SPEAKER_01: Well good evening, Church.
SPEAKER_01: Good evening.
SPEAKER_01: It's good to be with you.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, before I say anything else, I want to I want to thank Pastor Jesse and Pastor Ryan for just giving me the opportunity to be out here.
SPEAKER_01: It's always a privilege to be with you.
SPEAKER_01: I've really grown to love this church.
SPEAKER_01: I was actually just telling someone a few days ago, one of your teens, that uh should I I join the mass exodus that is currently leaving California right now.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and I somehow ended up in Northern Virginia.
SPEAKER_01: It's good to know that there's a church for me here.
SPEAKER_01: And so I want to thank you for that.
SPEAKER_01: You guys have always been so welcoming, and I'm especially grateful tonight to Jesse for giving me the opportunity to share God's word with you.
SPEAKER_01: That is that is always a privilege.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we had a great time this week.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I loved being with your teens.
SPEAKER_01: We got to look at the book of Judges for four sessions, looking at uh the the darkness of sin, how awful it is, how devastating sin is in our lives, how destructive it is.
SPEAKER_01: But but really, I hope what they would take away from it is that against the backdrop of human sin and how destructive it is, we see the magnitude of God's grace.
SPEAKER_01: That no matter how bad our sin is, no matter how far away from God we run, no matter how steeped in our rebellion we are, God continues to have grace for us.
SPEAKER_01: And so we had a great time this weeking, just again and again and again being reminded of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And this evening, uh my desire to for you tonight is that we would be reminded that the gospel, it does come at a cost, but it's a cost that is well worth paying.
SPEAKER_01: It was uh on May 10th, in 1983, that Alexander Soltsinitsyn gave a speech upon receiving the Templeton Prize.
SPEAKER_01: It's a prize which uh celebrates the application of science and technology to answering some of the deepest questions in life.
SPEAKER_01: And Soltsinitsyn, you might be aware, he he wrote the Gulag Archipelago, in which he he chronicled some of his experiences having been in a communist gulag for years and the the the terrible uh things that he saw.
SPEAKER_01: And and in that speech he's trying to he's trying to explain, he's trying to explain how something so evil and so vile like that could even come about.
SPEAKER_01: And he and he says a statement that I find I've found so profound.
SPEAKER_01: He says this, this is his explanation.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Men have forgotten God.
SPEAKER_01: That's why all this has happened.
SPEAKER_01: Today's world has reached a state which, if it had been described to preceding centuries, would have called forth the cry, This is the apocalypse.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says this, then he says, Yet we have grown used to this kind of world.
SPEAKER_01: We even feel at home in it.
SPEAKER_01: He said those words 40 years ago.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine what he would say today if he looked out across the landscape of our of our country?
SPEAKER_01: I think sometimes as Christians, we we look at the society that we live in, we look at the culture that we are part of, and I think at times it can certainly feel as though we are in the midst of the apocalypse.
SPEAKER_01: It feels as though the world is being turned upside down, as though our culture is completely backwards, as though everything that that ought to be has been inverted.
SPEAKER_01: Right is wrong, good is evil.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's a generation we live in that the prophet Isaiah would have said these words to Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
SPEAKER_01: I I think as plainly as we've ever been able to see it, we see that men and do indeed love the darkness rather than the light.
SPEAKER_01: And yet I I think that Soltsenitsin uh he's cognizant that there's there's a danger there.
SPEAKER_01: And I think there's a danger even for Christians living in this kind of backwards culture, and that's that we would we would begin to feel at home in it.
SPEAKER_01: That we would grow accustomed to the the backwardness of it all.
SPEAKER_01: That that because this place is, in a sense, our home, it would begin to feel like home, and we would grow comfortable.
SPEAKER_01: And I think we have to realize that the comfort for a Christian can be a very dangerous thing.
SPEAKER_01: Comfort for a Christian can be a very dangerous thing because I think that comfort can become an idol.
SPEAKER_01: And I think though this isn't historically true, I think for the church in America, this is really the first time where Christianity wasn't broadly acceptable to society, where Judeo-Christian values weren't generally accepted by the greater population.
SPEAKER_01: For the really the first time in our short history, it's becoming increasingly uncomfortable to be a Christian who stands upon the Word of God, who believes every word that God has given us in the scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: And I think what we see so often is that Christians have have grown so used to being comfortable that they're willing to compromise to maintain it.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's one of the dangers when comfort becomes an idol in your life is that it will tempt you to compromise.
SPEAKER_01: And I imagine if we're honest, we've all been tempted to compromise in this way.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's the temptation to keep silent when those those hot button issues pop up.
