Good evening, Coach Hill. As you may know, I've been preaching through this series on the Psalms in the Gospels, which are Psalms that are quoted in the Gospels And we have been looking at Psalms and passages from the gospel stories side by side to see how the Psalms help us to appreciate the depth of the gospel story, but also to use the gospel to help us to understand the depth, the richness of the Psalms. So again, this evening, we have two texts before us that we may lay side by side. So the first text is Psalm 22, verses 1 through 11. And the second text is Matthew 27, verses 35 through 50. So I invite you to turn your Bible to Psalm 22, verses 1 through 11, and Matthew 27, 35 through 50. Psalm 22 is a great song of Jesus. It's a song about Jesus' sorrows and his joys. It can be divided into three parts. So the first part, which runs from verses 1 through 11, is about Jesus' sorrow of being forsaken by God. And the second part, verses 12 through 21, It's about Jesus' sorrow of being persecuted by men. And the third part, verses 22 through 31, is about Jesus' joy of bringing many brothers to his father. So last time we looked at the second part, Jesus' sorrow of being persecuted by men, And this evening we will be looking at the first part of this psalm, Jesus' sorrow of being forsaken by his father. And although both parts speaks of Jesus' sorrow, there's a crucial distinction between these two kinds of sorrow. Jesus has tasted the sorrow of being persecuted by men so that we will also be persecuted by men. But Jesus has carried the sorrow of being forsaken by God so that we will never be forsaken by God. And this is the distinction we must keep in mind. For even as we suffer all kinds of things in this world, first, we may be sure that we will never be forsaken by God. And second, no matter how severe the suffering is, that is not worth comparing with the suffering that Jesus received at the hand of God on the cross. So with this distinction in your mind, let us pay attention to the reading of God's word, these two great passages. I will start with reading Psalm 22, the first 11 verses. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning? Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer. And by night, but I find no rest. Yet you are holy. enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you, our fathers trusted. They trusted and you delivered them. To you, they cried and were rescued. In you, they trusted and were not put to shame. But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me. They make mouth at me. They wag their heads. He trusts in the Lord. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, for he delights in him. Yet you are he who took me from the womb. You made me trust you at my mother's breast. On you was I cast from my birth. And from my mother's womb, you have been my God. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help. Now please turn to Matthew 27. I'll be reading from verses 35 to 50. And when they had crucified him, They divided his garments among them by casting lots. Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. And over his head, they put a charge against him, which read, this is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Then the two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads, saying, you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself. If you are the son of God, come down from the cross. So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, he saved others, he cannot save himself. Hear the king of Israel, let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God, let God deliver him now, if he desires him, for he said, I am the son of God. And the robbers who were crucified with him also revived him in the same way. Now from the sixth hour, there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani, that is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And some of the bystanders hearing it said, this man is calling Elijah. And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink. But the other said, wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. Now let us pray and ask for God's blessing upon the preaching and hearing of his word. Oh God, our Father, we ask you to incline our ears to the groaning of Jesus on the cross. And we ask you to unite our hearts to the suffering, to the death of Jesus, which is for us. And we ask you that the gospel will be carved in our hearts, will abide in our hearts, and that we will live out the gospel in our lives. So help us understand The depths of your gospel help us understand the greatness of the work of Jesus Christ. In his name we pray, amen. As a Chinese person who speaks English as a second language, I often struggle with appreciating and grasping the connotations of English words. When I come across a new word, I can easily look it up in a dictionary to find its denotation, its literal meaning. But in order to grasp its connotation, to appreciate the feeling and the sensation aroused by that word, a person must resort to his own experience instead of a dictionary. He has to experience that word. in a real world, in his real life, if he wishes to own its connotation. And very often I find myself lacking that kind of experience in association with a certain English word. So take the word forsaken, for example. To me, it's just a past participle of the verb to