to God's Word again, I invite you to open your Bibles to Psalm 34. Before we turn to our text in Hebrews chapter 5, Psalm 34 verses 15 through 18, remembering that this is God's inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word. Psalm 34 beginning at verse 15. The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears are open to their cry. The face of the Lord is against evildoers to cut off the memory of them from the earth. The righteous cry and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all of their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Hebrews chapter 5. We are in the midst of the exposition of verses 5 through 10. We're actually dealing specifically with verses 7 and 8 this morning. Hebrews 5, 7 and 8 is our text. We'll begin our reading at verse 1. For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in the things pertaining to God in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided because he himself is beset with weakness. And because of it, he is obligated to offer sacrifice for sins. As for the people, so also for himself. And no one takes the honor to himself but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was. So also Christ did not glorify himself so as to become a high priest, but he who said to him, you are my son, today I have begotten you, just as he says also in another passage, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. In the days of his flesh, he offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the one who was able to save him from death. And he was heard because of his piety. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered. And having been made perfect, he became to all those who obey him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Amen. Be seated please as we turn to our psalm of preparation for the preaching and the hearing of God's word, 78a in the book of Psalms for singing. Amen. Let's pray. Oh, Lord, our God, we would not be those who are stubborn, who do not listen, who do not heed your word, who ignore it, who forsake it. This is not our desire, oh God. Our desire is to be those who would hear and Hearing obey. And so we ask our father that you would be with us as we consider this portion of your holy word. That you would open up our hearts to hear. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear what the spirit says to the church. To all his people. We ask in Jesus name. Amen. God's Word is as infinitely deep as it is wide. As we're navigating our way through this lengthy exposition of Jesus, our great high priest, which runs from Hebrews 4-15 all the way to chapter 10 and verse 39, we are in deep waters. We cannot plumb their depths. When I began to prepare to preach this section in verses 5 to 10, I will tell you that I didn't intend to spend several sermons preaching through it. But as I began to study this passage, I began to realize just how deep, just how wide this passage of scripture is. And so that's what we're doing. We're dealing with this in three sections, really, in verses five, verses one to four, we begin to consider human high priests, the characteristics of those high priests, and the implicit similarities between human high priests, like Aaron, the first high priest, and his descendants, and Jesus, our great high priest. And then in verses 5 through 10, here in chapter 5, the author of Hebrews begins us to explicitly show us, to reveal to us, Christ our supreme high priest that we might trust in him and that we might go to him in our time of need. The author here in our passage reveals Christ as our supreme high priest that we might trust in him and that we might go to him in our time of need. We said we could divide this passage into three sections. First, Christ's qualifications as our high priest. Secondly, Christ's efficacy as our high priest, and then Christ's uniqueness. as our supreme high priest. Christ's qualifications, his efficacy, his uniqueness as our supreme high priest. Now last Lord's Day we began to consider Christ's qualifications as our great high priest. And we said first, verses five and six, here in chapter five, that he was called just as Aaron was called as high priest, he was called. And then second is sympathy The second qualification is sympathy, which of course parallels Aaron as well, as Aaron who was one who was beset or one who was encompassed, one who was surrounded by weakness. And then secondly, we considered Christ's supreme sympathy as Old Testament high priests were taken among men that they might be sympathetic, so our Jesus, our high priestly mediator, the man Christ Jesus, possesses this qualification of sympathy. In verses 5 through 7, the writer shows this by appointing us to Christ's earthly ministry. And especially remember in verse 7, when in the days of his flesh he offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the one who was able to save him from death. His sympathy, the writer is telling us, is superior to that of Aaron or any other priest. It's a sympathy that saves. And further, the author of Hebrews says that in verse 8, that our sympathetic high priest, Jesus, learned obedience from the things he suffered. He knows what it is to wrestle against the temptation to disobey, and especially while suffering, ultimately on the cross. And that qualifies him, just as his calling qualifies him, as our Supreme High Priest. But verses 7 and 8 also show us that while Christ is supremely qualified as our Supreme High Priest, He is also efficacious as our supreme high priest. In other words, we haven't, we have not exhausted verses seven and eight yet. And those are, those two verses we'll be dealing with again today as we consider Christ's efficacy as our high priest. these verses emphasize Christ's efficacy as our High Priest in two ways. In the first place, the writer speaks of the efficacy of our Supreme High Priest's prayers in verse 7. The efficacy of our Supreme High Priest's prayers. Now there are many instances of Christ's prayers that occurred well before the events of the cross. The gospel accounts give us numerous examples of Jesus being a man of prayer that demonstrate his continual dependence upon his heavenly father. One of the most remarkable examples is found in Mark chapter one, verse 35, which says, in the early morning, While it was still dark, Jesus arose and departed and went out to a lonely place and was praying there. Now what's so