SPEAKER_01: Something that you know that God's word speaks to, but that you know the other person in the conversation won't appreciate.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's the temptation to avoid those hard questions and the natural ire that will be returned towards you if you give a biblical answer.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's the temptation to give half answers, to to share the the pleasant part of the truth, but but not so much the unpleasant parts of the truth.
SPEAKER_01: I think there's a temptation to avoid the shame that comes with following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's a temptation that will only increase as time goes by.
SPEAKER_01: You know, this letter, the the epistle to the Hebrews, was written to a congregation that I don't think is all that different from where we find ourselves today.
SPEAKER_01: This was a young group of believers, fresh converts who had come out of Judaism, and they are beginning to feel the cost of following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We know that he's writing this letter to a group of people who are who are wondering, who are wondering whether a life of discipleship to the Lord Jesus Christ is really worth it, because they're they're starting to feel the squeeze of social persecution.
SPEAKER_01: Some of them have been ridiculed in public, some of them have felt that public scorn that comes along with standing for truth.
SPEAKER_01: Some of them have even had their possessions taken from them, some have even been thrown in prison.
SPEAKER_01: And as he writes this letter, he writes to a group of believers that are struggling, that are wrestling with doubt, and they're wondering if it wouldn't be worth it to just go back.
SPEAKER_01: They're beginning to wonder if they've made a mistake, if it's worth it to follow Jesus, if it's worth it to pay the cost that comes when you carry your cross.
SPEAKER_01: And so they're being tempted to go back.
SPEAKER_01: And we see this even in chapter 13 of the book of Hebrews.
SPEAKER_01: And you can go ahead and flip there if you haven't already.
SPEAKER_01: But in Hebrews chapter 13, we see this command that the author gives in verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: He says this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Do not be led astray by diverse and strange teachings.
SPEAKER_01: For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.
SPEAKER_01: It seems as though one of the things that was being, that was a temptation to these young believers, is to go back and to participate in those ritual meals in Judaism that had been for the people of for the Jewish people a means of grace.
SPEAKER_01: I I think it's it's something like this.
SPEAKER_01: The idea is that you know what?
SPEAKER_01: You can keep your Christian faith, but if you'll just be a little more accommodating to the beliefs of those around you, if you'll participate with them, if you'll be a little more tolerant, if you'll if you'll be more accepting of what they believe, then it'll be easier for them to accept you.
SPEAKER_01: In some ways, I think it's parallel to the temptation we feel today.
SPEAKER_01: If you would just be a little more tolerant, people wouldn't be so mad at you all the time.
SPEAKER_01: If we could just be more accommodating to the beliefs and the practices of the culture around us, we'd be more acceptable to society.
SPEAKER_01: Because today, really, it seems like the only sin is to call sin.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: The only thing that can't be tolerated is to be intolerant.
SPEAKER_01: I think these believers were feeling the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: They had family and friends and coworkers who were pressuring them to give in just a little bit to the society around them, to just adopt just uh just some of the customs of the people around them so that they could be a little more acceptable, a little less anti-cultural, and they're wondering if it would be worth it to avoid the ire and the scorn and the shame and the persecution that they're beginning to face.
SPEAKER_01: And so this author writes this letter because he has a message to these young believers.
SPEAKER_01: And his message is simple.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is better.
SPEAKER_01: And his message in our passage tonight is also simple.
SPEAKER_01: He says to go outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: To go outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: Let's read these verses together.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews chapter 13.
SPEAKER_01: I'll begin reading in verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews chapter 16, beginning in verse 10, the author writes, We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat.
SPEAKER_01: For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp, and bear the reproach he endured.
SPEAKER_01: For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.
SPEAKER_01: Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of lifts that acknowledge his name.
SPEAKER_01: Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
SPEAKER_01: You can see the central command, and this is really, in many ways, the final ultimate exhortation that this author of the Hebrews is giving to these believers.
SPEAKER_01: This is how he closes his message.
SPEAKER_01: One last appeal to them to hold fast to Jesus, to not go back, to not capitulate to the culture.
SPEAKER_01: In his command, we see it in verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: It's this it's let us go to him outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if we had been walking through the book of Hebrews from the beginning, we would see that this is a this is a rhetorical strategy that the author has been using from the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: He often uses space and location and movement as a as a way to describe the Christian life, as a metaphor for discipleship.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 4, he calls his listeners to strive to enter into that rest, that rest that is only found in faithfulness to God.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 11, he calls believers to emulate Abraham, who went out to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 11, he writes of those saints of whom the world was not worthy, who were wandering about in deserts and mountains and in caves of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: And so often his focus, his focus is where these believers are going.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 10, verse 19, he says that they are to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 4, he exhorts them to draw near to the throne of grace, to find mercy and help in a time of need.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 6, he tells them to leave the elementary doctrine of Christ behind and to go on to maturity.
