So find your place in Hebrews chapter 13. We'll start reading in verse 9 down to verse 14, though our focus will be 10 to 14. Hebrews chapter 13, beginning at verse 9. Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings. For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods through which those who were so occupied were not benefited. We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also that He might sanctify the people through His own blood suffered outside the gate. So let us go out to him, outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come. So Lord, now give us open ears and hearts ready to receive the implanted word which can save. It is not a word from man that can do anything for us, but the Word of God, faithfully proclaimed, is the power of God unto salvation to those who believe, a sharp sword, cutting away error, cutting away the fantasies we have bought into, cutting away the foolishness of this world that has blinded us, and implanting instead that seed, that life-bearing package that changes and transforms us, bringing conformity to Christ, joy in Christ, faith in Christ for eternal life. Grant these things in Jesus we ask. Amen. To embrace Christ by faith means that you embrace Him for all that He is, and all that He's done, and all that that means. Because it is only through faith in Christ and His sacrifice that we have the forgiveness of sins, the gift of eternal life, and the guarantee of a place in heaven. And we like those things. We sing songs about those things. But it is also through Christ that we will face rejection in this world, exclusion from this culture, and eventually persecution for believing His name. And we have to be ready to face that as well. Because you cannot have one without the other. Jesus said in John 15, 20, if they persecuted Me, they will persecute you. And so when we embrace the risen Christ to have life, we must also be willing to embrace the rejected Christ, the one who was an outcast to this world. For just as the unbelieving world will reject Him and has rejected Him, so it will reject us. And that's what we need to see this morning. Listen, you have everything to gain by coming to Christ and being faithful to Christ. But you also have much you will lose in this world. And you have to understand that. And so let's begin there this morning. Whatever it may cost you, coming to Christ and being faithful to Christ is worth it Because in him, it says here, we have an access to God that mere religion can never give. Look at verse 10. We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. Now he's using figurative language there, isn't he? But it's the kind of language he's been using all the way through the book of Hebrews. The altar he has in mind here is not a physical thing. It is the finished work of Christ on the cross. And so there are some, for example, who will call this wooden table down here an altar. They really shouldn't do that, because we don't have a physical altar in biblical Christianity, and frankly, we don't need one. There are no more sacrifices to be offered. No, what Jesus did on the cross, He did once and forever, 2,000 years ago. That, by the way, children, children, that's why you never see us performing anything that even looks like a sacrifice up here at this so-called altar. Instead, you'll notice it has something written on it, doesn't it? If you can see it from there, what's written on it? In remembrance of me. And so, These are the words of Jesus. This is His calling us to remember Him in His sacrificial death and resurrection. And so every time you look at this table as we gather on a Sunday morning, you should remember what it is Jesus did on the cross. How it is that Jesus laid down His life once and forever as the final sacrifice for all the sins of all who trust in Him. And so we do have an altar. but it's not a physical piece of furniture. It is the finished work of Christ on the cross. That is where the Christian must look. That is what gives you hope in times of despair. That is what gives you confidence in the face of your own sin. Because on the cross, Jesus died to give a permanent and secure access to God for all who trust in Him. And so, we have an altar, church. That means pretty much the same as he meant back in Hebrews 4 when he said, we have a high priest. Hebrews 4.14, you remember he said, therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession of faith. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." The altar of Christ's finished sacrifice gives the Christian confident access to God at all times, but especially in times of need. We read the same thing again in Hebrews 10, verse 19 to 22. He says, Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh, through His sacrifice, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience. and our bodies washed with pure water." Christian, we have access to God. We are accepted by God and welcomed into His presence through faith alone. Not because of good things that you've done, not because you are a good person, not because of your religion, but because you've come to this altar. You've trusted Christ by faith in His finished work. Do you understand? And if you're here and you're not in Christ, do understand this. That is the only way anyone gets in. This is the only way anyone can have the forgiveness of their sins. It is through faith in Christ alone. Ephesians 2.8.9, it is by grace you are saved. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works. so that no one may boast." And so what religion could not do, Christ has done. What good works could not give you, Christ alone has given. And you must come to God in this way. You must come to Him by way of this altar, through faith alone, in what Christ has finished. There simply is no other way to God. And that's why he goes on to say here in Hebrews 13.10, that while we do have an altar that brings us access to God, there are also those who have no right to this altar. If some come in by faith, then those who are not coming by faith don't come in. Do you see that there in verse 10? Read it again. He says, we have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat." Now again, he's using the figurative language of Hebrews. Tabernacle here means that Old Testament tent with all of its rituals and sacrifices that many of them had trusted in. And when the priest would come and offer a sacrifice in that tabernacle, at least with most of the sacrifices, the priest would then eat of the meat of that sacrifice. It was a picture of their participation in the sacrifice. They were receiving the benefits of that sacrifice. They were eating its meat and fellowshipping with God. There was even a fellowship offering that the worshippers were involved in as well, in eating and fellowshipping with God. This was a picture of them having a part in those sacrifices. But those sacrifices could never take away sin. Those sacrifices were just symbolic. They were pointing forward to the need of the coming of Christ. Hebrews 10 verse 4, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. But now, you understand, Christ has come and taken away our sins. Now the final sacrifice for sin has been made. And so now it's time for us to put aside those symbolic sacrifices. They have no more meaning. They're done, Hebrews 9 says. Okay, so what's the point of all this? Here it is. Those who keep clinging to the outward sacrifices and good works of religion have no access to God. Those who cling to what they have done through good works and outward sacrifices have no salvation. Religion and good works won't bring you one step closer to God. Priests and ceremonies can't help you to God. If you cling to these things, if you insist on your good works, if you insist that you're a good person as you are, you have no access to God. If you trust in the work of the priest as he lays his hands on your head, or offers a piece of bread for you at the altar, so-called, if you're trusting in any of these things, you have no access to God, you have no forgiveness of sin. These empty rituals and rites and rules can do you no good. Or maybe the Baptist version, merely walking an aisle and saying the words of the prayer. We have an altar in Christ that does you great good. It is Christ received by faith. It's turning from everything else to trust in Him alone. So look by faith to Christ alone in His finished work. See what He has done on the cross as sufficient, as complete, as final. His finished work on the cross is salvation for those who trust in Him. And so, yes, we have an altar. His finished work on the cross is our altar. Having Him by faith, we have all that we need once and forever. Amen? Now, every genuine Christian understands this. If you don't understand this, you need to talk with somebody. But that brings us to a second thing. We must also understand then, Christian, that providing us with this access to God by faith cost Christ everything. Continuing the symbolism of the tabernacle or temple, look what he says in verse 11 and 12. He says, For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore, Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the camp. Now, he's making a comparison here. A comparison between those Old Testament sacrifices, specifically the Day of Atonement sacrifice, and the sacrifice of Jesus once for all. You see, there was a sacrifice in the Old Testament system that was not eaten by anyone. It was this sacrifice on the day of atonement, that once a year sacrifice for sin, where the high priest would come and he would do two things. First, he would take the blood of that sacrifice into the Holy of Holies and offer it there as an atonement for sin. Verse 11, we see those very words. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin. are then taken out and burned. Now still, that sacrifice didn't finally take away sin. It was still a sacrifice that could not bring a final cleansing. It was symbolic. It was pointing ultimately to Christ. But it was understood to provide a temporary cleansing of a kind. A temporary cleansing for another year until the next sacrifice. But then, the writer says, he would do a second thing. He would then send the body of the sacrificed animals outside the camp to be burned. That was the command of Leviticus 16.27. The bull of the sin offering and the goat of the sin offering, whose blood is brought in to make atonement in the holy place, shall be taken outside the camp, and they shall burn their hides and their flesh and their refuse in the fire. They were sent outside the camp, away from the tabernacle. Why? To be outside the camp in the Old Testament was to be under judgment. It was to be banished away from God's sight, banished away from fellowship with God. There were some sins and conditions you could find yourself in that would cause you to be banished outside the camp. For instance, having the disease of leprosy would cause you to be banished outside the camp according to Leviticus 13.46. Or in Leviticus 24, there was a man who blasphemed God and he was banished outside the camp and then executed under judgment by stoning. To be outside the camp was to be thrust into the place of judgment and exile. You were under the curse of God. And so the bodies of these animals that had symbolically taken the judgment and curse of God in the place of His people, these bodies were then taken outside the camp and burned. That was the practice in the Old Testament. But look what's now happened according to this writer in the New Testament with the coming of Christ. Verse 12, picking up that image of the bodies burned outside the camp, he says, Jesus, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. I don't think we really come close to understanding the pain and shame Jesus bore on Himself when He took our sins to the cross. See, it wasn't the agony of nails or the point of a spear. It was the curse of God that fell on him. Our curse for sin. Galatians 3 verse 13 says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. 