Go Outside the Camp and Bear the Reproach of Christ

Let us turn to Hebrews chapter 13, verse 10, brothers and sisters. Let me tell you where this text came from and why I chose it tonight. This morning I was asking the Lord for a text that I could use as a basis for tonight’s meditation, which is obviously taking place during Good Friday, when we remember Jesus’ crucifixion and His sacrifice on the cross, His suffering, and the implications this has for our lives. And again, as sometimes happens—I do not know whether this happens to anyone else who preaches or teaches—a text immediately came to mind, and when that happens to me, I generally pay close attention. And although I have never preached on that concept, the only thing that came to me was the phrase about suffering outside the camp. So I began looking for that text because I am actually familiar with it; I have heard it before, but I have never preached on it, never spent much time dwelling on that text. So I searched a concordance and found where that text is. And I felt led by the Lord to preach on it. I did not have a clear idea of which direction to take, but as I meditated on this passage, other things and other connections began to emerge, and that is what I want to talk about tonight.

And one of the words that comes to mind is this matter of going out, going out. Christ went outside the camp; He suffered outside the camp. In one sense, the Bible also speaks to us about going outside the camp, and we are going to see what the camp is. But beyond that, I also believe that the Lord wants us to meditate a little on the connection between Jesus’ death, His sacrifice on the cross, and the symbolism in the Old Testament involving Passover, the Passover lamb, the shedding of blood, and the blood sacrifices required by the Old Testament as a foretaste of what Christ would fully accomplish when He was lifted up on the cross and shed His own blood.

And it is a connection that we sometimes understand almost subliminally, but we have not—I do not remember us as a congregation taking the time to explore that connection more carefully. And I know that many of you who are new to the Gospel may not understand all of this, or what the connection was between the blood Jesus shed on the cross and the sacrifices of the Old Testament. All these things are interwoven here.

Look with me again at Hebrews, chapter 13, verse 10. It says there:

“...We have an altar...” We are talking about ourselves as believers; the writer of Hebrews says, “...We have an altar from which those who serve at the tabernacle have no right to eat...”

There the writer of Hebrews begins a comparison that he makes many times throughout the book of Hebrews, because it is a book written specifically to Jewish Christians, who know the Old Testament very well. And the writer of Hebrews, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is using the symbolic, ritual, sacrificial, liturgical language of the Old Testament and showing how Christ, Jesus, brings it all to fruition, completes it all, fulfills it all. And the purpose of the writer of Hebrews is to show how Christ is the consummation of everything that is merely a symbol in the Old Testament.

In other words, the thesis, so to speak, of the writer of Hebrews is that the entire Old Testament—and especially those key texts having to do with worship, sacrifice, and purification from sins—was simply like an arrow that pointed forward and prepared the sensibilities of the Hebrews, and later of all humanity, for the One who would truly consummate and accomplish in His own person everything that had previously been merely symbolic.

In other words, it was as though the writer were saying: everything that happened before in the Old Testament was like a rehearsal, like a symbolic enactment, but Christ accomplished it all. And that which was merely a shadow, a promise, a pointing forward, now becomes reality in Jesus.

And we who enter into that reality which Christ makes possible have a privilege that no one else has had. Certainly, the old covenant, the old system, the old drama cannot compare, says the writer of Hebrews—and all of the Word says the same.

In other words, those of us who are now in Christ are living the reality; we are living what God had, as it were, been rehearsing for centuries and centuries and thousands of years beforehand. The Old Testament is like a shadow of things to come; that is how the New Testament writer puts it. It is simply an indication. And that is where one sees how real and true Scripture is. It was written over thousands of years. The events of Passover in the Old Testament, when Moses and the Hebrews left Egypt—we are talking about more than three thousand years ago—took place more than a thousand years before Jesus’ sacrifice, and already in the book of Exodus God was developing this symbolism. This convinces us of the coherence of Scripture: how Jesus, in His own life and in events of His life that we know historically to be real and incontrovertible—because very few people in history, whether historians or scholars, Christian or not, deny that there was a Jesus who died crucified on a cross, at least that much. Even if they do not believe that He rose again or anything of the sort, they know there was a person named Jesus who carried out these things that the Old Testament prefigures as a symbol of what was to come.

