 As you read through the book of Exodus, he come up to a story of Moses and Moses is shepherding sheep and he comes and he sees on Sinai from a distance what appears to be a bush that's on fire. And when he continues to look at it, it's not consumed. He gets closer and closer and closer. As he gets closer to this bush, then God speaks to him and God manifests his presence from this bush. And one of the things he says to him is Moses take off your shoes, you're on holy ground. In the Bible, when we come up to the text here of Jesus's crucifixion and we hear his scream from the cross, it is as if we come to holy ground in the Scripture. And we feel the same way, that as we read this text, we come to a holy place, a place that is different in other, a place that shows us much about who God is and much about who we are in this holy ground. So it is our great joy and privilege to hear of the good and old story again of Jesus Christ and the cross. This morning we went through verses 25 to 32 and began to see how God had a message to say through the irony of the cross. Now we have the last three hours of the cross. As Albert Merton said, now we have the crucifixion within the crucifixion in verses 33 to 37. Here we come to the heart of Jesus' work on the cross and we will see three parts. First in verse 33, we see the darkness. We see the darkness that comes over the lamp signifying the wrath of God. Then in verses 34 to 36, we hear the scream of the damned. And then lastly in verse 37, Jesus lays down his life. So the darkness, the scream of the damned, and then Jesus lays down his life. The heart of our text is verse 34, what Jesus screams out. And so remembering our Mark chapter 15 and coming into this text, our minds are still, we can still remember what happened this morning and how we described physical suffering and we described the mockery and we described the setting that happened with Jesus and the cross. But we remember, like we point out this morning, we do not hear from Jesus himself. Jesus himself doesn't say anything in Mark's account throughout this time, but he will hear in this text and that's what highlights, that's what brings our attention to is to hear what does Jesus say. Because when Jesus speaks, he will tell us the meaning of these events. There's much more here than physical suffering or knowing the details of crucifixion and the physical suffering that is there. No, there's a meaning much greater and a suffering much deeper that we look at and we hear. One would ask, where was God in chapter 15? Where was God the Father when Jesus is condemned before Pilate? Where was God the Father when Jesus takes Barabbas his place? Where is God the Father when the soldiers whip and mock and scourge Jesus Christ? Where is God the Father when all this mocking? Why does lightning not come from heaven and destroy the mockers who mock his son? Well, we see now in verse 33, the darkness representing what God the Father is doing here. And he does not come to save his son, but he comes to crush his son. We went over this morning how crucifixion was a common thing. The physical suffering was many suffered like that, but who is suffering here in this text is not common. Why he is suffering is not common and how he is suffering is not common, but it's completely and utterly unique. And so we begin to see first the darkness in verse 33. Again, like this morning, I'm going to walk through the text. I'm going to describe what happens in the events and then we'll go back again and look at the meaning behind these things. So first time through, we see what happens in verse 33. It reads, Now when the six hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. Here we're at the halfway point of the cross. Mark again telling us this timing. Remember how the sun, it comes up when it first, the sun rises first hour. And then we had the third hour when the sun is halfway between highest point and in the rising of the sun. And now we are at the highest point of the sun. We would call it noon day. And with the sun at its brightest, Luke tells us in chapter 23 how the sun, the light from the sun was obscured. We know that what happened was not a solar eclipse because Passover, this crucifixion is happening at Passover and Passover takes place on a full moon, full moon and solar eclipse cannot take place. What has happened at the same time, what is happening is a supernatural sign from God, a supernatural sign from God. And Mark tells us simply that this darkness came over the whole land and this darkness came from the 12th or from 12 o'clock to three o'clock or what in Mark's terms, from the sixth hour to the ninth hour. What would be the hottest part of the day. Seeing the darkness in verse 33, now we move to what Jesus screams out in verses 34 to 36. We read again. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eloi, Eloi, Lama, Savaktani, which is translated, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Crucifixions were normally filled with screams. That was not anything uncommon. They would be filled with the worst of cursings, shouts of terror, despair, hopelessness. But Jesus cries out with a great loud volume to his voice, expressing a deep emotion here. And Mark has to tell us what he said in the original Aramaic in order to communicate the emotion. It's like if your original language is hate, is Creole or Spanish, or you have to communicate what they said in their original language in order and then they'll translate it. Because of the emotional impact, because of the great significance of what they said, Mark is communicating, you need to hear it in both languages. You need to hear it in Aramaic and then you need to hear it in our Bibles in English. He says, you need to hear it in both. And so Mark has done this various times throughout the Book of Mark, Chapter 5, 7, 14. But here he does it again. And what Jesus says means why have you forsaken me, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He's crying out a prayer to the Father about his deserted state, his forsaken state, his abandoned state, how he's been left alone and suffering. The reaction of the crowd in verses 35 and 36 is that some who stood by, when they heard it, they said, look, he's calling for Elijah. Here these are probably Jewish people because of their understanding of the Old Testament. When they say it, when Jesus says LOE, they think, oh, that sounds a lot like Elijah. And so they turn it into a joke. They turn it into a joke because the Jews would understand, there was a tradition, Jewish tradition that Elijah would come to save the righteous in the future, in the time of the Messiah, that Elijah would come as a special help. And so they mocked Jesus once again, saying that he's looking for the forerunner. He's looking for Elijah or he's looking for John the Baptist. We know from John's account in John 19, verse 28, that after this Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, I'm thirsty. He communicates his thirst at this point. And we read in verse 36, someone ram filled a sponge full of sour wine, put it on a reed, offered it up to him to drink. Perhaps out of cruelty to keep him alive, we're out of compassion, we don't know. But what they give him is a wine vinegar, basically the cheapest drink. It does satisfy thirst, more effectively than the water, but it's basically a cheap drink. In John 19, we know that they took a branch or a stick of what was a hyssop, a stalk, a stick. And again, by them using the stick, we know Jesus was higher up. And John 1930, Jesus received it this time. Earlier in the cross, he did not receive it. And likely, he's receiving this wine so that he might speak, so that he might speak it is finished or his final cry. And this is in fulfillment of Psalm 69, 21, which says, they also gave me gall for my food. And for my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink. The people are mocking Jesus's trust in God. And so we've seen the darkness. I've described to you now what Jesus screams out and how the people respond in verses 34 to 36. Now let's move to verse 37, where Jesus lays down his life. Here we read, and Jesus cried out with a loud voice and breathed his last. Normally crucifixion victims would not have the strength to speak at the point of death. They've lost strength and they can't lift themselves up. And the death is normally not with a scream, but with an inability to breathe. But Jesus lifts himself up once more and cries out in Luke 23, 46, Father into your hands I commit my spirit. And in John 1930, it is finished. Matthew's account in Matthew 27 and 50 describes that Jesus yielded up his spirit. So these are the events. These are the events that are our most holy ground for us as Christians as we come to them. I don't know about you, but when I have even gone through my Bible reading, when I come here, and whether it's in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, and you come and I come here, I feel, I fear even to read it, that I would read it and not understand the depth of it, that I would read it and not be filled with worship, that I would come near this holy ground and tread mud on this holy ground. And so let's not read it that way. Let's read it with understanding. Let's read it with submission. Let's read it with worship. Let's understand what do these events mean? What does God want us to understand here? Let's go back through the three steps again and look at their significance, at their meaning. We pick up again verse 33, the darkness. In the Old Testament, when we think about the theme of the darkness coming, we can begin at the Exodus. One of the plagues, the ninth plague, was a great darkness over the land of Egypt. And the purpose of that plague was to communicate the judgment of God. As you read in the Old Testament of the day of the Lord, whether in Joel 2, Amos A, Zephaniah 1, there's a great darkness communicated about the great day of the Lord that comes. And that darkness is an expression to us about the judgment of God. Perhaps the greatest, though expression of this darkness that we can understand is how hell is described to be a dark place. When we read in Matthew, Matthew 8, 12, 22, 13, 25, 30, hell is called a place of outer darkness. In Revelation 6, again another expression of the darkness and the great day of his wrath. This darkness is the creation testifying of who is on that cross, how he is dying, why he is dying, the Son itself begins to cover its face, the Savior, the Creator is on that cross, and God, the Father, is communicating his great wrath. The wrath of God is the just and a controlled and appropriate anger of God towards those who commit sin. It's not just simply towards sin, it is towards those who commit sin. It's not like our wrath that is uncontrolled, but it is just and appropriate. When God punishes someone in hell for all eternity, it is what they