Turn your Bibles to Matthew 27 and Psalm 22. Matthew 27. Several years ago, I did a whole series of studies of sermons on the sayings of Christ on the cross, which I called sermons from the cross. And this morning, I want to deal with the words that he cried with a loud voice, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Tim Sheldon in his book, The Glory of God Crucified, made this comment about this text. He says, we are treading on holy ground. and stepping beyond the veil into the mysteries of the cross that are outside human comprehension. We must therefore pray that God will open our minds to grasp what lies before us, giving us grace to see the heart of our Savior and to know more fully the exhaustless depths of his sufferings and love. You see the outline that I have before us. I want to, first of all, consider the circumstances surrounding the strange cry of our Lord Jesus Christ. Before we begin to expound this strange cry, I believe it would be beneficial if we considered some of the circumstances surrounding it. If we go over to Psalm 22, we hear concerning the strange cry of Christ. was first uttered by David in predicting the physical and emotional agony of Christ in Psalm 22. Now this is a messianic psalm. A messianic psalm is one that's born out of the personal experience of the psalmist. But in recording various aspects of his personal experience, he also speak prophetically of the Messiah in one way or another. In most cases, there may only be one or two verses in the entire psalm that actually applies to the Messiah. But this is what makes this psalm so unique. It's almost totally messianic. By that I mean that most of all of the psalm applies to Christ and his experience on the cross. The language of the psalm speaks of the agonies of crucifixion that were unknown in David's day. And yet he speaks in detail about what our Lord was made to endure in his work of redemption, all of which was confirmed by the writers of the four Gospels. And in the opening stanza of the psalm, we see it forecast the fact that our Lord would be forsaken by his heavenly Father. And as David was moved by the Holy Spirit to pen the psalm, he wrote down word for word a cry that would come from the lips of the Lord Jesus a thousand years later. Look at verse one of Psalm 22. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me and from the words of my groaning? Secondly, the timing of this strange cry. In comparing all the gospel accounts of the crucifixion, you find that the Lord agonized for six hours on the cross. Jesus nailed to the cross at the third hour, which would be nine o'clock, by the way, we reckon time. Mark 15, 25, now is the third hour when they crucified him. And at the sixth hour, which is noon our time, this strange darkness fell over the land. It was at this ninth hour, three o'clock, when he uttered this strange cry. Go back now to Matthew 27. Matthew 27. Verse 45. Now from the sixth hour into the ninth hour, there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, leba sabachthani. That is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Some of those who stood there, when they heard the cry, said, the man is calling for Elijah. And one of the men, took a sponge and filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed and offered him to drink. The rest said, let him alone, let's see if Elijah will come to save him. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. Notice the atmospheric conditions at the time of this strange cry in verse 44, or verse 45. Now from the sixth hour to the ninth hour, there was darkness over the land. At noon, after three hours on the cross, a strange, fearful darkness fell over the land. This was not the result of natural phenomena such as an eclipse of the sun. or a prolonged thunderstorm. This was an eerie, bizarre darkness. Luke 23, 45 says the sun was darkened. Someone said nature bowed in sympathy as its creator was put to death. It was though the light dimmed across the universe as the darkness of death descended upon the earth. How strange it must have been for those who stood and stared. From noon until three in the afternoon, two things were present, darkness and silence. Darkness at noonday. Again, quoting from Tim Sheldon, he says, what is clear from the sign, meaning the strange darkness, is that God was exceedingly that would receive something terrible, let me start again, I'm sorry, is that God was assuring those who would receive something exceedingly terrible in and of itself, and exceedingly monumentous was going on in the spiritual world. We saw the response of the people to this strange cry in Matthew. The Lord cried out in Aramaic, Eli, Eli, l'ma sabachthani. Matthew interprets it as, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The common interpretation of the response by the people was that they misunderstood what Jesus was saying. They thought that he was crying out for Elijah to come and save him, but the text makes it clear that he cried with a loud voice. making his words audible to all. Secondly, most of the Jews of that day understood both the Hebrew and Aramaic languages. And most compelling of all is that most of us, most of them, if not all, knew Psalm 22 and its meaning. It's more probable that this was just another way to heap scorn upon the Lord. He's crying out for Elijah. Let's see if it happens. Similar to the previous taunts in verses 39 through 44. Look at verse 39 of Matthew 27. And those who pass by blasphemed, wagging their heads and saying, you who destroy the temple and build it in three days, say yourself, if you're the son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise, the chief priests, also mocking with the scribes and elders, said, he saved others himself he cannot save. If he's the king of Israel, let him come down from the cross and we will believe him. We know they wouldn't believe him. He trusted in God, let him deliver him. And he will have, he said, I'm the son of God. Even the robbers who were crucified him reviled him with the same things. Let's look at the various aspects of this strange cry, verse 46. Eli, Eli, sabachthanai. That is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Notice the text that he said he cried out. It comes from a combination of two words, to shout or scream up. When this compound word is used in the scriptures, it means a rasping, deep-throated scream, a deep roar of passionate groan. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? In Psalm 22, why are you so far from helping me and from the words of my groaning? Groaning, literally roaring. It's a feminine noun which means the loud, deep-throat crying or rumbling roar of a lion. Whatever it was brought on this deep-throated scream and loud cry was by far the worst part of his sufferings on the cross. The meaning of this strange cry, my God, why, my God, why have you forsaken me? Forsaken to abandon, to desert, to leave helpless. With this loud, deep-throated scream, our Lord asked God why he was totally forsaken and abandoned him at this time. The sense of being forsaken does not just imagine it. It was real. It was absolute. It was full and complete. And the terror and horror of it. brought about this deep-throated scream from the Son of God, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The reason behind this shame cry. He became odious in the eyes of his heavenly Father as the sin bearer of his people. Second Corinthians 5.21, he made him and knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteous of God in him. The text says that God the Father made this sinless Christ sin for us. It's true that he laid on him the iniquity of us all, but this seems to be an added dimension too profound for our finite minds. And as Christ was made sin for us, the warm countenance of his Father that he enjoyed throughout all eternity was now withdrawn. The intimacy that he always enjoyed was broken and interrupted for the first time in all of eternity. Secondly, he was made to endure the ultimate wrath of Heavenly Father as a sin bearer of his people. He was made to endure the ultimate wrath of his Heavenly Father as a sin bearer of his people. And having all our iniquities laid on him, In being made sin for us, our Lord endured the ultimate wrath of God against those sins. This was a significant aspect of his work in redemption. Quoting Peter Turner again, he says, the hours were only three, but the intensity of hell's white heat was eternal. Divine wrath poured over the son, the spotless lamb, as a father's loathing of the least particle of sin waged the ultimate war against his dominion over the beloved, the flock whose place he was taking. Sins known and unknown, and those yet to be committed, made their way to him like metal filings to a magnet. Each one dealt a withering blow, the state wiped clean in the precious blood of the Redeemer. He felt his soul dragged downwards into ever-deepening crevice of wretched desolation and torment, where contact with heaven and humanity had withered and died. The full glare of perfect holiness like a raging flame, engulfed and without any hint of mercy. Down, down it soared into a vortex of vengeance from which there was no respite or hope of suffering. He was indeed stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted, as Isaiah tells us. Such was the violence when the terrors of thine holiness did battle with the devilish power of sin, with the crumpled form of Jesus. Let's draw some lines of application. Having clearly established the fact that the Lord was forsaken by our Heavenly Father, at least two possible reasons as to why I want to continue to draw various lines of application. First of all, listen to this. The horror that Christ experienced in being forsaken by God the Father is a preview of what unrepentant sinners will experience in hell. The horror that Christ experienced in being forsaken by God the Father is a preview of what unrepentant sinners will experience in hell. What Christ endured on the cross is what sinners will experience in hell. For the first and only time, the Son of God came to know the terror and the horror of being separated from the presence of His Heavenly Father. In becoming sins for us, God's wrath was poured out upon our Lord like cosmic blasts out of heaven. One of the aspects of God's wrath directed against the Lord as the sin bearer of His people was divine abandonment. The terrifying experience of being forsaken by God. Sensing the fact that God was no longer with him. The glorious light of his countenance was hidden from him. Jesus did not ascended to hell, but hell came to him as he hung on a cross. Christ endured the entire spectrum of God's wrath while he hung on that cross. But the one thing that caused him to utter that unearthly cry and deep-throated scream was the horror of divine abandonment. What Christ experienced on the cross is but a preview of what unrepentant sinners were experiencing hell, not for a few hours, but for all of eternity. The horror of divine abandonment will be unending. Secondly, the fact that Christ experienced the horror of being saken by God means that repentant sinners will never experience the horrors of hell. For that, we can praise God. For that we can praise God. We will never experience the horrors of hell. We will never experience divine abandonment because Christ paid it all. Christ paid it all. Thirdly, because of this experience, our Lord is able to come to the aid of his people when they are forsaken by friends and loved ones. Some of us have been forsaken by friends and loved ones during the course of our life. The relationship that Christ had with his heavenly father is more intimate than we can imagine. We get some ideas and we consider various texts of scripture. Like Matthew 3.17, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Or John 17.5, and now, oh father, glorify me together with yourself with the glory which I had with you before the world was. In John 17, 24, Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which you have given me, for you love me before the foundation of the world. But he was forsaken by his father during those hours on the cross, and therefore he's able to come to the aid And when we are forsaken by those who are very near and dear to us, Hebrews makes that clear, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Everything will be tempted by Christ endured. Proverbs 2.8, for in that he himself was tempted, for in he that himself was suffered being tempted, he's able to aid those who are tempted. There are human relationships that are casual and there are others that are very intimate. Being forsaken by casual acquaintances can be somewhat painful. But being forsaken by those whom we have the most intimate relationships can be painful beyond description. Psalm 38, verse 11, my loved ones and my friends stand aloof from my plague and my relatives stand far off. Parents have been known to forsake their children and the more wicked our society becomes, The more this will become commonplace. Babies thrown in trash cans. I just saw that on the internet the other day, where they found a baby in a garbage can. Abortion. Taking that little baby and murdering it. Children forsake their parents, especially when mom and dad get into the latter years. But there's a relationship that is more intimate than that of a parent or child, namely, the intimacy of a husband or wife. God sees this as being one flesh. And yet husbands and wives are abandoning and forsaking each other all the time. And speaking with and casting with those who have broken marriage, it is the most painful ordeal. It's quite probable that many will experience the pain of being forsaken by someone very near and dear to them sometime to this journey on earth. This will be a most very devastating and demoralizing experience. In fact, it may seem that you will not survive the ordeal, but we must always remember there is one who knows and understands. There is one who will come to our aid, a precious Lord, Savior, High Priest, Jesus Christ. He understands from firsthand experience the pain that you will be made to endure. He is not detached and aloof, but always ready and able and willing to come to our aid. As he says in that 13th chapter of Hebrews, I will never, they'll never, they'll never forsake. Thank God. He knew what it was to be forsaken by the Heavenly Father, but God promises us we will never have to experience that. If we have been saved, we will never be abandoned. He may hide his face from us. He may hide his countenance for us for a while, but he'll never forsake us and never abandon us. Let's bow in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for all your grace and your mercy. Thank you as you are willing to suffer the agonies of the cross. Thank you, Heavenly Father. Amen.