Hebrews 13:9-14

[0:00] Good morning. Good morning. Before we get into the Word here, does anybody else have a song you'd like to sing this morning?

[0:16] ! The New Testament, the book of Hebrews.

[0:33] Y'all have heard me say several times the book of Hebrews is very good for Bible doctrine. There's a whole lot of doctrine throughout the book of Hebrews and rightfully so because the book of Hebrews was written to the Hebrews, to the Jewish people that had made a profession in Jesus Christ.

[0:52] They made a profession of faith. They had been saved. However, there were Judaizers that were infiltrating the Jews saying Jesus Christ is great.

[1:05] Jesus Christ is all fine and well. Grace is wonderful. The blood is awesome. However, you still need to keep the law. However, you still need to be circumcised.

[1:16] You still need to keep the feasts. You need to do this and need to do that. Folks, salvation is of God. The Lord is salvation and salvation is of the Lord.

[1:27] There's two things that are taught throughout the Scriptures, not just in the book of Hebrews, but all throughout the Scriptures. We see that salvation is of God and that God Himself is salvation.

[1:44] But this is what the writer to the Hebrews was addressing through much of it. And He was, of course, exalting Jesus Christ throughout the book of Hebrews, talking about how Jesus Christ was better than this.

[1:57] He was better than that. He was better than angels. He was better than Moses. He was better than any king. He was better than anything is what the writer to the Hebrews is getting at. Better than the law.

[2:09] Better than salvation by trying to keep the law. And I'll say a big hearty amen to that. I'm glad that my salvation is not dependent upon anything that I do or have done or could do.

[2:24] But it is all dependent upon what Jesus Christ has already done on a cross at Calvary. And this is, again, some of the things that the writer to the Hebrews was addressing.

[2:36] No one knows for certain who the writer to the Hebrews was. Some say it was Paul. Some say it was Barnabas. Some say it was Peter. And I've heard all kinds of things.

[2:47] But the fact remains that the Bible does not tell us who wrote Hebrews. But we do know it is written ultimately of God, inspired to some man by the Holy Spirit of God to be penned.

[3:02] And that's what's important. But anyway, going all through a small introduction there as far as what the book of Hebrews is about. It's about the exaltation of Jesus Christ.

[3:13] It's about a better thing coming because of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ being the testator of the New Testament. He is the one that brought it to be.

[3:26] It was a promise in the Old Testament. And it was all fulfilled in the New Testament through the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made. There's also a lot of warnings that are found in the book of Hebrews.

[3:37] Some say five. Five major warnings. Some say six major warnings. I'm of the group that says six. But nevertheless, I'm not going to argue with anybody about that.

[3:49] And I'm going to throw down with anybody about it. But there are warnings. In fact, Brother Ellis just this morning in Sunday school brought up one of them. How should we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?

[4:01] That's one of the warnings that's brought up in Hebrews. And there's a few other ones as well. But anyway, in Hebrews 13, the very first sermon I preached here was on verse 8.

[4:14] Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. I read a few verses leading up to that as well. But that was the main gist of it. But in the 13th chapter of Hebrews, we see, and again, we've got to remember, the author of this general epistle to the Hebrews has spent 12 chapters, 12 chapters that were not numbered.

[4:38] The verses weren't numbered. But he spent a lot of time, a lot of pen, a lot of paper or papers, writing about how Christ is better than everything, than anything that the Jews would be familiar with.

[4:54] He's better than it all. And he is greater than them all. He spent all his time doing this. And he begins with an exhortation in the 13th chapter of Hebrews of let brotherly love continue.

[5:07] So he begins with an exhortation of love, encouraging the Hebrew people, the Jewish people, and anyone else, for that matter, that might read this, us later on down the line, to let brotherly love continue.

[5:24] So he begins with love, and he exhorts people to remember them, and to pray for them, and to listen to them that be in authority, and namely in the church is what the gist of this was, but those in authority, period.

[5:45] Now folks, I've said many times, and I understand that there's several times in Scripture that that is brought up, that we're to be subject to the authorities that are above us.

