Continuing on from Mark 15 starting now at verse 27. And with him they crucify two thieves, the one on his right hand and the other on his left. And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, he was numbered with the transgressors. and they that passed by raised on him, wagging their heads and saying, ah thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it up in three days, save thyself and come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, he saved others, himself he cannot save. Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with him reviled him. And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, which is being interpreted, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And some of them that heard stood by. When they heard it, said, behold, he calleth Elias. And one ran and filled a sponge full of vinegar and put it on a reed and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone let us see whether Elias will come to take him down. And Jesus cried with a loud voice and gave up the ghost. And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. So far, let us pray. O great God, as we read one of the four accounts that you have given to this world of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, what an amazing, amazing victory was accomplished on that day, that one great day in history. And I pray, Lord, that as but mere dust, as we come before you, Lord, as the sinners that are spoken about in the scriptures, Lord, that we would be humble. And Lord, who am I that can speak of such a great sacrifice? And so I pray that your spirit would speak through the word proclaimed, speak through the scriptures spoken and read, and would speak through the songs, would speak through the church. Lord, we look to you, the great author of life, the prince of life, who gave his life for sinners. O great God, speak, we pray, through the word. In Jesus' name, amen. So the text for this morning's message is verse 34, and particularly the words that Jesus cried out, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, which is being interpreted, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? I have three points to draw out of this text. First of all, the darkness of God's wrath. Secondly, the design of God's wrath. And thirdly, the discharge of God's wrath. All right, so first of all, the darkness of God's wrath. Mark tells us in this account that as Jesus hung on the cross, there was darkness over the whole land. It was for three hours, from the sixth hour, which is high noon, 12 o'clock, to the ninth hour, which is 3 p.m. This was precisely the time at which the sun would be at full strength, and now it was completely covered. In Malachi chapter 4, verse 2, it says that Jesus is the Son of Righteousness, S-U-N. It says, but unto you that fear my name shall the Son, S-U-N, of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings. And now that Son of Righteousness was completely in the dark. The light of the world was engulfed in utter darkness. Throughout the Bible, darkness speaks of judgment. Exodus 10, in one of the plagues that would land on the Egyptians, on the Egyptian people that were against the people of God, it says, God brought judgment to Pharaoh. in darkness. In Amos 8 verse 9 it says this, And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day. Fulfilling all Scripture, Jesus the Son was in that blackness. And thus, it is inescapable for us as Christians and for this world to know that the darkness that fell on the Son was, by design, the wrath of God Almighty who did that. It was the Father. placing judgment on his only begotten son. Now you remember in the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus said these things. He said, Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. And now get this, for he maketh his son, S-U-N, to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth the rain on the just and the unjust. Every day in this wicked world, even today, the sun rose. We have light we can see around us and it has shone on this wicked world. This world that rejects God, this world that every day is filled with blasphemy of His holy name. And just think of the things that you and I have done this week. We've lost our tempers. We have said biting words. We have rolled our eyes in disdain to what somebody said to us. We've thought sinful thoughts. And yet God Almighty has graced us with sunlight on this world to give us food in due season, to warm the earth, to keep things in order. Yet on Jesus Christ, not a hint of the Father's mercy, not a ray of light would be on him. All of the goodness of God completely vanquished and turned away. as the dark frown of the father turned on his son. And the one hanging unjustly accused was there in utter agony, bleeding, and in excruciating pain on the most vile instrument of torture that man has ever created. And for those three hours, the Lord of Glory did not utter a word. The sheep is silent before her shearers. Christ opened not his mouth. He silently bore the wrath. And then, after three hours, for the first time and the only time in the account of Mark, Jesus speaks on the cross. There are seven cross sayings. Mark only has one, this one. Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthanai, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? What does this mean? We know that humanity had forsaken Christ After all, they had scorned him, they had rejected him. We just read that. Those who just days earlier had cried, Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, arms of welcome turned into fists of hatred. The women who had once been close to him, it says in Scripture, stood afar off. They were uncertain. The disciples who had followed Him for three intimate years and had promised, oh, I will not leave you. The disciples who with Christ, especially the three in the garden, Christ shared His deepest burden with them in the Garden of Gethsemane. And He said to them, can you imagine this? Imagine being one of those disciples, and the Lord says to you, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death, tarry ye here and watch. He's asking for them in his darkest hour to just be there with him. What would you do if somebody close to you was in agony of soul and he shares with you the heart-wrenching pain of what is about to happen? What would you do? What would you do when terror is about to strike on your most beloved? Well, scripture tells us what they did. They fell asleep. And then when he got arrested, when the hour came, it says in Mark 14, 50, they all forsook him and fled. Have you ever been backstabbed? Have you ever been abandoned? Have you ever been left utterly alone? Usually, we did something to at least bring it upon ourselves, something that wasn't quite right. But what did Jesus do to his disciples? Scripture says this about Jesus relative to his disciples. It says, having loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them to the end. And yet they fled, ran from him. He loved them. Is that reason to flee from the Lord? But all of this forsaking the disciples, the women, the people, it pales in comparison to the agony of Christ's heart for his father. Ultimately and most indescribably, The father turned his face from the son. Now we have to be very careful in this text. Not to misinterpret what Jesus is saying, because the Father did not ultimately and finally forsake the Son. Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, and as God divine, he cannot change because God is immutable. What Christ bore on the cross, he bore as man. He assumed flesh so that in flesh he could bear our sorrows. God does not change Jesus, the man, in his humanity, nor the forsakenness. So what does this mean? What the darkness tells us, most of all, is that the sweet fellowship that he had as man was gone. His communion as man with the Father was cut off, severed. Do you remember what the Father had said to Jesus about Jesus at His baptism? The words echo in our minds, don't they? This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, Mark 1 11. He had the absolute approval of the Father. And now that turned into wrath. Christ as man experienced the most utter extremes of ultimate fellowship and ultimate abandonment, crowning favor, terrifying wrath. Now, maybe you've seen it in a movie before, or you've experienced it yourself as children. Mom and dad go away for the night. They have a pleasant evening. The kids are at home. Mom and Dad come home, open the door. They're all smiles. They had a great evening. The smiles are on their face. They look around. The house is completely in disarray. And what was once smiles instantly turns dark as dad looks around and sees what has happened. The smile turns into the frown, the dark frown, and the children know judgment is about to fall on them. Christ's unfailing source of strength and joy through all his trials. The father who had been with him, gone. Instead, him who walked with that fellowship was stripped, not only naked before men, naked before the father. Every ounce of comfort, when at least he had the father, the most comforting, wasn't there. Instead of sympathy, God's hatred was upon him. The eternality of hell, where all those who reject Jesus Christ will go, is a faint echo of what Jesus went through in those dark hours. Remember, we read Psalm 22 this morning. Do you hear the heartache of Christ Jesus? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? You hear these cries, and then he says, oh my God, I cry in the daytime. You hear that? In the daytime. But thou hearest not. And in the night season, as day turned to night, and am not silent. Do you hear the despair, utter despair? But thou hearest not." Now, even though Jesus Christ knew he would rise, he knew his mission was sure, still in his human nature, he could never have known the depth and the duration of the anguish he was facing. The wrath was not for a minute. It wasn't for 10 minutes. in those three hours were packed wave after wave of God's unrestrained wrath on his son. You can just hear in that cry almost this concept of why so long, Father? Why has it not stopped? Will it come to an end? Have you reflected on that cry for yourself? Has your soul heard what Scripture unpacks as the fullness of Scripture speaks of the death and the sufferings and the life of the Lord Jesus Christ? O Christians, to know that He did that for us. He suffered such unimaginable horrors for us. The grace of God reached down to such a depth for you and for me. Have you considered that it says in Hebrews, he