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Sunday Morning, February 24, 2019 AM "Take This Cup.." Jeremiah 25:15-138
Let's pray together. Father, we are in great need. You are a great savior. You have given us your son to die in our place on the cross, suffering your just damnation. You have raised him from the grave, alive forevermore.
You have placed him at your right hand's position of eternal favor. And from his exaltation, you, the father and the son, have sent us the Holy Spirit to make us new, to live in us, and to bring us unfailingly to you.
You are a great savior. Father, I ask that as we look at this passage this morning, a passage about the cup of judgment, that you would teach us what it means that Christ drank the cup. Lead us to see your son, Christ, so that in him we may have life.
I pray these things in his name. Amen. Last two weeks, we've been looking at the beginning of Jeremiah 25 and noting just how foolish it is to try to avoid the authority of God. We may do our utmost to swerve around his word, but we're just never going to get around his will.
And the upshot of all of it is, if we try to swerve around Christ upon the cross, we crash right into Christ that is coming, and we deal with him there. And this confidence in the authority of God will help us as we see this next passage.
I invite you to stand with me as I read Jeremiah 25. We'll read to the end of the chapter. This is the word of the Lord. For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, says to me, take this cup of the wine of wrath from my hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it.
They will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them. Then I took the cup from the Lord's hand and made all the nations to whom the Lord sent me drink it. Jerusalem and the cities of Judah and its kings and its princes to make them a ruin, a horror, a hissing, a curse as it is this day.
Pharaoh, king of Egypt, his servants, his princes, and all his people, and all the foreign people, all the kings of the land of Uz, all the kings of the land of the Philistines, even Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod, Edom, Moab, and the sons of Ammon, and all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the coastlands which are beyond the sea, and Dedan, Tima, Buz, and all who cut the corners of their hair, and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the foreign people who dwell in the desert, and all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of Media, and all the kings of the north, near and far, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the earth which are upon the face of the ground, and the king of Shishak shall drink after them.
You shall say to them, thus says the Lord of hosts, God of Israel, drink, be drunk, vomit, fall and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you. And it will be, if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you will say to them, thus says the Lord of hosts, you shall surely drink.
For behold, I am beginning to work calamity in this city which is called by my name. And shall you be completely free from punishment? You will not be free from punishment, for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the Lord of hosts.
Therefore you shall prophesy against them all these words, and you shall say to them, the Lord will roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation. He will roar mightily against his fold.
He will shout like those who tread the grapes against all the inhabitants of the earth. A clamor has come to the end of the earth, because the Lord has a controversy with the nations. He is entering into judgment with all flesh.
As for the wicked, he has given them to the sword, declares the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts. Behold, evil is going forth from nation to nation, and a great storm is being stirred up from the remotest parts of the earth.
Those slain by the Lord on that day will be from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be lamented, gathered, or buried. They will be like dung on the face of the ground. Wail, you shepherds, and cry, and wallow in ashes, you masters of the flock, for the days of your slaughter and your dispersions have come, and you will fall like a choice vessel.
Flight will perish from the shepherds, and escape from the masters of the flock. Hear the sound of the cry of the shepherds, and the wailing of the masters of the flock, for the Lord is destroying their pasture, and the peaceful folds are made silent.
Because of the fierce anger of the Lord, he has left his hiding place like the lion, for their land has become a horror because of the fierceness of the oppressing sword, and because of his fierce anger.
This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. 11 times in this passage, we hear of a cup and drinking. It is the central image given to us in this passage. The nations, all flesh, drinking, whatever is in this cup.
What is in the cup? What is in the cup? Very often we are concerned about what is in the food we eat. What is in this beverage that I'm drinking? We're concerned for our health. If we have allergies or if we have health concerns, we are concerned about what is in the food we're eating.
What is in this drink that I'm drinking? We want to know what is in it. And it's not just for allergies and not for taste and not for health, but for our eternal good. We have to ask what is in this cup?
What is in the cup? The particular brew in this cup is mixed in three parts. Wrath, death, and justice. These are the three ingredients in this cup, and they are mixed in this way. Man's death by holy wrath achieves divine justice.
