Turn with me in your Bibles to three different passages here. We're going to look first at the book of Isaiah, chapter 63. Everybody's sitting here on the right here, for the most part. Now, this is a we just have a limited time here, so. The subject that we're going to deal with here is just a. In some sense, a preface or introduction to what we want to look at in the morning worship service, Isaiah 63. And the reading is in the third verse, I have trodden the wine press alone and of the people there was none with me. I will tread them in my anger and trample them in my fury and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments and I will stain all my raiment. Now, the context here is something that we're not going to delve into. This is a prophetic reference. And the first part that we have read here, I have trodden the winepress alone and of the people there was none with me can be rightly applied to more than one aspect of our Lord's life and ministry, including the cross, as well as subsequent events in relation to the second coming. But the issue here is this word that we find alone. That's the word there that interests us, the word alone. Now, turn with me in Luke's gospel. And this is the introduction to the subject that we're going to to look at in the preaching hour in Luke's gospel, chapter nine. And this unusual response that comes from the lips of our Lord, and he says to this first volunteer here, and we're going to look at these in the in the first part of the message in the second hour. Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. And look at the reading there, he has no place literally to recline or to rest or even to lay his head. That's the statement there. And he's referring to the subject that that indirectly that we're going to deal with this morning. Now, turn with me to John's gospel, the gospel of John, the 16th chapter. John, Chapter 16. And again, we have this is another prophetic reference to the coming hour of his death and betrayal, when it says in John 16, 32, Behold, the hour cometh, yea, and is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and it's to his own place, to his own home, it says in the margin there in the King James rendering, to his own place or home, and shall leave me, and look at the wording here, shall leave me alone." Alone, it says. And yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. Let us pray. Father, we're grateful for Your Word and for the brief moments that we have in this Sunday school time. And we pray that You would use it to prepare our minds to think through the subjects that will be dealt with in the second hour. You would provoke us to think more deeply about this subject and how it applies to our lives and how it is that we are to work through this in our own individual cases. And we'll thank you for that in Christ's name we ask. Amen. Now, I've been preaching in English for the last five weeks, but this subject is new to me in English, and so my notes are in Spanish and And I may stumble around a little bit here. One of the things I picked up on this summer is if I just say what the Spanish rendering is and just go on without stopping, it kind of unblocks my mind here. So if I do that a number of times, you just bear with me. The subject that we're going to deal with in the second hour is related indirectly to this subject. I originally planned to deal with this in a more extensive way. We've been preaching a series on the subject of self-denial in the gospel and one of the missions there where I preach all the time. And this particular subject was actually dealt with in another context. And the subject is topical. The material is not mine, and it is perhaps not new to all of you, except only maybe in the way that it will be applied. The subject is the aloneness of Christ. Now, when I heard this preached on the first time, I was commenting with Brother Chamberlain, I was kind of startled because the subject was introduced as the loneliness of Christ. And I think a better way to to understand this and to to express it is the term aloneness of Christ. We've just read about this in Isaiah 63. It is here in this text, I will be left alone. You will leave me alone. You shall leave me alone. And then, of course, he says immediately, but I'm really not alone. The passage there in Luke is this volunteer who comes and he wants to follow Christ and this following of Christ. He's warned dreadfully there that he will be left in a place in which he'll find himself without any place to lay his head. He will be alone if he actually follows Christ in this way. Now, by way of introduction, I'm just going to say a few things here, and I'm not going to give more than just an outline of this year. This is a deep subject. It has tremendous theological implications in regard to many issues. All of those issues perhaps can at best be summarized and answered by prefacing this subject in the following way. We're speaking here of the human nature of our Lord. We're not speaking about his divinity. We're not speaking about his Godhead, we're speaking about his human nature and in his human nature. This is a reoccurring theme in the four gospels and in different places. It is also found in Scripture and specifically in some of these Old Testament prophecies. But now. We all will face this issue of aloneness in our own lives sooner or later, and we're going to relate this to another subject in the second hour. This aloneness that we must all face