Will you open your Bible to Hebrews chapter 13? Continue to explore the theme of truth and triumph in Hebrews 13 verses 7 through 17 is my chosen text. Begin by reading it to you. 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 and 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 out 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 for you. This is the word of the living God. Father, would you instruct your servants by word and spirit to accomplish all your purposes in the hearts of these brothers?

May they be encouraged to follow Jesus more faithfully as a result of your word, even in this hour. In the matchless name of Christ, amen. The Roman Empire made the church look like a tiny speck. In the first century, it had to be the least of Rome's concerns. Visigoths, sustaining a high Greek-centered culture, competitors for Caesar's authority, squabbling within the Senate.

Those are things that Rome was concerned about in the first century, and Christianity may be one of the things that the Roman Empire would deal with on their agenda and some of the threats it may have posed in some out-of-the-way places in the Roman Empire. The church was, though, in perspective, tiny.

A tiny little ship on a massive sea that was Rome, and every Christian knew it. Judaism was big, propertied, historic, ancient. The Roman Empire was powerful, massive, and global. The church was infinitesimally small. And to this group of former Jewish members of followers of a cult that was perceived to be this new upspring form of Judaism that was kind of monotheistic by outside perspectives, that was confusing to outsiders, people who followed after a crucified Messiah, claiming He was resurrected, and now trying to incorporate Gentiles into their mix, monotheists in a world of polytheism, sort of Jews, sort of not, hard to understand.

It would seem quite easy to stomp out. The church knew its place in this massive world as far as politics went. They had nothing as far as influence went. They had nothing as far as resources went. The church was quite poor. And for the recipients of the letter to the Hebrews, these believers were becoming poorer.

They were being thrown into prison, being threatened with death. Some of their leaders had already gone from their midst to heaven. Increasing persecution, increasing societal ostracization, the little tiny church floating on the sea of the Roman Empire receives a letter from a pastor knowing that their greatest struggle is not being squished by Rome, but that they were on a real place of spiritual danger.

They were on the brink of recapitulation. They were thinking about going back to their former manner of life. They felt their smallness, and he concludes his letter by telling them that the greatest threat to their existence is not Rome, and it is not the machinations of the Jewish political powers.

The greatest threat to their existence is within their own community. And so after presenting a picture, a portrait of the greatness and beauty and matchlessness and superiority and supremacy of Jesus Christ for 12 chapters, and showing them that God's plan from the very start was to bring through His people Israel glory to His Son, Messiah, and to have His Son be the substance of all the shadows that the Old Testament had within it, that Jesus is the culmination, the final word from God, the ultimate mediator, the ultimate prophet, the ultimate priest, the high priest of all that the high priest represented before, that Jesus is God, a very God, and His revelation is the final one and that His city is the one that will stand and all that was left for these people was to follow Him.

He tells them if they're going to receive the salvation that they had tasted, the final perseverance into glory, if they were going to be perfected in the end, they must not give up. That the threat of apostasy was real. They should not quit. They should not walk away. They should finish the Christian race.

And the great threat was not the juggernaut that was Rome and persecution, though it was on the increase. The danger was within their own hearts. And so the epistle to the Hebrews is a call for perseverant faith, and it finds great focus at the end of this letter in chapter 13.

And when anyone's writing a letter to someone they love, they cram in so many important things they want to mention at the end, and this author, this pastor is no different. He's spoken to them in the opening of chapter 13 about the necessity of love continuing and to continue to pour out their lives in hospitality to strangers and to remember those believers who were locked up and imprisoned and ill-treated and to sympathize with them and to not abandon God's plan of marriage, even in a society where their very lives were in danger.

But this was indeed the way God perpetuated the human race and preserved the truth and the family. And he talks to them about marriage and what most people take to be assorted commands. He continues all the way through the end of the chapter with various things that sound like the epistle to Hebrews but are maybe unclear with how they're linked.

But I think that this final section, as the author brings his epistolary homily to a close, is right in tune with exactly what we've been talking about all week long, the triumph of truth. The triumph of truth is certain, and what truth is triumphing through in Hebrews 13:7-17 is it triumphs through something seemingly unremarkable.

Truth triumphs through pastoring. Pastoring. That's what's being described in verse 7 and verse 17. Pastoring is the antidote to final apostasy, and pastoring is what will bring these people to final salvation. The fruit of their worship of Christ will be evident in their lives in all the categories listed in verses 1 through 6 as they receive this final portrait of their leaders and the importance of their leaders, especially as their leaders follow Jesus faithfully.

