My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?

Introduction to the Cry of Dereliction

0:03 Now, if you have a Bible with you, please turn with me to the Gospel of Mark, the second book in the New Testament. For some of you not too familiar with the location of the various books, the second book in the New Testament, the Gospel of Mark, and chapter 15. And will you follow, please, as I read verses 21 through 34. These verses bring us into the heart of those events surrounding the absolutely cruel, unjust, unrighteous, brutalizing of Jesus of Nazareth, culminating in his being impaled upon an instrument of Roman execution, a cruel form of execution borrowed from the Syrians, not used with any decent Roman citizen. But only...

1:02 Only with slaves and outcasts, and yet the form of execution chosen for Jesus of Nazareth. Mark, chapter 15, and verse 21. And they compel one passing by, Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to go with them that he might bear his cross. They bring him unto the place Golgotha, which is being interpreted, the place of a skull.

1:36 And they offered him wine mingled with myrrh, that's drugged wine, but he received it not. And they crucify him, and part his garments among them, casting lots upon them, what each should take. And it was the third hour, by Jewish reckoning, nine o'clock in the morning. And it was the third hour, or nine a.m., and they crucified him.

2:03 And the supersedes... The description of his accusation was written over the king of the Jews.

2:10 And with him they crucify two robbers, one on his right hand and one on his left. And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads and saying, Ha! You that destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself and come down from the cross. In like manner also the chief priest, mocking him among themselves, with the scribes said, He saved others, himself he cannot save.

2:42 Let the Christ, the king of Israel, now come down from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with him reproached him. And when the sixth hour, high noon, was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. That the ninth hour?

3:07 At three o'clock in the afternoon, Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, which is being interpreted, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

3:32 Tonight I want you to consider with me those mysterious words uttered by a loud voice from the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth, uttered amidst the darkness of those hours, uttered out of the deep silence that had prevailed for several hours, the words, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And if you have ever paid half an ear, for the word of God, surely these words will capture that half an ear, and I hope both ears, and the ears of your heart, as we meditate upon them this evening. I have no desire nor any thought that I could begin fully to explain these words. I can't even begin to explain them. All I can do is attempt to talk around them with the light of the word of God, or guiding our meditations.

4:46 It would take the mind and the soul of deity to expound them. And I'm personally convinced that eternity will never fully explain them to those of us who have but finite minds, minds that will grow in knowledge through all eternity, but will never step over the line of the limited and the finite into the infinite. And I say only the profundity of an infinite mind and soul can fully grasp the significance of these words, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But since they are recorded in the scriptures, and they form, as it were, one of the very nerve centers of the glorious message of the gospel, I do not believe it is sacrilegious to attempt to begin, to try, to at least talk around them by the help and the enablement of the Spirit of God. And as we do, I would ask you to consider with me, first of all, the historical setting in which these words were uttered by our Lord. The historical setting in which they were spoken by our Lord. If you have read the accounts of the arrest and the crime of the Lord,

The Historical Setting of Jesus' Cry

6:14 the trial and the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, you will know that it was while he was in the garden of Gethsemane that Judas came with the chief priest and the Roman guard and apprehended him, but not against his own will. He voluntarily gave himself up to their plans and to their intention that they would deliver him to the various authorities. And in the early hours of the morning, for he was apprehended in the middle of the night, they dragged him off to Caiaphas, the high priest, and to the official ruling body in Israel called the Sanhedrin. And there before Caiaphas and Sanhedrin, our Lord Jesus suffers abuse of many kinds. They taunt him. They hurl into his ears false accusations. They mock and they jeer him.

7:13 And when they hear this, they say, When the morning comes, they shunt him over to the Roman governor by the name of Pilate. And Pilate asks for their witnesses and the grounds of their desire that he should be treated as a criminal. And the more they talk and bring their accusations, the more Pilate is convinced he's an innocent man. And Pilate then buffs him up to the jurisdiction of Herod for a brief visit.

7:40 And then Herod sends him back to Pilate. And even though Pilate, while it declares his conviction that Jesus is innocent of all the charges brought against him, even goes through a ceremony of washing his hands in the presence of a multitude to declare that he's innocent of anything that happens to this man, this pathetic figure, Pilate, this spineless lackey of the pressure of the crowd, gives him over in order that he might be crucified. He hands him over. And when he does, according to verse 15 in this chapter, he has him scourged.

