In his sermon titled 'No Longer Forsaken,' Scott Brown delves into the profound significance of Jesus's crucifixion as depicted in Mark 15:33-37. Brown emphasizes the centrality of the word 'forsaken' as Jesus cries out, highlighting it as a defining concept of the gospel. He explores the multifaceted beauty of the cross, likening it to a diamond or a mountain, revealing different aspects of God's love, justice, and mercy. The sermon underscores the transformation from a state of condemnation and darkness to one of redemption and light through Jesus's sacrifice. Brown discusses theological concepts such as propitiation and expiation to explain how Jesus's suffering pacifies God's wrath and expiates human sin, offering believers a new identity as 'un-forsaken.' He also critiques superficial understandings of the cross and stresses the enduring promise of God's unyielding presence and love for those who turn to Christ. The sermon concludes with a call to embrace the cross as the source of eternal hope and a reminder of the new covenant of love and mercy.

It's such a delight to read these words in Mark chapter 15. The greatest hope that we have for our church is that we are a people who have all of our hopes in the word of God, in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that this is the defining matter of all of our thoughts, all of our comforts, all of our health in the world, that Jesus Christ is the only savior, and the word of God is the only authority. So with that, I'd like to read Mark 15, beginning in verse 33. 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 Subbachtany, 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's 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 and take him down. And Jesus cried out with a loud voice and breathed his last. Let's pray. Father we thank you For this sacrifice for sin that you made We thank you for disarming the powers and the principalities in our lives By the cross of Jesus Christ Lord we thank you for your love.

We pray that we would know it more deeply today from these words. Amen. Please be seated. We're in the midst of a series on the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'd like to frame this text and make some introductory comments about it.

The central matter in the text and the central proposition of the gospel of Jesus Christ is before us today, and it's in the word forsaken. Strangely enough, the whole gospel, it really is captured in these words. Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Now these words that Jesus utters weren't spoken quietly. The text says he cried out with a loud voice and you should rather think of screaming out rather than a soft cry of any kind.

This word forsaken is the defining matter in this sermon and in this text. A.W. Pink, one of the commentators of the Word of God suggests that the word forsake is one of the most tragic words in the human language. He says that to be forsaken is the most terrifying thing that can happen to you. It's one thing to be forsaken by a friend.

It's another thing to be forsaken by a spouse. It's another thing to be forsaken by a boss or by your children. But for a creature to be forsaken by his creator is the most frightful thing that ever could happen. In this sense, the cross speaks. Well, that's what the Bible says.

In Hebrews chapter 12, 24 through 25, We read that Jesus Christ is the mediator of a new covenant. And then we read that it is a new covenant of the blood of sprinkling that speaks of better things than the blood of Abel, see that you do not refuse him who speaks. So the cross speaks, it has a message, it has actually many, many messages. And you know, what does the cross say? Well, we're illustrating that in this series for sure.

We've said that it's astoundingly beautiful. Then you look through another facet, and it's even different and even more astoundingly beautiful. And you can do that all the way around the diamond. We've likened it to a mountain where if you look at a mountain from afar, it looks beautiful. It's amazingly majestic.

And then If you walk around it, it looks like a completely different mountain. If you start walking toward it, you get more and more detail and it looks even more stunning. And if you begin walking up it, it looks even more detailed. We've also illustrated it as if you were looking through a telescope and then through a microscope and then through an electron microscope that the things just get smaller and smaller and smaller and more and more beautiful and the beauty just doesn't end. And the tools that science has to look into these things cannot go far enough.

There's always more that can't be seen. And I think that's the view of the cross that we have here. And so far in this series, we've talked about boasting in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says that we should learn to boast. In other words, to make the boasting in the cross the central theme of the meditations of our hearts.

And then we further have power in this life, which the Apostle Paul made very clear to the Corinthian Church where he said, for I determined to know nothing among you except Christ and him crucified. In other words, the blood of the cross speaks. It has something to say. And in these Sundays, we plan to continue to illuminate the various things that the cross says. Today, the cross speaks another word, forsaken.

