All right, if you'll take your
Bibles and please turn with me to Hebrews chapter 13. I pray that the Lord this morning
will come and bless us with this message. God would richly fill
our hearts with these wonderful truths and exhortations of Scripture
that are given to us here. Hebrews chapter 13, we'll be
looking at verse 13. and fourteen this morning. The
title of the message is, Go forth to Christ. Go forth to Christ. The scripture says in verse thirteen,
Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing
his reproach, for here have we no continuing city. But we seek
one to come. Let us go forth therefore unto
him." Now, of course, when you read in Scripture, therefore,
you always want to see what it is therefore. So, if we go back
to what we had studied last time concerning the altar, Paul says
in verse 10, we have an altar whereof they have no right to
eat which serve the tabernacle. Now, since we have an altar,
and that altar is the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only acceptable
offering, the only acceptable sacrifice unto God for the remission
of sins, the Apostle exhorts us who are partakers of His Spirit,
partakers of the divine nature, partakers of His flesh and His
blood. If we are believers in Christ,
the Apostle says, let us therefore go unto Him, our altar. Our altar. Now, the atonement. If you remember on the great
day of atonement in the Old Testament, those who tended the tabernacle,
they offered the sacrifice and drained the blood. They had brought
the blood into the Holy of Holies, but they took the carcasses. the offerings, and they burned
them outside the camp. And they were not allowed to
partake of this offering. They were not allowed to eat
of this offering. Now, there are some offerings
that the priests, that's how they received their meat, is
through the sacrifices. They were allowed to partake
of some of these sacrifices. But in the atonement, this was
holy unto God. only to God, and none of them
were able to eat of this atonement. And those bodies that were burned
outside the camp, they were of no value, no nutritional value
to anyone, because truly they were of no spiritual value. They were of no spiritual value.
They were only pictures. They were only types. They never
took away But Jesus, our Savior, who was made sin for us and reproached
in our stead to make an everlasting atonement for our sins, he burned
under the wrath and justice of God for our sins and was crucified
where? Where those bodies were burned,
outside the camp. He was crucified outside the
camp, but His atonement for sin was acceptable in that it actually
removed sin. His atonement, His one offering
removed sin. And because His death satisfied
the justice of God, His body did not lay in the ground as
those corpses did of the Old Testament sacrifices that rotted
away in the ground. His body was risen from the dead
incorruptible. Incorruptible. Because the grave
could not hold Him. Therefore, while those corpses
of bulls and goats rotted, our Lord's body never saw corruption. Therefore, we have an altar from
which every believer has a right to eat. Every believer in Christ,
you have an altar who has made an atonement, Christ. And we
have a right to eat of His flesh and drink of His blood. This is not the Lord's Supper
when I'm talking about eating the flesh and drinking the blood
of Christ. The Lord's Supper is a picture
of this for remembrance, a memorial service. But when I say eating
the flesh of Christ and drinking his blood, this is by faith. This is by faith. It is by faith
in his body and blood we are able to be in union, to able
to see our union with Christ. This is the altar by which we
may daily come and find nourishment, find substance for our souls. Do you find any substance in
the conversation of this world? Do you find any joy, lasting
joy in the conversation with others? I don't. I have conversations
with a lot of people about different things, but really, they're just
fruitless conversations. How's the weather? Well, it's
hot today, it'll be cold tomorrow, it'll rain sometime. We don't
know. It's really fruitless conversation. But in this, we find nourishment
for our souls. If you're a believer in Christ,
you look into the Scriptures. And you see the sacrifice of
our Savior. You see the acceptable offering
for our sins. And in this we find true nourishment
and strength so that we can go on the next minute, so we can
go on the next hour, so we can go on to the next day. This is
our food, our nourishment. This is the altar from which
we receive refreshment. Jesus said, that you must eat
of his flesh and drink of his blood. Go to John chapter 6. John chapter 6. And we know that these words
are spirit because the Lord tells us this at the end of the passage,
at the end of the conversation. He said these words are spirit
and they are truth. Look at John 6. In verse 53, Jesus said, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son
of Man and drink his blood, you shall have no life in you. Whoso
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood 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. As the living Father
has sent me and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me,
even he shall live." How? How shall we live? By Him. We live by Him. The Apostle says, the life. I now live in the flesh. I live
by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself
for me. How do you live? How is it that
you find strength to carry forward the next step? I live by the
faith of the Son of God. I live by His faith. I live by
His work, by His atonement. I can take another step. I can
take another step because He lives. I live by Him, by faith
in Him. And we must continue to live
by faith in Him. Live by faith in Him when? Now! We believe now. We trust now.
