Hebrews chapter 13. Let's look
at one verse, all right? Hebrews 13, verse 13. Hebrews
13, verse 13. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the
camp. bearing his reproach. Let us go forth, therefore, unto
him without the camp, bearing his
reproach. Now, the truth, the truth has
always been in the minority. The truth has always been in
the minority. The truth has always been despised
and rejected by most people. Did you hear me? From the beginning,
those who believed God, as opposed to popular opinion, Those who believed God's word,
the truth, were hated, ridiculed, and in the minority. From the very beginning. Noah. You know the story of Noah. You
know how many people were saved? Well, first of all, do you know
how many people were on the earth at that time? Estimates have
it, Bible scholars say, that there could have been billions
of people on the earth. Noah and seven people. Eight persons were on that ark. Israel, you take Israel for example,
as God delivered Israel in the Exodus, took them through from
Egypt all the way through those foreign lands, and they were
the mighty Syrians, they were the mighty Amalekites, the Philistines,
which encompassed vast lands with many people. Israelites,
comparatively, were a very small band of people, weren't they? They were the only people of
God. Is that right? That's what Scripture said. Now,
when Christ, when Jesus Christ arose from the grave and appeared
to his disciples, he stayed here forty days. And then he went
back to glory. You know how many people were,
how many disciples were meeting together when he went back to
glory? You know how many disciples?
A hundred and twenty. A hundred and twenty. The truth has always been in
the minority. Now, I know the scripture says that God has a
people as the sands of the sea. That's a lot of people. As the
stars of the sky, which no man can number, the scripture says.
I know that. But you know, that's taken over a period of time.
That's taken over all time of human beings being on this earth. And little children dying, babies
dying. I can see how that's so. Yes.
But at any given time now, in any given generation, God's true
people, true are relatively few. Scripture says that. It says
there'll be like a scattering of corn on the mountain top.
Go out and take a hand of corn and fling it to the wind. And that's the way that God's,
a remnant, he said, a remnant. He said, though the children
of Israel be as the sands, he said, yet a remnant will be set. Now, when we say this, and when
I say this, and I believe that many in here are, if not most,
are among this number of believers, and when we declare this, when
we say we are, and the whole world, you remember when John
said, we're of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness. You
remember that? That's an awful bold statement, isn't it? It's
true, according to the scriptures, that the truth has always been
in a minority. We just read Matthew 10, how
he said, You'll be hated by all men for my name's sake. People,
religion, all religions, all denominations and all, pretty
much get together. They're not hating each other. Ain't that right? They don't
hate each other. They all believe basically the
same thing. But they despise what we believe. They hate what we claim to believe
and preach here. Isn't that right? And when I
say this, and when we declare this, it's not for the purpose
of being exclusive. I'm not trying to exclude anybody.
I'm trying to be like a little club. We've got it and nobody
else does, and we might let you in. That's not the reason. Listen, if anything, it's easier
to go with flow. It's easier to go with flow than
to swim upstream. You know that? Just go with the
flow. Compromise. That's a whole lot
easier. Isn't it? A whole lot easier
to get along with people and to fight and to stand up. A whole lot easier to compromise
than to take a stand, isn't it? So we're not saying this to be
exclusive. But let me say this, believers
now are just that, they're believers. We confess like Paul did. He
said, after the way they call heresy, Paul said, I confess, that's what I believe. You remember in the Acts where
Paul was standing before, I forget who it was, but he was standing
and he said, they said, we know everywhere that that way, the
way you believe, Paul, is spoken against. And nobody believes
like you do, Paul. You're in a minority here. Everywhere
this way is spoken. But he said, I want to hear about
this way. Well, it doesn't matter if the whole
world doesn't believe the truth. Believers do, and they're going
to stand for it. All right? Now, listen. Christ said in John
17 3, He said this. I wish I could call on one of
our young people to quote this. Don't have that scared look on
your face. I'm not going to. I'm not going
to call on you to quote that, but I believe we all can do it. John 17 3, our Lord said, and
this is life eternal. Our Lord said, this is salvation.
