Turn to Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. This is going to be part two
of Christ Our Altar, or whatever that title I gave it last week.
This is part two of it. I'm going to deal with verses
10, 11, 12, and 13. It says in verse 10, We have an altar whereof they
have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. We have a place
of sacrifice. That's what the altar means,
the place of sacrifice in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have Christ
crucified who is our altar, and we have a right to eat of this
sacrifice that the priest had no right to eat of. I want you
to look at two verses of Scripture. Turn to Leviticus chapter 6,
and then we'll go to Exodus 29. Leviticus chapter 6 first, and
then we'll go to Exodus chapter 29. In verse 30 of Leviticus
and no sin offering whereof any of the blood is brought into
the tabernacle of the congregation to reconcile with all in the
holy place." This is the blood being sprinkled on the mercy
seat in the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. It says,
and no sin offering whereof any of the blood is brought into
the tabernacle of the congregation to reconcile with all in the
holy place shall be eaten. It shall be burnt in the fire.
You can't, the priests were not to eat of this sin offering.
They were not to eat of it. Over in Exodus 29, in verse 14,
but the flesh of the bullock, I'll give you time to get there.
Sorry, turn to it. I cheat, I mark these places.
But the flesh of the bullock, in Exodus 29, 14, but the flesh
of the bullock and his skin and his dung, shalt thou burn with
fire without the camp." It is a sin offering. Now remember
this. This is the law. The priests
were not allowed to eat of the sin offering. It was to be taken
without the camp. At that time they were in the
wilderness in the tabernacle and then later on the temple.
It was to be taken without the camp. It was to be taken without
the gate. out on the dump heap. And those who took it out there
had to wash their clothes. They had to go through a washing
in order for them to be clean because they handled the body
of that beast that was offered as a sin offering. And that priest,
though he was allowed to eat many of the things in the temple
there, the offerings and things, he was allowed to take a portion,
he could not eat of the sin offering. It was considered unclean. It
was considered vile. You see, the sin of Israel was
typically transferred to that beast, just as our sins were
actually transferred to Christ. And that beast was to be taken
outside the camp, and it was to be burned up. Now he says, under the law, they
had, the priests, had no right, no right to eat of the body of
that sin offering. But you and I have a right to
eat of it. Christ, our sin offering. Though he was taken outside the
camp. Though he was burned under the
wrath of God, we have an altar, we have a sacrifice, we have
a sin offering that we can eat of. Christ said, eat my flesh
and drink my blood. By faith, he's talking about.
By faith. I tell you, that was a blessing
when I was studying this. We have a right, we have an altar
to eat of. that those priests under the
law had no right to eat of at all. Now, verse 11, for the bodies
of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by
the high priests for sin, this is the day of atonement, and
the blood of that beast is brought into the Holy of Holies to make
atonement for the sins of God's people. It is sprinkled upon
the mercy seat, but that body of that beast is to be taken
without the camp, and is to be burned. You see, on the day of
atonement, the lamb was slain, its blood was shed, atonement
was made for Israel, and its body was taken outside the camp,
and later on, outside of Jerusalem. be burned inside. It's a sin
offering. The sin of Israel was transferred
to that beast, typically, and of the types, just as our sins
were transferred to Christ. And that's not typical. That's
real. That's real. And it had to be
taken out and burned. It was considered putrid. Keep
this in mind. Keep this picture, this Old Testament
picture in mind of what actually happened to our Lord. It was
considered putrid, vile, unclean. There was one other group of
people that was outside the camp, that was not allowed inside that
camp, and it was the lepers. The lepers were cast out of the
camp, out of Jerusalem, They had to be outside in a leper
colony. And our Lord was considered to
be just like them. And He had to go outside the
camp because the leprosy of our sins were laid on Him. And when
our sins were laid on Him, He had to go outside the camp and
be burned under the wrath of God. That's what happened. Like those lepers. You were deemed
unclean. Our Lord was deemed unclean. He was treated as unclean. Without
the camp signifies uncleanness. That's what it signifies. This
is how real the transfer was. Outside the camp signified separation. He went outside the camp. He
was nailed to the cross. And what was his cry? My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Why are you so far from the words
of my roaring? That's a prayer, to roar in pain
and agony. It signifies separation. Outside
the camp signifies the place of the curse. Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse, not typically,
actually being made a curse for us. It showed the curse of God
against sin. The curse of God against sin
is revealed outside the camp. There at Calvary, the Son of
God in human flesh, hanging on a cross, undergoing what I actually
deserved, burnt, burnt without the camp. Because he makes the application
now here in verse 12. Wherefore, he's going to connect
the two verses now. He's going to connect it. I'll say, behold, the man, he
called himself the son of man, Jesus, a real living man, son
of God, son of man. Also, that he might sanctify
the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. He suffered at the hands of men. He suffered at the hands of Satan,
but his real suffering came at the hands of God, being punished
of God, being burnt of God. We have a very vivid picture
of an Old Testament type applied to the Lord Jesus Christ here. Christ is our sin offering. His blood is the blood of atonement,
and he himself is our sin offering. What we have here is substitution,
Christ taking our hell, Christ taking the wrath of God against
his people, and he's doing this He's burying our sins in His
body on the tree, and He's doing this that He might sanctify the
people. Our Lord, our Redeemer, had to
go outside the gate of Jerusalem to the place of uncleanness.