did not take upon him the nature of angels. But the seed of Abraham, he didn't save fallen angels. Have you stopped to realize that what happens at that cross was that God is making this world the theater in which the glory of his mercy would be displayed? What wondrous love is this? Oh, my soul. Oh, my soul. Secondly, the design of God's wrath. Do you notice this is a question? Why has thou forsaken me? Why is a question we ask because we are seeking a purpose, right? If I asked you, why did you come here today? I'm asking what was the purpose of your attending this morning? Now, think about what Christ is asking here, Christ's question. Now, of course, Christ, or Jesus, who is the Christ, think about what that means. Christ means anointed, Mashiach, anointed one, the King. He knew why he was going to the cross. He even said it. He said, for the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. The question of purpose was unmistakably known to him. He knew his purpose, to save sinners. But in the very fact of asking the question in the darkest and the deepest pits of hell-piercing sorrow, what we see in the question is that Jesus, in this dark agony, never ever gave up, knowing there is a purpose to everything. Even the darkest things of life have purpose. Not one second of Jesus' suffering was in vain. Not one drop of blood was pointless. Jesus died by design. He suffered with purpose. In fact, in one of the most striking passages about the plan of the cross, Acts 2.23, it says this, Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. We read it this morning. It was with the will of the Father to bruise him. Now, maybe you're going through suffering in your life right now. Maybe there are things with your health, things emotionally that are eating at you. Maybe it's discouragements. Perhaps it's trials that overwhelm you. Now think about what this means. Since the greatest suffering ever was by design, take comfort in the fact that your suffering, our suffering, is also by design, and every fraction of it is peculiarly meted out by a perfect, sovereign, determinate counsel of God Almighty. God has purposes we cannot fathom. In the question of why, I see nothing is in vain. Let us learn as well from this cry that sin is that heinous, that grievous, that wicked. Remember, we saw in our Habakkuk series that Habakkuk 113 says, thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look upon Iniquity. The cross of Christ is a banner that displays the holiness of God. The great Puritan Stephen Charnock, one of my favorite Puritans, he writes this, about this. He says, not all the vials of judgment that have or shall be poured out upon the wicked world nor the flaming furnace of a sinner's conscience, nor the irreversible sentence pronounced against rebellious demons, nor the groans of the damned creatures give such a demonstration of sin as the wrath of God let loose on His Son. Never did the divine holiness appear more beautiful and lovely than at the time when our Savior's countenance was the most marred in the midst of his dying groans. How often we are quick to excuse our sins, aren't we? Have you ever said this, well, that was just a white lie, didn't really matter too much. Perhaps you've said to somebody, nobody really got hurt by what I did. Maybe you've said, well, it was only a little bit selfish. Aren't we all that once in a while? Perhaps you've heard or thought or said, everybody sows their wild oats while they're young, to kind of wash it away. Or when our pride gets pointed out, we say, in our inward lawyer, we get out quickly. You have pride, too, so stop pointing out mine. Why do we do that? Why do we brush off our sins so easily? Well, the Bible tells us why, and there's one verse I really think tells us the heart of the problem. It's in Psalm 50, verse 21. God says it, he puts his finger on our excuses when he says this, We think God is like us and that's the problem, that's the tragedy. of the whole thing. We think God excuses like we like to excuse. It's just a peccadillo, a small little sin. But the cross of Christ exclaims and proclaims something completely other about our sins, even our smallest sins. The cross says, no, God is nothing like us. He is altogether holy, holy, holy. The whole earth is full of his glory. The cross of Christ is displaying the holiness of God Almighty. Have you seen it? And have you seen your own sin in the horrid suffering? Now, notice in this phrase, why hast thou forsaken Me. Me. Christ of all people. Jesus Christ. What did He do that was wrong? I mean, Jesus in Scripture, again, in Matthew here it says, He healed the sick, He raised the dead, He cleansed the lepers, He cast out demons. What's wrong with that? How is that worthy of unrestrained wrath? Why would the Son, the God, the Father, forsake His dearly beloved Son? You see, the cross of Christ, his suffering is completely unjust. If we view it in terms of Christ's character, his person, his actions and his being. In fact, that's exactly what the psalmist says. Princes have persecuted me without a cause. Pilate said, I find no fault in this man. Judas, after recognizing what he had done, says, I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood. Peter calls him the lamb without blemish or spot. Now we know that even the best people in this world sin every day. Think of those close to you. The closer you get to somebody, the more you know their sins, don't you? We can all be smiles here this morning. How are you doing? Great to see you. And at home, our true character comes out. But Jesus, Nothing like that. The apostle John, who walked intimately with him for three years, says this, and ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. So in and of itself, it is an extremely unjust thing if we view it from the vantage point of Christ. So why? Why, of all people, was Christ forsaken? The answer to the glory of God, it is because Christ became our substitute. 