2 Corinthians 5.17 says, "...God made Jesus, who had no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." And so just as those sin-bearing animals were burned outside the camp as a sign of the curse, so Jesus also, when He became our sin-bearer, suffered outside the gates. That is, He died in the place of shame and rejection for us. He bore not only our sin, but also our shame and curse and wickedness and vileness and filthiness. All of that He bore upon Himself when He went outside the camp. That's why Hebrews 12.2 says that He endured the cross, despising its shame. Oh, what it cost Jesus. to take away our sin. It cost Him everything. Oh, hear Him cry from the cross as our sin fell upon Him. Matthew 27, 46, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? And so as the God forsaken one, He bore away our sin. Jesus suffered, it says, outside the gate. Now, historically, that was literally true. John 19 verse 20 says that He was crucified outside the city limits of Jerusalem. Again, the image, away from the temple. Away from fellowship. An outcast, dying on the town garbage heap, forsaken not only by God, but by His own friends and disciples. From the perspective of the Jews, He was rejected. He was truly, as Isaiah 53, 3 and 4 predicted, despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. As one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised and we esteemed Him not. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. And yet it was this sacrifice of the despised and rejected one that actually does accomplish a real salvation for us in a way those Old Testament sacrifices never could. Notice how he says that here in Hebrews 13.12. Therefore Jesus also that He might sanctify the people through His own blood. He's actually accomplishing something. By bearing God's wrath in our place and taking upon Himself our sin and shame and curse, Christ has done what none of these Old Testament sacrifices could ever do. He has cleansed us forever from our sins. That's what sanctified means here. It means made holy before God, cleansed of every stain, counted righteous in His sight forever. Hebrews 10.10. By this, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ Jesus once for all. That's when you dance a little. That's what Jesus provides. That's what you have, Christian, as a gift of grace, when by faith you trust in Christ. So listen to me. Trust Him. Trust Him. But it cost Him everything to give that. He was cast out that you might be brought in and accepted before God. He was despised and rejected that you might be claimed and loved by God. That was the cost. And it was a terrible cost. Jesus suffered outside the gate. But do you realize that from the perspective of this world and its evil power, Jesus is still outside the gate? So what does that mean for us? What that means is, Christian, there is a cost for us too, if we would follow the despised and rejected one. In other words, you don't come to this Christ, you don't embrace Him by faith, then go on your merry way, loved by the world. If you want to belong to this Christ and enjoy the benefits of His sacrifice, then you must be willing to join Him in exile. You must be willing to bear with Him the pain and shame that are now heaped on Him by a hating world. And that brings us to this third thing, and it's a very important thing. This is where it gets very personal for each one of us. Notice, to identify with Christ, who was rejected by this world, that will cost you everything. Look at it, verse 13 and 14. He says, So, in light of all this, let us go out to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come. Friend, listen. If you're here this morning and you're considering becoming a follower of Christ, you're investigating what it means to follow Christ. There are many wonderful benefits to following Christ, but I want you to understand very clearly there is also a cost to following Christ. And it is a cost that is very high. Now, by that I don't mean that you must pay a price to get salvation. We've already seen that comes as a free gift of grace through faith alone. There is a cost to be paid for following Christ in a culture that rejects Him. Jesus said that very clearly over and over, Luke 9, 23. He says, if anyone wishes to come after Me, He must deny Himself, take up His cross daily, and follow Me." Now notice He didn't say, this is true for some of those who want to come after Me. If any want to come after Me, any, any, all who follow Me, this is what's going to happen. You must deny yourself, take up your instrument of death, the cross, and follow Me. And so, follow Him we must. That's what it means to be a disciple of Christ. It means you go with Him wherever He leads. Where He goes, you follow. And where He leads in this world will bring you into opposition by this world. I mean, that's a big part of what it means in verse 13. Let us go with Him outside the camp. Let us bear His reproach. Let us go with Him. Notice, by the way, notice there is action involved here on your part as a follower. There is movement. You have to go with Him. You can't stay where you are in this culture and go on with Christ. You can't stay in those same old sins