forsake, which is synonymous to verbs such as to leave, to abandon, to desert. But I didn't really understand this word, its connotation, until I read A.W. Pink's book, The Seven Sayings of the Savior on the Cross. And in this book, Pink comments on this particular word, and he writes, the very word forsaken as one of the most tragic in all human speech. I will not readily forget my sensation as I once passed through a town deserted of all its inhabitants, a forsaken city. What calamities are conjured up by this word? A man forsaken of his friends, a wife forsaken by her husband, a child forsaken by its parents. Then he continues to write, but a creature forsaken by its creator, a man forsaken of God. Oh, this is the most frightful of all. This is the evil of all evils. This is the climax of all calamities. So people of God, what connotation does this word forsaken carry in your mind? What kind of feeling does this word invoke in your hearts as you hear this loud cry uttered by your Savior on the cross? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? God's beloved became the God forsaken. The word who was with God in the beginning, the son who was in the bosom of the father, was now, as we're writing this text, was now forsaken by his God and by his father as he was being hinged on the cross. So this is The great mystery that we must ponder over and over. And this is the great story that we must internalize and carve in our hearts. So this evening, we will look at three aspects of this great and tragic story. And first, the shocking reality of Jesus being forsaken. Second, the profound reason for Jesus being forsaken. And third, the confident response from Jesus who was forsaken. So the reality, the reason, and then the response. And first, let us examine the shocking reality of Jesus being forsaken. By whom was Jesus forsaken? Jesus was forsaken by men. He was forsaken by all men so that he was not worthy of being a man, so that he cried in Psalm 22, verse 6, I am warm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who saw him mocked him. The soldiers spit on him and said, hail, King of the Jews, the bystanders whacked their heads and said, you who will destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself. The priests and scribes opened their mouth wide and said, he saved others, he cannot save himself. Let him come down now from the cross and we will believe in him. Even the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way. So he was despised and rejected by men. He was abhorred and forsaken by all. Moreover, Jesus was forsaken by light. From the sixth hour until the ninth, that is from noon to 3 p.m., when the sun was supposed to shine most brightly, there was darkness instead over all the land. This was the darkest hour in all human history. At the sound of righteousness, the light of the world was enclosed in the shadow of death, with darkness as his only companion. But above all, Jesus was forsaken by God. It was God who had forsaken him on the cross. It was God who had made him the laughing stock of all men. It was God who had withdrawn all light from him. It was God who hid, who hid his face from him and broke his fellowship with him. this forsaking by God with the cause of Jesus' suffering on the cross, and this forsaking with the pinnacle of Jesus' agony on the cross, so that he cried out with a loud voice, not that why have I been saken by man or why have I been forsaken by light, But he cried, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So this is the shocking reality, that Jesus was forsaken of God. Why is this shocking? First, because Jesus trusted in God. Jesus had made God his trust all the days of his life. He had never put the Lord to the test. but always sought to do God's will for God's glory, so that even his enemies couldn't deny this. And they said in their mockery, he trusts in the Lord. Let him deliver him. So you see there's a natural expectation that God will save those who trust in him, because this is what God has been doing consistently throughout the history of redemption. So we read in verses five and six in this psalm, in you our fathers trusted. They trusted and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued. In you they trusted and were not put to shame. But how did God treat Jesus who trusted in him? He trusted in God, but God didn't save. He cried to God, but God didn't answer. He said he's hoping God, but he was put to utter humiliation. Jesus was forsaken by God in whom he trusted. This is the reality that defies sound theology. This is the reality that should shock and amaze us. But there's something that is even more shocking. Jesus was forsaken by God, who took him from the womb, as verses 9 says. And this is a reference to Jesus' birth. And when we think of the birth of Jesus and the death of Jesus, we can see many contrasts I cannot show you all these contrasts, but just think of the great joy on the day when Jesus was born, and then the great sorrow on the day when he died. On the day when he was born, the midnight was turned into midday, and the great light shone from the heaven. But on the day when he was crucified, the midday was turned into midnight as the darkness covered all the land. So Jesus referred to his birth at the moment of his death. And we know that God not only took Jesus from his mother's womb, but he placed him in the womb. Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Jesus was the Son of the Most High, the beloved Son of the Father, in whom he was well pleased and delighted. Yet now, he was forsaken by God, by his Father. The beloved son was now forsaken by his loving father. God's beloved now became the God forsaken. And there could be nothing more shocking than this. I still remember a time when our shepherding group had a fellowship meal in summer under Geneva's tent in the cul-de-sac. I parked my car in the parking lot, I let my boys out, and I carried the dish to the tent, and I started to talk with the people who were there. After quite a while, Amy asked me where Kai was. And only then did I realize that I had left him in the car. For Kai was the only one who was sitting on the back row of our van at that time. And after I unbuckled Asaph and Boyle, who were sitting on the middle row, I forgot to unbuckle Kai. But I closed the door and went away. So as soon as I realized this, I ran back to our car and opened the door. And I saw Kai, tears streaking his face and crying to me, Daddy, Daddy, Why did you leave me in the car? It must be a traumatizing experience to be left alone in the car as a little child. I must be crying aloud all the time, but I couldn't hear. He must be feeling so helpless, but I wasn't there. So I still feel painfully sorry whenever I remember that I once forgot my son in the car. But now can you imagine how desperate, how helpless Jesus was as he cried on the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why? Are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning? But here the father not just forgot him, but he forsook him. The father was not only far from hearing him, far from saving him, but he was also so near to condemn him, to afflict him, to pour out his wrath upon him. The father delighted in the son. The father was well pleased with the son, but now it pleased the father to crush his son, to put his son to shame and grief. As we read from Isaiah 53, 10, So this is the shocking reality we must recognize. The shocking reality of Jesus being forsaken by God. The shocking reality that the always obedient and trusting son was once forsaken by the always faithful and loving father. This must drive us to ask this question, how could this be? This shocking reality compels us to ask, why? Why was Jesus forsaken of God? And this leads us to the second point, to see the profound reason for Jesus being forsaken. But before we see the reason for this, we need to see first that it was Jesus who's asking why? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Was Jesus ignorant of the reason for the father's forsaking? Of course not. Jesus foretold again and again that he must be delivered into the hands of men and suffer many things and be killed. And Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, Abba Father, if this cup cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done. And Jesus cried out, even on the cross, shortly before his death, it is finished. Of course, he knew very well why he must be forsaken of his father, why he must die on the cross. He knew. that for this very purpose, that he had come to this very hour, the darkest hour. But at that time, the agony was so severe, the forsaking of the father was so awful, the wrath of God was so fierce, that even Jesus, as he was experiencing all these things, was compelled to cry to God. Why, why have you forsaken me? So brothers and sisters, as you enjoy peace and prosperity, it's not difficult for you to trust in God's sovereignty. To quote Romans 8, 28, we know that for all who love him, all things work together for good, for those who are caught according to his purpose. But when troubles arise against you, when trials fall upon you, when grief encompass you, are you still able to hold this truth? Ask yourself why. Ask God why. Why, oh God, why are you allowing this to happen to me? But let your why lead you to the answer that you have already known, lead you to Romans 8, 28. To know, to convince yourself that God is working all things according to his good purpose for those who love him. And this is what Jesus was doing on the cross. He was asking why, not as a charge against God, not as a demand for answers, but as a way to orient himself to the good and glorious purpose of his painful and shameful suffering, to meditate on the profound reason for his being forsaken. So what is the reason? The reason is given more comprehensively in the final part of this song, which will be our text next time. But the reason is also embedded in today's texts. Ironically, in the words of his mockers, who said, he saved others. He cannot save himself. The reason for Jesus being forsaken is to save others. instead of himself. He could have come down from the cross. He could have ascended to the Father immediately. He could have saved himself. But Jesus knew why he was sent into the world, why he was nailed to the cross, why he was forsaken of the Father. He had come not to do his own will, but the Father's will, not to save himself, but to save sinners, to save you, who deserve to die on the cross and suffer in hell because of your sin. who are liable to the wrath and the curse of God because of your rebellion against God, who deserve to be forsaken by God, to be cast into the outer darkness and the lake of fire. But Jesus was forsaken for your sake. The righteous became