Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 7. Once again, we'll read verses
7 through 9. Who in the days of his flesh,
when he had offered up prayers and supplications 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. Now, we talked last week that
there's three things we're looking at here. First, Him being our
great High Priest, though He was and is the Son of God, the
Lord Jesus Christ had to suffer. We saw that in our last lesson.
If He's going to have compassion on us that are ignorant and out
of the way, He's going to have to be like the High Priest, the
type, And he's the anti-type, so he came where we are and suffered
as a man. But being our great high priest,
the Son of God condescended to take on the form of a servant
to suffer perfectly. That's the second thing. Not
only was he to suffer, but he had to suffer perfectly. If he's
going to be the representative and obey and honor and magnify
God's law, he's got to do that actively, perfectly. If he's
going to be the substitute for his people and lay down his life
in their place, then he's got to be a spotless lamb and a fit
sacrifice. And even in the midst of that
suffering and laying down his life, he's got to do that perfectly
and faithfully as God's servant. And then next week, we'll see
that his people have to suffer some things in this life, too.
We'll look at that next week. But here's what I propose to
you this morning. The Lord Jesus had to suffer
perfectly in order to magnify the law and to make it honorable.
Now let's look here at verse 7. It says, Who in the days of
His flesh, that's His abode here on earth, during His earthly
ministry, when He had offered up prayers and supplications
with strong crying and tears, that tells us something about
His anguish, strong crying and tears. Unto Him that was able
to save Him from death, not from the cross, That wasn't His purpose. His purpose was to go to the
cross. But with all of the effects of
sin laid on Him in the flesh, He needed the strength of God
to strengthen Him to go to the cross and to make it to the cross.
So when it says from death, it's from the actual dying that we
would encounter in our flesh had we had to bear what he was
bearing. And he was heard in that he feared. Now what was he doing? What was
the Lord Jesus doing? Let me give you a few things
here. First, he was doing what he promised his father he would
do in the everlasting covenant of grace before the world was
made. I'll give you some scriptures. Isaiah 49.3 says, Thou art my
servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. That was what he
was doing. He came because he's God's servant. And he came to glorify God. No man had ever done it. No man
could do it. That's what he came and that's
what he's doing here. 1 Samuel 2 and verse 35, the
Lord said, I will raise me up a faithful priest that shall
do according to that which is in mine heart and in my mind.
And I'll build him a sure house, and he shall walk before mine
anointed forever." There had never been a high priest who
was perfect, a perfect, merciful, and faithful high priest. And
the Lord God said, I'll raise me up a high priest. And this
is being fulfilled. And it says, In another place,
the Lord is well pleased for His righteousness sake because
He'll magnify the law and make it honorable. That's what He's
doing right here in these days of His flesh. So then Galatians
4.4, you'll turn to the left there from Hebrews and look at
Galatians 4.4 with me. All these things were prophesied
before the foundation of the world. But then we see here in
Galatians 4.4 it says, But when the fullness of the time was
come." This is the time appointed of the Father. God sent forth
His Son, made of a woman, made under the law. He's the servant
of God and made under the law. He has to obey the law in every
regard. He's obeying the moral law and
He's fulfilling the ceremonial law. "...to redeem them that
were under the law." that we might receive the adoption of
sons. Redemption is a purchase, and
the purchase was his suffering, his laying down his life for
his people. He said, I came to do thy will,
O God. He said, your law is in my heart.
I came to do it. So in the days of his flesh,
though he were a son, though he's God's son from the foundation
of the world, Learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.