sooner or later, it's just a matter of time before something happens in your life in which you're going to have to deal with what it means to be alone. Now, my way of introduction, again, I have to say, loneliness is not our subject here. We're not talking about self-pity. We're not talking about that emotional sadness that comes upon someone because they feel sorry for themselves and they're unhappy and something has happened to leave them alone in life. We're not dealing with the issue in that sense. But again, I'll repeat, this aloneness is something that is experienced by all human beings. It is something that we will all face sooner or later. And it is this kind, this unique kind of aloneness that we could divide into different subdivisions, I think, and we could relate it to the issue of sin and we could relate it to the issue of loss in this life. We could relate it to the issue of losing progressively as you go through life, your position, your influence, your abilities, your faculties, your motivation. And you'll find yourself ultimately, it's just a matter of time. You will find yourself alone in this life. Now, when we relate this to human sin, we could say in a summary form that most of our aloneness in life is brought about directly or indirectly because of human sin. And as you watch the life of an unconverted individual who lives up into their 70s, 80s, maybe they get up into their 90s and they're in that latter stage of life. And the reality of old age has finally come home to them. If they are unconverted, what you will inevitably see is the following. They will slowly begin to drift away from everyone who is around them. They will inevitably become more and more alone. And this may come about as a result of the loss of some physical ability, maybe their hearing, maybe their sight, it may be the mobility of their body, but they will eventually begin to withdraw into a world. I think C.S. Lewis, he called not only life on this earth, the shadow land, but he described that old age process as people being slowly drifting into the shadow land in the latter years of their life. And what ultimately happens there, if they are unconverted, they are withdrawn to such an extent that it is in some people's life. You can see the moment, the day and the hour. Perhaps you can identify at least the time sequencing in which they were no longer here. Their body is still here, but the person is gone. And that may be because of some senility or some infirmity in their brain and the functioning of their mind. But at any rate, the point is, before they ever go to hell, they're already there in a sense, because they have come to the place in their life in which they are completely isolated and cut off, utterly alone. And yet they still have their feet here on this earth. They're still moving amongst us. But again, it is a theological lesson. I discussed this the other evening, I think, with Bob. We were talking about what happens in these stages of old life with old people and believers. And the great contrast here is that individual who is unconverted, who moves into that stage of life, is giving us a foretaste. We're seeing it, if we have eyes to see it, of that, you know, there's a great controversy about will they all be together or will they all be alone in hell? Well, those things are both taught in Scripture. There is a sense in which they will be utterly alone, utterly abandoned. Yes, even by God himself. And at the same time, they're all there together. But this aloneness, now listen very carefully, is something that can happen in your life at different stages. It's not just something relegated to those those latter years or old age or or infirmity. That aloneness can come about as a result of misunderstanding. And you can take any one of these themes and work them out and apply them directly or indirectly to what we're going to deal with here this morning in just a brief way. But when you're misunderstood by your co-workers or by your friends or your loved ones or your own spouse, by your own children, you can find yourself back into a corner and you feel utterly alone because they don't understand you. This aloneness can come about as a result of rejection. When you're rejected by someone, they don't want anything to do with you. They cut you off. They write you off. You're out of their book and you feel like, well, they've left me alone. They left me in a lurch. Here I am. They've rejected me. And if it's worse, if it's some kind of betrayal, if it's something that's happened and they've turned on you. And they betrayed you in some way. It's not just that they rejected you, but they did you in in the process. You can feel so utterly alone. And this aloneness can actually take possession of your soul. And there is another form of aloneness that is related to what we will see perhaps somewhat in the second hour. And that is that love that is not reciprocated. When you love someone and they don't love you back, you know, it's an interesting controversy. These mysterious passages where you're told by the Lord and in more than one case to do something to someone. And he says, because they will not repay you. They cannot repay you. And therefore, you are to do this. knowing that it will not be reciprocated. You will not receive that same act of kindness or generosity or help or love. They will just take it for granted at the very best. And yet, you're told to do this. In different contexts, this can be worked out. But