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[0:00] Well, I go back to David Vaughn again, and not his morning message, but his evening message. And starting this lesson this morning, and if you didn't hear the evening message, that would be another one for you to go back to and listen to.

[0:18] But prior to our observance of the Lord's Supper, David presented a message on the need for the Lamb in securing our salvation.

[0:29] It was a good message, really, in preparation to celebrate the Lord's Supper. Well, this morning I get to continue to focus on that theme as we look at the six of the seven key qualities of Jesus' identity and ministry.

[0:48] And I sense that what we've studied so far has really been leading up to this climactic identity and ministry of Jesus Christ. Although next week, Jeremy will focus on another climactic identity as we finish the series, and he focuses on Jesus Christ, the Lamb on the throne.

[1:13] But this morning, my focus is going to be on Jesus Christ, the suffering servant. It's not an identity that most people would associate with a great leader.

[1:27] It's certainly not something you hear, say, the candidates running for president emphasizing that I've been a suffering servant all my life and I will make you a good president, so on and so forth.

[1:39] But it's an identity that Jesus had to have and that he had to live out in order for him to fulfill the mission that was proclaimed by God way back in Genesis 3.15.

[1:58] But that also he had to live out in order for him to be exalted to the right hand of the throne of God, to go to the Ancient of Days and to receive glory and honor.

[2:11] If he was to be that seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent Satan, if he was going to be that true prophet of God, that would bring the truth and also be the truth, live out the truth, if he was going to be that great final high priest, the conquering king, the son of man that would go again to the Ancient of Days and receive glory and honor and a kingdom, he would need to walk this designed path of being the suffering servant.

[2:46] And that path that he walked was laid out not as a quick reaction to sin as it entered the world through Adam and Eve. And God wasn't caught by surprise and they had to come up with a quick solution to this problem that man had gotten himself into.

[3:07] Now, Paul wrote about God's design from eternity past. When people were questioning God's right to display his grace and mercy as he chooses, Paul wrote in Romans 9, He's prepared those vessels that would receive glory and mercy beforehand.

[3:47] And we know from other scriptures that was before the creation of the world. Even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles.

[3:59] So just as he chose those who would be the recipients of mercy, he chose the way in which they would receive that mercy, the avenue through which that mercy would be able to be extended to them.

[4:12] A quote from J. Adams' book, The Grand Demonstration, Sin entered the world so that he might make known the enormous wealth of his glory by pouring out his mercy on the vases or vessels designed beforehand for eternal life.

[4:34] God's great plan for the, as the book title says, The Grand Demonstration of the Fuller Character of God. As man sinned and was dead in trespasses and sins, God would be able to, by his design, show his abundant grace and mercy to man in his great need.

[5:03] Paul also wrote that he was a minister of this good news of salvation. He was to preach about the unsearchable riches of Christ, the gospel which had its beginning in the eternal purpose of God.

[5:17] Ephesians 3, 8-11, To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.

[5:29] We can give thanks that we can know something of the riches of Christ, but they are unsearchable riches. And to bring to light for everyone, what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God?

[5:44] The angels, the prophets longed to look in these things and understand them more, but they were hidden for ages in God, who created all things so that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

[6:01] This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord. So in eternity past, God ordained that the magnificent glory of his nature, his justice, his power, his grace and mercy, even as it says in this verse, the unsearchable riches of Christ would be put on display through the outworking of his plan for the salvation of undeserving sinners.

[6:35] And each member of the triune God had their specific part in the outworking of this great plan. And for his part, Jesus willingly walked the path of the suffering servant.

[6:50] And that path started when he came willingly into the world. Philippians 2, 5-7 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

[7:14] So Jesus came into the world willingly. He took the form not of a conquering king coming, that will come later on, but the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men.

[7:29] Paul also wrote that he came willingly. He understood the purpose, his purpose, in coming. And that purpose was to save helpless sinners. 1 Timothy 1.15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost.

[7:52] So he knew the purpose, but he also knew the plan by which the purpose would be accomplished. And that was to come and to save sinners, such as you and me.

[8:07] Matthew 20.28, even Jesus declared, he didn't come into the world to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. And that willing spirit of Jesus Christ, to do the will of the Father, was always present in Jesus Christ.

[8:25] I always do the will of him who sent me. I always wanted to speak those words that the Father had given him to speak. His meat was to do the will of the Father.