Man's death by holy wrath achieves divine justice. So what is in the cup? Wrath is in the cup. God's unilateral anger. Wrath is in the cup. The very first verse says, Verse 15. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, take this cup of the wine of wrath from my hand.
Wrath is in the cup. The word for wrath speaks of fury and rage. The word means a burning anger. It means hot displeasure. The word can also be used to speak of poison and venom. It is anger in the cup.
There are two passages, or two images in the text that give us the idea of anger. The first one is wine, and the second is a lion. In verse 15, we see that this wrath, this anger of God, is like wine in a cup.
Wine in a cup. That's instructive to us because wine is something that takes a long time to make. You have to cultivate the vines, harvest the grapes, tread the grapes, process the grapes, and then make wine out of what you have left.
And then you have to let it sit for a long time before you ever drink it. It takes a long time for wine to be ready. And that's instructive to us about the anger of God. It is well prepared. It takes a long time.
But when it's finished, it's finished. We are also given a picture of the fierce anger of a roaring lion at the end of our passage. The first image at the beginning is that of wine. At the end, we have the image of a roaring lion.
Verse 38, well, verse 37, the peaceful folds are made silent because of the fierce anger of the Lord. Imagine a fold, imagine a small little fence that is empty. There's obviously animals used to be there, but they're no longer there.
What happened, a lion came and consumed them all. He has left his hiding place like the lion, verse 38. He's left his hiding place like the lion. You've seen, you've seen lions, you've seen the wild cats, how they crouch, how they wait.
And you wonder, are they ever going to move? If you blink, you'll miss it. In a flash, the cat moves. The great beast launches itself at the prey. And this too is instructive about the wrath of God. We live in an unjust world full of sin.
We see evil on every side and we wonder, when will God bring justice for those who have been so wronged? And we look around and we look for evidence of God's holy justice and we can't see it. But if you blink, you'll miss it.
When God comes, he comes as a roaring lion. These two images, that of wine in a cup and a lion who springs from its hiding place, these two images are brought together in the middle verse of our passage, verse 30.
Therefore, you shall prophesy against him all these words and you shall say to them, the Lord will roar from on high. He will utter his voice from his holy habitation. He will roar mightily against his fold.
The image of a roaring lion against the prey. He will shout like those who tread the grapes. There's the image of winemaking against all the inhabitants of the earth and the chants and the songs at the wine press as those who march upon the grapes would shout and chant to keep themselves in rhythm, to keep themselves going.
That sound mixed with the sound of a roaring lion. These are the images that are given to us of the anger of God. And make no mistake, as you read verse 15, verse 30 and verses 37 and 38, time and again in those passages, it is emphasized that this is God's anger.
It is God's anger. It is the anger of the Lord. It is the wrath of the Lord. It is his roar. And what does that tell us? That it's God's anger. It tells us that with everything we know about God, it's that kind of anger.
We distrust anger. We have been most harmed by those we know because of anger. The anger that is so common to our own hearts that we express, we most often hurt our loved ones through our personal anger when we know ourselves to be out of control.
And all the sin that attends out of control anger, anger itself is not sinful. Be angry and do not sin. That is an actual instruction. Christ got angry but never sinned. And anger is something that is found in God and it is from God and it is for godly people.
But oh, dear ones, how easy it is to be out of control in our anger. And so when we think of God as being angry, we too often in an idolatrous way assign to him the out of control, harmful aspects of human anger.
We assign that to God and we think of an angry God. That terrifies us because we think that he will do something wrong. There's a heretical worship song, Making the Rounds that speaks about the reckless love of God as if he has no control, as if he's out of control and irresponsible and can't keep it together.
He's reckless in his love. Well, if you believe in a God who's reckless in his love, you believe in a God that is feckless in his anger. An out of control God. We don't have a God like that in the scripture.
We have a God who's in complete control and he comes with his anger. It is his anger, he possesses it, he controls it, he aims it, he unleashes it. It is a just and good anger. It is a holiness-fueled hatred.