[5:56] And I agree with that. Not because I like it, but I agree with it because the Bible says so. However, if those authorities above you are encouraging you to sin, we have every biblical right in the world to reject them.

[6:12] You know, and I've used the example before, years ago, I used the example that, you know, someone at my work, wherever I'm working at the time, if I'm carrying my Bible in, and they say, you can't bring that Bible to work with you, they have every right to tell me that.

[6:32] I mean, it's private property, it's their business, and they have every right to tell me that. And do I have to abide by that? Well, I can either abide by it, or I can go home.

[6:45] But, they have every right to tell me that. However, if someone in authority tells me, you need to go home and murder your wife. No!

[6:56] Or you need to go here and murder this person. Or you need to go to this or that. Anything to do with sin. No, folks, I don't have to obey that. I'm not obligated to obey that. And it's as simple as that.

[7:08] It's so simple that a child can truly understand that. But, the writer to the Hebrews, exhorting the Hebrews that he's writing to, to pray for, and to admonish, and to remember those that have authority over them.

[7:26] And, but, like I said, it all ends, well, verse 6 says, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

[7:37] And I vaguely touched on that, or briefly touched on that, the first time that I preached from Hebrews 13 here, back several months ago, now I guess. But the Lord is my helper.

[7:49] And, but he's telling them to, to, to do these things. He says, let your conversation be without covetousness, and so on. He says, that we can boldly say, because if we're not doing these things, folks, it's a good indication that we're not saved to begin with.

[8:06] And, therefore, we can't boldly say that the Lord is our helper. No one that is unsaved can truly say that, folks, we are either, we are either saved, and children of the Father, or we are enemies against God.

[8:21] James even says in James chapter 4, friendship with the world is enmity with God. So there is no middle ground. There is no being on the fence. We're either for God, or we're against God.

[8:32] We're for the Bible, we're against the Bible. We're for Christ, or we're against Christ. And, that, that again, is another kind of sub-thing, throughout the book of Hebrews.

[8:42] But anyway, all that being said, we're just going to read a few verses here this morning. Hebrews 13, beginning at verse 9, the writer says, Be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines.

[8:56] For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meats, which have not profited them, that have been occupied therein. We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat, which serve the tabernacle.

[9:10] 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, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.

[9:26] Let us go, therefore, unto him, without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. Back to verse 9, Be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines, for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meats, which have not profited them, that have been occupied therein.

[9:51] So he begins this verse with, Be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines. And I know you all have heard me preach and teach about doctrines, doctrines, and how we're admonished throughout the scriptures, and encouraged throughout the scriptures, and warned throughout the scriptures about strange doctrines.

[10:10] And here the writer of the Hebrews is carrying that on, where he says, Be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines. And folks, he is not just talking about what the Judaizers were bringing in to the Christian camp, as far as keeping the law of circumcision, and keeping the feast days, and doing this, and doing that, keeping all the different food laws that we read about in the book of Leviticus.

[10:35] And he's not just talking about just gross heresies, that were entering into the church at this time either. But he is talking about any type of strange doctrine, anything that goes against the gospel, that was obviously preached to these Hebrews at some point, and they obviously heard, and they obviously received Jesus Christ as their salvation.

[10:58] He says, Be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines. And folks, it is the soul that is not anchored in Christ, that is most susceptible to being carried about with strange doctrines, being carried about with different theologies, and different ideologies.

[11:16] It is the soul that is not anchored in Jesus Christ, and not anchored in the words of this Bible, and is in the most danger of being carried off. And I'm talking about saved people, and lost people alike.

[11:28] Saved people are just as bad to fall into something that they hear, and they'll hear something, they'll say, Well, that sounds good, that sounds wonderful, but they do not compare it with thus saith the word of God, and that can carry them a little bit further away from Almighty God.

[11:48] It can get them out of a relationship with God. It can get them out of fellowship with Almighty God. But those which are lost are the most susceptible, and they are in the most danger, because they'll hear these different strange winds of doctrine, that come their way, and they carry them all.

[12:05] It's just as James says, James says, The double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways, and a double-minded woman is in no different shape. Folks, if we are carried about with strange doctrine, we will believe anything that comes our way.

