We're turning for our message
this morning to the book of Matthew, chapter 27. I'm going to read
one verse of scripture found in Matthew 27, verse 46. And
it says about the ninth hour that Jesus cried with a loud
voice, saying, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Now, we have concluded from the
Scriptures that our Lord's statements from the cross were seven, seven
words from the cross, all of them very meaningful, all of
them very instructive. In fact, all that our Master
says is of the utmost importance and value to the believer, but
most especially what our Master cried from the cross of Calvary.
There were seven statements made from the cross. I'm going to
give you all of these statements and what I believe the Holy Spirit
is teaching us in these statements, but my message will be primarily
on this central word, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? Now, the first words that Christ
uttered from the cross, He had not been long on that cross,
looking down into the hate and the ridicule and the mocking
of the people about the cross. The Scripture says they mocked
him and ridiculed him, and they cried, if you be the Christ,
come down from the cross and we'll believe on you. They said
he trusted in God. Let's see if God will have him
now. And all of these things, they shot out their lips and
uttered all kind of obscenities and blasphemy and words of ridicule,
and Christ, looking down into that sea of faces, sea of humanity,
filled with hatred and malice, lifted His eyes to heaven, and
He said, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. Father,
forgive them. They know not what they do. Here
is Christ the Mediator. Here is Christ the Intercessor,
Christ praying for us. When we were sinners, enemies,
Christ died for us. And as enemies and sinners, Christ
is our Mediator. When we walked in unbelief, when
we walked in rebellion, Christ as Mediator prayed for us. On the cross of Calvary, Our
hands nailed Him to that cross. Our sins put Him there. It was
our voices that cried, crucify Him. We'll not have this man
reign over us. Give us Barabbas. And even then,
He prayed for us. And today, Christ Jesus the Lord,
on the right hand of the majesty of God, prays for us. He's our
mediator. He's our intercessor. The Apostle
Paul says, who can condemn us? Christ died for us, yea, rather
is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who intercedes,
whoever lives to intercede for us. He prays for us. Our Lord
Jesus Christ prays for his people. And not only in this statement
do I see Christ the Mediator. Now listen to me. Christ the
Intercessor, Christ the Mediator. Father, forgive them, they know
not what they do. Christ praying for his people.
Many of these folks around the cross were converted. When Peter
preached at Pentecost, he said, you with wicked hands have crucified
the Lord of glory. And him whom you crucified, the
Father hath exalted and made to be both Lord and Christ. And
they cried, men and brethren, what shall we do? These very
people for whom our Lord prays, were brought to a knowledge of
Christ later. These Christ-haters, Christ-crucifiers became preachers
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And here's Christ is praying
for his own. He's the mediator. He's the intercessor. And that's what we see in these
words from the cross, Christ praying for his enemies. But
I see something else here. I see Christ, our example, teaching
us that we're to pray for our enemies. You know, the world
says, love them that love you and hate them that hate you.
But Christ said, I say unto you, love your enemies. Pray for them
which despitefully use you. Love them, don't hate them. Pray
for them, don't despise them. And this is the, Christ is the
example of believers. And we are to, we are to not
seek vengeance, we are to not wish our enemies bad times and
unfortunate things, we're to pray for them. We're to seek
their salvation and seek their good and love them who do not
even love us. All right, the second statement
from the cross. Our Lord said, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. The master
was crucified between two thieves, two convicted thieves. And the
scripture says both of them railed on him, not just one, but both
of them railed on him and had about the same things to say
to him and about him that the crowd was saying. But one of
them stopped cursing and stopped railing on Christ and turned
to the other thief and said, do you not fear God, seeing that
you're in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we
receive the due and just reward for our deeds." And then the
Scripture says he turned to Christ and he said, Lord, remember me
when you come into your kingdom. Someone said, on Calvary's hill,
on Golgotha's mountain, there were three men. One died in his
sins. That was the thief that cursed
and railed and blasphemed and continued to do so until he died. One died to sin. That was the
one who believed on Christ, who looked to Christ, and who asked
for mercy. And one man, the central figure,
the Son of God, died for sin. One died in his sins. One died
by the grace of God to his sins. And one died for sin. But we
see here Christ, the sovereign king. Christ, the sovereign king. For when that thief looked at
him and he said, I'm getting what I deserve, he confessed
his sins. I'm getting what I deserve. I
am a sinner. I've broken man's law and God's
law, and this is exactly what I deserve. Lord, remember me
when you come into your kingdom. He sought and sued for mercy. And the sovereign king, the Lord
Jesus Christ, gave him that mercy. He said, today thou shalt be
with me in paradise. Our Lord has the keys of heaven. Our Lord has the keys of the
kingdom of God. And he opened the gate of heaven
for a repentant, believing thief who sought for mercy. Christ
opens and no man closes, and Christ shuts and no man closes,
Christ shuts and no man opens. We see the sovereign king who
has salvation in his hands to give to whom he will. He said,
I'll be merciful to whom I'll be merciful, and I'll be compassionate
to whom I will be compassionate. Can we learn something here,
Christ the example? Yes, I believe we can learn something
here. Two things. First of all, we can learn the
need of repentance and faith. This believing thief repenting. He confessed his sins and he
sought for mercy. And another example we can learn
is this, bowing to the royal claims of King Jesus. The Lord
who died on the cross is not a pitiful reformer. He is not
a defeated religious messiah. He is not one who has come to
accomplish something which he did not accomplish. He is a king.
