Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the Gospel according to Mark
chapter 15 and reading through our text, verse 34. We have one
of our free Bibles, that's page 940. The Gospel according to
Mark chapter 15 and verse 34 This is the account of the crucifixion
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And verse 34 reads, 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 it is particularly the
last clause, the interpretation, the question. We continue our
series this evening on questions asked in Scripture. And of the
seven sayings of our Lord and Saviour upon the cross, this
is the one that is a question. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? When our Lord was crucified,
His first utterance was, Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do. And then we have the answer to
the dying thief, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy
kingdom. And the Lord said to him, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, this day shalt thou be with me in
paradise. The third saying was when our
Lord spoke to his mother, Mary, and said, Woman, behold thy son. And then he spoke to John, the
disciple John, and said, Behold, thy mother. Then we have the fourth saying,
where our Lord utters this, our text. The question, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? This was followed then by, I
thirst, then it is finished, and then lastly, Father, into
thy hands, I commit my spirit. This is the only saying that
is a question. I want to, this evening, in looking
at answering this question, considering it, I think firstly of the time
and the setting of when this question was asked. And then secondly, to ask a question
of ourselves, and that is, had his father really forsaken him? And then lastly, the answer to
this question, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me. But firstly, the time and setting. Our Lord asked many questions
during His ministry. Some were when He was on the
mountain, some in the temple, asking them of the disciples,
asking them of the Jews and those that were around about Him. The
setting was in his ministry a very different setting than the one
that is here. We should always think with ourselves
as well, when we have questions, when we have things that are
really trying us, to ask ourselves, what is the setting? Where are
we? What is the outward circumstances? What are the inward circumstances? Because surely it does have a
tremendous bearing on how we are feeling, what we are experiencing,
and what comes from our lips, is coming from our heart, as
to what the actual setting is. So the picture here, is our Lord
has been brought from the judgment hall. He had had his back whipped. The flowers we read in Psalm
129 are ploughed upon my back. In great weakness and in agony,
brought to bear his cross and Simon the Cyrenian to bury after
him to the place of crucifixion, then nailed to the cross. And
then the cross brought upright, and there crucified and hung
up above the earth. I, if I be lifted up above the
earth, will draw all men unto me. And while this was happening,
all of his disciples, they had forsaken him and fled. Those that were passing by were
mocking him. Even the thieves, both of them
at first and then just one, were casting the same things in his
teeth. And all of this outward, great
agony, great trial. And then it comes to the sixth
hour. Already he had spent three hours
upon the cross. And then there came a darkness
over all the earth until the ninth hour. For three hours,
a thick darkness over all of the earth. And it is at the end
of this time that our Lord then utters these words, just before
then He declares it is finished and commends His Spirit into
the hand of his father. The great agonies of his body,
very real outward agonies. We can describe them, we can
imagine them, we can picture them, we cannot know by personal
experience of the agony that he was going through. But what
is shown in this question, in this crying, is an agony, not
a body, but a soul. We would remember our Lord is
truly God and truly man. It's very easy for us to think,
well, because he was divine, because he was God, then that
would alleviate all of his sufferings. They wouldn't be so bad. as what
you and I would have, even in a physical way. And as He is
truly God, then truly He wouldn't, why would He feel any separation? Because He is the true eternal
God. And it's easy for us to think
along those lines when we do not realize the distinct separation
between the two natures of our Lord. One person, his divine
nature, his human nature. And that human nature, body and
soul. And so we have sufferings of
body and of soul. His divinity could not suffer. His divinity could not cry out
in this way. But as a real man, as God manifest
in the flesh, as those that were looking on Him and beholding
Him and seeing Him as a man, they saw Him suffer, and He did
really suffer. And this then, of the question,
is looking not at the outward, but the inward. You might say
with the thieves that were crucified with Him, And no doubt, because
that was the practice of the Romans, they had been scourged
as well. Their outward agonies would have
been the same. In fact, you might say worse,
because our Lord, when He yielded up His breath as yet, well, He
never had His bones broken, and the spear was after He had died. whereas the dying thieves had
their legs broken while they were alive to hasten their death. So you could reason in a natural
way that his physical sufferings were not as bad as those that
he was crucified with. But it is what he was accomplishing,
what he was doing, what he was enduring, not only physically,
but in his soul. Man has sinned and man's sin
has affected both our bodies and our souls. For our souls
we are now spiritually dead by nature, we cannot know the things
of God, the natural man receiveth not the things of God, neither
can he know them because they are spiritually disowned. We
are dead, spiritually dead. We must be born again. But we
are also under the curse with our bodies. We must die and in
all our afflictions, all our sicknesses and everything that
comes from being in a fallen body, a body that also must be
redeemed and at last we shall Those that are found in Christ
and redeemed by Him upon this cross, they shall be in heaven,
complete body and soul, soul and spirit, the complete being. Now death, the soul immediately
returns to God that gave it. This is very evident with the
dying thief. that this day shalt thou be with
me in paradise, his body was still hanging upon the tree.
