In Luke chapter 17, verse 25, we read these words, the Lord
had talked about his second advent, and we considered that a couple
of weeks ago. Verse 25, but first must he suffer many things and be rejected of this generation. I've entitled this message, Why
Must He Suffer? Why Must He Suffer? Now, in thinking about this subject, And I certainly should feel this
way every time I preach but I can't even emphasize how unqualified
I am to talk about this because who can understand the sufferings
of Christ? I have suffered physically. I
really have. I've had some times where I had
major suffering. But you know what? During those
times, oh, how the Lord was with me, and how I felt His presence,
and how I felt His favor. And to be quite frank, even though
there was tremendous sufferings physically, you that know me,
when I've gone through a couple of things, one time in the 80s
and one time in the mid 2005 or 2006 and so on, I did go through some physical
sufferings, but I also was thinking, it doesn't get any better than
this. But the Lord's sufferings. For one thing, my suffering doesn't even begin,
nor does your suffering even begin to be compared with his
sufferings. And here's what we don't really
understand. When he suffered, he didn't have the presence of
his father. He didn't have the favor of his father. He couldn't
say, well, I know I'm in the father's hands. No, he felt forsaken
of God. He was, he didn't just feel forsaken
of God. He was forsaken of God during
his sufferings. Now, who could possibly understand
that? And I think I know a little bit
about what Paul meant when he said to the church at Corinth,
I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. I feel conscious of my own weakness.
And I fear misrepresenting what God actually says regarding this
subject because that's all we can do. We can only go to the
scriptures and see what God says because I can't just give my
opinion on it because I don't have an opinion. I don't know
enough to say anything about it. I can just read what the
word says and we pray that God is our teacher and I fear misrepresenting
this holy subject. Now When the Lord says, but first
must he suffer many things and be rejected of this generation,
that word must means it is absolutely necessary. It is absolutely necessary. Before I ascend back to the Father,
before I return in glory as lightning lighting up the sky, I must first
suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. Now this
is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking, the Son of God, the Son of Mary. But you know how he referred
to himself the most during his days on this earth? What title
did he give himself the most? The Son of Man. the Son of Man. Oh, his love
toward the children of men. He identified with men. He called
himself the Son of Man. He talked about the Son of Man
in his day. Must first he suffer many things. Now he tells us he must suffer. And I think of Psalm 88 verse
15 where he says, for I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth
up. His sufferings didn't begin in
Gethsemane's garden. Now that's when they became the
most acute, but they didn't begin in Gethsemane's garden. Why? At his birth. Herod tried to
put him to death, didn't he? His sufferings began early. We
don't know anything about his childhood other than that one
time that we read when he was 12 years old and he said he had
left his parents in Luke chapter two and he said, I must be about
my father's business. That's the only information we're
given regarding his childhood. But you reckon he was persecuted
by other kids? I guarantee you he was. He had
to withdraw himself from their wrath probably so many times
because of his glorious person. You see, men naturally hate God,
and men naturally hated him. You know, even his brothers and
sisters didn't get it, who he was. And there was a dislike
of him from even his brothers and sisters. He was persecuted
from his youth up, he said. Isaiah 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. Now that's the worst thing you
could say about us. We didn't esteem him. We had
no respect for him. Now, everybody here knows how
difficult it is when someone treats you in a disrespectful
way. It gets to you. Now, somebody
says, well, you don't deserve any respect. Well, we don't,
but you still ought not teach anybody, treat anybody disrespectfully. Nobody should be treated disrespectfully.