2 Corinthians 5 21, that great exchange. For he hath made him, the flawless, the sinless one, to be sin for us. Him who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Peter says it is the just. For the unjust, that is the substitution. I remember years ago when we were doing door-to-door evangelism here in town, and we'd bring up the law and notions of the law, and people started excusing their sin. They realized, yes, I'm a liar, and I'm a thief, and I'm a blasphemer, by their own admission. And we always brought up the notion of justice. And we always brought up the analogy, like, So just imagine if a criminal that breaks into your home, steals all your stuff, kills your family, burns the home down, flees off into Africa. Nobody finds him for years. He gets caught, gets brought back, gets brought in front of the judge, and the litany of his crimes are in front of him. And the judge says, well, you became a doctor in Africa. You saved a few lives. Wipe it off. That's OK. Or he says, well, look, you've cleaned up your life. It's OK. Whatever you did, you're not going to jail. There's no crime. Would justice be served? Would that be just? And the answer is clear. Absolutely not. Sin must be accounted for. And for God to be God for us, sin must be accounted for. No one will go into heaven whose sins have not been accounted for. If your sins are not accounted for, you will face the wrath of God. Now, you can make excuses. But outside of Christ, there is no reconciliation. Have you understood the justice of God? Have you heard about the substitution of Christ? That is the heart of the gospel, the heart of the good news, that Christ hung on that cross in our stead, in my stead, You think of it in Old Testament, the priest on the sin offering, he would press his hands on the lamb. What's that a picture of? The transferring of the guilt of the people to that lamb that would then have its throat slit, the blood put on the altar as a picture of what Jesus Christ would do for us. That lamb is Christ. The sin imputed is the sin of God's people, his elect transferred to him. What those lambs could never do is wash away sins, but the lamb on that day in the forsakenness washes away the sins of his people. Do you think how God held back on the cross? If God had restrained himself even a little bit on that day, we would be lost. If God had held back, the cross would be the greatest tragedy in history. No one else could have borne that load of sin. No one else could accomplish the hell-deserving mission. Why is hell eternal? Ever thought about that? Hell is eternal because we are not Jesus. Only the sun could bear on that day, in those hours, the wrath of Almighty God. The suffering of the cross was thus unique to the Son. He alone was the Son of the Father's love. He alone could lay aside the crown of His infinite glory to bear the cross of shame. He alone could surrender perfect favor with the Father. And so, believers, perhaps you're discouraged and dejected because of your own indwelling sin. Let this complete, perfect substitution be your encouragement. He did not bear some of our sins or only our sins before we came to Christ. Every sin that the elect have committed, will commit, into the end of this time, Christ bore every one of them. Christ bore it all, which leads me to the last point, the discharge of God's wrath. In this cry, we've seen why. We've seen the forsakenness. We've seen, why forsake me? Now I want to look at the beginning. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? You hear in there the hope of Christ, don't you? Because Christ knew the end of Psalm 22. I will declare thy name unto the brethren. In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. Ye that fear the Lord, praise him, all ye the seed of Jacob. Glorify him and fear him, all ye seed of Israel. Why he goes on, he says, for he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, neither has he hid his face from him. Remember at the beginning, he says he has not heard the psalm ends. But when he cried unto him, he heard. In the agony of the forsakenness, Christ says, my God, my God, he knew it would soon be followed with the glorious words, Tetelestai in the Greek, not recorded in Mark. It has been finished. Perfect tense in the Greek, so it's indisputable. We cannot account for anything else. It is finished, the price has been paid, nothing can be added to the death of Christ, and the effects of the cross stand into eternity. Nothing can take away the love and the work of Jesus Christ for sinners, nothing. It is finished. Because the God-man, Jesus, has accomplished the mission. Isaiah 53, 11, we