Exodus chapter 16, I'm sorry,
chapter 27, Exodus 27. Our subject is the Believer's
Altar. Exodus 27 verse 1 says, And thou
shalt make an altar of Shittim wood, five cubits long and five
cubits broad, the altar shall be four square, and the height
thereof shall be three cubits. And thou shalt make the horns
of it upon the four corners thereof. His horns shall be of the same,
and thou shalt overlay it with brass. And thou shalt make his
pans to receive his ashes, and his shovels, and his basins,
and his flesh hooks, and his fire pans, all the vessels thereof
thou shalt make of brass. And thou shalt make for it a
great of net work of brass. And upon the net shalt thou make
four brazen rings in the four corners thereof, and thou shalt
put it under the compass of the altar beneath, that the net may
be even to the midst of the altar. And thou shalt make staves for
the altar, staves of shidom wood, and overlay them with brass,
and the stave shall be put into the rings, and the stave shall
be upon the two sides of the altar to bear it. Hollow with
board shalt thou make it, as it was showed thee in the mount,
so shall they make it. The altar was for sacrificing
the offerings that were brought to God. The word altar means
killing place. That's what it was. It was a
place where judgment, a picture of judgment being poured out.
That's what it was. The altar was the first thing
you saw when you entered into the courtyard. We're not talking
about You know, the tabernacle was called the holy place and
then in that was another room called the holiest of holies.
But outside of that was the courtyard and it had a fence around it
and when you first entered the gate of the courtyard, the first
thing you came to was that altar, the brazen altar. There it was. There it was. Scripture says,
we have an altar. whereof they have no right to
eat which serve the tabernacle. Anybody who's still trying to
worship under the old law, anybody who's still trying to bring their
sacrifices and trying to please God by their works, they have
no right to eat at our altar. No right to eat at our altar.
Now, the altar for the believer is not the cross. The altar for
the believer is not our heart. The altar of the believer is
not some table or something down front of the church. The Lord Jesus is our altar.
The Lord Jesus is our altar. He's our altar. The brazen altar
of sacrifice typified our Lord Jesus Christ, the sin-atoning
sacrifice by whose blood we draw near to God. That's what's pictured
in the altar. Nobody could go into the holy
place. The priests couldn't go into
the holy place unless they passed through that altar and a sacrifice
was made, fire was burned on that altar, and the blood was
carried in through the door. That's the only way they could
enter. You and I cannot enter into God's presence We cannot
unless we come through Christ our altar, through the sacrifice
with His blood. That's the only way we can enter.
The only way. Now, it says we have an altar. Now who's the we? We have an
altar. God gave this altar to nobody
but the children of Israel. That's the only way. There was
a lot of other nations around Israel that were in the world
during that time. A lot of other nations. God dwelt
with no other nation but the children of Israel. He didn't
give the others an altar, only the children of Israel. Now what
does that declare to us spiritually? Those who have this altar and
to whom this altar is revealed, Christ our altar, are those that
God chose before this world was made by divine election. It's
not because they're better than somebody else. It's not because
they have anything to merit God's grace. Grace is free. In fact,
grace is given to those who demerit grace. We not only didn't merit
grace, we hated God. We demerit grace. Listen to this
now. In Deuteronomy 7, if you want
to look there, the Lord said to Israel, In verse 6, he said, Thou art
a holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that
are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love
upon you, nor choose you because you were more in number than
any people. For you were the fewest of all people, but because
the Lord loved and because he would keep the
oath which he had sworn unto your fathers as the Lord brought
you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house
of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. There was some
in that land in Israel who were loved of God from before the
foundation of the world. They were God's elect people.
Now we know God's elect people were not only chosen from among
the Jews, but also from the Gentiles. God has a people scattered throughout
this whole world out of every kindred, tribe, and tongue under
heaven. He has people throughout this
world, but they're all chosen by God because he loved them. That's the reason, because he
loved them. When you talk about God's love,
remember it's everlasting. Whoever He loves, He loves forever. He never stops loving His people.
