Matthew 27, verse 45. I read it again and I make the
following introductory comments, that we might somehow lay hold
upon the solemnity, the power, the depth, the riches of these
words. In verse 45 of Matthew 27, now
from the 6th hour, 12 noon, 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, lama, sabbathani, which
interpreted is to say, my God, My God, why hast thou forsaken
me?" Now, when Moses was about 80 years of age, Moses had been
brought up in Egypt in the universities or colleges or whatever they
had then, educated as the son of the king, preparing him for
the throne of Egypt. And then at 40 years of age,
he left Egypt under pressure and gone out into the wilderness
and married and lived with his father-in-law's family. And for
40 years, something like that, 30 or 40 years, he kept watch
over his father-in-law's sheep. And he was near a mountain called
Mount Horeb, keeping the sheep. And as he walked about on the
mountain, his eyes caught sight of a strange thing. He saw a bush burning. And he
stood there and looked at it, but the bush was not consumed. It just kept burning. The same
bush just kept burning. How long, I don't know. He just
stood there and looked at it. And out of curiosity, as you
and I would also, He began to walk toward that bush to investigate
it. And as he came closer to the
bush, the scripture says, God spoke. And God said, Moses, put
off your shoes. Put off your shoes, for the place
on which you stand is holy ground. Can you imagine his thoughts
when he approached that burning bush and he heard God speak?
Moses, put off your shoes. The place on which you stand
is holy. Can you imagine his fears? Can
you imagine his apprehension? Can you imagine his feelings?
Well, God let him approach, but let him approach in the right
attitude. He did put off his shoes. He did realize where he
was. He did realize to whom he was
coming. And God did permit him to approach.
Now, this is the way I feel as I approach my text today. As
I went back, and even a moment ago in your hearing, and read
the events that took place prior to this, my God, why has thou
forsaken me? As I read about these events,
and I saw them unfold, I was overwhelmed. I think about this.
First of all, in the garden. the Son of God. And I know angels
must have sat around in glory and watched these things happen,
and just watched with amazement, because they weren't taken into
the counsel of God. They weren't taken into the mind
and purposes of God. They saw these things develop,
and you think, well, being an angel, they know what's going
on. Not necessarily, because it says something about which
things the angels desire to look into, doesn't it? And I know
they must have—here our Lord Jesus Christ is in the garden
with his disciples praying, and here comes one of his disciples
with a group of enemies. Band of officers and men from
the high priest and he walks up and kisses the master and
betrays him and sells him out for measly $18 18 can you think
of that? Here a man is selling the master
here a man has been with Christ for three and a half years and
he's selling him for $18 That's all he got $18 That's astounding And then our Lord allows these
soldiers to bind him and take him to Pilate's hall. He allows
them to mock him. And I read a moment ago how they
took a crown of thorns and just jammed it down on top of his
head as he sat there on a stool or a bench or something. And
he just permitted. He sat there while they pushed
that crown of thorns on his head and while they slapped him. And
while they put that reed in his right hand and took his own robe
off of him and put that old ugly scarlet robe on him, and then
they began to bow and mock, and he just sat there and permitted
that. And you know, the angels of God
must have, they must have been in complete silent wonder. When God, when a man touched
the art one day and God stoke him, smote him dead, when some
fellas offered strange fire before the Lord and he smote them dead,
when the people of Sodom carried on that awful perversion and
he smote them dead, and here his son sits there and common
ordinary soldiers walk up and clear their throats and spit
in his face. I just held in awe and wondered. Then he's led forth
from that place out to Golgotha's Hill, and there they strip him
naked and lay him on that cross, and they stand there and drive
nails in his hands and nails in his feet, and then lift him
up between two thieves. Here are men on either side of
him. The Son of God is crucified between two known, confessed,
condemned thieves. And then as he hangs there on
that cross, the people listen to him, wagging their heads and
saying, hey, you saved others yourself, you cannot save. If
you're the son of God, come down from the cross. You say you trusted
in God, let's see if God will have you now. My, my, let's see if God will
have you. Or you just tremble, you wonder,
when is the lightning going to fall? When is the world going
to split open? When is God going to take this
mass of human flesh and rebels and cast them into hell with
their shoes on? When is God going to have enough
of this? When is God going to seal their fate? When is the
cup going to run over? When is God Almighty going to
pour out his judgment? When is their foot going to slide?
