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As always, I'm humbled to be able to stand before you and open up the Word of God to you, and I would like for you to take your Bibles now and turn to Hebrews chapter 13. We're going to be examining verses 13 and 14 here this morning as we continue to make our way through this epistle, and I've entitled my discourse to you "Bearing His Reproach Outside the Camp." Before we look at the text, I might say that there has always existed a form of Christianity that is admired by the ungodly, a form of Christianity that is really a life of ease; everything is smooth sailing. A Christianity that always flows with the current, never against it. A religion that pleases men and thereby assumes that it is also pleasing God; one that avoids the narrow gate and the narrow way and is able instead to enter a wide gate and go down a broad way. No suffering, no persecution, no suffering in any way, no reproach, no humiliation, no striving against sin or contending against false doctrine. No fighting a good fight or straining to win a race that God has set before you. No being hated by all men for the sake of Christ, like Jesus warned. No, this kind of Christianity is all fun and games. It's all pleasure and prosperity and comfortable and cozy. But dear friends, I would submit to you that this kind of Christianity is a sham. This is what our text is all about this morning. And I pray that it will animate our hearts to follow Christ and stir our soul to long for Christ. And I confess that this passage has been deeply convicting to me. I pray it will be to you as well.

By way of review, if we go back to verse 10, we are reminded by the author that, "we" referring to the Jewish believers who were in fellowship with the inspired author, "We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat." And you may recall that that altar refers to the sacrifice of Christ and the perpetual blessings that he offers as our Great High Priest. And "those who serve the tabernacle" was a reference to those Jewish priests that were all familiar with, and by extension, to all who would subscribe to Old Covenant Judaism, and those priests "have no right to eat," he says they have no right to eat of the altar of Christ, not only because Christ's sacrifice was a sin offering and they were never allowed to eat of a sin offering, but also because it was a sin offering that they rejected, along with the high priest that offered it. And of course, this extends to anyone who rejects the sacrifice of Christ. Such a person simply cannot participate in the saving grace that emanated from that which is represented in his sacrifice.

Verse 11, "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." And you will recall, I went into great detail about the days Day of Atonement, and what that meant with respect to those offerings, how they were burned outside the camp. And of course, the Day of Atonement foreshadowed and anticipated a greater, permanent cleansing of God's people and of his dwelling place, which would one day be accomplished by a better priest and a better sacrifice. And so we learned that the Christian sacrifice was Jesus Christ; and those priests burned those offerings outside the camp - that was outside where they threw their garbage; that was out in the area of dangerous animals. And those who lived outside the camp were the disease, primarily the lepers - those considered unclean - and so outside the camp was a place of of dishonor and humiliation. That was the place where blasphemers and Sabbath breakers were literally executed. The same was true outside the gate of Jerusalem. That was where the poor lived; the outcasts, the harlots, the lepers, people who lived in despair, shunned by their family, warning everyone who got near them, "Unclean, unclean, unclean!" People who frankly, didn't want to go on living, but were afraid to die. People with no hope and no joy, no life, no faith, no Christ. What a picture of sinners for whom Christ died outside the camp with them and for them.

Then in verse 12, "Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate." Even as the remains of the sacrifices that were offered in the most holy place were burned outside the camp, so too, Jesus was sacrificed outside the gate of Jerusalem. And this brings us to our text this morning. Let me read it to you.

"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."

So let's look closely at this passage. I wish to do so under four very simple headings. We're going to look at the exhortation, the destination, the humiliation and the motivation of what the Spirit of God is telling us here to do. And by the way, these characteristics really make up the marks of a Christian, characteristics that were in stark contrast to what the writer was seeing in those early Hebrew believers. This was his concern. Because of persecution, they were tempted to stay inside the camp of comfort, namely, Judaism. They were tempted to avoid association with Christ outside the camp of their comfort. They were very careful to shun the idea of bearing his reproach. So they were preoccupied with earthly comforts more than heavenly reward and so forth. And obviously, this extends to each of us, does it not? We will see that.