That seems to be what links together what William Lane sees as a chiasm in Hebrews 13 or multiple chiasms as there's a verse about spiritual leaders in verse 7 and a word, a command, an imperative about spiritual leaders in verse 17, and then seemingly very epistle of Hebrews kind of language about the sacrifice of Christ, about legalistic teachings about food in verse 9, the familiar verse 8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, in treaty for them to go outside of the camp in verses 12 and 13, and then a word about a city that is to come and sacrifice of praise.

What is it that links all of this together? I think it's a portrait of triumph through pastoring, a passage that shows us what is our work summarized, that we teach and obey the Word of God. We provide for God's flock in our teaching and with our lives a careful example of what it looks like to follow Jesus no matter what the cost.

It's an incredible passage that challenges us and reminds us that being a pastor is not being a visionary, innovative, entrepreneurial leader, but being a pastor is someone who has the conviction and the desire and the will to follow Jesus faithfully no matter where he leads. It's an incredible passage for us as men who want to humbly follow Jesus and whose role is to teach the people the Word of Christ and invite the people to walk with us as we follow Him.

And so this tiny boat on that massive sea of opposition is so similar to where we find ourselves today, a world moving away from anything resembling Christian ethics, a worldview contrary to our own with lightning speed, it seems to be unraveling. And here we are with our singular insistence that Jesus is the only way of salvation and that Christian ethics are non-negotiable in the face of a world that has moved on.

It also serves as a reminder that the greatest danger we face is not an unbelieving world or un-Christian ethics. The greatest danger we face is a neglect of one another, of neglecting our soul's closeness to Jesus. The message here is simple, beginning with reminding them in verse 7 to remember their leaders who first told them the gospel and then concluding the thought in verse 17, a final word, not just about the leaders who first heard them, some of whom were gone and died and gone to heaven, some of whom were the apostolic witness.

Some of them knew Jesus personally, those earliest leaders had passed away, but he's reminding them they're still leaders they needed to follow, they're still a part of this Christian community, they need this accountability, they need these leaders, they need this discipleship, their souls need to be clinging to other souls so that they can never give up meeting together, that they would not turn back to their former manner of life, that they would not estimate the cost of following Jesus to be too high for them.

And so his final words for them are to follow leaders who follow Jesus and to find his grace satisfying and to be willing to bear the reproach that Jesus bore and to further follow not just the leaders that are gone, but to follow leaders today, leaders like us who are imperfect, but we need each other and we need to stay close to Jesus if our witness and our perseverance is to remain intact.

It's his grace that will motivate and sustain and uphold every faithful pastor. The best way to look at this is in five points because Steve Lawson requires all of us to use only five points, never more, never less. And so how do we triumph through pastoring of all things?

On verses 7 through 8, first thing we see is that we must be steadfast in faith, steadfast in faith. Look at verse 7, "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 and today and forever." We all understand that pastors are a result of other pastors, right?

The reason that you're a spiritual leader in your church today is because other spiritual leaders taught you, discipled you, invested in you, and that is exactly what the author of Hebrews has in mind as he instructs these struggling Christians on the brink of considering a return to their former manner of life, that they need to remember the faithful witness of those Christians who led them, who spoke the word of God to them, and to consider the result of their conduct and to imitate their faith.

And so the recollection is to those leaders, and the tense of the verbs makes us think these are the leaders who are no longer with them. They would be the immediate leaders who shared the gospel, who planted these churches, who ministered directly to these people, those closest to the apostles and to those who followed the apostles.

That's who's being brought to mind. In the context of the epistle to Hebrews, it's undoubtedly inclusive of the triumphant faith on display in Hebrews chapter 11, the hall of witnesses. And so the Christian being spurred towards steadfastness in their faith is taught first to look at good examples that have gone before them, those who have taught the word of God to them and, as importantly, modeled what they taught, and to remind them that those are the people who are worth remembering and worth imitating, especially due to the reality that many of them have finished the race.

And so my mind goes to pastors, famous and not famous, who poured into my life when I was an 18-year-old youth pastor. There's nothing worse than having an 18-year-old youth pastor. But the glory of a young man is his strength, so we lock in 30-hour famine, whole deal. And patient pastors poured into my life.

