Sermon Cloud

Outside the Camp

Hebrews 13:11-12

Grace Fellowship Church

April 12, 2009

Resurrection Sunday

Series 3 Sermon 77

¹¹ For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. ¹² So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.

Introduction

One of the very sad truths and a very disturbing truth is, in this very morning, there will be many preachers who refuse to say some words that are found in verses 11 and 12.  You see in our modern or post modern culture and society such words, we are told, have no place.  These words are antiquated and are meaningless to the post modern mind.  You heard them and read them with me.  The words are sacrifice, sin, suffering, and blood.  Sermons about these four things have been replaced by talks and conversations about the goodness of man and the evil of man toward the environment.  We are told that the message of the cross was fine for ancient people but for the enlightened people of our day it is a message that will offend.  After all no one really believes that God would actually require a sacrifice in order to allow His creatures to approach Him.  That is if there is a God in heaven in many people’s minds.  After all, most people in our culture live in a way that says that there is no God.  They do what they feel is best and shun the plain teaching of Scripture.  The church is so much in the world and of the world you can not distinguish the two at times. 

We have been warned in Hebrews of false teachers who leave the message of the inspired text to chase after strange and diverse teaching.  I told you in that sermon that you can look out for false teachers and spot them very easily because what they will do is pervert the truth.  They will lead their hearers down a path that will appeal to the sensuality of people and to the greed of people.  These false teachers will hold people in their grasp by myths or stories that scratch the itching ears of the hearers.  And we were commanded not to be carried away by these wolves in sheep’s clothing.  These are the worst of the worst in our day masquerading as preachers of the Gospel when they know nothing of the Gospel except some familiar buzzwords or terminology.   

Sure, these false teachers will have a very similar vocabulary with what the church has said for many years but they will carry with them a very different dictionary.  Many in what is called the emerging or emergent church will say something to the effect that the death of Jesus was atonement for sins.  But then you ask them what they mean by that statement and they get angry and refuse to answer you.  They call you names and say that you are a heresy hunter and that you are not exhibiting Christian love by questioning what they believe.  The truth of the matter is that many of them operate on vagaries and will not establish the truth that the Bible states. They call this humble orthodoxy among other names. 

One modern false teacher named Rob Bell has said that he used to think that he understood what Scripture taught but now realizes that the Bible is very vague about things which has opened up a brand new world for him.  His own wife has said that when she thought she understood Scripture that she lived in a world that was black and white and now that she understands how unclear Scripture is that her world is filled with color.  

These false teachers are on a steady descent into perdition and the sad thing is they are carrying many with them on that path. 

You may ask me or our elders anytime about what we believe and we will only be vague if we do not understand the question fully.  This refusal to answer questions about what one believes boils down to an outright denial of the Gospel in these false churches.  Sure they preach around the Gospel but they have no understanding of the Gospel and therefore the people that sit under them will never learn the gospel.

But do these people really know the Gospel?  Many in the better churches today that actually do preach a closer to biblical gospel believe that the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is something that is needed only for the lost.  To mention Christ and Him crucified is redundant and really not what the people need to hear they tell us.  They need to hear about other things because after all we have already got this Good News thing down pretty well.  Or do we?

This was not the view of the apostles.  When Paul was preparing to go to Rome and was writing the Epistle to the Romans we read in verse 7 that the people that he wrote to were saints or Christians. And then in verse 15 he told them that he was ready to preach the Gospel to them in Rome who were already believers.

So the Gospel is not just for the lost.  The Gospel proclaimed is for the believer as well.  The Christian needs to hear the Gospel just as much as the lost world needs to here the Gospel and in verses 11 and 12 of Hebrews 13 the writer reminds us of the importance of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.   

Context

I want you to keep in mind that Hebrews 13 is in the context of worshipping with our whole lives.  We have been called to offer worship to God by the actions that we take as well as the words that we speak.  In the first part of the chapter we were told that we were to be involved in hospitality.  We were to share with strangers which is an act of worship.  Then we were commanded in verse 3 to keep marriage in high honor and to maintain purity as an act of worship.  In verses 5 and 6 we were told not to trust in money and goods but in the Lord who is our helper.  Verses 7-9 told us to recall the truth of the Gospel and the Word of the Lord as we have been correctly taught.  And as a result of that we are not to be carried away by strange errors and heresies that could lead to our destruction.  We can do so as an act of worship to God precisely because of what verse 10 says and we saw last week that we as Christians have an altar that those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.  And to that altar which is the cross and the sacrifice is the once and not again sacrifice of the Lord of Glory offering Himself, we can come by faith and only by faith to receive the saving benefits of the altar. 

