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 saith unto Peter,
What could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that
ye enter not into temptations. The spirit indeed is 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.' 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." Now I want you to turn over to Mark's Gospel,
chapter 14, and begin reading with me in verse 32. This is Mark's account. of the same
time, Mark 14 and 32. They came to a place which was
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 And he said to them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful even
to death, tarry ye here and watch. And he went forward a little
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 thou wilt. And he came and findeth them
asleep. and said to Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? Could you not
watch one hour? Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter
into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but
the flesh is weak. And again he went away and prayed
the same words. And when he was returned, he
found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. Neither
wished they what to answer him. And he come the third time and
said unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest. It is enough. The hour is come. Behold, the
Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners." Now, the last
text I have is found in Luke chapter 22 and beginning in verse
39. Luke chapter 22 and verse 39. And he came out, and went as
he was wont, accustomed to do, to the Mount of Olives, and his
disciples 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, Father, if thou be willing, remove this
cut from me. Nevertheless not my will, but
thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto
him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in that agony,
he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat were as it were great
drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose
up from prayer, he came to his disciples and found them sleeping
for sorrow." Now, these texts of Scripture that I read to you,
Look at our Lord's condition and His state of mind on this
night that He was to be betrayed. This was His last night with
His disciples, His apostles. Just after this prayer and this
incident, they came and bound Him, they tried Him, and finally
He was crucified. The Lord was troubled this night
about many things. Different things bothered Him
and troubled His heart and spirit. He was concerned about his betrayal. He mentions it several times.
He says in John 13, he was troubled in spirit and said, one of you
shall betray me this night. He mentions this several times.
He that eateth bread with me has lifted up his heel against
me. You are not all clean, he said.
This he spake of Judas Iscariot which should betray him. Woe
be to that man by whom The Son of Man is betrayed. He was troubled
over this betrayal. He was also troubled over his
disciples being offended at him. He said this, All of you shall
be offended at me this night. All of you shall be offended.
For it is written, I will smite the shepherd and the sheep shall
be scattered. You shall be scattered and leave
me alone. He said to them in John 6. The
Lord Jesus Christ took much comfort in His apostles. Often, just
as they took comfort in Him, He took a measure of comfort
in them. In this verse that I read to
you, He said, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Tarry
ye here, and watch with me. Watch with me. And he said to
Peter, could you not watch one hour with me? They were a comfort
to him in his hour of sorrow. But he knew this, that all of
them would forsake him. All of them would finally be
offended and leave him. In the Psalms he said this, I
looked for some to take pity, but I found none, and for comforters,
but there were none. All of his friends had forsaken
him. One had betrayed him, one had
denied him, and all forsook him. We sometimes sang the old song,
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 did it
alone. There was none to comfort him. But what troubled the Lord Jesus
most, I've read to you here in Mark and Matthew and Luke. And they use different terms
to describe the state of our Lord's mind. Matthew tells us
He began to be sorrowful and very heavy. My soul is exceeding
sorrowful, he said, even unto death. Mark tells us this, that
he began to be sore amazed, that word means to be startled, or
to be overwhelmed with astonishment, to be surprised. He was astounded. And Luke says, being in an agony,
he prayed until his sweat was as great drops of blood falling
down to the ground. But all three of these writers
are very careful to record What caused our Lord Jesus to be in
such a state of mind? Why He was so emotional about
this hour? And all of them said this, that
it was this cut. All of them mentioned these two
words, this cut. Take this cup away from me. If it be possible, take this
cup away from me. Oh my Father, He said, let this
cup, this cup pass from me. That was the cause of the burden
of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was this cup. Now what is
this cup? We know it's not a literal cup.
It's symbolic. When the Bible speaks to us of
these things, these cups, it's condescending to speak to us
in a way that we can understand. If you drink something out of
a cup, you know what's in the cup. And when the Lord speaks
to us of a cup, He wants us to imagine a cup that can be drunk
out of. But it's not a literal cup. It's
symbolic. There's many cups in the Scripture.
David talked about taking the cup of salvation and calling
upon the name of the Lord. Isaiah, or Jeremiah, talked about
the cup of consolation. There's a cup of comfort. Paul
tells us about the cup of blessing, the communion of the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. But these aren't the cups that
are spoken of here. These were never caused the Lord
to be astounded and to be amazed and to sweat drops of blood.
So what is this cup? What is in this cup? That's what
I want us to look at this morning, and I want us to go to the Scriptures
to see what's in this cup. I want us to go, first of all,
to Revelation chapter 14. Look at Revelation chapter 14.
