Address—N. Simon
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Given the brevity of time, I would like to.
Turn straight to the word, and Lord willing, if we have a little time at the annual close with a hymn, I want to look at 3 expressions in the book of Hebrews.
The first one is found in Hebrews chapter 6, and each of these expression contains a common word in English, though in the original they the first one is different than the last two, but I will be. My word is in Hebrews 6, but I want to begin in Hebrews 5.
Beginning at verse 11 of Hebrews, five of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered. Seeing yeh dull of hearing. For when, for, for when, for the time he ought to be teachers. You have need that one teacher again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and not become as such a need of meat, milk, and a knot of strong meat. For everyone that uses milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, even though who by reason of use have their senses exercised, discern both good and evil.
And therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works in the faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptism, of the laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permit, for it is impossible. For those who were once enlightened have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God under the powers of the Word and the powers of the world to come.
If they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance, and skipping down to verse 9. But beloved, we are persuaded better things of you.
And things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak for God is not unrighteous to forego your.
To forget your work and labor of love, which you have showed toward His name and he have ministered to the Saints and to minister. And we desire that everyone of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope and to the end that you be not slothful, but follows of them who through faith, patience inherit the promises. Well, I read a lot. I'm not going to cover all of that. The one expression that I have from this portion is in verse one of chapter 6. And it is go on. And that's my excitation to you this afternoon is to go.
On you know, the book of Hebrews is one of the.
Say this carefully. Easier books to follow.
There are some portions in it that have caused some confusion this chapter, the 6th chapter being one of them. But if you put yourself in the place of a Jew that perhaps identified with John the Baptist and submitted to the baptism of repentance and owned the guiltiness of that nation, and then the Messiah comes and you witness the mighty things that he does, and you, you believe in him, or at least believe on him.
And there are many that believed, we have find at the end of John chapter 2, though the Lord knew what was in their hearts, but there were many that believed. And as time went on, you realize that the leaders didn't want to have anything to do with him and things weren't turning out quite the way you'd expected. And then worse than that, he's crucified. And then shockingly, he rises again. And and you're trying to make sense of all this. After all, you look for the redemption of Israel.
And then you hear Peter preach and you go along with it and you're looking for those times of refreshing, but instead Steven gets stoned.
And there's persecution. And this is all contrary to your way of thinking.
And so we have this epistle to the Hebrews.
The author of it. This book is unknown, but for simplicity I'll accept that Paul is the author. I have no difficulty with accepting that Paul is the author of this epistle, but.
There's a good reason why the author is not explicitly mentioned. It's because the Lord Jesus Christ himself is especially the apostle of this epistle. It's apostles. It's an epistle, as it were, that He wrote from his heart to his people and the writer.
Has a concern for them that there were some amongst them that were getting discouraged and might give up. And this chapter speaks of apostasy. And I'm going and and certainly my concern is a concern of mine is that there might be those that have enjoyed the meetings that have grown up in the assembly that have gone along with things. And as we have in the fourth verse of the 6th chapter, it says we're enlightened that have been in the light.
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Have tasted of the heavenly gift.
We made partakers of the Holy Ghost. That one usually causes people problems. But the word particular here means an external sharing in and certainly in the day in which this epistle was written, there are those that in the the days of the apostles that witnessed amazing things, the power of the Holy Spirit, you might say in a present day. Well, I've never witnessed anything amazing. Well, you know, we've had our minds and thinking distorted.
By thoughts that have been to be found in Christendom. That the Spirit is manifest in things like the Speaking of tongues and in healing and we forget.
That.
As it says in First Corinthians that rather we're to to desire a gift, we're to desire their gift of prophecy. And if you look in Galatians chapter 5, I believe we find there the fruit of the Spirit. These are all evidence of the Spirit. And whether you recognize it or not, if you've grown up in the assembly, you have been a partaker of the Holy Spirit.
One reason I started back in chapter 5 is because it says let us go on unto perfection, and that's caused some confusion too. But the word perfection is the same word used back in verse 14 where it speaks of being full age. It talks of going on to maturity, to Christian maturity. The 1St 3 verses of this chapter speak of those things which are very Jewish in character, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ. Again, that's something that's been confusing to people. But if we recognize that Christ simply means anointed, which is what Messiah means, which is what we have in the second Psalm, we understand leaving those fundamental principles.
Concerning the Messiah that every Jew had a hope for or a godly Jew did, leaving those things and going on to full growth, recognizing what we have in the Lord Jesus Christ and this epistle, there's I believe 13 references to the word better. There are better things that the a Jew that had believed to the saving of his soul could look forward to and yet the Jew had a tendency to look back and the nature of our flesh too is to to look back to earthly things to to turn back to.
