Good morning. We're going to be in Matthew
chapter 27 this morning. If you'd like to be turning in
your Bibles to that text, Matthew chapter 27. Somebody told me it was good
to see me this morning. I said, well, it's good to be
seen. I appreciate so much your prayers,
and I'm just so very thankful that the Lord always does all
things well. And it's as Bob was saying this
morning, the Lord has His way of weaning us from this world,
and He really does. I'm so very thankful for that.
I want him to prepare me for the next, for meeting him. I am doing better. Thank you
for your prayers. I have a follow-up appointment
to discuss surgery this week, so I'll keep you posted on that. A couple of announcements. First
of all, it's good to have our northern brethren here beginning
to come, and it's good to have Bob and Carla with us this morning,
and Daryl and Joyce. I think that's it so far. We
have some more folks coming in the next couple of weeks, but
it's a real blessing to have to be able to share with brethren
from other churches. Next, this coming Friday night,
we'll meet for pizza at 6 o'clock and then have services at 7. And Gabe and Joe will be here
with their wives on Thursday. So they'll be traveling this
week. And you remember to pray for
them as they prepare. to preach for us this coming
weekend. Speaking of brethren from other
churches, there's a sister in Rocky Mount, Virginia, where
Paul Mahan is a pastor that most of you don't know, some of you
may, Tammy Fannin. Tammy lost her 31-year-old son
this week to the flu. And dear sister, I've been with
him on several occasions, and I have to tell you this story
because it just exalts God's grace. Tammy called, or Susan
Emrick called Tammy this week to express her concern and her
prayers for her in the grief of her loss. And Tammy was very
appreciative for that phone call. And as soon as they hung up,
Tammy called Susan right back and said, oh, Susan, I'm so sorry. Now here's a mother who's just
lost her child. She said, oh, Susan, I'm so sorry.
I forgot to ask you how Greg's doing. That's the Lord. You pray for
Tammy and Ron, her husband. Tammy's
son is from a previous marriage, but Tammy and Ron are grieving
in that loss now. So let's pray together and ask
the Lord to bless His word to our hearts. Our Heavenly Father, we're so
very, very thankful for your mercy toward your children. Thank you for the work of grace
that you do in our hearts. We thank you, Lord, that truly
you do all things well and that you work all things together
for good for them that love you and those of the called according
to your purpose. We ask, Lord, that you would increase our faith,
that you would cause us, Lord, to find our rest, all our hope,
our life, the forgiveness of our sin, and the finished work
of your dear Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We do
pray for Tammy, for Ron, as they grieve over this great loss.
We pray, Lord, that as you've touched their lives with this
trial, that you would also touch them with a sufficient grace
as it seems that you already have. Lord, we pray that you
would continue to keep your hand on them and provide for them
your comfort and your peace in this time of great tribulation. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Matthew chapter 27. The last couple of
weeks we've been looking at the sayings or the words of our Lord
from the cross. Seven of them are mentioned in
the scriptures. The first one you remember, the
first three we can relate to so well. because the Lord's speaking
to or about us. The first thing our Lord said
was, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And
all of God's children understand their need for forgiveness and
the part that they played in the crucifixion of Christ. The second time our Lord speaks,
he speaks to that thief on the cross. The one for whom he had
done a work of grace right there on the cross and turned his heart
from cursing Christ to asking the Lord to remember him when
he came into his kingdom. And how the Lord spoke peace
to his heart when he told him, this day thou shalt be with me
in paradise. And we see ourselves in that
thief. We understand that the Lord did
a work of grace in our hearts to cause us to be turned from
being blasphemers to asking Him for His mercy. The third time
our Lord speaks from the cross, He speaks to John when or and
to his mother Mary when he says to Mary behold thy son and he
speaks to John and says behold thy mother and how the Lord had
provided for his mother and how they how that That care and concern
and compassion for family is so very special. In spite of
all of his agony, he showed his desire to do that. And how many
times the Lord's provided such comfort for us. Now in these
fourth words where our Lord speaks, We're beyond our ability to have
any real understanding. These words can only be believed.