I don't care who they are or what they've done. You may think
certain things, but you shouldn't treat someone like that, and
that's the way that bothers us when someone treats us like that
with disrespect and contempt and lack of esteem. Don't think
the Son of God was immune to the way people treated him. He
was a man of sorrows. He was deeply acquainted with
grief. He was despised. and we esteemed
him not. He said through Jeremiah in Lamentations
3, 1, I am the man who has seen affliction through the rod of
his wrath. Only the Lord Jesus Christ could
say that. I know Jeremiah said it, but
you read, next time you read Lamentations, you read that book
and look at every word as the words of the Lord Jesus Christ
himself. He was hated. He was mistreated. He was abused. He was falsely
accused during the days of His flesh that consummated in Him
being nailed to a cross. Who could describe the physical
sufferings of that? Being thrown down on a pole and
nailed to a cross. Before that, he was beat with
a cat of nine tails, his beard was ripped out, that crown of
thorns was placed upon his head, and he was nailed to a pole,
and he suffered from the disloyalty of his disciples. They all, the
scripture says, forsook him and fled, and he was all alone. I think of him being in Gethsemane's
garden. He was sore amazed and in agony,
so much so that the scripture says he sweat great drops of
blood. And his soul sufferings. My God. My God. At this time, he was not permitted
to address him as father. My God. My God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me? And the words of my roaring,
the father refused to help him. Turn with me for a moment to
Lamentations chapter one. Now this is an example as to
why we should read the book of Lamentations as the words of
our Lord Jesus Christ. But in Lamentations chapter one, beginning in verse 11, all her
people sigh. They seek bread. They have given
their pleasant things for me to relieve the soul. See, now
listen to this. See, O Lord, and consider, for
I am become Now, you and I don't become vile,
do we? We're born vile. We don't become
vile. These are the words of the Lord
Jesus Christ from the cross. Look what he says in verse 12.
Is it nothing to you? All ye that pass by, behold,
and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is
done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day
of his fierce anger. From above hath he sent fire
into my bones, and it prevails against them. He has spread a
net for my feet. He has turned me back. He has
made me desolate and faint all the day. The yoke of my transgressions
is bound by his hand. That's how truly he was remade
sin. They are wreathed and come upon my neck. He has made my
strength to fall. The Lord has delivered me into
their hands from whom I'm not able to rise up. What? Is there any sorrow? He says.
Is it nothing to you? Is there any sorrow likened to
my sorrow? Now in his suffering, here once
again, I'm talking about stuff that I just
know, but I can't possibly enter into. In his suffering, he experienced
everything about sin, but the commission of it. Now you know the guilt you have
experienced over sin. You know the fear and the shame
and the humiliation you've experienced over sin. You know what it is
to feel like you've been found out to be exposed to be embarrassed
by your sin. The Lord Jesus Christ felt all
that, and He felt it much more acutely than you and I ever can
because of the holiness of His soul. He experienced much more
acutely everything you and I ever experienced with regard to sin
with the exception of the commission of it. He never sinned. He felt its weight. He felt its
guilt. He felt its shame. He never sinned,
but oh, he experienced it. In Isaiah chapter 53, verse 11,
it says, he shall bear our iniquities. Now you can look this word up
for yourself. I looked it up in two different Hebrew lexicons,
both Strong's and Brown's Hebrew lexicon. And that word bear means
to be gravid, to be pregnant. Now, what association is closer
than a woman with a baby inside of her? Now, that baby's not her. That
baby's not her. But what a close association. And that's the near and close
association that the Son of God experienced when he was on Calvary's
tree being made sin. Why do you suffer? He suffered
for sins. That's what 1 Peter 3, 18 says.
He suffered for sins. The just for the unjust. You think of Him saying in Psalm
22 verse 6, I am a worm. And that's literally, I am a
maggot. And I'm not even fit to be called
a man. Those are the words of the Son
of God from the cross. Now those three hours of darkness,
let us know that we really cannot see what was going on in this
great transaction between the Father and between the Son. We're
given some light on it, and we can read and we can see, but
we just feel like we're in the dark about it, don't we? The fact of his suffering is
both overwhelming and true. Why did he suffer so? Now, with regard to any other
man, we could readily answer why any man suffers. It's because
they're sinners. That's why. I was talking to
an individual this week, just a couple of days ago. He heard the message and he said,
I believe that message. I believe that message. That's
what I really believe. But they don't preach that at
the church I go to. And I said, well, why are you still going
there? And he said, well, my wife, she won't come here. She
likes it there. And he said, she's really a good
person. She hates God. Although she may
be a good person, as men think, but she refuses to hear the gospel.