So let's look, first of all at the exhortation, verse 13. "So let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach." I want to stop on the very first word "So" or it could be translated "therefore." This is a bit technical, but there's some rich theology that is included here when we put it together. Hopefully, I can do that for you. The Greek word that is used here to translated "So," or maybe in your Bible, "Therefore," is different from the normal Greek conjunction that is used it expresses more than just a logical relationship between verse 13 and the previous verse, verse 12. Instead, it puts the reader on notice that the preceding thought must be taken into very serious consideration. In other words, it's telling us that a very important deduction or conclusion must be drawn on the basis of what had just been said so it could be translated as a necessary consequence of what Jesus has done and to experience the blessings of his atoning work there in verse 12, "...let us go out to him outside the camp, bearing His reproach." Said differently, since Jesus saved us through his own blood and suffered outside the gate, we also need to go out to him and gladly bear his reproach.

Now we're going to look more closely at the implications of all of this in a moment, but I want you to notice something very important. In verse 12, we have a magnificent statement of fact, what we would call an "indicative." Jesus gave himself to sanctify us, to forever set us apart from sin unto God. But then that indicative is followed by an imperative - an exhortation - in verse 13. We are exhorted to take action on the basis of what Jesus has done. "Let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach." And with obedience, we know, comes the assurance of salvation. For example, in First John 2:3, we know that with obedience comes the joy of intimate fellowship, the bearing of the fruits of the Spirit, and on and on it goes. And the point here is, if you want to enjoy the benefits of the gospel, you must be willing to obey the commands of Christ. And unfortunately, we live in an evangelical culture that wants the former without the latter.

There is a movement today where believers are called upon to celebrate the indicatives of the gospel, in other words, the stated realities of what Christ has done and who we are in him but then disregard the imperatives - the commands - as if they aren't that important. Beloved, I would challenge you to guard yourself against such a false dichotomy. Dear Christian, you cannot have the one without the other. Scripture never pits the one against the other. Let me put it this way, there is always a "therefore" in the Christian life. Jesus cannot merely be our Savior without also being our Lord, whom we love and obey. In many circles, this is called the "hyper-grace movement." Perhaps you've heard about it. It's really a sophisticated form of antinomianism that confuses justification and sanctification as being kind of one in the same. They believe, for example, that the imperatives of Scripture are only given for the purpose of illustrating what will passively occur in our life as a believer. But I would argue on the basis of Scripture that the imperatives were given to believers to exhort us to actively and intentionally engage in our sanctification; to work out our salvation with fear and trembling and so forth. And over the past few years, in particular, this movement has gained momentum, and I've counseled a number, especially of young adults, who have been a part of this, and in many cases, their lives are a series of bad choices, kind of a train wreck, so to speak; young people ruled by their flesh, lives that lean toward licentiousness and alcohol abuse and so forth. Men and women who, frankly, are in a constant state of guilt and depression. And in talking with some of these folks, I've heard them talk about the counsel that they have received in the midst of their difficulties. And in essence, the counselors are saying, "Look, you just need to learn to celebrate grace. You need to get excited about the gospel. You need to focus more upon the cross, rehearse the gospel more, and stop trying to perform to seek God's favor. After all, you're already accepted in Christ." Given our text here, they're basically saying you need to stop at verse 12 and ignore verse 13. There's really no need to go out to him. Just stay comfortable where you're at inside the camp of the world. No need to bear his reproach. All that's been taken care of for you. But folks, I would warn you that whenever you over emphasize grace, you tend to undermine God's commands for holiness, for obedience, and you end up forfeiting God's blessing in your life and his power in your life.

Remember, in Titus two, beginning in verse 11, Paul says, "For the grace of God has appeared." Boy, there's the indicative, right? Can you imagine what that means, all that that entails? "The grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men." What a statement of fact. I mean, we could just go home after thinking about that. But will you notice that the indicative is followed by an imperative? There's something that that grace does. What does it do? Well, it instructs us to "deny ungodliness, and worldly desires, and to live sensibly and righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us." Yes, dear friends, always celebrate grace, always celebrate the gospel, but then be willing to humble yourself to be obedient to what God has commanded. Examine your heart and see where you rebel against him. I think of Second Corinthians, seven, and verse one there, the apostle Paul says, "Therefore," there's another one of those "therefores" right? "Therefore, having these promises..." - in other words, all the indicatives, all the facts of what we have in Christ - "Therefore, having these promises..." Beloved, here it comes, "...let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness and the fear of God."