SPEAKER_01: Repeatedly throughout the book, he calls us to draw near, to draw near to God, to draw near to God, to enter into the presence of God because of the access, the unfettered, amazing access to God that we have been given through the blood of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So time and time he says to them, approach the throne, draw near, enter into the holy places.
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's what makes the exhortation in chapter 13, verse 13 so strange.
SPEAKER_01: Because for the entire book, he's been telling them to go in, to go in, to enter, to draw near.
SPEAKER_01: And he closes his book by saying to go outside.
SPEAKER_01: To go outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: One scholar remarks, he says the author has structured this homily, this message in such a way that one would have expected it to reach its climax in a call to enter.
SPEAKER_01: Yet instead he calls his listeners to exit.
SPEAKER_01: And it's true that this apparent change in direction has confused a lot of commentators and a lot of scholars over the years.
SPEAKER_01: Early on, the Jewish commentator Philo saw on this, because he was so heavily influenced by Neoplatonic philosophy, he saw this as a command to to allow the spirit to transcend the physical body, to reach enlightenment and salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Other, even more recent commentators believe that the author of Hebrews is calling Christians to reject sacred spaces, to reject the holy places, and to embrace the secular, literally to embrace the world.
SPEAKER_01: Which I think is strange.
SPEAKER_01: I think that John would have something to say to that, like, do not love the world or the things in the world.
SPEAKER_01: But you see, I think what I think both these both these commentators get wrong is they miss the the weight that that phrase outside the camp would have carried to a group of people who were very familiar with their Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, these were Jewish converts.
SPEAKER_01: They had been steeped in Judaism all their lives.
SPEAKER_01: They were familiar with the Old Testament, and though the phrase outside the camp is not found anywhere else outside of this passage in the New Testament, it's all over the place in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: And so I think if we'll go back to the Old Testament, we can see what exactly the author is describing for us.
SPEAKER_01: The phrase is used 29 times in the Old Testament, almost all of those in the first five books of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Once it's used in the book of Joshua, but otherwise it's always used in the Torah, in the first five books of the Bible, and predominantly in the books of Leviticus and Numbers, in those, in those passages, in those texts that describe the Levitical system and the sacrificial system that tell the people of Israel what it takes to remain in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: Occasionally it's used in a maybe a positive sense.
SPEAKER_01: Moses is commanded to move the tent of meeting outside the camp, and there he goes to meet with God and to speak to God.
SPEAKER_01: It's there that the seventy elders of Israel who are called and selected, they go out to the tent of meeting and they are consecrated, and the Spirit comes upon them and they begin to prophesy.
SPEAKER_01: But I think even in those cases, the greater context reminds us that the reason that the tent of meeting was moved outside the camp is because the nation of Israel had built a golden calf, an idol that they were worshiping.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's probably, it's probably more an act of judgment than anything else.
SPEAKER_01: So no matter how you understand the way that those passages use the phrase, predominantly, when it is used, it's used in a very negative sense.
SPEAKER_01: Outside the camp is the place of death.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the nation of Israel in the wilderness on their wilderness wanderings, and even in the city of Jerusalem, they they operated on a spatial gradation of holiness.
SPEAKER_01: The presence of God was in the center of the camp, and that was the holiest place in the holy of holies.
SPEAKER_01: And then you move out a little further and you're in the holy place, and then you move out a little further and you're in the tabernacle, and then you move out a little further and you're in the greater camp of Israel, and then you move all the way out, and you're outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: It's as far away from the presence of God as you can get.
SPEAKER_01: Because nothing unclean, nothing impure, nothing that is marred by the stain of sin can dwell in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so outside the camp, it's the place of death.
SPEAKER_01: And we see, even in our passage in chapter 10, we see that it's outside the camp, or in verse 11, excuse me, where the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned.
SPEAKER_01: They're burned outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: So the idea is that as the Israelites would bring sacrifices to the temple, to the tabernacle, those sacrifices would be altered and the blood would be spilled, and that blood would be used to sanctify the people, to make atonement for sin.
SPEAKER_01: And certain sacrifices, parts of the animal would be used to feed the priests or to enjoy a meal in the presence of God to signify that there was peace between God and man because of the sacrifice, but the rest of the animal would be taken outside the camp and it would be burned.
SPEAKER_01: Because outside the camp was the place of death.