This thief recognized him as a king. He said, you're not going
to stay dead. You're coming into a kingdom.
Remember me when you come into your kingdom. And this thing
of submission to Christ is a submission not to a reformer, not to a defeated
Messiah, but to a Messiah king, a sovereign. We bow to the royal
claims of King Jesus. Who is Jesus Christ? What is
Jesus Christ? Is he just a pitiful figure,
or is he a king, a sovereign? This thief was able to see the
majesty of Christ even in all of that blood and gore and suffering
and weakness. He saw a king. He saw a king. And he bowed to the royal claims
of that king. Christ the sovereign. So in these
words of Christ, Father forgive them. I see Christ the mediator,
Christ the intercessor, Christ actually praying for the forgiveness
and the pardon of those whose hearts are filled with hatred
for him, his enemies. And I see Christ the king, and
he turned in grandeur and sovereignty and total control and said to
that thief, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. He's
the king, and he's the king of the kingdom. And his subjects
are subject to him, and they're submissive to him, and they bow
to his royal claims. The third word from the cross.
Our Lord looked down around that cross at the people, and there
was a woman there by the name of Mary who had borne him as
an infant. And over here was his beloved
disciple, John, who leaned on his breast at the Last Supper,
the one, the Scripture says, whom Christ loved. He loved them
all. But this statement is often made of John, the one whom the
Lord loved, the beloved disciple. He looked at Mary, and he said,
Woman, behold thy son. Son, behold thy mother. That
was his third statement from the cross. Preacher, what do
you see in that? Well, I see a lot of things. I see Christ's
compassion, even in the agonies of death, even in the horrible
mockings and sufferings of of this experience in redeeming
his people, and with heaven turned away from him, and hell besieging
him, and the people of this world filled with hatred for him, and
all had forsaken him, and he walked the winepress of God's
wrath alone. Yet in all of this, and the very
climax of everything before and everything following, meeting
together upon his head on this place of the skull, yet he had
time. to take care of one who was dear
to him. He had time to show compassion
and affection and tenderness to one who was dear to him, and
he provided for her. But, my friend, this is the thing
that's a... And people will major on that
and the importance of his relationship with Mary and so forth, but here
is the thing that is uppermost in this statement. We see Christ
the man. Christ the man, the humanity
of Jesus Christ. And we talked about Christ the
intercessor and Christ the mediator and Christ the sovereign king.
But Jesus Christ is not only the king, he is a man. He called himself Son of God.
He called himself Son of Man. He was numbered with us. He was
identified with us. He was one with us. He was a
man of sorrows acquainted with grief. When he stood before Pilate,
And Pilate spoke to the people. He pointed to Christ and he said,
Behold the man, the man. And when Paul wrote to Timothy
in 1 Timothy 2, verse 5, he said there's one mediator between
God and men. That's the man, Christ Jesus.
Yes, my friend, look upon Jesus of Nazareth as God, sovereign
Lord and King, who was with God from the beginning, who thought
it not robbery to be equal with God. But the Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us. And in all things, in all points,
He was identified with us. He was a man. The two natures
in one body, God as if He were not man, totally God, completely
God. And man, so identified with us,
so completely identified. in suffering, and sorrow, and
thirst, and hunger, and weariness, and pain, and temptation, and
trial, and all of these things. He was a man. And he was speaking
of the woman who, on this earth, as Jesus of Nazareth, was his
mother. And he was providing. Now, can
we learn something from this? Yes, we can learn a whole lot
from this. The thing that the evangelist is presenting is the
humanity of Christ and his identification with us. But there's something
else that you and I can learn to, and that's caring for those
who are our responsibility to care for. You know, the Scripture
says a man doesn't provide for his own house. He's worse than
an infidel. And we're to care for our mothers
and our fathers. We're to care for our brothers
and sisters. We're to care for believers who are brothers and
sisters. We're to seek not our own things, but the things of
others. We're to look not our own welfare. to be taken up in
a selfish circle of providing for our own needs and our own
desires. But our hearts, even when we're
busiest and when we feel that we have the most important task
in the world upon us, waiting down upon our shoulders, we never
get too busy to care for the needs of other people, especially
those who are our responsibility to care for. to care for them,
write to them, call them, provide for their food and clothing and
shelter. Don't get too big and too important
that you forget those little, most important things. And this
Christ on the cross the King of kings and Lord of lords, redeeming
a multitude which no man can number, as the stars of the sky
and the sands of the seashore, even deserted by the heavenly
Father, bearing the wrath of sin, the wrath of man, the wrath
of hell. And yet in a quiet moment, He
says, Woman, behold, I say." You think about it. Well, now,
the fourth statement from the cross, I read it a moment ago,
and we'll skip over it right now and come back to it. Here's
the fifth statement. He cried, you can imagine there
on that cross with the nails in his hands and feet, and he'd
already been beaten, his back lacerated with a cat of nine
tails, a crown of thorns upon his brow, his body stretched
until you could tell all his bones, his mouth so dry and his
tongue swollen, and he cried, I thirst, I thirst, I thirst. My friend, I see here Christ
the sufferer. Our Lord suffered as no man ever
suffered. If you'll read Isaiah chapter
53 in the Old Testament, you'll find this scene of Calvary presented
as in Psalm 22. But we have in Isaiah 53 the
sovereign Savior, the sovereign Savior. Verse 1 says, To whom
is the arm of the Lord revealed? It's revealed to those to whom
the Lord is pleased to reveal it. All men do not have eyes
to see who He is and what He did and why He did it and where
He is now. All men do not have ears to hear
the voice of prophecy and the voice of God and the voice of
His gospel and the voice of His Son. But He's a sovereign Savior. He'll reveal it to whom He will.
He'll open eyes, just like He did down here on the earth, physical
blindness. He opened their eyes. Well, He
opens the eyes of the spiritually blind. And he delivers the captive. But now, in Isaiah 53, you have
the sovereign Savior, and you have the silent Savior. He opened
not his mouth. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter. He was dying for his people. He had a purpose to accomplish
and a work to perform and a redemption to finish, and he was a silent
Savior. And you have in Isaiah 53 the satisfied Savior. He says,
see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. And you have in
Isaiah 53 the sufficient Savior. By His stripes we're healed,
not ought to be healed or could be healed or would be healed
or should be healed, but are healed. It's a sufficient Savior. But my friend, you have the suffering
Savior. And our Lord's sufferings were
not confined only to His body. He gave His soul, He made His
soul an offering for sin. You see, the sufferings of a
body alone could not atone for the sins of a soul. Our bodies
are but instruments of sin. Our soul is the source of sin. And our Lord told His disciples,
don't be afraid of them that kill the body. I'll tell you
whom you shall fear. Fear Him who's able to cast you
body and soul into hell. What is hell? Well, hell is memory.
Son, remember, Abraham said, to the rich man in hell. Remember,
on the earth you had good things. Hell is truth realized too late. He said, send Nazareth back to
my five brothers that they come not to this awful place. There
are no unbelievers in hell. Everybody down there knows that
Christ is the way of life. Hell is truth realized too late.
Hell is unfulfilled lust. But hell is soul suffering. It's
separation from God. That's what hell is, separation
from God. And Christ suffered. He suffered
in body and He suffered in soul. But then we have the sick saying,
Christ cried, it's finished. He cried with a loud voice about
the ninth hour, it is finished. Here you have Christ the Redeemer. Christ the Redeemer. It's finished. What's finished? His life on
earth? Well, that was finished. He said,
I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go not away, the Holy
Spirit will not come. What's finished? His sufferings?
Yes, they were finished. What's finished? The Jewish ceremonial
law? Completely finished. The Sabbath
days and the washings and ceremonies and all of these things fulfilled.
