Let's pray together, please. Heavenly Father, what a privilege it is to have the word of God in our own language in its entirety before us. May we receive his truths with faith and love, lay them up in our hearts and practice them in our lives. In Jesus' name we ask, amen. This morning I'd like to turn to Psalm 22. I'm gonna do a two-week, a series through Psalm 22. As much as I've enjoyed 1 Samuel, I wanted to talk about the gospel. And this is a glorious passage on that subject. Psalm 22, one through eight, is our scripture reading and sermon text for this morning. Psalm 22, verses one through eight, beginning with the superscript there, because that is part of the original text there. This is God's word. For the choir director, upon Aduleth hashashahar, a Psalm of David. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I have no rest. Yet you are holy, O you who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted. They trusted and you delivered them. To you they cried out and were delivered. In you they trusted and were not disappointed. But I am a worm and not a man, a reproach of men and despised by the people. All who see me sneer at me. They separate the lip. They wag the head, saying, commit yourself to the Lord. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him because he delights in him. May God bless the reading of his holy word. Proverbs 29 verse, or excuse me, 25 verse 19 says this, confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a bad tooth and a foot out of joint. Everyone here has known, knows now, will know, or actually is in some way an unfaithful man or an unfaithful woman. What is an unfaithful man? Think of an unfaithful man in terms of his opposite. Joseph, Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael, Job, Noah, Moses. Now those were faithful men. What made these men faithful as opposed to unfaithful? Here it is. Their word was good. They had integrity. They did not tell lies. They worked hard at all that they put their hands to. And they followed through. An unfaithful man is the opposite of all those things. What they say they will do, they don't. They do not have integrity, they cannot be trusted. They tell lies, they're lazy, and they don't follow through. Some people establish patterns of behavior in this grand area of faithful versus unfaithful, so much so that they can be labeled as unfaithful or as faithful. Now consider yourself, when you look in the mirror, you see someone who's faithful or unfaithful. Hopefully, if we know Christ, we're moving in the direction of being more and more faithful in all those ways, right? But I would bet most, if not all Christians here right now, right now, are not very happy with their present level of sanctification, their present level of personal holiness, their present level of faithfulness to God. But I wanna tell you, that personal sense of sin, that really, that wretchedness that we feel in ourselves if we know Christ, that's a gift of his grace. Did you realize that? Your personal sense of unworthiness is a good thing. That nagging sense deep down, that day in and day out sense of dissatisfaction with yourself, that's a good thing. It's the reason that you cling solely to the finished work of Christ for your salvation. It's the reason you won't be deceived by false gospels that add our faithfulness, our works, our anything to the equation of what gets us into heaven. You know, self-examination is a good thing. It has its place. But I want to warn you, too much of that can lead to depression. It can lead to anger, despair, hopelessness. So I want to tell you the fuel of hope is the gospel. The fuel of hope is the gospel. Justification by faith alone in the cross work and the imputed righteousness of Jesus alone. That's the fuel. That's the fuel that makes the car go. That's the fuel of the Christian life. Not the law. Remember when we got that giant diesel gas powered van, many, many times having only had regular gas cars, I almost put regular gas in it. And that would have been a disaster. You got to get the thing. And I remember sitting there like, why won't this fit? Oh, that's right. It's a diesel vehicle. Thank you, Lord, that it didn't fit. I was really getting mad about it. That's the way it is with the Christian life. You want to be more holy. You want to be more godly. You want to have more victory over sin in your life. You're not going to find anything in here to help you. You got to look outside yourself to the finished work of Christ. And that's the great irony. Legalists don't understand this. Heretics have never gotten this. The idea that holiness could be motivated by gratitude to Christ for doing everything to save us. It's no part of the unbelieving or heretical world that it's don't get it. The law and examining ourselves in the light of its requirement, it cannot and it will not make us more holy. The Great Reformation, when the reformers, Luther and Calvin and the great theologians of the 16th century looked at scripture, they could see the law of God has no enabling power in it. And they coined a Latin phrase, the Lex Semper Accusatat, the law always accuses. So we don't look there for help. We don't look there for our sanctification. And yet we do look to the law as the guide. What is it that God wants me to do? How do I live a life that's pleasing to him? That's where you go for the direction, but the gasoline for the vehicle, the thing that makes it go is Christ, is the gospel. The Apostle Paul said it so clearly after spelling out for three and a half chapters in Romans that the law of God condemns Gentiles, it condemns Jews, it condemns anyone else I missed. And he says, therefore by the deeds of the law. And that is not just a reference to circumcision or dietary laws or ethnic badge markers. That's a reference to the entire law of God. The whole thing, the 10 commandments, all of it. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin. By the law is the knowledge of sin. Notice that the divine scripture, the Holy Spirit of God does not say it is by the law that comes the knowledge of our righteousness. Or by the law is the knowledge of salvation. Or by the law is our understanding of how to be justified or sanctified. By the law, by the 10 commandments is our knowledge of sin. God is perfect, perfectly holy. It says in 1 John 1, 5, in him is no darkness at all. Remember when I first started taking Greek, it's the piling on of negatives. It says that in him is no, no darkness, none. In him, darkness is not at all, no way. It says, I remember seeing one translation. The law reflects the perfection of his character. The law of God requires and demands from all people everywhere at all times, perfection. Did you know this? Law of God demands perfection from us. Perfection of thought, perfection of word, perfection of deed, and everything that we do, allowing no room for failure of any kind. You know, the federal vision heresies have said for 25 years now almost, law of God doesn't require perfection. Law of God does not require you to be perfect. And my response is, yes, it does. What did Jesus say about it? Matthew 5, 48, therefore you shall be perfect, even as God in heaven is perfect. When Paul wrote about the law of God, its inability to save us in any way, shape, or form, he said in Galatians 3.10, For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, and he's citing Deuteronomy 27.26, Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. The summation of the covenant of law, the covenant of works is also given in Leviticus 18.5. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them. And I want to tell you, if you think you do the law, you are deceived. If you think you do it, you're deceived. And people will cite Romans 2.13. It is not the hearers of the law that are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. See, we're justified by doing the law. My response is, and God expects you to keep reading. What's the rest of Romans say? There's nobody that does that. Nobody. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. If you think you are a doer of the law, you're lost. You're going to hell. You will never understand why Jesus died. Psalm 22 will make no sense to you whatsoever. Anytime we examine ourselves by the holiness of God, we all fall short of His glory. We always fall short. Now, as I said, we should praise God. Aren't you thankful to God that you're not what you used to be? If you're a Christian, all the ways He's changed you, all the ways that He's helped you put to death so much sin, but does it not bother you that there's still so much sin in there? And that there's still so much wrong with us? If you're not happy with your prayer life, if you're not happy with your present level of sanctification, join the club. Indeed, you're an honorary member of it because it's you who are blessed according to Jesus. It's an amazing thing. The first words that are recorded in Matthew came out of Jesus' lips to the world. It's so unexpected. It's so shocking. He steps up. He doesn't say, blessed are you if you really, really try hard to keep God's law. Blessed are you if you're righteous. Blessed are you if you keep my commandments. No, he says, blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Who did Jesus come to save? He came to save the spiritually destitute. He came to save the people that look at themselves and they mourn. And they look at the world around them and look at all the horrors and all the suffering and all the needless loss of human life. And it just crushes their heart and they mourn. He says, I came for you. You're blessed. You look at yourself in the mirror and you don't like what you see. You're not happy with your prayer life, your sanctification, your faithfulness. I came for you. You're the one that I'm gonna make happy. You're the one that I came to save. Christianity is a religion for sinful people, for people that are broken by their own wickedness. Those are the ones Jesus said, you're the happy ones. He uses that word. Blessed and happy are you if you're spiritually poor, if you mourn, if you hunger and thirst for righteousness. They're blessed. Now, why are they blessed? Because Jesus did what he did in Psalm 22 for them. He did what he describes in Romans 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Ephesians 1, 2, and 3, Colossians 1 and 2, the whole book of Galatians, Isaiah 53, and hundreds of other passages. Jesus did everything he did to give you spiritual richness. You see what good is it to be given spiritual riches in Christ if you don't see that you're poor? That's what this is all about. So I wanna encourage you. I want to encourage you, those