I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Psalms chapter
22. Chapter 22. I'd like to deal with the first
10 verses of this glorious passage of Scripture. And I'd like to
say before I even begin, as I was going over my notes this morning
and considering what we were going to look at. This passage of scripture is
so beyond our ability to comprehend in its fullness. Scriptures are gloriously mysterious. They completely refute every
thought of the carnal heart. And they speak of those things
that are so above us. We believe them. We rest in them. Trust the Christ. that is revealed
in these scriptures. But truly, we do see through
a glass darkly. And the amazing thing about these glorious truths, we rest
our eternal soul on this. We're going to die. We're going
to die, and we're going, I've said this so many times, because
I think about it, I'm getting older, and I'm thinking, three
score and ten. Now there's quite a few of us
that know something about those numbers. And we're thinking,
that's the average, some more, some less. But three score and
ten, basic average, the days of a man or woman on this earth.
and we're going to stand before God. And all of these things
that we've heard are going to become vividly real. And we're going to see, we're
going to know, Scripture says, as we're known. So as we consider
these few verses of Scripture, I pray God bless them in our
hearts, And again, I'm going to go ahead and tell you right
now. This is so far over my head. I know what it's saying, but
to know what it's saying. Matthew and Mark both record
this utterance that was first recorded in Psalm 22. When they recorded it, Matthew
recorded it in Matthew 27, 46 and Mark in 15, 34. And they
gave the interpretation of it. I mean, they gave the wording
of it. And here is the interpretation in Matthew and Mark. They said
that the Lord cried, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. And the scripture now gives the
interpretation there and here. In Psalm 22 verse 1, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Now, there's one thing that I
want to say and we all understand this. The question that was asked
by the Lord in time on the cross and here eternally. Unto the
Father was not something of which He had no answer. He knew the
answer. But these precious words that
glorify our Savior and are for our benefit. First service I
preached this morning. when the Lord told Moses. Jehovah spoke to Moses. This was in Numbers 6. He spoke
to Moses, and Moses was to speak to Aaron and to his sons. And
they were to say to the people, the Lord bless you. Now, to sum
up that whole message this morning, Moses was a picture of the law.
And God said to the law that couldn't pronounce a blessing
on us. The only thing the law is going to do is pronounce a
curse on us, because we can't fulfill it. But the law said
to Aaron, who was a picture of Christ, and Aaron was to say
to the people, well, here's the great Aaron, the great high priest. And he's speaking to the Father. But let me tell you what He's
doing. He talked to us. Here's where our comfort is.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Do you know what
a believer thinks right now? So that God wouldn't forsake
me. That's why. We know that the Lord is speaking
something to which He knows the answer. and the fullness of this
question. That question, was that first
asked? Was that an issue when David
was moved by the Spirit of God to pen it? No. That verse of Scripture right
there was penned at least a thousand years before the Lord actually
uttered it in time on Calvary. But that truth of the Lord being
forsaken of His Father, that truth went back eternally. I've said before, I don't know
how to speak eternally. Even when I talk eternally, it
comes out in time. It was always as the Jews, they
mocked the Lord when He was crucified, and the believers stood there
in amazement, wondering at what was taking place, and the Lord
was suffering, and angels that adored Him, and the Lord, the
God that they worshipped, and here was the will of Almighty
God just openly being proclaimed in time, but here in prophecy,
but in actual reality with the Father eternally. No one but
God could understand what truly took place. Luther said this,
God forsaking God How do you enter into that? How
do you enter into God the Father who is one with the Son, who
is one with the Spirit? How do you enter into that three person, one God? How do
you enter into that? How do you enter into Acts 20.28,
feed the church of God, Feed the church of God which He purchased
with His own blood. The blood of God. Precious blood. Holy blood. Blood that never,
never came from a man born in Adam. Conceived of the Holy Spirit. I'm telling you, my God, my God. Words of absolute faith. Not despair, not despair. Absolute
faith by God. The Lord said, I will be their
God and they'll be my people. There's mercy. There's graciousness
right here. But here's the Lord Jesus Christ
in his absolute humility. My God. Faith was never displayed
as strongly as from Him whose heart was made to cry unto His
only strength and hope. Here's the beloved Son, whom
the Father was well pleased, crying unto the covenant God.
God is just. I'm a just God. I am a just God
and a Savior. Here's the Savior, God the Savior,
crying unto the just God. He's just. And here He was upon
the cross. My God, my God, why hast Thou
forsaken me? Why art Thou so far from helping
me and from the words of my roaring? Here's God the Savior crying.
