show the two reasons a priest, a high priest is chosen.
And one, it's so that he can offer sacrifices to God, offerings
and sacrifices to God for the people. And two, it's so that
he's compassionate with infirmity and he's able to comfort those
and have compassion on those that suffer. And our Lord Jesus,
it tells us there, He learned obedience by the things which
He suffered. He was experiencing everything
His people experience. And that suffering was all a
part of the offering He was making to God. He was being righteous
in all of that, working out a righteousness for His people. learning the experiences of his
people at the same time as a man. And it all culminated in him making
the one offering that saves his people, the cross. So I want
to pick up here, we looked at this last time focusing on why
sinners reject Christ, but I want to look tonight focusing on our
Savior as he walked this earth. says 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 hath 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. It says there, surely he hath
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. And I've titled
this, Surely He Hath. Surely he hath. When a believer
suffers, when we suffer as believers in this world, we're taught to
look to Christ. And we're taught to go to Christ
for grace. Look to Him who is our salvation
and go to Him for grace. Because He was a man of sorrows
acquainted with grief. And He knows our sorrow, He knows
our grief. And He's able to comfort us. And He's our only salvation,
our only righteousness. And I titled this, Surely He
Hath, because when you yourself suffer, I want you to remember
this passage and remember this message. And when you yourself
suffer anything, rejected, opposed, you fail, whatever it is, I want
you to remind yourself, surely He has. Surely Christ has already
borne this. Whatever it is you're facing
at that moment, if you can remember yourself, remember, surely He
has. He has done this already. means
it's certain he has. Whatever it is you go through,
he has suffered it. He has. Now first of all, while
the Lord Jesus Christ walked this earth, he was a man of sorrows. He was acquainted with grief. They were his constant companions. Sorrow and grief were his constant
companions. Christ was touched with the feeling
of our bodily infirmities, our weaknesses. The Son of God, the
Holy Son of God, equal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit,
He really and truly took a human body and a human nature like
His people. He really did that. It's a great
mystery, but He did it. He came down, the Son of God
took a body like his brethren. And he was really touched with
all the same infirmities that we're touched with. Sin is what
caused these infirmities. But he was touched with all of
them, yet he was without sin. But he experienced everything
sin has caused you to experience as far as weakness and as far
as that goes. Things like hunger and thirst
and weariness and sorrow and pain and disappointment. All
these things, he suffered these things, just like we do. Tempted, he was tempted in all
points like his brethren. He had to be. All of this was
necessary. See, Christ really did take the
place of his people. He took our place. He really
did. He came down and became the one
man that God the Father looked to to save each and every one
of his elect. And so he had in all points,
he had to be made like us, in all points he had to suffer like
his people suffer. And he had to do it willingly
and he had to do it perfectly without sin. And then go to the
cross and put away all our sin wherein we haven't done anything
as we ought. That's what Christ did. And through
all of that, brethren, he knew no sin. Holy in his mother's
womb, but through all of that that he suffered, he never had
a sinful thought. Not even a thought was sinful.
You know, not only when we suffer, not only do we suffer because
of our own sickness, our own bodily weakness, and hunger and
thirst and whatever it is, not only do we personally suffer
these things, but when you see somebody you love, sorrowing
and going through those things, you suffer because of them. It
makes you sorrow because of them. Well, brethren, our sorrow, even
when it's true sorrow over somebody you love, a brother, sister in
Christ, or a close, close family member, whatever it is, when
you suffer and you sorrow because they're suffering, our suffering
is still filled with selfishness and sin. We, you know, We, it's
just, it just is. It's just, that's just so. But
our Lord, He suffered seeing us suffer. He looked and saw
His people suffering from our sin and all the things that cause
us grief. He saw our suffering and it caused
Him suffering in a way we can't even really comprehend. It was
a perfect suffering. Look at John 11. You remember
at Lazarus' tomb? Perry come running to him and
said, you know, if you'd have been here, my brother wouldn't
have died. It said verse 33, John 11, 33. It says, when Jesus
therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came
with her, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And he said,
where have you laid him? And they said unto him, Lord,
come and see. Jesus wept. He saw her weeping and he wept. Isaiah 63, nine says, in all
their afflictions, he was afflicted. When you suffer infirmities,
sickness, sorrow, bereavement over a loved one, betrayal, anything,
we're gonna see quite a few things here. Anytime you suffer these
things, You go to Christ, first of all, that's number one. Go
to him, and pour out your heart to him. But when you start suffering
these things, remember, call to mind, surely he hath. He's
born this. He is born this. That's what'll
turn our suffering into something profitable, is when you're suffering
it, don't just, you know, say, woe is me. When you're suffering
it, think about it. He suffered that, surely he had. And it'll make that whatever
you're going through to be profitable for you spiritually by seeing
Christ in it. But our Savior suffered, sorrowed,
and grieved due to other things too as he walked this earth.
