Mark 15. There are many sayings in the Holy Scriptures that are familiar to us. Many that are heavy, that are weighty, that can conjure up strong feelings, arouse our souls unto certain thoughts of our God and of His Christ. I would submit that there are few that are both as sweet and awful as the words that are brought forth in Mark 15 here, specifically verse 34.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? We want to examine this as we come in a special way to remember the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's a fitting text to consider as we seek to remember the death of our precious ones. So Mark 15, I'm going to read beginning in verse 22, finishing at verse 39.
Once again, the word of the living and true God. Mark 15, 22. And they brought him to the place Golgotha, which is translated place of a skull. Then they gave him wine mingled with myrrh to drink, but he did not take it.
And when they crucified Him, they divided His garments, casting lots for them to determine what every man should take. Now it was the third hour, and they crucified Him, and the inscription of His accusation was written above, The King of the Jews. With Him they also crucified two robbers, one on His right and the other on His left. So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, And He was numbered with the transgressors.
And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, Aha! You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself and come down from the cross. Likewise, the chief priests also, mocking among themselves with the scribes, said, He saved others. Himself He cannot save.
Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. Even those who were crucified with Him reviled Him. Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?
Which is translated, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Some of those who stood by when they heard that said, look, he is calling for Elijah. Then someone ran and filled a sponge full of sour wine, put it on a reed, and offered it to him to drink, saying, let him alone. Let us see if Elijah will come to take him down.
And Jesus cried with a loud voice and breathed his last. Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. So when the centurion who stood opposite him saw that, he cried out like this and breathed his last, and he said, truly, this man was the Son of God. Amen.
Well, let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for this Holy Scripture, these Holy Scriptures, this text that describes the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Might we come now with much sobriety and solemnity as we consider this text. the words of our Savior that he spoke from Calvary's tree. We pray that you would impress upon us the weight and even the glory of this event.
Lord, we pray as we consider now the scriptures that you would help both preacher and hearer. And we pray that you would strengthen preacher and pulpit to proclaim rightly the things of your word. And we do pray that you would tend unto the hearer, that the spirit would be present, a strengthening saint and saving sinner. And might this be an exercise yet again for your glory's sake, and that the Lord Jesus Christ might again be exalted upon his gathered assembly.
And we do pray in Christ's precious name. Amen.
Introduction
Perhaps some words from Spurgeon to introduce the topic. We are going to consider both verse 33 and verse 34 under the headings, the darkness and the derelict. Two simple headings as we examine this quite solemn text. Spurgeon, in introducing a sermon on this particular passage, preached, as you see this, that is, the words, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Say to yourselves, what manner of people ought we to be? What measure of love ought we to return to one who bore the utmost penalty, that we might be delivered from the wrath to come? I do not profess that I can dive into this deep. I will only venture to the edge of the precipice and bid you look down and pray, the Spirit of God, to concentrate your mind upon this lamentation of our dying Lord as it rises up through the thick darkness.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? I want to reread verses 33 and verse 34. These, again, the words of God. Now, when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, which is translated, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Solemn words spoken by our Savior here. And before the words, though, we have the darkness. And so
The Darkness
we want to consider first the darkness. What does this mean when we read in verse 33, Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. When we read these numbers, the sixth and the ninth, we are to see there from noon until 3 PM. It's what we have in the 6th hour and in the 9th hour.
Noon had come. There was darkness over the whole land until 3 p.m. if you'll afford the liberty of translation there. We have this darkness, and so what does it mean on this occasion where the King of Kings, the King of the Jews, is put to death upon Calvary's tree in that place of the skull? What does it mean?
Well, two things. The first is this.
Portent of Judgment on a Rebellious Generation
It is a portent of the doom that would come upon that rebellious generation. A portent is simply something that foretells or something that foresignifies or represents a more momentous event that is to come. Not that there's something more momentous than the crucifixion, but the darkness here is just a small speck of the darkness that would come upon this adulterous and rebellious generation. Remember what's going on here.
Remember, these are the ones who chose darkness rather than light. They did not choose, but rather rejected the Savior, the One who is light Himself, the One who created light, the One who is the light of the world, the One who gives light to men. These rejected Him, and so this is a portent of the darkness, of the gloom, of divine judgment and retribution that would come upon them by the brightness of His glory and the brightness of His coming. This is something that does foresignify that great and momentous day where they would be judged for putting to death the Lord of glory.
