Turn with me to the Gospel of
Matthew chapter 27. I want to read one verse of Scripture
and spend the time allotted this morning on that particular Scripture. Verse 46 of Matthew chapter 27. In this amazing chapter of Scripture,
we have the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know that
He had been falsely accused. He'd been beaten, the Scripture
says, beyond recognition of a man. He didn't even resemble a man
when they got done with Him. They spit on Him. gambled for his coat, his robe,
put a crown of thorns on his head, and made him carry his
own cross to the place on Galgotha's Hill. Here we have God in the
flesh. Men want to talk about their
free will and how much they love God. You want to talk about your
free will, that's what man's free will did to God. They hung
Him on a cross. They killed Him. But it was no
accident. It was by the determinate counsel
and foreknowledge of God. God did it. God delivered Him
up. And in this verse before us,
I've read this passage of Scripture many times. I've always been
conscious of its importance. I've always been aware of its
value, but I must be honest with you this morning, I have never
really ever considered it in the depth that I desire to today. And yet I know that unless God
Give me the words to say, you the ears to hear, and the hearts
to understand that this will be just 30 minutes of nothingness.
So pray in your heart as I stand that God might show you the value
and the importance and the need of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ
and Him crucified is our message. There's nothing else worth talking
about. Well, you don't tell people how to live. So, no, if you know
Christ, you live right. You don't tell people to give.
I notice you don't take up an offering. No, if you know Christ
and love Christ, you'll give to the furtherance of His gospel.
So, verse 46, in about the ninth hour, as Christ hung on the cross,
Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabbathanai. That is to say, being interpreted,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? I would say that
is a question of great importance. Why did God forsake the Son of
God? I think I can understand these
words when David speaks them in the 22nd Psalm. He's in a
prophetic psalm and you know I can enter more into that for
David was a man like me. He was a sinner. He may have
been the apple of God's eye but we know some of the terrible
things that he did. He took another man's wife and
had him killed and yet He's called the apple of God's eye. It's only in Christ that any
of us are the apple of God's eye. Christ is the apple of God's
eye, and we, and him, and him alone. I understand a little
bit the words of David. I'm quoting these because all
true believers have been shown by God that their sinfulness
and they can easily understand how God could forsake them. While there's not a day goes
by that I'm not conscious of my sin and that if I'm not forgiven
in Christ, then I'm lost. My hope is that Christ did for
me what I couldn't do for myself. But to hear these words from
the sinless Son of God, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Leaves me unable to explain.
Can't fathom the depth of that. I once read a story about the
old writer and preacher Martin Luther. Many of you are very
familiar with him and his writings. Martin Luther sat down in his
study one day to consider this text. And he sat still and those
who waited on him and came in and out of his study and out
of the room over and over again was was astonished that he was
so absorbed in his meditation of this passage that they almost
thought he was dead. His feet didn't move, his hands
didn't move, his eyes were fixed on the page as he read the verse
and considered it. It was almost like he was one
in a trance. This went on for a long, long
time. He was thinking over these wondrous
words, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And when after
many long hours in which he seemed to be utterly lost to everything
that was going on around him, he rose from his chair and someone
heard him say, God, forsaking God. No man can understand that. God forsaking God. And he got up and he went on
about his business. So I admit to you right off that
I'm in waters way too deep for me. And I suppose that no mortal
man or woman can truly understand this great statement, but all
God's people are going to believe it. So this morning, let us just
consider some thoughts on this unsearchable subject. And I promise
not to keep you long. Our Lord was accustomed to addressing
God as His Father. When we find Him praying, He
addresses God as His Father. In many of His teachings and
preachings, the words that He used to address His Father was
just that, Father. Most every time He speaks to
and of God, He speaks of Him as His Father. He stands in that
relationship both as God and as man. He's the amazing God-man,
100% God, 100% man. And as God the Son, the second
person in the Trinity, the blessed Trinity, God is the Father, Christ
is God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. But as a man, God thundered
from heaven more than one time, saying, This is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him." May God grant you
ears this morning to hear Him, and me words to proclaim Him. And in this instance that we
have before us this morning, He refers to Him not as Father,
but as my God. while he hung upon the cross.
