"The Other Cup" by Ray Dillard

Status
Not open for further replies.

Jack K

Puritan Board Doctor
Sometime in the 1990s, I heard Dr. Ray Dillard of WTS preach a sermon on the meaning of the "cup" Christ drank at his death, using as his text Jeremiah 25. “Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it." It's one of the best messages I've ever sat under. But it wasn't recorded, and although I suspected Dr. Dillard must have preached it on other occasions, I've never located any audio. With his death, I wondered if that sermon was gone for good.

Surprise! Just now, I came across a tweet from CCEF pointing to a link to the text of that sermon. Free download here.

Do yourself a favor and check it out. Here's an excerpt to whet your appetite.

Consider how, in our day, we love to hear about the love of God. Most evangelical preaching is in that general area. Look at your typical televangelist, and you hear a lot about the love of God. A month ago Christianity Today carried a survey among evangelical theologians and ministers. The disproportionate interest in the love and the wrath of God was striking, many evangelical preachers finding the wrath of God a less usable concept in our day. Please understand that the cross, which is the supreme demonstration of the love of God, is simultaneously the supreme demonstration of how much God hates sin and of what sin costs because it’s at the cross that we learn to estimate the price of sin.

The beauty of the gospel is that only moments before Jesus meets with a select few in the garden and then goes on to pray about the cup He was facing, He meets with His disciples in an upper room and says, “Look, I have a new cup for you, a new and different cup. This is not a cup of the wine of God’s fury but a cup filled with my blood, a cup of the forgiveness of sin, not a cup of cursing, but a cup of blessing. Drink from it, all of you.”

In Matthew 26 we have two cups laid down side by side: the one cup—the wine of God’s fury—the one Christ would take for us, and the other cup, the one you and I are going to share this night in remembrance of Him, the cup of the forgiveness of sins.

I travel a reasonable amount, and I seem to get most of my witnessing done in those circumstances. It never ceases to amaze me how predictable the response is on the part of people I meet on airplanes who, once you start talking about the gospel, not too long into the conversation, respond with something like, “I’m so glad for you, that you have found something that makes your life full. This isn’t for me. I’m glad you Christians have got something. It’s wonderful. Don’t get me wrong, but I just don’t have any interest in that. I really feel neutral about all of that.” I wish there were a third option. I wish it were possible to find a middle ground. But we have only two cups. That’s all. As Jeremiah said to that crowd so long ago, “You must, and you shall, drink.” The issue is just which cup is it going to be. That’s all.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top