But that same day, his soul was to be with Christ. And you get
then a picture of the soul and the body of man, and that is
so with our Lord. So his sufferings were in soul
and in body. And what he was then enduring
here upon the cross, we are looking at the sufferings of his soul
and what he is going through in his soul, hidden. All of those that were going
past, they couldn't see it, couldn't know it, didn't know it, but
it's set before us here. And I felt with the question
tonight, how many times have we really considered it? How
many times we have read over this and not thought, well, could
we answer that question? Could we really know the reason
why God had forsaken him or why he is feeling that in that way? So, we think then of the whole
circumstances where this question is being asked. The darkness
over the earth and just before. Our Lord is to yield up His Spirit
to His Father. I want to look then, secondly,
and ask this question, had His Father really forsaken Him? You might say, well, as God,
He must only say that which is true. If He says, Thou hast forsaken
Me, then His Father had. forsaken him. What is certainly
true is the experience of it. He felt that. And that is what
the Church of God also feels. If we were to go to Isaiah 49, Then we have the church saying,
Zion saying, but Zion said, and this is verse 14, but Zion said,
the Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me. And then this question is asked,
can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have
compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet
will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon
the palms of my hands, thy walls are continually before me. The Church of God, the people
of God, do feel at times that the Lord has forsaken them. And our Lord is going through
this experience so that he will be a sympathizing High Priest
over the Church of God. And that which he is uttering
is what he is feeling in this darkness over the land, the darkness
in his soul, the complete cloud. And instead of, during his ministry,
fellowship, that communion with his father, there's a cloud over
all of that. Again, we must say there must
be a distinction here between the human and the divine. When our Lord speaks in the 13th
of Mark, he is telling of what is the end of the world, heaven
and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
But he says, but of that day and that hour knoweth no man,
no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but
the Father. And there are several other places
where there is with the Lord a voluntary giving up of the
knowledge that he had of the Divine, part of his humbling
himself and becoming obedient unto death, part of being a man
that he should walk in a way dependent upon the revelation
of his Father. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life and the commandment that
was given him of his father, and he speaks of those things,
he's speaking to them that he has heard of his father. And again, it's this idea we
can, in our minds, lessen the sufferings of the Lord if we
say, well, his divinity was so supporting his humanity that
he can never be tried like this. He can never be in such darkness
as this. He can never have such a veil
and such a barrier that he feels that God has forsaken him. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Great is the mystery of godliness,
God manifest in the flesh. And it's so hard for us to really
enter into and to know of the sufferings and the path that
our Lord has walked. We know that the reality of that
which he is enduring here enters deeper than any, any child of
God could ever feel it so to be. And I want to, really just on
this point, is comparing our Lord and His people, that there's that assurance that
the Lord will never forsake His Church, But our Lord Jesus Christ
has endured that in himself that his church should never endure. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? So severe and so real to bring