Now you can see a little bit more of His agony in the Garden
of Gethsemane. He was being made sin, and how
agonizing that had to be. He's going to go outside the
camp where God's wrath is, where the curse is, outside the gate,
and he's going to suffer the wrath of God in six hours, what
I couldn't do in eternity. He's going to satisfy justice
in a very short period of time. He's going to suffer what I would
have suffered in an eternity in hell. This is what he does. He's going to go to the place
of uncleanness where the rest of the outcasts live, and he's
going to bear the wrath of God against sin. He's going to bear
my hell. There was a program on television
yesterday. portion of where I was in the
bedroom. They were trying to describe the torments of hell.
This program was trying to describe what it would be like. And I can assure you they far,
far missed it. They missed it. It's the absence
of God. It's the absence of God's mercy.
It's the absence of anything. Anything remotely connected to
God's love, God's mercy, God's grace, total absence. Total absence. Unleashed hatred,
unbearable pain. You say, you shouldn't talk about
that place so much. You know, in the Word of God,
Christ spoke more often of that place than he did of heaven.
One time in the Scriptures, he describes gives us some description
of heaven. Several times he gives us a description
of hell. Where the worm dies not, where
there's weeping and wailing, gnashing of teeth, unleashed
hatred, calls it the lake of fire. Unimaginable. If I was to describe,
begin to even describe it, it would just be beyond what we
could comprehend or even put into words. That's what my Lord
suffered. That's what he suffered in our
place. He suffered the hell of God's wrath. No mercy. My God, my God, where
are you? Where are you? Forsaken. Why hast thou forsaken me? That's
what it is, is to be totally forsaken of God. We've never
been forsaken of God, but to be totally forsaken. Jesus
Christ bore the hell of God's wrath, the same wrath that those
in hell bear now. He did so as a substitute, as
the sinner. He suffered in body. They nailed
him to a cross, they slapped him, they did many things to
him, and his body was whipped. His body was mutilated. Turn
over to Isaiah 52. Isaiah 52. This really ought to go with
Isaiah 53. But in Isaiah 52, look in verse
13. Behold, my servant shall deal
prudently. And he shall be exalted and extolled
and be very high, as many as were astonished at thee." Listen, his visage, his appearance was
so marred more than any man. more than any man. His vision,
He was so beaten. He was so beaten. More than any
man. In His form, more than the sons
of man. He suffered greatly in body. He suffered in His soul. It says
back over here in Isaiah 53. In verse 10, Yet it pleased the
Lord to bruise Him. torment him. He hath put him
to grief. Who put him to grief? God put
him to grief. The Lord put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. Go back over sometime
when you have time in Leviticus and read how they cut that animal
up. His soul, his very being, A holy
soul was made an offering for sin, and his heart despised and rejected
of men. Peter! Why did you deny him? In the
hour that he could have really used your friendship, you denied knowing him. That man, he said, you're one
of them. He said, I don't know the man. Three times. Got to
the point where it says he cursed. I do not know the man. The Lord looked at him and he
said he went out and he wept bitterly. Peter did. Our Lord
was, he suffered in body, soul, and heart. And here's the purpose. Here's the purpose that he's
going through this. And it's not to make salvation
possible. It's to secure it for a multitude
of sinners that no man can number. And to think that I'm in that
number. That's amazing grace. That's
a reason to sing amazing grace, how sweet the sound. that saved
a wretch like me. Once was lost, but now am found.
Blind, but now I see." Here's the purpose. That he might
sanctify the people, that he might make holy, that he might
declare to be holy. He declares us to be holy. by
his substitutionary work, by his blood, by sacrifice. And he makes us holy to set apart to eternal salvation. That he might sanctify the people. No, God cannot, God cannot just
say, I forgive you. There's got to be satisfaction
made. There's got to be satisfaction made to God's law. Someone said one time, he could
just say, I forgive you. No, he can't. There's got to
be satisfaction made on my behalf before God can forgive me. The
law has to be satisfied toward me before God can forgive me. And I have that in Christ. I
have that, and you have that if you believe the gospel. In order for Christ to sanctify
the people, he had to suffer the wrath of God without the
game. He had to bear the curse, the
reproach of God against sin. This verse is so profound. He
goes with that scripture in 2 Corinthians 5.21, for he hath made him to
be sin who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Here it's happening. We see it
happening. He's made sin. He's got to go without the tamp. The curse is laid on him. You
know, they put that cross on him and they made him drag that
cross outside the camp. And there he was burned. Jesus
Christ. I'll never forget this. I gave
you this not too long ago, but Henry gave this illustration.
