Why did You make me? Why did You forsake me? Why did You love me?

Book of Romans, please, chapter 9. Read with me verse number 20. Romans chapter 9, verse 20, Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replyest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? I'd like to look at this verse and why have you made me? Why did you make me? Come to Matthew, please, chapter 27. Matthew 27, we'll break in at verse number 45.

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour, and about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? That is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And one more in the book of Galatians, please. Galatians chapter 2, verse 20. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Lord, bless to us the reading of his word. Very simply at the end of this day I'd like to consider why have you made me? Why did you make me? Shall the thing formed say to that which formed it, Why did you make me thus? Why did you make me? Matthew chapter 27, we've got the cry from the cross of our Lord Jesus.

Very holy ground, why has thou forsaken me? And then we've got the Apostle Paul in Galatians 2, verse 20, and he's pondering and he's wondering about the Son of God who loved him and gave himself for him, and I would like to just put the rhyme on that as why did you undertake for me? Why did you make me? Why did you forsake me? And the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Maybe you've wondered, as many have wondered as you've considered your life, why am I here? Why is it that God made me? Why did he make me with five fingers and five toes? Why did he make me with a soul? Why did he make me and put me on this planet? If all there is to life is to live life and to grow old and to die and to waste away, why is it that God created man? My brother has already told us that God has created man that he might have relationship with us. God created no one to be separated from him for all eternity.

God's will and God's desire is that all men would be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth and God would have all men to be in his presence to experience his glory, but few will there be who that will find it. So the clay would say to the potter, why hast thou made me? Have you ever wondered that? You know there are cases in the Bible that we read that those that have rejected the Lord Jesus Christ that it would be good for them if they were never born. Good for that man or good for that woman if they would never have been born because it would be far greater never to experience life at all than to experience life and all the pleasures of sin and all the pleasures of the world and to reject the great invitation to come and to lose one's soul and to end in a place of judgment and torment for all the endless ages of eternity and yet even those souls will not even be able to raise the finger against God in any righteous way whatsoever.

There'll not be one little bony finger from the flames of hell that ever will ever ask the creator, why did you make me? Because it is God's desire that every single human being would be in complete communion and complete relationship and there have their eternity with him, unbroken delight and unbroken joy, but they'll never be able anyone able to be able to say why did you make me with any righteous basis. God created man in the image in his image in his likeness. God created man to bring him glory.

God created you to bring him glory. Why did you make me? Matthew 27. Why hast thou forsaken me? When you think of the cries of the Lord Jesus or rather when you think of any prayer that the Lord Jesus makes out loud, we have to take special attention, we have to make special note of those prayers because the Savior didn't need to pray out loud to pray to God and neither do you or I for that matter, but when prayers are recorded for us to learn from those that are recorded in the eternal word, it's a very important for us to think about them.

You'll get that in John chapter 11 when the Lord Jesus is there at the grave of Lazarus and he says, Father, I thank thee that thou hearest me, but I know that thou hearest me always, but for the sake of those that stand by, I said it. And so the Lord Jesus is conveying truth to us that we need to understand when he prays out loud and you'll note as you read through the gospels, it'll be the case in every single prayer that is recorded for us. Those times when he went up to the mountain to pray or he went out into the ship or wherever he went to be alone, we don't know what he asked for, we don't know his heart's cry to God and we don't need to know, but when the effort is made that we do know, we need to take heed and learn something very important.

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The fact was that God forsook him because of sin. He was forsaken there as he was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And so what we're going to learn through this prayer is that God forsakes because of sin.

You see, sin and God can never mix. There can never be sin in God's heaven. God's heaven is a holy place.

God is a holy God. He is the living and the true God and there will not be one sin in God's heaven. And in order for you and I ever to have an opportunity, understand that, just an opportunity to be saved, Christ must be forsaken.

He must be made sin for us who knew no sin. He must satisfy the throne of God as far as the righteous holy claims that sin deserves, that all the justice and judgment that sin deserved must be paid for. God's throne must be satisfied in order for us to have an opportunity to be saved.

And Christ was forsaken. He was forsaken. You see, it is a warning of the solemnity of the wrath of God.

