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I. SONSHIP DOES NOT EXEMPT FROM SUFFERING.

1. Not even Jesus, as a Son, escaped suffering.

2. No honour put upon sons of God will exempt them from suffering.

3. No holiness of character, nor completeness of obedience, can exempt the children of God from the school of suffering.

4. No prayer of God's sons, however earnest, will remove every thorn in the flesh from them.

5. No love in God's child, however fervent, will prevent his being tried.

II. SUFFERING DOES NOT MAR SONSHIP. The case of our Lord is set forth as a model for all the sons of God.

1. His poverty did not disprove His Sonship (Luke 2:12).

2. His temptations did not shake His Sonship (Matthew 4:3).

3. His endurance of slander did not jeopardise it (John 10:36).

4. His fear and sorrow did not put it in dispute (Matthew 26:39).

5. His desertion by men did not invalidate it (John 16:32).

6. His bring forsaken of God did not alter it (Luke 23:46).

7. His death cast no doubt thereon (Mark 15:39). He rose again, and thus proved His Father's pleasure in Him (John 20:17).

III. OBEDIENCE HAS TO BE LEARNED EVEN BY SONS.

1. It must be learned experimentally.

2. It must be learned by suffering.

3. It must be learned for use in earth and in heaven.

(1)  On earth by sympathy with others.

(2)  In heaven by perfect praise to God growing out of experience.

IV. SUFFERING HAS A PECULIAR POWER TO TEACH TRUE SONS. It is a better tutor than all else, because —

1. It touches the man's self; his hone, his flesh, his heart.

2. It tests his graces, and sweeps away those shams which are not proofs of obedience, but pretences of self-will.

3. It goes to the root, and tests the truth of our new nature. It shows whether repentance, faith, prayer, &c., are mere importations, or home-grown fruits.

4. It tests our endurance, and makes us see how far we are established in the obedience which we think we possess. Can we say, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him"?

(1)  The anxious question — Am I a son?

(2)  The aspiring desire — Let me learn obedience.

(3)  The accepted discipline — I submit to suffer.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

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KJV: Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;

WEB: He, in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear,