Anguish

Welcome to this week's message from the Church at Chelsea Westover.

Our core values are vibrant worship, intimate fellowship, fulfilling service, and clear biblical truth.

We pray that this message changes your life.

Let's tune in to today's message and see what God has in store for you.

One more message.

Today and one more.

Next week, we'll look at the actually today.

I'm kind of combined in two words, anguish and agony, because they really fit together.

And then next week we'll finish up the words from the cross on today thou shalt be with me in paradise.

And it'll be a word of confidence.

So it's going to be good as we end it.

And that's the way it should be ended with a word of confidence.

And then the following week, wow, we're going to start our new series.

You know, I kind of go from a book, Old Testament to a topic to a New Testament, then back to a topic, then Old Testament.

That's kind of the way I've always preached.

So we're going to the book of James.

Oh, is it going to be exciting?

The lifestyle of faith is the title of the series.

See, hey, listen.

As a Christian, here's the whole synopsis of what we'll be looking through those five chapters.

You either live a lifestyle in the flesh, or you live a lifestyle in the faith of God.

There's no in-between, folks.

It's one or the other.

And a lot of times it's both.

Sometimes you're in the flesh, sometimes you're in the faith.

It's kind of like this.

But our goal is to kind of get it like this as we walk more and more each day, living a lifestyle of faith.

It's the most practical, lived, hey, living practical principles in the New Testament for us.

It talks about the tongue.

None of us have a problem with our tongue.

Well, that's a lie.

We all have a problem with our tongue.

Hello.

So it's gonna be good.

You're gonna be doing a lot of old men, but that'll be okay because we want to know the truth.

Because why?

The truth shall what?

Set us free.

And the more we become like Jesus, the more people we love, the more people we reach.

And we don't need to talk about each other.

Hey, the devil does a pretty good job with that himself.

Amen?

So today, though, we want to look at the word of anguish.

I want you to look at Matthew chapter 27.

Matthew 27 · chapter mention

We've looked at Luke 23 and we've looked at John 19.

Now we're in Matthew 27.

These are the three chapters in the Gospels that express and explain and show the seven last words that were spoken from the cross.

Here we see, and actually, to read the whole paragraph, we read verses 33 through 50, but you can read them on your own because I will be dealing with a lot of those as I exergetically take us through this message.

But one of the greatest unbelievable, unexplainable.

Now let me say that again.

It's very important.

I said that on purpose.

I was not using my adverbs to try to impress you.

It was to emphasize.

Probably, I mean this.

The most horrible, unexpressible, hey, unextendable words ever spoken are right here in verse 46.

In fact, Martin Luther himself, are you ready for this?

When he read these words, and Martin Luther's probably the greatest of the greatest theologians ever, apart from Paul, I think, and the disciples.

Unbelievable insight to the scriptures.

I mean, he would fast constantly all the time and hours, just sit there, sit there and read the scriptures out loud and meditate right by himself in his prayer room, over and over.

And he wrote some of the greatest exegesis on all most of the New Testament that you'll ever read.

Martin Luther made this statement about this verse.

History tells us that he read the verse and he said, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Which Jesus said, and he said, for days he sat there in one posture, reading it out loud and over and over, fasting possibly for days, asking God to give him insight to this powerful statement that Jesus had made, understanding how could God separate himself from himself.

Hello?

Never thought about it that way?

Because Jesus is God and God is Jesus.

So how did that take place?

And we're going to explain that.

Or what it would say.

Anyway, for they said for weeks he would, he, he, he didn't do anything but study that one word and research it.

And then he came to the conclusion one day he got up, he walked out of his study, and he said nothing.

He said, There is nothing understandable about this statement.

Never wrote anything about it.

Now that's Martin Luther.

So when you start reading, and what I'm going to give you today is very, very, you know, it's just incomprehensible.

Really.

It really is.

But we're going to see how it can apply to our lives.

Amen?

So I wanted you to know that.

So, as we start, I want to read to you, and it's powerful, where he said, and about the ninth hour, that was three o'clock in the afternoon, he said, in three o'clock in the afternoon, Jesus cried with a loud voice, say it.

Now, he had just from 9 to 12, the sun was out.

The sun was beaten down on him.

He had been tortured unbelievably, horribly.

And I mean, he's beyond recognition.

His vestige, you can't even, you couldn't even recognize him.

