Well, good morning, everyone. Good to see everyone this morning. I missed seeing everyone last Sunday, so I'm glad we had better weather this morning. If you would, open your Bibles with me to Mark chapter 15. We're going to continue our study through the book of Mark this morning. Mark chapter 15.

Before we begin, let's bow before our Lord together in prayer. Our Father, we very carefully, humbly, and reverently come into your presence this morning, bowing before your throne of grace. And Father, thankful that we can come before a throne of your grace because of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we bow before you daring only to plead his righteousness as our only righteousness, daring only plead his blood for the forgiveness of our sins that would make us accepted in thy sight. And Father, we bow before you, thankful people. Oh, how thankful we are. for your wisdom, your goodness, your mercy, your grace, and sending your only begotten son to be made flesh, to do for your people what we could not do for ourselves, that he would obey the law perfectly, that he would offer himself as a sacrifice for our sin, for the sin of your people. Father, how thankful we are. How thankful we are for the gospel of your son.

And Father, in a miracle of your grace that you've given so many of us the faith to believe him, to see him, to believe him, to love him, to cling to him. And you've given us a place where we can gather together week after week after week and hear your gospel preached over and over and over again to us. Father, how thankful we are. I beg your forgiveness for the times we murmur and complain after all that you've done for us. Father, how thankful we are. It's very imperfect, but Father, we do thank you. And Father, I beg of you that you would see fit to send your spirit upon us this morning, that you might enable us to worship you in spirit and in truth. Father, enable me to rightly divide the word of truth. enable me to preach Christ from the heart, from the heart of one center to another center, declaring the glorious good news of Christ our Savior. Don't leave me alone, Father, I pray. And be it your people that you give us an ear to hear, enable us to forget about the cares and the concerns of this life, and Father, for this time, Enable us to truly hear the gospel of Christ our Savior, believe Him, trust Him, rejoice in Him. And what we pray for ourselves, we pray for our children's class, we pray for your people wherever they're meeting together today. Bless them, Father, as we beg that you'd bless us.

Now again, Father, enable us to look into your word and see and rejoice in Christ our Savior. First, in His blessed name, we pray and give thanks.

I've titled our lesson this morning, Why Did the Father Forsake the Son? Our text begins at verse 33, Mark 15. 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, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, which is being interpreted, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Now out of the darkness came this cry from the cross. It's a cry of agony, it's a cry of suffering, but it's also the cry of salvation for sinners who need a savior. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Now I always like to start with some things that I know. I know this, the savior was not asking this question for his own information, he's all knowing. He knows everything, all of this is happening according to his will and purpose, so he's not asking for his own information like he didn't know why the father was punishing him, why the father would forsake him. He asked this question so you and I would know. As Christ was hanging on the cross as a sacrifice for the sin of his people, the father forsook him. The father took away his gracious, loving presence. He took away that smiling face that he always looked at his son with that smiling face, but not now. Now it was wrath and judgment.

And like I said, I like to start with what I know. Here's what I don't understand and what nobody can understand. How did God forsake God? They're one. How did God forsake God? I can't understand that. But maybe by God's grace, we could believe something and we could understand something of why the father forsook the son at Calvary.

And the short answer, the simple answer to that question, why did the father forsake the son? It's the character of God. He must forsake the son at that time when his son was suffering as a sacrifice for the sin of his people. And I'm sure there are many other reasons, but I'm gonna give you four of them. Four reasons why the father forsook the son at Calvary. Number one is this, it's to fulfill the scriptures. Now look over at Psalm 22. This is the Psalm we refer to as the Psalm of the cross. The Psalm that they say our savior quoted as he hung on the cross. I don't know whether he did or not, but certainly this is a prophecy of Christ hanging on the cross. Psalm 22. Look first at verse six. But I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip. They shake the head saying, he trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. Now there's no question who's speaking here is this is Christ. This is a prophecy of Christ on the cross. And look at verse one. Here's where it begins. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so, so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring.

