Turn to Matthew 27. Matthew 27. Look in verse 45 and 46. 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 sabachthani? That is to say, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Just the sound of that is terrifying. You find
it to be that way? Just the sound of it is terrifying. I heard a man tell this story
some time ago. He said when he was a little
boy, six, seven years old, somewhere in there, his mother had taken
him to a bus station. I wanted to sit there and wait
on her. She had to go somewhere and she never came back. I can't
even imagine that. I can't imagine being forsaken. I've never been forsaken. Have you? You've never been forsaken.
Not completely. Even this man, he grew up, became
successful and did alright. But to be forsaken of God I can't even put that into words. Forsaken of God was the highest,
it was the height of our Lord's sufferings. Now, I don't know much about
hell, and I really don't want to. And it's not a subject I
like to talk about. Just throw that word out here.
I know we've got young people in here and I don't want to scare
someone into a profession or anything like that, but it's
in the Word of God and we have to deal with it. And I don't
know much about it, but this I know. I do know this about
it. Hell is the absence of God. It's the absence of God. It is to be forsaken finally
of God. That's what it is. It is the absence of mercy. It is the absence of grace. It
is the absence of love. It is the absence of help. It
is the absence of light. It is the absence of peace. It
is the absence of joy. It is the absence of comfort.
It is the absence of all that is good and pleasant. It doesn't
even exist in that place. When our Lord described that
place, He said it was weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth. It
is described as outer darkness. No light. No light in that place. And I know that if I described
it, if I tried right now to really describe it, it would be weak
at best. It would be weak. It would be
very understated. I cannot describe that place
no more than I can describe the glory of heaven and being in
the presence of God forever. I can't describe that either.
I cannot describe the torments of hell no more than I can describe
the blessedness of paradise. I know that. I know that. Our Lord endured hell. Our Lord was forsaken of God. Anyone who has a breath, who
is walking on this earth, It's a breath. I hold out hope for
it. I do. I hold out hope for it. But when it's over, it's over. And it's forsaken if you miss
Christ. Our Lord knows what that is.
He knows what it is to be completely, I mean completely forsaken of
God. Now in verse 45 it says, darkness
was over all the land until the ninth hour. If you were to ask someone to
name the darkest hour in history, if this were a Jeopardy question,
if you put this on Jeopardy, what was the darkest hour in
history? I know that most everyone would
say the Holocaust, World War II, they would go back to different
points in history, maybe even the flood. The darkest hour in
the history of the human race is when they nailed the Creator
to the cross. That's the darkest hour. That is our darkest hour. That's who we are. What went on there was so profound. What happened at Calvary was
so profound that God turned the light out. He absolutely turned
the light out. Our Lord, I said He spoke of
hell as being what? Outer darkness? Eternal darkness? That's what it is? And then what
happened? The light went out. And he dealt
with that darkness. He literally dealt with it. God
blocked the sun from shining at noonday on that hour. The earth was in total darkness,
like in Genesis 1, when darkness was upon the face of the deep.
It's like the darkness that fell on Egypt. It says that it could be felt.
It was so thick, the darkness was so thick it could be felt.
