I have a message found in Jeremiah
chapter 25, if you would like to turn there with me. Jeremiah chapter 25. Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet.
Historians and scholars and different men have labeled him as such.
He cried for Jerusalem. He cried for his people. and
he's known as the weeping prophet for that reason. Jeremiah was
discouraged most of his ministry, most of his life, because of
the circumstances that he faced. The best example I could give
to you would be, if you could imagine a preacher giving a message
from the Lord, now understand that there is no prophets alive
today. They all prophesied of Christ.
But what I was going to say was, is having a preacher or a prophet
that had been given a message from the Lord, and you knew that
it was from the Lord. And I could use myself as an example, coming
up here, trying to declare unto you the message, and you knew
that the message the Lord had given me was 100% the truth. But the
message was, is the Lord would say our nation is an abomination,
our land is an abomination, all of America is an abomination,
the Constitution is an abomination, the people's an abomination.
That's what Jeremiah's message literally was, and he says, You're
going to go to war with a country, but you're not to fight them.
Let them take you into captivity. That sounds kind of crazy, don't
it? But that was Jeremiah's message. Jeremiah was to tell the truth
of what the Lord had given him to say. And the truth was judgment. And the truth was damnation.
And the truth was exile. And the truth was destruction,
utter destruction. But it wasn't just a message
of gloom and doom. This was definitely the forefront
of all that he would say. He also talked about grace, and
he also talked about mercy. He also talked about the remnant.
You remember the first hour, we saw the Lord's name as Jehovah
Sitkenu, the Lord our righteousness. And what was her name going to
be? Jerusalem and Judah. Her name was going to be called
Jehovah Sitkenu, right? So his message wasn't just gloom
and doom, but he was hated for the truth. He was hated for the
truth. The truth was not popular then,
and the truth's not popular now, is it? Matter of fact, the truth
of the Lord has never been popular. if you want to put it that way,
never been popular. They hated Jesus Christ. They hated God
in the flesh, didn't they? And all he spoke was the truth.
So it's not new that it was hated, but it is things men tried to
do to change it to something new so that men will like it.
Jeremiah couldn't do that. He had the word of the Lord.
He had to tell the truth. Now, preaching must cause us to flee
to Christ. My preaching, must cause us to
flee to Christ. That is my burden. That is my
responsibility to preach Christ crucified and Him alone. Him
alone for the hope of our salvation. Preaching must show us the need
that we have for a substitute, being a sinner. It must show
us what we are, that we're needy. It must show us salvation. Now,
I understand that it is only revealed by the Holy Spirit,
but the burden of the preacher is to be clear as he can with
the truth. That is my responsibility. Preaching
must reveal Christ or it's a failure. If I preach anything but Christ,
I'm a sounding brass and I'm a tinkling cymbal because I have
not love in my heart for my brethren. My responsibility is to declare
the truth. One reason is because somebody
will believe what I say. There's a lot of churches around
here and there's men that are going to women, going to those
churches, believing what's being preached there. They are going
to enter in eternity, stand before the presence of God with the
confession of what their preacher has preached to them for years.
My burden is to be as clear as I can be, because we have to
make certain that this is the truth. We have to make certain
that this is what the Lord accepts is his gospel alone. And this
is the only message that is true is his gospel. We must preach
the truth. And just as they wanted to This
is, I'll make many enemies in doing so. And Greg Elmquist will
tell you, Todd Norbert will tell you, and all the other men, they've
made plenty of enemies and had threats of violence and other things
against them. They wanted to kill Jeremiah.
They wanted to kill Jeremiah. They cast him into prison. It's
said that whenever he went to Egypt with the remnant after
Jerusalem was destroyed, they stoned him to death. That's what's
believed to happen. They hated the truth. They did
not want the truth. All that Jeremiah was doing was
going around telling them what was going to happen. The city
is going to be destroyed. But they would not hear what
Jeremiah had to say. Now understand, everything that
was coming to pass in Jeremiah's time was a result of everything
that happened prior. The Lord told them, what did
the Lord Jesus Christ say? He looked over Jerusalem. He
said, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I gathered you together
as a hen would gather her brood, thou wouldst not. Can we see
the picture of the Lord bidding them to come, but they would
not have him. They weren't given faith. They weren't given the
heart to come to him, were they? And so now because of their sin
and their unbelief, they are hauled off into captivity. I'm so thankful for the remnant
that the Lord leaves, the remnant that the Lord saves. He said,
if you're going to be saved, it's going to be by my hand.