Did he have any doubt about his sonship? Absolutely not. Satan had tempted him in the
wilderness with the statement of doubt, going, if thou be the
Son of God, you can turn these stones into bread. And each and
every time Christ resisted the temptation, responding, for it
is written, it's written, man shall not live by bread alone.
And I think that it would be good for us to consider that
in his temptation by Satan and answering with the Scriptures
it is written was the same reason that this day he cried, my God,
my God. He did it, my friends, as the
great substitute for chosen sinners. This day he didn't call God his
father. He called him his God. Our Lord, as God, needed no permission
from Satan when he was tempted in the wilderness. He could have
turned the stones into bread if he so desired. But you know
what? You and I couldn't. He stood
there as our substitute. Yes, it would have been easy
for him to have let himself down from the pinnacle of the temple.
But He didn't because He was walking and living in the place
of chosen sinners. And therefore He uses the words,
it is written, which is our sword of the Spirit. That's our defense
against the wiles of the devil. The Scriptures. And here we find Him on the cross,
dear friends, where He bled and He died for His elect's sake. And our Savior was speaking then
as a man. And this is the reason why he
cried, my God, my God, rather than my Father. I believe he
must have been speaking as a man and as a substitute for men for
God the Son to say to God the Father, my God, my God. He referred
to his Father as God because I was the one that had offended
Him. My sin was against God and Him
only, David said. All my evil had been done against
Him alone and in His sight. And there He hung upon that cross
in my place. I should have been crucified. I should have suffered and died. Oh, my heart is on only evil
continually against the great God of heaven and earth. Why,
sinning comes as easy as breathing to me, and all my sins against
Him and Him alone. Yet there Christ hung in my place. I'm the one that deserved to
be forsaken. by a holy and a righteous God. Yet in this, friends, we see
the beauty of Christ as a man. In order to be my Savior, He
must become flesh to redeem them that were under the law. He must
become our Kinsman Redeemer. That's why the Apostle Paul writes
in Galatians 4, but when the fullness of time was come, God
sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem
them. Did you hear that? To redeem them that were under
the law. you and I, that we might receive
the adoption of sons. He was truly Emmanuel. That word
means God with us. Oh, what a thought. God with
us. What an amazing thought that
is. God with us. Undeserving, wretches
that we are. Godhood and manhood being united
in one person. Otherwise, it would have been
impossible for him to have been forsaken of God. If he had not been dying there
in the chosen sinner's place, for what reason would God have
had for forsaken him? Well, he was perfect. He knew
no sin. He knew no sin. He never sinned
in thought, word, or deed. He was the perfect God. He kept
God's law perfectly. Never offended it one time. And for the same reason, how
could he have been beaten like he was? They would throw a cloth
over his head and hit him and say, you're a prophet, tell us
who hit you? God Almighty! God the Son, treated
this way by sinful man, the creature that He created. Oh, let's not
brag too much on man's free will and man's will and purpose concerning
God. We see it in the crucifixion
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now friends, all these things
were not just made possible by God Almighty. That's what many
preach today, that God has made salvation possible. The rest
is up to you. Listen, that's blasphemy against
God. Salvation through Christ is not
possible. It's certain for those that will
bow and trust Him. And as I said, it was by the
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God that it is so. Christ
had vowed before the foundation of the world that He wouldn't
lose a one that the Father gave Him. He said, I won't lose a
one, not one. And in order to complete the
redemption of His chosen people, it was necessary for Him to be
both God's well-beloved Son, and yet at the same time be forsaken
of the Father. I've felt many times, daily really,
as though God has forsaken me. And do you know why I feel that
way? Because I keep looking here instead
of there. I look inside and I see what
a wretch I am, what a sinner I am, how undeserving I am. And I feel as God has forsaken
me. You know why? Because I'm really saying I ought
to be forsaken. God ought to forsake me. Oh,
wretched man that I am, Paul said. Boy, I can sure identify
with that. But here we see that Christ Himself
would say, what his people ought to say. My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? Dear child of God, behold the
one who was forsaken without reason. Behold the one who has
suffered more than you can ever suffer. the one who hangs there
in substitution with the agony of his soul that he would cry
out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Well, what was his forsaking?
