Exhortations - Part 3 | Hebrews 13:7-16 | August 9, 2026
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[00:00:00] If you would, turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 13 We're gonna start reading in verse seven, and we'll read through to, uh, verse 14. For those of you that are visiting, uh, we've been doing a series in the Book of Hebrews, and we've come to the last chapter, and we're probably spending more time in the last chapter than any of the other chapters it seems.
But, uh, there's some really good stuff in this chapter. So, uh, I would ask that you hear this for what it is, the living words of God, God's love letter to His church, exactly what He wanted us to hear and know. So again, chapter 13 beginning in verse seven
Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same [00:01:00] yesterday and today and forevermore. 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 are so occupied are 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. May God add a blessing to the reading, the hearing, and most importantly, to the obedience [00:02:00] of His Word. And I'm gonna pray one more time, so if you would join me once more in prayer
Father, speak to us today. Help me get this right. Father, what the author of Hebrews speaks about in this passage is important, and it's actually easy to miss. So Spirit of God, be kind to us. Be kind to our frailties. Be kind to our inattentiveness And speak to us. Jesus, thank you for going to the cross for us.
Thank you that you sent your Spirit to dwell within us, and thank you that you have renewed us and we are able to grasp. So we thank you for these things. Be with us this day as we know you're here, for we ask all this in Christ's name. And all of God's people said? Amen. Amen. If you look in your bulletins, there's a couple of handouts.
Uh, the one that I'm referring to is on one side there's a fill-in-the-night, uh, [00:03:00] fill-in-the-blank message notes, and then on the backside you'll see the, uh, outline for the Book of Hebrews, as well as some other charts and verses and things like that. So I just wanna point out that in your bulletin, there is an outline for chapter 13.
I've tried to highlight, uh, what we'll talk about, uh, but chances are very strong we're not gonna get to the last point of my outline. We're not gonna get to verses 15 and 16. But I do wanna begin with a question, but let me reread verse 13. "So let us go out to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach," bearing His insult, bearing His shame.
And so my question that I want to begin the service with is this, and I want it ringing in your ears as we proceed, and that is simple: What would you do? What are you willing to do to bear the reproach of Christ, to bear the disgrace of Christ, the insult [00:04:00] of Christ? Because that's how the world sees Him.
He's an embarrassment. That's how the first-century Jews saw Him. He was an embarrassment. No Messiah should have been crucified What would you do to bear the reproach of Jesus Christ? Betty Scott was born in 1906. She was the daughter of Presbyterian minis-minis-missionaries in China. She was raised partly in China.
John Stam was born in 1907, a year later. He was born to a Dutch Reformed family. He had a strong father. His father led the family in faith. His father was a lay minister, and both John and Betty embraced the faith. They met at Moody Bible Institute, and they were both interested in being missionaries to China.
But as she began her studies at Moody, uh, Betty would journal, and she wrote this poem, and I just want you to hear the words of the poem. [00:05:00] "Lord, I give up all my plans and purposes, all my own desires and hopes, and accept thy will for my life. I give myself, my life, my all utterly to thee, to be thine forever.
Fill me. Seal me with thy Holy Spirit. Use me as thou wilt. Send me where thou wilt and work out thy whole will in my life at any cost now and forevermore." As I said, John and Betty met at Moody and they fell in love, and they wanted to be married, but they both believed that God was calling them to China, and they didn't know if they would be called to the same location, so they chose not to be married.
They were in love, but they chose Christ over earthly love. Betty sailed for China in 1931. John followed a year later, and by the providence and grace of God, they ended up [00:06:00] in the same place. They rekindled their romance. They were married, and a year later in, in September of 1934, their daughter, Helen Priscilla, was born Shortly after, the communists seized the city where they were working.
On December 6th, 1934, communist forces unexpectedly took over the city, and they didn't have a chance to get away. They didn't have a chance to hide. And the communists demanded a ransom of $20,000, and they knew that they weren't gonna get that ransom. And they forced John to write a letter home to the missions organization They were bound.
