witness to what the Lord Jesus Christ has done
and may there be a witness for what He's done for our souls
and the evidence that we possess this wonderful gift of eternal
life. I was reading recently some of
the life of John Bunyan in Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners,
which of course is his spiritual life. I know you children are
having the Pilgrim's Progress explained to you in Sunday School,
which is a wonderful thing. But we perhaps don't realise
that John Bunyan was a very wicked man when he was young, when he
was a boy, when he was a teenager, when he was a young man, he was
a very, very wicked man. He was probably estimated as
one of the worst sinners. And yet you see God, in His grace
and wonderful mercy, had mercy upon him. And there were those
various things which came into his life. It's worth reading,
and you young people might think it's not a very easy book, but
it is quite easy, in actual fact, to read the accounts of John
Bunyan and how the Lord spoke to him and brought him along. It was just really, very slowly,
it was here a little and there a little, line upon line, and
precept upon precept. And he kept on finding these
situations which nudged his conscience to turn him away from the evil
path that he was walking. He was a wonderful swearer. He
couldn't say a sentence without beginning with a swear word and
finishing it with a swear word. But the Lord graciously took
that away from him. But what I was coming to was
this. One day he was walking along and he came across three
elderly ladies and they were talking and he stopped and wondered
what they were talking about and what they were talking about
was this they were talking about the new birth they were talking
about what God had done for their souls now at this stage John
Bunyan thought he was quite a good Christian and he was getting
on really quite well but he suddenly realised he didn't really understand
what these ladies were talking about but there was a big influence
and every time he was able to have an opportunity he would
find himself along with these ladies and listen to what they
said now there is good instruction there for us those of us who
do know the Lord to remember that we should, like they did,
speak often one to another. They weren't ashamed of their
religion. They wanted to encourage each
other. And, of course, it was used in
the life of John Bunyan. We don't know, you see, what
will prosper, this or that. And so, it is good to be found
speaking on the things of God. It's so easy for us today to
speak on everything else rather than the things of God. But the
things of God lead us to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that in
itself will bring honour and glory to our Saviour. So we should always be thankful
for the life of the Lord Jesus Christ which is set forth so
very clearly in the Word of God, especially in the end chapters
of the four Gospels, to be able to trace out what the Saviour
had to endure and what He passed through. Never underestimate
the great cost of our salvation. Never think that your life was
cheaply bought. It was not. Our life, our spiritual
life, was bought with that great price, the life and death of
the Lord Jesus Christ. So here we see in this chapter
what had occurred, that the Lord had spoken to His Father in that
great and glorious high priestly prayer in the 17th chapter of
John, which I hope is a prayer that you are a bit familiar with
anyway. It's a very wonderful account. And then we come on
to this 18th chapter, And we're told that Jesus went forth over
the brook Kidron with his disciples. And then we find that what occurred
then was Judas had arranged for the men to come and capture and
arrest the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus was asked who he was,
whether he was the Lord Jesus Christ. And then asked he them
again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Now what had happened when the
Lord had spoken that the first time? They answered him, Jesus
of Nazareth. Jesus said unto them, I am he.