remarkable about that verse is not only that Jesus, the Son of God, the divine Son, was dependent upon his Heavenly Father in prayer, but also the context, both in Mark's record, both before and subsequent to what he says about this early morning excursion in prayer. The night before, Jesus was busy casting out demons and healing the sick. which must have gone into the wee hours of the morning. Remember, the multitudes came to him to be healed of their afflictions. And yet he arose in the early morning and departed to a lonely place and was praying there. And then afterwards, remember, the disciples came to him and said, Jesus, the people are looking for you. And he said, we need to get going, for I must go and preach. And that launched into Jesus' greater Galilean preaching ministry. And in these things, with his exhausting night prior and what was before him that day, what he knew he must do, what was urgently pressing upon him, he nevertheless got up When it was dark, he went out to a secret place and he was with his heavenly father in prayer. Another example you remember is in Luke's gospel when Jesus went up to a mountain and prayed there all night. Luke tells us that he prayed all night in prayer And what's noteworthy in Luke's account is what directly follows this instance of this all-nighter that Jesus had in prayer. It was a calling of his disciples. Jesus understood how significant it was that he was about to call 12 apostles. whose role it would be to continue the ministry of his church, the very church that he promised to build. And so he spent all night as he considered the disciples, his followers, which of these, and he earnestly pleaded with his Heavenly Father in that regard. But as we think about our text, And in particular, Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 7. The verb offered up here in verse 7 is the same verb that's used in chapter 5 and verse 1 to offer gifts and sacrifices, as well as in chapter 5 and verse 3 to offer sacrifices for sins. Clearly, 5.1 and 5.3 refer to priestly offerings. The use of the verb then here in chapter 5 and verse 7, along with the comparison between Jesus, our great high priest, and Aaron, the human high priest, the context of this whole section in verses 1 through 10 dictates that this prayer, the prayer being discussed here in chapter 5 and verse 7, when it says that in the days of his flesh he offered up prayers and supplications with crying and tears isn't just a general statement about his prayer habits throughout his life, but his priestly intercession on behalf of his beloved people. Now in that regard, the Gospels record that Jesus prayed with intensity for himself, often with the benefit, with this in mind, that what he prayed for himself would benefit his people, and especially as his impending self-sacrifice approached. The most extended time of Christ praying anywhere The scriptures is found in John 17, you remember, where his prayer occupies the entire chapter in which he offered up, remember, on the eve of his crucifixion and is commonly called his high priestly prayer. And that prayer, that Christ's high priestly prayer, illustrates what our author says of Jesus in chapter 7 and verse 25 about his continual intercession for those, the writer says later in chapter 7, for those who draw near to God through him. However, as we noted last week, Hebrews 5 and verse 7 is surely a specific reference to his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, also, remember, offered on the eve of his crucifixion. This prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, well known to the church today, as it was to the author of Hebrews, and as it surely was to the congregation of Hebrew Christians to whom this letter is addressed, is Christ's intercession for himself, yes, but ultimately for his people. He was praying in his capacity as our great high priest. Christ's prayers in the garden are to God the Father, the one who was able to save him from, or better, out of death. Obviously, Christ died on the cross. He did die there. So the sense of this prayer is through or out of death. That is, Christ prayed for his resurrection. out of the realm of death in the garden of Gethsemane. And Christ's prayers were heard, our text says. That is, they were answered. Why? Because of his piety or because of his reverence. And God's answering the prayers of the righteous predominant theme throughout the Bible. We read about that this morning in Psalm 34 in our Old Testament reading. In the context, the author is alluding to the difference between Christ and the Aaronic priesthood, the priesthood of Aaron and his descendants. Christ was without sin. He was heard because of his righteousness. Now, we are heard because of our righteousness. It's not the righteousness that's inherent to us. It's the righteousness that we have received, the righteousness that is credited to us through our Savior. Jesus Christ. But Jesus, the sinless one, was heard because of his own, his implicit righteousness, his own piety, his own reverence. God is answering the righteous man, Jesus, as opposed to Aaron, the one who had to offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as offering sacrifices for the sins of others, Hebrews 5 verse 3 tells us. So Christ's prayer in Gethsemane, the prayer that is in particular being referred to here in Hebrews 5 and verse 7 was answered by his resurrection from the dead and Dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, how efficacious this prayer is for you and for me. When God answered our great high priest for his deliverance out of death, it was our guarantee of deliverance out of eternal death. Our surety of new life in him and our sanctification is in the present are a pledge to us of our eternal glory with Christ. Remember how Paul speaks of the significance of Christ's resurrection in Romans chapter 6, verse 4, he says, we've been buried with him. through baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing that our old self was crucified with him in order that our body of sin would be done away with so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. Now I'm tempted to I'll say much, much more about this section here in Paul's epistle to the Romans. But Christ's resurrection guaranteed our eternal salvation, and it guaranteed that we would not live our lives enslaved to sin. It tells us that Jesus made a breach between us and sin, that he's