They were stripped down to their underclothes. John was tied to a bedpost overnight while Betty was permitted to tend to the baby. The next morning, December 8th, 1934, they were paraded through the streets while townspeople were rallied to watch. The communist soldiers mocked them and [00:07:00] described them as foreign devils.
And John, along the way, along the march, he, he ran into somebody that he knew, and the, the person that he knew asked him, "Where are you going?" And I want you to hear his response. He says, "I don't know where the soldiers are going, but Betty and I are going to heaven."
Along the march, a local Chinese man came out and tried to stop the communists, tried to, "Why are you doing this? Stop." Well, lo and behold, he was a Christian as well, and they arrested him, and they searched his house, and they found hymnals and a Bible, and so he was added to the group. They took him to a hill outside of town.
John was ordered to kneel, and he was beheaded In front of his wife, and his wife and the other man soon followed. John was 27. Betty was 28. The story's not over, and we'll return to the [00:08:00] story, but again, I ask you, what would you do to bear the reproach of Christ? Were John and Betty failures? Was Jim Elliot a failure?
He died on day one of his, his mission. John and Betty died less than two years into their mission. What would you do to bear the reproach of Christ? Number one on your outline, is Jesus the real food of life? Jesus, the real food of life, and I hope that sounds clunky to you because even when I read it, it sounds clunky, and I wanted it to sound clunky because I would imagine most of us would think bread would fit the blank better.
Jesus, the real bread of life. But that's not what the author of Hebrews speaks of. He speaks of sacrificial food, and yes, I think there is application to the Lord's table, and we will look at that application, but mostly for clarification. [00:09:00] But what the author is speaking of is food, and what I want you to know and what the readers of this epistle, the original readers would have understood, is that often the old covenant sacrifices would feed the worshiper, and we'll get into the detail a little bit later.
But there was a variety of sacrifices where the priest could eat. There was a variety of sacrifices where the priest and the worshiper could eat, and then there were a few that no one was allowed to eat from, and that's what our author is gonna pick up on. So look at verse nine, and it's interesting because let me read verses seven and eight one more time because he mentions some things and I think it triggers his mind, and so he goes to the topic of verse nine.
But in, uh, chapter 13 verse seven he says, "Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith." And kids, in your handout, my first question for you, and mom and dad, this question applies every bit as much to you, is who in [00:10:00] your life would you be willing to imitate?
Who has God placed into your life? A godly Christian man, a gro- godly Christian, uh, woman, maybe a parent, maybe a brother, maybe a sister, but who would you imitate?
And kids, there's a, a fill in the blank for you to write. Who would you imitate when it comes to being a Christian, when it comes to living the Christian life? Remember those who led you, who spoke the Word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, taking their life into consideration, imitate their faith.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forevermore. And I think that when the author mentions the Word of God, and then when he mentions the Word of God incarnate, his mind goes to falsehood. His, his mind goes to one last ploy if you try to put this book together. As I've said from the very beginning, this is a Christian community, but it's made up of Old Testament believers.
It's made up of Hebrew [00:11:00] believers, and they were being tempted to go back to the old covenant. They were being tempted to turn their backs on Jesus Christ. And I would venture to guess that one of the temptations was you no longer get to eat from the altar. You no longer get to benefit from the food that comes from the altar.
And so the writer of Hebrews is gonna pick up on that, and he's gonna address it. So look at verse nine. "Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings." And clearly the words that are being used here, it is speaking of falsehood. Do not be carried away by false teaching. This word for varied, it just means different kinds, and there's nothing wrong with the word.
In fact, and this is interesting, the author of Hebrews has already used this word in chapter 2 verse 4, speaking of their leaders, speaking of the various miracles performed by their leaders. But when this word various is combined with strange, foreign teaching, what the [00:12:00] author of Hebrews is dealing with is false teaching.
And I submit to you, I dare submit to you That he's treating the old covenant sacrificial system as varied and strange teachings. Because with the coming of Christ Jesus, that was to be done away with. With the coming of the reality, the shadow and the types were to be set aside, and yet these believers were being tempted by the shadows, by the types.
"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 are so occupied do not benefit." And I think there's some, some things that we, we need to understand, and that's the word grace. Because, uh, most evangelicals, we, we tend to be very narrow in our understanding of grace, and we tend to think of grace as the preaching of the gospel.
