ON THE CUP OF DEATH

“O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him” (Ps. xxxiv, 8). Such is the exhortation of one who sought the Lord and was delivered from all his fears. He had a day of distress when he cried to the Lord, and He heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. He got a drink out of the cup of salvation and found it sweet and refreshing to his weary soul. As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is the good news from the far country that there is salvation for sinners. Peace for the tempesttossed, pardon for the guilty, acceptance for the outcast, are among the blessings in the cup of salvation, and every sin-stricken soul who obtains a view by faith of this cup says with the psalmist, “I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord” (Ps. cvi, 13).

This precious cup is to be found on a certain table—a table spread by God and not by man. Let it be a settled question with us all that there is salvation and that salvation is to be found. Thus in his advice to his son, David said, “And thou Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts; if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever” (1 Chron. xxviii, 9). Did not Andrew bring good news to his brother Simon Peter when he told him, “We have found the Messias”? The cup of salvation is in a certain table, of which we may say more later (D. V.). Let us notice, in the meantime, that God spread a table for man, when our first parents were in a state of innocency. The name we give to this table is a phrase you have often heard used by those who preach to you. It is called the Covenant of Works. When God was, as it were, spreading this table, He put a certain person at the head of the table. This person was our first parent, Adam. On the table itself, He put a cup and that cup was full of the wine of everlasting life. There was a seat at this table for every member of the human family descended by ordinary generation from Adam, down through the ages. The agreement or the covenant which God made with Adam at the head of the table was that Adam would render complete obedience to God’s holy will and as a result he and his seed would eternally drink of the wine of everlasting life. How our first parents must have rejoiced, as it were, to sit at this table and to contemplate the goodness and kindness shown by their Creator in providing such a rich reward upon terms so acceptable to holy beings such as they were at that time. But this happy condition did not continue. Beguiled by Satan’s temptation, our first parents sinned against God and broke the covenant made with Him. As a result God took away the cup of life and placed on the table a cup full of His holy wrath against sin —the cup of eternal death. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. vi, 23). There was now nothing but death on the table of the Covenant of Works for Adam and his seed.

It is at this table that we all take our place as we come into the world, and if we die still seated at this table, God, the Judge of all, will put the cup of eternal death into the hand of our souls and we shall drink out of it through the endless ages of eternity. All of us who are without Christ are seated at this table, whatever men may think of us. There is no cup of salvation to be found here, only “a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries” (Heb. x, 27). And yet, how careless the great majority of young people are! Does a sense of their danger weigh at all upon the spirits of our young readers? The end is inevitable. To die without tasting the cup of salvation is to perish eternally.

Why, then, are the great majority so complacent while eternal death awaits them for their sins? Why also do so many despise the cup of salvation? One great reason is that, while they sit at this table, other cups are put into their hand and they find the contents of these cups sweet to their sinful tastes. They thus lose sight of the cup of death which awaits them as long as they remain in a state of nature. Do you know the names of some of these cups? Worldly pleasure— the cinema, the theatre, the dance-hall, the football and shinty match, the radio play and variety are some of the ingredients of this cup. Evil companions—the swearer, the drunkard, the unclean person, the scoffer, and the scorner form a strong drink which at the last shall bite like a serpent and sting like an adder. Irreligion—Sabbath breaking, contempt of God’s Word, despising of the means of grace are greedily swallowed by multitudes in the vain hope that God can be dismissed from their lives. But who can count the innumerable cups which are forged in hell and put into the hands of poor sinners by Satan to blot out of their sight the cup that God shall put into their hands if they die impenitent? “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not” (II Cor iv, 4).

Let the voice of mercy break in on this infatuated revelry and point to the cup of salvation. “He looketh upon men, and if any say, ‘I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not’; He will deliver his soul from going down into the pit, and his life shall see the light” (Job xxxiii, 27, 28).

It may be there is some trembling soul reading these lines who has come to know something of the evil and bitterness of sin. You feel that death will be your portion unless you taste of the cup of salvation. The great question with you is, “What must I do to be saved?” Yet you continue to remain at the table of the Covenant of Works although the cup of salvation is not to be found there—only the cup of death. The reason for this is not far to seek. We see that you have a small cup in your own hand. You do not see the name on it, but we can see it is Self-righteousness. You are filling this cup with your tears and prayers and all the things you have been doing since you first became concerned for your soul and you entertain the secret hope that God will accept this as the cup of salvation or that He will give you the cup of salvation in exchange for this cup. Dear young friend, what folly! Do you think God will accept your little cup and so pass by the cup of salvation wrought out at the infinite cost of the sufferings unto death of His beloved Son? Be not deceived. If you remain seated at that table and drinking out of the cup of Self-righteousness until death will overtake you, you will assuredly perish with the outwardly ungodly. We read that when Blind Bartimeus came to Christ, “He, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus” (Mark x, 50). You, too, must cast away your own cup and turning away from the Covenant of Works come to Jesus as you are. Ask the Lord to open your eyes that you may see this plainly. “By grace are ye saved not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephes. ii, 9). Do you object that if you cast away your cup you will have nothing to bring to Christ but sin and guilt? You could not come in a better way. “This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them” (Luke xi, 2). “He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich He hath sent empty away.” (Luke i, 53).

We leave the subject meantime, hoping to return next month (D. V.) to enquire where the cup of salvation is to be found. Our readers could meditate on the following points: This cup is on a certain table; there is a person at the head of this table; there was once two cups on the table, now there is only one—the cup of salvation.

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