Sacrificial Adoration

And there, inserted into our
prayer time, is your announcement for our all-church meeting. We will continue to announce
this for the next several weeks. I think we’re supposed to announce
it three weeks. I started way ahead so that you can clear your
calendar. I would like every single person
to be here. It’s going to be a we’re going
to talk about the fall and how we’re going to proceed, how we’re
going to not just survive this situation that we’re in, but
how we’re going to thrive. And I do believe that we can
and should. And so if you’re just visiting,
if you’ve just dropped in, if you’re if you’ve been nothing
more than a regular attender, you are invited. The first portion
of the meeting will be for everyone. And then we may even ask you,
press you into service to organize the lunch, which we will have
catered. We’ll have the members only for
about 20 minutes. We’ll talk about a few things,
inform you of a couple of things. And then we’ll have lunch together. apart if that makes any sense. And then we will gather as a
leadership and put the finishing touches on our meeting. So please
plan for that. Please make every effort to join
us and we will We will trust that the Lord is
going to bless and honor that time. Last week, I handed out
membership testimonies, candidates for membership. And this week,
I have a new installment. And because I know you folks,
and I know that you would read them now if I put them in the
bulletin, I will hand them out like I did last week. Just a
reminder, when you exit, we’re exiting from the last rows forward,
and please come out the center aisle. That’s where I will be,
and I will hand you these testimonies as you exit. If you would, please
take your Bible and turn to the book of Hebrews. Once again,
Hebrews chapter 13. As we began last week in our
consideration of this final chapter of this incredible letter, We
noted that the intensity picks up in this chapter one last time,
evident from the plentiful exhortations that are given there, both subjunctives
as we’ve come to know them, those encouragements that stop just
short of being a command, and also imperatives, commands in
themselves. And we noted that there are basically
three sections or categories, if you will, in which these encouragements
are given. Last week, we considered the
first, the social responsibilities that we have to one another.
We found those in verses 1 through 6. In verses 8 through 16, the
writer addresses spiritual responsibilities. And then finally, Bookending
that section, there are a couple of verses that point to ecclesiastical
or church-related responsibilities. Having considered the first of
these three categories, social responsibilities, we looked at
them last week. The Institute of the Brotherhood
of Christ’s Church, the institute of marriage, and the institution
of divine providence. Let’s consider this morning the
spiritual responsibilities addressed in the second section. As I’ve already noted, verses
7 and 17 serve as bookends for what we have in verses 8 through
16. It seems like this, it seems
as if a writer begins with a thought, a thought about spiritual leadership,
and having interjected that thought in verse 7, that thought elicits
a point about doctrinal stability, verses 8 through 16. And then
he’ll return to the subject of spiritual leadership in verse
17. This, if you will, is the outworking
of spiritual leadership, that is, doctrine. Let’s take it in
its entirety, though, this morning. Chapter 13, verses 7 through
17. Remember those who led you, who
spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of
their conduct, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday, today, and forever. Do not be carried away by varied
and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened
by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied
were not benefited. We have an altar from which those
who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies
of those animals, whose blood is brought into the holy place
by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the
camp. Therefore, Jesus also, that he
might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside
the gate. So let us go to him outside the
camp bearing his reproach. For here we do not have a lasting
city, but we are seeking the city which is to come. Through
him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise
to God. That is the fruit of lips that
give thanks to his name. And do not neglect doing good
and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Obey your leaders
and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as
those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and