Now we saw last time that obedience is voluntary submission to the
will of another. You voluntarily, faithfully,
willingly submit yourself to the authority of another. He
experienced and understands as a man all that we experience
in our day-to-day lives. He knows all those things. He
was touched with our same infirmities. Touched with the feelings of
our infirmities. On behalf of his people, though,
more than that, in the days of his flesh as a man, on behalf
of his people, he perfected obedience. He perfected obedience. There had never been a man who
walked this earth that perfectly obeyed God. And he did. That's what he's doing right
here. What was it he was doing? Secondly, first of all, he was
doing what was determined before the foundation of the world to
be done. He's the high priest appointed, the faithful high
priest God would raise up. Secondly, he's proving himself
to be perfectly righteous, to be the perfect high priest and
spotless offering to God. That's what he's doing. It was
required of every priest that they be a merciful and faithful
high priest in things pertaining to God. Was there ever one Was
there ever one that perfectly fulfilled that office in himself? Never. Not until Christ came. Not a one. Look at Hebrews 5 here in verse
3. By reason hereof, he ought, this
is the Levitical priest Aaron and his sons, he ought as for
the people so also for himself to offer for sins. In other words,
the high priest was a sinner too, so he had to offer sacrifice
for his own sins as well as the people. Not this one. Not this
one. That's what he's proven. You
remember our Lord, it was required too of the offerings that they
be without spot or blemish. Every offering that was to be
offered had to be without spot and without blemish. We'll see
later on that he's not only the high priest, but he's the altar. He's the offering. It's his own
blood. He's all of those things typified
in the ceremonial worship. And the problem with an animal
was, though, a spotless animal, is an animal could never take
away the sins of a man. It only typified and pictured
the spotless Lamb of God, Christ Jesus the Lord. That's all it
pictured. It typified Him. It was a figure. Look over at Hebrews 10.1. Hebrews
10.1. For the law, the ceremonies,
having a shadow, a picture, a figure of good things to come, not the
very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which
they offered year by year, continually, make the comers there unto perfect.
For then would they not have ceased to be offered? Because
that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience
of sin. But in those sacrifices, there's a remembrance again made
of sins every year. For it's not possible that the
blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins, not the sin of
a man. They can't take away a man's sin. A man's got to die. A perfect, spotless man has got
to lay down his life in the place of his people if he's going to
put away sin. But before he can lay down his
life, he's got to be proven under the severest of struggles and
suffering to be perfect. to be righteous, to be the spotless
Lamb. And that's what's taking place
here in the days of His flesh. The Son of God condescended to
be a man, and He took the form of a servant before God, and
as God's servant, He voluntarily subjected Himself to God and
to His law. Now listen, in the days of His
flesh, from the cradle to the grave, from the cradle to the
grave, He was obedient to God. He said, I must be about my Father's
business. He said, My will is to do the
My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me. He was circumcised
the eighth day. He obeyed the law, the moral
law completely. Everything about Him was faithful. And in the furnace of affliction,
in the garden of Gethsemane, He said, Now is my soul troubled. Now He's entered into soul agony
here. Remember, Scripture says, He
who knew no sin was made sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. In other words, He became what
we were, what He wasn't, in order that He would make us what we
weren't and what He is. He became sin in order to make
His people righteous. How righteous? The righteousness
of God. That's what God demands. It says
in Matthew 26, He began to be sore amazed. He was amazed. That's too profound for me. I don't know what He was suffering. It was something to do with Him
being made to sin. It was something to do with Him
learning by experience what the depths of what sin is and God's
wrath toward it. and to be very heavy. And then
he said unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto
death. You see, his soul was so in such
agony unto death that he was about, he was going to die. So
when it says he prayed and he was heard by him that was able
to save him from death, it was literally, quite literally, right
there dying in the garden of Gethsemane. His prayer was, save
me from this hour. He had said before, talking of
the cross, should I say, save me from this hour? I was made
to come to this hour. This is why I came into the world
was for this hour. And in the garden, if he was
praying for God to save him from the cross, then he wouldn't have
cared for his people or the glory of God. He was praying for strength
to make it to the cross, to get to the cross, because as a man,
as the servant of God, He's depending upon God. He's trusting God to
get him to where he's wanting to go, to glorify God and to
make his people righteous. He was in agony. Yet amidst all
this unimaginable suffering, in him was no dross, no imperfection,
nothing whatsoever but faithfulness. Listen to this now. You and I
get a little bit of trouble, a little bit of anguish and affliction. and we experience all these different
things. We get angry, we get full of pride, and we just, I
mean, we buck when we get a heavy load on us. We're afflicted.
