What a great song. They both were great. That second one was really good. Keep me near the cross. That should be the prayer of our lives. Keep me close to the cross. I think that should be the theme of my preaching. Christ and Him crucified. So what we've been doing on these Sunday mornings recently is just been going to the cross and listening to the words that Jesus says. He says seven different things on the cross in six hours. And it's just like 50 words, eight sentences, seven statements. And I've been wanting to go and study every single word that he says. And today we come to the fourth out of these seven statements. And this fourth one stands out above all the rest. This one's about halfway in his time on the cross. And it's been said that these words are the most striking statement that ever came from the lips of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It's striking, it's so striking that this is the only one out of the seven that God gives it to us in the original Aramaic. The other ones we get translated. This one's not translated. This is exactly as it came out of the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ. So this one stands out. These are, and I titled the sermon this, the God-forsaken words of Christ. And I don't know that I can do any kind of justice to this passage today. I told somebody earlier this week that I read Charles Spurgeon on it. He's my favorite old preacher. And he said every passage in the Bible that he opened up to cried out, preach me, preach me. He said, I didn't know what to preach. It all needed to be preached. And he said, when I come to this one, this passage here, these words, he said it's like it looked at me and said, you can't preach me. It's too much. So we come to this passage today. It's a profound statement. The God-forsaken words of Christ. So let's stand together. I just want to read to you Matthew 27. Turn there with me. Matthew 27. And we'll be looking at verses 45 and 46. Just two verses today. These are the God-forsaken words of Christ. So I'm going to start in verse 45. And verse 45 says, and this is the word of God, now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And 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? So you see there that last phrase, forsaken me. These are the God forsaken. words of Christ as He was on the cross. So let's pray together and we'll do our best. I'll do my best. Pray for me as I do my very best to preach these verses today. These are profound words. And I'll pray for you that God by His Spirit would enable you to hear these words and me to preach them. So let's pray together. Father, we thank You for these words. We thank You for the record that we have. That we can come near to the cross and not just see what happens there, but we can hear the words. And we get to hear it in the way that it was said. As I even read those verses there, it's like it has different power to it. These were the exact words that he used. So help me to preach them, to teach them. Help me, I know I can't do it justice, but help me to do my very best as an act of worship to preach these verses today. Enable me, empower me, please. And I pray for the people in the pews today that they would receive them and see just how profound and astonishing these words are. Teach us these God-forsaken words. Please. And we ask and pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. You can be seated. It's been said that one of the worst words in the entire human language, if you had to look at human language and say, what's the worst word that there is? It wouldn't be a four-letter word. It would be this word here. They say the worst word is forsaken. That there's no worse word than forsaken. It's a terrible word. It's a word that means to desert someone, or to abandon them, or to leave them behind, to turn your back on somebody. It's one of the worst words that we could ever imagine. It's been used for cities or a town. You know that you've heard of the term an abandoned city or a God-forsaken city. A city that has been left as a ghost town. That when you walk into that city, it's like a tumbleweed that goes across the scene and nobody's there. It's nothing but dust and death and emptiness. That would be an abandoned city. It's desolate. It's also been used of spouses. We hear the term abandonment. That one spouse would pack their things up and they'd walk out and they'd leave their spouse behind. They'd leave them without anything. They'd leave them without any explanation and no excuses and no money and no help. They would abandon their spouse and leave them helpless and hopeless by themselves. It's a terrible word to be abandoned or forsaken. I'll give you another use of it that's awful. It's when parents abandon their children. In the old days, churches used to have it happen all the time. The parents didn't want their kids and they'd put them in a basket and leave them at the front door of the church. I always thought, what would I do if I walked out of church one day and there laid a baby? I know what I'd do. I'd take it home. We'd have a sixth kid. That's what we do. And I know that's funny because there's always people that's willing to adopt and take these children into their homes. But can you imagine a child growing up forsaken by their parents? Abandoned! It's a terrible word. Awful word to be