not with grief, for this would be unprofitable to you. A writer is drawing his argument
to a close. And the amazing thing to note
in this section, verses 8 through 16, they function like a summary
statement of the entire epistle. Here we find all of the core
elements of this amazing letter. A great proclamation about Christ. the cornerstone of truth, the
unchangeable Christ. In verse 8, we have the all too
real tendency to drift from truth, as he tells us in verse 9, a
point that he has made and appealed to and warned of over and over
again throughout this letter. We have the sacrifice based upon
truth. in verses 10 through 14, which
argument essentially is encapsulated in the first 10 chapters of this
letter. It’s all about Christ. It’s all
about the superiority of Christ in his priesthood and his sacrifice. And then the appropriate response,
which he has uttered again and again. We have the offering of
adoration in truth, legitimate, genuine worship. As we begin to look this morning
about this genuine worship, this sacrificial adoration, he gives
us a series of principles. And he begins, as I’ve already
noted, in verse seven with kind of laying the groundwork. We’ll
return to this verse in the days or weeks to come, but he basically
reminds them to ponder, to consider their earthly examples. Look
at verse seven again. Remember those who led you, who
spoke the word of God to you, considering the result of their
conduct, imitate their faith. In all likelihood, these spiritual
leaders, whether apostles or evangelists or fellow workers
in the gospel or shepherding elders or deacons, they must
have been among the first followers of Christ. They rose to positions
of leadership in the early church and had now passed on to glory. Back in chapter two, he acknowledged
those who had confirmed what was spoken through
the Lord. There were those that heard Christ
speak while he was here on earth. They attended his earthly ministry,
and then they went about confirming, attesting to what Christ had
said. Chapter two. Verse 3. In chapter 4, he acknowledges
that we had the good news preached to us. Chapter 4, verse 2. These
were likely among the very ones that he’s referencing here in
chapter 13. They are those who had fought the good fight, had
finished the course, who had kept the faith, and so he now
speaks of them and their influence in the past tense. They led you. They spoke the word of God to
you. And what he urges them to do
is to ponder their earthly example and the content of their teaching.
Their godly example, he urges them to imitate their faith. That idea always makes us uncomfortable,
doesn’t it? to imitate some earthly example. It seems, or at least it sounds,
as if we’re merely going through the notion and we’re setting
before us, almost like an idol, someone to emulate. The Apostle
Paul wasn’t afraid to set himself forth as an example. Nor was
he afraid to appeal to believers, even to command them to follow
his example. 1 Corinthians 4, verse 16, I
therefore exhort you, be imitators of me. Now that may sound arrogant
to our ears, but in chapter 11, he not only reinforces it, but
he explains that idea. be imitators of me, just as I
also am of Christ. You follow me as I follow Christ. In 2 Corinthians, he says it,
if possibly, even more pointedly. He says, by the manifestation
of truth, commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in
the sight of God. There are many of us that we
don’t want to be seen. We don’t want our testimony to
be seen, not all week long. It’s okay to come to church and
have our testimony on display for an hour to the Philippians. He exhorted
them, join in following my example. Observe those who walk according
to the pattern you have in us. Paul says, not only should you
obey my example, should you follow my example, you should follow
those who live like me. Chapter four of that same epistle.
He says, the things you have learned and received and heard
and seen in me, practice these things. It’s unmistakable. He’s calling people to pattern
their lives after what they see in him. In 2 Thessalonians, he tells
them, you yourselves know you ought There’s an obligation. There’s an expectation. You ought
to follow our example. Peter, likewise, Peter calls
those who would lead the church to the exact same thing. He says. That you are to prove
yourselves as examples to the flock. You see, there are far
too many people in the world. Including Christians. who are
willing to say, do as I say. Very few who are willing or able
to say, do as I do. You’ve seen those bumper stickers,
haven’t you, on fleet vehicles? 1-800-HOWSMYDRIVING, you’ve seen
those? We should make up bumper stickers.
