Hebrews chapter 5, and our text will be found in
verse 7 through verse 9. The Scripture says, "...who in
the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplication
with strong crying and tears, unto him that was able to save
him from death, and was heard in that he feared. Though he
were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. And being made perfect, he became
the author of eternal salvation. unto all them that obey Him."
The title of the message this evening is, The Necessity of
Suffering. the necessity of suffering. Now, as I want to reiterate the
context of this, remember in verses 1 through 4, the apostle
gives us the qualifying marks of every high priest under the
Mosaic economy. Every high priest under the law,
he says, must be taken from among men, verse 1. He must be taken
from among men. That's the first qualification.
He must be a man. Second of all, he must be ordained
of God for this purpose, to represent men, for men, the Scripture says. And third, it must be in things
pertaining to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices to those for those
they represented. And these gifts and sacrifices
were not of their own making or their own opinion, but rather
they were commanded. They had to offer what was commanded
of God. And fourthly, they must have
compassion, verse 2, who have compassion on the ignorant and
on them that are out of the way. or that he himself also is compassed
about with infirmities. And fifthly, the high priest
must not take this honor, verse 4, and no man taketh this honor
unto himself. These five qualifications of
every high priest. And what we have been studying
is that Paul was making the declaration that Jesus Christ is our great
high priest. But in order for Him to be our
great High Priest, He Himself must meet the qualifications.
He was, first of all, a man. He was taken from among men.
The Son of God was made flesh and dwelt among us so that He
should be ordained a High Priest for us. He was ordained for us
to represent all of God's elect, And he did those things that
were pertaining to God. In other words, all that God
had needed, all that God required of our salvation, Christ was
to perform to perfection. And he took not this honor on
himself, but God gave it. Look at that in verse 5. So also
Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest. But
he said unto him, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee. And in another place, Thou art a priest forever after the
order of Melchizedek." You see, our Savior was truly a man. He
truly came down for this purpose, to be the high priest, to make
an offering to God for our sins. And that offering was not of
blood of bulls or of goats as those old high priests had done,
but this offering that he was to make was the offering of himself
to God. He offered himself without spot
and without blemish, being the sinless, spotless sacrifice,
he offered himself to God. God made him to be sin for us
who knew no sin. Well, for what purpose? That
we should be made the righteousness of God in Him. That was the purpose
of a high priest, to represent a people. And Jesus came to represent
a people. His people. His people. And so then we come now to verse
7. It says, "...who," Jesus is speaking
of Christ, "...who in the days of His flesh," When he became
a man, listen to what happened. When he had offered up prayers
and supplications with strong crying and tears. Now, believer,
you got any experience in that? If you're a believer in Christ,
I know this, you got some experience in prayers and supplications
to God. You've got experience of crying. And this should comfort you to
know this, that your high priest was so touched with the feelings
of your infirmities, the Spirit of God paints such a vivid picture
of His humanity here. He is truly a man. Jesus Christ, we see He is touched
with the feelings of our infirmities. He was truly a man, one of us. And as Isaiah had prophesied,
he said he was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. Yet as our high priest, even
though he suffered, He lived in a life acquainted with grief,
yet he lived in full faithfulness to God. Through all his suffering,
he never ceased to trust God. This is something you and I never
had any experience. We always seem to fail in trusting
God. When our troubles come, that's
the first thing that flies out the window, it seems. It's that,
oh no, he's gone, he's left me now. Our faith just flies, it's
so flimsy, it's nothing to lean on, it's nothing to trust. But
Christ was not so. He was a man that was strong
in faith and faithfulness to God. And he relied on God for
every need, spiritual need and physical need. Every need, he
trusted God for it. And this surely pictures when
our Lord and Savior was in the Garden. When He was in the Garden
of Gethsemane, right before He was about to be made sin for
us, the Scripture says He cried. so vehemently that he cried with
strong crying, that he sweat as it were great drops of blood. So intense was his suffering
that the pores of his skin would open up and blood would pour
out. and seeing he was soon to be
made sin, seeing that he was to be separated from
God, that he would suffer the full wrath of God for the sins
of his people. Yet, in reverence and godly fear,
he said, nevertheless, Not my will be done, but Thy will be
done. Our Lord prayed, He said, and
look in your text, He offered up strong cryings with tears
unto God, unto Him that was able to save Him from death. Now our
Savior, listen, He did not pray that He should not die. But rather
he prayed that God would deliver him when he did die. That he
would deliver him from death. From death. He knew that he was
going to death. And so his prayer was that God
should sustain him in his suffering and then after he died should
deliver him from death. We know this because in John
12 the Lord says this. He said, now is my soul troubled,
and what shall I say? Father saved me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto
this hour. He said, I came into the world
for this purpose. The Lord Jesus Christ knew what
He came to do. I'm so glad that he was all-knowing. He knew what he came to do. He
knew who he was. He knew he was our high priest. And he willingly suffered as
a man so as to provide righteousness for us. He provided a perfect
righteousness for us that we could never provide for ourselves.
