If the Lord will give me grace
to do so, I want to talk to you tonight
about being without the camp. But not just without the camp. I know a good many who speak
with great pride of being without the camp after a fashion. But that's all that can be said
for them. They are without the camp in exactly the same way
as a Russellite, a Mormon, or a Hindu is without the camp.
They seem to think that godliness and gossip, holiness and haughtiness,
separation and isolation are all synonyms. They think, apparently,
that meanness and meekness mean the same thing. Merely being
without the camp, having nothing to do with this thing or that
in the religious world, or this thing or that in the political
world, or this thing or that in the morally evil world around
us, merely being without the camp will do no one's soul any
good. So the title of my message tonight
is not just Without the Camp. The title of the message is Without
the Camp with the Savior. Let's look together at Hebrews
chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. Our text
will be verses 11, 12, and 13. As the Lord Jesus Christ, our
great God and Savior, voluntarily, freely, because He wanted to,
identified himself with us, took upon himself our nature, and
took upon himself our sin and our curse, and took his place
without the camp in the place of the curse, in the place of
uncleanness. So you and I, who are saved by
his blood, ought to willingly and constantly go forth unto
him without the camp and freely, voluntarily, because we want
to, bear his reproach. First, let's look at verse 11.
Here the Apostle Paul points us once more to the typical sacrifices
of the Day of Atonement in the Old Testament. The opening word
of verse 11, 4, refers us back now to verse 10, where Paul spoke
of Christ, our altar, that altar which we have in heaven, that
altar of which none can eat who have an altar upon the earth,
that altar by which alone we come to God and God accepts us,
as that altar is typical the Old Testament altar, the altar
on which the Jewish sacrifices were slain, as that altar is
typical of Christ the true altar. So all the sacrifices referred
to in this passage, and particularly here in verse 12, The apostle
is referring not to the various morning and evening sacrifices
and so on, but he's referring specifically to those sacrifices
described in Leviticus 16 that were offered once a year on the
Day of Atonement when Aaron the high priest took the blood of
the sacrifice and went into the holy place, and thereby he obtained
ceremonially the blessing of God He'd step out from in the
holy place, and on the basis of the blood sacrifice, he'd
say, the Lord bless you and keep you. And God said, I'll do it.
Now that sacrifice, often on the day of atonement, year after
year after year after year, pictured the Lord Jesus Christ, the true
sacrifice. Now look what it says in verse
11. The bodies of those beasts, those Passover sacrifices, the
bulls, the goats, the calves, whose blood is brought into the
sanctuary by the high priest for sin, to make atonement for
sin because of sin, are burned without the camp. And those bodies
of those animals that were sanctified and set apart, sacrificed according
to the ordinance of God in the violence of death on the day
of atonement, having their throats slit were taken then without
the camp after the sacrifice was made and the carcasses were
burned. Now remember what signified without
the camp. Alchonda, outside the gate of
the tabernacle, outside the camp of Israel, everything out there
was unclean. Everything outside that camp
was cursed. You remember who lived outside
the camp? group of folks called lepers. The sacrifice was to
be taken outside the camp, and there with its dung and its bones,
its carcass, everything burned outside the camp as an obnoxious,
vile thing. Now remember why. We won't go
back to Leviticus 16, but let me refresh your memories about
what went on. The sacrifice was chosen and set apart. shown to
be, demonstrated to be without blemish, holy, unblameable in
type. Then Aaron on the Day of Atonement
would lay his hands upon the head of that sacrifice and ceremonially
he would impute to that sacrifice all the sins of all the children
of Israel. He'd slit the animal's throat,
catch it in a basin, And he would carry it into the Holy of Holies
and sprinkle the mercy seat. The mercy seat, you remember,
was that golden lid covering the Ark of the Covenant in which
was contained God's broken law, that which we had violated all
the days of our lives. And the blood covering the mercy
seat, God says, I'll meet you between the cherubs on the mercy
seat. This is where I'll meet you.
This is where I'll be with you in mercy. Not that that ark was
anything special. Not that that tables of law were
anything special. Not that the blood of that lamb
was anything special, except ceremonially. That's what made
them special. That's what made them special,
what they represented. And then the lamb or the calf
were taken out and burned. Aaron and his sons didn't eat
a bite of this sacrifice. The whole thing was burned because
it was unclean. And it had to be consumed entirely
in God's holy wrath. Now, look at Paul's connection,
verse 12. Wherefore? Wherefore? What's he talking about? How
is there any connection between that unclean vile, burned sacrifice. How's there any connection between
that and the Holy Lamb of God? Watch it. Wherefore, Jesus also,
that he might, that is, in order to make it possible for him to
sanctify the people. Wasn't any other way, Bobby Estes,
for him to sanctify your soul or mine. that he might sanctify the people.