Psalm 7 verse 11 says, God is a righteous judge, a God who has indignation every day. Every day. You know, if I had indignation every day, if I had indignation every day, I wouldn't be able to control it.
I would be a monster to everybody I know and I love. If I was indignant and angry every single day. But you know, God is in complete control in his holiness, in his goodness, in his justice. It is God's anger that is in the cup.
It is unilateral, meaning he's not cooperating with us. This isn't a cooperative agreement in which he consults with us about the best ways in which to express his anger and whether or not this is an appropriate action.
He doesn't need to consult with us. And it will be, verse 28, if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, you will say to them, thus says the Lord of hosts, you shall surely drink. It's unilateral.
Wrath is God's unilateral anger. Wrath is in the cup. God's unilateral anger is in the cup. It is a burning brew. What else is in the cup? Death is in the cup. And death is sin's unavoidable wages. Romans 6 .23 says the wages of sin is death.
James 1 .14 -16 tells us this, that each one is tempted when they are drawn away and enticed by his own lust. And when lust conceives, it bears forth sin and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death.
Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Sin brings forth death. Death are the wages of sin and the wages are plenteous in our passage. The sword, the image of death is mentioned again and again throughout the text.
The sword is coming. Death is coming. We have the language of a ruin, a horror, a hissing, a curse. There's an evil like a storm going from nation to nation. We hear about the unburied slain, a great slaughter.
These are the wages of death. And the horrors of what we read in Jeremiah 25, the horrors of this physical landscape of death these are just the harbingers of eternal death. Death is the wages of sin.
We are told this in the passage in verse 29. In verse 29, God says, for behold, I am beginning to work calamity in this city which is called by my name and shall you be completely free from punishment?
You will not be free from punishment for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth declares the Lord of hosts. So it's punishment. It is directly connected to our sin that death comes.
Sin is the wages. Death are the wages of sin. This is punishment against our sins. Verse 31, God speaks of the nations in all flesh and he calls them the wicked with whom he contends, whom he judges. We can be self-deceived.
We can lie to ourselves and lie to everyone else about the state of our souls but God knows what goes on in our thoughts. God knows what goes on in our affections. God knows what goes on with our words.
God knows what goes on with our relationships. God knows what goes on with our actions and God knows who we are and he sees it all. Christ is the omniscient foreman and he knows the quality of our works and he's also the omnipotent paymaster and he's the judge of all men.
Death, the wages of sin and this is unavoidable. Verse 35, flight will perish from the shepherds and escape from the masters of the flock. You're not gonna get away. The death is coming and there's no way to avoid it.
There's no flight, there's no escape, there's no retreat and there's no rescue, we're being told. The wages of sin is death. They are unavoidable and death is in the cup. Wrath is in the cup. God's unilateral anger is in this cup.
Death is in the cup. Sin's unavoidable wages are in this cup. It is a burning brew with toxic foam. What else is in the cup? Justice. Justice is in the cup and this is man's universal peril. Precisely because wrath, death and justice are mixed in this way that man's death by holy wrath achieves divine justice.
And the wrath is in the cup and the death is in the cup and our justice, what we deserve is in this cup. It is universal. It is universal. All the nations, all the nations are mentioned in verses 15 and 17.
21 specific kingdoms are listed in verses 18 to 26. 21 different kingdoms. And when you think of the expression about Christ being king of all kings, think judgment. For all these kings must give an account to their king who is their judge.
Verses 29 and 30 speak of all the inhabitants of the earth. Verses 31 through 33, three times we hear of the ends of the earth, the remotest part of the earth, no place to hide. Verses 31 and 32 speak of the nations and the storm of God's wrath moving from nation to nation.
This is a universal concern. This is a universal peril. There's no one that is left out of this justice. Death because of one man's sin, death entered the world and death spread to all men because all men sinned.
Romans 5, 12. It's a universal peril. This is man's peril. It was not the trees that rebelled against the Lord. It was not the animals who sinned. It was human beings. It is humanity who is made in the image of God.
