Matthew chapter 27 Title of the
message when God turned his back on his son That's indescribable I Feel like
what I am about to attempt to do this morning is It is so far
over my head What went on here God turning his back on his only
begotten son. Our Lord has been betrayed. He
has been falsely accused. He has been mocked as a king. He
put a crown of thorns on his head, purple robe on him, bowed
the knee to him in mockery. He has been spit on. They spit
in his face. He's been slapped. He was whipped
mercilessly. Those Romans whipped him so much,
I'm sure they thought, if we don't stop, we're not going to
need to crucify him. You know, the scripture says
his visage was marred more than any man. His appearance was marred
more than any man. And then they took him out to
Golgotha, and they crucified him, nailed him to a cross, drove
those spikes through his wrist, his hands, and his feet, dropped
that cross in the ground. And you know how painful that
had to be. But the worst is about to happen. The worst. You say, what's going
to be worse than that? Forsaken of God. He's going to be forsaken of
God. And he's going to deal with God,
who is a consuming fire. That's the side of God I don't
want to deal with. But that's the side of God that
our Savior dealt with. Christ is now going to experience
the hell that all his elect deserve. His sufferings now are indescribable. You know, we can describe something
of the pain of the flesh, the pain of being beaten. The pain
of the bodily pain, we can have some understanding because we've
had bodily pain. The soul pain, the wrath of God
is something we can't describe. Can't describe it. Unimaginable. Our Lord is plunged into darkness,
and I don't mean just for you and I, the people that were sitting
there at the cross, it was darkness. Darkness was over the land for
three hours. They couldn't see, but the darkness he dealt with
is mine. It's mine. It says in verse 45, darkness was over all the land until the
ninth hour. First of all, this was the fulfilling
of Scripture. How accurate are the Scriptures? That's why our Lord says, study
the Scriptures, how accurate they are. In Amos 8, verse 9,
listen to this. "'It shall come to pass in that
day,' saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down
at noon. In other words, it'll be darkness.
And I will darken the earth in the clear day. In the middle
of the day, the earth will be darkened. Darkness was over all
the land until the ninth hour. How fitting for God to turn the
light out when dealing with His Son over our sins. This was not
an eclipse because the Passover was done at the full moon. So it was not an eclipse. This
is the supernatural act of God covering the sun. He literally
turned the light out on this scene. Because what is about
to happen in the next three hours is God dealing with our substitute. is God Almighty taking out His
wrath upon the Lamb of God. The land was in total darkness. It was the darkness like over
in the land of Egypt that is said in Exodus 10, verse 21,
that could be felt. I've never been in that kind
of darkness. But He covered the sun and there was not a glimmering
of a light. Absolute darkness. Christ experienced
the total absence and forsaking of God in the darkness of our
sins. I thought about this, and I believe
I've mentioned this to you before. The people for whom Christ substituted
for, they were in darkness, under the power of darkness.
We were under the power of darkness at one time. Look over in Colossians
1. Let me show you something here. Because of what our Lord experienced,
and He experienced the darkness of sin, all that we are and all
that we deserve, It says in Colossians 1 verse 12, "...giving thanks
unto the Father, which hath made us meet fit to be partakers of
the inheritance of the saints in life." This is what's going
on. God is making us fit to be in
His presence. He's making us fit. Now look,
"...who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath
translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son." And this whole
work, is between the Father and the Son. It's astounding to me when I
look at this. It's just like, you know, the Lord has just put
me aside. He's put every one of His aside.
That multitude of sinners that no man can number, He's put them
aside. And He has stepped in to take their hell, to take the
wrath of God. And it says about the ninth hour,
that's around three o'clock in the afternoon, this is the time
of the offering of the daily sacrifice. That's when they would
slay the daily sacrifice. So about the ninth hour, and
I want you to get this in your mind, it's darkness, there's
no light whatsoever. Everyone's sitting there. Remember
they were sitting there and watching him. They said they're sitting
down, they watched him there. They all stayed. Thousands of people
because the Passover, the place is crowded. It's crowded. You
know, all the people that have come into town and they've heard
about this and you know how it is when you have a hanging. You
just watch those old Western, everybody shows up. They got
their Sunday go to meetings. They do. So this is a crowd. They got a hanging going on here.
