Forsaken

You know from God's word. Why those difficult times come? Trials build a humility into our demeanor, 2 Corinthians 12, 7. Painful times are used by God to correct us. Hebrews chapter 12, verses 5 to 11.

Difficulties deepen our dependence upon God, 2 Corinthians 12, 9, and 10. Times of testing just weave perseverance into the fabric of our faith, James chapter 1, verse 12.

So when it seems like God is breaking us down, He's actually building us up. Why would Jesus, who's the Son of God, cry out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? This anguished plea, spoken during his final moments on the cross, reveals a profound mystery at the heart of our salvation. Today on Wisdom for the Heart, Stephen Davey takes you to Golgotha, where the weight of humanity's sin falls upon Jesus. He'll explore the spiritual, emotional, and cosmic dimension of this cry.

where divine justice meets divine mercy. Keep listening as we reflect on the most mysterious and staggering cry of all scripture. Here's Stephen with today's message. Over these past few studies. We've made our way to a hill nicknamed The skull Cranium in Greek.

Gaugasa in Aramaic. In Latin, Gives us our word Calvary. There on that wind-swept hill, I imagine, as it were, a monument. that could effectively read Divine volunteer. The substitute.

For you and me. In fact, I recommend you take your Bibles and turn to Romans chapter 5 and verse 8. And get out your pen or your pencil. Mm. Write your name, as I have, in the margin of that verse.

If you've placed your faith in Jesus Christ. as your substitute.

Now the verse reads, But God shows His love for us. In that while we were still sinners, Christ died for And I have written here. Stephen Davey. Write your name there. Christ died For you, this is the gospel, beloved.

This is our only hope. This is our greatest gift. He was born for this. He was born. to be our substitute.

Now, from that cross, we have listened together and watched as Jesus made three statements. We've covered three of the seven thus far. The first, we can, frankly, easily understand. Father, forgive them. For they know not what they do.

We would expect him to say this. We know he's full of compassion. We can understand it. Though it is Marvelous indeed. We can understand why he would punish.

pardon uh this dying thief. Promise him eternal paradise today. You will be with me in paradise.

Well, we know he's the savior of sinners. We marvel Uh But we would expect it. We can understand why Jesus gave Mary to John. Jesus fulfilled the commandment to honor father and mother, to take care of an aging widowed mother named Mary. He's fulfilling as the eldest son his legal responsibility.

in honoring his mother.

Now, these are statements that we marvel at. And I hope with me you've come to deeply appreciate them.

Now we come to the Lord's fourth statement, which is not only marvelous, it is. Mysterious. We'll look at it in depth in a moment, but it's familiar to everyone. Jesus says in the depths of his agony, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? What a mystery.

Spurgeon writes: It is like a deep abyss. You look into it and you cannot see the bottom. We marvel, we worship. But we do not fully comprehend. What a mystery.

What a comfort, by the way. How many Christians through the years have been scolded for asking God why?

Well, Jesus did. In fact, this is the only time he asks his father a question, and it begins with the word. Why? And Jesus can.

Well, you can. Even if you know... If you're an older believer, especially, and Jesus certainly knew why the answer, you know, from God's word. Why those difficult times come? Trials.

Build humility into our demeanor, 2 Corinthians 12, 7. Painful times are used by God to correct us, Hebrews 12, verses 5 to 11. Difficulties deepen our dependence upon God, 2 Corinthians 12, 9 and 10. Times of testing just weave perseverance into the fabric of our faith, James chapter 1, verse 12.

So when it seems like God is breaking us down, He's actually building us up. Trials make us more like the character of Christ, Romans 8:29.

Sorrows make us anticipate heaven all the more, Revelation 21:4. We know these reasons. And older Christians especially know the Word of God, which delivers them to us. But that still doesn't mean we can't ask why. Jesus knew the scriptures by heart.

He was the most spiritually mature man. to ever walk the planet and he will ask Why? You see, even though you might know the verses and principles that I just rattled off. when the pressure is on. When the pain intensifies.

Where the sorrows increase and there's no end in sight. In that emotionally exhausted, pain filled state, the question races heavenward, doesn't it? Why God Why Now Why Me? Like you could woodenly translate what Jesus says. Why me?

Have you forsaken? And that's where we find him. Fully God. Yet now fully manned in this demonstration, Asking this question, which one author says is the most staggering sentence. in the record.

of scripture.

So let's try to dig into it a little bit. will only skim the surface.

Now Luke's gospel does not include this statement. This of the seven. We have to travel over to the narrative of Matthew's Gospels, so turn there to Matthew chapter 27. Matthew sets the scene. for us here at verse 45.

You might notice. For now, just verse 45.

Now From the sixth hour. There was darkness. Over all the land until the ninth hour. From the sixth hour, that's noon. You might write that in the margin.

Until three. In the afternoon. Then all of a sudden, you have a supernaturally imposed darkness. It's like this thick. Kurtive.

Now suddenly shrouds the earth. blocking out the sun. The word for land here, darkness over all the land, is the word gay. It is translated in other passages, earth. This is global darkness.

like the global flood. In fact, we have extra-biblical accounts from history that refer to unusual darkness. Dating to this period of time.

