He Suffered Outside the Gate (Hebrews 13:11-12) | Worship Service

Good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Kootenai Church. Would you please stand as we begin our worship service?

With a call to worship from Psalm 2 and verses 1 to 4 it says, Why do the nations rage and the peoples meditate on a vain thing?

The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against Yahweh and against his anointed, saying,

Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens laughs, the

Lord mocks them. It seems like every time there's an act of war we sing this psalm.

That is a coincidence or divine providence, shall we say. So let's sing together,

Why do the nations rage, Psalm 2. Why do the nations rage, the people plot in vain?

The kings and rulers of this age, against God's holy name.

They in their mortal reign, oppose the

Holy One. We cast asunder all these chains, our bonds shall be undone.

Declares the Lord is scorned, he from his heaven laughs.

As anger flashes hot to war and terrifying wrath.

Yet I have asked for me, according to my will.

Set my anointed king to be on Zion's holy hill.

Now God's anointed one shall tell of this decree.

He said, today thou art my son, I have begotten thee.

To thee as thy domain, as thou hast asked of me.

Big heads of earth for thee to reign, so thine estate shall be.

Rule thou the lands abroad, the nations shalt thou shame.

As earth then wherewith iron wrought, their kingdom shalt thou bring.

O king, throw off thy crown, be warned, O judge of earth.

Before the Lord bow trembling down, and there proclaim his word.

Give homage to the Son, lest he give anger sway.

Lest thou be in his wrath undone, and perish in the way.

The blessed drawing near, whom he declares his own.

Adore his name in holy fear, in refuge at his throne.

The mystery of the cross

I cannot comprehend. The agonies of Calvary.

You the perfect holy one, crush your son.

Drink the bitter cup reserved for me. Your blood has washed away my sin,

Jesus thank you. The father's wrath completely satisfied,

Jesus thank you. Once your enemy, now seated at your table,

Jesus thank you. By your perfect sacrifice

I've been brought here. Your enemy, you made your friend.

Pouring out the riches of your glorious grace.

Your mercy and your kindness know no end. Your blood has washed away my sin,

Jesus thank you. The father's wrath completely satisfied,

Jesus thank you. Once your enemy, now seated at your table,

Jesus thank you. Lover of my soul,

I want to live for you.

Lover of my soul, I want to live for you.

Lover of my soul, I want to live for you.

Lover of my soul, I want to live for you.

Your blood has washed away my sin,

Jesus thank you. The father's wrath completely satisfied,

Jesus thank you. Your blood has washed away my sin,

Jesus thank you. The father's wrath completely satisfied,

Jesus thank you. Once your enemy, now seated at your table,

Jesus thank you. The king of love my shepherd is, whose goodness fails me never.

I nothing lack if I am his, and he is mine forever.

Where streams of living water flow, my

Savior gently leads me.

And where the flooded pastures grow, with food celestial feeds me.

Confused and foolish oft

I strayed, but yet in love he sought me.

And on his shoulder gently lay, and home rejoicing brought me.

In death's dark vale I fear no ill, with you dear

Lord beside me. Your rod and staff my comfort still, your cross before to guide me.

And so through all the length of days, your goodness fails me never.

Good shepherd may I sing your praise, within your house forever.

Good shepherd may I sing your praise, within your house forever.

You may be seated. I just have three announcements that I want to draw your attention to.

All of whom have to do with some deadlines that you need to be aware of, events coming up. First, there is a new round of fellowship dinners starting.

So if you want to join up with some other families in the church to host as well as visit with them around meals,

I would encourage you to take the opportunity today to sign up on that sign -up sheet that is in the foyer for the fellowship dinner.

Second, the women's retreat is coming up quickly, and this is the last Sunday today for you to register if you plan on attending that.

So make sure you do that before you leave here. And then also June 7th and 8th is our equipping conference, and your time to pre -register for that in order to get the free book,

The War on Men by Owen Strand, that is coming up by the end of this month. So if you want to come to the equipping conference

June 7th to 8th, make sure you register before the end of April. Will you turn please to Hebrews 9 for the

Scripture reading and verse 23. In fact, if we're going back in Hebrews for a

Scripture reading, it's not indicative that we are starting anything over. A couple weeks ago I read from Hebrews chapter 1, and I saw everybody in the front row up here kind of chuckling after I announced that because somebody behind them said, oh no, we're starting over.

That's not the case. Hebrews 9, we're going to begin reading at verse 23, and we're going to read through chapter 10, verse 14.

Hebrews 9, verse 23. Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us.

Nor was it that he would offer himself often as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own.

Otherwise he would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now once at the consummation of the ages he has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly await him.

For the law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.

Otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered? Because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins.