He had been beaten so badly by the soldiers and the sticks and the rocks that the bystanders had thrown and hit me.

It was just a horrible situation here.

But during this time, we know he had asked, he had made the statement, Father forgive them for the know not what they do.

He he had uh talked to the other thief.

The other thief came to the point realizing who he was, he was the Messiah, he had got some.

I mean, so now he comes to the part where it's unbelievable.

He's totally exhausted, he's hanging in there, ready to die, and then all of a sudden, woof, a darkness comes over the whole region.

I'm in a darkness, a deep darkness.

Not just, you know, as it gradually turns dark.

We're talking about pitch dark.

To the point, people were running back into the city, scared to death, screaming out, oh, it's the judgment of God, it's the judgment of God, which it was.

It was the revelation of God.

I meant they were unbelievably scared, everybody leaving.

And he's hanging there for from twelve to three o'clock, he didn't say a word.

Not a word.

But prior to that, right before the darkness fell, he cries out and what a tremendous saying he said.

Let us allow these words to burn deep into our hearts and souls, to stir us to a new love and surrender to the awesome God that we serve.

Can I get an amen?

Consider first of all how this cry of anguish expresses, it expresses three things about Jesus and God's relationship.

Number one, the faithfulness of the Son of God.

My God, my God, Ali, Ali.

Something is happening here in the darkness, which will never be comprehended by finite minds in time or eternity.

In fact, Elizabeth Clefane made this little poem, and notice what she said.

None of the ransom ever knew how deep were the waters crossed, nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through ere he found his sheep that was lost.

Wow.

In the midst of the darkness, God is dealing with his son in a way that presses human comprehension.

We can't understand it.

No way we can understand it.

No way, folks.

No way.

And in the midst of this darkness, we see here is first of all two things.

Number one, the faithfulness of his reciprocal love.

In other words, he knew that regardless of what he was going through right now, that God's love would never leave him.

Can I get an amen?

Oh, listen to what Jesus said in John 10, 7.

This is awesome.

He said, Therefore, my father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again.

And he uses that term of personal affection.

Ali, Ali, my God, my God.

Oh, the word there means an intimate relation.

Ladies and gentlemen, you just don't holler, my God, and my God, if you don't know God.

It's a personal endearment.

That word ali.

Personal.

I mean intimate.

And we see, oh, this unbelievable love.

His reciprocal love is unshaken and unshakable.

He knew even though he was going through the darkest hour of his earthly life that his God still loved him.

Now, when I saw that, I about had a Pentecostal spell.

Well, I did.

I don't care what you and I are going through.

That reciprocal love, are you ready?

Jason, I need you to go to Romans 8 for me.

Go to verse 35 through 39.

God gave me this morning.

I was early going back through this, and I thought, whoa, hey, this love, this love of God is so reciprocal that He, listen, I don't care who you are, what you've done, and how many times we have failed him, how many times we've turned our back on him, how many times have we gotten in the flesh or we decided we're going to do it our way?

And God ought to just have taken us out of here, but he didn't.

God ought to chastise us at that moment, but he didn't.

Now, but he will if you continue.

He'll get your attention.

But I mean, we've just we've just been a bad boy.

Hello?

Or bad girl.

Amen?

And he still loves you.

You know, when you just really blow it, he still loves you.

His love to you and me is not conditional.

It's unconditional.

Big difference.

Big difference.

But listen to Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Woo-hoo! Pick up verse 35.

Oh, my friends, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation?

No.

Hey, shall distress, no?

Persecution, no?

Famine?

No.

Nakedness, no.

Or peril or sword?

No.

Why?

As it is written, hey, for thy sake we are killed all the day long.

We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

In other words, we are gods.

We're aheaded.

Hey, we are all about God.

We're God's sheep.

And then he says, verse 37, one of my favorite verses.

Nay in all things.

That means all things.

Can I tell you what the Greek word for all is?

All.

All things.

That's the good times, the bad times, the sad times, the happy times.

All things.

It's when you have a great job, you get a new job, lose your job.

Hello.

All things.

It's when your kids are excited and loving God, following God, and then it's when your kids, hey, like the hey, prodigal son, have turned away and left God.

All things.

Now notice what it says, but nay.

You know what that means?

Woo! Just hang on.

Nay, it doesn't matter.

In all things, in all things, we are more than conquerors through him that loves us.

In other words, we are the victors.

