I'm sure a few of you have been thinking ahead as with regard to our studies and our titles. And you've maybe been thinking, I wonder what title, I wonder what name will he start with? Well, that wait is over. And so let's turn in the word of God to the book of Isaiah. The chapter is the chapter 53. Isaiah chapter 53. We're going to read the chapter together. And so Isaiah chapter 53, and let's read the chapter beginning at the verse number one. Let's hear God's word. Who has believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. He has no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 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. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. 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. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, with the rich in his death, because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many. where he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoiled with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors. And he bared the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Amen. Let's pray briefly in prayer. Father in heaven, now bless the preaching of thy word, Lord, we pray that as we consider him who endured such contradiction of sinners, may our hearts, hearts that often grow faint and weary, may those hearts be revived and stirred and enlivened, and may we fall in love with our Savior once again. Lord, we say in the words of the hymn writer, lead me to Calvary. Bring me, O God, to the cross. Help me to glory in nothing else, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, help me, fill me with thy Spirit. Lord, thou dost know my need. Lord, even in this hour. Lord, shut us now in with thee. We pray this in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Having spent the last four weeks, I trust putting in place a solid foundation for a series of messages with regard to the titles and the names that are ascribed to the Son of God. Today we consider one of the many titles that is given to the Lord Jesus Christ. My initial thought would be that I would deal with those names in a chronological way. And so I thought, well, I'll just begin with that great title that is given to Jesus Christ in Genesis chapter 3, the seed of the woman. But the Lord would have me to go in a different direction today, aware that today is Communion Sunday and that soon the Lord's people will remember the Savior's death. In His own appointed way, I felt that the Lord directed me to this title, the title of our Savior given to us in Isaiah chapter 53. You'll find that title in the verse number three of the chapter. where we read these words, 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. It is that title, man of sorrows, that we want to reverently consider even this afternoon for these few minutes. And so I take that as my title for today's message, sorrows, man of sorrows. As we come to consider this title, I want us to briefly consider the context in which the title rests or the title sits. Isaiah is often referred to by preachers as the evangelical prophet. And as you come into the latter part of the book of Isaiah, From, I suppose, chapter 40, chapter 41, you come to understand that such a title is fitting to Isaiah as we come to read many wonderful evangelical truths that are found even in his prophecy. Here in this chapter, the prophet Isaiah sets forth in clear and concise language the sufferings of our Savior. in this most pivotal chapter in all of this particular Old Testament book. Even to the casual Bible reader, Isaiah chapter 53 brings us to consider the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ and all that he endured for us. at the cross of Calvary some 2,000 years ago. In verse number five, it speaks of the Messiah being wounded for our transgressions and being bruised for our iniquities. The verse goes on to say that through and by his stripes, we are healed. In verse 6, it refers to the Lord laying upon the Messiah the iniquity of us all. All of His people, all of their iniquities are laid upon the Son of God. He becomes the very focal point of the burden of sin. The burden of sin is laid upon Him. He becomes the great sin bearer. In verse 7, It highlights the oppression and the affliction that the servant of Jehovah endured as he was led as a lamb to the slaughter. In verse 8, it speaks of how he was cut off out of the land, off the living, in the prime of his life at just 33 years of age, how he was cut off, severed from out of the land, off the living, stricken for the transgression of his people. In verse 10, it records how the Lord is pleased to bruise his own son. to put his own son to grief when his soul is made an offering for sin. And in verse 12, it speaks of the Christ of God pouring out his soul unto death, being numbered among the transgressors and bearing the sin of many. Now, the Jew will protest, The Christian really hides the obvious meaning of Isaiah chapter 53 by reading the chapter out of its context and mistranslating crucial words and apply them to the Lord Jesus Christ in this chapter. They believe that this chapter, it speaks not of the sufferings of Christ, but of the sufferings of Israel as a nation. However, Philip's address to the Ethiopian eunuch There in Acts chapter 8, puts to