This week the writer turns his attention to what happened on this altar, the cross. 

PNP

This morning from our text I want you to see three foundational truths about the death of Christ that separate the false teacher from the true teacher. 

1.  Christ’s death was real suffering predicted in the Scriptures.

2.  Christ’s death occurred outside the camp.

3.  Christ’s death accomplished salvation.  

Purpose

This morning is resurrection Sunday.  Like every other week we gather here to celebrate that the Lord is risen indeed.  But this morning we have the opportunity to remember the Lord’s death and what His death accomplished.  And that is my purpose.  I want us all to be like Paul and have our boast only in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.  I want us all to be very specific about what the Gospel is, what it means, and all the implications that flow from the Lord’s death. 

RPNP

So look with me this morning at these three foundational truths about the death of Christ that separate the false teacher from the true teacher. 

1.  Christ’s death was real suffering predicted in the Scriptures.

Look at verse 12 with me especially the first part.  Your translation may have the phrase at the end of the verse.   

¹² So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.

We need to understand that Christ’s death was real suffering on the cross. The death of Christ on the cross was a calculated event that was ordained by the triune God before the foundation of the world and orchestrated in the days of Jesus of Nazareth the Divine Son of God.  Over and over in the inspired text the Lord has shown us that this very moment would come and there would be a great sacrifice of such significance that it would utterly do away with the necessity of all other sacrifices.

I want you to listen to Galatians 4:1-5.

¹ Now I say, as long as the heir is a child , he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, ² but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. ³ So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. ⁴ But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, ⁵ so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

This very specific orchestrated event at the cross had a very specific orchestrated purpose and result.  Christ was to suffer.  During His earthly ministry the Lord showed the disciples that He was ultimately going to the cross to suffer.  All of the events of His life from His virgin birth to the teaching and the miracles pointed to this culminating event on the cross.  Listen to John 12:27-33.

²⁷ "Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, 'Father, save Me from this hour'? But for this purpose I came to this hour. ²⁸ "Father, glorify Your name." Then a voice came out of heaven: "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." ²⁹ So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, "An angel has spoken to Him." ³⁰ Jesus answered and said, "This voice has not come for My sake, but for your sakes. ³¹ "Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. ³² "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself." ³³ But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die.

Verse 12 tells us that Christ was to suffer.  And Christ was fully aware that His earthly life would culminate in a suffering death on the cross.  Listen to Matthew 16:21-23.

²¹ From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. ²² Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, "God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You." ²³ But He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God 's interests, but man's."

Christ predicted His own suffering in His earthly ministry.  But the Old Testament Scriptures predicted His suffering as well.  Listen to Psalm 22:16-18.

¹⁶ For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me;
They pierced my hands and my feet. ¹⁷ I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me; ¹⁸ They divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots.

Isaiah 53:7 also predicts the Lord’s suffering. 

⁷ He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.

It was in this same biblical understanding of the suffering Messiah that John the Baptist declared, “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world!”

This is the testimony of the writer of Hebrews as well.  Listen to Hebrews 2:9.

9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.   

And in the unfolding biblical drama of redemption especially as we have made our way through Hebrews we find that Christ is the Great High Priest of the New Covenant and that New Covenant must be inaugurated by a sacrificial death and that suffering dying sacrifice was the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.  Listen to Hebrews 9:11-28.