Again, the most heartbreaking words that a human being can know is to be forsaken. But to be forsaken by your creator is a completely different matter in order of magnitude of seriousness than being forsaken by any human being. No longer forsaken, no longer an outcast, no longer afraid. As the prophet Isaiah says, I'll change your name. You're married now.

Your new name is Bula. Your new name is Hepzibah. If we have time, we'll get to that later. But when a person is born again, he's transferred from a state of condemnation, a state of forsakenness. Every person born in the world is born forsaken because of the sin that has been passed on.

You were born forsaken. You were born under condemnation. You were born under condemnation. When a person turns to the Lord Jesus Christ and believes and Follows him then he's forgiven and saved and he's unversed and this is the focus of these verses and The heart of the matter is I'll just state it right up front, but you'll hear me say it over and over again The Christian is unversaken Because the Son of God was forsaken at the cross His blood speaks that word forsaken and For all those who believe, who love him, who follow him, they have a new name, un-forsaken. If you love Jesus Christ, that's your name, un-forsaken.

And so these sermons here are illustrative explanations of why the Apostle Paul would say to the Galatian Church, God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and he would say to the Corinthian Church for I determined to know nothing among you but Christ and him crucified. So I'd like to give just a quick overview of this passage of scripture. These verses that are before you illustrate how man is rescued from darkness, cleansed from sin, and instead of being separated from God, separated from the madness of the thinking of the unfeeling world that's there before the cross. And so in this passage, we come to one of the darkest moments in history that actually, as it turns out, is the brightest and most beautiful moment in all of history. This is the scandal of the cross of Jesus Christ.

And so in verse 33, we have darkness. It covers the land for three hours. And then in verse 34, we have the Son of God who is forsaken, bearing all our sins so that we would not be forsaken, he taking the punishment for all of our sin, past, present, and future. And then in verse 35, we have the strangest occurrence in this text, it's mind boggling to me that it's here. Where you have some shallow, ridiculous men at the foot of the cross trying to create a stir, actually telling a lie to try to get the crowd whooped up and then bringing sour wine to Jesus to try to get him whooped up to get him to move.

They're so insensible about the reality of their condition. They're so blinded that they have no idea who it is on the cross. And then they do not know that they're joking about the infinite, absolutely vanquishing power who created all there is, and could put them out with the flip of his finger. So that's the scene that you have. And then finally in verse 36, Jesus breathes his last.

Now how strange it is that the sign of Christianity is a sign of the cross. How odd, how unappealing, how ridiculous it is to make the hallmark of your religion, your whole hope in life a cross. But it is true that every movement has its own symbol. Communism has its own hammer and sickle Islam, has its crescent and its moon. Hitler had his swastika And of course there are all kinds of hand signs that people use, but how strange it is that Christianity's supreme mark, whose supreme quality is love, would have such an odd symbol as the cross to speak of it.

And that really takes me to the word. It's a common word that we use all the time. It's the word crux. The crux of the matter. We hear people speak of that, but the word crux comes from the Latin word cross.

And the word, of course, it speaks about a critical point in time or or a Critical truth. It's the crux of the matter. The the crux of the truth is really the heart of it and The cross of Christ is like that. I've said over and over again that this section of scripture dealing with the cross is really the center of the Bible. It's the center of history.

It's the center of God's plan. That's where we are when we come to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know it's also interesting that the word excruciating also comes from that same Latin root word for the cross. The excruciating suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ is captured in that word, the cross. And the cross brings together these massive and beautiful categories that are like a mountain that are like a diamond that are like looking through an electron microscope and They they span and they bring together God's love God's justice is suffering his pain his compassion His mercy his sovereignty all these things are brought together in the message of the cross.

His condemnation of sin, the way that mankind is born in sin and is under condemnation until he's delivered by the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of these things are loaded up in this one single word, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's very interesting that many people think of the cross differently. There are people, not all people are like this, but there are people who wear a cross around their necks as a luck charm. They wear it to remind them of God.

A.W. Tozer said that the spoke of the weakness and the futility of people who think wrongly about the cross. And he said that a church that gathers around a physical cross will always and only be weak. And then he said, and I quote, let a sick man die hugging a crucifix. And what do we have there but two dead men in a bed and neither can help each other because it is only the risen Savior the cross as a symbol hasn't has no power at all But a risen savior who endured the cross, suffering for sin does.