The first and great commandment, this is what the Lord Jesus said
is, and we know it from the commandments, Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all your heart. Not out here with your hands.
You love him out here too, but as he taught our Our imperfection,
our sin flows from the heart. It's not what goes in the mouth
that defiles a man, it's what comes out of his heart. The heart
is what defiles a man. And right here in the midst of
all this suffering, what did he say when he got through suffering
in the Garden of Gethsemane? He said this, that the world
may know that I love the Father. Arise, let us go hence. He's
going to the cross. that the world may know I'm fulfilling
the commandments of God and making His law in place for people who
could never do it. Let's go. Let's go to that cross. And then this furnace was heated
seven times, the perfection of suffering. Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law. Scripture says being made a curse
for us. mull that over in your mind a
minute he was made a curse in the place of his people made
a curse having been made a curse hanging
on the cross between an offended God and a guilty people bearing
everything that the wrath of man of sinful man could throw
on him and everything that holy God justly poured out on him
There He is hanging between the two. Vile corruption on one hand,
putting human corruption on Him and spitting in His face and
treating Him with every manner of sin that we could treat Him.
And on the other is God Almighty, Holy God, justly pouring out
His wrath on Him because He's been made sin in the place of
His people. Satan and hell and everything
that He could hurl at Him is being hurled at Him. God's wrath
is being poured out on him. He said, I'm a worm and no man,
a reproach of men and despise to the people. He said, I'm poured
out like water and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is
like wax. It's melted in the midst of my
bowels. He said, all my bones, they look and stare upon me.
They part my garments. All these things. He's in agony
on the cross. And yet in the very midst of
such suffering, in the days of his flesh, He offered up prayers
and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that
was able to save him from death. The soul that sinneth must die.
He's perfectly, willingly, obediently laying down his life. And he's
going into the grave. And he prayed to him that was
able to raise him from that grave. And he trusted him. Even in the
midst of suffering, you see what I'm saying? What I'm trying to
convey to you is, as the obedient servant of God, the perfect spotless
high priest, in the midst of the severest trials that could
be put upon him, there could be no sin found in him. He never
once rebelled against his Father. He never once turned in rebellion sin was found in him. Not once. And we want to talk about our
faithfulness. We want to talk about something
we did for God. This is true faithfulness. We go along when things are good
and we're just so righteous and so upright and so religious and
just everything. We're just so one with God. But you let something offend
us in our flesh, and you'll find out real quick just how faithful
we are. God, He had the sin of His people laid on Him. He was
made a curse in the place of His people. And God is pouring
out His wrath upon Him, while at the same time men are pouring
out their wrath upon Him, while Satan and all his angels are
doing everything they can to make him turn away from God.
He said, Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabited the praises of
Israel. Our fathers trusted in Thee.
They trusted, and Thou didst deliver them. They cried unto
Thee and were delivered. They trusted in Thee and were
not confounded. He said, Thou art He that took
me out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope when
I was upon my mother's breast. I was cast upon Thee from the
womb. Thou art my God from my mother's belly. Be not far from
me, for trouble is near. He's offering up prayer and supplication
to God. He said, there's none to help.
There's no man that can help me. Be not thou far from me,
O Lord, my strength haste thee to help me. Deliver my soul from
the sword, my darling, from the power of the dog. Save me from
the lion's mouth. You hear faithfulness, prayer,
and supplication in the midst of suffering, and yet He is faithfully
crying out to God as the servant, the son of man, the perfect man
that ever walked this earth, the spotless Lamb of God, and
he cries out faithfully for God to strengthen him, help him,
save him. What did he prove by praying
and supplicating God under such a heavy load? He proved his obedience. He proved that he voluntarily
subjected himself to God to honor God's law and make it honorable.