Can you imagine this? 1-800-HOWSMYLIFE. The bottom line, we are an example. For good or
for ill, as soon as we name the name of Christ, our lives are
an example. And so our lives better be in
the process of developing into an exportable example. We ought to be able to commend
our lives to every man’s conscience. We ought to have an exportable
example, something that God himself would have others behold and
emulate. It’s devastating to other believers
when we conduct ourselves in a way that contradicts our testimony
of faith. Conversely, there is something
spiritually invigorating, isn’t there? about seeing God’s grace
in action, a living example of godliness in a fellow believer. And here he prepares to plead
with his readers not to veer into doctrinal error. He lays
the groundwork by directing them to remember the teaching and
example of their previous leaders. He’s calling them to a sacrificial
adoration. He wants them to understand what
true sacrifice looks like. And he essentially gives to them
the structure of the perfect church. Haven’t we all hoped
for, perhaps we ducked into a church at times that we thought was
perfect? What would the perfect church
look like spiritually speaking? He paints that picture in these
verses, verses 8 through 16. After reminding them that they
are to remember their earthly examples, he does this for a
reason, because these are the ones that imparted sound doctrine
to them. These are the ones that not only
preach the gospel, but taught them. and showed them what sound
doctrine is. The first thing that he presents
to them as they consider the structure of a perfect church
is the cornerstone of truth, not just the foundation, the
very starting place, the cornerstone of truth, the unchangeable Christ. Look at verse eight. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. The grand statement is inserted
seemingly abruptly. In fact, there were some commentators
who suggested that this section, verses 8 through 16, is disjointed. Like alphabet soup, some scribe
relocated this paragraph from another place and dropped it
in between verses 7 and 17. I don’t buy any of that. Verse
8 functions as the hitch pin that connects not only what proceeds,
verse 7, but it also connects with what follows, verses 9 through
16. The connection is simple enough.
The writer had just urged his readers to remember both the
example and the doctrine of those who had previously led them spiritually. One of those chief articles of
faith would have been the eternality and the unchangeableness of Jesus
Christ. And so, in order to initiate
an important discussion, he reiterates this grand truth. Jesus Christ
is the same yesterday, today, and forever. This is the particular
for the more general exhortation given in verse 7. In short, Nothing
had changed with regards to Christ. He had not changed, nor had the
truths about him faded one bit. Whenever someone spouts off to
me that God told them something, something never before heard
of, especially about Christ, it must necessarily be false. He was and is the same, not only
a resurrected savior or the one who had taken on flesh and walked
the very earth that he created, but he is the same as he has
been from eternity past and will be into eternity future. Christ
does not change. And his whole point here is that
if Jesus Christ is not, has not, and will not, indeed cannot change,
then all the more they must pay heed to the doctrine laid down
by their former teachers. They must refuse to give in to
and be carried away by what he will go on to warn them about
in verse 9, varied and strange teachings. As God, Jesus is unchanging
and unchangeable in his attributes, in his divine intentions, in
his promises, in his warnings. This is every bit a declaration
of Christ’s deity. God is unchanging. He is the
same perpetually in his person, in his perfections. The psalmist
said of God, thou art the same and thy years will not come to
an end. God himself is neither in a state
of growth in any of his perfections. He can’t get more holy. Because that would be to suggest
that he was less than holy at some point in time, nor can he
demise in any of his attributes of perfection. Theology uses
the term immutability to refer to this doctrine. A.W. Pink described it this way. God
is perpetually the same, subject to no change in his being, attributes,
or determinations. Therefore, God is compared to
a rock which remains immovable. When the entire ocean surrounding
it is continually in a fluctuating state, even so, though all creatures
are subject to change, God is immutable. He’s the incorruptible
God. And likewise, his knowledge,
his will, his plans, his purposes and promises are all unchanging
and unalterable. Why does he interject this point
of doctrine? That Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday, today, and forever? It’s to prepare them for one
final warning. A warning to avoid false teaching. That they not imbibe what he
calls in verse 9, varied and strange teachings. We’re observing the perfect church,
the structure of a perfect church, and we see not only the cornerstone
of truth, but the tendency to drift from the truth. It’s a
call to doctrinal purity. Because of this truth that Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, he says to
them in verse nine, do not be carried away by varied and strange
teachings. For it is good for the heart
to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those
who were so occupied were not benefited. Because of this truth, he issues
a dire warning. He’s given a series of them in
this epistle, hasn’t he? Some of the most shocking, pointed
words in all of scripture. And he gives them one final warning.