But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Therefore, when he comes into the world, he says, Sacrifice and offering you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me.

In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you have taken no pleasure. Then I said,

Behold, I have come, in the scroll of the book it is written of me, to do your will, O God. After saying above,

Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you have not desired, nor have you taken pleasure in them, which are offered according to the law.

Then he said, Behold, I have come to do your will. He takes away the first in order to establish the second.

By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

But he, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet.

For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. Will you stand with me as we pray?

Our Father, we have just read here of the mysterious plan of redemption for lost sinners, that you have laid upon your

Son all of our sin, iniquity, transgression, all of our sins of omission and commission, every way that we have failed you, our violations of your holy law, our rebellion against your kind and gracious rule, our not giving you praise and honor for your benevolent, gracious kindness to us through all of life.

Every sin we have ever committed has been laid upon your Son so that we may rejoice in the forgiveness that is ours and look forward to no further sacrifice, no further offering, and no further blood to be shed.

So we thank you that you have done this gracious work of perfecting and sanctifying forever those who call upon your

Son and come to Him. We thank you that in that one sacrifice there is grace sufficient and atonement provided for the worst of sinners.

And we are those sinners. We deserve your judgment and justice, but you have given us grace and taken our sin out of the way.

So we thank you for that. And because you have done this, you are worthy of infinite honor and glory and praise, adoration, thanksgiving, adoration, and worship.

You are worthy of those things, and we are commanded to give those things to you. It is our duty to do so, and it is the joy of those who are yours to do so.

But we confess and acknowledge that we are unable to give to you what you are worthy of, for we are weak and frail and feeble children of dust.

We still carry around with us a sinful nature, but we pray that in spite of our weakness that you would receive what we can offer to you, which is adoring hearts, loving worship, and wholehearted obedience to your

Word. Be glorified and honored through the sacrifice of your people, and strengthen us in the power of your

Spirit, we pray, to sing in a way that you are worthy of hearing, to meditate upon your

Word, and to respond to truth in a way that will be for the glory and honor of our King, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray.

Amen. Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my

God, should die for me? Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my

God, should die for me? That thou, my God, should die for me.

He left His Father's throne above, so free, so infinite.

His grace emptied Himself to show

His love and bled for Adam's helpless race.

Tis mercy all, immense and free.

Oh, my God, if thou, thou be.

Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my

God, should die for me? Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night.

Thine light infused a quickening ray.

I woke, the dungeon flayed with light.

My chains fell off, my heart was free.

Thy words came forth and followed thee.

Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my

God, should die for me? No condemnation now

I dread. Jesus and all in Him is mine.

Alive in Him, my living Head. And clothed in righteousness divine.

Bold I approach the eternal throne.

And claim the crown through Christ my own.

Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my

God, should die for me? In Ephesians chapter 2, verses 13 to 16, it says,

But now in Christ Jesus you, who formerly were far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For He Himself is our peace who made both groups one, and broke down the dividing wall of the partition by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might create the two into one new man, making peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having in Himself put to death the enmity.

We're going to close our music service this morning and sing together How Vast the Love. Come gaze upon your

Savior. Behold your great High Priest.

Drawn near in awe and wonder, His cross has spoken peace.

Come rest from sin and striving. Find endless stores of grace.

The heart that turns to Jesus is cleansed from every stain.

Oh, how deep, how wide, how long. Oh, how vast the love of Jesus.

Oh, how sure, how sweet, how strong. Oh, how vast is love for us.

So lift your eyes to Jesus. Arise from doubt and shame.

His blood rising is finished. Our life is in His name.

Oh, how deep, how wide, how long. Oh, how vast the love of Jesus.

Oh, how sure, how sweet, how strong. Oh, how vast is love for us.

What now can separate us? Can death or pain or fear?

We have this strong assurance. In Christ we've been brought near.

And in His strength we'll labor. His promise is our hope.

Thus far His love has led us. His love will lead us home.

Oh, how deep, how wide, how long. Oh, how vast the love of Jesus.

Oh, how sure, how sweet, how strong. Oh, how vast is love for us.

Oh, how deep, how wide, how long. Oh, how vast the love of Jesus.

Oh, how sure, how sweet, how strong. Oh, how vast is love for us.

Amen. You may be seated. And we turn now to Hebrews chapter 13.

Hebrews chapter 13. When you've found your place there, we will go to the

Lord and ask His blessing upon our time and our study here this morning. Our Father, we bow now with humility before Your Word, believing that it reveals to us everything that we need for life and for godliness.

When the Word of God is rightly preached, the voice of God is rightly heard. And so we pray today that You would strengthen both speaker and listener, that You would be honored through what is said in the meditation of our heart.