So, by this miraculous act of God Almighty. Midday suddenly becomes Midnight. The Son of God is going to hang now in silence during these three hours of thick darkness. until after he makes this particular cry. From the cross.

And by the way, the Bible doesn't Insert for us reasons for this miraculous darkness, but there are numerous biblical clues. that offer insight. One, from the context of history, we know the rabbis had long taught here during these days that the darkening of the sky was a sign of. Impending judgment from God upon the world for some terrible crime.

Well, without a doubt, the greatest crime in all of human history is taking place right now. Secondly, darkness was a symbol of sorrow. The prophet Amos wrote a text that prophesies of the coming tribulation, but it's a text that can have profound application to the crucifixion. The prophet Amos writes this in chapter 8, verses 9 and 10. And on that day, declares the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.

I will make it like the morning for an only sun and the end of it like a bitter day. Nothing could be more fitting. For this day of the Lord's crucifixion. It's as if all of nature. begins to mourn.

the coming death of the only Son. Third, this darkness has meaning in the context of Passover. While Jesus is hanging on the cross, the nation of Israel is celebrating Passover. That's their moment in history when they escaped from Egypt under the leadership of Moses. God had sent plague after plague after plague to warn Pharaoh to let his people go, and Pharaoh constantly refused to heed the warning of all ten plagues, frankly.

But here comes the ninth plague. Darkness. Total darkness. The darkness will last for three days, and then it will be followed by the final plague, the death of the firstborn sons. Throughout the lamb.

So you have three days of darkness and then the death of firstborn sons. Jesus is hanging on the cross for three hours. followed soon after by his death, the death of Guds. Only son.

So, the darkness signals coming judgment and death. If you go back into. Into history, you discover, of course, the Passover was a celebration again of Israel's escape. This was. This was Set up by these plagues.

There was hope. Before this tenth plague, arrived. The Israelites were commanded to To kill and roast a lamb, take its blood, and paint it over the doorposts of their little homes, their little slave huts. And whoever had the blood of the lamb applied to their home, the death angel would pass over them, their firstborn wouldn't die, they'd be rescued. Thus, the name.

Passover.

So while Jesus is hanging on the cross, the nation Israel, by the way, at this very moment, is involved in killing their Passover lambs. As a memorial to their rescue. from Egypt.

So here you have Jesus. Dying on the same day. as the final Passover lamb. Whose blood will rescue anyone who has applied his blood, his sacrificial bloodshed to the doorposts of their hearts.

So at this moment you have total darkness. Before God judges the Lamb Who will die for the sins of the world? Think of it. Jesus was born. You remember he was born in the middle of the night.

And God lit up the sky. With brilliant light But now, as Jesus is going to die, God the Father darkens the sky. In the middle of the day. Judgment is coming. The lamb will die.

You're at verse 46 now, and about the ninth hour. Three o'clock. Jesus cried out with a loud voice, Saying Eli, Eli, Le Mach.

So Bakhtani That is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He cried out, Matthew records, with a loud voice. That's a combination of to shout. Or you could render it to scream. With the prefix.

Up. He cried up. He shouted up. He's speaking this here in his Native tongue. Aramaic.

Matthew translates it for us into Greek. The staggering sentence then means for us, my God, translated into English, my God, why have you forsaken me?

So imagine this scene now. The sunlight has been blocked out unnaturally. It's dark. Jesus has been hanging for three hours. In darkness.

In silence. The curious people have probably already left by now. They've seen all they wanted to see. They They watched what they wanted to watch. Others Perhaps frightened by this eerie darkness, have made their way home, picking their way along familiar paths.

Still others. are going to remain They also now are not Railing on him, they're quiet. They know something strange is happening. You're waiting. for something else, perhaps unusual.

And then suddenly Out of the depths of this strange darkness comes this piercing. Anguished cry from Jesus. Hey, Lee. Hey, Lebach. Sabakthane.

Matthew records in the next verse: some of the bystanders hearing it. Said this man is calling Elijah. They're not listening all that well. He's not calling for Elijah. One of them at once ran and took a sponge filled with sour wine and put it on a reed and gave it to them to drink.

But the other said, wait. Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save them. Yeah, there. They're they got all the superstition and tradition interwoven. There's a common belief during Jesus' day that.

Elijah would come perhaps to rescue some righteous person in their distress.

So wait. Let's see if God sends Elijah to rescue Jesus from the cross. Why just not going to come and rescue Jesus? No one will intervene. And so here is this anguished Cry.

And Jesus fully man. asks Why? This is a cry. Let me give you several observations of painful separation. You know, Jesus refers to God the Father from the cross three times.

When he begins. Father Forgive. them. Then he speaks to God again at the end, and he calls him Father. Into thy hands I commit my spirit.

But in between these two references, Jesus refers to his father. with the distance that has been brought about by the filth. And flies. Yeah. Instead of intimacy.

Now there's formality. God. One author writes this would be like you walking up to your father and calling him mister. Instead of daddy. Jesus addresses the Father here as though he's removed.

distanced. Separated from him because. He is At this moment.