And whoever He loves, He saves. He saves them. God's love is
a saving love. So whoever He loved, He chose
them, and He saves them, and He never stops loving them. So
this is for the children of Israel. Now, I want to look here First
of all, and see how Christ our altar bore his people's judgment. He bore his people's judgment. And then secondly, Christ our
altar is the believer's perfect righteousness and perfect holiness. He's our perfection of righteousness
and holiness. He bore the judgment of God for
his people. So he's the perfection of righteousness
and the perfection of holiness for his people. And so thirdly,
Christ our altar is the strength of our salvation. He's the strength
of salvation. And then fourthly, Christ our
altar He's always present with his
people. He's always present with his
people. He's making this pilgrimage with
his people wherever we are in this world. Now let's look at
these four things. First of all, Christ our altar
bore the judgment of his people. The altar was the killing place.
It was where the fire burnt the altar. our birth of sacrifice. He says there in verse 1, thou
shalt make an altar of shittum wood, and at the end of verse
2 he says, and thou shalt overlay it with brass. Now shittum wood,
we've seen this, it would not rot. It was a wood that would
not rot. And brass was made, it was forged
in the fire. That's how it was made. And so
brass would not burn. It would not burn. The wood would
not rot. The brass would not burn. So you have this altar
made of Shittam wood and it's overlaid in brass. Now the Shittam wood's a picture
of Christ's humanity as the son of man. And the brass is a symbol
of God's judgment, the fire of God's judgment. Gold was used
within the holy place. Remember that? When we saw the
mercy seat and the other things that were inside the tabernacle,
inside the holy place, it was made out of gold. It was made
out of gold. And because it points to Christ
in God's presence having made his people priests unto God.
And that was all gold. The gold of his righteousness.
gold of his perfection. Then silver, you remember silver
was used in the foundation of the tabernacle and we saw silver
pitchers redemption. Everything the priests did, they
did it on the foundation of redemption already accomplished. None of
their works added to that foundation. And for those that Christ's blood
has made priests unto God, all our service to God is not to
add to our redemption, it's not to add to our righteousness or
holiness or add anything to the work Christ has done. It's on
the finished foundation, Christ our foundation and redemption
accomplished. But out here in the courtyard,
we're dealing with how it is that God's people are made fit
to enter into God's presence. So we haven't got into God's
presence yet. This is out in the courtyard. And out here in
the courtyard, the altar is brass. And here's why. It's because
before you and I, as sinners, can enter into God's presence,
Judgment's got to be settled. Judgment has got to take place.
Justice has got to be upheld. See, here's the critical thing. This is what Christ manifests.
We can't come into God's presence as sinners because God's a just
God. He's a holy God. He has to be
perfect to enter His presence. And so this judgment has to be
settled. God's justice has to be upheld. You're a sinner and I'm a sinner.
God says the soul that sinneth, it shall surely die. You have
to die, I have to die. And we are all going to die under
the justice of God. Either we die in Christ the substitute
by His grace or we are going to meet God without Christ and
answer to that justice by ourselves. When everybody is going to die,
justice has got to be upheld. But before God can be merciful
to His people, He's got to satisfy that justice. He's got to satisfy
that justice. So this altar, this killing place
is bronze. Because this is where judgment
is typified. This is where judgment is typified.
You remember the scriptures speak of heaven being brass, the heavens
being as brass. As long as we're in sin, as long
as we're not coming to God in Christ, the heavens are brass
to us. The heavens are judgment to us.
You can't approach God unless you come in Christ. Remember
in the wilderness, there were those serpents that were biting
the children of Israel. And the Lord sent word to Moses. He said, you make a serpent.
You make the thing that's biting them. and make it out of brass. Make it out of brass and lift
it up on a pole. Everybody that looks to that
brass serpent will live. They'll live. And the Lord Jesus
told us exactly what that meant. In John 3, verse 14, He said,
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up. The Son of Man. There's the Shittemwood. There's the Shittemwood, overlaid
in brass. The Son of Man had to be overlaid
in God's judgment. Lifted up and overlaid in God's
judgment. Not before He's made what we
are. They made the serpent because that's what was killing them.
