Thank you, Gabe and Sherry, for
your service. Alright, go with me to the book
of Matthew chapter 27. Matthew chapter 27. Read with me verses 45 through 49. Matthew 27. 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 sabachthanath. That is to say, My God, My God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there,
when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias. And straightway
one of them ran and took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and
put it on a reed and gave him to drink. The rest said, let
be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him. As a much younger preacher, I
was willing and thought I was able to deal with passages like
this. But I have been reluctant to
deal with it. Now, I've almost been avoiding
it. In order to preach, you have
to feel impressed. My God, you want to
feel led by God and His presence with
you. for something to touch you generally
must touch my heart. So I've been waiting to feel
right. And that I never will. Suffice
it to say that I am not worthy to deal with this passage. I
feel. I don't even like reading it
out loud, do you? You notice I don't make any attempt
whatsoever to say it as our Lord said it. He cried with a loud
voice. Heaven and earth heard it. I dare not do that. And I'm not
able to tell it, and you are not able to hear it and receive
it and enter into it. After this is over, I will be
ashamed of how I have dealt with this. And I believe you will
probably be ashamed that it didn't touch you like you'd like. But we're going to look at it.
It has come up, hasn't it, how Christ was forsaken by God, of
God forsaken man. Now, our Lord was put on the
cross at 9 a.m., third hour. And it says in verse 45, from
the 6th hour, that's 12 noon, from the 6th hour until the 9th
hour, there was darkness over all the land. Darkness. Christ was lifted up and at 12
noon, you see, the cross of Christ, Christ crucified is the is the
peak, the glory, the culmination, the zenith, the highest point
of the gospel, isn't it? Christ crucified. As Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. This is his glory, his greatest
glory, is what he did for his people on Calvary's tree. And
it's fitting, isn't it, that at 12 noon, when the sun, the
physical sun, S-U-N, was at its zenith, at its highest point
in the heavens, shining down upon this earth, the one whose
head it shone the brightest on was the sun of righteousness
who was hanging on that cross. It's no mere coincidence that
that which we obtain, or that which we get physical life from
on this planet, the S-U-N, No coincidence that God called that
great light, that which gives us light, the sun. Right. Well, it was now darkness. And
he had reached its zenith. Then darkness covered the land. The whole earth was in darkness
until the ninth hour when he gave up the ghost. Verse 46 says
that he cried out the ninth hour. When it was all over, when it
was finished, the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus, cried with a loud
voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. That is to say,
or be interpreted, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Now we read that, didn't we,
in Psalm 22. As with everything in the life
of the Lord Jesus Christ, Everything in his death was prophesied in
Scripture, because this is the Christ. There was no other. There is no other. Never shall
be. This is the Christ. Scripture bears witness of who
this was. This is the Christ, the Son of
the Most High God, the Son of Righteousness. And our Lord said
this, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. Because they are
they which are written of him, testify of him. And we read it
there in Psalm 22, those very words where he said, My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? David wrote that psalm, physically
wrote that psalm, but you know that David never went through
this sort of thing. David never saw all his bones. In that chapter it says, my bones,
they're all, I can see them all. David never was given vinegar
to drink. David never had his beard plucked
out. David never had these things
happen to him. David was speaking in the spirit
of God, of Christ. This was the words of Christ.
Well, in verse 47, these that stood by, those bystanders, those
who did not know the Christ, who were not looking for Him,
those bystanders who did not know the true Christ, they misunderstood,
they did not understand who this was, why He was there, and what
He was saying. They did not understand, nor
do they now. And so they said, this is what
they said, this man called it for Elias. And as with everything concerning
Christ, men are ignorant. Man is ignorant of what he said,
who he was, and what he did when he was hanging on that cross.
Men are still ignorant, aren't they? Peter said, had they known,
they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. And I say,
did they know they would not make any attempts whatsoever
to imitate that? They would not be glorying in
a piece of wood. They would not be making idols
and pictures of this. They would not hold pageantries
and do plays and make movies out of this, our Lord's glory.