struggling lately with life, those struggling with discouragement over sanctification failures and besetting sins, and those struggling with just how spiritually poor we are, struggling with being sad that you're not more sad about how sinful you are. I've had so many people over the years tell me, I just, I'm not happy with my repentance. Like you expect to ever be happy with that. I repent of how unrepentant I am all the time then you gotta repent of that too and that too and Eventually folks just rest in Christ. Okay, stop examining yourself. You're not gonna find any hope there. I promise you There's that constant reminder of just how fall how far short we still fall For all of you. I just want to encourage you in this time here just in this moment as we walk through the first eight verses of this song, just here, take your eyes off yourself. Take your eyes off yourself just for a little while and fix them on Jesus. Forget about you and issues you've got, dissatisfaction with how you're doing. Let's just look at the one faithful man that ever lived and the one who by his suffering, not yours, by his righteousness, not yours, by his death, not yours, by his burial, not yours, by his resurrection, not yours, has achieved perfect and infallible salvation from hell and reconciliation with God and fellowship and love and communion with him. So let's look at it. Look at the superscript there. for the choir director upon Ajalef HaShashahar, a Psalm of David. Now, that is a hard word to pronounce, I will admit to you. Ajalef HaShashahar is probably the name of a tune that the congregation would have been familiar with. They would have known, oh yeah, I love that song. Ajalef HaShashahar was on the top 40 in Israel. We do the same with our Book of Psalms. If you notice, I try to pick the Book of Psalms tunes that you probably know fairly well and could sing along with fairly easy. But that's what that is. It's a song they would have known so they could sing this more easily. Now this was written by David. And we know that this is relevant to circumstances in David's life. David often felt forsaken by God as he was on the run from Saul and things were pretty hard on him for a lot of his life. Once the Holy Spirit came upon David and God called him to the special purpose, the peacefulness of watching sunsets in the field, watching sheep were gone and life became stressful for the rest of his life basically. And that's the way it is. You enter into God's army, you're gonna have difficult times. Well, there are always circumstances immediate to the psalm writer himself, for sure. We can't help but see Jesus here, right? We can't help but see Jesus in the psalms in general, but especially this one in particular. The accuracy and the frightening foretelling of his sufferings here, what was going to happen to him, the mockery that would be heaped upon him, word for word. the piercing of his hands and feet in the crucifixion, and even the announcement of the end of the Great Commission itself, through which this finished work will be proclaimed. It's astounding to read this Psalm. Historians and commentators on Psalm 22 even point out that the idea of hands and feet being pierced probably did not make much sense even to David when he wrote it, because crucifixion as a mode of execution is still eight centuries in the future. from when David wrote those 1,000 years before Christ. And so many parts of Psalm 22 are directly seen, even referenced in the New Testament, that for the Christian reading it, that we immediately wanna look past David and see Jesus here. And I would encourage you to do that. When you read Psalm 22, this is a window into the mind and heart of Jesus while he was nailed to the cross. And that's what makes Psalm 22 so special. That's what makes every phrase in it worth our contemplation here. Okay, now look at verse one. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Okay, stop there. And then the next phrase. Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. Now, stop there. Jesus said these words in Aramaic from the cross and they're recorded in Aramaic in our Bibles. Most can quote that little passage in Aramaic. Eli, Eli, lama, sabachthani. Jesus quoted the opening verse of Psalm 22 on purpose. He quoted that to point the minds of the people that were there to that psalm. The Pharisees, the chief priests, the scribes, they knew full well what he was quoting from. And their minds immediately would have gone to this psalm. And it's amazing how the scene described at the psalm is right in front of their faces now. It's really impossible to fully describe what Jesus is experiencing here in this moment. Jesus was and is in this moment, he's still inherently a perfectly righteous man. There's no iniquity found in him. There's no deceit found in his mouth. He loved God, he loved his neighbor perfectly without fail and thought word and deed all of his life. No one was able to prove him guilty of any sin ever. But what we see in this very moment is what Paul summarized so well. 2 Corinthians 5.21, God made him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we would become the righteousness of God in him. And in that passage we just read, after we confessed our sins, Isaiah 53.6, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. That's what's happening here. That's