So one sees that practically from Genesis, when Abraham, for example, is there in his ordeal of killing Isaac and is ready to plunge the knife into Isaac, he is rehearsing what God would later do: kill His own Son—in that sense of the word—not prevent Him from dying, but give Him up to die on the cross.

That is to say, God’s mind has always been focused on what was to come. That sacrifice of Christ on the cross was like the consummation of humanity; it was the climactic moment of the entire drama of humanity, which begins in Eden when man sins, breaks God’s law, violates God’s law, and the world enters into this struggle and brokenness of sin and death. And God’s mind is continually fixed on that moment of redemption, that moment of crucifixion when Christ would pay the price, would stand between us and the wrath of God, would Himself take the blow of sin upon His own person, and would then inaugurate a new era in history.

So understand everything that is happening here. That is very important because it convinces us—at least it convinces me—that the Bible is not simply a collection of crazy books physically bound together in a scroll. It is something that has internal coherence; its message, themes, and symbols all point toward one thing.

So the writer of Hebrews says—he begins by saying—“...We have an altar from which those who serve at the tabernacle have no right to eat...”

There are two things here: this matter of eating and an altar, and so on, reminds me of Holy Communion, where we eat the bread and partake of the symbol of the wine, which reminds us of Christ’s body, broken on the cross, bruised and crucified, and His blood shed for a redemptive purpose. And when we partake of Holy Communion, we are remembering that sacrifice of Christ.

And I believe the writer of Hebrews is saying that we believers, those of us who believe in Jesus, have an altar—that moment when we symbolically partake of the blood and body of Jesus—which is not like the altar of the tabernacle. It is not even like the altar of the temple, beautiful as it is, where the priests enter. We have an altar from which not even the priests have the right to eat, because they do not know Jesus. If they know Him, they can partake of it; but we Christians can eat of something much more powerful, more meaningful, more real. We are partaking of the true reality toward which the Old Testament pointed through all its symbols. We have our faith; what we are enjoying now in Christianity is something far superior, and that is the theme of the entire book of Hebrews.

It says, “...For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest because of sin are burned outside the camp...”

He is alluding there to something that I hope to have a moment to read so that we can see what this refers to. He is saying—he is pointing us toward Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross—and says: look, in the Old Testament they used animals, four-legged animals, sheep, goats, different kinds of animals whose blood was shed. They were slaughtered, and their blood was like the currency used to pay for the sin of Israel, of the Israelites. Every year, during the feasts of atonement, two goats and a lamb were sacrificed, and each of those three animals had a special function.

So he says: look, in those days the bodies of those animals were brought through the sanctuary by the high priest and were burned outside the camp. That is true. Leviticus chapter 16 says so: “...Therefore Jesus also—that is, because of that symbolism established by the Father long ago—Jesus also, in order to sanctify the people through His own blood...”

That is to say, the Lord Jesus now became that lamb which formerly brought spiritual healing to the people of Israel, and every year the same ritual had to be repeated; the price had to be paid again. It was something ongoing that had to be paid symbolically for the people’s sins of that year, and so the Lord Himself becomes that blood sacrifice. And then the same thing that was done before is done to Him; they do to Him what was done to the lambs of the Old Testament: they took Him outside the city. That is to say, they exiled Him. It was not fitting for this being—an animal in the Old Testament, now human and divine in the New Testament, Christ Jesus—to remain among the people with all that sinfulness upon Him. He was exiled, just as people in ancient times were exiled: they were taken out and expelled from the community. The Lord experienced the same thing in His own person.

The One who did not deserve such a thing takes our sin upon His body and is then cast out from humanity. He suffers outside the camp. That is to say, the camp is the safe place where the family is, where the people are, where the community is. Now He, like those goats and that lamb that were filled with sin—for it was placed upon them; the priest symbolically laid his hands upon the animal, and by laying his hands on it, he cast all the people’s sin upon that animal—had to be taken out because it was filled with shame and filled with sin. And so it says that Christ—look at the mind of God—the Lord was crucified outside the city, where people were crucified, outside the city wall; He was crucified outside.

God had already foreseen all of this, and the Lord, in His own person, carried out this act of becoming an exile. To the One who was the Son of Man, they say, “Look, You do not even deserve to be a man; get out from among us.” Do you understand? Christ’s sacrifice was that great. It was not only the physical cross; it was also the shame, being expelled, being cast out, becoming so sinful that He did not deserve to be among human beings.

“...Therefore Jesus also, in order to sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate...”