That word might doesn't mean that he might, if everything
went his way. That word might means in order to accomplish
this. With his own blood, suffered without the gain. Now here, the
Holy Spirit shows us the parallel between the burning of those
sacrifices on the Day of Atonement in the Old Testament and the
sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ, our sin-atoning sacrifice
for us. Wherefore, in order to fulfill
the tithe, in order for the word of God to be fulfilled, in order
for the scripture to be fulfilled, in order for the covenant of
grace to be fulfilled, in order for the purpose of God to be
fulfilled, Jesus, oh, what a word. I don't reprimand people. I have
friends who do. Arthur Pink wrote a very good
article one time. I've seen it in a lot of bulletins
where folks, they don't use the name Jesus, referring to the
Lord Jesus. His disciples did. It'd be all
right. We don't commonly do so because in this day, men use
the word Jesus so flippantly and so disrespectfully, calling
him by his first name, ignoring his titles and ignoring his glory.
But that name, oh, how sweet the name. How sweet the name
of Jesus sounds in a believer's ear. How sweet the name. Matthew chapter 1 verse 21. You
familiar with the text? This is the name that was given
to our Savior by God Almighty as the angel Gabriel came as
his messenger and spoke plainly concerning his manhood. When
the Son of God came down here as the Son of Man so that he
might take the sons of men and make us the sons of God, his
name is Jesus." It means Jehovah saves. It's the very same word,
if you were to translate the Hebrew into the Greek and then
the Greek into English, it's the very same word as the name
Joshua. It speaks of Jehovah our Redeemer. And this is what
the angel said concerning him. Thou shalt call his name Jesus
for this reason. He shall. He shall save. He shall save his people. They're
his people. He hadn't come yet, but they're
his people. He hasn't come into the world yet, but they're already
his people. They were his before ever the world was made. And
he shall save every one of his people from their sins. He will save them by the sacrifice
of himself that he might sanctify. Set apart. make holy, make pure, distinguish, make blameless, that he might
sanctify. The Lord Jesus Christ came here
for the purpose of cutting us out of the rest of humanity. and taking that which he has
found in the fallen mass of degraded humanity and make us holy, righteous,
pure, and unblameless. Now he can't do it except by
the sacrifice of himself. How come? Because God is just. God is just. Oh, if there's anything this
generation needs to hear, it is that God is just. Just. Just. Almost everything you hear, almost
every comment you hear from the religious world around you concerning
salvation declares that salvation is accomplished by grace to the
sacrifice of justice. Nothing could be further from
the truth. Nothing could be further from the truth. When one of our
judges takes a criminal, proven guilty, demonstrated guilt, demonstrated
guilt, he's guilty, no question about his guilt. And the judge
says, well, now, you know, he was raised by a sorry old drunken
fool for a daddy. And he was raised by a sorry
old harlot for a mama. And he was in a bad environment. And he had a bad education. He
was dirt poor all his life. Who could blame him for being
a rapist and a murderer? Well, now, we'll put you in a
rehabilitation program. And in a few years, you'll be
all right. And society will forgive, and we will, too. And the whole
society that has any sense at all says, no! There's no justice. The purpose of law is to punish. It is never to rehabilitate.
That's not the purpose of law. It is to punish, to punish, to
punish. And the reason for the punishment
is so that the society can be maintained without utter chaos
like we have around us in our day, utter chaos. And I'm telling
you that if God Almighty gives up His justice, chaos will rule. He must abdicate His throne.
There is no law. There's no order. God declares
Himself a just God and a Savior. Well, how can God be just, never
bend, never compromise, and still punish sin to the full satisfaction
of His justice and forgive this sinner? There it is. Jesus, the Son of God, assumed
my nature, came here to save my soul, that He might sanctify. Now watch this, not everybody.
He didn't come here to do that for everybody. That He might
sanctify the people, those people given Him before the world began.
Those people of whom he is covenant surety and representative, that
he might sanctify the people, watch it now, with his own blood. Oh, precious, precious, precious
blood. The blood of an innocent man. The blood of a man who is himself
God Almighty. God loved his church and purchased
it with his own blood. Well, that's theologically inaccurate. No, that's theologically accurate.