[8:36] So that love for the Father, that longing to always do his will, was what moved Jesus to come into this world and to present himself as that willing sacrifice, and to present himself as the suffering servant.

[8:52] So, that manifestation of him as the suffering servant, seen in him coming willingly into the world. But we also see it in his public ministry, as he began to interact with people.

[9:07] There were those certainly that believed in Jesus, Mary, the disciples, and many others as well, but the majority did not have that response. John 1.9-11, So we see the rejection of the people, this unwillingness to receive Jesus Christ, even in his own hometown of Nazareth.

[9:45] But in Luke 4, Jesus had just gotten done reading from the scroll of Isaiah, and he proclaimed that he was the one that the prophet Isaiah had written about.

[9:58] And the people initially spoke well of him, marveled at his words, but they also questioned each other. You can almost picture what's going on.

[10:08] They hear this one speaking these wonderful things and really amazed at how he's presenting and reading the book of Isaiah.

[10:20] But then looking at each other and saying, isn't that this Joseph's son? There's a dilemma. There's some confusion there between what they're hearing and what they know of Jesus.

[10:31] They really were disregarding what God's Word said about Jesus, what Jesus was proclaiming about himself, and only saw him through what they experienced of him, through their physical senses in the world.

[10:47] Disregarding the Word of God, what was prophesied, what Jesus was proclaiming as true about himself, they wouldn't hear that because to them the greater authority was what they had experienced, what they saw with their physical eyes.

[11:02] Isn't this Jesus, Joseph, and Mary's son? After Jesus spoke further to them, their rejection became even more extreme.

[11:14] All in the synagogue were filled with wrath. They rose up and drove him out of the town, brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built so that they could throw him down the cliff.

[11:29] But passing through their midst, he went away. Interesting. The ambitions of people really motivated by Satan is not enough to throw off the plan of God, what he needed to accomplish.

[11:48] Not enough to turn the suffering servant out of the path that he needed to walk. He passed through their midst and went away. So it wouldn't be people that would determine the manner and the time in which he would die.

[12:02] Well, he was accused also of speaking blasphemies by the scribes and the Pharisees. We've heard Pastor John's series on this recently.

[12:13] Always making their opposition known to him. Accusations, trick questions. Maybe we can trip him up with this question. Put him in a tight spot that he won't be able to get out.

[12:26] Disprove his comments. Disprove his comments of who he is. Condemning him for healing on the Sabbath and eating with sinners. It wasn't just the scribes and the Pharisees that rejected him either.

[12:41] After he fed the 5,000, he went away. But the people found him the next day. Of course, what were they seeking him out for?

[12:51] More bread. He gave us bread once. Life will be grand with this one providing bread for us in all of our need.

[13:05] But Jesus declared that he was the bread of life that came down from heaven. Through faith in him, they could have greater life than what mere physical bread could offer them.

[13:22] The people balked at his teaching. Again, questioning his deity. They said, again, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know, how does he now say, I've come down from heaven?

[13:38] After additional teaching, they responded again and said, this is a hard saying. Who can listen to it? And after this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

[13:50] Okay, if you're not going to give us what we really want, what we think is priority for life now, physical bread, then really you're not worth following. We want what we want and we want it now.

[14:03] Not what you're offering. We think this bread would really be best for us. I mean, how many of us make similar conclusions?

[14:15] God, I don't like this, what you're saying here. What I really think would be best and better for me is for this to be my path.

[14:27] Not so. They were giving up the greater riches for something temporal. Well, he came onto his own with the truth of who he was and how they could have life through him.

[14:42] They didn't believe. They rejected him. What he taught and simply walked away. So that was what was characteristic of his public ministry.

[14:53] Some believe, but certainly the majority did not. But we move on further in his journey as the suffering servant and find him on the evening of his crucifixion in the Garden of Gethsemane.

[15:07] Let me read these verses from Luke 22. And he came out and went as was his custom to the Mount of Olives. And the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, Pray that you may not enter into temptation.

[15:23] And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw and knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.

[15:36] And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him and being in agony. He prayed more earnestly and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

[15:49] And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow. And he said to them, Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.

[16:02] Well, the Mount of Olives was a familiar place for Jesus and his disciples. It was a place where Jesus took time to sit down with his disciples and to teach them many things.

[16:17] It was a place where he retreated to after a busy day and spent the night recuperating for the next day. But this time in the garden wasn't like the others.

