Now, would you please take your Bibles and turn with me to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 27. Matthew 27, we will read verses 27 through verse 46, with 46 being our text. And as you do that, I also would encourage you to maybe place a finger at Psalm 22, because I will be turning your attention there in a few moments. Psalm 22. Matthew 27, beginning reading at verse 27. As we approach this passage, we do so knowing this is the Word of God. And the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God endures forever. Then the governors, soldiers, took Jesus into the praetorium and gathered a whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. Hail, King of the Jews, they said. They spit on him and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. And as they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene named Simon. And they forced him to carry the cross. They came to a place called Golgotha, which means the place of the skull. There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall. But after tasting it, he refused to drink it. When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. And sitting down, they kept watch over Him there. And above His head, they placed the written charge against Him. This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Two robbers were crucified with Him, one on His right and one on His left. Those who passed by hurled insults at Him, shaking their heads and saying, You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself. Come down from the cross if you are the Son of God. And in the same way, the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders mocked him. He saved others, they said, but he cannot save himself. He's the king of Israel. Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now, if he wants him. For he said, I am the son of God. In the same way, the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him. From the sixth hour until the ninth hour, darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? Which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Dear people of God, this is often called the fourth word of Christ upon the cross. And it is a word of great mystery. Indeed, we cannot, I believe, fathom its depths. It is almost, and I feel a sense as if I were to go to the Pacific Ocean and fill it up, fill a glass of water up with the water of the Pacific Ocean and bring it back to my children in Michigan and say, here, look, here's the Pacific Ocean. In a sense, that's how I feel coming before you and preaching on these words, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? We cannot express in words, nor can we fathom in our finite minds the infinite depth behind these words. When I spoke with Reverend Voss several weeks ago about preaching this morning, he reminded me that you were going to be having the Lord's Supper next week and asked if I would then do read the preparatory portion of the form and also today is Pentecost and so we have two things upon our mind this morning the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit and it seems to me as I was considering that, thinking about that that these words of Jesus bring the two together bring those two events together of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit. And as we come to understand that, I want to do so by really asking the question, why did Jesus ask this question? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why did Jesus utter these words? And upon answering that question, we need to immediately come to the conclusion that He was not asking this question because He was ignorant. That's not the answer to the question, Why did Jesus ask this question? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It was not because Jesus didn't know. It wasn't because Jesus was ignorant of why He was upon the cross, why He was the recipient of God's wrath, and indeed was forsaken of God. He knew full well. He said Himself that the Son of Man came to give His life a ransom for many. Jesus said that He would destroy the temple and then build it in three days. Jesus knew precisely why he was upon the cross and why he was forsaken of God. And so it wasn't out of ignorance that Jesus was asking the question. And nor is it that Jesus was somehow hurling some angry accusation at God. How dare you forsake me? That isn't what it was either. Children, Jesus asked the question. It's an interrogative. You know that from your English courses. that a sentence that is a question is an interrogative. But I would say to you that the interrogative is indicative. That Jesus here is testifying. He is making statements when He asks the question. And the first thing that Jesus is testifying is that He is the Messiah. He is the promised one of the Old Testament. And in order for us to understand that, I do invite you to turn to Psalm 22. And I want to read certain portions of that psalm to make this point. Jesus here, by asking the question, is testifying, indicating that He is the Messiah, the Promised One of the Old Testament. Look at verses 1 and 2. My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me? So far from the words of my groanings. Oh my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer by night and am not silent. Now jump to verse 6. But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people. All who see me mock me. They hurl insults, shaking their heads. He trusts in the Lord. Let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him since he delights in him. And now down to verse 14. I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax. It has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You lay me in the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me. A band of evil men have encircled me. They