And Christ, offering Himself to God for us, paid the penalty
we could never pay. He paid it by His own blood. And God seeing his perfect righteousness,
his perfect godly fear, listen, that was able to save him, and
listen, and was heard in that he feared. God heard his cry. God heard his prayers. Good news
for you and me. Since he is our representative,
you know his prayers are ours. His prayers are our prayers.
He offered up prayers on our behalf, and God heard his prayers. God heard his crying. Jesus willingly
died. And when He was on that tree,
and the justice of God fell on Him without mercy, justice of
God fell on Him, and when He had satisfied God's justice,
God having received His perfect offering, Jesus died. And you
know, God answered His prayer three days later. He answered
His prayer three days later. He heard His cry, deliver me
from death. And in three days, the Lord Jesus
Christ rose from the dead. He rose from the dead. Do you desire a testimony of
God concerning your sins, that they're gone? Do you desire that?
Do you desire to know your sins are gone? Believer, do you desire
to know your sins are gone? Then look at the tomb. God answered.
God has an answer for you. The tomb is empty. The sins of
God's elect are completely gone forever because if there was
one sin left on our high priest, He could not have raised him
from the dead. But because all the sin has been
gone, He raised him from the dead. If you want to know if
your high priest was successful, look at the tomb. It's empty.
It's empty. You see, Jesus actually accomplished
redemption. This is our gospel message. If
you want to know the gospel message, here it is. Done. Done. Jesus Christ has accomplished
our redemption. He lived and fulfilled our righteousness. He died and satisfied God's justice
for our sins, and seeing he was answered of God, he was delivered
from the grave. Even so, Jesus says this to men,
He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. See, this is my confession, this
is my testimony right here. That's my testimony. I was dead. I was dead. Not physically, I
was spiritually dead. Dead. dead in trespasses and
sins, my heart was fully corrupt, defiled and unclean. Therefore,
everything I did was unclean." Everything we did was defiled. This is why man cannot please
God by religion. You can be religious as you want
to be. You can do all the religious
ceremonies you want to do. The problem is sin defiles everything. Sin defiles our works and we
cannot please God. Go to Luke chapter 6. See it
for yourself. Luke chapter 6. Chapter 6 and verse 43. Now, this is a very simple analogy,
a very simple picture. You don't need to be a scientist
to understand it. A good tree bringeth not forth
corrupt fruit. Now, is that clear? Neither does a corrupt tree bring
forth good fruit. Here's the reason. For every
tree is known by its own fruit, for the thorns Men do not gather
figs nor do the bramble bush that they gather grapes. In other
words, you got a thorn bush over here. I don't care how much you
take care of it. I don't care how much you water
it. If it's a thorn bush, it's never going to produce grapes.
You can just count on it. I don't care what you do to it.
And so we by nature cannot do good. No matter how much you
care for this body, no matter how much you care for religion,
you are a bramble bush. You are a bunch of thorns. You cannot produce fruit unto
God that's acceptable. You know what you need is a new
tree. You need to be made a new tree. That's what Christ is saying. And this is the gift only of
the Holy Spirit. You see, we're corrupt and our
fruit is corrupt. All we can produce is thorns. We cannot produce fruit unto
God. In Romans chapter 8, it tells
us this, that the carnal mind, is at war with God. For it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can it be." In other words, you're
not willing to be subject to God's law, and you cannot be
subject to God's law. What else can you do? You're
not willing, and you can't. You can't. Therefore, Jesus said,
no man can. Come unto me." Accept. Now, I like that. If I had to
stop at the other one, I'd be in trouble. We'd be in big trouble. If we had to stop, no man can
come to me. Okay, well, we're all doomed.
