Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nider. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Mattawara Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nyman. In Matthew chapter 27, we read
beginning in verse 45, Now from the sixth hour there was darkness
over all the land until the ninth hour. When the Lord Jesus Christ
hung on that cross 2,000 years ago, at noon the sun quit shining. Can you imagine the fear that
must have come over the people at this time when the sun quit
shining at noon? Let's go on reading. Now, from the sixth hour there
was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. Three hours
of darkness. Now, this darkness lets us know
that there's very little we can really understand about what
was going on at this time. You see, this was a transaction
between God the Father and God the Son. And the reason there's
darkness is to let us know that there's so much we just can't
get a hold of. But from that darkness, we read
in verse 46, in 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? I have entitled this message,
Why Was He Forsaken? Now, I want to read from the
22nd Psalm. This has sometimes been called
the Psalm of the Cross. This was written some 1,000 years
before the crucifixion of the Lord by David. But in this psalm,
David says, For dogs have compassed me about, the assembly of the
wicked have enclosed me. They pierce my hands and my feet. This is Christ speaking prophetically. I may tell all my bones they
look up and stare upon me. They part my garments among them
and cast lots upon my vesture. Now, our Lord tells us of the
things that are going to happen to him before they take place.
And as I said, Psalm 22 has been well described as the Psalm of
the cross. Many think that he quoted this
entire song while he was hanging on the cross. And this song begins
with these words, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me and from the words of my roaring? Did David know that these would
be the words of the Lord Jesus Christ from the cross when he
wrote these words? Perhaps. Perhaps not. When David wrote these words,
he felt as if he had been abandoned and deserted by God. Who hasn't felt that before? But these were the words of the
Lord Jesus Christ at his darkest hour. My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me?" For thirty-three years, Jesus of Nazareth lived
a perfect life in continual communion with his Father. He never sinned. He never sinned in thought, He
never sinned in word. He never sinned in deed. Perfect
motive, perfect love to His Father, perfect obedience. He could say,
which of you can convince me of sin? The only holy man to
ever live. The Father said concerning Him,
This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And then Judas, after 33 years,
betrayed Him to be arrested, to be crucified, to be slain
by the Roman government. Judas, his friend, betrayed Him
and the Lord did not help him. As he's brought before the high
priest, he's falsely accused and mocked and mistreated. And
his father, did not help Him. Peter denies that He even knows
Him with oaths and cursing. And all the disciples forsook
Him and fled. And His Father didn't help Him. He's brought before Pilate and
from Pilate to Herod and back to Pilate. He's mocked, abused,
and scorned. And His Father did not help Him. He is condemned to be crucified. And His Father didn't help Him. Why are you so far from helping
me and from the words of my roaring? Now He is nailed to that cross. And His Father doesn't help Him. And then darkness covers the
land. Can you imagine at noon it becoming
dark? I'm sure everybody was just Lift
out. They didn't know what to think
of this. And perhaps at this time, all you could hear is the
groans of those three men hanging from the cross. And all of a
sudden, out of that darkness, pierces this cry, My God, My
God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? I have three points to this message. Now, this was the Savior's darkest
hour. And this was also the apex of
His obedience. Here's the three points. The
reality of Him being forsaken. Second, the reason why He was
forsaken. And thirdly, the results of Him
being forsaken. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Now, when David cried, My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He felt at that time that
he had been forsaken. He felt that he had been abandoned.
He felt all alone. He felt isolated. Oh, how terrible
this cry when it came from his heart. But had the Lord forsaken
him? No. David felt as if He'd been
forsaken, but the Lord never forsakes His people. He will
not do it. There's no way He would ever
forsake one of His people. He's the Lord. He's faithful.