You see, with regard to any man beginning right here, can't you
see why God would forsake you? Can you? Do you think he would
be just if he forsook you? Sure he would. Sure he would. I can understand why he would
forsake any Son of Adam. I think of that scripture, Genesis
chapter 6 verse 5, And God saw the wickedness of man was great
in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of
his heart was only evil continually. Now the way God sees something
is the way it is. He sees things as they really
are. But this one we're speaking about, who is forsaken by God,
He never had a sinful thought. He never had a sinful motive.
He loved God with all of his heart, with all of his soul,
and with all of his strength. And he loved his neighbor as
himself. Oh, the spotless life of the
Lamb of God, who was without blemish and without spot. This
man that never sinned but kept God's law perfectly. Why must
he suffer? Well, the Scripture answers that.
1 Peter 3, verse 18. Matter of fact, look with me
there. 1 Peter 3. For Christ also hath once, just
one time. It's over now. It's over now. But he once suffered for sins,
the just for the unjust. The only reason for suffering
is sin. There are no other reasons. Let
me repeat that. The only reason for suffering
is sin. If he never sinned, How can that
be? And scripture answers that question. First of all, let's go back,
back, back, back, back. Revelation chapter 13 verse 8
says he's the lamb slain. He died, he suffered, he died. He's the lamb slain from the
very foundation of the world. Before there was ever a sinner,
There was a Savior and He was the Lamb slain from the very
foundation of the world. Why was He slain? One reason,
for sin, for sin. But no one was alive to commit
the sins. Everything's in the presence
of God. You and I can't understand that, but we believe it. Everything's
in the present with God. And Christ is the lamb having
been slain from the very foundation of the world. Remember how Peter
said on the day of Pentecost, he being delivered by the determinant
counsel and foreknowledge of God. you have taken and with
wicked hands have crucified and slain. Isaiah 53 verse 6 says
the Lord hath laid upon him, hath made to meet upon him the
iniquity of us all. Now, we considered this last week.
I think one of the most beautiful illustrations of this is the
scapegoat. The scapegoat. The live goat that the priest
put his hands upon the head of that goat, and there was a transfer
of the sins. He bore our iniquities, our sins
and transgressions, and he's led away by a fit man into the
wilderness. There was an actual transfer
of sin. My sin, the sins of God's elect, were transferred to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, how can that be done? Well,
God did it. That's all you can say. God did
it. God can do that. I remember,
I'll never forget hearing one of those preachers that was caught
up in some kind of scandal. And they were asking him about
it, and he said, now I put my sins under the blood. I said,
oh, you think you can do that? You think you've got the authority
to take your sins and put them under the blood? You can't do
that. But God can. God can. He can take my sin and
put it in and on the Lord Jesus Christ. so that it actually,
literally becomes his sin. There was an actual transfer
that took place. Peter said, who his own self
bear our sins in his own body on the tree. You know, there's
nothing, two things about this. There's nothing that makes me
feel worse. And there's nothing that makes me feel better. There's nothing that makes me
feel worse. Because what I know about my sin, the sins of this day, how vile,
how evil they are before God. And he bore them, bore the filth
of them in his own body on the tree. There's nothing that makes
me feel worse than that. But also, there's nothing that
makes me feel better than that. You know, if He bore my sins,
you know what that means? I'm not bearing them. It means
I don't have them. They are not mine. They've been
separated from me. Now, He suffered because of our
sins. For He hath made Him to be sin,
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. Now, this is interesting. Well,
how did our sins become His sins? How did that happen? Well, I
guess they were imputed to him. But do you know that the Bible
never uses that language? Not one time does the Bible ever
say our sins were imputed to him. It simply says he bore them. He bore them in his own body
on the tree. Now, because all of the sins
of all of God's elect were laid to be meet, to be born by him,
this is how God saw him. Not as innocent, but as guilty. That's how his
father saw him. And if that's how the father
saw him, that's how he was. Now, when he was suffering, he
didn't think to himself, I'm innocent. And these sins belong
to somebody else. I can remember a couple of times.