bed any suggestion that this chapter is speaking about anyone else other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Because in that particular chapter, that Ethiopian eunuch having purchased a scroll, Now is found reading in Isaiah chapter 53, and we're told that Philip preached on to him Jesus. From that particular passage of scripture, he preached on to him Jesus Christ. And so this claim that this chapter speaks of simply Israel is simply not the case. This chapter is Christocentric. This chapter is all about Jesus Christ. One Christian author, he wrote this, it would seem impossible to the most learned Gentile or to the most prejudiced Jew, to find another being in the history of our race to whom the several particulars of this singular prophecy, this remarkable description, could properly apply. The portrait, he said, is too marked in its features. the character too lifelike in its delineations to be mistaken for any other being in the world where all are bowed with sorrow than him to whom alone it applies, the suffering Messiah, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. It is in the context of the sufferings of Christ It is within the context of immeasurable and of immense suffering that we come now to find this title applied to the sufferer. He is called a man of sorrows. It's not that he was a sorrowful man. He was a sorrowful man, but more than that, he was a man of sorrows. Note the plurality, not a man of sorrow, but a man of sorrows, many sorrows that the Messiah suffered on our behalf. As we consider the sufferings of Christ as they are set forth here in Isaiah chapter 53 and in the gospel records, then we come to find that this is a most suitable title that is given to the suffering servant of Jehovah. What person do you know who experiences suffering in their lives, does not have the sorrows that accompany such suffering? You see, with suffering there's always sorrow. You never find a suffering person. In the midst of their suffering, you never find that person singing, but rather you often find them sorrowing, sorrowing. All suffering will bring its sorrows. That was as much true for the Son of God as it is for you and I. And so within the context of immeasurable and immense and infinite sufferings, we find that the Messiah is termed, he's deemed here as a man of sorrows. A man of sorrows. But moving on from the context in which the title sits, I want us to think secondly about the commentary that the title makes. The commentary that the title makes. You know, it's hard to imagine, it's hard to fathom. That he who is the source of all joy, that he who is the giver of all gladness, that he who is the fountainhead of all happiness is now termed here as a man of sorrows. And yet that is the exact title that is attributed and ascribed to him by the inspired prophet in Isaiah chapter 53. As we look at this title, we number two important fundamental key truths about the Lord Jesus Christ. The title, Man of Sorrows, it reminds us first of all about the humanity of Christ. The humanity of Christ. Notice with me that Isaiah does not term the Messiah here as the God of Sorrows. It's not the God of Sorrows. But rather the title ascribed to the Messiah, he is a man, a man of sorrows. He who was and continues to be truly God became truly man in order that he might become the mediator between God and men. He was a true man who had a reasonable soul. He had a true humanity, like our humanity with one exception, that He was without sin. It was a sinless humanity, an impeccable humanity, a humanity that could never fall. His was a pure humanity, but He had a humanity like us. He takes upon Him not the nature of angels, but He takes upon Himself human flesh. Paul will write, great is the mystery of godliness. God manifests in the flesh. John writes that the word became flesh and dwelt among men. He is a man of sorrows. And that is important, brethren and sisters, because it means that he can then identify with our sorrows. For he was truly man, just like ourselves. Now our catechisms, In our confession of faith they speak of Christ taking to himself our humanity in order that he might faithfully discharge the duties and the responsibilities of the mediator. And brethren and sisters, it is good to remind ourselves now and again as those who ascribed to the Reformed faith. It's good to remind ourselves what these documents say about matters such as this one, for they are a rich treasury of theological truth that you'll find nowhere else outside of Scripture than in such documents. Now, we do not exalt those documents, they are subservient to the Word. But thank God for them. Speaking of Christ the Mediator, the Westminster Confession of Faith, it declares this, the Son of God, The second person in the Trinity, being very and eternal God, of one substance and equal with the Father did, when the fullness of time was come, take upon him man's nature with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin. being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary of her substance, so that the two whole perfect and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one person without conversion, composition, or confusion. Which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ and only one and only mediator between God and man. He who