All right, take your bowels and
turn back with me to Hebrews chapter 5. Hebrews chapter 5. Tonight we'll be looking at verse
7 through verse 10. I've entitled this message, The
Necessity of Suffering. We're going to look at two aspects
of suffering in this passage, and the first aspect of suffering
and the necessity of it was the necessity of Christ's suffering.
that it was necessary for this great high priest that he should
come into the world and suffer. That he should make an offering
and that offering was himself. And the second aspect of suffering
I want us to understand is the necessity of the believer's suffering. The necessity of the believer's
suffering and how it is the believer endures. Now, in verses 1 through
4, the apostle gives us the qualification. I'm not going to go into this.
I've already been over this with you last week. I've got many
things to go over tonight. We know this, that Jesus Christ
met all of the qualifications of a high priest. He was taken
from among men. He was a man, though He were
God, very God, He came into this world and became a man. He did so for the suffering of
death. so that he might offer himself
as a high priest. He might not just be the high
priest, but the offering. And secondly, we saw that he
must be ordained of God. No high priest was ever called
himself, even so, look at verse 5, so also Christ glorified not
himself to be made a high priest. In verse 6 he said, Thou art
a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Christ was ordained
to be a priest. He came as a man and was taken
from among men to be a high priest. Again, you got to understand
the office of a high priest. The purpose of a high priest
was to represent men. in things pertaining to God. No man could represent himself. He needed someone to make an
offering for him. That's what a high priest did.
He offered a sacrifice to God for the sins of the people. And
we know this, that all of those Old Testament high priests, they
offered many sacrifices, and those sacrifices could never
remove sin. They only pictured the Lord Jesus
Christ, the great high priest. Now He's the great high priest
in this, because He only made one offering. Christ didn't make multiple offerings
like those priests. He made one offering. And His offering was perfect.
And the Holy Spirit begins to describe His suffering. His suffering. Look at verse
7. He said, Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered
up prayers and supplications, notice, with strong crying and
tears. See how vividly the Holy Spirit
paints His suffering? Christ's suffering was not some
ethereal thing. It was a real suffering. Strong crying and tears. He cried unto Him that was able
to save Him from death. It was heard in that He feared. Our Lord Jesus, we see him who
is the Son of God, yet he was truly a man. When I said he was taken from
among men, he was really a man. He was touched with the feelings
of our infirmities. He suffered as a man. And as our high priest, being
truly a man, truly one of us, Isaiah said he was despised and
rejected, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as
our high priest, he lived in full faithfulness to God through
all his sufferings. Can you imagine? I know believers
desire to live faithfully unto God, to believe. But consider
his faithfulness, that he was rejected of man. He was rejected. A man of sorrows
and in the midst of his sufferings, he never ceased to trust God. Never. And you remember at Gethsemane
in that garden where he prayed, consider his strong crying unto
God. He said, if it be possible, Lord,
let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thy will be done. Scripture says he sweat as it
were great drops of blood. Have you ever prayed such? Have you ever prayed with such
agony? No man felt agony like our Lord Jesus Christ, no man.
He was about to be made sin, separated from God, and feel
the full weight of hell on his own soul. He was about to suffer
like no man had ever suffered before. And yet, in reverence
and godly fear, he resigned his will to God. Our Lord prayed
not to be delivered from this suffering, He said, shall I, he said in
John 12 he says, now is my soul troubled and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour,
but for this cause came I unto this hour. God seeing his perfect
righteousness and godly fear. Scripture says he, in our text
he says, in the days of his flesh, offered up prayers and supplication
with strong crying unto him that was able to save him from death,
in that he was heard. Though he were a son, yet learned
the obedience by the things he suffered. Christ, our perfect
righteousness, seeing he is our perfect righteousness, he perfectly
feared God. God did answer his prayers. Did
not God answer Christ's prayer? He did. As soon as justice was
satisfied, he was immediately delivered. He was delivered from
suffering. He was delivered. He was heard
of God. He satisfied the justice of God
by his perfect offering. He willingly laid down His life
and what did God do three days later? God proved His acceptance
by raising Him from the dead. Even so, all those who are represented,
all those He lived for and fulfilled righteousness for, all those
He died for, He satisfied God's justice for our sins. So as we consider his suffering,
considering his suffering was for our sins. It was our sin. The sins of those
he represented. And seeing he was answered of
God proved that he was, that God was satisfied with his one
offering. Therefore, Christ says this,
he that believeth in me, he that believeth in me, though he were
dead, yet shall he live. Yet shall he live. Herein is the testimony of everyone
who believes on Christ. We were dead. We were dead. We were dead in sins, our hearts
was fully corrupt and defiled and unclean. Therefore, all we
did was defiled. Our Lord said that about a tree,
remember that? He said in Luke, I think Luke 6, he talks about
a good tree. He said a good tree bringeth
forth what? Good fruit. But a corrupt tree, it can't
do anything but bring forth corrupt fruit. This is talking about our nature.
We by nature, we're only always corrupt. We're corrupt. Our fruit is corrupt,
our works is corrupt, we could not, we would not come to God. But behold, the love of the Father
for us is fully displayed in the sufferings of Christ, isn't
it? The love of God for His people
is displayed in the offering of His own Son for the sins of
His people that He appointed Christ to be our High Priest. Behold the love of God. Behold the love of Christ, who suffered, who in the days of His flesh
offered up strong prayers and supplication with strong crying. Behold the love of Christ to
condescend to take our nature and suffer upon Calvary's tree
for us, to offer himself, to become our righteousness. And
because of his perfect offering, pleasing God forever, he has
purged our sins. In this, he was heard. He was
heard. He was heard and He was delivered
from death. And so now He has come to us.
Our High Priest has come to us. He who offered Himself a sacrifice
for sin, He has now risen from the dead and as He promised,
He has come to us, we who believe, you who believe. Has He not come
to you? He's called you to faith in Him. He's given you faith in him and
you have been delivered like him. You have been delivered
from death. He that believeth on me, though
he were dead, yet shall he what? Live. You see the similarity. He suffered so that you and I
might be raised from the dead as he was. Might be delivered
from death. Therefore we trust in Christ. We have been delivered by the
power of the Holy Spirit in the new birth. John chapter 10 and verse 10
said the thief cometh not but to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they might have
life and that they might have it more abundantly. You see? He came to suffer. He came to
die. And when God heard his cry, God
delivered him from death so that he might come and deliver us
from death. 2 Corinthians 2 Corinthians chapter
1 and verse 10. 2 Corinthians chapter
1 and verse 10 it says, who delivered us from so great a death and
doth deliver in whom we trust and he will yet deliver us. You that believe. Delivered us
from so great a death how by his suffering you see the necessity
of his suffering So that you who were dead might live So that you should come to faith
in Jesus Christ I want you to remember that faith is never
the cause of this resurrection That's important religion believes
that faith is the cause of the resurrection They emphasize so
much that you believe that your faith is so necessary. I tell you, faith is necessary,
but faith is simply the result of what Christ done. You believe
because of what he suffered, because our high priest suffered. Faith is a result of God's love
of Christ's blood and a result of the power of the Spirit of
God. Jesus said, this is the work
of God that you believe on him whom he hath sent. And so then we see in the days
of his flesh he as a man suffered. He suffered and he was hurt in that he feared, he obeyed
God, he honored God for this purpose. He suffered so that
you and I might live. You and I might live so that
you and I should have faith in Him. Faith in Him. Now look at the next verse. Though
he were a son, yet learned he obedience, by the things which
he suffered. Now consider this believer, our
Lord Jesus Christ was a real man in that he really suffered,
he felt the pain, he experienced the deepest sorrow a man could
ever feel. Though he were a son, not just
any son, he was the son of God. He was the sinless son of God. He was the only beloved of the
Father, and yet, I want you to notice, this did not exempt him
from suffering. It did not exempt him from suffering. God did not spare him from suffering. Scripture says, for he spared
not his own son, but delivered him up to suffering, delivered
him up to death for us all. Therefore, believer, when we
suffer, oftentimes we feel it is because
God hates us, because God despises us. This is a natural feeling,
and I'm not saying it may last very long with the believer,
but it does come up. You know, you can't stop these
thoughts, can you? You can't stop them. They just
pop up. Luther said, I can't stop the
birds from flocking, but I can stop them from nesting. So that's,
you know, they're all going to flock around. They're going to
come up. When suffering comes, this is our first inclination,
is that something is amiss. God is angry or displeased or
has somehow forsaken us. You can't read David's Psalms
and not see he experienced that. He said, Lord, have you forsaken
me forever? Have you cast me off forever? But see God loved Christ above
all others and yet He was ordained to suffer. Even the darkness
and anguish of the cross and we know this God never ceased
to love Him. Our high priest God never forsook
him except in that instance where he of necessity must have to
save his people. Our Lord suffered all that we
deserve both in life and death. Therefore, let us not be deceived. Suffering is not an indication
of God's wrath. It's not an indication of God's
wrath. You that believe. You remember in Ecclesiastes
chapter nine. Look over there. Look at this.