And that's continued through the years, and every one of us can think of the name of our pastors who loved us and corrected us and taught us and showed us how to live and gave us that faithful example of perseverant faith. It's a beautiful reminder that is in accordance with everything we read in the Bible about the relationship of our teaching and our living.

Paul tells Timothy to watch his life and his doctrine, for by it he'll save himself and those who hear him. And so this is another reminder that steadfastness in faith needs to be dependent on the example of others who are steadfast in their faith, right? And so I'm grateful to brothers that I can see with my eyes right now and that I can't see with my eyes right now, who have gone to heaven, who invested in me when I was at my dumbest.

You think back to the Sunday school teacher who shared the gospel with you or to faithful grandparents or a mom and dad who kept dragging you to church. They taught the Word of God to you, they led you, and they showed you what it meant to live out the faith.

Faith being one of the great themes of the book of Hebrews, it's faith, truly faith that's on display throughout this entire book. It begins in Hebrews 4, and he says it was faith that caused the first generation who rebelled against God in the wilderness, it was their lack of faith that caused them to have hard hearts.

In Hebrews 6, it's a reminder that the foundation of repentance is faith towards God, it's the starting point of the Christian religion. Hebrews 6 tells us that they ought not to be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Hebrews 10 says draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith.

And then Hebrews 11 says faith dozens of times. A reminder to our ears of the centrality of faith that is believed and entrusted and passed on from generation to generation, and just as important as being taught, being lived. And so to remember those faithful examples that went before them in steadfastness.

And then we hit verse 8. And verse 8 is great. People love verse 8. They pull it right out of here, and it never gets to see this spot again. It lives on a magnet on your fridge. Grandma going to crochet that. Crochet is not the right word, but you know what I'm talking about.

Maybe she's really good at crocheting. That verse lives in systematic theology as the doctrine of immutability, and we're grateful for that reality. But in this context, it has an even greater significance. You see, the people in verse 7 are not around anymore. The earlier disciples, the earlier evangelists, some of them have passed away, or they're no longer in this community, and they need an ongoing example.

They need someone with constancy, someone who will be there for them, someone who they can't hang on to for only a moment when they were converted, and then that person moves on, a missionary to a different place, whatever. They need something ongoing that's going to give them that, and in verse 17, they'll be reminded of their present leaders, not to be simply and purely nostalgic about leaders in the past, but to look to their current spiritual leaders and follow them as they follow Jesus.

But there's a greater constancy behind every spiritual leader that's drawn out in Hebrews 13, verse 8, and it isn't - the argument of Hebrews 13, 8 isn't, "Well, they spoke in tongues in the book of Acts, that's why we speak in tongues today. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." That's a wonky argument.

It's out of the context. The context is saying that the constancy of Jesus Christ is not first and foremost the doctrine of immutability, or just a verse that brings comfort, that Jesus is the same as Jesus always was. It's a reminder that the constancy of Jesus today and yesterday and forever has everything to do with us being sustained in our pursuit of sanctification and glorification, our following of leaders who follow Jesus.

And so we remember that the person who invested in us and discipled us and evangelized us represented someone who will never change and never falter and never drift and always provide leaders as a gift to His church. What is behind every true God-honoring, Bible-preaching, faith-exhibiting, and holiness-pursuing pastor is the chief shepherd himself.

It's Jesus Christ, the one who's the same yesterday and today and forever. And that's helpful because we all have leaders in our life who have failed us in this age of apostasy and deconstruction. Some of the finest and most effective disciples in some of your lives that brought you to places of greater maturity and introduced you to ministry or baptized you or confronted your sin no longer walk with Jesus, and that is a heartbreaking experience.

So what are we supposed to do? Quit like they did? Or remember that for a time they helped us because though they could not remain constant and though they were fallen and frail and imperfect, and some of them maybe not even genuine followers of Jesus, they pointed us to the one who would always be there for us, who would always teach us, who would always model for us, always provide for us ongoing leadership in our lives through real people who are shepherding us on behalf of the chief shepherd.

This isn't some abstract theological concept coming out in verse 8. This is a reminder that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday. Chapter 5, verse 7, "In the days of His flesh, when Jesus was on earth, He offered up prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the one who was to save Him from death.

He was heard because of His piety." What's that a description of? Jesus' earthly life. What He's done in the past is of significance by way of imitation and by way of faithfulness. Jesus' present ministry has already been featured extensively in this book. What about today? Hebrews 4, verse 15, "We don't have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who's been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin.

