Would you turn to Matthew chapter
27? It's been a joy being with you.
I'm so thankful to see what the Lord is doing in this place.
What a blessing. Matthew chapter 27. Beginning in verse 35, And they crucified him, and parted
his garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken by the prophet. They parted my garments among
them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots, and sitting down
They watched him there and set up over his head his accusation
written, this is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Then were there
two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand and another
on the left. And they that pass by reviled
him, wagging their heads and saying, Thou that destroyest
the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come
down from the cross. Likewise, also the chief priests
mocking him with the scribes and elders said, he saved others,
himself he cannot save. If he be the king of Israel,
let him come down from the cross and we will believe him. He trusted
in God, let him deliver him now, if he'll have him, for he said,
I'm the son of God. The thieves also which were crucified
with him cast the same in his teeth. Now, from the sixth hour,
noon, he'd already been on the cross for three hours, and at noon, there was darkness
over all the land until the ninth hour, 3 p.m. 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? When you look at a passage of
scripture like that, you feel almost hesitant. What can I say about this? And
there's a certain fear, a certain desire to say what's being said,
yet knowing I don't really understand much about what's going on in
this passage of scripture. The six hour is noon, and the
sun was at its zenith. Christ had already been on the
cross for three hours bearing the physical, the emotional,
and the spiritual pain. He had a nervous system like
you and I do, and there's no way that I could describe the
pain that he was suffering as he was nailed to that cross. Stakes driven between in his
hands and in his feet, the crown of thorns on his head, his back
lacerated. The emotional pain. Can you imagine being nailed
to a cross and having people making fun of you, making wisecracks about you,
despising you. Why this was like sitting down
at a sporting event and they were enjoying what they were
seeing. Can you imagine the emotional pain just of having people making
fun of you while that would be going on? And while this was
going on, all of a sudden, darkness, darkness that might be felt,
God turned the lights out. This wasn't a solar eclipse.
Darkness covered the earth at this time. Now, during this time
of darkness, can you imagine how terrified everyone was? I
guarantee you the people that were making fun of Christ and
reviling Him were now scared. What have we done? What's going
on? We don't read in this three hours of darkness anything being
said by the Lord or by any of the people who had been making
fun of Him and reviling Him. Now, darkness is symbolic of
judgment. God's judgment against sin. You remember the words of the
Lord, cast them into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth. And at this time, there are things
going on between the Father and the Son that we cannot see. We
cannot see. This was God's judgment against
sin. Unseen things were happening
at this time between Him and His Father. For three hours,
there's darkness. We don't read of anything being
said by anybody during those three hours. And right around
3 p.m., the Lord cries, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me? Now this is the middle statement
of the seven sayings of the Savior from the cross. And how precious
every one of these sayings are. His first statement from the
cross was, Father, forgive them. They know not what
they do. And you know that if you're someone
who's forgiven, he was praying for you at that time. This was
not a generic prayer. Everybody he prayed for was forgiven. Christ, the intercessor. The second statement He said
to that thief, when that thief said, Lord, remember me when
you come into your kingdom. He knew the Lord wouldn't stay
on the cross. He knew he would come back as
a mighty reigning king, having accomplished salvation. And he
says, oh, when you come back, would you remember me? And then
the Lord said, the mighty king said, today, verily I say unto
you. I love it when the Lord says
that, don't you? I love it in the sermon on the mount when
he says, you've heard it been said by them of old, but I say
it to you. Oh, the authority of that. Verily,
I say unto you today, thou shalt be with me in paradise. Now,
he didn't give anybody else that much assurance. That thief, never
been baptized, didn't have any experience, didn't have any good.
What assurance he gave him. And then the third statement,
woman, behold thy son. Speaking of John, he said to
John, behold thy mother. Christ the man. God doesn't have a mother. You
and people pray, Mary, mother of God. Oh, God doesn't have
a mother. He's the absolute, independent,
infinite one. He doesn't have a mother. But
Jesus Christ had a mother because he is the man Christ Jesus. This speaks of his manhood. And
then there's the middle saying, my God, my God, why have you
forsaken me? And we'll come back to that in
a moment. And then the fifth saying, I
thirst. No one ever thirsted like Him. And the sixth statement, I love
to hear it. I love to say it. It is finished. And you know what that means?
That means there's nothing for me to do. I've finished the work Thou gavest
me to do. And then that last glorious statement,
only the Lord could say this, Father, into thy hands, I commend
my spirit. Nobody else could say that. We
could say, Lord, receive my spirit. That's what Stephen said. But
I'm placing my spirit in your hands. He spoke as equal with
the Father. Nobody else could speak like this. And here we
see Christ the believer. He always trusted His Father.
Even when He was forsaken, He never stopped trusting His Father. He's the one who truly said,
Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Somebody had to believe
God perfectly. And He did. Hence, we're saved
by His faith. And this middle statement is
the ground of all the other statements. There's one reason, one reason why I can be forgiven. He was forsaken. There is only one reason Christ
would ever say to me, today you'll be with me in paradise. Because he was forsaken. Whatever that means. He became a man. The word was made flesh. For this one reason. To be forsaken by his father. That is why He came to be forsaken
by His Father. When He said, I thirst, He's talking about His sufferings.