[16:30] This would be a time of great suffering for the servant, the Son of God. Prior to this time, Jesus had spoken of his suffering that was to come and he did so calmly to help his disciples understand the bigger purpose for which he came and really what was ahead for him and for them too.

[16:54] Now as he enters the Garden of Gethsemane, he's opening this door to the greater experience of suffering that was drawing near. And here in the garden, he was suffering the agony really of what was ahead.

[17:13] Let's take a look at the extent of this suffering in the garden. First of all, we can see the extent of it because he needed strengthening from an angel. Luke 22, 43, and there appeared to him an angel from heaven strengthening him.

[17:29] There's only one other time when angels came to minister to Jesus Christ and that was after his intense confrontation with Satan in the wilderness. Matthew 4, 11, then the devil left him and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

[17:45] Now this was a mystery to me as I was reading this and thinking about this. Here Jesus is the Son of God, the Creator, the one who healed the sick, walked on water, calmed the storms, raised the dead, cast out demons.

[18:03] And yet here we see him in need of strengthening by an angel. He's also God incarnate, clothed in pure human nature, outwardly with the physical body, inwardly with those human mind, emotions, will.

[18:22] Here in the garden we see the combination of deity and humanity of Jesus Christ. Jesus, holy, righteous God, man now here confronting sin, about to be sacrificed as the Lamb of God for our sin, experienced the turning away of the Father from Him.

[18:45] Holy God, Jesus Christ, having to face this intense weight of sin, sin, we don't know really the mental and emotional weight of this because we've sinned.

[19:02] We've practiced sin. We've associated ourselves with sin and times have become far too familiar with sin. Not so with Jesus.

[19:14] For Him to be so closely associated with sin, and almost say He was almost humanly unbearable. Had He not been the God-man, it certainly would have been unbearable.

[19:29] He described His condition to Peter and James and John before He went to prayer in Matthew 26, 38. He said to them, My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.

[19:45] Remain here and watch with me that the whole idea of my soul is very sorrowful. The idea of surrounded by sorrow. He knew He would be raised from the dead.

[20:00] He told the disciples that He would be raised from the dead, but He, as holy God, first had to take on Himself sin.

[20:14] And that is what really induced this extreme sorrow. So an angel was sent to strengthen Him. Here in this moment, He was made really a little lower than angels in that the angels were the one coming to minister to Him in His time of need.

[20:34] How was He strengthened? Well, the angel appeared to Him. He wasn't alone in this great time of need. The disciples were about a stone's throw away, maybe 50 yards or so.

[20:49] And they were asleep. And yet, He was not alone. The angel appeared to them. We can relate to that, can't we, at times when we're burdened heavily with something, feeling like we're alone, but if someone comes alongside of us, enters into that time of struggle and suffering with us, all of a sudden, we don't feel quite as weighted down.

[21:17] We find encouragement from another who has come alongside. The angel came and was strengthening him. But also, the angel was sent from heaven. Obviously sent by the Father.

[21:30] a reassuring display of the Father's love, His ongoing, eternal love for Jesus Christ. We don't know what else the angel said or did to strengthen Jesus.

[21:42] It would have been nice. Can't we just expand on this a little bit more so we could see what was really going on there and how the angel was ministering and strengthening Jesus. Well, Matthew Henry gives over to his imagination in his commentary.

[21:59] He says, he probably said something to him to strengthen him. Maybe. Put him in mind that his suffering were in order to his Father's glory, to his own glory, and to the salvation of those that were given him.

[22:14] Represented to him the joy set before him, the seed he should see. Perhaps he did something to strengthen him, wiped away his sweat and tears, perhaps ministered some cordial to him as after his temptation.

[22:28] Or it may be took him by the arm, helped him off the ground, bore him up when he was ready to faint away. Well, the experience was so great that an angel was sent to strengthen him.

[22:45] Well, we continue to see the extent of his suffering as it's written that he was in agony. The word agony here describes a state of extreme mental and emotional anguish and sorrow.

[23:00] It speaks of a grueling, agonizing conflict. The righteous God, Jesus Christ, entering the battle with sin and Satan.

[23:15] A grueling, agonizing conflict. And in this great conflict, he sweat great drops of blood. Well, Luke the doctor recorded this fact in his gospel.

[23:32] Medically, it's called hematidrosis. William Hendrickson describes it this way in his commentary. When these factors, extreme anguish, earnest supplication, unparalleled sensitivity are combined, the resulting strain can easily cause subcutaneous capillaries, those are the little blood vessels under the skin, cause them to dilate to such an extent that they will burst.