There is a consequence of that which I do not know whether I should address right now. It says, “...Let us therefore go to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach...”

Let me see whether I remember, because that is important. That is the conclusion of it all. That is what we must do. There is a going out that we too must undertake as a consequence of Jesus’ going outside the camp. There is something that we are called to do. There is a moral, ethical implication—an implication for our conduct and way of life. Because this is the thing, right? Notice: the Old Testament is a symbol. Christ fulfills it in His own person, and we also live it out in our lives. In one sense, we too must be crucified. In one sense, we too must be buried, as in water baptism: we go in and come out. We too must suffer outside the camp, and we too experience resurrection, as Christ Jesus did.

Do you see? They are like three pieces: the symbol in the Old Testament; Jesus fulfills it in His own person; and we also live it out in our own lives and in our own way of living here on earth.

But I am getting ahead of myself. And if I forget, please remind me. Because we are going to go back for a moment, since this is almost more of a lesson about the Old Testament, the New Testament, and their connections, and I do not want this to be lost, so that we may properly understand all that we celebrate and all the things we do.

Look here—let us turn to Leviticus for a moment. Let us first go to Leviticus chapter 16. Look at what the writer of Hebrews is referring to, so that we can understand this a little better. Chapter 16 speaks about the high priest and what he must do. Verse 3 says:

“...With this Aaron shall enter the sanctuary: with a bull...” Aaron is the first high priest of the Hebrew people. “...With this Aaron shall enter the sanctuary: with a bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering...”

Who do you think that ram, that bull, is in the New Testament? It is Jesus. Then it also says in verse 5:

“… and from the congregation of the children of Israel he shall take two male goats…. They were kind of like goats, more or less, although ‘male goats’ sounds better,…. For a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering….”

So there is a series of things that I am not going to read at length here, but the idea is that all these animals are meant to provide for the sins of the people of Israel, and we are an extension of that people. So, it says here farther on in verse 15—because the passage is long—verse 15 says:

“… then he shall slaughter the goat as a sin offering for the sin of the people and bring its blood behind the veil… the veil of the Most Holy Place; he shall bring it into the Most Holy Place…. And he shall do with the blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat…”

Notice here: slaughtering it, bringing it into the Most Holy Place, into the very presence of God, according to Hebrew symbolism, and sprinkling blood there as a symbol of the atonement for the people’s sins. In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit makes clear that all of this was preparation for what Christ was going to accomplish in his own person. It says farther on—let us go to verse 20—it says:

“… when he has finished making atonement for the sanctuary, the tabernacle of meeting, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat….”

Look, there are several animals here, but do not dwell so much on the male goat or the lamb. What matters is that all these animals are playing an atoning role, a role of redemption, a role in which they take upon themselves the people’s sin, a role in which they symbolically stand in the people’s place and are slaughtered or have their blood sprinkled. But the idea is that the people themselves would not have to pay with their own blood. God has said, “I am going to accept the blood of these animals and the lives of these animals as an atonement, as a symbolic payment for your sin.”

“…..And then, when he had finished making atonement for the sanctuary, the tabernacle of meeting, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat….” For there were two: one was sacrificed, killed, slaughtered, and its blood sprinkled; and there was a second animal, of which it says, “… and Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel….”

What does the book of Isaiah say? It says, “He bore our transgressions, and for our sins he was scourged; he was sacrificed.” That is what the prophet Isaiah, centuries before Christ—before Jesus suffered all of this—is speaking about: the very same thing. Throughout the Bible there is this idea of the animal’s blood and life, which Christ is going to fulfill in his own person. He is that victim. But in this case, notice that whereas formerly the lambs and these animals that were sacrificed did not have sufficient power, so to speak, to heal the sins of the people and of humanity once and for all, that sacrifice had to be made over and over and over again, because its power ran out. It was only for one small people, but every year the price had to be paid again.

Now what happened? In the end, God made it very economical: he took one lamb—Christ—perfect, God himself. Just imagine, what victim could pay? What victim was valuable enough to pay for the sins of all humanity—present, past, and future—in one fell swoop, once and for all, so that it would not have to be done continually? It had to be infinitely valuable, did it not? Just imagine. If a lamb and two male goats had to be sacrificed annually to pay the price for a small portion of humanity, namely the Jewish people, how much more—what could be offered to pay once and for all for all humanity, potentially billions and billions and billions of human beings? Because in Christ there is power to save all humanity, if humanity were willing, from any era in history. It had to be something very powerful, and that is why I believe it had to be perfect and both God and man, because only God was of sufficient worth.