read it. He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. God was satisfied with the work of his Son. Never again in history and never ever again will the stamp of satisfied, mission accomplished, be put on anything else but Jesus Christ. He drank the cup of the wrath of God completely. There's not one drop in there left for you or I to accomplish, to fulfill, to drink. Christians, we are secure in that finished cup for us. Drank to the full. And when that cup of the wrath of God was completely drained and the dregs were finished, the frown of the darkness of the Father turned back to delight. In Christ, there is no purgatory. The debt is fully discharged. We can die in hope, not worried about what will happen in the afterlife. Nothing stands between you, if you're a Christian, and the Father. Nothing ever will. All of the delight of the Father is now on those who are united to the Son. Have you come here this morning uncertain about your soul? Perhaps you're looking down right now and you know you are not right with God. Perhaps you've come to church so many times, heard this in so many ways, and you're rejecting Christ Jesus. Perhaps you've come with doubts. You think, oh, I'm never good enough. I mean, good night, look at my week. What was your week like? Take inventory of yesterday. Take inventory of this morning. You probably sinned this morning. The answer, the only answer for you is Jesus Christ. He bled. that you young people, that you aged people, that we can be spared the sword of the wrath of Almighty and be drawn into the Father's bosom. Leave all your struggles, leave all your doubts at the foot of Calvary's cross. Lean again and again, believer, on this truth. When Satan assails you with doubt, when he says, look at you. Look what you did. You thought you were something. Now you fell again. Look at the cross. Don't look at yourself. When the world starts to unleash its vitriolic hatred and persecution against the church, and the church is afflicted, look at the cross of Christ. We stand secure in the cross of Christ Jesus. When you doubt, plead the blood. When you despair, know the sympathy of Christ, who went in deeper agony than you ever will. If you lose everything in this world, friends, family, fortune, remember that Christ will not lose any whom he bled for. And when your body is wasting away with cancer or with wrinkles or in a ripe old age, Know this, because Christ was forsaken, God will not forsake you, Christian. Jesus said, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life. and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." John 10. Is there anyone here who has not fled to Calvary's cross? The day of God's patience is soon coming to an end. You must not linger in Sodom. You cannot afford to be apathetic. Do not leave today without being right with God. God may strike you to death in five minutes. Do not place your hope in anything or anyone else. Don't trust in your church attendance. Don't trust in your prayers. Don't trust in your Bible knowledge, your catechism. Don't trust in a million good works. And by all means, do not trust in what you can contribute, what you can pay. Forsake it all for him who was forsaken on sinners behalf. Because Christ died for liars. Christ died for the proud. Christ died for hypocrites. Christ died for murderers. Christ died for adulterers. You that look at a woman with lust in your heart have already committed adultery. Christ died for adulterers. Christ died for the selfish. He died for the ungrateful. He died for the discontented. He died for the jealous. He died for the ignorant. He died for the impatient. He died for those mocking Him, those deserting Him. He died for sinners. No sin you have committed or will commit outstrips the value of his death. Believe on him today. This is no joke. It's a free gift. Will you take it? So people, in closing, with this phrase, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The answer of the church of all ages is this, and the answer of the angels who behold this. The answer of the world is this, glory to him. Glory to him that was forsaken by the father for sinners behalf. Glory to the righteous son who was made black for us. Glory to him who has rent the veil and the way of access is now made open. Glory to him who absorbed the wrath of God for sin upon Himself, and makes us sons and daughters of God Almighty. Glory to Him who endured the terrors of death. Glory to Him whose brow was beat, whose back was whipped, who was nailed to a beam. Glory to Him who has made a curse for us, because the Bible says, cursed is any man who hangs on a tree. Glory to Him who quenched the flames of judgment in his own blood. Glory to him, Jesus Christ, who is our advocate, our righteousness, our hope, and our salvation. Dear people, join with me. Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth upon men on whom God's favor is. Glory to God, dear people. That is the answer. It's all God, nothing of me, nothing to God I bring. Simply to the cross I cling. Amen. Let us pray. Oh, great and merciful God, You were stricken, smitten, and afflicted for us. May all glory be to you. I pray, Lord, that our souls would be melted in their hardness and behold him who died for sinners. All praise be to you. In Jesus' name, amen.