That's what the book says, Acts 20 to 28. But God doesn't have
blood, no. God can't suffer either. No,
he can't. God can't be touched by man.
No, he can't. But the God-man can. And God
assumed human flesh and came down here in human flesh, never
ceasing to be God Almighty. And when that man suffered. When that man, Larry Criss, who
is our God, suffered. He suffered all the hell of God's
wrath to the full satisfaction of divine justice because it
was right. You remember in Leviticus 16,
the priest had to do something for himself before he could do
anything for anybody else. He had to make atonement first
for his own sins. and then for the peoples. And
the Lord Jesus Christ, when He was made to be sin for us, put away that sin. which was
made His. And when He did, He put away
our sins. He made atonement for our sins, which were His sins. And to do that, He suffered hell. Now, I don't know much about
what hell is. I don't know much about it. Don't pretend to. Don't
want to. But I know this. I know it, and I know that every
human being who has ever drawn breath on God's earth with any
rationality in his mind knows it. This is something you know. Nobody has to be convinced of
it. You know it. Not everybody is scared to death
of it, but you know it. There is a place. Say, is it
real or spiritual? Who cares? There is a place. Is the fire literal or is it
something else? Whatever it is, ladies and gentlemen,
it is a place where men and women suffer all the horror of God's
terrible wrath forever. And it's something worse than
the kind of fire you get by striking a match. Something worse. It is a place where men's lust
burn, with their consciences awakened,
and there's no satisfaction. A place of constant mutual hatred
of everybody. A place of constant darkness,
confusion, dissatisfaction, lusting, Grief, pain, torment, darkness,
damnation, and abandonment. A pit to which there is no bottom. And in order to redeem our souls,
the Son of God suffered it. to the full satisfaction of God's
holy justice. Read the 22nd Psalm, the 69th
Psalm, the 40th Psalm, the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. Who can describe the sufferings
of the Lamb of God? When he was anticipating being
made sin for us, his heart crushed within him, so that his heart began to bleed. His pores broke out with a sweat
of blood, and he cries, Father, If it be possible, let this cup
pass from me. Bob, I don't have any idea what
that means. I'm not going to speculate. But I know this much
is involved. He is the only man who ever lived
who knew what sin is. We don't have an England. We
point at that, and that, and that, and this, and that thought,
this thought, this word. That's sin. We don't have an
inkling what sin is. Here's a man who is God, who
sees sin as God sees it, as it really is, about to be made sin. And the thought of being made
sin crushed his holy soul. Crushed. Crushed. When I get to thinking about
this, I strain for thoughts. When I get to preaching about
it, I can hardly even find a word to speak what I want to say.
I don't know what to say. Should you find a chaste, morally
upright, virgin girl, take her out here to North Point Training
Center, find the most cruel, barbaric criminals there are
out there, and just hold her there for a little bit and tell
her, now, just a little while, we're going to dump you in there. Let
them have their way. No consequence. The shock, the
horror, the fear. would be nothing. Nothing. Because in spite of all her moral
chastity and heart, she has something in her that agrees with it. The Son of God had nothing in
Him that agrees with sin. And He was made sin. And he was made sin because he volunteered for the
job. Why? Why? There ain't but one reason why. Because
he loved me. He gave himself for me. Oh, this is love no man can fathom. This is love no man can comprehend. This is love no man can begin
to illustrate or explain. This is love that passes knowledge.
This is that incomprehensible love of the incomprehensible,
infinite God for men who hate Him with all their hearts. He loved them. And when He was
made to be sin for us, The Lord God Almighty abandoned
him. Took him out yonder to Mount
Calvary. Now you folks here know what
the scriptures teach about these idolatrous notions men have in
pictures. Don't ever succumb to the folly
of having pictures, religious icons of any kind. It's just
idolatry. But when you think about Calvary,
don't ever have in your mind those soft, beautiful scenes,
nice, calm, serene place with a couple of three-plus signs
out there and some men hanging there that almost look angelic,
a little blood dripping here and there. Calvary was Jerusalem's
garbage dump. It's where they took dead carcasses
and dumped them out. It's where they took dead bodies
nobody else would claim, took them out there and shoved a little
ground, a little hole in the ground, covered them up, keep
them from stinking so bad you could smell them in town. And
so there were skulls and bones everywhere. It was a place of
uncleanness, disgust, filth, death, corruption. A place symbolizing
curse. And they took him out yonder
by the decree of God, according to the purpose of God, and hung
him up between heaven and earth, and said, we want heaven! And God, his Father, In hellish silence, saying, me
neither. I won't have it. And if we're
sucking, turn this back on the sun. Because he is of purer eyes
than to behold in the kitchen. And he would not look upon his
son. He would not smile upon his son. He would show no favor
to his son, but only wrath, and wrath, and wrath, and wrath,
until he had burned his sacrifice in that cursed place. And justice
was at last satisfied without the temple. A place of darkness and uncleanness.