I want you to mark these. If you don't prefer to write
in your Bible, I want you to mark these places where you can
go back and read these and think about these later. First of all,
look at what's in this cup. He's speaking here about the
ungodly, the unbelievers, those who hate the Lord Jesus and hate
His gospel. In Revelation chapter 14, and
look in verse 10. 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 the presence
of the Lamb." What's in this cup? We're told here that it's
the wrath of God. The indignation, which means
the fierce, burning anger of God. The abhorrence of God. The wrath of God upon and against
sin. Hatred. Can you imagine divine
hatred? Can you imagine the wrath of
God? The indignation of God? That's what's in this cup that
will be poured out to the wicked. And listen to Psalms chapter
78 and verse 49. He cast upon them the fierceness
of his anger, wrath, and indignation. That's what's in this cup. Wrath,
anger, and indignation. fierceness of these things. Not
just the anger of God, but the fierceness of His anger. Not
just wrath, but the fierceness of His wrath. Not just indignation,
but the fierceness of His indignation. And listen to Psalms 11, verses
5 and 6. The Lord tries the heart of the
righteous, but the wicked and him that loves violence his soul
hathen. Upon the wicked he shall rain
snares, fire and brimstone, and that horrible tempest. This is
the portion of their cup." So what's in this cup? Evil things. These evil things that is in
God against sin and against the wickedness. This cup contains
the fury of God against sin and against sinners because of it. God's wrath upon sin, therefore
wrath is in this cup. God's anger with the wicked every
day, therefore His anger is in this cup. God hates all workers
of iniquity, therefore His hate is in this cup. And to drink
of this cup means you taste it. It means you swallow it down,
and it goes down into your stomach, your innermost being, and there
you feel the effects of the contents of this cup. They shall drink
of the cup. The cup. Lord, O my Father, take
this cup away from me. Often the Bible speaks to us
in symbols. Sometimes when you and I read
about the torments of hell, it doesn't speak literally. You
may be here this morning, and don't judge too quickly what
I say, but sometimes when we talk of hell, we're not speaking
of literal fire. We're not speaking of literal
darkness. It's worse than that. It's worse
than that. The Bible condescends to us and
speaks to us with these symbols because the Bible knows that
we understand symbols. So it condescends to speak to
us about symbols. I'll give you this example. We're
told that hell is a place of fire. The rich man lifts up his
eyes, being in torment, and says, My tongue is tormented in this
flame. Another place it said there is
fire that is not quenched in hell. But it's not a literal
fire, because hell is also described to us as a place of outer darkness,
utter darkness. If hell was a place of fire as
we know it, it would not be dark there. But it's darker. So this
fire is not the literal fire that you and I think of. It's
symbolic of this. It's symbolic of the fierceness
of God's wrath. It's symbolic of His divine anger
upon sin and against sinners because of it. Listen to Nahum
chapter 1 and verse 6. Who can stand before His indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness
of his anger, his fury is poured out like fire." His anger is
like fire. His indignation and his fury
is like fire. The rocks are thrown down by
him. When you and I think about fire,
we recognize the necessity to control it. We know what happens
if fire is not controlled. It will devour things, and it
will devour people. What a wonderful, if you can
describe it as wonderful, symbol of God's wrath. It devours things. His indignation devours things. Listen to Isaiah 33, 14. Who
among us shall dwell with devouring fire? who among us shall dwell
with everlasting burnings. Yet listen to this, I have poured
out my indignation upon them, I have consumed them with the
fire of my wrath. Why? Their own ways have I recompensed
upon them, saith the Lord God." So fire, when we read fire sometimes,
it's not literal fire. It's God's wrath. It's these
horrible, evil things that's in this cup. That's what's in
this cup. Sometimes we think of hell and
it's described as a bottomless pit, but that's symbolic of something
to us. It teaches our weak minds of
something greater, far greater than just a literal bottomless
pit. We fear a bottomless pit, do
we not? If you see a large hole, I remember
one time on the St. James River, they took us there
and we were looking around, and there's a hole there up into
the head of that river. It's a spring, and you can see
it, and it's dark, and they They had their suits on going down
in the hole, and they said they can't find the bottom of the
place. They go as far as they can, but there's no bottom. Just
to think about a bottomless pit, it makes us afraid, doesn't it?
