Exodus 33:1-3

Without the camp.

The Tabernacle without the camp

I. First, then, they that seek the Lord must go without the camp.

1. It is scarcely necessary for me to say that no man can be a true seeker of God who has anything to do with the camp of the profane. We must take care that our garments are entirely clean from those lusts of the flesh, and those blasphemies of the ungodly.

2. Again, we must as much come out from the camp of the careless as from the camp of the profane. The largest company in the world is not that of the profane, but of the thoughtless--not those who oppose, but who neglect the great salvation.

3. But we must go further than this: if a man would have fellowship with God he must go even out of the camp of the merely steady, sedate, and thoughtful; for there be multitudes whose thoughts are not God’s thoughts, and whose ways are not His ways, who are in every respect conformed outwardly to the laws of God, and who rigidly observe the customs of upright society--who think, and therefore abhor the trifles of the world--but who, notwithstanding, have never learned to set their affections on things above. It is not enough to leave the Amalekites; thou must leave even the hosts of Moab, brother though Moab may seem to be to the Israel of God.

4. He that would know anything of God aright must even come out of the camp of the merely religious. Oh, it is one thing to attend to religion, but another thing to be in Christ Jesus; it is one thing to have the name upon the church book, but quite another thing to have it written in the Lamb’s book of life.

II. This going out of the camp will involve much inconvenience.

1. You will find that your diffidence and your modesty will sometimes shrink from the performance of duty’s stern commands. If Christ be worth anything, He is worth avowing before the world, before men, before angels, and before devils.

2. Peradventure when you go without the camp you will lose some of your best friends. You will find that many a tie has to be cut when your soul is bound with cords to the horns of the altar. Can you do it? As Christ left His Father for you, can you leave all for Him?

3. You will find, too, when you go without the camp, you will have some even professedly godly people against you. “Ah!” they will say, when you are filled with the Spirit, and are anxious to serve God as Caleb did, with all your heart--“Ah! young man, that is fanaticism, and it will grow cool by and by.”

4. Another inconvenience to which you will be exposed is that you will be charged falsely. So was your Master, remember. Endure, as He did.

5. Again, you must expect to be watched. If you profess to go without the camp, others will look for something extra in you--mind that they are not disappointed. I have heard some say, “I do not like to join the Church because then there would be so much expected of me.” Just so, and that is the very reason why you should, because their expectation will be a sort of sacred clog to you when you are tempted, and may help to give impetus to your character and carefulness to your walk, when you know that you are looked upon by the eyes of men.

III. Now I come to use certain arguments, by which I desire earnestly to persuade each Christian here to go without the camp; to be exact in his obedience; and to be precise in his following the Lamb withersoever He goeth.

1. I use first a selfish argument, it is to do it for your own comfort’s sake. If a Christian can be saved while he conforms to this world, at any rate he will be saved so as by fire. Would you like to go to heaven in the dark, and enter there as a shipwrecked mariner climbs the rocks of his native country?

2. But I have a better reason than that, and it is, for your own growth in grace do it. If you would have much faith, you cannot have much faith while you are mixed with sinners. If you would have much love, your love cannot grow while you mingle with the ungodly.

3. I beseech you, Christian men and women, come right out and be your Master’s soldiers wholly for the Church’s sake. It is the few men in the Church, and those who have been distinct from her, who have saved the Church in all times.

4. And for the world’s sake, let me beg you to do thus. The Church itself can never be the salt of the world, unless there be some particular men who are the salt of the Church.

5. And now lastly, for your Master’s sake. What have you and I to do in the camp when He was driven from it? What have we to do with hosannas when He was followed with hootings, “Crucify Him, crucify Him “? What have I to do in the tent while my Captain lies in the open battle-field? (C. H. Spurgeon.)