Now look there at verse 45. Now from the 6th hour there was
darkness over all the land until the 9th hour. And about the 9th hour Jesus
cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, Laba Sokta Nithai. That is to say, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood by there,
when they heard that, they said, this man calleth for Elijah. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? This is the fourth saying of
our Lord Jesus from the cross. The first word we saw was the
word of forgiveness. Father, forgive them. They're
ignorant, ignorant of what they've done. They're ignorant of they
crucified the Lord of glory. They're ignorant of how great
I am and how great the enormity of their sin was. So forgive
them. Then the second word was the
word of salvation. When Christ prays for forgiveness,
who he prays for forgiveness for, they're going to be saved.
And he told that thief on the side of him, by the side of him,
today, today you'll be with me in paradise. Saved a man right
at his dying hour. Then, you know, the third word
was the word of love, the word of affection. He loved his mother,
showed that he loved his mother, committed her to somebody else.
Gave her to somebody to love her and care for her and take
care of her. In fact, it was that disciple whom Jesus loved. Every time you hear John mention
it, it's that disciple whom Jesus loved. I pray that he says that about
me. I'm one of those disciples that he loves. I hope I'm one
of them. And here we have a word of desertion. Word of desertion. Our Lord Jesus
Christ is deserted. He's forsaken. He's left alone. His disciples forsook Him. Friends
forsook Him. He's left all alone. Without
God to help Him. Or even look His way and show
Him any kindness whatsoever. God Himself didn't do that. Our
Lord's heart was in its last moments of life. And he cried, he cried with a
voice loud enough that they heard him. And he said, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? Now I want you to notice it says
there was three hours of darkness over the land. They crucified
our Lord at nine o'clock in the morning. At 12 o'clock, it started
to get dark. The sun refused to shine. It
got dark, very dark. And when that ninth hour was
coming, close to three o'clock, right when the darkness was going
away, when the darkness was being lifted, our Lord cried out, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? I tell you what I think this
shows us first and foremost is the darkness of our own hearts,
the darkness of the human heart. How dark, how dark is the human
heart that would take the Lord of glory, take an innocent man,
a just man, a sinless man, a man that they tried to turn loose
in every possible way, and mistreat him, to abuse him, to mock him. Such an innocent just man. But
men, they're in darkness. They're in moral darkness, spiritual
darkness, intellectual darkness, emotional darkness. And our Lord
Jesus Christ He says men loved darkness rather than light. He
said the light shined in the darkness. The light of God. God come down in the person of
His Son and God's light shined right in the darkness. And the
darkness did not comprehend who that light was and what that
light was and what that light could do. Men loved their darkness. And they were so dark in their
human hearts, so dark in their darkness, that they said, let's
listen. There's a murderer here named
Barabbas. Said, we want you to let him
go and put that innocent man up there on that cross. They
traded a murderer and let him go out of jail and crucified
an innocent man. Huh? Oh, my. And put darkness, oh, the darkness
that was in man's mind. Our Lord told His disciples,
first time He mentioned it to them, said, I've got to go to
Jerusalem. I've got to be delivered into the hands of sinful man.
I've got to be crucified, and I've got to die. Simon Peter
said, oh, no, no, no, Lord, that cannot possibly be. You can't
have that happen. Our Lord said, you get behind
me, Satan. It's got to happen. It's got to happen. And they
said, he said that they crucified with wicked hands the just one,
the just one. Now I want to put emphasis on
every one of these words, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Let's look at this word, my God,
why hast thou? Why have you? Why have you, your
God, why have you forsaken me? Why? Have you done it? I can
understand my disciples doing it. I can understand man doing
it. I can understand those running
and fleeing from me not wanting to be identified. I can understand
that. I can grasp that. But you, You forsake me. Oh, this was that bitter cup
that our Lord took with both hands and drank it. And he says,
why have you forsaken me? Me, forsaken. Forsaken. To be forsook is an awful, awful
thing. To be forsooken, to be forsaken is a horrible thing. But mothers
forsake their children. Fathers forsake their wives and
husbands. Women forsake their children
and their husbands. It happens all the time. But
for the Son of God, for the eternal, blessed, eternal Son of God,
He said, you've forsaken Me, Me, your well-beloved Son. your eternal beloved one, your
innocent, harmless, afflicted son, why have you forsaken me? Me. Why? Why? Let me tell you another
thing we see here. In our Lord's state here as he's
deserted on the cross, And this darkness is receding. You know what he does? He still
turns to his God. He still turns to his God. He'd
been left to his enemies. No angel, no angel came to help
him. But he still turns to his God. When all of this mistreatment
was going on, noticed he never uttered a word. No complaints
whatsoever from the time they apprehended him in the Garden
of Gethsemane. And all the mistreatment he endured,
he never once complained. He ordered words, but not one
word of complaint. Not one word of, why are you
doing me like this? Do you know what you're doing
now? He never once said, don't try those nails in my hands,
they hurt too much. He didn't say, please don't hit
me another time with that cat in iron tails. Please stop slapping me. Wipe the spit off my face, would
you please? Never uttered a complaint. His
land was the land of the slaughter, and he opened not his mouth. No complaint how he was treated. He had his father's love while
he was on this earth. He had his father's will for
him all the time. He had his father's presence.