And to His God, His God, you've abandoned me. That's what He
said. Why have you left me to myself? Why? Why? These words are for us. Turn over. Hold your place right
there. Turn to Isaiah 53.10. Isaiah 53, 10. My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Isaiah 53. I tell you what, let
me read 53, 4 and 5. Why hast thou forsaken me? Here
it is, Isaiah 53, 4 and 5. Surely He's borne our griefs,
carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we're healed. Why hast thou forsaken
me? He was bearing our guilt. And
God who is just could do nothing else. God is
just. Why was He forsaken? Look at
verses 10 and 11 of Isaiah 53. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. The apple of His eye, His beloved
Son, whom He is well-pleased, when He in covenant agreement
stood as the surety, I will answer. I will answer. I will make good. It pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He put him to grief. When thou
shalt make my soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days, and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall
see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied by his
knowledge, saying, My righteous servant justifies many. But He
shall bear their iniquities. My God, My God, why hast Thou
forsaken Me? Because God has a people. That He's revealed. Revealed
it to us through Moses. When Moses asked Him, Show me
Your glory. Show me Your majesty. Show me
what You think. He said, I'm going to have mercy.
What's it going to cost? There's a high cost to what we
call free grace. It's not free for nothing. It
costs. Look at Isaiah 59 verse 1 and
2. Isaiah 59. My God, my God, why
hast Thou forsaken me? Isaiah 59. Behold, the Lord's
hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither His ear
heavy that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have separated
between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from
you. He will not hear. What hope do I have for God to
look upon me in mercy? Christ is going to have to bear
my guilt and put away my sins. So here is the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking unto His Father, asking for our sake, Why have you forsaken me? He
who humbled himself, days of his flesh, offered up, the scripture
says, Hebrews 5, 7, prayers and supplications with strong crying
and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was
heard in that he feared. Whenever the Lord Jesus cried
unto the Father that forsook him, Under no circumstances are
we to think that there was any loss of love or favor or unity
between the Father and the Son. That's still His beloved Son. In whom? In Himself. He's well pleased. But when He
was made sin, God must judge Him. He must spew out His wrath upon
Him. There was no option. His justice
demanded it. But in Him being forsaken, we
still must understand that the Father who purposed our salvation,
purposed Him. to be the Lamb, that He would
absolutely forsake Him. I've said before, I wrote an
article about this I think a week ago or something like that. It
had no play like with God. Did He truly forsake Him? He
was forsaken. He would not look upon Him. He
bearing the guilt bore all of the guilt. Here's where I'm lost
again. Had I died, had all of His people,
had they died, all of the eternal judgment of God, all of the eternal
judgment of God, which I can't even imagine, I can't even...
But they who would have been in hell eternally, under the
wrath of God, for eternity, Christ bore in one sacrifice. He bore all of it. Who can enter into that? Who
can perceive the depth? God was pleased to not interpose
and rescue him. God was pleased to leave him
to himself and bear the dreadful agonies of the sins of His people
to be the atonement for His people without the fellowship of being
sustained and rescued by His Father. Crushed not only with
just the pain, but with the total awareness of being made sin. He had no one. He had no one. He died. He tread the winepress
of God's wrath alone. I don't like to be alone. There's
times I might get a little rest, but I mean just to be alone.
To have no help, nothing. To be by alone. He asked before
in the Garden of Gethsemane, Father if it would be possible
that this cup being made sand, being forsaken of the Father.
Here again, you and I, we read that, we do understand it, but
we can't We can't perceive it. By faith, we believe it, we love
it. But he said, if it be possible, if it be possible. Again, he
knew the answer to that question. He asked those questions. It
wasn't something he didn't know. He's the omniscient God. He knows
that. If it be possible, who's that for? If it be possible. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. Without shedding His blood, there's
no remission, there's no possibility, there's no possibility. God must
leave him to suffer and die alone. For God to be just and the justifier
of sinners, Christ must bear our guilt. Verse 2, O my God,
I cry in the daytime, but Thou hearest not, and in the night
season, and am not silent. Not silent. The margin says,
there is no silence to me. That means the Lord was not silent. The Lord was not silent. He said,
I cry and I'm not silent. There's no silence to me toward
you, is what He's saying. I am crying unto you. And here the Lord of glory expresses
His perfect knowledge to His relationship to the Father. It's His God. It's His God that
He has submitted Himself to. And I'm praying unto you day
and night, and I'm not heard. I'm not heard. I cry, but thou hearest not.