It's contrary to our nature. A bottomless pit. What is that
symbolica? You know what that symbolica
is? That all support has been removed. God holds every man
up in this world. And when God removes his support,
the soul falls. He has no support. He falls and
he falls and he falls. He cannot hold himself up any
longer, and God will not hold himself up any longer. For God
to remove his support is symbolic of a It speaks to us of a bottomless
pit. Listen to Psalms 36.12. The workers
of iniquity are fallen. They are cast down and shall
not be able to arise. They are cast down and they cannot
arise. Why? Because God will not support
them any longer. He has cast them down Himself. And when God casts a man down,
he cannot support himself. There is no support for him. Hell is sometimes called a place
of outer darkness, but this is symbolic to describe to us something
that is far, far worse than the darkness that is natural to us.
It describes for us the loss of God's presence. God is light,
and in Him is no darkness at all. Everybody here this morning
has light from God. You find the most wicked person
in this world, and God still gives that person light. Light
in their minds. Light in their eyes. What does
it mean, then, to be in a place of outer darkness? It's not so
much the place, it's the condition. Because to be in outer darkness
means the presence of God is not there. God is light. And when He casts a person out
of His presence, it's total darkness. That's what's in this cup. All
these evil things that we find in God against sin. Outer darkness. And you know the Lord Jesus was
looking at this cup, and He knew what was in it. It was right
there before his eyes. He could see it in his mind's
eye. He kept defining, he kept saying,
he kept describing this, this cup. He never said that cup that
was to come, but this cup. He saw it and he knew what was
in it. Everything that I've read to
you and quoted to you, the Lord Jesus experienced. when he drank
this cup. Listen to the lamentation in
verse 12 of chapter 1. He said, Behold and see if there
is any sorrow like unto my sorrow. You want to know why his soul
was exceeding sorrowful? Here it is. He said, See if you
have ever seen any man that has sorrow like my sorrow, wherewith
the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. There is that cup. God's fierce
anger was in him, and he drank it. He drank it. Listen to this. Oh my God, my soul is cast down
within me. I sink in deep mire where there
is no standing. What was he experiencing? He
was experiencing this bottomless pit. He was experiencing what
it meant for God to withdraw His support. The Father had always
supported him. Even here in the garden, when
his soul was so heavy, he sent an angel and he strengthened
him and supported him through his trial and mockery. The Father
was there to support him. But on the cross, when he drank
of this cup, that support was gone. God was gone. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Is that not hell? Is that not
darkness? Is that not falling? When God
Himself not only refuses to support a man, but casts him down, pushes
him down? Thy wrath lies hard upon me,
He says. Oh, you brought me to the dust
of death. I'm in this horrible pit. I cannot
arise. I cannot get up. That's what's
in this cup. The evil thing. If I can say
it, that's in God. It contains everything against
our nature. Things that to experience would
torment us in our souls and in our bodies. Those things that
are in God that we cannot abide in our humanity. And Christ knew
this. He knew it. And he prays, O Father, take
away this cup. Take away this cup from me. If it be possible, take this
cup away from me. He had to drink of it, or we
have to. He had to take it to his lips, or we'll have to. Something else about this cup.
I want you to look to another place. I want you to look in
Psalm 75. Look in Psalm 75. And look in verse 6. Psalm 75
and verse 6. In this cup, are those horrible things in
God that you and I cannot abide. His wrath, His anger, His indignation,
the fierceness of God. And here we're told something
else in verse 6 of Psalms chapter 75. Now look at this. For promotion
cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the
north. But God is the judge, he putteth
down one, and setteth up another. For in the hand of the Lord,
in the hands of Jehovah God, there is a cup. The wine is red,
and 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 in the hands of God. There is this cut. Nobody else has this cut. This
is in God's hands, the judge of all the earth. And he said
here that it's full of mixture, but it's not a mixture of good
and evil. In this life, the Lord gives
us a mixture of good and evil. This is what you and I experience
in this life. Goodness and severity. Blessings
and cursing. We sometimes have joy, other
times we have sorrow. We have health and we have sickness.