SPEAKER_01: Outside the camp was where the skin and the flesh of the bull that had been offered as a sin offering were taken, and they were burned outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: In Leviticus chapter 4, verse 12, we see that the skin of the bull and its flesh and its head, its legs, its entrails, and its dung, all the rest of the bull, everything not used in the sacrifice, was taken outside the camp and burned.
SPEAKER_01: The idea seems to be that because sin is so serious, that the body of the animal that became the sacrifice for sin could not stay in the camp of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: It had to be removed into the outer places outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: Outside the camp was also the place of impurity.
SPEAKER_01: It was outside the camp, the camp, where those Israelites who had some sort of ritual uncleanness, some sort of ritual purity, were cast out until they became ritually unclean.
SPEAKER_01: So when Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, offer strange fire to the Lord and they're consumed, Moses commands his cousins to drag their bodies and their corpses out away from the sanctuary, because corpses were a source of uncleanness, and so they could not stay in the camp.
SPEAKER_01: So they were moved outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: In his regulations for lepers in Leviticus 13, the Lord instructs Moses that the one who is found to have leprosy shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease.
SPEAKER_01: His dwelling place shall be outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: Because leprosy was a source of uncleanness.
SPEAKER_01: And so that person, the leper, could no longer dwell near the presence of God amongst the people of God.
SPEAKER_01: He was relegated outside the camp, the place of impurity.
SPEAKER_01: Any Israelite who had been rendered unclean by a nocturnal omission must go outside the camp until evening of that day, and then he could be rendered clean by a ritual washing, and he could re-enter the camp.
SPEAKER_01: Leviticus chapter six, verse eleven, we see that even the priests' linen garments, rendered unclean when the priests handle the ashes of the burnt offering, their garments were to be put outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: And so outside the camp is a place of impurity, it's a place of uncleanness, it's a place of death.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the place that you want to be.
SPEAKER_01: It's also the place of judgment.
SPEAKER_01: In Numbers chapter 15, verse 35, it's there that the people of Israel are instructed to stone a man who is guilty of gathering sticks on the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_01: They're to stone him outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: Leviticus chapter 24, verse 14, they stone a man who has blasphemed the name.
SPEAKER_01: They stone him outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: Numbers chapter 31, verses 13 through 18, we see that the Israelites they are instructed to slaughter Midianite men and Midianite women who had been brought back as spoils of war.
SPEAKER_01: It's an act of judgment and it's to be done outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: So outside the camp is a place that is associated with death, with uncleanness, with judgment, shame.
SPEAKER_01: If you're an Israelite, outside the camp is not the place you want to be.
SPEAKER_01: So you can imagine this young congregation of Jewish converts reading this exhortation to go outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: And it would have been shocking to them.
SPEAKER_01: Because they'd grown up all their lives thinking that outside the camp was the one place that they did not want to end up.
SPEAKER_01: And yet that is where God calls them to go.
SPEAKER_01: And so I think we need to ask ourselves the question why does he call them to go outside?
SPEAKER_01: Outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: Why does he call this young group of believers to go outside the camp if that is the place of shame, if that's the place of rejection, if that's the place of separation from the people of God, if that's the place of judgment, the place of death, the place of impurity, why does he want them to go outside the camp?
SPEAKER_01: I think the answer is simple.
SPEAKER_01: It's because Jesus is there.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: Let us go to him outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: I think we need to recognize the transition that happens from verse 12 to verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: Something significant.
SPEAKER_01: Something significant has developed in the author's mind in verses 11 and 12 that leads him in verse 13 to say, therefore, in light of what I've just said, in light of the connection that I've just made, in light of the historical redemptive significance of what I've just said, you need to go outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: So what is it, what is the what is it that's happened that is so significant?
SPEAKER_01: And we see it in verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus also suffered outside the gate.
SPEAKER_01: In the real historical event of Jesus the Messiah being marched outside the city of Jerusalem to be crucified on a cross to pay for the sins of his people.
SPEAKER_01: You see, what he's saying is Jesus was marched outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was taken to the place of impurity and uncleanness and judgment and sin and death because Jesus became sin on our behalf.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus absorbed the shame and the guilt that was ours.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was treated as a sinner, even though he had never sinned.
SPEAKER_01: And so when Jesus hung on the cross, he became the unclean, impure sinner that he was not.
SPEAKER_01: What the author of Hebrews is saying is that Jesus, in order to accomplish our redemption, he had to go to that place of judgment.
SPEAKER_01: He had to go to that place of shame.
SPEAKER_01: He had to be scorned and rejected and despised by men.
