Please turn your Bibles to Matthew's Gospel, Matthew chapter 27. Matthew chapter 27. Let me pick up the reading in verse 45. Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, sabachthani, that is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, This man is calling Elijah. And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yield up his spirit. Let's again go to the Lord. Father, we again are thankful that we have your listening ear. We have the help of your Holy Spirit. We have a Father who loves us, a Father who has committed his care to us each and every day. You are the Father who has promised to guide us You are the Father who has promised to answer our prayers. And, O Lord, we even now ask You to come near and be our helper, be our strength, be our guide. May we, Lord, grow in our understanding of all that Your Son accomplished on our behalf. And may we grow in our love and affection for Him. May it have a wonderful, transforming impact upon our lives. May they, even those who know us, be able to say that they are those who seem to have been with Jesus. Come again, we pray. Show us your kindness and your mercy. And we pray this in your Son's name. Amen. He was so loving, caring, gracious, kind. There was no one who comes close to doing the kind of good that he did. You would have thought that everybody would have loved him and praised him, but quite the opposite. Perhaps the most shocking thing in our Bibles is this, just how unpopular Jesus was. He came to his own, but they did not receive him. Jesus said, they will hate you because they have hated me. And he wasn't exaggerating. It was prophesied by the prophet Isaiah that he would be despised and rejected by men. And no one, no one has suffered like he suffered at the hands of men. But it's also true that he suffered at the very hands of God. What I want to bring to you tonight is to see just how much pain and anguish he suffered from this perspective. Christ endured what you could call an awful desertion and abandonment by men and by God. He was abandoned, you could say, in three distinct ways. He suffered desertion or forsakenness. by professed disciples. You could say, or put it this way, He was abandoned because of the cross. You could also say that He was abandoned by His closest disciples. He was abandoned near the cross. And then you could also say this, He was abandoned by God Himself. He was abandoned on the cross. Well, let's consider then this matter of Christ abandonment or desertion. First of all, he was abandoned by a large group of professed disciples, or he was abandoned because of the cross. Turn please to John's Gospel, John chapter 6. This is that portion of Scripture where Jesus performs what some might even, or some have said, that it was the greatest of all his miracles. It's the only miracle that is recorded in all four Gospels. It's the feeding of the 5,000. And really, if you did a number count, there were a lot more than 5,000. There were 5,000 men, but if they had their wives with them, they had their children with them, you could probably be thinking 10,000, maybe 15,000 or that kind of crowd were gathered here and Jesus takes care of them all. It's interesting to see a miracle that is performed in a very low key quiet sort of way, almost under the radar. He feeds thousands of hungry people and most probably didn't even realize the miracle until it was all over. It wasn't one of those big firework miracles, but very quietly and almost imperceptibly, Jesus multiplies bread and fish. He serves everybody. Notice verse 9, what He makes use of He makes use of a small boy's lunch, five barley loaves and two fish. God often does this, doesn't He? He uses the smallest and the most significant people and things to accomplish His great purposes. He uses a shepherd boy in a slingshot. He uses a teenage woman, a virgin's womb, and births the Son of God. And Jesus here uses a boy's lunch pail to feed thousands. And no one goes home hungry. Verse 12 tells us no one complains they didn't get enough or I want more when they'd eaten or filled. John tells us that at least 12 baskets of leftovers. It certainly exceeds all human expectations. People you would think would have been gasping with amazement in the aftermath. Do you see what he just did? It should have elicited praise and gratitude and worship in the language of that verse in Ephesians, now unto him who was able to do abundantly exceedingly above all that we could ask or say. But man is a very selfish creature. Often when he gets what he wants, he wants more. The heart of man is never satisfied. And something of a mob instinct takes over. They want this miracle worker to be their king. You're right there on the spot. They want this miracle worker named Jesus to suddenly be working for them. And it would certainly make life a whole lot easier and comfortable if He were our king. Then there's something right in terms of what they were thinking. They were able to connect the dots because in verse 14, notice, this is truly the prophet who was to come into this world. They knew enough about their Bibles that there was going to be a great prophet greater than Moses. Deuteronomy chapter 18, they think this is the prophet. But they also see him as a king. Verse 15, they want him to be their king. And I think there's only one person, I could be wrong in this, who was both prophet and king in the Old Testament. That was David, wasn't it? When you think of David, what do you think of? You think of a man of war. That's what kings did. Kings always went to war. And that's the kind of king they want. They