And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them. And as
soon then as he had said this unto them, I am he, they went
backward and fell to the ground. You see the amazing influence
of the word of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well then Jesus said,
I have told you that I am he. If therefore you seek me, let
these go their way that the same might be fulfilled, which he
spake of them which thou gavest me, have I lost none? Then Simon
Peter, having a sword, drew it and smote the high priest's servant
and cut off his right ear. Well, that wasn't a right thing
to do. We can understand perhaps Peter's zeal in endeavouring
to safeguard the Saviour. Well, we know, of course, that
the Saviour did not need any safeguarding. But nonetheless,
we see how Peter carried out this position and cut this high
priest's servant's ear off. It wasn't the right thing to
do. And we should always be careful in our lives not to do things
which are wrong but to do that which is in accordance with the
will of Almighty God and so Simon Peter having cut this man's ear
off then said Jesus unto Peter put up thy sword into the sheath
no more of this situation and then he comes and speaks these
very wonderful words the cup which my Father hath given me,
shall I not drink it? That means that the Lord Jesus
Christ was willing to follow that path and that way that His
Father had graciously and sovereignly ordained for Him. And of course
it was not an easy path. But yet the Saviour, you see,
was willing to drink it. He said, the cup which my Father
hath given me, shall I not drink it? God had given him this cup
to drink. You may remember that prior to
this he'd been in the Garden of Gethsemane and he'd prayed
to his father, if it be possible, let this cup, the same cup, pass
from me, nevertheless not my will, but thine be done.' A willingness
to submit to the will of his Father. What a wonderful truth
that is. What a wonderful statement. For
us to ponder and think that the Lord Jesus Christ, the very God,
was willing to drink this cup that his Father had given him
to drink and it was of course a bitter cup and it was not an
easy cup because he had to endure on his people's behalf the wrath
of God now God's wrath is toward all those who have sinned so
as we stand Before God, we have all sinned. We have all disobeyed
Almighty God. We all deserve the wrath of God
to come upon us. And if that wrath of God came
upon us, what would happen? What would happen? We would find
ourselves in a lost eternity with the devil and all his angels. it would be a most terrible situation
which we would never be able to get ourselves out of because
it would be we would be there the lot would have been cast
eternity in hell because of the righteous wrath of God and we
would not be able to complain we would have to confess that
we deserved it that is a very important position in the life
of the true believer to realize that we do deserve the wrath
of God to come upon us because of our sin. Because sin must
be paid for. We cannot enter into heaven with
any sin. Sin must be taken away and the
only way it can be taken away if it is paid for and that sin
is removed. And you and I cannot remove it
ourselves. It's there where it's died within
us. We cannot get rid of it. We are
therefore condemned because of our sin. And remember, we are
born in sin. and shapen in iniquity. So therefore,
what are we to do? Is there any hope for us? Not in ourselves, but there is
hope through what the Lord Jesus Christ has done in drinking this
cup, the cup of God's wrath, on our behalf, that all the wrath
due to us was laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ. It's good just
to pause a moment and think of that because what it means is
that every single sin that you and I have committed deserves
the wrath of God and every sin that we have committed will draw
the wrath of God upon us and the only way that we can be relieved
of that the only way that can be taken from us is through what
the Lord Jesus Christ has done and that comes down to the great
act of salvation the Lord Jesus Christ never sinned He was spotless
He was pure He never disobeyed the commands of God He kept them
and yet He had willingly come into this sinful world to stand
in our place and to receive the punishment due to us. That's the glory of the Gospel. That really is what should rejoice
our hearts. That's really what should humble
us before Almighty God, to think that we have such a Saviour who
looks upon us and is so willing to drink this cup that His Father
had given to Him on our behalf, so that He would pay that price
He would bear He would bear the punishment due to us. In every
detail, nothing omitted. If there was, we would not be
found in glory. We need every sin to be removed,
every single sin to be taken away. What a blessing it is then
to have a Saviour who was so willing to take our sins The
cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it? The Lord knew that he had to
drink it. The Lord knew he had to pay the
price to redeem his people, his church, those whom he had loved
with an everlasting love. And again, that's a wonderful
truth. a wonderful realisation to think
that we as unworthy sinners have been loved by God we who were
lost and ruined in the fall all we had was sin as the Apostle
Paul said in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing
we can't come before God and say well I've done this and I've
done that you will find as the Holy Spirit directs you that
sin is mixed in your very best deeds if you can put it that
way the things that you might think you've done well things
that you might consider deserve some acknowledgement when the
Holy Spirit comes you will find that in the best of our deeds
there is sin there is pride oh my friends and therefore we have
to confess as the Apostle and come alongside him and say in
me that as in my flesh dwelleth no good thing that doesn't mean
to say of course that those who are born again in the Spirit
possess that new nature which is pure and clean and wholesome
and without sin but we have that old nature which we were born
with which we shall carry through life until the very day we pass
out of time into eternity. That doesn't mean to say that
as you and I journey on there won't be that spiritual growth
in grace, the sanctification of our old nature there will
be. But you see we must recognize that we still battle on with
the evil of sin We still battle on with that great adversary
of our souls, the devil, who will never give up this side
of the grave. Never give up. He keeps on trying
to make us deny the Lord of life and glory. He keeps on trying
to make us turn away from the truth of God. But what a blessing
it is that we today have a record in the Word of God to direct
us to what the Saviour has done in that great and glorious work
of salvation. And to believe this truth, which
the Saviour said, these are the words of Jesus unto Peter, personally
spoken. Isn't it good when God comes
and personally speaks into our heart? We might say when the
Word of God is applied with power, directed to us, so that we can,
as it were, We claim it as our own. It's the very Word of God
which has brought life into our souls and we recognise the wonder
of it. The cup which my Father hath
given me, shall I not drink it? The Saviour never turned back. He set his face to Jerusalem,
we read like a flint. He pursued that journey. He knew
what was before him. He never turned back and he endured
all that was cast upon him. It's a wonderful thought to think
that Jesus, the Son of God, the second person in the Trinity,
no less, endured the wrath of his father. on our behalf so
that we might be made clean. And of course the Word of God
speaks so very beautifully to us when it tells us that all
of the Church of God are washed in the blood of the Lamb. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb
of God that we spoke of last Lord's Day, the Lamb of God that
taketh away the sin of the world. That's a great truth, isn't it?