forth this cry. In some ways we might say, had God really forsaken his beloved
son, to forsake one is to cast off completely and utterly and
never ever come back again. But our Lord was fulfilling and
going through this for his dear people, He must in his soul endure
what they would endure for eternity if he hadn't suffered in their
place. I would in no wise lessen the
suffering and what our Lord is feeling at this time and May we really be humbled under
account of what our Lord asks in this way. My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Why this darkness? Why cannot
I commune with thee? Why cannot I see thee? Why cannot
I hear thee? Why is it? that is if completely
forsaken on his own. We want to look then in the third
place at the answer to this question, why? The first is this, that he is
fulfilling scripture. The scriptures cannot be broken. We read in Psalm 22, the very
opening words are the words of our text. My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? It is without doubt this is a
messianic psalm because we read in verses 16 to 18, for dogs have compassed
me, that is the Gentiles, the assembly of the wicked have enclosed
me, they pierce my hands and my feet, I may tell all my bones,
they look and stare upon me, they part my garments among them,
and cast lots for my vesture. But be not thou far from me,
O Lord, O my strength haste thee to help me. It is very clearly
foretelling the sufferings of our Lord, his very utterances,
The fact that his bones were not broken, but the thieves each
side were. The fact that they pierced his
hands and his feet. The fact that they did not divide
his garment. They parted the garments, but
his vesture, they cast lots for it. They said, let us not render,
but cast lots. This psalm was penned a thousand
years before Christ uttered these words. I've no doubt that it
is the experience of David, the psalmist as well, as feeling
forsaken, but it is, I would say first and foremost, a prophecy
of the Lord. If we look past that, we look
past what the message of the psalm is. It is describing the
sufferings of our Lord upon the cross. And as we've often said,
the Psalms are that which looks at the inward man, at the soul
and what is going on inwardly. Many times, like Psalm 34, we're
told about the outward circumstances that are happening. When David
was before Abimelech, feared for his life, and we read in
Psalm 34, this poor man cried and the Lord heard him. saved
him out of all his troubles. We know again that is another
psalm that's speaking of Christ. But we're told what David was
going through during that time, and then what he's going through
his soul. And here, there's what he's going through, but we're
not told David's circumstances, but we know it answers exactly
to our Lord's. And so this is why we've read
that psalm together. But that is not the only place. We read also in the prophecies,
the prophecy of Zechariah, chapter 14, and we read there, it shall
come to pass in that day, verse 6, that the light shall not be
clear nor dark, but it shall be one day which shall be known
to the Lord, not day nor night, But it shall come to pass that
at evening time it shall be light. And of course that which is an
eclipse or a complete darkness, it was in the daytime. It wasn't
nighttime. But in the daytime it was like
nighttime, because of the darkness. And I feel it's very clear from
the context in Zechariah what day That that is, because in
verse 8 we read, and it shall be in that day, or at that time,
or what's been done, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem,
half of them towards the former sea, that's the Jews, half of
them towards the hinder sea, that's the Gentiles, in summer
and winter shall it be, and the Lord shall be king over all the
earth. This is the gospel, the gospel of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ. and he's going forth from Calvary.