Things that we can handle, things that we can sense with our five senses.
And so the writer of this epistle urges him to go on and they said that the word go is the keyword in the three phrases that I'm going to give you and the word go. And this is different than the other two in the original, but here has a sense of carrying a burden. No one says these things are easy. We've talked about diligence in this chapter mentions diligence. You know, in verse 11, the writer says, for we desire that every one of you you see, there was a there was a concern there that maybe not every one of them.
This hope, the things that we have been Speaking of in the last meeting, but.
We can, even if we are truly the Lords and we cannot apostasize, I don't want to give that a suggestion, but we can still lose the enjoyment of that hope. And, you know, when things don't work out the way that we expect, we get discouraged. I get discouraged. And you look at the assemblies and they're shrinking in sizes. You don't have to be a statistician to make that observation. And if you're a young person growing up, that can be troublesome. If you're an older person, that can be troublesome.
And so when things don't workout the way that we think they should workout, we can get discouraged. And like these Hebrew believers, we can turn back to those things that satisfy the cravings of the flesh. And they may be spiritual cravings, as we'll see as we go on.
Well let's in fact go on because we don't. We only have this meetings only 1/2 an hour.
But the next one is in Hebrews Chapter 11. So the first expression is go.
On We need to be encouraged to go on and it's going to take diligence, it's going to take effort. It's not going to be easy.
And then the next one is Hebrews 11 and verse 8. By faith. Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place where he should after received for an inheritance, obeyed. And he went out, not knowing whether he went by faith, his Sergeant in the land of promises, in a strange country dwelling in a Tabernacle, dwelling in tabernacles or tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which had half foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
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The emphasis on this one is I want is the thought of going out. And again, it's in some ways an artifact of the English translation because I think.
Maybe the original sense is to go forth, but anyway, the emphasis is coming out of something. Let me read another verse while we're in this portion.
And it's verse 15, it says. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. You know, when we study ancient history in school and you study Mesopotamia, we have this idea that they were sort of third world and uncivilized. And that didn't cost Abraham a whole lot to leave that all behind. After all, they all probably lived in tents anyway, which I think is a very false view of things. But so much of our thinking that we have today has been subtly influenced by evolution.
And the whole idea that man is progressing, actually man is rapidly regressing. The social changes that we're witnessing in this country today is taking us back to Roman times, into times, owning that we're regressing, we're not progressing. And so I want to suggest you that life in Mesopotamia was actually pretty awesome.
You know.
You probably younger ones probably wonder how my generation and I probably wonder how the older, the generation older than me ever got along without smartphones, without tablets, without the Internet. I even comment about at work. I'm a software engineer and used to be when you had a question on how to do solve some particular problem, you'd have to try to hunt for a book that gave you the answer. Well, now I just Google it and it's the answer's there like that. And it's made my life much easier. And you might wonder how do we ever get along without these things? But you forget.
Before they existed, they were never in our thoughts that they didn't affect our lives I never I never thought of carrying a phone in my pocket. In fact, when they.
First put a phone into one of these things that was like, why did they do that? And then of course, it clicked and became obvious as to the benefits of such things. But, you know, if you don't have something, you don't miss it, do you? So I don't imagine because Abraham didn't have all the the modern amenities that we enjoy that he somehow missed them. He didn't. Mesopotamia we have.
A lot of information about the civilization back then, you can read the Epic of Gilgamesh to get some idea. And it was as a licentious and there was as much entertainment as the day in which we live. It just might not have been delivered the same way. And all of this Abraham left behind. He went out. And so the exhortation to us too is to go out. And as I said, if he had been mindful of those things, if he had dwelt on those things, if he had thought on those things, that would have been gestures the same.
It is with me an attraction to go back into them again. And so again, we are called to go on, and we're also called to go out out of this world. Now, we can't physically get out of this world. And we could look at some verses in John 17 and so on. We're in this world, but we're not a part of this world. And we're to use the things of this world without abusing them. We're not to come under the power of the things that this world has to offer.
So let's look at the last one, which I'll spend a little more time on.
Hebrews 13.
Hebrews 13 and.
We'll start reading verse 10.
We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat, which served the Tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come by Him. Therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
But to do good and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. So we exhorted to go on. We're exhorted to go out. But if God is going to ask us to come out of something, it's not going to be without putting something before us which is infinitely better. And so we're going, we're exhorted in this portion to go forth, therefore.