To be forsaken by God, who can comprehend? To be forsaken, to be consigned to the caverns of the damned, to be consigned to the lake of fire, to be consigned to the weeping and the wailing of gnashing and teeth, for all the endless ages of eternity, to be forsaken by God, to never experience the presence of God, nor ever delve into the love of God, but to be absolutely and utterly forsaken in a place called hell because of our sins. We learn this in this cry, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why? It is a solemn warning of the reality of the judgment of God against sin, something for you and I to consider. You see, as he prayed unto God, God knew why he was forsaken.

God knew why he must forsake the sin-bearer there at Calvary. It was God's plan. It was God's design that sin would be dealt with there, that the just would die for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.

And so God absolutely knew why the sin-bearer must be forsaken. The Lord Jesus Christ knew why. You remember in the garden of Gethsemane, and there he was, and he went about a stone's cast away, and he was praying there.

And it says he began to be sore amazed as he was contemplating the cup of the wrath of God that he must drink. He prays out loud in the garden there. Wonderful study to consider why he prayed out loud in the garden.

But there he was in anticipation of the judgment of God, and as sweat as it were, great drops of blood falling to the ground. He was anticipating the moments preceding this time with that he cried this, why hast thou forsaken me? God knew. The Lord Jesus could answer that question.

And so it is indeed a prayer for us to ponder, and it warns us of the solemnity of the wrath of God. The second thing I want you to consider is this, that it causes us to wonder at the sinlessness of Christ. It's a proclamation of innocence.

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? You see, in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, there was never any sin that could be found. He knew no sin. He did not sin.

In him is no sin. And what we find there is God dealing with sin on Calvary. And if in the Lord Jesus Christ there was no sin, then this cry must be a cry of a proclamation of innocence.

It must cause us to wonder at the sinlessness of Christ. Can I draw your attention to the lovely man of Calvary for a moment? This is the one that came from the heights of glory. God manifests in the flesh, and he came to this world, and he walked among men, and he dwelt among men, and he rubbed shoulders with sinful men.

But yet in him was no sin, and he did no sin, and there was no guile found in his mouth. And there as he walked the sands of time, the incarnate eternal one, he walked the sands of time apart from sin. And he had to.

He had to in the virtue of who he was, and he had to the virtue of the work that he was going to accomplish at Calvary. He must go to that place to be the spotless, sinless sacrifice. Have you ever wondered of a man that lived that could not sin? Oh, I'll tell you, it's a marvelous thing to consider.

It is a tremendous thing to ponder that this man, absolutely sinless, would find himself, not by coincidence, under the wrath and the judgment of Almighty God for sin. Does that mean anything to you tonight? Does it carry any special weight? Does it carry any special meaning as you sit there in the audience and you consider one that was absolutely perfect? As the spotless lamb in the days of old in the book of Exodus, one in whom there was no blemish. And you see, as they would appreciate that lamb for those days, and they would kill that lamb, and in fact any sacrifice that was ever offered, that sacrifice had to be without blemish.

And they would take that sacrifice, and they would kill that sacrifice, and they would understand this, that this animal must die for my sin. And this animal did no wrong. That sacrifice sinned not against God.

There was no condemning sin in that animal. But yet that animal must die to take the place of the offerer, to take the place of the one that brought the sacrifice to the priest and to the altar to be slain. And that's what we have here at Calvary.

We've got the sinless Son of God, the sacrifice for sin, the innocent one. You see, it was not the life of the sacrifice that satisfied God. It wasn't the fact that that animal had no blemish that satisfied God.

Those things are necessary, but that did not make atonement for the soul. That never covered sin. That was never the satisfying thing for God's holy throne.

It wasn't the life of the sacrifice, it wasn't the labor of the sacrifice, and it wasn't the life and the labor of the Lord Jesus Christ that satisfied God. There must needs be the giving of the life. There must be bloodshed.

There must be blood that was shed to satisfy God's throne. Why? Because God had declared that the wages of sin is death. God had declared that there must be blood, and it was not the blood of bulls or goats that could take away sin, but it was the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And so consider with me this cry. It is a wonder at the sinlessness, the perfection of our Lord Jesus Christ. My God, my God, why? Not why have you made me.

He always was. But why did you forsake me? Why? I wondered what those on that good Friday afternoon would have thought. This is Easter weekend, you know.

