Book of Romans, please, chapter 9.
Read with me verse number 20.
Romans chapter 9, verse 20, Nay, but, O
man, who art thou that replyest against God?
Shall the thing formed say to him that
formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
I'd like to look at this verse and
why have you made me?
Why did you make me?
Come to Matthew, please, chapter 27.
Matthew 27, we'll break in at verse number
45.
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness
over all the land until 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?
And one more in the book of Galatians,
please.
Galatians chapter 2, verse 20.
I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live,
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,
and the life which I now live in
the flesh I live by the faith of
the Son of God, who loved me and
gave himself for me.
I do not frustrate the grace of God,
for if righteousness come by the law, then
Christ is dead in vain.
Lord, bless to us the reading of his
word.
Very simply at the end of this day
I'd like to consider why have you made
me?
Why did you make me?
Shall the thing formed say to that which
formed it, Why did you make me thus?
Why did you make me?
Matthew chapter 27, we've got the cry from
the cross of our Lord Jesus.
Very holy ground, why has thou forsaken me?
And then we've got the Apostle Paul in
Galatians 2, verse 20, and he's pondering and
he's wondering about the Son of God who
loved him and gave himself for him, and
I would like to just put the rhyme
on that as why did you undertake for
me?
Why did you make me?
Why did you forsake me?
And the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me.
Maybe you've wondered, as many have wondered as
you've considered your life, why am I here?
Why is it that God made me?
Why did he make me with five fingers
and five toes?
Why did he make me with a soul?
Why did he make me and put me
on this planet?
If all there is to life is to
live life and to grow old and to
die and to waste away, why is it
that God created man?
My brother has already told us that God
has created man that he might have relationship
with us.
God created no one to be separated from
him for all eternity.
God's will and God's desire is that all
men would be saved and to come to
the knowledge of the truth and God would
have all men to be in his presence
to experience his glory, but few will there
be who that will find it.
So the clay would say to the potter,
why hast thou made me?
Have you ever wondered that?
You know there are cases in the Bible
that we read that those that have rejected
the Lord Jesus Christ that it would be
good for them if they were never born.
Good for that man or good for that
woman if they would never have been born
because it would be far greater never to
experience life at all than to experience life
and all the pleasures of sin and all
the pleasures of the world and to reject
the great invitation to come and to lose
one's soul and to end in a place
of judgment and torment for all the endless
ages of eternity and yet even those souls
will not even be able to raise the
finger against God in any righteous way whatsoever.
There'll not be one little bony finger from
the flames of hell that ever will ever
ask the creator, why did you make me?
Because it is God's desire that every single
human being would be in complete communion and
complete relationship and there have their eternity with
him, unbroken delight and unbroken joy, but they'll
never be able anyone able to be able
to say why did you make me with
any righteous basis.
God created man in the image in his
image in his likeness.
God created man to bring him glory.
God created you to bring him glory.
Why did you make me?
Matthew 27.
Why hast thou forsaken me?
When you think of the cries of the
Lord Jesus or rather when you think of
any prayer that the Lord Jesus makes out
loud, we have to take special attention, we
have to make special note of those prayers
because the Savior didn't need to pray out
loud to pray to God and neither do
you or I for that matter, but when
prayers are recorded for us to learn from
those that are recorded in the eternal word,
it's a very important for us to think
about them.
You'll get that in John chapter 11 when
the Lord Jesus is there at the grave
of Lazarus and he says, Father, I thank
thee that thou hearest me, but I know
that thou hearest me always, but for the
sake of those that stand by, I said
it.
And so the Lord Jesus is conveying truth
to us that we need to understand when
he prays out loud and you'll note as
you read through the gospels, it'll be the
case in every single prayer that is recorded
for us.
Those times when he went up to the
mountain to pray or he went out into
the ship or wherever he went to be
alone, we don't know what he asked for,
we don't know his heart's cry to God
and we don't need to know, but when
the effort is made that we do know,
we need to take heed and learn something
very important.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me?
The fact was that God forsook him because
of sin.
He was forsaken there as he was made
sin for us who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God
in him.
And so what we're going to learn through
this prayer is that God forsakes because of
sin.
You see, sin and God can never mix.
There can never be sin in God's heaven.
God's heaven is a holy place.
God is a holy God.
He is the living and the true God
and there will not be one sin in
God's heaven.
And in order for you and I ever
to have an opportunity, understand that, just an
opportunity to be saved, Christ must be forsaken.
He must be made sin for us who
knew no sin.
He must satisfy the throne of God as
far as the righteous holy claims that sin
deserves, that all the justice and judgment that
sin deserved must be paid for.
God's throne must be satisfied in order for
us to have an opportunity to be saved.
And Christ was forsaken.
He was forsaken.
You see, it is a warning of the
solemnity of the wrath of God.