Well, that was probably way too much for one word, but I hope you get the idea here. The exhortation is clear, "So,” - therefore, based on verse 12 - "...let us go out to Him outside the camp." Now, in this context, "outside the camp" is a reference to the false religious system of Old Covenant Judaism that had now been replaced by the New Covenant. So in other words, he's saying, in essence, given the reality of what Christ has done, we must do what he asks. We need to go out to him, outside the camp, bear his reproach, and by extension, this carries the idea of separating ourselves from any religious or philosophical system that opposes God. Don't adopt the god-mocking standards of Satan's world system. And I would challenge you dear friends, to ask yourself this, "Do I really take this seriously in my life? Can people look at my life and say, 'Oh, boy, now there is a person who is separated from the world. There is a person that is going hard after Christ,'" or would they look at you and not be able to tell the difference? Do you live outside the camp, my friends? Or do you live inside the camp?

Let's think about this destination in the context in which it was written. I'm going to take you into the Jewish mind of the first century. They would have understood Exodus chapter 32. You may recall in that passage after the Israelites blasphemed God by worshiping the golden calf that they erected, you remember that story, there in the wilderness, I mean, they even named him Yahweh, unbelievable blasphemy. After all of that God punished them severely. Why? Because they refused to separate themselves from the pagan religious system around them, that idolatrous system. They were, you might say, the first ones to embrace religious syncretism that we see so prevalent in this day. And if you read the text, you see that in their drunken debauchery, they committed all kinds of unimaginable acts of immorality that were consistent with the fertility cult worship that they were a part of in that region of the world. In fact, when you study it, they basically violated the first three commandments.

So God had the sons of Levi you will recall, killed; all of those who persisted in that wickedness. Fascinating story. Then there in chapter 33, God, in essence, tells Moses to pack up everything, pack up all of the people, I want you to start heading now towards the promised land, the one that I swore to Abraham. And he says, "I will send an Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites." And then later on, he said this, "but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way. For you are a stiff-necked people." That's almost like me saying, as I'm sure I did at times when I was a father, "Honey, you better take them to school today, because you don't want me in the car." And what is fascinating in that story is that because of their sin, God literally withdrew his presence from within the camp.

Now let me give you some background. By this time, God had already given Moses all of the plans - the pattern for the tabernacle - which would eventually be erected in the camp, but it hadn't been built yet. And so God would meet with Moses in his own tent inside the camp. But now, because of this blasphemy, what happens is Moses takes his tent from inside the camp, takes it way outside the camp. We don't know all of the particulars, but evidently, he converted it into sacred use, and he erected it outside the camp, and he called it the "Tent of Meeting." And that became the new tent where Moses and the people would approach the presence of God to hear him. And as you read the story there, the pillar of cloud of the glory of God, that shrouded the glory of God, would descend upon Moses' tent, and Moses would go in and commune with God there. And the people would stand back at their tents, and they would see that at a distance. And of course, that little tent became a symbolic substitute for the actual Tent of Meeting, the Tabernacle that would eventually exist.

Let me read you just a little of this in Exodus, 33 verse seven.

"Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the LORD would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.

"And it came about, whenever Moses went out to the tent, that all the people would arise and stand, each at the entrance of their tent, and gaze after Moses until he entered the tent.

"Whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent; and the LORD would speak with Moses.

"When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would arise and worship each at the entrance of his tent."

So they're seeing all of this at a distance. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine looking way out beyond the camp and saying to your family, "Boy, isn't it interesting, Moses used to meet with God here with us, but now, look, there's his camp. See the glory of God descending in front of it? Way out there on the ridge, there, off in the distance. So the point here, sons and daughters, wives, friends, now, God isn't living with us inside the camp, he's out there and we've got to go out to him."

What a picture of man's need for separation. What a picture of the need for a new covenant that might allow man to be able to approach a holy God. And think how deeply this must have impacted those early Israelites, and how deeply this must have impacted those first century Jewish people who were tempted to go back inside the camp where it's safe and comfortable. The Spirit of God is saying, "no, no, don't do that."  And they're remembering these great truths that I've just rehearsed for you. Oh, dear friend, can't you see how thoroughly God hates sin and how desperately he wants to be separated from it, and us to be separate from it. I must say, those of you who name the name of Christ, yet your lives demonstrate that you cannot be distinguished from the world, on what basis can you say that you enjoy the presence and the power of God? On what basis can you say that you have fellowship with him? No wonder Paul said in Second Corinthians six, beginning in verse 14,

"Do not be bound together with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?

"Or what harmony has Christ with Belial or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?

"Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God.

"Just as God said,

'I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Therefore come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord, do not touch what is unclean. And I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.'"