Do not be carried away. This warning though it was vitally
necessary for this writer’s own situation in first century Christianity,
is as timeless as the rest of the exhortations that he’s given
throughout this epistle. This is very much an active,
current tendency in the church, a tendency to fall into what
is novel, new doctrines, new ideas, new methods, new doctrines,
or old doctrine, old ideas, old
methods, old doctrines. Paul warned of an innate feature
that can affect any Christian, an innate feature that can affect
any Christian, the ears. I’m not talking about your physical
ears, and neither was Paul. Spiritual ears. He addressed it in Second Timothy,
chapter four. The time will come. When they
will not endure sound doctrine. But wanting to have their ears
tickled, they didn’t hear what they wanted to hear. He didn’t
tell us that we were good, basically. In fact, he zeroed in on the
vice that I hold so dear. Wanting to have their ears tickled,
they will, and this is a greedy word, they will accumulate for
themselves. Teachers, and I would put that
in quotes. So-called teachers. Wanting to have their ears tickled,
they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their
own desires who will tell them what they want to hear. They will turn away their ears
from the truth and will turn aside the myths. Paul says that that is an innate
feature that can affect any and every Christian. We must guard
against that. This is an echo of what the writer
of Hebrews is saying here. Paul speaks there of one of the
most dangerous pitfalls of all, the yearning for something fresh,
the yearning for a message that we want. It’s the same thing
about which a writer warns here in Hebrews, it’s the insatiable
hunger for what we want. whether new or old, what he calls
here varied and strange teachings. Perhaps, as seems likely from
this section, one of those teachings that was floating around first
century Jerusalem was precisely this, that Jesus had morphed
or that Jesus teaching had somehow changed, or perhaps even that
God himself had either backed away from his standards or softened
his standards or capriciously defaulted on his promises. His warning is very graphic.
And it’s very alarming. He says, do not be carried away. From time to time, I call attention
to a particular Greek word just because of the way it sounds. And here, it’s a beautiful sounding
word. Paraphara. Sounds pleasant, doesn’t it?
Sounds like something you might see walking through a garden.
Paraphara. Many times in Greek, there’s
almost an onomatopoeia. It sounds like what it means. You remember that concept from
eighth grade English? The word sounds like what it
means, like our word, rushing, to describe a river. Or like
the Greek word, gonguzo, grumbling. But this word is different. Here
is a beautiful sounding word with a really ugly implication.
Paraferro. It presents a horrific image.
Every bit as shocking as witnessing a person swept away by a raging
river. Maybe the edge of the water was
calm, cool on the feet, But one false step on the slippery rock
sent them tumbling into the river, which immediately swept them
away forever. It’s a horrific image. So it
is in the realm of doctrine. Sometimes people are led or enticed
to ponder some new strain of thinking. It may initially be
unappealing. But the more it is entertained
as some troublesome friend presses them, they begin to drift. They begin to let go of truth.
Until there is a slip. Far more tragic, even than the
calamity of a river. He says here, there’s a point
of no return. A point in which this unwary individual is carried
away. There’s an involuntariness to
this. There’s an inescapability to
it. Much like a fish caught in the
talons of an eagle, this one dabbled just a bit too long.
He doubted, he wondered, he wondered until he fell and he was caught
up and carried away. This is an utterly tragic situation
and it is all too real. Not just then, but now even to
our very day. People still catch a glimmer
of something new, some new wrinkle of theology. Something they had
never yet pondered, and all too soon they are gone. Paraferro,
carried away. The warning of this opening line
is very general. And we’re not given much of a
hint on specifics. That is, as it should be, the
potential drift can be seen in every corner of doctrine. So
if he were to zero in on just one aspect, we might forget about all those
other ways in which we could be led astray. Nevertheless,
he will go on to address what was likely one area of drift
in this first century church. We’ve been reminded over and
over that this particular writer was originally writing to a particular
body of saints, Jewish converts to Christianity, living in Jerusalem,
remember? These believers were especially
ripe and prone to be preyed upon by their countrymen, who would
press the standards of the former covenant. The Jewish religious
elite was fully given over not to true
Judaism, which laid the groundwork for the coming of the Messiah.
