Our sermon text this morning comes from Hebrews chapter 13, verses 8 through 16. Hebrews 13, verses 8 through 16. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings. For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods which have not benefited those devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. 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. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. Amen. Let us bow and ask God to bless his word this morning. God, we thank you for the grace we have in Jesus Christ. We thank you for your word, which gives your son to us. May our hearts be strengthened by your grace. This morning we pray, amen. As we mentioned last week, we looked at two different sections, the one immediately before and including the first verses that we've just read and the one immediately following it. We noted that these form basically like a sandwich. The first portion which we read is talking about the leaders which originally preached the gospel to these Christians. The latter portion, verses 17 through 19, talks about their present leaders who minister the gospel to them now. And then we come this morning to this great middle section. We might say we've come to the cream part of the Oreo. We looked at the crunchy cookie layers on either side last week. But this week, we look at that middle section that comes between. A part of the issue that is going on in our author's writing to these people, inspired by the spirit, is that they are tempted to stray away from the teaching that was delivered to them when this church was planted or established, the teaching of the gospel that their former leaders gave. And so, this morning, our author says once more that they need to hold fast to that teaching. Between verses 7 through 9 and 17 through 19, we get once more a big dose of gospel sweetness as we look at the work of Jesus Christ. This is, we might say, a double-stuffed Oreo. Even we might think in a chapter, he's got 13 chapters in this book, and this is the one chapter that's sort of devoted to just practical matters, but he can't help but going back to this message of the gospel and what Christ has done for us. We need to always live in this same gospel message. In Christ, as we've seen throughout Hebrews, we have the fulfillment. of all God is promised. In Christ, we have what is better than the Old Testament shadows that pointed to it. And so our author turns once more in this text to look at the Day of Atonement ritual, which the Jews practiced in the Old Testament, and it pointed forward to the sacrifice of Christ. And yet, he does draw application out of this as well. He teaches us that we have no permanent home here Because our true home is in heaven. And he teaches us that since the old covenant sacrifices are ended. All that is left for us are to live lives of sacrifice to God sacrifices of praise, which we offer to our father and sacrifices of generosity, which we give to one another. because Jesus Christ is the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, because he does indeed fulfill everything that came before in the Old Testament. We have a heavenly home with God. Brothers and sisters, let us put our hope in that city, which is to come and not the city of this world. And let us also praise God and love our neighbor. The author wants us to see this morning So we look at the text, we look at it under a few headings, the first of which is the author's exhortation for them to hold fast to the unchanging gospel. The unchanging gospel. We're sort of starting off here back in verses eight and nine, which are the last bit of the top part of the cookie layer, we might say, if we can use that Oreo analogy. But looking at them this week sets up what's going on in the rest of the passage. It's somewhat odd, we might think at first, that he tells us in verse 7, remember your leaders who first preached the word to you? And then all of a sudden, he just makes this seemingly random doctrinal statement. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. How did we go from our leaders to the eternal existence of God the Son? We actually need to ask, is that what he's talking about here? What does he mean when he says that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever? Indeed, some people think he is making this doctrinal statement. He is talking about the immutable or unchanging character of God the Son, who in the fullness of time took on flesh and walked the earth, Jesus of Nazareth. And indeed, this is a true doctrine. The Son is God. God is immutable, and so God the Son is immutable. He is unchanging. But if we look in the context of this verse and the present flow of the passage as we've outlined it, we note that it's followed by verse 9, which talks about strange teachings. Again, it seems that that would be another abrupt shift to talk about. It also comes after verse 7, who talks about the leaders who preach the gospel to them. And these verses in context show us that what our author is talking about that is the same is the gospel message of Jesus Christ. Yes, Jesus Christ, according to his divine nature, is immutable. That's true. But what he's pointing to here is the fact that the same gospel that was originally preached to these Christians is the same gospel they need to hold on to. The teaching of the gospel of Christ does not change. It is the same yesterday to dance forever. The message of the perfect life, the sacrificial death, and the victorious resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ was true when you first heard it. It is true right now, and it is true until he comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead. And this is the message, he says, we cannot stray from. And yet, in this context, there's a danger. The people were actually thinking about turning away from that message to strange teachings, he says. It's not abundantly clear from this verse alone what