Alright, if you take your Bibles
now and turn with me to Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. My text is found in verse 13.
The Scripture says, "...let us go forth therefore unto Him." without the camp, bearing his
reproach. The title of my message is, Going
to Christ. Going to Christ. Let us go forth to who? Christ. Christ. Where is He? He's on the outside
of the camp. And what's the result of us going
forth unto Christ? It is this, bearing His reproach. Bearing His reproach. Now Paul
says, let us go forth therefore. Now when you always see that
word, I always like to know what it's there for. So you always
need a preface as to why we are going to Christ. Now Paul, here
in this text, if you look back, He reminds us in verse 8 of the
immutability of Christ. Therefore, because of the immutability
of Christ, because Christ is the same yesterday, today, and
forever. Let us go forth therefore unto
Christ. Why? Because Christ is the same. Isn't this wonderful? Isn't this
amazing? How many times have you gone
to Christ and enjoyed your visit? Enjoyed the presence of Christ?
You've gone to Christ, and yet the next day, you feel like you
couldn't possibly be any further away from Christ. This is constant. It's like one minute we're brought
up to the heavens and next we're dropped to the depths. We change. We are mutable. But here is our
hope of going forth to Christ. Christ is immutable. He is the same yesterday, today,
and forever. And so he says, because of Christ's
immunity, look at verse 9, don't be carried away with strange
doctrines. Don't be carried away with strange
doctrines. For it is a good thing that the
heart be established with what? Grace. How were you saved? You and I were saved by grace. And Jesus Christ, the grace of
Jesus Christ, this is the doctrine of grace, is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. His grace is just as immutable
as His person. You were chosen in grace. You
were redeemed by grace. You were called by grace. You
are kept by grace. Therefore, let your heart be
established. Now listen, everything else isn't
established, is it? Nothing is established in this
world. Everything is changing, everything
is moving, it's not constant, it's not consistent. You can't
tell from one day to the next what's going to happen, can you?
You can't. Your heart cannot be established
by the things of this world. You can't find rest. There's
no surety in anything in this world. Except what? Grace. Let your heart be established
with grace. Rest in the immutable grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And don't be carried about with
strange doctrines. What are the strange doctrines?
Works is a strange doctrine. Salvation by works to us is a
strange doctrine. Because we know this, we could
never be saved by our works. We know that our works have no
place in our salvation. We were not chosen based on our
works, we were not redeemed by our works, we are not called
because of our works, and we are not kept because of our works. That's a strange doctrine. It's
strange. I don't know how people believe
it. I don't have a clue how people believe in salvation by works. "...Let your heart be established
with great..." And what? "...not with meats, not with
meats which have not profited them which are occupied therein."
He's talking about the Law. The Law. He's referring to those
sacrifices and that altar and those meats that were eaten by
the priest after the offering of the atonement. He said those
meats, consider those priests. Now they offered that offering
once a year. They laid that beast on that
altar and they killed that beast. They went in there with the blood,
sprinkled it, they came back out, burnt the sacrifice, and
then on that altar, they ate it. And for a moment, they felt
relief. They felt content that God was
satisfied. But you see, that only lasted
a moment. That meat, once it was consumed,
went into the body, and out through the draw, it did not help their
soul. Those meats profited them nothing. Except they had looked to Christ
by faith in the eating of that meat in the offering of those
sacrifices that profited them nothing. And look, if that's
what they wanted, they they thought that that eating of that offering
did them something. Paul says, look, it didn't profit
them anything, but look at this. We have an altar. You who believe
on Christ. We who believe on Jesus Christ.