And they would say, if they really knew who this was, they would
not put his name everywhere in such a blasphemous fashion. If
they did know who this was and what he was doing there, they
would not, no man would play the part. That's hypocrisy. That's
acting. They would not go through the
motion. They would understand that his true passion, that his
true glory, that his true sufferings were not physical. And they cannot
be displayed and cannot be imitated at all. And no man would dare,
if they did fear this one, and knew what he was doing, they
would by no means detract from his glory by making it a spectacle for
men to feel sorry for him. Did they know? Our Lord said,
in dragging that cross to Calvary, our Lord stopped. There were
some women that were weeping for Him. They were weeping. They
were sorry for Him. They were sad. They were grieved
because He was suffering so. And our Lord stopped and stood
up in His full height. You hear me? The whole world
is weeping for Jesus, poor Jesus. And our Lord stopped and stood
up in His full glory and turned to them and said, Weep not for
me, weep for yourselves and for your children. Do you understand
what He meant then? You do. Very few do. Well, these that stood by the
cross, they didn't understand who this was and what was happening
here. And they said, he's calling for
Elias. And one of them, verse 48, why
this man felt led to do this, I don't know. What was going
through his mind, I don't know. Except to just torture him more
fully in his misery. Vinegar, you know, when you're
parched. Our Lord was thirsty hanging
on that cross. When you go through pain, your
mouth dries up, doesn't it? He said that, I'm parched, my
tongue is cleaved to the roof of my mouth. That's what we,
we didn't read it, but it is written. Our Lord was parched,
was thirsty. He said, I thirst. And one of
them ran to add to his suffering and got vinegar of all things.
That would worsen your thirst. And put it on a reed and stuck
it in his mouth. And why he did this, What he
felt in doing this was just malice and meanness and so forth. But
I'll tell you, I know why he did this. Wicked men took and with wicked
hands crucified the Lord of glory, but I know why they did it. They
did what they wanted to do, what their evil hearts wanted to do,
but they did what God determined before to be done. And in Psalm
69, it is written of the Christ. In my thirst they gave me vinegar
to drink. See, he's fulfilling the scriptures
in his life and now in his death. They must be fulfilled because
this is indeed the Christ. And even that Roman soldier,
after it was all over, had to acknowledge this indeed was the
Son of God. that there be no doubt in our
minds. And we saw the last time how that our Lord took that vinegar
but didn't drink it, and there'll be no bitterness in our death. There'll be no bitterness of
vinegar, no gall and bitterness for us. No, Christ took it for
us. So that's why. But that the scriptures
might be fulfilled. Psalm 69, 11. Well, others said,
verse 49, the rest said, let be. That's enough. Yes, it is. That's it. They're not going to touch him
now. They're not going to touch this sacrifice again until he's dead, until he bows
his head. Then the soldier is going to
come by and still not going to touch him, except take that spear Blood
and water has got to come out. And then they'll take his lifeless
body down. But they said, that's it. Let
it be. That's enough. God said, that's
enough. And then they said, let's see
whether Elias will come to save him. Earlier they said, he calls
on God. Let's see if God will have him. You know, right now, God isn't. God won't have him. That's what's happening there.