And that is why I believe that, in the mystery of redemption and the mystery of the crucifixion, God had to descend; God had to solve the problem. “How do I become a man? How do I become mortal? How do I make myself capable of taking upon my own person the price for all this humanity, which I must destroy because my justice demands that I kill it, since the wages of sin is death?” And God came up with an idea, so to speak, and the idea was, “I am going to descend. I will assume human form, and I will pay the price for all humanity. I am going to be that lamb. I am going to be that animal, so that animals will not have to be continually sacrificed, sacrificed, sacrificed. No, no—once and for all.” And that is why he becomes the sacrifice par excellence, the complete sacrifice.

Here in Leviticus in the Old Testament, what is being presented is simply how things happen, because you see? That is what happens: the difference is that when we are in Christ, brothers and sisters, everything is much easier. In the Old Testament, look, blood had to be shed; these poor men always had to be killing sacrificial animals and slaughtering flesh. I can imagine what that place in the temple must have smelled like. Sometimes we think of the temple—oooh, what a magnificent thing—but can you imagine them killing animals practically every day and every year, and sprinkling blood? And these men, the priests, were more like butchers. They had to kill, and then they had to wash their hands, and their garments were covered with blood.

Listen to me, how difficult life is without Christ. How much effort it takes, huh? Centuries ago Martin Luther—not Martin Luther King, but the other Martin Luther, the father of Protestantism—realized that, realized how difficult it was. A Catholic priest and a monk, he tried to do everything he could: sacrifices, genuflections, scourging, fasting; and still he felt no peace in his heart. He felt sinful. He knew he was a sinful man, until at last he discovered that salvation is by grace, that it is a gift from God, that it does not require so many sacrifices, that the Lord has already paid the price, and that all we have to do is enter into what God did, sign our names to it, and say, “I receive it. I accept that this is for me too.” Then you can have peace with God, because Christ has already made the entire sacrifice; he paid the price.

Nevertheless, look here at everything it cost the people in the Old Testament: all this sacrifice, all this effort, this continual slaughtering of animals. God said, “I am going to solve this problem once and for all. I myself will descend, I will take the sin of the whole world upon myself, and I myself will pay the price, so that now…”

And I see that continually, brothers and sisters: in Christ Jesus we can find rest for our souls. The Lord Jesus Christ says, “Take my yoke upon you, because my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” I think of this man, the paralytic beside the pool of Bethesda—thank you, we have a Bible scholar here. This paralytic is there, and the Bible says that every so often an angel would come—do not ask me to explain how that happened—and stir the waters; an invisible angel, I imagine. But when the people saw those waters begin to move, they knew that the angel was stirring them, and whoever jumped in fastest was healed of his illness. The fastest, the most agile, the cleverest, the most alert. And there was this poor paralytic. He had no one, and even if he wanted to, even if he saw the water first, he could not jump in because he could not move; that is why he was a paralytic. And to me, that symbolizes the Old Testament: effort. Strength is needed, vigor is needed; you have to be the one who initiates things—the fastest, the strongest, the one who knows the most, like the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Those are the ones who have access to the presence of God. And there is this poor man lying beside it, thinking, “Goodness, if only someone would come and throw me in there when that water moved, how wonderful that would be.” And Jesus comes, stands there, and says to him, “Hey, would you like to be healed?” He says, “Lord, I would love to, but how can I, if I have no one to throw me into the water? I cannot do it because I am paralyzed.” The Lord says, “No, man, it is much easier than that. Simply be healed.” And the man picks up his bed and walks away healed, without doing anything.

Do you see the difference? That was the difference. Before Christ comes by, this man needs strength; he needs to do things himself. When Christ arrives, he does it for that man, and it does not matter that he is paralyzed. In fact, the more helpless he was, the better still, because the Lord was all the more glorified in healing and saving him and displaying his grace. It was not by works, not by speed, not by strength, not by agility, not by being alert; it was simply because the Lord wanted to heal him and had the power to do it.