We have an altar. Who is that altar? That altar
is not a piece of wood or gold or brass. It is a person. Christ is our altar. He is our offering unto God. That's what was slain on the
altar. The purpose of the altar was
to receive the offering, the sacrifice. Christ is our offering. He is an acceptable offering
unto God. Look what Paul said in Hebrews
10. Look at verse 12. 11, he says, every priest standeth
daily ministering, oftentimes the same sacrifices which could
never take away sin but this man. But our altar, our offering,
after he had offered one sacrifice for sin, sat down on the right
hand of God. henceforth expecting till His
enemies be made His footstool, for by one offering He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified." God accepted His offering for
the remission of sin, and the Apostle exhorts us, therefore,
therefore, because Christ is immutable, because we have been
saved by His grace. Don't let any strange doctrine
come in. Those meats that those people are offering, it looks
Good. With all their religious robes
and all the sights and sounds and smells. It feels religious. It does not profit the soul. But we have an altar that does
profit the soul. We have a sacrifice that is acceptable
under God. It is Christ, our altar. And we are to go forth unto Him,
like those priests went forth to that altar after they had
offered it, after they had roasted the sacrifice. What did they
do on that altar? They ate it. And He's encouraging us, therefore,
to go forth to Christ and do what? Feast on Him. Feast on Christ. Jesus Christ,
our Savior. of which offerings those beasts
were a type. Consider that He was made sin. He became a reproach in our stead. He made an everlasting atonement
for our sins. It was there, like those animals
were burned on that altar. Christ suffered the fire of God's
wrath for our sin. When He was crucified, Surely
that was the most horrific physical death that any man could suffer.
But Christ suffered more than a physical death. He suffered
the justice of God. He burned under the justice of
God. Where did He burn? Outside the
camp. Outside the camp. Because His atonement for sins
was acceptable. Because His blood satisfied the
justice of God. Listen, death could not hold
Him. Therefore God raised Him from
the dead because He was satisfied. Now those bulls and blood and
you take those sacrifices, they had to peel off the skin and
cut off the head and take all the dung and entrails. That was
useless stuff. Couldn't eat that. Where did
they take that? They took that outside the camp
and burned it. See what Christ did for our sins?
All of the dung, all of the refuse, all of our sins, in His own body
He burned under the justice of God for our sins. But the difference
between those bulls and Him? When they were burned, that was
it. When He burned, He lived. He suffered outside the camp.
And God raised Him from the dead. Those corpses, they're gone,
but Christ is raised from the dead. Therefore, we have an altar
which every believer has a right to eat and drink of the blood
and flesh of Christ. See, they could only do that
once a year. They couldn't do it with the same goat or the
same bull, could they? Had to get a different one every
year. What's different about Christ? Listen, we can feast
on Him every day. We can enjoy Him every day. The benefits of His blood and
His offering are ours for the enjoyment every single moment. You can feast on Him right now.
You can feast on Him right now. Go to John chapter 6 and see
what the Lord says about this. John chapter 6. You see, this is not the Lord's
Supper. When I say feasting on Him, that's
just a picture of remembrance. But the eating and drinking of
His flesh and blood is simply this. It is to believe on Him. Look at John chapter 6 and verse
53. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you... Notice the necessity of this.
Notice the necessity of this. Except you eat the flesh of the
Son of Man, and drink His blood... What? You have no life in you. When I'm talking about eating
at this altar, it is of necessity you eat at this altar. Otherwise,
there is no life in you. Whoso eateth My flesh and drinketh
My blood hath eternal life. You know, I love the King James
Version for its fullness of the vocabulary. He that eateth and
drinketh My blood. This is a continual thing. It's something that we have done.
It is something we are doing. It is something we continue to
do. Whosoever continually eateth
and drinketh My blood and eateth My body, hath what? Eternal life. Hath eternal life. and I will raise him up at the
last day. For My flesh is meat indeed,
and My blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh
My blood dwelleth in Me, and I in him." Oh, see the benefit
of eating and drinking. Union! When you eat something and drink
something, what happens to it? It becomes part of you. It goes into your body and you
extract the nourishment from it so that you can live. Without it, you can't live. Christ
is saying without me, you cannot live. And when we eat of Christ
and drink of his blood, it is union with him. He says, I'm
in you and you and me, we're one. As the Living Father has sent
me, and I live by the Father, so He that eateth me, even He
shall live by me. He shall live by me. I think
of the vine and the branches. How could the branch exist outside
the vine? It can't. How can you exist and
live outside of Christ? You can't. How can you produce
any fruit whatsoever outside of Christ? You can't. We know
this. We rejoice in our union with
Christ. We eat of His flesh and drink
of His blood. We live because He lives. He said, and this is the bread
which came down from heaven, not that your fathers did eat
manna and are dead, but he that eateth of this bread shall live
forever. Now how do I know that he's not
talking about the Lord's Supper? Well, simply because the Lord
tells us this in verse 35, I am the bread of heaven. He that
cometh to Me shall never hunger. He that believeth on Me shall
never thirst. He's talking about faith. So
every time He's talking about eating His flesh and drinking
His blood, it is not a carnal act like the law. Paul said they
ate real flesh and it profited them nothing. If we have the
Lord's Supper and you drink that wine and you eat that bread till
you die, it will not help you. It was never intended for that.