[12:18] We'll believe anybody that says, All you need to do to go to heaven is wear black socks. All you need to do to go to heaven is to go to church a couple of times a year. All you need to do to go to heaven is this, and all you need to do to go to heaven is that.

[12:33] Folks, the only thing we need to do to go to heaven is to believe in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. Repent of our sin. And the Bible says, They that call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

[12:45] Hallelujah. That's the gist of the gospel. Be careful with anything else that you hear. Be cautious with anything else that you hear.

[12:55] People think, all kinds of people in this world think, I've got to do this, and I've got to do that. No, folks, you have got to believe, and you have got to repent.

[13:06] Jesus Christ said, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of heaven is ahead. Repent ye, and believe the gospel. That's what it takes to get to heaven.

[13:18] And if there's no true repentance, there's no salvation that took place. If there was no true repentance, there was no true believing of the gospel. We cannot say that we believe in the gospel.

[13:28] We cannot say that we've repented of our ways, and continue going on the way that we did. For the Bible says, For if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away, and behold, all things are become new.

[13:41] If we truly believe the gospel, and we truly repent of our ways, we will walk a new walk, we will talk a new talk, and we will not do the things that we did before.

[13:52] The old man has come off, and we have put on the new man. Hallelujah. Don't be carried about with these strange doctrines. Be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines.

[14:06] That's exactly what these Jews were in danger of. But, there's a side of me, and there's a part of me, that feels sorry for these Jews that this letter was written to.

[14:16] Because it really wasn't strange doctrine to them. It was the law that they had been spoon-fed for years. At this point, for centuries.

[14:29] For 1500 years. That's all they knew was law. For 1500 years. Ever since the law was given unto Moses. That's all the Jewish people knew was law.

[14:40] Now, there's grace found all throughout the Old Testament. Don't you get me wrong. But that's all that they knew was law. And suddenly, this man named Jesus Christ, the Messiah that was promised to the Jewish people, and to the world in the Old Testament.

[14:54] He steps in on the scene, and he starts preaching grace. And he starts preaching love. And he starts preaching all of his doctrine. And all the ways that the Old Testament was meant to be taken by the Jews.

[15:06] And here's this writer to the Hebrews saying, don't be carried off. Don't be carried away with strange doctrine. And very much of what he was talking about was the law. Well, that wasn't strange to them.

[15:17] And folks, the law is not strange. The law shouldn't be strange to you, and it shouldn't be strange to me. But, we are not dependent upon the law and our keeping of the law for salvation.

[15:30] For the Bible says, Paul wrote, by the keeping of the law, no flesh shall be justified. We cannot be justified by our keeping of the law. I could go the rest of my days and not tell another lie that will not give me good standing before Almighty God.

[15:46] It is by grace and grace alone, through faith and faith alone, and Christ and Christ alone, that we have relationship with God. And that is the only way. It is truly, utterly, and solely by the grace of God that you and I have salvation.

[16:02] Be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines, for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace. That the heart be established with grace. How does God describe our hearts in the book of Ezekiel?

[16:17] They're stony. They're stony. He says, I will take out their stony heart and I will put in a heart of flesh. But our hearts were hard until God got a hold of them.

[16:27] Our hearts were hard. My heart was hard. I don't know about yours, but actually I do know about yours because the Bible tells me about yours. But I know how hard and how stony my heart was.

[16:38] But here he says, For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace. Not by the keeping of the law. Not by the keeping of the Levitical feast. God gave the Jewish people in the Old Testament three feasts that every Jew that was able by any means to make it to Jerusalem or to make it to the center point where the Jewish people gathered, there to go three times a year for those feasts.

[17:06] But folks, even that was not able to get them in good standing with God. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace. Not with meats which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.

[17:22] It's good that the heart be established with grace and not with meats. Why? Because those meats have not profited them. Folks, if you consider someone like Judas Iscariot who heard the preaching of Jesus Christ, he heard the teaching of Jesus Christ, he spent three and a half years with Jesus Christ on this earth but it profited him nothing because it wasn't mingled with faith or grace.