He made sin for us because that's what was killing us. And then
he was lifted up and judgment poured out on him. Brass, that's
the picture of the brass. And he did that so that whosoever
looks to him, whosoever believeth on him shall not perish but have
everlasting life. And then when he says in verse
16, for God so loved the world, the word so means for God after
this manner loved the world. That's not talking about the
degree of God's soul. He so loved the world. It's talking
about this is the manner in God's, God loves. He doesn't love outside
of Christ. He doesn't love outside of justice
being satisfied. He loves by giving his only begotten
son that whosoever looks to him shall be saved. Judgment's got
to be handled. Judgment's got to be settled.
Now, so in order to represent God's elect, the Son of God took
sinless humanity together with His divine nature. He took sinless
humanity so that He might be able to bear the fire of God's
judgment. That's what we have pictured
here. He came forth, the Son of God came forth a sinless man. He couldn't be born of Adam like
we are. That's why He's born of a virgin.
He's sinless. He's sinless. You get that, that's
why this thing of him being born of a virgin, it wasn't simply
just to show some miraculous thing God could do, although
it's a miracle, it's because he had to be sinless. You and
I couldn't die for anybody's sin, because we're sinners ourselves,
we're guilty. He had to be without sin. But
if he'd have been born of Adam like you and me are, We're born
with a corrupt nature. He wasn't. He came forth sinless. Sinless. And so, that was so
that he could go to the Garden of Gethsemane and present himself
to the Father as that spotless Lamb. All these sacrifices they
brought had to be spotless. They had to examine them, make
sure there was no defect in them whatsoever. If they looked at
one of these offerings and there was just one hair that was a
different color, we can't use him. He's got a fault in him.
because those sacrifices were picturing the sinless Lord Jesus
Christ. And then they brought that lamb
and the priest laid his head on the lamb and he sacrificed
the sins of the people and in type he put those sins on the
lamb. And then what happened? Judgment
poured out. On the killing place where the
altar is, they killed the lamb. The kenth killed the lamb. And
that's what we have here, a picture of judgment. A picture of Christ. You notice in this verse that
all these utensils were brass. All the utensils were brass.
They were needed because they need to be brass because there's
going to be burnt offerings offered on here. There's going to be
fire on here and they got to be brass. They made that great.
Look here. Thou shalt make his pans to receive
the ashes. These sacrifices were consumed
on this altar, partly, and the fat of them would drip down with
ashes, and he says, and his shovels and his basins, the basins were
where they collected the blood, so they could take the blood
in to the tabernacle and put it on everything. Everything
was sanctified with blood. Without shedding of blood is
no remission of sin. The flesh hooks, this is where
they took some of the sacrifice, some of it was the priest's portion.
that he lived on and they would take it and move it about like
you do on your grill with a flesh hook. This was a flesh hook,
they could grab it and move it and do whatever they wanted to
with it. And then it says there, and fire pans, where the fire
was built, and the vessels thereof shalt thou make of brass, and
you make for it a grate of network brass. Just like you have a network
grill, you know, a grill, so that the burnt stuff can go down
through it, the fat can drip down through it and all that.
Well, it had a network made of brass on it. Now all these were
used in the preparation of the sacrifice. And they were all
brass. It was the preparation of the
sacrifice. You know what the gospel is called? The preaching
of the gospel? The preparation of the gospel. That's what it's called. This
was the means by which this sacrifice was administered. And brethren,
this gospel we preach, you see all these utensils being brassed,
the preparation of the gospel is all about the judgment of
God. That's what it's about. It's
about God being just and justifier, His righteousness. That's what
our gospel is. That's what it is. And then this burnt offering
that was, when they burned the offering on the altar, those offerings would be consumed
by the fire or burnt by the fire, but nothing would happen to the
brass altar. It would not destroy the brass
altar. Not at all. Christ our Lord offered
His humanity, the sacrifice on the altar of His deity so that
rather than Him being consumed and destroyed, He destroyed the
fire of God's wrath. He consumed the wrath of God
for His people so that there's no more condemnation to those
whom He represented. Do you understand why, you know,
people that preach universal atonement and say Christ died
for everybody, they don't say that Christ died particularly
for anybody. They just say He somehow died
for just random sin in general, I guess. but it wasn't for anybody
in particular. But you see, Christ came to save
particular people. He came to save particular people.