That's a ceremony of remembrance. That has nothing to do with our
union. It's just another picture. But this is real. Do you believe
on Christ? And I'm asking this, do you believe
now? Do you rest on Him now? Do you
trust Him now? What are you doing but eating
at this altar? He said, we have an altar whereby
we eat daily, constantly. And we come to Him and all the
benefits, what are the benefits of eating of this flesh and drinking
His blood? Eternal life, peace with God,
justification, sanctification, redemption. Constant, perpetual cleansing. You know what John says? He cleanseth us. There's that
word again, it's a constant thing. He cleanseth us. You need cleansing? You need forgiveness? You need
pardon? You need mercy? You need help? Come to the altar. Feast on Christ. Feast on Him. And notice that there are still some who
have no right to this altar. There are some who have no right
to feast and enjoy the benefits of Christ. Look what Paul says
back in your text. He says, We have an altar whereof
they have no right to eat. Who has no right to eat at this
altar? They that serve the tabernacle. They that serve the tabernacle.
All who would come to God by the deeds of the law, by self-righteousness,
by works, and by the flesh, have no claim that Christ is their
Savior. They have no right to claim peace
with God. They have no right. No right to claim the perfect
redemption that Christ accomplished. You remember in the church of
Galatia, this is exactly what they dealt with. Some had come
in teaching those believers that you must believe on Christ. They
said, yeah, they would agree with me. They said, yeah, you've
got to eat Christ. You've got to believe on Christ,
sure. But you also must be circumcised. Christ surely did it all, but
you must make it effectual by one act of obedience. Salvation was by Christ, but
in order for it to be powerful, you must be circumcised. This
is the same lie being taught today that faith in Christ is
necessary. Nobody denies it's salvation.
They say, oh yeah, salvation is by grace, through faith in
Christ. We believe that. But in order to maintain it,
in order to keep on, you've got to sanctify yourself. You've
got to obey the law as best you can in order to make what Christ
did truly effectual. Some say that faith in Christ
is necessary, but you must also be baptized in order to make
it effectual. This is being taught in the mass
of religion. This is what's being taught,
that you must somehow, by taking the Lord's Supper, they really
believe that you're eating flesh and drinking blood. By mystical
hocus-pocus and conjuring. that that somehow really becomes
Christ's body and blood. And they say, oh yeah, that's
what you need. You really got to eat this and
then it's effectual. Paul said, anybody who has such
an understanding of the gospel has no right to this altar, has
no right to the things of Christ. Look at Galatians chapter 5,
see what Paul says about that. This is just amplifying what
he's saying in our text, but Galatians chapter 5, and look at verse 1. Stand fast, therefore, in the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you,
that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you what? What shall Christ profit you
if you add circumcision to His work? Not one bit. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you,
that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For
I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he
is a debtor to the whole law. Anybody want to obey the Ten
Commandments for sanctification? You are a debtor to what? You are a debtor to the whole
law. And Christ is become of what?
No effect. to you." Listen, whoever you
are. You got that? I don't care who
you are, Paul said. I don't care how long you've
been a member of this church. I don't care what you profess.
I don't care your station or status among the brethren. Whoever
you are that are justified by the law,
you are fallen from grace. These that trust in their works
have no right to the altar of Christ. This is the only thing
barring men from Christ, is coming with something. You got that?
