We're going to be in the book
of Hebrews chapter five again if you would like to turn there. Hebrews chapter five. Here we have an account An expression. Compared to all of Scripture,
it's one of the greatest accounts of our Lord. Portraying our Lord's
humanity. Our Lord's humanity in his cry.
His prayer. His fulfillment of the diligent
duty is priest is our faithful intercessor, and I've titled
this message our intercessor. Our intercessor. Read our text
Hebrews 5 verse 7 through 10. who in the days of his flesh,
when he had offered up prayers and supplications, was 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, called of God and high priest after the order of Melchizedek. I want to draw your attention
to verse seven this hour. If the Lord would be pleased,
I want to read that again. This is speaking of Christ, who
in the days of his flesh, when he became a man, the God man,
when he had offered up prayers and supplication with strong
crying and tears unto him, And we know that's the father that
was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared. He offered up his prayer, his
supplication as our intercessor, the intercessor for his people.
He is the mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. While offering up his prayer
and supplication, And to his father, on our behalf, on his
people's behalf, there was a, the key, the focal point of that
prayer was his people's salvation. That was the whole desire. Father,
if it be thy will to let this cup pass from me, nevertheless,
we're gonna look at that later, but nevertheless, not my will,
but thine be done. That's his, he wasn't saying
that his will opposed God. He was saying, I bow to your
will. I bow perfectly to your will. There was no other way. He knew
there was no other way. I bow to your will. Why? Because there was no other way
for you and I to be redeemed. He was heard. He was heard of
his father. Why was he heard? Why? Why was he heard? Because he
was the perfect Spotless Lamb of God, he prayed perfectly. He cried. He said he cried right
here. He cried perfectly. He begged the Lord or pleaded,
I should say, with the Lord perfectly. He obeyed God perfectly. He believed God perfectly. He feared God perfectly. And he trusted him. trusted him
perfectly. What was the result of that?
And this is the isness of his character. This is who he is.
Everything he does is perfect. So no matter what you say he
did, it must be perfect. What was the result of that?
He was heard because he was perfect and he redeemed his people. Salvation was never an attempt.
Salvation is not an offer to man. Salvation was purposed before
the foundation of the world by the God, the God, the only God,
and he cannot lie. He purposed to become a man to
redeem. It wasn't an attempt. He could
not fail or he is not God. It's not an offer unto man because
the Lord Jesus Christ offered himself up. As the propitiation,
he offered his self up, pouring out his soul into death. The
scripture says the father making his soul and offering for sin. That was the offer. Father, this
is the offer, the blood for the ones that you've given me to
redeem. And was the father satisfied with that offering? Yes. How do we know he was resurrected? He was resurrected. God accepted
his offering and justified everyone, every single person that Christ
died for. This was all done by his, we
use the term sovereign grace. There is no other kind of grace
but sovereign grace. Did you know that? No other kind
of mercy but sovereign mercy. No other kind of love but sovereign
love coming from God. Everything is sovereign. Everything
is absolute. He's God. Grace is free because
it was bought by his own blood, the blood of his darling son.
Mercy is free because he took our place. Pardon is readily
available for the child of God because he stood in our stead
as our mediator, our intercessor, our high priest. All because
of the sacrifice for sin by himself. Now I want to take this verse
slowly because of some of the wording that she used. The first
thing to notice is he says in verse seven that he offered up
prayers and supplications and he tells us how. With strong
crying and tears. Strong crying and tears. This shows us the weight of sin
that was laid upon him. Tears show his humanity yet not
wavering, not becoming anything less than perfect, never laying
down his holiness, his isness as God and man, one and the same.