In fact, many a commenter will connect Amos 8 and verse 9 to this particular portent of the darkness of divine judgment. Notice what we have in Amos 8, beginning in verse 9, And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord God, that I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head.
I will make it like mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day." We have this darkness coming upon the land from from the sixth hour, noon, until the ninth hour, three. And it is something that foresignifies the doom of that generation. Remember, if we recall the preaching of Pastor Butler on Matthew 21, I wonder if these men, if any of their hearts sank when this darkness loomed across the land while they were putting to death the Lord of Glory. Remember the parable that Jesus delivered to these.
Men. He gave them that parable of the landowner and the vinedressers. And the landowner sends workers to bring the fruits in, in their seasons. And the vinedressers who have leased from the landowner kill all of those, or they beat some and they kill others.
And finally, he sends the son. Finally, He sends His Son, and they seize Him, and they kill Him. They bring Him outside of the vineyard. They seize His inheritance, and they kill Him.
Remember the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, in fact, the words of their own lips when they say, surely He will kill those wicked men miserably, those men who put to death the Lord of glory, the only Son of the landowner. And here we have the darkness looming when these vinedressers who have leased the land from the landowner are putting to death, seeking to seize the inheritance of the son of the landowner. The sun looms across the land, or the darkness looms across the land, blocking the sun.
We suspect or we think with speculation, did any of these have their hearts within them sink, remembering the words of the Savior? Is this what's going on? Is this what's going on? It is a portent of the doom that would come upon that rebellious generation when the darkness of the Shekinah glory would be removed from the temple, and no longer would God's glory be there, but rather, and of course, His glory is in the very one who they are putting to death upon Calvary's tree.
Secondly,
Sign of the Suffering Servant's Deprivation
it is a sign of the terrible deprivation of the suffering servant. This darkness that looms over the land is the sign of the terrible deprivation of the suffering servant. That simply means the abandonment of Christ upon the cross. This darkness symbolizes, signifies that very thing.
Matthew Henry writes, the darkness signified the present cloud which the human soul of Christ was under when He was making it an offering for sin. I repeat that to press the severity of the darkness in its signifying. He says, the darkness signified the present cloud which the human soul of Christ was under when He was making it an offering for sin. Christ was silent and alone upon the cross.
He'd been rejected by His countrymen. He'd been rejected. He'd been betrayed by a friend. He'd been denied by another.
He'd been abandoned by the rest, save John. You see, that wasn't what moved him at this particular point to, in a moment, cry out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? It was the deprivation of the suffering servant when his God abandoned him for the salvation of his people. When God left him in straits as he bore his wrath. for the sins of all those who had been given to Him.
It is a sign of the terrible deprivation of the suffering servant. Fitting it is to turn to Isaiah 53. So, do that with me, because that is no doubt in view. We have this occasion, this solemn occasion, with regards to the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this language the deprivation of the suffering servant.
Notice what we have in Isaiah 53. No doubt all of the language, but let's go to verse 10 and read these words. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief.
When you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. No doubt you have considered those words before, but consider them afresh, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him, to crush him. He has put him to grief. No doubt Henry is right when he says the darkness signified the present cloud which the human soul of Christ was under when he was making it an offering for sin.
It's an amazing occasion here, and it's not simply, again, the portent of the doom of that rebellious generation, but signifying the deprivation of the suffering servant, the one who created light, the light of the world, the light of men, the one whose gospel is light. This one is cast in darkness for the sins of his people. Brethren, we observe the Lord's Supper tonight. and that is a remembrance of this dark day and yet this glorious day. You see, I think it's only in Christianity we have Solemnity and joy mingled together in both bitterness and sweetness when we come to the occasion, to the accounts, to the narratives of this one, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, giving himself for guilty sinners upon Calvary's tree.
What a blessed thing. He's put to death upon this place of the skull, and yet he is the hero born of woman who would crush the skull of the serpent. This darkness looms. The One who created light, who is light Himself, is cast in darkness, giving Himself for the sins of His people.
Well,
The Derelict
we have next, then, the derelict. The darkness, and now the derelict. In verse 34, and at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, My God, My God, Why have you forsaken Me? There's two ways that we can define the word derelict in its noun form.
You're probably used to the negative one. Someone who has neglected their duty. Their derelict of duty. They had a task, and they did not do that which they were tasked to do.