So we come here to this text. I hope you have your Bibles open to it. This is a three hour period of fearful terror. It's a period of darkness. The strangest thing has happened.

I don't think this was an eclipse but dark darkness falls on the land and the wrath of God falls on his son and the stupidity of man is displayed and Jesus breathes his last and Jesus is doing the will of his father. He is risen up to do the will of his father. He said earlier in John chapter four, verse 34, my food is to do the will of him who sent me. And don't forget this part. And to finish his work, to finish his work.

And that's what we find here. Our Lord Jesus Christ is finishing the work of his Father in power. It's very important that we don't misunderstand these words, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Now, let's move into the exposition of this passage of scripture. The first of all, I want us to speak to this foreboding darkness that's all over the land.

That's in verse 33. Now, when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. The sixth hour at that time was noon. The ninth hour was three o'clock in the afternoon. So notice that time marker.

This is a three hour period of darkness. It is high noon, the height of day. It oughta been the height of day, but it was the deepest darkness over the land. And It really is a foreboding foretelling that there's a day of darkness coming to all those who refuse God's call. And really, every day is a day of darkness without the Lord Jesus Christ.

And So after three hours of torture now, at noon, the six hour, the darkness falls over the whole land. I believe it was a supernatural darkness. Who knows how it happened? It doesn't really matter. That's not really what the Bible is here to explain to us, but it happened.

And I think at minimum you have the heavens are testifying to the message of the cross. Paul and Romans said the whole creation groans as it waits for the revealing of the sons of God. This is creation groaning, and there's a foreboding darkness. God is warning, he's giving a sign. He's testifying to the darkness that devours the wicked.

And if you're born in darkness, and are not raised to everlasting life by the Son and given the Holy Spirit to heal you and to guide you and comfort you. You'll just find your darkness to continue to increase until you face everlasting darkness. John Calvin said that this darkness pointed to, listen to this language, the terrible torments of a condemned and lost man. That's exactly what the darkness was pointing to. The heavens are declaring the glory of God.

One of the great writers on the cross is Donald Macleod. I so heartily recommend this book on the cross. It is the most amazing thing I have ever read on the cross. You should, we should all read it. You have to read it slowly.

Here's what he says, here the light of the world is being extinguished. The life dies and the logos is silenced. Of these paradoxes, the darkness is the portent, as if the universe itself trembled on the brink of chaos while the one who holds it together devoted all his strength to the titantic task of redemption and the Logos bereft of the strength to speak. Another commentator speaks of nature reflecting the suffering. He says the sympathy of nature with the sufferings of the Son of God is what seems to be indicated in all three gospel accounts and he's referring to the darkness.

The heavens are declaring the glory of God, the heavens are speaking, the heavens are actually testifying to the truth of God. But even further than that, this is an absolutely astounding fulfillment of prophecy. I'm gonna read it to you, you don't need to turn there. Amos chapter eight verse nine is a prophecy of this moment. Several hundred years before, Amos writes, and it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord, that I will make the sun go down at noon, at noon.

And I will darken the earth in broad daylight at noon. Jesus is the light of the world, he is the light of life. But men love the darkness rather than the light. And this is all speaking of what it means to walk without the light of Jesus Christ in your life. And I really believe it's an appeal to all those who read this text to turn from the darkness into the light.

This is what the power of the cross unleashes is light. Christ delivers from darkness. One of the texts that I hope to get to is Colossians chapter one verse 13, where we read these words, for he has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us to the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. Jesus here is, he's belittling the powers of darkness. Colossians 2.15 speaks of it, of this whole matter and I'll just dovetail down to what he meant.

He says, and he has taken it out of the way having nailed it to the cross. In other words, your sin. And the condemnation that you deserve. He nailed it to the cross at that time. So the cross puts the powers and the principalities of open shame.