forsaken by someone. To be abandoned. To be deserted. They're back turned on you. But even worse, can you imagine being forsaken by God? Can you imagine, just imagine with me for a second, how terrible and how frightening it is to even think about being abandoned by God. That God, when you need Him the most, He's not there. That God, when you need Him the most and you cry out to Him, there's no answer, there's nothing but silence. Can you imagine that God turns His back on you? Can you imagine that you don't have the smile of God on your life, but you have the frown of God on your life? Can you imagine that God leaves us alone? And I believe we're in a place today in our nation where God has abandoned our nation. He's turned us back. He's forsaken us. He's left us to ourselves. It's a terrible place to be. Can you imagine that God hides His face from you? That there is no blessing. There's only curses from God. To be forsaken by God is an unimaginable idea. But that's exactly what we have here. We have God forsaking someone. We have God forsaking His only Son. Jesus is on the cross here in Matthew 27. We know the physical pain. We know the flogging that He took before He got to the cross as they beat Him with a cat of nine tails and ripped Him to shreds, whipping Him over and over and to the point where it didn't even look like a human. They would beat Him and spit on Him and mock Him. It was an amazing torture. They nailed Him to the cross. They put a crown on His head. It's physical pain, emotional pain. There's shame and scoffing and abuse. But here in these verses, at this moment, is the worst time of the cross. In these verses here, you need to know that the height of His agony, the climax of it all, and at the worst possible time, He's forsaken. He's all alone. There's no words from Heaven. There's no dove falling down. There's no comfort, no encouragement, no help. In this moment, He is forsaken. Left alone. Abandoned. Deserted. And in that moment, Jesus speaks. And He says these words. These are extraordinary words. Charles Spurgeon, on these words, says these words are the expression of the lowest depths of our Savior's suffering. So we're going to study these words. We're going to look at these God-forsaken words. And at the end, we're going to ask why. Why was He forsaken? And I want you to get that answer. I want us to understand that answer. If we just understand a small percentage of why was Jesus forsaken by the Father, it will change everything in our lives. So we're going to look at this. And I only have two points for you today. Two verses. The God forsaken words of Christ. I want to start with number one. And I'm just going to give you the word out of the verse in v. 45. It's the God forsaken darkness. You see that word there. And now from the sixth hour there was darkness. So let's start there. The God forsaken darkness. It says in v. 45. It gives us the time of the day. I hope you're with me here. It says now from the sixth hour. This is the time of the day. They determined time because there's not too many people in that day, I don't know how many, that was walking around with an Apple watch on. They didn't have watches. They didn't have clocks. There wasn't a clock in the middle of the city where they could look up and see what time it was. So they kept watch by the sun. And it would start at 6 a.m. And from 6 a.m. that's how they determined their time. So we know here that it says now from the sixth hour. So from the 6th hour, if we're going from 6 a.m. and counting 6 hours, that means we are now, in verse 45, at high noon. When the sun is at its highest point. Jesus has now been on the cross for 3 hours. It would start at 9 a.m. and He would go until, here He is at noon, at 12. So He's been there from 9 to 12. It's noon day, from the 6th hour. And suddenly at noon. Do you see that? Now from the 6th hour, Starting at the sixth hour, starting at noon, when the sun is at its highest, when the sun is at its hottest, there was darkness over the entire land. Darkness fell. Suddenly at noon, the lights went out. Complete and total darkness. The sun is blotted out. No reflection from the moon. The moon's not out. It's not the time of day for the moon or the stars. It's blotted out. There's no reflection. So at midday, it's like it's midnight. And it's all over. It says there, there's darkness over all the land. Mark says over the whole land, it's possible that darkness was over the entire earth. There's records of Roman authorities that said in that time that on a certain day, there was darkness over the whole land so that the whole known earth had to light a lamp at midday. So maybe this darkness isn't just over Jerusalem or Judea or just that part of the world. It may have been darkness over the entire globe at that time. At noon, everything went dark. You say, what does that mean? I'm sure they were asking. They've crucified people over and over. Hundreds upon hundreds of crucifixions. And at this one, all of a sudden, the lights go out. You can't see anything. You can't even see your hand in front of your face. It's so dark now. And they're all looking at each other. They can't see each other. But they're saying maybe, what does this mean? Where did the sun go? What just happened here? And we've got to ask that too. What's going on here? I've got an answer. Some people