Bible Studies
Abandoned By God (Matt. 27:46)
Series: Additional StudiesIntroduction:
1. Have you ever felt abandoned by God? That may seem like an unusual question and some of you may even be thinking “God would never abandon anyone.” 2. If that is true what do we do with the many passages that seem to say that God has forsaken some?a. Romans 1 describes those who suppressed the truth and refused to acknowledge. Three times the text says, “God gave them over… to impurity, to degrading passions, to a depraved mind.” What is this but forsaking them (or abandoning) them to their sin?
b. The Psalms are filled with statements that acknowledge the writer’s fear that God will abandon him.
1) Psa. 27:9: “Do not hide Your face from me. Do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; do not abandon me nor forsake me.”
2) Psa. 119:8b: “Do not forsake me utterly!”
3) Psa. 143:7: “Answer me quickly, O Lord, my spirit fails. Do not hide Your face from me, or I will become like those who go down to the pit.”
3. But someone objects, “God has not abandoned them, they have abandoned God.” And another says, “People may hide themselves from God, but God does not hide his face from people, that’s just the Psalmist’s perception. That is just how he feels.” 4. The books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel were written to a people who had turned their backs on God.a. They had turned away from the one who had lavished them with blessings and committed adultery with their idols.
b. God was enraged. He withheld the showers and spring rains. Sounds like He had abandoned them to their sins. They were taken into captivity by their enemies.
c. The language that God used to describe His actions—He had hidden His face from them (Ezek. 39:29).
5. Isaiah said, “Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear” (59:2).Discussion:
I. Why does God turn away from, abandon or forsake sinners? He does so because of His justice, because of His holy character, because of His jealousy for what is right.A. God, unlike us, is not marred by sin. He is ethically perfect (Josh. 24:19-20; 1 Pet. 1:15-16; 1 Jn. 1:5).
1. He is absolutely and perfectly separated from sin. He is morally pure.
2. He is absolutely incompatible with sin.
3. God is unconditionally upright (Psa. 92:15). He both demands and delights in moral uprightness (Psa. 15:1-5; 24:3-4).
4. Thus He hates all wrong (Psa. 5:4; Hab. 1:13).
B. Having been marred by sin and participants in it we become calloused by the experience.
1. Lesser sins we may ignore.
2. Greater sins—murder, rape, genocide, torture, and abuse incite our wrath. We would abandon those who commit such crimes to death or at least turn our face away from them by imprisoning them for life. It is the image of God in us that prompts such action.
C. Wrath is God’s holy action against sin.
1. It is not like our wrath that is sometimes arbitrary, misdirected, and sometimes capricious.
2. His wrath is a result of His nature. Illustrate paper in oven to 375 degrees.
3. Probably as a result of our callousness we dumb down sin. Cf. “little white lies.”
4. We sometimes say, “God hates sin and loves the sinner.” Some truth in it, but the statement may be too soft.
a. Psa. 5:5 says, “Thou dost hate all who do iniquity.”
b. Psa. 11:5 says, “The one who loves violence His soul hates.”
c. Prov. 6:16ff says, “There are six things the Lord hates…”
D. Scripture uses graphic images to define sin.
1. A dog returning to its own vomit (2 Pet. 2:22).
2. A prodigal wanting to fill his stomach with what the swine were eating.
3. Jesus described the hypocrites of his day as rotting carcasses (Matt. 23:27-28).
4. God described Israel’s adultery as “lusting after her lovers, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys and whose issue is like that of horses (Ezek. 23:20).
E. The holiness of God in action. Ron Edwards.
“Whenever you see the half-eaten fruit of the garden laying at the feet of a cherub wielding a flaming sward and two sets of footprints leaving the garden but not returning, you see the holiness of God in action. Next time you see a great body of water swell out of its banks let it be a perpetual reminder of the holiness of God in action during the days of Noah. Next time you smell the smell of sulfur, turn to Gen. 18 and 19 and remember Sodom. Next time you hear of an earthquake remember when the earth opened up and gobbled up Korah. Next time you read the obituary column, remember Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. When you read about violence in your neighborhood remember Nadab and Abihu who were torched from heaven, remember Uzzah, struck down like he was hit by a sniper when he touched the ark. And when you meditate on the sacrificial system with its grace, mercy and substitutionary atonement, flip that coin and meditate on the other side. See the mountains of charred and mutilated animal carcasses. See the streams of blood flowing through Jerusalem as if they were arteries rather than streams of water.”
II. Let us not diminish God’s justice, nor become calloused to the severity of sin, but neither are we to despair for God’s graciousness is as great as His justice.A. The Psalms are clear in their message.
1. Psa. 27:7ff says, “Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice and be gracious to me and answer me. You said, ‘Seek My face,” my heart said, ‘Your face, O Lord, I shall seek.’ You have been my help. You are the God of my salvation. My father and mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me up.”
2. Psa. 143:8 says, “Let me hear Your lovingkindness in the morning for I trust in You. Deliver me from my enemies. I take refuge in You.”
B. Though Israel was faithless and committed flagrant harlotry with her idols God said…
1. “Return faithless Israel… for I am gracious. I will not be angry forever” (Jer. 3:12).
2. “Return, O faithless sons, I will heal your faithlessness” (Jer. 3:22).
3. “I will remember My covenant… I have forgiven you for all that you have done” (Ezek. 16:60, 63).
III. But how?A. This takes us back to the passage we began with in Matt. 27:46 and Jesus’ statement on the cross: “My God, My God why hast though forsaken Me?”
1. How could God have forsaken His son?
2. Perhaps He really didn’t??? some suggest.
3. Some remind us that Psa. 22, the Psalm from which Jesus is quoting, is about God’s assurance of help in time of trouble.
B. An alternative view might be that God did indeed forsake Jesus.
1. If I died innocently on a cross I might feel God had forsaken me.
2. But herein is the beauty of the message of Scripture.
a. Christ died for the ungodly (Rom. 5:6).
b. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21).
c. He was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him and by His scourging we are healed (Isa. 53:5).
C. In the cross the justice and grace of God meet.
D. God may forsake us to our sinful practices, turn His face away, but when we seek Him in graciousness He responds, taking the penalty of our sin upon Himself.
E. Thus in this way His promise is fulfilled, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you” (Deut. 31:6, 8; Heb. 13:5).
Conclusion:
1. Would you seek His face? 2. Accept His grace? 3. Be forgiven?