when the iniquity of all of his people is legally put into his account, and then he's treated accordingly by his father's justice. Now, he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Now being forsaken was nothing new to Jesus. It happened many times in his life already. His miracle working power had created for him many, many fair weather friends. His ability to make lots of food, created lots of fake and phony followers who wanted more free food. People have always been attracted to power. People are attracted to great oratory and they're also attracted to food. But Jesus came to bear witness to the truth first. And the works that he did, these miracles that he did, they authenticated his right to speak for God and they authenticated his claim to be God in human flesh. But none of that meant anything to the unregenerate people that flocked to him. And when the 5,000 plus that he fed with the five barley loaves and the two fish in John chapter six, when they followed him over the Sea of Galilee to the synagogue at Capernaum, Jesus turns to them and tells them why they don't believe in him. He explains their unbelief in terms of God's absolute sovereignty, and they could no more stomach that than many today. People don't like the idea of election predestination today. In fact, you want the fastest way to clear out a room of evangelicals today? Tell them in five minutes the discussion of unconditional predestination will start, and watch them all leave. Jesus gave him the hardest doctrine there was. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and all that the Father gives me will come to me. And they didn't like that. John 6, verse 66, from that time, many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more. Being forsaken was a way of life for Jesus. He was forsaken a lot. From the moment he was conceived and born, he was being forsaken and rejected. Herod's murderous rampage in the entire vicinity of Bethlehem and all of its surrounding districts. It was aimed at killing Jesus. And when a very pregnant Mary went with Joseph to be registered there in Bethlehem, Jesus was rejected from the inn. And he had to be born among the beasts of burden there and laid in a manger, an animal's feeding trough. Jesus was rejected at His conception. He was rejected at His birth. He was rejected in His hometown when He went there to the synagogue at Nazareth. They ran Him out of town and were about to throw Him off of a cliff. He was rejected by His own family, His own brothers. They did not believe in Him. John chapter 7. He was rejected by His fellow countrymen, the Jews. Rejected by the Pharisees and the religious elites. He was rejected by the Romans. Rejected and forsaken by the 12 who were scattered when he was arrested and led away to be tortured, beaten, mocked, and then crucified? Being rejected was where he lived. It was what he was used to. It was a way of life. Why was he rejected by everybody? Because he told the truth. John 7, verse 7, the world, he told his brothers. I mean, imagine growing up with Jesus as your oldest brother. Talk about being worried your parents might have a favorite. He tells his brothers, the world cannot hate you. But it hates me because I testify of it that its works are evil. I'm willing to tell people, yeah, what you're doing is evil. It's not that your parents didn't raise you right. You're evil. You're bad. And if you don't repent, you're going to go to hell. And justly so. Does it shock you to know that's not popular today either? Jesus' own disciples, they were frail, they were weak men. Yeah, they were pretty impressed with Jesus. But remember, even they didn't understand why he was really there. They really thought, we're gonna have the glory days of David and Solomon again. But as soon as Jesus was arrested in Gethsemane, Matthew 26, 56, then all the disciples forsook him and fled. Here in Psalm 22, in this terrible moment, while Jesus is nailed to the cross, something unthinkable and terrible happened. Something beyond words happened. Jesus could understand Judas' betrayal. He dealt with the heartache of Peter's triple denial, that he even knew his name. Jesus handled well the fact that vast multitudes of people didn't like him, they forsook him. but the one who always mattered the most was His Father, His God. The love that held God the Son and God the Father together in perfect fellowship and communion, it was infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. God, His Father, has spoken those words of benediction over Jesus at His baptism. He spoke them several times. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Why was he well pleased with him? Because Jesus was righteous. Jesus was faithful. Jesus never disobeyed, never lied, never had malcontent. He was his beloved son. During this moment, suddenly the benediction that Jesus pleased God, suddenly now it's suspended. It's removed for a moment. Now all of our careless and rebellious law-breaking, is being brought down like a hammer, like a merciless scourge upon his righteous soul by his Holy Father. The curse of God's justice is now on Jesus for our sins. Think of this, dear congregation, the sinful denial of Jesus by Peter was in these moments being laid on Christ. Remember that verse of that great hymn, it is well with my soul. Remember, my sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part, but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. That's what's happening here. What was the cost? Jesus took all of his human betrayals in stride. He maintained his composure and held his peace in the face of all the hatred, all the mockery, all the scheming, the plotting, the forsaking that he received from men. But what of this? God, he says, why have you forsaken me? There had to come that terrible moment when Jesus no longer stood under the benediction of his father. He became sin in our behalf and was seen as a sinner by his father legally. The guilt of every sin was laid upon his righteous soul. Now, as I said, Jesus throughout all of this, he is inherently intrinsically righteous through all of it, but he's legally, judicially, forensically treated by his father's justice as if he had done everything that we've done. as if he committed all the sinful acts that we have. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? We read these words, we know what they mean, but what did our Lord experience in these moments? See the second part of verse one, far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. This was the ultimate suffering and the ultimate sorrow for him. Now look at verse two, you see it? Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer. And by night, but I have no rest. See, Jesus was given no rest from this terrible ordeal so that we could one day enter into ours for eternity. Jesus is not delivered here. He's not delivered from the justice of God so that we could be delivered from it. The appearance that God does not hear our prayers was felt by Jesus long before any of us got here. You ever feel like that? You're tired of praying the same thing. You've prayed 10,000 times for the same thing. Our prayers hit the ceiling and come right back into my lap. You know what's wonderful? We can know for sure, God always hears our prayers. Even when our feelings are cold, he still hears our prayers. We think our prayers hit the ceiling and they come back to us unheeded, unheard, unanswered. But in this moment, although Jesus is being treated as if he were a sinner by the Father, although he needs and desires deliverance, there is none, Jesus nevertheless persists in prayer. and calls God, even though he's now under his judgment, he calls him, my God, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He uses the term of endearment, repeating the name twice, just like God does when he addresses those that he loves, Moses, Moses, Samuel, Samuel. even as Jesus is legally, judicially forsaken, as he becomes legally displeasing to his father, he persists in loving God. He persists in praying. He persists in calling upon him. The difference here may very well be this. God could not answer Jesus now because Jesus was taking what amounted to infinite punishment in his body and soul on behalf of his people. You see, we only feel forsaken. We never are. We never actually are. This is why those promises, they ought to be far more precious to us than they are. that God never leaves or forsakes us. We quote that like a mantra, but do we really believe that? Is it really definitional to who we are? Here you have the son of God forsaken so that God could make that promise. I will never forsake you because I have hidden you in him. I've hidden you in my son. I will never forsake you. Hebrews 13 five, let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have for he himself has said, I will never leave you. nor forsake you." Matthew 28 20, I am with you always. Let me ask you this week, have you felt like God's not with you anymore? Ever gone through a trial and thought, God doesn't love me anymore. God, why have you turned your back on me? It's never true. If you're hidden in Christ, it's impossible that God would have to cease to be God for that to happen. See, we have these promises. The redeemed children of God have this promise. God never, ever forsakes us. Jesus cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? See, that happened so that we would have that promise. He'll never forsake me. He'll never forsake you, if you really know him. Jesus was forsaken at the cross, so we wouldn't be. There are some who argue that Jesus wasn't, he never really could be forsaken by his father. And that he's only quoting Psalm 22 just to point people's minds to what the Psalm says. And however, while I would agree that Jesus is wanting the eyewitnesses there at the cross to think about Psalm 22, those words do mean something, don't they? When he says, why have you forsaken me? That does mean something. It's mysterious and it's awful and it's very, very real. While certainly God the Father would never and could never fully abandon or permanently forsake his son, the closeness of love and communion between God the Father and God the Son was for this moment in some way, it's being ruptured. It's being broken here. There is a sort of separation that's caused by the legal reckoning of sin to Jesus's account before God. Remember how Paul described this in Galatians 4, 4 and 5, but when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And earlier in Galatians, Galatians 3, 13, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse in our behalf. How does that happen? It is legal imputation, legal reckoning. God, as the