want a warrior. King. They want Jesus to go to war like David. Remember David? Well, these ladies were somewhat exaggerating. David had slain his 10,000. I don't know how many Philistines he'd slain, but they want Jesus to slay 10,000 times 10,000 Gentiles. They don't want Jesus to use his miracle power, His miraculous power to feed the Gentiles. No, they want Jesus to use His power in a destructive way to destroy the Gentiles and set up a kingdom that will cater to their whims and fancies. And they're not going to wait. There's something of a hostile takeover here. William Hendrickson in his commentary says they actually intend to kidnap Jesus and force Him to go with them to Jerusalem. And Jesus, He picks up on it real fast. And He makes a quick exit. Verse 15, notice what He does. He withdraws again to the mountain by Himself. But when people's selfishness gets into the driver's seat, they won't take no for an answer. And the next day, they follow Him. Verse 25, they find Him on the other side of the sea. And Jesus, again, He knows exactly what they want. They don't want Him. They want the goodies. They don't have a hunger for Him, though it's the pleasures and comforts of life. It's sort of like the Starbuck coffee and the Mediterranean cruise. and the traveling and decorating my home and the TV watching and the internet surfing and shopping. Verse 26, notice what Jesus says, Most assuredly I say to you, seek me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate up the loaves and were filled. Dr. Piper says, they wanted the deadly substitutes instead of God. Not sinful delights, just apple pie delights. Jesus had tried to bridge, make a bridge into their lives by meeting their physical needs by this bread miracle. He wanted them to get a sense of their greater needs, their spiritual needs, but they haven't understood the significance of the miracle. And so, Jesus starts preaching. And the subject of the sermon, you could title it, The Bread of Life. Verse 32, right down to verse 51, Jesus begins to preach. He's going to let them know, I am the Bread of Life. Verse 35, And so they're confronted with this stupendous reality of Christ, the All-Sufficient One. He's offering Himself to them, but they don't want Him. They want the stuff of the world. They want, you could say, health and wealth. And they react negatively. They really don't like what they hear. They want Him to meet their felt needs. Notice verse 34. Sir, give us this bread always. Sort of like the Samaritan woman. Remember her? Didn't she say something very similar when Jesus talked about water? She says, I don't want to be thirsty. Give me this water so I'd never have to come to this well again. She was only thinking of the here and now. Her five senses, you could say, were wrapped around those water pots, and these folks here, their five senses are wrapped around loaves of bread! Now, if Jesus had been one of those mega-church, seeker-sensitive preachers, this would have been easy. This would have been easy. I mean, all he had to do was perform another bread miracle, and everybody would have been smiling, they would have loved him, he would have been as popular as popular can be, he would have been the crowd favorite, but instead he preaches some very uncomfortable doctrines. He confronts their unbelief. Verse 36, He confronts their sin of grumbling. Verse 43, do not grumble among yourselves. He talks about God's sovereignty. In verse 37, all that the Father gives me will come to me. Verse 44, He addresses their moral inability and helplessness and the doctrine of election. Unless the Father draws him, no one can come to me. And they are incensed. And he even gets them more angry and more upset. He fires off one of those verily, verily, truly, truly statements. Notice verse 53. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Was that ever offensive? The law of Moses forbade the drinking of blood and the eating of meat with blood. Again, that was offensive, but Jesus is using figurative language here. He's referring to Himself. He is the bloody sacrifice. He's used two powerful metaphors. He's seeking to drive home the truth of who he is, his identity. He's established that he is the bread of life and he uses this figurative language of eating, drinking my blood and eating my flesh as the Passover lamb. Jesus, someone might ask, what are you doing? Don't you know how to win friends and influence people? Someone has said, Jesus has managed to alienate just about everybody. The truth of the matter is, is that the message of a crucified Savior was offensive and always will be. Nothing more humbling, nothing more devastating to human pride than a crucified Savior. Remember how hard it was for Peter to embrace a suffering Messiah, a Messiah who would die when Jesus began to talk about His sufferings and going to the cross. Remember, Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. How do you rule and reign as a Messiah if you're dead? What I want you to see here is the final response. It's really sad. after Jesus sets forth himself symbolically under those figures and under this blood-death figure of speech. Notice verse 60. When many of the disciples heard it, they said, this is a hard saying. Who can listen to it? And many of the disciples, look it, many of the disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. Goodbye, Jesus. We've heard enough and we don't want you. Jesus is forsaken. Abandoned. They don't like this Messiah. And it had to have impacted him emotionally. Sadness, grief, sorrow. Rejection is always painful. And Jesus, even