Send Your Spirit to give us that strength and to open our eyes and hearts to Your Word. And even as we discuss a passage that is admittedly difficult to understand, we pray that You would grant to us the insight that is necessary.

And that having been convinced that we have heard You in Your Word, that we would then turn around and yield obedient and loving and worshiping hearts back to You for Your great gift of salvation and for the great sacrifice of the

Lord Jesus Christ. We ask these things in His name. Amen. Well, the message of the cross has always been and always will be foolishness in the eyes of the world.

It must be that way. Jesus Christ is to the world a worthy object of shame and derision.

His name is used as a swear word. Only His name is coupled with profanities. Only He is mocked and derided in arts, entertainment, culture, and academia consistently.

In fact, you would be regarded by the world as a luminary of stunning intellect if you can invent some new blasphemous way of understanding

Jesus of Nazareth. And you'll be hailed as one of the great artisans of the age if you can invent some cutting -edge way of degrading

Christ, slandering His name and His reputation in a book or a painting or a song.

And academia will award you a Nobel Peace Prize if you can manage to rid the entire world of all vestiges and influences of Christianity.

That is how much the world hates Christ. This is so because there can be no fellowship between light and darkness.

There can be no camaraderie between Belial and Christ. There can be no meeting of minds between truth and error.

The message of Christianity is an affront to the pride, the self -reliance, the self -importance of fallen man.

And it is forever an unchanging declaration that man is condemned in his sin, fallen, ruined, and hopeless, and unable to change his own condition.

It is that because the cross condemns our efforts to please God by our own good works.

It condemns our efforts to somehow satiate God by good deeds or works of righteousness or keeping the law.

The cross stands as a constant declaration that man is so fallen, so ruined, so irreparably sinful, as to demand the sacrifice of God's own

Son on a Roman cross to atone for his sin and to give him the righteousness that he must have if he is to stand in the presence of a holy

God on the last day. And so the cross is foolishness and scandalous to the world. It is scandalous to the unbeliever because it suggests that their sin death is so large that the death of God's only

Son was required. That their lack of righteousness is so profound that the infinitely righteous one had to give them righteousness.

And it reminds them that they can do nothing to commend themselves to God. Law -breaking rebels trying to gain

God's favor by their puny efforts and their paltry works and their putrid good deeds is offensive to Him.

And that fact is offensive to the unbeliever. Our good deeds are offensive to Him in our unsaved fallen state.

And that fact that He is offended by us is offensive to the unbeliever. And there is always an effort afoot to make

Jesus appeal to the masses. If you are after a cultural cachet or academic acceptance or political prestige

Christianity is not your golden ticket. Not at all. At least not Biblical Christianity.

The Christianity that stands constantly being remade by the spirit of our age that people do use like grifters to make themselves look good and to gain money and prestige.

But Biblical Christianity cannot do that. There is an affront to remake Jesus in order to appeal to the masses.

This never ends because the only way to do that is to reimagine Him in the image of the masses. And you must remove the offensive teachings and smooth out the rough edges of His personality and His teachings.

You have to ignore His exclusive claims. You have to rehabilitate His image into a soft, effeminate, hippie figure with no standards, no truth, no demands, no offense.

And that's just not the Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus of the Bible is offensive to the world. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 18 -24 says,

The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. It's written,

I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside. Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe?

Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

For indeed, Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified.

To the Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Paul there is putting his finger to the heart of what the world wants. We want oratory.

We want man -made wisdom. We love human philosophy. We love to -do lists. We love things that make us look righteous.

We want wisdom and we want philosophy and we want oratory. And Paul says, instead of giving the world any of that, we come right in and we preach to them the message of the cross, which is foolishness to Gentiles and offensive to the

Jews. They hate it. But to us who are being saved, it's the power of God unto salvation.

To us who are called by the Father, chosen by Him and given to the Son and then redeemed by the

Holy Spirit in regeneration, Jesus Christ is not weakness. He is the power of God. He is not foolish.

He is the wisdom of God and He is not offensive. Instead, He is the precious cornerstone.

Not a scandal, but a Savior. That is the difference between the saved and the unsaved.

And that distinction, every person on the planet will fall into one of those two classes.

Either you embrace what the world says is the foolishness of God and you receive His wisdom, His power, His salvation, or you will pursue the wisdom of man and you will be bereft of and cut off from God's wisdom,

God's power, and God's salvation. In Christ, for us who are in Him, we have all the treasures of wisdom, knowledge, power, glory.

The world cannot see that. It cannot see it. So it does not see it and then the world regards

Him as a worthy object of our shame and our scorn and they are willing to take

Him outside of the city and to crucify Him. That brings us to our text. You understand then why

He was taken and suffered outside the gate. This is verse 12. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate.