We tend to rightly define grace. [00:13:00] The problem is this isn't the only way to define grace. But we rightly define grace as a free gift, the free gift of God, and that free gift is Jesus Christ, and that free gift is the cross, and that free gift is forgiveness, but that's a very narrow view of grace. You see, grace is that which benefits you.
Grace is that which is good for you. And it is good that God extends his grace and your heart is strengthened by it. Your heart is confirmed, it is established, it's made resolute. You become strong, and you're willing to walk with Christ Jesus because of the grace that he pours out. But there are many things, many ways in which we find grace.
When you come to church, you receive grace. Grace is poured out to you. You are benefited by the church service. You... We try to illustrate in what we do that God serves you, that God has forgiven you. We remind you of the cross. We remind you of the table, the need to confess our sins, and [00:14:00] you are benefited.
You receive grace simply by being here this morning. You receive grace when you read the scriptures, when you study the scriptures and God speaks to you. You receive grace when you experience the sacraments. When we come to the table later, you will receive grace The preaching of God's Word is another way that God extends His grace to you.
And the author of Hebrews is making a very simple comparison. Grace is good. Good theology is good to strengthen the heart, not food. And we're gonna find out, he's gonna make it very clear. Look at verse 10, "We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat." So what is he talking about?
When he mentions food, what is he talking about? And it seems to me, when you put the entire passage together, he's talking about the old covenant food. As I said, we'll look at it in more detail momentarily, but you had certain sacrifices that you could eat [00:15:00] from the sacrifice. But you see, all old covenant sacrifices, now that Christ has come, they are blasphemous To rebuild a temple, to re-offer sacrifices would be blasphemous.
That is one of the many things that the writer of Hebrews is trying to get across. And for these Christians to leave Christ and to go back to the old covenant system would be blasphemous, and that food is not going to benefit you. But here's the fascinating thing, and here's where the, our author turns.
There was one very specific sacrifice that even the old covenant priests couldn't eat from, and that was the sin offering on the Day of Atonement. Because typically, the priests could eat from the sin offering, but on the Day of Atonement, that, that offering would be offered and the blood of that offering would be taken into the Holy of Holies.
And in Leviticus chapter 6 and Leviticus chapter 16, [00:16:00] God specifically instructs, "If the blood is brought into the Holy of Holies, you can't eat it." And our author is gonna make a comparison here. And the other thing, just by way of passing, because he talks about food and I, I think it's good because it should be fresh in your mind, but remember, we just read quite a bit about Esau.
And Esau traded his birthright, he traded his blessing for what? Food. And so I think the author is bringing a few things together. And again, in verse 10 we read, "We have an altar from which those who serve," and the, the grammar of the text is those who are currently serving, the temple was still in existence.
"We have an altar from which those who serve in the tabernacle have no right to eat." And it's a very important question. What is this altar? It's a very important question because historically there has been a lot of debate on this passage. Historically, I believe that this passage has been wrongly applied.
In the Catholic Church, in the [00:17:00] Orthodox Church, there is an altar as part as their, uh, as part of their worship service. I'm not as familiar with Orthodoxy as I am with Catholicism, but that altar is an intricate part of their worship service. Is that what's being talked about here? Should we have an altar up here and not just a pulpit?
And so it's been controversial down to the present age. And so I just want to share a few things with you. Number one, interestingly, the book of Hebrews mentions no heavenly altar, and the altar that I'm referring to... Because if you remember the tabernacle, if you remember the temple, there were two altars.
There was the altar of sacrifice, and then there was the golden altar of incense, and the writer of Hebrews mentions the golden altar, but he mentions no heavenly altar of sacrifice. Now, I want to be careful here, and I want to challenge you to do some extra reading, but some would say that the book of Revelation mentions a heavenly altar of sacrifice, [00:18:00] and if you want to talk about it after the service, I would gladly talk about it.
But I would submit to you that what the book of Revelation is speaking about is the golden altar of incense. In almost every instance, I think it's easy to demonstrate that. So the author of Hebrews mentions no heavenly altar. Nowhere in the New Testament is the church commanded to use an altar. Nowhere.