I think this gives me some comfort. Just as suffering is not an indication
of God's wrath, I want you to know this. Prosperity is not
an indication of his love. There are a lot of people that
are going through life happy-go-lucky. Nothing bothers them. That's not an indication God
loves them, and you that believe or you that suffer, this is not
an indication that God hates you. See, Ecclesiastes, look
at chapter nine and verse one. He said, for all this I considered
in my heart, he would declare all this, that the righteous
and the wise and their works are in the hand of God. No man
knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before him. You're
not gonna know the love of God or the hatred of God by the providence
that's before you. You're just not. Rebecca in Genesis, she was promised
that her child should be the heir. And you remember she didn't
know at the time she had twins. But she was in such great pain
throughout all this because these twins were struggling within
her. And she asked that question,
why am I thus? Look, if this is the promise,
child, then why am I in such grief? And he said, you don't
understand. There are two nations in you. You struggle. You suffer. Why? There are two nations in you.
There's the old man of sin and the new man that God has made
in the new birth. Therefore, we suffer. We suffer,
we struggle. So often we are deceived ourselves
to think that if God loves me then everything should be well. That we should not suffer, that
we should be exempt. Is that what our Lord taught
us? Can you really with a straight face say that's what he taught
you? That we're going to be, all is going to be well. No, he said, in this world you
shall have tribulation. You're going to have it. You're
going to have it. But think of what would happen
if we were exempt from suffering. What kind of people would we
be if we were exempt from suffering? If we were exempt from sorrow
and grief, would you need a comforter? Would you need the Holy Spirit
if you didn't have these problems? He said, that's why I'm sending
the Comforter unto you, because you will suffer. You will suffer. Why would we need the promises
of God's Word, the covenant of His grace constantly repeated
in our ears, if we would never forget it?
But yet we do. How how often do we forget these
things? We forget his sufferings. We
forget his sorrows. We forget his griefs. We're so
focused on our own. We need to be reminded of his
sufferings because. I'll tell you this, if I didn't
have his sufferings, I wouldn't have any hope at all. But Christ has given us his word,
he's given us his spirit. that reveals to us his word,
that in this world we shall suffer tribulation, but even in the
darkest of trials we have cause to be of good cheer." Didn't
he say that? Be of good cheer. For I have overcome the world. I've overcome everything that
gives you grief. And how did he do it? How did
he overcome everything that gives us grief? By his own suffering. By his own suffering. And because
we see that he was victorious in his suffering, this and this,
you and I will be victorious over our suffering. we will triumph over the sufferings
in this life. Therefore, Jesus suffered because
it was necessary in order to bring us to God. Had He not suffered
in the flesh, we could not have satisfied the justice of God
by our suffering. We could not have merited the
righteousness of God. But it behooved Christ that He
should suffer and enter into His glory so that He should save
us. Therefore, believer, you that
are troubled, you that are in heavy sorrow and grief. Do you not cry to God in the
midst of your suffering? Listen, because Christ is your
high priest, that you were heard. You were heard. He was heard.
Wasn't he? Scripture says he was heard.
And because you are in Him, you are also heard. He hears our suffering, He hears
our cries. If this was true of the Son,
then I want you to see it is also true of us. For this reason,
look at verse 9 again, go back to your text. And being made
perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all
them that obey Him. He being made perfect, that word
means complete, accomplished, having accomplished salvation,
He became the author of eternal salvation. Now consider this
eternal salvation was something that God and Christ and the Spirit
purposed in eternity. But now it has come to fruition. It has come to pass. He has become
the author of eternal salvation to who? To them that obey Him. To them that obey Him. Have you obeyed His voice? What is it to obey Him? It is
simply this, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what
it is to obey Him. Come unto Me, all you that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. I will give you
pardon. I will give you peace. I will
give you love, joy, meekness, temperance, faith. All of the
fruits of the Spirit are given to those that what? Believe. This is to obey Him. It is to
believe. It is to rest completely upon
Him. It is to rest from striving to
obtain salvation. You know what? That's just the
most, it's like a hamster in a wheel, isn't it? Religion is
nothing more than a hamster in a wheel. You gotta, you dangle
the carrot out in front and they're always running and never getting
it. Listen, you who believe, you have it. It's yours. Everything you need is yours. You need forgiveness, you have
it. You need mercy, you have it.
You need pardon, you need peace, you have it. It's rest from the sorrow of
the law. For in Christ alone there is
peace with God. And to come to Him, to believe
on Him alone is to obey Him. And listen, you who obey Him
have this, eternal salvation. You know, that's what I need.
I don't need temporal salvation. I don't need salvation that comes
and goes. I don't need salvation that's
dependent upon me. I don't need salvation that's
dependent on my feelings of salvation. In the midst of suffering, who
feels saved? In the midst of suffering. In
the midst of suffering, we feel as though we're lost. I know this, I'm not alone in
this. Asa felt that way. Psalm 74, you read to that man,
he felt lost. How could a saved man ever feel
lost? I do. He did. Oftentimes, suffering causes
these things. But you know what? Salvation
is not depending on my feelings of salvation. My salvation is totally dependent
upon the perfect sufferings of Jesus Christ in my place. My salvation is dependent upon
the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ who obtained it
in my stead. My salvation is dependent upon
Christ alone. He accomplished my perfect salvation
by His perfect suffering and freely gives it to all who come
to Him. The last book of the Bible, Revelation,
it said that he said, Come, come to the waters, come. Trying to
figure out where that is. Is it come take of the waters
of life freely, freely? You know, it means there's no
cost. There's no cost. It's the only thing that's truly
free, isn't it? Come to the waters and drink
freely of Christ. Therefore, believer, I want you
to understand then that salvation is completely the perfect work
of Jesus Christ. But I want you to know that your
suffering is necessary. That your suffering is necessary. These believers in Christ, They
were suffering in this book of Hebrews was written to those
people. They were suffering. They were being. They were being
persecuted. By their families, this was no
light persecution. I'm not talking about somebody
making a joke about you. That's not what they were doing.
These people were being cast out of their families because
of their faith. The rulers of their synagogues
were casting them out. They were being persecuted by
their own families and being forced or coerced into recanting
their faith in Christ. This was real suffering. Real
suffering. And so as we suffer in this world,
I want you to understand that it's necessary. It's necessary. As Christ's sufferings was necessary
to make salvation perfect, our sufferings are necessary so that
we should grow in faith and love and every grace. We should grow
in faith. I don't know, is your faith strong
enough? Is it bold enough? No, we have
to grow in these things and the means is suffering. Look at this in Romans chapter
5, Romans chapter 5. Therefore being justified by
faith, by the faith of Christ we're justified. We have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have access
by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope
of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory
in what? Tribulations also. We glory in tribulations. We
glory in sufferings. Why? Because sufferings have
purpose. Knowing that tribulations Worketh
what? Patience. You see, these Hebrews
were suffering so that it should work endurance. Endurance. You say you believe in Christ.
