Hebrews 13 verse 9 Be not carried about with divers
and strange doctrines For it is a good thing that the heart
be established with grace Not with meats Which have not profited
them that have been occupied therein Now, here's our verse. We have an altar whereof they have no right to
eat which serve the tabernacle. What we're going to look at this
morning is we have an altar. First of all, who does the we
refer to in this verse? It's those who are not carried
about with divers and strange doctrines. It's those whose heart
is established with grace. It's those whose faith rests
in Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. Now, it's
the believer. We, the believer, has an altar. Now, here's the second question.
What is our altar? Well, first of all, let me tell
you what it is not. Our altar is not the cross. The cross was an instrument of
execution, like an electric chair or like a lethal injection. like
a gun used by a firing squad or sometimes you see in scriptures
stones they use to stone someone. We don't remember our Lord by
such a misrepresentation as a cross. I have a grandfather who died
of cancer and I think way too much of him to remember him by
taking a replication of a cancerous tumor and wearing it around.
I wouldn't do that. No more than I'd wear a cross.
The cross is not our altar. Secondly, it's not our heart.
We do come to God sincerely and worship Him sincerely, but our
sincerity doesn't save us. The object of the one on whom
our faith lays hold saves us, Christ. And it's not a piece
of furniture in a church building. An altar is not a piece of furniture
in a church building. That table that they put the
bread and the wine on, sometimes people call that an altar. It's
a piece of wood. It's a table. It's not an altar.
The Lord's table is a table of remembrance. It's not an altar
of sacrifice. And it's not anything else in
a building either. It's not a place at the front
of the church. A thing whereby you could be
called by the preacher to come down to the front of the church
and somehow there you make your profession and somehow there
you become a part of Christ. It's not an altar. It's not a
part of this earth. It's not a part of this, of temporal
things. Those things are temporal, fleshly
idols used to appeal to the carnal eye. The text here is teaching
us plainly that any who put any significant meaning on such material
things are nothing less than idolaters. We have no such altar. Those who serve in such fleshly
carnality have no right to eat at the believer's altar. Now,
what is the believer's altar? The believer's altar is not a
what, it's a who. Our altar is Christ, Christ the
Lord. In Hebrews 10.1, if you'll look
back there just a second, Hebrews 10.1, it says, For the law, the
old covenant way of worship, it was a shadow of good things
to come. That word shadow means, you know
what a picture is. It pictured something. It was
a type, it typified something that was to come. It was like
you see a shadow cast by a tree. That shadow is not the object,
but you follow that shadow and it leads you to the object, to
the tree itself. Well, that law had a shadow of
good things to come, but not the very image of the things. That law wasn't Christ. It just
told us about Christ to come now. Let's I'll show you what
I mean Let's go back now to Exodus chapter 20 Exodus chapter 20 All of this word goes together
the Old Testament in the New Testament the Old Testament is
teaching us Christ is coming the New Testament is telling
us he's come the New Testament is is a commentary on the Old
Testament. And the Old Testament revealed
things that the Old Testament saints had that we have revealed
to us in a more clear manner now. But we can look at these,
looking back at these things now, and we can learn from them
about who our altar is. Exodus 20, verse 24. Now, from
Adam to Moses, they were commanded by God to come with an altar. come to build an altar and to
come to God only in a blood sacrifice, sacrificed on an altar. Well
now look, here's something that Moses was told about that altar. Exodus 20 verse 24. An altar
of earth. Exodus 20 verse 24. An altar
of earth thou shalt make unto me and shalt sacrifice thereon
thy burnt offerings and thy peace offerings Thy sheep and thine
oxen. That's what these offerings were
made of. They were sheep and oxen. In all places where I record
my name, I will come unto thee and I will bless thee. Now here's
the first thing. The only ones to whom God gave
directions concerning an altar were His peculiar people. It
was only those He came to personally and instructed. Everybody else
in the world was left without an altar. They couldn't come
to God. Only those God came to and revealed the altar, the directions
of the altar. They were the only ones who could
come to God. But they had to come to Him through
that altar. From all the old covenant saints
to those now, all who come to Christ the altar are God's elect. They're chosen by God, by divine
choice, by His divine choice. God's mercy and grace gives the
believer the right to come to Christ our altar. He chooses
who will come to this altar. And then it was through the altar
here, you see in verse 24 there at the end. He says, in all places
where I record my name, I will come unto thee and I will bless
thee. Wherever there was that altar,
where He had put His name there, He said, that's where I'll come
and I'll bless thee. So you see, He chose who would
have it. And then He said, now, I'll come to thee there, in that
altar, and I'll bless thee. So you see what grace is, don't
you? This is coming from God to the
sinner. It's not the sinner doing something
for God. But that altar is the one in whom God came unto us
and blessed us. That's Christ. That's how He
put His name there, where that altar is, where Christ is. And
He's come and He's blessed us in Him. And we can only come
to God through that altar, through a sacrifice, through Christ.