Now our savior didn't just cry my, my God, my God, why is that forsaken me to, to, for lack of a better term, dot all the I's and cross all the T's, make sure he's fulfilled all these prophecies of the Messiah that are given to us in the Old Testament scriptures. God wrote, had his spirit move these different prophets to write these scriptures 1,000, 1,500 years before Christ was even born, so that when they're fulfilled by Christ, we would know This is no accident. This is not something that just happened by random. This is the eternal will of God being carried out. Christ suffering as a sacrifice for the sin of his people, bearing the wrath of his father. And you'll notice he doesn't cry, my father, my father here. He cries, my God. He's speaking to the one who is his judge, the one who is pouring out justice upon him for the sin of his people. as he's being made a sacrifice for the sin of his people. This is happening. Christ is suffering and dying on the cross, bearing justice for the sin of his people, because it's the eternal will of God. This is how God has always purposed to save his people from their sin. And now he's doing it. He's doing it in time.

I have a bad habit. when I've told you, some of you about this before, when I get here early, I get on sermon audio and I look and see who's live casting at the time. Because I just keep thinking, if I keep looking, I'm going to find somebody that I don't know who's preaching the gospel. And I saw a man make this statement this morning. He said, when Christ was born in Bethlehem, in that manger, and they wrapped the white rag around him to swaddle him, that was the flag of peace. That at that time, peace was made between God and men.

No, sir. No, sir. Peace personified was on earth, but peace with God is not made until Christ dies on the cross. He must die on the cross. And when he shed his blood as a sacrifice for the sin of his people, brother, there's peace. He made peace for us by the blood of his cross. That was God's eternal purpose.

All right, number two, the father forsook the son because God's holy. This is something that people of my generation, people in false religion have absolutely no understanding of. God's holy. Everything God does must be holy. God cannot overlook our sin. He can't overlook the sin of his people and say, well, I forgive you, even though justice has not been satisfied. God's holy. And at Calvary, the Holy Son of God had been made sin. And when he was made sin, the Father, who's holy, cannot look on him in love. He must look on him, he must deal with him as the wrath of God the judge against all of the sin of all of God's elect.

Christ was made sin. That's what scripture says. Now, I feel like in the day and time in which we live, this is an important thing to say. I'm not saying Christ was a sinner. I'm not saying Christ ever thought about sin, ever wanted to sin, ever committed sin against the Father. He was not a sinner. He was not made a sinner. He was made something worse than a sinner. He was made sin itself. All of the sin of all of God's elect was laid on the Lord Jesus Christ. He was made to be that mountain of sin. And even when he was made sin, he never sinned. His nature was always holy. But don't mistake this. The transfer of sin from God's elect to Christ was real. And I can show you that if you'll care to look over a few pages at Psalm 40. The transfer of sin was real and we know it because here again, this is a prophecy of the Savior speaking at Calvary. He felt the shame of sin. He felt the guilt of sin. Psalm 40, verse 12. For innumerable evils have compassed me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of mine head, therefore my heart faileth me.

Our Savior felt the shame and guilt of sin, so that he was not able to look up at his Holy Father, and he didn't say, it's my people's sin. that has caused me to do this. He didn't say it's Corey's sin, it's Frank's sin. He said it's mine. It's the sin that was made to belong to him, even though he never committed it. Christ suffered everything that sin is, with the exception of committing it. And how that had to make his holy soul just be in anguish You and I can't understand that because all we know is sin. His soul was in anguish because he was made sin and then he felt the condemnation of it. The father put him to death for it.

Now this is Christ the sinner's substitute. Speaking from Calvary, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Christ traded places with the sinners. Complete substitution. He was made sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Now, can I understand that? Can I understand how that the Holy Son of God was made sin, yet He was still holy? Don't kid yourself. Absolutely not. But do I believe it? Chris, by God's grace, I do. I believe it. I believe that my only hope of righteousness is that Christ took my sin away from me and paid for it by his precious blood. And in trade, he gave me his righteousness and made me the righteousness of God in him. That is the only way I could ever be made righteous. I believe that.

And it's a good thing too, because the holy God will never accept anything but perfect righteousness. It must be perfect to be accepted. then our righteousness, the righteousness of God's people, is only as real as Christ was made sin. Does that make sense? If Christ was really made sin, then his people are really made righteous. But if Christ was not really made sin, and God was just pretending, then you and I aren't really righteous, and we must be damned.