SPEAKER_01: He had to do all of that for us.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the reality is that all of us were outside the camp, and Jesus had to go outside the camp so that we could come in.
SPEAKER_01: The author's earlier exhortations to draw near to the throne of grace, to enter the throne room of God are only possible because Jesus went out.
SPEAKER_01: He went outside the camp so that we could come in.
SPEAKER_01: And so what the author's saying is, you too need to go outside the camp, because that's where Jesus is, and that's where salvation is.
SPEAKER_01: He went outside the camp in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's a reference to the Day of Atonement ceremony in which two goats would have been brought as an offering.
SPEAKER_01: One goat, the priest, the high priest, would lay his hand on, and on it he would confess the sins of the people, and then that goat would be sent outside the camp, out into the wilderness, bearing the sins of the people.
SPEAKER_01: And then the second goat would be slaughtered, and its blood would be used to sanctify the people from their sin.
SPEAKER_01: And the remains of that goat and the remains of the bull that had been used to sanctify and consecrate the holy place, they would have been taken outside the camp and they would have been burned.
SPEAKER_01: But that was the way that sin was atoned for.
SPEAKER_01: That was the way that sin was dealt with.
SPEAKER_01: And the author of Hebrews is saying the temple, the tabernacle, animals, blood sacrifice, and altar, those things are no longer the way that we deal with our sin.
SPEAKER_01: The place of atonement is no longer the tabernacle, it's now a person.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you want your sin to be dealt with, you have to go to him outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Go outside the camp because that's where Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: That's where he is.
SPEAKER_01: He is outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: You see the temple and all its sacrifices, all its rituals, all of it pointed to a better sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews chapter 9, verses 24 through 26, for Christ has entered not into the holy places made by hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
SPEAKER_01: Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood, not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_01: But as it is, he has appeared once for all, at the end of the age, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus went outside the camp and gave his body as a sacrifice on our behalf.
SPEAKER_01: His blood was shed, and it is that shed blood that makes atonement for our sins.
SPEAKER_01: Because the author of Hebrews has already told us that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_01: The ancient Israelites understood that.
SPEAKER_01: Because every year, year after year after year, they would offer animal after animal after animal.
SPEAKER_01: And the very nature of these repeated sacrifices reminded them that the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin.
SPEAKER_01: But when Jesus came, he offered a once-for-all sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: And with that one sacrifice, he paid for the sins of his people completely and fully.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing left to be paid, nothing left to be done.
SPEAKER_01: And the author to the Hebrews is reminding this young congregation, wondering if following Jesus is worth it.
SPEAKER_01: He's telling them, look, following Jesus is worth it.
SPEAKER_01: Because only with Jesus is there salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Only with Jesus is there atonement for your sins.
SPEAKER_01: Only with Jesus is there sanctification.
SPEAKER_01: Only with Jesus is there forgiveness of sins in new life.
SPEAKER_01: If you turn your back on Jesus, you forfeit all his benefits.
SPEAKER_01: And so you must go to him where he is, outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: Because that's where salvation was wrought.
SPEAKER_01: That's where atonement was made.
SPEAKER_01: And so we go outside the camp because that's where Jesus is, and that's where salvation is.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know all of you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm from a different place.
SPEAKER_01: I'm from a faraway land called California, a strange, strange land that's even more backwards than everybody else's.
SPEAKER_01: So I don't know all of you.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know where you're from.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why you're here tonight.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what you think about everything that I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01: I just want you to know this.
SPEAKER_01: If you're here tonight and you have never put your faith in Jesus Christ, then you are this very moment lost in your sin.
SPEAKER_01: Because the Bible tells us that every single one of us, we were born sinners by nature.
SPEAKER_01: We have proved that we are sinners by choosing to sin.
SPEAKER_01: And because a holy God resides in heaven, a holy God who created this world and who created us to be His and to serve Him, because He is holy, He cannot stand the sight of sin.
SPEAKER_01: And so all of us, sinners by nature and sinners by choice, we cannot be in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: And one day our sin will be judged.
SPEAKER_01: If you are here tonight and you have not put your faith in Jesus, then you stand under the wrath of God.
SPEAKER_01: A holy God who will deal with your sin.
SPEAKER_01: But you see the good news that the author of Hebrews is trying to drive home to these believers and to us is that when you put your faith in Jesus, then your sin has been dealt with.
SPEAKER_01: Past tense.
SPEAKER_01: Once for all sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: He went to the place of death, the place of shame, the place of uncleanness, the place of judgment.
SPEAKER_01: He did it all on your behalf so that you would not have to suffer that fate.
SPEAKER_01: So that you would not have to suffer the judgment of God.