No, but he said, accept the Father which has sent me, draw Him. That's the only way, is that
the Father draw us to Christ. And that's my experience. Behold then the love of the Father,
in that He has ordained, appointed Christ to be a high priest."
This is good news for men. This is good news because there's
hope. There's hope for men because God ordained someone to intercede
between you and God. Since you could not produce anything
God wanted, God gave Christ to produce everything you could
not. Behold the love of God, the love
of the Son of God, to come down and to take upon Him our flesh
and suffer upon the cross and offer Himself to God. And because
He was righteous, because His offering was perfect in every
way, because He did that, He purged
our sins. and was heard and delivered from
death, even so He has come to us and delivered us from death. By the power of His Spirit, He
raises the dead to life. This is true religion. It is
not about ceremony. It's not about doing. It's about
God doing something for you that you and I could never do for
ourselves. This is the gospel message, that
God comes in power to deliver dead folks. And I was one of
those dead folks. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, that was me. I was dead, but he gave me life. That is how we believe. Do you want to know the evidence
of the new birth? Jesus said you must be born again.
You must. You must. You must. You want to know the evidence
of that? Faith in Christ alone. Faith is the only evidence of
that. Therefore, we believe on Jesus
Christ as our Great High Priest. I believe on Him as my Great
High Priest. I do trust all my soul to Christ. Now, that's not
natural. Remember, I was a bramble bush.
I couldn't come to Christ. Why is it now that I can come
to Christ? Because the grace of God has brought me to Christ.
The power of God has brought me to Christ, and I believe on
Christ with all my soul. I trust Him in everything. Therefore,
we believe on Christ, our great high priest, because God chose
us, because Christ redeemed us, and because the Spirit of God
quickened us to life. Faith in Christ is never the
cause of our salvation. It is only the result of it.
You see, my salvation was finished 2,000 years ago when Jesus did
it. He was done. Matter of fact,
we're going to read that in just a second, but I'll read it to
you right now. Go back to your text, look at that. In verse
8, "...and being made perfect." He became the author of eternal
salvation. Being made perfect. His sacrifice
was perfect. Perfect. And because His sacrifice
was perfect, the result is always faith. God gave me faith. This is the work of God that
you should believe on Him whom He has sent. See, faith is no
mere decision. Faith is a gift of God. The Scripture
says faith is a gift of God, not of works. Why? Because if
you could produce faith, you would brag about it. You would
say, ah, look at me. I believed on Christ and you
didn't. So obviously, I'm better than you. No. Faith is not anything
of ourselves. Faith is a gift of God. Therefore, in the days of His
flesh, as a man, our Lord cried and was heard And notice this, verse 8, "...though
he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which
he suffered." Now if you believe in Christ, you should consider
this. Our Lord was a real man who really suffered and felt
real pain and experienced the deepest sorrows that a man could
feel. Whatever you and I have felt in sorrow is not near touching
the surface of what He felt. I don't care who you are, what
suffering you have. Christ's sufferings were infinitely greater
than yours. I'm going to give you an illustration
of this, why it's greater. Which do you suppose would suffer
more? A guilty man under the penalty
of death or a righteous man? under the
penalty of death. Well, you know that it would
be more anguish for a man who was righteous to have to suffer.
A man who was not guilty. A man who did nothing wrong.
If you do nothing wrong, what do you... I know my son, he's
up in arms. When he doesn't do anything wrong,
he'll let me know about it. And if I still punish him, he suffers
greatly. It's worse. But you know what
I say, if you did something else somewhere else, I didn't get
it, so I'll get that one. But we know we're all guilty.