He had his father's ear and he had his father's presence from
all eternity and all the time he was on this earth and now,
now his presence and power and his love is no longer present. Instead of love, it's God's wrath. Instead of mercy, it's God's
justice. And it began to be poured out
on him. No wonder, no wonder he cries,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And here he is, he's deserted.
Yet our Lord does not let go of his God. He still cries, my
God, my God. That shows you and me that no
matter what goes on in our lives, the first place we turn is to
my God, my God. Whatever goes on in our hearts
and in our lives and in our bodies, my God, my God. But we'll never
ever be able to say, why have you forsaken me? We'll never
be able to say that. You see, he still believes God
is his God. You're my God! You're my God! But you've forsaken me. And when
he said, Eli, Eli, Lamasakvastani, what that means, that's a much,
much stronger, stronger version. He said, Eli, Eli, My God, my
God, my strong one. Lama Svoboda and I, you're my
mighty one. My strong one, my mighty one. And he still turns to God. Who else can you turn to when
you're in this kind of shape? Who else can do anything for
you? But God ain't gonna do nothing for him. God ain't gonna help
him. God ain't gonna help him. Have you ever cried on God and
God not help you? Have you ever asked him to do
something for you? To give you mercy? To give you
grace? To uphold you? To give you strength
for your day? He always does it. But here our
Lord Jesus Christ. He said, oh my God, my God, why
have you forsaken me? And oh, here's something, and
they sung it today. By our Lord's cry on that cross
was, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? We see the
absolute holiness and justice of God Almighty. Do you know
why Christ is on that cross? Because God's holy. God is just. And wherever He finds sin, wherever
He finds sin, He's got to deal with it. He's got to deal with
it. Now I want to say something here
now. When you look at this cross, look at our Lord on this cross,
Let's view it from four different ways, four different ways. At the cross, we see man, we
see man. This man did a work at the cross. Man's depravity, man's sinfulness,
man's hatred for God and enmity for God, it's at its greatest
display right here at the cross. It's at its greatest display.
You think man, you know, I would love to go in any church in this
county, any church, any congregation in this county, and preach the
gospel. Tell man just how wicked, how
sinful he is. Cause nobody knows how sinful
they are until they can see Christ on the cross. How sinful, how
sinful, how depraved, how wicked, how dark, how mean, how cruel,
how hateful are we, are we, not they, we, that we would cry out, crucify
him, crucify him. And when he's crying out, oh
God, why have you forsaken me? He's calling for Elijah. Let's
see if Elijah comes save him. The old man did a work. Another person that did a work
there was Satan. Satan did a work. Oh, Satan was
right there. Satan was right there. He had
done been told that this seed of the woman would crush his
head, but it also said there that it would bruise his heel.
Talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, the seed of the woman.
Satan did a work there. He revealed his hatred, his enmity
for the woman's seed by bruising his heel. And the Lord Jesus Christ did
a work here. He did a work here. He did a
work that you and I couldn't possibly do. He is dying, and
He did die, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us
to God. The only way we can get to God
is what He did. The only way we can come to God
is He has to bring us. Well, how did He bring us? He
died. The just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.
In His own body while He was on that tree. He bore our sin
right there. Bore our sin right there. And
then God himself did a work. God did a work here. It pleased
the Lord to bruise him. God put him to an open shame. God said, arise, O sword, and
smite my fellow. Smite the shepherd. And I tell
you what, God did a work here. And we see just how holy He is. And how just He is. And how His
holiness and justice was honored and magnified and glorified there
on that cross. Oh my. God, God, the scripture
said God made Him to be sin. For us who knew no sin. How holy is God? How holy is God? God is so holy that no man can see and live. Moses said, show me your glory.
God said, you can't see me. He said, you can't look at me.