When we call Christ here the derelict, that is, of course, not what we mean. The other meaning of derelict is the one abandoned. The one left. The one left in straits.
And here we have the derelict Christ as that one who is left. And that cries out here, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? He is made derelict so that we, The true derelicts might never be left derelict by our God. He is abandoned by God so that we who have abandoned God might never be abandoned by God.
He cries out, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me? So that His people, saved by His grace and for His glory, might never cry out those selfsame words. Spurgeon, on these particular words, again, uses this language in order to describe the event. I do not think that the records of time or even of eternity contain a sentence more full of anguish.
Here the wormwood and the gall and all the other bitternesses are outdone. Here you may look as into a vast abyss, and though you strain your eyes and gaze till sight fails you, yet you perceive no bottom. It is measureless, unfathomable, inconceivable. The anguish of the Savior on your behalf and mine is no more to be measured and weighed than the sin which needed it or the love which endured it.
We will adore where we cannot comprehend. And so to seek to adore, if only a little bit, as we have a little bit of time to look at this, under the derelict,
Four Questions About the Cry
we want to answer four questions. We want to ask and answer four questions. And those questions are these. Who is this?
Why is he crying out? What has he done? And who did he do it for? So the first question, who is this?
We know the answer, hopefully all of us in this room know the answer, and yet an exploration and a fresh discovery of who it is ought to warm our hearts and lift our spirits, and yet at the same time cast us to a place of solemn humility before this One, before this One who cried out these words, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?
Who Is Crying Out?
Who is this? It is the God-Man, it is Jesus the Christ, Son of God and Son of Man. If you want to look for a non-inspired answer to the question, who is this? I would commend you to look no further than Melito of Sardis in the 2nd century.
It's a long quote, but I impress upon you the identification of the One. We all know this is the Christ. We all know this is the King, our Lord and Savior. And yet consider this language of this bishop of old, the second century.
And so he was lifted up upon a tree, and an inscription was attached indicating who was being killed, the king of the Jews. Who was it? It is a grievous thing to tell, but a most fearful thing to refrain from telling. But listen as you tremble before Him on whose account the earth trembled.
He who hung the earth is in place, hanged. He who fixed the heavens in place is fixed in place. He who made all things fast is made fast on a tree. The sovereign is insulted.
God is murdered. The King of Israel is destroyed by an Israelite hand. This is the One who made the heavens and the earth, and formed mankind in the beginning. The One proclaimed by the Law and the Prophets.
The One enfleshed in a virgin. The One hanged on a tree. The One buried in the earth. The One raised from the dead, who went up into the heights of heaven, which exist from the beginning of time. the one sitting at the right hand of the Father, the one having all authority to judge and save, through whom the Father made the things which exist, this one is the Alpha and the Omega, this one is the beginning and the end, the beginning indescribable and the end incomprehensible, this one is the Christ, this one is the King, this one is Jesus, This One is the Leader.
This One is the Lord. This One is the One who rose from the dead. This One is the One sitting on the right hand of the Father. He bears the Father and is born by the Father.
To Him be glory and the power forever. Amen. Who is this crying out, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? This is God of God.
Light of light. True God from true God. Begotten, not made. One in being with the Father.
By Him, all things were made. And He comes in time and in history to take upon Himself man's nature with all of our essential properties and common infirmities, yet without sin. And bears this cross and cries out, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? What an amazing thing.
The question has often been asked, if Jesus is God, how can Jesus cry out, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Going even further, how can God be forsaken of God? Are we somehow to understand some sort of unraveling of the Trinity here? That the Son of God is abandoned and made derelict by His Father.
Well, we need to understand, and in fact, Henry helps us here, Matthew Henry, when he says, the darkness signified the present cloud which the human soul of Christ was under when he was making it an offering for sin. You see, we cannot properly say, God is murdered, the sovereign is insulted, the king of Israel is put to death and murdered. in the sense of His deity, because God is immutable, eternal, and He's infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in all of His holy perfections. He is immutable, impassable. God truly cannot suffer, but it is Christ, the Son of God, who took to Himself man's nature, crying out in accordance with His humanity, as touching His humanity, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
The human soul of Christ under the present cloud of this darkness and the wrath of God. Who is this that's crying out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? You see, Christians, in these sorts of moments, we need to, in a sense, rally in all of our troops of joy and happiness, and, you know, fond thoughts of mirth and whatever else, and call them to cease and desist for a moment, and bring ourselves to a humble solemnity before such a momentous thing. The Son of God, the second of the blessed triune, the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of His person is on Calvary's tree, His human soul under the wrath and the power and the almighty judgment of God, and he cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
And again, as we'll get to in a moment, this is for one who is holy, harmless, and undefiled, never committed a sin, never committed a transgression, guile never proceeding from his lips, Nevertheless, He bears the sins of His people upon Calvary's tree. This is the promised one of the Old Testament. As we're reading through the passage in its entirety this evening, hopefully you notice the language in verse 28. So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, and He was numbered with the transgressors.
