The Cup

Turn with me this evening to Luke chapter 22, Luke chapter 22, verse 39.

Over the course of the last month, we have witnessed both ordinances of the church take place.

Last month, we saw them both in one day, the baptism of Ella in the morning, and then that evening partaking of the

Lord's Supper. Whenever you look from the outside at these two ordinances, if somebody, a stranger, somebody that was lost, somebody that hadn't read the

Bible that came in, and they watched these two ordinances, they seem so different.

One is dunking a person, dunking a believer into water. The other is a group of believers partaking in a small piece of unleavened bread and a small cup of juice or wine.

And so, they may question, what links these two ordinances together?

One could rightly answer that the local church is what links these together.

They're ordinances for the local church. To dissect that further, they are ordinances of the body of Christ.

To dissect that further, they are ordinances of those who have been born again by the redemptive work of Christ.

They are gospel ordinances. That is what links them.

The gospel links them. The gospel is preached when these ordinances are practiced in the local church.

The gospel is preached each time that we have a baptism. The gospel will be preached this evening when we partake of the

Lord's Supper. The gospel that it is so important that we have a right view of.

I appreciate Trey sharing the gospel on Wednesday night. I appreciated

Quatro sharing the gospel this morning. We have heard the true gospel twice within the past five days already, and Lord willing, we'll hear it again tonight.

Trey rightly said on Wednesday night that the gospel is not just for unbelievers.

It is also for believers. It is for the church as well as the lost.

And we must get it right. We must get it right. If we get the gospel wrong, then basically we get everything else wrong.

The text that I'm going to preach this evening, I do know that it's evening.

It's really dark out there. It feels like it's 8 .30. But the text that I'm going to preach this evening,

God worked through this text that we're about to read about five years ago for me to see the gospel more clearly than I'd ever seen it in my life.

And whenever I saw the gospel more clearly, whenever I began to have a right view of the gospel, that's when everything began to change.

I wouldn't say that I had a heretical view of the gospel, but I would say

I had an incomplete view of the gospel. And once that began to change, once I had a right view of the gospel, my walk with Christ began to change.

The way I viewed my sin began to change. The way I viewed the

Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit changed. My ministry changed.

The way I viewed the church began to change. And I'm not here to repeat or rehash, it was a

Paul Washer sermon that I heard five years ago when he preached the gospel more clearly than I'd ever heard before.

I'm here tonight with the help of the Holy Spirit to try and make the gospel as clear as it can be to you, as clear as it can be to me, to help us understand rightly what these ordinances that we participate in as baptized believers of a local church or as somebody who is a believer being baptized, to help us understand rightly what they represent.

And I want to do that through this very same text that I heard that day driving in my truck.

I was headed to Dardanelle, Arkansas. And that's in Luke chapter 22. If you'd please stand as we reverence the reading of God's holy word.

Luke chapter 22 beginning in verse 39. And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the

Mount of Olives. And the disciples followed him, and when he had come to the place, he said to them,

Pray that you may not enter into temptation. And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying,

Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done.

And there appeared to him an angel from heaven strengthening him. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly.

And his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow.

And he said to them, Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.

Father God, as we come and we gather here tonight, I pray for your help.

Lord God, I cannot preach your Word rightly in and of myself.

I can read words off of a page, Father God. Lord, there's not really anything actually that I can do,

Father, that would be of any use, Lord, without your Spirit.

So I pray tonight as I preach your Gospel, as we view the cup, as we view what happened on Calvary, Father God, as we view what your

Son truly did for us. I pray for your help, that you would help me,

Lord, that you would go before your Word tonight, that, Lord, you would help us to grasp this, for if we get this wrong,

Father God, we get so much else wrong. So I pray tonight, that if nothing more, we would all leave tonight understanding your

Gospel. Help me. Help me, Father. I ask all these things in Christ's name.

Amen. This is extremely important.

A lot of times, I think we glaze past this, and we say, well,

Jesus was agonizing in the garden, the disciples were sleepy, the disciples, they got reminded a couple of times to stay awake, and then he tells them that in the same account of this, he tells them in one of the other

Gospels, he tells them that the Spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak.

We sometimes glide through this piece of Scripture.

It's extremely important to understanding the crops. Jesus took with him

Peter, James, and John, and went into the garden of Gethsemane, and he left the disciples and went further into the garden to pray.

It's important to note that when he prayed, he agonized as he prayed.

