MATTHEW 27:46
(Reading: Psalm 22:1-24; Matthew 27:45-49)

The Fourth Word On The Cross - Christ’s Isolation

Church of our Lord Jesus Christ...

	This is the fourth of the seven sayings.
		It’s right in the middle!
	
	Yet it’s the most central saying of them all for something else.
		And that reason isn’t because Matthew and Luke both record it - thus making it unique.
			Nor is because it is written down for us in both the original language that our Lord cried out from the cross, which is Aramaic, and the Greek that’s used in the rest of the Gospels.
				It’s actually likely that the Aramaic was quoted because of the way those words were misunderstood by the crowd, as we read.

	Congregation, these words are central because if the cross is the central truth of the New Testament - indeed, of the whole Scriptures - this cry is the heart of this truth, and it’s the deepest expression of this truth.
		In the words of one preacher, ”This is the Holy of holies to the reverent reader of the Passion.” 

	We need to know this.
		We need to realise more of what this devastating moment meant.
			It’s the King of all being cut off from the source of it all!

	This is why Klaas Schilder disagrees strongly with the way this moment is often portrayed in Bach’s ‘Passion of St. Matthew.’
		There, with this fourth word, the second soloist usually has a restrained voice, and the organ usually accompanies the solo in hushed tone.
			They make it soft.
	Schilder notes that this is a misunderstanding.
		There was violence in Jesus’ crying - He exerted Himself to raise His voice.

	And never did the world quake as it did when the Saviour cried, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani?”
		His utterance tore through the clouds and again pushed back the sun.
			It was a super-individual expression of super-human emotion!

	You see, the whole Church was groaning in this cry with groaning that cannot be expressed.
		And the Spirit groaned with groaning that cannot be uttered.
			Heaven and hell were included in this same act.  
				They were placed in their proper relationship to each other in a single cry.

	Friends, Jesus cried out in a loud voice when it was so painfully hard and physically wearying for Him to do so, because... GOD’S HAND WAS HEAVIEST UPON HIM.
		This is our first point...GOD’S HAND WAS HEAVIEST UPON HIM.
			Then, following this, in the second place... YET JESUS’ HEART CARRIED IT ALL.

	First of all, GOD’S HAND WAS HEAVIEST UPON HIM. 					Congregation, listen to how this cry begins, “My God, my God.”

	Now, if I were to tell you that this is different from the first and the seventh sayings, which are also prayers of Jesus, would you know why?
		Well, let’s hear those other two.
			The first saying is, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
				And the seventh is, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

	Do you notice the difference?
		With this fourth word from the cross, Jesus prays, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

	Ah, Jesus uses a different title!
		It’s “My God”, instead of “Father”.
			Not that it has changed who God is; but it does show us where God is at that point.

	I mean, using the name “Father” is a term of endearment.
		It’s like “Daddy” which you boys and girls use.
			I mean, he’s your Dad, your own special Dad!
				And you love him!
					Come on - you do!
	When you haven’t seen him for a long time, don’t you come running to him, calling out, “Daddy, Daddy,”?
		Or, if you’re a bit older it’s not the “Daddy” bit, but “Hi Dad!”

	So Jesus, as the dearly loved Son, is close to His Heavenly Father.
		But not now!
			Now He’s cut off!
				The communing has gone.

	And much as Jesus knew it had to be, still His perfect humanity cries out as to why it was He!
		The only time Jesus asks His Father a question!

	For throughout His earthly life He had always accepted the Father’s will without question.
		Not once did He so much as to ask why, when, where, or how.
			He could only say, as it’s written in John 8 verse 29, “I always do what pleases him.”

	Why does He ask now?
		Congregation, as God Himself Jesus isn’t here being forsaken.
			But as a man He is.
	The man Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for sin, is being abandoned!
		And abandoned in a way no-one will ever know in this life.

	Because, upon this present earth, as Jesus Himself said, the rain falls upon the righteous and the unrighteous alike.
		It isn’t until a person leaves this life that they will meet the eternal realities.
			But that’s exactly what faces Jesus at this time.
				It’s His humanity that cries out, yet trusting God to do the right thing.

	That’s all He had left - that hope in the complete darkness all around Him.
		He clings to divine righteousness.

	Congregation, what a paradox - it’s something which just doesn’t make sense!
		Jesus Christ, “the Light of the world,” as He describes Himself in John 8, and also “the true light that gives light to every man coming into the world,” as John 1 says, is suspended in the darkness between heaven and earth.

	Christ’s words, and the darkness from which He cried them, are the deepest mystery.
		God left His Son in darkness, but He never left His people in darkness.

	We have an example of this concerning the great prophet Moses, who pointed toward the coming Christ.
		In Exodus 10, the verse 21 till 23, we read, “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness will spread over Egypt - darkness that can be felt.’
			“So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days.
	“No one could see anyone else or leave his place for three days.
		“Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.”
		
	But at Calvary, God’s beloved Son, in whom He was well-pleased, hung in supernatural darkness, a million times darker than the ninth plague that came on Egypt - and that was darkness which could be felt!
		God saved Israel from Egypt’s dark judgment, though only because there would be this One now who would pass through that darkness for them.
			Really, they should have got what the Egyptians got!
	But they didn’t!
		What marvellous grace!
			Undeserved favour - through and through!

	And how gracious that the very words Christ had given His Church under that old covenant, He now quotes again in its complete fulfilment.
		GOD’S HAND WAS HEAVIEST UPON HIM...YET, there’s the second point... JESUS’ HEART CARRIED IT ALL!
			This, friends, is the Gospel which in the Old Testament is concealed, but in the New Testament is fully revealed.

