Sermon Tone Analysis

In our Journey Toward Easter, we are entering the fourth week in our spiritual pilgrimage through the Seven Words of Jesus from the Cross.

This week’s saying is found in Matthew’s Gospel, and is known as The Word of Anguish.

Matthew 27:45-54

From 9:00 a.m. to 12 noon, Calvary had been a very busy place.

The soldiers had performed their gruesome task.

Passers-by had cursed.

Chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees had scoffed.

Robbers had reviled, though one ultimately repented.

Jesus had uttered his first three statements from the cross.

Then at noon, a spectacular phenomenon takes place.

Suddenly the sky becomes dark.

It was a supernatural darkness.

It was a darkness that was intense and unforgettable and occurred when it was least expected—at high noon.

It lasted three hours and only ended when our Christ died.

When Jesus was born, the night sky around Bethlehem was filled with supernatural light as “the glory of the Lord shone around” the shepherds.

But now, at the point of his death, the day sky around Jerusalem is filled with supernatural darkness.

During those three hours of darkness Jesus suffered intense agony, indescribable woe, and terrible isolation.

He who hung there on the tree at Calvary, had been from all eternity, the object of the Father’s love, is now becoming sin for us (2 Cor.

5:21); he because accursed for our sake (Gal.

3:13).

And according to Isa. 53, He was wounded for our transgressions, and God laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Here is the great drama of redemption unfolding: God’s wrath was poured out on Jesus who became our substitute on the cross!

ddenly, without warning, our Lord stirs, he lifts his bloodied, disfigured face toward heaven and cries out in a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?

which means, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Here is one of those great unfathomable mysteries of the Scriptures.

For a time, God the Father withdraws His fellowship from God the Son.

Here we see the high cost to the Christ for His atonement of our sins.

He takes upon himself sin’s penalty and suffers the agony of spiritual death for us.

And, for however a brief time it was, God turns his face from the one who has become sin for us.

What does this forth word from the cross teach us?

!

I. IN FORSAKING HIS SON GOD REVEALED HIS JUDGMENT UPON SIN

#. we live in a day of moral confusion where the law of God is denied for what it is

#. a text that reveals God’s utter holiness and man’s utter depravity

#. if you want to create a scandal in America today—yea verily, even in the church—talk about sin and identify sin as sin and preach about the exceedingly sinfulness of sin

#. there is an absolute authority Who has taken it upon Himself to define what sin is

#.

His name is Jehovah—the one true and only God

#. sin is anything that diminishes God’s holiness

!! A. OUR GOD IS A HOLY GOD

* ILLUS.

We sing about God’s holiness in some of the great hymns of the faith: “Holy, Holy, Holy,” “Come Thou, Almighty King,” “I Need Thee Every Hour,” “Lead On O’ Eternal King,” “Praise Him! Praise Him!” We sing about the holiness of Christ’s birth in “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” and “Silent Night, Holy Night.”

Even “My Country Tis’ of Thee” intones “... with freedom’s holy light; Protect us by Thy might, Great God above.”

We sing about God’s holiness, but I’m not sure many understand it, and its implications.

God’s holiness demanded that Jesus had to die in the sinner’s place.

#. our God is completely righteous in His character, He is perfect in His purposes, and He is totally just in all His ways

#.

His attributes include His Eternalness, His Faithfulness, His Goodness, His Impartiality, His Changelessness, His Infiniteness, His Justice, His Longsuffering, His Love, His Mercy, His Omnipotence, His Omniscience, His Sovereignty, His Transcendence, His Wrath, His Wisdom and a handful of others

#. the Scriptures use one word to describe the sum total of God’s attributes and character, His purposes and ways

#. that word is Holy

* /"My holy name I will make known in the midst of My people Israel; and I will not let My holy name be profaned anymore.

And the nations will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel."/

(Ezekiel 39:7, NASB95)

* /“But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will show himself holy by his righteousness.”/

(Isaiah 5:16, NIV84)

#.

God declares His own holiness and demands our total surrender to, and conformity to that holiness

* /"Then God spoke all these words, saying, 2“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

3“You shall have no other gods before Me.

4“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.

5“You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

7“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain."/

(Exodus 20:1-7, NASB95)

#. in the cross God exhibited his holiness and satisfied his justice by pouring out his wrath on the one who was made sin for us

#.

He did so to express His holiness by judging sin in and through the Son

#. our God is a holy God

!! B. MEN ARE PROFANE AND DEPRAVED

#. sin is not just something we do, it is something we are

#.

we are not sinners because we sin

#. we sin because we are sinners

#. the Bible has nothing good to say about our character or our behavior

#. yes, we are the Creation of God

#. it was He who molded us from the clay of the earth and breathed into our race the breath of life

#.

but we are fallen race due to our disobedience and our utter neglect of God

#. the Apostle Paul took a deep look at himself and wrote:

* /"For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.

19For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want."/

(Romans 7:18-19, NASB95)

#. sin affects every aspect of our character

#. our mind

#. our emotions

#. our will

#.

by nature men are immoral, unethical, unjust and lack anything redeeming in their character

#. that God chooses to redeem some by giving them the gifts of repentance and faith is a loving and merciful act of His sovereign grace

#. some of you might say, /“Pastor, you’re being awfully pessimistic about your fellow man.”/

#. let me respond this way: /“Have you watched the news lately?”/

* /"Do you think it’s possible for any mere mortal to be sinless in God’s sight, for anyone born of a human mother to get it all together?

15Why, God can’t even trust his holy angels.

He sees the flaws in the very heavens themselves, 16So how much less we humans, smelly and foul, who lap up evil like water?"/ (Job 15:14-16, The Message)

#. not a very flattering portrait

* ILLUS.

Billy Graham, in his book The Secret Of Happiness, writes, /"Now, the Bible teaches that our souls have a disease.

It is worse than dreaded cancer, polio, or heart disease.

It is the plague that causes all the troubles and difficulties in the world.

It causes all the troubles, confusions, and disillusionments in your own life.

The name of the disease is an ugly word.

We don't like to use it...

In our desire to be modern, we (have) almost forgotten it, but once again we are beginning to realize that it is the root of all man's troubles.

It is sin."/

#. our God is a holy God, men are sinners

!! C. JESUS SUFFERED AND DIED FOR SINNERS

#. over the centuries, various church fathers, scholars and theologians have advanced any number of reasons why Jesus was crucified

#. let me tell you why Jesus did not suffer and die

#.

Jesus /did not/ suffer and die because of sinful choices—Jesus was sinless

#.

Jesus /did not/ suffer because He made poor choices—Jesus choice to go to the cross in obedience to His Heavenly Father’s will