That darkness fell at that hour. The Lord Jesus Christ, now I
don't, just listen to this. He experienced the total absence
of God. His mercy, His grace, His help,
He experienced the total absence of it. And He experienced the
total darkness and foulness of sin and what it deserved. That's
what he experienced on the cross. The people for whom the Lord
Jesus Christ substituted for were in darkness. Were we not in darkness? Were
you not in darkness when the Lord called you? Did he not call
you out of darkness? Are we not said to be translated
from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear
Son? Well, for Him to bring us out
of darkness, He had to go into that darkness in order to fetch
us. The shepherd had to go after
the lost sheep, and that lost sheep was in darkness. And he
had to go into that darkness and get that lost sheep. That's
what he had to do. In verse 46, it says about the
ninth hour. Get this in your mind. Everyone
was sitting there. It said they were sitting down
and watching there. There was a crowd there. They're
watching. And all of a sudden, it just was dark. You couldn't see the hand in
front of your face. It's so dark. And they're sitting there in
absolute darkness. And out of this darkness comes this horrifying, hair-raising
cry, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why? It is a cry that left no
doubt that the one giving this cry is in torment. I have no doubt by the sound
of his voice that you could tell that he was in absolute torment. They couldn't see him, but they
could hear him. They could hear him crying. My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? There is a man in this darkness
being tormented by God himself. Turn over to Lamentations chapter
1. You've got Jeremiah in Lamentations. Lamentations chapter 1. Look in verse 12. Is it nothing to you? And over
in the margin it says, it is nothing to you. It means nothing
to you. Is it nothing to you? All ye
that pass by, behold, give attention to this. Now, don't let this
just slip by. Don't let this just be what you
think is just another sermon. Behold this. Consider this. Pay attention. Behold and see, look back through
history, if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is
done unto me, and who's doing it? Who is giving him this sorrow,
this pain, and this suffering? Who's giving this to him? Wherewith
the Lord hath afflicted me, the Lord hath afflicted me, in the
day of his what? Unmitigated anger. Fierce anger. It's not like the
Lord was quipping and said, oh, I hate doing this. How many parents
say this? Oh, it hurts me more than it
does you. God was taking His fierce anger
out on Christ. And He wasn't sorry for one strike. He wasn't feeling sorry. He's
taking his anger out on this one who's made to be sin. I'm
in an area that's way over our head. Job said I put my hand
over my mouth. I'm talking about things I don't
know what I'm talking about. And I am too right now. I'm talking about
things I don't know what I'm talking about. I know I am. He hath afflicted me in the day
of his fierce anger. From above hath he sent fire
into my bones. Now, I've had a few stripes on
my backside, but I've never had the burning wrath of God in my
inside. And it prevaileth against them.
He has spread a net for my feet, He has turned me back, He has
made me desolate and faint all the day. This is what He's going
through. He's going through this. And
why? Because He is made to be sin
for us who knew no sin. We might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. This is the one, listen, this
is the one that was daily the Father's delight that this is
happening to, and this is the one He's doing it to. Over Proverbs
8.30, He said, I was daily His delight. In John 16.32, Behold, the hour
cometh, yea, is now come, that ye 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. I'm not
alone. But for a little while, He was
forsaken and He was alone. Psalm 23, Yea, though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil,
for Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort
me. My God, my God, why I so forsaken? There was never a time when their fellowship between
the Father and the Son was ever, ever, ever broken. There was never a time that happened
until Christ was made to be seen. And when this great transaction
happened, the Father forsook His Son and the fellowship was
broken right there for a period of time, for a short period of
time. It was broken. My God, my God. When you read through the Gospels,
you read all the time, pretty much all the time, Christ speaking
of His Father. His Father. But here He says, My God. Someone
said this. He could not feel the closeness
of his father, however, he clung to him as his God. In his greatest
hour of darkness, he never wavered in faith. He believed God. He trusted. He trusted. His faith in God never wavered
one bit, not even in his darkest hour. He believed in El Shaddai, God
all-sufficient. He believed him. Even when he
couldn't sense him as his father, he knew him as his God, and he
wouldn't fail him. He believed in God who is immutable,
and he clung to him though he could not perceive his presence. That's perfect faith, isn't it?
That's perfect faith. What we see here is a demonstration
of the perfect faith of our Redeemer. Why hast thou forsaken me? The Father took his Son to Calvary,
and there forsook him. When you read Psalm 22, doesn't
that just, the dogs have compassed me about. He said, I'm dried up, my tongue
is cleaved to the roof of my mouth. In that great darkness, he was
forsaken. He could not find his Father,
his God, In that darkness. Because God doesn't dwell in
darkness. He dwells in the light. And he left him in that darkness.
He left him in that hail that I deserved. God never forsook any of the
fathers. Psalm 22, verse 4 and 5, he said, Our fathers trusted
in thee. They trusted and thou didst deliver
them. You know, he's saying this before
God, but you know, at the same time, he's encouraging himself. They cried unto thee and were
delivered. They trusted in thee and they
were not confounded. God never forsook any of the
fathers. He never forsook the apostles.