[24:04] And when this happens, as it almost is bound to do, in the vicinity of sweat glands, blood and sweat will be exuded together. So we're seeing, I trust, much more the intensity of the sorrow, the emotional and spiritual conflict coming on Jesus Christ.

[24:29] Really, the extent of the suffering in this part of the path that he's walking. I don't know, I knew at times in the past, I've read this before, and the great drops of blood, but maybe just this past week or so, focusing on this a little bit more, I began to get a greater sense of this great anguish that Jesus was willing to go through.

[24:59] And it still wasn't at the climax of his suffering, but he's willing to walk this path, and we see him walking this path in the Garden of Gethsemane. Well, we should also see the extent of the suffering as he prayed earnestly.

[25:14] The word earnestly is made up of two Greek words when combined means wholly stretched out. It carries the idea of being at maximum potential, fully extended to its necessary outcome.

[25:28] This wasn't just a casual time of prayer that Jesus was having. We're familiar with that. You know, we have our prayer time maybe in the morning, come together for prayer on Wednesday nights, and we pray.

[25:44] You know, it's an exercise. It's a good exercise that we go through. But this wasn't a casual time of prayer. Jesus was fully stretched out in prayer.

[25:55] He was fully engaged with all his total being in this time of prayer. Luke 22, 41. He withdrew from them about a stone's throw and knelt down and prayed.

[26:07] Mark 14, 35. And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed. And when we're greatly burdened over a matter, we probably do retreat to be by ourselves.

[26:23] We find a private place. And maybe even at those times when we're burdened so heavily, we do kneel down. We feel so vulnerable and in need.

[26:36] And maybe even at times we prostrate ourselves on the floor. We're so burdened. And overcome with the need, our sense of need at that time.

[26:50] This is what Jesus was experiencing here. The writer of Hebrews describes it this way in Hebrews 5. In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death.

[27:10] Here we're reading and seeing the great humility, the deep earnestness in what I call the pre-cross suffering Jesus is experiencing. I don't know, have you ever been to that place where you're so burdened that you're making loud cries with tears before God in your great time of need?

[27:33] I mean, we're seeing this path of suffering that Jesus Christ is moving down even in the Garden of Gethsemane. Feeling the weight of what He's moving through presently, but what He's going to move through in the near future.

[27:55] The suffering servant Begg writes, there's an intense urgency here, even desperate need, and yet it is coupled with submission as Jesus prostrates Himself in the dust before His Father.

[28:09] There's an inevitability about this strong emotion. Jesus is about to move from the theoretical, as it were, the long-held knowledge, the crucifixion, and the judgment of God await Him at the end of the road.

[28:25] He's about to move from that, understanding that truth mentally, to the imminent and the actual. It's just down the path a little bit further that He would go to the cross.

[28:41] He's beginning here in the Garden of Eden to sense the weight of that. And that's what we're seeing. in the Garden of Gethsemane.

[28:53] Well, as we continue to read in Hebrews, we see that the Father heard and answered His prayer. It says, And He was heard because of His reverence. Although He was a son, He learned obedience through what He suffered and being made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.

[29:09] So He certainly wasn't spared the cross, but He was raised and ascended to the right hand of the throne of God. when Jesus' prayer time came to an end, He was strengthened.

[29:23] And He was ready to continue to walk the path of suffering. In Mark 14, it says, He came the third time and said to them, Peter, James, and John, sleepyheads, I would have been sleeping too.

[29:39] Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It's enough. The hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

[29:49] Rise, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand. So Jesus didn't run from the suffering that was coming down the path toward Him.

[30:04] No, instead, He moved down the path toward the suffering. The next phase of the suffering began with the betrayal by Judas.

[30:16] One who once walked and served with Him and the other disciples. There is a relational element certainly in this suffering. And that betrayal by Judas was displayed with a kiss.

[30:34] A practice normally used in greeting an expression of friendship. But it certainly wasn't a holy kiss at this time. In this instance, it was an act identifying to the chief priests and the officers of the temple which one was Jesus.

[30:52] The one who was to be seized and taken away. And Jesus at that moment was seized and taken away. The suffering of the path that He was walking continued relationally by the forsaking of His disciples after Jesus confronted the armed mob and the soldiers that came to seize Him.