But Christ was made sin, so the Father forsook him. and did not look on him in love, but he forsook him and poured out all of his wrath upon that sin so that Christ would make all of God's elect perfectly righteous. All those people that the father gave to the son before time began were made perfectly righteous. That blood was shed, their sin was washed away, and they're accepted by a holy God. The sacrifice of Christ makes it right. It's right and just for the Father to accept sinners like you and me. Because Christ was forsaken for us at Calvary.

Now here's the third thing. The Father forsook the Son at Calvary because justice demanded it. Justice demanded it. Christ was made sin And God's justice demands death for sin. Wherever there is sin, there must be death. And the father, now he has loved his son from all of eternity. But when he was made sin, the father punished him without any mercy, without a drop of mercy, without going light on him at all, knowing that this is his son. No mercy. pure wrath, pure justice, even knowing his personal holiness that he had never sinned, the Father punished him without mercy for all of the sin of all of God's elect. He poured out on his son exactly what that mountain of sin deserves, no less.

And you know what? That's the only thing a holy God could do. He must punish sin. And God shows us he's holy because he punishes even his son. There is nobody else in the history, man's history on earth, where the father spoke audibly from heaven and said, I'm pleased with him. But he did it about his son. He said, you hear him. I'm well pleased with him. Now you hear him. And even though the father is well pleased with his righteousness, when he was made sin, the father punished him in justice. poured out that justice until there's, what scripture says, there's no fury left in me.

How much fury can an infinite God hold within himself? I mean, he's infinite. How much fury is in the holy God for sin and he poured it out upon his son till there was no fury left in him? And you know why there's no fury left in the father? because Christ's sacrifice was enough. It was enough to satisfy him. He poured out wrath until all that whole mountain of sin, all of the sin of all of God's elect until it was gone. It's gone. It doesn't exist anymore. The debt has been paid.

Our sin debt against God is infinite. That's why if God's not merciful to us, He's gonna send us to hell and that will be for eternity. Because our sin debt is infinite and we can never pay it. We can't pay for the first sin. But the sacrifice of Christ paid the debt in full. His blood blotted out the sin of all of God's elect. So God's satisfied. If Christ died for you, when he looks at you, you know what he sees? perfection, he doesn't see any sin, because the blood of Christ put it away. And I love to say this, I love to think about this, the absolute sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice, the fire of God's justice only went out when sin's gone.

You think about someone This is a horrible thing for a parent to think. But you parents think about someone murdering one of your children. If that happened to me, you know what I'd want to do. I hope the Lord would stop me from doing it. But this is what I think I would do. I'd be in that courtroom on the front row every day. And I'd do everything that I could to see justice carried out.

But could it? Could that justice ever be carried out? Suppose they took the murderer and they said, you're condemned to die in the electric chair. Or in a state that doesn't have capital punishment, you're condemned to spend the rest of your life in jail. And over the course of time, that murderer finally dies. Am I going to think justice is satisfied? No. No. Justice just quit being carried out on that fella because he died and they can't do anything else to him.

That's not why Christ died. The fire of God's justice went out when the sin that fueled it was gone. Christ is the only sacrifice that consumed the fire. He consumed the justice of God, and then he cried, it's finished, and gave up the ghost. See, he had to die. The death's been paid, but he must die because the law demands death for sin. So he gave up the ghost, and he died.

Now that's true, that is good, true, solid doctrine. Now I'm gonna give you something I want you to put in your lunch bucket and take with you to work tomorrow. This ought to thrill our souls. If Christ satisfied justice for you, you'll never taste a drop of it. You'll never taste a drop of punishment for your sin. The Father will correct us, won't he? He'll correct us, he'll teach us, And we'll suffer consequences for our sin. We still sin. That's what's going to kill these bodies.

I mean, you can't think, well, Christ paid for all my sins, so I don't have to worry about it anymore. There's not going to be consequences for it. And the example that I use is this. Just drive 70 miles an hour down Winchester Avenue this afternoon and see what happens to you. I mean, there's consequences for that. There is consequences for our sin, but you'll never taste a drop of God's justice against your sin, because Christ our Savior took it all.