What a wonderful word it is to enable us to press on and to
be able to confront the devil and tell him Christ has died. Yea, rather is risen again. No doubt when the Savior died,
the devil thought he'd won. But no, he was conquered. The
Lord gave up his life. He gave up his spirit. He'd finished
the work that his father gave him to do. He dismissed his spirit.
It was his work. His work had been completed on
this earth and he'd not failed. Although it was a terrible conquest, difficult conquest
that he'd had to face. and especially when he was on
the cross you know you can trace the last few hours and the days
of his life really from the time when he left that upper room
having spoken so wonderfully and beautifully to his disciples
and then had to go into the Garden of Gethsemane and then to be
taken captive and go into the Judgment Hall and there to be
ridiculed and spat upon and buffeted let's not forget that the Saviour
was buffeted yes the soldiers and those in that judgment hall
they would have hit him on his face so hard that it would have
been bruised and marred and his back was covered with lashes
the Saviour was so weak After suffering all that, that he could
not really carry his cross. And that's why someone else had
to carry it for him. And then in that exceedingly
weak state, he was then nailed to that cross. All his clothes
were taken from him. He was a spectacle there for
all the world to gaze upon. And you see, he graciously and
gloriously humbled himself unto death, even the death of the
cross. It was all part of this cup which
his father had given him to drink. And of course, he drank it right
up. There were no dregs left. The
very bitterest part was perhaps on those hours before he gave
up the ghost when his father hid his face there he'd been
in eternity in unity with his father and then he'd come onto
this earth and his father was there and he had communion with
him but now at this last few hours the father hid his face
Therefore, what dregs that must have been, what bitter dregs,
as he was virtually left alone to suffer on that cross. But again, you see, he did not
turn back. And of course, as we know, in
that situation, on that cross, it was an amazing time with those
two thieves, one on each side, And that one thief who was gloriously
saved, again the Saviour in his agony, he still spoke to that
dying thief, he still answered his questions, he still encouraged
him with that great and glorious truth, this day thou shalt be
with me in paradise. Well we have just some view in
the Word of God of the cost of our salvation. Some view of the
Saviour partaking of this cup, the cup which my Father hath
given me, shall I not drink it? He posed it as a question to
Peter. It was a statement which had
to be carried out because if it had not been drunk completely
then you see there would have still been the wrath of God there
to be extinguished. But the Saviour extinguished
it on behalf of the Church of God. And the only way that was
to be extinguished was through the shedding of His most precious
blood. That's why it is spoken of, the
hymn writer has it, in that one word, invaluable. It was so valuable. there was no value that you and
I could put on the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ because
it was so valuable that it paid to take away the sins of the
whole Church of God and so today can we not praise God and glorify
Him for what He's done for that wonderful salvation that he did
drink this cup that his father gave him the cup which my father
has given me shall I not drink it? It was a very clear word
and yet as you may have remembered the Lord a number of times explained
to his disciples what was going to happen how he was going to
be crucified and how he would rise again. But what do we see? Their eyes were blinded, perhaps
their ears were deaf, perhaps their understanding wasn't clear. They didn't appreciate what was
going to happen. They didn't realize the great
and glorious significance of it. And yet of course it was
set forth in the Old Testament It was set forth what would happen
to the Lord Jesus Christ. But when it came to pass, there
wasn't that understanding. And it wasn't until the Lord
Jesus arose from the dead and showed himself to his disciples
and those at the tomb that they then gradually came to appreciate
who it was. Remember that journey on the
Emmaus Road? those two on that journey didn't
realise who it was until he revealed himself in the breaking of bread