In my experience as a child, a mom and dad are here, they
can verify this. I got whipped quite a few times. And there
were things that I got by with that I didn't get whipped for
that I never got found out about. But I can remember one particular
occasion where I was whipped for something I didn't do. Oh,
my little self-righteous soul felt such indignation. How could
this be happening to me? I'm being blamed for something
I didn't do. Here's the point. If I didn't
do it, I'm not gonna say I did. I'm gonna protect myself if I
didn't do it. I'm not gonna say guilty if I didn't do it. He couldn't say, I didn't do
it. When he was made sin, he was
guilty before God. When he opened not his mouth
to protect himself during the time of his arrest and during
the time of his sufferings, the physical sufferings, he never
said, I didn't do this. No, his mouth remained closed. Why? Because he was guilty. He was guilty. Claire was reading
back in the back in Psalm 37. And in that Psalm, David said,
I've never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging
for bread. I've never seen that. Hadn't
happened. It hadn't happened. The righteous
never had been forsaken. When he was forsaken by God,
he wasn't righteous. He was made sin. That's why he
suffered. God the Father didn't look at
him and say, Son, I know these sins aren't yours, but I'm punishing
you for them. He didn't have His people saying,
we know you're doing this for us. Our sins have been placed
upon you and we love you for it. He didn't have anything like
that. He was all alone. Forsaken by
God. Forsaken by His people. Having
been made sin. And you know, It was Jehovah who did this. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief. It was the Lord who laid upon
him the iniquity of us all. Like I said, you and me and you,
we couldn't do something like that. We couldn't say, well, I'm gonna
take my sins and put them on the Savior. No, we couldn't do that. Only
God can do this. You see, with God, nothing shall
be impossible. He can take your sin off of you and place it upon
his son so that it becomes his. Aren't you thankful he did that?
Oh my. And you know what? The Lord Jesus
did this voluntarily. He said, I lay down my life that
I may take it again. No man taketh it from me. I have
power to lay it down. I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of my father. He was no victim.
He did this willingly. He took my sins and my sorrows. He made them his very own. He bore the burden to Calvary
and suffered and died alone. Now, the father did this, he
willingly took it, and you and I see in this, I see the same
principle that ruined me in the fall. I was condemned because
of somebody else's sin. I was condemned for Adam's sin.
Now, what's that mean? Well, it simply means I was so
united to Adam when he sinned, I did too. When he sinned, I
sinned. I can't say, well, if it was
me, I might not have done it. No, I for sure would have. I
for sure would have. I was united to my father Adam.
And I was condemned because of somebody else's sin. And in the
same manner, I'm saved because of somebody else's righteousness. We see the gospel in this so
clearly. Now Christ, was taking on the
sin of those he loves, his bride, his sheep, his church, the elect,
his children. If your child was sick, now my
child's at home sick right now, she's had this awful sounding
cough, and she's sick, she's sick, she's real sick, she's
gone to the doctor, she's not dying, I don't think she is, but she's
sick. Do you know if I could, if I
could, I would take her sickness into myself, I would. I'd do it without hesitation.
And everybody in this room that has children would do the same.
If your children were sick, if your children were dying, you'd
take their death. If your children were going to
be punished, you'd take their punishment. You'd do that for
your children. But here's the deal. You can't.