It is humanity and humanity alone who is idolatrous, unjust and immoral. It is our peril. When God looked upon the earth and the people that he had made, Genesis 6, 5, it says, he saw that every intent of the thought of their hearts was only evil continually.
And he was sorry that he made man upon the earth. And what does he do? He shows grace. He shows favor upon a man, Noah. And because of Noah, his wife and his children, his three sons and their wives, and a remnant of the created order are preserved upon the ark.
But God brings a universal judgment upon all of humanity because he is just, because he is holy. And he poured out the cup of his wrath upon the earth and the world flooded. And everyone, everything with living breath died except for what was in that ark with Noah.
And it will happen again. And this time with fire, Peter says. As it happened before with water, so it'll happen again with fire. This is our peril. This is the cup. It is a cup of justice. It is holy wrath being satisfied in man's death.
And this cup is our universal peril. Wrath is in the cup. God's unilateral anger is in this cup. Death is in the cup. Sin's unavoidable wages are in this cup. Justice is in the cup. It's what we deserve.
Man's universal peril is in this cup. It is a burning brew with toxic foam, perfectly mixed. We've been saying, what is in the cup? We've been asking, what is in the cup? There's a new question. Who drinks the cup?
Who drinks the cup? Will you drink the cup? Will you drink its foul, blistering brew to the dregs? Will you drink it? Will you drink it and stagger and go mad with the terrors of everlasting hell? Will you drink and die and keep dying forever?
Will you drink the cup? Will you come to the end and find the cup still full? Or has someone drunk it for you? I didn't realize what I was running from when God saved me. What he had let me see in the infancy of my soul.
But it's as if the angel of death has one hand on the back of my head and the other forcing the brim of this cup against my lips that all my stinging eyes see is the cup and its hateful brew. Nose almost touching the eternal acid.
To breathe the fumes is to peer into hell. And it comes to me. Yes, it comes to me. I know it in full. I deserve to drink every last drop and I must. But as the everlasting scream begins to form in my throat, stronger hands relieve the death angel's hold and Christ's voice says, that's mine.
That's mine. What he was sweating drops of blood for in the garden. Why he shed his blood upon the cross was this cup. Matthew 26. He's in the garden. He says to his disciples, my soul is deeply grieved.
To the point of death, remain here and keep watch with me. And he went a little beyond them and fell on his face and prayed saying, my father, if it is possible, let this cup, let this cup pass from me.
And not as I will, but as you will. And so it was that the son of man drank the cup that by a man's death, a man's death, by holy wrath, achieved divine justice. The justice due to me was in that cup.
The justice due to you was in that cup. The death you deserve is in that cup. The wrath of God upon you is in that cup. Christ drank it down to the dregs for you. Do you believe that? Is that what you know?
That the cup is empty in heaven? It is empty. Christ drank the cup so that we could have his, so we could have his cup, his cup of favor, his cup of blessing, his cup of welcome, his seat at the table to come and be in communion and fellowship with God.
Do you believe this? I fear that for some of you, the cup is full. I fear that there's no place for you at the table. I don't want that to be so. I would encourage you this morning to look to Christ. This is a table for us to come around.
When we eat the bread, when we drink the cup, this is about confessing and believing what Christ has done for us. He drank our cup so we would know his, so we would know acceptance and welcome at the table of God himself.
If you don't know what Christ has done for you, if you think perhaps this whole thing is a little overblown and there wasn't really any such cup and that's not the way that God looks at you, then you are without Christ in this world.
And so when the juice comes by and when the bread comes by, don't take it, just let it go by because you're without Christ in this world. But if you know and you cling to Christ and you know that he drank the cup for you, enjoy the banquet, enjoy the feast, proclaim his name.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you for gathering us together today. You have shown us what is in the cup and Lord, we ask that you would each day, every day, remind us of what is in Christ and how he has saved us.
I pray for those who are here who do not know this joy and this life of thankfulness. I pray that you would show them the cup that only Christ can drink for them. I pray that you would turn them to yourself.
They would know Christ and eternal life forever. And I pray these things and we look only to the favor that Christ has with you to see these prayers answered.