God dwells in a life that no man can see. And he said, I'll
tell you what you do. He said, I'm just going to show
you my back parts. Put him over here in a cleft
in a rock, covered him in his hair. Do you know the only place
that God can view us and we can view God is in the rock, the
Lord Jesus Christ, that rock that was smitten? Oh my. And how holy is God? He's so
holy that the heavens are not clean in His sight. The angels
are not pure. How holy is God? He's so holy
that the seraphims cover their faces in His presence. Oh my. How holy is God? When God met Abraham at the tent. You know what Abraham said? He
said, Oh hallelujah, the Lord's here. No. He said, Oh God, I'm
dust. I'm ashes. I can't be in your presence and
all I know is when I see you I'm just dust and ashes. That's
all I am. Job, he talked all about God
and how good he was and how righteous he was and how he was without
sin. And he was, God said he was a
just man, the perfect man. And God said to him, Job! I got something to say to you
now, listen to me. Job said, oh listen, I've heard
and I've heard and I've heard and I've heard and I've heard.
I heard about you all my life. But now my eye sees you. Well,
what do you think about yourself, Job? You've seen the Lord. Oh,
I tell you, I'm the most miserable, I'm the most wretched, I'm the
most black hearted, I'm the most abominable, oh I'm just, I'm
so miserable I've absolutely loathed myself, abhorred myself,
and oh God I can't look at you without seeing how awful I am. Isaiah I saw Him high, high,
high, high, and lifted up. Saw His glory. And when He saw it, oh Lord, woe is me. Woe is me. I'm undone. I'm absolutely undone. And everybody, that fellow right
there beside me, this one over here, that one in front of me,
the one behind me, they're all just like I am. They're all undone. I'm undone. I'm unclean. And oh, he's of pure eyes. How holy is God? He's of pure
eyes and beholding iniquity. He is so holy. so holy that when
his son, when the Lord, and listen to this, when the Lord laid on
him the iniquity of us all, when he was chastised for our peace,
when he was wounded for our transgressions, huh? When his son had our sin laid
upon him, When God made his soul an offering for sin, God couldn't
look. Couldn't look. Couldn't look.
Look with me in Psalm 22 with me. Let's look here just a moment
at this. Psalm 22. You know why, Lord? It's so glorious. God is so holy. And every time you see saints
in heaven, the cherubim's there covering their faces. People are falling at their feet
worshiping the Lord. They all get up, they get up
off their seats and worship the Lord. If they had a crown, they'd
throw it at his feet. And that's what he was. Oh, the
angels, he said, I could have called 12 legions of angels.
But he never called one, not the first angel to help him.
Not the first. Look what it says here in Psalm
22. My God, my God, Why hast thou forsaken
me? Why are you so far from helping
me? Why are you? Of all the times
I need help, I need it now. And why don't you hear me, the
voids of my roaring, as I'm crying out, roaring near my God? And oh my God, I cry in the daytime,
and you're not hearing me. And I cry in the night season,
and I'm not silent. But here's the reason, here's
the reason right here. For thou art holy, thou art holy. Look what he said in verse four.
Our fathers trusted in you. They did. They trusted and you
saved them. You delivered them, you saved
them. They cried unto you and you saved them. They trusted
in you and they were not confounded. They were not ashamed. But we
would not say this whatsoever if it wasn't in the Bible. This
is what our master said. But I am a worm. I'm a worm. How could he say that about himself?
I'm a worm. A worm. I'm a worm. Jacob, that worm. I'm a worm. I don't mind being
called a worm. But for the Lord Jesus Christ
to say I'm a worm, I'm a worm. I'm a worm. Oh Lord, I'm a worm. I'm no man. I'm not even a man. Of reproach of men and despised
of a people. This is what our Lord said about
himself. Could you believe that he called
himself a worm? That's how so identified he was
with us. Oh my. I'm a worm, no man. He overthrew the old world with
a flood. He rained fire and brimstone
down on Sodom and Gomorrah. He sent plague upon plague upon
Egypt. And then he drowned them in the
Red Sea. That's what God does when men
become so wicked, so sinful. And here on this cross, and here
at this cross, That's how the Lord was there. God wouldn't even look at him, wouldn't
even look at him, wouldn't do him. God hid his face, hid his
presence. He spared not his own son, but
delivered him up for us all. And here we also see this in
our Lord Jesus Christ. We see the reason for Gethsemane.
Look over here in chapter 26. In chapter 26. Here's the reason
for Gethsemane. Why did he go to Gethsemane?
And you know the Garden of Gethsemane is a He said in verse 36, then cometh Jesus with them unto
a place called Gethsemane. And he saith unto the disciples,
set ye here while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him
Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and listen to this, and began
to be sorrowful and very heavy. That word heavy means having
a great, great weight on him. Sorrowful and a great, great
weight on him. Then he saith unto them, my soul,
my soul, just not me, my soul is exceeding sorrowful. Listen to this, even unto death,
my soul is so sorrowful, so pressed down, even unto death. Now you stay here and watch with
me. And he went a little further, fell on his face, and he prayed,
oh my father, oh my father. Now God's hearing him now. Oh
my father, if it be possible, if it's possible at all, if it's
possible, Let this cup, let this cup pass from me. Let this cup pass from me. And he goes down in verse 42 and
he says it again. Praise saying, oh my father,
if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it. Thy will be done. You see, he's
here seeing what's coming. He knows what's coming. He's
looking straight at it. And you think, you know, in his
manhood, in his humanity, he didn't want to go through this.