It's finished. What's finished? Here's what's
finished. His redemptive work. He said, I have finished the
work that thou gavest me to do. He has finished all that the
law requires, all that justice requires, all that God requires
for a sinner to be saved from his sins and pardoned from his
iniquity and made a child of the King. Jesus paid it all.
All the dead I owed, sin left a crimson stain, he washed it
white as snow. Dear dying Lamb, thy precious
blood shall never lose its power till all the ransomed Church
of God be saved to sin no more." Then the seventh saying, Christ
cried, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Where is
Jesus Christ now? He's at the right hand of the
majesty on high. Here's Christ the conqueror,
Christ the victor. Christ, who accomplished His
purpose, going back to the Father, who gave Him that work to do
for all eternity. Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty, the victor, the conqueror, Jesus
Christ, who did what He came to do. But of all these seven
sayings, there's one central point. Someone called it the
center point of suffering. Our Lord Jesus Christ, right
in the middle of all of this that happened at Calvary, he
lifted his eyes and cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? My God, why hast thou forsaken
me? You know, Martin Luther, I feel
like that I'm on holy ground when I'm talking about this particular
saying from the cross. I feel like Moses who stood before
the bush that burned but was not consumed, and God said, take
off your shoes. You're on holy ground. I know
Jesus Christ is God. The scripture says there are
three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the
Holy Ghost, and these three are one. And Jesus Christ is God
in human flesh. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father. But Martin Luther was studying
this verse one day, and his wife said he sat there for hours just
staring at this one verse. My God, why hast thou forsaken
me? He wouldn't eat, he wouldn't
rest, but every once in a while he'd read that verse aloud. My
God, why hast thou forsaken me? In a few moments, he got up from
his desk and he pounded the desk and he said, God forsaking God. No man can understand that. And
my friend, I'm not trying to understand it. I'm not going
to spend my time trying to tell you how that God the Father could
turn his back on God the Son. I just know that it happened.
Christ said, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? But I can tell
you why. I can give you three words. that'll
tell you why the Father turned his back on the Son, why Christ
was forsaken on that cross. And the first word is this, substitution. Now, you learned that word, substitution.
Somebody said the gospel could be summed up in one word. It
could be summed up in the word substitution. Christ died for
our sins. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes
we're healed. He was made sin for us who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Christ hath redeemed us from the law, being made a curse for
us. So here is the reason the Father
turned his back on him. He was forsaken because those
whom he represented deserved to be forsaken. He was judged
and cast out because those whom he represented deserved to be
judged and cast out. He bore the wrath of God and
the hail of God, because those whom he represented deserved
to bear the wrath of God. That's why the Father turned
his back on him. He became sin. Christ became
sin. He took on himself, in his soul
and body, all the sins of all believers, of all nations, and
all generations, of all time. What a mass of sin concentrated
at one point, at one time, upon one person. Christ was all believers
in one. Substitution. And when that was
over, when God's wrath had been poured out upon His Son, and
Christ actually took our hell. Hell is separation from God.
And He was separated. I'm not explaining how, I'm just
telling you why. The second word is reality. Reality. My friend 1 Peter 2.24 says,
He bore our sins in His body on the tree. The sins were real.
Our sins, it wasn't representation like it was the Old Testament
sacrifices, it was reality. The sin was real, and the wrath
was real, and the hell was real, and the death was real, and the
grave was real, because Christ was real. He was a man in the
flesh, the Son of Man. You see that? What is hell? Separation from God. And Christ
Jesus in that hour, when he cried, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Jesus Christ, our substitute,
in reality, was separated from the Father for our sake. That's the reason we'll never
be separated from the Father, because it's already been done.
All right, the last word is satisfaction. satisfaction. He put away our
sins by the sacrifice of Himself. Now they're gone. My sins are
gone. He actually put them away by one offering. He has perfected
forever them that are sanctified. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanseth us from all sin. His death is not an offer. His
death is a sin offering. It's a fulfillment. He hath put
away sin by the sacrifice of himself. That's the reason Paul
in Romans 8 asks these three questions. Who can lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? The charge has been laid on Christ.
The debt's been paid. Who is he that condemned it?
Christ has died. Well, who can separate me from
the love of Christ? No one, because my surety, my
substitute in reality has satisfied God's justice and God's righteousness
and God's love on my behalf. I'll never cry. Why has thou
forsaken me? Because he cried in my place. He died in my place. That's the
gospel. That's the best I can preach.