Now we talked about a little bit last week about what it means that He suffered and what the author is driving at here in this argument.

You will notice at the beginning of verse 12 that He is making a parallel between Jesus and something else when

He says therefore Jesus also. There's something in the context. We haven't looked yet at verse 11, but the context begins in verse 11 there for the comparison.

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 you'll notice three references to being outside the camp or outside the gate. One in verse 11 burned outside the camp.

One in verse 12, suffered outside the gate and then one in verse 13, go to Him outside the camp.

So the author in verse 12 when He says therefore Jesus also, He is drawing a similarity between Christ and this offering that was taken outside of the city or outside of the camp and burned.

And this is a reference to Christ's rejection. That is what the author is driving at. And that's going to be our focus today, the significance of Christ's work being outside the camp.

This is a reference in verses 11 and 12 to the Day of Atonement. Now back when we were in I think it was

Hebrews 9 or 10 somewhere there, 8, 7 I don't expect you to remember it because I'm struggling to figure out where it was exactly at.

I preached a message where we covered all of the details of the Day of Atonement and what that involved in terms of the sacrifice and the applying of the blood to the mercy seat on that one day a year by the high priest.

The author has wrapped up his long extended section dealing with Old Testament sacrifices and thus

Christ in chapter 7 to 10. And we kind of left that and got into the faith chapter of chapter 11 and the discipline in chapter 12 and the warning passage there and now we come into chapter 13 and the author is just jumping back to his discussion of the sacrifices and he's drawing one final parallel because this one final parallel basically is what he wants to sort of leave ringing in the ears of his audience.

This parallel being in the application of verse 14 that we are to go, or verse 13, we are to go to him outside the camp bearing his reproach.

And so the key here is understanding what it means that Christ suffered outside the gate. The author is obviously making something out of that, that he suffered outside the gate because he mentions it in verse 11 and verse 12 and verse 13.

The author is here referring to the Day of Atonement, the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement, the one sin offering which the

Jews call Yom Kippur. It's that one high holy day. And you might remember from that that the author has this one particular illustration in mind that rather than offering a sacrifice on that altar over and over again year after year,

Christ has done what that sacrifice could not do in that he suffered one time and offered himself as that sacrifice.

And therefore as we read earlier, we have been forever sanctified through the one offering of our

Lord on that one time. He has done what the blood of bulls and goats cannot do. But now the parallel is to something else, something that the author did not mention previously when he was talking about the

Day of Atonement, and that is in verse 11, the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, those bodies are burned outside the camp.

Now rather than going back to Leviticus chapter 16 which I would encourage you to do on your own time and reading about all of the details of the

Day of Atonement sacrifice, I want to highlight a couple of them. Just a couple so you can see what the author is alluding to here.

Of all the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, the sin offerings and the guilt offerings, the author has in mind here one particular offering that was offered on one high holy day, the

Day of Atonement, by one man who was allowed to go back into the Holy of Holies on that one day of the year and apply blood to the mercy seat.

He's talking about the Day of Atonement. Now here's the details from Leviticus 16. The Day of Atonement was in the seventh month on the tenth day of the month, and it involved first a ceremonial cleansing by the priest where he would wash himself and dress up in his priestly garments, and then he would offer a sacrifice first for himself and then for his family, and then he would turn around and offer a sacrifice for the sins of the people.

And he would enter then with the blood of that sacrifice into the Holy of Holies and apply the blood to the mercy seat.

Then there was another element of that sacrifice and it was the scapegoat. They would take two goats and they would cast lots for those two goats, and the one goat they would sacrifice as part of the sin offering and apply the blood to the altar.

The other goat, the priest would stand with the other goat and put their hands on the goat's head and confess over it all of the sins of the nation of Israel, and then they would let that goat wander off into the wilderness which was a picture of our sins needing to be removed from the camp, needing to be taken outside of where the people of God are.

That was part of that offering, the scapegoat. Now after the priest applied the blood to the mercy seat, he would then take the body of the beast out into the wilderness where they would burn the bodies.

Leviticus 16 verse 20, this describes the scapegoat when he finishes atoning for the holy place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall offer the live goat.

Then Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins, and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness that is outside of the camp by the hand of a man who stands in readiness.

The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary place in the land and he shall release the goat into the wilderness.

This was intended to picture the other part of the sacrifice, not just that it required blood, but those sins had to be taken away.

They could not be with the people of God anymore. Then we have the reference to the blood of the scapegoat as well as the blood of the ox.

Leviticus chapter 16 verse 27 here's what happened to the sin offering. But the bull of the sin offering and the goat of the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place, shall be taken outside the camp and they shall burn their hides, their flesh, and their refuse in the fire.