They were given over to a false and degenerated form, which was utterly heretical and
blasphemous. These Judaizers were offended
at the simplicity of the gospel. They were offended at the cross,
they were offended at Christ, and they sought to reassert law
keeping as a help. To keep salvation. Christ’s atonement,
his death on the cross was insufficient to save, they said. There must also be a strict adherence
to religious ritual, they demanded. And so they press the particulars
of their doctrine to the weaker Christians in their midst. These
Judaizers are of the same ilk of those who dogged Paul’s steps
wherever he went. Remember them? Philippians 3,
Paul addressed them, beware of the dogs. That’s what he called
them. It was about the worst thing
that you could call someone in the East. Beware of the dogs,
beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision. Beware
of the Judaizers, he tells them. Who worship in the spirit of
God. Pardon me. He says, for we are
the true circumcision. We are the true believers in
Christ who worship in the spirit of God, whereas the Judaizers
did not. We glory in Christ and in salvation
by faith in him alone, the Judaizers did not. We put no confidence in the flesh. Unlike the Judaizers. These Judaistic
false teachers, Paul calls dogs, enemies of the cross of Christ. They are not content to deny
the sufficiency of Christ by themselves. They have to press
it on everyone around them. The essence of the gospel is
salvation by faith alone in Christ alone. But false teachers of
any day will reject and bury that truth at every turn. Again,
he isn’t warning them about a single doctrinal error. He identifies
those errors as varied. There were and are all kinds
of these errors. This is a great word. Both James
and Peter use it to describe the broad spectrum of difficulties
that a Christian may face. Do you remember that? James 1-2,
consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various, widely
varied trials. First Peter 1.6, you have been
distressed by various trials. And just like the breadth of
those kinds of trials that we face, Paul also uses it to remind
Titus of the manifold ways that we had sinned before we knew
the Savior. We also once were foolish ourselves, Titus 3.3,
disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures. Likewise, there’s an incredibly
broad spectrum of false teaching which the devil can use to assault
believers. And not only is there a broad
spectrum of false teaching, the writer here also calls it strange. Now, there are indeed. Some weird
beliefs out there. That Jesus is actually Satan’s
brother. Or that he was merely a prophet. Or that humans are basically
good. Or that somehow we can actually
do enough good things to earn our salvation. Or that the Virgin
Mary ought to be worshipped. Or that we can be reincarnated
after we die. Maybe as a bug or a goose. or
that we evolve from chimpanzees. Strange, strange stuff. But he’s not necessarily using
the word strange in that sense. There have been a myriad of accusations
thrown about our world in these last few months. A new one to
my ears was this accusation of someone being a xenophobe. You know, if you really want
to hurt someone’s feeling, does the word xenophobe do it for
you? Does phobe attached to anything
really stick to you? Well, what is a xeno anyway?
And why should I be afraid of it? Why am I asking this? Because
this word Zeno just means strange, something or someone strange
from a distant place, unheard of, foreign. And in that sense,
in Athens, Paul was accused of proclaiming strange deities,
gods that they’d never heard of before. Paul uses the word
in Ephesians to note Whereas we were strangers to
the covenants of promise, now we are no longer strangers. And so these teachings might
not have been completely foreign to these hearers, just as the
worship of Mary is not foreign to our own. But these doctrines
that the Judaizers were applying were strange. They were aberrant
to Christianity. They didn’t belong in a discussion
about Christianity. These Judaizers were trying to
force the old things associated with Judaism, external observations,
circumcision, washings, observation of days, dietary restrictions,
all of it they were trying to force upon Christians. as a necessary
part of salvation. The whole design of this was
to undercut what Christianity articulated, what the reformers
had to rediscover. It was so layered over with stuff. The pure gospel of justification
by faith, not works. These believers were under intense
pressure to adopt these external observations, not in order to
secure salvation. A Jew might not have said that,
but in order to sustain their salvation, they had to do them.