We do see the weight of sin upon him and the tears that were shed
by him. The sorrow that was placed upon
him. The punishment that lay upon
him for the sins of his people. The cup. This is the cup that
he talks about that he was going to have to drink from the cup
that he drank every drop of the full fury and wrath of God. We
see that he offered up supplications and prayers unto the father with
cryings. With cryings and tears. Because
of the weight of it. Now, turn with me to Matthew
26, we'll look at that account in the Garden of Gethsemane,
Matthew 26 and hold your place in Hebrews, we're going to come
right back. Matthew 26, 36. And we're going to read. Through verse 42, Matthew 26,
36. Then cometh Jesus with them unto
the place called Gethsemane. And saith unto the disciples,
sit ye here while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him
Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be sorrowful. There's
that word again, sorrowful. Same thing as the word, the crying
we just mentioned about. Became, I've lost my place here. Let's start over, verse 36. They
come to Jesus with them to the place called Gethsemane and said
unto the disciples, sit ye here while I go and pray on her. And
he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began
to be sorrowful and very heavy. Very heavy, that's the weight
we were just describing. Then saith he unto them, my soul
is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, tarry ye here and
watch with me. And he went a little further
and he fell on his face and prayed, saying, oh my father, If it be
possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as thou wilt. And he cometh unto the disciples
and findeth them asleep and saith unto Peter, what could ye not
watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that ye enter
not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak. He went away again the second
time and prayed, saying, O father, if this cup may not pass away
from me, Except I drink it, thy will be done. And he came and
found them asleep, for their eyes were heavy. And he left
them and went away again and prayed the third time, saying
the same words." The same words. With sorrowful unto death, it
says. That's agony, isn't it? That's
agony. In Luke 22, it calls it agony,
and it tells us that he sweat as it were great drops of blood.
But I would remind us of something. This is our intercessor. This
is the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the God-man that's praying
unto his father in agony, and he's sweating great drops of
blood, the scripture says, on a night that is cold. You remember
when Peter, that very same night, denied the Lord. Where was he,
and what was he doing? He was warming himself by the
fire. He was warming himself because you don't warm yourself
unless it's cold, do you? No, it was cold and yet our Lord
was in such travail, such agony, such anguish, such sorrow. So
he was so grieved, crying out and pleading unto his father,
interceding for his people, that his sweat became as great drops
of blood. But he said, Father, let this
cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will. That's
the amen of the prayer. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thine be done. Every time we say amen at the
end of the prayer, is that not what we mean by that? Lord, not
my will, but thine be done. Not my will, but thine be done.
It shows his flesh, that his flesh was in complete submission
to his father. Not my will. Not my will, he
says the second time, he said, if it's not possible for this
cup passed from me except I take it, he says, thy will be done. That was his purpose. That was
his reason for being born upon this earth. That was the reason
he came here, was to take this cup, the sin of his people into
himself and be punished, be crucified, endure the wrath of God, the
judgment of God, satisfy justice for his people. But yet so often
we overlook the fact of his intercession and the agony that he was facing
and the sorrow that he experienced in the bearing of our sin. This
was no easy task. He was God and he's God man there
sweating in the garden when it's cold. Why would he do that? To redeem his lost sheep. His dead dog sinners who did
not deserve salvation, who did not deserve to live. He said,
I come not to do my will, but the will of him that sent me.
I come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. This
is why he was in agony. This is why he was sorrowing.
He was diligently interceding on his people's behalf. diligently
performing the duties and responsibilities we could not as a priest. You
and I have no right to be a priest. If anybody ever tries to approach
God in and of themselves, they are taking the place of Jesus
Christ. They are taking the place of
his priesthood and you and I don't have the right to be priest by
birth. You had to be born a Levite or
you had to be ordained of God as, well, Christ was after the
order of Melchizedek, both king and priest, but he was the only
one that fit that description. And you and I are not, we're
not of Israel. We're not out of Israel. We're
not Levites, are we? No, we're Gentile dogs and outcasts
and yet, Aren't you glad the Lord is our intercessor? The Lord is our high priest.
The Lord was the one that was fit and qualified and successful. Now, he diligently performed
the duties and responsibility. We can't enter into that. What
all that entailed is all the responsibilities in order to
redeem us. What all did he have to do? We can talk about him
living a perfect life. We can talk about the agony of
the cross, but we'll never understand and thanks be to God. We will
never understand the terrors that can pass him about on the
cross. You can look over in Psalm 22 and see that his bones were
out of joint. It says, and his heart was melted
as wax inside of him. That's the Lord on the cross.
This is what he was enduring for his people and yet never
wavering. Complete trust, complete faith,
complete godly fear to his father, knowing his father would resurrect. His father would resurrect him.