It doesn't matter what you're going through because God's reciprocal love is enduring.

You will make it.

You'll make it if you won't give up on him, because he's not going to give up on you.

Yeah, but you don't matter, you don't know what it does, don't care.

Hey, you've not done anything worse than Paul.

He was the chief of sinners.

He had people killed.

He had Stephen stoned to death, the first martyr.

Hello.

You've not done any worse than him.

He was the chief of sinners.

And then notice what he says.

For I am persuaded.

You know what that means?

Fully assured.

Fully confident.

No doubt.

Hey, he says, For I am persuaded that neither death, hey, guess what?

You're not going to die.

You're just going to pass on to heaven.

You're just going to change your address.

Death can't separate you from God.

In fact, it unites you with him.

To be absent from the bodies to be present with the Lord.

2 Corinthians 5.

I am the resurrection and the life.

He that believeth in me, though he were dead, what?

Yet shall he live.

Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.

Wow.

Amen.

Wow.

Church?

Oh, yes.

Nor life.

In other words, there's nothing you can do in this life that separates you from God.

Nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come.

Woo! You said, well, that might come.

No, well, let's just finish it.

Verse 39.

Nor height, nor death.

In other words, heaven can't separate you from God.

Hell or the underneath can't separate you from God.

Oh, the powers of hell cannot separate you from God, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Ladies and gentlemen, that's nothing you can do to separate, hey, God's love from you.

Woo! Give Jesus a clap offering for that.

Now that's reciprocal love.

Now let's ask, don't you wish we could love like that?

You know what most of us love like?

It's always conditional.

I love you if.

Yeah.

Oh yeah, come on.

I love you if you do this.

I love you if you do that.

I love you if.

Well, see, aren't you glad Jesus didn't say, I'm going to love you and die for you if you're one of the chosen.

If you're not one of the chosen.

You're all chosen.

It's what you're going to do with the choosing that matters.

Or you're going to give him your will.

Amen.

He died for all, folks.

Nothing.

Whoo! Nothing.

His love for us is unshaken and unshakable.

But God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5.8.

Herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation, the ultimate sacrifice for us.

1 John 4.10.

Do you get it, church?

Notice the second thing under this reciprocal love.

This faithfulness of the Son of God.

The faithfulness of his reciprocal love.

The second thing, the faithfulness of his responsive trust.

Woo man, this is good.

My God, my God.

Now, the Hebrew word is not Ali, it's Eloi.

Eloh.

Eloh.

Or you can pronounce it Eli.

And the Hebrew word for Ali, my God, means the strength of God.

It's important.

Boy, when I saw that, I'd never seen this before.

I did a word study on the Hebrew word, and I found out that it means the strength of God.

As if to say, Oh my God, I trust in thee regardless of my anguish, regardless of my agony, regardless of my trouble.

I trust in thee.

Wow, that's good.

Trust in the Lord with all thy heart, lean not on thy own understanding, and all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths.

Proverbs 3, 5, and 6.

There it is.

Is that not good, church?

Is that not good?

Oh man, I trust in thee.

It's like the words that came out of Job's mouth.

Hey, remember Job?

Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.

Job 13, 15.

Had the faithfulness of the Son of God broken down.

Now listen, the substitutionary character of his death would have been invalidated.

In other words, that death would have meant nothing.

Nothing but just another criminal dying.

But with all the physical surf, oh man, this is so good.

With all the physical suffering at the hands of men, and he endured unbelievably.

But then I also saw, hey, all the mental, mental suffering that he endured from Satan.

Oh, Satan was working on him the whole time.

From the moment he started his ministry, Satan was tempting him and working on him and trying to cause him to not go to the cross and not to, hey, redeem us from our sins.

And then for the spiritual suffering, watch.

Now what, man, this is good.

Physical suffering at the hands of men, mental suffering at the hands of Satan, and then the physical suffering.

I mean, excuse me, then the spiritual suffering at the hands of God.

Oh.

God turning his back.

Wow.

Three sufferings were he was enduring.

The physical, the mental, and the spiritual.

Unbelievable.

Unbelievable.

But the faithfulness of, hey, he still knew God would never leave him.

I thought about Psalms 40, 17, a verse that I've memorized this past month, that just has so strengthened me.

Put it down, Psalms 41, 10.

I don't know if I have it on there or not.

It might have been later.

But Psalms 41, 10, here's what it, I'm at Psalms 40, 17.