[17:47] But he heard the same things that everybody else heard. He heard the same sermons that Matthew heard. He heard the same sermons that John heard. The same sermons that Peter heard. He heard them all.

[17:58] But it profited him nothing. You look at the Jewish people in the Old Testament. Here in the book of Hebrews where it says, Not with meats which have not profited them.

[18:08] The Jewish people, they ate manna that God rained down on them from above. They ate the quail that God sent that was killed with the east wind.

[18:19] They drank water that was brought forth from a rock but that profited them nothing. Why? Because their heart wasn't established with grace. They were so concerned.

[18:31] They were so hard-nosed. Hard-nosed and stiff-necked as the Scripture calls them. Their heart was not established with grace. That's why it profited them nothing.

[18:45] Even these priests here in this time, we don't know exactly when the book of Hebrews was written. Most people agree sometime between 60 and 66 A.D. We do know that it was written sometime before Jerusalem fell, which would be sometime before A.D. 70 because that's when Titus came in and sacked the city.

[19:04] But we do know that because even in this very Scripture that we read here this morning, it's talking about the temple work in the present tense. So we know that the temple still stood there and that everything was still going on that the Jews had been doing.

[19:21] But it says it's good for the heart to be established with grace, not with meats which have not profited them but have been occupied there. You go over to the book of Leviticus chapters 1-7.

[19:34] You read about the different offerings. You read about the different things that the priests could take part in. People would bring in their offerings. They could take a little bit of grain. They could take a little bit of the meat from different offerings.

[19:46] They could take the oil. They could take this and they could take that. And they ate of those things but that profited them. Nothing. Why? Because their heart wasn't established with grace.

[19:58] Well, God's the one that gave them those ordinances. Yes, He is. But folks, every one of those ordinances, every sacrifice, every grain offering, every oil offering, every sin offering, every burnt offering, all of these things all pointed towards the ultimate offering that we have in Jesus Christ.

[20:16] They were tops and they were shadows of the offering that was to come. and that grace had not been shed broad and their hearts just yet. The Holy Spirit had not been poured out on all of mankind at that time.

[20:29] Yes, they were ordinances that were given by God, but they were meant to point toward an ultimate ordinance and an ultimate sacrifice and an ultimate offering and that offering is Jesus Christ.

[20:43] Verse 10, We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. Again, this is present tense. They have, that's present tense, no right to eat which serve, that's present tense, the tabernacle.

[20:57] So the temple had not fallen at this point. So it had to have been sometime before 70 A.D. that this letter was written. But it says, we have an altar. Who is we? Those that believe on Jesus Christ.

[21:10] We have an altar. Well, these Jews, these priests and the high priests, all those of the sons of Levi, they had an altar as well, did they not?

[21:23] Yes, but folks, that altar was coming to an end. It had come to an end with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. When Jesus Christ died and the bell of the temple was written in twain from top to bottom, when these things happened, that altar was a none effect.

[21:41] That altar was of zero effect. But the Jews hated that because that's all they had ever known. And because they wanted something, they wanted to think that they had something to do with their relationship with Almighty God.

[21:56] It couldn't just be of grace. It couldn't just be of the blood of one sacrifice. It couldn't just be of this. They wanted something to do with it. I want to bring my own offering.

[22:07] I want to bring my own sacrifice. I want to lay my hands upon it. I want to confess my sins over it. I want the priest to kill it, to put the blood on the altar, to put it on the horns of the altar, to sprinkle it on the mercy seat.

[22:20] Everything that he needs to do, I want something to do with this. And God says, no. This is of me. Of me. You had nothing to do with your salvation and I had nothing to do with my salvation.

[22:36] Zero. We have an altar though. What is that altar? That altar is Jesus Christ. That altar is Christ Himself. Not only is He the altar, but He is the offering that went on the altar.

[22:48] Not only is He the offering, but He is the offerer of the offering. He is not only the priest, but He's the priest that sprinkles the blood. He's the one. He's not only the priest that does the killing, but He is the one who was killed.

[23:02] Hallelujah. It is all of God. It is all of God. We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serves the tabernacle. Now again, you go back to the book of Leviticus, the first seven chapters.

