Get Out of the Camp

We have an Altar
• Full experience of anything requires full submission to it. Resistance is futile they say.
• A marriage, a job, a friendship, a walk with Christ. If you’re halfway in, you’re not really in.
• We call this stage and platform up here an “altar.” An altar is a place of sacrifice, surrender, and
worship before God. It represents a place where we come before Him.
• But this is just wood and carpet up here. The fabric and the structure isn’t the power. The power
is who we meet here, who we pray to, who we trust, who we worship, and who we believe in.
• Hebrews says, “We have an altar.” Our altar is found in Christ.
• He is the One we surrender to, place our hope in, worship, and live completely for.
• Because we have an altar in Christ, we must live lives set apart for Him.
•
1. Sacred Altar
• As we’re coming to the end of Hebrews, the writer is making a final argument to these Jewish
believers- You must separate from the old system of Jewish worship. The Old Covenant has been
fulfilled in Christ.
• 10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.
He’s making a hard distinction here- you cannot stay in the old sacrificial system and have
Christ too. We have an altar.
• There was a problem with Jewish believers wanting to hold onto the customs and sacrifices of
the Old Covenant and bring them into their faith in Christ. A blended faith.
• But Heb says and we say NO. The old sacrificial system has been fulfilled. You can’t mix the two.
• Our worship is no longer centered in the tabernacle. Our access is found in Jesus the Christ who
entered in with His own blood, became our High Priest, and sits at the right hand of the Father.
• Heb 9:11–12 Christ entered the Most Holy Place with His own blood, for eternal redemption.
• Heb 9:24–26 Christ appeared in heaven for us and offered Himself once to put away sin.Heb
10:10–14 We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
• We now worship God through Him. Jesus laid His life down as the sacrifice on the cross.
• Everything the altar pointed toward is fulfilled in Christ.
• Then he says Heb 13:11-12 For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the
sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp. 12 Therefore Jesus also, that
He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.
• In the old system- the sacrifice was killed, its blood was brought into the sanctuary, and the
body was burned outside the camp.
• In the time of Jesus, the temple and the center of Jewish worship were inside Jerusalem, so the
writer connects this to Jesus our sacrifice who was taken outside the gate and crucified there.
• Jesus fulfilled what those sacrifices pointed toward. He suffered outside the gate and then
entered the heavenly sanctuary with His own blood.
• Our access to God is described in Heb 10:19–22 Because of Christ’s blood, we have boldness to
enter the Holiest. 1 Cor 5:7 “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.” Eph 5:2
Christ “gave Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God.” 1 Pe 2:24 He “bore our sins in His
own body on the tree.” Jn 1:29 Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
• Who we worship and how we come to God is precious. It’s sacred. It’s set apart. They have no
right to eat.

• If you’re holding onto an old system- no right to eat. If your confidence for salvation is in
anything other than Christ- you have no right to eat.
• To mix anything with the blood of Jesus is to profane the sacrifice of His blood.
• 24k gold is the most pure gold you can buy. You wouldn’t mix steel with it. It dilutes it.
• Why would you mix anything with the precious blood of Christ?
• 1 Peter 1:18-19 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or
gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the
precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
• Christ’s blood doesn’t need my works mixed in. Doesn’t need religion mixed in. Not tradition.
Not my effort. Not my goodness. Not my intellect. It doesn’t need another sacrifice added to it.
———–so we have a sacred duty
2. Sacred Duty
• Our sacred duty is that Christians must bear the reproach with Christ outside the camp.
13 Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.
• We must make the decision for ourselves- are we going to stay with the old system, or are we
going to follow Christ?
• If we are to serve Him, we must follow Him and it is our duty to be where our Master is.
• Jesus was rejected and sent outside the gate. If He’s outside the camp, we’re outside the camp.
• The writer of Hebrews is demanding that these Jewish believers make a clean break from the
Old Covenant system because Christ has fulfilled it. You cannot keep one foot in the old system
and one foot in Christ. You can’t keep one foot in the world and one foot in Christ
• And if Jesus is outside the camp, we’re outside the camp. We bear His reproach as well.
• Luke 9:23 If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily,
and follow Me.
• If you’re unwilling to suffer with Christ, you’re not following Christ outside the camp.
• If you’re not dead to yourself, there’s still something besides Christ you’re trying to hold onto.
• Our hearts, minds, lives and purposes must declare and live apart from our old lives.
• Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me…
• But there has to be a break from our old ways. We have to believe different and live different.
• Here’s what I see- Many Christians want just enough Jesus to possibly make heaven.
• What’s the absolute bare minimum required for admittance into the kingdom?///
• I want to hold onto my old system where I decide what to sacrifice. I decide what level of
commitment I have. I decide who controls the aspects of my life that I believe belong to me.
• My schedule. My thoughts. My plans. My time. My money. My attitude. My emotions. My life.
• I’ve really been ruminating on this truth for the past couple weeks. Many people are part of
church and Christianity for one reason- they want friends. They are lonely.
• Did you know you can find friends outside of church? Motorcycles. Pickleball. Travel ball.
• But here’s the difference with them- they don’t tolerate you if you aren’t committed.///
• Our sacred duty and response to the cross of Christ is to die to ourselves and live for Him.
• Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and
the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
Himself for me.
• He loved you. He gave His life for you. He bore the reproach for you. Stay outside the camp.