8:23 And then our Lord is put through another series of tremendous indignities. They put on him a purple robe. And they plait a crown of thorns and press it upon his head and put a reed in his hands in a mock coronation. And then in mock homage, they fall down before him.

8:42 And others strike him. And they...

8:44 They mock him, the scripture says. And then they take off these mock kingly robes and put his own back on him. And they lead him out to crucify him. And it's here at verse 25 in this chapter, Mark 15, that we read that he was actually impaled upon the cross at nine o'clock in the morning.

9:09 And then in verses 25 to 32, Mark records, Now that during those three hours he is subjected to even more taunting and more mockery and more reproach. And to add to all of the indignities, it not only continues to come from the rabble crowd around him, it comes specifically from the scribes and the religious leaders. And then to add shame to shame, two criminals, both crucified, undergoing...

9:45 capital punishment for their crimes. They cast the same reproach into the teeth of the Son of God. We know from Luke 23 that one of those who began mocking ends up calling for mercy and is wonderfully saved and becomes the first trophy of the dying mercy of the Lord Jesus. Then we read in verse 33 that at high noon, at midday, God suddenly turns the whole land and the word could mean the entire earth.

10:24 It's difficult to ascertain. God turns midday into the darkest midnight.

10:34 Verse 33 says, When the sixth hour, twelve noon, with the sun at its zenith, when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over, for the whole land, until the ninth hour. And if you read carefully the parallel accounts in the gospel of Matthew and of Mark, there is absolutely nothing more recorded of the activity of men in mocking and taunting the Lord Jesus in this three-hour period of the deepest darkness. The next recorded thing in all of the synoptic gospels is this cry of the Lord Jesus. And there is every reason to believe that when God turns midday into midnight, the effect upon all who were surrounding the cross was so profound and shocking that it shut their mocking mouths and drove them into stunned silence.

11:43 The darkness is significant. Throughout the scriptures again and again, God uses darkness as the symbol and the token of His judgment. But the silence of men is significant as well. For it is in those silent, dark hours that no longer is our attention focused upon what men are doing to Jesus of Nazareth.

12:12 But the cry that He utters at the end of those three hours clearly reveals that in the unseen world of the relationship of the Son to the Father, in the unseen world of eternal justice, there were tremendous activities going on within the Godhead, in the unseen realm of spiritual reality. And it is towards the close of those three hours, at the ninth hour, that Jesus cried, not with the simpering, whimpering voice of a dying man, but He breaks that ominous silence with a mega-cry. Our word, mega-box, and mega-this, mega-that, comes from the very Greek word used to describe His cry. It was a mega-cry. It was a cry in which He marshaled all of His remaining energies and energies, and funneled them up over His diaphragm and His vocal cords.

13:22 Eloi! Eloi! Lama sabachthani. My God!

13:31 My God! Why have You forsaken Me? In a mixture of Hebrew and Aramaic, that diluted form of Hebrew which the Palestinian Jews learned in the period of captivity, Our Lord, familiar with both languages, in the moment of His anguished cries, My God! My God!

What Jesus' Cry Did NOT Mean

13:58 Why have You forsaken Me? That's the historical setting in which they were spoken. Now consider with me, secondly, the significance of these words for Jesus Himself. What did these words mean to the Lord Jesus Christ?

14:20 What did these words mean to the Lord Jesus Christ? What did these words mean to the Lord Jesus Christ? And again, I underscore, I have no desire irreverently to pry into the mind and heart of my blessed Lord with speculation. But using what is clearly revealed in Scripture, there are certain things we can say about the significance of these words for Jesus Himself.

14:45 Consider with me, first of all, what they did not mean, and then secondly, what they did mean. What they do not mean in what we must never assume that they mean. First of all, these words did not mean that Jesus ceased to be loved by His Father. They do not mean that He ceased to be loved by His Father when He cried out, My God! My God!