Jesus Christ summed it up. He said, this is life eternal,
but they, that is, those who have eternal life, might not
be the only true God. And Jesus Christ, whom he has
sent. Now, if he said that, the only
true God, then that means he's implying
there, isn't he, that there's false gods and Jesus Christ whom
God sent. And he said that over and over
again, didn't he, Joe? He said many false Christs will
come, didn't he? It's not so much men who come
and say, I'm Jesus, I'm the Christ, I'm the resurrected. It's not
so much that as those who claim or preach another Jesus, you
see. That's who these false Christ
are, not men who claim so much to be Messiahs, so much as those
who preach another Christ. And Paul said that, they'll come
preaching another Jesus, another gospel, didn't they? Another
gospel. That's the reason Paul said,
now this is my gospel, isn't it? Our gospel. Didn't he say
that, Paul? He said, if anybody preaches any other gospel than
what you've heard from me, Paul said that. Didn't he say that,
Jim? Any other gospel than what I preach. I don't care who it
is. An angel from heaven come down and preach. I don't care
what he said, how good it sounds, how good he looks, what impression
it makes on you. If the whole world's believing
it. Anything other than what I'm saying to you," Paul said,
let him go to hell. Oh, Paul, that's dogmatic. One Lord, one thing. One Lord,
one thing. All right, he said, the only true
God. This is eternal life that they might know to be the only
true God. God. That means God is God. That doesn't, if not He just
tries to be God, or wants to be God, and will be God, and
we'll let Him be God. No, He's God! He's God! He's God! Ain't nobody lets Him do anything.
That's what makes Him God. He's not wanting to be Lord,
he's Lord. That's what makes him Lord. He's
Lord. Is that about as simple as I
can make it, you know? How simple? He's God's God. That's what the name means. Absolute
ruler, controller, creator, sustainer, and giver of life, and upholder
of life, and the one who breathes and we breathe, the one who says
it and we do it. He's God. Men don't make Him
God, He makes them men. Men don't let Him be God, He
lets them live. Men don't accept him as anything.
He might accept them. The only true God. It's absolutely absurd to say
anything contrary, isn't it? I can't—and I can't declare
this any other way than holler it. God's God! Men don't let him be God. Let
go and let God. Let God what? That's what they say. Ken had
preachers that say, Let go and let God. Let God. Just what are
we going to let God do? He who throws stars in space
where he wills it. Men are absolute ignorant fools,
aren't they? The fool hath said there's no
God. He's not really God at all. He
just wants to be God. He'll be God if you let him. The only true God and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent, sent, sent, sent, Jesus Christ, whom this
God, who reigns and rules and purposes and controls and wills
and ain't nobody can do or say anything about it, sent Jesus
Christ with an express purpose, with a job to do, sent him down
to do it, and said, You call his name Jesus, he shall. saved
his people from his sins. And this sent one came down and
did just that, and went back to glory and sat down, job finished. Sent. Returned home, job done. And they'll all be saved. Jesus
Christ. Well, Paul said to come preaching
another Jesus. A Jesus who came and and tried,
did all he could do, and now it's up to men to let him. Jesus, who died for everybody,
his blood really didn't save anybody. Only if men just decided
to believe and make his blood effectual, then he wants to. He's not going to cure harsh
door. He's sitting down. He's not knocking
anybody's heart's door. The only person who's going to
do any knocking is us. So doesn't it say that somewhere?
Yeah, he says it to the church. He says it to the church. Well, here's what I'm trying
to say. Here's what the scriptures say.
Look at verse 13. Let us go forth, therefore, unto
him. Salvation is to know of Him.