the unrighteous. The innocent became sin. The immortal became the dead. The only beloved became the hated. The most blessed became the cursed. Jesus was forsaken by God, and God was in effect saying to him, depart from me, you cursed. Depart from me, you worker of evil. I never know you, and I hate you. But Jesus was forsaken by God so that God might say to you, well done, good and faithful servant. Welcome, beloved and blessed child. I know you by name, and I love you with everlasting life, everlasting love. So children of God, do you see that wonderful yet awful exchange between you and Jesus, that Jesus died so that you may have eternal life, that Jesus was cursed so that you may enjoy rich blessing. Jesus was hated so that you may be loved. Jesus was forsaken so that you may be adopted as sons and daughters of the living God. So this is the profound reason for the shocking reality of Jesus being forsaken. And this is the convincing reason that you should always be prepared to give whenever anyone asks you for a reason with a hope that is in you. Oh, brothers and sisters, how can you be ashamed of the gospel? How can you be hesitant to share this great news? How can you hide this great mystery that the Son of God was forsaken of the Father for your sake, so that you might be called children of God. Give me your reason for not sharing the gospel, and I shall ask you, is your reason more compelling than the reason that Jesus could have for not going to the cross? Jesus could have 10,000 reasons for refusing to die for your sin, and yet he gave up all his reasons and he went willingly to the cross to be forsaken of God and to die for your sake, only because he loved you more than his own life. So do you love Jesus? And are you willing to be rejected by men for Jesus' sake, for the sake of whom who is willing to be forsaken of God for your sake? Go and tell others what Jesus has done for you. And finally, let's look at the confident response from Jesus, even as he was being forsaken by God. Notice that even in the darkest hour, even in his utmost despair, Jesus still cried out, my God, my God. He didn't reject God as his God. Though God forsook him, he didn't forsake God. Though God slayed him, he still hoped in God. Though he became a worm, trampled under the feet of men, he still looked up to God who was holy, who was enthroned upon the places of Israel. He could have cursed God, but instead he prayed to God to come to him. He could have saved himself, but instead he waited for God, his Father, to save him. And even at the point of his death, he crawled out with his last breath. Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. For Jesus was confident that God would not be angry at him always, that God would not forsake him forever. For he remembered the promise in Psalm 16, You will not abandon my soul to Sheol. Yes, the word abandon here is the same Hebrew word translated as forsaken in Psalm 22. God the Father did forsake Jesus on the cross, but he didn't forsake his soul to Sheol, but he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand. I would love to show you many applications of this wonderful truth, of this confident response from the forsaken Jesus, but I'm running out of time. So let me conclude with a story told in Charles Spurgeon's sermon. In his sermon titled The Saddest Cry from the Cross, Spurgeon told this story. A Puritan preacher was standing by the deathbed of one of his members who had been for 30 years in gloom of soul. The good old minister expected that the man would get peace at last, for he had been an eminent Christian and had greatly rejoiced in his savior. But for 30 years or more, he had fallen into deep gloom. The minister was trying to speak a word of comfort to him. But the man said, ah, sir, but what can you say to a man who is dying and yet who feels that God has forsaken him? The pastor replied, but what became of that man who died, whom God really did forsake? Where is he now? The dying man caught at that and said, he is in glory and I shall be with him. I shall be with him where he is. And so the light came to the dying man who had been so long in the dark. He saw that Christ had been just where he was and that he should be where Christ was, even at the right hand of the father. Let us pray. Oh God, our father, indeed we are not worthy to call you our father, but we were your enemies. We were children of disobedience. We deserve to be forsaken by you forever in hell. But instead, you sent Jesus to die on the cross for us, to be forsaken by you on the cross, so that we might be accepted in your sight, so that we might be received into your household, so that we might be adopted as your children, so that we might cry, Abba, Father. O Lord, let us never, never take this for granted, and let us never forget the cost that Jesus had to pay for our sake, that he not only suffered at the hand of men, but even at your hand, even was forsaken by you. O Lord, let us keep this precious truth in our heart, so that even in our most desperate time, that we will never be forsaken by you. but that we will be where Christ is now, in heaven, in your kingdom, even at your right hand. Oh Lord, keep us trusting you and let us hold fast to Jesus and to your good promise through all trials as long as we suffer in this world. We pray this in Jesus' name, who was forsaken for our sake. Together we say, amen.