In my night season, the night season, I'm not silent. There's no silence. Men ought
to always pray and not think. And here's the Lord. He's our
perfect substitute, redeemer. Our federal head, our Lord, our
God, in joy or sorrow, in all things, pray without ceasing. What did He do? Pray Him. As our Lamb, God's Lamb on our
behalf, for us, look at the joy, look at the peace, look at the
thankfulness. My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? And
I'm thinking, oh, what He bore. I don't know what He bore. But
what He bore, I'm so thankful for. That by the grace of God,
I don't have to bear that. That God has delivered me. He
cried unto the Lord in verse 2 in the daytime, in the night
season. He wasn't silent. God spewed
out upon Him while He continued to cry. What do you think He
would do to me? To hear him say, to hear the
Lord say unto me, depart from me, Marvin. I never knew you. I don't even know how to think
what I would think. I can't even enter into that. I think, what mercy! That Almighty
God would show mercy to this sinner. Verse 3, listen to this. Hath thou forsaken me? Here it
is. But thou art holy, O thou that
inhabitest the praises of Israel. God the Father forsook the substitute
because He was the substitute. He was made sin. He was made
sin. He wasn't there just to die. Just something had to die. Something had to die. Well, I
tell you this, the blood of bulls and goats never put away one
sin. And He being made what we are, He was so far from delivering
Him because He was there to put away sin on behalf of God's people. put away the guilt of his elect,
made what they are, and the law demanded it. All of this was
done openly. There was none of this done in
a closet, behind closed doors. This is not a secret thing. This
was done in complete daylight when Eli heard what the Lord
had been pleased to do. The ark had been captured, taken.
Sons had died. What Eli said, it's the Lord
let him do what seemeth Him good. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. It pleased the Lord to have a
people. It pleased the Lord to have them
to Himself, to adopt them, make them sons. Deuteronomy 29, 29, the secret
things belong unto the Lord our God. We have a God we can't figure
out. And I love that. I love it. I
love that I can't figure Him out. But when He said He delights
to show mercy, I'm so thankful for that. Mercy, I've told you
before, implies guilt. Mercy implies guilt. If God's
merciful, it's because I'm guilty. The secret things belong unto
the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto
us, to our children forever, that we may do all the works,
words, I'm sorry, of the law. So, may we learn to live in the
hands of Him who is holy and sacred and set apart pure and
right. These things that we can't perceive
But when He says, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?
We dare not ever insinuate that God Almighty didn't actually
forsake Him. Someone says, well, He didn't
really forsake Him. He just, yes, He did. Yes, He did. He
forsook Him. He would not look upon Him. And
He died absolutely alone. And He died in absolute justice. Justice. Verse 4 and 5, here's
our Lord continuing. Our fathers trusted in Thee.
They trusted and Thou didst deliver them. They cried unto Thee and
were delivered. They trusted in Thee and were
not confounded. Now listen to the justice in
this. Listen to the association of
our Lord with us. Listen to the mercy of those
words. Here is the marvel. of the Lord being one with His
people. Listen to what He said. Our fathers. Our fathers. Now, I could say
that, you could say that. We could say this, you know,
our fathers. We think of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Henry, Scott, these
men and women of the faith that died in the faith. We could say
that. You know, here I'm talking about
frail creatures of the dust to whom the Lord has shown mercy,
our fathers. But Him? Him saying that? Yeah, that's what He's saying. Here is the head of the body,
the one made like unto His brethren, praying for the body. The great
high priest rehearsing back unto the Lord the mercies to his own
as he's praying. These are the words, the thoughts,
this is the very heart of the Lord from the cross that he ever
beheld, pleading the Father's former gracious dealings with
those who have passed into glory. as a request for present blessings. Here's what he's saying. He said, our fathers trusted
in thee, they trusted, and you delivered them. They cried unto thee, and they
were delivered. And were they guilty? Yes, they
were guilty. He said, they trusted in thee,
and they were not confounded, they weren't pushed away, they
weren't shoved back. Why? because He bore all their guilt. It ended with Him. You know,
you've heard that phrase, the buck stops here. That's where
it stopped right there. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. He was the end of the law for
justice. He was the end for His people. It was said, they trusted
in Thee, and You delivered them, but not Him. Not Him. For God
Almighty to show mercy to me and deliver me, for me not to
be confounded, Christ had to bear it all. It had to be put
away. Verse 6, but I'm a worm and no
man, a reproach of men and despised of the people. You know, of us,
here again, we can truthfully say, I can absolutely say and
agree with it. I'm a worm. I'm so disrespectful toward the
Lord. I'm disrespectful toward you. And I know it. And I know all of you that know
Him say the same thing. You say the same thing. We know
something of what we are. But for him to say it? Again, I cannot enter into the
depth of his humility. I cannot enter into the depth. I know that it says he was made
like unto his brethren. But again, mark that so far over
my head. The Lord of glory to be made
flesh. made flesh, to be made like unto
His brethren, to be made in the likeness of it, yet without sin,
to be made a worm. He said, I would never have said
that. If somebody were to say, do you
think that the Lord was a worm? I said, the Lord said that He was. I don't even know how to say
that. When he bore our guilt, when
he bore what we are, here's what he said of himself. I am a worm
and no man. A reproach of men and despised
of the people. Here in keeping with this In
the blessed context of this Scripture, the Lord who cried unto God who
had forsaken Him, cried day and night. He said He was crying
without ceasing, knowing the holiness of God. And then He
rehearsed. He said, the Fathers, You delivered
them. He said, but I'm left forsaken. as one that is not even worth
regarding. He says, if I was a groveling
worm beneath the notice of God, and I'm treated as the most insignificant
object, unworthy of the attention of God or man, I think, what
submission, What a humbling. But let's always
remember one thing. This one who proclaimed himself
to be a worm, you know what we do? We bow. We bow to him. Lord, as you say you are, as
you hung before Almighty God, As you say, you humbled yourself. Lord, you did humble yourself.