you may think well that's very strange well put it this way
we don't realise the wonder of it we don't realise the truth
of it we don't realise the blessing of this salvation until the Blessed
Lord comes and opens our eyes, removes the blindness, unstops
our ears, so that we hear and see the glory of the salvation
brought about through the sin and atoning death of our Lord
Jesus Christ. You see these things are reserved
for the Church of God in reality. many people will perhaps naturally
understand these things but it's when these great truths are applied
to our hearts and the effect is known because the effect makes
us rejoice the effect makes us praise our God for that which
He has done the effect brings us into that place of praise
to our God and so as we think of this great statement here
tonight which says this before us, the cup which my Father hath
given me, shall I not drink it? As you and I may ponder the fullness
of those words and the importance of them that the Lord Jesus Christ
did have to take of this cup and to drink it all up, the wrath
of God on behalf of his people. He stood in their place. It's
a wonderful picture we have, don't we? Of the substitution
right back in Abraham's day when Abraham was commanded to offer
up his son Isaac. And again we see wonderful obedience. Abraham didn't hesitate. He didn't
ask for a, well let's wait for a few days. Let's see how things
work out. He obeyed God. And don't forget
that in that son Isaac were all the promises of God to Abraham
contained. Without Isaac, how could those
promises be fulfilled? Where was his faith? His faith
was in his God. My friends, today you and I need
the same faith to be able to view the great and glorious finished
work of the Saviour and to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ did
drink this cup, this cup of God's wrath on our behalf. For us, we do need, we must have
an application of the truth of God's Word It is not a theory,
it is a truth. Thy word is truth, as Jesus said
in the previous chapter, the 17th. Thy word is truth, and
it is true. And you and I rejoice in it.
Abraham rejoiced in it. God did appear. Abraham didn't
know what was going to happen until the very, very last moment
or second, we may say, when he was going to slay his son. And
the Lord told him, Now he knew that he trusted and believed
in his God and there was a ram caught by its horns in a thicket
and he was to take that and offer the ram up instead of Isaac. Well today if our life was offered
up it would not atone for our sins because our sins would still
be there but to know the Lord Jesus Christ died to atone for
our sins so they were all taken away just ponder that great truth
because if our sins are all removed then you see we are holy and
just before God we are justified not because of what we've done
but because of what Christ has done on our behalf and if we
are justified then you see we will be glorified and we shall
then rejoice in that wonderful a time ahead, as by His grace
we look forward, and I hope we do. It's not always easy, we're
earthbound, but it's good if sometimes the Lord comes and
touches our heart to look forward to the glory of Emmanuel's land. It's a good prospect to the whole
Church of God. And so tonight, may we come and
praise God for the great truths of the gospel. Praise God for
what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. Praise God that he did
drink up this cup on our behalf and that because of that he will
clothe us with his righteousness. That spotless robe, that wedding
garment we shall find we are clothed with. We won't have to
look for anything else. The Lord gives it. to his church. Isn't it wonderful? All these
things are given. We don't deserve them. God gives
them freely. What a mercy it is to have such
a great and glorious God. So tonight, I hope we can go
on our way rejoicing in the great and glorious salvation that has
been brought about by the blessed Saviour. Indeed, by the blessed
plan a Father, Son and the Holy Spirit who are all united together
in this plan of salvation for sinful men, so that by the grace
of God, one day when all things are complete, when this world
is no more, when His people will be with Him around that throne
of God in heaven, praising Him forever and ever. Well, may we
look forward to it and come tonight thankful to God For the words
that we have here of the Saviour, the cup which my Father hath
given me, shall I not drink it? Amen.