And so the darkness that was over the land at that time was
also foretold, the same as the very words of our Lord. So why, my God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? Fulfilling Scripture, that the
Scriptures might be fulfilled. The second thing is that He was
made sin for us. Paul tells the Corinthians that
He was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. It testifies the reality of sin
laid upon Him. It was also known in the Garden
of Gethsemane, before He came to the Judgment Hall and to the
cross, We read that he was separated from the disciples for a short
distance, and there he fell upon the ground, sweat great drops
of blood, was so amazed, an angel appeared strengthening him, became
very evident of a weight, a great weight laid upon him. Thou hast
laid upon him the iniquity of us all. It is one thing to have
that iniquity, and the sins of his people laid upon him. There's another that he must
then be made sin for us to suffer under that sin. In the type of
the scapegoat, then on one or on both goats there was confessed
all the sins of the people, One was taken into the land of forgetfulness,
telling of the sins of the people put away forever, but the other
was on the goat that was slain, his blood was shed. Now Lord
Jesus Christ, in putting away the sin of his people, he must
endure the sufferings that was due to them. He was made sin. We had the reality of the sin
laid on him in Gethsemane. We had the reality in the judgment
hall when Pilate, many were accusing him. And as a lamb before her
shearers is done, so he opened not his mouth. Our Lord knew
for whom he stood. He knew the sins. Pilate could
say, I see no cause of death in him. No, he couldn't. But
our Lord knew for what cause that He must die and lay down
His life. And so there's the very showing
forth of the greatness of the weight of sin that was upon Him. It must be so that He should
feel what sin really is, because in the third place, God hates
sin. God hates sin. He cannot look
upon sin, but without utter abhorrence. And here is His beloved Son made
sin, and He hides His face from Him. There is that barrier. What child
of God does not know the barrier that sin makes between them and
their God. But one doesn't know what happened
when Adam sinned and was cast out of the garden and there was
that fellowship broken. Sin separates. Without holiness, no man shall
see the Lord. We are sinners. And when our
Lord stood in that place, God's hatred against sin was against
him as he bore that sin. So not only was God's hatred
shown in this, that his beloved son must say, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? The answer in part is because
God hates sin. But then we have another answer,
and that is that not only is this God's hatred of sin, but
in all that is happening here, it is God's wrath against sin. You read, God is angry with the
wicked every day. But if God is not angry with
his people, then he is angry with the substitute, and the
wrath of God is upon him. We read in John's first epistle
in chapter 2, verse 2, He is the propitiation
for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of
the whole world. That is, not every man, woman
and child, but the sins of every nation and kindred and tongue.
And what is that? Propitiation is a wrath-ending
sacrifice. It takes away wrath, it extinguishes
wrath, and it puts it on the substitute so that it will not
rest then upon those for whom He is standing. So our Lord is
feeling at this time that brings forth this cry, the wrath of
God against sin. Let us go back to the Old Testament. Let us picture what it was at
the time of Noah's flood. When the wrath of God was poured
out upon the world that then was, and all perished except
those that were in the ark. But what was happening to the
ark? The ark was born up on the water,
The waters were pouring over the Ark. The Ark was bearing
all what was being cast out the world, but keeping safe all of
those that were within it. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
Ark for His people. But what a picture of the wrath
of God. What a picture of the wrath of
God against those of Sodom and Gomorrah. complete, utter destruction,
and the land went up like the burning of a furnace. And our Lord endured that wrath
in these hours upon the cross. Let's say here what, without
these utterances, if we took this question, away from the
other six sayings, what would give us that real
picture of the inward sufferings of our Lord? What would convey
to us God's hatred of sin, His wrath against sin? Although we might say a A verse
or two in scripture that has so much in it, so much to meditate
and to think upon. Another thing that he was enduring
was the curse. Cursed is everyone that hangeth
upon a tree. Why such a strange, obscure law
to be put in the laws of the children of Israel? but it points that the Lord Jesus
Christ, hung on a tree, crucified, was made a curse for us who knew
no sin. Our Lord's utterance in this
is showing the reality of the curse met upon him. What was
on his head? A crown of thorns. What was said
to Adam concerning the ground? Thorns or sun, it shall bring
forth unto thee. And our Lord had those thorns
pressed into his head. He was removing the curse, bearing
the curse for his people, expressed as well in these words, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why this darkness, separation? Why this terrible agony of soul? Our Lord not only was removing
the curse, He was paying the debt. Settling the debt that
His people owed. A debt that they could not pay.