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Unto him without the camp.
And I want to talk a little bit about the camp.
So what is the camp?
You know, I believe this is a topic that stirs emotions as well.
I think we make a great mistake if we ask the question who is the camp? You know, if we understand the principle that's given here, I'll walk. Should be clear. And that's what's important.
Keep in mind that when the writer wrote this epistle, there was number camp. Let's be clear about that. There was number camp. There was no Tabernacle.
They didn't. It didn't exist.
I mean that it ended if I'm right.
Hundreds. I don't know my timeline that well.
1000 years before.
So the writer, in writing to the Hebrews, knew that the the recipients of this letter would have to interpret these things spiritually, not literally.
And so if you object to a spiritual interpretation of the camp in the day in which we live.
Then you also object to the interpretation that the author intended.
So what did the author intend? Well, if you turn back to Leviticus 4, I believe we find the principle behind going out the camp.
In in Leviticus 4 we have the sin offering before us.
And a connection and then the sin offering addresses 4 cases. We have when the high priest sins, we have when the people sin, we have when a rule of sins and we have when the common people sinned. And the first one is concerns the high priest. It says in verse three of Leviticus 4 if the priest that is anointed to sin according to the sin of the people, then let him bring and it goes into the sin offering.
But you notice what it says.
For example, verse six, the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle of that blood seven times before the Lord.
Before the veil of the sanctuary, so the blood was taken in to the Tabernacle. But in verse 12 we find even the whole bullet shall he carry forth without the camp unto a clean place where the ashes are poured out, and burned him on the wood with fire, where the ashes are poured out shall he be burnt. So the blood was taken into the sanctuary, but the Bullock itself was taken without the camp, and burnt without.
The camp and then in the next case in verse, umm.
13 It says, if the whole congregation of Israel sinned through ignorance, and the thing be hid from the eyes, and again it goes in to the sin offering, and once again we find that the blood was to be.
In verse 17, the priest shall dip his finger in the sum of the blood and sprinkle 7 times before the Lord, even before the veil. But in verse 20, once again we find that the Bullock.
Verse 21 Rather, he shall carry forth the bullet without the camp and burn him, as he burned the first Bullock. And so once again we find the bullet taken without the camp and burned without the camp. Now why was it taken without the camp? Now if you look at the other two incidents, the the case of a ruler and the case of a common person sinning, the bullet wasn't taken out of the camp. So why was it in the first two instances but not the second two? Well, because defilement had come into the camp. In the case of the high priest in particular, communion with God had been broken.
As incidentally, that first case with the high priest is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the very picture we find there in Hebrews 13. But.
It's not for his sin that he suffered without the camp. In the case of the high priest, it was if he sinned. But in the case of the Lord Jesus, the picture we have, it wasn't his sin, but for the sin that he took upon himself. But in the case of when all the people, the congregation sinned, defilement had come into the camp and it was the Bullock was required to be taken out. I see how time is slipping by really fast.
We find a couple of incidents in the in Exodus where the Tabernacle was taken outside the camp. In Exodus 33 we have an incident of it.
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In Exodus 33, verse seven, it says Moses took the Tabernacle and pitched it without the camp. Why did he do that? Well, that was after the golden calf. Again, defilement had come in to that congregation where God was seen as dwelling in the midst of His people. Defilement had come in and the Tabernacle where God was seen as dwelling, though at this point it was.
Precursor to the Tabernacle, it had to be taken out the camp and then numbers 11 after the people fell a lusting for a flesh. Once again we find the Tabernacle taken without the camp because defilement had come in amongst the people of God. So what's the spiritual application to us today?
Well, certainly all that pertains to Judaism has no place within Christianity. Christ suffered outside the camp.
But that's exactly what Christianity has done. Christendom has taken everything, well, many things pertaining to Judaism and has brought it in to its system of things. One thing that characterized the the camp, one thing that characterized Judaism was the fact there was a mixed multitude, both of those that were faithful and those that were infidels. They were a people by natural birth and we are not a people by natural birth.
In John chapter one it says born. I'll read it because I.
Not good at quoting scripture without misquoting, but in John chapter one and verse 13 says which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. We're a people that are not born of the flesh.
Born of God and not of blood.
The other thing is everything connection with Jewish worship was that which satisfied the man in the flesh. There were ceremonies. Well, that's been brought into Christendom. There was musical instruments and music, and when David ordered those things, it was according to God. I was trying to find that verse the other day and I couldn't find it, but it's somewhere there where it says that he did it.