David was not forsaken, but the Savior really was forsaken by
His Father. Now, you think of the physical
suffering of our Lord at this time as He's been nailed to a
cross. I can't even imagine the physical
pain that he's going through. But what about his soul sufferings? They were infinitely worse. He
was forsaken by His disciples. Scripture says they all forsook
Him and fled. They didn't stay with Him. He was forsaken by
man. You know, He went on to say in
that Psalm of the Cross, in Psalm 22, verse 6, He said, I'm a worm
and no man. I'm not even fit to be called
a man. That's how truly He felt this thing of sin being charged
to Him and becoming His. He was forsaken by His disciples
and He was forsaken by God. He was deserted. He was. He was
abandoned. He went through all this without
the presence of the Father that He delighted in for 33 years. At this time, He was suffering
what a damned soul would suffer. Let me repeat that. At this time,
when He cries, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? He
was suffering what a soul in hell would suffer, only much
more because of who He is. He had a greater capacity for
suffering because of His holy soul. Oh, how sin crushed Him. How the thought of being made
sin before His Father crushed Him. It broke His heart. He was suffering like no one
ever suffered. much more acutely. And at this
time, he couldn't call God Father. Notice he said, My God, My God,
why hast thou forsaken me? You see, damned souls in hell
don't address God the Father as Father. He's not their father. He was treated as a damned soul
at this time and he could not even call God his father. While he hung on that cross in
physical pain, in emotional pain, in spiritual pain, he felt nothing
but the awful frown of his father and how he was forsaken. You
see, The Father did not say to Him at this time when He's hanging
on the cross and darkness is over the land, He doesn't say,
Son, I know these sins are really not yours. They belong to somebody
else, but I'm going to treat you as if they were yours. The Father says nothing of the
kind. At that time, Christ's soul was made an offering for
sin. He was made sin, and the Father
saw Him as guilty. The Father saw Him as sin itself. That's why the Father forsook
Him. He didn't have his own conscience to be able to say, well, at least
I know these sins aren't really mine. And that I'm and this is
only going to be temporary and I'm going to be over this before
long. No, he was suffering all the eternal torments of hell. And in his mind, it would be
never ending because he became the sinner's substitute and he
bore the sinner's curse. Now, the reason He would be raised
from the dead is because He actually satisfied the Father in what
He did. He satisfied the justice of God. He satisfied the law
of God. The reason hell is eternal is because you and I could never
satisfy it. What we could do, we could never satisfy the justice
of God. What we would suffer wouldn't
be enough to pay for the crime, but because of who He is, He
paid for the crime, but at this time, He couldn't say, well,
at least these sins aren't mine. No, these sins became His. And He knew He was guilty before
God. He didn't have any disciples
saying, oh, thank you for doing this for us. We know you're doing
it for us and we love you for it. No, no. He was all alone,
isolated, forsaken by man, forsaken by God. hung between heaven and
hell, hanging on a cross, made sin, being forsaken, being abandoned
by God, feeling nothing but His Father's awful frown and His
awful displeasure against sin. Forsaken. He really was forsaken. My God, my God, why hast Thou
forsaken me? And here's the second point.
Why was He forsaken? He was forsaken. There's no question
about that. He said, My God, My God, why
have You forsaken Me? He was forsaken. Why was He forsaken? Why did the Father forsake His
only begotten and well-beloved Son? Why was the Father so far
from helping Him or hearing the words of His roaring? Why was
He left all alone? Why was He forsaken? Here's the answer, because I
deserve to be forsaken. What he did, he did as the sinner's
substitute. You see, my sin demands God's
just punishment. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die is what the Scripture says. My sin demands me being forsaken
by a holy and just God because of the greatness and the evilness
of my sin. He was forsaken because that
is what I deserve, to be forsaken by God. As the sinner's substitute,
He bore the sin. that I deserve to be forsaken
for. Listen to this scripture from 1 Peter 2, verse 24, who
his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, so
that my sin became his sin. He did what he did as a representative
man. He so identified with his people.