15:16 Why have You forsaken Me? Literally, why did You, You forsake Me? He was not in any way intimating that He ceased to be loved by His Father. You will remember if you are familiar with the Gospel records that at His baptism when He formally and officially takes His place in identification with sinful men, undergoes a rite specifically designated for sinners that He might be identified with us.

15:51 A voice spoke out of the heavens saying, This is My Beloved Son, My Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. On the Mount of Transfiguration, recorded also here in the Gospel of Mark, the voice speaks out of heaven again and says, This is My Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And I would ask you to note this statement of our Lord, in John chapter 10, that clearly indicates that our Lord was conscious that in the events that would culminate in His crucifixion, He would never leave and never get beyond the bounds of His Father's love to Him. John chapter 10 and verse 15, Even as the Father knows Me, and I know the Father, and I lay down My life for the sheep, also as the Father does love me, therefore does my Father love me because I lay down My life that I may take it again. He said the Father's love towards me, what the old writers would call the love of complacency. The love of sheer delight.

17:12 The love that is drawn forth by the lovableness of its object. In contrast to the love of principle, where we love the principle, where we love the love of principle, Love someone because God commands us to love them whether they are lovable or not. But the love of delight and complacency drawn forth by that which is lovable, our Lord says in essence, I am never to be more lovable to my Father than when my obedience to my Father brings me voluntarily to lay down my life for the sheep, laying it down that I may take it again. And therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life.

17:54 If he could say that in anticipation of the act, how much more in the engagement of the act. Therefore my Father loves me because I am here and now laying down my life for the sheep.

18:13 Never was Jesus more loved than when he was actually dying upon the cross and offering up his life for the sheep. Never was Jesus more loved than when he was actually dying upon the cross and uttered this plaintive cry, My God, my God, why did you forsake me? Secondly, these words did not mean that Jesus ceased being upheld and supported by the Father.

18:39 When he cries, why did you forsake me? Why did you abandon me? Why did you leave me? They do not mean that Jesus ceased being upheld and supported by the Father.

18:53 Secondly, these words did not mean that Jesus ceased being upheld and supported by the Father. In Isaiah 42, one of the servant of the Lord passages in the book of Isaiah, we have a wonderful prophecy of what the Father is committed to do with respect to the Son, the servant of Jehovah, as he accomplishes his redemptive work. Listen to this language. Isaiah 42, 1.

19:16 Behold, look, take notice, my servant, whom I, uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. And then he goes on to describe the manner in which he will accomplish his redemptive mission.

19:41 And in the New Testament, when we turn to Matthew chapter 12, verses 18 to 21, this very block of verses, Isaiah 42, 1 to 4, is quoted as being fulfilled in the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. So the Father was committed to uphold his servant, the one in whom his soul continually delighted. Jesus was not severed from his Father's love when he cried, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Nor was he severed from the Father's support and upholding, upholding grace.

20:24 You remember the incident in Gethsemane as recorded in Luke chapter 22 and verse 43. When Jesus is in this tremendous agony, just anticipating what the cross would mean to him. And he sweats as it were great drops of blood in deep agony. The scripture says, There appeared an angel from heaven strengthening him.

20:51 Well, who sent the angel? His Lord. His loving Father, who was committed to uphold the servant of Jehovah. And he is giving as it were this tangible commitment to his own well beloved.

21:07 I am with you to uphold you.

21:12 The cry, why did you forsake me? Did not mean that he ceased being upheld and supported by his Father. And that's why his cry was not, Oh, God, Oh, God, the cry of despair to an unknown and distant deity. But my God, my God, why did you forsake me?

21:40 But thirdly, these words did not mean that his divine nature was temporarily severed from the Father. Whatever these words mean, my God, my God, why did you forsake me? They do not mean, and they did not mean to Jesus that his divine nature was temporarily severed from the Father. Now, just to speak in such language I know is to plunge ourselves into further depths of mystery.

22:14 There are all kinds of mystery that surround the Godhead. How can the one be three and the three be one? God alone can comprehend his own being. We take the data of scripture.

22:28 And we receive it. And we worship. And as Spurgeon said, faith may swim where reason may only wade. If the measure of the God whom you worship is your puny little brain, he's not a God big enough for anyone to worship with any sense of delight and abandonment.