If you do, it will be tested. It will be proven. Not to God,
but to you. If you really believe, it's going
to be proven. And it's going to be proven by
this, suffering. Suffering. That word patience, it doesn't
mean quiet waiting. It means agonizing endurance. In the book of James, it said
you've heard of the patience of Job. Was Job quiet? when he suffered? Was he meek
and lowly in a corner somewhere when he suffered? No. He was
crying. He was in pain. He was in agony. But what is this endurance? What
is Christ working endurance in? Faith. He's exercising your faith. And so when our faith is exercised,
where do we look? We look to Christ. We look to
Christ. This is what suffering does.
It causes us to look to Christ, to trust in Christ. Tribulation
work of patience and patience, what? Experience. Christ learned
by the things he suffered. How about you? You think you
could learn by the things you suffered? He did. I know we would. We learn by the things we suffer.
What do we learn? We learn the grace of God. We learn the power of God. We
experience the grace of God, the power of God, and the love
of God. And this experience of the grace,
power, and love of God during our suffering gives us confidence. confidence not in ourselves but
in the sufferings of Christ. Our sufferings point us to the
sufferings of Christ and in that we have confidence. And listen,
hope, confidence makes us not ashamed. Paul said, I am not
ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. For it is the power of
God unto salvation to everyone. You know why he got that? Because
he experienced it. He experienced it. And because the love of God is
shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given
us. I know we want to do this backwards. We want the love of
God to immediately be shed abroad in our hearts. We said, hey,
you know, I want to skip all of the tribulation. I want to
skip all of the experience. I want to skip. You don't get
to skip that. Why? Your suffering is necessary.
And in the end, what does your suffering do? But point you to
the suffering of Jesus Christ. Realizing that no amount of my
suffering is ever going to make me acceptable with God. But my suffering causes me only
and always to look to him. And notice this last part. Go
back to your text. Seeing that He suffered, seeing that He was
heard, our Savior, He became the author of eternal salvation
to us who believe. And now that we suffer, listen,
He is called of God an High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. What does this mean? He ever
liveth to make intercession for us. This is our confidence. This
is our hope in the midst, in the very teeth of our suffering,
that Jesus Christ, our high priest, is constantly interceding for
us. Therefore, all who are true believers
in Christ, you have this promise. You'll make it. You're going
to make it. You will endure. Because Christ,
your priest, ever lives to make intercession for you. I pray that God would comfort
us in the midst of our suffering. Teach us that our suffering,
like Christ, was necessary. If it wasn't necessary, he wouldn't
do it. In fact, that's what I believe
Peter tells us. Close with this. 1 Peter 1, it says, who are kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time wherein you greatly rejoice
though now for a season if need be you through heaviness of manifold
temptations that the trial of your faith being much more precious
than gold that perisheth though it be tried with fire might be
found to the praise and honor and glory at the appearing of
Jesus Christ. Our suffering, friends, is necessary. It's necessary to point us to
the sufferings of Christ. Can you compare your sufferings
with His? Do we dare compare our pain with
His? Therefore, we should what? Rejoice,
because our suffering has purpose, has meaning. To who? Only those that believe. And what's a mark of someone
who believes? They'll always believe. True faith is one that
always endures. Always endures. Oftentimes, I
find myself like the disciples ask, Will you go away also? And I say, Lord, to whom shall
I go? I got no place else to go to you. I may not understand
what God's doing, but I know this, I got no place else to
go. My only hope is your suffering. And I know this, you're the author
of eternal salvation. I pray God comfort his people
with this. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer. Our gracious Father, I pray you'd set our eyes upon
a great high priest, Jesus Christ, ordained for us to offer his
self to suffer for our sins. And now that he
has risen from the dead, become the author of eternal salvation,
To us who believe, Father, I pray that you would comfort us in
the midst of our suffering, that you would use it, Father, for
your glory in pointing us to Christ and laying us at the feet
of Christ. He's all our hope. He's all my
forgiveness of sins. He's all my pardon and peace
with you. I pray that you would continually
keep my eyes upon him. fill my heart with love and an
adoration for him. I pray you do this in his name.
Amen.