exactly is the error that they are tempted to follow after. If we look at the context of some of the later verses, there is this idea of eating from the altar that will come up, and we'll look at that in a moment. If we look at the context of the rest of the book that speaks about the passing nature of the Old Covenant ceremonies and the fact that they are ended because Christ has come and fulfilled them. And particularly scholars and commentators are helpful because they have time to do things like look at all of the diaspora Jewish literature, and what all of those people believed, who it seems like our author is writing to. And they tell us something that's very interesting here, that I think helps us understand. In the broader historical context, the Jews of the diaspora who'd been exiled out of Jerusalem, but worshiped together in synagogues, like to eat fellowship meals together. And they thought that by doing so, they were somehow mystically connected to the temple in Jerusalem. Remember that in Jerusalem at the temple, they would offer sacrifices. But some of these sacrifices would involve taking the blood of the animal and then actually eating the animal as a feast. At least the priests, many of the sacrifices would eat the animals. And the people would have their fellowship meals, in some ways maybe a little bit like we have fellowship meals, But they had this somewhat maybe sacramental view of their fellowship meals that they thought connected them to the temple in Jerusalem. And that makes sense out of this verse itself. Some people think it's talking about the Jewish food laws about what you don't eat, but it's actually talking here about what you do eat. But it makes sense of this. It makes sense of the verses that we'll look at in a moment. It makes sense in the broader flow of this passage. It seems that they are tempted to forsake Christian fellowship and go back to, we might say, synagogue fellowship. Because that's where you get strengthened, the people might think. Because that's where you're connected to these sacrifices that we grew up with. They were good enough for David, they're good enough for me, they might be thinking. And yet our author says, don't go after these sort of strange teachings. Remember the gospel that you heard at the beginning. The comparison he makes is between these sorts of fellowship meals, which are actually not even part of the Old Testament, but they are tied to it in their thinking, and Jesus Christ, who is the fulfillment of the Old Testament sacrifices. And where are you going to put your money on that fight? We know who wins, don't we? It is Jesus Christ. Our author tells us our hearts are not strengthened to endure by these fellowship meals tied to the Old Testament temple. Allegedly, they are strengthened by the grace of God, which we have in Jesus Christ. That same message that was preached to you at the beginning by your first leaders. That is the grace that strengthens the heart. Understanding this really sets us up to understand what comes next in this passage, but I want to give a few applications of what our author says here. One of them is that we do not need to be looking for something that goes beyond the gospel. The gospel itself is the foundation of everything. Yes, there is practical application. Yes, the grace of God and Jesus Christ frees us from sin so that we may obey him. But we don't need to be looking for any other sort of central message in scripture besides the plain teaching of the gospel itself. It was given to the early church. It was inspired by the Holy Spirit. It was preached to them. And it is good enough. Our justification, our sanctification, our future glorification in Christ, who is justified for us, sanctified for us, and glorified for us, is good enough. And if you find a supposedly Christian teacher that emphasizes something other than that, maybe they say, oh, yeah, that's true, but this is what we really need to focus on. Do we have there another instance of some strange teaching that would lead us away We also see this, that there is no new message from God that we are to look for, because our author says the gospel message is the same yesterday, today, and forever. It's because the main problem that we have is the same, isn't it? They were sinners back then, we're sinners today, and our great, great, great grandchildren of Jesus Terry's will be sinners. And what is the antidote to that disease? It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so if you ever hear teachers saying things that say we need something new, run away from those teachers and those messages. They might say many strange things. They might say things like, well, Jesus was this whole new concept, had this whole new concept of religion, and he replaced the religion of the Old Testament. Now it's time to make the next step past Jesus into something new. Just like Jesus was the first evolution from the Old Testament, now we need a new one. Do any of you guys remember the emergent church movement? Some of them said stuff kind of like that. Our author would say hogwash. Remember the very first verses of this letter. Long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son. And note the tense there, he has spoken. The gospel message is finished. It doesn't need to be replaced. We don't need a new evolution into a new understanding of religion that goes beyond what Jesus said, beyond what his apostles have taught us. You might see all sorts of weird numerology out there. Have any of you guys ever run into that? We cracked the code. If you take the fifth letter of every 16th word in this book, it spells out the next president of the United States in 2024, and they're the Antichrist. And the problem is, what did all the people back in the first century, or the fifth century, or the 16th century, did they just completely miss the message? That's not what it's about. That's something weird and new. We need the same