Now friends, you must understand this is not a call to live separately from "where" people live in the world, this is a call to live separately from "how" people live in the world. We don't want to be like Hopeful and Christian. Remember in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress? Remember how they looked for an easier path to the Celestial City? Boy, don't we all look for that? And oh, there was one that was parallel to the right way, it was called Bypath Meadow. He says, "They found one that lay parallel to the way they were going so they entered onto it, and eventually they came to a deep pit." Bunyan says "It was put there on purpose by the owner of the grounds to catch presumptuous fools." I'm one. You've been one too. You will recall in that story, they had met a friend called Vain Confidence. Boy, what a name. And Vain Confidence said, "Yeah, this is the way. Come on. This is great. It's easier than that other way. There's no reproach over here. Come on. Follow us." Bunyan said, "He fell into the pit, and he died." Many terrors that he described on that path, and that was the path that led them to Giant Despair and Doubting Castle, by the way, if you remember the story. And eventually, through many difficulties, they finally got back on the right path, and Bunyan commented, and he said this, "Then in my dream, I thought to myself that it is easier going out of the way when we are in it than it is going in when we are out of it." And he had this poem. "Now, the Pilgrims seek to gratify the flesh, but by seeking its ease, Oh, how they, afresh find many new griefs they've plunged head on into seek pleasing the flesh in your life you'll undo." Folks recovering from compromise is so very hard. It's so much better to stay separate from those things rather than falling into those pits. It's better to live outside the camp with Christ.

Well, we've seen the exhortation and the destination. Let's look at the humiliation in verse 13, "So let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach." Now, will you notice here that this is utterly antithetical to the evangelical spirit of our age that would have us believe that we need to try to make Christianity popular, try to make it cool. And notice something else about the destination to which we have been called to go - this place where Christ is outside the camp - it's not the happening place, okay? I'm not good at your vernacular, you young people, but I think that's the way you would put it. Kind of the place where this is where we need to be.

Let me put it a little different way. This isn't a call to hipster Christianity. It's not a call to Christian Disneyland. This isn't a call to become relevant to the culture so the world will like us. It isn't a call to be like the world so that we can win it. I was studying some of the hipster church movement. For some reason I got off on, I'm not really sure, sometimes, you know, you get emails, or you're studying something, you start chasing rabbits. Well, this was one of them. But I thought, you know, it really kind of fits here. In essence, what they were saying is, in order to do this, to be the hipster pastor - besides, by the way, the attire that you would have to wear, I know you just can't visualize me in that - but you've got to speak the language of the contemporary counterculture. You've got to contextualize the church; you've got to be trendy. You have to be able to exalt every popular icon, you have to wear, in my opinion, every tasteless fashion. You've got to adopt the style and the language of the world. You've got to be funny, you've got to be witty, you've got to be crude - even vulgar, even profane - in your face, in order to win people with the gospel.

I read an article, a little excerpt said this, "An Arizona based group has launched a quote 'political late-night comedy show similar to The Daily Show and The Colbert Report that provides stand-up comedy and skits by its pastor,' who had been characterized by the New York Post as a hipster pastor. The weekly broadcast uses satire and strong language to make a quote 'mockery of sin' in an effort, they say, to rival secular entertainment and engage the culture with the gospel." Folks, I would ask you, how does that square to our text? "So let us go out to Him, outside the camp bearing His reproach." So much for being a chosen people; a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. You know, I don't want unsaved people, who are spiritually dead and at enmity with God, who serve their father the devil, to look at me and say, "My that guy's just like me." I hope they look at me and say, "That guys not weird, he's likable, but he's sure, different than us." I want them to see a new creature in Christ. I want them to see a person that is consumed with faith, hope and love. A person that has a burden for the souls of men and women. I want them to look at me and say, "There's a man who will count all things to be loss for their surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus." You see, folks, it's our difference from the world that draws people to Christ, not our similarity with it. People who are lost and dying in their sins, as the Spirit of God begins to bring conviction to them, they don't want to come to somebody that's just like them, they want to look at somebody who is different. And they will look at us, and they will say, "What is it about your life, what is it about your testimony?" Come out and be separate.