What do I mean magnify His law and make it honorable? What do
I keep saying that for? He obeyed it in every precept. His people
couldn't do that. And then He went to the cross
and took their place under its penalty and died in their room
in their stead. And His people couldn't do that.
I didn't have life. But because He's as much much
God as if He were no man and as much man as if He were no
God, He could do both. And He did it faithfully. And
He's raised and seated at the right hand of God because He's
the merciful and faithful High Priest. He's the spotless Lamb
of God. He gave His own blood and redeemed. He bought them. He bought His
people. And there He is. They belong
to Him. Now, do you think He's going to let one of them be lost? After He endured that perfect
suffering for them to redeem, to buy them, to purchase them
with His own blood, do you think one of them is going to be lost?
There is something else He was doing here. He pleased God. That is something else He was
doing. He was pleasing God. Our text says, in the midst of
all this, in the days of His flesh, 5 verse 7, In the days
of his flesh, when he had offered up prayer and supplication with
strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him
from death, he was heard in that he feared. He was heard. The
Lord Jesus Christ, the only man that ever approached God without
a mediator, and he was heard. He was heard. This proves he
pleased God. God was well pleased with the
sacrifice. For thou hast heard me from the
horns of the unicorns, he said. You know what the horns of the
unicorns is? It means the exalted place. Where was that? Would he cry out, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? You heard me from the cross.
He was faithful. Now let me show you something
here. I want you to turn with me to some Scripture. 2 Chronicles
6, 3. And I want to show you a little
correlation here. There's a good picture here of what was taking
place. Prayer and supplication. Prayer and supplication was pictured
all in the burnt offering and in the peace offering. They took
that burnt offering and they took it to the altar at the door
of the tabernacle before they went into the holiest of holies,
before you ever entered into the holiest of holies. They offered at the door of the
tabernacle a burnt offering. And that burnt offering, they
put it on the altar and they burn it with the perpetual fire
that was always burning on the altar until it was ashes, until
it was just nothing but ashes. And while they were burning that,
they took a peace offering too, which was the inward parts, the
fat on the inward parts, which was the Lord said, that's my
part. As Christ was suffering, you see the picture, as Christ
was burning in the agony in the garden, at the door of the tabernacle. He's being consumed in this agony,
and yet he prayed to God and he supplicated God. Supplication
is a peace offering. He made supplication for peace
and it went up, when it was burnt, the smoke of it went up, a sweet
smelling savor unto God. Now let me show you something
here. In 2nd Chronicles, Solomon has
built a house for the Lord. It is a picture of what Christ
did when He walked us or what He did. And He came to the day
of the dedication and Solomon stood between Jehovah and all
the children of Israel. There is a type of the Garden
of Gethsemane in the cross. And he stood at the altar and
on it were these burnt offerings and these peace offerings which
all typified Christ. Solomon pictures Christ That
altar picture is Christ, his burnt offerings and his peace
offerings picture Christ. Everything was taking place here
we read about in the days of his flesh. Now look what he said.
Verse 3, And the king turned his face and blessed the whole
congregation of Israel, and all the congregation of Israel stood.
Can you see Christ? Do you think he was just praying
for himself when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane? He was
blessing the whole congregation of Israel. What he was doing,
he was doing for his people. And then look here in verse 12.
And he stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of
all the congregation of Israel, and he spread forth his hands.
He offered prayer and supplication based on a covenant promise. And here's what he prayed. Look
down at verse 16. I can't go through this verse by verse.