So what is this altar from which we eat? And if the animals in the Old Testament were sacrificed on the altar of burnt offering and they were eaten, where was Jesus sacrificed? You see, our altar is the cross. The altar from which we eat is the cross of Jesus Christ. And what's really interesting is the preeminent theologian of Catholicism, Thomas Aquinas, that's his view in his commentary.
He wrote a commentary on the book of Hebrews, and he understands it the same way. The altar that we eat from is the [00:19:00] cross of Christ. And the last thing I want to say about the altar, and then we're going to do a little excursus, but the last thing that I want to say about the altar or about this passage, and this is where I think it's wrongly applied, although I think you can get some application from it.
I think we can look for clarity. But I don't believe that the author of Hebrews is speaking of the Lord's Table here, but he is talking about eating sacrifices, and eating at the Lord's Table, I mean, I can understand why some people would, would bring those two things together. But contextually, I just don't see the author doing it here.
But again, I think we should take a minute, step back for some clarification. So turning your Bibles to John chapter six. Turning your Bibles to John chapter six, we're going to look at verses 38 through, uh, 58, and we've already read it. We read it at the beginning of, beginning of the service, and let me just kind of outline the passage for you so it makes sense.
In, uh, verse 35, Jesus [00:20:00] makes a very bold claim, "I am the bread of life, and you must believe." Very important. "I am the bread of life, and you must believe." And then in verse 36, He makes it very clear, "But you don't believe." The audience that He was speaking with, they weren't believing And then in verses 37 to 59, He offers explanation.
"This is why you don't believe." And in the midst of that explanation, we find out that in order to believe, the Father must do at least two things. Because you see, the Father alone is Savior. Over and over and over in the Book of Isaiah, "I am Savior, there is no other. I am Lord, there is no other. I am your God, there is no other."
God alone is Savior, and He doesn't share that with anyone. And God alone is sovereign over salvation. So we learn in verses 37 to 43 that the Father must give [00:21:00] people to the Son, and if the Father does not give you to the Son, you won't believe. We read in verses 44 to 47 that the Father must draw you. He must draw you to Himself, give you to the Son, and this drawing and this giving result in faith.
This drawing and this giving result in faith. And then in verses 48 to 58, Jesus starts to use the language of sacrifice. So look just up close for a minute. Look at verse 53. "Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourself.
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood...' has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. And it's interesting because John uses two different words for eat. One's a little more intense than the other one. Uh, scholars will [00:22:00] debate that, but the point is he's making it very clear, "You need to consume my flesh.
You need to drink my blood." And clearly, the Jews didn't understand it. And again, I invite you, go home, read the entire section today. Clearly, the Jews didn't understand it, but they didn't understand it because they were blinding themselves. They didn't understand it because their understanding was darkened.
You see, Jesus is using the simple language of sacrifice, and in the old covenant, you ate from the altar, and Jesus is presenting himself as the new sacrifice. He's already been presented as the Lamb of God in the Gospel of John, and just like the Old Testament sacrifices, you must eat of this sacrifice.
But again, we need to avoid proof texting, and we need to look at the entire context, so take a step back, and I did this on purpose. Take a step back to verse 35. You see, Jesus sets the stage right up front. He explains [00:23:00] exactly what it means to eat his flesh and drink his blood, and in verse 35, we read, "Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life.'"
And I, I think Jesus would've said it something like this, and I'll explain why momentarily. Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger." And remember Hebrew paralism- parallelism, because he enters into it, "And he who believes in me will never thirst." You see, to consume the body and blood of Christ is done by faith, is done by believing.
He says the same thing in verse 40, "You must behold the Son and believe in order to have eternal life." In verses 47 and 48, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life." And we consume his flesh, we drink his blood by faith, by believing, and that is the entire [00:24:00] story of the Gospel of John.
You don't, you don't need to turn there, just listen to the text. In John 1:12, and you'll all probably be very familiar with this text, "But as many as received him," received Jesus, "he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name." To receive Jesus is to believe in him. It is to put your faith in him.