broken the chains that once bound us to sin, so that we might no longer walk in those sins, be delivered from those sins. And that's a wondrous thing. And then you remember also that Paul devoted an entire chapter in 1 Corinthians 15, to Christ's resurrection, proving his resurrection, but then telling us what that means for us, that Christ is the firstfruits of the guarantee of our resurrection. And remember how he ends. That's what I want to focus on this morning as we think about this idea that God delivered Christ out of death. He delivered him through death and out of death. so that we, through his resurrection, might be delivered. Remember how Paul breaks into this wondrous speech at the end of this resurrection chapter in 1 Corinthians 15. And verse 50, now I say this, brethren, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we will all be changed. in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this imperishable, rather this perishable, must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and when this mortal shall have put on immortality, then will come about the same. that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us this victory through Christ Jesus our Lord. God gave Christ victory over the grave. He delivered him through and out of death. in order that He might deliver us through and out of death. Jesus died, we will die. But we won't die an eternal death. But we shall arise victorious out of the grave. Indeed, thanks be to God who gives us the victory through Christ Jesus. our Lord. Now just as the author has pointed us to our great high priest, just as this prayer of Jesus, our supreme high priest, points to his efficacy resulting in his deliverance out of death by his resurrection, he points us to his righteous life. That brings us, secondly, to consider that the author speaks of the efficacy of our Supreme High Priest's obedience in verse 8. Now this verse In Hebrews 5.8, we find another remarkable statement concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered. This conjunction, although, here that begins The first clause of verse 8, although he was a son, or though he was a son, indicates that this type of son, the eternal son, would not have been expected to learn obedience because learning obedience is normally required for those who are disobedient. as in, for example, Hebrews chapter 12, which speaks about the discipline of the Lord, which we'll consider briefly later. In fact, recall that the eternal Son, as he came into the world, pledged to do the Father's will, which we'll come to later, Lord willing, in Hebrews chapter 10, verses five through nine. They bear witness to Christ's pledge of obedience to the Father. And remember Hebrews 4.15, that Jesus was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. So in what sense did Jesus learn obedience? He learned obedience experientially. as a fully human person with all the difficulties that encumber the human existence. Another remarkable passage that speaks of Jesus' learning, obedience, is in Luke's Gospel, chapter 2, verses especially in verses 51 and 52. Remember, Joseph and Mary had gone up to the Passover, and they were returning to their home in Nazareth, and they realized that their son, Jesus, who was 12 years old at the time, wasn't with them. So they went back to Jerusalem. They found Jesus in the temple with the teachers. His parents confronted him, why are you still here? Surely you must have known that we had gone. And you remember what Jesus said, he said, did you not know I had to be about my father's business? He's not being disrespectful to his parents there. He's simply revealing to them that he has this divine heavenly calling. Already Jesus understood this at the age of 12. But then Luke's gospel tells us in verse 51 that he went back home to Nazareth in submission. to his parents. The Son of God, who was in the temple teaching the teachers of Israel, who had this divine calling, went back home and submitted himself to his parents back in Nazareth. And we read of Jesus there in Luke 2, 52, that Jesus increased in wisdom, in stature, in favor with God, and in favor with men. He increased in stature, wisdom, he increased in terms of his knowledge of God, he increased physiologically, he increased in stature, he increased in favor with God, spiritually, and in favor with men, socially. Jesus learned obedience in the things that he suffered, and it's an obedience that he had expressed long before he suffered on the cross, long before he submitted himself to his parents, when he was obedient to his promises in the covenant of redemption. It's a part of his mediatorial role, Christ the God-man, in his human nature learned obedience experientially. Obedience is related to his role as a high priest and the merits of his obedience is an obedience by which believers are justified. God, remember, requires that we must be accepted through the righteous sacrifice of Christ on the cross. His divine justice must be satisfied for us, and so Jesus went to the cross. which we call his passive obedience. And then Jesus, as we're learning here, learned obedience through the things he suffered. He obeyed all throughout his life, all his lifetime. He obeyed the Father's will. He obeyed the law. He kept the law. So that his obedience would be credited to us in our salvation. which we call his active obedience. And we need both. We need both Christ's passive obedience in satisfying the demand of God's justice on the cross, as well as his active obedience in keeping God's law perfectly. And if you are listening to this sermon and you are not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, then you need to recognize that you need both. You need these things. You need Christ's righteousness. You need a righteousness that exceeds any righteousness that you could possibly produce in your soul. And so you need Christ's righteousness. You might think, I don't know about all this stuff concerning Christ. I don't know about the Bible and what it reveals about Christ, or what it reveals about God for that matter. I think I'll be okay. I think I'll get to heaven, if there is a heaven, and I'll stand before God and He'll simply say, you know, you did all right. You were a pretty good person during your lifetime. But I say to those who have that perspective on the things of Scripture, on the things of God and the things of Christ, I say to you that you