To be forsaken by God, who can comprehend?
To be forsaken, to be consigned to the
caverns of the damned, to be consigned to
the lake of fire, to be consigned to
the weeping and the wailing of gnashing and
teeth, for all the endless ages of eternity,
to be forsaken by God, to never experience
the presence of God, nor ever delve into
the love of God, but to be absolutely
and utterly forsaken in a place called hell
because of our sins.
We learn this in this cry, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Why?
It is a solemn warning of the reality
of the judgment of God against sin, something
for you and I to consider.
You see, as he prayed unto God, God
knew why he was forsaken.
God knew why he must forsake the sin
-bearer there at Calvary.
It was God's plan.
It was God's design that sin would be
dealt with there, that the just would die
for the unjust, that he might bring us
to God.
And so God absolutely knew why the sin
-bearer must be forsaken.
The Lord Jesus Christ knew why.
You remember in the garden of Gethsemane, and
there he was, and he went about a
stone's cast away, and he was praying there.
And it says he began to be sore
amazed as he was contemplating the cup of
the wrath of God that he must drink.
He prays out loud in the garden there.
Wonderful study to consider why he prayed out
loud in the garden.
But there he was in anticipation of the
judgment of God, and as sweat as it
were, great drops of blood falling to the
ground.
He was anticipating the moments preceding this time
with that he cried this, why hast thou
forsaken me?
God knew.
The Lord Jesus could answer that question.
And so it is indeed a prayer for
us to ponder, and it warns us of
the solemnity of the wrath of God.
The second thing I want you to consider
is this, that it causes us to wonder
at the sinlessness of Christ.
It's a proclamation of innocence.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me?
You see, in the person of our Lord
Jesus Christ, there was never any sin that
could be found.
He knew no sin.
He did not sin.
In him is no sin.
And what we find there is God dealing
with sin on Calvary.
And if in the Lord Jesus Christ there
was no sin, then this cry must be
a cry of a proclamation of innocence.
It must cause us to wonder at the
sinlessness of Christ.
Can I draw your attention to the lovely
man of Calvary for a moment?
This is the one that came from the
heights of glory.
God manifests in the flesh, and he came
to this world, and he walked among men,
and he dwelt among men, and he rubbed
shoulders with sinful men.
But yet in him was no sin, and
he did no sin, and there was no
guile found in his mouth.
And there as he walked the sands of
time, the incarnate eternal one, he walked the
sands of time apart from sin.
And he had to.
He had to in the virtue of who
he was, and he had to the virtue
of the work that he was going to
accomplish at Calvary.
He must go to that place to be
the spotless, sinless sacrifice.
Have you ever wondered of a man that
lived that could not sin?
Oh, I'll tell you, it's a marvelous thing
to consider.
It is a tremendous thing to ponder that
this man, absolutely sinless, would find himself, not
by coincidence, under the wrath and the judgment
of Almighty God for sin.
Does that mean anything to you tonight?
Does it carry any special weight?
Does it carry any special meaning as you
sit there in the audience and you consider
one that was absolutely perfect?
As the spotless lamb in the days of
old in the book of Exodus, one in
whom there was no blemish.
And you see, as they would appreciate that
lamb for those days, and they would kill
that lamb, and in fact any sacrifice that
was ever offered, that sacrifice had to be
without blemish.
And they would take that sacrifice, and they
would kill that sacrifice, and they would understand
this, that this animal must die for my
sin.
And this animal did no wrong.
That sacrifice sinned not against God.
There was no condemning sin in that animal.
But yet that animal must die to take
the place of the offerer, to take the
place of the one that brought the sacrifice
to the priest and to the altar to
be slain.
And that's what we have here at Calvary.
We've got the sinless Son of God, the
sacrifice for sin, the innocent one.
You see, it was not the life of
the sacrifice that satisfied God.
It wasn't the fact that that animal had
no blemish that satisfied God.
Those things are necessary, but that did not
make atonement for the soul.
That never covered sin.
That was never the satisfying thing for God's
holy throne.
It wasn't the life of the sacrifice, it
wasn't the labor of the sacrifice, and it
wasn't the life and the labor of the
Lord Jesus Christ that satisfied God.
There must needs be the giving of the
life.
There must be bloodshed.
There must be blood that was shed to
satisfy God's throne.
Why?
Because God had declared that the wages of
sin is death.
God had declared that there must be blood,
and it was not the blood of bulls
or goats that could take away sin, but
it was the blood of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
And so consider with me this cry.
It is a wonder at the sinlessness, the
perfection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
My God, my God, why?
Not why have you made me.
He always was.
But why did you forsake me?
Why?
I wondered what those on that good Friday
afternoon would have thought.
This is Easter weekend, you know.
And I've often wondered what it must have
been like to be there.
And the darkness came.