Now he was holy, perfectly holy, yet everybody around him was
a sinner. Everybody around him was a sinner.
Everything, he's holy and everybody around him was unholy, the opposite
of what he is. Sin is an abomination to God.
That's what sin's abomination to, he hates it. Abomination
means a stink. It stinks to him and he hates
it. And yet the perfect, holy, righteous
God-man came and dwelt among us. walked among us. You know, if you were the only
sinner in heaven and everybody there is holy and righteous,
you would understand this in the opposite contrast. But he
experienced it as the only holy and righteous man in the midst
where everybody around him was sinners. He knows And he knew the heart
of men. While he was in this earth, he
knew the hearts of men. Even though they didn't speak
yet, he knew what they were thinking. And you just think about how
easily sinful thoughts come into your heart and flee and then
another one. And he knew those with those
people around him. And what does scripture say about
us in our natural heart? Every imagination of the thoughts
of the heart and the intents of it are only evil continually. So we're so accustomed to sin
that it takes, it's gotta be something that is just over and
above to grab our attention, because we're so accustomed to
it. But every now and then, you'll hear somebody committing an evil
act that's so evil that it even grabs our attention and makes
us think, ugh, that is awful. The Lord Jesus encountered that
with everybody. I mean, that's how bad it was,
everybody's sin was to Him. Brethren, now our Lord's clear
when He says, come out from among sinners. Don't make them your
companions and don't run with wicked people. We're not to make
them our close companions, but he also makes us to partake of
his spirit. And when he saw, remember when
he saw that certain Samaritan scripture says he had compassion
on him. Another time we read, there came
a leopard to him and he, and he beseeched him, he kneeled
down and he started begging him, Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. And the scripture says, Jesus
moved with compassion and put forth his hand and touched him
and said, I will be thou clean. So yes, sin was obnoxious to
him and here he is, the holy man dwelling amongst sinners
to save us. He had compassion on sinners.
Over and over we find that in scripture, how he had compassion,
full of pity and compassion. So, though we're not to make
sinners our close companions, we're not to act proud toward
sinners either. Remember, we were the baby cast
out in that open field, unswaddled, unsalted, loathed. That was us. no man had compassion
on you, no I pitied you, and no man had compassion on you,
but Christ did, our Lord did, and he still does. We still have
a sin nature, and he still is full of pity toward us and has
compassion on us. So when you have opportunity
to show compassion to a sinner, and there's somebody that maybe
they're obnoxious to you, it's just an abomination, their sin,
Don't put up your nose and be proud toward them. Say, remember,
surely he hath. How did he deal with us? How
did he deal with you? And how does he still deal with
you? Go to Christ for grace that you'll need, and words you're
going to need, and patience you're going to need, and be full of
pity and mercy, just like our Savior toward us. Our Savior
also suffered because of false accusations. Men tempted him
to try to get him to sin so they could have something to accuse
him with. And when they couldn't accuse him, they just made up
stuff to accuse him with. Now, brethren, that ranks about
as high among things that causes us to suffer in sorrow as anything
is being falsely accused, especially if you meant it for good, and
you were doing good for somebody, and they don't regard it as good,
or worse, they regard it as evil, and just accuse you of something
falsely, that ranks among the top when it comes to things that
make us suffer. Well, Christ suffered that like
nobody ever has, and nobody ever will. Now, you may think, as
you hear me say these things, you may think, I'm not preaching Christ's righteousness
and our need of him and all that. Brethren, listen to me. All of
this we're looking at, when you hear me say the law examined
him and found no fault in him, God put him to the ultimate test
to prove he's spotless through and through, this is how it was.
This is how you're gonna be tried most of all, is in countering
other sinners. Brethren who fall are just sinners
in the world. That's how you're gonna be tested
by the Lord. That's how your face can be tried
and you're gonna find you fail. But Christ never did. Whether
it came to being compassionate towards somebody who needed mercy,
whether it was Pharisees trying to entangle him in his words.