It's to come to Him. Let us go forth and join the
church. No, that ain't it. Let us go
forth and be baptized. No, that's not it. Let us go forth unto Him. Him. It's him, it's a person,
to become acquainted with a person. It's to come, it's to see, it's
to see, that is, with the understanding. We're not to see God, but it's
to come to understand that, hey, he's God. That this man who walked this
planet is not just Jesus. Paul said
in another place, he said, we see Jesus. Yeah, we see Jesus. We saw this man who walked the
earth and made little lower than the angels. He's a man. For the
suffering of death. Yeah, we saw him hung on a cross. But Paul went on to say, he's
now crowned with glory and honor. And you don't see him as Jesus
now. He ain't Jesus now. He's the Lord Jesus, and you
will address him as such. In Psalm 2, he says, you will
bow, because God says, I've declared the decree. I've set my Son on
my holy hill of Zion. I've declared the decree, and
I've given all things into his hands. And salvation is now to
bow at his feet. and acknowledge him, not accept
Jesus, but to bow before this God the Lord. And so that's who this hymn is.
You see, some tell us salvation is to come to him. Christ said,
Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give
you rest. Who is he? One time, well, when they crucified
him, it says the whole multitude sat around at the While he hung there, and it says,
sitting down, they watched him there. Him. Him. And so, you see, salvation, this
is eternal life, that they might know thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, who he sent. To know him. I started to go
back to Hebrews 1. Well, let's do it, all right?
You don't have any place to go, do you? Look at Hebrews 1. Look back
here. Who is this? Who is this him he's talking
about? We go to. We bow before him. To know is
to have life eternal. Well, look at it. Hebrews chapter
1, all right? It says, God at sundry time in
different manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by son, whom
he hath appointed heir of all things. That is, he owns it all.
By whom also he made the world. He made it all. Who being the
brightness of his glory, the express image of his person,
what's that mean? It means he's God, that's what
it means. Upholding all things by the word of his power." What's
that mean? That means what he says goes. Whatever he says, it gets done.
He says, you live, you live. He says, you die, you die. He says, you save, you save. He says, you damn, you damn. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
When he had by himself purged our sin, what did he do when
he came here? He came to save his people, and he did it. I
mean, he did it. We don't help him. It says he
did it by himself. Where is he now? He's not leaning
over the banister. He's not knocking on the door.
What's it say there? Does everybody in here read this
with me? Verse 3, it says he sat down. He's right now seated on the
right hand of the majesty on high. That's who Him is. That's who He is. Well, come
on, read on. Read on down here to verse 8.
We say, well, He's the Son of God. Well, He's less than God. Look at verse 8. Let's hear what
God says about His Son. Under the sun, He saith, Thy
throne, O God. God calls Him God. And he's on the throne. My, my. And so Paul ends this
whole book up by saying, Let us go therefore unto him. It's not, and I keep saying this
until somebody hears me, it's not accepting Jesus. Jesus was
down here and men rejected him. One time, God put Jesus into
the hands of men. What'd they do with him? You
know what they did? They rejected him. They killed him. He's not
up for acceptation or rejection now. He's seated on a throne. We're the ones on trial. We're the ones on trial. And
the question is now, not what we'll do with Jesus, huh? Can't
do anything with him. The question is now, what's he
going to do with us? That's the question. If anybody's
saying anything other than that, it's not the gospel. If anybody's saying, won't you
accept Jesus, that's another gospel. That's another Jesus. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
is seated on the throne, and he's the one doing the accepting.
Huh? Let us go, therefore, unto him.
That's who we're going to come to. Man comes, man saved, young
person saved. This is the him they're going
to believe. This is he. This is who they're
going to believe. True God and the sent Christ
and the seated Lord. I'll tell you where he's at. You know, that's who he is. Let
me tell you where he's found. Read on. Look at the text here.