You got three of them. And everybody shows up. And then
all of a sudden, at noon, everything goes black, dark, can't see. And everyone is sitting there
in this absolute darkness. And out of this darkness, out
of this darkness, comes this cry. He said, in about the ninth
hour, Jesus cried. He cried. That means he shouted. I mean, to the top of his lungs,
so to speak, he shouted this out. This came out of grief. This came out of sorrow. He is in utter pain. And he can't find God. He can't find him. So everyone's sitting there in
this absolute darkness, and out of this darkness comes this hair-raising
scream, a cry that left no doubt that this man is in torment. The two thieves didn't do it.
They were not in the torment that he was in. In Lamentations 1, chapter 1,
verse 12 and 13, listen to this. Is it nothing to you, all you
that pass by, all those thousands that pass by, is it nothing to
you? And we can read that this morning and apply it to ourselves. Because our Lord is hanging on
a cross right in front of us this morning. In His Word, we're
seeing it. We're getting to be a witness
of it in His Word. Is it nothing to you, all you
that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the
Lord hath afflicted me." God is punishing me, He's saying. He hath afflicted me, listen,
in the day of His fierce anger. That's the day where mercy is
gone. That's the day where there's
no mercy, no grace, no love expressed, zero. Zero. Now listen, from above hath he
sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them.
He hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back, he hath
made me desolate and faint all the day, he's treating me like
a criminal. Judgment is spoken of in the
scriptures as fire. You know, when God destroyed
Sodom and Gomorrah, He rained fire down on that place and burn
it up. And the last day, He says, you're
not going to destroy this world by water no more. I don't know
if you all seen that rainbow. A lot of you saw the rainbow
was here, beautiful rainbow. I mentioned to Vicki again, I
said, there's a covenant. Right there's a covenant. God
will not destroy this world by water again. He's going to stop
the rain. But he did say he's going to destroy it by fire.
He's going to burn it up. And listen, our Lord in lamentation
is saying this, from above hath he sent fire into my bones. That's unimaginable. This is the one crying out here
in this misery and agony and torment. This is the one that
was daily the Father's delight spoken of in Proverbs chapter
8. Our Lord said this in John 16, 32, "'Behold, the hour cometh,
yea, is now come, "'and you shall be scattered, every man to his
own, "'and shall leave me alone. "'Yet I'm not alone because the
Father's with me.'" The Father's with me. When He was in the wilderness
for 40 days and 40 nights, the Father sent angels to strengthen
Him. When He was in the garden of
Gethsemane, the Father sent angels to strengthen Him. He says in
Psalm 23 verse 4, "...Yea, though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for Thou art with me."
This is our Lord. "...Thy rod and staff comfort
me." There was never a time when their fellowship was broken.
You know, David by sin said, restoring to me the joy of thy
salvation. Our Lord never had to pray that.
He never sinned. He knew no sin. Their fellowship
was never broken. It was a perfect fellowship until,
until Christ was made to be sin for us. 2 Corinthians 5.21, when that happened,
the Father forsook him. Martin Luther said this, after
looking at this verse for hours, he said, God forsaking God, who
can understand this? God forsaking God. This is God
Almighty in the flesh hanging on the cross. That's who He is. That's not just a man. He is
a man. He's a very real man. Very human,
except for sin. And yet He's God Almighty in
the flesh. And our Lord cries out, and as
a man, He cries out, My God, my God. Do you know all other
times He addressed Him as Father. He always addressed Him as Father.
He said, I and my Father are one, our Father which art in
heaven. He said, I go to my Father and
your Father. But here, He addresses Him as God. As God. He couldn't feel the closeness
of His Father. But He did cling to this, that
God is God and He's His God. You know, over in Isaiah, I believe
it is, when a child of God is sitting in darkness, let him
trust in the name of the Lord. Let him trust in who God is.