Paul said in one place, he says, all forsook me. All have forsaken
me. But the Lord stood with me. The
Lord stood with me. He never forsook any of the martyrs.
But he forsook his only forgotten son. What's going on here? What's
going on? Here's what's going on. Substitution. That is exactly what's going
on. This is a real substitution going
on here. This is what's happening. Christ
is literally, He is literally taking the hell that His people
deserve. Hanging on that cross is every,
now listen to me, it is every ungodly rest chosen by God before
the foundation of the world in Christ. Someone said this, hanging on
that cross is every believer in one person. In one person. The transaction of Christ being
made sin, my sin becoming his, being made his, was very, very
real. Very real. David said in Psalm
37, I have been young and now I'm old, and yet have I not seen
the righteous forsaken. Well, what's going on here? David, you said you've never
seen the righteous forsaken. What's going on here? God's dealing with me. Every one of you who believe
God's dealing with you in the person of his son. God's dealing
with me in God. Martin Luther said, he said,
how? Let me read that, I had it written
down. He said this, after looking at this verse for hours, he said,
God forsaking God? Who can understand this? Who
can understand this? Why did he do that? Our Lord
said in Psalm 22, 3, But thou art holy, he is holy. O thou that inhabitest the praises
of Israel, God is holy, he must punish sin wherever it is found,
even when it is found on his Son. When it was laid on him,
when he hath laid on him the iniquity of us all, he punished
him for us all. God is no respecter of persons. And he proved it when he hung
his son on the cross. Now, if he'll do that to his
son, what will he do to me? He's no respecter of persons.
When Christ was made to be sin, he dealt with him. He dealt with him. What went on at Calvary
was real. It was real. This is not an example. God's not giving us an example
of how he's going to deal with sin. He's not doing that. The
blood of bulls and of goats were examples. They were shadows,
types. They were examples. But what
happened here at Calvary is real. 1 Peter 2, 24. Who? His own self. Bear our sins. in his own body
on the tree. Let's read that again. Who his
own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree. That we being dead to sin should
live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed. That's substitution there. The result of this transaction
is this, and I'll close. The justice of God is satisfied
and I and everyone who believes the gospel will not ever, ever
be forsaken. Never have to deal with it. I
will never, ever, ever have to deal with an angry God. I will
never, ever, ever be punished for my sins. He punished his
son. He'll not punish me. Chasing
me? Yes. Punish me? No. No. He punished his son. In Romans
8, 34, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us." Who is He that can condemn
me? Who can condemn me? If Jesus
Christ died for me, if His death on that cross under the wrath
of God was for me, who can condemn me? Because the one who died for
me also rose again from the grave for me, and right now intercedes
for me. The result? Satisfaction and
never, ever, ever to be forsaken of God. Never. Isaiah 54-7, and
I'll close with this. Isaiah 54, 7. For a small moment have I forsaken
thee. There was a space there of about,
what, three hours? He was forsaken. If you compare that from eternity
to eternity, that's a small moment. I mean, it was enough to endure
the hell that we all deserve. because of the one who suffered. But with great mercy will I gather
thee. In a little wrath I hid my face
from thee for a moment. But we know his wrath wasn't
a little there. But with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on
thee. It's talking here to us. This
is what we have in Christ. Saith the Lord thy Redeemer.
For this is as the waters of Noah unto me, for 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. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed.
But my kindness," here's the benefits we have in what happened
to the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's tree. My kindness shall not depart
from thee. Neither shall the covenant of
my peace be removed, saith the Lord, that hath mercy on thee. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? I'm looking at why he forsook
his son. Sinners. Chosen. Loved of God. Chosen of God. Boy, Mike said it today when
I told him where I was preaching from. He said, this is holy ground. I know I'm way over my head.
You know, it would be silly of me to make a long sermon out
of something I don't know much about, wouldn't it? And here to talk about something
that's so far over me and so far over us. My God, my God. Why has God forsaken me? Because He loved you.