Let us go therefore unto him without the You're not going to find him
in camp. They didn't want him. We looked at that this morning,
didn't we? He'd come into town, they'd drive him out. Yes, sir, everywhere Christ went,
they wanted him out. Come in Jerusalem, they'd run
him out. When he finally came into Jerusalem
last time, they laid hold on him, and what'd they do with
him? Took him out of town. Hung him
on a cross. There now. Now we're done with
you. Yep. He's out of the camp. And now you're going to come
before him. Out of the camp. Ah, my. He's out of the camp. You've got to come to him without
the camp. Without the camp. Now, listen,
to get to Christ, you're going to have to leave the camp of
religion. Like I just said, religion back then didn't want him, and
they don't want him now. People are accepting Jesus, but
they're absolutely rejecting thumbs down the Lord Jesus Christ. Every so-called church accepts
Jesus. They love this Jesus, this baby
that's in their arms, you know, this Lord, this Jesus who's in
their hands to decide whether or not he's Lord or not. Everybody
accepts that Jesus, but everybody thumbs down, they're wanting
this Lord out of town. That's what Psalm 2 says, a heathen
rage, and the people imagine the vain thing against the Lord
and his anointed. against the Lord and his anointing.
And it says, he that sits in the heavens is laughing. What do you think God thinks
about all this talk about accepting his Son? Huh? It says he's laughing. That's
what the Scripture says. It doesn't say anything. Psalm
2 says, he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. God's done,
preachers everywhere, in the camp or say, all the camp, the
convention, the organized religions say, God's done all He can do,
and now God's laughing. You ain't seen all I can do. You're going to see what all
I can do. God's done all He can do, and
now it's up to you. We'll see who it's up to. God's
laughing. We're going to see who it's up
to. Without the camp. The camp. The
camp. The religious camp. They like
to call it camp leading though. Camp leading. I don't know where
that came from. You have to leave organized religion. You know, God says this over
and over again, over and over again. He said, your thoughts
are not my thoughts. Your ways are not my ways. Doesn't
it? He says it over and over again.
My thoughts are not your thoughts. In Psalm 50, he said, thou thoughtest
that I was altogether such a one as yourself. God says, you human
beings, you think I'm like you. I'm not. My thoughts are not your thoughts.
And so mark it down. Whatever the majority of people
believe about God, it's wrong. It's absolutely opposite the
way God is. Whenever a man stops and says,
I don't know much about God, but this is what I think. Well,
you're right, you don't know much about God. And it doesn't
matter what you think. God says, My thoughts are not
your thoughts. My ways are not your way. Thou
thoughtest. An old black preacher one time
preached a message, and that was the name of it. It ain't
like you thought it was. Salvation, God, Jesus, ain't
like man thinks He is. He's as He is. And the Scripture
says someday that all people are going to see Him as He is. Not like they think He is. And without the camp, the camp
of the world, the camp of organized religion. Now listen to him. And it says here, look at this,
bearing his reproach. You see that, verse 13? Without
the camp, bearing his reproach. It requires what he said in Matthew
10, bearing his cross. That's reproach. The offense,
the offense of the cross, the offense of the gospel, that's
what you bear. The offense of the cross, that's
what you bear. You don't carry a piece of wood
around any day. It's the offense of the cross
that you bear. It's the stand for the truth
that you bear. It's the burden of the word that
you are under, carrying. And now this is difficult to
do. You see, it's comfortable in the camp. Like I said, it'd
be easy for us to just say, hey, there's some truth in everything.
There's some truth. They're saying some good things.
They're all sincere and, you know, they're trying to do their
best. And they love Jesus and they
love God. Let's get along. Let's not fight
this thing, you know. Why be in the minority? Let's
join up. Isn't there strength in numbers?
No! There's error in numbers. They
started this whole thing out by saying the truth is in the
minority. What if no one said, you know,
y'all come on in now. We'll leave the door open. It's difficult to do. It's comfortable
in the camp. You'll be hated if you leave
the camp. You'll be called a fanatic. You'll
be called a cult. They'll call what you believe
strange doctrine. Just say what God says and they'll
call it strange doctrine. Now why is that? Because they're
strangers to the truth. Strangers to the covenant. The
eternal covenant. Ordered in all things and sure.