They can just be believed. What all was involved when our
Lord cries in agony, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? It goes beyond any man's ability
to understand. We have to just take off our
shoes and realize that we're standing on holy ground. We stand in wonder and in worship
and in faith. that the Lord would say such
a thing from the cross. And yet there are some things
that we can believe in these words. David said, I
have never seen the righteous forsaken. Now that's what David
said. And I can say I've never seen
the righteous forsaken, nor their seed begging bread. the Lord
always provide for his children all that they need but here we
see the righteous son of God being forsaken he's being forsaken by God and
he's being forsaken in order that we would not be forsaken
he's being forsaken in order that we can be forgiven. Beyond our comprehension. It would be profane for us to
speculate too deeply into these words because there's so much
more to them than we can understand. There is a profound holiness
here that only can be believed and that faith can only come
from God. How the infinite, holy, harmless, sinless Son of God,
who has never been, there's never been a time, in time or in eternity,
where he had suffered separation from God. Now we're accustomed
to that. We can go minutes, hours, days,
Outside of Christ, we can go our whole life without considering
the things of God. But it wasn't so with the Lord
Jesus Christ. He was in perfect union and fellowship
with the Father for all eternity, and here he cries, my God, my
God. You see, look at verse 46. Verse
45 of Matthew chapter 27. Now from the sixth hour there
was darkness over the land until the ninth hour. Jewish reckoning
of time started at sunrise, so the sixth hour would have been
noon. The ninth hour would have been three o'clock in the afternoon.
So our Lord is hanging on the cross in the middle of the day. This happened in broad daylight,
right at high noon. Verse 46, 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? Now that's a quote from Proverbs
chapter 22 verse 1, which the Lord had put in his word in order
to prophesy what would happen. And the rest of Psalm 22 describes
what happens to our Lord as he hangs on that cross. What are
we to believe by these words? We see something in these words
of the offense of sin to God and what it took to put our sin
away. If there's anything in all of
scripture that describes sin for what it is, it is described
in these words. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? When God Almighty found sin,
on the Lord Jesus Christ, which he bore in his body upon the
tree, all the sins of all of God's people, he had no choice,
he had no choice but to bruise him with the fierceness of his
wrath." Now, if that's true of Christ, what does that say about
you and I? If God finds sin on you or on
me, what will happen? I was thinking about most crimes
happen under the shadow of darkness, don't they? Criminals don't want
to get caught, and so they commit their crimes in the dark. They commit them in secret. They
think that they're going to get away with it, and so they don't
want to be seen. But here is the most heinous.
Crime that's ever been committed by man. The crime of all crimes. The crucifixion of the Son of
God. And this is the pinnacle of sin. It's what we did in sacrificing
the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross. exercising the wickedness of
our hands, as Peter said in Acts chapter 2. The wickedness of
man's heart is seen in this crime. The depravity and the callousness
of his heart is seen in what he's done here. When God found
sin on Christ, he had no choice but to forsake him. The scripture
says that the wages of sin is death, Death. What is death? What is death? Is death just
when the lungs stop breathing and the heart stops beating?
The spirit leaves the body and we say he's dead. What is death? Much more than that. It is that,
but it's much more than that. That's not the death that our
Lord's... What our Lord is telling us here is that the consequences
of sin is separation from God. Alienation from God. It was the first evidence of
sin that we see in the garden, wasn't it? When Adam felt the
shame and the guilt of his sin, what did he do? He fled from
the presence of God, didn't he? That's what death is. I mean,
that's what real death is. And that's the consequences of
sin. And that's what we learn from these words. Why hast thou
forsaken me? Why? Because God made him to
be sin for us. And when God found him to be
sin, he had no choice but to forsake him. to alienate himself
from him. We see that in the Old Testament.
The presence of God was manifest in the tabernacle, wasn't it?
