Turn with me in your Bibles to
Psalm 22. These are the words of our Lord
Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. They're repeated in
Matthew and Mark's Gospel. There was a darkness over all
the land. Three hours of extraordinary
supernatural darkness. God turned off the lights. And after that, I'll read Matthew
27 verse 46, and about the ninth, verse 45, and now from the sixth
hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth
hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus
cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. That is to say, my God, my God, Why hast thou forsaken me? Why? Why hast thou forsaken me? What an extraordinary question.
at such an extraordinary time, uttered by the most extraordinary
person that's ever walked this earth. To compare the Lord Jesus
Christ to any other human being is just a blasphemous, idolatrous
nonsense, isn't it? People want to compare the teachings
of the Lord Jesus with Buddha, any of them. I'm not recommending
you do. But the Lord Jesus Christ was absolutely and utterly unique,
wasn't he? He was unique in his birth. He
was absolutely and utterly unique in all of his life. He was absolutely
and utterly unique in his death and in his burial. His body saw
no corruption. The body they took down from
that tree, spent three days in that tomb, and was exactly uncorrupted. Why? What is the reason for corruption? It's sin. It's sin. And what a remarkable, remarkable
event, when that body became alive again. That's why we're here, brothers
and sisters, aren't we? We're here because of what happened
at the cross. We're here because of the glory
of the resurrection. We're here because that same
Lord Jesus Christ is now reigning and ruling from the throne of
glory in heaven and he walks amongst the candlesticks. He
creates churches that proclaim his holy and glorious name, that
proclaim to lost sinners, there is a mediator that proclaims
to lost sinners, it is finished. But also we proclaim the glories of the Lord Jesus
Christ on the cross of Calvary. Psalm 22 has these remarkable
words in it, this remarkable declaration. Psalm 22, as we
saw at the beginning of our service, was actually being lived out
in the presence of these people who were were fulfilling the
words of it and completely ignorant of what was going on. They hadn't
a clue. But what a word from our God. Have you ever felt forsaken? Abandoned is another word for
it. David was a man after God's own
heart. I want to be a man after God's
own heart. David penned this psalm. And David no doubt felt what
it was as a man to be forsaken. He knew the feeling of being
forsaken. But in reality, he never was. And God's children in this world
feel the abandonment and feel the forsakenness of God when
he seems so distant and so far. David had the feeling of forsakenness,
but he says in Psalm 37 verse 25, I've been young and now I'm
old. Amen. And yet I have not seen
the righteous forsaken. He hasn't seen the righteous.
Nor his seed begging for bread. In fact, the Lord penned those
words in Hebrews 13. I will never, never, never, never
leave you nor forsake you. God cannot and will not, in reality,
ever forsake his own. But the Lord Jesus Christ really
was forsaken. Let's read these opening verses
of Psalm 22. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me and from the words of my roaring? Oh my God, I cry in the daytime,
but thou hearest not, and in the night season, and am not
silent. I wanted to look very briefly
at three things. I wanted to look at the reality
of what it was for the Lord Jesus Christ to be forsaken. Our God
doesn't play games with words. David felt as if he'd been forsaken
and reality he had not. And you children of God here
know the times of being forsaken and you know that it's all got
to do with your sin and it's all got to do with unbelief.
And God hides his face from his people that we would cry out
to him and then we would have that sweet fellowship and communion
with him again. and reunions are wonderful, and
communion is wonderful. But you think about our Lord
Jesus Christ. All of eternity, he lived in
the presence of God Almighty. He, as God the Son, lived in
the presence of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit for all
eternity. There's no beginning to their
time together and there is no plumbing the depths of the wonder
of the fellowship that they had with each other. In the beginning
was the Word and the Word was with God, was in communion with
God, and the Word was God. The same was with was in the
beginning with God. What amazing fellowship they
had for all eternity. God has no needs. God didn't create because he
was lacking something. God created this universe for
the display of the glory of his attributes. And all of his earthly
life, he was born in holiness, and all of his earthly life,
the Lord Jesus Christ never knew sin. He never knew what it was to
be guilty, to be ashamed of a thought, a word, a deed. What a remarkable man. He never
ceased to love his Father in soul and spirit and body. He
never ceased to love God's holy law and honour it and magnify
it and honour it with delight. He says, I delight to do thy
will, O my God. He never ceased to love God.