No one had any accusations against the Lord Jesus Christ. We already covered that, but the cross, it deconstructs, it dethrones, it completely de-horns the kingdom of darkness, and it no longer has power over those who turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's no other power to deliver man from his state of condemnation and his forsakenness. No other power. So the cross speaks to the reality that all those who love the Lord Jesus Christ, they're no longer in darkness, they're no longer forsaken, they're no longer an outcast, no longer afraid, They have a new name.

But then we come to the verse where these astounding words are uttered, the son is forsaken, verse 34. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Elo Elo, Lama sabachthani, which is translated, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? Now, we began our text in the previous verse at the very beginning of the last three hours of Christ on the cross. Now, Mark fast forwards us directly to the very end, three hours later. He leaves out this three hour period of darkness and gives us the beginning and the end of it.

And these words are just there to describe the awfulness of the sinfulness of sin. And of course he's quoting Psalm 22 verse 1 where a thousand years before, it's prophesied that Jesus would say these very words. Very interesting opening to this Psalm, to the chief musician, set to the dear of the dawn The dear of the dawn The opening of the light the beginning of the light David understood that it was a psalm of David The beginning of light is at the deepest darkness of the soul. You know, this is why so many people, when they come to Jesus Christ, They come because they hit the bottom. You know, it's a good thing to hit the bottom.

Don't despise the person that comes to Jesus when they hit the bottom. When they hit such deep darkness that they just can't stand the pain any longer, they can't stand the anger, they can't stand the suffering that they have had because of sin. They can't stand the fallout any longer. They can't stand their conscience any longer. They can't stand the cravings of their body any longer because maybe they're driving them to crack or alcohol or to something to try to pacify them.

All their travel, all their pleasures, they don't work and they finally come to the end of it they say There's nothing there for me It's so good to come to the end of it. It's so good to become to come to the deepest of darkness in your soul It's the best thing that can happen to people if they turn to the light. The dear of the dawn this Psalm was sung to whatever tune that was. I think we have to understand these words are very deep, deeper than we can understand. Let me just suggest something.

Their plain meaning is enough. The plain meaning of this text is all that we really need. There's so many questions that could be asked about, could be forsaken by his father who delights in him. The one whose will is one with his, and the son always does the will of his father and the father always loves his son and delights in his son how could it be that a father would forsake his son like that one theologian has said can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit to the Almighty?

It is higher than heaven. What can you do deeper than she all? What can you know the measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea? That's Mark Jones in his book, God is. The Bible does not answer all the questions we might have.

How exactly, precisely, the Son of God could be forsaken. But what is plain is that He was forsaken so that you would not be forsaken. That's plain. It cannot mean that the fellowship and love between the Father and the Son was forsaken. That did not happen.

It never could happen. It would put a wrecking ball to everything the Bible says about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the doctrine of the Trinity. What does it mean? If you read Psalm 22, and if you read the victory of the cross, it's very clear that it means that whatever suffering and forsakenness the Son of God experienced, It was a suffering in hope. He was suffering knowing his victory.

That's why the last half of Psalm 22 is all about his victory. And that's why in the book of Hebrews, we learn that for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. He knew he was being victorious. It wasn't the kind of hopeless suffering. He was suffering in hope.

He was fulfilling the prophecy in Psalm 22. He was fulfilling the prophecy in Genesis 3 15 that he would one day crush the serpent's head. In his suffering he was crushing the power of the devil. So it wasn't the kind of suffering of despair that you and I experienced. There may be some overlaps.

I don't even know how to explain it, but he was suffering in hope without question. And it was an excruciating suffering. But it was not the cry of the defeat. Here's what we know for sure. First, God spared not his own son.

He delivered him up for us all. Second, he pacified the anger of the Father against unrepentant sinners. Third, He was made a curse so that his children would not be cursed. Galatians 3.13, quoting Deuteronomy, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. Fourth, he demonstrates the righteousness of God.

Fifth, he demonstrates the justice of God. Sixth, he demonstrates how he delights in mercy towards sinners. Seventh, how Christ is the spotless lamb of God. He's the brazen serpent. He's the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Number eight, it's the evidence of Christ's love for us. For greater love has no one than this than he laid down his life for his friends. And ninth, it puts on display one of the most terrifying verses in the entire Bible. The wages of sin is death. And one of the most comforting continuations of a phrase.

But the free gift of God is everlasting life for all those who believe. The words of Romans 8 32 ring in our ears with this, He who did not spare his own son but delivered him up for us all, how will he not also with him give us all things? All of the blessings of God flow from the cross. And the summary of it all is that he was forsaken That his children might never be forsaken never never never forsaken You know most Christians I know they doubt their salvation from time to time. They see their inadequacies, they see their foolishness.

They see their patterns, and it's so discouraging to them. And they sometimes say, how could I possibly be a Christian? And this is where a Christian must always go to the cross every day to find help from heaven. You are not forsaken. Now, there are many words that we can attach to this and I hope to explain some of these more as we go on in this series.

But this language here, this event, is connected to the word propitiation that the apostle Paul uses. And that term propitiation, which he uses in many places, it has two simultaneous meanings. It's pacifying the wrath of God and expiating your sin. Let me explain those two words, propitiation and expiation. They're two different things.

And it's very important that we understand the distinction. I plan to build these things out as time goes on. But expiation refers to the effect of the atonement on your sin. The focus is on you and your sin. On the other hand, propitiation is the focus on Christ's sacrifice on God, particularly on the wrath of God.

It's a soothing of the wrath God, expiation is the forgiveness of your sin. So expiation and propitiation, they overlap and they're really loaded in many of the same verses, but they mean actually different things. And it's very important that we understand that. These are all subsets of reconciliation and atonement and justification and forgiveness and satisfaction. That he purged our sins.

In Hebrews 26, he took away our sins. As John the Baptist said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And by the way, it was our sins that sent Jesus to the cross Your sins my sins sent Jesus to the cross we often Take our sins lightly it's the wickedest thing we can do to be dismissive about our sin to be careless and unthinking about our sins. One of the writers of the Bible speaks to speak of it as crucifying the Lord of glory again. But every person who has ever been born put Jesus Christ on the cross.

All of mankind is culpable. And I would just suggest that isn't just your sin individually, but it's it's the cumulative sin of all of mankind. When man fell, man began to sin. And his sin pervaded every culture. Every part of every culture.

Every part of the way that we think, the way that we live our lifestyles has been affected by the culture that we've been born into. Every sin of every culture cumulatively is the sin for which Jesus Christ died for because God's people are always existing in the midst of a culture that is the recipient of the cumulative effect of sin in that culture. So every person in the world is culpable. Every person who ever lived is culpable for the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know for sure that there are sins that are more grievous than others.

The Bible teaches that. And maybe your sins aren't that, don't seem to be that egregious. You know, you've never murdered anyone with your hands. You've never physically committed adultery. You've never done the things in the body that are just so serious before God and man.

But we shouldn't think of sin by lightning it. A.W. Tozer gives an illustration of a woman who sweeps a room and there's a lot of dirt that comes up in the pan and some of it is really dark and nasty and some of it is very, very mild. Some of it's thick, some of it's thin, but it's all dirt. He says that's the way sins are.

And Jesus Christ died for all of our sins. You have many moral men and women who are very affable, very giving, very loving, but they all have the same problem of sin. The same dirt is ours. Some dirt is more outward than others, but all dirt of our souls is deeper than our outward appearance, our outward ability to understand. Our inward conscience.

Sin is deeper than even your conscience to understand it and to know it. The sin of man who can know it. It's deeper than deep. And Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. He said earlier in the Gospel of John that he did not come to condemn the world but that he might, but that the world through him might be saved.

And that's why the Christian on his deathbed does not say, why have you forsaken me? Because they fall into everlasting arms. Because God changed their name and they're no longer forsaken. So in this statement Jesus foretells what will happen to every person who does not follow Jesus. They will be forsaken.

People believe that God would never send anyone to hell, that God loves all people and God is love. This passage should clear it up. This is a lie of the devil. It was first heard in the Garden of Eden when the devil said to Eve you shall not die but you will die in your sin utterly forsaken for all of eternity in everlasting darkness unless you turn to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. To believe him and trust him and follow him.