And to me that has always been the difference. That event has been like the difference between what the Old Testament was before Christ came and what things are like when Christ arrives: effort before Christ; with Christ, grace and healing from him, not from us. And so that is all the writer is saying—just that: look, we have a much better covenant. We have something for which even the priests of the Old Testament would have given anything, just to be where we are. And that is why whoever despises Jesus is despising the richest, most beautiful, most powerful thing in all human reality. The Lord does it.

That is why, brothers and sisters, if you are troubled, if you feel burdened by your sins, if you feel that you have no peace, you are missing out, because the Lord has already paid the price. Something is wrong; you have to tune in to the station of grace, which is Christ Jesus. You have to learn to rest in the Lord. If you are struggling, if you are battling something in your life, look, I know we all sin, we all have our burdens and our struggles. Find your rest in the… I am not saying, “Keep sinning, keep doing whatever you please,” but do not keep lacerating yourself. Do not keep condemning yourself. Do not always be depressed over what happened before, over what they did to you, over what you failed to achieve, over the failure you experienced, over this or that. Rest in Christ. He has already paid the price. If your life is a life of anguish and anxiety, look, ask the Lord to give you rest, because that is what Christ died for.

The problem is not, “Oh, I had been told that the Gospel was supposed to give me rest, but it does not….” No, the point is: search within yourself and find the secure place in Christ Jesus. Because the problem is not Christ; he has already done what he had to do. In Christ Jesus we enter into the rest, into the grace of God.

And again, I am not saying that we should play around with sin. No. I am saying that when you are doing everything you can and doing your part, and you are seeking healing, holiness, and to please God, look, do what is in your power, and then rest in the one who has already paid the price. The Gospel is not for living in suffering. The Gospel is not for living in anguish. The Gospel is not for living by works and making sure that we do enough for God to love and accept us. He has already accepted us. Now, because he has accepted us, we must do everything possible to please him, because he has already done so much for us. How could we scorn so much love, so much goodness, and so much sacrifice, when he has already paid the price?

So, to me, holiness is not so that God will love me, so that God will be pleased with me. No, it is because God already loves me and because he is already pleased with me, because he is the sacrifice; he is the lamb. He paid the price. Now, as a consequence of everything he did, of all that effort, he wants you now to enter into the rest that he made possible. And so then, you see, all of this is here. It says in verse 21—I am still in Leviticus 16:

“… and Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, all their transgressions, and all their sins, thus putting them on the head of the goat; and he shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man appointed for this…”

See? Take it out, take it out of the city. Take it away from where there is comfort and human warmth, and cast it out to wander through the wilderness with all that sin upon it—that animal now unclean, infinitely unclean. Take it out, just as Christ was taken and led outside the camp, and it says:

“… and that goat shall bear upon itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness. And then, in verse 27, it says, ‘And they shall carry outside the camp….’”

Where did we hear the words “camp” and “outside the camp”? Back in Hebrews when we began reading.

“… and they shall carry outside the camp the bull and the goat sacrificed for sin…”

Because there were two more animals. Hands were symbolically laid on one, and it was released to wander through the wilderness bearing the people’s sin. There were two that had been sacrificed, their blood sprinkled on the altar—their lives being given in payment for the sins of Judaism and of all the Hebrews. Those two animals had been slain, just as Christ was also slain.

“…. the bull and the goat sacrificed for sin, whose blood was brought into the sanctuary to make atonement; and they shall burn their hides, their flesh, and their dung in the fire. And verse 30 says, ‘For on this day atonement shall be made for you, and you shall be cleansed from all your sins before the Lord….’”

Do you see how God was rehearsing and carrying out all of this in the Old Testament so that Christ would make it a reality? It says:

“...For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkled on the unclean, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your consciences from dead works so that you may serve the living God...”

Glory to the Lord. Brothers and sisters, you understand, regarding this cleansing of your consciences, elsewhere the writer says that the sacrifices could not cleanse people’s consciences so that they could be at peace before God. It was something purely symbolic, animal, material, physical, but Christ is supposed to cleanse us on the inside as well.

So if your conscience is tormented by sin, if you are full of doubts—will God love me, will he not love me? Will I go to hell, will I not?—look, rest, because Christ’s sacrifice cleanses you too, and all you have to do is enter into what Christ’s sacrifice makes possible. Verse 15 says:

“...Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, death having intervened for the remission of the transgressions committed under the first covenant, those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance....”