Chapter 3 verse 36, "He who believes," and here's the interesting thing. John is using the same word, and he's using the same form of the word. The one who continuously believes. Those who believe in me continuously He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son, there's the parallelism, obedience brings about...
I'm sorry, faith brings about obedience. You are saved by faith alone, but faith never comes alone. True saving faith produces a changed person, [00:25:00] a person who will obey. He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. And at the very end of the Gospel in John 20:31, "But these have been written," the words of this Gospel have been written, "so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and the ones believing...
and that believing you may have life in His name." But again, same construction, a continuous belief, an ongoing belief. Saving faith may waver, saving faith may have its ups and downs, but saving faith never ends. That's why it's saving faith. To consume the body and the blood of Jesus Christ is to believe in Jesus Christ.
It is to put your faith in Jesus Christ. The next thing that I want to talk about before we get back to the book of Hebrews is the [00:26:00] very I Am passages. And in your bulletin, uh, on the side with the outline, there's a section simply titled I Am, and I've given you the general passages, and then I've given you some specific passages.
And again, I think this is important, and you might think, "Why are you going here?" I'm going here because historically, here's the debate. Historically, people have used this passage in Hebrews to argue for a certain form of the Lord's table, and I think it's missing the point of what Jesus says. So we have these I Am passages, and I'm just gonna read one to you because I want you to see, and again, hear it for how I think Jesus would have said it.
In John 8:58, Jesus said to them, to the Jewish crowd that He was speaking to, Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I Am." And, and the Greek phrase there, and you don't need to memorize this, but the Greek phrase there is ego eimi. Before Abraham, ego eimi, I Am. And what Jesus is doing here is [00:27:00] He's claiming to be Yahweh.
You know, there are unbelievers that will constantly pick at Christians and say, "You know, Jesus doesn't claim to be God." He claims to be God right here. Before Abraham was, in the literal text, I Am
And he says it a handful of times. And don't make the mistake, because a lot of people think that he's referring to the burning bush incident. A lot of people think he's referring to Exodus chapter 3. But I submit to you that he's actually referring to the Book of Isaiah. He's referring to Isaiah chapters 40 to 56, and specifically, he's using the great-- the, the Greek translation, because over and over and over again in Isaiah, Yahweh says, "I Am.
I Am. I Am." And Jesus is claiming that title, "I Am. I am Yahweh." And then there's seven instances, one... And it, it starts like this. Jesus says, "I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. [00:28:00] I am the door that you must enter through. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth, and the life.
I am the true vine." And I just wanna point out what I think is really simple. Why is it that we only take one of these "I am" passages and think that somehow Jesus must become the thing that he says, "I am"? Because the only controversy, the only debate in the church is communion. Does Jesus somehow become the actual bread?
And if we're going to believe that, why don't we believe he's an actual door? Why don't we believe he's an actual vine? Why don't we believe he's an actual shepherd? The incarnate Jesus never shepherded sheep, actual sheep. He shepherded men. Again, I submit to you that the language that Jesus is using is the language of sacrifice.
It's the language of identity, and John has made it very clear, [00:29:00] "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me." I will make further application when we go to the table today. But if you come to the table today, it must be in faith. If it is not in faith, if you're not in covenant with God, we warn you, don't come to this table.
If you're not being discipled, if you're not learning, if you're not growing in your faith... It can be childlike faith. In fact, we want the children to come. We want the childlike faith to come to the table, but you must come in faith. Look at verse 11, and here's where the, the author of Hebrews is trying to make his point, because he's already referred to the Day of Atonement, and he's already talked about how Jesus fulfills the Day of Atonement and how the, the Old Testament priests had to do it over and over and over and over again.
But now with Jesus, once for all, he's died, and he's brought everything that took place on the Day of Atonement, and he's brought it together, and he's made sense of it [00:30:00] So in verse 11 he says this, "For the body of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place," the Holy of Holies. That's the phrase that the author of Hebrews uses.
He simply refers to it as the, the holy of place, but it's the inner sanctuary. It's that second room, the Holy of Holies. "For the body of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest," and the high priest was the only one that did it, and he only did it once a year, so it's very easy to identify what he's talking about.