22:49 But next to the mystery of the very being of God, the next greatest mystery is the mystery of the person of Christ. Two distinct mysteries. As much God as though he were not man. As much man as though he were not God.

23:06 Two distinct natures joined in one person, inseparable forever. Yet, the divine not merging into the human, nor the human into the divine. How can two distinct and separate natures exist in one whole integrated person? I don't know.

23:27 But I bless God. And it is so. For if he were less than God, he could not bring the arm of omnipotence to save the lives of me. If he were less than true man, he could not live the life I'm obligated to live as a man.

23:44 Die the death I ought to die as a man. And where I cannot encompass with my puny mind how the God-man can be what he is. He is what he is. And there, reason ceases to press the issue.

24:05 And the heart prostrates itself in worship. And when Jesus cried, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? We must not read into those words that there was a period in which the divine nature of the Lord Jesus was temporarily severed from the Father. He had said in John 10, 30, I and the Father are one.

24:31 I and the Father are one. Always one. And there is that mysterious word in John 1, 18, No man has seen God at any time, the only begotten who is in the bosom of the Father. Here he is on earth, yet he is in the bosom of the Father.

24:47 Well, is he in the bosom of the Father or is he on earth? He is in both places. In the integrity of his person as the God-man, he is on earth. In the unity of his divine nature with the Father, he is in heaven.

25:01 Is Christ here? Yes. Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I. In the midst.

25:10 Yet he said, If I go, I prepare a place and take you to myself, that where I am, there you may be. Is he there or is he here? He is in both places. I can't fathom the mystery, but neither will I profane the wonder of it by reading anything into the words of Jesus that would disrupt this glorious reality that in his divine nature he is never, never severed.

What Jesus' Cry DID Mean: Bearing God's Wrath

25:35 severed from the Father. Well then, if that's what these words did not mean to Jesus, what did they mean? And I've already hinted that a literal rendering of the words would be Not my God, my God, why have you forsaken me, but why did you forsake me? As though our Lord were conscious that the forsakenness was past or was passing and is now reflecting upon that experience over which God casts total silence.

26:11 And this gripped me afresh as I read the Gospel accounts. All these details through all the other stages of his apprehension, his mock trial, his being sent from Caiaphas to Pilate and up to Herod and back to Pilate and on out to Golgotha. And then the further mockery and the taunting and even the details that the malefactors that were crucified, with him cast the same into his teeth. But when God covers the heavens in an inky black darkness and turns midday into midnight, God then covers the whole scene with silence.

26:51 And the silence is not broken till Jesus cries, My God, my God, why did you forsake me? What then do the words mean? May I attempt an answer? They mean, that his undergoing the righteous wrath of God against the sin he was bearing was real and unspeakably horrific.

27:24 These words mean that the undergoing of the righteous wrath against the sin he was bearing was real. It was not a theological notion for Jesus. It was not an abstract religious concept. There was real wrath against real sin, really born by the sinner's substitute, the Lord Jesus.

27:56 And it was unspeakably horrific to his soul that he cries out, My God, my God, why did you forsake me? You remember in the Old Testament, all of the rituals ordained of God in which lambs and he goats and oxen were to be sacrificial victims. And part of the rubric and the divinely instituted ritual for those victims was that the hand of the sinful Israelite or the hand of the appointed priest would be laid upon the head of this beast, of this animal, this lamb, this goat. And when the hand was laid upon it, there would be a ceremonial, a verbal, a ritual transferal of the guilt of the offerer to this animal. The sin would be pronounced over the head of the animal. Now the animal would be truly, brutally slain. Its throat would be cut.

29:02 Its blood would be spilt. Its body, in some cases, would be consumed upon an altar. It was brutal. It was bloody.

29:14 It was unattractive. But you see, no lamb, no he goat, no ox had a soul. No lamb, no he goat, no ox could feel the fury of divine wrath against the sin transferred in this symbolic ritual transferal of the hand of the offerer or the hand of the priest being placed upon its head and sins being pronounced on the head of that beast. Whatever noise a lamb may make when its throat is slit, whatever noise may come from a he goat or an ox, there could never be a cry, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why? Because the Scripture says the blood of goats, the blood of lambs can never take away sin. And why can't they take away sin?