When you can't discern His presence, when you feel all alone, you
take God as God, and you trust Him. And that's what our Lord's
doing. His faith in God never wavered. Not even in His, listen,
not even in His darkest hour, not even when He was being forsaken,
Not even when he was forsaken, he never doubted Him. My God,
my God. He believed in El Shaddai, God
all-sufficient. He believed in God, he believed
God is immutable. He clung to Him, though he couldn't
perceive Him. My God, my God. He held on to
the promises and the faithfulness of God. What we see here is a demonstration
of perfect faith. Perfect faith. The father took his son to Calvary
and there forsook him. I heard a story one time. I heard
this on television. A man was telling that his mother
took him to a bus station. And he thought he was going somewhere,
or they were going somewhere. And she told him to stay there,
and she left. And he said she never came back. And he was talking
about how painful that was. That would be painful, but not
compared to the father forsaking his son in his darkest hour. In that great darkness, he could
not find his God. the one who had never pursued
Him. And you know over in Psalm 22,
our Lord says this, this is interesting. He uses this as a plea. And it
is said by some that He probably repeated this whole Psalm on
the cross. I don't know. But He says this,
Our Father is trusted in thee. Notice how He identified Himself
with us. 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. It's like he's reaching back
and he's getting some hope out of the fact that the fathers
and all those who called on him, God has never forsaken them,
but you've forsaken me. You have forsaken me. God never forsook the apostles.
Paul said one time, he said, all have forsook me, but the
Lord stood with me. He never forsook any martyr,
but God forsook His Son. What's going on here? What's
going on? Real substitution is going on. If you and I learn If we learn
what substitution and satisfaction is, we have learned the gospel.
We've learned the gospel. There is a real substitution
going on here. Jesus Christ is literally taking
the hell that His people deserve. That's what's going on. Hanging
on that cross is every ungodly wretch chosen by God before the
foundation of the world. That's what's going on. Hanging
on that cross is every believer in one person. That's amazing,
but only God can do that. But our Lord justifies his father
in his judgment over in Psalm 22, three. After he has said,
our fathers trusted in thee, they trusted and you delivered
them. They cried unto thee and were
delivered. They trusted in thee and were
not confounded. But he says in verse three of
Psalm 22, thou art holy. He doesn't condemn God. He doesn't slam him. He says,
but thou art holy. or thou that inhabitest the praises
of Israel. He justifies God in his dealings
with him. Jesus Christ knew who he was
dying for, why he was dying. He knew all of that. And he justifies God in his dealings
with him. It's like David said in Psalm
51, against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil
in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest
and be clear when thou judgest. Our Lord, listen, our Lord hung
on that cross guilty. When he was made to be sin, made
to be what I am, God dealt with him. And in dealing with him,
he dealt with me. And our Lord says this, but thou
art holy. Your dealings with me is right.
What's going on right now is right. Dying and being tormented
is right. It's right. Thou art holy. You can do no wrong. And because God is holy, he must
punish sin wherever it is found. He's got to punish it, even if
it's found on his son. When he was made to be sinned,
God punished him. But it's our sins he took. What
went on at Calvary was real. This is not an example. Jesus
Christ is not hanging there as an example. The blood of bulls
and goats, they were examples. This is the real. This is the
real Lamb of God. This is the real Passover. This
is the real God of heaven and earth in the flesh dying, satisfying
His own justice. God is the only one who can satisfy
His own justice. Because His justice demands perfection. And you and I can't give it.
You know that's why hell is eternal? Or forever? That's why it's forever.