But He never was. Our Lord suffered greatly in
this world. And listen, though He was the
Son of God, yet He still suffered. Have you considered that? Though He being the Son of God,
yet He suffered. You see, the Son of God was not
exempt from suffering, nor did God spare His Son. The Scripture
says, He spared not His own Son. Believer, when we suffer, we
feel it, and we feel as though God is
angry or displeased with us. Is that not the first feeling
that comes into your mind? It is if you're a believer. But see, God loved Christ and
yet He suffered. He suffered. He loved His Son
above all others and yet He suffered. Our Lord suffered. He suffered all we deserved in
this life and in death. Therefore, let us not be deceived. Suffering is not an indication
of God's disapproval or hatred. If you're suffering, it's not
because of God's disapproval or hatred. That's what we automatically
think. And that drives us into much unneeded anxiety and fear. So often we deceive ourselves
to think that if God loves me, if I've been washed in Christ's
blood and clothed with His righteousness, then I shouldn't suffer. Well,
that's another self-inflicted wound. You are not exempt from suffering. Matter of fact, our Lord said
this. He said in John chapter 16, I'll read it to you. John
chapter 16 and verse 33. He said, These things I have
spoken unto you that you might have peace. In the world you
shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome
the world. Think about it. If we were exempt
from troubles, why then would we need the Holy Spirit? Why would we then need this book
if we were exempt from trouble? Why would we need the promises
of God and the covenant of grace in the Holy Scriptures? If we
were exempt. But Christ has given us His Word
and His Holy Spirit and the Scriptures for this express purpose. Because
you shall suffer. You shall suffer. Tribulation. But in the midst of your darkest
trials, we can have cheer. Because whatever dark trials
you are suffering, He has already overcome. He has already overcome
it. Therefore, Jesus suffered because
it was necessary in order to bring us to God. Wasn't it necessary? That's what He said in Luke chapter
24. He met those disciples and He
said it was necessary that Christ should suffer. One, what did
the Scriptures say? The Scriptures tell this out,
that Christ must suffer and enter into His rest. Believer, are you troubled by
suffering? Are you weak? Are you weary? Do you cry to God? thinking your suffering is a
result of His forsaking you. We can see this is not true only
by looking at His Son. If He made His Son to suffer
whom He loved above all, then suffering is no indication of
God's love or hatred. Suffering. But Christ has given
us Himself he suffered and look at this in verse 9 go back to
your text He suffered for this purpose Being made perfect. He became the author of eternal
salvation unto all Them that obey him Have you obeyed his
voice? He said, coming to me, all you
that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Have
you obeyed His voice? This weariness of sin, guilt,
and shame, this rest is to cease from striving to obtain salvation,
to rest from the sorrow of the law, for in Christ there's peace,
there's forgiveness, And to come to Him is to believe on Him. That's what it is to come to
Him. And look at His suffering and
look what He has accomplished by it. Eternal salvation. You see, all that obey Him, He
gives eternal salvation. He gives what He made Himself. He made it Himself and He gives
it to all who obey, which is to believe on Him. believe on
Him. He has accomplished salvation
by His perfect suffering. Therefore, believer, in thy suffering,
in thy greatest sorrow, turn your eye upon Him, and you may
be able to bear the greatest sufferings, knowing this, My
high priest is perfect. He obtained for me eternal salvation. This is our rock, this is our
anchor, this is our assurance that salvation is eternal because
our High Priest is eternal. He bear our sins in His own body. He bear our sins and makes intercession
for us. Now, let us remember. Remember this, believer, that
because He suffered, He obtained our eternal salvation. It does
not exempt us from suffering. So we know why Christ suffered,
but why then must we suffer? Why must we suffer? Well, we
must suffer for this, because we must obey God. And to obey God yields suffering
in this flesh. To obey God is to suffer. Matter of fact, the word obey
in and of itself has to do with suffering. Suffering. In order to obey someone, you
must give up your will. You must give up your possessions. You must be willing to do and
be a servant of God, and to do that, believer, it is going to
cost you everything. Our Lord said it, he that hateth
not his father, and mother, and sister, and brother, and yes,
his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. You see, to be the disciple of
Christ, you must be willing to take up your cross and follow
Him. Follow Him. And you know what
Paul said about that in Romans 12? He said, that's just your
reasonable service. That's just reasonable. Seeing what our high
priest suffered, is it not reasonable that we as his servants should
suffer? Are we greater than our Lord that we should not suffer? Obedience is always a costly
thing. And if we obey God, it will most