It just goes on. It just goes on. He's the one that dies, not them. He's the one in agony, not them.
He's the one suffering, not them. And then about 12 noon, the scripture
said there was darkness over all the land. Darkness. And you know the people must
have been to some extent frightened when that took place. They wondered
about it. They stayed there. They sat there and I imagine
it got quiet and about all you could hear in that darkness All
you could hear were the groans of these thieves. Christ, the
only thing our Lord said, and I can sort of enter into this
because of who he is and his compassion, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. But
during this time of darkness, all you could hear were the groans,
the pain, the I've been in the hospital down here, walking down
the corridor, and I've heard people groaning in pain and agony. Their voice just pierces the
quietness of that hospital corridor. They just cry and groan. And
you could hear these groans, and then it was silent again.
And in that darkness, there was a cry with a loud voice. My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? My God. Prior to this time, he called
him Father. In the garden, he prayed, Father,
glorify me with the glory which I had with thee before the world
was. He said to his disciples, I go to my Father and your Father.
I ascend to the Father. He said to Pilate, when Pilate
said, don't you know I have power to crucify you, let you go? He
said, you could have no authority except it be given you of my
Father. When he first started hanging on this cross, he looked
down at those people then to heaven and said, Father, forgive
them. They know not what to do. But
here in this darkness, in this hour, in this time of gloom and
time of desertion, at three o'clock in the afternoon, our Lord cried
with a loud voice, my God, my God, my God, not Father, it's
my God. Why hast thou forsaken me?" Now,
it's said that the great reformer, Martin Luther, sat and looked
at this verse right here that you're looking at this morning.
It was told by his wife and others that he sat rigidly for hours
one day, neither eating nor drinking, hardly moving, just staring at
this verse of Scripture and reading it over and over and over again.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And finally he arose
from his chair, pushed it back, closed his Bible, and struck
his fist on the desk. And he was heard to exclaim,
God forsaking God, no man can understand that. Well, that's
true. No man can understand that. I'm
not saying that I understand it. You remember, I started the
message, and I said, Moses saw the bush, and he was curious,
and he was going to look into it. And God stopped him, and
he said, now, you're on holy ground. You take your shoes off,
but come on over here. Come on over here. I want to
talk to you. But now you're going to approach it with the right
spirit. So that's the thing. I look at this, and I see a greater
phenomenon than a bush burning that wasn't consumed. I see the
Son of God, God, their God of their God, in human flesh, hanging
on a cross between two feet, deserted by men, deserted by
friends, deserted by all men, despised and rejected, a man
of untold sorrow and suffering. And then the darkness over all
the land, as his blood flowed out, and he agonized, and his
tongue was cleaving to the roof of his mouth, and he could tell
all his bones, and he was in such awful soul agony. And then
he screamed with a loud voice, my God. He'd never addressed
the Father that way. My God, why? Why? But I want to know, and I believe
there's some answers to be found. I think with reverence we can
approach it, inquire thereunto, and see what it holds for us.
I'm not just going to say, well, there it is, and walk away. I'm
too interested. So I'm going to give three things.
Number one, the fact that he was deserted by God. Number two,
the reason. The reason why he was deserted
by God. And thirdly, the results. of
that suffering. Now, first of all, the fact.
Our Lord's sufferings were physical. Now, this is where most people
stop. Most preachers talk about the pain of the nails and the
pain of the thorns and the pain of the spear and the pain of
all these different things that lacerated back. Yes, our Lord
suffered great pain. great pain, great agony of body. Nobody has suffered any more,
I'm sure. But actually, the agony of Christ's
suffering, the great agony and the great pain and the great
suffering of Calvary was not physical at all. It was mental. and it was spiritual. The scripture
says he made his soul an offering for sin. If only we look at the
physical agony of Christ, if we only look at the physical
suffering, we're going to miss the blessing. We're going to
miss the true atonement. Listen to these scriptures. He
was a man of sorrows, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief.
The scripture says, our Lord speaking, my soul is exceeding
sorrowful, even unto death. The scripture says Jesus groaned
in spirit. He made his soul an offering
for sin. Actually, I don't know a great
deal about physical suffering. Many of you do. And I hesitate
to deal with it very much. But I do believe there's greater
agony in heart and soul suffering than there is physical suffering.