I just want to hit the highlights. Now therefore, O Lord God of
Israel. When you see Lord God, it's signifying
Covenant God Lord God of Israel keep with our servant David my
father that which thou has promised him He's petitioning him based
on promise There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit
upon the throne of Israel You promised the King's gonna reign
now then Oh Lord God of Israel Let thy word be verified which
thou has spoken unto thy servant David Have respect, therefore,
to the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O Lord
my God, to hearken unto the cry and the prayer which thy servant
prayeth before thee. What did the Lord pray in John
17? He said, These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes
to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come. Glorify thy
Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee. He's the antitype of what
Solomon pictured right here. That's exactly what Solomon prayed.
Now look down with me, verse 20. And what did he pray on behalf
of the people? That thine eyes may be opened
upon this house day and night, upon the place whereof thou hast
said thou wouldst put thy name there, to hearken unto the prayer
which thy servant prayeth toward this place. What did the Lord
pray for these people in John 17? He says, I am no more in
the world, but these are in the world. And I come to thee, Holy
Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given
me, that they may be one as we are. And he said, Neither pray
I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me
through their word. You see the type and the anti-type?
And then verse 21, Hearken therefore unto all the supplications of
thy servant, and of thy people Israel, which they shall make
toward this place. Hear thou from thy dwelling place,
even from heaven, And when thou hearest, forgive. There's only
one man that could pray that prayer without having a mediator.
That's Christ. Look here, verse 41. Now therefore
arise, O Lord God, into thy resting place, thou and the ark of thy
strength. Let thy priest, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation.
Who's his priest? Who was Christ's priest? This
is what Christ was praying when he offered up prayer and supplication.
His priest are his people. Let them be clothed with Thy
salvation. And let Thy saints rejoice in
goodness. O Lord God, turn not away the
face of Thine Anointed." Christ said, Don't turn away from Me. Look upon Me. Remember the mercies
of David Thy servant. It's Christ. Remember the tender
mercies You promised Me. And then look here, 2 Chronicles
7 and verse 1. And now when Solomon had made
an end of praying, when he made an end of all his prayer and
supplication, what happened? The fire came down from heaven
and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices and the glory
of the Lord filled the house. His prayer was heard. When our
Lord finished offering prayer and supplication, He went over
to the Brook Kidron where He knew Judas would come with the
soldiers and He allowed them to take Him to the cross. And
you know what took place there on that cross? Fire came down
from heaven and consumed the sacrifice. And two things, two things tell
us He was heard. The first thing is He laid down
His life on the cross. He wasn't praying to be saved
from the cross. He was praying to be able, for
the sake of glorifying God and to make His people righteous,
for strength to make it to the cross to lay down His life as
a man because He's suffering from the weakness of our flesh. And He was heard. And we know
He was heard because why? He went to the cross and laid
down His life. And fire came down and consumed that sacrifice.
And secondly, we know it because when that fire consumed that
burnt offering and that peace offering, smoke rose up to God,
a sweet-smelling savor. And three days after fire consumed
Him on the cross, He rose from the grave and rose up to God,
a sweet-smelling sacrifice to God. He was heard. You know what
that means? God is pleased with His offering. And He is alone. He is only. And being made perfect, verse
9 of our text, the perfect God-honoring, God-pleasing, law-satisfying
sacrifice, being made perfect, proving His perfection, He became
the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey Him. You know what the author is.
He plans the book. He writes the book. He stamps
his name on the book. And he don't stamp for plagiarism.
He wrote it. It's his book. He's going to
receive all the rewards of writing that book. That's Christ. He wrote it. His name's stamped
on it. He bought it with his blood.
He's going to be honored and glorified. Sing, O ye heavens,
for the Lord hath done it. Shout, ye lower parts of the
earth. Break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forests, and
every tree therein. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob
and glorified himself in his room." You see that there? I hope you do. I hope you do.
And by Him, all that believe are justified from all things
from which could not be justified by the law of Moses. He fulfilled
it. He's the perfect offering. I
know that's a little longer than we intended, I wanted you to
get all that.