judge, he can take all of my sins, all the sins of all of his people, their guilt, and transfer them to Jesus' account. That's what we're seeing here in Psalm 22. Jesus was born under the law. In other words, he's obligated to keep the law of God, summarizing the Ten Commandments, just as Adam was, just as we are now. And Jesus never violated God's law, but in order to redeem fallen sinners from the curse of that broken law, that broken covenant of works, Jesus had the curse of God against their disobedience inflicted in its entirety on him at the cross. You know who understood that truth real well because he himself was a really bad sinner? It was Peter. Peter wrote about it. 1 Peter 2.24, he said, Christ bore our sins in his own body on the tree. Bore our sins. There came that moment when the iniquities, the sins, the transgressions, the violations and the disobedience to the law brought that terrible curse upon Christ. That's what Psalm 22 shows us. Jesus experienced no mercy whatsoever. You realize this? He got no mercy at all, none. He got the full force of the justice of God in these moments. You know, that was the only way any of us could go to heaven. If he doesn't do this, guess who has to take this when we die? Guess who all those sins are gonna be laid to? You stand before God, someone's got to pay for him. You either trust that he did it or you do it yourself. That's why hell's forever. That's why there's no getting out of it. Because no amount of suffering can pay off an infinite debt. Only an infinite savior can. There could be no respite, no compromise, no relenting. The righteous and judicially applied wrath of God, it falls heavy upon Jesus. He had to die in order to save us from hell. Romans 5, 8, God demonstrates his own love toward us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us much more than having now been justified by his blood. Having now been declared righteous before God by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. You know, God cannot let bygones be bygones. He can't just say, okay, I'll just forgive you of your sins. No big deal, I'll just wink at it. I'll just overlook it and let you all into heaven. The debt's gotta be paid. The penalty's gotta be satisfied. Sin must be dealt with, and it must be dealt with perfectly and fully. That's why Psalm 22 is so precious. When you look through it, you see what's going on in the heart of this righteous redeemer while he's bearing this terrible load for his people. This is why the beating heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ has always been and always will be God's justification of the sinner by faith alone in Christ, alone, No suffering by the sinner can help Jesus save them. No works by the sinner can help Jesus save them. Remember the book of Exodus? On the night of that last terrible plague where the firstborn son of both man and beast among Egyptian and Israelite would die by the hand of God. And the only provision God made was the death and the blood of a blemish free lamb on the doorpost of the house. No Israelites and those households cut themselves to mix a drop of their blood with the lamb's blood. That would have been an expression of unbelief on their part and would have angered God. It's exactly identical with Jesus, folks. Listen, in my short lifetime so far, ever since I became a ruling elder way back in, I think it was 2002, I have endured and listened to every conceivable denial of the gospel that you can think of. from the federal vision to the new perspectives on Paul and everything in between. Everything in between. And they all get this wrong. They all get wrong what you're supposed to rely on to get into heaven. It's not Christ plus my covenant faithfulness. It's not Christ plus my obedience. It's not the obedience of faith. It's not the works of faith. It's Christ alone. And that's why we're justified by faith alone. And the fruit that grows on the tree is simply that. It is fruit and evidence. The good works that we do are the fruit, never the cause. They're the fruit, never the cause. They're the fruit, never the cause. Y'all get that? What are good works? The fruit. Are they the cause? No, they're not the cause. They can't be because they're still stained with sin. To rely upon anything done in you or by you for your salvation is to spit in the face of Christ. It is to blaspheme and denigrate the perfection of what he did, his suffering. Eternal life is a free gift and it cannot be earned or deserved or merited by anything we do. It is solely and only the divine achievement of Jesus, our dying substitute, our dying lamb who takes away the sin of the world. Our Passover who was sacrificed for us. There's nothing you can add to it. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Notice he doesn't say, why have you forsaken us? Me and this sinner and his works, they're gonna help me out here. It's why have you forsaken me? He's the only one doing it. He's the only one there dying. Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. He's not going to be delivered from this. He even prayed for it in Gethsemane. Lord, if there's any other way, let us do it that way. And there was no other way. There is no deliverance. There is no mercy for you. You have to take all this upon yourself. Oh my God, he says in verse two, I cry by day, but you do not answer. And by night, but I have no rest. Isn't that amazing? In the parable of the sheep and the goats, He says to those on his right, when he says to the sheep, come you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And he goes on and says, enter into your rest. Why do we get to enter into rest? Isn't that a wonderful thing to think about? Are you weary of life yet? The idea of heaven being rest. I've always told my kids, I'm taking a hundred year nap when I get there. We're gonna rest, we're gonna redefine rest. Jesus is heartbroken here. He's sad beyond words, forsaken, unheard. His father's not answering him, his cry for deliverance. He cries, God does not answer. I have no rest. Why have you forsaken me? How terrible is this? Could anything be more unbearable than this? And yet the Lord Jesus, in the midst of all this horror of soul and body, he still affirms the holiness of God and the sinless perfection of God always. Look at verse three. Yet you are holy. You are enthroned upon the praises of Israel. Isn't this amazing? As he's being treated as a sinner, as he's bearing the wrath and curse and judgment of God, he's worshiping. You are holy, nailed to the cross. You are enthroned in the praises of Israel. He's still fulfilling all righteousness for us while he's dying, while he's nailed to the cross. He's worshiping. How quick are we in our hearts, our words, our actions at times to even accuse God of doing wrong by us? I've worked really hard to try to be faithful to you. Why is this happening? The inexplicable happens, our hearts are broken, we become indignant at God for it. Why, why me? How can you allow this? Why do you not respect my faithfulness to you, Lord? My sacrifices to you, my sacrifices for others. God, it is wrong for you to decree such things for me and mine. We who never have and will never know the meaning of being forsaken of God are so quick in our sin to question what God ordains for us. Here we have the sinless Son of God dying in the place of those very accusations we level against God, dying for those, those things that issue so easily from our minds, from our lips. Jesus affirms God's holiness. You are holy. You are enthroned in the praises of Israel. Isn't he, is he not a wonderful Savior? Still righteous all the way through. Even as he's being punished for our sins, he's still righteous. Here he is forsaken while he's still inwardly righteous. What does he do? Does he lash out? Does he question God's goodness? Does he complain as we often do? No, he worships. He worships because loving God, loving neighbor, that's what we're supposed to do. That's what we don't do. If you have people who look up to you and admire you or heroes that you think are all that, any human person that you like to praise and extol, Make sure that your admiration and adoration and affection that you have for Jesus outweighs them all. Forsaken, unheard, rejected. What's Jesus's response? He worships. He praises God. You are holy. Imagine that. Nailed to a cross in agony. Legally being treated as if he'd done everything I've done in my life, the things you've done in your life, the things that all his people have done, all the transgressions and violations of his law. And as he's nailed to the cross, he begins to worship. Every second of his earthly life, he's living for us. So we could go to heaven. What an insult to him and to the holiness of God to believe that our sin stained fruit could get us into heaven when we die. I still remember 2002 hearing for the first time, supposedly reformed ministers. Yeah, we're justified by faith, fullness. Immediately thought, that's ridiculous. We're not justified by our faithfulness. We're justified by what Christ did. Faith is simply an instrument by which we lay hold of his righteousness and his cross. Look at verse four. In you, he continues his worship. In you, our fathers trusted. They trusted and you deliver them. It says three times in verses four and five here, they trusted, they trusted. Folks, I want you to think about why he's doing this. They, meaning God's people of the past, they never stopped trusting in God. God's plan often brings us to the place where no other course of action is available to us. All we can do is trust in God. And where our power ends, and as it ends very quickly, we can only trust in him. And that's why we pray so much and so hard at times. There's so much that we cannot do. But the people of Israel from the past, our fathers trusted in you, says Jesus in his heart here. They trusted and you delivered them. In other words, but you're not gonna deliver me. You delivered them as rotten and sinful as they are. You deliver them from the snares of death and from their enemies. And here I will receive no deliverance, but he's worshiping God anyway. You delivered all these people from the past. Verse five, to you they cried and were delivered and you they trusted and were not disappointed. Stop there. He's appealing to past faithfulness. God, I know the Old Testament. I wrote it. He's thinking. You delivered them over and over again. How is it that I will be left in agony this way, forsaken? When I call upon you, there's no answer. There's silence. Well, we know why. He became sin. He was forsaken. He became sin so that we would be the righteousness of God in him by having that gift of righteousness