30:16 Because there is no real bona fide transferal of the guilt of sin. The sin is committed by conscious image bearers of God, men and women, boys and girls. And the wrath that that sin provokes in the face of a holy God must be vented upon those who have committed the sin, or if a substitute can be found that is acceptable to God, who can truly and really absorb the wrath of God due to that sin, then the sin can be transferred in its guilt and in its wrath deservingness. And that is precisely what Jesus did. You remember in John chapter 1 when John saw the Lord Jesus, on two occasions He said, Behold, lift up your eyes, look, pay attention, behold, the Lamb of God who bears away the sin of the world, not symbolically, not ritually, not typically, but who bears it away truly and really. Why?

31:36 Because it will really and truly be transferred to Him in all of its guilt and wrath deservingness. Now in a heightened way, in that deep darkness that covered the land, in that oppressive and stunning silence that seemed to shut the mouth of the most aggressive, vicious enemy, something is going on in the court of heaven. God Himself puts on His robes as the final judge of the universe. The robes He'll wear when the scene we sang about in that last hymn actually comes to pass. When He sets His throne on that day that He is appointed in which He will judge all men in righteousness, God comes out and takes His place upon the throne, robed in His garbs of pure and spotless justice. And there in the court of heaven, all of the sins of every man, woman, boy or girl who will ever embrace the Lord Jesus are seen in the record books in all of their vileness and ugliness, in all of their wrath deservingness. The Father looks upon His Son and says, My Son,

33:02 You committed Yourself in the counsels of eternity that at the appointed hour I should charge to You and I would exact from You all of the penalty due to all of the sins of all those for whom You will be surety and substitute, My Son, the hour has come. And while God sits in court, He charges His only begotten Son while never loving Him more nor upholding Him with greater power and in no way severing His own eternal relationship as Father and Son within the mystery of our God. He does truly and really charge to His Son all of the hell deservingness of our sins and He lets loose upon His Son the full weight of divine justice against our sins. Romans 8.32 states it in these brief words, He that spared not His own but delivered Him up for us all.

34:25 He spared Him not. That's the negative. All that our sins deserved He received. He did not spare Him but He delivered Him up.

34:36 Delivered Him up to what? To all the demands of the broken law. The wages of sin is death. The soul that sinneth it shall die.

34:47 Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them. That's the teaching of Scripture. And God takes His own words seriously. And when His Son is bearing by imputation, by transference, not by personal guilt, not by personal defilement, He was never more holy, harmless, separate from sinners than when He became the greatest sinner in the universe.

35:18 Our sins are transferred to Him in their guilt and wrath deservingness. And the Father spares Him not but delivers Him up to all that justice demands, to all that His righteousness demands. When the question is asked of His Son, My Son, now charged with the sins of Your people, what do You plead? The answer of the Son was, Guilty.

35:54 Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.

35:59 There was darkness over the whole land from the sixth to the ninth hour, from high noon to three p.m. What is the wages of sin? It is death.

36:14 What's the essence of that death? It's separation. Depart from Me into outer darkness. Why are those words used again and again in Scripture to describe hell?

36:26 Depart from Me into outer darkness. My God, why have You forsaken Me? And He cries out amidst the dark. What do these words mean to Jesus?

36:45 They meant that He was giving vent to the felt reality of being a true sin-bearer, of undergoing the reality of the wrath of God against the sins of men. In a book that I commend to all of you called, Just a Talker, someone has very kindly compiled many of the statements of a Scottish theologian, teacher of theology, who was rather an eccentric in many ways, but a dear saint of God, and his heart was ravished and captured with the truth of Christ crucified. And I love the incident that describes Rabbi Duncan as they called him. He was so knowledgeable in the Semitic languages, brilliant in languages, and knew so much about Jewish history and customs that they nicknamed him Rabbi Duncan, though he had no Jewish blood in him. And in one class period, Rabbi Duncan was sitting at his desk expounding Isaiah 53 and coming to these passages that say, Surely He hath borne our griefs, carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God. He was wounded for our iniquities, bruised, wounded for our sins, bruised for our iniquities.