Then the one who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body with water. Then afterward he shall come into the camp.

You see, even the act of taking the sin, the animal that was offered for the sin outside of the camp and burning it rendered him unclean.

So he'd have to bathe himself before he could come back into the assembly of God's people. Now look at the connection in Hebrews 13 verse 11.

The bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place, that's what we just read, 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.

This is the main point of the author in this passage that Christ is the fulfillment of that sacrifice.

Now in a sense, in a way he is the fulfillment of all the Old Testament sacrifices. But the day of atonement has been the author's focus throughout the book of Hebrews.

He sees that one, the highest and holiest day, that was sort of the sacrifice of all sacrifices.

He sees in that sacrifice the work of Christ being pictured in the animal sacrifice. Hebrews 10 verses 3 and 4 says, in those sacrifices there is the reminder of sins year by year.

It's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. And so the author has made the point previously,

Christ fulfilled this by doing what the priest could never do in offering himself, and atoning for what the offering of those animals could never atone for, which was actual sin.

Rather, in those sacrifices you simply had the acting out of the need for an animal sacrifice year after year as more blood was always and continually applied to the mercy seat as a reminder that that is the cost of sin.

And this is what sin has done to us. And then we have to confess our sin and send it outside the camp. And every Jew who went through that year after year, day after day, had to long for and look forward to the day when

God would do something to finally deal with the sin issue. Because they knew that those sacrifices were merely a temporary sign or a symbol of a sacrifice that was to come.

God would have to take away sin. And this never happened because there was no expectation that that would ever end.

It was just, you were supposed to do this perpetually. Therefore Jesus also, he says, and this is the pointed similarity, he suffered outside the camp.

Just as the animals were drugged outside the camp and burned, so Jesus went outside the gate and there he suffered.

And this is the parallel. So now what is the meaning of outside the camp? There is in the passage a similarity and a dissimilarity.

We're going to notice both of those. A dissimilarity and a similarity. First, the similarity. He suffered outside the camp.

What does that mean? Suffering outside the camp was a picture of expulsion, of rejection, of repudiation.

It pictured impurity and uncleanness, being distant from God, having broken fellowship, being excluded, being cut off from the commerce and the fellowship and the industry and the worship of the people of God.

What did God do with Adam and Eve after they sinned and broke that fellowship with him? He sent them outside the garden.

To them, they had walked with God in the coolness of the garden and they had enjoyed that fellowship. Sin severed that and then he excluded them from the garden.

And then, this is an interesting study, if you follow and trace the idea of being set outside the camp and outside the city and outside the gate throughout

Scripture, it is a fascinating study. Because this always has to do with sin and iniquity and repudiation until at the very end, you get all the way to the book of Revelation and guess what?

There's a new city with 12 new gates and guess who gets to come in? The righteous. In the garden, we are excluded.

Cast outside. In Revelation, we are brought back in. And that being brought back in is permanent.

So, who was set outside the gate? I want you to listen to outside the camp in these references. First, blasphemers.

There's an incident in Leviticus chapter 24 where a man who is the son of an

Israelite woman and an Egyptian is gathering stones on the

Sabbath. He curses the name of God and then Moses detains him and inquires of the

Lord what shall be done with this man who has blasphemed God's name. And here's what the Lord said. He spoke to Moses saying, this is

Leviticus 24, 13 to 15, Bring the one who is cursed outside the camp and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head.

Then let all the congregation stone him. You shall speak to the sons of Israel saying, if anyone curses his

God, he will bear his sin. This was a picture of what happens when you curse God. The person who hears it identifies with that sinner says yes,

I testify against him. They take him outside the camp and execute him. There's another incident in Numbers chapter 5 where we have a picture of uncleanness in how lepers were to be kept and cared for.

Numbers 5 verses 2 through 4, Command the sons of Israel that they send away from the camp every leper and everyone having a discharge and everyone who is unclean because of the dead person.

You shall send away both male and female. You shall send them outside the camp so that they will not defile their camp where I dwell in their midst.

The sons of Israel did so and sent them outside the camp just as the Lord had spoken to Moses. Thus the sons of Israel did.

So the leper, leprosy which was a picture of the contagion of sin and the danger of sin, that leper when he had that skin disease was taken outside of the camp.

He was not allowed to be amongst the people of God because it was a picture of defilement. So blasphemers and lepers and then

Sabbath breakers in Numbers chapter 15 we find a man who is gathering wood on the Sabbath and they detain him and inquire of the

Lord saying, what shall be done with the man who gathers wood on the Sabbath? Hardly the ink had dried on the tablet commanding them to observe the

Sabbath and already they have people in their midst who are breaking that commandment. So Numbers 15 verse 35, the

Lord said to Moses, the man shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.