It is an ever-constant faith that is always now. I believe
now. And this gives me encouragement
and strength. to know that my sins have been
atoned for. And I feast on this. I enjoy
this. We must read His Word. We must pray and seek His face. We must set our hearts and minds
and wills to love, serve, and obey the Savior, Jesus Christ. Notice this, that those who serve
The tabernacle, go back to your text, says we have this altar
where they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. All
who would come to God by the deeds of the law, by self-righteousness,
free will, works, religion, you know what? They have no right
to eat of this. They have no right to eat of
this that we have a right to. In Galatians, if you'll flip
over there, Galatians chapter 5, this church in Galatia was
being taught a very evil thing. Galatians chapter 5 and verse
1, the apostle says, Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith
Christ hath made us free. and not be entangled again with
the yoke of bondage. 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. Christ is become of no effect
unto you. Whosoever of you are justified
by the law, you are fallen from grace." The Galatian church was
being taught to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be circumcised. They were being taught that salvation
was Christ plus something. Anyone whose salvation is Christ
plus something has no right to eat. No right. And I would give no man any hope
I would dare not do that. That would be as like I was murdering
someone's soul. If I were to give you any hope
or any comfort, if you believe in Christ plus your works, Christ
plus your baptism, Christ plus anything, Christ shall profit
you nothing. If you put your hands to the
work, you've defiled the sacrifice. Christ shall profit you nothing. Nothing. This same lie is being taught
when men are saying, you have to be baptized. You have to join
the church. You have to do this. You have
to obey the law. Christ is great in His place,
but you've got to add to it. I can give that man no hope.
He has no right to eat of Christ. He has no right to eat of the
altar of peace. These who trust in their works
have no right to claim salvation of their souls. Free will works religion is the
religion of what the apostle here calls the camp. The camp. Notice this. That he said, Christ,
that in verse 11, the bodies of those beasts and blood were
brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin and burned
without the camp. Wherefore, Jesus also that he
might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without
the camp, without the gate. These are all who confess Christ
with their lips and whose hearts are far from him. Therefore, all who have been
sanctified." How are we sanctified? Do you
sanctify yourself? Is that possible for you to sanctify
yourself? No. The Scriptures are clear.
It's Christ that sanctified you. We are sanctified by God, the
Father, in election. Sanctified by Christ at the cross. Sanctified by the Holy Spirit
in regeneration. We're sanctified by God. We don't
sanctify ourselves. Therefore, we who are sanctified
by the blood of Christ, here is the exhortation to you. Let us go therefore unto Him,
you who are saved, you who have come to Christ. continue to go
forth unto Him." Well, how is it that we go forth unto Him?
He said, let us go forth unto Him without the camp. Now, this is just the wording
of the Holy Spirit. I was made aware of this, and
I didn't look this forensically at this until I studied it again
this week. You notice he said, let us not.
It doesn't say, let us go forth without the camp under him. It says, let us go on to him.
It was outside the camp. Let us go into him. There's a
lot of people outside the camp wandering aimlessly. They have
nowhere to... They say, we're separate from
the world. We're separate from everything.