I'm sorry.

Also put down Isaiah 41, 10.

But Psalms 40, 17 says, I am poor and needy.

Can anybody say agree and say amen?

I am poor and needy.

Oh, it says, yet the Lord thanks upon me.

Whoa, I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thanks upon me.

He's thinking about you when you're in your distress.

Even though he had separated himself from Jesus, he was still thinking about Jesus.

That's his son.

So we see what beautiful he says.

I am poor and in, yet the Lord thinks upon me.

Thou art, now watch what he says.

Thou art my help and my deliverer.

Is that not good?

You need that verse.

Because you're going to be there.

You're going to be in the furnace.

You're going to be out there by yourself, poor and needy.

But then you know what's going to comfort you all?

You know what you're going to do if you're a Christian, you're walking with God, you're going to look up and you're going to say, My God, my God, I need you.

I need help.

And then the Bible says he's thinking about you.

He's already thinking about you.

Oh, you go over to Hebrews 4.15.

We have a high priest that has been touched with the feelings of our firmities, a great high priest, which has passed into the heavens, sitting at the right hand of God.

Woo! And because of that, we can come boldly unto the throne of grace that we might receive mercy and grace to help in time of need.

That's what I'm talking about.

That's what he means here.

That is that faithfulness of his responsive trust.

Isaiah 41, 10 says, Fear thou not, for I am with thee.

Be not dismayed.

Hey, don't be discouraged, for I am thy God.

I will help thee.

I will lead thee.

I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

Not only does he hear me, think about me, he grabs me with his right hand.

Woo! Amen.

Sister, you the only one that got it, but you got it.

Not only is he thinking about you, but he grabs you and he pulls you out of it.

And he puts your feet on a rock, the solid rock.

Puts a new song in your heart.

That's it.

That's it.

Oh, that's faithfulness of responsive trust.

Oh, I my wife, I trust her with anything.

But guess what?

I've got someone that I can even trust more than her.

God Himself.

He's thinking about me.

He's ready to help me.

He's ready to do whatever I need done.

As long as I'm listening to Him.

He's there all the time.

All the time.

Number two.

Is that good or is that good, church?

So we see the faithfulness of the Son of God disappeared when he hollers.

And he did holler.

He cried out loud.

My God! My God.

You've been there.

I was there when my wife died in my arms.

My God! My God! Why has that forsaken me?

Been there.

The forsakenness of the Son of God.

How many of us have ever been felt like we were forsaken?

That's about half of you.

Well, you, the other half will experience it.

It's coming.

You're going to hit that valley, you're going to hit that lion's den, you're going to hit that fiery furnace.

It's coming.

You're going to be out in the wilderness.

And you're going to think nobody cares.

But I got news for you.

He cares.

He cares.

You said, well, how low do I have to get?

I'll tell you how low.

Whatever it takes.

As low as it takes to get you to fix your eyes on him and him alone.

Oh, yes, preacher, that's good.

My eyes are fixed on thee, oh God.

In thee is my trust.

Psalms 141, verse 8.

Psalms 141:8

Amen.

You with me, church?

Now, when he made that statement, my God, my God, you have forsaken me.

Sabak Thani is a word for forsaken.

He might have said, and he could have, hey, I can understand why the nation of Israel forsook him.

And by the way, they did.

Remember John 1.11?

He came into his own.

And his own what?

Received him not.

He knew that was going to happen.

Even his family.

Hello?

Even his own family.

Listen to what he says in John chapter 7, verse 5.

John 7:5

Even his brothers did not believe in him.

Can you imagine growing up with Jesus and not believing that he's Jesus?

What's your problem?

Amen?

What's your problem?

Most of them didn't come to know Christ till uh, well, several of them did after crucifixion.

After the resurrection.

I mean, it literally took him having to die and be resurrected for them to believe.

Now, I don't know about you, but I just got a little inclination that I might have thought there was something a little different about him.

Just a thought.

At 12, when he confounded the scribes and the master teachers.

At the wedding, when he turned the water into wine.

When the lady coming through the crowd touched his garment and she was filled of the issue of blood.

When he raised Jarvis's daughter, when he fed 5,000 men, probably 15 to 20,000 people with a little lad's lunch.

I just think there's something a little different about this lad.

Hello, you okay out there?

No, I was getting there.

I'm going.

I had to take a breath.