He had a singular focus. From the time he was born to
the time that he died, he had a singular focus for the lost
sheep of the house of Israel, spiritual Israel. God's chosen
people to honor his father in the covenant of grace. Boy, you
and I don't have much of a singular focus, do we? Day after day goes
by, I'll start a task, I'll forget, I have a honeydew list. Anybody
else have a honeydew list? Anybody else have a list at home
they needed things to get done? How long has it been? Well, some
of them have been on there a long time. Why? I'm not singular minded. I'm not singular minded. He was. Every thought, every action,
every deed, every word spoken, every heartbeat, one singular
focus. The salvation of God's people
to honor his father. Now think of this, he not only
knew his people from the covenant of grace because he is God, he
knew us before he was born a man, he was with the father. The scripture
says the word became flesh. In the beginning was the word,
the word was with God and the word was God and the word became
flesh, it goes on to say. So he was with God before he
knew all of his people then as God and he was born a man and
he knew us. He knew us. He saw Philip, it
says, sitting under the tree before Philip was praying, wasn't
he? Philip, and the Lord walked up
and said, I've seen you before. I've seen you praying. The Lord
knew he was there. And yet, as a man, or as God, he knows our
thoughts, our iniquity, the desperate evil of our heart. He knows,
he knew every bit of our sin, every fiber of our being, all
the way down to the rottenness of our core. He knew all that
as God, but as man, he felt it. It was laid upon him. The iniquity
of us all, he felt it. He owned them in so much that
the terrors of God can pass him about. We speak of these things
as if we have understanding. We have no idea. We just declare
it as so because the scripture declares it is truth. This is
why he prayed to the father, let this cup pass from me. He
was. It was being revealed as the
full weight. And yet he never doubted. He
never doubted. He feared perfectly under his
father, no sin. It was revealed the complete
depravity for every single person. He had to die for, He had to
own, and yet He completely submitted to His Father in everything required
for the salvation of His people. He perfectly interceded for His
people. Scripture is very clear that
all these works were done from the foundation of the world.
He's the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, but
in time it had to come to pass, didn't it? It had to come to
pass. This is what verse eight, if
you wanna go back to our text. Verse eight tells us, Hebrews
5.8, though he were a son yet learned he obedience by the things
which he suffered. He physically experienced, that's
what the word learned means, experienced. He physically experienced
every distress we would ever endure or ever have to endure. Good news is, is the Lord will
not, he will not exact justice twice because Christ experienced
it. You and I will never have to
experience it. He took our place on the cross
of Calvary. That's the point. He physically
suffered all the torments do us. God laid upon his darling
son, the iniquity of us all. What happened to that iniquity?
It's gone. Cast it as far as the east is
from the west, purged it by his own blood. It's gone. When he poured out his soul unto
his father, God made his soul an offering for sin and was satisfied. He was satisfied. You know what
that means? No matter what you endure in this life, no matter
what you face, No matter what hardship you have, no matter
what sorrow, what fear, what doubts, what failure, he was
touched with that feeling of infirmity. He was touched with
that feeling of infirmity. He knows it behooved him to be
made like unto his brethren that he may be a merciful and faithful
high priest. When our sin was placed upon
him, he owned them as his own. As our scapegoat, it being laid
upon him, he became guilty or God would not have killed him.
Guilty of our sin. And the Lord put it away for
the sacrifice of himself. Wasn't enough just to know all,
but he had to physically undergo the torment. Do us. He had to
experience it. Every pain. Every sorrow. Every fear. Do you know that's
why you feel pain because of sin? You know that's why you're
going to die because of sin. That's what was given into him
whenever the Lord our sin was laid upon him. Everything do
us. Was given to him. He doesn't
just know the thoughts and intents of the heart. It was laid upon
him that he might pay for the thoughts and intents of the heart.
He knows all about us in every way. He took it unto himself and there
he offered up prayers and supplication with strong crying and tears
in our place. And God was satisfied with his
offering. God was satisfied in his offering.
Good news of the gospel is as he was resurrected because the
father was satisfied and he ever liveth to make intercession for
his people. Everyone that he died for, he
is the people's his people's. Intercessor. Now, most religion. Most religion. Do something. To offer up something
unto the Lord. And the difference between salvation,
God's salvation, what God has said, what God has declared as
true, and what men say is right is very simple. The Lord said
it is finished and men say do. It's really that simple. The
Lord said he offered up strong cryings unto the Lord with tears
and the Lord was satisfied with how he prayed. with his supplication,
with his grief, with his sorrow, and with his blood. But other
men will say, no, that's true, but you also have to do this.
And that's not true. That's not true. The father is
only pleased with his darling son. Most offer up something
not realizing that it's to their own demise. I mentioned this
the first hour. You remember Cain that came before the Lord.
Cain didn't bring rotten fruit and vegetables. He brought the
very best that he had unto the Lord. And the Lord said, I have
no respect for you. No respect for your offering.