Look at how we dress. Look at how we talk. Look at
how we speak. Look at it. We're outside the
camp. Everybody hates us. But they've not gone to Him outside
the camp. They've just gone outside the
camp. But we go to Him. We first go to Christ. And as we go to Christ, we know
where He is to be found. Outside the camp. Well, how is
it that we go forth unto Him? First of all, we go forth by
faith. Second, we go to Him by hope. And third, we go to Him
by love. And fourth, we go to Him by our
will. We willingly go unto Him. The Scripture says the just shall
live by faith. And so we go forth unto Christ
by faith. Faith is the first evidence of
spiritual life. Do you have faith in Christ? In Christ alone. With nothing
else. We preach, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. What a glorious message. Simplistic. Believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. This matter of faith is
not a matter of, is not a will issue. It is not a mind issue,
but rather it is a heart issue. So faith does not come by will. It does not come by mind. It
comes from a new heart, a new heart. For with the heart, man
believeth under righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation." The heart is not the natural man's
heart, because that heart is full of sin. When you are born,
you are born with a natural heart, a natural mind, a natural will,
and that is full of sin. The old heart, that's not where
faith comes from. Now, the old heart can have faith,
but it can't have spiritual faith in Christ. This comes from a new heart,
and this new heart comes by the creation of the Holy Spirit. It is a miraculous thing, salvation. It's not a natural thing. I remember as a child, men using
mind games. They would corner you with their
thoughts or their doctrines, and they would try to fit you
into a corner until you had nowhere else to go or nothing else to
say, but, yes, I'm a sinner, I'm lost. Sure, I believe in
Jesus Christ. And then they let you out of
the corner. All they did was educate you, but they didn't
come from the heart. Salvation, faith in Christ is
a matter of the heart. From this new heart we believe
on Jesus Christ alone. And with this new heart comes
out a confession of our sin nature, a confession of our unworthiness,
a confession of God's glory and mercy and grace that is found
in Christ Jesus. It comes from a new heart. So
when we come forth unto Christ, we come with a heart of faith. We believe. We trust in Him. We trust in Him. We who have believed on Christ,
how is it that we still come to Him? Is there a new way now? We've come to Him by faith. Now
that we're growing up, we really don't need faith anymore. No,
that's not true. We come to Him the same way we
first came to Him, by faith. I was reading this morning. I
didn't expect to use this, but I was reading this morning concerning
the Lord's name, Jehovah Jireh. And I thought about Abraham's
sacrifice. You know, Abraham, when it said
he believed God, could you not see that faith? Could you not
see the evidence. Now, there may have been struggles
in his mind, in his heart, but I knew this. Abraham believed
and trusted God, and he said, Jehovah Jireh. The Lord has seen. The Lord will provide. The Lord
will be seen. That's what that word Jehovah
Jireh means. Those three things. The Lord
sees. The Lord will provide. The Lord shall be seen. When we trust in God, we are
trusting that God sees our needs. We are trusting God to provide
for our need, our spiritual need, and He has in Christ. And we
trust that God shall be seen. Where? In the face of Christ. We believe God. We trust God. We don't trust what we see. We
trust Him. We believe on Him. And as we
believe on Him, we go forth unto Him by faith. We believe on Him. Have faith in His great person
and His great work of salvation. Do you believe on Christ? This is not just a sentimental
action. This is not tipping our hats
to God as though we, well, I believe you, okay, and then going our
own way. Do you believe God will provide
for your needs? Do you believe God has provided
for your needs? Do you believe He will provide
for your needs? Do you believe that He has provided
all that is necessary for your salvation? Do you believe on
that? Do you trust that with your dying breath? Yeah. Then you're going forth unto
Him. You're coming to Christ. That's what it is. You believe.