You can't. It's absolutely impossible for
you to do. He can. He's the only one who
can. But He can. The sins of His people literally
became His sins when the Father laid them upon Him, and He took
them. But what glorious things He achieved
from this. Now let me close by giving you
five or six different things that He accomplished by His sufferings.
I love that passage of Scripture in Luke chapter 9, verse 31.
where Moses and Elijah were talking to the Lord on the man of transfiguration.
And the scripture says, they spake of the deceased, which
he should accomplish. Now, what do I accomplish by
my death? Well, all I show is that I'm a sinner. I don't accomplish
anything. I just show how weak I am. I
just show how The wages of sin is death. I just die. I die in
weakness. I die in inability. I die without
the ability to fend off death. You know, this thing of death,
what can you do to keep from dying? Absolutely nothing. Here's the one who had the power
to lay down his life. None of us. Somebody says, well,
if somebody commits suicide, haven't they taken their own
life? And they had, no, not really. I mean, they would have died
anyway at some point. This is the only one who could
have not died. But he did. They spake of the decease which
he should accomplish. You see, he accomplished something
by his sufferings. What did he accomplish? What
did he actually achieve? What did he do by his sufferings? We think about these things and
we hear these things and we think we have so little understanding
of them and we almost feel like a brute beast even talking about
him because we do have so little understanding of him. Talking
about the Son of God and His Holy Soul suffering for sins. It just is just... What did he accomplish? Here's
the first thing he accomplished. He accomplished the glory of
God. His sufferings is the most God-like
thing he ever did. He said in John chapter 17 verse
4, I have glorified thee on the earth. I've finished the work
thou gavest me to do. Now by his sufferings in our
room, in our stead, as our high priest, as our savior, you know
what he did? He manifested all that God is.
He demonstrated the absolute justice of God. He demonstrated
the grace of God. He demonstrated the love of God.
He demonstrated the power of God to put away sin. He demonstrated
the wisdom of God. All of God's glorious attributes,
whatever we can say regarding God from this Word, everything
is made known in the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Will
God punish sin? You better believe it. Look at
the cross. Will God forgive sin? You better
believe it. Look at the cross. He accomplished
the full glory of God. Hebrews 9 26 says, Now once in
the end of the world, hath he appeared to put away sin? by the sacrifice of himself. Now by his sufferings, he put
away sin. He made it to where it's not.
Just like that scapegoat was led by the hand of a fit man
into the wilderness. Nobody knows what happened to
that goat. But I know this, when that fit man came back, that
goat was gone. It was gone. It was in a land
not inhabited. That's to let us know that that
sin is gone. It's gone. He put it away. My sin has been put away. He was manifested to take away
our sins. In Him is no sin. This is what
He achieved by His suffering, the complete putting away of
my sin. Glory to God. My sin has been
blotted out, canceled, put away because of his sufferings. Oh,
I'm so thankful for his sufferings. I feel like I could just lay
down at his feet. I wouldn't want to say anything. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you for what you've done
for me. I know that I deserve to be in hell. I know I deserve
to suffer everything you suffered. Oh, Lord, thank you. His sufferings caused this to
take place. Hebrews 10, 14 says, for by one
offering, speaking of his suffering and his death, by one offering,
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. That's what
he achieved by his sufferings. the absolute perfection of everybody
He died for. And I can't even begin to express
how much I despise that universal redemption that says He shed
His blood for everybody and made salvation possible for everybody,
but there's something that you need to do to make what He did
work. I hate that. I hate it. I hate it. And God
hates it. God hates it. It detracts from
the glory of our Redeemer. No, He completely achieved and
accomplished the putting away of sin and the perfection of
every believer. What did He do by His sufferings?
He secured our place in heaven. I love that scripture where He
said, I go and prepare a place for you. Now, He's not talking
about going up into heaven and tidying up a room and getting
ready for a meal. He's talking about going to suffer.