Therefore let us currently, right now, draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we might receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need." That's what I need today. Isn't that what you need? Help from Jesus? Well, He's the same Jesus as yesterday.

And today He provides help, and His throne of grace is available and accessible. What about tomorrow, Jesus? Well, He's not just a historical figure, and He's not just elevated to the place of current help, but we can be confident that currently He is our mediator and our sympathetic high priest, but we can be ensured that forever, Hebrews 7, 25, He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him since He always lives to make intercession for us.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And so what does that have in common with verse 7? The imitation and influence of those who are faithful are always reflecting the constancy of Jesus in your life. You see, Jesus in your life is never going to be the only leadership that's seen in your life.

He's never going to be just you and Jesus because Jesus is the constant one, but because Jesus is the one who is only and truly faithful, He will always have other imperfect leaders in your life who are faithfully trying to follow Jesus, the chief shepherd, under shepherds who serve you and feed you and lead you.

That's who we, brothers, are called to be, faithful leaders who follow Jesus so that we can, like Paul, say, "Follow me as I follow Christ." Faithful, influential, imitatable. All of us under King Jesus is a perfect example of steadfastness as He remains the same and is always available for His people.

He always has been and He always will be. Remember your leaders, their words, verbal, exemplary, the consequences of their lives before all of us following. These leaders worship Jesus and when they're dead and gone, Christians will still worship Jesus and He tells them because Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

There's a second way that pastor triumph occurs, that triumph exists in pastoral ministry and it's in verses 9 and 10. Not only are we to be steadfast in faith, but we're to be strengthened by grace. So 7 and 8 are steadfast in faith, 9 and 10 are strengthened by grace.

He calls them to be strengthened by grace. Look at what it says, "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." Now that is some very epistles to the Hebrew language.

And no wonder many commentators find this to be assorted commands. And though it is dangerous to talk about food at 1146, "You've been overfed, you'll be fine." I'm sorry, we've been overfed. This mention of food is helping us see what it means to be strengthened, an important concept in this book, by grace.

This original audience was currently struggling with understanding the superiority of the New Covenant over the old, whether it was rituals or temple worship or holy days or regulations about food, kosher kind of stuff. They had, like so many of their contemporaries, confused the relationship between the dietary laws and the grace of God.

And I know this doesn't sound very relevant to you unless you came out of first century Judaism. There are some of you that are old, but not that old. But it's a reminder that false teaching about grace is still as prevalent today as ever. We've been warned about it repeatedly in this conference.

Dr. MacArthur spoke of the dangers of antinomianism. We've been warned about the threat of legalism and externalism if we don't guard our hearts rightly, and we're aware of all the false religions that surround and threaten our people. And so verse 9 and 10 reads a lot like the book of Galatians.

It reminds us not to fall back into the kind of legalism that their contemporaries knew all too well, and to keep at the forefront of our mind the advantage of grace. Because there is a greater advantage of grace over ceremonial foods. You see, it was a big deal for them about what they ate and what they couldn't eat and what day of the week it was and what rituals and what matters of religion were happening.

Ten thousand ordinances and dietary restrictions and laws and weights and measures and tithes and Sabbaths and festivals and everything else. And none of those things in the old covenant were ever intended to be the focus. They were intended to point to the God who gave them to them to cause His people to be aware of their sinfulness, dependent on Him, and aware of His grace as they were to be separate from the world.

Every single law and regulation not only served to condemn the people to show and highlight their sinfulness, it sought to show and highlight to the people that they belonged to God and that He was a God who operated on the basis of grace. That's the message of the Old Testament.

It is not exclusively - grace is not exclusively the message of the new covenant. And so, this pastor wants these believers to understand something that we need to understand in our own battle against antinomianism or legalism, and it is that the nutritional value of legalism is zero. He wants them to know that those who try to make Christianity externally focused are doing it completely wrong.

And I think that's what we face today. Not dietary restrictions, but just a million made-up rules that can come under the cover of a cult or under the cover of someone who thinks that you earn Jesus' favor by something that you do. The word here is the word that means kidnapped, stolen, robbed.

Don't be carried away by various and strange teachings. This is anything that takes out of God's plan of salvation and the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ - the centrality of grace. That salvation is only and solely and exclusively the result of God's mercy. Not good parenting. Not fastidiousness.

