Sermon Snippet – Our Sorrows and Our Savior
INTRODUCTION – In the fourth and final Servant Song in Isaiah (52:13-53:12), we read that God the Son, Jesus Christ, is “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (verse 3). In fact, “He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” From where do these griefs arise? Today, together, let us consider our sorrows and our Savior.
1. SIN CAUSES SORROWS
We studied this point in exhaustive (and perhaps exhausting) detail last week. “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” (Romans 8:22) because of sin. This source of sorrows is specifically stated in verses 5 and 10 of Isaiah 53.
2. SEPARATION CAUSES SORROWS
The people of Israel would be taken into captivity in Babylon, separated from their ancestral lands and their divinely-ordained place of worship. God would bring His people back to the Promised land, but in the interim, they would know sorrow (14:3). For us, separation comes in various forms, including distance, fractured relationships, and death.
3. SELF-RELIANCE CAUSES SORROWS
We rightly believe in personal responsibility and accountability. However, we can easily trust in our own abilities and be sadly mistaken, as Isaiah 50:11 poetically describes. Certainly when it comes to matters spiritual and eternal, dependence on ourselves is dangerous and ultimately destructive.
4. SETTLING CAUSES SORROWS
John Greenleaf Whittier (what a grand name for a poet!) wrote, “For of all sad words of tongue or pen,/The saddest are these: ‘It might have been.’” When we settle, we rarely settle for even the second best. Isaiah 65:14 presents us with a clear choice – the “joy” of God’s best or the “sorrow” of rejecting Him (note verses 1-2). All of us have regrets. However, life really comes down to two things. First, will we receive the “joy” of eternal life in heaven by trusting in Jesus as Savior? Second, will we then live differently in that “joy”? What we regret cannot be undone, but we can avoid new regrets.
CONCLUSION – Our Savior deals with these sorrows. First, as we have already seen from Isaiah 53:5 and 10, Jesus paid the full price and penalty for our sins. As He was being nailed to the Cross, He repeatedly prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). He has dealt with our sins. Second, He broke the power of separation for the people of Israel (Isaiah 35:10; 51:11) and, even more mightily, for all who will trust in Him. From His Cross, He cried, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46) so that we will never have to utter that God-forsaken lament. Third, He has replaced our fragile self-reliance (Isaiah 50:11) with His dependability (verse 10) and demonstrated what true reliance is when He boldly proclaimed, “Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit” (Luke 23:46). Fourth, He wipes away our settling, our regrets, with His sacrificial death (Isaiah 25:8). His absolute claim of victory – “It is finished” (John 19:30) – reveals that He had no regrets in dying for us. If we trust in Jesus for His everlasting salvation, we will never rue that choice, “for the LORD hath spoken it.”