Strangers to it. Don't want to hear about it.
That's strange to them. You'll become a fool for Christ's
sake. Look at them out there. You know what? You'll become
a fool for Christ's sake. They'll think you're strange.
Let me pick out a couple here. There's a couple right here who
lives down past the crossroads, on down, how can you describe
it? On down the holler. You'll know
what I'm saying when you go down the holler, cross the crossroads,
go on over the hill, up the hill, down the holler, turn up the
creek, down the road. Now, in between where they live
and this building, what would you say, there are 111 religious
places? There's one right around the
block from me, aren't there? Why? Why? Drive all the way up here, huh?
Why don't you just walk? There's one right up there. They
still call you a fool. Well, here's one. Some of you,
I guarantee you, some of you have experienced this at the
hands of your friends or fellow workers or family. Why, there's
a church right over here. Why don't you go there? What
are you going all the way up there for? What are you drinking
rolling alcohol with? Without the camp. Without the camp. They call you
a fool, for Christ's sake. You've got to go where Christ
is found. He's not found everywhere. No, He's not. Jesus is, but the
Lord Jesus Christ is not. And other Gospels everywhere,
but not the Gospels. Very rare. There it is. And I'm not saying this is the
only place. I don't, I don't, I didn't say... You've got to leave old doctrine.
To go to Christ without the camp, you've got to leave. To go somewhere,
you've got to leave somewhere, don't you? To go to somebody,
you've got to leave somebody else, don't you? You ladies that
married that man. Scripture says, let a man or
a woman leave their mother and father and cleave under her husband.
You had to leave mom and dad and go to be with your husband,
right? Well, you've got to leave somebody or some place to go
to Christ. And what did we just read in
Matthew 10? What did the Lord say? He said, I've come to set
a man at variance against his father, a woman against her mother,
a daughter against her mother, a daughter against her mother-in-law,
and so on and so forth, didn't he? You see, salvation is of the
Lord. He chooses to save whom he will. And sometimes in the
same family, he saves one person and bypasses another. He reveals
the gospel to one person. He reveals the gospel to a daughter
and rejects her parents. Yes, sir. That's God's sovereign
prerogative. Yes, sir. He didn't have to save
that daughter. He didn't need to save that daughter. There's nothing worth saving
about her, but he did. It's his choice, and he chose
that daughter and bypassed her mother. What's going to happen?
There's going to be a fight. is in another camp, outside the
camp. Well, mom and dad, they go to
church, and they're sincere. But do they worship this God?
Do they worship this Lord Jesus Christ? Do they believe this
gospel? No, they don't, but they're sincere. No, we don't worship the same
God. There's either a true God, or there's an idol. What could
be plainer? Leave your old doctrine. And
when, you know, before you leave the camp, that means you were
in camp. Doesn't it, huh? It means you were in camp and
you were with mom and dad. You believed like mom and dad.
You worshiped, so-called, like mom and dad. You were in the
camp and everything was fine. You believed a wrong God. And that's what Paul said to
the Thessalonians, he said, you've turned to God from your idols. You didn't turn, he turned you. He turned you. And you left that old, and you
renounced it. Huh? Nobody. People ask me now
where I'm from, I say Virginia. I wasn't born in Virginia. Born
in Kentucky. You say, well, then you're from
Kentucky. No, I'm not. I've renounced that. This is
my home. I'm a Virginian. If the Civil War were now, I'd
have done great. I'm from Virginia, and that's
just it. You leave, you renounce your past, you burn your bridges.