So all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones just as the

Lord had commanded Moses. So blasphemers, lepers, Sabbath breakers, even those who are ceremonially unclean

Deuteronomy 23, if there among you any man who is unclean because of a nocturnal emission then he must go outside the camp.

He may not reenter the camp but it shall be when evening approaches he shall bathe himself with water and at sundown he may reenter the camp.

So he had to be excluded for a period of time until he was no longer ceremonially unclean. And then, not to get graphic, but human waste was taken outside the camp.

Deuteronomy 23, 12 -14 you shall also have a place outside the camp and go out there and you shall have a spade among your tools and it shall be when you sit down outside you shall dig with it and shall turn to cover up your excrement since the

Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to defeat your enemies before you.

Therefore your camp must be holy and he must not see anything indecent among you or he will turn away from you.

So blasphemers, lepers, sabbath breakers, people who are ceremonially unclean and human waste were all taken outside of the camp.

Now what's the point? The point is that things that are impure, unclean, indecent, defiling, things sinful, things deserving of death, the impenitent, the lawbreaker, the rebel, these were taken outside the camp so that they would not be amongst

God's people. This is a picture of what sin does for us, by the way, to us. It's a picture of what sin does to us.

When we sin, we are making ourselves unclean. We are cutting off our fellowship with the

Lord and we are reminding ourselves we deserve to be cast outside the camp and only by the grace of one who suffered outside the gate can we even be amongst and in the people of God.

But this requirement is a graphic picture of the defiling nature of sin. Now, all of that to say,

I think all of those are behind this idea of being outside the camp, sin is taken outside the camp, lawbreakers, blasphemers,

Sabbath violators, etc. taken out there and executed. But there is a very intriguing and interesting event in Exodus chapter 32 and 33 that I'm going to read to you.

I want you to listen to this. This is, Moses was on the mountain receiving the law and you remember what happened. God wrote the law on those tablets and he got the law and the instructions for the tabernacle and then when he was all done,

God said hey Moses, those people whom you brought up out of Egypt, they have defiled themselves at the foot of the mountain.

And you remember the story, they had taken their gold and their silver and all their precious jewels and they had given them to Aaron and he took them and melted them down and cast this idol and then set it up in the midst of the camp and said, this

Israel is your God, this is the one who delivered you from the land of Egypt and from the house of Pharaoh. Worship it.

And they did, they worshipped it. And the Lord told Moses about this, the people crafting that idol.

Aaron, it says in Exodus 32 verse 4 he took from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf and said, this is your

God, oh Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Now when Aaron saw this he built an altar before it and Aaron made a proclamation and said, tomorrow shall be a feast to the

Lord. They're calling this golden calf Yahweh. It shall be a feast to Yahweh. So the next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

Then God's anger burned against them. The Lord said to Moses, go down at once for your people whom you brought up from the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.

Notice there in that phrase that God did not even own them as his people. He said, Moses, your people whom you brought up.

And you might be tempted to say, no, not my people and I didn't bring them up, I didn't part the

Red Sea. This is all yours, Lord. The Lord doesn't own them in that sense at all. He is remarking to Moses how these people are no longer his people.

They have rejected him already. He can't even bear to bring, put upon Moses' mind the idea that this nation would be his people.

They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf and have worshipped it and have sacrificed to it and said, this is your

God, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. The Lord said to Moses, I've seen this people and behold, they are an obstinate people.

Now then, let me alone that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them and I'll make of you a good nation, a great nation.

And Moses of course pleaded with the Lord and the Lord relented. Moses came down, they executed a few of the lawbreakers there inside of the camp.

And then we read this. Listen, this is the incident that is behind Hebrews chapter 13. Exodus 33, 1 -7, the

Lord spoke to Moses, depart, go up from here you and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land of which

I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying to your descendants, I will give it. I will send an angel before you and I'll drive out the

Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. But to the land flowing with milk and honey,

I will not go up in your midst, because you are an obstinate people and I might destroy you on the way.

When the people heard this sad word, they went into mourning and none of them put on his ornaments. For the Lord had said to Moses, say to the sons of Israel, you are an obstinate people.

Should I go up in your midst for one moment, I would destroy you. Now therefore, put off your ornaments, your merriment, put off your ornaments from you, that I may know what

I shall do with you. So the sons of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from Mount Horeb onward.

Verse 7, now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting.

And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting that was outside the camp.

That is the imagery behind this. Because of their sin, God did not send individual sinners outside the camp, that he may dwell there with his people.

Instead, God himself went outside the camp, basically repudiating all of those people and their sin.

They had repudiated him. They had rejected him as a nation. They had bowed down and worshipped a golden calf.