Our Lord Jesus Christ saw all that man had to suffer because
of sin. His being forsaken was the total
sum of all the miseries brought by sin upon past, present and
future generations of God's elect. He was forsaken because of all
the woes of His people caused by sin in this life and in the
life to come. Being completely one with His
chosen people. He spoke in their name and in
their place when he cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Now notice here that our Lord
did not say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken man? But why hast thou forsaken me? The forsaken was something personal
to himself. Was it not? Why is it self-forsaken
me? Never forget that redemption
is personal. Redemption is personal. What
think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? It's a personal
thing. And to be my personal Redeemer,
this forsaking became personal to Him. Christ didn't say, my God, my
God, why has man forsaken Thee? Why, we know that answer. That would have left men completely
in their sin, wouldn't it? And it's also the reason that
men forsake God. Sin. I won't have that man rule
over me. I'm my own boss. I'm going to
do things my way. No. His cry was, why is thou forsaking
me? It was personal grief that rang
from a personal cry. to anyone who would doubt at
how, at one, how closely Christ identified with His people. Came
one with Him. How anyone could doubt that,
I'd encourage you to consider again these powerful words. Remember,
He that knew no sin was made to be sin for us, for His people,
His chosen, His elect, His sheep. But not for that reason only,
but also that we might be what? Made the righteousness of God
in Him. For us to be reconciled to God,
dear friends, we must be as perfect and as holy as God Himself is. Now how are we going to accomplish
that? We can't in and of ourselves. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. There's none that is righteous.
They've all gone their own way, Scripture says. There's none
that seeketh after God. Only one way. And we see it before
us in this verse. Christ dying the death that I
deserved, being forsaken of God, which was the forsaking that
I deserved. standing in my place as a perfect,
perfect substitute and sacrifice. That's how He was made to be
sin for us that what? We may be made the righteousness
of God in Him. Christ Himself said in John 10,
As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay
down my life for the sheep. I lay down my life for the sheep.
This wasn't a case of mistaken identity. This was a cause of
divine substitution. This was a case of divine substitution. And it was so real and so certain
that God the Father forsook God the Son to redeem sinful, depraved,
no-count sinners. God forsaking God. Who can understand
that? And when He said, Wow, hast Thou
forsaken Me? He spoke infallible truth. His
God had forsaken Him. How can that be so? It was for his people. It was for his people. He was
made to be sin for us. He knew what he was saying, and
he was right in what he said, for the Father had forsaken him. What then can this expression
mean? What then can these words mean?
Does it mean that God didn't love his son? No. No, it didn't
mean that at all. God did forsake his son, but
he loved him as much when he forsook him as he ever, ever
did before. One old writer even put it this
way. He said, I'd venture to say that if it had been possible
for God's love towards His Son to be increased, but God could
love Him no more than He did. But if it had been possible,
He would have delighted in Him more and loved Him more when
He was standing as the suffering representative of His chosen
people. Oh, what glory! What honor! We don't consider for a single
moment the thought that God was angry with Christ personally,
or looked upon Him as unworthy of His love. Remember that Christ
is hanging and being forsaken in the place of His sinful elect
people. We don't entertain for a moment
that God regarded Him as one displeasing to God. He knew no
sin. He did no sin. But he was made
to be sin. Made to be sin for you, Bill.