But to do this would have been to turn their back on Christ
and His cross and the simple reality of salvation by faith
alone in Christ alone. And so our writer seizes upon
One illustration. And this isn’t the only possible
error. The spectrum was broad and varied,
as I’ve already pointed out. Instead, he utilizes one illustration
to point to the common flaw in all of them. The fact that anything
added to the gospel obliterates the idea of grace. Anything added
to the gospel obliterates the idea of grace. Look again at verse 9, where
he talks about helps and hindrances. Do not be carried away by varied
and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened
by grace, not by foods. Perhaps you’ve heard of some
Dear brother, pray over a meal. Lord, use this food to strengthen
our body. Which is kind of an odd request
if Cheetos are on the menu, right? Or ice cream or Coca-Cola. Those
things tend not to strengthen but to weaken our bodies. So
what exactly is our writer referring to here? This whole idea of being
strengthened not by foods. He’ll go on to elaborate much
more fully in verses 10 through 12, but briefly here, he’s employing
a comparison between Jewish priests who would eat most of the sacrifices
offered as part of their priestly duty. These practices had no real spiritual
value, he says, even though they slavishly held to them. That
didn’t stop them to try and force practices upon their neighboring
Christians. An adherence and maintenance
of those so-called religious practices, foods, did not benefit
those who ate. It was worthless. It was pointless. Infinitely better, he says, are
the spiritual benefits of God’s grace. It is good for the heart
to be strengthened by grace. We would all be familiar with
the most basic definition of grace, unmerited favor. And as we take a step back to
see how this word is used, we really begin to understand its
fullness. My dear friend John Brown said
it this way, grace is far more fitted to give solid, permanent
satisfaction to the mind and heart. The one who understands
and believes truth with regard to the grace of God bringing
salvation walks in liberty. Grace is that dynamic spiritual
power which comes to us with the gift of salvation initially,
saved by grace. Acts 15, we are justified as
a gift by His grace, Romans 3, 24. But it’s not as if once we’re
saved by God’s magnanimous grace that we’re done with it. There’s also God’s equipping
grace, the gifts that fit us and ready us for usefulness to
God and to others. And thus it was noted of those
first Christians that abundant grace was on them all. In which
grace they were urged to continue the book of Acts. This is that
sustained supply of Almighty God, which provides the believer
with opportunity, Romans 1.5, service to him and others, 1
Corinthians 3.10, spiritual gifts and abilities, 1 Corinthians
15, generosity, 2 Corinthians 8, and as our writer says here,
spiritual strength. Paul admonished young pastor
Timothy, be strong in the grace. that is in Christ Jesus. Peter
tells his believers to whom he was writing as not if. As each one has received a special
gift, employ it as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. You’ve been given a gift. You’ve been given a stewardship
of that gift. That came to you by God’s grace.
And at the end of that great epistle, Peter says, the God
of all grace will himself perfect and confirm and strengthen and
establish you. That’s the same thought as here
in Hebrews 13. God’s grace is a gift to be employed,
a stewardship, and Peter would go on to appeal to the saints
to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. The writer of Hebrews has already bid an invitation
to every true believer, right? Draw near with confidence to
the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace
to help in time of need. Hebrews 4 16. Here he speaks
of that spiritual strengthening, which can only come by God’s
supply. It’s a strengthening by his grace. How much better must that be
than whatever could be gained by some dietary adherence? And as we look at this structure
of the perfect church, we see not only the cornerstone of truth
and the sad tendency to depart and drift from the truth, but
a clarification offered here, a sacrifice based on truth. A
real picture of what the sacrificial system was all intended to illustrate. Essentially, he says, speaking
of foods, why mention foods that do not benefit spiritually? Look
at verse 10. We have an altar from which those
who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. No right to
eat? What kind of offering is this
that even the priests, those who serve the tabernacle, have
no right to eat? The altar itself is the place
where the sacrificial offering was presented, but the altar
could also represent that which was placed upon it. Priests,
as you know, routinely were not not only able, but they were
commanded to eat the meat offered as a sacrifice. meat that was
thought of as being sacred and the eating of it was almost a
religious ritual. But there was one exception.