And I've often wondered what it must have been like to be there. And the darkness came. The supernatural darkness as the darkness would cover cover the land where no one could see, and the darkness that could be felt.

And there it says about the ninth hour. It doesn't say whether it was dark there or not. It was about the ninth hour.

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? To me, when I imagine that out of the darkness, the magnitude of that cry. Out of the blackness of the darkness there in the middle of the day, as they sat down and they watched him there and they couldn't see what was taking place. And then this cry comes, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Would it not send the chills right down your spine to think of one there, one that performed the miracles, one that was the voice from heaven came.

This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And now this one, this perfect one, this holy one, this spotless one is forsaken by God. Could I ask the question to you, my friend, tonight? How is God going to deal with you? Oh, dear man, so full of sin.

Dear young woman, so contaminated by sin. Dear Christ rejecter, trampling on the blood of Christ, have you ever marveled to consider if you die in your sin, you'll be forsaken by God, forsaken. Why hast thou forsaken me? It also was a proof of his suffering.

There were many people that were crucified in those days upon crosses. And what they experienced there as they were crucified was really the wrath and the justice of men toward their sin. You remember the malefactor there, he said, we receive the due reward of our deeds.

So he understood that he was getting what he deserved. And he understood what he was facing there was the consequence of his own sin. But when we hear the cry of the Lord Jesus, the sinless one, proof that he suffered at the hands of God, all we find the wrath of man at Calvary, all the hatred of man, all the animosity of man toward the Son of God.

They finally had their chance. They finally had their way. Christ had done them no ill.

He had done them no wrong. And then there the cry comes from Calvary that he was forsaken by God. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? It's proof to me that he suffered the wrath of God.

It's proof to me that he drained that cup, coupled that with the resurrection. And there's no doubt in anyone's mind that what took place at Calvary has satisfied God. God is 100% satisfied with the death of his Son.

So God can answer this question. The Lord Jesus can answer this question. Israel has come to know in a sense, and they'll come to know even more, according to Isaiah 53, what this was all about.

He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.

They're going to be able to answer the question why he was forsaken. The Lord Jesus esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But they'll understand it was for them.

The saved in the audience tonight can understand and enter into the value of why he was forsaken. No question in our mind that he was forsaken by God and that he was forsaken just for me. I often say that if I was the only one ever to be saved, Christ would have had to die the same death.

He would have to suffer the same at the hands of God, because his death was all for my sin. All for me. Dear sinner friend, do you know why he was forsaken? Do you know why? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And then Paul says, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Did you ever wonder why God loved you? Maybe you don't know tonight that God loves you. I hope you know on the facts of our first message that we heard tonight, the reality of the love of God to invite those that are unworthy to a great supper. Invite those that are unworthy to a wedding feast.

We need to remind you tonight that God loves you, and he loves you with an everlasting love, and this cry from the cross is proof that God loves you. It's proof. Paul says, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Why did he ever undertake for me? Why did he ever suffer that judgment for me? Why did he give himself for me? I want you to consider that question tonight, my friend. He loved you when you were at enmity with him. He loves you without condition and without cause.

God himself is love. Listen to the words of John 3, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God commended his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

It would be a marvelous thing tonight to end this day that you might come to know why Christ died, and not just why he died, but that who he died for. Oh, some would say that he died for the world. I'm not so much interested tonight that he died for the world.

I'm thankful that he did, but I'm interested tonight in the fact that he died just for me, that he bore my sin in his own body on the tree, and there he satisfied God for my sin, and my sin has been dealt with, and it is gone. And it's God's desire that you would know the same for yourself. And we do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

Consider these questions, my friend, tonight. Why are you made? Why did he make you? He made you to be with you. He made you that you might glorify him.

He made you that you might be in his presence forever. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He was forsaken so that you might never be forsaken. And why did God love me? That's something that causes worship, and will cause worship for all the endless ages of eternity.

How is it that a holy God, why is it that a righteous God would love a guilty sinner, and make complete payment for them through the giving of his son? My dear friend, God loves you, and is longing for your salvation, even tonight. Trust him. Come to know the reality of the one who was forsaken for the sinner at Calvary.

Shall we pray?