came into history from outside of history became a man in order that he might change the course of history. He who came into history from outside of history, for He was eternal God, and history refers to simply time. He who came into history from outside of history became man in order that He might change the course of history, and thank God He did. He changed the course of human history when He died for our sins upon the cross. But to fully identify with us the Son of God, who already possessed a divine nature, took to himself a sinless human nature. You see, you need to be clear in your mind about this when it comes to the person of Jesus Christ. The divine nature did not become human, and the human nature did not become divine. The Lord Jesus Christ was not some kind of strange human-divine hybrid. We talk about hybrids with regard to cars, Electric and some diesel and some petrol, they're a hybrid. Jesus Christ was not some kind of human-divine hybrid that was neither really truly human or truly divine. No, Christ was and Christ continues to be God-man, a man of sorrows, and yet at the same time, God over all, blessed forever. the uniqueness of our Savior. I remind you this afternoon that the humanity of Jesus Christ is just as important as His deity. Without Him becoming a man, He could not act as man's representative. Christ is a representative man, just as Adam was. We read that in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 22, For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. By the incarnation, the event that saw to the eternal Word becoming flesh, the Son of God, He becomes the Son of Man in order that the sons of men might become the sons of God. And why does He do that? Well, our larger catechism, it gives us the reason why the Son of God became a man. It states it was requisite that the mediator should be a man. Speaking of Christ, why? that he might advance our nature, perform obedience to the law, suffer and make intercession for us in our nature, have a fellow feeling for our infirmities. Now keep that thought in mind, that we might receive the adoption of sons and have comfort and access with boldness onto the throne of grace. These are the reasons why he became a man. But one of the reasons was that he might have fellow feeling. with our infirmities. This title, Man of Sorrows, brings us to the thought of his human nature, the humanity of Jesus Christ. He is man and he is God, truly God, truly man in one person, two distinct natures, not mingled, not mixed, but two natures in one man. Oh, the mystery of it. hard to grasp, hard to fathom, but it is revealed in Scripture, and we believe it by faith. He can identify with God as God. He can identify with man as a perfect man, and in Himself, He joins God and man in His own divine human nature and person. He is God-man, but He's a man of sorrows, not a God of sorrow. He's a man of sorrows. This title, man of sorrows, not only speaks about the humanity of Christ, it reminds me about the humiliation of Christ, His humiliation. Now, the Holy Spirit could have called Him by many things. He could have called the one of whom we worship and the one that we adore and the one that we sing of and the one that we're so thankful for who came into this world and died an atoning death on our behalf. He could have called him a man of wealth. He made all things. He was a possessor of all things. He owned the cattle and still does, on a thousand hills, and the wealth in every mind, as a little chorus says. He could have called him a man of wealth, but he doesn't call him that. He could have called him a man of holiness, for he was holy, harmless, undefiled. He was separate from sinners, but the Holy Spirit didn't call him that. He could have called him a man of love, And what love the Savior showed, having loved his own unto the end, having loved his own, he loved them unto the end. He loved us. And continues to love us, but he didn't call him that. He could have called him a man of eloquence. Never man, spake like this man. You have your favorite preachers, and maybe you idolize them. You shouldn't do that. Never idolize a man. That's idolatry. That's idolatry. Never man speak like him. What a preacher he was. Man of eloquence, but he doesn't call him that. He could have called him a man of truth. Jesus Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. All he said was true, but he didn't do that. He could have called him a man of labor, for he came to do the Father's business. He went about doing good. He could have called him a man of prayer. He spent all nights in prayer. But the Spirit of God doesn't call him that. But in light of his sufferings, in Isaiah chapter 53, the Spirit of God saw it fitting to call him a man of sorrows. That's how he's termed. Having taken to himself a true humanity, Son of God knew what it was to feel sorrow. You see, that sorrow was part and parcel of his state of humiliation. It was part and parcel of it. He had to pass through this veil of tears in order to identify with his people. And so he's termed a man of sorrows. He who dwelt with his Father and with the Spirit in holy and sweet and blessed communion in eternity past, he who was the delight of the Father and the song of the seraphim and the chorus of the cherubim and the anthem of the angels, he now