38:07 The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. And in a day when people didn't think anything of a Christian man dipping his snuff, it is said that he sat there with his pinch of snuff in one hand and his handkerchief in the other, and tears streaming down his face as he expounded this mystery of transferred guilt. And suddenly threw up his hands and the snuff went one way and the handkerchief the other. And he exclaimed with the rivers of tears streaming down his eyes, I, I, do you know what it was dying on the cross, forsaken by his Father?

38:48 Do you know what it was? What? What? It was damnation.

38:54 It was damnation. And taken lovingly. It was damnation. And he took it lovingly.

39:05 Dear people, that's what these words meant to Jesus. That's what they meant to Jesus. They were the cry wrung out of felt damnation. Taken lovingly.

39:22 The same Rabbi Duncan was heard saying on another occasion the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden was an awful thing. The deluge at the flood was an awful thing. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was an awful thing. The events of the last day will be awful.

39:46 Hell is very awful. There's something more awful still. It is the cross of the Lord Jesus. Can you sit there tonight and feel nothing when you hear words like that?

40:06 My friend, if so, it would be right for God to banish you forever unless you repent. For to Christ this was no phantom feeling. For Christ this was no temporary mental derangement. Martyrs have gone to the stake singing psalms and hymns and hugging the stake as God has lifted them above even the physical pain of the flames that scorched their flesh until it dropped from their bones.

40:45 Read it in Foxe's Book of Martyrs, Fair Sunshine. Martyrs who never cried, My God, My God, why did you abandon me? Why did you forsake me? Was Jesus cowardly?

41:02 Was He filled with a selfish, carnal self-pity? No. Martyrs who loved Him and in the faith of Him went to their martyrdom with songs of praise. But no martyr ever bore the sins of another.

41:18 And this was the holy, spotless soul of the Son of God who from eternity in His divine nature had never known anything but the most delightful face-to-face communion with the Father and who from the very instant of His conception in Mary's womb in a way I cannot fathom while a baby in her womb He was in perfect communion with His Father. And throughout all of His earthly pilgrimage He could say, Father, I know that You hear me always. When His disciples didn't understand and when as we saw this morning in Mark 3 even His relatives thought He was out of His tree and the narrow-hearted, squint-eyed religious leaders were saying He was demon-possessed. His consolation was, My Father knows and My Father and I have unbroken communion. And now for one who had never known like some of us who've lived for days and years utterly indifferent to the fact you have no communion with God. You're utterly indifferent to it.

42:29 Not the Lord Jesus. And to have had that sense of communion withheld for a millisecond would be an eternity of agony for the pure holy soul of the Son of God. But over this period of the three hours when the heavens were shrouded in darkness His soul was plunged into that felt sense of the abandonment which sin deserves. And He cried, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?

Jesus' Cry as a Mirror for Our Sins

43:07 Well, we've looked at the historical setting of the words, the significance of the words for Jesus Himself, what they did not mean, what they did mean. Now thirdly and finally, what's the significance of these words for you? What's the significance for me? What am I doing up here tonight pouring every faculty of mind and soul in dependence upon God that I would sense something of the awesome reality and that God by the Holy Spirit would break through upon every heart in this place and give you the same sense of felt reality what's the significance of all this?

43:47 Well first of all this cry of Jesus is a mirror in which you must behold what your sins look like in the sight of God. You want to know what your sins look like in the sight of God? You don't sit down and giggle about your sins with your peers. Nor do you sit and watch the average sitcom on television in which every form of the violation of God's law is committed with impunity with canned laughter in the background.

44:24 You'll never get an idea of what your sins look like in the sight of God watching the average sitcom that's on the television from seven till nine at night. Never. You want to know what your lying looks like in the sight of God? You children want to know what sassing mom and dad looks like in the sight of God?

44:46 You want to know what lustful glances and desires look like in the sight of God? You want to know what adultery and fornication and homosexual and lesbian perversion looks like in the sight of God? You want to know what cheating on your income tax looks like in the sight of God? You want to know what bad mouthing other people looks like in the sight of God?