He never ceased to love his neighbours. We can only faintly and vaguely
imagine what it was like for God to dwell on this earth and
to live such a life of absolute perfection, every moment of every
day, bliss, rejoicing in the presence of his Father, Think about those nights. He
spent a whole, whole night in prayer. He used to go away from
the crowds of people. What it must have been like for
him to be praying all night long. He was preeminently a man of
prayer. What sweet communion and what
fellowship he has, he had with his father. And listen to what
he then says. My God, my God, why? Why? We can understand why God
would forsake us. We can understand why God would
forsake this world. We can understand why God would
forsake nation Israel who made all those amazing promises and
broke every single one that they ever promised. Why are thou so
far from helping me? You think of these last week
of his life, these last days, he was betrayed by his friend
and his father didn't help him. He was deserted by his disciples
and his father didn't help him. He was arrested and beaten, abused
and mocked and his father didn't help him. He was led by wicked
men to the cross of Calvary to be crucified and his father didn't
help him. They spat on him, Matthew 27.
They took a reed and they smote him on the head. They plaited
a crown of thorns, put it on his head, and they crucified
him and his father didn't help him. Listen to what he goes on
to say in this verse of Psalm 22. Why are you so far from helping
me? Why are you so far from the words
of my roaring? That word roaring is the cry
of human distress in agony of despair. It's like a lion's roar. Why are you so far from helping
me? So loud were his cries, yet not
only no help from his father, but a distance so great, the
roaring didn't reach them. In verse two he says, oh my God,
I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not, and in the night
season, but am not silent. Just think of the silence and
the darkness. It's an extraordinary darkness
that happened those three hours on the Cross of Calvary that
was finally penetrated by this cry. I've been thinking about
it a lot this week and it's been amazing to think about, isn't
it? The darkness was so dark that there wasn't a word to be
said. All the mockers were made silent
for three hours and all you hear in the darkness is the groans
from the cross of Calvary, those thieves groaning, groaning in
pain as they were alive and groaning in pain to stay alive. And here is the Lord Jesus Christ
in this hour of His greatest need, in the hour which is the
fullness, the fullness, the completeness of His faithfulness. He was faithful
unto death. He trusted His Father in the
greatest darkness, in the greatest trials, when all turned away
from Him. He was suffering. the reality
of Christ's suffering, he was suffering what a damned soul
in hell will suffer eternally. Psalm 16 is quoted on those great
Pentecost sermons, and Psalm 16 says, you will not leave my
soul in hell. People can say what they like
about it, but if his soul was not left in hell, then he experienced
the infinite pain, and the darkness, and the forsakenness of hell. Sin doesn't bother us very much. We sin, and sin grievously, and
we're deeply and dreadfully ashamed of it, and then it passes. So
easily and so quickly, the Lord Jesus Christ knew no sin. The one thing that horrified
his holy soul was sin. And here he was, crying out,
my God, my God, whatever he was, he was he forsaken. He couldn't
even call God his father. Damn souls in hell don't call
God Father. Damn souls in hell know forsakenness
forever. No light, no communion, no mercy,
just holy wrath from God on the sins that were in him. Why was he crying? The verse
3 gives us a remarkable description, the remarkable answer. Verse
3 of Psalm 22. The greatest question that's