deserve. It is not inappropriate or beyond. He is giving the just punishment for the crime. The darkness that is here is expressing the judgment of God the Father, the justice of God the Father. I've told you before about the justice of God and how amazing it is to think about how every sin that has ever been committed is remembered by God and that every sin will be punished in the history of the world. You think about the immensity of that thought that in Russia now and the other side of the world, someone's thinking about robbing someone in Guatemala, somebody is thinking an immoral thought now. Someone is not worshiping God with all their heart and all their soul and all their mind in Orlando. In all the world, every thought, every word, every attitude, every action, God has seen them all. God has counted them all. He has not forgotten a single one and he will bring justice, justice to every sin. Not a one will be overlooked. And so here the darkness is expressing the judgment that should have been given to all those who repent in belief. This darkness has come. God shuts out the light. It is as if he's closed the curtains to block out the light so that the attention goes towards the fire that's in the room, the light that's in the room. The darkness, God obscures the light of the sun so that we may look at the Son of God and we would listen to what he has to say because what he says describes to us how, why, and who is dying. It expresses what Jesus says, expresses the holiness of this holy ground. And so we understand in verse 33, what does the darkness mean? It means the wrath of God. Now we move to verses 34 to 36 and the scream of the damned, the scream of the damned. Now here Jesus breaks his silence. No more silence and his break in the silence is surprising and dramatic. Mark does not record him shouting out with the nails. Mark does not record him screaming on the cross. Mark does not record him crying out during the scourging. He may or he may not have, but that's not what's important. God doesn't want us to focus in on those things. He wants us to hear what Jesus screams, how important are these words, how important are these words from Jesus Christ? You remember how the Bible describes Jesus as our prophet, priest, and king. And these words describe all and manifest all three offices of prophet, priest, and king. Look at how he screams out and yells out so that you would hear it, so that those who were standing by would hear it. He's fulfilling the role as prophet to declare to us this great truth about the cross in this scream. What he screams about is his great priestly ministry. By screaming this, he is fulfilling the great, the point of David's words. He quotes Psalm 22 and David writes them. Psalm 22 verse 1 is what he's quoting when he cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And by quoting David's words, he is displaying, he's the greater David. He is the final king of kings. And so in this scream, he manifests himself as prophet, priest, and king. Begin to look at what he says. He repeats, my God, my God. Think about what he doesn't say. He doesn't say, oh God, oh God, why? Because he trusts in his father. He still says, my God, my God. But look at what he, he, he doesn't say in this prayer. He doesn't say, my father, my father, every other time we have of Jesus praying, he says, my father, but not here, not here. He says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? There's a judicial nature to this cry. There's a judgment taking place in this cry. Jesus is under a judgment. What does this judgment mean? Let's look back in Mark. And Mark will tell us, we'll link the pieces together. Jesus will tell us himself. Mark 10, verse 45. Mark chapter 10, verse 45. Tell us, Jesus, what do you mean by this cry? What is happening here in this cry? Mark 10, verse 45. Jesus describing his great work says, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. Why does Jesus scream out the scream of the damned here? Because he's giving his life to pay a price. He is giving his life to pay a price for many. For sin, he is in taking their place, taking the place, not of all, but of many. And the focus here is on a great many, a great number. What does this mean? Jesus tell us, look in Mark 14, and we read verses 35, or 34 to 36. We read in Mark 14, 34 to 36. Once again, Jesus tells us, then he said to them, is in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus speaking to his disciples, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch. So what Jesus is concerned about is that he is so concerned about it. He is ready near death, thinking about what is to come. In verse 35, he went a little farther and fell on the ground and pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. What hour? What hour? The hour in Mark 15, the scream of the damned. What does he say about it here in verse 36? He said, and he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Take this cup from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will. And so Jesus continually goes back to his father praying that this cup, this cup might be removed from him, but the father does not answer. The father gives no other solution. So Jesus describes this cup, this cup, a cup that signifies the wrath of God. The judgment of God. Likely describing a cup because it is a definitive punishment for a definitive amount of sin. Every sin is counted. Every morning God brings his justice