The supernatural darkness as the darkness would cover
cover the land where no one could see,
and the darkness that could be felt.
And there it says about the ninth hour.
It doesn't say whether it was dark there
or not.
It was about the ninth hour.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me?
To me, when I imagine that out of
the darkness, the magnitude of that cry.
Out of the blackness of the darkness there
in the middle of the day, as they
sat down and they watched him there and
they couldn't see what was taking place.
And then this cry comes, my God, my
God, why has thou forsaken me?
Would it not send the chills right down
your spine to think of one there, one
that performed the miracles, one that was the
voice from heaven came.
This is my beloved son in whom I
am well pleased.
And now this one, this perfect one, this
holy one, this spotless one is forsaken by
God.
Could I ask the question to you, my
friend, tonight?
How is God going to deal with you?
Oh, dear man, so full of sin.
Dear young woman, so contaminated by sin.
Dear Christ rejecter, trampling on the blood of
Christ, have you ever marveled to consider if
you die in your sin, you'll be forsaken
by God, forsaken.
Why hast thou forsaken me?
It also was a proof of his suffering.
There were many people that were crucified in
those days upon crosses.
And what they experienced there as they were
crucified was really the wrath and the justice
of men toward their sin.
You remember the malefactor there, he said, we
receive the due reward of our deeds.
So he understood that he was getting what
he deserved.
And he understood what he was facing there
was the consequence of his own sin.
But when we hear the cry of the
Lord Jesus, the sinless one, proof that he
suffered at the hands of God, all we
find the wrath of man at Calvary, all
the hatred of man, all the animosity of
man toward the Son of God.
They finally had their chance.
They finally had their way.
Christ had done them no ill.
He had done them no wrong.
And then there the cry comes from Calvary
that he was forsaken by God.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me?
It's proof to me that he suffered the
wrath of God.
It's proof to me that he drained that
cup, coupled that with the resurrection.
And there's no doubt in anyone's mind that
what took place at Calvary has satisfied God.
God is 100% satisfied with the death
of his Son.
So God can answer this question.
The Lord Jesus can answer this question.
Israel has come to know in a sense,
and they'll come to know even more, according
to Isaiah 53, what this was all about.
He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him,
and with his stripes we are healed.
They're going to be able to answer the
question why he was forsaken.
The Lord Jesus esteemed him stricken, smitten of
God, and afflicted.
But they'll understand it was for them.
The saved in the audience tonight can understand
and enter into the value of why he
was forsaken.
No question in our mind that he was
forsaken by God and that he was forsaken
just for me.
I often say that if I was the
only one ever to be saved, Christ would
have had to die the same death.
He would have to suffer the same at
the hands of God, because his death was
all for my sin.
All for me.
Dear sinner friend, do you know why he
was forsaken?
Do you know why?
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me?
And then Paul says, the Son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me.
Did you ever wonder why God loved you?
Maybe you don't know tonight that God loves
you.
I hope you know on the facts of
our first message that we heard tonight, the
reality of the love of God to invite
those that are unworthy to a great supper.
Invite those that are unworthy to a wedding
feast.
We need to remind you tonight that God
loves you, and he loves you with an
everlasting love, and this cry from the cross
is proof that God loves you.
It's proof.
Paul says, the Son of God who loved
me and gave himself for me.
Why did he ever undertake for me?
Why did he ever suffer that judgment for
me?
Why did he give himself for me?
I want you to consider that question tonight,
my friend.
He loved you when you were at enmity
with him.
He loves you without condition and without cause.
God himself is love.
Listen to the words of John 3, For
God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in
him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God commended his love toward us, and
that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us.
It would be a marvelous thing tonight to
end this day that you might come to
know why Christ died, and not just why
he died, but that who he died for.
Oh, some would say that he died for
the world.
I'm not so much interested tonight that he
died for the world.
I'm thankful that he did, but I'm interested
tonight in the fact that he died just
for me, that he bore my sin in
his own body on the tree, and there
he satisfied God for my sin, and my
sin has been dealt with, and it is
gone.
And it's God's desire that you would know
the same for yourself.
And we do not frustrate the grace of
God, for if righteousness come by the law,
then Christ is dead in vain.
Consider these questions, my friend, tonight.
Why are you made?
Why did he make you?
He made you to be with you.
He made you that you might glorify him.
He made you that you might be in
his presence forever.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me?
He was forsaken so that you might never
be forsaken.
And why did God love me?
That's something that causes worship, and will cause
worship for all the endless ages of eternity.
How is it that a holy God, why
is it that a righteous God would love
a guilty sinner, and make complete payment for
them through the giving of his son?
My dear friend, God loves you, and is
longing for your salvation, even tonight.
Trust him.
Come to know the reality of the one
who was forsaken for the sinner at Calvary.
Shall we pray?