In the holies of holies, separated by a veil, a place where only
the high priest could go, and that only once a year. And when
he went in, he had to go with the blood sacrifice. And there
was a separation between the people and the presence of God. And yet, what do we find happening
at the death of the Lord Jesus Christ? The veil in the temple
was rent, wasn't it? And that separation was no longer
there. Christ had to be forsaken, for
that is the consequence of sin. That's the penalty of sin, death. And the day in which you eat
of this fruit, you shall surely die. The wages of sin is death. It's separation, alienation from
God. And without the blood sacrifice,
Christ had to be alienated from God. We, as I said, we, we, there's
no way that you and I, because we're, we're so accustomed to
being alienated from God. There's no way that you and I
can possibly begin to comprehend the agony that the Lord Jesus
Christ experienced in being separated from God. And yet He did. And His forsaking was in order
that we might not be. This forsaking of God, or separation
from God, or alienation from God, is the end result of sin
for all those outside of Christ. Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians
chapter 1. These are hard words to read.
And if the Lord ever touches our hearts with them, we'll be
burdened for those to whom they apply. But they're true. They're true. Verse 7, 2 Thessalonians chapter
1. And to you, and to you who are
troubled, rest with us. Rest with us. Don't be troubled
by those who would rob you of your hope by putting you under
the law. That's what he's talking about.
Rest with us, for when the Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed
from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance
on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting
destruction from the presence of the Lord. and from the glory of his power. The ultimate end of all unbelief
is the punishment for sin, which is separation from God, eternal
separation from God. And the reason why hell is eternal
is because a soul in that place can never satisfy the demands
of God's justice. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
forsaken of God, when the wrath of God was poured out upon him
on Calvary's cross, he and he alone, because of his own sinless
perfection, was able to make a sacrifice that satisfied the
demands of God's justice and put away the sins of God's people
once and for all. You and I would never be able
to do that. If we're forsaken of God for
eternity, it will be for eternity. Revelation chapter 20 speaks
of that separation as the second death, the second death. Once a person dies physically
once, then cast into that lake of fire without any hope of ever
being brought into the presence of God, the second death. We see in these words something
at least of the holiness and the inflexible justice of God. There's four different works
being performed at the cross of Calvary. Man is doing his
work, demonstrating his depravity by crucifying the Son of God
with his own wicked hands, for which he stands responsible before
God. Satan is doing his work, in fulfilling
that prophecy that God made to Adam and Eve in the garden by
bruising the heel of the seed of the woman. Christ is doing
his work, shedding his precious blood, the just for the unjust
that he might bring us to God, satisfying divine justice once
and for all, putting away our sin. And God the Father is doing
his work. He's doing his work in that he
is sheathing the sword of his justice into the heart of his
own son. He's pouring out his wrath. He's demonstrating his
holiness. And that is seen in these words
that our Lord utters, cries in agony from the cross, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? We see something in these
words of the holiness of God. God's not like us. He's not like
us in any way. That's man's error. You thought
that I was altogether as thyself. No. No, the one thing that God
uses to describe Himself to man is that I am holy. Holy! I'm separate from sinners. I'm
not like you in any way. I'm other than you are. And when we see Him, if He's
ever pleased to show us a glimpse of His holiness, then and only
then will we see ourselves as sinners. It was true of Isaiah. Isaiah
said, I saw the Lord high and lifted up, and His train filled
the temple, and His voice spoke, and the post of the door shook,
and the place was filled with smoke. And I said, woe is me,
for I have seen God. I've seen the King. I'm gonna
die. Daniel saw it when the Lord was
pleased to reveal himself to Daniel. Daniel said, my comeliness,
that which I thought was strong and worthy and virtuous and beautiful
about me, was turned into corruption. I saw myself only for what I
really was in light of who he is. Man by nature compares himself
to himself and he compares himself to other men. That's just what
we do. If the Lord ever teaches us the gospel and stands us individually
in his presence, then we'll see ourselves for what we are, sinners. See him for who he is, holy,
holy. David said, depart from me, Lord,
for I am a sinful man. Or Peter said that, didn't he?