He's talking about that great day of atonement
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, and the priest does not eat of those sacrifices. And I think that Jesus is bringing together several things here
Jesus fulfills that great day of atonement. If you go back and you read Leviticus chapter 16, it's [00:31:00] fascinating because there's no less than four, maybe five sacrifices that take place on that day, and Jesus fulfills them all. And there's a sacrifice that is offered. It's a sin offering for the sin of the people.
And it's interesting because the Hebrew text is very clear. Bring me a sin offering, singular, a sin offering. But this particular sin offering consists of two male goats, and one male goat is for the Lord. One male goat is to be dedicated to Yahweh, and that is the goat that is to go to the altar of sacrifice, and that is the goat that is to be slain, and that is the goat that is to be burned For Yahweh.
But there's a second goat, and the second goat is referred to as a scapegoat. And it's fascinating because what the priest does with the second goat is he takes him to the gate, he takes him to the doorway of the tabernacle, and he lays his hands on this goat, and he confesses all the sins of the people upon the head of this goat.[00:32:00]
And then another person takes this goat, and he takes him out to the wilderness, and he releases the goat. And it's a picture of the sins of the people being taken away, the sins of the people being removed from the camp and taken away. But you see, in the death of Jesus Christ, He fulfills both. He is the one who dies on the altar of sacrifice, the cross.
But He's also the one that takes our sins, all of them. For those whom Jesus died, He takes all those sins, and He takes them away, and He takes them far outside the camp. As far as the east is from the re- the west, our sins are removed from us You see, there were five sacrifices in the Old Testament, the grain offering, the sin offering, the guilt offering, the wave offering, and the heave offering that the priest could eat a portion of.
The, the, the pr- the worshiper would bring the sacrifice, it would be sacrificed on the altar, but the, the priest was allowed to keep a portion. There were two other sacrifices, the peace offering and the firstborn [00:33:00] offering, that both priest and worshiper could eat from the altar. And then there was the great Passover where everyone could eat that which was sacrificed, but no one was allowed to eat on the Day of Atonement.
And yet what the author of Hebrews is trying to say, Jesus exceeds what took place on the Day of Atonement. Jesus fulfills all the sacrifices of that day, and guess what? You can eat from this altar by faith You can receive grace from this author, from this altar by faith
Look at verse 12
Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Now, this again is fascinating because on the Day of [00:34:00] Atonement, things were sacrificed on the altar, but they were taken outside the camp to be burned. And if you remember your Old Testament and you remember the differences in your covenants, in the Old Testament time, in the city, in Jerusalem or in the sanctuary, uh, the tabernacle, that was considered clean.
And anything that went outside, that was unclean. And that's why that, that sinner offering was to be burnt outside the camp, because it was considered unclean. Well, where does Jesus die? Outside the camp. That's the reproach. Nobody expected a crucified Messiah. And to die outside the city, nobody expected that to be the kind of sacrifice that God would offer.
But understand, Jesus makes the unclean holy. That's why Jesus could touch lepers and they'd be cleansed. That's why, uh, if a ordinary person would touch a leper, he became unclean. Jesus never became unclean because He is the Holy One. And so He takes what the, [00:35:00] the, the goat that is dedicated to God and the goat that is dedicated to being the scapegoat, and He brings them together, and He dies on the cross, and He makes what is unholy, holy And then look at verse 13, "So let us go to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach."
Then I dare say that what Jesus is saying, what the author of Hebrews is saying, is you need to leave Jerusalem metaphorically. You need to leave the old covenant because just as Jesus made that which was outside the camp holy, now the camp is unclean, and the Bible speaks of it. And I know we don't all agree on how best to interpret the Book of Revelation, but if you've been coming to the Tuesday night studies, I've tried to make a strong argument for the view that I hold.
And just to be clear, I think the majority of the book took place in the destruction of Jerusalem in the first century. And I want you to hear how the author of Revelation describes the city. [00:36:00] Sodom, Egypt, Babylon, a harlot. The city is described as unclean because the city rejected her Messiah, and they continued to do temple worship, which was blasphemous after the true Messiah came, after the true sacrifice was given.