No one there can satisfy justice. They're suffering and they hate
God for it. Now how's that going to satisfy
justice? Our Lord is hanging there on a cross and He justifies
God. He says, Thou art holy. Thou art holy. Now what's the result of this
great transaction of Christ bearing our sins in His body on the tree? Satisfaction. Justice is satisfied. You know, if the Lord just gives
us an understanding, if He gives any man or any woman an understanding
of what actually went on at the cross, Jesus Christ is not dying
to make salvation a possibility. He's dying to save. Now listen,
the justice of God is being satisfied. Now if He satisfied justice concerning
me and God condemned me, it's double jeopardy. We know that. It's double jeopardy. You can't
do that. And God's sure not going to do that. Just for an example,
I just tell a big lie. And he punishes Christ for it.
Christ died for that. He shed his blood for that. And
now he's going to punish me for that same lie? That ain't going
to happen. That would be God being unjust. He'd be more unjust doing that
than I would be lying. Justice is satisfied. It says
in Romans 8.1, "...there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus." There is no condemnation. Every believer
here, we have no fear of judgment. I have no fear of hell. You have
no fear of hell. You shouldn't have a fear of
hell anyway. I asked a guy that one time, he was so scared at
work. It was back when I was in my
early 20s. And I asked him, what are you afraid of? I said, you
afraid of hell or God? He said, I'm afraid of hell.
I don't want to go to hell. I said, well, if you find favor with
a judge, you don't have to worry about going to prison, do you? I said,
your fear is in the wrong place. you're fearing a place, which
is the preaching basically of Arminianism, then you fear a
person who is God. Our Lord said, don't fear men
who can destroy the body. I'll tell you who to fear. He
that can destroy both body and soul in hell. God is the object
of true fear. Not some kind of slavish, but
a fear of respect and awe. That's what he's talking about. It says in Romans 8, 34, who
is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. If I'm a true child of God, you're
a true child of God, there's absolutely nothing you can be
condemned over because Christ has already put it away. He's
already put it away. You know that when Christ died,
all my sins were future? They were all future. And yours were too. When he died
for my sins, he died for all of them at one time. Not just
the sins before I believed, all of them. All of them. And then
here's something else that was achieved at Calvary. Satisfaction
of justice and a promise that you and I will never be forsaken.
Christ said in Hebrews, it was written of Christ in Hebrews,
but that's his word. So it's Christ speaking. I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee. Listen to Psalm 9, verse 10.
And they that know thy name, that's more than just name dropping.
That's more than just knowing, that's knowing that person behind
that name. They that know thy name will put their trust in
thee, for thy Lord has not forsaken them that seek thee. The only
reason God will not forsake me is because He forsook His Son
in my place. And then another benefit of the
cross for you and I, perfect righteousness. Perfect righteousness. The law demands perfect obedience
to every jot and tittle. And our Lord for 33 years, he
kept the law perfectly. He kept it as my surety, as my
substitute, as my representative. He kept the law perfectly. Listen,
and he kept it unto death. He didn't just obey the precepts
of the law. The law said the soul that sinneth
shall surely die. He's got to do that too. It's
got to be more than just love your neighbor as yourself, and
love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and body. If you
sin, you die. I've sinned. I've sinned in Adam,
and I've sinned willfully. I've sinned myself. It says in
Philippians 2.8, And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled
himself and became obedient unto death. He kept all the law. Even the command that says, a
soul that sins shall die. He did that too, because I've
sinned. Listen, even the death of the
cross and all of this obedience is my righteousness. It's our
righteousness. It says in Romans 10, 4, for
Jesus Christ, for Christ... Now listen, it says, for Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness. He's the goal of the law. You
know the law cannot demand any more of me than Jesus Christ.
The law can't demand no more of me than what I have in Christ.