Listen to this. Listen to this. These are religious men. Go to
Luke 11. These are religious men now.
This was the cream of the crop of that day when it comes to
religion. This is the best self-made religion can produce right here. Verse 53, Luke 11, 53. Let's see, I'm in the wrong scripture.
Luke 11, 53, here it is. Luke 11, 53. And as he said these
things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees
began to urge him vehemently. They are fired up, red in the
face, and they're urging him with great passion and to provoke
him to speak many things. They're just throwing things
at him to try to get him to say something for this reason, laying
weight for him and seeking to catch something out of his mouth
that they might accuse him. That was the whole purpose. And they couldn't do it. They
could not do it. Our Lord was silent when He needed
to be silent, spoke when He needed to speak, and in it all, He never
sinned. Never sinned. You may be able
to hold your tongue and be silent, wisely be silent, but I guarantee
you in your heart, you're going to fail. You're going to fail
in your heart. But He didn't. And that's how,
he's our righteousness in all these things. You can't be made
righteous by doing any of this. But you can surely perish by
failing to do all this perfectly. But Christ is our righteousness
in all of this. Go to Matthew four. Something
else that's tempting is when you're questioned as to who you
really are. And somebody holds in question
who you are They're basically calling you a hypocrite, saying
you're not who you claim to be. Well, that's what the devil used
when he had him in the wilderness, trying to get him to sin. Listen,
Matthew 4.3 says, and now he had fasted 40 days
at this point, 40 days, 49. He hadn't had anything to eat.
He's a real man. He's touched whatever, just like
you would felt after 40 days of not eating, that's how he
felt. And look at the first temptation. When the tempter came to him,
he said, if thou be the son of God, command that these stones
be made bread. That's questioning who he is.
We don't like somebody to question who we are. That causes you some
sorrow when people do that. But he answered and said, it's
written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then he, verse six, he
said, if thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down, for it's written,
he shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their
hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy
foot against the sun. Questioning him whether he really
was the Son of God. Hold that in doubt. Jesus said
to him, it's written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy
God. That's something right there,
you and me would have failed that test. Maybe you could have
passed it outwardly. Maybe you could have quoted the
right scripture and not been tempted into it. But in your
heart, where God's looking, only evil continually. That old
nature's with us always. Satan used the Apostle Peter
on one occasion And the Lord loved Peter. He loved Peter.
But the devil used somebody that the Lord loved and the devil
knew he loved him. That's how he made Adam sin and
plunged us all into sin. He used Eve. He didn't go to
Adam, he used Eve to do it. And he used Peter. The Lord's
getting ready to go to the cross and he takes Peter, uses Peter,
and it sounded so noble. Lord, you're not going to that
cross. We're not gonna see you suffer and die. Well, if he didn't,
the very purpose of God would have failed. If the Lord didn't
suffer and die, none of God's righteousness wouldn't have been
revealed and his people wouldn't have been saved. You see how
evil that was? But the Lord knew that it wasn't
Peter who he loved that was doing that on his own. He knew that.
And he looked to Peter, to Peter, but what did he say? Get behind
me, Satan. He knew who was doing that. He
knew who it was. Only those he saved believed
him. But here's the thing. They believed
him to be who he said he was because he gave them faith to
believe him. But even when he went to that cross, they fell
into terrible unbelief and didn't believe him. Those he loved,
they left him. They just left him. Peter did
not know him. Judas betrayed him. Look at verse three of our text,
Isaiah 53, three. We hid, that's us, brethren,
that's me and you. We hid, as it were, our faces
from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Verse four, we did esteem him
stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Go back to Hebrews
12. Hold your place in Hebrews, we're
coming back here. In every way that we can think
of, this is just, I'm just barely even touching it here. But in every way you can think
of, sinners were a contradiction to Christ. They were contrary
to him. They were opposite him in every
way. So brethren, when you're opposed,
When you're rejected, when you're betrayed, when you're, anything you suffer in this world,
and you're hurt by it, and you become weary by it, remind yourself
and say this, surely he hath, surely he hath. Look to Christ,
look here, Hebrews 12, 1. Wherefore, seeing we also are
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us
lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset
us, and let us run with patience the race that he has set before
us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. That
means his faith saves his people, not our, his faith. who for the
joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For
consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against
himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds. You
have not resisted unto blood striving against sin, but our
Savior did. In the garden his soul was so
troubled, and he was under so much stress in that garden. He sweat, as it were, great drops
of blood. I looked it up. It's called hematidrosis,
is what it's called. Brought on by extreme physical
and emotional stress. Stress causes the capillaries
around the sweat glands to rupture, mixing blood with sweat. That's
stress. That's stress. Next time you're
stressed out, say, surely he hath. We've not
sweat blood due to sinners being contrary to us. But this was
the worst of all our Savior's suffering, the cross. The cross
was the worst of it. Shame is far more difficult to
bear than bodily suffering. Shame. Guilt. He bore the shame that came with
bearing the sin of His people before God, His Father. You know,
we don't think of that. I don't think of this often,
that He had always been one with the
Father, and He had always been holy before the Father. And now,
what you feel whenever the Lord first revealed your sin to you
and made you know you're the guilty sinner, and you felt so
guilty and so shamed. Christ was touched with all those
feelings. He knows that. But his was such
a real because he bore our sin. Martyrs have suffered on a cross. Martyrs have died at the hand,
been greatly tormented by men and all these things, and suffered
many cruel deaths. but only the Lord Jesus was made
sin for his people. No other man ever suffered that.