• 2 Cor 6:14, 17 “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers… ‘Come out from among
them and be separate.’”
• And this separation isn’t to separate ourselves from people in the world, it’s to separate
ourselves from their ways.
• We don’t separate ourselves with Christ and forget those who need rescue and redemption.
• To go away from humanity is to miss the purpose that God placed the Church in the world.
• Jn 17:15–18 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep
them from the evil one… As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
• We separate to be sent. Into a lost and dying world that desperately needs the love of Jesus.
• Matthew 5:13–16 Salt of the earth and light of the world.
• You cannot influence what you completely abandon.
—–you see, we have sacred hope that is separate from this world we aim to reach
3. Sacred Hope
• We are inheriting a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Our hope is sacred.
• 14 For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.
• We live in this world but we are not of this world. We are with them, but we are not them.
• Phil 2:15 that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the
midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.
• We hope in Christ right now, but we seek the one to come. The city that is coming.
• Romans 8:24-25 READ
• And that’s our existence. To live in this hope. Knowing that one day we will be with Christ.
• Heb 11:10 says Abraham “waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker
is God.” Heb 11:13–16 They confessed they were “strangers and pilgrims on the earth” and
desired “a better, that is, a heavenly country.” Heb 12:28 “Therefore, since we are receiving a
kingdom which cannot be shaken…”
• We get bogged down with this world. What it does. How it lives. The decisions that are made.
• if your existence is in interest rates, gas prices and food prices, it can be discouraging.
• It’s discouraging that wicked people roam among us with no fear of the law. It’s disgusting that
sexual immorality runs rampant with no restraint. It’s defeating that the world seems to have no
regard for the things of God and is dismissive of our existence. But we hold onto hope.
• Phil 3:20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ.
• You must have a mindset that where you are is not where you will stay.
• Three months after I got married, I got deployed to Bosnia. All I ever wanted was to be married.
• Wasn’t great. Armed convoys through minefields. Armed duty. Bomb attacks. Death.
• Sure, we got food. There was a gym. But what sustained me? This is not my home.///
• 2 Cor 4:18 the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are
eternal. Get your mind wrapped around the temporary existence you have on this earth.
• You have a right-now hope and a future hope. Seek the one that is to come.
• 1 Peter 1:3–4 an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved
in heaven for you Rev 21:1–4 New heaven, new earth, New Jerusalem, God dwelling with His
people. 10–11 the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.

4. Sacred Worship
• Our reasonable response is worship. We thank Him for who He is, what He has done, and what
He has given us. We see our worship as a sacred response to Christ.
• 15 Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of
our lips, giving thanks to His name.
• Notice it says- the fruit of our lips. To worship God you get your mouth involved.
• I can’t figure out why there are still people who attend a worship service and refuse to worship.
• I see it. I see you. You say you’re saved. You say you love Jesus. But your mouth doesn’t move.
• Romans 12:1 present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your
reasonable service.
• Worshipping with your mouth is reasonable. It’s what Christians do. We are not spectators.
• And the excuses of your ability, your sound, or other people’s perception of you are irrelevant.
• Worship. Hosea 14:2 We will offer the sacrifices of our lips.
• And truthfully- it’s usually the men. For some reason men will worship with no women around
better, but it shouldn’t matter. It’s a demand of Scripture from the Lord. (Guy yesterday loud)
• Ps 107:21–22 Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness… Let them sacrifice
the sacrifices of thanksgiving. Ps 134:2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD.
Men want rule. They want to be in charge. They want submission without displaying it publicly.
• I don’t care who sees me or hears me worship. I must lift up my holy hands as Scripture says.
• Maclaren said this- Sacrifice means nothing if it does not mean surrender; and surrender is
nothing if it is not the surrender of the will.
• My will is to sit. My will is to be silent. My inclination is for comfort and public protection.
• Psalm 63:4 Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name.
• But worship is not only the sacrifice of my lips. It is the sacrifice of my life.
• And then the writer of Hebrews says-Heb 13:16 do not forget to do good and to share, for with
such sacrifices God is well pleased.
• Not only are we supposed to worship at the sacred altar of Christ, live out our sacred duty, and
hold onto sacred hope.
• We live a life where we do good and we share, because sharing is a sacrifice.
• And yes, maybe it’s a tangible need, but the principle reaches farther than money. It is a life
willing to give itself away.
• 1 Peter 2:5 believers are a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
through Jesus Christ.
• And if our worship is centered in Christ, and we’re outside the camp with Him, we live as He
lived.
• He laid down His life, we lay down our lives. We share the life that we have with others.
• Phil 4:18 generosity is a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God.
• And the most generous thing I can do with my life is lay it down. For the Lord and for others.
• We have a sacred altar in Christ. So stay outside the camp with Him, hold onto the hope that is
coming, and give Him the worship of your whole life.
• Don’t just come to the altar. Live like you belong to it.