To give up your life. The cross will give you a totally new life. Are you afraid of losing something because of the cross? Be afraid. You'll lose everything for the cross.

You will. You'll lose your life, but you'll gain abundant life. And then we turn to the blind insanity of the crowd in verses 35 and 36. The thrill seekers are there. Some of those who stood by, so some of those who were in the crowd, when they heard that, when they heard him say, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

They say, he's calling for Elijah. That was a lie, that was ridiculous. 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 and take him down. What a strange moment in the narrative. Why in the world would Mark include this in the crescendo of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, the apex of Christ suffering for sin?

And I can only think that these ridiculous men are only interested in their banal, carnal, thrill-seeking, entertainment-drivenness. That there they are before the Son of God who healed the sick and raised the dead and cast out demons and stilled storms and fed thousands of people with nothing. How could they do that? They're more excited about this thrilling moment. They want to show they are so confused and blinded That they do not know what they do, you know people would rather have some stupid Anything Than to have the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ on their minds some stupid video clip some funny ridiculous YouTube for 30 seconds, you know?

This is mankind. Jesus already explained it. They know not what they do. Their eyes have been blinded. They are so dead to reality that they cannot see.

Only God can open up a person's eyes like that. And by the way, that is the state of every person born into condemnation. They cannot turn to him unless God turns their hearts toward him. If that's you, pray that God would turn your heart. Pray that God would move your heart and change you.

Only he can move it. And then Jesus breathes his last, verse 37, and Jesus cried out with a loud voice and breathes his last. What can we say about this? Jesus chose his moment of death. Astounding, Jesus chose his last breath.

You do not, human beings, Unsupernatural human beings do not choose their last breath. Who can choose the moment of his birth? Who can choose the moment of crucifixion? Who can choose the moment of death? Who can plan his last breath?

Who can depart from this world at the moment he pleases only the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, Jesus is king. And he breathes his last breath in victory for the joy that was set before him. And he finishes the transgression and he says, it is finished. Let me take a few moments to summarize and conclude. I'd like to quote from actually a dear past Scottish pastor who just died John Murray.

The doctrine of the propitiation is precisely this, that God loved the objects of his wrath so much that he gave his own son to the end that by his blood should make provision for their remove for the removal of his wrath it was Christ's so to deal with the wrath that the loved would no longer be the objects of wrath and love would achieve its aim of making the children of wrath the children of God's good pleasure. So the Christian is un-forsaken because the son of God was forsaken on the cross. Forsaken to un-forsaken by the blood of the lamb who takes away the sin of the world. Now last night, I received a phone call at 10-01 and it marked what seemed to me as I was going to sleep, an illustration of at least a part of this that a family in our church experienced when our dear members mother died John Felman it was a moment when I just couldn't get out of my mind, this word, un-forsaken. And this woman died at minimum un-forsaken by her family surrounding her.

Since John was the only child that was left to him and his family to care for his mother in her final days of succumbing to cancer, it was a long battle. God was demonstrating his character in this family. And they cared for her constantly in the past months. Hardly, many of them hardly leaving her bedside. She was under their care for the last few months.

You know, so for the last few months, at least one of the felmutes was hearing this preaching over the livestream in the bedroom of John's mother. And she was unforsaken in her last days, particularly, not exclusively, but particularly Susan Felmet was assiduously, tenaciously, devotedly, unswervingly, unstoppable devoted to her mother-in-law. It was astounding to me to watch it. And there she was on the live stream. I shudder to think if John had married a lesser woman than that.

One who would do everything she could to see that her mother would be unversaken by family up to the moment of her death. And it made me think about God's everlasting kingdom. This is how he does family to be a picture of this word un-forsaken. Literally the un-forsakenness of lifelong care. And the whole Bible actually speaks of it when it speaks of family life.

God commands a husband and a wife to be faithful to one another unto death and to never forsake, but to love one another like Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. In the marriage vows, in the old marriage vows, the traditional marriage vows, you have these words to the husband, to love her, honor her, keep her in sickness and in health, and forsaking all others. Keep only to her so long as you both shall live. God commands children to honor their father and their mother and to see that they're unforsaken in this world. He calls members of his church to be devoted to one another in brotherly love and to keep their love for one another unforsaking.

