everyone turn over to John chapter eight first and then I will get back to our text I intended to mention this last Lord day but time ran out but this is an unusual passage John chapter seven John chapter seven After these things Jesus walked in Galilee, for he would not walk in Jewry or in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him. Now the Jews feast of tabernacles was in hand. His brethren said unto him, Depart hence and go into Judea. that thy disciples may see the works that thou doest. I believe the brethren here are his four brothers in the flesh. And so they say, go into Judea, but he said no. Verse four. For there is no man that doeth anything in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. if thou do these things, show thyself to the world. For neither did his brethren believe in him. Then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come, but your time is always ready. In other words, you have no schedule. The word world cannot hate you, but me it hateeth. because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil. Go ye up unto this feast. I go not up yet unto this feast, for my time is not yet full come. When he had said these words unto them he abode still in Galilee. There's only one point you can arrive at here. The Lord Jesus feared no man. He could say a word and they could all fall to the ground. But you can't read these verses. And as I say, just a few nights ago, I noticed it. There must be a plan. He says, My time has not yet come. And the Jews would have killed him if they could. They were gnashing at times with their teeth and sent in their fists. They wanted to get out of them. They wanted to kill this man because he exposed their hypocrisy. Well, he said, No, I'm not going into Judea. I'll stay here in Galilee. And he did until the time drew near for him to go up into Judea and to Jerusalem. The Bible is a wonderful book. The Bible gives man's span of life, three-score years and ten, seventy. Some go beyond that. And then it said in Daniel that in the midst of his years, he would be cut off. The midst of the years would be thirty-five. And so around that time he was cut off at the cross. And if you read over in Luke, I think it's Luke three and twenty-three, it says, And Jesus began to be about thirty years of age. Well, then you consider his three and a half years of public ministry. And you arrive at the time, the time when he was going to go to Jerusalem and there could be crucified. One can't help but amaze at the Scriptures. His time was not yet come, and they could not bind him. Even when he came out of the garden, who was met in the garden, and Judas betrayed him, he said, Who will seek ye? They went back and fell to the ground. He could have done that every time they approached him, because he had the power. He had a work to do, and he delivered his strength into captivity and his glory into the enemy's hands. He was ready to go to that cross and suffer and bleed and die. And that's why you have the sobbing done in Gethsemane's garden when three times he pledged with God, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. The awesomeness of what faced the Lord Jesus was such that he shredded it where great drops of blood falling down to the ground. His time had come. And it's amazing when you think he knew everything. We pointed it out last week. When the Scripture was fulfilled, he said, I thirst. And then you think of some scriptures, he said, For for the joy that was set before them, he endured the cross, he despised the shame, and he's now sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, for the joy that was set before, knowing what the cross was going to mean. Yet she had joy. He's going to settle once and forever the battle between good and evil, between God and man, and for the joy of that. And he was going to have a bride forever. For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. He despised the shame. And he said to his own in the upper room, My joy I give unto you. It seems a contradiction. Here's a man, and he's going to the cross, and he gives indications of the heaviness of his heart. At the same time, he gives the indication he's happy to do it, for the joy that was set before him. So this is an amazing passage you hear about the Lord Jesus saying, this is not my time. We know reference to the Lord's coming. No man knew of that time but the Father. God knows the hour that will strike when Christ shall come. And it seems that here's a plan. And God knew when his Son was going to die. And he knew it. So we'll speak on the subject of the cry of Calvary. Read over then in Mark chapter sixteen. Mark sixteen and verse thirty-four. Mark sixteen and thirty-four. Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, Lama sabbatanai, which is being interpreted My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Very interesting that in Matthew, and Luke and John do not mention this cry, but Matthew and Mark do. In Matthew, he says, Eli, Eli, Lama, Sabak, and I. But here in Mark, it's a little different. Eli, Eli. Mark chapter sixteen. Did I not say Mark before? Mark sixteen. Mark sixteen. According to my Bible. Well, if it's sixteen then, all right. Verse thirty-four again. And at the ninth hour Jesus tried with a loud voice saying, Elo I, Elo I, Lama sub-Bactanai, which is being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why the change? Eli, Eli, he says, My God, my God. But here in Mark, Elo I, he adds something. The emphasis is, O my God. In Matthew it's my God, but here it's, oh my God, giving emphasis. You find that over in the seventeenth chapter when we have his prayer. And he says, Father. He says, Oh, Father. In other words, it seems to indicate something