[31:20] It's written, then all the disciples left Him and fled. Now me, humanly speaking, yeah, that would have been devastating to me.

[31:32] You know, it's one thing to stand and to stand with others who are with you but then, boom, betrayed by someone who probably was originally considered a friend, a co-worker, and now betrayed, not betrayed, but others who as well had served deserted Him.

[31:57] Peter, of course, denied Him three times. Jesus knew that was coming and it did come. But the path of suffering also meant that He was subjected to mockery, false accusations, beatings, shameful treatment, and unjust trial by sinful men.

[32:17] Luke 22, now the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking Him as they beat Him. They also blindfolded Him and kept asking Him, prophesy, who is it that struck you?

[32:30] And they said many other things against Him, blaspheming Him, many other things. Your mind and imagination can only go of the extremity of vile things that they spoke to Him, shouted at Him, accused Him of.

[32:48] Many other things they spoke against Him. The path the suffering servant was taking included this mockery by sinful men. They brought others before the council who bore false witness against Jesus.

[33:04] When there was no agreement among the witnesses, the high priest asked Jesus directly if He was the Christ, the Son of the Blessed, and Jesus said, I am. I mean, that in itself would indicate to them what they were just looking for.

[33:19] But He said, I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven. But hearing this, they accused Jesus of blasphemy and condemned Him as deserving of death.

[33:34] And some spit in His face and mocked Him some more and beat Him some more. Then there was the back and forth between Pilate and Herod.

[33:45] Neither one really seeking true justice but just acting in their own self-interest. the mockery of justice ended with Pilate having Jesus scourged and turned over to be crucified.

[33:58] The path of suffering that the suffering servant was walking. At this point, really, the inhumane treatment was unleashed upon Jesus.

[34:10] And the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters and they gathered the whole battalion before Him that would consist of about 600 soldiers.

[34:23] And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on His head and they put a reed in His hand. Kneeling before Him, they mocked Him saying, Hail, King of the Jews!

[34:36] They spit on Him, they took the reed and struck Him on the head. And when they had mocked Him, they stripped Him of the robe and put His own clothes on Him and led Him away to crucify Him.

[34:49] So the suffering servant, Jesus, lets them lead Him down the path of suffering. No resistance here. No crying out for mercy. He was the Lamb of God being led down this path to the ultimate of suffering that He needed to go through for us.

[35:10] Well, when they reached the final destination, the place they called Golgotha, which means place of the skull, they offered Him some wine mixed with myrrh, but He did not take it.

[35:22] Begg writes, so concerned was Jesus to suffer in unrelieved fashion that when offered wine mingled with gall as an anesthetic to deaden His senses and to alleviate His suffering, He declined.

[35:38] He will drain or He will drink the cup of suffering to His very dregs. He said, not my will, but thine be done. He was willing to drink the full cup of suffering that He needed to as the suffering servant.

[35:57] And so He did. They nailed Him to the cross. We read the preview of this in Psalm 22, verse 16, they have pierced my hands and feet.

[36:09] Thomas gave testimony of it when he said, unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails.

[36:21] Yes, they nailed Him to the cross. Once raised up on the cross, well, the mocking didn't cease. There was continued mocking by the chief priests and the scribes, Mark 15.

[36:35] So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked Him to one another, saying, you can imagine just seeing them. I mean, it had to be a time of chaos and great noise and shouting and here they are standing shoulder to shoulder looking at each other saying these words.

[36:55] He saved others. He cannot save Himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe. Yeah, something we have to see and believe.

[37:07] Of course, they had seen many things and still did not believe. Initially, He was mocked by both the criminals on each side of Him. Matthew 27, the robbers who were crucified with Him also reviled Him in the same way.

[37:23] The soldiers mocked Him. The soldiers also mocked Him coming up and offering Him sour wine and saying, if you are the King of the Jews, save yourself. He was mocked by those who passed by.

[37:36] Matthew 27, those who passed by derided Him, wagging their heads and saying, you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself.

[37:48] You're the Son of Man come down from the cross. Notice, in each one of these passages, we hear the mocking of the people telling Him to prove Himself by saving Himself.

[38:04] He wasn't on the cross to save Himself. He was there to save sinners. Sinners like you and me.

[38:18] From having to pay the wages of sin ourselves. He was there offering Himself as an atoning sacrifice to God on behalf of those who had nothing to bring to Him.

[38:33] That could commend us in any way to God and accomplish our peace with God. Because He was the Son of God, He didn't save Himself.