the point is when that love is not reciprocated, when that kindness is not returned, you just kind of feel like you're just empty. You're right handed here. I mean, we helped them and it didn't mean anything. There is an aloneness brought about by suffering. And again, each one of these subjects is worthy of attention. That aloneness that is brought about by suffering. And you get all these people, you know, you can't identify with me. You haven't been in my shoes. You haven't been through what I've been through. You don't know the reality. And many times we're so foolish just to sit beside them and say, I know how you feel. And they're looking at you like, no, you don't. I'm alone here. This happened to me, it didn't happen to you. And that's suffering that can come as a result of innumerable number of factors in their life. Tragedy. We mentioned loss, sickness, surgery. They tell the person you only have so many months or so many weeks to live. It's a death sentence. And they feel utterly alone. And there is an aloneness, as we're going to see, that is related to this issue of sacrifice and self-denial. There is an aloneness of the soul. Have you ever thought about this very, very much? The aloneness that everyone feels deep in the depths of their own soul. This is a subject that is that is touched upon frequently in the preaching, in the teaching, in the public ministry of our Lord. No, it's not psychology, it's reality, the aloneness of the soul. But then beyond this, we find that our Lord was quite frequently alone, don't we? Alone, spending whole nights in prayer. And yet, in many of these instances, it was not just a physical phenomenon of aloneness, being physically isolated from others. We find that he is constantly surrounded by multitudes of people. And in one sense, he's always alone. There can be 5000 people around him and he's alone. And in another sense, as we've just read in John 16, never alone. Never alone. Yes, and you can see this play out in people's life, unconverted people, listen, they get into that shadow land and it may be an early stage in life. It may be because of some premature death that is that is awaiting and they're just ticking, marking off the clock. And it may be because they're up in years and they're there and they're alone. And I'll repeat it. And God is speaking to them And then they come to the place. And I'm convinced this happens many times in this life, before the hour of their death. And God Himself turns His back and leaves them alone. Now, we've heard this, you know, as we've witnessed it, people. Perhaps you've had this happen in your family. Leave me alone! That's what they'll tell you. Leave me alone! And you're dealing with them about something in relation to the Gospel. They're not telling you to leave them alone. They're telling God to leave them alone. And all I'm saying is that this is a subject worthy of your consideration, because the day and the time and the hour will come, if it hasn't happened to you yet, in which you will have to deal with these issues in your own life. Now, This aloneness of our Lord Jesus Christ is something unique, special, spiritual, extraordinary that applies in this sense ultimately and only to his human nature. This aloneness that Christ experienced is related to his human nature. And I preach the message on this subject in a series on marriage. Wasn't the subject we're going to deal with in the second hour here. Because you got all these people, you know, it can be for a divided home. It can be a divorced individual. It can be a young person who can't find and some people go through months and years of their life and they're looking desperately to find their life partner, to find someone to marry, someone that can fulfill that role in their life. And part of the motivation in many of these factors in people's lives, it may be that they are living in a divided home. It may be that they are divorcees. You make your own list. They are dealing with this issue of aloneness. And whatever the cause may be, the point is the same. In His human nature, our Lord was faced continually with this issue. Now, I'm just going to give you an outline summary here of the way this works out. This can be dealt with again in many different ways. And so because our time is limited here, we're not going to delve into the details of any of these particular points. We're going to build an argument here real quickly that will lead the way to the second hour this morning. Now, when you consider the aloneness of Christ, of course, the very first issue that comes to your mind is his holiness. Christ was absolutely holy. Separate from sinners is the phrase in Hebrews 7, 26. Separated from sinners. And that means that there was some kind of breach. I don't want to use a wrong term here. There was some kind of barrier. And that's probably not the right word. There was a distance. There was a gulf, if you will. There was something in his holiness that separated him from everyone else on this earth. And the very fact that he found himself surrounded by sinful men and women, perverse and corrupt individuals, those who were dominated by every kind of sin. He never found himself in a situation where he was not surrounded by sinners. He was constantly in contact with thieves and prostitutes and estafadores, we say in Spanish, engañadores, deceivers, hipócritas. He was constantly, even in that religious realm, bringing this out, ripping the mask off of these individuals. He