Men and women that die thinking that they have done something
to merit salvation or to add to or take away from the finished
work of Christ will hear these words. Depart from me, ye that
work iniquity. I never knew you. I never knew
you. Did it do anybody any good that
wasn't found in the ark to cry louder? No. No, certainly not. Did Noah good to be in the ark?
That was it. But who put him in the ark? The
Lord did. Who told him it was going to rain? The Lord did.
If it's not the Lord that leaves a remnant, there is no hope.
We would all be lost. We'd be as Sodom and Gomorrah,
the scripture says. But he left a remnant and he
interceded for that remnant before the father. when Judas betrayed the Lord. Scripture says he went out, took
his own life, went to the man that gave him the blood money
to begin with. That's what the scripture calls it. Whenever he sold the
Lord for the pieces of silver, went back and tried to make a
recompense, tried to fix it, tried to redeem himself, make
it right. By doing a deed, he said, here's the money. He said,
I can't do it. And they said, we can't take
this, it's blood money. He didn't fix it, did it? And
did Judas repent? Think about all the things Judas
saw. Think about all the things Judas did as a disciple. We've
mentioned this before, casting out demons, healing people in
the name of the Lord. It was part of the 12. Nobody
looked at Judas and said, yeah, he's the one that's gonna betray
us. Think about everything Judas did. And yet did he repent, given
the space after he took the blood money back and that didn't work?
Did he bow down and say, Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner? No,
he went out and said, okay, I'm gonna offer myself up unto God
by taking my life. Did that fix it? No. Took the place of the high priest. He took the place of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He took the place of the atoning
blood of the Lord. He said, I'm going to do something.
I'm offering myself up. Understand something. We don't
have anything God needs. Think about that. We don't have
anything God needs. Somebody says, God needs you. No, he doesn't. No, he doesn't. If the Lord needs something,
he has it. There's nothing that he lacks.
What are you going to give him? Going to give him the stars?
He made them. Give him the son, he is the son, the son of righteousness. No, there's nothing that we have
that he need. We can't produce anything God requires, not one
thing. But our intercessor produced everything required. He was the
only one that had the blood that could save us. He was the only
one that could suffer the wrath of God and endure it and put
away sin by the sacrifice of himself. You and I could endure
eternal damnation and it's still not gonna be good enough to put
away our sin. Every attempt to come to God
other than through and by the Lord Jesus Christ is to offer
yourself in his place. That's what it is. I'm not talking
about some big thing where you you give up life and start living
on on the street and whatever else. I'm talking about one little
thing that you've done. Looking to one prayer that you've
prayed is I've done that. I know I'm safe because I've
done that one thing. It's all it takes to take the
place of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know your flesh and my
flesh loves to do that? Craves to do that. Craves to
do, Lord, keep us. Don't let us be Judas. Don't
leave us to ourself. The difference between Judas
and Peter is clear. The Lord told Peter, you're gonna
deny me. And Peter said, I'm not gonna
deny you. I'm ready to go all the way. I'm ready to die with
you. Boy, he was fired up, wasn't he? The Lord said, you're gonna
deny me, Peter. He said, but I have prayed for
you that your faith fills not. There's that intercessory prayer,
isn't it? What does the prayer of the Lord do? It accomplishes
something. God hears the prayers of his
son and thanks be to God when you and I pray as his people
now, he takes those sinful prayers that we're bringing forth from
our dead corpse on our back and he washes it in the precious
blood of the lamb and presents it unto his father as perfect.
He intercedes for his people as our high priest, even now. Anything we offer to God is any
part, in essence, iniquity. And when we offer it, when we
offer it as any part is irrelevant, whether it's before Whether it's
during the time we're hearing the truth or whether it's after,
whether it's been when we're called out of darkness into light,
after he's shown us the glorious light, we add something to it.
Well, I know that I'm saved now because I know I'm a believer
now because I've done this. It's iniquity. Who do we look
to, brethren, as our assurance? Christ. Who do we look to for
our evidence of salvation? Christ. Who do we look to as
the only one that can satisfy God, Christ Jesus, the Lamb of
God? If we are offering something
up to God as any part of our salvation, it is iniquity. Somebody says, well, what about
fruit? You have to have fruit, right? I would say to that is
the tree. We have apple orchards around
here. Does the tree boast itself of the fruit that it has upon
it? Does it ever say, look at my fruit and what I have done? Or is it in complete dependency
on the sun to rise up every morning and cause its rays to hit its
leaves, causing evaporation from its roots? Is it completely dependent
upon the rain coming forth? Is that tree dependent upon the
sun and the rain, or is it dependent upon itself saying, look at me?