You don't have God's favor because you have separated from the world. You don't have God's favor because you vote right. You don't have God's favor because you're such a good pastor. You have God's favor because you don't deserve God's favor. That's how grace works. And so he reminds them of that in their context, saying it's good for the heart to be strengthened not by foods, but by grace, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.

The only benefit we'll find in our obedience to God is the obedience that flows from a heart that's been captured by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, His undeserved mercy that He took our sins on Himself and died in our place, and we have right standing with God and access to that throne of grace because of what Jesus has done.

Grace flows and grows from the fountain of grace. It wasn't their diet that ever made them God's people. It was God who made them God's people. Everything else was conforming in signs and symbols and shadows of something greater to come. Their sanctification had now become holistic. It was accomplished by the blood of Jesus in making them holy.

And so he introduces to them this idea of two altars, verse 10. We have an altar. And that had to be mind-blowing words to these Hebrew listeners because they weren't allowed to go to the altar anymore. It was obviously blasphemous for them to go back to the temple and offer an offering of any kind in light of what Jesus had done.

And so for him to say, "We have an altar," now they very well didn't have an altar. They knew that. I mean, bronze lever, altar, sprinkled blood, ephod, priests, veils, walls, temple, Herod court, that's where the altar was. And these Christians, like these Christians, rent a middle school gym.

Context, right? Where's the pomp? I mean, this is a beautiful building, but it's just a bunch of bricks and stuff. This doesn't look like the temple. Where's the altar that this author is speaking of, and what does it have to do with being strengthened by grace? Well moving them away from these external regulations and these dietary laws that were never effectual, he's showing them that Jesus accomplished something, and he's been teaching them through this entire letter, that he appeared as the high priest of good things to come.

He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with his hands, not of his creation, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood. He entered the holy place once and for all, having established eternal redemption. And so he's teaching them, do not choose external regulations over the internal and eternal realities that Jesus has accomplished.

Look, brother pastors, we obey Jesus with our bodies. We still follow many commands that God has given to us. We want to, with all our hearts, avoid sexual immorality like the Bible tells us to do. But that prohibition and every other prohibition is based and rooted and grounded in the reality that is internally motivated, and has very little to do with what's on the outside of you.

It has everything to do with what God is doing by grace on the inside of you. That's the direction that he's reorienting their obedience towards. He's pointing them towards an altar, not one that the priest had to hose off after every Yom Kippur and have to reload and every atonement and every offering, he's pointing towards an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle, that's the priestly class, have no right to eat.

Do you understand what incredible access we have to the very presence of God? Because the Holy of Holies, I mean, that was just like a tented room. It was sacred, but it was only symbolic. What Jesus accomplished on this altar is what takes you, a sinner by nature and choice, and transforms you to a trophy of God's grace.

The cross of Christ, that's the altar he's referring to, that altar on that cursed hill, Gethsemane, where Jesus shed his blood, we have an altar that they cannot access, and the reason they cannot access that altar is because they do not have faith, and the reason they do not have faith is they have not become the recipients of the grace of God.

Ultimately, it all comes down to that. And so, he's showing them that the way they'll be strengthened for final perseverance is by the grace of God. And he continues his thought on the two altars and teaches us a third reality for triumph in pastoral ministry, and it's this, they must be separated unto Jesus, verses 11-14.

It says, "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 out to him, outside the camp, bearing his reproach.

For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city of God which is to come." No more physical altar because Jesus died on the cross, and this had to be a struggle for them to overcome. The rituals were now replaced by reality, but they're taking part of Christ himself.

And the author's trying to contrast two altars, and he's showing them by interweaving in this example of steadfastness of their former leaders and the strength that God's grace provides to his people, the necessity of them being separated with Jesus, and they knew exactly what separation looked like. Separation to them looked like every aspect of their life being devoted to God in a thousand particular ways.

And now, it wasn't going to be their clothing and their diet and their festivals. It was to be association with the sacrifice and communion and table of the Lord. That's how they were going to be separated with Jesus. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest, this is one of the reasons I think the temple was still standing at the time of the writing of the book of Hebrews.

He's talking about it as something happening right now, probably in Jerusalem, not far from where they are. He's referring to it, the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as a sacrifice for sins are burned outside the camp. What's he talking about?

Well, he's contrasting the sacrifice of two altars, the first in offering from Leviticus 16. The people would bring their animals. The priest would take the perfect animal to the altar, kill the animal on the altar just outside the holy place, and then enter into the holy place. It would sprinkle blood from the offering unto the holy of holies, all part of the atonement ritual involving the blood of spotless animals.