I go, I go to the cross to prepare a place for you." And when my
Lord said that, He had Todd Naubert in mind. He was talking to the
twelve, but He was talking to every believer. He's so great
that the name of every one of His children was in his heart
in his hands. Your name was there. And he said
I go to prepare a place for you so that you'll be with me forever. Behold in my glory. That's what
he accomplished by his sufferings. He secured a place for me in
heaven. I'm already there in him. I'm already there. And one of
these days I'm going to be there. beholding his face. In Romans chapter 14, verse 9,
it says, To this end Christ both died, arose, and revived, that
he might be Lord both of the dead and the living. I love that. You know, he's the Lord of the
dead. That wicked man that's dead in sins and has no love
for him and would kill him if he could, he's that man's Lord.
He's everybody's Lord. Somebody says, won't you make
Jesus the Lord of your life? That's foolishness. He is the
Lord of your life, whether you know it or not. He's your Lord.
You're in his hands and he's going to do with you whatever
he's pleased to do. He's the Lord of the dead. Oh, he's the
Lord of the living. Oh, he's, I love what Thomas
said, my Lord and my God. He's my Lord. He's my God. That's what He suffered. For
this end, Christ both died, rose, and revived, that He might be
Lord both of the dead and the living. You see, by the Lord's
suffering, He achieved glories that He would have never had
had He not come and suffered as the sinner's substitute. But
because He did, oh, what glories He has achieved. Now, His suffering
is the ground of His intercession. There's a man in glory right
now. Arise, my soul, arise, shake off thy guilty fears. The bleeding
sacrifice in my behalf appears. Before the throne my surety stands. My name is written on his hands. And this is the ground of his
intercession, his sufferings. He doesn't say, I know he committed that sin
again, forgive him. He committed again, forgive him. How many sins have you committed
over and over again? How many sins have you committed
over and over again? Does he have to say, well, let him go?
No. All he does is stand before the Father and nothing else needs
to be said. That's his intercession. Oh,
the intercession of our great high priest. We have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And here's the
last thing. I'm going to read a verse from
Hebrews chapter 2, verses 17 and 18. Why must he suffer? What did he accomplish? Wherefore
in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren,
that he might be a merciful. and a faithful high priest in
things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of
the people for in that he hath suffered himself being tempted he is able to succor them that
are tempted." How many times Have you been tempted to sin? And you can't overcome the temptation. And you feel so dirty and unclean. Do you know he's felt that too? And he's moved to sympathy by
that. He knows what that feels. Much
better than me or you. Much better. Or if there's a
way to, if you can call it better. He knows that much more deeply. He's acquainted with it much
more because that's what happened when he was made to be sin. Now
I repeat. He never sinned. Don't anybody
even get the idea that I'm saying he committed, he gave in to temptation
and he committed some sin. No, he didn't. No, he didn't. But he felt every bit of it. And that's why he's moved to
sympathy. He looks at you and he goes,
I know just what you feel. He is able to succor, to help. That's a word we don't use much
now, but it's a good word. He's able to succor them that
are tempted because he himself, he has suffered himself being
tempted. He is able to succor them that
are tempted. Now he, he suffered. that he
might be a merciful and a faithful high priest. And now we're allowed
to come boldly under the throne of grace to find mercy and grace
to help in time of need. Thank God for his suffering. Let's pray. Lord, we would come into your
presence only in the name, the high name, the glorious name
of him who suffered all the weight of your wrath and bore it and
put it away. Lord, we wouldn't dare come any
other way. And Lord, how we thank you for
your gospel. How we thank you for our savior,
our redeemer. How we thank you for him who
suffered in our place. Lord, give us the grace to look only to him and his sufferings. as all in our salvation. His righteousness, His precious
blood, His intercession. Lord, we ask that you would lead us not into temptation.
Lord, deliver us from being tempted and keep us from evil. for the
glory of His holy name. In His name we pray, amen.