This sermon delves into the profound moment in Gethsemane where Jesus prayed to the Father, expressing his willingness to drink from the cup of suffering, which included betrayal, internal, mental, and spiritual agony. It challenges believers to consider the cost of discipleship, the internal and external struggles that come with following Christ, and the need for wholehearted commitment even in the face of opposition and persecution.

He went a little further and fell on his face and prayed saying, O my father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt. And he cometh to his disciples and finding them sleeping said to Peter, What could ye not watch when ye were now? Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. What was the cup? Well, I'll tell you what one ingredient was. It had betrayal in it. The men who'd sworn allegiance to him, when it came to the crisis, they quit. Can he drink of the cup? What's in the cup? I believe in that cup there was internal suffering, mental suffering, and spiritual suffering. Do you want to drink the cup? I'm straightened. He says, I cannot do anything now. I cannot do anything because of baptism. And I have to go through. The Holy Ghost can't come down until I go up. I can't go up until I've done the will of the Father. And he goes through the agony of Gethsemane. He goes through the lonesomeness. He drank of that cup. I say it was internal. Why? Because in Isaiah 53 verse 11 he says, Yitrabel. Isn't that internal? Deserted by others and in the darkest hour. Not only deserted by men, deserted by God. Can you drink of that cup? Do you want to travel? You see, what people are seeking for today is a painless Pentecost. There isn't such a thing. The day of Pentecost was fully kept. What happened immediately after Pentecost? They prospered. Yes, they did. They went to jail. It wasn't prosperity, it was prison, pain, privation, persecution. The men of dishonest priests on TV today, they're liars. It's an occasion of blessing and God will open the windows of heaven on you. Jesus goes on to say when that man in the other chapter that we didn't read of, when he says, Settle this dispute between my brother and myself about the family estate. Jesus says, Lay not up for yourself treasure on earth, where moth and musk are up, and thieves break through and steal. You know, a lot of wealthy Christians will get their heaven bankrupt. And a lot of Christians almost bankrupt, live in poverty. They'll be super millionaires when they get into eternity. But this is the way. But if you read in the other version of that, if you're going to follow the Lord, it's division in the family. Your father and mother will hate you. Jesus comes to the place where his brother said he's insane. You know, people say, I want to be like Jesus. I doubt it. Do you want to get kicked out of your family because you love God? Do you want to be so true to God that the Thomas comes and doubts you? That a Judas tells you? You really want to be like Jesus? Well, why don't you practice it? Why don't you have 40 days and 40 nights of fasting? Forget all the paperwork. We make such rash vows. When the temperature's running high in the meeting, we make vows, vows, vows. I'd say the pain was internal. I'm sure it was not only internal. I'm sure it was mental pain. I'm sure it was bodily pain. Because he said in what, the 50th chapter of Isaiah, I gave my back to the smiters. We don't do that. We fight back. We don't like somebody to cow us up, scorn us, ridicule us, humiliate us, misrepresent us. And he got the whole works. And yet he never muttered once. What did he say? He said that when it came to the agony of the cross that men shot out the lip. I don't understand those disciples. I never will. Why after he came from the judgment hall and was going to the cross, why did they line up on either side of the road and applaud him and say, this is the way our king comes into his kingdom. Instead of that, men shot out the lip and scorned and said, if God's your father, let him deliver you. I say again, the perennial challenge to a Christian is come down from the cross and save yourself. You made a decision in a missionary meeting. I'm going to give more money to missions. And then something, and you backed off. I'm going to spend more time with God. Forget it. You didn't do it. You know when Elijah, before he called down the fire, he went back and he built the old altar. We don't want to go back to old altars, to old vows, to old commitments. We're always trying to make new things. God knows I've been brought them down anyhow in a few weeks. Christianity has not been weighed in the balances and found one thing. It's been tried, found difficult and rejected. It's too tough. There's no part-time service. Leave all and follow me. Oh, drink of the cup.