11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our  conscience from dead works to serve the living God.  15 Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. 16 For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. 17 For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. 18 Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. 19 For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 20 saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” 21 And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. 22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. 23 Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

If you take the time to read the Gospel accounts of Christ on the cross you will see the suffering that our Lord endured as He died a criminal’s death.  He was betrayed by one of His disciples.  As He prayed in Gethsemane the agony was so real that he sweated drops of blood.  The disciples scattered at His arrest and Peter denied knowing Him three times.  He was slapped and punched in the face.  He was beaten almost to death in His scourging.  He was mocked by the soldiers and spit upon.  He had a crown of thorns shoved on top of His head and then was beaten on the head by a rod in mockery.  His beard was pulled out and He was stripped naked and made to carry His own cross to His death.  He was so weak from the beatings that He fell under the weight of the cross as He walked to the edge of the city to be crucified.  His hands and feet were nailed to the cross as He suffered a slow, agonizing death of suffocation as the blood dripped out of His wounds.  And then with a loud voice He cries out one more time, commits His soul to God and dies.  It was real suffering.  It was sacrificial suffering and it was in fulfillment of the Scriptures.  Which brings us to our second point. 

2.  Christ’s death occurred outside the camp.

Look at verses 11 and 12 and notice the phrase “outside the camp” and “outside the gates.”

¹¹ For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. ¹² So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.

The Bible presents Christ as our Passover lamb.  That is what John the Baptist said.  But the Passover lamb and its blood served the purpose of setting apart the people of God from the people of Egypt.  God’s wrath would be poured out on those who did not have the Passover lamb’s blood on the doorposts of their house.  He would Passover those who did.  But John the Baptist also said something about Christ as the Lamb of God as well.  He said that Christ was the Lamb of God that would take away the sins of the world. 

The picture here is that of the sin offering.  The sin offering and the Day of Atonement had some similarities. Many of the sacrifices that were made in the tabernacle and the temple were eaten by the people and the priests but not the sin offerings and the offerings on the Day of Atonement.  The Passover lamb was consumed by the people but not the sin offering. 

After the blood was poured out and taken into the holy of holies the carcasses of those sacrificial animals were taken outside the camp to be burned.  You can find these commands in Exodus 29:14 having to do with the sin offering.  And of course in Leviticus 16:27 to see the Day of Atonement sacrifice burned outside the gates. 

If you look in the first five books of the Old Testament what you will find is very interesting if you look for this phrase, “Outside the camp.”  Many things happened outside the camp.  Moses set up the tent of meeting where he would go before the Lord outside the camp.  This shows the defilement within the camp.  Also the sin offerings and were burned outside the camp and then the ashes from other sacrifices were brought outside the camp.  Lepers and people with various diseases were held outside the camp so they did not infect the people.  Also capital punishment happened outside the camp as well. 

This shows several things about Christ. 

1.  Christ was the sin offering and the atonement for sin because He suffered outside the camp.      Listen to Isaiah 53:6-7.

⁶ All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.  ⁷ He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.

2. Christ was treated as a leper or as an unclean person because HE was sacrificed outside the camp.  Listen to Isaiah 53:3.

³ He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief ;
And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

3.  Christ carried our sin upon Him as He was sacrificed outside the camp.  Listen to Isaiah 53:4-6.

⁴ Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. ⁵ But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well -being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.

4.  Christ became a curse for us because He was crucified outside the camp.  Listen to Galatians 3:13.

¹³ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE "—

Listen to 2 Corinthians 5:21.

²¹ He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

And as Christ on our behalf was made the sin offering, as He suffered the painful agonies of the cross He also experienced the mockings and the scourging and the jeering of the onlookers as they hurled insults at the Lord of glory.  “He saved others, let Him save Himself.”  “If you are the Christ come down off the cross.”  “Hail, King of the Jews.”   But the greatest of all grief on the cross came when the Father laid the sins of the people on Christ and rejected Him in that moment on the cross when the Lord cried out, “My God, My God!  Why have you rejected Me?” 

Isaiah 53:10….

¹⁰ But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief;

Christ’s death on the cross was real suffering.  The death happened outside the camp.  But glory to God this death had a purpose that has been accomplished.  And that is our third point this morning. 

3.  Christ’s death accomplished salvation.  

Look at verse 12. 

¹² So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.

What people is verse 12 speaking of?  Scripture knows nothing of a general term when it comes to speak of the people of God.  Matthew 1:21 states that Christ Jesus will save His people from their sin.  The people are God’s elect from every nation whom He foreknew and predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.  These people who are sinners and without hope and desperately in need of a Savior.  These are people who have come to the end of themselves and know that their sin is too great to bear and that they can never overcome it by mere human effort and they know that if they were to mend their ways now it would still be too late. 

