OUTSIDE THE GATE
“And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.”
—Hebrews 13:12.
We live in a day, and in a world that is pulling us all in many directions.
We know that with our busy schedules we have to stay on track with what we are doing. Go here…go there…do this…do that. With each new day we wonder, “Will I ever catch up with all that I am supposed to be doing?”
The Bottom Line - Our time is precious.
Precious to us but it is, as well, very precious to the Lord.
For the younger ones here today, I will say that I can remember when I thought I had all the time in the world to do whatever I wanted to with my life.
For the older ones, as myself, I would only say,
“We know better…don’t we…???”
When we are young, we procrastinate.
When we are old, we may give up.
Listen carefully –
1. The things of God are more important for us to complete than we know. At any age.
2. The Lord has given to us His righteousness so that we can make every moment count.
How does the Lord give to us His righteousness? Sanctification.
Sanctification is given to us by what Jesus Christ has accomplished, Himself.
He accomplished our SANCTIFICATION entirely on His own when He bled and died for us on the cross of Calvary.
We know that Jesus has given to us many wonderful spiritual things.
And we praise Him for those blessings.
Wisdom, peace, love, values, etc…
But did you realize this SANCTIFICATION is meant for us to be blessed with now and forever…throughout eternity?
SANCTIFICATION also has to do with what the Spirit is doing within us today.
The Bible says there is a work which God accomplishes by means of the Holy Spirit from the first moment we are saved (born again), to the last moment
when we are taken to heaven.
This work is a direct result of the sufferings of Jesus on the cross. But this sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit is something we can experience now. We can actually see the results of it.
This work of SANCTIFICATION is proven to us when we are tempted with the evils of this world. We can overcome the corruptions and lusts in our lives with the SANCTIFICATION of the Holy Spirit.
That is, if we allow the Holy Spirit to..??
And as a result, our faith is increased.
To put it more simply, SANCTIFICATION means tow things –
1. We are pardoned from our sins (we have committed).
2. We are cleansed from the sins (we are about to commit).
It is both. SANCTIFICATION is doing two jobs at the same time. Probably twice as much work for you as you thought.
Some of you may have (recently) been tempted by something, but this time you noticed that you didn’t do it.
You may have asked yourself, “Self…why didn’t I just do what I used to do? You know…sin the same old sin I always have sinned?”
The answer is the SANCTIFYING work of the Holy Spirit stopped you!
Imagine this with me – there is a divine fountain of the Blood of Jesus pouring out and being delivered to you (personally) by the Holy Spirit.
Sound a little strange to you?
Not really…do you remember what poured out of the side of Jesus?
Of the four disciples who recorded the crucifixion of Jesus, (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) it was only John who made note of this.
(It is our KEY VERSE)
John 19:34
But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.
John was emphatic about this so he also wrote in I John 5:6 -
This is He who came by water and blood-- Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness…
Listen carefully and don’t miss this -
There is a sacred water given to us from the atonement of the death of Jesus.
It is applied to our heart, sprinkling us and cleansing us from dead works.
The work of the Holy Spirit with the “blood and water” is purging you from an evil conscience that we may serve God without the hindrance of sin.
We must look to Jesus knowing that the
Spirit is sanctifying us through His blood.
Furthermore, we must understand that the nearer we live to the cross of Jesus, the more of SANTIFICATION, and spiritual growth we will see in our lives.
Listen again to our passage:
“And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.”
Jesus came down from heaven for us.
Jesus walked out from the Holy City to suffer and die for our sins.
Let us pause here and ask ourselves —
1. How much of this SANCTIFICATION am I experiencing in my life?
I know now that, in one sense, I am completely sanctified; but, in another sense, I know that I am not perfect with how I live.
2. Has my faith been increasing lately?
I want my faith to grow and make a difference, but I still struggle.
3. Am I overcoming my temptations?
When I am confronted with my past, I still have a hard time saying no to my old temptations.
4. Do I sense the power of the Lord when I pray to Him?
I desperately want God to answer my prayers and set me free.
5. Am I becoming more like Jesus, or just staying the same?
We can choose whether or not to LIVE IN SANCTIFICATION.
Church, it is the Blood of Jesus that can and will change you.