And so, it wasn't that He just died for sin in general. The
sin of Israel was ceremonially put on the head of that lamb.
And Christ was made sin for us, Scripture said. the sin the Lord
had laid on Him, the iniquity of us all, speaking of all God's
sheep, all His elect, so that Christ died for particular sins
of a particular people, and when He consumed the judgment of God,
that means for that people there is no more condemnation. You get that? They're justified.
There's no more condemnation. This is why we preach particular
redemption. It's because he died for a particular
people and satisfied judgment for a particular people. Without
controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest
in the flesh, justified in the spirit, he himself was without
sin. justified in the Spirit, seen
of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the
world, received up into glory. He was not consumed by the judgment,
He consumed the judgment. He is now seated in glory at
God's right hand. When you look at that cross,
don't look at a defeated Savior, look at a victorious Redeemer. He didn't go there to make salvation
possible. You know when men say that? You
know what they're doing? They're trying not to offend you. They're
trying not to offend sinners. They're putting it in your hand
and saying, now you've got to make it effectual. He didn't
make salvation possible. He accomplished it. When he was
in the Mount of Transfiguration, he talked about the decease that
he should accomplish. His death was a decease and it
accomplished something. Judgment said when the soul,
the wages of sin is death, that's all judgment can demand is death. That's it. You have somebody
that commits some heinous crime and we watch them trying to catch
him on the news and it's something we're all hoping, oh, we hope
they get him. Justice needs to be carried out
on him. And you see this fella and all of a sudden something
happens and he ends up dying. Well, justice can't do anything
else to him. That's it. That's all justice
can do. So when Christ died, justice
was settled for his people. Judgment was done. It was settled. That's why I tell you, the judgment
of our judgment, brethren, was accomplished on the cross. And
he accomplished it. He put out that fire for his
people. He put it out. All right? This is why I like this. I remember,
you know, In reconciliation, when you have two members, sometimes
you have two people and they just can't get along. And they
come to an impasse and they just can't work it out. And they have
to get a mediator. A mediator is somebody who can
lay hands on both of them, talk to both of them, and bring them
together in harmony. That's what they need, a mediator.
and Christ is that mediator between His people and God. So by bearing
this judgment, He satisfied God's justice and He justified His
people, so He brought God and His people together in harmony.
That's why the scripture says there's one mediator between
God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. He's the only way you
can come to God. And what does He say to those
He comes to? When He sends this gospel to
you and He calls you, what does He say to you? He says, for brass,
for judgment, I'll bring gold. I'll give you righteousness.
in place of judgment, I'll give you perfect righteousness, perfect
justification. He says, and for iron, remember
that iron furnace in Egypt? It was the iron furnace picturing
God's wrath. He says, for iron, I'll bring
silver. Perfect redemption. Perfect redemption. And for wood, for you that were
just corruptible wood, just corrupt, He says, I'll bring brass. He
brings you judgment. He brings you discernment so
you understand justice is settled. It's accomplished. Now secondly,
brethren, and I'll go quicker here, I'll spend a little time
on that first point. Secondly, because He accomplished
this, Christ our altar is our perfect righteousness and our
perfect holiness before God. It says, verse 1, it should be
five cubits long, five cubits broad, the altar shall be four
square, and the height thereof shall be three cubits. There's
nothing in this now that's superfluous. There's nothing here that's just
extra. Everything has a meaning. Everything. The altar was perfect, a perfect
square. It was a perfect square. It was
the same length and it was the same width. That's what it means
when he says four square. It was perfect on all sides.