could see right into the depths of their souls. He knew the reality of their deprivation. He knew all about their secret sins. He knew their true motives. He knew the hardness of their heart. He knew about every lying vanity, every idol, every heart idol, all of the selfishness, all of the lust, all of the envy, all of the avaricia we say in Spanish. He knew the worst about everyone who he came in contact with. In his human nature, he knew. And again, we're not delving into all the inner and outer workings of the relationship between those two natures. He knew. And his own disciples. They're found the very night before his crucifixion, arguing amongst themselves over who would be the greatest. His own disciples are constantly stumbling and fumbling and in many cases, actually becoming obstacles to his public ministry. His own disciples are constantly revealing what we're going to see here in some way, their own ignorance, their misunderstanding of so many things. And so even in those who he had chosen and elected and saved by his grace, he knew the worst about each one of them. Now, Did that make him feel alone? Of course it did. Of course it did. It was more than feeling alone. He was alone. There was something there. As long as he was surrounded by sinners, there was something there that made him, in that sense, be utterly alone. A deep aloneness was always present in the heart of our Lord. Now again, Don't jump to any conclusions here. Now, secondly, there is this aloneness brought about by his understanding and his surrender and submission to God. And these are constant themes in the four Gospels, our Lord's understanding and his telling them so many times. Now, I've got more to say to you about this, but I'm just going to be part of this because you're not ready for it. It's an interesting subject because he could have made him ready for it. He could have helped them. He could have opened their eyes a little bit more. He could have revealed more truth to them. But that was not his plan. That was not his purpose. And so he's constantly dealing with people in this context, his own disciples and followers who could not really understand him. Now, we spoke about this, this aloneness of being misunderstood. You know, we could have paralleled this with the aloneness that you and I feel. Have you ever found yourself, maybe in some public setting, and it may be an event that you happen to go to, maybe in a sports setting, or in a work setting, or in a social setting, and you feel like, what am I doing here? In your human nature, you feel that way. And it's the same with this issue of being misunderstood. Christ did not reveal all the truth. No, not even to his own apostles while he was here on earth. When I say he could not again, it was his purpose and plan to do this, as we know, through the books of the New Testament to that writing of of the New Testament canon. But the point is, they were immature. They lack the capacity. They needed to grow. And this was a constant thing. Don't you understand? And I have a whole list of references. You've got eyes, but can't you see? You've got ears. Didn't you hear me? Don't. Are you still without understanding? And then as he as he nears that hour of his death and crucifixion, they're absolutely clueless. They don't seem to understand anything that he's been telling them. And this greatness of his understanding combined with his utter submission, entrega is the Spanish word, he was completely surrendered, that's probably the best word, to his father. And this is a reoccurring theme. He constantly is doing the work of the father. They're not constantly doing the work of the father. He's constantly submitting and obeying, they are not in his human nature. He's doing that and they are not doing that. So so could he really identify with them in the fullest sense, even his own apostles? Could he really identify with them in that fullest of sense where you know, when you know, you understand and. Could they really sympathize with him? Could they? Not in the fullest sense. He was alone. And this comes out in the third point in his public ministry in a very startling way, because we find this is the constant theme. Mark's gospel perhaps personifies this or lays it out most clearly. We find him always ministering to others. Always ministering to others. And no one's ministering to him. He's always ministering to someone. It's incredible. You just read the surface of the text. And again, I'll repeat, you find these huge multitudes of people, 5000 people, 20,000 people and every single one of these individuals in the crowd has some need. Some pressing need in many cases. And they're expecting him to deal with it. And he's constantly doing some. And you have these passages that he goes about Galilee. He goes, he makes these journeys and these tours or these different terms that are used in Spanish and English. And the same thing is repeated over and over and over again. It's like he's making a circuit and he's dealing with every sickness, every debility, every chronical illness. He goes about doing good. And the people, as some of these multitudes, they're trying just to touch him. They want to get close enough just to touch Him. And He is constantly, we could say, being overwhelmed. He could not share this burden with anyone. Anyone. Who could understand? Of course, He retires into utter solitude on occasions. Humanly speaking, He could not hold up. He could not bear up in and of