Let’s look to see what the Bible has to say about all of these questions –
Read Philippians 3:13
Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
Look back at Hebrews 12:2
My Jesus endured the shame of the Cross of Calvary. But our text, chapter 13:12 says that Jesus “…suffered outside the city gate…” It did not take place within the Holy City of Jerusalem, or at the altar in the Holy Temple of God.
Have you ever wondered why it is that the ultimate sacrifice made to God, the suffering and death of Jesus, did not happen on the Holy Altar of the Lord?
That is where all of the other sacrifices took place. Why not the greatest sacrifice of them all?
Our passage says that JESUS CHRIST SUFFERED OUTSIDE THE GATE.
Let me explain.
Whenever the high priest offered the sin-offering at the altar of the Lord, it represented sin. Sin was so offensive to God that the remains of the offerings couldn’t be burned in the Temple.
It had to be burned upon outside of the Temple. More specifically it had to burned outside the gates of the City of God. This showed the people of God how much God detested sin.
Had Christ been killed by the Roman Guards, or an assassin, or an angry mob, He would most likely have been slain inside the city.
It is remarkable that the Romans
chose a hill on the outside of the city.
Why did they not select some mount in the center of the city so that it set as an example to everyone?
Christ was shamed and humiliated to be taken outside of the city. The sin that He bore on the Cross of Calvary was too gross and detestable to be anywhere near His heavenly Father.
Question: Do you know who the people
were who lived outside the gate?
I haven’t the time today to explain everything you would have seen there that day. But I can tell you this.
Typically the area in which Christ died for your sins was the same area in which the impoverished and the “unclean” people lived.
The lepers lived there because no one could tolerate them being that close.
The people who lived “outside the city gate” were all victims of circumstances that were out of their control.
Their diseases came to them without discrimination and made them victims.
It was a place called Golgotha’s Hill. Otherwise known to the locals as
“the place of the skull”.
If you were to walk through some of these areas “outside the city gates”, you might have heard in the distance, the cry, “ Go back! Unclean!”
If it were not what Christ did for us on Golgotha’s Hill, we would be living there, as well. We would have those hopeless people as our neighbors.
The people Jesus saw on the way up that hill were no different than you & I.
My friend, the blood and water, shed by Jesus Christ has redeemed us.
The Holy Spirit has caused us to know our ruined and wretched condition.
The great preacher, Charles Spurgeon, once said this,
Leper, leper! be of good cheer; Christ died outside the city gate, that thou
might be sanctified through his blood.
My friend, Christ will come to you wherever you are living.
No matter how ungodly your condition is, Jesus will carry His blood soaked cross to wherever you are.
And we should also note that there were the two thieves there with Jesus when He bled and died.
They were not victims of circumstances. They were hardened sinners.
Jesus came to them in spite of their guilt and condemnation.
And it was “outside the city gate” that Jesus said,
“Verily I say unto thee, To-day thou shalt be with me in paradise.”
Luke 19:10
"for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."
Here is something else to consider:
If we were honest with one another, we would have to admit the times when we have come to church and have felt uncomfortable with some of God’s people. We may have felt like we were not good enough to be there.
We felt like everyone had put us “outside the city gates”. We have felt like outcasts from being near the Lord.
Perhaps we had done it to ourselves.
I know of some that have done this to themselves many times.
So many times that they have told themselves they really are not worthy enough to be in God’s presence.
It eventually can become the excuse they need to not come to the House of God at all.
Jesus will even come to you there!
What a great mercy it is that, when we are outside the gate, (for whatever reason) Christ is outside the gate, too!
But if we do not choose to face Christ “outside the city gates”, we will only bring more shame to our lives.
And some will do this. They will justify their backsliding by saying that-
1. They were “never good enough to be in the House of God.”
2. They were never “accepted by the people at church.”
We need to be careful not to ever reject the Lord or His people.
Remember Jesus knows what rejection is all about.
Isaiah 53:3
He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
Jesus knows of your sorrow and grief.
His followers know sorrow and grief.
We cannot choose to stay “outside the city gates.” Christ was there only long enough to suffer and die for our sins.
Christ has delivered us from having to live “outside the city gates”
God saves us and sanctifies us so that -
· We don’t have to live with the things that are “unclean” anymore.
· We can be forever in His presence.