[23:15] You look at those offerings. You look at what the priest could take. You look at what kind of portion that the priest, that God allowed the priest to have of the offerings that were brought. And folks, God had His reasons for doing that.

[23:28] The priest, their sole purpose, the tribe of Levi's entire purpose was to serve the needs of the tabernacle and to serve the needs of the temple later on after the tabernacle was done away with.

[23:42] They didn't have time to go out and get a job. They didn't have time to farm. They didn't have time to do any of these things. That's why God allowed them to have part of the offering that came in.

[23:52] But here it says, we have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. Talking about the priests. The priests, He says, they have no right to eat of this because they are still hung up on the law.

[24:06] They're still trying to keep the law. They're still trying to do the things of the law. They have no right to eat of our altar that we have in Jesus Christ. Why? Again, back up.

[24:17] Because their hearts were not established with grace or by grace. It's because they had not accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Had they accepted that, had they acknowledged that, had they been born again, they would see that there was no sense in continuing to bring the animals in.

[24:35] There was no sense in continuing to slay them and to flay them and to set this side apart for God and that side apart for the priests. They would have known that. But they continued to do this on their own by keeping the law.

[24:50] And therefore, they had no right to eat of the altar that you and I have to eat of and that the Jews that believed here had the right to eat of. We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.

[25:02] For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the can. Wherefore, Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate.

[25:17] They have no right to eat at our altar in verse 10. In verse 11, For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the can.

[25:29] He is speaking specifically of Leviticus chapter 16 and the description of the Day of Atonement that we have in that wonderful chapter in the Old Testament. I know it's bad for us New Testament Christians.

[25:42] The most neglected book in the entire Word of God is probably the book of Leviticus because we see it as a book of law and a book of ordinances and we don't see any reason for us to read that. But folks, if you could see the paintings of Jesus Christ that are within the pages of the book of Leviticus, you'd spend a whole lot more time in that book.

[26:00] Here he says, For the bodies of those beasts whose blood was brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the can. This is talking specifically about the sin offering, not the burnt offering, but the sin offering.

[26:14] He says, The bodies of those beasts and if you read in Leviticus 16, you'll see where there was a bullet that was brought for the sins of Aaron and Aaron alone and you'll see that there was a kid or a lamb or a goat that was brought for the sins of the nation Israel as well.

[26:30] But you will read where the body of this bullet and the body of this goat they were taken without the can. There was nothing that was to be left. It says that they are to be burned outside the gates of the city there to be burned without or outside because, why is that?

[26:46] Because that which is outside is defiled. That which is outside is rejected. That which is outside is shameful. And in the very next verse, wherefore Jesus, also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.

[27:02] Hallelujah. Jesus Christ took your shame. He took your guilt. He took your sin. He took your blackness. He took your filth. He took your wickedness. He took everything about you outside the gate and suffered on your behalf.

[27:15] Hallelujah. We're the ones that should be rejected. And folks, we are. Christians are not the majority in this country that we once were.

[27:27] We are not the majority in this country that we once were. If you don't believe me, go back and read some of the news stories from this past Wednesday. Christians are hated. We are a hated people.

[27:39] And unfortunately, sometimes that hate goes from denomination to denomination. I don't understand that. Especially when you read verse 1 of chapter 13. Let brotherly love continue.

[27:51] Why can't the Methodists and the Baptists get along? Why can't the Pentecostals and the Free Willies get along? Why can't the Church of God and the Church of the Brethren get along? I'll tell you why.

[28:03] Because of pride. And that's the only reason. Period. It's pride. The bodies of those beasts for the sin offering were taken outside the camp.

[28:16] Because anything that was considered defiled, that's where it was to go. And that's where it was to stay. Folks, the lepers in the Old Testament. Again, you can read about that in the book of Leviticus. There were all kinds of laws considering leprosy.

[28:28] And the lepers, they were not to stay within the city. They were to stay outside the camp. Why was that? Because they were defiled. And that leprosy was a picture of sin. It was a picture of sin.

[28:40] But the lepers were to stay outside. If you remember in the Gospel account, there was an account where ten lepers were outside the city. They'd come screaming to Jesus, asking Him to heal them.