SPEAKER_01: So that you would not have to suffer the wrath of God.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus did that for you.
SPEAKER_01: And if you even this very night would put your faith in him and turn away from your sin, you can receive the salvation, the atonement, the sanctification that he purchased on the cross outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: That's the free offer of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: We sang about it in songs tonight.
SPEAKER_01: When we survey that wondrous cross, it reminds us of what Jesus has done for us.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: No list of sins I have not done, no list of virtues I've pursued, no list of those I am not like could earn myself a place with you.
SPEAKER_01: My righteousness is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: My debt was paid with Jesus' death.
SPEAKER_01: My weary load was borne by him, and he alone shall give me rest.
SPEAKER_01: We go outside the camp because that's where Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: That's where salvation is.
SPEAKER_01: The free gift, the free offer, the gracious offer of forgiveness of sin and everlasting life in the presence of God, beholding the face of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That face that Pastor Jesse talked about earlier, that face that as we behold him, we become like him, day after day, from one degree of glory to another.
SPEAKER_01: There will come a day when believers in Jesus will finally be like him because we will see him as he is.
SPEAKER_01: All that can be yours if tonight you put your faith in Christ and you go outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: The reason the author of Hebrews is telling us this and those believers this truth is because when you go to Jesus outside the camp, it does mean that you have to leave the city behind.
SPEAKER_01: It means you have to be prepared to leave your comfort behind.
SPEAKER_01: To leave that which is familiar to you behind, to leave your reputation behind.
SPEAKER_01: It means you have to be willing to leave your life behind to go outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: Because he also says that when we are to go to him outside the camp, verse 13, we go there and we bear the reproach that he endured.
SPEAKER_01: We bear the reproach that he endured.
SPEAKER_01: So what is it that we do outside the camp?
SPEAKER_01: We bear the reproach that Jesus bore.
SPEAKER_01: In Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2, that we're told that for the joy set before him, Jesus endured the cross, scorning its shame.
SPEAKER_01: That word scorning can have the idea of giving no regard to.
SPEAKER_01: And we're to do the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: We are to endure the reproach that Jesus endured.
SPEAKER_01: We're to bear it.
SPEAKER_01: And I would even say, the author of Hebrews would say, we're to embrace it.
SPEAKER_01: I think far too often our response to the ire of the world, our response to the rejection of the world, our response to that social pressure is to try and maneuver and manipulate to get away from it, to avoid it.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why we don't always speak up when we should.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we we try to couch things in more gentle terms.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we're, that's why we feel the temptation to compromise.
SPEAKER_01: Because we don't want the reproach.
SPEAKER_01: And the author of Hebrews says, rather than run away from it, you need to embrace it.
SPEAKER_01: Because that's what Jesus did.
SPEAKER_01: We're to bear the reproach that Jesus endured.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus promised us that in the world you will have tribulation.
SPEAKER_01: In John chapter 15, he says, If the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you.
SPEAKER_01: If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own.
SPEAKER_01: But because you were not of the world, because I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
SPEAKER_01: Remember what I said to you a servant is not greater than his master.
SPEAKER_01: If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
SPEAKER_01: That's a promise.
SPEAKER_01: Right, we we love to talk about the promises of God.
SPEAKER_01: But sometimes I think there are certain promises of God that we don't like to talk about as much.
SPEAKER_01: Like the promise that the world will hate us.
SPEAKER_01: The promise that there will be tribulation in this life, the promise that we will face persecution of some kind and some degree.
SPEAKER_01: Something I tell myself often, I I have to rem because I look, I I like comfort.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not against it.
SPEAKER_01: I like recliner chairs and couches and warm homes.
SPEAKER_01: One of the hardest things about this weekend is that I came from California.
SPEAKER_01: It's warm there.
SPEAKER_01: It's not warm here.
SPEAKER_01: It's just not.
SPEAKER_01: I don't understand.
SPEAKER_01: It's so cold.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why you guys do it.
SPEAKER_01: I I like comfort.
SPEAKER_01: I do.
SPEAKER_01: It's natural for me to seek comfort.
SPEAKER_01: It's also natural for me to avoid discomfort.
SPEAKER_01: And so sometimes I have to I have to ask myself, when was the last time that I felt even the slightest shred of persecution?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's a too strong of a word, but when was the last time that I felt the reproach of someone who didn't like the truth that I clung to or the beliefs that I held?
SPEAKER_01: When was the last time that I experienced any sort of tribulation or persecution?
SPEAKER_01: Look, my life's pretty easy, I'll admit it.
