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MARK 15:34

"FORSAKEN BY GOD"

Intro: What an awesome feeling, I have felt it at times. Financial woes,
       pain. We have heard places called God forsaken land. Jacob at
       Bethel.

I. THE CROSS REVEALS MAN AT HIS WORST.
        A. Man is attempting to destroy God.
        1. First  recorded sin, suicide   "In the day you..."
        2. Second, Fratricide - Cain killed Abel.
        3. Worst - Decide.
                        a. Those today who try to destroy God.
                        b. "The fool has said in his heart..."
        B. Man has rebelled against God from the beginning.
                1. Adam's act, one of rebellion.
                        a. God is trying by His rules to restrict my
                           pleasure.
                        b. I know better than God what is good for me.
                2. As we look around, we see the pain, suffering, wars,
                   violent crimes, oppression, results of:
                        a. Not the world God created,
                        b. Not the world God intended,
                        c. Those foolish persons who try to blame the
                           world conditions on God.
        "My God, My God..."

II. HERE WE SEE THE AWFUL CONSEQUENCE OF SIN, SEPARATION FROM GOD.
        A. God warned Adam in garden, "You will die".
        1. God referring to spiritual death.
                a. Separation of soul and spirit from God.
                b. Different than physical death.
        B. Isaiah 59:1.
        C. God created man for fellowship.
        1. Fellowship is a oneness, communion.
        2. A holy God cannot become one with sinful man.
        D. In 1 Thessalonians 1:9, Paul declares final punishment for
           those who continue in sin, "punished with everlasting
           destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory
           of His power."

"My God..."

III. HERE WE BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND GETHSEMANE.
        A. The prayer for the cup to pass.
                1. The great agony as His seat became blood.
        B. We see the bitterness of the cup.
                1. He who was in the beginning with God.
                2. He who shared the glory with the Father before the
                   worlds existed.
                3. He who was one with the Father from all eternity -now
                   to be forsaken.