Verse four says, surely he hath borne our griefs and carried
our sorrows. The Gospels quote this, and they
say that he fulfilled it by healing sickness, and he did. And what
it means is our Savior bore the, he removed those sicknesses,
he healed people of sicknesses, For his elect, he had to bear
the sin that caused the sickness. That's the only way he could
heal sickness. He had to bear the sin that causes the disease,
our transgressions and our iniquities. Verse 6, all we like sheep have
gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. See, after he perfectly served
the Father and went through all this temptation and all this
betrayal and rejection and contradiction of sinners and opposition and
sorrow and grief and suffering and all the same things you and
me suffer. Adam was in a perfect garden, perfect environment,
no sin, started out a perfect man with one law and blew it. Christ comes into a world full
of sinners under 600 and something laws and is touched with all
the feelings that we suffer having already been made sin, us already
having become sinners. He didn't start out with a perfect
environment and not being touched with the feeling of what sin
causes. He started out with all that on him. plus surrounded
by sinners, plus opposed every step of the way, plus having
all these laws and the devil trying to throw everything at
him. And then once he served the Father perfectly and proves
He is the righteousness that will be given to His people.
He is the requirement God requires that will be given to His people.
Then after that, He goes to the cross willingly takes all the
sin of all his people for every moment that we failed in all
these things. Think of every moment of your
life up to this point that you have failed in all of these things
we're looking at and all of the sins that are involved in that.
And the Lord took all that sin of every one of his people and
made him sin for us. He not only bore everything that
we were as far as touched with these feelings, now He bears
the sin. He never failed, yet He bears
the sin like He failed it all. But it's our sin. But He's bearing
it now. Peter quoted it this way. He
quoted that in verse 6 this way. Who His own self bear our sins
in His own body on the tree. Apostle Paul said it like this,
he hath made him sin for us who knew no sin. I want to look at
this more next time, but let me say this. God is so holy and
just and the reason Christ came was to manifest God's righteousness.
And he would not make the sinless Lord Jesus a curse. He would
not just pour out his wrath and judgment on Christ till he first
made him sin. He had to be worthy justly of
bearing that curse before He would pour that curse out on
him. That's how righteous God is. But bearing all the sin of
His elect, Christ was then made a curse. Verse 5, He was bruised
for our transgressions. He was bruised, wounded. He was
wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
Every time He healed one of His elect, He knew that's what He
was going to have to bear. said, I will be thy clean, be
thou clean. He knew he was going to have
to bear all the sins of his life every time. And that anguish
grew as he went through his life. Listen, he said, I have a baptism
to be baptized with and how I am straightened till it be accomplished.
He's talking about the cross. And so, you can hear the progression.
When he was approaching the Garden of Gethsemane, he said, now is
my soul troubled. What shall I say? Father, save
me from this hour before this cause came onto this hour. And
then in the garden, a little later, he began to be sorrowful
and be very heavy. And he said, my soul is exceeding
sorrowful even unto death. And then time passed and later,
he says, being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly and sweat
as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground. But
brethren, to the glory and praise of God, He not only said, I have
a baptism to be baptized with and I'm straight until it be
accomplished to His praise and His glory. He accomplished it.