When we come to the death of Christ, upon Calvary's tree. We're not coming to some haphazard and random event that beset the Christ in time and in history. We're coming to an event foreordained by God for the salvation of sinners. We're coming to an event promised in the Old Covenant, in the Old Testament.
Isaiah 53 is in view there, and he was numbered with the transgressors. In fact, even a prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ is brought to view here from John 2. Aha! You who destroy the temple, verse 29, and build it in three days, save yourself and come down from the cross.
Psalm 22 is as well in view, of course, when we read verses 31 through 34, culminating in these words of the cry from the lips of our Savior, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The Promised One of the Old Testament has come to render that which was promised, and these people, these wicked ones, reject Him, and they despise Him, and they put Him to death. Why is he crying out? It's a question we ask.
Secondly,
Why Is He Crying Out?
why is he crying out? He's crying out because of the travail of his soul, the anguish of his soul. You know, yes, we do not ever want to minimize the physical sufferings of our Christ upon Calvary's tree. He truly did take to himself man's nature.
And so, upon Calvary's tree, he's taking into his truly human hands the nails, those Roman nails. He's taking into his truly human feet those Roman nails. He's enduring the heat of the sun, the spittings, the bruising, the mocking. He's enduring all of these things.
He is crying out, and no doubt, we have the reality that our Lord Jesus Christ is suffering the physical pains of the crucifixion. But you see, when He cries out these words, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? It is the travail, the anguish of His soul forbearing the wrath of the sins of His people. Calvin, writing on that very thing, speaks these words or writes these words, those interpreters are widely mistaken, laying aside this part of redemption attended solely to the outward punishment of the flesh.
For in order that Christ might satisfy for us, it was necessary that He should be placed as a guilty person at the judgment seat of God. Now nothing is more dreadful than to feel that God whose wrath is worse than all deaths, is the judge. When this temptation was presented to Christ as if, having God opposed to Him, He were already devoted to destruction, He was seized with horror, which would have been sufficient to swallow up a hundred times all the men in the world. But by the amazing power of the Spirit, He achieved the victory.
Christ is enduring this anguish of soul, this anguish and travail of his soul being crushed under the infinite, eternal, and unchangeable justice of God. Brethren, hopefully when we come to a remembrance of the Lord's Supper, and we'll back up for a moment, hopefully whenever we come to a remembrance of our Christ, we land upon that amazing and sobering truth. That Christ bore the wrath of God. in our stead. When we take that bread and when we take that wine, let it never be an empty ordinance.
It's never to be that. God help us if it ever becomes that. By that ordinance, we're reflecting upon an event of events. The most momentous event in history.
When this one cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me and gave up? the ghost, for the good of His people, for the sins of His people. This is to quiet us, to calm us, for a moment, jettisoning joy and happiness in a sense that we might all the more focus more on the solemnity of the thing. And then, as we will in a moment, come back to the joy of the thing. But it is momentous.
It is monumental. When this one cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why is he crying out? Because of the travail of his soul and taking upon himself the wrath of God.
What Has He Done?
The third question that we want to ask and answer is, what has he done? What has he done? Hopefully all of us here can answer that question, but we can answer it in two ways. The first answer is, from one vantage point, He has done nothing.
What has He done? He's done nothing. He is holy, harmless, and undefiled, separate from sinners. He is the unblemished, a perfect Lamb of God.
He is the perfect sacrifice who never Himself sinned. His disciples, His most intimate of companions can say most assuredly, this one is perfect. So what has He done? He has done nothing.
He is without blemish and without spot. Yet from another vantage point, at the point of this crying out, He has done everything. That is, He has completed the work of salvation. Now that is, when he gives up the ghost, when he does truly die, as he cries out, it is finished, and then dies upon Calvary's tree.