45:10 You want to know what your sins look like in the sight of God? And remember it's his sight that determines the way your sins look like. You let go of your sins and you go to a place called Golgotha and you sit down and in your mind's eye you see midday turn to midnight and you enter in and feel the silence and sit stunned with all who were there and you hear the silence broken by the piercing cry my God my God why So ugly, so vile, so wrath-deserving that God the Father will undergo the pain of His own heart to hear the cry of His well-beloved Son.

46:11 That's what your sins look like, my sins look like in the sight of God. And the hymn writer understood this. And one of the hymns that we delight to sing in this place, listen to the second and third stanzas, tell me, you who hear Him groaning, was there ever grief like His? Friends through fear His cause disowning, foes insulting His distress.

46:41 Many hands were raised to wound Him. None would interpose to save, but the deepest stroke that pierced Him was the stroke that justice gave. You who think of sin but pray. You who think of sin but lightly, is that you sitting here tonight?

47:01 Sin, shmen, who gives a chot?

47:06 Is that your thinking? God knows, you know. You who think of sin but lightly, nor suppose its evil great. Here, here may view its nature rightly.

47:20 Here its guilt may estimate. Mark the sacrifice appointed. See who bears the awful load. Tis I.

47:29 It is the Word, the Lord's anointed Son of man and Son of God. The cry of Jesus is a mirror in which you must behold what your sins look like in the sight of God. And child of God, your sins and mine are no less ugly because they are the sins of someone who is a Christian and saved. Would you make a pet of a snake that bit your wife or darling child and killed them?

48:03 You say, no. I'd cut its head off. And I'd throw it to the dogs. Your sins and mine, believer, are the snakes that killed the Son of God.

48:17 Don't make them your pets. But go after their heads with all of the gospel knives that God has given. The cry of Jesus is a mirror in which you and I must behold our sins to see what they look like in the sight of God. The cry of Jesus is a mirror in which you and I must behold our sins to see what they look like in the sight of God.

48:41 The cry of Jesus is a mirror in which you and I must behold our sins to see what they look like in the sight of God. The cry of Jesus is a mirror in which you and I must behold our sins to see what they look like in the sight of God. The cry of Jesus is a mirror in which you and I must behold our sins to see what they look like in the sight of God. The cry of Jesus is a mirror in which you and I must behold our sins to see what they look like in the sight of God.

Jesus' Cry as a Prophecy of Judgment

48:45 The cry of Jesus is a mirror in which you and I must behold our sins to see what they look like in the sight of God. The cry of Jesus is a mirror in which you and I must behold our sins to see what they look like in the sight of God. The cry of Jesus is a mirror in which you and I must behold our sins to see what they look like in the sight of God. with your sins still charged to you.

48:51 You want to know what God's going to do in the day of judgment? Is there a day of judgment? I've never seen it. No record that it's...

48:59 My friend, here's a record of what happened when God had a day of judgment at Golgotha. And there upon the cross was His innocent Son. He was charged with the sins of others. What did God do to Him when He bore sin?

49:14 Not in the way of defilement, not in the way of personally committing the sins, but He bore the sins by imputation. They were placed upon Him. He takes their guilt and wrath deservingness. And what does God do?

49:32 If ever God was going to be lenient in the face of sin, it would be when His sinless, well-beloved Son has that sin charged to Him. Not His by defilement. Not His. His by commission.

49:45 His by imputation. What does God do? He spares Him not. And you think He's going to spare you?

49:54 What la-la land are you living in, my unconverted friend? What madness has the devil put into your mind that you entertain the slightest secret hope that God will somehow make it all turn out all right, whether you deal honestly with your sin and with God's only provisions for sin, or not? Oh, my friend, I plead with you here in the cry of Jesus. My God, my God, why did you abandon me?

Jesus' Cry as a Refuge for Forgiveness

50:26 Hear a prophecy of what God will do with you if you appear in the day of judgment with your own sins unforgiven and unclenched. But thirdly and finally, this cry of Jesus is a strong refuge if you are desirous to have the forgiveness, the forgiveness of sins.

50:49 Do you sit here tonight as a man, a woman, a boy, a girl, and you say, can there be any mercy for the likes of me? Can there be forgiveness for all my sins? Pastor Martin, you wouldn't believe the sins I've committed. My friend, there's nothing you could ever tell me if it were necessary that I wouldn't believe.