imputed to us. Our life of filth and sin and whining, fussing, complaining, discontentment, worldliness often, careless foolishness, time-wasting, vainglorious fantasies about how great we are, sexual immorality, entitlement, selfishness, envy, anger, pride, and all the rest of it. That tattered garment that we've produced by our works was put on Jesus on the cross, and he's wearing it now. Therefore, God cannot relieve Jesus of this infinite wrath, this infinite punishment that he's now experiencing. Indeed, in Jesus' very worship of God in this moment, he is achieving our righteousness, that perfect, pristine white robe of righteousness that we are clothed in, that covers all of our sins. that beautiful garment of salvation that we are dressed in. The moment a person believes, I don't care who you are or what you've done, how bad you think you are if you believe in Jesus, you are clothed once and for all eternity in that robe of righteousness. And no sin, no charge of wrongdoing will ever, can ever be brought against you again, ever. Why? Because of this, because of what we're reading here. On the day of judgment before Almighty God, the Holy God, He cannot look at sin. He has to punish iniquity. And so Jesus has got to bear it all. He's got to take it all. And he's got to give us a perfect righteousness to cover us. And Paul understood that. Paul used to be real impressed with himself. Remember his resume from Philippians chapter three? And this, this, this, this. But then when he saw God's holiness, his own sin, whatever I used to think was gain, it was actually going to be the very thing that sent me to hell. And when I die, when I appear before God, he says, I don't want to be found having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. And he says in Romans 8, 32, he who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all. What are we seeing in Psalm 22? Jesus is not being spared. He's not spared from anything. He delivered Him over for us all. How will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. You hear that? That's talking about in the courtroom of God's judgment at the last day. Who will bring a charge of sin against those whom God has justified? It's a rhetorical question. No one can. Because all those charges of sin were already brought against Jesus when He died on the cross. And therefore, they're gone. They're gone forever. Well, this is a one-time thing here. There's no way I can finish my notes this morning. Maybe I will. Okay. Who will bring a charge against God's elect? It's one of the clearest themes of the Bible. God is the judge. God has laws. We're obligated to keep them. We don't. It's a day of judgment. Does that frighten you? It should. What are you relying on? What's gonna get you past the judgment on the day of judgment? What are you relying on to do that? Let it be Jesus and nothing else. Let it be Christ's righteousness, not yours. Trust only in him. Now look at verse six. He says here, but I am a worm and not a man, a reproach of men and despised by the people. Look at verse seven and eight. All who see me sneer at me. They separate with the lip. They wag the head saying, commit yourself to the Lord. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him because he delights in him. So Jesus in his heart, the first thing he says is, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from the words of my groaning? Why is there no deliverance for me? And then he says, but you are holy and thrown in the praises of Israel. While he's nailed to the wood, he's thinking all this in his heart. And then he's thinking about the people of God of old. They cried out to you and you delivered them. They prayed to you and you heard them. But I am a worm and not a man, a reproach of men and despised by the people. He feels comparable to a helpless, powerless, downtrodden worm. He who once told his opponents before Abraham was, I am. Now all they can think is I am a worm, a worm. What has happened to compassion? What's happened to all of that? It's gone for him. Remember the men that were standing around watching all this, the chief priests, the scribes and Pharisees. They were hurling abuse at him, it says in Matthew 27. They were shaking their heads. You ever seen someone, they're doing something that you despise and you shake your head, you roll your eyes, you shake your head. People are doing that to him. And it was prophesied a thousand years before it happened. They shoot out the lip, they wag their heads. They say about Jesus on the cross, yeah, let's see if the Lord will deliver him. He's practically quoting his enemies. The chief priest said he saved others. He cannot save himself. He was the king of Israel. Let him not come down from the cross and we'll believe in him. Let God deliver him if he will have him, if he's really pleased with him. And so Jesus is calling out in his heart, but there's no deliverance so that we would have deliverance ourselves. Let's close in prayer. Father, we bless you and praise you for the deliverance of Christ. We pray that you bless us and seal these words to our hearts. And as we go through the rest of it next week, may our hearts rejoice that Christ has taken it all away, the penalty, the curse of our disobedience to present us blameless, faultless, and justified before you. In Jesus' name, amen.