He sees what's coming. Being in agony, it says in Mark. Being in agony, he prayed. My
soul was exceeding sorrow. In Luke, it says there that he prayed until his sweat
became as great drops of blood. He prayed so earnestly, so intently,
so powerfully, so earnestly, so agonizingly, that blood come
out of his pores and began to drip on the ground. It didn't look like blood, wasn't
something that resembled blood, but it was blood. I'm a worm. No man. And here in Gethsemane, he faces
that cup. He said, Father, the cup, the
cup which you've given me. A cup. You know, when we take
the cup, a cup represents communion. That's what it represents. We
take the communion here and we hand everybody a cup. Everybody
gets a cup. It shows us our communion with
our Lord Jesus Christ, our oneness with Him. Remembering His death,
showing His death. But God gave Him a cup, but it
wasn't a cup of communion. It was a cup of the fierceness
of the wrath of God Himself. It was full. It was full of justice
and wrath. It was full of holiness. It was
full of sin. My sin, your sin. And for him to have fellowship
with us in any way, he said, Father, if it's any way in the
world possible, if you could let this cup pass
from me, where I didn't have to drink it, But you know what he said? Nevertheless,
not my will, but thine, thine be done. Nevertheless. And the scriptures tells us over
in Isaiah that he took that cup. And over in Revelation, we'll
read about this cup. He took that cup and he drank
it. And the scripture says, even
the dregs, the dregs, I'm a dreg. You know what an old dreg is? People won't drink after one
another because they say they leave their saliva or something
in the, you know, don't drink after somebody said, well, you
know, you got back flush in it or whatever. Listen, our Lord
took our sin, God's wrath, God's justice, God's anger. Took it up, took that cup, turned
it up. And I tell you, he didn't take
it down, never took it down until it was empty. And he said he
took it up to that last dreg come out of it. And here, last of all, we see
the foundation of our salvation, the blessedness of our salvation,
how God could save us. Here we see how God can be just
and yet justify us. Here our Lord Jesus Christ We
can't, we can't. It's the most glorious thing
we've ever heard, I've ever heard. Is that our Lord Jesus Christ
was forsaken of God. And if he was forsaken of God
for me, then God will never ever forsake me. If he bore my sin, then God couldn't
be just and come and charge me with it again. If he bore the curse of God's
law, I'll never have to bear that curse. No. If he satisfied God's justice, But then I'll never have to face
it. And if he satisfied God, God's
holiness and everything up there is about him. If he satisfied
God and God saw the travail of his soul and said, I'm satisfied. How do we know he is satisfied?
The third morning, they came to the grave and said, why are
you looking for the living, the living among the dead? He's not
here, he's risen. And now because of this, because
of our Lord Jesus Christ taking our place, being our sin
offering, being our satisfaction, being our substitute. Our substitute,
what a wonderful word. God took him, put him on that cross, and then took all the sins from
Adam until the last soul on this earth, And he made them all come
as a great army. And he said, my sins are greater
than the hairs of my head. And they made them all to meet
on his son. And he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And God said, their sins and
iniquities I will remember no more. You know why? Because Christ bore them all
away. So whenever you look at this,
you look and say, that's my whole salvation. That's my hope. That's everything I need. Everything
that God required of me, He got it from His Son. Every condition
that I should have met, Christ met it for me. Everything God
required of me Christ gave it As he said when they come and
got him out of the garden He said if you got me let these
go their way God got him And we get to go away Now we are accepted in the beloved
God made him to be sin. Who for? For us. For us. For us. The gospel clear and plain blessed
our hearts. Who can stand God's indignation? Who can stand up to his fierce
anger? The answer is right here on the
cross. Our blessed, blessed, glorious
Lord and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. God laid hell upon one
who is mighty. Oh Lord. Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord. I don't know what to
say except thank you, bless you, praise you. Oh, blessed be your holy name.
Thank you. raise you, bless you, prepared
by seeing, by awful, awful, awful seeing. Thank you. Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord. Thank you. Oh, Lord. And we cry, my God, my God, do
you hear us? And we pray, oh God, we're never
confounded, never confused because of our Lord Jesus. Oh Lord, bless these things to
our heart. Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. You got that song, Easton. Come up here and lead that for
us.