ever been asked at the greatest time of any situation of all
humanity on this earth. The reason for this earth's existence
is for this moment on the cross of Calvary. And listen to the
answer to the greatest question, the most significant question
you'll ever hear. But thou art holy, O thou that
inhabitest the praises of Israel. We read it in 1 Peter earlier
and it's just so significant because what this world wants
to say about the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified is nothing
short of blasphemy. In all of the things they say
about the Lord Jesus Christ, the most horrifying ones are
the ones that describe what happened on the cross of Calvary. As if
somehow God Almighty was trying to save all humanity. And in
modern understanding, the one characteristic of God that you
hear about all the time is God loves everyone. God loves, God
loves, God is love, and no doubt God is love, and no doubt God
loves, but the love of God is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. The Bible makes much more emphasis
on the holiness of God Almighty. Why was he forsaken? Why did he cry? Why was the holiness
of God the one attribute that he reveals so clearly in his
cry? Who in his own self bore our
sins? 224 and this is repeated in so many
other places throughout the scriptures, who in his own self bear our
sins in his own body on the tree. He bore the sins of a multitude
which cannot be numbered of all the people that he prayed for
in John chapter 17, of all of the people that the Father gave
him before the foundation of the world. God is holy and God
is just and God is righteous. And a holy God, when he saw sin
on his son in this hour of great desperation, he forsook his son
and poured out his wrath upon him. Let me read a proverb to
you and may the Lord allow us all to enter into it. In Proverbs
17 verse 15, he that justifies the wicked and he that condemns
the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord. He that justifieth the wicked,
and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abominations
to the Lord. God will not commit abomination.
God did not commit abomination when he poured out his wrath
on his Son. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
lifted up on the cross of Calvary bearing the sins. In the garden
he was given a cup and he says, unless I drink this cup, this
cup is not going to pass from me. What was in the cup? A cup that he looked into and
he was horrified, so horrified by the sight in that cup that
his heart broke within him and his great drops of blood he began were all of the sins of all of
the people that he was dying for. God is holy, God is just,
and God is righteous. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ
is an act of God's holiness and an act of God's justice. And
all of the attributes of God are on such wonderful display
on the cross at Calvary. There is the reality of his suffering. There is the reason for his suffering. I have a sermon here from a very
famous man in America who's been preaching for 50 or 60 years.
And he says that what happened on the Cross of Calvary, it was
as if the Lord Jesus Christ was made sin. He wasn't really made sin, but
God treated him as if he was made sin. I pray God opens your
eyes from the scriptures to see that that is nothing short of
dreadful, dreadful blasphemy, and blasphemy against the very
character of God when he put his son to death on the cross
of Calvary. God does not play as if games. Some people say it was a legal
transaction. God doesn't play games. God doesn't
play games with words. The Lord Jesus Christ was made
sin. He doesn't say, He doesn't say,
I know these sins aren't really yours, but I'm charging you with
them as if they really were. And I know you weren't. God punished
the Lord Jesus Christ, poured out his wrath on all the sins
in the Lord Jesus Christ until the wrath of God was satisfied.