have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. People stare and gloat over me. They divide My garments among them and cast lots for My clothing. What my point here is that Jesus, by asking the question, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? is He is pointing us directly to this passage and He is saying, That is Me. I am the One of Psalm 22. I am the One, the Promised One of the Old Testament, the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53. We know that passage very well. He was despised and rejected of men. But what about God? Well, Psalm 53 tells us too that He was despised and rejected by God too. Yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. And verse 10 of Isaiah 53 says, Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He hath put Him to grieve when you shall make His soul an offering. for sin. The point here is simply that Jesus is great David's greater son. And He is testifying to the fact that He is the Messiah. That He is the promised one of the Old Testament. And that all of the redemptive promises that we have in the Old Testament are fulfilled in Him. And He is saying that by asking this question, My God, My God, why? Have you forsaken Me? He is identifying Himself as the Messiah. The promised one of the Old Testament. But more than that, Jesus is also testifying by asking the question. The interrogative is indicative and He is testifying that He is righteous. Even as He hangs upon the cross, cursed upon the cross, He is testifying that He is righteous. Children, you remember, don't you, reading in Isaiah chapter 6, where we see that great vision of God upon the throne. And the seraphim are hovering above Him. And they're calling out to one another, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. The whole earth is full of His glory. And it is because God is holy, it is because God is perfectly righteous, that He will not and indeed cannot abide anything in His presence that isn't perfectly righteous and holy. And that is why, at the very beginning, He cast Lucifer out of heaven. Because in Lucifer there was found pride and envy. And we read in Isaiah 14, How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How are you cut down to the ground? God did that because God cannot abide anything unrighteous in His presence. And so Lucifer had to go along with the third of His angels that followed Him. But more than that, we read in Revelation, I mean, this is how it was from the very beginning. It's how it will be in the very end as well. When we read about the new Jerusalem in Revelation 21, verse 27, we read, And there shall by no means enter into it anything that defiles, Or that is an abomination or a lie. God will not and cannot abide anything unrighteous in His presence. And He will always forsake that which is unrighteous. And Jesus now is asking the question, My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me? And by doing so, He is testifying that He is holy, that He is righteous. You see, there wouldn't need to be a question if Jesus had been a sinner. there's no need for the question. But Jesus, being holy and righteous in all His ways, asks, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Even Isaiah prophesied to this fact in 53, verse 9. Yet He has done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. And the comforting passage in Hebrews 4, verse 15 says, For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. And Jesus now, when He asked the question, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? is testifying that He is sinless and that He is righteous and that He fully obeyed the will of God and fully kept the law of God. At every point, even receiving baptism from the hands of John the Baptist, that I might fulfill all the law. And He did so. And there is a sense in which this is shocking where the Holy Righteous One would be forsaken of the Father. So Jesus is testifying to us that He is the Promised One, that He is the Messiah. He is testifying that He is righteous. But he is also testifying, and this is very obvious, but he is testifying that he was forsaken of God. That that actually did happen. That God did indeed turn, as it were, his back upon Jesus and hurled upon Jesus the full force of his wrath and anger against sin. Jesus is telling us that. He is testifying to the fact that that did indeed happen. And children, we cannot comprehend at all this. We cannot comprehend the agony that that's caused our Lord. He who knew fellowship with the Father from all eternity. There was never a point prior to this point where there was separation between the Father and the Son. But they always enjoyed perfect harmony and unity and communion with one another from eternity. And even the 33 years while He was on this earth, We read about that Jesus would spend time in prayer with the Father. There was always that fellowship that Christ had with His heavenly Father. And there was the benediction that He knew. Always He knew the benediction. This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. He always knew that. There was never a point prior to this point where Jesus didn't know that. But now comes where God hurls His wrath upon Jesus and turns His back, as it were, upon Jesus. And Jesus then is feeling the force of that being forsaken of the Father. And Jesus is testifying that he was forsaken. There's one more thing, indeed, the most important. And that is that Jesus is testifying to us that he was forsaken for us. Precisely because He knew no sin. And no deceit was in His mouth. And therefore, the forsaking that God did when Christ was on the cross was not because of anything Christ did, but was for our own sins. He didn't die, nor was He forsaken because of any sins of His own. But He took our place. That's what Isaiah 53 is