You trust Him wholly and completely. Second, we go forth unto Him
in hope. In hope. As we, by faith, journey
through this barren land, this sinful world that despises us,
despises our gospel, despises all that we stand for, What will
keep us from utter despair? I've felt despair, but I've not
felt utter despair. I've felt hopeless, but I've
not felt utter hopelessness, because God has always come and
given me hope in my darkest times. In my greatest trouble, God has
always come and given me the grace of hope." What is hope? Our language is so fickle today
that hope is nothing more than a wish. Gee, I hope I get this
for Christmas. No. Hope is confidence. Do you have confidence in Christ? Do you have assurance in Christ? That's what hope is. We come
to Christ with confidence. knowing that His blood and righteousness
are all our salvation. There are times when we are sorely
tried and dismayed, and we are cast down either by our circumstances,
or by our own conscience, or by men's abuse, or by our own
sin nature that is constantly opposed to us. We may feel surely
that we have depleted all divine grace. Have you felt that? Because
I have. I may be the only one here that has ever felt that.
But I have felt that in my soul that surely I have depleted the
grace of God, that He has utterly forsaken me and well deserved,
I deserved Him to be gone from me because of my sin was so great. Have you felt that condemnation
of your conscience? Then by faith look to Christ
and you will find hope. Sometimes I stand and sometimes
I fall, but whether I stand or I fall, I stand and fall on the
rock of Jesus Christ. And that rock is not moved. It's
not moved by my standing on it, and it's not moved by my falling
on it. I have a steady confidence that
Christ is the foundation of my soul, and it will not be moved. So when we come to Christ, we
come with great hope, great confidence that we will never be cast out.
Go forth unto Him and keep your eyes on His person and you will
find great hope. No matter how dark the circumstances
around you, if our eyes fixed on Him, you'll find light. You'll
see light. Go forth unto Him. Because He
is risen and He rules over all things. Do we believe that? Do we? I don't act like it. There are
many times I don't act like I know that He is in charge of all things.
And yet, He is. If I am well or if I am sick,
if I am in trouble or I am at peace, it is all because of His
holy, divine providence. He rules all things at all times. And we who hope, who have our
hope in Him, we have a good hope. We have a good hope. The hope
of this world is always changing, isn't it? It's why religion changes
constantly with the customs or the environment around it. It
changes because its hope has to change. That hope they had
yesterday was not good enough today. So they have to change
it. They've got to make it more modern. They've got to make it
more educational. They got. No, we don't have to
change anything. Our hope is still the same hope
that Abraham had. The same hope that Isaac had. The same hope that Jacob had.
The same hope that the apostles had. It is the same hope that
we have. And just as sure as they died
and their bodies were buried, their souls were ushered into
the presence of Christ, even so we have this great hope. We have this hope. Stand fast in that hope. Hang
on to it and come to Christ with hope. Thirdly, go forth unto Christ
with love. To love Christ is more than sentiment,
but it is an operative principle. Love is more than saying, I love
you, isn't it? How easily those words flow off
of our lips. I truly don't even know if I
loved my wife until years after we were married. I said it a
lot, but more of it was passion than anything else. Love, as it grows, it's more of a commitment. than a passion, than a feeling. Love. We who believe on Christ,
hope in Him. We believe in Him and we love
Him. Do you yearn for His presence? Yes. I told someone this morning
that Sundays and Wednesdays are the two days I look forward to
the most because this is the closest to heaven that we are
going to get in this life. This is the closest that we get. Because He's promised to be here
among us. When you come to worship, do
you come with a yearning heart to feel His presence? To know
He's here? To believe and trust in Him?
As He had promised to be here, do we love Him? If we go forth
unto Christ, let us go with love, desiring to hold Him, desiring
to be with Him. Go forth unto Christ having your
hearts set, not with the affections of this world Not with our hearts
set on the things of this life. A double-minded man is unstable
in all his ways. You can't have your love affectionate
towards the things of this world and towards Christ. If we have true faith and hope,
our love is set on Christ and Christ alone. It's set on Christ
when we come here, and it's set on Christ when we leave out that
door. It's set on Christ when we walk in this world. Our love
should be set on Christ at all times if we go forth unto Him. Do we sin? To our shame, yes. To our shame. And the words come to our heart,
Lovest thou me more than these. Do we love Him? We who believe do love Him. How much? Never enough. Never enough. We are never able
to match His love for us. But if we do come to Him, we
must come in love. We must come in love. Let us not be Ephesus. Let us
not be the church that had all the truth, all the doctrine,
and none of the love. Where then do we go forth to
Christ? The answer is outside the camp. He said, let us therefore go
unto Him without the camp bearing His reproach. Now there will
be many who profess faith in Christ, hope in heaven, and say
they love Him, but they have not gone to Christ because they're
still in the camp. There are many in the camp of
this world that say these things. There is a great difference between
professing the graces of God and actually possessing them.