There's no way that you'll come to me, is what Christ said. You
won't come to me that you might have eternal life. But the Lord
had a remnant then, and the Lord has a remnant now. Jeremiah's message was repent
and be saved. And I had mentioned to you, he
was discouraged. Some have noticed in his ministry, and the reason
he was a weeping prophet. We only have two recorded conversions
in the scripture under Jeremiah's preaching, two. One, only one
of them was a Jew. He preached 40 years and only
two people believe what Jeremiah had to say. You talk about discouraging,
that would, that'd about do it, wouldn't it? One was his friend,
a scribe named Burak. And the other one was Ebed-Melech,
an Ethiopian eunuch who served the king. Can you imagine how
discouraging that would have been for Jeremiah to not be able
to see the Lord's work, not be able to see the Lord's salvation,
if you will. He saw them taken into captivity,
but they didn't repent and turn back to the Lord. How often do
we get discouraged whenever we see our loved ones that are not
interested in the gospel? Not interested in coming and
hearing what we're saying. They don't like what we have
to say about who God is. They don't want the truth. They're happy
with what they're doing. How discouraged do we get? I
know personally, sometimes men, they become arrogant and boisterous
and they wanna argue and fuss about doctrine or whatever. This
gospel is just to be declared. The Lord's gonna do the work,
fret not. For those who are the Lord's, he will bring, he will
call. He's already saved them, it's
already done. And in time, he'll call them, he'll bring them.
That's my encouragement to us. The reason we can't see it is
the Lord's purpose. We're reminded that salvation
is of the Lord. If we could see the Lord's hand in everything
and him working constantly, there would be no need for faith, would
it? We wouldn't need faith. Most of the time, we can't see
what God's doing until we can look back and say, well, that
had to be the Lord. I had no interest in dusting yesterday,
but it was on the list to do. And it happened that the Lord
had me preach on dust. He does these things to us. And I didn't
even think about it at the time I was finishing up. I said, that
Lord had me dust for probably the first time since I lived
here. I just haven't done it. But we see the goodness and mercy
of the Lord and all the things that he's brought us through
and everything that he's done in providing for us. Even though we can't
see his face now, we come asking and begging, Lord, show me your
face one more time. I can't see you. Lord, save my children.
Lord, call them. Lord, have mercy upon us lest
we die. This is our plea unto him per
time. This is how it was designed,
that we would be mercy beggars. And we preach the same exact
message today that Jeremiah preached. Judgment is coming. Flee to Christ. Judgment is coming. Flee to Christ. We need a substitute. We need
a savior. This is what Jeremiah's message
was. Now, he didn't use the name Christ. I understand that. But
it was still a message of grace. It was still a message of salvation,
a remnant that the Lord would save by his own hand. This is
the same message that we preach. In Jeremiah 25, we see that Jeremiah,
the Lord's pronounced judgment. And he gives them the details
of this judgment. I want us to examine verse 27.
Jeremiah 25, verse 27. on the city, which was called
by my name. And should you be utterly unpunished,
you shall not be unpunished for I will call for a sword upon
all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the Lord of hosts. Therefore
prophesy thou against them all the words and say unto them,
the Lord shall roar from on high and utter his voice from his
holy habitation. He shall mightily roar upon the
habitation. He shall give a shout. as they
that tread the grapes against all the inhabitants of the earth. A noise shall come even to the
ends of the earth. For the Lord hath a controversy
with the nations. He will plead with all flesh.
He will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the Lord.
I've titled this message, The Cup. The Cup. And the Lord tells
them, you will drink of this cup. This is the cup of judgment. There is no escape from. This
is the cup of damnation where there's no remedy for. This is
the cup of separation. This is the sort of justice that
he's describing. Everyone, everyone will drink
of this cup, is what he says. Everyone will drink of this cup.