And when he turned to the tomb and he said, Lazarus, come forth.

Now, when the dead gets out of the tomb and he, hey, we somebody said, Oh, he just really wasn't dead.

I said, Oh, he's dead.

How do you know he's dead?

He stinketh.

You're dead when you start stinking.

Hello.

That's what it says.

Read the book.

Amen.

And he came forth.

Amen.

Don't you think there's something a little different about him?

I'm gonna ask those boys when I get to heaven.

What's your problem?

I guess that means you and I got a lot of, hey, we got we got hope.

So, hey, I could understand even my disciples forsaken me.

Listen to what he says in Matthew 26, 56.

For all the disciples had forsaken him and fled.

Woo!

But it's hard to understand the meaning of the word forsaken.

But now, let me explain it to you.

Boy, it took me a while as I can't, but didn't it make sense?

Here's what it means.

Shabbat thani.

Here's what it means.

When you're forsaken.

The word means to separate.

It means leaving entirely alone.

It doesn't mean to abandon.

God did not abandon Jesus.

He separated himself for a little while from Jesus.

He knew exactly what was going on.

Listen, Jesus, God could have sent 10,000 angels to take care of the situation.

But see, that would not have fulfilled the 25 prophecies that had to be fulfilled on that day.

Hello?

He was validating the word of God.

He was validating that God's Jesus and Jesus is God.

You with me?

Man, that's good.

Yep.

It is hard to understand, though.

Now watch.

Why did God hide his face and leave him entirely alone?

There's only one answer.

Ready?

Psalms 22.

Verse 1.

You see, I'm talking about centuries before the cross.

Did you hear me?

Look at what the David penned.

You remember what I said last week?

I said, the law, the Torah, demands the crucifixion.

The Psalms, especially Psalms 22, depicts the crucifixion.

In detail, centuries before it happened, he tells us what happened.

And then we said, the prophets, what?

What they foretold.

One declared it, the other depicted, the other declared it.

One demand, I mean, the law demanded, the Psalms depicted it, and the prophets declared it.

Now watch though, in this descriptive description.

My God.

Uh-oh.

There it is.

Ali.

My God, Ali.

Why hast thou forsaken me?

Shabakh thy knee.

What art thou so for helping me and from the words of my roaring?

In other words, he's crying out in deep agony.

Remember the word of agony?

He's in deep agony.

Look at verse 3.

Here's the reason why he separated himself.

The only reason.

But thou art holy.

O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

In fact, here it is.

He had to separate himself from his son because he could not look on sin.

He couldn't look on sin.

He had just given the whole sin of the world, placed it on Jesus' back.

What a horrible, all the disease, all the sickness, all the murder, all the ungodliness, all the heinous things you can imagine, all the wickedness that we read and see in the news, all of it is now on his son.

Wow.

You get that?

He couldn't see it.

He couldn't look on it.

Because God's holy.

Look at verse 6.

Now this is gonna, I'm gonna tell you something.

When I research this, I want you to look at verse 6.

Let me go there.

You got it?

Do we have uh you got it?

Okay.

Notice what the psalmist said.

But I am a worm and no man.

I'll reproach a man and despise of the people.

I've read that a thousand times.

I've never understood it.

Never.

Worm?

I mean is a Hebrew word for worm.

Ali.

It's a coccus worm.

And a coccus worm was used to take the dye, the blood, or the I don't I'm not sure if it probably is the blood.

But anyway, what would happen?

The worm, when it got ready to deliver its babies, it would attach itself to a bark of trees.

And it literally died giving birth to the babies.

And it would be covered those babies in its fluids, which was called a crimson red dye.

That was used for the temple and the priest's robes.

It was the same word used in Isaiah 118.

Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord, though our sins be as what?

They shall be as white as snow, though they be red like what?

Crimson! Same word.

That little worm attaching itself to a tree would shed its blood so that the worms could live, so that they could, those babies, and then the juices could be used for the temple.

What a picture of Jesus Christ dying on the cross.

Shedding his blood.

Some of you are looking at me, wow, I know.

I did too.

I was like, mmm, let me do that again.

What a picture.

And there it is right there.

I'm a worm.

Just like that worm giving his life for its babies and shedding its blood.

Jesus Christ, centuries later, would die on a cross and give his blood for his children.

Oh man! Is that not good?

Oh, the power of the truth of the word of God.

Oh.