This man is being forsaken by God. You've heard that term a
lot, haven't you, over the years? God forsaken. People say, God
forsaken this, God forsaken that. They don't have a clue. They
don't have a clue. Our Lord Jesus Christ here, what
is happening here is a man is being completely forsaken by
God. A man, while still on this earth, yet hanging on the cross,
is going through the equivalent of hell. What hell is. Hell is
to be forsaken by God. To be completely left alone by
God. No presence of God. Nothing. No mercy, no love, no
grace, no kindness, no nothing. But nothing but wrath and judgment
and torture and so forth. Death. A man is being forsaken. A man
is going through. He didn't go to hell. Our Lord
Jesus Christ did not go to the physical place called hell or
Hades, but he went through it. The equivalent of it. The God-man,
that is, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's crying out to God. He's
being forsaken by God and he's crying out to God as all men
will. Some will do it to their salvation. Some, while on earth, by the
mercy and grace of God Almighty, by the power of the Holy Spirit,
some will be made to see their sin, which separates them from
God. Some, by God's mercy and grace,
By His Spirit, some, while still on this earth, before it is everlastingly
too late, some will be made to see that they are separated from
God, a forsaken, worthless worm. I am a worm. David said, I am
a worm, no man. Who is man? What is man that
thou art mindful of him, especially me? And they will cry out in
salvation. Here is the first cry of a newborn
baby, My God, My God. God be merciful to me, the sinner. All men someday, all who have not cried that while
on earth will indeed cry out, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? And he won't answer. That's what
Proverbs 1 says. He said, when you call, I won't
answer you. And I'll laugh when your calamity
comes. That's what the Lord said. That's the scripture. That's
God's Word. Proverbs 1. What is hell? What is hell? Is it a literal place? Turn with
me to Isaiah 28. Isaiah chapter 28. Is it a literal
place? Is there really a lake of fire? A lake that burns with fire? Isaiah 28. Most do not believe
in hell today, just like they don't believe anything that God
says. They're completely rejected.
They've turned away their ears, Paul said, from the truth unto
fables. They've heaped to themselves
teachers, preachers, so-called, having itching ears, tell us
what we want to hear. Don't tell us what this book
says. It just judges us. It just condemns us. It tells
us that this God who is God, we will not have a God. No God
for us. No. You tell us what we want
to hear, and we'll pay you accordingly. Most do not believe. One in three,
only one in three so-called clergy or preachers believes that there
is a hell. That's incredible, isn't it? God's Word says. We believe it,
don't we? To call in question anything
that God says is to call God a liar, isn't it? It's not a
matter of interpretation. And yet that's what they do.
Let me quote one of these fellows. He said, and this is a leading
man, I'm not going to call his name, but he said, I do not believe
I do not believe that there is a place called hell to which
people go for everlasting punishment. That would make God hellish in
my view. That's right, in his view. I
believe God is love. And we may speak of God's judgment,
but God always judges in order to save, not to condemn. Now, as Malachi said, where is
the God of judgment? Where is He? Well, as in all things, men reveal
their utter ignorance of God's Word. Our Lord Jesus Christ,
when He was facing some Pharisees, He said, you do err. All of your
error, all of your ignorance is in this. You don't know the
Scripture. You do err not knowing the Scripture. not knowing the Word of God,
nor the power of God, the might of God, the authority of God,
who God is and what He does. You err not knowing the Scriptures
that reveal God, so you don't know God. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ, look
at Isaiah 28, and this is what they say, verses 14 and following. He says, the Lord says, Hear
the word of the Lord, you scornful men that rule this people in
Jerusalem. You have said we have made a
covenant with death. With hell we are in agreement.
We are in agreement. There is none. And when the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, it shall not come nigh unto us. We have
made lies our refuge. Under falsehood have we hid ourselves.
Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay. in Zion for a foundation stone,
a triad stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth
shall not make haste." Meaning he's not going to leave there,
that firm foundation. That's where he's going to stay.
He's going to hang his soul, his salvation, everything on
this firm rock. God will set his feet on this
rock, and that's where he's going to stay. And judgment, he said, also what
I laid to the lion, and righteousness to the plummet. And the hail
shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the water shall overflow
the hiding place, and your covenant with death shall be disannulled.