Psalm 11 verse six tells us, upon the wicked he shall rain
snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest. This shall
be the portion of their cup. The wicked, this is who's gonna
drink from the cup, the wicked. Well, who's the wicked? Well,
those that are transgressors of God's law, those that have
committed trespass against him, those that are iniquitous and
trying to fix their sin and those that are sinners, those that
are all full of sin. That's who the wicked are. Those
that do not know God, those that do not understand God, those
who have not been made like unto him. For all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. And the Lord said, I'm gonna
plead with you. That word plead does not mean beg. The word by,
if you look up the original word, the translation is to judge,
to punish. And he says, all flesh without
exception. I'm going, every single person
without exception is going to drink from this cup. Every single
person without exception must taste of the justice of God. This is the message that we're
hearing here. This is what the Lord's saying in judgment. No
wonder they hated Jeremiah. They had no hope of remedy, did
they? They had no hope of escape. They had gone too far, I guess,
if we can put it that way. But the message is that everyone
will meet God and God judges righteously. God judges in truth. God does not, his scales are
not weighted. They are true scales. They are
true scales. Back in this time, Jeremiah's
time and all throughout, they would do business according to
scales. And the Lord speaks of the scales that were weighted.
And he talks about how it was an abomination to him. It was
disgusting because what it represented was his men being deceitful.
He says, you're not going to be deceitful with me. I'm not
using cheater scales. I'm using the truth. as what
I am going to judge with. And that's what he uses to judge
now is the truth. The truth will either bring life
or it'll bring damnation. That's the only two things that
the truth will bring, life or damnation. And the truth revealed
is the word spoken by our Lord. In John chapter 12, he tells
us, he that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words, hath
one that judgeth him. the word that I have spoken.
The same shall judge him in the last days." Understand something,
the word of God always exposes the truth. The word of God always
exposes the truth. It always cuts the flesh and
exposes what's on the inside. The scripture says, for the word
of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and
joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. The Lord's word cuts down to
the very core of what we are in God's eyes, and it exposes
the truth of what we are. When he said the word of God,
we know the word of God is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. It's
not just that we read this word. Yes, this is Jesus Christ in
written form. Don't misunderstand the authority
that this book has, but the word of God is Christ, isn't it? According
to John chapter one, this is who the word is. The word of
God, Jesus Christ is quick. That word means alive. Christ
is alive and he is powerful. That means he's active, he's
able, he's able. And the other word used in that
passage to describe the sword is that it's sharp. And that
word sharp means as if by a single stroke, not hacking, not like
an ax where you keep hacking to try to accomplish something,
but a single stroke. So what is the Lord telling us? His word,
the Lord Jesus Christ, he's able, He's alive and he does exactly
what he wants to do with one stroke. One stroke. He doesn't
try. He does it. He accomplishes his
purpose. He never fails. He cannot fail
in anything that he does or he is not God. So what is our hope
in this? I've told you what the word of
God does. I've told you what the truth
exposes. I've told you what the judgment is on all men. This
is upon all men. He says, every man will taste
of this cup and the sword of justice will come to every man.
So what is our hope? It's found in Matthew chapter
26. Turn with me there. Matthew 26 verse 36. Then cometh Jesus with them to
a place called Gethsemane and said 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. Then said he unto them, my soul
is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, tarry ye here and
watch with me. And he went a little further. He fell on his face
and he prayed, saying, oh, 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 you enter
not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak. And he went away again the second
time and prayed saying, oh my father, if this cup may not pass
away from me except I drink it, I will be done. And he came and
found them asleep again, but their eyes were heavy. He left
them and went away again and prayed the third time saying
the same words. This is the same exact cup that's
found in Jeremiah chapter 24. I'm sorry, Jeremiah chapter 25.
We see Christ agonizing. Another passage tells us that
as he prayed, his sweat became as great drops of blood. He's
agonizing over drinking this cup. He says, if it'd be possible,
let this cup pass for me. It wasn't possible, was it? Not
if we're going to be saved. Not if his people are going to
be redeemed. Not if he's going to keep his promise unto his people
to redeem them and his promise to his father that he would redeem
them. He had to drink of this cup. This is the cup of bitter separation
from the father. What it meant was, is it the
cup of damnation? It's the cup of death. It's the
cup that would make him sin for his people. It's the cup of judgment.