message they needed. The same applies to new people claiming to be prophets, to have new words from God. As we saw in the beginning of this letter, there are not new prophets giving new words because God hasn't done something new like he did in Jesus Christ. What we need is the same gospel message. We need to stay away from anybody who starts telling us any of these things that some ways seem to be Christian or focused on the Bible that are really diverse teachings that would draw us astray. So our author tells us we need the same gospel. The gospel of Jesus is the same. What is that gospel? We might ask. We see our unchanging gospel. And the unchanging gospel is that Jesus Christ has offered the ultimate atonement. Jesus Christ has offered the ultimate atonement. Our author here builds on this idea. The false teaching is that the heart is strengthened by foods. And he says, no, it is strengthened by grace. You think it's strengthened by foods, and so our author kind of maybe is thinking about the question, who actually gets to eat to strengthen their heart? To make a comparison between the shadows of the gospel in the Old Testament ceremonies and its fullness in Jesus Christ, he then says, we have an altar from which those who serve the tent, that is the Old Testament tabernacle, have no right to eat. He says, we have a true altar and they have no right to eat. Do you think the heart is strengthened by food? Well, he says, we Christians, trusting in what Christ has accomplished, have an altar to eat from and strengthen our hearts. Not with physical food, but by faith in Christ. And yet he recalls to them that those who serve the tabernacle had no right to eat. Those ceremonies don't strengthen the heart. He alludes once again, as he has time and time again, to the Day of Atonement, that annual reminder and sacrifice for the sins of the people. 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. He's told us Christ has the superior blood that is offered in the heavenly holy place of which the earthly is just a copy. He is the ultimate high priest who needs to offer no bull for his own sins first, as the high priest did on the day of atonement, because he has no sin. If you want to look this up, you can go to Leviticus 16, which talks about the day of atonement. But once they use the blood to sprinkle on the mercy seat and attentive meeting in the altar, They didn't eat the sacrifice in a sacrificial meal. They took it outside the camp and burned it. And he says, you think that your heart is strengthened by eating one of these sacrificial meals? He says in the old covenant on the day of atonement, they didn't even get to eat the animal. So how was that working out for you? If they insist on continuing in these fellowship meals tied to the old covenant ceremonies, now that the new covenant fullness has come, he says, you don't actually get to eat. Despite what they might say, they are of no benefit. He says they do not benefit those who partake in them because the blood of bulls and goats, as he has said, cannot take away sin. See, the Old Covenant and the New Covenant agree about this, that we are all born sinners, separated from God, and we must be cleansed to enter His presence. In the Old Testament, sacrifices were just placeholders until the true sacrifice came, Jesus Christ. It is His blood that cleanses us from our sin, from everything we think, say, or do that goes against the perfect law of God. But when the reality is here, it does you no good to keep grabbing on to the placeholder. It was only there until the truth came. It is trusting in Jesus Christ that feeds and nourishes our souls to eternal life. And our author says, in him, we have an altar. Not a physical altar, but what do you do on an altar? You sacrifice. And so in Christ we have a true and perfect sacrifice. We have peace with God. We have access into his presence. We have sustenance to keep our faith alive during our earthly pilgrimage. Corresponding to this Old Testament shadow in the day of atonement is the New Testament reality. He reminds us that Christ suffered outside the gates. He carried his cross there to sanctify us by his blood so that we might appear in the presence of God, cleansed from our sin and defilement. That is indeed what Jesus Christ has done for us. How are we to live in light of this truth? We hold fast to the unchanging gospel, and that gospel tells us that Jesus Christ has offered the ultimate atonement. Our author offers us here some words concerning application. We must have, like Christ, an unashamed application of this truth. He turns with the word, therefore. That's a signal word if you're reading your Bible. It says, now I'm going to apply this truth. that I have just said. And it comes in two sections. In the first, he talks about a relationship to the world. In the second, our relationship to God and our neighbor. Our application of this truth is that we are to be unashamed in the world because Jesus Christ despised the shame. Jesus Christ suffered outside. And our author has already used that beautifully ironic phrase. He despised the shame. Because indeed, as we sing, he bore shame in scoffing rude. He was rejected by men. That's why he went outside the gates to be publicly ridiculed and crucified as a criminal. He suffered outside. He was rejected by all of the established leaders of Judaism. He was rejected as a false teacher, rejected as a political insurrectionist, an enemy of Caesar, or whatever false charges they brought against him, rejected as one who blasphemed God, and he was God himself. And yet Christ became like us, yet without sin, so that we would become like him. He took on our sins and our shame, and he carried them all the way to Calvary's cross. But he did that so that we could be conformed to his image, and so that we could walk in his footsteps. He is the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of God. And he himself told us in