He was in agony as he prayed, agonized so greatly, it says that his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

My question this evening is this. What was he agonizing about when he said, if you are willing, remove this cup from me?

What was Christ asking of God here? What was it that he so wished would be removed from him?

This is an important question, because our answer to it really shows our view of the cross.

I'm afraid if you were to ask many professing Christians today, and many probably true

Christians today, they would say he was dreading the physical death that he was about to face, and then they would leave it at that.

Over five years ago, that's what I would have said. He was dreading the scourging that he was going to take.

He was dreading the crown of thorns that would be placed upon his head. He was dreading the nails that would be nailed into his hands and his feet.

And I in no way want to make light of the physical death of Christ that had to happen.

His body was literally broken, and blood was actually shed for sinners.

Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins. But we can't stop with the physical death, and claim that is all that took place on Calvary.

And I pray tonight that we would seek to have a more full view of the cross. So if this text is not referring, if he is not asking,

Christ is not desiring the physical death he would face to pass from him, then what was the cup that he asked to be removed from him?

Let's go to Scripture to find out. You can turn there if you want to Isaiah 51. I'm going to read a few different Scriptures here.

First being Isaiah 51, beginning in verse 17. Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up,

O Jerusalem. You have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of His wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering.

Jeremiah 25 .15 Thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me, Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom

I send you drink it. They shall drink and stagger and be crazed, because of the sword I am sending among them.

So I took the cup from the Lord's hand, and made all the nations to whom the

Lord sent me drink it. Psalm 11 .5 -6 The Lord tests the righteous, but His soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.

Let Him rain coals on the wicked. Fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.

And lastly, Psalm 75 .8 For in the hand of the

Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and He pours out from it all.

The wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs. So what was it?

What was it that was in the cup? What was it that Christ desired to be removed from Him?

It was the fury, the wrath, and the judgment of God Almighty that was in the cup.

All of God's righteous and holy anger and hatred of sin was to be poured out upon Jesus.

In Isaiah 53, beginning in verse 3, He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, as one from whom men hide their faces.

He was despised and we esteemed Him not. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed

Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions,

He was crushed for our iniquities, and upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Who has laid? The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not

His mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so He opened not

His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away, and as for His generation who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of My people, and they made

His grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death, although He had done no violence, and there was no deceit in His mouth, yet it was the will of the

Lord to crush Him. He has put Him to grief. When His soul makes an offering for guilt,

He shall see His offering, He shall prolong His days, and the will of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. Out of the anguish of His soul,

He shall see and be satisfied. By His knowledge shall the righteous one,

My servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and He shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the many, and He shall divide the spoiled with the strong, because He poured out

His soul to the dead, and was numbered with the transgressors, yet He bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors.

He was about to take upon the wrath and the judgment of God.

He was pure. He was holy. He was harmless. He was undefiled.

He was separate from sinners. But He takes the most horrible thing, the sin of the entire world, every corrupt thing that was ever done, every corrupt thought that was ever thought,

He takes the punishment Himself for something He didn't do. That's the cup

He drank on Calvary. That is the work that Christ did on the cross.

But why? Why did He have to drink the cup of God's wrath?

Why did He have to take the sin of mankind upon Himself? Well, this is the glorious Gospel.

This is the glorious Gospel. Why did He go to die? First off,

He went and He died, and He took upon the wrath of God to do the will of the Father. Nevertheless, not my will, but Yours be done.

And I do want to point out that this was also the will of Christ. We can get on shaky ground when we try to separate

God's will from Christ's. That is not the text, nor what the text says.

It was Christ's desire and will to die on the cross for sinners. Christ's desire to please the

Father. John 8, 28 -29, So Jesus said to them, When you have lifted up the

Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing on My own authority, but speak just as the

Father taught Me. And He who sent Me is with Me, He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.

Isaiah 53, 10 that we just read. It was the will of the

Lord to crush Him. Because through the crushing of His Son, He was providing a way of escape for His people.

His wrath toward sin was satisfied. It was the only way that redemption for you and I, and for all of God's people, it was the only way redemption could be made possible.

We could not be good enough. We could not work ourselves into redemption. We could not live a perfect life.

We could not keep the law. It was the only way. A bridge between God and man was created.

Christ came and took that cup to do the will of the Father. Because He loved us.

Still though, why? Why did it have to happen? To understand why it had to happen, we have to go all the way back to the beginning.

God created mankind. When mankind was created, they were not created with sin or having committed sin.

