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Dr. J. Oswald Sanders (1909-1992) was the General Director of Overseas Missionary Fellowship for many years. Near the end of his life, Dr. Sanders wrote a book called, Facing Loneliness (Discovery House Publishers, 1988). In that book Dr. Sanders said,

A recent survey reveals that loneliness is the biggest problem confronting teenagers today…This springs, in part, from the desperate need [young people] feel to be socially accepted, especially by their peers. They have reached the in-between stage when they feel identity with neither child nor adult. As a result they are uncertain how to discover a niche into which they can fit comfortably…In their loneliness they hunger for understanding and acceptance. If this is not extended to them at home, they seek it elsewhere, sometimes in questionable places.
       Excessive noise and frenzied activity seem to be an essential element in [young people’s] behavior patterns. Adults do not always appreciate the result, and when objection is taken to the excesses, the young person feels rejected and disapproved and retreats into his loneliness (ibid., pp. 34-35).

“A recent survey reveals that loneliness is the biggest problem confronting [young people] today…” I think Dr. Sanders was right. He went on to say,

All these factors combine to produce an acute loneliness that sometimes finds expression in antisocial behavior. It is not surprising, therefore, that the suicide rate among [young people] has doubled in recent years (ibid.).

Although I do not recommend rock music, I think the words of Green Day’s highly popular song, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” reveal the terrible loneliness many young people feel today. The song says,

I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don’t know where it goes
But it’s home to me and I walk alone
I walk this empty street
On the Blvd. of broken dreams
Where the city sleeps
And I’m the only one and I walk alone…
I walk alone. I walk alone. I walk alone.
   (Green Day, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” 2004).

Have you ever felt that way? Most young people have gone through the heartbreaking loneliness expressed in that song.

The Lord Jesus Christ went through bitter loneliness when He was on earth. This is vividly expressed in our text, in Isaiah 53:3-5.

I. First, Jesus was despised and rejected.

Look at verse three.

“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Isaiah 53:3).

When Jesus came down from Heaven, He was born in a lowly cow-stall, in abject poverty. He grew up as the adopted son of a humble carpenter. When He began His ministry, only a few poor fishermen followed Him, a few women, tax collectors and harlots. Because some of His work was done on the Sabbath, the religious leaders said that His power came from Satan. They “despised and rejected” Him.

The night before He was crucified, Jesus was left alone in the Garden of Gethsemane. While His disciples slept He prayed in agony alone,

“And his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44).

Then the soldiers came to arrest him in that Garden. It was then that

“all the disciples forsook him, and fled” (Matthew 26:56).

They “hid their faces from him,” as He was dragged away and beaten half to death by the Roman soldiers.

After they scourged Him, the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, brought Him out before the crowd, and said,

“Behold the man! When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him” 
      (John 19:5-6).

No one spoke in His defence. He was “despised and rejected of men” (Isaiah 53:3). They took Him up a hill and nailed Him to a cross, alone. “He was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Isaiah 53:3).

It was alone the Saviour prayed
   In dark Gethsemane;
Alone He drained the bitter cup,
   And suffered there for me;
Alone, alone, He bore it all alone;
   He gave Himself to save His own;
He suffered, bled and died Alone, Alone.
   (“Alone” by Ben H. Price, 1914).

II. Second, Jesus bore our griefs and sorrows.

Look at verse four.

“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows…” (Isaiah 53:4).

Dr. J. Vernon McGee said,

Notice that it was our sorrows and our griefs that He bore (J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible, Thomas Nelson, 1982, vol. III, p. 315).

Dr. Gill said,

All the sorrows and griefs which Christ bore were not for any sins of his own, but for the sins of his people; wherefore these griefs and sorrows signify the punishment of sin, and are…the cause of them (John Gill, D.D., An Exposition of the Old Testament, The Baptist Standard Bearer, 1989 reprint, vol. V, page 312).

The Bible says,

“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (I Peter 2:24).

All of the grief, and sorrow, and loneliness – that comes directly or indirectly from your sin – were placed “in his own body” as He died on the Cross. He paid the penalty for your sin on the Cross.

When you come to Christ by faith, every sin you have ever committed is paid for by His death on that Cross,

“Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood” (Romans 3:24-25).

As that old hymn said, which we sang a moment ago,

Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you washed in the blood,
In the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb?
Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
   (“Are You Washed in the Blood?” by Elisha A. Hoffman, 1839-1929).

III. Thirdly, Christ heals sin and its consequences.

Please stand and read verse five aloud.

“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

You may be seated. Matthew Henry said,

Our sins and our sorrows and our griefs…our original corruptions are the sicknesses and diseases of the soul…Our actual transgressions are the wounds of the soul…Or our sins are called our griefs and sorrows because all our griefs and sorrows are owing to our sins…[But] the laying of our sins upon Christ implies the taking of them from us…They were laid upon Christ when he was made sin (that is, a sin-offering) for us, and redeemed us from the curse of the law (Matthew Henry’s Commentary, Hendrickson Publishers, 1996 reprint, volume 4, p. 239).

You have broken God’s law. You are under a curse. Loneliness, heartache and grief are results of that curse. But, thank God,

“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse” (Galatians 3:13).

“With his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

Let me make it real simple. You feel lonely and incomplete. This is a result of sin, your own sin, the sin of the whole race of humanity, and the sin you inherited from Adam. But when you come to Christ by faith, your sin is pardoned. The grief and sorrow of sin is healed by the suffering and death of Christ – “with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). When you come to Christ you are saved! That’s a word used throughout the New Testament – you are saved! The Bible says,

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” 
      (Acts 16:31).

That’s the reason we say, over and over again, “Why be lonely? Come home – to church! Why be lost? Come home – to Jesus Christ, the son of God and be saved!” Christ can save you because He has risen from the dead! He is seated at the right hand of God in Heaven. Come to Jesus by faith and you will instantly be saved!

Saved by His power divine,
Saved to new life sublime!
Life now is sweet and my joy is complete,
For I’m saved, saved, saved!
   (“Saved, Saved!” by Jack P. Scholfield, 1882-1972).

(END OF SERMON)
You can read Dr. Hymers' sermons each week on the Internet
at www.realconversion.com. Click on "Sermon Manuscripts."

Scripture Read Before the Sermon by Dr. Kreighton L. Chan: Mark 15:16-34.
Solo Sung Before the Sermon by Mr. Benjamin Kincaid Griffith:
“Boulevard of Broken Dreams” (by Green Day, 2004)/
“Alone” (by Ben H. Price, 1914).