Himself. It would have crushed Him. And of course, again, he's never really alone. And then you find in those last hours of his life, we find that there's this one who's compelled to bear his cross. And you follow that trail. Where's that going to lead you? What did it mean that he was compelled to bear his cross? Did he help him? Did he come alongside of him and grab a part of that wood, that beam? Did he take it from our Lord? Did he pick it up off the ground after he fell down under the weight? It just says that this Simon, Libya's this, is the Sardinian thing. He was from Libya, the experts say, was compelled to bear. He breaks down in the last hours of his life because he's constantly ministering to others. This virtue, the King James, it's usually the rendering of one of the power words and it's almost always that dynamite word. This power is flowing out of him. He's like he's a conduit and it's flowing from him and out to the people. but he's utterly alone. And then in his human nature, and we'll not delve into the issues involved in this, but humanly speaking, he had no helpmeet. He had no help suitable corresponding that old rendering of the helpmeet word in Genesis 2. And our Lord in His human nature, He had to have felt this. It is not good for man to be alone. That's what's stated. It's not good for man to be alone in relation to a life partner. And yet we find people that are single, people that for whatever reason have come to this place in their life where they're alone and they think that our Lord can't identify with them. No, not in that. Yes, he can. Yes, he can. He experienced that kind of aloneness. He experienced, he lived it out. He knows what it means. And then you come in the fifth place to this aloneness in regard to his temptations. And, you know, the classic passage in Hebrews four tempted in all the ways in which we are tempted, like unto us tempted and all the I have the rendering here and in our Spanish Bibles and everything like us in the same way we are tempted. He was constantly subject to the very same temptations that you and I are subject to. But is that all? No, no, that's just a little part of it. Because we read about 40 days and 40 nights in the desert. And we read about the prince of this world coming unto him, and you can investigate some of the issues involved in this when he says, he has nothing in me in John 14, but it was a constantly coming. It was only for brief periods of time that he was left alone by the devil. The devil was constantly coming and constantly trying to find something that he could use. And our Lord overcame, the second Adam overcame the tempter in all of his temptations. He was attacked day and night with all of the strategies, all of the wiles, all of the traps, the trampas we say in Spanish. And you read this constantly. The Jews themselves were busy cooking up another scheme to tempt him in some way. fired and helped by the devil himself. And they were constantly, if you are the Son of God, since you are the Son of God, constantly using every weapon at their disposal. Every form of diabolical strategy imaginable was used with homicidal intentions. Every possible thing was done. And the hatred And the anger? How many times did they try to stone Him? How many times did they try to lay hands on Him? Christ knows the aloneness of temptation, yes, of satanic temptation in all of its forms. And being in agony, it says, and sweating great drops of blood, He was tempted. What do we know about this? We know a little bit, don't we? We know more than we want to know. And those poor disciples, he has to ask them more than once, can't you, can't you watch with me? No, not even for an hour. Can't you? You found them asleep. He found the devil infiltrating the very apostolic band itself and speaking through the mouth of Peter, tempting him. And just the reading of the mockery while he's hanging on the cross, just the reading of the text alone, and they're tempting him. To do the very thing that would have disproved his claim to be the Messiah. And they are using the vilest form of mockery known to man. And he's alone. In his human nature alone. I'm not trying to create any theological controversies here, I'm just saying there's something here that we need to understand. Now, in the next place, listen carefully, Christ faced the aloneness of every form of opposition, hatred and rejection. Without cause, they hated me. Those are his words. They hated me without cause. And the most intense form of human and diabolical hatred was directed against him. And this happens. How many times? How many times are these same Jews coming? How many times are they spewing out venom? And then we find the members of his own family. What does it mean to be opposed? We spoke at the beginning of the aloneness of rejection. the aloneness of opposition and rejection. When people just reject you, they hate you, they cut you off. And then we find His own family coming to lay hands on Him, saying, He's lost His mind! His own family! He's lost His mind. And they're physically trying to restrain Him and carry Him off. He's beside Himself. And then he's rejected by his friends. That Zacharias text, what are these wounds in thy hands? And he answers, those with which I was wounded, where does he say? In the house of my friends. My friends. And in that 41st Psalm, yea, mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did eat my bread, have lifted up his heel against me, my own familiar