He's the goal of the law. God did not give the law for
us to seek life by. It says in Galatians, He gave
it as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. And the very goal
of the law ends with Jesus Christ. It can demand no more of me than
Christ and what I have in Him. I never heard any of that till
I heard the gospel, till I heard Henry preaching. I never heard
of the righteousness of Christ. I never heard of the priesthood
of Christ. I never heard of any prophet, priest, and king. I
didn't hear of those things. Most of what I heard was, don't
you want to go to heaven? Who wouldn't? Who wouldn't? Sounds like a great vacation. Here's the question. Do you want
to be made one with God? Do you want to have fellowship
with God? Do you want to know Him, your Creator? Do you want to be able to be
with Him forever and ever and ever? I'll tell you this, wherever
Jesus Christ is, that's heaven. That's heaven. Now, in the close here. Now some
of them that stood there, when they heard him cry, and over
in John, listen, over in John 19, he gives a little more of
this. He cried, I thirst. And that
was to fulfill the Scripture. He cried, I thirst. And when
they heard that, what this is, is a mockery. You see the word
there, man, is being in italics, it's supplied by the translator.
Here's what they really said, this calleth for Elijah. They pointed him in this darkness
and they said this, this mass of putrefying flesh, this mass
of a man who's so beaten you can't even recognize him, they
didn't call him a man, they said this, this. He's calling for Elijah. Boy, I think of the scriptures,
it says, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. You hear
who he's crying for, don't you? But they couldn't hear it. They're
standing right there at the cross. They couldn't understand what he's
saying. He's crying out. He's screaming out. My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? And they said, he's crying for
Elijah. They can't get it right standing there. But what they're doing here,
they're mocking him. They're mocking him. And straightaway,
one of them ran, they took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and
put it on a reed and they gave it to him to drink in contempt
of him. That's what they're doing, to mock him. To mock him. He said, he's thirsty, let's
see if he'll drink this. Let's give him something to drink,
something bitter. But the rest of them stood there,
the rest of them standing there said, let me, let's see whether
Elijah will come. Let's see, this is a show to
them, this is a show. Man, let's just see if Elijah
comes. Shut up, leave him alone. It'd be something to see Elijah
to come and appear before us. It'd be something to see him
come down and save him from that. They're just looking for a show.
That's all they're doing. Let's just see if Elijah will
help him. They're mocking him, they're
mocking him. And it says in verse 50, when Jesus, when he had cried
again, now over in John 19 30, it says this, when Jesus therefore
had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished. That was the last scripture he
was to fulfill hanging on that cross. He fulfilled the scripture,
but it was also, he's talking about redemption. It is finished. And it says this, I love this.
And he bowed his head. Now, you know those thieves are
standing there gaping for breath. They're trying to live. He bows his head. It's just like he graciously
bows out. And he gave up the ghost. And that's something. Those thieves,
you know, they're hanging there. They've been hanging there for
a few hours. And, you know, their head's hanging down. And his
head's up. He bowed his head. His head's
up. His head is up. He said this one place, I lay
my life down. You're not taking it from me.
He couldn't die until he, until he gave up the ghost. Until he
said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Those soldiers didn't take his
life. Even the wrath of God didn't
take it. He said, I give it up. I give up my life for the sheep.
Isn't that what he said? I give my life for the sheep.
That's what he said. He yielded up the ghost, his
spirit. Now listen, when he cried, it is finished, he meant it. It's finished. Redemption has
been accomplished. The purchase price has been paid. The ransom price has been paid.
Set the prisoners free. Set all the Barabbas' free. Set
them free. Justice is satisfied. There's
no reason for them to be here now. Open the door. He got the job done. There's
salvation for sinners in Christ. Here's my question. Are there
any sinners here? I have good news for you. Christ
died for sinners. He didn't die for anybody else.
He died for sinners. He died for sinners. The good
news is it's finished. Listen to this poem written by
John Kent. Sons of peace redeemed by blood,
raise your songs to Zion's God. Made from condemnation free,
grace triumphant, sing with me. Calvary's wonders let us trace,
justice magnified in grace. Make the purple streams and say,
thus my sins were washed away. Wrath divine no more we dread,
vengeance smote our surety's head. Legal claims are fully
met. Jesus paid the dreadful debt.
Sin is lost beneath the flood, drowned in the Redeemer's blood.
Zion, oh, how blessed thou art, justified from all things now." When you read that, and as we
look at that, that is our salvation. That is Christ crucified. That
is real substitution. All right.