a place of curse, a place of death, a place where his people were.
That's where the lepers lived. And he came here and made himself
one of us. And when at last he had suffered
all the horrid wrath of God to the full satisfaction of justice,
when he had put away our sins by the sacrifice of himself,
when justice was satisfied and could demand no more, when God
Almighty had his sword of justice completely swallowed up in the
side of his darling son, when the cup of damnation was drunk
dry by him, the Lord Jesus Christ was buried. And then three days later, the
Holy Spirit says he was justified in the Spirit. Isn't that strange
language? He was justified? Yeah, he was
justified. He was justified. You see, He
had been made to be sin. And only when sin has been put
away can He rise from the dead and enter into glory and obtain
eternal redemption for us. Justified. And He who was justified
from sin for us has justified us from all sins. And He sat
down with the right hand of the majesty of God from henceforth
making intercession for us, holding in His hands as our representative
and surety all the fullness of heavenly glory, not for Himself,
but for us, His people. Now then, look at verse 13. I'll
wrap this up for now and we'll come back to it again. The Apostle speaks to us and
on the basis of all that Christ suffered for us, on the basis
of all that He did for us, on the basis of all that He endured
for us, He makes this reasonable appeal. Let us go forth therefore
unto Him. without the camp, bearing his reproach. The exultation is not an exultation
as if to say, well, let's go across the field over here. Or
let's go downtown. Let's take a trip to Alaska.
But rather it is this, let us constantly, without pause or
cessation. Let us constantly go forth, therefore. How come? Because there's nothing too great
for me to suffer for him who suffered the wrath of God for
me. Because there's nothing too great for me to sacrifice for
him who sacrificed all for me. Because there's nothing that can be called extreme devotion
to him who was devoted to my soul to
the extremity of life itself. Nothing. Nothing. Let us therefore
go forth unto him. He took my place. It's reasonable
I should stand in his place. He identified Himself with me
and said, it's reasonable that I should identify myself with
Him in righteousness. He identified Himself with me
in the place of personness. It's most reasonable that I should
identify myself with Him in the place of great blessedness. Let
us go forth unto Him without the can. Abandon. The religion that despises
him. Abandon it. Kiss it goodbye. Don't kiss it, just get out of
it. Abandon every doctrine that opposes him. Abandon everything
that would tear your heart from him. Abandon it! Go forth unto
him. But folks won't understand. But my sons and daughters, they
don't understand. My mama and daddy, they don't
understand. They don't understand why I go
over here and worship him when there's lots of places I can
go. Everybody goes these other places. Nobody goes down there.
Why should they follow after him and pay such a price? Go
forth unto him without the king. Look at it now. His reproach. And there is a reproach to this
thing called faith in Christ. There is a reproach to this thing
described in this book as Christianity. There is a reproach to this thing
set forth in the Word of God as following Christ. It will
bring upon you mockery, derision, slander, Maybe persecution. Folks will laugh, poke fun, deride,
and sometimes you'll be kind of tempted to say, well, let's
Let's kind of hide some of this. Let's not make an issue out of
too much of this thing of the gospel of God's grace. Thank God my Savior didn't shun
anything when he stood in my place at Calvary for me. He counted nothing too costly
for me. He set his face like a flint
from eternity to go up to Jerusalem and suffer for me. It is most
reasonable, therefore, that I should constantly go forth to him and
say no to everything that would oppose my going forth to him
without the cap. and bear His reproach. You see,
the offense of the cross has not yet ceased. And it will not
cease so long as time shall stand. And if you follow Christ, you're
going to have to bear His reproach. Oh, what an honor. What an honor. What an honor. I bid you who
know not our Savior Go forth unto Him. Identify yourself with
Him. Trust Him. Believe Him. Follow Him. Follow Him into life
everlasting. Amen.