The only thing that bars you from Christ is this, you bringing
your own works. You bringing your own merit.
It's the only thing that bars you. Your sin doesn't bar you. You got that? Your wretchedness
does not keep you from Christ. Matter of fact, the more wretched
you are, the better. Come. Come and welcome. Come with nothing but your sin. And you will find perfect salvation. You have a right. Come eat. Rejoice
with us. Come in. Doors open. If you want to bring something,
you have to stay outside. Remember that man that brought
his own robe? to the wedding feast? Where did
God put Him? Outside. He said, You don't belong
here. You don't belong here. They have
no right to eat of this altar. For He who works religion is
a religion of the camp. And the camp was what? The law.
That's where the priests were. That's where the offerings were.
They were in the camp. You ever consider what's outside
the camp? Lepers. They were outside the camp, weren't
they? Whores, they were outside the camp. Sinners, they were
outside the camp. They were not allowed in. Gentiles,
dogs, those were people outside the camp. Paul said, let us therefore go
to Christ, where? Outside the camp. Outside the camp. These are all who hate Christ
in the camp of this world. They love this world. Those who
come to God in their own wisdom, they are in the camp of the law,
legalism. These are who confess Christ
with their lips, but whose hearts are far from them. So have you
come to Christ? Have you feasted on this altar
of Christ? then this is for you, you who
have come to Christ. Let us, therefore, go continually
to Christ. Go continually to Christ. Now,
I've got three things. I want us three questions here.
How do we go forth to Christ? Paul said, therefore, because
of this altar that we have a right to. He says, let us, therefore,
go unto Christ. How do we go to Christ? I'm going
to give you three things how we are to go to Christ. First
of all, by faith. That's how you go to Christ.
Second of all, I want you to see you go to Christ in hope. And third, I want you to see
you go in love. These are this is the way we
all go to Christ. Faith, hope and love. First of all, faith. What does
the Scripture say, the just shall live how? What is the rule of
life for the just? Remember, they that are of the
tabernacle have no right to come. The just shall live by faith, daily, constantly living by faith
in Christ. This is how you first came to
Christ, isn't it? By faith. You saw your sin, you
saw your need, you saw Christ's perfect atonement, and you fled. You fled to Christ by faith,
laying hold of Him. You know, that altar in the Old
Testament, when a man fled to that altar and laid hold of the
horns of the altar, he had a refuge. That's what we did. We laid hold
of the horns of that altar and we fled to Christ for refuge
by faith. We preach, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's full, isn't it? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Those three words are so full.
Believe on the Lord, that He is what? Deity. You must believe
He is God. You must believe He is Jesus,
that He is man. And you must believe that He
is Christ. He is the one promise, the Messiah,
the only mediator between God and men. You must believe He
is the prophet, the priest, and the king, that He is the fulfillment
of all Scripture, that His blood has accomplished salvation. You
must believe that He is the Lord Jesus Christ. And everyone who
believes he is the Lord Jesus Christ, shall be saved. Saved. For with the heart man
believeth. With the heart man believeth.
Man doesn't have a will problem. That's false religion is trying
to change the will, isn't it? A lot of people are trying to
change your will. Some people are trying to change
your mind. Trying to get you to be a Calvinist. They don't
want to change your mind. You don't have a will problem,
you don't have a mind problem, you have a heart problem. What controls
your mind and your will is what? Your heart. With the heart, man, what? Believer. Unto righteousness. Then what? With the mouth, confession
is made unto salvation. Then we're willing. When you
have a new heart, Then you're willing. The heart of the natural
man is never willing. You who believe, what do you
say of your old heart? Is it better? The old nature,
is it better? You that have been around a while
and... No. It doesn't get better. It's a
dream. It's an illusion that we all
have. When we're born again, we assume we're going to get
better. The old man never gets better. To our shame, he never gets better. What did we need? We needed a
new heart. We didn't need to fix up the
old one, we needed a new one. And that's exactly what God,
by grace, gave us. He gave us a new heart. How do
I know if I have a new heart? Do you believe on the Son of
God? That's the only evidence of the
new heart. You won't find any other evidence.