The sacrifice offered on the Day of Atonement was not treated
like all the other sacrifices. Look at verse 11. This is the
standard. The bodies of those animals whose
blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an
offering for sin are burned outside the camp. This is our writer’s explanation
of this bold statement in verse 10. Any Jew would have known
immediately what altar the offering was. There was one exception to what
the priest could dine upon. The one offering that the priest
could not eat was the sacrifice offered on the Day of Atonement.
This was not eaten by anyone, including the priest, Leviticus
630, no sin offering of which any blood is brought into the
tent of meeting is to make atonement in the holy place shall be eaten.
It shall be burned with fire. The offering was burned up entirely
outside the camp. And so these Jews would immediately
recognize the prohibition referring to an atoning sacrifice. But
beyond that, the prohibition also included the fact that Jesus
Christ is that atoning sacrifice. No priest had a right to eat
of that offering. Look at verse 12. Jesus Christ
perfectly fulfills this standard. He is the atoning sacrifice. Therefore, Jesus also, that he
might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside
the gate. And so our writer brings his
point home full circle. Jesus Christ is that offering. He is the one who suffered outside
the gate. Jesus thereby fulfills the standard
of an atoning sacrifice. And consider here what our writer
tells us about Christ’s offering on the cross. It was not just
a death, but it was an offering for sin. And not as the sacrifices
made on the Day of Atonement, which the writer had already
lamented, had to be continually offered year by year. No, this
sacrifice of Christ himself was entirely different. Christ’s
sacrifice had the ability to sanctify the people, all the
people who look to that sacrifice. That sacrifice had the ability,
if they would only place their faith, to grant forgiveness of
sin. As Paul would later say in Titus
chapter 2, 14, he gave himself for us to redeem us from every
lawless deed, to purify for himself a people for his own possession. Christ’s sacrifice of himself
on the cross, akin to the Jewish altar, was the ultimate sacrifice.
Not a goat or a bull, but the very Son of God, and it was a
sacrifice for the sins of the people, and it was done outside
the gates of the city. And note that it was through
and only through his blood. There is no other approach to
God. There is no other means of salvation. It is through Christ,
through his blood or not at all. So quite naturally, he says here
in chapter 13, that sanctification, justification by faith, that
secret process performed by the Holy Spirit, whereby a sinner
is declared holy before him, is only through him. There is not nor can there ever
be any measure of salvation by works, whether by dietary law
or baptism or denominational affiliation or good works, nothing. And this writer cannot contain
himself. And so he issues again a call in verse 13 to repentance
and faith. Let us go to him outside the
camp. Come on, he urges in another
of his subjunctive verbs. Let us go. To delay is to be
lost for eternity. Let’s go. But know this. To go outside
the gate. To that atoning sacrifice, he
tells them. is to incur the wrath of the
devil and all who dare think that salvation can be earned.
It is a life of reproach, no different than what Christ experienced.
This could not have come as a surprise to the first century converts
to Christianity, remember? Back in chapter 10, this writer
had already acknowledged their sharing in the outworking of
hatred towards Christ. It is his approach that we are
reproach that we are called to bear his cross. To the world
is an image of shame and disgust. Cursed. Paul says, quoting Deuteronomy
21, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. This is our savior.