to light. He never fails, Zephaniah 3.5. He never fails with justice. And so every sin of everyone who would put their trust in Christ, all the punishment they deserve, all the eternity of how they deserve is then brought to Calvary. And we have the imagery, we have the picture of a cup, a cup that Jesus must drink and Jesus must drink to the last. And so we return to Calvary. A preacher once said that Gethsemane is the prequel. And Calvary is the sequel. First comes Gethsemane and this description of the wrath of God, the cup. And then comes Calvary, the drinking of that cup. And so we say here in the scream of the damned is the crucifixion within the crucifixion. Here is why Jesus is here. Here is why Jesus came. And what Jesus cries out is the scream of the damned, the scream of one suffering under this pouring out of the cup of the wrath of God. It is an anguish and an agony worse than the physical effects of the cross. Like I said, no gospel writer focuses in on the physical suffering, but they all want you to see here what takes place here in something worse, in something greater, in something more significant than nails, than thorns. Jesus is not just feeling abandoned by the Father. He is being abandoned by the Father as he is actually innocent, but officially guilty. Yes, Jesus had great physical pain. Yes, Jesus bore the weight of bearing of sin, feeling shame and guilt. And yes, abandonment, and but even more the eternity of wrath that he drinks. God treated Christ as if he had committed all the sins of those who would believe. God committed Christ as if he had committed all the sins of those who would believe upon him. And this is only made possible because of who Jesus is. He's the only one who could do this. He's the only one who could scream this scream. He's the only one who could drink this cup into its fullness, manifesting that he is truly God. How can one man in three hours drink all the wrath of God that would take an eternity to pour out on you because he is God? How can one, how can man a tone for sin? Because he is truly man, truly God and truly man. He is the only one who could scream this scream of the damns. There is no other hope. He must scream here or you must scream me. One way or another, the judgment for every sin will come. Either you will pay for your sins or Christ will pay for your sins. When we come to this holy place, can you see it? Can you hear him screaming out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Don't you say, what does this mean? Tell me more. Tell me more. Tell me what is the meaning of this scream? Moses comes to your side and Moses says this is where Satan is crushed and his heel is bruised and the victory is accomplished. You say, what does this mean? Isaiah comes to your side and says, you see, you hear him? He's being smitten by the Father. The Father has laid on him the sin of us all and it pleased the Father. It pleased the Lord to crush him, to bruise him. He's done this in our place. You see this scene of the cross and you say, what does it mean? And Paul comes to you and he says, like a good you, this man, this one is cursed by God as he hangs on the tree. And yet he has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For as written, cursed is everyone who hangs on the tree. Paul tells us, you see what he's doing? We're justified by his grace, by this scream, by this act. This act is giving us redemption. This act is a propitiation. The Bible tells us, this act is an act of obedience. It's an obedience and it's a perfect obedience. It is an obedience where he takes upon a great curse upon himself. But also in this obedience, he is giving us something. He's giving us a perfect life, a perfect righteousness to all those who repent in belief. This great exchange is taking place. He is not only obeying, but he's obeying as a sacrifice. John the Baptist comes to your side and he says, you know what this means? Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is not only a sacrifice, but it's a propitiatory sacrifice, a sacrifice that satisfies the wrath of God. Not only is it obedience, not only is it a sacrifice, not only is it a propitiatory sacrifice, it is a sacrifice that would bring us reconciliation with God and the only way to be reconciled with him. Our problem is much greater than our own sin and that we were treating Christ as an enemy. No, our problem is that God cannot be reconciled with us, his enemies, because of our sin, and that his side of the reconciliation process is much greater and much more significant. He cannot be reconciled to us if we are guilty and have sin. This is the only way to be reconciled. Not only is Jesus obeying, not only is he a sacrifice, not only is he a propitiatory sacrifice, not only is he working for reconciliation, but he's working for redemption to free many from the power and the penalty of sin, from the penalty of the law and the bondage under the ceremonial law. Can you say with me? My sin, he took. Oh, the bliss of this glorious thought. My sin, not in parts, but the whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Oh, my soul, this great work is taking place. Look at the mockery that goes on. In verse 35 and 36, there's more irony yet to come here. As they run and mock Jesus, as they run to get a fill of a sour, a sponge full of sour wine, and they mock him, trusting God, Jesus is, the irony is Jesus does trust God. They mock him, saying, oh, look how he's