I believe that a person can stand physical pain better and be prepared
to take it than total suffering of soul and heart. And I mean
the kind that Christ endured. Now, soul agony, the presence
of sin and the conflict with sin and with Satan wouldn't affect
us nearly as much as it would Christ. It's like this. Suppose your beloved son or daughter
walks out here this morning. This morning, we get out of church
and we walk out here and one of these little children, say
Stan's little girl or Bill's little boy, one of them gets
loose and runs out in the street and a car hits him, just smashes
him. I don't know whether we could endure it or not. I don't
know if Stan and Sue would be uncontrollably in agony, unconsolable. A stranger standing over there
on the corner and sees it, he says, oh, that poor little girl,
or oh, that poor little boy, he's affected, but not like you
are. You see what I'm saying? He's affected. He hates to see
it. It breaks you, but not like you. And this is what I'm saying. You and I, in this soul agony
and heart pain and suffering, we think we know a little bit
about it, but it increases because of who he is standing. You see
what I'm saying? You don't mind me using that, do you? You see,
Christ, Sin is the father's thing from
him. It's the thing that's most contrary
to him. Sin and shame and filth and guilt
and these are things that are not of God. And when these were
laid on him, I'm saying that his physical pain compared to
his soul suffering is like a passerby viewing an accident and those
who are involved in it. There's more than that much difference.
So here's, secondly now, the scripture says, the soul that
sinneth it shall surely die. the soul that sinned. Somehow
our master, now listen to me, I'm saying that his sufferings
on the cross mainly were spiritual, mainly were heart and soul, mental,
emotional, spiritual. Secondly, I'm saying that somehow
our master, I can't explain how, but somehow he was so identified
with us in the transgression. That's right. He was numbered
with the transgressors, therefore he was in the transgression.
He's so identified with us, He's so made sin with us and for us,
He's so bearing our guilt in such a way that He was treated
as a damned soul. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying
that He, before the Father, right here in this time of darkness,
in this time of desertion, our Lord Jesus Christ actually lost
the presence of the Father. And we'll show you that in a
minute, I think I've got a little light on it, but he was deserted
of God. When people shall stand at the
judgment and hear God Almighty say, depart from me, that's exactly
what our Lord experienced. Depart from me. Depart from me. Depart from me. He suffered as
a lost soul will suffer. All right, thirdly, under the
same heading. Now, from eternity past, our
Lord Jesus Christ said, I and my Father are one. My Father
is with me. My Father heareth me always. My Father let this cup pass from
me. My Father this, and my Father
that. And on more than one occasion,
the Heavenly Father spoke and said, this is my Son. This is
my son with whom I'm well pleased. Even on the cross, there was
an acknowledgment of that relationship. But now, but now, in this dark
and awful hour, the cry is heard from that very one who had said,
my father, and of whom the father had said, this is my son. The
cry is heard in that dark hour of agony. My God, my God, why? hast thou forsaken me." So it
was real, it was real, real desertion, a real experience, a cry of a
lost soul from hell, separation from God, depart from me. Now
then, how can it be said that God is gone when God is everywhere? How can it be said that God is
gone when God is everywhere? Listen to David in Psalm 139. Turn over to Psalm 139. Psalm
139. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, God
is gone! God has deserted me! God has
forsaken me! God is gone. How can that be?
David said in Psalm 139, listen, Verse 7, Whither shall I go from
thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If
I ascend into heaven, art there. If I make my bed in hell, they
tell me that's the grave, behold, art there. If I take the wings
of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand hold me. Actually, let me tell you this.
Men who are under the judgment and wrath of God are still in
the presence of God. It's impossible for anything
to exist outside of God. The scripture says, by Him all
things consist. When our Lord Jesus Christ said,
God is gone, why hast thou forsaken me? God was there. God was there. What do you mean, preacher? God
of wrath was there. Who do you think was pouring
wrath on him? The God of wrath was there. Whose wrath do you
think he was bearing? The God of judgment was there.
The God of vengeance was there. The God of justice was there.
But the mercy was gone. The presence
of God's mercy, God's favor, God's love, and God's grace I'm
saying, my friend, there's no way that God can withdraw his
essential presence. No way. No way God can withdraw
his essential presence, because by him all things consist. It's
not as if, and we use the term, God turned his back. I'm saying that God's everywhere.