But we must see here that Christ does everything in his life, culminating in his death. Grand Carmen Christi in Philippians 2, 5-11, as it transitions to the doxological part, or the glory of Christ in His exaltation, it says, He was obedient to the point of death, even the cross death. A beautiful thing that we have here. He has done nothing from one vantage point in that He is Holy, harmless, and undefiled, the sinless King of Kings, and yet, with respect to salvation, He upon the cross has done everything.
That later cry proves it. It is finished. The blessed words from our Savior, a study and a fresh discovery of all of those sayings of our Lord from the cross, stirs our heart and warms our Christian hearts. What has He done?
He has done everything. He's been obedient to the point of death, even the cross death. There is nothing to be added to the perfect work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's done everything.
Righteousness comes from the law and Christ died in vain. You see, we take anyone to this scene. Take anyone to this scene who, whether in the smallest degree or to the greatest degree, seeks to heap anyone's righteousness and anyone's works upon that of Christ's. We take them by the hand firmly and we say, cast your eyes upon this scene.
And then tell me if you still want to perpetuate your blasphemies. We can add to the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ alone our hope is found. And here we see the weight of that coming in this occasion when he cries out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Who Did He Do It For?
Who did he do it for then is our last question, our fourth question. Who did he do it for? First off, he did it for the Father, that cry, is a cry to the Father, isn't it? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Cries out to his Father, the derelict. Again, in the sense of being abandoned upon the cross, the wrath of God is poured out upon him. Pleased the Lord to bruise him, to crush him. He is put into grief.
And this cry is to and for the Father in the first place. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Secondly, though, He did it for all who believe in Him. We've said it again, and you've heard it time and again.
Christ our King cries out these words, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? So that we never have to cry that cry. We come A few moments to remember our Lord and remember that blessed truth. Remember this cry of dereliction from the cross.
Do you understand that this cry of dereliction is a cry of substitution? This cry of abandonment is a cry of atonement. He cries out this cry so that we never will. He did it for all who believe in Him.
This is what He has done, and this is who He did it for. All those who had been given to Him by the Father. That hymn that I believe we just sang by Isaac Watts, Was it for crimes that I had done, He groaned upon the tree. What verse do you think was in the mind of Watts when he penned that?
Was it for crimes that I had done, He groaned upon the tree. My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Blessed truth. The Scriptures are replete with this blessed truth. 1 Corinthians 15, that Gospel message contains what at the beginning?
He died for our sins according to the Scriptures. I think very often when we read through such a text, we can skip past the four hour. and just not dive deep into the reality that that is substitutionary language. He died in our room instead for our sins. He died in our place upon that tree.
Galatians 3.13. We're only going to rehearse three of these texts. There's so many, but Galatians 3.13. The beautiful language of substitutionary atonement.
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. Having become a curse for us. Christian, if you're here tonight, Christ became a curse for you.
We were, we should have endured the curse of the law. Not that the law in and of itself is a curse, but it brings a curse because it brings death, because we can never obey it. We can never fulfill it. We break it time and again.
Breach upon breach of the law is our character in this lower world. All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. We should have borne the curse. And yet Christ bears the curse for all who believe.
What a blessed text. Christ has become a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. That text in 2 Peter 2. is a text as well that has Isaiah 53 in the fore when Peter is rehearsing this blessed reality, the saving work of our Lord Jesus Christ and its substitutionary character. 1 Peter 2, verse 24.
Notice the language that we have in that particular text, speaking of Christ, "...who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed." Who Himself bore our sins. in His own body on the tree. Believer, if you're here tonight, Christ bore your sins in His own body on the tree. Remember what we talked about this morning. We can peruse, seriously peruse, the diary of our memories and find the witnesses of our guilt, having there faithfully recorded their names.
You see, that guilt is removed. That guilt is taken away. The wrath of God for those sins is taken away by this One who bore in His own body our sins upon that tree. What a blessed truth.
What a sweet and awful thing it is to rehearse, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Well,
Application
just a few observations in closing before we move on to prayer and the Lord's Supper. The first thing we want to observe is, for the unbeliever, you are to fear your lot if you reject the Savior. Remember what our first point was with regards to the darkness. It is a portent of doom that would come upon that rebellious generation.
It's also a portent of the doom, the darkness, the gloom of your own judgment and condemnation if you do not believe in the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords who gave himself upon Calvary's tree for the sins of his people. See, we want to have this one who cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me as our Savior and redeeming King? You do not want to have him as judge. You do not want to have him as the one who will say to you, depart from me into the lake of fire reserved for the devil and his angels.