And in their repudiation of him and their rejection of him, now God was outside the camp.

Not taking individual sinners and putting them outside the camp, but now God himself is outside the camp. And Moses, when he would meet with God, would go outside the camp, a good distance off, and the rest of the text says the children of Israel would just stand in the doorway of their tents and they would watch

Moses walk out to the tent of meeting out in the wilderness. And all they could do was stay in their camp while God himself had been repudiated, rejected, and placed outside the camp.

That is the imagery of this verse. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.

Hebrews 13 .3 So let us go to him outside the camp bearing his reproach. You see the author's point?

Once again, God was put outside the gate. In doing what? When? When the nation rejected him and said crucify him.

Then it says in Matthew and Mark and John's gospel that they took him out, they led him out. He was crucified out near the city.

They took him outside the gate where blasphemers were, where lawbreakers were, where sinners were, where everything unclean and unholy and defiling was.

And there they crucified him outside the gate. And I think the author's point is that in the rejection of Christ, the nation of Israel has again drove

God outside of the camp. So he is no longer there in their midst. Which means he is not on the temple mount receiving their sacrifices.

Which means he is not observing their animal sacrifices and their feasts and their festivals. And now the application of the author is therefore if you will meet with God, you cannot go to the temple, you cannot go to the tabernacle, and you can't offer your animal sacrifices, you're going to have to go outside the gate.

To that person whom the entire nation has reproached. And you're going to have to be willing to bear that reproach.

To gladly say in the eyes of the world, I will be foolish. I will be weak. I will be insignificant.

I will be a nobody if I can have God outside the gate, I will go out to him. And all the world can do is stand at the door of their tent and watch us go outside the gate as we go out to gladly bear his reproach.

That is the imagery. In the repudiation of their Messiah, they had put God outside the gate again.

And there he suffered and died and shed his blood to purchase the church. God purchased the church with his own blood when he was put outside the camp.

The nation rejected their God in their midst, which was Christ. They took him to a place of sin, shame, scorn, repudiation where they rejected him, despised him, mocked him, spit on him, hung him on a cross and put him to death.

Jesus Christ then was put in the place where sinners belong. So here's the key. You and I deserve to be taken outside the gate and treated that way, but we weren't.

Another one was taken outside the gate and treated the way that we deserve to be treated. By a holy God. And so therefore, the application is very simple, very straightforward.

You better be willing to go outside the gate if you're going to meet with God because he is no longer in the temple. He's no longer in those sacrifices.

Now you understand why the author throughout the entire book has been telling people this is a defunct system. These sacrifices are no more.

The new covenant has come. The sacrifices have been put to an end. These things were only pictures. The substance is here.

Well, guess what? The substance is here. He came. He was taken outside the gate and there he was crucified. So if you will meet with God and enjoy fellowship with him, you have to be willing to leave that system and go outside the gate.

That's the similarity. Now look at the point of dissimilarity. And it is that in doing so, verse 12,

Jesus might sanctify the people through his own blood by suffering outside the gate. This was the thing that animal sacrifices could never do.

Christ does not attempt to sanctify his people. Christ does not attempt to draw his people to themselves, to pay his price.

He has not merely made the sanctification, the holiness, and the redemption of his people a theoretical possibility by offering some atonement that can be broadly applied to all people.

He actually suffered in the stead and in the place of sinners as their substitute. And therefore he has done what no animal sacrifice could do, which was to suffer outside the gate and to in doing so atone for the sins of all his people, all who will believe and trust in him, to pay their debt, to stand as their surety, to stand as their substitute, to bear their reproach and their blame.

He was the one treated as unclean and impure and undefiled. He was the one who was treated like a blasphemer, a sabbath breaker, and like a spiritual leper.

He received that treatment. So now the author is saying if you are going to be faithful, you have to be willing to go outside the gate and to bear his reproach because the world hates him.

But if you will have Christ, you better be prepared to be excluded from the city gate.

You better be prepared to walk outside the camp and let all the world watch you walk out to meet with God at the temple, the tabernacle, the sacrifice which was taken outside the gate.

He has sanctified us. And in saying that in verse 12, the author is returning to the theme he has mentioned previously.

Back in chapter 10, we read it. There is in those sacrifices only a shadow of the good things to come. They can never make perfect those who draw near.

Hebrews 10, verse 10, by this will we have been sanctified. We have been made holy, set apart for God through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices which can never take away sin.

But he, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet.

For by one offering, one final offering, he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

Believer, this is good news for you. Because Christ died in your place, you can be absolutely certain that your sin debt is taken out of the way.