It's the cup that demanded justice. Scripture says in Psalm 75, for
in the hand of the Lord, there is a cup and the wine is red. It is full of mixture and he
pours out of the same, but the dregs thereof, all the wicked
of the earth shall wring them out and drink them. The dregs
means everything, everything in the cup. Every single drop
had to be drunk. The true punishment for the God's
elected people was poured into that cup. The entirety of the
consequence of our sin was in that cup. Our deserving of bitter
agony and damnation awaited if he drank that cup. He looped
into the cup and he counted the cost. And he remembered the promise,
not that he forgot, but he reminded himself of the promise that he
had made to the father and to the bride. And he drank every
drop of that cup. He did this because he loved
her. He wanted to honor his father and he loved, he loves his bride. Upon entering him, the contents
of that cup, he felt the guilt of our wickedness. He felt the
blackness of our heart, the unbelief of our sin. He knew it. Every
single evil thought that you and I had, he owned as he is.
Every word that we've ever spoken, he took into himself. Every deed
that we'll ever do, he owned it as his own. He drank it dry. He drank every bit of the cup.
He endured all the punishment. He suffered the entirety of the
consequences that you and I should have suffered for eternity. He
absorbed the fire of God's wrath, the terrors of the Lord compassing
him about, the scripture said. He did that in our stead. The
horrors of hell, he faced it all on the cross for his people.
And in God's hand, there was a sword that was unsheathed once
and for all. and it pierced the heart of the
precious lamb of God for his people. Justice was satisfied. The eternal God died for his
people. The eternal God died for his
people. Now neither love of all or death
or hell or Satan or the father has anything to say against the
elect of God. There's nothing that condemns
because Christ justified. We must be set free. Do you know
why? Because there's nothing left
in the cup. The cup has been emptied. See, everyone must drink
of the cup without exception. And you and I have one hope that
when he drank the dregs of that cup, he drank it in our stead. He drank our sin unto himself.
He who knew no sin became sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Now when the cup is presented
unto us, it's empty. There is no wrath that remains.
Justice has been satisfied. There is nothing more to the
elect that must be said except peace. That's all the law replies
unto the elect. Everyone must drink of this cup.
Turn with me to Mark chapter 10. Verse 35. And James and John, the sons
of Zebedee, came unto him saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest
do for us whatsoever we shall desire. And he said unto them,
what would you that I should do for you? They said unto him,
grant unto us that we may sit one on thy right hand and the
other on thy left hand in thy glory. Jesus said unto them,
you know not what you ask. Can you drink of the cup that
I drink of and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized
with? They said unto him, we can. And Jesus said unto them,
you shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of. And with
the baptism that I'm baptized with, all shall ye be baptized.
sit on my right hand and on my left, that is not mine to give,
but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared. Can you drink of the cup that
I'm going to drink?" He asked them. They said, yes. He said,
you don't even know what you're saying, but you shall indeed
drink of the cup that I drink of, and you shall indeed be baptized
with the baptism that I'm baptized with. What baptism was that?
Baptism of fire, wasn't it? baptism of judgment. It wasn't
water baptism that we do, but that's what it represents. We're
buried with Christ in baptism, raised again to live and walk
in a new life because of what he did. This is what he's speaking
of. Are you going to be baptized
with the baptism I'm baptized with? You shall indeed drink
of the cup and be baptized. See, everyone will stand before
the Lord. Everyone must drink of this cup. You and I are our only hope.
is that Christ Jesus drank the cup for his people. He drank
it dry. So now there is now therefore
no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. That's what
he said. No condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus. God transferred every sin that
we had into his darling son. This is called substitution.
And by substitution, when he endured, the elect endured. When
he was punished, we were punished. When he suffered and bled and
died, we suffered and bled and died in him. He absorbed the
wrath of God for his people. Now, whenever he says, you shall
certainly drink in our text, you shall certainly be punished.