looking for Elijah, like trusting in the, in help from God. But the fact is, he is trusting in the Father when he obeys here, when he offers himself as a sacrifice as he drinks this cup, as he takes our place. So we've seen the darkness in verse 33. We've heard the scream of the damned in verses 34 to 36. And now we see in verse 37, and Jesus cried out with a loud voice and breathed his last. This way of dying is purposeful. Jesus does not have his life stolen from him, but he dies purposely in such a way to manifest that he laid down his life, and no one took it from him. Jesus told us this would happen in John 10, verses 17 to 18. He said, therefore, my Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay down my life, lay it down of myself, and I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I receive from the Father. So with him dying this way in verse 37 shows that he is not being defeated, but rather he expresses his sovereignty and victory as he dies on the cross. This is a good old story. It's a good old story we need to hear again and again and again and again. Every preacher, I could say every preacher. It would seem like every preacher would come to this text and say, how can I preach this? Shouldn't an angel come from heaven and explain this? What a miracle that we get to explain it. As sinners, as those who deserve the wrath, he allows us to preach and believe this good old story. Think with me. How to apply this? What does this mean? This is the greatest manifestation of the holiness of God and his mercy. Nowhere will you see or hear a greater manifestation of God's holiness and hatred for sin than in this scream, how separate he is from sin, how different and other he is, and yet what mercy he has in this scream. Do you hear it? What does it tell us about God? You'll never see greater justice than what's taking place here and you'll never see greater love than what's taking place here. Do you hear it? Can you see it? Do you believe it? Do you see that your sin must be punished? Do you see that when Jesus screams the scream of the damn, he screams under a judgment that should have been given to everyone who believes upon him? Do you see the seriousness and the gravity of your sin? There is, could there be no greater way to express it than that God would take flesh, take upon humanity and go to a cross and scream out in this way and drink this cup and drink your cup to its fullness. I don't know how he could communicate in a greater way our sin and what we deserve. It's like Abraham who takes his only son Isaac to Mount Mariah and Isaac asks, where's the lamb? And Abraham says the Lord will provide. And when Abraham pulls the knife out to slay his son, the father says to hold back because the father will give his son and the father will not hold back the knife but will slay his son. And so we see our only hope. Our hope is in the great scream that he screamed the scream of the damned in our place. He screamed so that we may sing. He screamed so that we may sing his praises in heaven. So that we may sing his praises now. The perfect substitute, the only substitute, the only way to be saved. No other response can be called for but rather a hatred for your own sin. A trusting in him and him alone. How can you love sin or go back to sin when he screams this way? How could you ever love sin? Shouldn't you abhor your own sin? When you hear this scream, say with me again, say with me again, my sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought. My sin not in part but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh my soul. So I call you once again to repent and believe. Believe this. Believe the bad news and the good news. Believe that you deserve to scream the scream of the damned. But Jesus screamed it in your place. Trust him and abhor the evil of your own heart. How do you apply this? Believe it. Repent and praise him with all your heart. Praise him that he laid down his life. Praise him that he did this voluntarily. He chose to do this. What great praise he deserves, what great worship he deserves. Nothing you give him. He can pay for this. There is no expression of praise or service that is a true sacrifice when he has screamed this way. Will you love him in return? Will you praise him in return? You cannot complain of anything. 50 hours from the west side to come here? You cannot complain for 50 minutes rather 50 hours. The point is what things we can complain about? Can we complain about cancer? Can we complain about the death of our child when we have been given the greatest salvation? You can't write or come up with a better story than this. If every man was ascribed by trade and every man had a pen and the entire sky was paper for us to write and the entire ocean was ink. We could not write of the love of God as he screams the scream of the dance. Let's pray. Jesus Christ, we worship you now. Please receive our worship through this prayer. We thank you once again. How prone we are to wander and forget how we need to hear this good old story again and again and from various angles and from various ways. We want to hear it in Abraham and Isaac. We want to hear it in the garden when you speak of the serpents had been crushed. We want to hear it from Paul. We want to hear it in Revelation. We want to hear it in the Gospel. Help us Lord to repent, believe, help us to be filled with love and praise for your great salvation. In your name we pray. Amen.