I hate to think of what my sin, my rebellion, my sin, the filth of my, I hate to think about what that cost the Savior. His suffering is what, It's embarrassing. It's humiliating, really, isn't it? But oh, how thankful I am if he satisfied justice for me. God's justice is not looking for me. He made his people to be innocent of all charges so that you have peace with God. You have peace with his holiness. You have peace with his justice. You have peace. You have peace.

The father forsook the son because justice demanded it. But here's something that goes hand in hand, it's the other side of the piece of paper. You can't separate this anymore than you can separate these two sides of this piece of paper. God's justice demanded it, but God's mercy demanded it too. God must be just, but God must be merciful too. He must be, both are equally true, because that's God's character.

Well, how can God be just against my sin and still be merciful to me? There's only one way. It's substitution. Mercy is God not giving me what I do deserve. Well, the only way God can be merciful and not give me what I deserve is if he gave Christ my Savior everything that I deserve. That's substitution. And if he gave Christ everything that I deserve, you know what he's going to give me? Everything that Christ deserves. That's grace. God giving me something that I do not deserve. That's beyond human comprehension. I mean, it's just beyond human comprehension.

But if God's given you faith in Christ, you believe that, and you see that just as clearly as you see your hand in front of your face, don't you? God is merciful to me because he gave justice to my substitute. Christ was forsaken of his father at Calvary. And rightfully so. Rightfully so. He'd been made sin. He'd been made guilty of the sin of his people. Had to desert him. He should have deserted him. He should have punished him fully for all of the sin of his people.

And you know what that means to you and me who believe? This is another thing now, put this in your lunch bucket. And I mean, and keep it with you. Don't, maybe just keep, don't put it in your lunch bucket, because you might have, leave your lunch bucket at work. Put it in your pocket or something, where you keep this all the time. The father, if he forsook his son at Calvary, he can say to his people, I will never, no never, no never, for any reason, leave you or forsake you.

I know sometimes we feel like, it feels like, God's forsaken me. It feels that way. And maybe he'll hide himself for a while in time of trial to teach us something. But when you find yourself in that dark, difficult trial, I mean, I'm not talking about having a bad day now. I'm talking about a trial. Where God, it's the fiery trial that is sent to try our faith. And it feels like God doesn't care. It seems like he doesn't care what's happening to me now. I'm telling you, he hadn't forsaken you. I know he hasn't because that's his promise to his people.

Maybe, I don't know, but if this is right, maybe you could say that one of the worst trials someone goes through is standing around a deathbed and watching your loved one die. I've seen my loved ones, I've seen other folks, I've seen the moment that they died, that their body died. And if they're a believer, they instantly open their eyes in glory and saw the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we know that, we believe that, we find comfort in that, but here's the family standing around the bed, That loved one is doing, their body is doing everything they can to suck air and to keep their heart beating, to keep that body alive. And I understand why that happens. The Lord made these bodies for living, not for dying. That's why these bodies fight for life. And the family's standing around, you're so upset, you're crying. You don't want your loved one to suffer anymore, but by golly, you don't want them to leave either. I mean, it's a painful thing, isn't it?

When you're in a situation like that, you just remember this, God hadn't forsaken you. He hadn't forsaken you. That loved one there that the Lord loves, he loves them more than you do. And he's going to take them home in answer to his prayer to his father. Father, I will. That all those whom thou has given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. He's not forsaking them, He's bringing them home. He's bringing them home. And He ain't forsaking you either. Now I'm not saying the pain of it's not gonna be real and not gonna be substantial and there's not gonna be a lot to deal with, but He'll give you grace for the hour. I promise you He will. And I only promise you that because that's what He promises. I will never leave you nor forsake you. What else you got to worry about?

When I was a little fella in Danville, we lived in Danville for a number of years, there was a bully. He's two years older than me, lived up the street. He had two older brothers. And I got beat up by him a couple times. And I was scared to death of him. I mean scared to death. I usually wouldn't even go to that section of the street. I was scared to death.

But one day, I was out riding bikes with my dad, and dad turned that way, go right past that bully's house. And little Frank just rode right along with absolutely no fear whatsoever. Just pure joy and joy in the day. What's the difference? My dad was with me.

I will never, leave you nor forsake you. Put that in your pocket and keep it alright. Lord bless you.