[28:51] And He healed them all and only one returned to give Him thanks and to give Him praise and to pay the due respect unto Jesus Christ. Folks, they were not within the city gates.

[29:02] They were not within the city because they didn't want that leprosy spreading. Anything that was defiled was found outside the city. Wherefore, Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood suffered without the gate.

[29:18] He, which knew no sin, became sin for us, that you and I might become the righteousness of God in Him. is how Paul wrote it to the Corinthian church.

[29:31] He knew no sin. The perfect, spotless, blameless Lamb of God who never committed sin and thought, word, or deed.

[29:45] Never looked at another man's wife. Never told a lie. Never committed adultery. Never had a lustful thought in his life.

[29:57] Never stole. Was given over to suffering. To suffering.

[30:08] Folks, this verse, verse 12, this is the gospel jewel in this entire passage of Scripture. Wherefore, Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood suffered without the gate.

[30:22] He was mocked. He was beaten. He was ridiculed. And He was rejected. And He was abandoned by the apostles. He was forsaken by His Father.

[30:35] He was cursed. Cursed is every man that hangeth upon a tree is the Word of God that included Jesus Christ. He took your sin. He bore your punishment.

[30:48] And it wasn't just for a show. And it wasn't so that we'd still be talking about Him 2,000 years later. The Scripture tells us why in this very verse. Wherefore, Jesus, that He might sanctify the people.

[31:01] That's why He done this. Wherefore, Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood. We know from the book of Hebrews, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission.

[31:15] It took the shedding of blood of the perfect, spotless Lamb of God to sanctify us and to save us. This is the gospel jewel in this passage.

[31:30] He suffered on behalf of sinners. He suffered on behalf of rebels. He suffered on behalf of all those that He knew before the foundation of the world was ever laid, would rebel against Him, would break His law.

[31:45] He suffered on their behalf. He suffered on behalf of the Roman guards that nailed Him to the cross. He suffered on behalf of the disciples which went their own ways. He suffered on behalf of the disciples and their pride when Peter said, Lord, although every man be offended because of You, I will not be offended.

[32:04] That was a lie. That was a prideful lie that Peter said. He suffered on behalf of all of this. He suffered on behalf of those in the Old Testament.

[32:18] He suffered on behalf of those in the New Testament and all those that have yet to be born. He suffered on behalf of them all that He could sanctify the people.

[32:31] But it had to be by His blood that it happened. There was no other way. Why? Because that's the way that God foreordained for it to happen.

[32:43] That's why. We have no right to question why God didn't just snap His things and say, let it be. Folks, it had to be by blood. It was by blood in the beginning.

[32:54] It was by blood when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden. It was by blood that they were covered. God didn't just hold out His hands and form animal skins.

[33:07] There was an innocent animal that had to be killed for their sins to be covered. And innocent blood had to have been shed. Verse 13, let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp bearing His reproach.

[33:22] He just told us that Christ suffered outside the camp to sanctify us. To sanctify us. And He suffered. He shed His blood to do this.

[33:32] To sanctify the people with His own blood. He suffered without the gate. Now we have a command in Scripture. And don't think that this was just for the writer. Don't think that it was just for the Hebrews that this letter was directed at.

[33:46] 2,000 years later, this is directed just as much towards you and just as much toward me. It is directed at those that are saved. It is directed at the lost. It is directed at everyone.

[33:59] No different than repentance. The book of Acts says God calls men everywhere to repentance. And we who are saved, we need to repent just as much as the ones who are lost.

[34:11] We need to repent every day. Crucify the flesh daily. Mortify the deeds of the flesh. These are all things that you find in the New Testament. We are to do these things. Even as saved individuals, let us go.

[34:24] That's a command. It doesn't say let us sit at home. Let us kick back in our easy chair. Let us sit on the pew and do nothing. That's not what this says.

[34:34] Let us go, therefore, unto Him. Unto Christ. But where is Christ in this context? Let us go, therefore, unto Him. Without the camp.

[34:46] Outside. What does that mean? That means those of us that have done as Christ said should be done.