The Lord demands a perfect debt. The perfect payment for that
debt. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sin. And all the sacrifices that had
gone before, they all set that forth, that there must be the
shedding of blood. But then there was the trial
of faith. Now you might say, and many theologians
over history have always asked this question, did the Lord Jesus
Christ have faith? Did he need faith? We're told in Hebrews, faith
is a substance of things hoped for, those things not seen as
yet. If he was truly God, then he knew everything. It's the
same as when we get to heaven. We no longer need faith because
we see clearly. Faith is turned to science. But here below, we do need faith. And again, I believe it is that
voluntary entry into the paths of his people. Of course, it
is in a different way. Faith is a trust. Remember one
of the things that was cast at our Lord on the cross here. He trusted in God, let him deliver
him. The Jews bear witness that Jesus
of Nazareth trusted in God. We know for his people he is
the author and finisher of our faith. And we know in Hebrews as well
that without faith it is impossible to please God, for he that cometh
to God must believe that he is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek him. Our Lord in all his light as
a man here below pleased God in everything that he did, he
pleased his Father. When our Lord walked to the boat
over the sea, and Peter said, if it be thou, let me come to
thee, then he began to come, but then he began to sink. And
the Lord ascribed it to a lack of faith. When he cursed the
fig tree, the fig tree shriveled up. Then again the Lord referred
to it, that if they had faith, that they could do the same.
And if they had faith as a grain of mustard seed, then they could
say to a mountain, be it removed and cast into the sea and it
would obey them. Can we think as a man, our Lord
Jesus Christ would have had that perfect faith, perfect trust,
not as God, not as divine, but as the God-man. Just the same
as His righteousness. He had a righteousness that belonged
to His divinity, that which can never be imparted or given to
another, but a righteousness which is to be imparted and given
to His people, and that belongs to His humanity. And so also with faith we would
remember as well that in Hebrews we are told that the sufferings
of our Lord was so that he could sympathize with his people. At
the end of chapter 2 in Hebrews We read, Verily he took not on
him the nature of angels, which is spirit only, but he took on
him the seed of Abraham, which is spirit and flesh. He didn't take on him the seed
of animals, that is just flesh. Wherefore in all things it behoved
him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a
merciful and faithful I preached in things pertaining to God to
make reconciliation for the sins of the people. This is what he
was doing upon the cross. For in that he himself has suffered
being tempted or tried, he is able to succor them that are
tempted. He was tempted, he was tried
by Satan, if they aren't the son of God. But then this upon
the cross as well. What child of God does not know
the severity of the trial of faith, where they are in heaviness
when their faith is tried, when the Lord hides his face from
them, when they walk in darkness and they cannot see any light? The word says, let him trust
in the name of the Lord. Well, here is our Lord walking
this path, and yet in the midst of this trial, He is still saying,
my God, my God. In one sense, you would think,
if the reality of this trial, can
He still say, my God? He does. And what an encouragement
that is for us. However dark we may be, we are
assured in Scripture, He that hath begun a good work in you
will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. And what we
read there in Isaiah 49, the Lord assures His people He will
not forsake them. And though they feel forsaken,
though they feel the darkness, though they feel the separation,
With our Lord they still cry, my God, my God. You think of the psalmist in
Psalm 42 and 43. Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? Why art thou disquieted within
me? Hope thou in God, for I shall
yet praise Him as the health of my countenance and my God. And so here in the trial of faith,
is making those utterances like His dear people were, in their
trials and then in their path that they walk as well. Feeling forsaken did not dissolve
that union between the Father and the Son. May we think of
that as well. Though we may feel forsaken,
it does not dissolve the union which is an everlasting union. Thine they were, thou gavest
them thee. I have loved thee with an everlasting
love, and therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee, chosen in
him from the foundation of the world. All of these things don't
rule out that the child of God will not feel at times such darkness,
Such a trial, such a feeling, forsaken, that the Lord is not
with them. They cannot see His going. Do you hear Job? Oh, that I knew
where I might find Him, that I might come here unto His seat. He couldn't find the Lord, looked
on one hand and looked on the other. He couldn't find Him. You think of John the Baptist.