at this point, seems to have some doubts about the twelve. Do you notice that? He turns to the closest disciple friends wondering, are you guys going to stay the course? Are you going to leave me too? Verse 67. So Jesus said to the twelve, do you want to go away as well? That's a legitimate question. Have you ever wondered that about yourself? The Bible says, in the last days, the hearts of many will grow cold. And when you hear rather regularly, by the way, men who've written bestselling books, stood in pulpits saying they are leaving the faith, I've wondered, How in the world could they ever? Did anything they say, did they ever believe it? Was it all a sham? And then I wonder myself, God, will you maintain Christian perseverance? Will you lose your first love? Will you turn your back upon the Savior? Will you be the next person to reject Him and neglect the salvation and spurn His grace and refuse to walk with Him? Octavius Winslow, in that classic work, The Sympathy of Christ, says there's many reasons for defection and backsliding. Some forsake because of the growing straightness or the extreme narrowness of the way. At first, he says, it did not fully appear to the believer or the professed believer on his first setting out how difficult it would be. But as he grows in grace and as he grows in knowledge of the difficulties of salvation and the straightness of the path, it becomes more obvious and obviously more dangerous. He easily becomes discouraged and even starts wondering, even saying to himself, even the righteous shall scarcely be saved. And then, says Winslow, is the offense of the truth of the gospel, the doctrine of election, the sovereignty of God. free grace, effectual calling, spiritual regeneration, final perseverance, that can be rather offensive and rather unsettling. Will you go away? Will you go away? That brings us to our second desertion or abandonment. Jesus was abandoned by professed disciples. But secondly, Jesus was abandoned by His close disciple friends. So, Jesus is abandoned near the cross. Even those who were nearest to Him don't come through this unscathed. But one of the twelve, Judas Iscariot, he will abandon Jesus in a full, complete way. We call that apostasy. That's where a person leaves Jesus and never comes back. Now, they were never saved. That's how we understand it. If you understand any of the Reformed doctrines, that certainly is how it's often been interpreted, that perseverance is a perseverance of necessity, but also certainty. That means a Christian must persevere, but a Christian will persevere. There's certainty. There's necessity. You must. but the certainty that you will. The Bible teaches both of them, and you could argue from Romans 8 that those whom He has called will be justified, and those whom He justifies He will glorify. It's an unbreakable chain of salvation. But the Bible also recognizes that Christians can suffer backslides, moral, spiritual stumbles. They fall. but they don't fall away. And when it comes to the twelve, one falls away. He never comes back. The eleven fall, but they do come back. And Jesus knows exactly who, when and where. He knows all the particulars when it comes to the ultimate final desertion of the one and the temporary desertion of the eleven. And He also knows which one will fall the farthest of the eleven. It's Peter. And so on that Passover evening, Jesus puts everything on the table for everybody to know that He knows. He's an all-seeing, all-knowing Savior. And He informs His disciples there in the upper room what will take place or transpire in the next 24 hours. And there will be a lot of weeping and mourning because of what happened. One of them is going to betray Him in the worst way you could argue. It's the worst betrayal in human history. A betrayal by a kiss. And for three years, this man, Judas, had walked with Jesus. He had seen His miracles. He had heard all the same sermons. But his heart became harder. Greed and covetousness turned him into a calculating, conniving liar and treacherous deceiver. And if there's anyone more tragic than Judas. And Jesus is not again caught by surprise. He sees it coming. And every one of the gospel writers tell us about the apostate of apostates. At the very table where the emblems of of love and sacrifice go on display. No sooner does Jesus say, The cup that is poured out for you is the covenant in my blood. And then he drops the bombshell of woe. Listen to what he says. Behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table. For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe, woe to that man by whom he's betrayed. And no doubt the most Grievous and heartbreak for our Lord was that the eleven play the cowards. And they also become ashamed. He says, indeed, the hour is coming. Yes, has come that you will be scattered, each to his own. And you will leave me alone. Alone. And again, they don't abandon him in the full sense of that word. Totally and finally, Jesus categorizes it as a stumble. He's being very gracious. Matthew 26, verse 31, All of you will be made to stumble because of me. Now, Peter, takes exception to this prophetic announcement by the Prophet of Prophets, Jesus, his self-confidence kicks in and he comes back and says, even if all of them are made to stumble because of you, I will never. But he stumbles, doesn't he? He stumbles far worse than the others. When I hear of people stumbling, maybe falling away, I never say never, never, never. I might have said that 20, 30 years ago, not now. But Peter gives living proof of the proverb, pride comes before a fall. But