	Take, for instance, Psalm 22.
		We read it knowing how it points to what Christ had to suffer.
			But the believers then wouldn’t have known much more than that this was terrible suffering the Psalmist was describing.
				And in considering the suffering of the Psalmist, they would have known that this would be the very last way anyone should be treated!

	This was the darkness, that showed the very pits.
		And so bad is it, that David pictures a scene worse than any he’s every been through.

	So, when it actually happened with Christ, it all falls into place for those with faith.
		That’s what it’s about, congregation!

	He is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.
		He is our Saviour!
			And we know it.

	The Israelites had been told by the LORD to have a Day of Atonement.
		That’s recorded for us in Leviticus 16.

	On this religious festival two goats were to be taken and presented before the LORD.
		One of these goats was called the scapegoat.
			And unlike all the other goats, used by the priests, this one wasn’t sacrificed.
				The first goat was.

	But about this second goat, Aaron the High Priest must, in the words of Leviticus 16, “lay both hands on [its head] and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites - and put them on the goats head.
		“He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task.
			“The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place; and the man shall release it in the desert.”

	Those Israelites may well have wondered why there was this other goat, when one had already been sacrificed on the altar, not to mention all those other animals being sacrificed at the same time.
		But here, dear Christians - you who are the Body of Christ - here we see what Atonement is all about.
			We can even break up the word and see that it says, “At - one - ment.”
				Through Christ as our scapegoat, He the One who carried all our sins as He went into the wilderness - that place of forgiveness and forgetfulness - we are made ONE with God!

	Congregation, isn’t the Bible so full of the story of Jesus?
		Why did Jesus cry out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
			He cried it out because sin cuts Him off from God’s presence.

	Evil must not be found before the LORD God.
		God’s holy character could do nothing less than judge sin, even if that sin fell on Jesus Himself!
			YET JESUS’ HEART CARRIED IT ALL!

	Why did Jesus cry these words?
		Dear Christian, He shouted these words so that we wouldn’t have to say it!
			He was treading the wine-press of the fierceness of God’s wrath alone.

	Jesus had warned men about this “outer darkness.”
		But He did more than just warn them.
			He plunged Himself into that outer darkness; He took Himself outside the city gates; that you and I would not suffer those eternal, bitterest pangs.

	If sin is to forsake God, then it’s end result is to be forsaken by God.
		Praise God, our sin was transferred!
			The sin which cannot be transferred without the punishment for it, is nailed for us who believe, to the Cross of Christ!
				There never was such a darkness at noon before, and there never will be for you, if you are Christ’s.

	So, this is no cry of unbelief.
		Some Christians might say that God had forsaken them in their trial, but that’s only an excuse for their coldness of heart and lack of living out faith.
			
	Can faith cling to God in the dark?
		It must do, because following God when we can’t see most shows what faith is all about!

	You know, you don’t get anything out of being discouraged and defeated.
		Begging sympathy from friends won’t help you.

	Instead, let’s follow our Lord’s example.
		In the words of 1st Peter 5, the verse 6 and 7, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.
			“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”

	Christ gave His all - everything He had - and then He expressed where He was at.
		We should do the same, working to the very best of what we’re given, and being honest with the Lord for whatever that involves.
			Then, like Jesus, our question is already answered.

	Christ had everything against Him - heaven and earth had turned against Him.
		But if we believe, we can everything with us - heaven and earth are all on the Lord’s side.
			That’s why Paul could say in Romans 8 verse 28, “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

	If your faith is real, it will rest upon God in the deepest trial and the darkest times.
		Not even the Spanish Inquisition could destroy the beliefs of our Reformational forefathers!

	The world will mock and misunderstand, as that crowd around the cross did.
		In the end, though, the faith which connects us with Christ on Calvary, will silence the enemy.

	Don’t surrender!
		Don’t give up the fight!
			Jesus Christ didn’t.

	You keep on crying out in faith, holding on to Him, depending on Him - not crying against Him.
		Then you a brother or sister of His.
			With this attitude you show you’re a true child of God.

	Then you know... JESUS’ HEART CARRIED IT ALL.	
		And His heart is still beating away just as strong today, within the hearts of His own!
			Amen.

PRAYER:
	Let’s pray...
		Dearest Lord Jesus,
			Thank You so much for taking our sin.
	You had no hesitation in accepting it all, even with the terrible consequences for that sin.
		Even though You were cast from Your own Father’s presence, You trusted Him throughout.
			You loved us that much!
	Make us, then, live worthy of such love.
		For Your name’s sake, we pray, Amen.

HYMN:
	“And can it be that I should gain
		an interest in the Saviour’s blood?”
	With these well-known words of Charles Wesley, let’s stand and sing of what we now have in the Lord Jesus...

	* please be seated...

OFFERINGS:
	When writing to the Corinthians, about their giving to the Lord, Paul set before them the highest example.
		He wrote, “you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”

	And how rich aren’t we - spiritually and materially?
		Let’s show that now, with our offerings...

OFFERTORY PRAYER:		[ELDER]

HYMN:
	We stand now to sing hymn 470, the verse 1,2, & 3, after which we stay standing to receive the Lord’s parting blessing, and then sing verse 4...

	“Peace to the brethren,
		and love with faith from God the Father
			and the Lord Jesus Christ.
	 Grace to all who love the Lord Jesus Christ
		with an undying love.
			Amen.”

DOXOLOGY:
		[470:4]