definitely cost us everything. It will cost us the surrender
of our will, our thoughts, our possessions, our time, our labor. And surely we do this willingly,
even because what we sacrifice is nothing compared to what we
gain. Is that not right? What do you gain from this? What
do you gain from all this? You've got eternal life. You
have the glory of God given to you. Heaven itself is yours. Let us then follow in the steps
of our Lord as He learned obedience by the things He suffered, even
so we should learn obedience by the things we suffer. Isn't this what He's doing? Believers,
this is not what suffering is all about. God drawing us closer. It was said of an old writer
that shepherds used to unleash their dogs to get the wandering
sheep. Now, the dogs were never sent
to devour the sheep. They were never sent to hurt
the sheep. They were only sent to draw them back and bring them
back into the fold. And this is what suffering does
for us. Affliction for the believer is
better than prosperity. Better. Why? Because we don't learn anything
in prosperity. Usually in prosperity we grow
cold and indifferent. Our hearts wax fat and we become
like the Laodicean church, lukewarm in the things of God. But I tell
you what, God in His love chastens His own and causes us to feel
our need. When you suffer, don't you feel
your need more than when you're not? I'm going to show you this. I know I'm running over. Psalm
119. Psalm 119. I want to show you that affliction
is necessary to teach us so that we should learn. Psalm 119, verse
67. Look what David said. He said,
before I was afflicted, I went astray. So what happens before
we're afflicted? We go astray. In prosperity,
we go astray. But listen to what happens after
he's afflicted. But now, after I've been afflicted,
now I have kept Thy Word. Look at verse 71. It is good for me that I have
been afflicted. That goes against every fleshly
thought, doesn't it? Not to the spiritual mind, it
doesn't. To those who are born again of
Christ, we say of affliction, it is good that we have been
afflicted. Have you been afflicted? Is that
not wonderful? Why? Because it draws you closer
to the Savior. Your roots begin to go downward
into Christ, and you cling with all your heart now to Christ.
Whereas if everything was well, you would just be laissez-faire,
everything, que sera, sera. Everything's well. See, that's
what God does to the lost. He lets him go. Asaph had that problem, didn't
he? In Psalm 73, he had that problem. He said, why are the
wicked, why do they prosper? They're so happy. Look at their
Facebook pages. Man, they're so happy. They got
everything. Look at them. God says they're like hogs. Just
fatten them up for the kill. Not my people. He afflicts his
people. It is good for me that I have
been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. I tell you, you ain't learning
nothing if you ain't afflicted. Verse 75, he says, I know, O
Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness
hath afflicted me. You remember Newton wrote, I
ask the Lord that I might grow in faith and love and every grace.
Might more of his salvation know and seek more earnestly his face.
T'was he who taught me to pray thus, and he I trust has answered
prayer. But it has been in such a way
that almost drove me to despair. I hope that in some favored hour
at once He'd answer my request and by His love's constraining
power subdue my sin and give me rest. Instead of this, He
made me feel my hidden evils of my heart and let the angry
powers of hell assault my soul in every part. Yea, more, with
his own hand he seemed, intent to aggravate my woe, crossed
all my fair designs I schemed, humbled my heart and laid me
low. Lord, why is this? Trembling,
I cried, Will thou pursue thy worm to death? Tis in this way, the Lord replied,
I answer prayer for grace and faith. These inward trials I
employ from self and pride to set thee free and break thy schemes
of earthly joy that thou mayest find thy all in me." What is
he doing? He is separating you from this
world. He is preparing you for glory. You wonder why the things as
you get older don't seem to really have the same flair. They don't
have the same taste. The things of earth grow stale
and bitter. Good. God is prying these things
from our grip so that we should cling more closely to heaven. In a hundred years from now, who will remember you were even
here? Very few, if anyone. But I don't care, because
my Savior will never leave me, nor forsake me. He is my High
Priest, and because He came and suffered in His flesh, He obtained
eternal redemption for me. And I know this, he learned obedience
by the things he suffered, how much more should we learn by
our suffering? To draw closer to Christ. Thank
Him for the suffering. Have you thought about that?
Paul says, not only so, but we glory in tribulation. Why? Tribulation worketh patience. Patience, experience, experience,
hope, and hope. Confidence makes me not ashamed. Not ashamed of Him. What taught
you that? Affliction. Affliction. May God, even by His grace, teach
us, but also keep us in the midst of our afflictions. Suffering. It was necessary for Christ to
suffer. It's necessary for you to suffer. I pray that God blesses
your heart. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.