Perfect symmetry, equal sided. Five cubits long, five cubits
broad, four square. It was seven and a half feet
on all sides. Christ is perfect and the work
he accomplished is perfect. No matter how you look upon our
Savior, from what side you approach our Savior, how you look at our
Savior, is perfection. Everything is perfect and the
work he accomplished for his people is perfect. Jesus Christ
the same yesterday, today, and forever. The work's done. It's
the same. It'll never be undone. It's perfect
work that he accomplished. Five in scripture is also the
number of grace. And no matter how you look at
what Christ did, no matter how you look at the reason he came
and what he accomplished, is grace from beginning to end. Everything about the salvation
of His people is free grace from God. Everything. Everything. And you see this height of this
altar was three cubits. That's about 54 inches, about
four and a half feet tall. That's how tall it was. Now in
Exodus 10, 26, when God was telling them to make an altar of earth,
He told them Whatever you do, don't build steps up to that
altar. Don't build steps like these
here where you walk up to it. Don't do that. Why? He said that
thy nakedness be not discovered thereon. There was no need for
steps to go up to this altar. It's 54 inches tall. It's four
and a half feet tall. Anybody could reach it. You had
to have steps. Coming up by steps would symbolize
approaching God by the steps of our own works. That's what
it pictures. By our progression, going up
little by little, little by little. That would only reveal our nakedness.
That's all that would do is reveal our nakedness, our unrighteousness
and our unholiness. If it was left to you to progress,
if it was left to you to come to God little by little by little,
Nothing would be discovered but you are unrighteous and unholy.
God's acceptance is not by our works in any shape, form or fashion. God's acceptance is not by our
works, is not by our progress. Our acceptance with God is Christ
our perfection. Four square, perfect altar. and
you don't come up to it by step. Because everything done is perfect.
It's perfect. It's perfect. Christ is our complete
righteousness and our complete holiness. There are no progressive
steps that we take to be more righteous or more holy. Now listen
carefully. You are either in a perfect state
of righteousness and there is no condemnation and you are either
in a perfect state of holiness or you're not righteous and not
holy at all. There's no in-between. Now, in
that state of holiness, we grow. The illustration I've always
given you is, you take a child that's born, he's a human, and
he's in the state of humanity, he's not going to become more
of a human. It's done. But he grows in that state of
humanity. When we grow in the grace of
our Lord Jesus, we grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus,
But we don't grow more holy. Because why is that important?
Because Christ is our holiness. Christ is our holiness. And what
He did is perfect. It doesn't need to be added to.
It's perfect. And He's our righteousness. And
it's perfect. It's perfect. Go over to Colossians
1. I'll show you it's perfect. Colossians chapter 1, look at
verse 12. We give thanks, this is for believers
now, we give thanks unto the Father, watch this, which hath
made us meet, past tense, he has made us fit to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light. What does that mean?
It means that when that thief on the cross who had only believed
on Christ He had only been born of God just a few minutes or
an hour or whatever, and he had only believed on Christ just
a very short time, but when he died and entered glory, he was
as fit to partake of that inheritance as the saint who lives a hundred
years, as Methuselah. He was as fit to enter as him. He made fit to enter the inheritance
of the saints in light. Watch this. Who hath delivered
us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the
kingdom of His dear Son. We're perfectly in the state
of holiness, sanctified out of darkness into light. Out of darkness
into the kingdom of God's Son. in that perfect state of holiness. And in whom we have redemption
through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. That means we're in
a perfect state of righteousness, justified by Christ's blood.
Look at verse 22. He says, if you continue in Christ
to the end, if you're really a believer, you will. And he
said, and he's going to present you holy, unblameable, unreprovable
in his sight. That's all the work of Christ
right there. Every bit of it. Alright, thirdly,
let's go back now. Christ our altar is the strength
of salvation for every believer. Do you see how these all are
interlocked? Because He settled judgment for
us, He's our perfect righteousness, our perfect holiness, and therefore
He's our strength for salvation. He's the strength of our salvation.