For centuries, God's people did it to remind themselves of the consequences of their sin. Hebrews 9 describes it, but look at what he says beyond verse 11. After saying that they would dispose of those offerings, the animals' corpses would be taken outside of the temple grounds and actually outside of all the camp of Israel, and the regulation was they needed to be consumed with fire, burned completely.

All that was left over from the sacrificial offering was to be burned outside the camp because it was no longer clean. The blood had been offered, the animal had been dealt with, now it needs to be burned outside of the presence of the people, otherwise the people would be defiled.

But then he gives us another altar to compare and contrast in verse 12. The altar where Jesus sanctified the people through his own blood and suffered outside the gate. "Therefore, let us go outside the camp and bear reproach that he endured no lasting city." There's a lot going on here.

What do we do with it? Well, the contrast that follows verse 11, he says there's something similar about these two sacrifices. The old sacrificial system and the sacrifice that Jesus made of his own body on the cross. So what was similar? Well he says in verses 11 and 12, they were both destroyed outside the camp.

In what way was Jesus' body drug outside the camp? Well in a very literal way, according to John 19 verses 17 through 20, Jesus suffered outside the city walls, no longer in the temple complex, no longer in the confines of the holy city because that's what Jews did. Jews crucified their blasphemous criminals on a hill outside of Jerusalem.

It's where Jesus walked at spear point, forced by the Roman soldier to carry his cross until Simon intervened to assist, but to walk and be scorned and whipped and to suffer alongside of other criminals, and they did it out there because it was the right way to do that kind of dirty work outside.

It was defiling. It was unacceptable. And so to put the criminals out there is where they sent Jesus out of our holy city, Jesus. This is our city, Jesus, not your city. You go and die outside of these walls on that forsaken hill outside of the holy city because that's what they were saying, He deserves to die.

Jesus is unclean, Jesus is accursed is what the religious leaders of the day were saying. And so suddenly Jesus had something in common with the corpse of a bull or goat that their forefathers had sacrificed uncountable times as they drug those bodies of those animals outside of the city and burned them completely because they wouldn't dare be defiled by that deadness.

And Jesus suffered out there. That's what was similar. They were both destroyed outside the camp. But what was different? Look again at verse 12. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate, here's the difference, in order to sanctify the people, to make the people holy through His own blood. The difference between that sacrifice and the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is that Jesus' sacrifice was once for all, that it accomplished something that all those other sacrifices merely prefigured, merely foreshadowed.

No sin was truly atoned for by the blood of bulls and goats. That was only a cry to God for mercy. And God heard that cry fully and finally when His own Son shed His own blood on that cross, you see the difference between the old sacrifice and the old system, and these people were so accustomed to worshiping with all that ritual and all that blood and all the sacrifice of animals and everything that attended to it.

And they had to wonder, what about the ritual? What about the beauty? What about the animal selection? What about the costliness? What about the incense and priestly garb? It was all gone and it was hard for them. But this pastor is pleading with them to remind them that none of that stuff could do what the sacrifice of Jesus did, that none of that stuff could make you holy.

And in a moment, the sacrifice of Jesus accomplished it all. So it's truly a better sacrifice as He's been teaching them all along in the parallel passages - Jesus sanctified the people. He said this in chapter 10, verse 29, Jesus' blood truly cleanses us, sanctifies us, makes us holy.

Not the way the prefigured sacrifices did, but in reality, the blood of Jesus makes us holy. And when you think of the cross of Christ, you must think of the holiness that He accomplished for us there. He bore our sin. He granted us His righteousness so that we could be accepted by God.

True cleansing, not of animal sacrifices, but through the Son of God, pouring out His life for us. And in verse 13, we're supposed to do something with that. Look at what it says, "Therefore, let us go to Him, Jesus, outside the camp, and bear the reproach He endured." Others struggle with this line because it's either telling these people that symbolically they need to go outside the camp.

Remember the camp in Leviticus, a dozen times or so means unholy, unclean, secular, not sacred, dirty, defiled. Outside the camp was to be punished, was to be put out of the people of God. What was outside was dirty, what was inside was clean, inside was sanctified, outside was defiled.

And He told them, all these Jewish background believers, that they should go to Jesus outside the camp and bear their reproach He endured. So we might be saying to them that Jesus suffered and died and was treated unclean by the world, and so they need to be not attached to the world.

