Sermon
#26 Hebrews
Notes
Title: Sonship, Obedience, and Suffering
Text: Hebrews 5:8
Readings: Philippians
2:1-17 – Larry Criss
Subject: God’s Method of Teaching
His Children
Date: Tuesday Evening – August 8, 2000
Tape # V-95b
Introduction:
Our
heavenly Father’s discipline is the pledge of our adoption and the badge of our
sonship. God chastens none but his own; but he chastens all who are his own.
And all who are God’s look upon his loving rod of discipline as a marked token
of his grace, knowing that “we are
chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world” (1
Cor. 11:32). How I thank God that he does not leave me to myself. Painful as it
is to feel the rod, I kiss the hand of my loving Father for laying upon my stubborn
back.
“`Tis my happiness below
Not to live without the
cross,
But my Savior’s power to
know,
Sanctifying every loss.—
Trials must and will befall;
But with humble faith to see
Love inscribed upon them all
–
This is happiness to me.
God in Israel sows
the seeds
Of affliction, pain, and
toil.
These spring up and choke
the weeds
Which would else o’erspread
the soil.
Trials make the promise
sweet.
Trials give new life to
prayer.
Trials bring me to His feet,
Lay me low, and keep me
there.
Did I meet no trials here,
No chastisements by the way,
Might I not with reason fear
I should prove a castaway?
Bastards may escape the rod;
Sunk in earthly, vain
delight;
But the true born child of
God
Must not, would not, if he
might.”
…William
Cowper
Spurgeon
once said, “ I bear my willing witness that I owe more to the fire, and the
hammer, and the file, than to anything else in my Lord’s workshop. I sometimes
question whether I have ever learned anything except through the rod. When my
school-room is darkened, I see most.”
The
title of my message tonight is Sonship, Obedience, and Suffering.
Our text will be Hebrews 5:8.
·
(Hebrews 5:8) "Though he
were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered."
There
are several things which are obvious in these words.
1. Though Christ is the Son of
God, he was not exempt from suffering. If he would redeem us from our sins and
from the wrath, he must suffer all that we deserve as sinners to the full
satisfaction of divine justice (Rom. 8:32).
·
2. Though the Lord Jesus Christ
is the Son of God, he could not execute a perfect righteousness, to the full
extent that the law and justice of God demands, without a perfect suffering
(Luke 24:44-47).
·
3. None of the children of God
are exempt (John 16:33).
·
(John 16:33) "These things
I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall
have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."
Proposition: As our Savior learned
obedience by the things he suffered in this world, so we must learn obedience
by the things we suffer.
I. The Lord Jesus Christ is
uniquely and pre-eminently the Son of God.
All
who are chosen, redeemed, and born of God, all believers, are the sons of God
by adoption and grace. What a great, high honor and privilege that is (Gal.
4:6-7; Rom. 8:17; 1 John 3:1).
·
(Galatians 4:6-7) "And
because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father. (7) Wherefore
thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God
through Christ."
·
(Romans 8:17) "And if
children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that
we suffer with him, that we may be
also glorified together."
·
(1 John 3:1) "Behold, what
manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not."
But
our Lord Jesus Christ is uniquely and pre-eminently the Son of God in that he
is the “only begotten of the Father, full
of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
A. Christ is the eternally begotten Son of the Father,
one with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the Holy Trinity (1 John 5:7).
B. Our Lord Jesus Christ, as a
man, is the only begotten Son of God in this sense also – He is the virgin born Son.
·
(Galatians 4:4-5) "But when
the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman,
made under the law, (5) To redeem
them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons."
C. Again, the Lord Jesus Christ
is uniquely and pre-eminently the son of God, the only begotten Son,. in his resurrection glory and
exaltation as the firstborn among many brethren.
·
(Acts 13:27-33) "For they
that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet
the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they have
fulfilled them in condemning him. (28) And though they found no cause
of death in him, yet desired they
Pilate that he should be slain. (29) And
when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre. (30) But God raised him from the dead: (31) And he was seen many days of them which came up with him from
Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people. (32) And we declare unto you glad
tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, (33) God hath fulfilled the same unto
us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written
in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee."
(Psalms 2:7)
"I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten
thee."
(Hebrews 1:5-6)
"For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son,
this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he
shall be to me a Son? (6) And again,
when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the
angels of God worship him."
(Hebrews 5:5)
"So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest;
but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee."
II. Though he lived in this
world as the Son of God, uniquely and pre-eminently the Son of God, our Lord
Jesus Christ learned obedience as a man by the things he suffered.
Obedience
is voluntary subjection to the will of another. If it is not voluntary, it is
only outward compliance, not obedience (Heb. 10:5; John 10:16-18). Obedience is
owning the authority of another, performing the pleasure of another.
When the Lord Jesus Christ came
into the world, he came here as Jehovah’s servant to do his will as a man. He
was made under the law that he might obey, establish, fulfill and satisfy the
law as a man.
This obedience was essential
to his priesthood and to our salvation. While he volunteered to become
obedient, he actually entered into the experience of obedience by the things he
suffered as a man. He learned obedience by the things he suffered.