of your past and go on with Christ. You can't stay in that same old relationship with a world that hates Him and go on with Christ. You must identify with Him knowing what it will cost you. John 15, verse 18, Jesus said, If the world hates you, know that it hated Me before it hated you. And so to follow Christ, please understand this, to follow Christ, you must go outside the camp with Him. Now what does that mean? Again, to go outside the camp means to be exiled from the place where you are into the place of rejection and shame. Only here it is the shame and rejection that are heaped on Christ by a culture that has no place for Him. In other words, and this is a hard pill for some to swallow today, to the degree that Christ is being rejected by this culture, to that same degree you and I must share in that rejection with Him. Listen, if you're a Christian, your identity is now in Christ. It's not in this world. It's not in your race, or gender, or economic status, or marital status, or political preference. That is not essentially who you are. You belong to Christ. And that means you must be all in for Christ, as Brother Brigg likes to say. You must take up your cross and follow Him. So there is no place for a half-hearted commitment to Christ. There are no half-Christians. You're either all His or you are not His at all. That's what it means when we say, Jesus Christ is Lord. Lord, that means He is Master, He is Boss, He is King. To come to Christ means that you have stepped off the throne and have yielded it to Him. You have ceased to be autonomous, self-willed, self-directing, and you have yielded to Him. Have you understood that, you who claim to follow Christ? You see, that is not something that is true just of the really committed Christians out there. That is something that is true of every Christian. You belong to King Jesus. And so if He is outside the camp of this world, listen, you must go with Him outside. Meaning what? Well, for these Hebrew Christians that this writer is addressing here in Hebrews, back in the first century, it meant, quite literally, that they had to make a clean break with the unbelieving Judaism that was their world. the temple and all of its ceremonies and legalism and man-made culture that was not centered upon the revelation of God but on the teachings of tradition. They had to turn their backs on all of these things, the whole unbelieving world they had known, in order to fully embrace Christ. In the same way, Christian, we must make a clean break from the unbelieving world of our day. We can't continue in the godless values and attitudes of this culture. We can't agree with its sexual practices and materialism. We can't be ruled by the self-centered pursuit of a life that has no place for God except perhaps on Sunday. No, no, we must leave all of that behind to go outside with Christ. The whole of our lives must now be identified with Christ. So this is a call for separation from this world and its sin in order to live purposefully for the glory of Christ. Now, three things about this call to separation as we go after Christ and we're done. Three things about this call to separation. First of all, it doesn't mean... Actually, this is free before the three. That doesn't mean that we are going to go up behind the walls of a monastery and pretend the world doesn't exist. No, we live in this world physically. We are just not of this world morally and spiritually. And so yes, we are to be good neighbors. We are to be among the people who are around us. We are to love them. We're to serve them. All of those commands of loving your neighbor, none of that stuff is weakened one iota. But what it means is this, first of all, in turning our backs on the lifestyle and values of this culture, understand that this is not something that any of us can do alone. So he's not saying, you know, hey Nevin, go out and become a monk somewhere. Go live your life as a hermit by yourself in the desert. No, no, notice he says, let us. Do you see that? Let us. It's plural. Let us. You don't face this call to separation alone. We are in this together, church. And so here's what he's saying to us as a church together. He's saying, Rockport, you must establish a culture and life together that is so centered on Christ, it will appear alien to the world around you. You must establish a culture and life together that is so centered on Christ, that in many ways it will be a rejection of the culture you live in. You must work out together what it means to be a faithful, joy-filled community that delights in Christ, and lives for Christ, and helps each other stand firm in Christ, and raise your kids in Christ, and bear witness to the world about Christ. Because it's so different. One of the huge errors of the modern age has been a church, quote-unquote, that believed it could wear camouflage and appear just like the world in order to win the world. That was the era of liberalism in the early part of the last century. That's been the era of evangelicalism since about the 1980s. And the problem with that whole approach is, if there's no difference between you and the world around you, What possible reason do they need anything that you've got? If all you've done is baptized getting wealth, they can get wealth in other ways. If all you've done is baptized a way to have a better marriage, they can get a better marriage other ways. If all you've done is baptized having something to live for, they can find something else to live for. But the church must be a redeemed community, bought and paid for and happy in Christ because our sins are forgiven and the gospel has transformed us. You can't do that alone. And so Rockport, we've got to work out together what it means to be a