But you and I, when he said, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

We find that they're followed by the words in verse 3, as I just said, because he's holy.

Now let me give you quickly the three things.

In that moment, when the Lord's being crucified, he's saying these words that we just depicted in Psalm 22, he was identifying himself with three things.

Number one, the reality of sin.

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5.21, he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Wow.

He did not merely take upon him self, that is Jesus, guilt, but sin in all its ugly reality that we just talked about.

Unbelievable.

Jesus was made sin.

I want you to get that with me.

You got to comprehend this.

Jesus was made sin for you and me.

That's astounding when I really comprehend that.

It is no wonder that he cried out, My God, my God.

Why, have you forsaken me?

I'm a worm and no man, he said.

No man.

Wow.

Wow.

It's like in John, in fact, here's what Jesus was saying.

I wrote this out.

Ooh, I almost missed it.

I am a crushed worm.

I have become sin itself.

That's exactly what he meant.

I have become a crushed worm.

He had become sin himself.

Think about it.

I know you can't remember what Martin Luther said.

You can't comprehend this.

The ways and knowledge and the mysteries of God are past finding out.

Romans 11, 33.

This is one of those you just trust it by faith and exercise your faith and you just live it and trust him.

It's that reciprocal love and that reliable trust.

Wow, that's good.

So we see that.

No, the second thing we see too, though.

But wait, wait, remember as Moses was lifted up?

Oh, oh, how these had tied together about the worm and Moses.

I'd never seen it before.

Remember, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son of Man must be lifted up, he said.

In John 3.14.

All right, now watch this.

Why was the serpent lifted up in the wilderness?

It was a symbol of the very thing that was slaying the camp of the camp of Israel.

The venom and poison of the snake were represented in the brazen serpent.

The sin, in other words, the cause of them dying.

What causes us to die for the wages of sin is death.

So as the serpent was lifted up, so they would be delivered if they got bit and they looked to the serpent.

It's just like when you and I living in sin, when we look to Christ on the cross, we are forgiven of our sins.

Amen.

What a typology.

Wow.

Wow.

Number two, it was the totality of sin.

Look at Isaiah 53, 6.

All we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

John the Baptist, pointing to Jesus, said, Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world.

1 John, I meant John 1.29, God focused on him the sin of the whole world.

All the misery, all the crime, all the pollution, all the corruption, all the guilt of all the human race.

In its most concentrated form.

When I was growing up in a boy scout, you know one of the things we learned to do?

Magnifying glass.

Was I the only one that enjoyed you playing with a magnifying glass growing up?

What?

Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Pine straw and dry leaves.

Get that baby.

Direct sunlight.

Right on there, next thing you know, fire.

I was guilty.

You wouldn't do that, would you, Karen?

No, you just like the match, wouldn't you?

Get the gas.

Hey, hey.

My God.

God focused.

Took that magnifying glass of all the sins of the world that ever will be committed, that has ever been committed, and he focused it right on Jesus on Mount Calvary.

Two thousand years ago.

Right there.

For you.

And for me.

Oh, is that not good?

Now that's grace.

That's grace.

We should have been the one crucified.

We should have been the ones that died that day.

Which brings me to the third thing: the fatality of the sin.

Ezekiel 18, 4, the soul who sins shall die.

And again, the wages of sin is death.

It was not merely physical death, which was sealed with the words, it is finished.

It was the hell of an alienation from God.

In those three hours, a whole eternity of hell was compressed into the experience of our Savior.

He experienced all that hell ever is or ever will be during those dark three hours.

A lot of people believe he went to, well, they think he experienced it mentally.

We don't know.

That's just a thing I read.

A lot believed as he was in the grave three days that he went to hell.

But listen, look right here.

Look at this.

This is unbelievable.

Really, folks.

Can you imagine you and your husband, if you've been married more than, you know, 10 or 15 years?

Susan and I have been married 30 plus years.

I'm learning.

Four.

How many?

How many, honey?

Tell me when.

Okay, 34.

I don't know.

I did that on purpose.

November the 11th.

No.

Wait a minute.

Time out.

I'm looking at the way I write it down.

11 is the month.

It's 1114.

November the 14th.

That's the way I remember it.

114.

So that's why I said 11.

Get back to the mess.

Well, I came out on that one.

Thank you, Jesus.

Get back to the worm, please.

Now watch.

This is so good.

What I was saying.

For me and Susan.