He accomplished it. He satisfied the justice of God. He justified all His people on
the cross. That's what Christ did by His
blood. Then He came and gave us life and faith and made us
to know He did it for us. Listen, being justified freely
by His grace through the redemption, redeemed us from the curse, justified
us from our sin and redeemed us from the curse. The redemption
that's in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth the propitiation
through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness. That's
the purpose. We're not justified by our works.
You're not going to be justified by doing these things, being
compassionate and remembering what Christ has done and trying
to treat sinners like He treated us. You're not going to be saved
that way. You're not going to be righteous that way. If you did
everything God commanded, God said, just say we're unprofitable
serpents. We just did what we were told
to do, what we should have done. We're justified by God our Father
in the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And we're justified
by the blood of Christ. That's why God set him forth
to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. And we're
justified to declare his righteousness. It's for his sake. That's why
we're justified. What is that? Romans 3.26 says,
to declare his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. God the Father gets
all the glory. Christ gets all the glory. The
Holy Spirit gets all the glory. For all God's elect, look at
verse five, the chastisement of our peace was upon him. Chastisement
is the act of vindictive justice. God poured out his holy wrath,
taking vengeance on every one of his elect in Christ our substitute. And divine wrath now is appeased. Justice is satisfied. Peace has
been made by Christ. It's finished. Look at verse
five. And with his stripes, we're healed.
Make the connection now back up there. He said he carried
our griefs and our sorrows. He went around healing people
of their sickness, their disease, and you know, then he went to the cross and
bore the root cause of it all and put it away, and we're healed
now. We're healed now. You know, we
don't think of this, but when you pray to the Lord, to be healed
of some physical sickness you have. The Lord may heal you of
it, but he bore your sin to be able to heal you of it. You're
asking him to heal you of something that caused him dreadful pain.
It's a little easier us looking at it in hindsight, but if you
was before he went to that cross and you're sick and you're praying
to be healed or coming in to be healed, knowing he's gonna
heal me, but he's gonna go out to pay the price to do it. That's
what he did. But brethren, it's better than
any kind of him just temporarily healing you right now with some
bodily sickness. He healed us spiritually forever. He that believes on Christ, being
united with him in spirit now, you'll never die. You have life
and you'll never die. Restor Peter's statement, he
quoted it. Here's how he said it. His own self by our sins
and his own body on the tree that we being dead to sins should
live unto righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. We're
living unto Christ our righteousness by whose stripes you were healed.
For you were a sheep going astray but are now returned to the shepherd
and bishop of your souls. Paul said it this way, he hath
made him sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. We're gonna deal more with that
next time, Remember this when your sin troubles you. Remember,
surely he hath. He's borne my sin, he's borne
the curse, and he's made me healed. All right, go to Hebrews 2.7.
I'm gonna just read a couple scriptures. Hebrews 2.7. So we have a great high priest
at God's right hand. He's our advocate with the Father
when we sin, he intercedes for us. Surely he hath borne our
sin. and he's able to comfort us, verse 17, wherefore in all
things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren that
he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining
to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. He
deals with God on our behalf, faithful and merciful, and he's
merciful to us. and in that himself suffered
being tempted, he's able to succor them that are tempted, comfort
them that are tempted. That's the twofold purpose. All
right, now go to Hebrews 9. Not only remember, surely he
hath, you know, in every situation, remember, surely he hath, he's
bore this, but not only that, he's bore my sin right now in
it. He's put my sin away that I'm
committing right now in this situation. He already put it
away. And he's my advocate with the Father right now. And now,
I want to have compassion like he's had compassion on me. Still
does. But also remember this, he's
coming again. He's coming again. Look, verse
26. Now, once in the end of the world, as he appeared to put
away sin by the sacrifice of himself, that's what he accomplished.
He put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it's appointed
unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. So Christ
was once offered to bear the sins of many, to accomplish our
judgment, and unto them that look for him shall he appear
the second time without sin to salvation. Go to Hebrews 4. Here's
the whole point right here. You run this race looking to
him, and in every need you run to him, and you constantly remember
he hath suffered this, but you go to him and he'll give you
more grace. Verse 14, seeing then we have a great high priest
that's passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us
hold fast our profession, For we've not a high priest that
cannot be touched with the filling of our infirmities, but was in
all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore
come boldly welcome to his throne of grace that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need. Amen. All right, Brother
Adam.