Alright, if you'll take your
Bibles and turn with me to Hebrews chapter 13. This morning we'll
be looking at verses 10 through verse 14. The title of the message is Christ
Our Altar. Christ Our Altar. The Apostle says in verse 10,
we have altar whereof they have no right
to eat which serve the tabernacle for the bodies of those beasts
whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest
for sin are burned without the camp wherefore Jesus also that
he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without
the gate. Let us go forth, therefore, unto
him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here we have
no continuing city, but we seek one to come. We have an altar."
Now, these Hebrew saints were continually tempted and tried
by those around them to come back to Judaism. They were tempted
all the time by their families, by the religious rulers, by their
traditions, by all the people around them to return to the
Jews' religion. Those who miss Christ Those who
crucified the Lord of Glory were still following after the Law
of Moses and they were still offering those bulls and goats
and lambs daily in the temple. They offered those sacrifices
the same way that as was prescribed by the Law of Moses. But what was so wrong with their
continuing these sacrifices was because the Lamb of God had already
come. Those sacrifices were meant for
a picture. They were meant for a reason.
And that was to point all men to the Lamb of God who was to
come and remove sin. Who was to come and take away
the sin of Israel. The blood of these animals that
they were offering continually, we know this, that they could
never remove sin. Matter of fact, every time another
goat or a bull was offered, they were only reminded of sin. They were reminded that the one
before That lamb, that bull that they had just slain before in
the morning, that afternoon when they were slaying another one,
they were reminded that that first one took away no sin. They were reminded that that
first one was not good enough to remove their sin. They needed
another, and another, and another. And these never could take away
sin. Chapter 10 of Hebrews, and look
at verse 1, it says, For the law, having a shadow of good
things to come, but not the very image of the things, could never
with those sacrifices, which they offered year by year continually,
make the comers thereunto perfect. For then they would not have
ceased to be offered, because that the worshippers, once purged,
should have no more conscience of sin. In other words, if one
worked, if that worked, then they should have ceased. They
should have been finished already. But they continued. Why? But
those sacrifices, these are a remembrance again made of sin every year,
for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should
take away sin. But now that Jesus has come in
the flesh, now that the Lord Jesus has come in the flesh,
He came for this reason, to take away the first, to take away
the pictures, to take away the types, so that He might establish
the second, take away the first covenant, so that He might establish
the covenant of grace that actually was before the first. that He
might establish the covenant of His grace. And this covenant,
like the covenant of Moses, which was a type, was sealed the same
way, by blood. By blood. But His blood that sealed this
covenant was not useless blood. The blood of those animals were
useless. But this covenant of grace was
sealed with precious, atoning, effectual, powerful blood. It was the blood of the Lamb
of God. It was the blood of the Son of
God. And the Scriptures continue to
tell us in Hebrews 10, Verse 14, it says, "...for by one offering
He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." Jesus Christ
is the only true and acceptable offering for sin. There is no
other acceptable offering. Our works are not an acceptable
offering for sin. Our will is not an acceptable
offering for sin. We are going to partake of the
Lord's table today. The Lord's table is not an acceptable
offering for sin. It is the blood of the Lamb that
is the acceptable offering to God for sin. These Jews who heard that Jesus
Christ was the only acceptable offering for sin, they would
cry, How was he offered? Who offered this offering? You remember that every offering
must be offered by a high priest. An offering must be offered by
a high priest. And so they would ask those Jews,
where is your high priest that made this offering? Who authorized
this offering of Jesus Christ for sin? Well, the answer is
clear. that Jesus Christ was not only
the Lamb of God, He was also the High Priest of God. He has
spent a majority of this book, as we've gone through this study,
we have seen this time and time again, how that He is the great
High Priest. How He is the true High Priest. Not after the order of Aaron,
because that order died. That order had a beginning. That
order had an ending. But He was after the order of
Melchizedek, which had no beginning or no ending. Jesus Christ's
eternal High Priest. He is the High Priest of God.
You remember in Psalms 110, verse 4, the Lord had sworn. He said, the Lord has sworn.