But in this cup, which the wicked will be forced to drink, is a
mixture of all that's evil without any good in it. You and I can't
imagine this, can we? Can you imagine trying to live,
exist, when all good has been taken away? On our worst days, God is good
to us. On our worst days, we experience
something of God's blessings and His goodness. We may have
a headache, but your arms are free. You may be aching in your
conscience. But you don't have any pain in
your body. You may have trouble in your family, but you have
some peace in your mind. But you know it's not so when
someone is made to drink of this cup. This is a mixture of everything
that is evil, full of evil without any mixture of that which is
good. Oh, what a time it was for the
Lord Jesus then, to have everything good taken from Him. The sight of the angry faces
of these mobs, the sight of devils, the sight of God's anger, the
weight of sin upon His conscience. Could I say that? The weight
of sin upon his conscience. Before he had knowledge of God's
favor, that was all taken away. Now all that was left was the
knowledge of the loss of his presence. The wrath of men, the
wrath of devils, the wrath of God, afflicted in his soul, afflicted
in his body, afflicted in his spirit, and all of those aggravating
circumstances. Nothing good happened to him. there at the cross. Nothing good,
only evil. The betrayal of his friend, the
denial of another, the forsaking of all, the shame, the humiliation
of his nakedness, sins upon him that could not be numbered, darkness
all around him, and no mercy from his enemies. All of this
and more. untold more, incomprehensible
more, was in this cup the Lord Jesus was to drink. I cannot
explain it. I feel like a dog even taking
these texts and trying to explain these things. But He knew it. He knew what was in it. It made
Him sob. It made Him fearful. and sweat drops of blood. He
knew what was in this cup. Something else. Let me read this
passage to you over in Ezekiel 23, 32. The largeness of this
cup. It's a huge cup. Listen to Ezekiel
23, 32. Thus saith the Lord God, Thou
shalt drink of thy sister's cup, deep and large. It's wide. you shall be laughed
to scorn and had in derision, for it containeth much." When
I read to you of God's wrath, it's not just wrath, but it's
the fierceness of His wrath. It's the fierceness of the wrath
of God Almighty. It contains much. When we read
of of a tempest? It's not just a tempest, but
it's a horrible tempest. It's not just sorrow, but it's
deep sorrow. My soul is exceeding sorrowful,
even unto death. It's not just a worm, but it's
a worm that doth not. It's not just darkness, but outer
darkness. It's not just a pit, but a bottomless
pit. It's not just punishment, but
everlasting punishment. It's not just the smoke of torment
rising up, but it's the smoke of torment rising up forever
and forever and ever. It's a large cup. The cup is
so large that those who experience the drinking of it will never
drink it dry. They will never drink it dry. There's only one that could take
this cup to his lips. Only one. And if the very anticipation
of this cup threw the Son of God on His face in astonishment,
what will it do to poor, weak, and vile sinners like us? If you and I would estimate our
sins If we want to know something of the nature of sin as God sees
it, then come here to this garden and see the Son of God as He
anticipates God's hatred against sin. 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 word of the Lord's anointed,
Son of man and Son of God." Well, here we can estimate these things.
A cut. A large cut. A large cut. Fourthly, I want you to turn
over to Isaiah chapter 51. Isaiah chapter 51 and verse 17. The effects of drinking of this
cup. You can only imagine. What would
the effects be? Look in Psalm chapter 51 and
verse 17. A wave standeth, O Jerusalem,
which hath drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury. The cup of his fury. And what
effect does that have upon those who drink this cup? Thou hast
drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them
out." The cup of trembling. Now here, the Lord may let us
drink just a portion, just a taste, sometimes, of this fury. Oh,
how many! And you know it in your experience,
don't you? To a very, very, very small degree. When the Holy Spirit first came
to you and awoken you and made you feel your need of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and to be saved, did you not feel something of
this? Were you like that Philippian jeller that came trembling in
your soul? But oh, what would it be to drink
this cup that you and I are talking about without any mixture of
good in it? He began to be sore amazed. He began to be startled. He was
full of astonishment. He was shocked. I tell you, it's
a good thing these apostles were sleeping. They had never seen
Him like this before. They had never seen the Lord
Jesus Christ afraid before. They saw Him face multitudes
of devils, and He never flinched. He went right to the gates of
hell and was not afraid. He faced the raging of sea and
the raging of his enemies and never flinched. Not one time
did he flinch. But look at him now. Look at
him. Now he sobs like a baby. Now he cries, Father, Father,
please take this from me. If it's your will, remove this
cup." And he trembles. He's astonished. He's amazed. He's surprised. If this was the only place in
the Scripture that proved the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ,
I guess this would prove it enough. Because that's the nature of
this cup, is to make a humanity tremble. And he trembled. Why? Because he's real human. He's human. He showed it. He
showed it. You ever seen these stickers
on these cars and sometimes on shirts that says, No Fear? I ain't afraid of anybody and
I ain't afraid of anything. You will be. You will be. If you have to drink this cup,
and if the Lord Jesus Christ hadn't drunk it in your place,
you'll tremble when you taste of this cup. I called, and you refused. I stretched out my hand, and
no man regarded it. You set it naught, all my counsels,
and would none of my reproof. I sent my preachers to you. I
sent my teachers to you. I sent tracks to you, I reproved
you, I called you by those mean, but no man regarded. I'll laugh
at your calamity. I'll mock when your fear comes,
and it will come. It will come. That's what this
cup is for. It's to awaken men. It's to astonish
them. It's to make them to know what
they've done, and now the punishment of it. The Lord is coming, you
said, and He'll execute judgment upon the ungodly, and He will
convince them of all of their hard speeches. He'll convince
them. I couldn't convince them here.