So this is a cry of painful separation. It's also a cry of genuine despair. Jesus felt every bit of this separation. Jesus is not faking this emotion. He isn't acting.

Well, I think I'll act like this bothers me. I'll act like I'm anguished. No, he's experiencing. Does fellowship within the triune God, which he has enjoyed from eternity? Past.

This desertion of Christ was real. And by the way, he certainly felt other desertions, but he he never once says You know. God widened. Why did Peter forsake me? Why did Judas Betray me.

Why didn't all of my disciples, except John, Run away from me. No, why have you God Forsaken me. By the way, Jesus is quoting his forefather in the flesh. King David wrote in Psalm chapter 22 and verse 1, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That's Psalm 22, verse 1.

Jesus knew this verse by heart. John Calvin wrote centuries ago that Out of the horror of this darkness, this God-forsakenness. Jesus is quoting The only verse in Scripture that describes what he's feeling. and experiencing. Think about it.

The religious leaders Had already been standing there earlier mocking him. You remember they said, He trusts in God.

Well Let God deliver him now if he delights in him. God wasn't delivering him. And with this statement, by the way, it seems like Jesus is taking their side. He declares himself To be forsaken. And he was Forsaken.

Why? So that you will never be forsaken. God's word promises you, Christian. In Hebrews 13, 5, I... Will never leave you nor Forsake you.

That word forsake is the same Greek word Jesus utters from the cross. He was forsaken by God the Father as he paid the price for our sin so that we can be given this eternal promise. Imagine, we will never experience what. Jesus experienced. will never be forsaken.

Now let me add three thoughts. From this cross. And its cry first. Three things are are revealed. Many, many more, but let me give you three.

These words reveal God's inflexible justice. Spurgeon again writes it this way: In the darkness, the soul of the man Christ Jesus comes into awful contact with the justice. of omnipotent God. This is what sin does. Sin kills.

Sin destroys Sin separates. The wages of sin is what? Death. Jesus will experience that. Because of our sin, even though he's God's Son.

Even though he's God's son. He's not going to get a presidential pardon. He's not going to get a pardon for something he did. Or something they find out later that he did, but they haven't found out yet, or something he might still do in the future. I mean, what a pardon.

Who gets that kind of pardon? You do. I do. A pardon for what we've done. A pardon for what hadn't been discovered yet, and a pardon for what we will still do.

We get that kind of pardon. But God's Son will not. He gets no free pass. The Bible says it this way: God spared not his only son. His holy wrath.

is inflexible. And impartial. And it's at the cross where Justice and holiness. are vindicated and satisfied. Second, these words deliver.

An urgent warning. This is A warning the devil doesn't want you to hear. This is a warning the world is trying to stifle. subdue with the sounds of amusement and entertainments and shallow laughter and busy living and trivial pursuits. Listen to Jesus.

He is forsaken because of sin. And if he is forsaken because of sin, what chance do you stand? If he is inflexible toward his son, Who do you think you are? Oh, I'll stand before God. We're fine.

I've heard people say that. And I tremble for them. We're told That God loves everybody. Seems like everybody knows something about God and it's always that He loves everybody. He loves everybody so much that he would never judge anybody.

He's too merciful to carry out some kind of eternal threat. This is exactly what Satan told Eve and argued with her. Here, the first sin is about to be committed in human history. A, eat the fruit from that tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God put that there to give you an opportunity to become as wise.

As God. And his divine counsel. Take a bite. Oh no. She said.

Oh no, God warned us that if we disobeyed His word and ate that, we would die. And Satan said, you will not surely die. God isn't going to Kill you, you're not gonna die. He wouldn't judge you for one little act of independence. Come on.

And Eve ate it and gave it to Adam, and they. Eventually, we'll die physically, but they died immediately spiritually. The light of God's glory that covered them was turned off. And they saw themselves as naked. And they ran from him.

Let me tell you, friend, don't listen to that liar. Don't let him deceive you into thinking that you don't need the cross of Christ. that you're just fine, just a little independent. You've made a few wrong choices. You're not a sinner.

Or worse yet, yes. You're a sinner and you need to trust in Christ, he whispers, but What's the hurry? He got plenty of time. If you're still breathing. There's time to resist the devil.

and draw near to God. Come by way of the cross. Third, these words offer a lifetime. invitation. If you're still breathing, and from the looks of it from up here, it looks like you all are.

You have an open door. But that door will close. At your death, the Bible says that it's appointed unto man once to die and then the judgment. You will stand. Before God, you'll either stand there in your sin.

To pay the price for your sin. Or you will have trusted in the crosswork of Christ, having asked Him to be your substitute. See before you die Before you die, you need to carve into the tombstone of your life testimony. The only words that will matter when you seek God, the words.

Something like Jesus Christ was my substitute. He went to war. For me. That was Stephen Davey, and this is Wisdom for the Hearts. Today's message was called Forsaken.

It comes from Stephen's series entitled The Lamb's Last Words. If you'd like the CD set from the series, It's available at 50% off today. Learn more at wisdomonline dot org or call us at eight six six forty eight Bible. want to receive more wisdom from Stephen each week. Join friends of wisdom.

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