SPEAKER_01: But I think if I am being a Christian seven days a week, 365 days a year, if I'm being a Christian all the time, wherever I am, at some point, I should get a bad reaction from somebody.
SPEAKER_01: Not because I'm being a jerk, but because I'm speaking the truth.
SPEAKER_01: And because men love the darkness rather than the light, at some point I should find somebody who doesn't like the light.
SPEAKER_01: I just wonder when the last time, when was the last time you had an uncomfortable conversation with someone about the truth of the gospel or the truth of God's word, what it says.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we can get so locked into our Christian bubble, our our our comfort zone, our safe space, that we forget that we even put in this world for a mission.
SPEAKER_01: That part of following Jesus is taking up your cross.
SPEAKER_01: The part of following Jesus is bearing the reproach that he endured.
SPEAKER_01: That part of following Jesus is accepting the scorn and the ire and the rejection of the world.
SPEAKER_01: See, far too many of us want to be accepted by the world.
SPEAKER_01: We haven't yet accepted that we will always be rejected by the world.
SPEAKER_01: And so for these young believers who are being tempted to try and accommodate the culture, to try and adopt some of their practices, to just tweak things a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Just a little bit, a little bit of compromise to make their lives more comfortable, to make them more acceptable to the culture.
SPEAKER_01: The author of Hebrews says, don't run from the uncomfortable situations in life.
SPEAKER_01: Don't run from it.
SPEAKER_01: Don't run from the shame.
SPEAKER_01: Don't run from the reproach.
SPEAKER_01: Embrace it.
SPEAKER_01: It's what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It's what it means to go to him outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: It means to bear the reproach that he endured.
SPEAKER_01: He reminds us that in verse 14, we don't have here a lasting city.
SPEAKER_01: We have here no lasting city.
SPEAKER_01: This is a theme that he's drawn on several times.
SPEAKER_01: The idea that this life is a pilgrimage, it's a sojourn, it's a it's a temporary ride through this temporal realm.
SPEAKER_01: This place is not our home.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's hard to hear sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: Because I think a lot of us like this place.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I again uh it's cold here, but otherwise I think that Northern Virginia is a nice place.
SPEAKER_01: We we like where we are.
SPEAKER_01: Life is pretty comfortable.
SPEAKER_01: We have a lot of creaturely comforts.
SPEAKER_01: And that the people around us are generally nice, and so we we buy homes here and we we plant rooms here, and we we fill we fill the uh our homes and our lives with memories of fond memories of of this life in this world.
SPEAKER_01: We it's hard to be here to tell.
SPEAKER_01: It's hard to hear that this world is not our home.
SPEAKER_01: But the reality is that this life comes to an end.
SPEAKER_01: And we don't have a lasting city here.
SPEAKER_01: We seek the city that is to come.
SPEAKER_01: He says we don't have a lasting home here.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have a city here, but verse 10 he says we have an altar.
SPEAKER_01: We have an altar.
SPEAKER_01: What he's saying is we have something from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, he's saying there are two groups of people.
SPEAKER_01: There are those who are with Jesus who have an altar.
SPEAKER_01: That is, they have atonement, they have a sacrifice, they have salvation, they have a pathway opened up to the God of the universe because of the work of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But those who are not with Jesus, those who have not gone out to him outside the camp, they don't have the altar.
SPEAKER_01: They have no right to eat of it.
SPEAKER_01: Because they have no part with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And so he's saying, yes, you'll have to leave the city behind, but you'll have an altar.
SPEAKER_01: And there is a city that is to come, whose builder and founder is God.
SPEAKER_01: It reminds me of the old hymn, take the world, but give me Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Take the world but give me Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: All its joys are but a name.
SPEAKER_01: But his love abideth forever.
SPEAKER_01: Through eternal years the same.
SPEAKER_01: I think we sing it sometimes, I think, we sing those words.
SPEAKER_01: I just don't know if we actually mean those words.
SPEAKER_01: Can you say, take the world, but give me Jesus and mean it with your whole heart?
SPEAKER_01: I'll be honest, I hope I can.
SPEAKER_01: I hope I can.
SPEAKER_01: By the grace of God, I hope I can.
SPEAKER_01: I think far off far too often we don't think about the cost of following Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We grow comfortable, we grow apathetic, and we forget that Jesus and being a follower of Jesus means that there will be rejection and there will be persecution.
SPEAKER_01: But it's worth it because we have an altar.
SPEAKER_01: Because we're with Jesus, because He's made a way for us to know God.
SPEAKER_01: And so the author tells us don't run away from the rejection of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Don't run away from it.
SPEAKER_01: He says to embrace it.
SPEAKER_01: He says that we're to offer up a continual sacrifice of praise.