Your agreement with hell shall not stand. When the overflowing
scourge shall pass through, you will be trodden down by it." Turn with me to Luke, the Gospel
of Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12, the Lord Jesus
Christ himself spoke more often of hell than anyone. See, we believe that thou art
the Christ, don't you? The son of the living God. that
no man hath seen the Father, no man knoweth the Father, save
the Son, he to whomsoever the Son reveals him." I believe,
we believe, don't we, John, that he is the Christ. He hath come
to declare God to us. He hath come, and everything
he says is the truth, because he is very God of very God, a
true God, an eternal liar. And everything he said, we believe
it, don't we? Huh? And we reject, let every
man be a liar. This man is the truth. What do
you say? Well, here's what the Lord Jesus
Christ said about this subject, okay? And this is enough. Isn't
it? Luke 12, look at verse 4 and
5. Our Lord said, I say unto you,
my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body, and
after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn
you whom ye shall fear." Fear! Fear him which after, now here's
after death, here's who after he hath killed hath power to
cast into hell. Yes, I say unto you, fear him. So, Brother Mike, these are not
the words of an old itinerant wild man standing on the corner
of New York Street with a sign in his hand, prepare to meet
thy God and you're going to hell. These are the words of the Son
of God. So that's what he said, didn't
it? And many other passages that he wrote. And Peter wrote this.
The Apostle Peter later, the Lord had him write this, that
men are willingly ignorant. That is, they refused to believe
certain things. He said one was creation. They
refused to believe that God created all things, that we're creatures. That means God is the potter
and we're the clay. They refused. Peter said they're
willingly ignorant, that God created all things, and they
were in His hand to do with as He pleases. You make something.
It's yours to hath not the potter power over the clay to make one
vessel an honor and another an honor? Has he not? Yes, he does.
Well, God is the potter. He hath made us, and not we ourselves. Not evolution. He's the creator.
And he went on to say they're willing and ignorant of a flood. That this God is angry. And that
this God looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if
there were any that did seek after God, that any did call
upon God. He said, they all together become filthy. And God said,
it repented Me, I have made man. I will destroy man. And He did. And He set afloat. And they made up all sorts of
notions about ice ages and this and that and the other when it
was nothing more than a flood. that turned this world upside
down and reformed it. The flood of God's wrath, the
overflowing scourge. That's what we read about in
Isaiah 28. The overflowing scourge of God's wrath. And that's what
they said in Noah's day. They said, oh no, God loves us.
No, it will not come nigh to us. And Paul even wrote about that
in Hebrews. He said the gospel was preached to them that are
in hell right now. Through Moses, through Noah,
through Noah. The gospel was preached to them
by Noah. Noah, a preacher of righteousness. God's holiness,
righteousness, angry. Who by no means cleared the guilty.
And he did. He destroyed a world. And then he went on to say the
same world. Peter said they were willing
and ignorant. That the same world. Listen to me. Preachers. The
chief culprit. And this is why people It's all
the faults right here. Peter said they're willingly
ignorant that the world, the same world, is kept right now
in store to what? Fire. Fire. Judgment. Well, I'm not trying
to prove hell. Just quoting what our Lord said.
OK. Is it a literal place? Christ
sure seems to say so, doesn't he? The lake that murneth with
fire, literal fire, where the worm dieth not. Literal fire? I don't know. But I believe what
he said. But this we do know. We know
this much about God. We see it and we know it right
here in our text. Go back to Matthew 27. that hell,
whatever it is, wherever it is, is where God is not. It is where
God casts out, out of, outcasts, rejects and puts those who are
not, those who are forsaken by him. He has nothing more to do
with. When he said there in the judgment,
our Lord said this, he'll say unto you, I never knew you. Never
loved you, never entered into you, nor you with me. I never
knew you. Depart from me, ye workers of
iniquity." And he said, bind them hand and foot. Who said
this? Christ did. He's the one doing it. Another
famous preacher said, God doesn't put anybody in hell. But our Lord said, bind them
hand and foot and cast them into the lake of fire. That's what
he said. Well, hell is to be forsaken by God, thrown out of
his presence. God is holy. People are so ignorant. God is righteous. God is holy. God is Good. God is mercy. God is love. God is grace. God is kindness. God is all those things it speaks
of in 1 Corinthians 13. God is. That is God. It comes
from God. God is love. You take away God,
what do you have? God is holy. This earth is a
sinful place, yet there's some holiness here. There are some people worshiping
the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Yes, there is. We'd say this
is hell on earth. No, no, no. You don't have a
clue when you say that. You don't have a clue. If you
take away God who is holy, all you have is... I can't describe
it. You can see little vestiges of
what we call being reprobate, or cast out, or God is not throughout
this land, like Sodom and Gomorrah. And it's no coincidence God burnt
that city. God said, I'm done with it. My wife and I were talking yesterday
about how Sodom could not have been worse than what this world
is right now. No way. It's more widespread now. It's
just a perversion. God looks at this place like
it is Sodom. And he's going to be done with
it. Cast it all out of his prayer, fold it up, burn it up. But God is holy. Take away where
God is not. God, the Christ, the Holy Spirit
is still in this world. Thank God is right, Nancy. He's
still in this world. And if he weren't, well, we wouldn't
be here, but hypothetically, we'd want to get our children
and run to the hills. But no, he's hedged us about.
He's given his angels charge over his Holy Spirit. Still leads
them, guys, and touch not mine anointed. No, no, no. Just like
Lot's daughters. Lot said, let them have him.
No, no. Can't do it. And he smote them with blindness.
So our Lord takes care of us. Our Lord takes care of His people.
He's still here. One of these days, this earth
is going to be totally abandoned by God. When Christ comes with His people,
you know that all I thought about that day, He says, bring in His
people with Him. They're all coming with Him.
Is there ever something wonderful and glorious about to happen
and somebody is going to go and say, can I go? I want to go too. Well, when Christ comes, it says
He is bringing everybody with Him. Heaven is coming down. Your mother. People we know are
coming with Him. They are going to be in the air
with the Lord of glory. Gather His elect from the four
corners of the earth. Come on, my children. Come! Come! We are going to a great wedding
in the sky. What about the earth? God forsaken. Then all hell breaks
loose. You understand? There's hellions
and devils and all that loose in this earth. Well, they're
on chains. But they're here. But they can't touch God's people.
Because there's angels mightier than they. Whom God has given
charge over us. But when Christ comes, all hell
breaks loose. That's what he said. That's what
he said. And we will not be. Here it is. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself
was forsaken by God. This is what is happening here.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is actually, He is actually being made sin. You see, God cannot David said,
I have been young and I am now old, yet have I not seen the
righteous forsaken. God cannot, will not forsake
a righteous man. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness.
Christ is right now on this cross, sinner. God can't forsake a righteous
man. He's me. He's been made me a
sinner. God be merciful to me, the sinner.
How? One way. God will by no means
clear the guilty, and he will by no means judge the righteous.
So an actual substitution took place. And one man was fired
from his job for saying this. God Almighty forsook His Son. Why? He was made sin. Am I righteous? I don't see it. Where does it
say I have to see it? I don't feel it. Where does it
say I have to feel it? God said it. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. How?
He killed his son. He made him me. He made me him. And he killed him. And I'm crucified
with Christ. I'm not talking doctrine here.