He suffered like no man has ever suffered. That's true for a couple
of reasons. Number one, Everybody else who suffered God's
wrath never suffered the fullness of damnation because that's why
hell is eternal. God is never satisfied with the
sufferings of a man because sin is infinitely evil. But he suffered
the fullness of damnation. So much so that God was satisfied
with what he did. No one else ever did that. And he's the only one when men
are damned, they hate God. Not this one. He loved his father,
the one who forsook him. When he said it is finished,
it's because he really was forsaken by God. When He said, Father, in Thy
hands I commend my spirit, it's because of this great work of
being forsaken. Now listen to this statement.
And I want to say this as carefully and reverently as I can. But God forsaking God is the
most God-like thing God ever did. we're going to see something
of this as we consider what this means. And I know, I'm already
assured of failure in this. There's no way that I can plumb
the depths of this. There's no way I can say everything
it means, so I'm okay with that. This is beyond all of us. It
was done in the darkness to let us know we'll never understand
everything that was taking place. But the first thing that I think
about My God, my God, not my father at this time. Forsaken souls don't address
God as father. My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me? Forsaken. This is not a type or a shadow. This is the reality. Abandoned by God. Forsaken by God. This is what happens to damned
souls. A damnation more horrible than
any man, mere man, could ever experience because he experienced,
as I've already said, the fullness of damnation. No damn soul ever
experiences that. That's why hell is eternal. They
can never satisfy God. This man did only by experiencing
the fullness of damnation. Real and unspeakably horrific
Real wrath against real sin. Felt reality of the wrath of
God against sin. Now at this time, he's drinking
the cup that God gave to him. Do you remember in Gethsemane's
garden when he said, if it be possible, let this cup pass from
me? And what was in that cup? I don't
have any doubt about what was in that cup. It was the cup of
his people's sins that he was to drink. He bare our sins in
his own body on the tree. And when he saw that cup, That's
when he hit the ground and he was sweating great drops of blood. God gave him a view of just what
was in that cup and it nearly killed him then. And the angels
had to come and strengthen him at that time. He is drinking
the contents of that cup. Now do I understand that? No.
Do I believe it? Yes. My sins he bore. The sins of all the elect He
bore in His own body on the tree. And let me tell you something.
Sin can't be two places at once. If He bore my sins, I do not
bear them. Abandoned by God. That does not
mean The father stopped loving him. He said in John 10, 17, Therefore
doth my father love me, because I lay down my life. There's no time when the father
loved him more. When he was abandoned by his
father. Forsaken by his father. This is the ultimate act of obedience. Now, I want to... We're obviously way over our
head, aren't we? That's... Everybody understands that. I
feel like I'm so far over my head right now that I... But... The scripture says, concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ, in the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God. and the Word was God. There was an eternal witness
between the Father and the Son. He said, before the world I was
daily His delight, as one rejoicing before Him. Now, understand this,
God didn't create men because He was lonely. All the fellowship
between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, there was an
eternal witness And on the cross, he didn't have
that witness anymore. He was abandoned. He was forsaken. He had no sense of the Father's
favor. Nothing but his awful frown against
sin. Now, one comment. This is how my sin and your sin
looks to God. Think about that. Even on his son, he forsakes
him. This is how my sin and your sin
really looks to God. You can't get a look at what
your sin likes by looking within. Oh, I feel really guilty. I feel really bad about the things
I've done. Sure, good. The only way we get a true view
of what our sin really looks like to God is to see God forsaking,
abandoning His Son. Now I'm glad that this was in
the darkness because there's no way we can see or enter into
this. It's recorded for us to be astounded
by, to believe, to understand, no, but to believe, yes. Martin
Luther said concerning this, God forsaking God, no one can
understand that. This was said that the scripture
might be fulfilled. Psalm 22, 1, David said. David, the man after God's own
heart. He said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Now, David felt as though God
had forsaken him when he wrote that. Have you ever felt that
way? That because of your sin, God's
cast you off? He's had it. He'll not tolerate
you any longer. You thought that. That's how
David felt. I've been cast off. God has forsaken
me. But let me ask you a question.
Was David ever forsaken? No. No. David was never forsaken. But the Lord was truly forsaken. And when he says, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? It wasn't because he didn't know.
If you go on reading in that psalm in the third verse, he
said, but thou art holy. That's why God forsook him. Thou
art holy. Now, when the Lord cried this
cry from the darkness, my God, my God, why have you forsaken
me? He did not have a sense that
the Father knows that these sins really aren't mine. It was not that way at all. He had no sense of the blessed
presence of God the Holy Spirit. He had no sense of his people
being around him saying, we love you because we know you're doing
this for us. He couldn't say to himself, I
know these sins aren't mine. He couldn't have felt the shame
of them if he would have said something like that. No, somehow, I don't
know how God did this. But God took my sins. and made
it his sin, so that he owned it. And he said, my iniquities
are gone over my head. They've taken hold upon me as
a heavy burden. They're too heavy for me. Christ
said that. He owned the sin as his sin.