God gave them specific instructions and they did not obey

Him. Adam and Eve chose to disobey God. Our first parents sinned.

And anyone born from that time on was born into that sin. Anyone born of ordinary generation that was born was born into sin.

You don't have to teach. We've said this before. You don't have to teach a child to sin. Three, four years old.

Kids will lie to you. Never being taught that. You have a baby crying in its crib.

It will cry just to get your attention. Make you think something's wrong. And you run to it.

That baby just lied to you. Everything was fine. You don't have to teach your children to lie.

You don't have to teach your children to have sinful thoughts. You don't have to teach your children when they broke something, but brother or sister's not around and you confront them.

You don't have to teach them to blame it on the other sibling so they can go scot -free. You don't have to teach them these things.

Why? Because we are born into sin. We are born with a sinful nature.

Romans 5 .12 Therefore just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

Ephesians 2 .3 Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

David, in his psalm of repentance, he writes, Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Isaiah 64 .6 We have all become like one who is unclean, and all of our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.

We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities like wind take us away. Romans 3 .10

It is written, None is righteous. No, not one. No one understands.

No one seeks God. All have turned aside. How many? All have turned aside.

Together they have become worthless. No one does good. Not even one. Their throat is an open grave.

They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is in their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.

Their feet are swift to shed blood. And their paths are ruined in misery. In the way of peace they have not known.

There is no fear of God before their eyes. Who is that talking about? Who was born into sin?

Who was by nature the child of wrath? That was me.

That was you. That was every one of us. By nature the children of wrath.

In the eyes of God, there are not good people that really don't need saving, and then bad people that need saving.

All have sinned and fallen short. This is the problem that was created with our first parents.

This is the problem of the first Adam. We are sinners. And God is good.

We are sinners and God is good. He is good. God is perfect. Deuteronomy 32.

I will proclaim the name of the Lord. Ascribe greatness to our God, the Rock. His work is perfect.

All His ways are just. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity. Just and upright is

He. Psalms 1830 tells us also His way is perfect.

He is perfect. His way is perfect. He is holy, which is separate, which is withdrawn from common, exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness.

Psalm 119 says, Holy and awesome is His name. Isaiah 57, 15,

For thus says the one who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy.

He is holy. He is righteous. He is morally excellent. Psalm 79, Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end, and may you establish the righteous.

You test the minds and hearts, O righteous gods. Psalm 36,

Your righteousness is like the mountains of God. Your judgments are like a great deep man and beast.

You save, O Lord. Psalm 89, Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne.

Steadfast love and faithfulness go before you. This is the God that we serve. He is truth.

John 3, 33, Whoever receives His testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true.

He is the judge. Isaiah 33, 22, For the Lord is our judge, the

Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our King. He will save us. God is righteous.

He is our judge. He is righteousness. God is. And therefore,

He loves all that is righteous. And all that is holy, He loves.

And He hates all that is unrighteous and all that is unholy. This is what He despises.

If God is good and righteous, He must deal with us righteously.

He must deal with us righteously. God's justice demands satisfaction.

Trey used this analogy. I'm going to push it just a bit further. He did a good job. I'm very thankful to God for my son and for him sharing the gospel.

If someone murders a family, and I'm not going to use the Osbournes tonight. When they first came,

I had a tendency to pick on the Canadians. I'm not going to use anybody in particular. But if somebody was to murder a family, then they must be dealt with righteously.

And the crime demands satisfaction through punishment. We would all agree with this.

And if God is just, He can't just forgive you of your sins. He would be pardoning evil and therefore okaying that evil, and He wouldn't be righteous anymore.

If a judge pardons that same guilty murderer at their trial, and lets them go scot -free, even though they were caught red -handed, then that judge is corrupt.

It's the same if God pardons us. This we have is what is called the divine dilemma.

How can God both be just and the justifier of those who put their faith in Christ?

How can God be just and holy and forgive sinners? How can this dilemma be fixed?

How can anyone who is evil be saved? Someone who is righteous has to come live the life that the unrighteous could not live, and take their punishment for them and stand in their place.

So God became man and He lived a perfect life free of sin. He was born not of ordinary generation, but of extraordinary generation.

He was born of a virgin. He came of a virgin. And He lived a righteous life that the unrighteous could not live, and He takes their punishment for them and stands in their place.

God became a man and He lived a perfect life free of sin, and was the perfect sacrifice, the holy and the perfect Lamb for our sins and our evil.

And He is our Savior. Isaiah 60 .16 You shall suck the milk of nations.