Verse 2 says, Exodus 27, 2, Thou shalt make the horns of the altar
upon the four corners thereof, his horn shall be of the same."
of shidom wood and they'll be overlaid with gold too. The horns
represent power and strength. Power and strength. This is how
the sacrifice was bound to the altar. When they laid the sacrifice
on the altar, they would bind it, these horns, just like what
you would, kind of like what you tie a boat to when you pull
up to the dock, you know. It was these horns on each side
of the altar and they tied that sacrifice to that altar. They
tied it and then they took the knife out and the cook killed
it. Well, remember how Abraham took Isaac up there and he laid
him on the altar and he bound him on the altar and then he
raised up the knife to slay him? Christ, that was the strength
of that altar. A lot of times when people would
sin and they would be guilty, they would flee into the temple
and lay hold of the horns of the altar. so that they would
receive mercy. Well, our strength to receive
mercy, our strength for salvation is the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is the power of God. The power of God. Psalm 18.2
says, The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my strength. My strength, in whom I'll trust.
He's my buckler and the horn of my salvation. He's the power
of my salvation, my high tower. He said in Psalm 28.8, the Lord's
their strength. He's the saving strength of His
anointing. That's the strength we're talking
about. He's the saving horn, the saving power. Remember what
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1? Our gospel is to them that perish
foolishness, but unto them that are being saved is the power
of God. Christ, the power of God, the
wisdom of God. He's our power of forgiveness. Now, just like those that were
guilty, sinner, just like those that were guilty, they would
flee to those horns and lay hold to the horns of that altar and
begging for mercy. Flee to Christ. Flee to Christ. You that don't have Him, you
that are yet in your sin, flee to Christ. Lay hold of Christ.
He's the power. He's the strength of salvation.
The strength of mercy for His people. He accomplished justice
for His people. His perfect righteousness. Perfect
holiness for His people. Flee to Him. And if you can,
it's because He did that for you. That's how it manifests. He did it for you. Can you believe
Him? Can you flee to Him? Can you lay hold of this power?
And He'll be the power by which you do. And then lastly, I want
you to see this. For you, believer, as you're
going through this wilderness, through this world, just like
they were, Christ is always present with His people. They sat there,
they made these staves, and they put them in the four corners
of the grate, which was under the altar, so that when they
picked it up, the whole altar picked up. And so when they disassembled
this tabernacle and they'd go on their pilgrimage, that altar
went with them everywhere they went. And Christ Jesus, our altar,
is with His people everywhere we go. He said, I will never
leave you. I will never forsake you. He
said, I will not lose one. No man will pluck them out of
my hand. Here's why. He satisfied justice. This is
God's glory we're talking about. And because justice has been
settled, He's not going to lose one. He's not going to have justice
poured out on one again. He's going to save, to the uttermost,
all them that come to God by Him. And therefore, He's always
with His people. He's going to keep His people
believing Him, trusting Him, and looking nowhere else but
Him. And that's why, brethren, when we enter these trials, that's
all He's doing. That's why He sent His apostles
into the storm. They had been with him all day
doing miracles. And they had been with him and
people had been seeing them standing there with him. You know how
proud that would make you? Anytime you're with the main
attraction, you're proud to be near him and other people see
you with him. You know they were so proud by
the end of that day about all these miracles he had been working.
So our Lord sent them into a storm to show them. You don't have
anything to be proud of. You don't even have faith. And He brought them to just stand
in amazement that this one can command the waves and the sea
and He really is the Christ. And that's why He brings us into
the trial. It's to keep us looking nowhere but to Him. Because He's
our strength with God. He's our righteousness. He's
our wholeness. He's the one in whom we have
no condemnation. to look nowhere but to Him. And
one last thing. The reason they had those flesh
hooks is because the priest, they would take some of that
offering, same offering that satisfied judgment. That was
what the priest ate. That's how God provided for those
that ministered for Him. He provided them the sacrifice.
That's what they ate. You that he's made priest. What
did Christ say? He said, unless a man eats my
flesh, he has no life. No life. Christ is our life. He's our bread from heaven. He's
the one upon whom we live. Now today we're coming here and
we're going to take this piece of temporal bread and drink this
little cup of wine. But what we're remembering by
that is that Christ's broken body and shed blood, He satisfied
judgment for us, He's our righteousness, He's our holiness, He's our strength
with God, and He's ever-present with us, and He's coming back
for us. This is what we're remembering. We're remembering Him. So let's
do that now.