Peter said that. The seraphim are not able to
look upon him. Did they not take two wings to
cover their face in the presence of his holiness? The scripture says that the heavens
are not clean in his sight and if any man looks upon him, he'll
die. Turn with me to Psalm 22. I want
you to look at this Our Lord answers this question
in Psalm 22. So why would the Lord say, my
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? In order to show us those
things we've talked about. The holiness of God and the penalty
of sin. But then he answers the question.
Look in verse 1. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime. When was he crucified? Right
in the middle of the day. I cry in the daytime. But thou
hearest not, and in the night sees, and I am not silent. In
verse 3 is the answer. This question, is it accusatory? Is the Lord accusing God of wrongdoing
by forsaking Him? No. He answers the question right
there in verse 3. But thou art holy. Thou art holy. Lord, that's the
reason that you forsake me. That's the reason that you've
turned your back on me. That's the reason that you've
plunged the sword of your justice into my heart. That's the reason. Because you're holy. He's holy. Without holiness, no man can
see God. So what are you and I in need
of? We're in need of the Lord to
impute to us the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're
in need of God to look upon Christ and his sacrifice on Calvary's
cross as satisfaction for our sin. What else are we going to,
where else are we going to go? What other hope do we have? He's holy. His eyes, Habakkuk said, are
too pure to behold evil and to look upon iniquity. Is the holiness
of God seen in the destruction of the old
world when He flooded this world in Noah's day and took away all
the inhabitants of the world except those who were safe in
the ark? Is His holiness seen in that?
Yes. Is His holiness seen in the fire and brimstone that He
rained from heaven and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah? Yes. Is His holiness seen in the plagues
that He sent to Egypt and the delivering of it? Yes. Is His
holiness seen in the destruction of Pharaoh and all of the armies
of Egypt in the Red Sea? Yes. Is His holiness seen when
He opened up the earth and swallowed the rebellion of Korah and all
of His followers? Yes. Those demonstrations of
His holiness are but a minute, insignificant fraction of what
we see of His holiness in these words. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? God is so holy that he was forced
by his holy nature to forsake his darling son. And that because
of what he bore in his body. These words demonstrate to us
more of the holiness of God than anything else we could ever imagine
or anything else that God's ever done. We see in these words what our
Lord meant in his prayer at Gethsemane. And Gethsemane told the disciples,
my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, exceedingly sorrowful. For he
knew that in just a few hours, he was going to be brought to
drink the dregs, the bitter dregs of God's wrath from that cup
of which he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. Father, if there
be any way this cup can pass from me, let it be. In anticipating what would happen
in the forsaking of God upon Christ, our Lord asked the Father
to remove the cup from Him. I'm so thankful He didn't finish
the prayer there. If He had stopped right there,
the Lord would have taken the cup away, everything, and we'd
all been destroyed. Nevertheless, Father, not my
will but Thine be done. And he drank from that cup. And
here he is drinking. Here he is where he says, my
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He drank damnation dry. He suffered the contradiction
of sinful men in his life. He suffered the assault of Satan.
But now he's suffering the bruising of his father. the undiluted
wrath of a holy sin-hating God. The cup in the scriptures is
a symbol of communion, is it not? But here it symbolizes just
the opposite because of what's in it. It's the wrath of God. And our Lord drinks it. We see Our Lord's consistent
faithfulness to the Father. He said in John chapter 42, John
chapter 11 verse 42, at the raising of Lazarus, you remember when
he came to the tomb, he said, Father, I know that thou always
hearest me. But for these sake, for the sake
of these people, I'm going to pray this prayer, Lord. He had
already prayed for the Father to raise Lazarus from the dead,
but he prayed an audible prayer for the sake of those that were
standing there. But he said in that prayer, Father, I know that
thou always hearest me. Not now. Not now. He's been forsaken. God's turned
his back on him. God's stopped his ears. God can't have anything to do
with him. He has become sin on that cross. And in spite of that, our Lord
remains faithful to the Father. He remains faithful. He said,
we just read it in Psalm 22 verse 2, oh my God, I cried in the
daytime, but thou heardest me not. He didn't hear him. He couldn't.