Stop looking. Stop looking at your life. Stop
looking at your deeds for evidence. You'll just be discouraged when
you look in the mirror You're only going to see the wretch
that you are. It is only by faith, only by
faith in Christ that we see our hope is not in ourselves. Our
hope is in Christ. He gave us a new heart according
to that covenant. I will give you a new heart. Isn't that wonderful? I despise my old heart, but I'm
so grateful for a new heart that I can believe. Can you believe? You know that's a miracle. Man
says it's nothing more than a decision. It's not. It's an act of God
that you believe. You know what's even more amazing? You still believe. You still
believe after all that's happened, after all that's come on you,
after all the trouble and pain and grief and sorrow and affliction,
yet you still what? You still believe. You still
come. It gives us a new heart. It's
then we confess what? Our sin. We confess that Christ
is all our salvation. We say, Lord, be merciful to
me, the sinner. Before I was saved, I knew everybody
else was a sinner. I knew you were a sinner. I had
no problem telling you you were a sinner. I was a good kid. I didn't have
any. I wasn't like you. But when God
gave me a new heart, I knew this, I was worse than you. I was a sinner. And I confess,
that's what I am. From the top of my head to the
sole of my foot is nothing but sin, sin, sin, But I also confess
this, Christ is all my righteous, and in Him I am righteous. I have made the righteousness
of God in Him. His mercy, we sought His mercy,
and the grounds of our seeking was what? His blood. to redeem
us from our sins. Our hope was founded on the promises
of God. I would have never come to Him
had God not said, come. I would have had no hope except
God said, come. Come. You know this, we have not stopped
coming. I'll tell you this, the day you
stopped coming means you never came at all. Let us go forth. How? By faith. By faith. Second of all, we go in hope.
In hope. As we journey through this barren
land, this sinful world that despises our Lord, despises our
gospel, it appears to us that everything is against us. I found out this early in My
faith as well, I'm sure that many of you have as well. We
assumed every door would open, that the sea would part, the
clouds would disappear, the sun would shine forever on us as
the favored of God. Was that your experience? As
you walk through this world, is that your experience? No,
it seems every door is closed. It seems we are surrounded by
thorns and briars and everywhere we turn is sorrow and grief and
pain and sin. It appears that all is against
us. What keeps us from despair? I'll
tell you this, we do despair. Many times we despair. The apostle said this, I have
it, in Psalm 42, he asked his soul, Why art thou cast down,
O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within
me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him. And then down
in verse 11, he said, Why art thou... I'm sorry, in verse 6, he said, Oh my God, my soul is
cast down. It is cast down. I've told you
this before, he's talking about a sheep that's cast. You know,
a sheep that gets too much wool, too fat, and he just falls over. And that sheep cannot, no matter
how he struggles, he cannot ride himself. He cannot get up, and
if he's left there, he will die. That's what he's saying, I'm
a cast sheep. And except you come and deliver
me, I'll die. Anybody felt like that? What is the remedy for such despair? Hope is the remedy for despair. Now, hope is something that you
haven't received yet. Isn't that right? Paul said,
if you hope for something and you received it, why do you get
hope for it? Hope has to do with anticipation.
Hope has to do with knowing something is coming, anticipating it, expecting
it. That's what hope is. What's the
remedy for the downcast soul? It is hope in God. Oh my soul, stop looking at our
circumstance. Stop looking at providence. Oh my soul, stop looking within. And by faith, hope in God. Why? Because God promises things. He promises His help. Doesn't He say, I am a very present
help? When? When is He a present help? After trouble? What good is the
help after trouble? There's no good help after trouble.