That you might be made perfectly righteous and reconciled to God
Almighty. Made to be sin for us. Oh, may God help us to believe
it. Yet the fact remains that God had forsaken him. And he
forsook him in the place of a chosen bride. Now here's a sobering
thought, and I'm almost done. And it's a true thought. It's
one that's true, even as it is sobering. Christ became a man
who was left all alone. You see, he wasn't only left
alone by his friends, by those that he loved and was with the
days of his earthly life, but he was also left by his God. You think about that for a moment.
And this is what every child of God personally deserved, total
alienation, forsaken of all. Have you ever been lonely? I
venture to say that all of us have, maybe just for an hour,
maybe for a day, maybe a week. There have been times when my
wife has been gone for extended periods of time, and I've gotten
lonely. I'll be honest with you, I've
been lonely. I have children right now that
live far away, and I get lonely for them. I miss them. I do. But you know what? I can pick
up the phone and call. Or if worse comes to worse, I
can jump in my car and within a reasonable amount of time I
can be there to see Him. But Christ our Lord was forsaken
of all. forsaken from fellowship with
his Father with whom he had always had fellowship with for the foundation
of the world. God had forsaken him. Can we
enter into that? And here's the most remarkable
thing. It was because of chosen sinners like you and me. Oh,
no greater love Has any man than this that he lay down his life
for another? Can we imagine the state of mind
that our Lord was in when he cried, my God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? I don't think that we can. Can
you imagine the misery of a lost soul in hell? One who is forsaken
of God and who cries in realization and in bitter agony for eternity. He says, God will never look
upon me in mercy or delight or favor. And again, I say that we can't
truly enter into that with real clarity. It's impossible for an unsaved
man or woman to understand the perfection of God from whom he
is separated from forever. But it's different in the case
of this man. It's different in the case of
the Lord Jesus Christ. For when He hung upon the cross,
He knew as no mere man could ever know what separation from
God meant. Why hast Thou forsaken Me? The only solution of this great
mystery is this, Jesus Christ was forsaken of God because you
and I as his chosen people deserve to be forsaken of God. He was
there on the cross in our room, in our place, in our stead. And
as the sinner, by reason of his sin, deserves not to enjoy the
favor of God, Christ was forsaken in our place. Standing in the place of the
sinner and enduring that which had to satisfy God's justice
had to suffer what the chosen sitter would have suffered if
Christ hadn't took his place. Friends, this is where you and
I deserve to be. And let me leave you with these
few words. Since Christ was separated, we
can now ask in confidence, who shall separate us from the
love of God? And with the Apostle Paul, we
can now confidently proclaim that nothing in this whole universe
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ our Lord. Oh, do you have any clearer vision
as to why he cried, my God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?
Why, it was for his people. All that he did was for his people.
Living, keeping God's law perfectly, dying, rising again, all for
his people. That's the only way that a man
can be saved, is in the substitution of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
remember the time that the Lord Jesus got to Lazarus' house and
he'd already been dead four days. And people make such a big deal
about, oh, the shortest verse in Scripture, Jesus wept. And the Jews said, behold, how
He loved him. But friends, on the cross, He
didn't weep. He bled. And He didn't merely
bleed, but He died. And He was forsaken of God. Has there ever been any other
love like this? That the Prince of Life and the
Prince of Glory should condescend to this shame and this death? He suffered so much for us. Let us be ready to suffer anything
for His sake. Now, I'm going to tell you, we're
pretty pathetic. Our Lord Jesus Christ gave all for us, and it's
hard for us to give Him three hours a week. That's just how
messed up we are. If you and I should feel that
we're forsaken of God, And I feel that way often. But I hope this
helps me and I hope it helps you. If we should get ever into
the state of mind in that way, remember that we're only remotely
close to where Christ has been before
us. He was forsaken for us. And because of that, you know
what? we shall never be forsaken." Isn't that what He said? My God,
my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? And now we read in Hebrews
13, verse 5, let your conversation be without covetousness. Be content with such things as
ye have. For He hath said, this is why
We don't covet. This is why we're content. Because
this same Lord and Savior who was forsaken of God says, I will
never leave thee nor forsake thee. Never. Never. God help us to