We never examine our fruit, brethren. We look to the Son of Righteousness. We look to the rain, the Lord
Jesus Christ, His precious Word. He calls it the washing of water
by the Word. We look to His Spirit to blow
upon us as a tree, to shake off our dead branches. We get a bunch
of those, don't we? We need to be shaken, blow this
way, shake off the dead branches and cause us to see Christ alone.
It's all about Him. We don't examine our fruit to
see if we're believers. We look to Christ and know that
He finished the work and believe on Him. He creates the need that He alone
must fill. He produces in His people that
which He requires. Now you and I won't see that,
but did he not say, I am the vine and you are the branches?
I've used this example before. We can walk across the street
over here and grab an old dead stick, or there's a cemetery
back here, it'd be a twice dead stick, wouldn't it? Pick one
of them up, and you can graft that into another tree, but if
it's dead, it's gonna remain dead. It has no life in it, it's
totally dried up. It's useless at that point, isn't
it? God has to take that dead stick that you and I are and
graft us into the true vine, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if
that's the case, do we ever look and say, look what fruit I've
produced? No, we were a dead stick in a graveyard, had no
hope of salvation. And yet everything he requires,
he produces in his people. How does he do that? By his spirit,
by his word, by grace, by grace and by mercy. He creates the need he must alone
feel and he feels that need with Christ. This is the gift of grace.
Someone says, well, what about prayers? You have to pray. You
have to ask. Who put the desire to ask? You
and I would have never asked, Lord, save me, unless we'd be
like Peter walking on the water and begin to sink. Peter would
have never cried out, Lord, save me, if he didn't begin to drown.
It's the only time. Furthermore, Peter wouldn't have
even known who the Lord was unless the Lord came to where he was
and said, take up, he said, come out, follow after me, I'll make
you fishers of men, leave your nets behind. We'd still be fishing,
wouldn't we? Fishing in false religion for
something that's never gonna last. You have to have a broken heart,
somebody says. Who gives the broken heart? How
broken does your heart have to be to please God? It has to be
perfect. Can you and I produce anything
perfect? No. That's why the Lord Jesus Christ's
heart was broken perfectly for his people in their stead. How sorry do I have to be to
be accepted of him? Perfectly. Perfectly sorry, perfectly
repentant. The Lord Jesus Christ sorrowed
unto death perfectly for his people, giving us perfect repentance
that believes God. Brethren, there's nothing we
can do to produce or merit salvation. that he was broken perfectly.
He cried perfectly. He sorrowed perfectly as our
mediator, our intercessor. He offered up himself and the
Father was satisfied. So my closing question to you
is this, and it's a simple question, who are you looking to? Do you
have a need? for the intercessor who satisfied
God on his people's behalf or are you looking to yourself to
do something? One thing, one thing is part
of salvation. You're looking to what you have
done or what you haven't done or what you are going to do as
any part of your salvation, don't do it. Look to what he has done. Look to what he is doing. Look
at what he's going to do and hear the glorious news of the
gospel. It is finished. It is finished. If God has revealed
your need, he's revealed you must have an intercessor and
his name is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the intercessor for his
people. Believe on him. Believe on him. You know, every time the Lord
said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that individual believed
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, when they asked him, what
shall I do? And he says, you must believe. That's not the
same thing as him saying, believe. The moment he says that there's
power in his word, isn't there? Lazarus come forth. It wasn't
a invitation. You know, and I think of all
those religions that stand up there beckoning men to come forward
and doing something. We'll play another number. We'll
play another number. Do this. I feel like somebody is going
to do something. I've heard and seen that. Did
the Lord do anything foolish like that or did he say Lazarus
come forth and that grave burst open, Lazarus came forth. And
it says Lazarus came forth bound hand and foot. Have you ever
thought of that? That's how we come forth. How could he walk
if he, if he, at the word of God, he had to obey. This is
our intercessor, brethren. This is our substitute. Believe
on him. Believe in the power of his word,
the power of his might. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we
know we must have an intercessor and we have hope in your intercessory
prayer, your intercessory service unto your people, unto your Father
on our behalf. Lord, we cling to that as all
our hope. We can't present anything unto you that you're pleased
with. Lord, give us Christ lest we die. Cause us to believe in
Christ's name. Amen.