Now, look at verse 25. And if thou wilt make me an altar
of stone, it could be made out of stone too. If you make me
an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone. That means you can't take a hammer
and a chisel and chisel it out and shape it like you want to
shape it. It's just got to be a big old natural rock, just
like it came out of the earth. Why? For if thou lift up thy
tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. If a man, this is the third
thing, if a man lifted up his tool upon this altar, he polluted
it. We're going to see in a moment
that this altar in the tabernacle was made of shittom wood. because
it was a wood which was resistant to rot and it wouldn't deteriorate. When Christ was born, we read
in Scripture that He was born of a virgin. You know why? Adam
sinned. Adam touched nothing about Him. He wasn't produced by Adam. He
came forth of the Holy Ghost through the womb of a virgin
that He would not be touched by Adam at all. For had He been
born of Adam, the altar would have been polluted. He was born
of a virgin. He wasn't born like we are. Not at all. Now, that's the third
thing. Then here, verse 26, it says,
Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness
be not discovered thereon. Coming to God's altar up steps
was like approaching by the steps of your own strength and your
own will and your own works. You have to come up these steps
to get up here, back here at the back of the room. When you
come up those steps, you have to exert some strength to come
up those steps. And you come up a little at a
time, one step at a time, one step at a time. The Lord said,
you can't come to my altar that way. If you come to my altar
that way, your nakedness is going to be discovered. That means
if we come to Christ, the altar of God, we have to come empty-handed,
not trying to bring any works of our own, not coming in our
own strength, coming to Him for mercy alone. Then the shame of
our nakedness, our sin and our rebellion won't be discovered,
will be accepted in Him. But if we come any other way,
we can't come up by steps, not to this altar. Alright? Now turn to Exodus 27. Exodus
27. Let's learn some more things
about this altar. Now, this is the altar that was
commanded to be built in the tabernacle, where it would be
kept. Now, let's read about this. Verse 1 says, this is where I
was telling you about we would see about the Shittim wood, but
let me show you something else. Verse 1 says, are you there,
Exodus 27.1? Everybody there? All right. Thou shalt make an altar of shiddom
wood, five cubits long and five cubits broad. Now listen to this. The altar shall be four square,
and the height thereof shall be three cubits. Four square
in the scriptures speaks of fullness, complete. In Christ is all the
fullness of the Godhead in a body, and those who come in to God
through Christ the altar are complete in Him. All the fullness
required of God is in this altar. And then look at verse 2. And
thou shalt make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof,
and His horns shall be of the same. Four horns on the four
corners. Four sets of horns on the corners.
What is that about? We saw in a message a few weeks
ago how that the horn represented strength. You see a cow, you
ever seen a longhorn, a big longhorn bull, you know, with big horns
like this? It looks strong on it. I wouldn't
want to tussle with that rascal. He's got big horns, he's strong.
This altar had horns on it, symbolizing strength, picturing strength.
And very often when a man was found guilty, when he was discovered
and found that he was guilty, he would run to that altar and
take hold of those horns. and beg for mercy, and hang on
to those horns for dear life, literally, and ask Him for mercy. That's what you and I have got
to do. We've got to come to this altar wherein is all the strength,
and we've got to lay hold of Him and beg for mercy and forgiveness
and plead for Him to be our strength. He's the altar, Christ the altar. And then verse 2, it says there,
"...and thou shalt overlay it with brass." Brass is what, when
we say the brazen altar, it was overlaid in brass. And this altar
was beautiful when you looked at it, because it's overlaid
in brass. Christ is not only a man, but
He's God. He's the Son of God. Underneath
was the Shittim wood, the preserved wood that just would not rot,
and over it was gold. This is Christ, the God-Man,
our altar. Exodus 27, verse 6. Look down there, Exodus 27, 6. And thou shalt make staves for
the altar, staves of shiddom wood, and overlay them with brass.