And the implication is, according to the Spirit or according to God, He didn't just invent it, but musical instruments has been brought into Christendom.
We find in, you know, I've had the privilege, the blessing of communicating with a brother in prison whom Don introduced me to for about a year.
And this was a man, I don't know much about his life before he entered prison. He ended as a young man.
And he was, but he was saved in prison, and the only thing he knows of Christianity is what he's learned in prison through the Scriptures.
Through ministry, through his cellmate who happens to be a believer and no doubt other sources as well. But the one thing that irks him most about where his parents go, which is a large mega church in Colorado Springs, is that it's a mixed congregation of saved and unsaved.
And there's there is no distinction. And yet that's what characterizes Christianity. And so we are to go forth, but it's unto him. It's not simply that we're asked to go outside the camp. And by the way, we can't get out of Christendom. That's not the point. But we don't have to identify with these things.
And we were called to go outside the camp unto Him. It's not simply good enough to separate from those things which many over the centuries have done, but it's unto Him we are gathered together unto His name. And as I said, when we start getting our eyes on them and us and who is who, we start going astray in our thinking. The thought is, is that if we understand the principles of the camp, we won't want to be identified with those things.
That Christendom has brought in from Judaism and from paganism. We won't want to be identified with them, but as the day gets weaker.
And as there is a lack of reality, our natural tendency is to fill it.
With those things that are counterfeit. So as an example, Ephesians 4. And this may seem like a very strong example, and it is strong.
In Ephesians four and five, sorry Ephesians 5, it says in verse 18 be not drunk with wine, where is excess, but filled with the Spirit. Why are these two things put together? Why is being drunk with wine and being filled with the Spirit put together? Because one office a counterfeit of the other.
You know, a young brother the other day I remarked that he went to a Christian concert and how amazing it was to hear 5000 people sing. And I'm sure if I was there I would have felt the same elation as well. But I'm afraid it's a counterfeit of being filled with the spirit. If if you want to fill up lifted, sure, you can go along with this music and this flashing lights and.
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And and keep in mind, I'm not criticizing.
The the people there, but the system of things, it's wrong. But you can go along to something like that and you will feel uplifted. You will leave with a smile on your face. And perhaps you say I come on Thursday morning and I don't ever leave with a smile on my face. Well, you can substitute something and that will bring a smile on your face.
But we are to go forth unto Him. Everything in Christian today seems to be turning on ourselves, and my time has passed.
But I read the next few verses after the one that says there in Hebrews 13 to go on to him. By the way, there's a reproach if you turn to Psalm 69 again. Let me quickly turn to it. You don't need to.
Some 69 concerning speaking prophetically concerning the Lord, it says.
I become a stranger until verse seven, because for thy sake have borne reproach, shame with covered my face.
Become a stranger to my brethren, alien to my mother's children. There is a reproach being associated with going without the camp. You will be immediately accused of judging those that identify with those things. But you and I have to do that which is right according to Scripture. We're to go on, we're to go out, we're to go forth unto him without the camp. And there is a reproach. And it may even consent our own families, that reproach. I started saying something about Christian Christianity. So much is turning in on itself.
You know, I read a couple of years back a definition of worship by a relatively well known preacher, an author again, a minister in a large mega church who described worship as anything that brings pleasure to God.
That is false.
It was brought to my attention after our conference in Denver, we took up Romans 12 That the English standard version, which is not a particularly bad version so, but even that English standard ESV translates Romans 12 instead of ending it as ours does, which is your intelligent or reasonable service, it says.
I haven't written down so I won't misquote, which is your spiritual worship.
And that's exactly what that definition of worship does. It turns service into worship service worshippers towards God, services that which we do towards man in the chapter that we had before us that speaks of the sacrifice of praise, that which is God would. And then it follows that which to to let me quote it. But to do good and to communicate, forget not, you know, if the Father seeketh worshippers, You know, if I do the dishes for my wife, she's pleased.
But if that's the only way that it ever showed affection to my wife, she would be very disappointed and I might suggest that husbands have this problem.
But once in a while, she likes me to hear, likes to hear me say that I love her. That's worship. It's adoration. Not because of what we've been delivered out of.
Not to be occupied with what we've been delivered out of, but because we've been delivered out of it. We worship God and we lift up before Him and exalt the sun. Anyway. Our time has passed. Perhaps we can disclose by singing 2 verses from 2:56.
256 praise the Savior, ye who know him, just to sing verse one and verse four, if someone could start that.
Raise the.
Sailor.
Give us women.
To myself and still believe me till the oil.
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Are receiving.
Promise joins with the closing prayer.