here again, Jesus feels the piercing sword of betrayal, desertion, and abandonment. Octavius Winslow again speaking of this issue. Listen to what he says. There are few of God's people who taste the cup of human sorrow unsweetened by the element of Christian compassion and sympathy. Let me repeat that a little bit. There are few of God's people who taste the cup of human sorrow that has not been sweetened by the element of compassion and sympathy. But he says he was utterly forsaken. We are not. Few believers, he says, There are who have tread the shaded valley, confront the sweeping tempest, unaccompanied or uncheered by one loving heart or one sympathizing spirit. But Jesus, insulated from heaven and earth, was all alone. There's only one other person in the Bible who once said, I'm all alone. That was Paul. All have forsaken me, but God stood with me. God stood with me. But the worst for our Lord Jesus is yet to come. He suffers desertion and abandonment on another level. He goes This is something that came to me this afternoon. He goes from the world of finite suffering into the world of infinite suffering. He was abandoned because of the cross by his professed disciples. He's abandoned near the cross by his near disciples. But finally, he's abandoned on the cross. And everything pales in comparison to this. And you really don't understand the cross unless you understand this. To understand the cross, you have to understand the abandonment and desertion that Jesus experienced. Jesus on the cross was abandoned. That explains why He sweat those drops of blood in Gethsemane. It was a divine abandonment. And all the angels in heaven must have shuddered when they heard that awful cry of dereliction. My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me? Why? Why? Why? Everybody's standing there at the foot of the cross. They couldn't figure it out. All the angels in heaven would not have been able to answer the question. It almost appears that Jesus isn't able to answer the question. But he knows the answer. Because he knows his Bible. If you turn over to Psalm 22, where this cry is heard, it's a messianic psalm. Psalm 22. It starts off with this cry. This cry of dereliction, verse one, Psalm 22, verse one. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groanings? Oh, my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer. What's the answer? Well, I think the answer is verse 3. Look at it. Here's the answer. You are holy. God's holiness is active at the cross. God's holiness, you could say, is on fire. It's consuming him in judgment and in wrath. It's reported by Martin Luther that he once set himself to study these words of our Lord, this cry, of dereliction or forsakenness. And the story goes this way. For a long time, Luther studied this. He studied it without eating food. He developed a long period of time of meditation in one position in the chair. And then at length, he rose from that chair and he was heard to exclaim with amazement, God forsaken of God! Who can understand that? There's mystery here. How can God forsake God? But there's another sense in which it makes perfect sense. Go back to Matthew 27. You get the answer in the form of a visual. Matthew 27. At this very point, Jesus on the cross is engulfed in darkness. Notice the language of verse 45 for Matthew 27, now the sixth hour until the ninth hour. There's a three hour period here where darkness was covering the whole of the land. It appears to have been a global darkness. It's interesting for three hours, three hours, we don't hear a thing. Even Christ's antagonists are silent during these three hours. It's a strange, eerie silence and darkness. Why the darkness? Well, you know, darkness in the Bible signifies judgment. Go back to the Old Testament, Amos chapter 2, let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the Lord is coming in the day of darkness. Exodus chapter 11, remember when God brought judgment upon Egypt, there was a plague of darkness. It was judgment day at Calvary. Judgment came upon one man, because that one man became sin for us. You want an answer to the question, why has God forsaken Him? You go to Isaiah 53. You get the answer there as well. The Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. In the horror of darkness, all of our sins are imputed to Christ. so that His righteousness can be imputed to you. There's a double imputation. And that's what makes the cross so attractive. Because of the cross, you can believe on Jesus Christ and be rescued from the wrath of God. You can pass from a state of condemnation to a state of no condemnation, or a state of justification. To use the language of Romans 8 verse 1, which should be familiar, there is now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. Romans chapter 3, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved, listen, we shall be saved from the wrath from the wrath through Him. Don't ever forget this. The only way you can be reconciled with God is by having a Savior who was deserted and banished like the scapegoat. Jesus was rejected so you and I never will be Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Nothing. If you don't have Christ as your Savior, then you are a child of wrath. That's a frightening thought. Every day, 24-7, you are under wrath. And the only way to be saved, my friend, is to look to Jesus. One look of faith, that's all it takes. One look of faith, and you are saved. Here's what the cross says, in Christ alone, my hope is found. And because of what Christ did for us, accomplished for us, we owe Him everything. Everything.