Was it a cry of distress? Yes. Was it a cry of distrust? No. No. The Lord Jesus Christ
in his darkest hour believed God. You know, it's easy for
you and I to believe God when things are going well, isn't
it? Our Lord shows perfect faith. He trusts God even when He's
forsaken by God. You know what this says to me
and you? In our darkest hour, in our greatest trials, when
God seems to be so far from us. Where is He? Someone asked a
pastor one time, where was God when my child died? Same place He was when his died. He hadn't moved. Sitting upon
His throne. Believe Him. Don't let your circumstances
cause you to fall into unbelief. Faith believes God even when
it can't see. It just believes God. We see something of the basis
of our salvation. What is the first cause of our
salvation? The first cause. Those whom God
did foreknow, he did predestinate. And those whom he predestinated, he called, justified, glorified. The first cause of our salvation
is the foreknowledge of God. Now that doesn't mean that he
just because of his omniscience was able to look down through
the corridors of time and see who he was going to save. Foreknowledge
in the scriptures there speaks of his love. He has loved us
with an everlasting love. The first cause of salvation
is the love of God. The love of God. God chose a
people and set his love on them in Christ. There's never been
a time when they were outside of the love of God. And we see
in these words something of the first cause of our salvation,
God's love. Who can stand, the prophet said,
before his indignation? Who can abide in the fierceness
of his anger? Who can? It's a rhetorical question. No man can. But here the Lord
Jesus Christ does. He stands faithful to God and
bears the penalty of sin and the indignation of God, the fierceness of his anger, and he succeeds. He comes forth
victorious. He redeems us from the curse
of the law, being made a curse for us, for as the scripture
says, curse it unto everyone who hangeth upon a tree. The
Lord Jesus Christ hung on that cross and suffered the curse
of God's wrath for the sins of His people. What a demonstration! There's no greater demonstration
here in His love. Herein is love. God says here's
the definition of love. Not that we love God, don't try
to define love by how affectionate you are to God, but rather that
he loved us and gave his son as a propitiation for our sins.
Here we see a demonstration of God's love in these words, my
God, my God, whyst thou forsaken me? We see the most extreme evidence
of Christ's love for his people, those for whom he died. greater
love hath no man than this, than he lay down his life for his
friends. Having loved his own which are
in the world, he loved them to the end. To the end. These words tell us more about
the love that God has for his people and the love that Christ
has for us than Anything else? For Christ to be forsaken of
God, for us, what greater love? We see the horrible end of all
of those who leave this world outside of Christ. Give attention to your soul.
Don't take this lightly. For those who depart from this
world without Christ will be forsaken of God for all eternity. I don't know how to feel the
full weight of that. The door of hope will soon be
closed. Many will be left behind. I know people don't believe that. They don't believe that. You
know, usually when a lie is told, time eventually reveals the truth. You know, just give it some time
and the truth will eventually come out. You know what the very
first lie told by the father of all liars was? And it's believed
as much today by the masses of humanity as it was believed by
Eve in the garden? The very first lie. You shall
not surely die. It's a lie. Are you going to
believe Satan? Or are you going to believe the
Lord Jesus Christ who said, he that believeth not shall be damned? Which one are you going to believe?
The world still believes that first lie. God said, don't send
me to hell. It's not going to happen. It's not what he said. The Lord
Jesus Christ suffered the full penalty of the wrath of God,
alienation and separation from God when he cried, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? And the only hope that you and
I have to not being forsaken by God is to be found in him. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we ask that you would speak to our hearts and cause us, Lord,
to believe you. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.