Folks again, remember, our altar is outside the camp, and in order to follow Jesus outside the camp, we've got to be willing to suffer and to die. I don't know if I can put it any more simply than that. Jesus said in Luke nine, verse 23, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. For what has a man profited if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?" And there Jesus is not saying that all Christians are going to die as martyrs, but we must be willing to do so. That's the point. To be willing to value Christ more than life itself. John Piper said something that I thought was appropriate in this regard. He said this, "The thought that Christians are only called to live and work where it is safe is not a biblical thought. Biblical thinking proceeds on the assumption that we are all called to follow Jesus outside the camp where there is reproach and danger. It may be the risk of ostracism and scorn at your work. It may be the risk of egg on your face at school. It may be the pain of misunderstanding from an unbelieving relative, or it may be far greater risk of prison and persecution. It may mean choosing places to live or places to work, places to minister, places to travel, people to help, ministries to do, that are not safe from abuse and reproach." Folks you never know when it's going to happen.

As I was thinking about this - you know when you're when you're studying the Word, many times the Spirit of God will bring to you remembrance various things, and in this context, one just hit me right between the eyes - I remember in my doctoral studies, we had to do academic colloquiums where you would you would write a scholarly paper, and then you have to read it to your peers, in front of a panel of professors. And most of my professors were unbelievers, though they would deny that, and I remember one day being absolutely excoriated by a couple of the professors. And course, you know how the peers they jump on, they start piling on. But I was excoriated because in my paper, I used the phrase referring to the Bible as quote "the Word of God." "There is no proof that that is the word of God. And when you speak that way, it betrays an uninformed bias, it demonstrates a lack of scholarship. It puts you in the camp of the fundamentalist weirdos, and you will lose all credibility. Don't call it the Word of God. Call it the sacred writings, call it the Holy Bible. Call it the scriptures but never call it the Word of God."

Not that I needed it, but that experience forged, forever in my mind, that that is indeed the Word of the living God, just as it claims to be. Dear Christian, be willing, be ready to bear the reproach of Christ. You never know where it's going to come from, but don't shy away from it. I know what you're asking. Did I ever use that phrase again? No, I wanted to get through the course, but in my heart, I was still using it, right? Jesus said, "'If the world hates you,'" John 15:18, "'you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. You, because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you,'" And I think even of Jesus' high priestly prayer in John 17. There, he included just a thorough description of a Christian's proper relationship with, and attitude toward, the world, he said, beginning in verse 14, "'I have given them Your word,’“ speaking to the Father, Father,

"'I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

"'I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one.

"'They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.'"

Folks, whenever Jesus spoke of a believer's life in this world, he made it clear that faithfulness would always result in persecution. I've talked with so many people, especially over the last year that have lost almost everything because of their faith in Christ, because of their testimony. And I remember even this last week, texting a broken-hearted friend who, along with his wife, is suffering under the weight of persecution, and I just simply said this, Matthew 5:10, Jesus' words, "'Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.'"

So, what do we need to do? In light of all that, let's go outside the camp bearing his reproach. Now, many of those early Jewish people had done that, you will recall, and they had seen family members and friends that had done that. Remember Hebrews chapter 10, verse 34 the writer says, "For you had compassion on the prisoners." So some of them had been put in prison, "and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property."  Can you imagine that? People coming and just taking your stuff because of your faith in Christ. "Since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one..." and of course, Hebrews 11 is filled with all the great heroes of the faith; willing to suffer reproach, the reproach of Christ. And there's such a great principle here When we are willing to suffer the reproach of Christ, that's when we will find real joy. You see, folks, it's in the crucible of the furnace that Christ's presence appears with the Shadrach’s, Meshach’s and Abed-negoes, right? We must remember that it's in the midst of the storm that we experience the soul-satisfying, exhilarating presence and power of the living Christ. Whatever we lose in this life for the sake of Christ, we will receive 1000-fold in glory. Jesus said in Matthew five and verse 11, "Blessed are you when men persecute you and revile you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on My account. Rejoice in that day and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven." So please understand, folks, this is a call to go out to a place of reproach of scorn, of shame, of humiliation and possibly death. You will remember that Moses understood this in Hebrews 11, verse 26 we read that he considered, quote, "the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt."