You couldn't convince them here. We pleaded with them. We prayed
for them, but we couldn't convince them. But when they take this
cup to their lips and make to drink it down into their stomach,
they'll be convinced then. That's what this cup is for,
to convince sinners. Every lost soul in hell this
morning is fully awake. Nobody is sleeping in hell this
morning. Everybody in hell this morning
knows why they're there. They've already been convinced
of it. Nobody there said, I don't deserve this. They know it. Nobody
in hell says, I'm not a sinner against God. They're convinced
of it. And all argument has been taken away. That's the nature
of this cup. It's to make a lost humanity
tremble. And what did it do to the Son
of God? It made him tremble. It made him afraid. And I tell
you, if it did him like this, I want nothing to do with it.
I don't want to drink it. I don't want to taste it. I can't
abide this cup and the ingredients that's in it. Two more Scriptures
and I'll close. I'll look in John chapter 18.
Look in John chapter 18. Peter had drew his sword to cut
off the ear of Malchus. The Lord told him to put his
sword up in verse 10. Look at it. Then Simon Peter,
having a sword, drew it and smoked the high priest's servant and
cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus.
Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword unto the sheep.
The cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink. drank it. Shall I not drink it?"
Yes, he did. Yes, he did. He drank it with
a trembling hand and a broken heart, but he drank it. I'm telling you, he drank it
and he drank it, he drank it until he emptied the cup. He put the cup of eternal damnation
to his lips, and he drank it dry. He put the cup of death to his
lips, and he swallowed up death in victory. There is no more
damnation. There is no more wrath. There
is no more fury in God for those who are in Christ. Dear child of God this morning,
you may be here and you're doubtful and you're somewhat fearful.
I tell you this, get a hold of this. There is no fury in God
against you anymore. Someone has drank this cup in
your place. He didn't deserve it. He drank
it for you. And those ingredients within
that cup, you'll never taste them. You'll never taste them.
You have nothing to do with God's wrath and with God's fury anymore. Anymore. That's gone. It's gone. God is a tender Father
to you, and never again, never again will He be anything else
but that. Some of you have been seeking
the Lord, hopefully. In your mind, sometimes you're thinking,
I need to seek Him. I don't know what's keeping you
from it. I don't know. I don't know. Is it something
you think you need to do? Listen to this. Listen to this. Everything that God requires
to be done has been done. And it's something that you could
not do unless you think you can drink this cup dry as He did. If He witnesses to you this morning,
this cup that my Father has given me, shall I not drink it? And
did He not drink it? Then cast your soul upon Him. Give up on self-salvation and
cast it behind your back, cast it to the dust, and cast your
poor soul upon Him who has drunken the cup of God's fury and damnation
and drank it dry. And I don't mean go home and
do it. I mean do it right now, as I'm speaking right now. unless
you're prepared to drink this cup yourself. If you want to grapple with the
wrath of God and the fury of God that will devour your soul,
if you're ever saved, you must trust Christ for your salvation. And right now is an excellent
time to do it. Is it not? One more place, Psalms 85. Look in Psalms 85. I tell you, when he put this
cup to his lips, it was devastation for him. But it was salvation for all
those who believe on Him. Trembling for Him, but rest for
us who believe on Him. Psalms 85.1, Lord, You have been
favorable unto Thy land, Your church, Your people. You have
brought back the captivity of Jacob. Captive to Satan. Captive to sin. servants, slaves. You have forgiven the iniquity
of thy people, forgiveness of my sins. You have covered all
their sins. Thou hast taken away all thy
wrath." How did he do that? He drunk it, didn't he? You have
turned yourself from the fierceness of thine anger." How did he do
that? He drank it. He drank the cup. It's gone. Can you get a hold
of that in your heart? Can you believe that? Can you
believe he's done it? You're going to be saved. You're
not going to be saved by doing anything. You're going to be saved by believing
in Him who has already done the work. The wrath has done been
gobbled up, swallowed up. The fierceness of God has already
been borne. Sin has already been punished.
Two thousand years ago upon the cross of Calvary. Believe it. Believe Him. Let's pray.