genuinely faithful Christian community in this changing world. You must understand that it will cost us much to live authentic Christian lives in this present hostile world. Did you notice those last few words there in verse 13? He says, bearing his reproach, his shame, his rejection. Again, and I know it's not popular, but we must understand, as Jesus said in John 15, if they hated Me, they're going to hate you. If they persecuted Me, they're going to persecute you. Now, that doesn't mean that we go out looking for persecution. We certainly don't have a persecution complex and run around complaining every time we think someone's mistreated us. You don't see that in Jesus or the early church at all. But it means Like Moses in Hebrews 11, we must be willing to be mistreated and to be hated and rejected, knowing that what we have in Christ eternally is worth losing everything here to gain. Hebrews 11.24 says, By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, refused to have all the privileges he could have had in that culture, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking for the reward. Do you consider the reproach of Christ of greater riches than the wealth of America? Here's the thing. If you identify with Christ, you will suffer in this world. Now that might not always have been evident in our recent past here. We've been living in a kind of bubble in this nation the last hundred years or so. But do you understand those days are gone. Those days are gone. And now you've got to settle it in your heart that we're going to face some stuff. Maybe a little, maybe a lot. But here's the thing, and it's the last thing. Whatever we must face in this world to be faithful to Christ, it will be worth it to be with Jesus. Look at that last verse, verse 14. For here, in this world, we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city, that heavenly city, which is to come." Here is words, we do not have a city here, meaning here in this world. Christians, listen, this world and its cultures are not your home. and they never can be. Maybe that's why you feel so out of place here sometimes. Because you're not meant to be at home here. And so the Christian cannot orient his or her life to this place and time. We cannot settle down and be at home in this culture. We can serve this culture, we can show them the love of Christ, we can live authentic lives in this culture, but we cannot be at home in this culture. Why? Because our eyes are fixed on something better, something greater, the city that is to come. The city, Hebrews 11.10 says, whose architect and builder is God. The heavenly city that God has prepared for us and is bringing down to us to enjoy forever with Christ. The new Jerusalem. The city above. That is your true home. That is your true citizenship. And so of course we're not home here. How could we be? We are a pilgrim people on a journey. Do you understand that? We are seeking a city. We're in the middle of a journey that's not done yet. We've turned our backs on the city of destruction, as Christian says in Pilgrim's Progress, and we are on our way to the celestial city where our King dwells in righteousness. That's our city. So let me just close by giving you a picture of that city and of its joys found at the very end of the Bible, Revelation 21, 2-7. You can turn there or you can just hear me read it. But this is the city that is our city. This is the home toward which we are journeying. This is where our eyes are fixed by faith in Christ. This is where we have set our hope. John writes, and I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle or dwelling place of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be among them. And He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will no longer be any death. There will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain, for the first order of things has passed away. And He who sits on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. And He said, Write these words, for they are faithful and true. Then he said to me, it is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be my Son. To all who believed in him, John 1 says, he gave the right to become. children of God. Let's pray. Father, would You allow these words to become not only thoughts in our minds, but the reality that motivates, strengthens, empowers our souls? That You would help us now, as we close, to understand, first of all, that there is no getting access to God by the works of our own hands or the practice of religious ritual, but our only hope He's turning from sin and taking hold of Christ by faith alone because of His finished work. He died in the place of sinners to take away sin. He rose on the third day to provide a perfect righteousness. And through faith in Him, our sins can be forgiven and we can be counted righteous in God's side and accepted into an eternal fellowship with Him. God, would you give faith to every hearer now to see that. and to turn and to cry out, Lord Jesus, trusting in nothing else, save me. Lord, would you help us as Christians, as non-Christians as well, to see how Christ paid everything for this. It cost Him everything because that was what was required. That He bore away our sin and was forsaken of God that we might be accepted and loved through faith in Him. And then Lord would you let us see the great treasure this salvation is. That having Christ we have everything. That having Christ we go with Him outside the gates. That we will face the rejection of this world. But we have the acceptance of God. And nothing matters more than that. Help us Lord to think and live in such a way that makes it evident to whom we belong. The praise of the glory of your grace. In Jesus we pray. Amen.