Thou art a priest. How long? How long has Jesus
Christ been the Priest of God? Thou art a priest forever. after the order of Melchizedek. Why is that so important? Why
is Melchizedek important, we go? Well, because Melchizedek
was a type of the Lord in that we know, we don't know where
he came from. We don't know his parents. He had no beginning. And so we don't know what happened
after. We just know that he was above Abraham. We know that he
was above Abraham because he received tithes of Abraham. And
so Christ, being a high priest, after the order of Melchizedek,
not after the order of Aaron, was a priest forever, and once
sworn in by God. Jesus is the high priest of God,
who had no beginning and ending appointed of God for His people. He was also an eternal high priest
to mediate between God and men. That's the office of a priest,
isn't it? Isn't that the office of a high priest? The office of a high priest was
that God would anoint him and that he would mediate, that he
would bring the offerings of the people and sacrifice them
unto God for the forgiveness of sins. This was the office
of the high priest. Well, Jesus gave the sacrifice. He offered the sacrifice of what? The sacrifice of Himself. He was not only the priest, but
He was the sacrifice, and He offered Himself. We see this
in a couple of places. Galatians chapter 1. Galatians
chapter 1 and verse 4. The apostle, in his beginning
here in Galatians, he says of Jesus Christ, who gave Himself
for our sins. That He might deliver us from
this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father. In 1 Timothy 2, verse 6, it says,
Who gave Himself a ransom for all to be testified of in
due time. He gave His life a ransom for
all the elect, and every one of them in due time will testify
it. In Titus chapter 2 verse 14,
"...who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from
all iniquity." Those old priests offered and they offered again,
and they were never finished. Is that not exactly what the
false church is doing? Making offerings again and again
and again and again and they are never finished. They are
never finished. Their message is do, do, do,
do. That is not our message. Our
message is done, done, done. Finished. Accomplished. Our High
Priest is not only our High Priest, but He is the offering, and He
has given the offering acceptable to God. He gave Himself. He gave
Himself for our sins. And those priests, one thing
about being a priest is there was no chair. If you look at
the furniture in the Holy of Holies, or in the holy place,
in the first room, there were no chairs. They were never finished
with their work. They were never finished. But
this man, the Lord Jesus Christ, this man, after he had given
one offering for sin, sat down on the right hand of God, expecting,
waiting until his enemies be made his footstool. Believer
in Christ, let us draw near therefore unto God, with a full heart of
assurance. Do you have a full heart of assurance
when you pray? I didn't ask did you have a full
heart of feelings, a full heart of emotion. I didn't ask if you
had a full heart of passion. I didn't ask if you had a full
heart of zeal. But you can have a full heart
of assurance. You can draw near with assurance. As long as you're
not looking at yourself or anything you've done, you looking to Christ
alone, you have a full heart of assurance to be accepted. How quickly are our words ushered
into the ears of the Almighty when we pray immediately. Come boldly to the throne of
grace, that you may find help in the time of trouble. When
is that? I'm always in trouble. I'm always
in need to come boldly. By the Holy Spirit, we see these
things. We have our hearts sprinkled
with blood. The high priest, when he sprinkled
the blood Our Lord Jesus Christ did this
once and it was done. The veil of the temple was rent.
There's no more need for us to offer any sacrifice for sin.
What you're doing this morning in worshiping God in your heart
is not penance for sin. It is not a sacrifice for sin. That sacrifice has already been
made. Come in and come boldly. Come
quickly. Come with reverence and godly
fear. Come and ask of your Father. And He will give you the desires
of your heart. And I like this. We have our
hearts sprinkled. The Lord Jesus Christ, He didn't
sprinkle our clothes. Those high priests, they had
their clothes all sprinkled with blood all over their clothes.
Well, you can take those clothes off. You can wash those clothes. You can forget about those clothes.
But what the Lord has done for His people is He has sprinkled
this blood as our high priest on our hearts, on the inside,
by giving us a new nature. that no one can take away from
us. They can take everything in this
world from us. They cannot take this from us.
Because it is a creation of God in us. His offering was for us. And God accepted His offering.
Therefore, we are accepted in the Beloved. You're accepted
of God. Because of the high priest. Well,
then these unbelieving Jews would cry against them and say, ah,
you have a sacrifice, you have a priest. What about an altar? Where's your altar? We have an
altar. They would point to that brazen
altar, beautiful altar sitting out there in front of that tabernacle,
burning the sacrifices daily. See, look at our altar. It's
something visible, something you can see. Where's your altar? These evil men boasted of their
altar. Where they burnt those bodies
of the beasts, they would boast of their altar because it was
visible and seen. Matter of fact, in the old dispensation
there were three altars. There were three altars. There
was the altar of incense. There was the altar or table
of showbread. And then there was the brazen
altar, which was outside, that burned the animals. And this
is the one we have reference to. That after they would slaughter
these animals, they would burn them on this altar, and they
would take the remains of those animals, the worthless part they
considered it, the dung, all of the entrails. This was not
a very clean sight, people. I know everybody has a view of
priests and their goodly robes and everything. But friends,
this was a butcher shop. This was a bloody mess. And they would always be taking
the dung of those animals and the entrails that fell out and
the blood and all of this stuff. And they would gather it together
and they would take it outside the camp and they would burn
it. They would burn it out there. As they failed to see that Jesus
was the offering, the high priest, they also failed to see that
Jesus Christ is our altar. Our altar. The apostle says in
our text, notice, we have an altar. We have an altar. You must have an altar. Just
as you must have a high priest and you must have an offering,
you must have an acceptable altar. A place that is built for the
sacrifice to be offered. But they failed to see our altar
because our altar is not one that is now visible. Our altar is not one made of
wood or stone. Friends, our altar is the person
of Jesus Christ. He is the altar of the sacrifice
to God. The altar of the law pictured
Jesus Christ, who is the altar of His people. Now, the purpose
of the altar was to sustain the sacrifice. It was to hold up
the sacrifice while it burned unto God. And believer, we have
an altar not of wood or stone, but of the person of Jesus Christ.
And because He is our altar, we know this, that our altar
was not made with hands. Our altar was not made with hands.
Go over to Exodus chapter 20. Exodus chapter 20 notice what
the Lord God says about an altar Exodus chapter 20 in verse 24 Verse 24 says, 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, in
all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee,
and I will bless thee. And if thou wilt make me an altar
of stone, Thou shalt not build it of hewn stone. For if thou lift up thy tool
upon it, thou hast polluted it." Polluted the sacrifice. God said,
if you're going to make me an altar, you're going to make me
an altar of things that I have made. God made the earth. If they were
going to make an altar of earth, they would have just set up that
altar of earth. They were not to add any beauty to it. You
know, the kids go out in the sand, they make sandcastles.
The Lord didn't want to make a sandcastle altar, how beautiful. Look at that. No, He said, pile
up a bunch of mud and make an altar. That's enough. But this
matter of a stone altar is very interesting. He said, if you
would make me a stone altar, He said, I want you to take stones
and I don't want you to touch them. I don't want you to put
your engraving tool on them. I don't want you to make them
beautiful. I don't want you to touch one of those stones because
the day you put your hand to that altar, you've defiled and
polluted the sacrifice and I won't come unto you. I won't accept
that sacrifice. Jesus Christ is a type of this
altar, because He was not made by the hands of men. He was not
made by man. He is the eternal living Son
of God. He always was, and by Him were
all things created. This altar we have is an eternal
altar, because He is God. And no man made Him, but He made
all things. And our altar, friends, is also
the Son of Man. He was not the product of sinful
man. He said, A body thou hast prepared
for me. The Spirit of God made a body,
a human body, the Son of God to unite Himself to. So therefore,
in the person, in the deity and the humanity, we see the altar
of God. The altar of God is the Son,
is the God-man, mediator. And as His body was made to bear
our sins, as He bore our guilt of our sins in His own body on
the tree. What sustained Him under the
wrath of God? As His body was made sin for
us, what sustained Him as the altar? It was His deity. His deity. Friends, I just jumped
off the cliff into a great swelling sea. So you'll just have to wait
around with me in this, because I can't really explain it. I
can't fully explain this. But it's so that Jesus Christ,
in His body, as a man, bore our guilt. And in deity, sustained
under the wrath of God as He burned Under the justice of God
for our sins, He was sustained by His holy deity. God the Son truly died. We know deity cannot die, but
yet the Son of God died. When did He die? It was after he had finished
the work. The Lord Jesus Christ could have
just as easily said, it's done. Alright, I'm going to get down
boys. He had enough strength. They didn't take his life. He
voluntarily commended his soul unto God and gave up the ghost. gave up the ghost, he died for
our sins, he offered his humanity on the altar of his deity. Let this be our comfort, friends, that we had no part in this great
transaction. I find great comfort in that.
I find great comfort in that. If I got something, I put my
hand to something, I am going to mess it up. And I'm just talking
just physical things. I don't know, maybe you're perfect
and you don't have any problems with, you know, troubles and
things like that. I don't know if you mess things
up or not, because I do. This one thing is so great that
I would not have dared put one thing to this altar. Not one of my works is added
to this sacrifice. Not one of my works has done
anything to perfect this altar. This altar was not touched with
hands. Anyone who will mix their works,
the scripture says, the cross of Christ to that man has become
of none effect. How much? None. Effect. Well, I am a member of this church.
Does that have any effect? None effect. You're going to take this table?
What does that put to the work of Christ? If you put that to
the work of Christ, then the work of Christ to you is of none
effect. If you put your will to it, you say, well, Christ
died for my sin, I'm saved by grace, and I was willing. You've
made the cross of Jesus Christ of none. Oh no, I was saved by free and
sovereign mercy. I was born again of the Spirit
of God because of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ as it was
willed of God the Father from eternity." It is completely and
utterly a work of God. Oh, I have an altar. It's not
this piece of wood down here either. This is not an altar. A missionary friend in Mexico visited
a Catholic church there, and they had two, quote, altars. They had a common altar that
everybody went to. And then they had one for the
priests. Now, the common altar you had
to go to every day. But this one up here, you only had to
go once. And so, I had my pastor friend ask me, he said, won't
you do away with that one and just keep that one? Friends, we have an altar that
they have no right to. We have an altar and His name
is Jesus Christ the Lord. The Son of God and Son of Man. And our altar is unchangeable. You know in AD 70, you know what
happened to that altar? They took that brass and made
stuff out of it. They melted that thing down.
It's gone and right now there's a mosque sitting right on top
of where that old altar was. That old altar is gone. It's finished. My altar stands
immutable, unchangeable in heaven itself. And is seated on the right hand
of God and none can take Him away from us. Our altar, friends,
let us be sure of this, that our altar is Outside the camp. Outside the camp. Verse 12, it
says, Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people
with his own blood suffered without the gate, let us go forth therefore
unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. What was outside
the camp? Dung. What was outside the camp? Burned bodies. What was outside
the camp? Everything that was unacceptable
to the religious people of that day was outside the camp. That's
why they took Him outside the camp. Because He was to be made
sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. He was taken outside the camp.
He was to bear our reproach. To bear our shame. Friends, this is what the world
thinks of Jesus Christ, that he belongs among the dumb. To this world, Jesus Christ has
no value, not the Jesus that actually saved. Now, the Jesus that men can manipulate,
the Jesus that men can fashion after their own imagination,
oh, they love that one. But the sovereign ruler of all
things who saves men, saves whomsoever he wills, this Jesus they have
no use for outside the camp with Him. We know He suffered outside the
camp to sanctify us, to make us who were by nature sinners,
by nature worthless. He suffered without the camp
so that He might make us holy. Jesus suffered for our sins so
that we should be holy. He said the reproach of them
that reproached thee has fallen on thee. The reproach that you and I had
toward God fell on Christ. And He suffered what we should
have. He suffered what we deserved
to suffer. We deserve to be out among the
dumb. We deserve to be out among the
filth. But yet our Lord went out there
for us. You remember this is where the
lepers were, right? They weren't allowed in the camp. How was a leper cleansed? How was he declared righteous?
Only if he had leprosy from head to toe without one sound spot
in his flesh. It was only then the priest said,
oh, you're clean. The Scripture says, come outside
the camp with us, you leprous people. Confess that from head to toe
we are nothing but sin and full of wounds and bruises and putrefying
sores. Come out and behold the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ and bear His reproach. The world
will hate you for it. If you serve the risen Christ,
the world will hate you for it. You'll be an outcast. Have you ever witnessed to anyone?
Because if you have, at any time, you've been automatically rejected. Have you ever witnessed somebody
and they've got a stone? I'd much rather be talking to
a wall. And that guy's got to get out.
That guy's got to be outside the camp. I ain't got nothing
to do with this guy. He's already cast you out. That's okay. Smile and bear the reproach of
our Savior. They rejected Him, they'll reject
you. His people received His Word. His people receive yours. All who come to Christ must bear
the reproach of Christ. We must confess Him that has
redeemed us And if we confess our sins, that we are full of
sin, you confess Christ has fully accomplished salvation? Have
you confessed that? To anyone? Have you confessed that Christ
died for His people? And is right now going to call
His people, and they shall come to Him? Friends, that message is an outcast
message. That's all. I don't mind being
outside that camp. Go forth outside the camp and
let us bear the reproach of our Lord and Savior. He's our altar. He's our high priest. He's our
sacrifice. Friends, He is all our salvation. When you are in trouble, when you don't understand what
is happening to you, when you don't understand how it is that
the circumstances you face seem to contradict the promises of
God, what do you do? Where will you go? I say with Peter, Lord, to whom
shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. I don't understand everything,
but I understand that He is all my salvation. And come what may,
I must go to Him. And I pray that God blesses to your
hearts.