would say it's an eclipse. That's not an eclipse. Some people would say there's a storm passed through. It's not a storm. The whole world went dark. What happened here? And I'll tell you the answer. God has supernaturally turned the lights out. God flipped a switch. I said it's going out right now. Noon hit the clock and God said out. And God by turning out the lights has decided to show up at Calvary. And when God shows up, there's one of two ways that He shows up. One, He shows up in the light. The Bible says God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. That's 1 John chapter 4 that God is light. We don't hear that a lot. We hear God is love. I think that's chapter 4. Chapter 1 is God is light. Why don't we hear light? It's the same book. But God is light. So we see it over and over in the Bible that God shows up in light. The Shekinah glory of God. The light in the Old Testament. Moses on the mountain saw a great light when he saw God where it almost burned his skin. Moses at the burning bush. Jesus is called the light of the world. Paul in Acts 9 saw a great light and it knocked him off his high horse. He saw God. Revelation says there will be no sun in heaven because the sun is the light. So when God shows up to reveal Himself or to save, He shows up in light. You say, Josh, this isn't light, this is darkness. What happens when God shows up in darkness? It's always to judge. Ten plagues in Egypt and the ninth one was darkness. Mount Sinai, it says that around the foot of the mountain there was thick black smoke. It doesn't say, I studied it, I looked it up, but I can imagine that when God rained down hell on Sodom and Gomorrah, it was dark. It doesn't say, but I believe when God flooded the entire earth that a thick black cloud went over the whole earth and the rain came down and it was dark. God's showing up in judgment. In the end times, God turns out the light during tribulation. In hell, it's called the outer darkness. Judgment falling in hell and it will be pitch black darkness where you can't see your hand in front of your face. When God shows up in judgment, He shows up in darkness. You say, I need a verse for that. I've got 10. I ain't going to read them all to you, but Amos 5.20 says, Shout out the day of the Lord be darkness and not light. Even very dark and no brightness in it. I've got another one. Zephaniah. When was the last time you guys read Zephaniah? Chapter 1, verse 14, the great day of the Lord is near. It is near, and hasteth greatly. Even the voice of the day of the Lord, the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble, a day of distress, a day of wastiness and desolation. It is a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and very thick darkness. When God shows up to judge, He shows up in darkness. Darkness is a symbol of judgment, of wrath being unleashed. So God here in v. 45, you need to get this, has shown up at Calvary to punish. To judge. The question now is who? You would think it would be the religious leaders who are mocking and abusing and beating on His Son. Judge them! Jesus said, I could at any time call down judgment from heaven on you! Is God showing up to punish the leaders, the soldiers, the crowd, the whole world? And to protect His Son? God's showing up in darkness here not to protect His Son, but to punish His Son. Judgment is falling at noon. You need to get that. You need to understand hell is coming to Calvary. Here in this moment. And it gives us a time. This is a momentous time. At noon. Darkness falls. Judgment comes. And Jesus in this moment, at noon, He who knew no sin became sin for us. At this moment, when the lights went out, the One who is perfectly holy, infinitely pure, absolutely sinless, the One who never once yielded to temptation, never had an evil thought, never had an impure motive, or even said a bad word, Now bears our sin. At 12 o'clock when the lights went out, our sin fell on our Savior. Wow. What a moment. Our sin comes crashing down. Falls on Him. The weight of all of our sin is transferred into His account. We who have a lot of sin, that sin has fallen on Him who knew not a single sin. it's transferred into his account at that hour. In the Old Testament, the priest would symbolically take his hands and place the sin of the people on a scapegoat and send it outside the camp. And here in this moment, God the Father is not symbolically, but in reality, taking our sin and placing it on the shoulders of our Savior. Off of me and onto Him. Off of you and onto Him. This is real. They see the darkness. Jesus feels this darkness. Sin, so repulsive to our Savior, now falls on our Savior. He now becomes sin for us. My dirty rags. Maybe you can get it this way. My dirty, filthy, nasty rags was taken off of my shoulders and placed on him. The one who only knews pure and spotless clothes. What a moment. Let me list it. All my past, present and future sins was placed on him in that moment. All of our unbelief. All of our rebellion. All of our selfishness. All of our disobedience. All of our evil thoughts. All of our self-centered motives. All of our stealing and idolatry and blasphemy and lying and hating and lusting and murder and anger. All of it fell on the Savior at 12 o'clock. It was said that this is the most obscene, grotesque mass of sin in the history of the world all in that one place. So