There is the reality of the forsakenness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
reason is in verse three, but thou art holy. God is of two
pure eyes to behold iniquity. Thou art holy. He bore our sins in his own body
on the tree. I'd like you to turn with me
to Psalm 40 so that we can see from the Word of God what was
happening on the cross of Calvary. Psalm 40 is quoted in Hebrews
Chapter 10. If you have time you can take
that and read it. But Psalm 40 is one of many Psalms
in the Old Testament and many passages in the Old Testament
which talk about the reality of the transfer of sin. In all
of those sacrifices, when the high priest put his head on the
goat, there was in picture form a real transfer of sin to the
goat and the lamb suffered in the place of the people who had
brought the lamb. Verse 7, let's just read from
verse 7 in Psalm 40. Then said I, this is quoted in
Hebrews chapter 10. I come in the volume of the book
it is written to me. I delight to do thy will, O my
God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. I have preached righteousness
in the great congregation. Lo, I have not refrained my lips. O Lord, thou knowest. I have
not hid thy righteousness. Within my heart I have declared
thy faithfulness and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy lovingkindness
and thy truth. I haven't concealed anything
about the truth of God, the truth of salvation to the great congregation. Why is the congregation great? because he's there and because
he's preaching to them. That's why it's great. And there's
a great multitude of great sinners who are saved by a great saviour
and they'll be proclaiming the greatness of his his victory. He said, withhold not thy tender
mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy loving kindness and thy
truth continually preserve me. Why? For innumerable evils have
compassed me about. Innumerable evils have surrounded
me. Listen to the next word. Mine Iniquities have taken hold upon
me so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs
of my head. Therefore my heart faileth me. What did he say? Mine iniquities. Why was he forsaken? Mine iniquities. Such is the glory of the union
between the Lord Jesus Christ and his people. On the cross
of Calvary and throughout the Old Testament, he declares that
the iniquity of all of the people, all of his people, all of his
sheep, were his, mine iniquities. mine iniquities. He doesn't say
Simon's iniquities have taken hold upon me. He said they're
mine iniquities have taken hold on me. Why was he forsaken? God is holy. Why was he forsaken? He was made sin. He was bearing sins of all of his people. And
if he suffered the wrath of God, the infinite wrath of God for
all of those sins, they are no more. That's what he cried at
the cross of Calvary. It is finished. It is perfect. Salvation is perfect. Salvation
is perfectly completed. ever sinned. But on the cross
of Calvary he was made sin and Galatians 3 said that he was
made a curse. Under the very law of God, the
Lord Jesus Christ was cursed under that law. And in that curse,
him being made sin, God Almighty in holiness can pour out his
righteous wrath on the Lord Jesus Christ. Only An infinite being
can bear the price. Only an infinite being can know
what he's suffering. Only an infinite being can know
for whom he suffered. The notion that the Lord Jesus
Christ can die for you and shed his precious blood for you And
you have to pay the price for those sins again before the judgment
of God and in hell for eternity is a denial of every attribute
of God. Thank God the scriptures don't
support any of the modern notions that people make up about the
Lord Jesus Christ. Why was he forsaken? Because
that's exactly what I deserve. That's exactly what I deserve. Why was he forsaken? Because of the justice of God. Because it was God's eternal
purpose. Revelation 13.8 is just the most
remarkable verse and the more you contemplate it, the more
amazing it is. It speaks of all those who dwell
on the earth shall worship him whose names were not written
in the book of the life of the lamb slain. The lamb having been
slain from the foundation of the world. Before there was ever
a sinner, there was a savior. Everything that happened on the
cross at Calvary was according to the divine counsel and determination
of God Almighty. The scriptures must be fulfilled. He came. What's his purpose in
coming? When his soul was troubled, he
said, Father, glorify your name. When he prayed in John 17, you
read John 17, it's about the glory of God. Father, glorify
your name. He says, I've glorified it on
the earth. Oh, the Father and the Son. The
glory of God Almighty is at the very heart of the gospel. Don't
you love the fact? that all of the attributes of
God are on display at the very place and in the very person
where all of your sins are put away and all of your salvation
is won by God Almighty. The justice of God, the fact
that God is so just that he must punish sin, should be the greatest
comfort to the child of God. God in justice, perfect holy
justice punished his son for all of those sins. And God in
holy justice cannot ever punish those sins a second time. If
that happened in a court here, We would declare the judge bankrupt
and get rid of him as quickly as we possibly could. Don't you
love the fact that every attribute of God, His holiness, His justice,
His mercy, His wisdom, His power are all on display on the cross
at Calvary. His law must be magnified. His law must be honoured. God so loved that he gave. God made a way for God to be
the just God, a just God and a saviour, so that all of his
people can now stand before God without sin. What's the reality
of it? The reality of the sufferings
of Christ is that they were real. He doesn't play games with words.
Our God cannot play games with words. The reason I'm holy, God
is holy, thou art holy. And the result of it, every single
person he died for is saved. Just in closing, I want us to
see how wonderful it is One of the glories, God says to his
son, I can ask no more and I can require no less. For you to be
in the presence of God, you need to be as holy as God Almighty.