You shall nurse at the breast of kings. You shall know that I the Lord am your Savior and your

Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. In the Old Testament a sacrifice had to be made, and He was the ultimate sacrifice.

What did God save you from? What did He save you from? He is our

Savior. What did He save you from? Christ is our Savior. What did He save us from? Sin?

Sin wasn't after you to judge you and punish you. God saved you from God.

From His holy wrath and His judgment. An old Paul Washer quote.

He saved you from Himself, for Himself, and by Himself. Our sin as well as the wrath, justice, and condemnation of Almighty God was thrust upon Jesus, and that was the payment that saves us.

He bore our sins. 2 Corinthians 5 .21 For He hath made

Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. We all should have been handed that cup, and we wouldn't have been able to bear it or drink it.

But on Calvary, that cup of God's fury was given to Christ, and on the cross,

Jesus took the cup of God's wrath, and He drank it, and when it was done, He proclaimed,

It is finished. It is finished. Why? Why did

He do it? Because the love of God for His children is more than our minds can comprehend.

We are saved by the work of Christ on the cross. We are justified by His resurrection.

Three days later, the resurrection signified that God accepted the payment in full.

Our debt was paid. It guaranteed our inheritance. Now, to die in Christ is gain.

All power was given to Christ. Matthew 28, Jesus came and spoke to them, All power is given unto

Me in heaven and earth. What does this mean for us? What does this mean for the believer?

Through the work of Christ, man can be saved. Hallelujah.

Mark 1 .15 The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.

You must repent and trust in Christ. Your good deeds won't save you because they aren't good.

You cannot be good enough. I'm going to read one more passage, and then I'll close.

Matthew 7, Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction.

And those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life.

And those who find it are few. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but are inwardly ravenous wolves.

You will recognize them by their fruits, or grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles.

So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.

On that day many will say to Me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name and cast out demons in Your name and do many mighty works in Your name?

And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who builds his house upon the rock.

And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on the house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock.

And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand.

And the rains fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against the house and it fell and great was the fall of it.

A few quick things from the Scripture. As we think on this truth, on the

Gospel. The Gospel is not just for the lost, but it is for the lost.

The Gospel is for the church, but not just for the church. The Gospel is for everyone. As we think upon these truths, we must realize that the gate is narrow and the way is hard.

It's not the popular way. Many within church circles today act like it's the popular way.

Think about it. Does anyone who dies go to hell anymore? At a funeral?

When you hear a preacher preach at funerals, do they tell the truth when the wicked perish?

Most of the time, no. 65 % of people in America claim to be a

Christian. In this community, it's probably higher than that. The blame for these things falls on many who claim to be the church.

They have taken the Gospel. They have taken the true Gospel and they've watered it down.

They have taken the offense out of it. They don't want to hear about the blood. People don't want to hear about the blood.

They don't want to hear about God's wrath. They don't want to hear that they are wicked. They've reduced it.

They've reduced the Gospel. They've reduced salvation. Turned it to ask Jesus into your heart. Repeat after me.

Answer these three questions. They've taken the supernatural work of God and the

Holy Spirit that takes place in salvation. They've taken it out. One of the worst things that we've done in the evangelical church is when someone, whether it be at an altar call or something of that, they come, they pray a prayer, they say they're saved.

We parade them up here in front of the church like they're a trophy to show off. We don't know if they've truly repented or been born again.

We haven't talked to them. We haven't counseled them. We haven't spent time with them. We treat them like a number. We treat the

Gospel. We cheapen the Gospel. We treat that person like they're a number instead of a soul that goes to hell when they die.

But here's the truth, church. Somebody that tries to be a fig tree that bears thorns is going to be treated like a thorn bush.

Many that claim to be in the faith will one day be surprised. Those that have built on anything other than the

Gospel of Christ. The true Gospel will be washed away. And you've heard the true

Gospel. I pray multiple times now in five days. I leave you with this.

So how can you be sure that you're saved? Are you trusting in Christ?

Have you repented and turned from your sin? When you're saved, your relationship with God changes and your relationship with sin changes.

1 Thessalonians 4 .3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality.

Do you hate sin? Are you a new creation? In light of these truths tonight, examine yourselves to see whether you be in the faith.

Are you trusting and living for Christ? Do you seek to please Him or yourself and mankind?

Are you obedient to His Word? Consider these truths tonight as we prepare to partake of the bread and the cup.

And may we not drink unworthily and drink condemnation upon ourselves.