now, you can't transfer sin without there being a penalty. The wages of sin is death. God just can't sweep it under the rug, let it go, and wink at it. God, that's not in His character. God must punish sin. So if sin fell on Jesus, then who must be punished? If sin is off of me and on to Him, I deserve the punishment, but it has now been transferred on to Him, then He must be punished. So darkness comes to punish or to judge Jesus. That's what is going on here. Here is the darkness. For three hours. It says in verse 46, and about the ninth hour. I can figure out a little bit of math. From the sixth hour to the ninth hour is Three hours. It's completely dark. And the sin falls on him, and for three hours, judgment falls on him. This is the cup he prayed about in the garden. This is what he was so repulsed of. If it's at all possible, let this cup pass from me. But here the cup is handed to Him and He now takes that foul and awful sin and judgment and He takes it and in those three hours, He drinks it all the way to the bottom and leaves nothing in the cup. He is judged by the Father in that moment. Hell is coming to Calvary. In three hours, Jesus endures an infinite and eternal wrath. In eternity, you need to know this, in an unmitigated concentration, Jesus here endures an eternity of hell for an untold number of people. Not just for me. Not just my sin. But an untold number of people. A number that I can't even calculate. I can do six hours to nine hours is three hours. I can't do the math on this. And the hell that we deserved is poured out on him for three straight hours. I've got a quote for you. You guys want it? Listen to this. A.W. Pink, God's abhorrence of sin swept forth and broke like a descending deluge upon the sin bearer. I wish I could speak like that. Wrath poured out on Jesus in that one moment of time, all that sin deserved fell on him and he is treated. You need to get this as if he's not a sinner, but he's treated as if he is. He's treated as if he were me. He's treated as if He were you. He's treated as if, and you need to get this, I'm going to say that again. As if He's treated as if He's the greatest thief that the world has ever seen. He's treated as if He's the greatest murderer or the greatest adulterer. He's treated as the greatest sinner who's ever lived. He's treated in that way. So it's in this moment in v. 45. For three hours. That's all we have for three hours in v. 45. Sixth hour, darkness fell on the land. Ninth hour, He begins to speak. So for three hours, this is the lowest point. This is the bottom of the pit. This is the abyss. This is the depths. This is Him drinking the cup dry. Jesus feeling the wrath of God burn. There's another way of saying this. Abraham took Isaac into the mountain and he's told to sacrifice his son. He laid him on the altar, raised him high, and the voice said, No, no, no, no! Don't do it! And there's a ram caught in the thicket. Take the ram, put it on the altar, and kill the ram instead of the son. But God the Father brought God the Son up to Calvary, put Him on a cross, and the knife was raised and there was no voice to stop it. And the knife fell, punishment fell, wrath fell, the burning of hell fell on Jesus in that moment. He feels the wrath of God. He stands where nobody else can. How can He take it? How can He take the infinite, eternal wrath of God? Because He is the infinite, eternal Son of God. Only He can take it. You couldn't take it. I couldn't take it. Muhammad can't take it. Ain't no other Savior but Jesus. He stands where only He can stand. And it's here In that darkness. At the lowest. I read a theologian after theologian on this passage and they said, when you think he can't go any lower, he keeps going lower. And it's here at his lowest. At the darkest. That the lights come on. God controls the lights. He turned them off. And now, at the ninth hour, he turns them back on. And immediately as he turns them on, Jesus speaks. I believe when he turns it on, judgment's over. I believe he's just a few statements away from saying, it is finished. He's about to die. Understand this, that in the ten plagues, the ninth one was darkness, and the tenth one, the sun's die. Here's the darkness, and the next, the sun dies. So the lights come back on, judgment is failed, and Jesus cries out. And that's point number two. We saw the God-forsaken darkness. I want to just give you the God-forsaken cry in verse 46. And again, I'm just giving you the words out of the passage. It says darkness in verse 45, and in verse 46 it says, and Jesus cried. So we have the God-forsaken darkness, and we have the God-forsaken cry. Because it says, look at that, at about the ninth hour, and I believe there was complete and total, utter silence for three hours. Complete darkness. Nobody's saying a word. In v. 45, all we have, there's three hours of darkness. There's three hours of wrath. There's three hours of hell falling. There's three hours of unimaginable things going on there as Jesus is dying for our sin. Nobody's saying a word. And then the lights come on and Jesus speaks. I'm sure He has everybody's attention now. What's He going to say? Silas's judgment falls, and then Jesus speaks. And I love this. It's not just that he speaks. I would say that he shouts. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a really soft whisper. With a loud voice and said, Jesus had just taken hell for us. He had just drank the cup of God's wrath down to the bottom. He had just endured what no man could ever endure. You would think that he would be totally spent. You would think that he wouldn't have a voice. He suffered physically. And now he's suffering spiritually. Understand, while he was suffering physically that we all think about. The nail pierced hands and the nail pierced feet and the crown on his head and the flogging. He never said a word during the physical pain. It's during the spiritual pain. As He's taking the wrath of the Father down upon Him that He now speaks. And you would think that He would be a grumble. That He would be trying to... Just anything that He can get out. And people would be saying, what was that? I'm writing this down. Tell me what that was again. But they don't need to do that. It's with a loud, booming voice. It's a strong voice. It's energetic. After all that, He's still able. My mighty Champion and my Savior is still able to speak with a loud voice. He's crossing the finish line of what the Father sent Him to do. And He's crossing it strong. And He says... Now, we've got to get into the words. You noticed, you guys thought I was going to be quick, right? Josh has already through one verse and one point. I haven't even got to the words yet. And Jesus says, Spurgeon said, I do not think that the records of time or eternity contain a sentence that is more full of anguish than these words. And I've got four sub-points for you here. He cried with a loud voice and said, and these words are a biblical cry. That's the first sub-point. This is a direct quote from Psalm 22.1. Direct quote. 22.1 says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? You say, what does that mean? He's quoting the Bible while he's on the cross? He was taught that verse by his mother on his mother's lap. That's what the kids said they were taught. Their mothers would sit there and they wouldn't hand them an iPad for them to watch just to get their attention. Guilty. Somebody give her an iPad! They would quote Scripture in their ears. And they just didn't quote Scripture, they quoted the Psalms. At the worst possible moment of the cross, Jesus has the Psalms on His mind. I said, Josh, why did you preach 150 psalms on Wednesday night? Because Jesus had the psalms on his mind while he was hanging on a cross. If anything will get you through bad times, you find you a psalm and you hang on to it and you don't let go of it. The psalms is from deep, deep places in our lives and it will carry you through. And the deepest part of Jesus's agony He has a psalm that he learned on his mother's lap on his mind. He's memorized it. He's quoting it. His mind is on the Scriptures. He's fulfilling it. And get this, he needs it. Scripture gets him through. As he's hanging on the cross, he does two things. He prays and he quotes Scripture. What's the two things that are going to get you through the worst times of your life? Prayer and Scripture. So it was a biblical cry. Oh, that we would love and hang on to the Word of God the way Jesus hung to the Word of God. And let me say this too. It wasn't that he was quoting Scripture of what somebody else said. Psalm 22.1 is the words of God and the words of Christ. Every word is God's Word. Christ's Word. So this is a biblical cry. Second, it is a passionate cry. You say, where do you get that at? He says, my God, my God. And when you want a heartfelt, intense statement, you repeat it. My God, my God. This isn't my God, my God. And I want to warn you. I don't want to scare anybody. I don't want to frighten anybody. But this is a shout coming from the cross and it's not coming just from his mouth. It's coming from the depths of his being as he cries out, my God, my God! Passionate. In his darkest and hardest and lowest moment, he's still reaching out to my God. He still turns to God. He's not crying out, John or mother. He's crying out, my God, my God. There's a commentator that said it's almost like he's taking my God and my God and he's reaching out with both hands. Like a little girl would reach out to her father on Father's Day. And when I got up this morning, Hallie rolled out of the bed, and she's not even two years old yet, and she looked up and she had here and she had here. And she's right at my legs and she's saying, please pick me up. Mom's trying to put clothes on me. She's trying to comb my hair. And what did I do? Father's Day, what do you do? I reached down and saved her from her mom. Daddy's so great. Yeah. And we both get to take a look. Combing hair. Spraying water in my hair. Mean old thing. Arms up. My God, my God. That's what he's doing here. My God. And the word God. It's L. It's the strong one. the mighty one, the one who can take care of us. In his deepest and darkest and lowest moment, he cries out, my God, my God. He just drank the cup dry. My God, my God. Notice the next phrase. Why have you forsaken me? Says a biblical cry. It's a passionate cry, but it's a forsaken cry. I said that this morning Hallie done this. She knew daddy's picking her up. She's one and a half or something like that. She's no fool. Daddy always picks her up. Jesus said. As he went through his ministry. But the father always hears And in this moment, he reached out, my God, my God. And he was forsaken. Hmm. He's