We drank in the Lord Jesus Christ. We were punished in the Lord
Jesus Christ. In our text he says, for I will
call the sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth. The good news is,
Christ Jesus was punished in our sin. Christ Jesus took that
sword for us, for his people. Justice has been satisfied. Sin
has been paid for. A ransom has been found. There
is a balm in Gilead. By his own blood begat he us. By his own will begat he us.
By his word, it is finished. We have the promise of God. that
his people are perfectly righteous and God can't change. God cannot
charge his elect because it would be unjust. The sin has been already
paid for. The punishment has already been
received. There is no more punishment to be had because justice has
been satisfied. Why? He drank the cup dry. Much more than being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him because
his soul was made an offering for sin. By his blood, we are
saved. Saved from the wrath of God.
Either we'll be in the eternal wrath of God or the eternal glory
of God forever. That's the only two. Thanks be
to God. Those that are in Christ get
to be in his glory forever and ever. because he endured the
eternal wrath of God upon the cross for his people. Now there is one cup that we
must drink of as his people. I want to show us that in John
chapter six. Verse 52 of John chapter 6. The Jews therefore strove among
themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son
of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoso eateth
my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will
raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed,
and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the Father hath
sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he
shall live by me. This is that bread which came
down from heaven. Not as your fathers that eat
manna and are dead, he that eateth of this bread shall live forever. We have the body of Christ and
we have the blood of Christ, but there's only one way to drink
something, isn't there? And it's in a cup, isn't it?
That's what we have to drink. We have the Lord's blood. This
is the wine that we're gonna be partaking of. What it represents
is the blood of Christ. His blood alone is our atonement. His body alone is our righteousness. This is what it means to the
believer when he talks about the cup of damnation that he
drank. You and I just now have the cup of his righteousness
by his blood. You and I just, we have the cup of his holiness
by his blood. We have the cup of justification
by his blood. We have the cup of sanctification
by his blood. We have eternal justification. This is the cup we drink of,
isn't it? This is why we come to be reminded,
Lord, give me your cup. Lord, you took my cup. You took
my sin. You took what I am. Now give
me you, Lord, what you are. I desire your body, your blood
as all my righteousness before the Father. This is the cup that
we take. This is what we partake of. We live, move and have our being
in him. Thanks be to God, this is the
only cup that the elect of God will ever have to drink from.
Isn't that glorious? The cup of wrath has been Drink
dry all the dregs, the bitter dregs have been drank. A cup of wrath has been emptied,
a cup of damnation has been dried up. David said in Psalm 116 verse
12, what shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits
toward me? I will take the cup of salvation. I will take the
cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. It's no
wonder he said, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. There
is no more cup of damnation for the elect of God. There is no
more cup of judgment for the elect of God. Christ Jesus took
that cup. As our sinner substitute, he
endured the wrath of God. I shiver at the thought that
what he had to become. And you and I, if we examine
ourselves, the thoughts, the evil intentions of our heart
and the evil thoughts that we are, this is what he had to take
ownership of in order to redeem us. And he did. And they've all
been put away. The only thing that you can think
now is good in his eyes. The only thing that you can do
now is good in his eyes. Why? Because of the substitution
of the Lamb of God. There's nothing left in the cup.
It's all been drank dry for the Lord's people. Thank God he drank the cup for
his bride and for his people. Without this, we would have no
hope. But I get to declare unto you the promise of the Lord. He did drink the cup for his
people. He did. He saved his people from their
sin. He did it by his own will, according
to his own purpose, from the foundation of the world. Let
me show you that in 2 Timothy 9. Those of you who have a bulletin,
you could just look on the bulletin. Actually, it's the verse I. I
chose in order to represent what we believe, what we preach, what
we know to be true, what all of our hope is. Second, Timothy chapter one in
verse nine. God, who has saved us and called
us with a holy calling. not according to our works, but
according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest
by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished
death and hath brought life and immortality to light through
the gospel." This is what the Lord did for his people. It's
finished. We have the declaration from
the cross that it is finished. The cup has been emptied. There's
nothing left in it. Thank God he drank the cup.