That is in Hebrews, chapter 9. Now, we could continue, but I am going to leave it there. We could continue because if you go to Exodus, chapter 12, I believe it is, you will find the Passover there. Do you know that we are in the time of Passover for the Jews? I believe Passover was Tuesday of this week—pasaj—for the Hebrews. They are still celebrating the Passover of the Old Testament. And you will remember that Passover commemorated that time when God was going to kill the firstborn of the Egyptians, and he told them that, so that the firstborn of the Hebrews would not be killed, they should take a lamb and put blood on the lintels of the door, on the doorframe, sprinkle it with blood, so that when the angel of death, who was going to be killing the firstborn of the Egyptians, came to a door and was about to enter, he would see the blood painted there and pass over it, pass it by.

The word “Passover” in English means to pass over, to pass by—that is what I thought, but I was not sure—to pass by. For a moment it sounded strange to me, “to pass by”; I have said it so many times, but it was like... I do not want to say something foolish: to pass by. Passover, in the original Hebrew, pasaj, is what that means: to pass by, to pass. When the angel saw the blood...

And you see, look, do you think God could not have made that angel know, “Look, these are the addresses; you are not going to kill the children of these people”? God can do that and much more. No, he wanted to establish a precedent. You see? Because that is how the mind of God thinks. Listen to me, how many things must there be in Scripture that we do not even understand, which God put there for a purpose.

That is why I was talking with someone the other day and said, “Look, the Bible is a multi-, multidimensional book.” The musicians may come up here. The Bible is a multidimensional book; it has many dimensions. Brothers who are ushers, please get ready, because we are going to make our own offering. The Lord made his, but we are going to have an offering too.

Look, the Bible is a multidimensional book in which there is a text that we read and understand as the topmost text, but underneath it God is saying so many things that we do not even understand. In the Old Testament God was establishing something there with that blood. He wanted—he said, “I want humanity to know that I have been thinking about my Son, the Lamb.” Not only was the blood of this lamb used for that, but the lamb was also eaten, because Christ too is flesh and blood, which we can also partake of symbolically, and it gives life and gives nourishment and gives sustenance.

So this Passover lamb was also a symbol of Jesus. He is the Passover Lamb, and that is why, in another text that I do not have time to expound, in Luke 22 or 21, I believe it is, the Lord, at this time about two days before being crucified—two or three days, at Passover time—said, “How greatly I have desired to eat this Passover with you, because I will not eat it again until all things are fulfilled, until I return.” For the Lord was eating the last Passover, and he was going to be the last Passover; he was going to be the last Lamb through whom the Passover would truly have meaning. After that, the Passover lost its meaning. The Jews celebrate Passover, but they do not understand that their Lamb has already been sacrificed. They are still waiting for their Lamb; they do not know that the Lamb came a long time ago.

Now, when Christ comes again to eat the bread and drink the wine, it will be to celebrate the supper of the Lamb and the church. That is why he says, “I will not eat it again until I return.” So, with all these things, I encourage you—what I want, brothers and sisters, is for us to understand that when we commemorate Good Friday, Christ’s sacrifice on the cross; when we speak of Christ as the Lamb, of his shed blood, of our eating the bread and drinking the wine, of the fact that we say he bore our sins, that he was sacrificed for our rebellions, that our sin was placed upon him; when we see that he suffered outside the wall—all these things God had already portrayed in the Old Testament. To me, that is one of the things that conclusively proves that Jesus is who he says he is, the Messiah. He fulfilled all these things, all these symbols. Now we enter into the reality; we enter into the reality of Christ Jesus. And I know you have not reminded me of what I told you to remind me about because you want me to finish, but I am going to read it anyway because I promised myself that I would. I do not want us to miss the ethical implications as well, brothers and sisters—our conduct and our life. I cannot fail to point this out. Once again, in chapter 13 of Hebrews, it says in verse 13:

“...Let us therefore go out to him outside the camp... He is outside the camp; let us also go outside the camp, bearing his reproach, for here we have no permanent city, but we seek the one that is to come. Therefore, through him, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name...”

What is the writer saying here? Hey, do not shrink back and simply say, “Oh, how wonderful Jesus was. Look at the poor man, how he suffered, how he gave his life, how he suffered for us.” He says, “No, it is not that easy. You go out too.” What does that say to you, Christian? Look, a worldly Christian is a contradiction, understand? A Christian who lives in the comfort of the world, inside the camp, is a contradiction. Our place is outside the camp.