not there. We started with that, didn't we? There's no lot. There's no comfort. There's no answer. There's no help. There's no voice from heaven saying this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. He's only known perfect fellowship with the Father throughout all eternity. John 1 says, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God. And if you ever study that verse, the word with means and the Word was face to face with God. The Word was in closest intimate relationship with God from all eternity past. The only thing that the son knew with the father was perfect relationship, perfect fellowship, perfect intimacy in the bosom of the closest possible. And then in the incarnation when He came into the world, there may have been a little bit of a separation where they're not face to face. But again, He said, He's always with me. He always hears me. He always answers me. There's still that close, intimate relationship even as Jesus is incarnate. But for the first and the only time that it ever is going to happen in this moment, God the Father forsakes God the Son. I want to say this. There's no breach in the Godhead. God cannot cease to be God. So there's no break of the Trinity. You need to get that. But God, the father turns his back on God, the son. He's not there. He's there. Get this God, the father's there. But his back is turned. God, the father's there. But there's no grace, there's no comfort, there's no smile. There's only judgment. Why does He turn His back? Because He's too holy to look on sin and sin has fallen on His Son. You need to understand that. You need to know how serious sin is. That God the Father, as sin is falling on His only Son, sees sin as so evil and corrupt and is revolting repulsive that he can't even look on his own son because of the sin. Not his son's sin, but my sin. Martin Luther said that he spent three hours studying the word forsaken here. He told his class, I'm going into my room. I'm going to get down on my hands and my knees and I'm going to open up the Scriptures and I just want to spend time looking at that why I have self-forsaken me? Why I have self-forsaken me? And they stood outside of his office and they waited for an answer on what does this mean? And after three hours, he came walking out of the door and he said these words, God, forsaken God, who can comprehend? What is going on here? This is beyond comprehension. It's a mystery of mysteries. We can't even imagine what Jesus is going through here. Forsaken by men. Forsaken by His own people. Forsaken by His disciples. Forsaken by His enemies. Forsaken by Satan. Forsaken by hell. And now, forsaken by His Father. This is hell. The worst part of hell. that God is still judging in hell. But in hell, there's no mercy, there's no comfort, there's no presence, there's no smile, there's no grace. There's nothing there to help us if you're in hell. Jesus is now suffering. I said it couldn't get any lower. Didn't I say that in point number one? I said it can't get any lower. He keeps going into the depths of the abyss. And then I go here and it goes even deeper. He goes even further down. And now He's forsaken by His Father. What is He doing? Why is He doing that? And that's the question. We've got to go there. Sub point number four. I said it's a biblical cry. It's a heartfelt cry. It's a forsaken cry. But it's a questioning cry. Why? I would take a pen and underline, why? Why? What's He doing? Why would the Father give up Jesus to the cross? Why would the Father pour out wrath on His Son? Why is the Father forsaking Him when He needs Him the most? Why is the Father, Isaiah 53 says, pleased to bruise His own Son? Why? I don't think anybody around there had the answer. I don't think the apostles had the answer. I don't think his mother had the answer. I don't think John had the answer. I don't think the other Marys had the answer. I don't think the soldiers had the answer. I don't think the priests had the answer. I don't think they understood what was going on there. But now we have the full revelation of God. We know why. You want to know why? We have an explanation in Scripture. You want it? Here you go. I know you do. Romans 5.6 Christ died for the ungodly. 1 Peter 3.18 Christ suffered four sins. The just for the unjust. I said at 53, He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says this, For He hath made Him to be sin for us. Johnny gave me a Father's Day gift in singing that song. I loved it. You know why? Because we all screamed in that song. And Johnny had no idea. He just found out this morning. And we all screamed in that moment in that song for me. Mercy there was great and grace was free. Pardon there was multiplied. To who? To me. Why was He forsaken? For me. For you. All of this. The depths of the abyss of hell for three hours and the abandonment of the Father. And He did it for me. I'm going to read those verses again because I don't think you guys were shocked enough. You've heard this too much. You go into the jungles and they hear this? They are astonished! Astonished by this! In our churches today, we hear this and it's like, I heard that in Sunday school. For me? For my sin? Get this, I'm going to read it again. Christ died for the ungodly. Who's the ungodly? We could raise hands. What's this? Christ suffered for sins. The just Jesus. Or the unjust. Who's the unjust? We could raise hands. What's this? 2 Corinthians 5.21. He hath made Him to be sin for us. Who's us? We could raise hands. Isaiah 53. He was wounded for our transgressions. Mine. Bruised for my iniquities. Me. We should sing that song again for me. For us. The old song says, Jesus loves me. He who died. Heaven's gates to open wide. He will wash away all our sin. Let the little children come in for me. A ransom for me. An atonement for me. To open a way for me. To reconcile me to God. All this For me. I can go down. I don't have time to preach it today. I might. We're okay. But look with me. Let's read some down a little bit further. 