We must go out to him. We must embrace his shame. We
could never substitute the filthy rags of our own righteousness
for the reproach of the cross. But note this poignant. Closing
utterance written to a people whose own earthly city was on
the precipice of utter destruction. To them, he says, for here we
do not have a lasting city. This city, this world will be
destroyed and will burn and pass away. So be it, wistful as that may
be. This is not our home. This is
not our beloved city. And our writer returns again
to a subject he’s already asserted. He declares that we are seeking
a city which is to come. We are seeking a future city,
a heavenly city, an eternal city. He spoke of at the end of chapter
11. The city which has its foundations,
whose architect and builder is God. And again, in verse 16 of
that chapter, God has prepared for them. An eternal city is
in view for all of Christ’s people. And what? What until then? What do we do until then? We’re
on the top floor of the structure now. The structure is built. Cornerstone of truth. This tendency
to drift has been shored up. We’re holding firm to sound doctrine. We understand now the genuineness
of the purpose of sacrifice. The fourth thing that he mentions
here is the offering of adoration in truth. We cannot add to Christ’s
sacrifice. Nevertheless, he calls us. He
calls us to offer up a sacrifice. Look at verse 15, through him
then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God
that is the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name. And
do not neglect doing good and sharing for with such sacrifices
God is pleased. So Jesus Christ, the unchanging
cornerstone of truth from which we dare not drift, Because he
has made the greatest sacrifice for sinners. Demands a response. What is the response? Gratitude. Thanksgiving. Praise. This praise flows toward God
the father only through him. Only through the Lord Jesus Christ.
This, of course, sounds very much like something Paul would
say, doesn’t it? To Paul, everything is in or
by or through Christ. But consider this writer’s use
of that little preposition as well. And the idea attendant
with it. In chapter one, verse two, he
tells us that it was through Christ that God made the world. In chapter 2, verse 3, he tells
us that the good news of salvation was first spoken through the
Lord. In chapter 7, verse 25, he tells
us that he is able to save forever those who draw near to God through
him. And in chapter 9, verse 12, he
tells us that our sins are paid for in full through his blood. The author presents this whole
thing masterfully. He knows well that we could never
repay God, but there is and there must be a response by the Christian. And in a most interesting fashion,
he employs the very thing that is occupied this discussion from
the very start, sacrifice. The believer’s response to Christ’s
sacrifice is sacrifice. Sure, the believer’s sacrifice
pays for no sin. It atones for no sin. It saves
no one. And yet God deems it appropriate,
an appropriate response to all that his son has done, sacrifice. And this sacrifice by the Christian
presents itself in two ways. He says that the believer may
continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. That’s all
God wants. That’s all God demands. And secondly, that the believer
offers up a sacrifice, that’s what he calls it, a sacrifice
of doing good and sharing. And in no way or no degree is
our writer suggesting for a moment that this is payback, good works. These are spiritual sacrifices.
They are in a response to all that God has done in Christ,
it is the only fitting response. Praise to God. And kindness to
others. This kind of response marked
the early church, didn’t it? Listen to the description of
the church in Acts chapter two. So then
those who had received his word were baptized, and that day were
added about 3,000 souls. They were continually devoting
themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship and to the
breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense
of awe and many wonders and signs were taking place through the
apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had
all things in common, and they began selling their property
and possessions and were sharing them with all as any might have
need. Day by day, continuing with one
mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they
were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity and
heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And
the Lord was adding to their number day by day. Those who
are being saved. Would you examine your heart
as we go before the throne of grace? Oh, merciful God, we do humble
ourselves before you. You are a holy God who sent your
own son, your eternal son, to be our savior, to offer up a
perfect atoning sacrifice on the cross to pay for our sin. Lord God, how could we ever drift
from that truth? That salvation is available.
By faith in Christ and only by faith in Christ. Father, we thank
you for opening our eyes, may we never drift, may we never
give up and give in. To the false teaching of the
world. That hates Christ and hates God. and hates his cross. Lord God, we humble ourselves
before you and we thank you for your mercy towards us. May we
continually offer up to you a sacrifice of praise. It’s in Jesus name
that we pray. Amen.