They need to be separated from the world. And that may be part of the argument. Others say that this author has given them permission to fully and finally walk out of Jerusalem. Stop waiting here. Go fulfill the great commission. This city has nothing for you anymore. And that may be an implication of this verse, but I don't think that's exactly what he's saying.

I think what he's saying in verse 12 and 13, when he tells them, "Therefore, let us go outside the camp and bear the reproach He endured," is simply a reminder that ultimately these people need to remember what is clean and what is not clean. That security and safety and identity and holiness will not be found anywhere outside of Jesus Christ.

That security and safety and identity is not in who they used to be or in some kind of false teaching or ritualism. This is such a good word to young seminary brothers who are maybe tempted by Eastern Orthodox ritualism or who have looked at Rome and thought, "Look, it's big and fancy.

It's got junk and - sorry, Luther word - rituals and smoke and saints and junk." I went to the Vatican last year in full protest. Just I'd never seen it before. And we had a really sweet Roman Catholic tour guide lady, and I had a hard time controlling myself.

So we went through the Vatican with all the people, looking at all what Luther called the Pope's secondhand junk, pillaged from all over the world, right? And she kept saying things like, "The Holy Father is going to be here tomorrow and talk to 150,000 people," and the only thing that I kept saying during the tour was, "I'm sorry to hear that." This author is trying to get their eyes, the eyes of their heart, their faith, Hebrews chapter 12, fixed and focused on Jesus, the author and finisher of their faith.

They won't find security, safety and identity anywhere else. And Jesus walked out the walls of the holy city and He died and was cursed of God and shunned by the people He came to save, and they too ought to follow Jesus in bearing His reproach, in being called and seen as unclean and despicable and cut off from God, no longer following His rituals, no longer being called God's covenant people.

They need to bear that reproach because that's the reproach that Jesus bore. What is He saying? Simply, He's saying, "Follow Jesus. Follow Jesus." F.F. Bruce says it this way, "They had been accustomed to think of the camp and all that was inside as sacred, while everything outside was profane and unclean.

Were they to leave its sacred precincts and venture on to unhallowed ground?" Yes, yes, because in Jesus, the old values had been reversed. What was formerly sacred was now unhallowed because Jesus had been expelled from it. You see, if Jesus isn't in your church, if Jesus isn't in your Christianity, if it is not cruciform in its direction and shape and worship, if it's purpose-driven instead of Jesus-driven, then you've kicked Him out of His rightful place just like they did in this ugly scene.

You see, if Jesus isn't in it, it's not of God. It's not blessed of God. It's not holy. It's not hallowed. It's not sacred. And once Jesus was kicked out of His nation and out of His people and out of the temple, and when He was hung on that cross, accomplishing the salvation of all who He would wash with His blood, that which was formerly unhallowed was now sacred because Jesus was there.

He's telling these believers and He's telling you that all that's left for us is not ritual, no further sacrifices to be rendered. It is simply to follow Jesus, follow Jesus, bear reproach with Jesus, take on suffering with Jesus, go where Jesus went, follow Him until the day you die.

You will not find security and safety and identity anywhere else that will bring you final salvation and persevering grace except in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him is our security. He is the one who will hold us fast. In Him is your safety. He is the one who will watch over you and protect you.

In Him is your identity. You are now the one that Jesus loves and that should define you. You who were formerly blasphemers, unclean, Gentiles, are now holy because Jesus has washed us with His blood. And so the word is, follow Jesus and bear His reproach. Verse 14 is the answer, "We here do not have a lasting city, but we're seeking the city which is to come." Friend, what a word that is today to my post-meal Christian nationalist brothers with your strong families and your desire to rock the vote and invest in beard oil companies.

Remember, here we have no lasting city. My kingdom is not of this world, Jesus said, and He's right. We're seeking the city which is to come. All the things that we cherish and value in this world and even in our own fair city are not going to last forever, and so this author is pointing us towards a city whose foundation cannot be shaken.

Since chapter 11, he's been telling us not to stay, be like Moses who wouldn't stay in Egypt but went on. So he's urging them to go with Jesus and go where Jesus went, and the end of their life needs to be aimed at the new city of Jerusalem, at the heavenly version, not the earthly one, that it needs to be the city of God and not the city of man, the city of the world to come and not the city of this world, and there to tremble at the sight of that city and long at the sight of that city because that's the city that Jesus inhabits and promises and prepares a place for us, and we come with empty hands and no sacrifices and no animals and no grain offerings, but we still have, point four, a sacrifice of praise.