47. Some of them stood there when they heard that. They said, this man calls for Elijah. And straightway, one of them ran and took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and put it on a reed and gave him a drink. And the rest said, let it be. Let us see whether Elijah will come to save him. And Jesus, when He cried again with another loud voice, He died. In verse 50, He yields up the ghost. And behold, in that moment, the veil of the temple was rent in two, from the top to the bottom. And now there opens up a way where we can be with God. God showed up and said, good enough for me. And there was a curtain, and I don't know if you get this, you've heard it before. There was this thick curtain, huge curtain. I've not studied it and prepared to preach it today, but a huge curtain that separated man from Almighty God. Man from the holy of holies. Man stay out, God stay in. And only a high priest could go in with a sacrifice. And now in that moment when Jesus gave up the ghost and died, that curtain from top to bottom, as if God just done. And the way to God has now been opened because Jesus suffered the entirety of my hill in three hours and paid for my sin. And he did that for me. If we get anything else out of this sermon today, you've got to get this. He cried to get this, my God, my God, so that we can cry Abba Father. I believe there will be people in hell who cry out, my God, my God, but they will not cry out Abba Father. He didn't get an answer when he cried. so that I can get an answer when I cry. Are you with me on that? There was a day when I cried out and said, God, be merciful to me a sinner. And he answered me in that moment and saved me and forgave me. And he did it only because Jesus did what he did. I've got more. He was forsaken so that we will never be forsaken. You may feel forsaken by God at some point where God isn't hearing you and God isn't there, but I've got a verse for you. Don't you love that we have a verse? I love that I have a book. Everybody else is giving their own opinions about things, but we have a book. We have the Word of God. And when people say, oh, I've been forsaken and God isn't there and I don't feel Him and He's not answering Hebrews 13.5, I will never leave you nor forsake you. You with me? He was forsaken so that we will never be forsaken. You may feel like He's not there, but He's there. You may think He's not answering, but He's always answering. He had the Father turn His back on Him so that we could see His face. He drank the cup of the curse of Almighty God and he drank it dry, down to the dregs, every last drop, leaving nothing in the cup, for three hours in pitch black darkness, he took it all, the cup of the wrath of Almighty God, so that we could drink the cup of His blessing. He endured three hours of hell, darkness and wrath, so that we could get an eternity in Heaven. He took our sin, every last bit of it, so we can be forgiven. I like 2 Corinthians 5. He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be the righteousness of God in him. Which is that great exchange where he gets my filthy rags and the punishment that comes with it and I get his royal spotless robe so that I can stand before God one day without sin. I got you another one. You want another one? Yeah, you do. He got Psalm 22. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So that you and I could get Psalm 23. That yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, thou art with me. That's pretty good. And if we could just get a small percentage of what's taking place here on the cross, it'll change everything about the way we live. I remember seeing a movie a long time ago. It's a war movie. I like war movies. It's called Saving Private Ryan. Some of y'all have seen it. They send a whole crew of military men behind enemy lines to find one person because he had like three or four brothers and they'd all died and he's the only one left. So they had to go in and get that one man and get him out and take him home back to his mom. He lost everybody else in his family. We've got to get this guy home. So they go in. They send a whole bunch of people in. And while they go in, I believe, I've not seen it in a long time, but I believe every one of those men that go in to get him, but maybe one dies. So they lost 7, 8, 9, 10 great men so that one man could come home. And as the main character is dying and he's talking to that one that he's trying to save, that one says, why me? Why do I get to leave? And you're going to die. And he looks at him and says, don't waste this. These all died for you. Don't you waste this life we've given you. And from that moment on, I thought it wasn't ten men that died for me. It