God's everywhere. Even hell exists by the permission
of God. of the power of God. But what
we're talking about here is the thing that we need to fear. I'm
telling you this, it's not just getting to the judgment and hearing
God say, then depart from me. My friends, we need to fear losing
right now the presence of God, right now the favor of God, the
common grace of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ cried,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? King Saul experienced the
absence of the Spirit of God. God withdrew his favor. God withdrew
his presence. God withdrew his mercy. And this
is what you and I need to be aware of right now. It's not
just fear and death. It's not just fear and judgment.
It's not fear and hell. Death and judgment and hell are
all because of the withdrawing of God's presence, mercy. We need to fear right now the
removal of His common grace. This is why men go on in indifference
and why they go on in carelessness, taking for granted that until
they come to the deathbed, they're going to have God's favor. They're
going to have God's love. They're going to have God's common
grace. And it's not so. A man can lose this and live. Our Lord was living. The Master
was living on the cross when He said, My God is gone. My God is gone. And you think that I'm speaking
something that's not possible? I am not. David prayed, Lord, take not
thy Holy Spirit from me. And our Lord Jesus Christ is
right now, bearing our shame, transgression, and guilt, a lost
soul, having lost the presence of God. What presence? The presence
of God's favor, kindness, compassion, grace, love, and mercy. He lost
it. And that's when he screamed.
That's when the agony increased to the highest point. That's
when his suffering reached the climax. Why hast thou forsaken me?" And I'll tell you when that happens,
a man is from then on a lost soul. No hope, no hope of recovery. God is gone. He's faded. God's
still there. God of wrath, God of vengeance,
the God of judgment, the God of justice, the God who takes
his sword and whets it. and makes it gleam, and has nothing
for man, nothing for nothing. God gave him up. You know what
it says? God gave him up. Oh, kiss the
son, lay at his feet, cling to him, and he be not pleased to
remove his presence. His common grace. He'll never
move his presence. But the God, we want nothing
to do with an absolute God. We want nothing to do with God
in his essential holiness. We want relationship with God
and communion with God in his mercy, always dripping with mercy. God is gone. All right, secondly,
the reason for his desertion. No need to speculate on this.
I read several sermons on this subject when I was preparing
to speak on it the other day. And I found some men do a lot
of speculation on why he cried this, but I'll tell you the reason
for his desertion. Jesus Christ, I know why he was
deserted. He was my substitute. He was
my sin offering. He was my representative. Isaiah
tells us, that turned to Isaiah 53. It's as clear as a bell here
in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah why Jesus Christ was deserted.
He was no private person. He was a representative. He was
a sin offering. He was one who stood in the room
instead of another. It said in verse 4 of Isaiah
53, he had borne our griefs. He carried our sorrows. He was
acquainted with grief. We did esteem him stricken, smitten
of God, smitten of a God of justice and afflicted. But he was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes
we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone
astray. We've turned, every one, to his own way. And the Lord,
the Lord God, on purpose for his own glory, laid on Christ
the iniquity of every one of us. I know why he suffered. He
was deserted and forsaken of God because I deserve to be deserted
and forsaken of God. He lost God's favor and mercy
and grace and the presence in that sense because I deserve
to lose it. The doctrine of substitution
is the key to the whole work of Christ's suffering and agony.
Substitution. He was in this world born of
a woman. Obedient before the law, tempted, hated, despised,
hung on that cross in my room place instead. And as I deserve
the wrath of God, as I deserve to be forsaken of God, as I deserve
to know that God has left me alone to return no more, so Jesus
Christ standing in my room instead was deserted by God Almighty. You learn two words in relationship
to Christ, and you'll learn the gospel. And if you don't learn
these two words, you'll never learn the gospel. And these two
words are substitution and satisfaction. Christ is our substitute who
stood in our room and stood in place, did all God required,
did all I needed. You see, Christ is a twofold
Savior. He's God's Savior, and He's my
Savior. God's Savior? Yes, sir. He enabled God to be
just and justified. He's God's Savior. appointed
by God, anointed by God, ordained by God, sent by God for God's
benefit, that God might be just and justify. But he's my Savior
in the sense that he's my shepherd, I shall not want. He's my shepherd,
I shall not lack. He's my shepherd, providing all
my needs. He's my great shepherd, good
shepherd, cheap shepherd, and all I need is in Christ. And
that's why he was deserted. You say, well, he knew why he
was deserted. Why'd he say this? Okay, I'll
offer some answer. Whether it'll be any good, I
don't know. But I know Christ knew why the Father deserted
Him. I know He knew that. Same way