You have heard that hymn that says, “The world cannot be my home; the world cannot be my home.” We have turned it into a funeral hymn, but you know what? That is a hymn for today as well, and for you and me. The world cannot be your home. The camp is not your dwelling place. The Word says that we are strangers and pilgrims. We live outside the city; we seek a city not made by human hands. You too have to live as an exile. You are in the world, but you are not of the world. You cannot fall in love with the world. Your affection cannot be set on the world, because, like Christ, you too must suffer outside the camp.

That is what it says here: bear the reproach of Christ. That really is the punch line. Everything else there leads to that: that you too have to exemplify it in your life. And, brothers and sisters, I tell you, we do not know—I do not know what I am saying at this moment, because if I did know, I believe I would live differently. Look, you and I have to surrender everything for Christ Jesus.

Look, if God gives you money, if he gives you beauty, if he gives you prestige, if he gives you a beautiful house, if he gives you a brand-new car, enjoy it, but very lightly. Do not become attached to those things, you know? Because none of that is truly yours; none of that should touch you inwardly. If you are going to enjoy it, enjoy it very tentatively, and always keep it surrendered to the Lord. If he wants to take it away from you, give it to him immediately, you know? And do not fall in love with anything or feel as though you are a big deal because you have this or you have that, because the world is not your home. Nothing in this world belongs to you. Your place is outside the camp, bearing the reproach of Jesus Christ in your heart and in your mind.

Whatever you enjoy in this world is foolishness. You do not become attached to it; you do not love it; you do not feel like a big deal because you have it; and you do not become depressed because you do not have it, because all of that is garbage. You are on your way to the true city. You are outside the camp. We have to be outside the camp mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, 24 hours a day, because that is what Christ did on the cross. He suffered.

I believe that you and I need a lobotomy, open-heart surgery, right now, because anything you are attached to, anything in this world that gives you pleasure and makes you feel, “This is mine; if I do not have it, I am going to die”—take it out. That is a cancer. That is not from God. That is not your identity. You are outside the camp; that is your continual state.

And it also says that you should give the Lord fruit of the lips worthy of your calling. In other words, holiness, a life worthy of the loftiness of the calling we have. Purity, cleanness, because the calling is so high, and we have to be different from the world. The circle is completed: the sacrifices as a symbol, Christ fulfills them, and we continue them; we incorporate them into our lives.

Are you willing to suffer outside the camp? Are you willing to leave the comfort of the world’s acceptance and know that, if you live according to Christ’s example, the world will want you to leave the camp, and you will have to do it? If you have not left the camp in your mind tonight, leave the camp as Christ did, and you too bear the reproach of Christ in your life.

Let us bow our heads. Let us bow our heads and understand that what the Lord accomplished on that cross was something so great, something so precious, something significant. My brothers and sisters, we will never be able to understand everything that was in God’s mind when he conceived this drama of the cross. I thank God because he was not content to leave us in the death of our sin. He did everything that had to be done, and today I simply enjoy the sacrifice of Jesus.

Lord, we want to be like Christ. I want to be like Christ. I want to surrender to you—I want to surrender to you everything I love, everything I adore, everything I value, every appetite, Lord. I surrender it to you; we surrender it to you tonight. Help us live outside the camp. Help us embody in our own lives the symbolism of the Old Testament, just as Christ embodied it in his life, and help us also live the reality that you drew thousands of years ago.

Grant that this church, and this man who preaches, and all its leaders, and our entire program, and everything we do, Lord, and everything that is preached and taught and lived out in this church, may reflect that worthy fruit of lips that confess the name of Jesus. May this be a church characterized by surrendering everything people love and adore at the feet of Jesus, a church that is in the world but is not of the world, a church that lives outside the camp every day. Help us live outside the camp; help us leave the camp in our minds and in our spirits, Lord. And we ask for a holy people, a people who live with their eyes fixed on that city not made by human hands, that eternal city where you await us, Lord.

And make us effective in this world so that many may come to know Christ as Lord and Savior. Thank you, Jesus, for your sacrifice on the cross. Thank you for what you fulfilled. Thank you for your death. Thank you because you are the Lamb, you are the goat, you are that animal who became unclean even though he was perfect, had no defect, and was without blemish; and you became sin for me. Thank you, Lord. We want to imitate you tonight and every day of our lives. We bless you. Thank you, Lord. In your name, amen and amen. Amen and amen.