becomes a man of sorrows." Sorrows. We often associate tears with sorrows. It's the outflowing of sorrow. Sorrow in the heart often comes to express itself by tears within the eyes. And do we not often read of our Savior? There are occasions when we read about the tears of the man of sorrows. He stands at the grave of his friend Lazarus. And there we're told simply by John in that verse of Scripture, Jesus wept. He wept. silver tributaries of saline fluid flow down the precious face of Jesus Christ when He stood at the grave of His friend. I say, brethren and sisters, as you look at your Savior sorrowing, as you look at your Savior weeping on that occasion, it reminds us that it is not wrong, and it's certainly not sinful, and it's certainly not improper for you to weep at the death of your loved one. For the Savior wept. The Savior identifies with you in your sorrow. And if Christ wept, you can weep when death takes such a person from you. And then we see him as he stands looking over the city of Jerusalem just before his crucifixion. And what does he see that day? He doesn't see what his disciples see. No, the disciples, they see the sprawl of that great city, basking in sparkling as it were and being their eyes dazzled with the sunlight bouncing off that white as it were wall as the golden gate and as they look into the temple mount itself that's what the disciples saw but the Savior didn't see that that day he saw into the future He looked down to 70 AD and he saw legions of Roman soldiers coming into that great city and bringing every, as it were, stone to the ground and butchering the citizens of that country and of that very city in so much that the blood flowed out of that city to such an extent that it's hardly imaginable what happened. He saw the slaughter and as he saw the slaughter, of those people there in Jerusalem. And as he thought about their unbelief and their unwillingness to receive him as the Christ and as their Savior, the record says that he wept. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered thee as a hen would have gathered her chicks under a wing, but ye would not, and maybe that's you today. Maybe you're not a Christian, and Christ speaks to you, and Christ comes to you by His Spirit, and He encourages you to trust in Christ, and you will not come to Him. As his hour of death fast approached, the Son of God took Himself into Gethsemane's olive grove. And He did so to pray to His Father. None of the Gospel writers record This particular detail but the writer to the Hebrews does for he comes to inform us in Hebrews chapter 5 verse 7 that in the days of his flesh when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears. Unto him who was able, and that was able, to save him from death, and was heard, and that he feared. Many commentators believe that the verse recounts what happened in Gethsemane's garden before his betrayal. There the Savior mingled his tears with his prayers. He was a man of sorrows. Now what can we say about his sorrows? Our second point is the longest. What can we say about his sorrows? There are a number of things that I want you to think about when we think about the man of sorrows. Can I say in the first place that his sorrow was unparalleled sorrow? Lamentations 1, verse 12. Is it nothing to you, O ye that pass by, Hold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. Now while contextually these words speak undoubtedly of the sorrows of Jerusalem and the grace of Jerusalem as a people and as of a city, I cannot but help apply them to the Son of God. For who had sorrow like his sorrow? Christ was preeminently a man of sorrows. His sorrows transcended the sorrows of all others. If we could place the combined sorrows of the human race on one side of a balance, and the sorrows of the Son of God on the other side of that balance, His sorrows would easily, easily outweigh humanity's combined sorrow. They were unparalleled. Great is the sorrow of a wife when her husband is taken from her in death. Who can enter into the sorrow of a widow unless you yourself have been a widow or a widower? Great is the sorrow of a mother and of a father We have to stand at a gravesite and place into the ground a little white coffin. Great are the sorrows of a soldier who's taken captive as a prisoner of war and mistreated by his enemies and by his foes, tortured. You can imagine the sorrow that such a soldier would face Think about the sorrow of a child who is orphaned of both mother and father. Consider all of their sorrows, but as great as their sorrows are, their sorrows, they peel into significance whenever they are contrasted with the sorrow that the Son of God endured in His life and in His death. They are unparalleled. You'll get nothing like His sorrow. may transcend all other sorrows." Edward Payson. He wrote, Christ's sorrow was incomparably greater than they appear to be. No finite mind can conceive their extent. His sufferings and sorrows began with his birth and ended only with his death. His sorrow was an unparalleled sorrow, Christ's sorrow. Secondly, it was a unique sorrow. His sorrow was uniquely particular to him, a sorrow that no other human being or no other being could enter into or endure. It was a sorrow of one who was divine and could understand the extent of man's sinfulness in a way that no other human being could understand. If Lot's righteous soul was vexed with the filthy conversation of those who lived in the city of Sodom, what was the righteous soul of Christ whenever he came to view the full and entire extent of human depravity when he lived here on this earth? Can you imagine being the son of God and living in a family home? and seeing the greed and seeing the hatred and the anger at times between siblings. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine the Son of God walking up the street in Bethlehem or in Nazareth and viewing the dodgy dealings that men were doing and the secret sins that were being engaged in behind closed doors? Can you imagine what it was like to be the Son of God? His sorrow was unique. His sorrow was unique. It is beyond description. It is beyond conception. would hide his face from him. He'd be left alone in the dying agonies of the cross. What sorrows that brought. His disciples would abandon him. His foes would insult him and reproach him. Satan and his hosts would harass him and tempt him and distress him. No one endured sorrows like his sorrows. They were unique to the Son of God. And those sorrows, they entered into his very soul. where he tells Peter, James, and John, there in Gethsemane, he says to them, my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even on to death. It's as if the sorrows that he now endures there in Gethsemane's garden, that is about to crush him, that is about to, as it were, hasten his death, even before he gets to the cross. unique sorrows of our Savior. Can I say in the third place, Christ's sorrow was an appointed sorrow. All of the sufferings of Christ and the sufferings accompanying sorrow. Remember, suffering always comes with sorrow. All the sufferings of Christ and its accompanying sorrow was appointed by God in the counsel of eternity. Ought Christ not, or ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory, he was appointed to sorrow. He was appointed to the sorrow of poverty. He was appointed to the sorrow of rejection. He was appointed to the sorrow of loneliness. He was appointed to the sorrow of being misunderstood. He was appointed to the sorrow of slander. He was appointed to the sorrow of shame, and to the sorrow of maltreatment, and the sorrow of betrayal, and the sorrow of denial. I am the sorrow of death. He was appointed to all the sorrows. The amazing thing is that he knew it all. Before He even took to Himself humanity, before He was even incarnated, before He even stepped out of eternity and into time, He knew that He would face all the sorrows, and yet He still came. He was appointed to them. He knew all about them. They did not take Him by surprise. He knew what He would have to endure. Who? For the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame. He knew all about them. Christ's sorrow was a substitutionary sorrow. Having called him a man of sorrows, in verse 53, the prophet goes on then to say in verse four, surely he hath borne our grace, and he's carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted to the cross of Calvary, the Son of God, carried our sorrows as our substitute. Certainly the sorrow of hell he bore for us on the tree. I tell you, hell's a sorrowful place. A sorrow of regret for the unconverted. I should have trusted Christ, that preacher. In Portland Owen, Free Presbyterian, I should have listened to what he said. I should have believed in the Christ of whom he preached. I should have received the pardoning of my sin of which he proclaimed. I should have came to the blood of Christ to have my sins washed away. And now the sorrow, the sorrow of hell. How do I know that hell's a sorrowful place? I know it's a sorrowful place because I am told that that cavernous pit that has no bottom is filled with the wailing and the weeping of its imprisoned residents. They weep and they weep, the sorrow of hell. But Christ bore that sorrow for me upon the tree. He bore that sorrow, hell's sorrow. He bore on the cross so that all who are savingly united to him can experience the joy of heaven. What do we often sing in one of our hymns? He took my sin and my sorrow and he made them his very own. He bore the burden to Calvary and he suffered and he died alone. How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior's love to me. Can I say quickly, Christ's sorrows were undeserved sorrows. He did not deserve any sorrow. We deserve to experience sorrow. For sorrow is a consequence of sin. It's part of the curse. You'll know that sorrow was part and parcel of the curse there in Genesis 3. I'll read the verses to you very quickly, or portions of them, Genesis 3, 16 and 17. And in thy conception, and in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children. And unto Adam, he said, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Man and woman were going to experience sorrow because of the curse of sin. But Christ deserved no sorrow, for he knew no sin. And so it was undeserved. He did not deserve to sorrow. But sorrow he did because he would become a curse for us. And Christ's sorrows are continual. They were continual sorrows. Let me just say that again. They were continual sorrows. From the cradle to the cross, his entire life was marked by sorrow. The Shorter Catechism speaks of Christ's humiliation