These are people who understand that they are worthy of death and eternal judgment because of their sinfulness and hard heartedness toward God and His law.  These are people who stand in utter amazement at the grace of God poured out on them immeasurably in Christ Jesus by the Father.  These are sinners worthy of eternal death who have been saved by the grace of God. 

Folks, you can not even begin to appreciate all that Christ has done on our behalf until you at least scratch the surface on the depths of your own sinful depravity.  Most people walk through this world thinking they are good people and that is because they compare themselves to others.  But when compare ourselves to a holy, righteous, pure God we only then see the filthiness that lies within us and the utter depravity and sinfulness of our own wicked hearts and we look up only to see that in and of ourselves we have no hope. 

Sin is such a horrid offense to God and such a stench in His nostrils that He destroys and punishes people because of it.  And all the people deserve this eternal punishment including you and me and our children and our friends and our neighbors. 

We are not without illustration of this truth.  In the Old Covenant sacrificial system in order for the believing Jew to approach God there had to be a sacrifice.  Something had to suffer and die for God to dwell with mankind.  There had to be a death of some animal.  The victim was bound and butchered so the sinful person could come before God. 

Life requires death to continue.  The food that we ate this morning and what we will eat at lunch was at one time alive.  It had to die so that you and I may continue to live.  It is just that most of us never sees our food die. 

So Christ had to die so that we His people could live.  Look at verse 12 again.

¹² So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.

Let me read to you a quote from AW Pink from his commentary on Hebrews. 

”Christ Himself is the all-sufficient sin-offering of His people. Just as all the iniquities, transgressions and sins of natural Israel were, in a figure, transferred to the typical offering (Lev. 16:21), so all the iniquities, transgressions and sins of the spiritual Israel were imputed to their Surety (Isa. 53:6, 7, 11, 12). Just as the goat bearing the iniquities of natural Israel was sent away "into a land not inhabited" (Lev. 16:22), so "as far as the east is from the west, so far hath Christ removed our transgression from us" (Ps. 103:12). And just as "on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord" (Lev. 16:30), so "The blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanseth us from all sin (1 John 1:7).”

Notice the word “sanctify” in verse 12.  This is the word for consecrate or make holy.  This is the only way that any of us can now come before God.  The only way we have access to the Father is through the sanctifying consecrating work of the Son of God on the cross.  And I want you to see how this sanctifying happened.  Look at verse 12 again. 

¹² So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.

Christ was cursed in our place.  Christ was bruised in our place.  He was cast out of the city in our place.  He was pierced through in our place.  He was rejected by men and His Father turned His back on Him in our place.  Our sin was laid on Him and He has now by His death and blood atoned for that sin and carried it away never to be spoken of by God again. 

And as we are remembering and celebrating this morning we know that our Lord Jesus did not stay dead but He has risen and by His resurrection those of us who are His are promised eternal resurrection as well to forever be with our Lord. 

Let me ask you this resurrection morning.  Do you understand that Christ had to suffer outside the camp in order to sanctify you through His blood?  Do you live in daily submission to Him as Lord because of that glorious truth?  Have you become so comfortable with this truth that you are no longer overwhelmed by it?  Have you taken on such a wonderful self image now that you might even entertain the notion that you could have been saved otherwise?

We have no boast other than in the cross of Christ. 

I do not have a window in which to look at everyone’s soul here this morning.  But there is a real possibility that among us this morning are those who may be teenagers or older children or even adults who have either been playing around with Christianity or you have not yet repented and believed the Gospel. 

This morning, do you see the utter sinfulness of your own heart?  Are you this moment no longer under the false idea that you are a good person?  Listen I love every one of you but ya’ll are just like me.  If Christ does not indwell our person by His Holy Spirit there is not anything good in me and there is not anything good in you.  And if you think there is then you are just as deceived as the Pharisee or the rich young ruler.  This morning if you realize that your sin has separated you from God and the Lord has opened your eyes to see the beauty and the majesty of the crucified Lord Jesus you must in response to that repent of your sins and trust in Christ alone for salvation.  If you are lost this morning cast yourself on Christ.  Look to Christ and Him alone for salvation.

He is the only Savior.  He is the only hope for sinful mankind.  And He is our only hope.  And praise the Lord He is risen. 

Let’s pray.