51:09 I've lived with my own heart for 64 years.

51:15 You say, yes, but my sins are sins against light, sins against power, privilege, sins against the mercy of God. Ah, but my friend, listen to Jesus cry. My God, my God, why did you forsake me? Why did you abandon me?

51:37 The answer that comes from the other witness of Scripture is, my son, I abandon you because I was determined that I might be able righteously to pardon any and every sinner who will seek me. I will seek forgiveness in the way of my appointment. Remember we read in Mark 3 this morning, one of the most wonderful gospel promises, Jesus said, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven the sons of men. There's one exception, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which Mark explains, was the sin of these Pharisees and religious leaders who actually saw the miracles of Jesus and attributed them to the power of the devil.

52:19 I have serious questions as to whether or not that sin can even be committed in this present epoch of redemptive history. But be that as it may, think of the comfort, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven the sons of men. How can it be forgiven? Because Christ bore our sins in His own body up to the tree.

52:40 He died the just for the unjust. And in His cry of dereliction and abandonment is our door of hope and of mercy. Run into the cry of Jesus. My God, my God, why did you abandon me?

52:59 And you say, Lord Jesus, you were abandoned and forsaken that I might not be banished. I run to you. I will rest in you. I will hide in the shelter of your abandonment.

53:13 There was a tract very popular in another bygone generation that gave the account of how the gospel came to the people of Israel. It came to the people of Israel. It came to the people of Israel. It came to the people of Israel.

53:21 It came to a group of people that were very limited in their use of the English language. They couldn't get full sentences together, sometimes using a subject and a simple predicate. And often we associate that with some of the ways that we hear. Now, whether it's true or not, that certain Native Americans, as they are now called, would speak the white man's language.

53:43 But in this particular setting, this very humble woman in a very, very base social condition has been brought to the faith of the gospel. And when she was being asked about her Christian faith, she simply stated, he die or me die. He die, me no die.

54:07 She had grasped the heart. He die or me die. One of us must die for sin. He die, me no die.

54:19 My God, why have you forsaken me? He will never say to the believing soul, depart from me into everlasting fire, into outer darkness. He bore the darkness. He bore the fire of God's righteous judgment.

54:43 Oh, my sinner friend, run to him. And in him, there is full forgiveness. And in the love that will be born in your heart to such a savior, you too will be crucified, with him. And the sins that till now you've turned under your tongue like a dainty morsel will be loathsome to you.

55:06 You will henceforth reckon yourself to be dead indeed with Christ, buried with him, raised to newness of life. And out of love to him and in the power of the Spirit, you will seek to serve and honor the Christ who underwent all of the fury of God's wrath, that we might know the smile of his fatherly face. The cry Jesus uttered, may God grant that the truth of it will make its way into your heart and that you may know what it is to find refuge in an abandoned savior that you might never be abandoned. Let us pray.

Prayer and Benediction

55:58 Our Father, we confess to you that we feel so keenly our dullness that we can draw nearer to you that we can draw nearer to you that we can draw nearer to you that we can draw nearer to you that we can draw nearer to you that we can draw nearer to you that we can draw nearer to you and seek to focus mind and heart upon such astounding mysteries and yet, and yet, come away knowing so little and oft times feeling less. Have mercy upon our pathetically dull hearts. O God, we thank you. We thank you for the gospel.

56:36 We thank you, Lord Jesus, for your willingness, to lay down your life for us to undergo the horrors of that death that we have contemplated tonight. And we beg of you, gracious God, by the Spirit, break in upon every careless sinner, every one indifferent to his sin, indifferent to the Savior. And, O God, do what only you can do and arrest them in their self-pity. And, O God, do what only you can do and bring them to the feet of Christ.

57:16 Help us as your people, O that we may hate the sin that cost him so dearly. May we, in the strength and power of the Spirit, seek to love him and serve him with all of our being. Thank you for this day in your courts. Thank you for the privilege of contemplating these glorious mysteries of your word.

57:41 Seal them to our hearts, we pray. Hear us as we plead these mercies through Christ our Lord. Amen.