Matthew 16, if anyone would come after me, he must take up his cross and follow me. We are to go with Christ outside the gate. We are to bear the shame of holding fast to Jesus Christ. To the first hearers of this sermon, and probably in ancient Rome, that meant being willing to give up what they knew and were comfortable with in their social ties and support structure in Judaism. Because Jesus was rejected by the Jewish establishment. His followers actually had to leave Judaism. And remember that those in this day who were still holding to it were holding only to the externals of Old Testament religion, because they rejected Christ, to whom that entire religion pointed. Paul did just this. If we look in Philippians 3, after he lists all of his Jewish accolades, he was a big shot in Judaism. He had the credentials. And then what does he say? I count everything as loss. because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. In relation to the world, following Christ means bearing shame with him. For us, it might mean being the weirdo, whether it's school, at work, in your club, whatever the case may be. because you follow Christ, and you won't do the things that the people of this world do. The world may mock you for your beliefs. They may tell you your religion is old and outdated, and we know better now. You really hold to those foolish old myths? Some who were even Christians in name only might mock us, just like those who were Jews in name only, and yet rejected the substance of Judaism when it was incarnate before them. No matter what it looks like, we are called, brothers and sisters, to follow Jesus Christ. We are called to leave behind all marks of our identity and our status and our privilege that would require us to compromise our faith, to count them as rubbish, because we have something better in Christ Jesus. We have something better. We bear shame and we look to a better city. We look to a better city. This is still part of our relationship to the world. We bear the shame of this world. We don't seek to build up our city in this world because we know that it won't last. Here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that's to come. We bear the shame here because we have something better. Christ, by his sacrifice, has made everyone who trusts in his work citizens of this city, which is to come. That's why we are strangers and aliens here. That's why our author keeps going back to the Old Testament, but he goes to the people wandering in the desert who haven't arrived yet, because that's what we are as Christians. We don't have a settled city. but one is on the way, that heavenly Jerusalem is coming. Why would we build up our earthly respect and accolades and honor in the eyes of the world when all of that is going away? Jesus Christ put it this way, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break it and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys. and where thieves do not break in and steal. This is what everybody did in Hebrews 11 that he's talked about. They look to the city that was to come. We don't need the things this world offers because we know that we have something better. That is what it looks like to apply this message of the ultimate sacrifice made outside the city in our relationship to the world. But our author also talks about our relationship to God and our neighbor. And he tells us to offer true sacrifices. He tells us to offer true sacrifices. And those are basically to obey the first and second great commandments. Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. First, we love God. We praise God, he says, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. That's what Psalm 50 was talking about. God says, I don't need bulls. I want you to praise my name. I want you to praise my name because it is God's grace that strengthens us. It is Christ who is the ultimate sacrifice for us. It is because God is the one who brings us a lasting city, that we don't take glory for ourselves and what we have built and what we have done, but we offer praise to him. This is why we gather every week to lift up his name, because he is the one who has saved us from our sins. He is the one who's delivered us from an eternity in hell. He has done it all. Because that work is done, there are no more literal sacrifices. We don't, you know, have to spread out a tarp and kill something and get blood everywhere and then clean it up every week. What is left is a sacrifice of praise. But it is not just a sacrifice that is true and spiritual that praises God's name. It is also a sacrifice that benefits our neighbor. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have. It seems our author, by saying do good, is not talking about what's morally right, but to benefit other people. To give sacrificially, because that is a sacrifice to God. We give to God by giving to his people. Like an Old Testament sacrifice, it means giving something up. You can have one less goat in your herd if you give to the people who are in need, if you give to Christ's church. but it is given for the good of our brothers who are also united to Christ. And God sees that and he appreciates it. And he says that is a well-pleasing aroma that drifts up to heaven. It brings glory to our God and to theirs because our generosity celebrates the unity we have in Christ. Conclusion, brothers and sisters, remember that Christ has suffered. The ultimate day of atonement has come. that we are reconciled to God and we are made citizens of his heavenly city. So let us bear the shame of this world and care not what they think. We're not citizens of their city, but of the city that is to come. Let us praise our God for the grace which he is so richly poured out on us in Jesus Christ. Let us be generous with our neighbors. The things of this world will not last. It's coming to an end. So let us use them for God's glory while we still have that chance. Let's bow in prayer.