was one man that died for me. He did all this for me and suffered the worst that we could ever imagine and was abandoned and forsaken by His own Father so that we could have salvation, forgiveness of sins, reconciliation, atonement and be made right with Almighty God. I cannot but preach this message to everybody. I can't waste it. I've got to live it. We all have to. If He did this for us, what are we going to do for Him? It has to be more than an hour on Sunday. It has to be. And we can't even give that half the time. I can't even give more than what I give. I've got to do more. Not because I want to be saved, but because I am saved. This should be the motivation for everything. We must preach this. We must live this. Jesus, keep me near to that cross. Please. I don't know why we don't see this. If we just get a small percentage of what's taking place here, it would change everything about our lives. All these little things that we live for would fade into the background and Jesus would rise as a priority of our lives. Oh, that we would see Jesus on the cross. In this, and I'll close, there's a clear Warning to unbelievers. If you're sitting here today, you need to understand that sin is as serious as it can be. And you should never take it lightly. If you're not saved, if you're still in your sin, He didn't spare His own Son. Do you think He's going to spare you? I can't stand to hear people say, I'll make it. I'll make it through. He spared not His own Son. When you stand before Him one day, He will punish you in hell for all eternity. It'll be dark, pitch black. You'll be forsaken, alone, separated. It'll be intense, and it'll never end. I've got another quote. I'm going to give you a Jonathan Edwards quote. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God for one moment. But you must suffer it for all eternity. There will be no end to the exquisite, horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long forever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts and amaze your soul. And you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty, merciless vengeance. And then when you have done so, when so many ages have actually spent by you in this manner, you will know that it's all but a point to what remains. It won't be for three hours. It will be for all eternity. There's a warning here for you. There's a warning here for you that this is what you will face if you don't turn to Jesus. But He made a way. And everybody in here can travel that way, can go the way of forgiveness and the way of peace and the way of reconciliation and the way of justification and atonement. And you can be saved and forgiven of everything that you've ever done if you'll just put your faith, not just in Jesus, but in Jesus and what He did for you. There's so many people that talk about Jesus, but do you know what Jesus did in dying on the cross for your sins? My faith is not in who I am or what I've done, but in who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. That's salvation. I pour all of my life and eternity on Him because He died for me. That's salvation. Will you do that today? If you're in here, maybe even somebody online or anybody in here, if you have any doubt about where you stand, you better make sure today. Why wouldn't you do that? If He would do this for you, can you not put your faith in Him? Today, now. Kids in here, you need to know this. You need to believe in this Savior. He's the only way. Put your faith in Him. And for those of us who do believe, This here is clear evidence of His love for us. There's an old song that says, He took my sins and my sorrows. He made them His very own. And He bore the burden of Calvary. He suffered and died alone. How marvelous, how wonderful and my song shall ever be. How wonderful, how marvelous is my Savior's love for me. Last verse, when with the ransomed in glory, His face I at last shall see, to be my joy through the ages, to sing of His love for me. How marvelous, how wonderful, and my song shall always be. How marvelous, how wonderful is our Savior's love for us. That should be the song we sing, the message we preach, the life we live. Jesus has died for me. And if that doesn't change your heart of hearts and make it want to sing, there's something wrong. There's something wrong. Hallelujah. What a Savior. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word. Even the hard stuff. This isn't hard. deep, mysterious, amazing, wonderful, extraordinary out of this world. And I know I didn't do anything near the justice that it needs to be done, but I pray that just if we would get a small percentage of this, and that's been my prayer, just a little bit of this, just a little bit of this, that would change our lives. That somebody in here or somebody that'll watch now or watch weeks from now or months from now would understand what your son did for us. that they put their faith in him. I've done my best today, I've done my very best today to preach Christ to him crucified. And every one of these things, God, this being the fourth, my heart cries. He's so great. He's so great. And when I got to this one, it was he's even better than I ever imagined. May that be the cry of our hearts today, the song, how marvelous, how wonderful is our Savior's love for us. And we ask and pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.