This one who here for a time was at a position, if you'll allow, of disadvantage, being put to death by lawless hands upon Calvary's tree, crying out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? But remember, by the Spirit he gained the victory, Calvin says. We come to the Scriptures and we know that is the case because he rose the third day. He ascended.
He was given dominion and glory and a kingdom. He rides His valiant white steed according to Revelation 19. And He puts to death with the sword of His mouth those who would reject. Such a glorious one.
If you're here tonight, fear your lot if you reject the Savior, because if you die outside of Christ, if your life ends outside of Christ, it is an eternity, a Christless, a godless eternity. With a qualification, it isn't a godless eternity, because He is there present with the hotness of His unchanging justice. So you reflect for eternity upon your rejection of so glorious a Savior. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.
And these words will be words that were cried out for you, so that you would never have to cry them out. For the believer, we need to, by this verse, understand that our God will never leave us or forsake us. See, that's one of the many blessings that we have in this passage, is that Christ cried these words out, and it really is true that because of that, all who believe in Him never will have to. There's a hymn that we're going to sing in a moment for the Lord's Supper, and I would submit that this is one of the best poems of the death of the Lord ever written.
John Ellerton writes, Lord, should fear and anguish roll, darkly o'er my sinful soul. Thou who once was thus bereft that Thine own might ne'er be left, teach me by that bitter cry in the gloom to know Thee nigh. You see, this one Christ was bereft. He was left.
He was abandoned. He was derelict that His own might never be left, might never be derelict, might never be abandoned. Teach me by that bitter cry, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? So that in the gloom we'll know that you're near.
We have in this cry the testimony, the certainty that God will never leave us nor forsake us when we're found safely in Christ. And lastly, in light of this text, in light of this verse, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Don't forsake Him by neglecting the means of your nearness to God. The point I'm trying to make is we ought never to forsake the Lord's Supper.
We ought never to forsake the gathering of ourselves together, the death of Christ. The death of Christ, wherein He cried this cry, is the weight of the argument that Paul brings in the book of Hebrews that we're not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. deliberately avoiding and not engaging in the gathering together of the saints of Christ with sinful and neglectful intentions, we are forsaking the one who cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, so that we might never be forsaken. Don't forsake the one who cried out these words. Don't neglect the Lord's Supper.
Brethren, I fear that it has been brought to the point where it is some sort of appendix to worship, where it is some sort of optional thing tacked on to the worship service. It's not optional. It's an ordinance of positive and sovereign institution ordained by the Lord Jesus Christ to be observed in His churches until the end of the world. Oh, the weightiness and the burden of the Lord's Supper.
No. In solemn reflection, it is still and nevertheless a joy to gather together and to think upon and reflect upon this King of the Jews, this King of Kings and Lord of Lords who cried out, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me so that all who believe might never have to? Why would we ever entertain the forsaking of such a blessed ordinance of our Lord? whereby we cast away the demons of a base ingratitude, replace it with solemn and holy reflections, burning remembrance of our Savior, the King of Kings. Brethren, we are to think often on our Christ, reflect often upon His perfect and saving work, His person and His work, and we are never to neglect the means of our preservation, the means of our nearness to God. worship of God on the Lord's Day, the preaching of the Word, prayer, baptism, the Lord's Supper, and other means ordained by Him that we might grow in the grace of faith.
As we now close in prayer and look forward to the Lord's Supper, believer, rejoice in this One who cried out for you. Unbeliever, come to this One who cried, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? And find in Him your all in all. Let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time together. We rejoice in the truths that we read from Mark and from the rest of the scriptures. We rejoice in the truth that our Savior bore our penalty, bore the wrath that was due us upon Calvary's tree. We thank you that he bore in his own body the sins of his people upon that tree that we, having died to sin, might live for righteousness.
And we thank you that he became a curse for us, for all those who believe. And we pray that as we now reflect upon his death in this ordinance of the Lord's Supper, We pray that you would help us to do so with that proper solemnity and that proper joy that you might receive all honor and praise and that yet again our Savior, the Lord Jesus, would be thought upon highly by the gathered assembly and that he would be exalted upon our praises. So be with us now as we engage in this act for your glory and for our good. And we pray in Christ's name.
Amen.