Art thou he that should come, or look we for another? There
he is in prison, not long before he dies, had his head removed
with the executioner's axe. And the Lord sent by his disciples
to assure him, tell him of all of those things that were still
being done, the miracles done, the poor having the gospel preached
to them. The Lord's dear people know that
path, that the Lord here endures, that He might be a sympathising
High Priest. Here is, you might say as well,
the bruising of His heel, not just outwardly, but inwardly
as well. that when our Lord was tempted
by Satan, after those 40 days we read that he leaveth them
for a season. We don't have any marked times
after that in our Lord's ministry where Satan attacked in that
severity as in the desert just after his baptising, but we do
read here of such darkness touch a bruising of our Lord's heel. How vital it is for us to, in
thinking of faith and for our path in faith, is to think of what the faith
actually is. we are given. There's a very
interesting, and I might say very solemn, difference between
the King James Version Bible and the ESV. And it is in Romans
chapter 3. Those that, or the part of the reading
that, a piece that I read that was, highlighted this, was from
those that were actually agreeing with the ESB. And it is in verse
21 and verse 22. We read, But now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus
Christ. unto all and upon all them that
believe, for there is no difference. The ESV reads, through faith
in Jesus Christ. Now it's true that we do have
faith in Jesus Christ. But those that were commenting
on it made that point. They said, well, if you believe,
that faith is a gift of God, then you will agree with the
King James Version. Because what the King James Version
is saying is that it is by faith of Jesus Christ. In other words,
the gift given by the Lord. Answering to that in Hebrews
12, our Lord is the author and finisher of our faith. And the
Word tells us all men have not faith. Faith is not something
that all men have, that all they've got to do is to exercise it upon
the Lord Jesus Christ or in Christ. That is what those that favour
the ESV version are saying. That is why they prefer that
way of it, because they are saying that faith is not a gift, it's
a duty. and we can exercise that faith
in Christ. Know that faith is sovereignly
given, by grace ye are saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God. And that is how our accurate
version declares it, by faith of Jesus Christ. And we need
to remember that. Our Lord Jesus Christ, as the
Jews said, they trusted in God. But we are given a faith by the
Lord Jesus Christ. Him who suffered, endured in
our place, whose faith in God, trust in God was tried to the
uttermost. He gives to his people faith. At the new birth, at the time
they are born again, And that faith then does centre in Christ,
but it is faith of Jesus Christ. It is a gift from Him. And when
we come and we think of the utterance of our Lord upon the cross, and
the sufferings that He endured as being made sin for us, and
to walk the path God has said His people shall walk through
faith by faith here below, but our Lord Jesus Christ has no
idea in experience what that is to walk by faith. He cannot
sympathise with any trials we have by faith, but He can. He's given us that faith and
He also as had his own faith, own trust, tried in such a way
and maintained in such a way. Our Lord dwelleth so much upon
faith, saying to Peter, I prayed for thee that thy faith fail
not. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? In all of our trials, our spiritual
trials, In all of what we go through, may we be able to trace
it right to our Lord and truly believe and understand He does
know. He does understand. He has endured
the wrath of God for our sin. He has taken away the curse.
He has paid the debt. And this is the testimony of
it as he does it and the seal of it is the empty tomb, the
risen saviour. May the Lord then bless this
word, give us that further meditation upon it. I realise I've raised
some things this evening that even those who have been long
in the way and theologians, they reason and argue over. It is a deep, it's a great deep
the mystery of God, God manifest in the flesh and none greater
at such a time when he endured the wrath of God for our sin. Here is sin put away for all
of the people of God here at Calvary. We look no other place,
no other one to do it for us but Christ alone. And we might
say as well, this coming to the very end of our Lord's life,
He was still working out a righteousness to give to His people, to impart
to us, the Lord our righteousness. May the Lord then add His blessings.