And if you have trusted in that sacrifice and you have repented of your sin, and that sacrifice is yours because you have placed your faith in that Son of God, there is no possibility that you will be rejected because he has perfected you forever, for all time.

He has set you apart as his own and paid every last debt that was incurred against your name, against your rap sheet, for all of your blasphemy and Sabbath -breaking and spiritual leprosy and defilement.

Every last transgression was laid upon him, and because it was laid upon him, it will never be laid upon you.

You will never see the frown of God. No sin you have ever committed will be brought up and thrown into your face and cause you to be driven outside the gate, because your surety, your substitute, was taken outside the gate on your behalf.

And because he died outside the gate, you will never be cast out of the gates of righteousness, where God dwells.

That is good news, believer. Unbeliever, this is good news for you as well.

There is in the sacrifice of Christ a sacrifice and a payment sufficient to pay the price for your sin.

But if you have never repented of your sin and trusted Christ for salvation, you stand this day, at this moment, under the wrath and under the anger of God's righteous indignation for all of your law -breaking.

Your deeds of blasphemy, your Sabbath -breaking, your taking his name in vain, your lust, your anger, your greed, your selfishness, your idolatry, all of that has put you deservedly outside of the camp, and you will in all of eternity, for all of eternity, never be welcomed back inside the gate, unless you have a substitute who died outside the gate for you.

Christ is that substitute. You don't have to worry if his atonement was sufficient for you. You don't have to worry if he paid a price sufficient for your sin.

He has promised you that if you will come to him, he will not cast you away, but he will receive you and give you eternal life and raise you up on the last day.

There is atonement and sacrifice and blood at the cross of Christ outside the gate that is sufficient for your sin, and now he commands you to look to that substitute and place your faith in that substitute, or on the final day, you will be cast outside the gate, never to enter in again.

We needed one who would stand in our place, and Christ is that one who stood in our place, outside the gate, where you took blasphemers, impure, defiled, law -breaking,

Sabbath -violating, unclean, impure, human excrement of sinners.

They took it outside the gate. Christ went there, and he paid the price for our sin.

He died as our substitute. We needed one to stand in our place, and that is what Christ has done.

And he commands you this day to look to him and to rest in that good news. Let's bow our heads.

Our Father, we are thankful for the sacrifice of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and all the grace that you have poured out upon your people through that sacrifice.

Thank you that one was taken outside the gate for us so that we might be welcomed into the gates of righteousness for all of eternity and never be cast out.

Someday there is coming a world and a kingdom and a creation in which no impure thing, no defiling thing, no sinner will ever enter in, and sin will defile it no more.

Impurity will defile it no more. Transgression will mark it no more. And we look forward to that date, that day, that time, that kingdom.

We pray that you would strengthen and encourage our hearts together in your word by that truth and that promise that you have given to us.

May we rest upon it. Pray that any who are here who have never trusted Christ for salvation may find in that surety and in that substitute an atonement sufficient for their sin, and that they may come to Christ and worship and obey

Him, laying down their rebellion and their wickedness and taking up the righteousness of Jesus Christ by faith.

We pray, O sovereign God and gracious Son, that you would receive the reward for your suffering and take all that belongs to you, rightfully so.

For the glory of Christ we pray this. Amen. Would you please stand?

And we are going to end our service this morning with a new song that may be familiar to most of you, called

His Robes for Mine. His robes for mine,

O wonderful exchange. Clothed in my sin,

Christ suffered neath God's rage. Draped in His righteousness,

I'm justified. In Christ I live, for in my place

He died. I cling to Christ, and marvel at the cost.

He took my place to save what once was lost.

Brought by such love, my life is not my own.

My praise, my all, shall be for Christ alone.

His robes for mine, what cause have I for dread?

God's daunting law, Christ mastered in my stead.

Faultless I stand, with righteous works not mine.

Saved by my Lord, vicarious death and life.

I cling to Christ, and marvel at the cost.

He took my place to save what once was lost.

Brought by such love, my life is not my own.

My praise, my all, shall be for Christ alone.

His robes for mine, God's justice is appeased.

Jesus is crushed, and thus the Father's pleased.

Christ drank God's wrath on sin, then Christ is done.

Since wages paid, propitiation won.

I cling to Christ, and marvel at the cost.

He took my place to save what once was lost.

Brought by such love, my life is not my own.

My praise, my all, shall be for Christ alone.

His robes for mine, such anguish none can know.

Christ caused me love, contempt as though his own.

He as though I accursed and left alone.

I as though he embraced and welcomed home.

I cling to Christ, and marvel at the cost.

He took my place to save what once was lost.

Brought by such love, my life is not my own.

My praise, my all, shall be for Christ alone.

My praise, my all, shall be for Christ alone.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen. You are dismissed.