Why? Because it was his sin. When God took my sin and made
it Christ's sin, it was His sin. God would not punish Him for
somebody else's sin. I want to say that carefully.
I hope you understand what I'm saying. When God punished Him,
it's because that's exactly what He deserved. And how I know that's
exactly what I deserve. and that's exactly what you deserve.
He really was forsaken by God. It would be unjust for God to
punish him for sin if they were not his sins. Doesn't the scripture
say, he bore our sins in his own body on the tree? In the opening chapter of the
New Testament, We read this glorious statement. Thou shalt call His
name Jesus. For He shall save His people
from their sins. And this is how He did it. He
took my sins and my sorrows He made them his very own. He bore the burden to Calvary
and suffered and died alone. And just as truly as my sins
became his sins. His righteousness becomes my
righteousness. My sins really became His sins.
God wouldn't have punished Him if that were not the case. He did something no other man
could do. He made full satisfaction. Hebrews 1.3 says, when He had
by Himself You know what that means? Me and you didn't have
anything to do with this. He had no aid, no help. When He
had by Himself purged our sins, made purification for our sins,
cancelled them, blotted them out, put them away. When He had
by Himself purged our sins, He sat down on the right hand of
the Majesty on high, having finished the work God gave him to do. Now when we hear this cry, my
God, my God, why have you forsaken me? This is the eternal purpose
of God, being fulfilled. The Lord has called in Revelation
chapter 13, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
You know what that means? Before there was a sinner, before
there was a sin, there was the Savior. The Lamb slain from the
very foundation of the world. I love the way Peter begins that
message in Acts chapter 2, the great day of Pentecost. Him being
delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. I love the way he starts there,
don't you? You have taken and with wicked hands have crucified
and slain. The early church at prayer. They
said both Pilate and Herod, Pontius Pilate and Herod with the Gentiles
and the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever
thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. Don't you
love that? And they had only been converted
a couple of weeks. Is that what mature believers
believe? Yes, that's what non-believers believe too. It's what all believers
believe. Everybody rejoices in that. That's a believer. He's
in absolute control of everything. Now let me tell you this about
the cross. The cross was not God's response
to the fall of Adam and man's sinfulness. The fall of Adam
and man's sinfulness is for the glory of the cross. I repeat,
this is the most God-like thing God ever did. When God forsook
God, every attribute of God is seen. We see His sovereignty, His purpose.
We see His absolute justice. We see His holiness. We see His
immutability. We see His love. We see His grace. We see His mercy. We see His
power. Every attribute of God is displayed
in God forsaking God. Oh, the glory of the cross. This is Christ's love for His
wife. I hope you believe this, Lynn. You husbands believe this about
your wife. You want to take on your wife's debts. You'd take
her sicknesses if you could. You'd do all those things if
you could. I hope. But you can't. You can't. But he could. He could. And he took all my debt. He took
all my sin. He took all my sickness into
himself. Husbands love your wives as Christ
loved the church and gave himself for it. And that's exactly what
was going on. Christ loved his bride. He wasn't
going to suffer me to go to hell because he loved me. And he was
going to take all my sins and all my debts because he loved
me. The love of Christ for his bride My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me? Now listen to this. Because he
was forsaken, none of his people will ever be forsaken for any
reason. What if I commit the same sin
every day? I'll never leave thee nor forsake
thee. There was a missionary that was speaking to a tribe with a very
limited vocabulary, and he didn't know whether he was getting across
to them what he was wanting to get across. So he asked a woman,
can you tell me what I've said? She said, he die or me die? He die, me no die. That's the gospel. Would you turn with me to Romans
chapter 5 for just a moment? This is our closing thought. Do you see how this is salvation? God forsaking God, if he died
for you, you must be saved. You see that? If he died for
you, you can't run the risk of the hazard of the possibility
of being anything but saved if he died for you. I love what
Paul said, who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. I need
no other argument, I need no other plea. It's Christ that
died, yea rather that's risen again who's even at the right
hand of God. If Christ died for you, you must be saved. Now here's the question. How can I know if he died for
me? You can know this morning. You
can know right now for sure whether or not he died for you. Romans chapter 5 verse 6. For when we were yet without strength, not simply when we were weak
and didn't have very much strength, but when we were Without strength, in due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. Now you can't take a promise
to yourself unless you fit the character of the one the promise
was made to. Who did he die for? There's a
two-fold description. Those who are without strength. Are you without strength? You don't have the power of free
will to turn things around. You don't have the ability to
do anything but sin. You're without strength. Well,
that's the way I used to be. Oh? We don't get anything like that
in the text, do we? And the second description is
what? Ungodly. If you're without strength, and
if you're ungodly, Christ died for you. I guarantee it. My guarantee means nothing. It's
what the word of God says. Amen.