I know that God knew where Adam was when He said, Adam, where
art thou? You reckon, Mike, God didn't
know where Adam was? I'm sure He did, but still said, Adam! Where art thou?" He said that
for Adam's benefit. You reckon he knew where Cain
was when he came to, where Abel was when he came to Cain? He
said, Cain, where's your brother? Where's your brother? Am I my
brother's keeper? I know where your brother was,
and I wanted to hear that out of your mouth, too. He sat Peter
down one day and said, Peter, do you love me? Don't you reckon
he knew that? Peter said he knew it. When our
Lord Jesus Christ screamed for all of heaven to hear it, and
earth to hear it, and hell to hear it, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? He wasn't seeking information. Not information. He dwelt on
that why that you might dwell on it. who have ears to hear. If you've got ears to hear this
morning, you better hear that cry. Because if you don't, if
it doesn't come in here, someday it's going to come out of here,
when you realize that he's gone. If it doesn't come in here, if
it comes in here, the reality of it, the reason for it, the
glorious results of it, the accomplishment of it, The transaction that took
place there, if it comes in here and registers in this mind and
down to this heart of appreciation and love and reception, you'll
never say it, because that's last of all the results of this
suffering. My God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Because he said that, I'll never
say it. Now, never, because he promised
this. He said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. Turn to
John 19. Now, I don't know why that the four writers of the,
what we call the Gospels, I don't know why we call it the Gospel
according to St. Mark, because the Gospel is in
the book of Romans, Isaiah, and all the rest of these books is
Gospel. But these men do not record all seven of the sayings
of Christ on the cross. Our Lord said, Father, forgive
them. That's in one Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, and not
in another. He said, Woman, behold thy son. Son, behold thy mother.
He said to the thief, To they shalt thou be with me in paradise.
He said, I thirst. He said, Why art thou forsaken
me? He said, It is finished. He said, Into thy hands I commend
my spirit. Those were the seven sayings.
But some of the writers do not record two or three, and some
don't record two or three others. But John did write this. In John
19.28. John wrote, after this, Jesus
knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture
might be fulfilled, said, I thirst. Why is it that I'll never hear
God say depart from me? Why is it I'll never know, experience
the absence of God's presence and grace and mercy? Because
Christ said it's fulfilled. He was my substitute. All the
promises, prophecies, tithes, pictures, all the justice, law,
honored, satisfied, all the debt is paid, all the requirements
for salvation for God's elect are met. And that's when he cried,
Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Father, forgive them. In the
darkness of desertion, my God, forsaken. But now it's finished,
and it's fulfilled, and now the Redeemer. And He's never, remember,
never, ever, never considered in His person and work except
as we're considered. We're in Him. And we're never
considered except in Him. So when the Lord Jesus said,
Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit, this may be hard for
you to grasp, but I went with Him. When He ascended to the
Father, I went with Him. And there's therefore now no
judgment to them who are in Christ. There's no condemnation to them
who are in Christ. In Christ there is no sin. In
Christ we're seated with Him in the heavenlies. And I know
that's just so contrary to all of the religion of this day of
striving and searching and doing and going and giving and wrestling
and working and all these things, but I can never lose the favor
of God because I'm seated on the right hand of God. He said, I'll never leave you.
The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, I will not, I will
not desert to its foes. That soul, though all hell, should
endeavor to shake. I'll never, no never, no never,
no never, no never, no never, no never forsake. I'll never
say that. You'll never say who rests in
Christ. My God, why stop for a second? Our Father, for this word and
for your presence and revelation of your truth and gospel, we
thank you. We haven't words to say. Lord,
we don't need to say words. We could all just bow here before
thee in submission and humility and faith and just groan. Groan
over our sins and shortcomings and failures. grown over our
inability. But Lord, as we've grown, we
rejoice in your mercies, in your love, in your favor, in your
gift, unspeakable gift of your son. We'll never, ever lose this
privilege of calling thee our father. Never. Because he did. He did. He was forsaken. He was
treated as a lost soul, because these lost souls deserve to be
separated from your presence. But it's over. All things are
now accomplished. It's finished. The work is completed. You gave him to do. That's our
work. We're reconciled to thee. There's
no charge and no condemnation, and none can separate us from
your love in Christ Jesus. Give us that rest and peace and
assurance and that confidence so we can enjoy these things
which are written and enjoy this brief journey. in which we're
engaged, till we're awake with our likeness. Bless the word
now, for Christ's sake we pray, amen.