It's a glorious study to look up the word forsake in the Bible. God's promise to never forsake you is meant to strengthen you in the battle in Deuteronomy 31 6. The words uttered before the conquest of the promised land, be strong and of good courage, Do not fear nor be afraid of them. For the Lord your God, he is the one who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you." David makes it very clear that even if our loved ones forsake us, God will never forsake us.

He said, when my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take care of me. His love is un-forsakable. God cannot forsake his own any more than a mother can forsake his child. That's what Isaiah says in Isaiah 49. But Zion said, The Lord has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.

And God replies, can a woman forget her nursing child? The answer is no. And not have compassion on the son of her womb? The answer is no. Then he says, surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you.

I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands. I will not forget you. I will not forsake you. I will not leave you. Difficult times don't mean that God has forsaken you.

The apostle Paul, who was stoned and left for dead in 2 Corinthians 4, 8 and 9, he says, we are hard pressed on every side, we are crushed, we're perplexed, we're in despair, we're persecuted, but not forsaken. Struck down, not destroyed. This is the power of the gospel. There's no need to worry about your life or to covet what you other people have what you don't have in Hebrews 13 5 & 6 he said I will never leave you or forsake you so we may boldly boldly say the Lord is my helper I will not fear what can man do to me but let's be very clear about something and this must be understood very clearly that there are the forsaken of the world. In 2nd Chronicles 24 18 through 20 we learn that those who hate the Word of God and and disobey him because they do not love him.

It is of those, he says, because you have forsaken the Lord, he also has forsaken you. So turn to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Now I want to conclude with a passage of Scripture that has been ringing in my mind. It's Isaiah chapter 62. I remember preaching about this several years ago.

It was one of the most wonderful experiences of my life to preach this text but it contains so many wonderful promises for the church and What what Jesus Christ will do And Isaiah is drawing a parallel with marriage. Because God gives these earthly pictures to speak of these heavenly pictures of his cross. Marriage is an earthly relationship. It was intended to teach you that you're not forsaken. That when you marry, you have a companionship that never ends.

You have love. You have a covenant. You have mercy all your life long. That's what God calls for in a marriage. When you marry someone, that's what you make a covenant to do.

Whether they're sick or angry or sinful or fat or skinny or stupid, you love them to the end. That's a covenant. I just want to read this. I'm going to read the first five verses of Isaiah 62 and we'll close with this. For Zion's sake I will not hold my peace in other words I won't stop I won't stop rescuing sinners.

I won't hold my peace. I won't stop speaking I won't stop rescuing. I won't stop preaching to sinners. They will hear my voice and For Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until her righteousness goes forth in brightness and her salvation as the lamp burns. Has God been dogging you?

Has he been chasing you? Well, he says here he will not hold his peace. He will not rest In verse 2 Isaiah says the Gentiles shall see your righteousness all kings your glory in other words everybody will see the abundance of your life they'll see how you changed they see how you're a new person and then he says this you shall be called by a new name. You have a new name. And here is your name.

You shall no longer be named forsaken, no longer forsaken, nor shall your land be termed desolate, but you shall be called Hepsaba and your land, Bula, for the Lord delights in you. And your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a virgin so shall your sons marry you And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. A new name, Bula. It means married, Hebsava.

It means my delight. And that's why the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 28 said, Behold I am with you always, even to the end of the age, not forsaken, no longer in darkness, no longer in outcast, no longer afraid, married, delighted in. This is what it means to boast in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and to know nothing but Christ in him crucified. Unforsaken for all eternity. Would you pray with me?

Father, Father, we are amazed at the words that you've given to us, the words of Jesus Christ, the power of the cross. Oh Lord, that you would take all these things burn them deeply within our hearts and if anyone needs to hear again today that they are un-forsaken let it be so that the encouragement of it would be so thrilling to them as they take the Lord's Supper today, being set free. For any who are in a state of condemnation, who are forsaken to this moment, Lord, that you would move them, that you would draw them into the kingdom of the Son of your love today. Amen.