that's awful with added infants. Oh, my Father. Oh, my God. And then he utters that prayer. The only way you can get a full understanding of the prayer of the Lord Jesus, we've mentioned three. The first one, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. The second, to the thief, today I shall be with me in paradise. Then a cry of affection, woman, behold thy son. But you come to a cry here. And it's a very mysterious cry, a tragic cry. And if you want to know the full meaning of it, and you can do it as your letter, you can turn over to Psalm twenty-two. This week in studying this, why was it he said with a loud voice, I know I, he know I, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? David wrote those same words over the twenty-second Psalm that gave us practically all that Christ said on the cross. For holy men of God speak as they were moved by the Holy Spirit of God. David never had an experience like this. No Old Testament prophet ever had an experience like this. and yet several hundred years before Christ, the Spirit of God through David gave expression to the sufferings of the Lord Jesus on the cross. And you do well to read that after we prove, but I'll make some references to it. In other words, here is David, and God's Holy Spirit led him then to give utterance for the very word that Jesus Christ would utter on the cross. And the Lord Jesus knew that. As a young Hebrew with a keen, alert Jewish mind, well-developed, he had read that chapter. Peter, thou knew all that meant, also Isaiah fifty-three, and also Psalm sixty-nine and Psalm seventy, all had to do with the sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. For instance, over in Psalm twenty-two, he says they pierced my hands on my feet. Well, that's what they did in the New Testament. And that was not the form of capital punishment back in those days. Crucifixion was new because the Romans introduced it. But the Israelites put people to death by throwing stones at them. And so you see how David said some things you do not find in the New Testament. He says they parted my garment among them. They cast lots upon my vesture. Now you find that in the New Testament. How those soldiers We're throwing the dice at the foot of the cross for the vesture of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, All my bones are out of joint. That's not mentioned in the New Testament. When did that happen? Undoubtedly, when that cross was dropped into its socket, it jarred the whole body of the Son of God. And he says, All my bones. out of joint. Yes, our Lord Jesus Christ knew something of the awful experience of the crucifixion. Who cried? When did he cry? And why did he cry? Who's crying? The only man who never sinned. The only man who ever walked this earth. who had never sinned, the only man that glorified God, the only man that God was fully satisfied with. Why should all this fall upon such a sinless, holy, godly, righteous man? That's who cried. And you read that holy thing that shall be born in thee shall be called the Son of God. And furthermore, he says in the mouth of two or three witnesses, which one of you convinced of me of sin? The Lord Jesus was perfect. He was holy. He was harmless. He was undefiled. He was separate from sinners. He's the one. that uttering this cry and praying this prayer upon the cross. When you stop to think that you wholly harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, he was the obedient one. He never disobeyed his father. He said, I am ready to die from my youth up. He said, which, you know, I must be about my father's business. He said that to his parents at the age of twelve. He said, Not my will, let thine be done, that thy will be done. He was meek. He was lowly. He was led as a lamb to the slaughters of shears before her shears was done. Sheep before her shears was done. He opened up not his mouth. He went calmly, like a sheep. Other animals, animals. will give utterance to their displeasure as they approach the place of execution. I worked in a big packing company up in Stafford, Ontario. They used to kill eight hundred pigs a day. And that place was squealing all the time, the noise. Those hogs knew something was going to happen. Our sheep doesn't do that. you can lead a sheep to the spot of execution. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before her shears are dumb. He opened it not his mouth. He was the uncomplaining one. He never complained, no bitterness, no pride, no jealousy. He loved the Father. He loved his own. He loved sinners. He loved enemies. He was the defenseless one. He says, I am a worm, and no man, he said that in Psalm twenty-two. A worm, a man steps on a worm, and it squirms. Yes, it has no defense. Now could you think of a worm having knowledge of what it previously was? when someone stepped on it? No. The Lord Jesus had knowledge of what he used to be. With the Father, he had knowledge of his life on earth, and now he's a worm and no man. He's defenseless. He's in the hands of his enemies. Yes, here is the one who cried. When was this cry uttered, when darkness came upon the sea? What a darkness. And over in Leviticus, if you wish to read it and understand it, I think it's the second chapter you have, the meal offering. In the meal offering, there was an offering and it was in an open pan. And sometimes there'd be the splittering and so on, the noise in connection with the offering in the pan. It was all open. But you read in that same chapter about the offering in the oven. It's not seen. The Lord Jesus was on the cross for three dark hours, light hours. There's the open pan. Everything is seen. But there were three dark hours. when Jesus Christ was suffering at the hands of God. Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ knew what was before him, but he endured those three awful hours. The light hours, three hours were at the hands of men. what men did to him. Now these three dark hours is what God did to him. When you start to think of this, you hardly know how to express what this really deserves. The Lord Jesus now speaks, thou hast brought me into the dust of death. That's what the Lord Jesus is saying to his Father. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. Thou hast put him to grief. Thou hast made his soul an offering for sin. Yes, and to think of the Lord Jesus using language like this, is it nothing to you, or ye that pass by? Are you not concerned about what's going on? Behold and see these things, and my sorrows which is done unto me, for which the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger, God's fierce wrath against sin was manifested in the cross. God withheld nothing, and in those dark hours the heavens, the sun refused to shine. and God is dealing with his Son. From above there was sent fire into my bones. God laid all our sins upon the Lord Jesus Christ. All my sins were laid upon them. Jesus born among the tree. God who knew them laid them on him, and believing, I am free. We sometimes sing the hymn, Dying Crush beneath the load of the wrath and curse of God. Just to think of the Lord Jesus, well might the sun in darkness hide and shut its glories in? Well Christ, the eternal Savior died of poor man, his creature sin. God was with the Lord Jesus Christ in the past. He was with him every step of his day on earth from his birth to the cross. God knew as he was in Gethsemane's garden. God was with him. He was with him before Pilate. Before Herod and the Sanhedrin. But now here is a break in the fellowship of the deity. The first break. When God groups away, he turned his back on his son. But what have you got to answer? Think of Almighty God. turning his back upon his only beloved son. That's exactly what he did. And he did it for you and for me. You ever stop to think of his prayer, why has thou forsaken me? What does this imply? Fellowship was broken. Think of the loneliness that was his, as he hung upon the cross. No pity, none whatever, no companionship. He says, from above, thou hast sent fire into my bones. And he says, I don't have any power, any companion. I'm here alone, and in the darkness there was no deliverance from suffering and from his enemies. And in chapter twenty-two he speaks of his enemies as bulls, as lions, as dogs. The Lord Jesus Christ was alone, hanging alone for his own had forsaken him and left. No answer. Once he says in John's Gospel, thou hearest me always. Not now. God forsook his Son. There's no rest, no pause. And as he tries to turn, there you find the Son of God in that intolerable position, pain. and he hung upon the cross. No respect. He says they shoot out the tongue. They stick out the tongue. You read that in Psalm twenty-two. You see, they're insulting gaze as they gaze upon the man Christ Jesus. The loveliest human that ever lived, dying in such indignity. He says, I have no strength. He says that. my strength dried up like a pot-shirt. No angels came with rescue. When he was in forty days in the wilderness, tempted by the devil, angels came and ministered unto him. No angels came when he was on the cross and in the darkness, forsaken of God. Why, he says, my God, my God, why? How many Christians have uttered that word, why should this have happened to me? Why this? Why that? The Lord Jesus used that word. Why? Why, my Father? Why am I suffering like this? He also had the answer. You'll find that in Psalm twenty-two, but thou art holy. The reason God was forsaking is done because God was holy. Oh, thou that habitest with praise of Israel. He could speak of how God beheld him during the Old Testament times. And now he hangs upon the cross. God's answer to his Son. Why, what's God got to say? We've heard the answer of the Son to the Father. Thou art holy. You can't do anything wrong. Now God's answer. What has God got to say if he looks upon that suffering frame? All the indignity being poured upon him at the hands of men. God's answer is simply this. My son, you took the place of a sinner, and you must pay the price. That's exactly what he did. He took your place, he took my place, and God cannot look upon sin. God says, my son, you took the place of a sinner and I'll suffer. the consequences of sin. That was God's answer. He was our substitute. You know what a substitute is? One taking the place of another. My son, you're the sinner's substitute. And you took the place of a stranger. And in your Bible you read concerning a stranger. He that is sure thee for a stranger shall smite for it. Jesus Christ took your place, my place, a stranger to grace and to God, and he smotted for it. On the dark cross, during those dark hours, he must suffer. A scapegoat. You know what a scapegoat is. In the Old Testament they had two goats. And the high priest laid his hand upon one goat, and he confessed over that one goat all the sins of the nation of Israel. That goat was taken out into a land uninhabited, never to be seen again. All my sins and yours were laid upon him. Jesus bore them on the tree. God who knew them, laid them on them, and believed it, we are free. Jesus Christ was our staple. The one who took our place. And God says, my son, that's why you're suffering. But also God could say, my son, because you're taking the place of the sinner, that sinner will be saved. And that's true. had jesus christ not gone to the cross and taken your place and mine god never would have punished his son god forsook his son that he might not forsake you that's something to think