A few other thoughts here. Notice also the what the author does not say. It's important to think about these things the author does not say, "So let us stay in and try to reform the camp." I hear this all the time from believers who are in some liberal, weak, superficial, maybe even apostate church. Yeah, you know, I'm just going to stay here because I believe God has just called me to do that, to try to get them straightened out, you know, to try to get some fruit to grow on this old thistle tree. Now, as you think about that, ask Larry Simpkins. Larry, he's back there. We all know Larry. He's got these incredible blueberry trees. I don't know how many. I mean, it seems like acres of them. They're just magnificent. I'll tell you what you do. Make sure you get his permission but go out and cut off one of those blueberry branches just loaded with blueberries. And then I want you to take that branch and come over to my place, and I've got an old honey locust tree. You know what a honey locust tree is? Doesn't bear any fruit. It's just got these terrible thorns sticking out all over it. It's just, it's just from hell. I mean, that's the type of tree it is. And so why don't we take that branch from Larry's blueberry tree and let's graft it into that honey locust, and let's see what happens. It's kind of ridiculous, isn't it? Point is, the honey locust won't be affected in the least, and the blueberry branch will very quickly wither and die. That's how a lot of believers are. "Yes, but all my friends and family are there." Dear friend, please, if Christ isn't in your church, you shouldn't be there either. Go out to him outside the camp.

This leads us finally to the fourth great truth that emerges from this text, and that is the motivation. And oh, it's so powerful, isn't it? Look at Verse 14, "For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come again." Think about this. In light of all that the author has been saying, the reader can understand this because we already have an altar that has provided for us access into the presence of the living God. We can anticipate the glorious worship that we will one day experience in heaven: the reward of eternal life itself. The early saints, they were well aware of this city analogy. In fact, the writer of Hebrews had variously described it as a final resting place, an eternal inheritance, a kingdom, the city of the living God, part of the Heavenly Jerusalem. And the point is, all of the cities on earth and all earthly things are temporary. They're transient, they're insecure; but we're seeking the eternal city which God has made. But until then, we remain as exiles on the earth, don't we? But we're awaiting the fullness of our inheritance in Christ. Folks, can there be anything anymore motivating than that?

I wish to challenge you in closing this morning, to examine your life. Let me put it this way, won't you come out to Christ outside the camp, be willing to bear his reproach. Frankly, I'm personally convicted that I need to do better in this regard. I'm also convicted that as a church; we need to do better in this regard. I fear that we're way too inward focused and not enough outward focused. I fear, one of the main reasons why we are a commuter church is because we tend to neglect our own community. I'm burdened over that. It's easy for us to keep our candle hidden under the bushel basket of Calvary Bible Church, rather than letting it shine here in Joelton and Pleasant View and Ashland City and Springfield, and so forth. You know, it's easy to live in a safe little bubble, isn't it? And I'm preaching to myself here. Oh, we love our ministry comfort zones. We get very smug in our doctrinal precision and our theological orthodoxy. It's easy to feel safe and secure here, and to be content to just let people, if they want to, to just kind of come on in and you know, we'll minister to you, rather than going outside the camp, right?

May I ask you, when was the last time you shared your faith in Christ with someone, maybe with a stranger, with a friend, a loved one? When was the last time you took that risk? How many people right now are you praying for earnestly that they might come to Christ, and praying that the Spirit of God will give you an opportunity to speak truth into their life? What would that list look like were we to see it? When was the last time you invited someone to be your guest and come to church? You know, we're great at intentional one anothering, but I fear we're weak at intentional evangelism. So I ask you again, Won't you come out to Christ outside the camp, bear his reproach for the glory of God? And one of the best ways to do that is by confessing Christ wherever we go - family members, friends, coworkers - being fully aware that they might reject you.

And in light of that, I close with the words of Jesus, magnificent description of how he wants us to be, especially in our confession. He said this in Matthew 10 and verse 32,

"'Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess Him before My Father who is in heaven.

"But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.

"'Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

"'For I came TO SET A MAN AGINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW;

"'and A MAN'S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERES OF HIS HOUSEHOLD.

"'He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.

"'And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.

"'He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.'"

Let's pray together, Father, thank you for these eternal truths that are so relevant to each of us. Lord, I pray that wherever the Spirit may be convicting us, that we will deal with it forthrightly; aggressively. I pray Lord, that we will be a people known for living outside the camp - going outside the camp and sharing the gospel - regardless of the shame and the humiliation and the reproach that it may bring. Knowing that ultimately, they are hating us because they first hated you, and being motivated by the reality that one day we will enter into the presence of your glory and experience the unimaginable blessings that are ours because of what you have given us in Christ. And finally, Lord, I pray, if there be one here that knows nothing of the Savior, Oh, please, by the power of your Spirit, break their heart, give them no rest on their pillow until they humble themselves before the cross and are saved. I ask this for Jesus' sake, and all God's people said, "Amen."