·
He denied himself.
·
He pleased not himself (Rom. 15:3).
·
He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Phil.
2:5-8).
·
(Philippians 2:5-8) "Let
this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: (6) Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God: (7) But made himself
of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men: (8) And being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross."
·
(Hebrews 5:8) "Though he
were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered."
Though
he was and is the Son of God, uniquely and pre-eminently the Son of God, our
Lord Jesus Christ learned obedience by the things which he suffered. What were those things which he
suffered? They are the very things his people suffer in this world.
A. He suffered poverty (Luke
2:12).
B. He suffered the temptations
of the devil (Matt. 4:3).
C. He suffered the unjustified
slander of men (John 10:36).
D. He suffered bereavement.
E. He suffered misunderstanding
and misrepresentation by both his own disciples and the world.
F. He suffered the betrayal by
one who claimed to be and should have been his friend.
G. He suffered desertion by men
who were loved by him.
H. He suffered sorrow like no
man ever suffered sorrow (The Garden).
I. He suffered being abandoned
by his Father.
J. He suffered death.
Someone
said, “God has one Son and only one without sin. He has no sons without sorrow.
III. Let us learn what God the
Holy Spirit teaches us in this text.
·
(Hebrews 5:8) "Though he
were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;"
The
lessons here taught are both practical and of immense importance.
A. Obedience is the character of the sons of God.
Our
Savior left us an example that we should walk in his steps. He has, by his own
example, shown us how we are to live in this world. If we would follow Christ,
we must yield ourselves to our heavenly Father in unquestioning, universal
surrender, to do his will in all things. The extent of our obedience is and
must be “even unto death.”
B. Obedience to God is a costly thing.
·
(2 Timothy 2:12) "If we
suffer, we shall also reign with him: if
we deny him, he also will deny
us:"
·
(1 Peter 2:19-24) "For this
is thankworthy, if a man for
conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. (20) For what glory is it, if,
when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when
ye do well, and suffer for it, ye
take it patiently, this is acceptable
with God. (21) For even hereunto were
ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye
should follow his steps: (22) Who did
no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: (23) Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he
suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself
to him that judgeth righteously: (24)
Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being
dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were
healed."
·
(Matthew 5:10-12) "Blessed are they which are persecuted for
righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (11) Blessed are ye, when men
shall revile you, and persecute you, and
shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. (12) Rejoice, and be exceeding glad:
for great is your reward in heaven:
for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you."
C. God’s love for us and our relationship to him as the
sons of God do not exempt us from suffering.
Though
the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of his love, he was not spared any suffering
and sorrow as a man. He was “a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief.” The disciple is not above his Lord, nor
the servant above his Master. If we are the sons of God, we must through much
tribulation enter into the kingdom of heaven.
·
(Hebrews 12:5-11) "And ye
have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My
son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art
rebuked of him: (6) For whom the Lord
loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. (7) If ye endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth
not? (8) But if ye be without
chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. (9) Furthermore we have had fathers of
our flesh which corrected us, and we
gave them reverence: shall we not
much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? (10) For they verily for a few days
chastened us after their own
pleasure; but he for our profit, that
we might be partakers of his
holiness. (11) Now no chastening for
the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it
yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby.
"If
a sheep stray from the flock, the shepherd sets his dog after it, not to devour
it, but to bring it in again; even so our Heavenly Shepherd."
D. The things which we suffer in this world by the will
of God are the things by which we learn obedience to the will of God.
We
learn not by words, but by experience, -- not by reading but by tasting, -- not
by instruction, but by correction, -- not by admonition, but by affliction.
·
(Psalms 119:67) "Before I
was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word."
·
(Psalms 119:71) "It is good for me that I have been
afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes."
·
(Psalms 119:75) "I know, O
LORD, that thy judgments are right,
and that thou in faithfulness hast
afflicted me."
"We often
learn more of God under the rod that
strikes us, than under the staff that comforts us." -- Stephen Charnock
"God's
house of correction is His school of
instruction." -- Thomas Brooks
"As the
wicked are hurt by the best things, so the godly are bettered by the worst things." -- William Jenkyn
A. We only learn patience by
the trial of our faith.
B. We never learn sympathy
until we have walked in the shoes of those who need sympathy.
C. We will never learn
forgiveness until we experience forgiveness.
D. We will not learn to help
the fallen until we have been helped from a fall.
E. We will never learn what we
would or should do in any circumstance, until we are in the midst of the trial
ourselves.
F. We will never learn to be
weaned from this earth until God graciously weans us from it.
Application:
·
(1 Peter 1:3-7) "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a
lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, (4) To an inheritance incorruptible,
and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, (5) Who are kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (6) Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though
now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: (7) That the trial of your faith, being
much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire,
might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus
Christ."
·
(2 Corinthians 4:17-18)
"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for
us a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory; (18) While we look
not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the
things which are seen are temporal;
but the things which are not seen are eternal."
·
(2 Corinthians 5:1) "For we
know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle
were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens."
AMEN.