That's why we don't circumcise anymore. That's why we baptize, because we don't do anything bloody anymore, because the true and the eternal blood has been shed
And Jesus sanctifies us. And I've given you a chart before, I think I'll include it in, uh, tomorrow's email, but there are several different ways that, uh, the author of Hebrews and the other authors of Bible use this word sanctify. But the way he's using it here is when we come to faith, when we enter the covenant, we are set apart, we are made holy, we are made special unto God.
And so Jesus's death is that [00:37:00] which sanctifies us. And he's telling these early Christians, "Leave the old covenant. Walk away. Don't go back." And I would exhort you with the same thing. Th- this is not the only church in town. This is not the only good church in Idaho. But whatever church you choose to go to, make sure they're Bible-based.
Make sure they're, they're doing their best to honor God. Because sadly, even in some evangelical churches, you will get a Jesus plus system. You will hear, "You need to believe in Jesus, but you also need to do this
"So let us go," verse thirteen, "So let us go out to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach." Leave the old covenant system. Don't go back to the old covenant system Moses kind of did the same thing. Listen to, uh, what the author of Hebrews says in chapter 11 beginning in verse 24, [00:38:00] "By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to endure ill treatment."
And the original says something like this, "Choosing rather to go into suffering." Moses chose suffering with the people of God rather than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. Verse 26 of chapter 11, "Considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward."
He was looking to an eternal reward, so he sought rather to bear the reproach of Christ. I think of the book of Philippians and I think of Paul's rather strong, almost offensive description of anything in life compared to Jesus. And Paul writes in Philippians chapter 3 beginning in verse 8, "More than [00:39:00] that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and I count them, I count all things but rubbish so that I might gain Christ."
And please understand this Greek word for rubbish is a very strong, a very offensive term and it literally means feces, dung And what Paul is saying, and, and we have to keep the Bible in balance, Paul is not saying, "Don't value what you own." Paul is not saying, "Don't take care of what you own. Don't thank God for the things that He has given you.
Don't stop taking care of your home." What Paul is saying, in comparison to Christ, when I compare what I own to Christ, it is but dung. It is garbage, and it belongs [00:40:00] in a burning heap. Do you view Christ that way? Is that how you view Christ in comparison to what you have? Because again, in verse 13, the author says it again, "So let us go out to Him, outside the camp, bearing," I'm rereading it, "bearing His reproach."
And then in verse 14, that's what I wanted to get to, "For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come." And we talked about that city, and I wish I had time to review that city. I just wanna say a few more things about the reproach of Christ, the insult of Jesus Christ, the embarrassment of Jesus Christ, the reviling that you will receive by admitting that you're a follower of Jesus Christ, the embarrassment you might encounter because you love Jesus Christ and you're not gonna go along with the crowd.
What would you give up to bear His reproach? [00:41:00] I just want you to think about your life. I want you to make an, an internal list. Maybe go home today and make an actual list, but what would you give up to bear the reproach of Christ? What needs to be given up? Here's another one. What would you value less to bear the reproach of Jesus Christ?
And for some of us, and this is hard, it's our children. Some of us lift our children up higher than God I can't tell you how many times I'm on my knees and I ask God to protect my grandchildren, 'cause God, I just, I don't know how I would live if something happened Am I lifting them above Christ? Am I willing to bear the reproach of Christ?
Do I consider all things as nothing compared to Christ? My grandkids are precious and they're valuable just like your children, but compared to Christ
What would you work harder [00:42:00] at to bear the reproach of Christ? Would you share your faith more? Do you not share your faith 'cause it's embarrassing, 'cause it's scary? Or would you work harder at sharing your faith to bear the reproach of Christ? Would you read your Bible more? Would you study it more?
Would you ask more questions to bear the reproach of Christ? John and Betty Stam were 27 and 28 years old when they were martyred for Christ Jesus. And part of the story that I didn't tell, and I left hanging on purpose, is the baby. What happened to the baby? Shortly before Betty died, she was able to hide the bi- the baby.