SPEAKER_01: That is the fruit, the fruit of our lips, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.
SPEAKER_01: You know what he's saying?
SPEAKER_01: He's saying we don't offer animal sacrifices anymore.
SPEAKER_01: You know what we offer up to God?
SPEAKER_01: A public confession that Jesus Christ is Lord.
SPEAKER_01: A public confession.
SPEAKER_01: For these believers, that was hard to do because when they said Jesus is the Messiah, all their family members and all their friends said, No, he's not.
SPEAKER_01: And you're crazy, and we want nothing to do with you anymore.
SPEAKER_01: But the author of Hebrews says, Go outside the camp, endure the reproach that Jesus endured, and offer up a public confession that Jesus is Lord and his word is true, and salvation is only found.
SPEAKER_01: In him.
SPEAKER_01: And we are called to do the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: Christian, now is not the time to grow silent.
SPEAKER_01: As our culture descends deeper and deeper into chaos, as we as we live out Judges chapter 1, where every single person does what is right in their own eyes.
SPEAKER_01: Now is not the time to grow silent.
SPEAKER_01: Now is not the time to shrink back.
SPEAKER_01: Now is the time to stand for truth and to be bold.
SPEAKER_01: Because this city isn't our city, anyways.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have a lasting city here.
SPEAKER_01: We have an altar.
SPEAKER_01: And we look, we look forward to the kingdom and the city that is to come.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it means to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I mentioned that there was one usage of the phrase outside the camp that isn't in the first five books of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: It's in the sixth book, so it's close.
SPEAKER_01: It's in the book of Joshua.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua chapter 6, verses 22 through 25.
SPEAKER_01: But the two men who had spied out the land, to them Joshua said, Go into the prostitute's house and bring out from there the woman and all who belong to her, as you swore to her.
SPEAKER_01: So the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her.
SPEAKER_01: And they brought all her relatives, and they put them outside the camp of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: And they burned the city with fire, and everything in it.
SPEAKER_01: Only the silver and gold and the vessels of bronze and of and of iron they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 25 But Rahab the prostitute and her father's household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive.
SPEAKER_01: And she has lived in Israel to this day because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.
SPEAKER_01: The author of Hebrews was familiar with Rahab.
SPEAKER_01: In Hebrews chapter 11, he says this by faith, Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient.
SPEAKER_01: Rahab went outside the camp, and so she escaped the judgment of God.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, if you're here tonight and you find yourself struggling with the culture that you see around you, and you feel the tingling of fear in your spine, which I think we all do, and you wonder what the future looks like, what's going to happen?
SPEAKER_01: What is going to happen to our way of life?
SPEAKER_01: What's going to happen to our the comforts that we have grown so fond of, the things that we have held so dear?
SPEAKER_01: Will I be allowed to say what I want to say without some sort of pushback, without some sort of punishment?
SPEAKER_01: The author of Hebrews would tell you to embrace the reproach, to go outside the camp where Jesus is, to stand up boldly for truth, because this world is not our home.
SPEAKER_01: So what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.
SPEAKER_01: And that we would go to Jesus outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: That we would bear the reproach that he endured.
SPEAKER_01: That we would embrace it.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's only with Jesus that there is salvation.
SPEAKER_01: It's only with Jesus that we can escape the destruction that will come upon this world.
SPEAKER_01: I pray as a church that we would do that.
SPEAKER_01: That we would be salt and light in a dark world.
SPEAKER_01: That the glory of God might be put on display and that He in His mercy would save.
SPEAKER_01: It will take boldness and it will be costly.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus is worth it because Jesus is better.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time in your word.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for the powerful message of the author to the Hebrews.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we ask that you in your grace would give us boldness and courage to go outside the camp.
SPEAKER_01: That we would see Jesus as so majestic and so beautiful and so worthy that we would go where he is, that we would endure the reproach that he endured, that we would embrace it, that we would recognize that this world is not our home.
SPEAKER_01: But our Lord and Savior has gone and he is preparing a better place for us, and that one day we will be there with him.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that that hope, that future hope, would shape our present reality, that we might live for him, that we would not compromise our faith for the sake of comfort, for the sake of respect, for the sake of reputation, but we would follow Jesus outside the camp because we so desire to be with him.
SPEAKER_01: Pray that our hearts would love him so much that we would count the cost and consider it worth it.
SPEAKER_01: We pray all of this in his precious name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us today.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our service times and church information are on our website at ibc.church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: location, go to tms.edu.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily.
SPEAKER_00: Serve others around you, and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with boldness.
SPEAKER_00: May the Lord bless you.