Turn with me to Exodus chapter
27, if you would. Exodus chapter 27. So far in chapters 25 and 26,
we've seen the vessels found in the holy of holies and the
holy place. And tonight in chapter 27, we're
taken to the outer court of the tabernacle with the exception
of the golden incense altar, which is not mentioned until
I believe chapter 30 of Exodus. Arthur Pink said in his book
on the gleanings of Exodus that the golden incense altar is not
mentioned until God speaks of the priest who was to burn incense
upon it. So that comes later in the book
of Exodus. I said early on when we began
the study of the tabernacle that God begins giving Moses the particulars
of the tabernacle from the inside out. It started with the Ark
of the Covenant, the table of showbread, and works his way
out. So I was thinking, and I think
said before, that that's the way that God saves his people
from the inside out. Now, as the people of God came
to worship in the days of Moses, they would approach the tabernacle.
And as we've seen, it was not much to look at on the outside.
It was basically a tent covered with badger skin surrounded by
an enclosed court. There was only one way of access
into the tabernacle. There's just one gate or one
door, just really a curtain is what it was. And in order to
worship God, you must come through that one door. So immediately,
again, we see Christ in the tabernacle. Only one way to God, only one
door, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And the first thing that
you saw when you walked in through the entrance into the outer court
was this big, large brass altar. Look at verse one here in Exodus
chapter. "'27, and thou shalt make an
altar of shittum 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. "'And his
horn 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 network 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 chitim 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. And hollow
with boards shalt thou make it, as it was shewed thee in the
mount, so shall they make it. Now, as I mentioned a moment
ago, the brazen altar was the largest of the furnishings in
the tabernacle. If I've done my math correctly,
it was 7 1/2 feet long by 7 1/2 feet wide and about 4 1/2 feet
high. The brass altar would be the
first thing that you would see when you entered into the tent
or into the tabernacle of the congregation. So what's the significance
of that? What is that telling us? Well,
it's telling us first and foremost, that for a sinner to come to
God, they must first come through that brazen altar with a sacrifice. No one came into God's presence
into the holiest of holies, but through that brass altar. There
has to be a sacrifice. There has to be a substitute.
There has to be a reckoning for sin. God doesn't just take, as
Darwin Pruitt once said, take a big old eraser and just rub
our sin out. God doesn't forgive sin that
way. Sin must be put away according to divine justice. We say that
all the time, don't we? And it's so true. It's a necessity
for God's justice to be satisfied and appeased. Now this altar
is called the brazen altar to distinguish it from the golden
altar of incense that we'll see at later studies. It's called
also in Exodus 30, the altar of burnt offering. Now there
was a fire that continually burned upon this altar. And there it
stood always smoking and always stained with blood. The brazen
altar was open constantly and continually so that any guilty
Hebrew, any guilty sinner that wished to approach it could.
And it was to this altar that the Israelite brought his offering. And before killing that offering,
he laid his hand on the animal's head and he became identified
with that animal. By doing so, the acceptance of
that flawless, sacrificial animal, ceremonially speaking, remember,
these are just pictures and times. The acceptance of that flawless,
sacrificial animal, ceremonially passed to the sinner. And the
man's sin, ceremonially passed or transferred to the animal
substitute. That's what's going on here.
And there's no, absolutely no entrance into the tabernacle
unless you came to this altar with a sacrifice of blood. Without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. And
again, we see that this brazen altar is everything else in the
tabernacle, pictures Christ our Lord. It's just amazing to me,
it shouldn't be, because God broke this foot. But everything
in this tabernacle points to Him, with whom we have to do. Christ is our altar. And the
brazen altar typifies the Lord Jesus. He's the sin atoning sacrifice
by whose blood we can draw nigh to God. No one could go into
the tabernacle, into God's presence, without a sacrifice upon this
altar. And no one can enter into God's
presence without the sacrifice of Christ. Hebrews 13, I won't
turn you there, but verse 10 says this. It says, we have an
altar where they have no right to eat. We serve the tabernacle. Now the writer of Hebrews, which
I believe to be the apostle Paul said, we have an altar. You know,
words mean something. He said, we have an altar. Who's
the we that he's talking about there? God didn't give this altar
to anyone but the children of Israel. There were many, many
nations in and on earth at this time when Moses lived. There were many people who occupied
this planet, but God passed by them. And men want to say that
God's not fair, but God is just and right. And God didn't give
an altar to everyone. The only ones that God gave directions
concerning an altar and a sin sacrifice was his peculiar people. And again, we see the we and
the they in scripture. The Bible always distinguishes
between the saved and the lost. We being the elect chosen people
of God, and they being everyone who believes not. This is God
that said this. God's people have an altar, and
that altar is the Lord Jesus Christ. God does not give the
unbeliever an altar. He never has. That's why John
said, he that hath the son hath life, and he that hath not the
son hath not life. Writer of Hebrews here says,
they are those without Christ. That's who they are. Have no
right to eat. Now this reference in Hebrews
13 is a reference to the eating of the sacrifice by the priest
of the Old Testament. You can read about that in Leviticus
chapter six. I encourage you to do that in
your own spare time. We won't take the time to read
it tonight, but the sacrifice was offered. The sacrifice was
burned upon the altar, and then it was often eaten by the priest. Now, I just read that we, the
people of God, have an altar, and that altar is not the cross
that some people have made. A lot of people, oh, we need
to go to the cross. No, that's not the altar. The
altar is not the Lord's table. I love the ordinance of the Lord's
table. It's in the Lord's table that
we remember the Lord's body that was broken for us and his blood
that was shed for us. But that's not the altar. The
Lord's table is not the altar. That altar is definitely not
a bench that some religions put up front for people to go up
and pray, offer up their prayers. That's not the altar. That altar
won't do you any good. You might as well stand outside
and pray. There's no significance as to
where that is. The point I'm trying to make
is this, Christ is our altar. He's our altar. He's our sacrifice. He's our high priest. And therefore,
being His people, we have the right to come to Him. We have
the right to come to God. Christ has provided that way. Isn't that what He said? I'm
the way, I'm the truth, and I'm the life, and no man comes to
the Father but by me. John chapter six tells us that
we can come and we can eat and partake of His flesh and of His
blood. Let me read that to you. Then
Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, except
you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you
have no life in you. Now that's not talking about
physically eating His flesh and His blood. It's talking about
spiritually partaking of Christ, trusting in Him to be your provision
for everything. He said, and except you eat the
flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in
you. Whosoever eateth my flesh and
drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I'll raise him up at
the last day. And those who persist in being
saved by a so-called work of righteousness that they do, and
trust me, there are plenty that are, even today, trusting in
something that they do, to be saved, a work of what they call
righteousness. They have no right to eat, and
partake of Christ. That's what Paul is saying there
in Hebrews 13. And I think most everyone here
tonight understands that God didn't give Israel this altar
because they were better or less sinful than any other nation.
Matter of fact, the Bible's very specific about that. There's
nothing, absolutely nothing in mankind and men and women that
would cause God to be mindful of them. David said that, Job
said it. What is man that thou art mindful
of him? What is the son of man that thou
would visit with him? Nothing special about us. Nothing
in man that would cause God to do this for us. I wonder sometimes
if we really believe what the Bible says about us, apart from
a divine intervention, divine revelation, we never will. Brothers
and sisters, God didn't give us Christ because there was anything
special or great about us. It's only because it pleased
the Lord to make you his people. I love that. that verse, 1 Samuel,
2 Samuel, I can't remember. But it pleased the Lord to make
you His. Oh, I tell you, when you see
who and what you are, that will float your boat. It's your will.
It pleased the Lord to make us His people. It was only by His
mercy and grace to us. Now I won't turn you there, but
I love the passage of scripture found in Deuteronomy chapter
seven. It's another one I would encourage
you to read. It says, for thou art a holy people. I read that
and I think, me? I'm a holy person? Thou art a
holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God had 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 are the fewest of all
people." And that can be taken in a different way than just
quantity of people. But because the Lord loved you,
that's fine. Because the Lord loved you and
because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your
father, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and
redeemed you out of house of bondman from the hand of Pharaoh,
king of Egypt. Why? Because the Lord loved you. The Lord chose you. The Lord
called you. The Lord saved you. The Lord
crossed your path with the truth. Before the world was created,
the only sinners that God purposed to save through Christ our altar
was those whom He chose by His free and sovereign grace. So we have nothing to be puffed
up about. We have nothing to glory in,
salvations of the Lord. So the first thing I want you
to see is this, Christ our altar bore the judgment and the wrath
that you and I, his people deserved. That's no new message. That's
our constant theme, Jesus Christ and him crucified. Again, look
at verse one, and thou shalt make "'an altar of shittum 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 horn shall be of the same, "'and thou shalt overlay it with
brass.'" Now, everything in the tabernacle, it seems, was made
of shittum wood. We've talked about that. Acacia
wood, it was a wood that would not rot. It just was a very durable
wood. And also these, as you saw in
verse two, this was covered with brass and brass would not burn. And again, in the wood, we have
a picture of Christ and his humanity. And in the brass, we see a picture
of God's judgment. Brass often pictures the judgment
of God. In the holy place, and with the
holiest of holies, gold was used because it points to our Lord's
deity and His Godship. And silver, as you remember,
was used in the silver socket foundation because it typified
redemption accomplished by Christ, who is our foundation. But out
in this courtyard, the altar is brass because God's judgment
must be satisfied before redemption can ever be accomplished. These
things all have significance. No man could enter into God's
presence and live unless God's justice has been appeased. Scripture
often compares heaven to brass. That's because there's no entering
into God's presence until God's judgment against us is taken
out of the way. The justice of God must be settled
and must be satisfied in order for God to be merciful. That's
what His holy justice requires. He would cease to be a holy God
if He just excused sin without His justice being satisfied and
His law fulfilled. Now the serpent of brass lifted
up by Moses in the wilderness shows us that. Matter of fact,
in John chapter 3, 14, it says, and as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up.
Why? Because he's the appeasement
of God's judgment and justice against it. that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish but have everlasting life, eternal
life. Christ is our life. The judgment,
the brass of God fell on Christ and all who look to him shall
live. And again, Christ and him crucified is our message. It
always goes back to that. The Son of God took on Himself
sinless humanity, and together with His divine nature, that
He might bear the fire of God's wrath and judgment in the place
of His people. And only a man could suffer,
and only God could survive His own holy judgment. Therefore,
Christ the God-man is our altar and our sacrifice. And in order
to represent God's people, Christ had to become a sinless man. He knew no sin. He was made to
be sin. Our Lord came forth of a virgin
conceived by the very seed of God through the Holy Spirit.
In Luke chapter one, we're told that the Holy Spirit overshadowed
that virgin and that Holy One born of her would be called the
Son of God and the Son of Man. He's the God man. He's the only
one who could save us from our sin. The Lord Jesus is the perfect
man, holy and pure. And in order to bear the sins
of his people, the Lord himself had to be without sin. At no
point did Christ ever himself sin. The scripture is clear,
he was made sin. That's not hard to understand,
is it? He was made sin. There was no other way for God
to be merciful. There was no other way for him
to show mercy, except that his justice be satisfied and his
righteousness be manifested. You'll see perfect righteousness,
no clearer than in Christ. And you cannot be acceptable
unto God apart from going to that altar. The son of God became
the son of man that he might bear the sin and the judgment
of God on the cross in the room instead of his people. Now look
at verse three, 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 network of brass, and upon the net shalt thou make four
brazen rings in the four corners thereof." The burnt offering
burned on this altar, but not these utensils. They weren't
burned. The Son of Man bore the fiery
wrath and indignation of God's judgment, but He consumed the
fire of that judgment. This is the heart of substitution.
It really is. Christ being both the altar and
the offering as man, His body was broken and His blood was
shed, but the altar of Christ's deity upheld that humanity. so that he consumed the fire
of God's holy justice. We've talked about it several
times, but do you remember when Elijah had a showdown with the
450 prophets of Baal? Do you remember what happened?
On Mount Carmel, the Lord sent fire down from heaven and consumed
the burnt offering, consumed the wood, consumed the stones,
consumed the dust, consumed the water that they had poured around
in a trench, just consumed it all. And when the people saw
it, the scriptures say there in 1 Kings that they fell on
their faces. And they said, the Lord, He is
God, the Lord, He is God. And on Mount Calvary, the fire
of God's wrath and judgment fell on Christ, our sacrifice, our
substitute, our savior. And the sacrifice there consumed
the fire. Do you see that? It consumed
the fire and the wrath and the judgment of God was done away
with. And when God's people see that,
they say the Lord Jesus, He's God. The Lord, He is God. Now we've discussed that many
times, but what a picture that is of what Christ did for us. You know, when two people are
at odds and are unable to reconcile, there's often a need of a mediator. The mediator can speak with each
person and make reconciliation to bring the two parties together
in peace. The brazen altar stood between
the children of Israel and God's presence in the holiest of holies.
But it was through the brazen altar that a guilty sinner and
a thrice holy God were ceremonially brought together through satisfied
justice. God accepted the sacrifice upon
the altar. And I mean, that's the gospel.
Christ Jesus bore the judgment of God and through His blood,
His people are justified and God's justice is upheld. And
Christ our mediator, He brings us the sinner and the holy and
righteous God together. And there's peace again. And
they're reconciled. And that's why the scripture
says, for there's one God and one mediator between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus. Isaiah 60 verse 17 illustrates
this beautifully. It says, for brass, picturing
judgment, he said, I'll bring, I will bring gold. And that picture's
satisfaction and God's making us perfectly righteous. And he
said, and for iron, picturing the iron furnace of God's wrath,
he said, I'll bring silver. That picture's complete. redemption. I'm telling you, what a God and
Savior we have. Now I'm going to move quickly.
I'm not going to keep you long tonight. But secondly, in this
Christ our altar, we need to understand that Christ is our
perfect righteousness and holiness with God. When I stand before
God in Christ, He really does see His Son. He doesn't see me
in all my sin. He sees me in Christ's perfect
righteousness and holiness. That's what substitution is.
Did you notice in verse one that the brazen altar was the same
dimensions and length and in width? It tells us that the altar
was four square. I think it's the way it reads. In other words, the brazen altar
was a perfect square, meaning perfect in symmetry, equal on
all sides. Our Lord Jesus is perfect. No
matter how you look upon Christ, our Savior, he's the same. He's
perfect with no change on any side, no matter how you look
at him. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today and forever, Hebrews 13a. Our Lord said, for I am the Lord,
I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed, Malachi
3.6. And I found the height of this
brazen altar to be very interesting. It was three cubits, 54 inches,
about four and a half feet tall. In Exodus chapter, 20 verse six,
we're told, matter of fact, look, we're close there. Look at it.
Exodus 20 verse 26. It says, neither shalt thou go up
by steps unto mine altar, that thy neckiness be not discovered
there on. What in the world is that talking
about? There was no need for steps to go up to this brazen
altar that was 54 inches tall. You see, coming up by steps would
symbolize that somehow or another we could approach God on our
own by the steps of our own doing, steps of our own work, steps
of our own progression. But that's impossible, isn't
it? Men and women who are dead in trespasses and sin cannot
take a step. I heard Brother Montgomery say
one time, a dead man, if a dead man could walk by himself, he
could walk all the way to heaven if he could just first take the
first step. But that first step's the problem.
Because we're dead in trespasses and sin. And our acceptance with
God has never been about us walking. It's not of him that willeth,
it's not of him that runneth. That means walking too. It's never been by progression
of our own doing. Our works are perfect by Christ
and Him alone. He's our perfect righteousness.
He's our complete holiness. And if we try to add anything
to it, then we just pollute the whole thing. There's no progression
that we can make to be more righteous and more holy. Either the Lord
Jesus has made us completely righteous and holy, or we're
still unrighteous and unholy. And it's so difficult for us,
the natural men and women that we are, to get ourselves out
of the way. Oh, we need to get ourselves
out of the way in the matter of redemption. The Bible is so
clear, so plain, so simple. Salvation is of the Lord. How many times have we said that?
But men and women by nature interpret that to somehow mean that salvation
is of the Lord when I decide to let Him save me, or when I
exercise my will to be saved. That's not what this book says.
Do you know When Jonah said those words, salvation is of the Lord,
you know where he was? He was still in that fish's belly. I often thought, I think I've
even said before that the Lord spit him out on dry ground. And then he said, salvation's
of the Lord. No, sir, that's not right. I looked at it today. He's still in that fish's belly
when he said salvation's of the Lord. You know, I saw a cartoon
one time Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, somebody, some Looney Tunes character,
maybe it was Elmer Fudd, chased Donald Duck. I don't remember
the particulars, but he wound up in the fish's belly like Jonah. It was a take on Jonah and the
fish. What he did was is he tickled
the roof of that fish's mouth and caused that fish to sneeze
and, you know, sneeze him out on dry grain. You know, I was
thinking that's exactly what Free Will Works Religion would
like for you to think. They want you to think that you
had a part in your salvation. that you had something to do
with God saving you, that you had a hand in your redemption.
But the scriptures are clear, plain and simple on the matter.
Jonah said, salvation is of the Lord. You can read it. This is
word for word, Jonah 2, 9 and 10. Salvation is of the Lord
and the Lord spake unto the fish and it vomited out Jonah upon
dry land. Jonah didn't tickle the whale's
roof of his mouth and he sneezed him out. No, sir. God spoke to
the fish. And Jonah was vomited out on
dry land. I'm telling you, Jonah would
have died in the depths, closed roundabout with seaweeds wrapped
around his head had the Lord not spaken to the fish. And that's
why salvation's of the Lord. from start to finish. How precious
are the words of Paul found in Colossians chapter one. He said,
Christ has made us meet. He's made us fit. You see, we're
unfit, but he made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light. who hath delivered us from the
power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear
Son." Now, where in that does it say we did anything? People
need to read the Bible. In whom we have redemption, in
who? Christ. We have redemption through
His blood. Even the forgiveness of sins. And it was in the body of His
flesh through death, by the sacrifice of Himself, I might add, through
the blood of His cross, that Christ presents His people holy. Now listen to this, unblameable and unreprovable in God's sight. Did you hear what you are in
Christ? Holy? Unblameable. Holy as Christ is Himself. Unblameable. Listen, if God can't
blame you, nobody else can. You're unblameable. Unreprovable. And Christ perfect
is above reproof. Did you know that? If you're
perfect, nobody can reprove you. If God doesn't reprove you, nobody
else can. And thirdly, Christ our altar
is always with his people. Look again at verse six. Look
at verse six, Exodus 27. And thou shalt make staves for
the altar, staves of shittum 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 carried
this altar the same way that they carried the Ark of the Covenant.
Here they used the staves overlaid with brass, and the staves were
put into those rings, and they carried it that way. What I'm
trying, want to show you is this. No matter where the children
of Israel went, they carried this altar. This tabernacle,
they took with them everywhere they went. But they carried this
altar with these staves and it went with them everywhere they
went. What a blessed thought that is. No matter where we are,
Christ our altar is with his people. He said it so none of
his elect could ever misunderstand. He said it this way. He said,
I will never leave you nor forsake you. Never, never, never. And all the things that Christ
accomplished for us, none of them can be undone. None of them. Never. Judgment is settled. Justice is satisfied. God can
require no more for you if you're found in His Son. That's talking
about God's judgment. That's talking about God's justice.
In Christ, the elect are redeemed. Oh, that's the best news I ever
heard. And that's the only hope of salvation that we have. Christ
is our altar. Christ is our substitute. He's our sacrifice. He's our
savior and he's done for us what we can never do for ourselves.
It must be perfect to be accepted. We can't provide good, much less
perfect. But Christ provided it for us
and he provided it for us perfectly. he died, the just for who? The unjust, that he might bring
us to God.