She hid the baby along with some clothes and some money and the letter that John wrote, and she hid them in a sleeping bag. And by God's grace, by God's mercy, apparently the soldiers completely forgot about the baby. [00:43:00] Completely forgot about the baby. Apparently, the baby didn't cry, and they ended up just walking off and leaving the baby.
And as some versions of the story go, the baby was actually in that sleeping bag for over a day, maybe a couple of days And again, by God's grace, a Chinese evangelist, a man, we know him only by his name, Lo. A man by the name of Lo found the child, and he walked over 100 miles with the baby, and he took it to Betty's parents, because Betty's parents, again, if you remember, they were missionaries to China, and they were still in China.
And he trekked 100 miles, and he takes the baby to her parents. And by God's grace and by God's mercy, the baby was raised by relatives. She was brought up in a Christian home. She kept to herself. She didn't do a lot of, uh, interviews. She avoided [00:44:00] publicity, but everything we know about her is she was a believer in Christ Jesus.
How frightening it would have been to hide your child knowing you're about to go meet Jesus and wondering what's gonna happen because some things are worse than death. And for the communists to take that child and to bring it into a communist home and to raise it to hate Jesus would have been worse than death But by faith, she hid the child, trusting in Christ, willing to bear the reproach of Christ.
And she cried out to Him and trusted Him, and Jesus came through because He will never leave you, never forsake you, because we can trust Him. I wish every story turned out that way. God has His reasons for doing what He does, but He came through What happened after the story reached America? You see, news reached America by December of 1934, and it inspired hundreds of people.
They had memorial [00:45:00] services at Moody Bible Institute, and 700 students stood up and committed their life to missionary work. At Wilson or Wheaton College, I believe, 200 students turned up and dedicated their lives to Jesus Christ. There was a biography written of the Stams. The name of the book is The Triumph of John and Betty Stam.
It was written in 1935. It actually supported China Inland Missions, missionaries' work for the next several years during the Great Depression. It went through eight reprints. A man by the name of Frank Houghton, you might be familiar with the hymn, but he wrote a hymn based on, motivated, not based on, but motivated by their life, and he wrote a hymn, Thou Who Was Rich Beyond All Splendor.
And as we bring things to an end, I just want to read you a portion of that hymn. I'm not gonna sing it
It's in our singing hymn book. It's also in our, uh, Hymns of Grace hymn book. [00:46:00] "Thou who wast rich beyond all splendor, all for love's sake becamest poor. Thrones for a manger didst surrender, sapphire-paved courts for stable floor. Thou who wast rich beyond all splendor, all for love's sake became poor." And I won't read all of the, the next two verses.
I'll just read the beginning of both, and you'll get a, a flavor. "Thou who art God beyond all praising, all for love's sake becamest man. Thou who art Love beyond all telling, Savior and King, we worship thee."
So I begin the sermon the way I started it. What would you do? What would you be willing to do to bear the reproach of Christ? Let's pray [00:47:00] Father in heaven, thank you. As weird as this is gonna sound
Thank you that it is actually an honor to die for you. Thank you that it is an honor to be embarrassed for you. Thank you that it is an honor to suffer persecution, to be made fun of, to be teased. And Father, in some cases, to be taxed more, to be overlooked for a promotion, to be turned down for business.
Father, thank you that you actually give us the opportunity to bear your reproach, to enter into your shame. Because Father, we know the real story, and we know there was nothing shameful in what you did. We know that it is glorious, and it is magnificent, and it is the greatest, most spectacular thing that has ever taken place on this planet.
And Father, you did it for me. And Father, I pray that everyone [00:48:00] sitting here today can say that. It's easy to say you died for the world And in a very real sense, you did. You died for Jew and Gentile. But Father, true faith means I recognize you died for me, and I didn't deserve it, and I didn't earn it, and I can't earn it, and I can't deserve it, but I can worship you, and I can enter into your reproach.
Thank you for your love. Thank you for your kindness. Thank you that our altar is the cross. We don't have to shed blood anymore, but we can come, and we can bow at the cross, and we can worship you, and we can partake of the cross through faith. Help us understand this message, Lord, and help us make application.
For we ask all these things in the name of Christ Jesus. And all of God's people said, amen.