consisting in being born that in a low condition made under the law undergoing the miseries of this life." The miseries of this life, miseries that extended from infancy to adulthood brought him sorrow. Was he not grieved whenever his mother and earthly guardian father came and found him in Jerusalem and said, wished you not I must be about my Father's business. Do we not read of the Savior being grieved? Do we not read of Him sighing in His Spirit? Every day, sorrow. The sorrow would culminate and reach its climax in his painful death at the cross of Calvary. But every step he took in this world, sorrow perpetually accompanied him. The sorrows of the man of sorrows. Let me bring one final comfort and I close with this, the comfort that the title brings. Do you remember whenever the Hebrew children were there in Egypt? under the lash of the Egyptian taskmasters, God will speak to Moses. And what will he say to them? He will say to Moses, I have surely seen the affliction of my people, which are in Egypt. I have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. From the vantage point of heaven, God not only heard their sorrows, he not only saw their sorrows, but he knew their sorrows. The idea is that he felt their sorrows. And he feels our sorrows too. For having been a man of sorrows, he can identify and he can empathize with us in our sorrow. And that brings us tremendous comfort. He knows our sorrow, for He Himself experienced that sorrow. He knows the sorrow of rejection. Maybe that's you today, rejected by friends, by family. But your Savior knew what it was to be rejected. He came onto His own, and His own received Him not. He knows the sorrow that loneliness brings, because He was forsaken by His friends, His disciples. by the Father. He knows the sorrow of poverty and all that that brings and the heartache that that brings, not having enough money to get and pay the bills. He knows all about that because he who was rich for our sakes became poor. He knows the sorrow of slander. He knows what it is like to be talked about in the community. He knows that. He was labeled by his enemies as the friend of publican sinners. He was termed as one who was in league with Beelzebub. He knows the sorrow of bereavement. We've thought about that. He stood at the grave of his friend Lazarus. Whatever your sorrows are, whatever they are, the man of sorrows can identify with your sorrows. What sorrow? What sorrow are you experiencing today? Experiencing child of God today, is it some family problem that's causing you sorrow? Are those sons of yours, those daughters of yours causing you grief of heart and mind? Is unrepentant sin in your life the cause of your sorrow today? Let me encourage you then to take that sorrow to Christ today and you'll find that he is the most sympathizing comforter to know, for you to know in your sorrows. Never think that there's no one understands your sorrows. The man of sorrows does. For as God knew the sorrows of his covenant people in the days of Moses, so he knows ours. For we are his covenant people. However large, however small those sorrows be, he knows all about them. Mother, the man of sorrows knows about your sorrows. Father, the man of sorrows, he knows about your sorrows. Young person, the man of sorrows, he knows about your sorrows. Boys and girls, A man of sorrows knows about your sorrows. And so take heart today that there is one who now is in the glory, who walked this veil of tears, who can fully identify with your sorrows. And because he knows your sorrows, then go and lay those sorrows before him assuredly knowing that he will fully sympathize with you. Yes, and be sure that your sorrows have been ordered by his wise and his gracious counsel. And be sure that help will arrive, and if that help be delayed, You can be assured that the delay in forthcoming help is only for your good and for his glory. Sorrows abound in this world. This world is a veil of tears. This world is a land of sorrows. But what are our sorrows compared to the sorrows of the man of sorrows? As we come to the table of remembrance in a few moments' time, let us keep in perspective our sorrows in light of the deep sorrows that our Savior passed through for our sakes. May the Lord bless His word to our hearts. Let's bow our heads in prayer. O God, our Father, We come to thee through thy Son, the man of sorrows. We bless thee for the one who came into this world and passed through this valley of tears. We thank thee that he has taken, as it were, the very edge of our sorrows. Though at times they can be deep, though at times they can be so felt keenly within our souls, yet we thank thee that there is the grace of God And there is strength that is applied and given and bestowed. There is a hand that upholds us. There is one to whom we can whisper in to his ear our very sorrows. And Lord, today, maybe there'll be one who is sorrowful over their sin. Maybe they've wept many a tear this week because of it, and they're out working off it in their lives. that they will turn to Him who bore their sins and carried their sorrows to the cross. Lord, that Thou will fill them with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Bless us as we meet around the table and may our hearts be directed to our Savior. We offer prayer now and through the Savior's name.