There's a great difference. Those who profess these graces
but are still bound to this world are deceived. Are deceived. Jesus said you cannot serve two
masters. You cannot have sin. and this
world and Christ. You either cling to the one and
hate the other, or you'll love the one and despise the other,
but you will not serve Christ and this world. He deals with
mammon, money, but it's the same with all earthly effects, all
earthly things. Principle is still the same.
In Isaiah 29, the Lord said, they draw near with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me." If we believe here among God's
people, if we profess faith in Christ here only, and go out
the door and live in sin, do not be deceived. You are not
one of His. One who goes forth to Christ
must separate himself from this world. What does that mean? Do
we live in a monastery? Do we go? No. No. Christ said, I'm not taking you
out of this world. You're going to live in this
world, but you're not a part of this world. You're not a part
of it. This world is not our home, friends. If we are believers in Christ,
this world is something that we are passing through. You that are older, testify to
those younger how fast this has gone by, because I'll tell you,
when you're young, you think it's just going too slow. Don't be afraid to tell them
that life is fleeting and the joys of this life are
passing and they don't last at all. This world is not our home. Verse
14, For we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. Believers are not saved. by their
good works, nor by their mortification of the flesh. But to go forth
to Him, we must live soberly, righteously and godly. When?
When we get to heaven? Do we live soberly, righteously
and godly only when we get to heaven? No. We live soberly,
righteously and godly in this present world. That is our desire
as believers in Christ. That is our hope. That is what
we strive for, is righteousness. We don't obtain it by ourselves. We have it inside of us. And
we long to be what God has made us. We mortify the deeds of the body.
And when we do it, we don't count it as any part of our salvation. We do it because we want to go
to Him outside the camp. We want to be separate from this
world. We hate this flesh. I despise this world. My flesh is like a rotting corpse
dragging me down. It's wrapped around my neck.
It pulls me to the ground. And we can't wait till we're
rid of it. And believe me, When you make
separation from this world, and you will not run with this
world, you will be hated by it. Therefore, let us go forth unto
him by faith, love, hope, outside the camp, separated from the
world, and what's going to happen? Bearing his reproach. 2 Timothy 3.12 says, Yea, and
all that will live godly in Christ shall suffer persecution. Is that not plain? Anybody miss
that? Have I ever taught you that believing
in Christ is going to be a wonderful experience free from suffering? Have I ever taught you that?
I have never mentioned that once. Matter of fact, I've always told
you that believing in Christ will cause great suffering. If you go through this life and
there's no struggle with sin, there's no struggle against this
world, there's no struggle against this flesh, against the enemy,
against Satan, and you're like that man in Pilgrim's Progress
that just went on straight through, had no problems, And when he
got to the gate he was cast out. How then are we to take these
reproaches? Joyfully. Go to 1 Peter and we'll close.
1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 3. But, and if ye suffer for righteousness'
sake, happy are ye, happy are ye, and be not afraid of their
terror, neither be troubled. Sanctify the Lord God in your
hearts. And be ready always to give an
answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that
is in you with meekness and fear. Believer, let us go forth unto
Christ. How? By faith, believing, trusting. How? By hope, having a rock-solid
confidence in Christ. How? By love, loving Him, serving
Him. Where do we go outside the camp,
separate from this world, leaving all things behind for the sake
of Christ, suffering the reproach of all men, even as our Lord
suffered? Why? This world is not our home. Nope. Don't put down roots too
deep here. We're just passing through. We're just passing through. May God bless this to your hearts.