I can't say it verbatim, but it was this wagon train going
out west. And there was a prairie fire. And the wagon master told them
They burned the ground and then they got on that burnt ground.
And they circled the wagons and got on that burnt ground. And
there was a boy on that wagon who said he was fearful the fire
was coming to him. And he was fearful. And the wagon
master said, you don't have to be afraid. You're standing on
burnt ground. Jesus Christ is burnt ground. Where the fire
has burned once, it will not burn again. Isn't that good news? He is burnt ground. He was numbered
with the transgressors, a companion with the lepers. This man receives
sinners and he eats with them. I hope he eats with us this morning. Fellowship, that's what that
is. He fellowships with them. He's out there among the unclean.
The transgression, the transaction was real. It was real. He makes intercession for who?
Transgressors. The suffering was real. The forsaking
was real. The pain was real. And thus salvation
in Christ is real. It's real. Tell you what, he got the job
done. He got the job done. Now, He bore our sins in His
body on the tree. He bore the wrath of God, God's
wrath that was against us. He bore that Himself. He bore our reproach. Now let
us, let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp. And
you, if you're, you know, keep in mind, he's writing to Hebrews
here and we get the picture. We get the message. He says,
now don't go back into the camp. Don't go back into Jerusalem.
Do not go back into the temple and try and reestablish all these
things. He said, now you got to leave the camp of works. false religion, the ceremony,
the ritualism, the types and all that. You've got to go outside
of that now. You've got to bear his reproach. You've got to bear the reproach
of the gospel. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the
camp bearing his reproach. Let us go to Christ crucified. Oh, everybody wants Christ the
miracle worker. Everyone wants Christ, the one who makes you
rich and gives you a better job and a better home and a better
this and a better that. Let us go to Christ and Him crucified. Let us go from all these ceremonies
and rituals and the priesthood. Let us go from that to Him. And
don't go back. Don't go back. If you want to
stay with those things, Here's what he's saying. If you want
to stay with those things, you have no right to eat of the sacrifice
because the law says you can't do it. The law says you cannot
eat of that sin offering. That's not a law. However, those
who leave off and go to Christ have the freedom to feast on
Him who is our sin offering. Do you see it? Am I making it
plain? We have the freedom, the right
to feast on Christ who is our sin offering, who was burnt without
the camp. Now, if you want to serve the
law, he says you don't have any right to any of it. Because the
law says you can't do it. And bearing his reproach, we cannot court the world and
have Christ too. You know, there was an incident
there when our Lord dragging the cross and I mean he was so
beaten and so mutilated and he was dragging the cross and he
fell down and they took that cross and they put it on a black,
it was a black man, a Syrenian, I believe his name, I believe
that's where he's from. They put it on him and they had him
to bury. I wonder if he ever realized
what a blessing. I wonder if he ever realized,
not just a piece of wood, but a cross, the cross of Christ. The reproach of Christ. They
put it on Him. They said, here, you carry it.
You help drag it. We all have a cross to bear.
The Scripture teaches us this. Bearing His reproach. Whatever
reproach we must bear for Christ's sake, we are to do it. And do
it with joy. If you want to know what that
reproach is, just tell the truth. Tell the truth. Next time you
have an opportunity, whether it's at the workplace or family
or wherever, you tell the truth of the gospel and you'll find
out what that reproach is. You'll find it out. It's the
hatred of this world against God, against Christ, against
the message of message of grace. The scripture tells us that the
natural heart, the natural man is born with at enmity with God. You just tell the gospel of grace,
just tell the gospel, and you'll find out what that reproach is. Here's the message, and I close. We have the right, the privilege,
to eat of this sacrifice. We take the Lord's table. He
said, do this in remembrance of me. Take, eat, this is my
body, which was broken for you. Take, drink, this is my blood,
which was shed for you. You have a right to eat of the
sin offering. You have a right to it. You have
a right to eat of the sacrifice which the law forbade. Leave all else. Leave all else. And go outside
the gate to him. And don't you go back. Don't
you go back to any form of works You go to Him. We have in Christ
all we need. All we need. We don't need to add anything
to it. Let me read it now. Verse 10. We have an altar. Christ is that
altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.
For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the
sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the
camp. Wherefore, in like manner, Jesus
also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood,
suffered without the game. Let us go forth therefore unto
him without the camp, bearing his reproach and doing it with joy." You know,
one time the disciples in our book of Acts The apostles were
beaten. They were told not to declare
that name and they were beaten. And you notice it says they went
back rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for
Christ's sake. They counted it as joy. All right.