What's our sacrifice? Verse 15 and 16, "Through Him let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name and not neglect doing good or sharing for with such sacrifices God is pleased." We don't bring critters to sacrifice.

We bring something else. We bring our worship of Jesus and our work among others. We do good because we follow Jesus in good doing. We don't grow weary of good doing because Jesus is our example of doing good, and we share with others because who cares? This isn't our stuff.

This isn't our city. It's not going to last. This whole place is going down. Our city is to come, and so we give our lives away for the needs of others. That's what's being described in these verses, and we bring a sacrifice of praise. And then finally, we have before us submission to shepherds, point five, verse 17, a familiar verse.

I don't need to overwork it for you. We're to live in submission to shepherds, all of us. Pastors submitting to pastors because it's obey your leaders, a very general word for spiritual leadership in the New Testament, but pluralized intentionally. No rock star, one-man show, pastoral ministry, but shepherds plural.

Not one guy with a personality, but godly men who follow Jesus and teach the Word of Jesus, whose authority, they're very mindful, is not their own but belongs to Jesus himself. You're following and you're leading people, pastor, you're leading people who are called to submit to you, and you should hold that with a very careful grip.

My friend Mark Devers says authority is like soap. The more you have, the more you use, the less you have, right? That's how soap works. Hence, I remember right here in a Q&A on a Sunday night, not too long ago, a lady asked John MacArthur, he was standing right here, and she said, "John MacArthur, how much authority do you have?" And all the associate pastors went, "Ee, ee." No, we didn't.

I don't know what made her ask that, but she did. And he said, "None but this." Pastors don't need to be bossy pants. They need to be heralds of the Word of God. I'm not going to boss you on the 10,000 issues of liberty in your Christian life. You have soul competency, spirit lives in you.

Bossy pastors, heavy-handed pastors are the worst. And when they dictate outside of what God requires of His people, they stand on very dangerous ground, and so this word about submission is chiastically bookended around the whole point of spiritual leadership, which is, it's not about us. It's not about our authority.

It's not about our word or our great ability to preach or our ability to do dynamic programs in the church. Pastors, the triumph of pastoral ministry exists as leaders, pastors follow Jesus faithfully and invite their people to walk alongside of them all the way to where Jesus is. That's our calling.

We can do nothing else of value. As gospel preachers, we speak authoritatively from the Word of God when we call men and women to repent of their sins and turn and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the authority of our message, and as we walk faithfully with Jesus, we show them what it means to truly follow Him, no matter what the cost.

And our message is the message of the chief shepherd, the one who went outside the camp and the one who's awaiting them, and at the right hand of God praying for them at that eschatological finish line. Spurgeon's autobiography, he closes it channeling his best bunion. He's thinking thoroughly influenced by the pilgrim's progress, and he describes the pastor's triumph in very similar language.

Listen to what he says, "I am occupied in my small way as Mr. Great Heart was employed in Bunion's day. I do not compare myself with that champion, but I am in the same line of business." Spurgeon's description of a pastor, what he's supposed to do. "I am engaged in personally conducted tours to heaven, and I have with me at the present time dear old Father Honest.

I'm glad he's still alive and active. And there is Christina and there are her children, and it's my business as best I can to kill dragons and cut off giants' heads and lead on the timid and trembling, and I'm often afraid of losing some of the weaklings. I have the heartache for them, but by God's grace and your kind and generous help in looking after one another, I hope we shall all travel safely to the river's edge.

And how many have I had to part with there? I've stood on the brink, I've heard them singing in the midst of the stream, and I've almost seen the shining ones leading them up the hill and through the gates into the celestial city." Father, help us to be faithful in our pastoral ministry, to pay attention to our life and teaching, and to exclusively and wholeheartedly and devotively follow Jesus.

To bring all your precious people along with us, steadfast in faith, strengthened by your grace, separated unto Jesus, even under reproach, bringing that sacrifice of praise, submitting to leaders because we know we can't do this alone. Father, thank you for your Word and the reminder to us. Thank you for the leadership of Jesus in our lives.

Help us to follow the one who entered that unhallowed ground, knowing that he defines what is sacred and holy, and it's by his blood he makes us acceptable to you. May we follow Jesus without hesitation or reservation, wherever he leads, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. you you