about that they may all this is what god's saying i'll tell you why I'm punishing my son, that all men and women who believe will be able to use that language, my father, my God. Do you remember, Ruth, when the only I tried to get her to go back to Moab? She says, entreat me not to leave thee, for where thou goest I will go. Thy people shall be my people. Thy God shall be my God. And that's what God sent His Son into the world. So poor lost sinners can say, My God, My Father. Without Christ's suffering and death, no man could say that. The night I was saved and we had a time of celebration and I went up to my room. And I went in. I shut the door, and I dropped on the first chair. And I said, My father, I meant to say more, but I could go no further. For the first time in my life, I could call God my father. Mary Magdalene in the garden. As he said, the Lord said to Mary Magdalene, Touch me not. I'm not yet ascended to my Father and your Father. So Mary, that woman out of whom he cast seven devils, would say, My God, my Father. Thomas, you did it last week, but you're here now. reach into your finger, thrust into my hands, reach into your hands, and plunge it into my side, have been our faith a thought for me. My Lord, my God. Thomas can now call God, his Father, and his God. And all that God is is mine. All that God is, and what is God? He's light. His love, His joy, His peace, His righteousness, His glory. All of that is mine because Jesus Christ died on the cross and God punished His Son to the full extent of the law. Yes, that means because Jesus did this. It means never forsaken in time or eternity. He was forsaken. I'll never be. God says, Lord, I'm with you always, even unto the end of the age. God will never turn his back on one of his children, because he turned his back upon his beloved son. Every Christian is the answer to that prayer. My Father, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Every child of God is the answer to that prayer. And I might say that the millennium, that glorious reign of Jesus Christ, the new heavens and the new earth, all this is because Jesus Christ was forsaken on the cross. So you see the significance of this cry on the cross. How marvelous. It's a thing. God has so blessed all those who believe. If you're not saved, if you're not a Christian, What the Lord Jesus Christ suffered for three dark and awful hours, you will suffer forever. If you do not accept Christ and who can expound the agonies, the sorrow, the suffering, the pain of Jesus Christ in three hours on the cross, punishment given by a holy God, if you don't get saved, what he endured for three hours you will endure forever and forever that's what the bible says deprived of all that god is if you don't get saved you'll be deprived all that i mentioned a while ago god's love god's joy and peace and righteousness and glory it just means You're going into eternity to face that God who punished His Son, and you'll face that Son too. For God has appointed a day when He will judge the world by that man whom He hath raised them from the dead. You'll have to meet God. You'll have to meet Jesus Christ. if you die in your sins and god will forsake you forever and forever and then you'll know that god is holy every sinner will know and i know the fallen angels will know that god is a holy holy god he is When you stop thinking that, I don't see how you would run the risk of dying in your sins. In the book of Revelation, even the enemies said, Thou art righteous, O God. Every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. The one who uttered this cry was the sinless, spotless son of God. When he suffered, when he cried, it was in the darkness. And why he suffered, that he might glorify God and save you, and give you everlasting life, and you'll never perish. That's why. He says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It was an awful price. But he'll never suffer again. Jesus Christ is glorified. He'll never have a pain impossible with immortality. The Lord Jesus passed that awful test. He went through that awful period. that he might deliver men and women from going down to hell. A group of fishermen were talking, and a preacher had to go among them to give out tracts. And he saw an old gentleman there, and he said, Buddy, he said, and you say, yes, I love Jesus. He said, why do you love Jesus? He said, he swapped with me. He took my place. And I can say that this morning. Why do I love him? He swapped with me. Jesus Christ took my place. He took my sins. He bore that awful load. And he died that I might live and live forever. And that's what you can do. Will you this morning say, he swapped with me. He took my place. He suffered in my stead. He paid my debt. The man who had no debts will pay yours. If you open your heart and let the Lord Jesus Christ in, do it now. Don't delay. Shall we pray? Our Father, we thank thee for thy precious holy work. We thank thee for the gospel of thy glorious grace. We thank thee for our Savior who came into this world and paid the awful price. Father, he met all thy righteous requirements and demands. He fulfilled the law and he fulfilled thy will. in saving men and women by the ordeal of the old rugged cross. Make that cross in the one who hung on precious to the hearts of thy people, but especially challenging any who are not saved. What an awful, awful eternity awaits those who know not our Lord Jesus Christ. Speak to them, save them. We ask it in our Savior's precious name. Amen. Shall we sing number three hundred and seventy-six? Three hundred and seventy-six. out of my bondage, sorrow, and might Jesus I come. Jesus, I come into thy freedom. Zionist and like, Jesus, I come to thee. Will you come as we stand and sing?