[38:47] He could have appealed to the Father. We've seen this in other passages. At His betrayal, He said to Peter, after Peter, lopped off, servant's ear, Jesus had put it back on.

[39:02] You think that I cannot appeal to my Father and He will send me more than 12 legions of angels? 72,000 angels?

[39:13] Peter, what are you doing? No, no. He was on the cross and stayed on the cross because He was the God-man.

[39:23] God-man committed to the purpose that had been planned ages past. And this was His part to walk the path as the suffering servant.

[39:38] While they cast lots for His garments, they crucified Him, divided His garments among them, casting lots for them to what each should take to determine that.

[39:49] But finally, what had to be the greatest suffering experience, He was forsaken by the Father. Never in their eternal relationship had anything like this happened.

[40:00] Matthew 27, Now, from the sixth hour, there was darkness over the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, that is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

[40:19] Truly, the condition of darkness over the land was fitting for really what Jesus was experiencing at this moment the whole time on the cross, but especially this. Being made sin for us, becoming a curse for us, being wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, bearing our sins on His body, on the cross, this was the climax, the end of the path of suffering that Jesus had been walking.

[40:53] He was bearing the full weight of sin that we never could have carried. And being the case, He experienced the temporary yet excruciating pain of great separation from the Father on our behalf.

[41:11] For a time, the intimate fellowship that always existed between Father and Son was interrupted. Certainly, the love between Father and Son, it didn't stop, but the Father could not look upon the Son as He was made sin for us.

[41:29] This was the path of suffering. God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit designed that each one needed to traverse for the full display of what is truly glorious about God.

[41:43] Only God could come up with such a plan and only God could truly walk and complete the whole plan of salvation. This being the case, the Father needed to turn away from the Son and at that moment, Jesus cried with a loud voice.

[42:06] the severity of what Jesus, the suffering servant, was enduring at that moment, that separation from the Father could only be expressed by Him crying out with a loud voice, My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?

[42:22] You start thinking, why crying that out? Well, as we heard from David Vaughn, Sunday evening, his cry wasn't one trying to figure out why the Father had forsaken him.

[42:35] He knew why he was there, but rather a declaration, a confirmation that he was the one David wrote about in the Messianic Psalm 22. David Vaughn said he's quoting Psalm 22 because he's owning it.

[42:51] He's declaring he's the one. In Psalm 22, his loud anguished cry would also be a revelation to what was not seen by the people.

[43:03] They didn't see this separation that was going on. God is holy and cannot bear to look upon sin. Jesus declaring something of the Father, the holiness of God.

[43:17] Sin separates one from fellowship with God. Jesus says, the sin bearer is taking upon himself the full consequences of sin, even separation from the Father.

[43:29] And he's declaring his experience to the people and to us as it's preserved for us to read here. We're seeing the extremity that Jesus, the suffering servant, was willing to go.

[43:45] By his loud anguished cry, it's also showing the true nature of that separation. Such separation is not natural. It's a grievous experience to endure.

[43:58] It brings true sorrow to the soul of the man who has chosen to suffer the consequences of sin on his own. I mean, we're seeing it right here.

[44:08] We're hearing it by reading it of what that experience is like. People treat it lightly as thinking it won't be a big deal.

[44:20] And sometimes we cast aside this fellowship with God very easily in times of temptation. But Jesus is showing us the extremity of it. It's a big deal.

[44:35] Well, but such will be the experience of those who never repent and confess Jesus as Lord. He or she will suffer the agony of separation God, His people, and the glories of King.

[44:48] Well, after a while longer on the cross, Jesus, the suffering servant, uttered the words, Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. And then He also said, it is finished.

[45:00] Jesus, the suffering servant, walked the complete path of suffering. That which He came into the world to do was finished.

[45:12] And by faith in Jesus Christ and what He did is willingness to walk that path. We now don't have to walk that path. Now we can give ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto Him.

[45:30] May that be what the Spirit of God brings to our mind this week in all that we do, that He would be magnified because of what the suffering servant was able to do and willing to do on our behalf.

[45:43] Let's pray. Father, this morning we need this reminder of Jesus Christ and that we would present ourselves with living sacrifices.

[45:57] So do the work of your Spirit even as we go to the morning service. May this reality raise our voices to greater praise and exaltation of yourself and what you've done in Jesus' name.

[46:12]  Amen. Thank you. Thank you.