And the staves shall be put into the rings, and the staves shall
be upon the two sides of the altar to bear it. They made these long staves,
poles basically, overlaid in gold and then on the altar, on
four sides of the altar were rings and those staves went through
those rings so that men could get on each side of it and pick
the altar up and move it. Because when the tabernacle was
disassembled and moved, the altar had to go with it. Wherever they
went, the altar went with them. Christ Jesus the Lord is with
His people continually. He said, Lo, I'll be with you
always. Wherever we go, He goes with
His people, this altar. He's never far. And then it says, Leviticus 6. Let me show you there. Turn to
Leviticus 6. Now this really has to do with
what our text is speaking about. Our text says we have an altar. It talked about meats which have
not profited them that have been occupied therein. They had certain
meats they would eat, certain meats they wouldn't eat. They
had certain days they would observe, certain days they wouldn't observe.
They had ceremonies they would observe and some things that
they never would do. those are the meets, the various
actual meets and holy days and ceremonies. And he said, spending
your time in those things now are going to help you. Those
were the types and the shadows. Christ has come now. And so he
comes to this point in our text where he says, we have an altar.
And he's talking about eating, where we're fed, where they that
serve the tabernacle, they don't have any right to eat at this.
Those that are observing meets and days and ceremonies, they
have no right to this altar. So, here's the text that this
really refers to, Leviticus 6.14. This is the law of the meat offering. The sons of Aaron, Aaron's a
high priest, Aaron is the chief, he's the high priest. Just as
Christ is our high priest. The sons of Aaron shall offer
it before the Lord. His sons offer a meat offering
before the Lord, before the altar. And he shall take of it his handful
of the flour of the meat offering, and of the oil thereof, and all
the frankincense which is upon the meat offering, and shall
burn it upon the altar. for a sweet savor, even the memorial
of it unto the Lord." Now, here's the ninth thing. Our text speaks
of eating at this altar. This is what we refer to here. Christ Himself is the offering. He's the sacrifice. He is the
offering. And He's the high priest. But
He's the altar on which the offering was burnt. Ephesians 5.2, let
me read this to you. Everybody with me? Let me read
this. Ephesians 5.2 says, Walk in love
as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us
an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. This text right here says, Burn
it upon the altar for a sweet savor. We approach God in Christ
our altar, and it's His sweet savor of His sacrifice, of His
offering that comes up to God for a memorial unto the Lord.
Have you ever noticed that when the men pray here, they always
pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? That's not just
something that you just throw on there and tag on to a prayer.
We're coming to God through the altar. And his sacrifice comes
up to God, a sweet-smelling savor unto God. Now, the tenth thing. The fire from off the altar consumed
this sacrifice. See it there? It says, you burn
it upon the altar. There was a continual perpetual
fire burning always on this altar. And that fire consumed that sacrifice. When Christ offered Himself,
the wrath of God came down like fire in judgment and justice. But rather than consuming the
sacrifice, the sacrifice consumed the wrath and put it away. Completely
put it away. And there is therefore now no
condemnation to them who are in Jesus, who walk not after
the flesh but after the Spirit. Now look, Leviticus 6.16. Just
about through, I've got about two or three more I want to show
you here. Leviticus 6, 16. And the remainder thereof shall
Aaron and his sons eat. Now part of this sacrifice was
burned and it went up to God for a sweet smelling savor. Now
the remainder thereof shall Aaron and his sons eat. With unleavened
bread shall it be eaten in the holy place. In the court of the
tabernacle of the congregation shall they eat it. It shall not
be bacon with leaven. I have given it unto them for
their portion of my offerings made by fire. It is most holy,
as is the sin offering and as the trespass offering. All the
males among the children of Aaron shall eat of it. It shall be
a statute forever in your generations concerning the offerings of the
Lord made by fire. Everyone that toucheth them shall
be holy. Now, here's the eleventh thing.
Not only is Christ the portion, the sweet savor unto the Lord,
but He is our portion, the believer's portion as well. This is talking
about being fed. This is talking about what they
literally got to eat this. Notice that Aaron and his sons
ate this. Aaron is the holy, he's the high
priest, and he and his sons ate of this. And this was eaten in
the holy place, not the most holy place, not the holiest of
holies, in the holy place. The high priest came there and
he ate with his priests, his sons, in the court of the congregation. And this is where they got their
food. This was where they ate their
portion. And they had it, they ate it
together. was at me. The High Priest is Christ. He's
the altar. He's the sacrifice. He's the
offering. But He's the High Priest. And
it says, and His sons are the children that He's made priests
unto God. He's perfected them forever.