You need to be as perfect and have lived a life as perfect
as the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the wonder of the glory
of the Gospel is that there is a perfect union between the Lord
Jesus Christ and his people. He was forsaken and we can never
be forsaken. He's perfected forever them that
are sanctified. I want us to finish just by reading
the last 10 verses of Psalm 22. One of the things that is wonderful
about our God is our God continually says, I will and they shall. That's the glory of the eternal
covenant. God says, I will do this for
all of my people and they shall. I want us to start in verse 22
of Psalm 22. The psalm turns into a glorious
declaration of the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
says, I will declare thy name. The Lord Jesus Christ in preaching
the gospel is declaring the name of God unto my brethren. In the midst of the congregation,
I will praise thee. Ye that fear the Lord, praise
him, all ye seed of Jacob. Glorify him, and fear him, all
ye seed of Israel. For he hath not despised nor
abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, neither hath he hid
his face from him. When he cried unto him, he heard. My praise shall be of thee in
the great congregation. My praise shall be of thee in
the great congregation. I will pay my vows. I will pay everything that they
are owed. That's what he says at the cross,
isn't it? It is finished, I've paid it all. I will pay. Then listen to the response.
Listen to what happens. I will is the promise of God. They shall is the promise of
his work in the hearts of his people. The meek shall eat and
be satisfied. We'll feast on the manna from
heaven. The body and blood of the Lord
Jesus. They shall praise the Lord that seek him. Your heart
shall live forever. the all the ends of the earth
shall remember him. and turn unto the Lord and all
the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. You read Revelation chapter 4
and 5 and you'll see that it's happening in heaven right now.
For the kingdom is the Lord's and he is the governor among
the nations. He has dominion among all people.
He's got power over all flesh to give eternal life to as many
as the father gave him. And all they that be fat on the
earth shall eat and worship, all they that go down to the
dust shall bow before him, and none can keep alive his own soul. A seed shall serve him, and it
shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. He's going
to have a family. He's going to be a successful
Savior. He'll have a multitude. His bride will be almost innumerable. In the eyes of men, they are
not in the eyes of God, because every single one of them has
a name. They shall come and shall declare
His righteousness unto a people that shall be born that he hath
done this, that he hath finished it all. All of the shalls and
all of the wills and all of the promises of God are yea and amen
in him. And what do we declare? We declare
his righteousness. I'll speak of his righteousness
and his only. You read Psalm 71 when you go home. That's the
only righteousness there is. There is only one righteousness.
It's the righteousness of God in Christ. It's the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the robe that he robes
his people with. That's the robe that all of his
people wear now in heaven and will wear for all eternity. happened. There is a reason he
was forsaken. God is holy and just. There is
a result. And I love how he finishes by
saying, again, he can call his father, father, when it's all
finished. My God, my Savior, my Lord, my
Redeemer. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we thank you that we can read from your Word and speak from
your Word of a glorious Saviour who really saved his people from
their sins. We praise you, Heavenly Father,
for the revelation of who you are in what was done to your
dear and precious Son on the cross of Calvary. May we, like
Paul, may God forbid us to boast, to have confidence in anything
other than the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified, the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father, you alone, by
your Spirit's work, shining a light on your Word, which shines a
light on the Word made flesh that dwelt among us and the Word
made flesh that hung on the cross of Calvary. You alone can make
that blood precious to us, our Father. And we pray that we might
go from here, not looking to ourselves, Unto me, he said, in thee he
saved all the ends of the earth. For those who know him, we look
to him. Just look, look and behold the
Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. We praise
you, Heavenly Father, for your word, for your grace and your
mercy, for your revelation of truth, and for the fact that
your dear Son is the preacher and the one who is preached.
be precious to us. Our Father may we go out into
this world knowing and rejoicing.