all about. the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. Next week, Reverend Voss will continue to read the form number one, which we began reading earlier in this service. And if we were to continue, and you will hear, Lord willing, next week, these words which are found in the communion form. He has humbled Himself unto the very deepest reproach and anguish of hell in body and soul on the tree of the cross when He cried out with a loud voice, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? That we might be accepted of God and nevermore be forsaken of Him. Dear people of God, that's it. That's it for us. that Christ took upon Himself our sins and God hurled upon Him the full anger and wrath against sin and the curse against sin and forsook Jesus Christ so that we never would be forsaken. The point of Christ's deepest anguish is that basis of our highest joy, of our greatest joy. Reconciliation with God. Fellowship. Communion. Koinonia, where there was once separation, where there was once enmity with God. Now, because Christ was forsaken, we have fellowship with God. We are friends and sons of God. And we have koinonia. In Hebrews 13, verse 5, we read, Jesus says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. I will never leave you, nor forsake you. If you are like me, there are times in your Christian walk, in your Christian life, in which, well, we call them sometimes spiritual valleys or dry periods in our life where we do not sense a closeness with Christ. Where we seem to be, in a sense, going through the motions, but there's a lack of fervor and a lack of zeal and we feel distant from the Lord. And I think that's probably common with all of us at certain points, at certain times. We perceive that God is far from us. But what this tells us and what Jesus here is telling us is that that is not the case. We might perceive it because there's sin in our life. We might perceive it because we're holding guilt because of sin. But the fact is that we who are in Jesus Christ, that He never leaves us nor forsakes us. And this is Paul's point. And this is where now we come to the matter of Pentecost. Where Paul says, Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? Now that means that you're not a hotel. It isn't that the Holy Spirit comes in and spends a little time with you and then moves on out again going somewhere else for a time. No, you are the dwelling place. of the Holy Spirit. And that's why Jesus says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. We have the Spirit of Christ. Galatians 4 verse 6 says, Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. The Spirit who calls out, Abba, Father, I will never leave you nor forsake you. God will never leave you. And that's it. That's our comfort. Christ was forsaken so that we never would be. Jesus said in John 6, And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that the Father has given me. I will never leave you. I'll never forsake you. I'm never going to drop you. I'm never going to lose you. I will always be with you, Jesus said. And so He gives us His Holy Spirit. The Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of the Son of God. children that means that when you go to school that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit young people that means when you go on a date God is with you Jesus said I'll never leave you I'll never forsake you He doesn't let you go off on your own when we go to work or when we enjoy times of recreation at any time. God is with us by His Holy Spirit. I have been blessed thus far in my life with good health. I never spent a night in the hospital, never had surgeries. But as a pastor, of course, I meet with many people who have and who do. Just recently, a dear friend of mine, 44-year-old, he served as an elder, had a heart attack and needed to have a quadruple bypass surgery. and he was frightened, and rightly so. I have another man in our church, 50-year-old, has a tumor behind his left ear, has to have at least a 10-hour surgery coming up. But I would think, as the people of God, as those who are in Christ, anticipating those kind of times when we're going to be going into the hospital, just as an example, And we're going to be anesthetized to the point where we have no clue what's going on. Where we are literally out of control. We have no clue to know that our Lord does not leave us nor forsake us at that moment. That has to be the most comforting thing. In this life, the Lord will never leave us. And that means that even when we breathe our last breath, in that time of great unknown, that which you or I have never experienced, that the Lord will not leave us or forsake us then either. Nor will He leave or forsake us when we stand before the judgment throne. But the Lord will be our advocate and declare us as righteous and justified. And nor will He leave us nor forsake us when we enter into that new Jerusalem that I mentioned earlier where nothing can enter that defiles. Because we have been washed clean by the blood of Jesus Christ, reconciled to the Father. And that is our comfort today at death, at the judgment for all eternity. I will never leave you nor forsake you. And that is what Jesus ultimately is testifying to when he asks the question, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So that we might never more be forsaken of the Father. Amen. Amen. Oh, Heavenly Father, how wonderful this is to know that You will never leave us, that You will never forsake us, but that Christ took upon Himself the wrath of the Father against sin, that our unrighteousness, that our sins were placed upon Him, and then You, Lord, forsook Your Son. so that His righteousness may be imputed to us that we might nevermore be forsaken. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Amen.