friend, then the debates will not debate it. It's probably Judas. Take it any way you want. Is it possible, and some experts affirm this, that Judas was the most lovable of the whole bunch? Is it possible? He greets him in the garden that night with that false kiss and the husband with it. And He calls him, Friend! Friend! What have you come to do? Nobody suspected Judas. Have you ever been betrayed by a friend? Ever had any of your friends turn on you? That passage in Isaiah, in one of our Spanish renderings, he was the most despised and the most desechado. That's a generic word to just throw something out. The outcast of all men. The most despised. How do you think in his human nature that affected him? Mine own familiar friend. In whom I trust. And then, of course. You have the aloneness of the cross. Aloneness of the cross. The loneliest place in the universe. That cross. Heaven and earth turned their back on him. That place, El Calvario, that place, that lonely place. And up until that moment, what we've read in John 16, that you're going to leave me, it's inevitable. Well, they had already done so in different ways. And then when push comes to shove, he says, you're all going to abandon me. You're all going to leave me. You're all going to leave me alone and you're all going to go to your own home, to your own place. You have a place to go. I don't have any. It's a play, if you will, on this issue of aloneness. I don't have anywhere to lay my head. I don't have anywhere to go. You will leave me alone. You will all go to your own places. And then he says, and it's prophetic, yet I'm not alone. Because the Father is with me, and this was stated more than once, that the Father is with me. And yet then come those terrible words. Why has thou forsaken me? Why has thou forsaken me? And the Father leaves him. He leaves him alone. And of course, this points directly to a whole list of things that we could delve into, beginning with the aloneness that we've already mentioned, the aloneness of hell. What does it mean to be completely abandoned? What does it mean to be utterly alone? Now, look at the difference here. We're never alone. Are we? Well, yes and no, that's the same thing we've been dealing with here. Yes and no. On a human level, yes, of course, we're all facing these issues in different ways or we will face them at some point in our lives. It may be something that we come to a place in our life where we have to deal with this every day until the day we die. Because we we are in some circumstance that has left us alone, but are we ever alone? as believers? Do you know the answer? John 14, 6. Romans 8. Other passages emphatically state we're never alone. No, in fact, it's the opposite. It's when you think that you might be most alone, that God has probably drawn closer to you than he had before. But then we come to this issue with which we'll close. We'll have a little break here. I actually preach less than an hour, I think, two or three times right around the country here, so I'm getting a little better at this. That's an aside. This aloneness that is involved in the following way, listen carefully, in loving others. Now, you need to think this through because we're going to delve into this loving others. We would say more than yourself, but we don't really do that, do we? It's like yourself, that's the New Testament terminology. Loving others as yourself. But now, that is exactly what the Lord warned this fellow about that came to him and volunteered and said, now, I want to be one of your followers. He's called by the theologians. It's the play on words there. I'll follow you anywhere! And he gets the answer, no, you can't go with me anywhere. Some of the theologians call him the nowhere man. You can't go with me anywhere. And the very first thing that he says is this, this. If you're going to follow me, you're going to end up alone. That's what he told him. You will find yourself alone. You won't even have a place to lay your head if you're going to follow me. That's what he told him. Now, what is that all about? Well, we're going to deal with that in a different way in the next hour. But the point is the same. Our Lord, motivated by this kind of love, passed through 33, most would say 33 and a half years of his life alone. loving others more than himself, made him alone. Now, what do we know about this? How does this work out in our lives? What does this mean to you and me? You just think about it. I'm going to give you some suggestions, just lines of thought that suggest what this might mean to you or might mean to me or to any believer. But we're going to leave all this for the message because we're going to develop this more fully in a different way after the break here. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for allowing us to even think or consider this subject. We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ who knows more than we will ever know what it means to be alone. And we thank you because his aloneness was suffered, endured for us so that we might never be alone. And we pray that You would help us to see how our sins have brought this plague upon our race. and how that there are some who will pass from this life to eternity and forever they will be alone. We pray that that might not happen to any one of us here today. That we might find in Christ the remedy for our sins and see in His aloneness what our sins deserve. We'll thank You for that. In Christ's name we ask it. Amen.