Matthew 121 says, Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall
save His people from their sins. He so identified with His people
that their sin and their guilt became His. Now, I want to read
you a couple of scriptures from the Psalms once again. And whenever
you read the Psalms, remember, the first application is the
words of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Psalm 40, we know that
this is the Word of Christ because it's quoted in Hebrews chapter
10 in the New Testament as the very words of Christ, where we
read in verse 6, sacrifice and offerings, thou didst not desire,
mine ears is thou open, burnt offering and sin offering hast
thou not required, then said I, lo, I come, in the volume
of the book, it's written of me, I delight to do thy will,
O God, yea, thy law is within my heart. Now, that's quoted
in Hebrews chapter 10 as the very words of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now in this same psalm, where Christ is speaking, we
read in verse 12, For innumerable evils have encompassed me about,
mine iniquities, not my people's iniquities, mine iniquities have
taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up. They are
more than the hairs of my head, therefore my heart faileth me. In Psalm 69, This could also
be said to be a psalm of the cross, because in verses 20 and
21 we read, Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness.
I look for some to take pity. There was none for comforters,
but I found none. They gave me also gall for my
meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. Once again,
these are the words of the Lord from the cross. And in this 69th
psalm, where Christ Himself is speaking, He says in verse Five, O God, Thou knowest my
foolishness, and my sins are not hid from Thee. Now that's how truly the sins
of the elect became His sin. And that is why He was forsaken,
because that is what I deserve for His righteousness to be my
righteousness. My sin had to become his sin,
and he is treated as a damned soul, guilty before a thrice
holy God. I want to repeat that. For his
righteousness to be mine, my sin had to become his. For God to have heard him or
helped him at this time would have been wrong. Because the
wages of sin is death. God is holy. He's just. He must punish sin. And the wages
of sin is death. So, if the Father would have
heard Him or helped Him at this time, it would have been wrong,
because He was the sinner's substitute. He was made sin. The wages of
sin is death. He was made sin, so forsaken
He must be. Why was he forsaken? Because
this was God's eternal purpose. You see, in Revelation 13, verse
8, one of the most amazing Scriptures in all the Word of God reads
thusly. The land slain from the foundation
of the world. Before there was ever a sinner,
there was a Savior. And in eternity past, Christ
is the Lamb slain from the very foundation of the world. You see, this is God's purpose.
It was God's purpose to save His people, those in Christ. And it was God's purpose for
Christ to die for their sins. So when He was forsaken by God,
this was God's eternal purpose, that He purposed in Christ Jesus
our Lord. Him being delivered by the determined
counsel and foreknowledge of God. Did you hear that? Him being
delivered, not by Pilate and Herod and the Jews, Him being
delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, you have taken and with wicked hands have crucified and
slain. He was forsaken because it was
God's eternal purpose to save His people in the land. He was
forsaken that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. You know,
I've read so many Scriptures already from the Psalms, you
know, they pierced my hands and feet, they gave me gall to drink
or vinegar to drink, and they parted my garments. All these
happened that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. He was forsaken
that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? This is a fulfillment of what
David said would take place 1,000 years before it took place in
Psalm 22, 1. Why was he forsaken? That he
might glorify his Father. I want you to think about that.
He was forsaken that He might glorify His Father. Father, the
hour has come. Glorify Thy Son that Thy Son
also might glorify Thee. Oh, how He glorified God in His
being forsaken. He became obedient. to death,
even the death of the cross, and how highly He glorified God,
how He glorified God's justice, His impartial justice. Even when sin is on His Son,
He kills Him because God is just. How this honors His justice shall
not the judge of the earth do right. He was doing right when
He forsook His Son because the sins of God's elect became the
sins of the Lord Jesus Christ. He became guilty of them and
God forsook Him. Now somebody says, does that
mean He started sinning when He was made sin? Of course not.
His soul never sinned, but what's worse, his soul was made sin,
and God forsook him. But how this magnified not only
the justice of God, how this magnifies the wisdom of God.