won't be okay because you aren't a relatively good person. In fact, the Bible tells you that you have disobeyed God, that you have disobeyed His holy laws, and that you can never live up to the righteousness that God requires. And so I say to you, dear friend, that you must go to Christ. You must plead with Him for His mercy and His grace, And you must have what he has won for those who would believe in him through his death on the cross and through his righteous life in order to be saved from your sins. I tell you, there is no hope apart from the righteous sacrifice and the righteous obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. We said that there were multiple ways in which Jesus was obedient, but especially our text tells us that he learned obedience through suffering. Preeminently, this suffering of both body and soul refers to the passion events of the cross and to the cross itself. It also includes all the humiliation that Jesus experienced throughout his life. For example, being a son. Although he was a son, although he was a divine son, he learned obedience. The fact that Jesus was born a human being is a part of that humiliation, that suffering. All these sufferings contributed to Christ's obedience But they became acute, they became intense. An acuteness and an intensity that is far beyond human comprehension as he neared the completion of his lesson of obedience in the school of suffering. obedient to the Father's will, made Christ's work complete. It made him supremely abound in sympathy and grace to help his people in their time of need. Even now in heaven, where Jesus sits enthroned, he can look back on that time in the days of his flesh when he uttered He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying in tears to the one who was able to save him and his learning obedience through suffering on the cross. He can remember how he, in godly fear, he prayed and was heard and was helped. And so he will help us when we go to him in our time of need as he was kept out of death. and was raised from the dead, so we will be kept by his grace. He's not only qualified as our great high priest, but he's trustworthy as our great high priest because of the efficacy of his prayer. and the efficacy of his obedience. The author reveals Christ, our supreme high priest, that we might trust in him and go to him in time of need. This passage teaches those who have been awakened out of their sinfulness to go to Jesus, the supreme high priest, for the help that only he can supply. So if you, through the preaching of this sermon, have become aware of the sinfulness of your sin and the dreadfulness of the judgment of hell, you must seek salvation by crying out to God in prayer, believing in Christ, confessing your sin, and seeking deliverance through him. This passage also teaches believers how they should pray. This is the way that ministers and elders should pray for the flock that God has entrusted to them as Christ's under shepherds. This is the way fathers and mothers should pray for their children. This is the way brothers and sisters in Christ should pray for one another. This is the way you should pray for a lost and dying world that you're confronted with every day of your life. Even as Jesus wept over the sinfulness of others. As he wept over Israel in their lost estate. So we should cry to the Father with tears. Cry to the one able to save those who are perishing. in this world. If Jesus, the Son of God, was devoted to prayer, how much more ought we be devoted to prayer? And our passage also teaches us that obedience, like anything in the Christian experience, must be learned. We learn obedience experientially, just as Jesus learned obedience as the God-man, as one who was fully human. It's one thing to learn by books. It's another thing to learn by experience. A soldier, for example, sitting home reading books, won't learn the art of war. He needs to go to the battlefield and learn how to win victory over the enemy. If our supreme high priest learned obedience through the things that he suffered, how much more you and me? The author of Hebrews will elaborate on this later in chapter 12, alluding to Gethsemane itself. He says, chapter 12 in verse four, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood. in your striving against sin. And you've forgotten the exhortation which he addressed to you as sons. My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you're reproved by him. For those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines and he scourges every son whom he receives. The school of obedience is a hard one. isn't it? Some of you here today know better than others that the school of suffering is a hard school. The school of obedience through suffering can be a difficult taskmaster, a difficult schoolmaster. But our text tells us that we are to wrestle with our sin and through our wrestlings with sin, that we are to learn obedience through our suffer, that we are to wrestle through our sufferings, and through our sufferings that we are to learn obedience. The way of suffering is hard. In fact, in verse 11, the writer says, all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful. Yet to those who are trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. The way of suffering is the way of obedience. It was for Christ. And as for Christ, The way for obedience is the way to glory. So our obedience in faithfulness and by the help and strength and grace of God through our suffering is the way to glory itself, where our Savior sits enthroned. forever as our great high priest who has won the victory for us. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, how great is your glorious name and how great is our supreme high priest, Jesus Christ. We pray, O Lord, as we have sought to plumb the depths of this passage, knowing that we haven't gotten to the bottom, for we can never plumb its depths, that you would nevertheless enable us to secure the important lessons that it teaches us with regard to not only Christ, so that we would trust in him and go to him in our time of need. Help us, O Lord God. to go to our great high priest, but help us to pray. Pray to you in secret with loud crying and tears. And help us, oh God, to be obedient to all of your holy commands we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Our hand of response is number 293. Let's stand as we sing together. Christ the King of Glory.