Remember how God said, I'll come unto thee and I'll bless thee
at the altar? Well, as we meet here, We're
not yet in heaven in the holiest of holies with Him. Although
this altar has entered into the holiest of holies. But, from the beginning to the end
when we come in here, we come in here for one reason. We come
to Christ our altar. To be fed by Him. To be blessed
by Him. To the place where He has said,
I'll meet with you and I'll bless you. That was at the altar. He comes as the high priest and
He feeds us and partakes with us the blessings that He has
wrought for us. He's the altar and He comes and
we're fed by Him. And then look in verse 16, it
says, "...with unleavened bread shall it be eaten." Look at verse
17, "...it shall not be bacon with leaven, This is their portion
of my offerings made by fire. It's most holy. You know what
leaven is? Will wanted some cinnamon bread
that I'd like to have at McDonald's and Burger King, you know. So
the other day I decided I was going to, oh, I can fix that
for you, Will. I'll make you some cinnamon bread
real quick. I don't cook desserts at all. So I run in there to make him
some bread, cinnamon bread. And I get to going and I'm right
in the middle of everything. I've got flour everywhere and
I'll go in and ask Melinda, where's the yeast? That's the leaven. And I get it out and I mix everything
up. I read on down in the directions
and I got to sit and wait on this for two hours so it can
rise. That's what the leaven makes
it do. It makes it rise, inflate, puff up. And then I'd have to,
after two hours, beat that back down and put all the ingredients
in the bread and roll it up and let it sit for another 45 minutes,
rise up again. I'd have been a whole lot better
just running down to the McDonald's, wouldn't I? That's leaven. That's what leaven
does. It makes it swell up. And leaven's always used in Scripture
as as sinful. I think one place is not used
that way, but it's used for sin. It makes us swell up with pride
and says this, this, you can't come to this altar with any leaven
and mix with this sacrifice and eat this. We can't mix anything. We got to come to Christ and
partake of what he's wrought for us without any addition,
anything of our pride and our rebellion. And then it says here
that those that eat at this altar and eat of this, our portion,
everybody that touches them shall be holy. I might have to get
you to turn to this. Turn to Matthew. Well, you be
turning to 1 Peter chapter 2, and I'll read you Matthew 23
while you're turning there. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 2. It says, everyone that eats of
this shall be holy. This is what the Lord said. Matthew
23, 19. He said, Ye fools and blind,
whether it is greater the gift that is offered on the altar
or the altar that sanctifieth the gift. Do you know what the
word sanctify means? It makes it holy. Most people
will read this and they'll say, if you're going to come to Him,
you have to be holy. You can't be going on in your
sin and your rebellion. You've got to be separated. But
know who it is that makes them holy. Which is better, the gift
that goes on the altar or the altar that sanctifies, makes
holy the gift? Now, read 1 Peter 2.5. And ye
also, talking to the believer, as lively stones are built up
a spiritual house and holy priesthood. Remember I said this was for
the high priest and his sons that he's made priests. And he
says here, I've made you a priesthood. I've made you priests. My people
are priests. And I made them so to offer up
spiritual sacrifices. It's called, instead of the blood
of a bull and a goat, It's called in Scripture, the calves. It's
like an offering, a calf of your lips. It's called praise. It's called thanking Him for
what He's done. It's called praising God. And
it says, I've made you a priest to offer up spiritual sacrifices. Now look, acceptable to God. That's another word for sanctified,
made holy. Because it's got to be holy to
be accepted by God. Acceptable to God, how? by Jesus
Christ the altar. The altar. So once again, it's
saying, those that are occupied with meats, with services, and
carnal ceremonies, and observing days, and times, and abstaining
from this, and abstaining from that, and touch not, taste not,
handle not, they're trying to make themselves holy, take away
their leaven, come up step by step, a little at a time, by
the strength of their own hand, and the Scripture says, we have
an altar. wherein they don't have any right
to eat that serve the tabernacle, that serve the flesh, that serve
the will of man. This is our altar. We have an
altar. Believers have an altar. And
that altar is Christ Jesus the Lord. And we have an altar which
they have no right to eat that serve the tabernacle. Now, Are
you serving the tabernacle? Are you serving your flesh? Are
you self-serving? Are you only out for number one? Let me answer it for you. If
you don't yet believe Christ, you are. If you don't believe Christ,
you care about nobody but yourself. And until God gives us a heart
to behold Him, We won't come to this altar. We won't come
to it. We who worship God in spirit
rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. We have an altar. And God said,
I'll bless you at that altar. That's where we're going to be
blessed is in Christ Jesus, our altar, where we'll be fed. He's
our portion and we're his portion and he's our altar.