34 wonderful years together.

Can you imagine just being totally separated overnight?

One of the things when we sat there with Apple that night.

Somebody looked at me and she said, I don't know what I'll do with that again.

Can you imagine?

Before any time before anything was, Jesus was.

Before anything was, God was.

And before anything was, they both were together.

And now, for the first time in Jesus' life, he is separated.

From God, the Father.

I and my father are one.

Now they're separated.

Not abandoned.

You gotta understand that now.

Separated.

My, my, my.

My, my, my.

But it doesn't end there, folks, as we close.

It doesn't end there.

Number three, the last thing, the fulfillment of the Son of God.

My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?

During those hours of separation and unspeakable anguish, not a word was spoken.

Why?

Because we know that in John 19, 30, it was a completed act.

He is about to make it official to a world of angels and principalities.

Hey, he's about to reverberate the unbelievable, fantastic, complete words of Totelist is finished, that have been felt all over the world ever since that hour.

There was a fulfillment of all the love, grace, and mercy of God in Christ and men and women like, hey, like you and me.

Now watch, he was forsaken that we might never be forsaken.

Can I get an amen?

He was forsaken that we might be, hey, that we might never be forsaken.

Man, that's good.

That's so good.

God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their transpasses to them.

In other words, he took them all.

The whole work of reconciliation was completed so that we might be, here it is, two things, and I'm through.

That we might be reinstated.

Oh, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them.

Look at what he said.

That's what he said in 2 Corinthians 5.19.

Powerful statement.

So now we are made to appear before God in a favorable light as if we had never sinned.

What matulous grace and unforgiving love that is.

Ladies and gentlemen, listen to me.

When you, are you listening to me?

When you stand before Christ, I mean, when you stand before God at the beam of judgment seat, he will not see your vileness and your wickedness and your heinousness.

He will see Christ's love and Christ's grace bestowed unmerited favor upon you.

Amen.

Wow.

Reinstated.

When I was traveling with Dr.

Falwell for 14 years all over the world.

I mean, Dot was a big man of God, prophet of God.

We got invited to is everywhere.

And I'd be traveling with him.

And you know, I was kind of in the inner circle, but I was always, I was always trying to help him.

Whatever he needed, briefcase, I was carrying it.

Trying to help him.

And never, never failed.

In fact, when E.

V.

told me about him going to Jesse Jackson, I referred back and I thought about me traveling with Dr.

Falwell.

We'd go into some of these very high areas, like uh in Israel when we went and and uh saw some of the people when we went there that that day.

And and a couple other places we'd go, governors and and uh uh never got to go to the White House with him, but um, but a lot of the governors and our senators I'd meet and we'd go into their, start to go into the office or hotel room where they were or conference room, and they never would, you know, usually they'd either Secret Service would let him come in.

But they'd stop us, the ones that were behind him, and stop us.

No, you can't go in.

And for us to go in, Balwell would turn and say, He's with me.

Ladies and gentlemen, one day we're gonna stand before an awesome God at the beam of judgment seat, and Satan's gonna do everything he can that last time to condemn us, to threaten us, to keep us from going in.

And I got news for you, there's a man named the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, named Jesus Christ, is gonna stand there and he's gonna say, yes, everything you said, right.

But I got news for you, Satan! He's with me.

Amen.

He's with me.

That's all that matters.

Satan bite the dust.

Amen.

And then the last thing.

Not only are we reinstated, we are recreated.

Therefore, if any man be in Christ Jesus, he's a new creation.

All things have passed away.

Behold, all things have become new.

We've been recreated, folks.

Oh, I found this poem.

Oh, you know it.

The matchless grace of Jesus.

Remember that song?

Listen to this.

Oh, matchless grace, that Jesus there alone on Calvary's cross for sinners should atone.

To such a friend, a savior, and a king, our lives for service we will gladly bring.

Let me ask you this morning.

Are you giving your life to Christ?

After hearing that, after seeing what he went through, each and every one of us ought to say, My God, my God, thank you.

Amen.

Can we say that together?

My God, my God, thank you.

Again, my God, my God, thank you.

Every head bowed, every eye closed.

What truth?

You should know the truth and the what say it, church.

The truth shall what?

Set you free.

Thanks again for tuning into this week's message.

We pray that your life has been changed.

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Send us an email at office at the church at CW dot com.

We hope you have a wonderful day, and again, God bless you.