And we don't need help before trouble. You need help when you're
in trouble. God says good, because that's
where I'm helpful. I'm helpful in trouble. Are you
in trouble? hope in God. When we come to
Christ, we come by faith, and we come by hope expecting to
be accepted. What is it but unbelief when
you come to Christ and expect Him to cast you out? Do you think
that's pious? Sometimes we think it's pious. I'm so wretched, I'm too wretched
for Christ to accept me. What is that but unbelief? That's
not pious. It's unbelief. I know you feel
that way. I know our sin and guilt drive
us to that. I'm not saying it's bad that you're
there. But when you're there, the remedy is, let us go forth
therefore unto Christ. Why? Hope is the remedy. And thirdly, we come by love. Love. To love Christ is more
than just a sentimental feeling, but an operative principle. Faith
worketh how? By what motive? Why do you believe
on Christ? I love Him. Do you love Him? We love Him. I want to come to
Him because I love Him. It is the motivation of our faith
and our hope is the view of His love, not our love. I do love
Him. You do love Him. But I'll tell
you, if you looked at your love, what would you see? Would it be enough? Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou
me more than these? I don't know, you know. What
he said, you know I love you. in despair. I love you, but I
know this, it's not sufficient to burn. I love you because you love me. And it is His love that truly
is the motivation factor in it. What constrains us from sin?
What causes us to come to Christ? It is a view of His love. Remember,
His love is the same as His person. It is the same yesterday. How much did He love you yesterday? How much does He love you today? That tells you how much He loves
you forever. It is the same. Your love will But His love will always be the
same. Isn't that motivation to come
to Him? Since He never ceases to love
you, never ceases to receive you. We'll quickly go through
these last two, just give them to you and move on. Where do
we go? When we go to Him by faith, hope
and love, where is He? I'll tell you this, He is not
in religion. He is not in works religion. That's in the camp. Where is
He? He was crucified outside the camp. When we come to Him,
what are we doing? We are forsaking this world. We are forsaking our own righteousness. And we are cleaving to His offering
as our only hope. That's what we're doing. We're
going outside the camp. We are going against everything
man's wisdom and this world teaches us. We are abandoning our sin. We desire our sin no more. We long for Him. We long to live
soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Isn't
this our desire as we go to Him? To live godly. But the more you
try to live godly, how's that going for you? The more I try
to live godly, the more I know of my sin. You know why this is good? Because
as I told you, those who are on the outside of the camp were
sinners. That's where Christ died. He
died on the outside of a camp, bearing our sin in His own body.
This, when we go forth to Christ, we must then, as we strive to
live soberly, righteously and godly, we come confessing our
inability to live soberly, righteously and godly in this world. We confess
that. How is it that we can? Only by
His strength and by His righteousness. You can't tell by looking, but
as He is, so are we right now. Now, you've got to take that
by faith. You can't see that. And so as we come to Him, we
come to Him seeking to follow Him, seeking to live honorably
unto Him. But as we do this, we must come
outside the camp confessing that we are nothing but sin. Constantly
confessing that all my righteousness is in that man. All my hope is
in that man who was crucified for me. And what is the result
of coming to him? Bearing his reproach. Do you realize, and I know this,
Paul said, Peter says, think is not strange when fiery trials
come upon you to try your faith. Yet we still think it's strange. To bear reproach for us is like,
what? Are we not the elect of God?
Are we not redeemed by the blood of Christ? Are we not children
of God? Yes. But as our Savior bore reproach
and hatred of this world, even so must we take up our cross
and follow Him, expecting, expecting to bear reproach in this world,
expecting that we should suffer. I think it's in Philippians 1.
I may be mistaken on that, but 129. It is given unto us on the
behalf of Christ, not only to believe, but to suffer for His name's
sake. I'm no used car salesman. You come to Christ, you will
suffer. Not for your sins. That's been
done. I come because he suffered for
my sins. But I know this, we will suffer
in this life. We will bear his reproach. We'll
bear the hatred of men. But our hope, our hope is in
that altar. And this is why we need to daily
eat, daily believe, coming in faith, hope, and love to Christ. Where? Outside the camp, confessing
our sins and confessing Him as our only hope. And bearing His
reproach as a badge of honor. It's a badge of honor to bear
His reproach. I pray God will bless this. Let's
stand and be dismissed in prayer.