[34:58] If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself daily, take up his cross, and follow me. And folks, that cross is quite a week to bear sometimes, and I understand that.

[35:11] And your cross will be different than my cross. And mine different from yours. And sometimes, sometimes, we'll come to the end of a way. I won't say the way, but I will say a way.

[35:23] And we'll get to lay down that cross, but folks, don't get too comfortable. It won't be long you'll be picking up another one. It won't be long at all you'll be picking up another one if you're a born-again child of God. They that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution is what Paul wrote to Brother Timothy in the Scriptures.

[35:41] They shall suffer persecution. Let us go, therefore, unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. Christ bore our reproach.

[35:52] Christ bore our deal. He bore our saying. And now we're commending in Scripture to go to him outside the camp. Folks, if we are going outside the camp, we are going away from this world.

[36:02] We are leaving this world. We are leaving the ideologies of the world. We are leaving the politics of the world. We are leaving the thoughts of the world. We're leaving everything to do with the world if we're going outside the camp.

[36:13] And if we go outside the camp, we might as well chalk ourselves up to losing acceptance with society, to losing our reputations, to losing this and losing that, losing friends, losing family, losing all these things.

[36:27] Because we're bearing the reproach of Christ. Because Christ bore our reproach. Let us go forth, therefore, unto him without the camp bearing his reproach.

[36:40] Folks, he's done it for us. Why can't we do it for him? Why won't we do it for him? Again, it's pride. A lot of it's pride. But we need to do this.

[36:51] It's a command in Scripture that we, the children of God, do this. Verse 14, for here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.

[37:03] Now again, couple that with verse 13. Let us go, therefore, unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. Where is without the camp? In this context, it was outside of or without the city of Jerusalem.

[37:14] He says, for here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. This makes me think of just a couple of chapters before this when it's talking about Abraham.

[37:24] in Hebrews chapter 11. It says that he was looking for a city, not made with hands, but whose builder and maker was God. He was looking for a city with foundations, not made with hands, but whose builder and maker was God.

[37:40] Here we read, for here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. Folks, Jerusalem again, at this point, had not fallen yet, but it was going to.

[37:51] Within a decade of this writing, Jerusalem, would be raced to the ground by a man named Titus. After that, Rome would fall.

[38:03] No one ever thought that that would happen. And folks, as much of a patriot as I am, you will not find a person in this area that is more patriotic than I am, or you'll be hard pressed to, I should say.

[38:14] But folks, America will not endure forever. It will not endure forever. But I know a land that will. And I know promises that will.

[38:25] The Bible says, the grass withereth, and the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever. It will stand forever. The promises of God will stand forever.

[38:36] Here, we have no continuing city. It's all going to burn up. Lost person, your money's going to burn up one of these days. Your ideas will burn up one of these days. Your dreams will be out the window one of these days.

[38:48] But there is one that has made a promise. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has come to fulfill a promise that Almighty God made.

[39:02] That there should come a day that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered. There's a promise that was found in Joel chapter 2 in the Old Testament. He came and he has fulfilled that promise.

[39:15] if you've got your faith in money, if you've got your faith in your town, if you've got your faith in husband or wife, or children, or grandchildren for that matter, if you've got your faith in your job, in your bank account, if you've got it anywhere outside of Christ, you'll be carried away with this wind of strange doctrine that we talked about in verse 9 this morning.

[39:41] But folks, if your faith is anchored in Christ Jesus, if it is anchored there, we have no continuing city here. For we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.

[39:53] I'm seeking for that city. I'm seeking for that. And it was the same city that Abraham was seeking after. Abraham not knowing the name of Jesus Christ, but knowing there was one promise, knowing that there was a Messiah promised.

[40:07] I'm seeking for the same city that he was seeking after. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. Are you seeking for that city? Are you seeking something out of your own righteousness?

[40:20] Or out of your own works? Or out of your own merit? Out of your own way? Folks, there is only one way. Christ said it himself in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by me.

[40:34] Are you seeking for this city that we read about here in verse 14? Are you seeking for something else? That's the message for this morning. God bless you all. Thank you.

[40:44] Thank you.