God, in His infinite wisdom, has made a way for him to be
just, and yet justify somebody who's not just. He justifies
the ungodly. Only God could find a way to
do that, to justify the ungodly. He can take a sinner and make
it to where he's not guilty, truly not guilty, justified,
perfect before God. Oh, the wisdom of God in making
a way for him to remain just and yet justify a sinner. And
how this demonstrates the love and the mercy and the grace of
God that He would give His Son, that He would forsake His Son
for me. Oh, how He glorified every attribute
of God. Why was He forsaken? Because
of His love to His people. He would be forsaken. rather
than let his people be forsaken. Oh, the love of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I love my family. I've got a
wife and a daughter. If my daughter was guilty of
a crime and had to be punished for it, if I could, I'd take
her guilt and I'd be punished in her place. But I can't. That
wouldn't be right. That wouldn't be just. My wife,
I love her dearly. If she had a disease of some
kind, if I could, I would take her disease into my own body
and give her my health. But I cannot do that. The Lord
Jesus Christ can. And the Lord Jesus Christ did.
How He loves His people. Why, you ask? Well, the reason
is not found in His people. Only in His own great heart of
love. Having loved His own which were
in the world, He loved them to the end. Why was He forsaken? Because I deserve to be forsaken
and He took my place. because it was God's eternal
purpose that the Scripture might be fulfilled. He did it to glorify
God, and he did it because he loved his people. And finally,
what are the results of him being forsaken? We see he really was
forsaken by God. And there was reason for God
forsaking him. Now, what are the results of
him being forsaken by God? That means everybody he died
for, will never be forsaken. He said, I will never leave thee,
nor forsake thee. The songwriter said, the soul
that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, I will not, I will not
desert to his foes. That soul, though all hell should
endeavor to shake I'll never, no never, no never forsake. He will not forsake His people. That's the result of Him being
forsaken. God will never forsake me and
none of His people will forsake Him. Listen to this scripture
from Jeremiah chapter 32 verse 40. I will make an everlasting
covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do
them good But I put my fear in their hearts that they shall
not depart from me." He's going to make sure, because he was
forsaken, not only will he never forsake me, I'll never forsake
him. He'll put his fear in my heart and cause me to continue
and persevere all the way to the end. What are the results
of him being forsaken? The complete salvation of all
of God's elect. When he said, it is finished,
He didn't simply mean my suffering is over. He meant the accomplishment
of the salvation of all of his people. He said, I've glorified
thee on the earth. I've finished the work thou gavest
me to do. And what was the work he gave
him to do? To save his people. When he said
it is finished, he said they're all saved. My sin was put away. Righteousness is mine. That's
what He accomplished by Him being forsaken, the complete salvation
of all of His people. Listen to this Scripture. 2 Corinthians
5, verse 21. For He, God the Father, hath
made Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be sin for us. who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. You see, when he
was forsaken, the reason he was forsaken was because of sin.
But just as truly as my sin became his sin, His righteousness becomes
my righteousness. Now, here's the result of Him
being forsaken. All believers are nothing less
than the very righteousness of God. Now, that's why I'm not
afraid of judgment, because I am the righteousness of God in the
Lord Jesus Christ. What do I have to fear when I'm
nothing less than the very righteousness of God? That's what took place.
as a result of him being forsaken. Every believer is made the righteousness
of God. Now, believer, learn from this. Don't look to a thing from yourself. Look outside of yourself to Him
and find your complete salvation in Him. And to the unbeliever,
I say the same thing. Look to Him who was forsaken. Rely on Him who was forsaken
and you'll never be forsaken. The Lord was forsaken. I want to close with this scripture,
Lamentations 112. These are the words of the Lord. He says, Is it nothing to you,
all ye that pass by? Behold and see whether there
be any sorrow like my sorrow. which is done unto me, wherewith
the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger."
It's either nothing to you, or it's everything to you. This
is Todd Knight. We pray that God will be pleased
to make Himself known to you. That's our prayer. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.