I don't believe that way anymore. I love my mother and father,
but I love my Lord more. Oh, come down with us as mom
and dad. We'll do thee good. This is the
only gospel. We won't come, and you'll stay. I'm gone. You'll perish. Give me Christ or I die. You
remember the story of Bunyan's Pilgrim and Pilgrim's Progress,
I love this. John Bunyan, the Lord revealed
the gospel to him, he had a burden on his back. He had a burden
on his back. And he was dwelling in the city
of destruction with everybody else, mom and dad, his wife,
his children and all that, dwelling in the city of destruction. But
God chose him to reveal the truth to him, sent an evangelist to
him, revealed that he had a burden on his back, which is his sin. And he pointed away and he said,
you've got to get to yon wicked gate. See that gate over there? You've got to go through that
gate. There's eternal life through that gate. You get through that
gate and look, there's the celestial city, which all pilgrims travel
through. They go through that gate, you're
not going to get to the city except through that gate. And
oh, the pilgrim saw, he looked, and there's the gate, which is
crossed. There's the city he wanted to get to. And so he told
his mother and his father and his wife and his children and
all that, this city is being destroyed. And right there's the gate, there
ain't no other gate, this is the gate. Only one way, one way,
one way. Oh, no, Pilgrim, there's many
ways. All are going to different ways. We'll all get there. No,
there's one way! Right there, you see it? That's
the gate. This is the truth I've been preaching
this morning. There ain't no other. This is God. All of us are idols. Get through
that gate. And he told his family all, and
they said, oh. And so he, what he did was, he
said, well, I'm leaving. I'm leaving. I've got to get
through that gate." And so he took off, and his family said,
don't go, please. Don't go. And his friends and
his relatives and neighbors and everybody were lining the streets,
and some of them were laughing at him. You think that's the
only gate, don't you? Where are you going, you fool? It won't last, you know, and
all that they were saying. They were laughing. His wife
and children were crying and all that. You know what he did? Scripture says he put his fingers
in his ears and shouted and ran. It says he ran to the gate shouting,
Lord, Lord, eternal life. Oh Christ, Christ, I've got to
get to Christ. You can go away, this seems right
to you. And it seems right to the multitude. But right there's
the gate. It's at the camp. It's outside the camp. You have
to leave everybody and everything. This is it. Straight is the gate,
and narrow is the way that leadeth unto eternal life, and few there
be that find it. That is the road, Christ said. Wide is the gate that leadeth
to destruction, and many there be. Let us go therefore unto him,
not here, not me, him, without him bearing his reproach. And this is what you do. You
know, when you get in this baptismal pool, you know what you say? I now believe and acknowledge
and confess this Christ. I used to believe another one.
He wasn't Christ at all. Oh, I accepted some Jesus, but
I didn't even know the Christ in Scripture. And when you get
nothing, you say, this is the gospel. This is the Christ I
believe. Bearing his reproach, you see.
be thirty years old, maybe forty years old. He may be like old,
you remember old, what was his name? The leper,
the Syrian leper. Naaman. Remember Naaman? Naaman
was that captain of the Syrian host, you
know, and came to Elijah and He was a leper, and he sent his
little servant in there, go tell him I'm out here. I've decided
to let him heal me. Neheman came riding up on his
white horse, hey, he'll be glad to hear that I'm here, and surely
he'll thank me for coming. And go get him. Tell him I've
decided, I've made a decision. And Elijah sent that servant
back out and said, you tell Neheman. that I don't come when he calls
me, and you tell him to get off his horse, take his clothes off,
and get in that muddy creek and dunk himself seven times. Get in that muddy River Jordan,
get down in the mud. Take your big captain's coat
off and get naked and get in the mud and get down where nobody
can see you, under the water. Naaman was indignant. Well, I
thought. That's the whole problem, Naaman. It ain't like you thought it
was. God doesn't come when men call. Men come when he calls.
God doesn't save. It's not a privilege for God.
You don't let God save you. God decides. And you've got to
get down there now. That's how God saves people. Ah, boy. Without the camp. And that's what we do when we
get in here. Oh, man, how, you know, well, I made a decision.
Put me on that. This is the cross. I renounce. If I was in the camp,
I'm outside the camp, but this is the gospel. All right, Joe?