I'm talking substitution. I'm talking actually, this is
why we're talking about a man took my place, took my weapon,
took my death, took my punishment, took my blame, took it! Made
it! Christ said, he's a sinner! Kill
him. Turn his back on him. My God,
my God. I'm going to listen to you. I'm not listening to you. We
say it, we think all the time, why hasn't God answered me? He
hears you. He'll always hear you. Oh yes. Why? Why? Because he didn't hear
his son. Because God spared not His only
Son, but delivered Him up. He spares us. We'll never be
forsaken. Why? Because of Him. Because of Him. He was stricken,
smitten of God. For our transgressions, transgression
of His people, was He stricken. God made His soul an offering
for sin. The soul that sinned must surely
die. God made His soul an offering
for sin. And Christ was enduring the wrath and judgment of God
against me, which is separation from God,
being cut off by God, forsaken by God. To this day, we say,
how could God have anything to do with me? It's Christ in me. A new creature, creating the
image of Christ, whom God loves and is well pleased for His righteousness. To be forsaken by God is to be
without mercy, but Christ was forsaken, and therefore we have
mercy. Listen to this. Let me read to
you something here in Revelation. And you can turn to Isaiah 54. I want you to turn there and
close it. Isaiah 54. Wonderful closing
passage. Isaiah 54. In Revelation 16,
our Lord said this. He said he pours out a vial upon
the earth, several vials, and he said in verse 6, I quote,
they shed the blood of saints and prophets and that, so God
has given them blood to drink for they are worthy. And he goes on to say that men
were scorched with great heat and blasphemed the name of God
which hath power over these plagues and they repented not to give
Him glory. Give Him glory. to give Him glory. See, Christ gets the glory 100%
in everything that He did, even being forsaken by God. Christ
gets all the glory. And when Christ cried, My God,
My God, God actually forsook Him. My old brother Martin Luther
was sitting in his study one day, And they say, I haven't
been there, they say if you go there where he had his little
study, you'd find an ink stain on the wall where he was writing,
trying to preach from this, my God, my God. And through his
ink blotter, stood up, he said, I can't deal with this. He said,
God forsaking God? That's too much for me. Well, he was. And God, who is rich in mercy,
spared not his Son in order to spare us. God forsook his Son
so that we would not be forsaken. God rejected his Son that we
might not be accepted. And we fear, don't we? We fear
being cast out. Every true believer fears, knowing
their sinfulness, they fear being cast out in the end. They fear
that God will someday forsake them. They fear sending away
God's grace and sending away God's mercy. And they say, now
that's it. David thought that. David felt that. And when Christ comes for his
people, they fear that they might not be one of them. Do you? Well,
Christ said more than anything else to his disciples, fear not.
Those who look to Christ. And David said this, David said,
the Lord will not cast off his people. He will not. Why? Because he cast away his
son. The Lord will not forsake his
inheritance. David said. Why? Because he forsook
the heir. And I read to you Psalm 37. I
quoted to you. David said, I've been young,
now I'm old. I've never seen the righteous
forsaken. If he'd have hung around, he'd have seen Christ forsaken. So, if we're in Christ, we'll
never be forsaken. And here in closing, Isaiah 54
says this. Look at verses 7 through 9. For
a small moment. You see, as He is, so are we.
For a small moment have I forsaken death. There are times when we
feel forsaken. You know, even before the Lord
dealt with us, even before the Lord came to us and gave us life,
there was a great sense in which we were His. Like He said to
Jeremiah, before I formed thee in the belly, I knew you. There
was a time when He sent His Holy Spirit, finally, to give this
new birth. But for a small moment in our
sins, they hide God's face from us. And we feel forsaken of God,
don't we, and feel like we should. But he said, for a small, it's
just a moment, that you might loathe yourselves and not open
your mouth like Ezekiel's young lady. But no, he said, with great
mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face
from thee for a moment. This is speaking of Christ and
us. But with everlasting kindness
will I have mercy on thee." Everlasting, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.
And this, he said, this is as the waters of Noah unto me, as
I have sworn That the waters of Noah should no more go over
the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee,
nor rebuke thee. The mountains shall depart, the
hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from me, neither
shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that
hath mercy on thee." You will not be forsaken. God said so. This is the bow. This is the
rainbow, isn't it? Christ crucified is God's rainbow
to his people of that covenant. I will not forsake you. Why?
How do we know? Because God forsook his son. And he said, Come unto me. All
of you. Come unto me. All of you. Believe me. Now I have to lie. Have it for
a second. Okay, we're going to sing that
great old hymn that we sang so much, How Firm a Foundation. Is it number what? 98? 268. Well, I'd rather remember scripture
than hymn numbers. 268, and we're going to sing
especially the last verse. First and last verse. The last
verse says, I'll never, no never, no never
forsake. 268. Stand as we sing.