Lord, we bow to You. We bow to You as our Lord and
our God, who humbled Himself and made Himself of no reputation. Lord, under no circumstances
do we ever think of You. Anything other, as Thomas said,
my Lord and my God. Men in this world speak of Him,
such a disrespectful term, but not God's people. Lord, You can
utter those words right there. But Lord, in our heart, You who
were made sin, Lord, we bow to You, who is our substitute, bore
the wrath of God. Lord, as You say, I am a worm. Lord, we bow to You who was made
a worm for us, bore our sins and put away our guilt. Lord,
You're the truth. You're the way. You're the life. And You abased Yourself before
God for the sake of us. You were judged. and condemned
and suffered the penalty that was due us and now we have nothing
to fear. But you think about these words
that he's saying. Verse 7 and 8. Talking about
verse 6, he said the last part, I was despised of the people.
He said, verse 7 and 8, all they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip, they
shake the head, saying, now this is the amazing thing about this
passage of Scripture, verse 8. He trusted on the Lord that he
would deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeing he
delighteth in him. Matthew 27, 43 recorded those
words. He trusted in the Lord, wagging
their heads. Let the Lord receive him. Let
the Lord, if He'll have him, a thousand years before those
words ever came out of the mouth of those that were actually there
on the day of the Lord's crucifixion. A thousand years. They were recorded
a thousand years before. And God always heard them. God
heard those words before He ever made man. Now let me ask you something. Is there any wonder that He hears
us now? Is it a wonder that He heard
the words of our disrespect before time ever was? and was pleased
to show mercy to us when He knew, when He knew. He who knows our
thoughts right now, yeah, but He knew them before we ever thought
them. That hatred and resentment against the Lord of glory, that
hatred and resentment that the Spirit of God moved upon David
and moved him to pin those hateful words Except the Lord be pleased
to show mercy. We talk about the mercy of God
as if it's something that we can actually grasp. I can't even
grasp the mercy of God. That's why I said this when I
started this passage, I mean this message. I said I'm going
to look at these first ten verses. I can truthfully, I rejoice in
them and I'm thankful for them. But I do see through a glass
darkly. And you do too. That he was made
sin, that he was forsaken of God, that he cried unto the Lord,
and the Lord did not deliver him. Christ was not silent toward
the Lord. That Christ is the head. He said,
our fathers trusted you. You delivered them. You're not
delivering me. Then record those words of disrespect. Then he says in verse 9, in closing, For Thou art He that took me
out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope when
I was upon my mother's breast. It pleased God to make a body for Him. Here's the wonder of redemption,
of salvation. The Scripture says, You, by your
Spirit, His Spirit, the Spirit of God moved upon
a woman and put a seed there, that holy thing, that's another
thing. Who would call it a holy thing?
But God. conceived by the Holy Ghost. And for nine months, he grew
like we did. And in the time of her delivery,
the Scripture says, you took me out of the womb. You made me whole. when I was
upon my mother's breast. Here was the man, Christ Jesus,
through the miracle of God's power and grace to be born into
this world and to absolutely grow up before God like we have
to and He on our behalf satisfied God and God Almighty
on the behalf of His people, beheld Him the obedient servant. And Christ said, you made me
hope when I was on my mother's breast. He trusted God for everything. I was cast upon thee from the
womb, thou art my God from my mother's belly. Forsaken of all men, but he said, you are my stay,
my comfort from birth. Who is he talking to? The one
that he just cried, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
In absolute obedience, absolute confidence, absolute hope, He
always did those things that pleased the Father. He always
trusted Him. He always rested on Him. In my carnal mind I think, man,
I want to do that. In my renewed heart, I realize
I have in Christ. I've always trusted Him. God
has dealt with me in a substitute. God has dealt with me in absolute
justice. In my ark, the Lord Jesus. And as the fathers cried unto
the Father, they were heard for the sake of the substitute. for
the sake of the Savior and delivered because He wasn't. I pray that
Almighty God give us some comfort and peace in hearing the words
of our Savior as He cried from the cross of Him being forsaken
that we might never be forsaken for His glory and our good.