You can be turning to Leviticus
chapter 17. Leviticus 17. The tabernacle, like the gospel, had many different
parts that make up the whole. any different part. Every single
part in it was ordained by God and vitally important for the
worship of God and for the atonement. Nothing could be left out. Nothing. For instance, there
were seven pieces of furniture within the the court within the
tabernacle, involved in the tabernacle. If you want to count the mercy
seat as a separate piece from the ark underneath it, or the
tabernacle itself as a separate piece. At any rate, that would
make seven pieces of furniture. And every piece played an important
part and gave a very clear picture of the atonement. It was necessary. God ordained it and it was necessary. Nothing could be left out. Nothing. And Christ said this about his
work on this earth. He said it behooved him to fulfill
all righteousness. Every part. His person, his work
contained many just as there are many sides to a beautiful
diamond, and all of them make up the whole. But Christ's person
and work, every part of it was important, and everything, every
point of the law must be fulfilled under the danger of the curse.
The scripture in Galatians says, those that continue not in all
things that are written in the book of the law, to do with every
single point. And like the gospel, the tabernacle
had one all-important piece of furniture, one all-important
piece of furniture which everything else centered around and pointed
to. Which one do you think it is?
Now don't anybody answer. I know what you're thinking right
off. I did too at first. But there
was one piece of furniture which everything revolves around and
pointed to. Right there. The altar. I know you were thinking
of the ark and the mercy seat. But it was pointless without
the altar. He started right there. That
was where the sacrifice was made. That's where the sacrifice was
laid. Everything else related to that
sacrifice. Everything in that place pertained
to the sacrifice that was laid upon that altar. The whole purpose
of the tabernacle and everything in it was to typify or picture
the atonement, the atonement, or the putting away of sins.
That's what the word atonement means, the covering, the putting
away of sins. And God said it from the very
beginning. He said, without the shedding
of blood, there's no remission. It says that here in Leviticus
17, verse 11, look at it. The life of the flesh—this is
God speaking—the life of the flesh is in the blood. The life of the flesh is in the
blood, and I've given it to you upon the altar. That's where the blood is shed,
to make an atonement for your souls. For it is the blood that
maketh an atonement for the soul. It's the blood. It does not matter, at least
to me, it is of no consequence what some people say about this
bloody religion. It's necessarily so. Blood. Because God said so, first of
all. Because God said so, right here
in Leviticus 17, 11. But let me ask you a good question.
Why was bloodshed necessary? Why bloodshed? Why not some other
way? Why bloodshed? Well, in the garden, when God
gave those express orders to Adam and to Eve, He said, now
you can have everything but that one tree. The day you eat of
that tree, you will die. Right? You will die. The thing which typifies or the
thing which shows death more clearly than anything else is
bloodshed, right? Anytime your blood is spilled
and poured out, the life of the flesh is in the blood, you're
going to die. And sin brought death. The wages of sin is death. And
then God started the bloodshed. It wasn't Abel. God started it. by killing those innocent animals
to shed, to cover the nakedness of that man and woman. God started
the killing by killing innocent animals. Those animals didn't
have any part in the transgression, right? That's a picture of Christ. And what appeared to be cruel,
God killing those poor little animals, was really mercy. It was a picture of the gospel. what appeared to be hard and
cruel and unfair for the animals. They didn't have anything to
do with it. No, but if Adam and Eve are going to be covered,
if the gospel is going to be proclaimed, I've got to do this. Blood's got to be shed. And that's
a picture of Christ, isn't it? Christ had no part in the transgression. He was innocent. Yet if we're
going to live, If our sins are going to be covered before the
holy eye of God, the innocent lamb of God must be sacrificed
and thus covered in that robe of his righteousness. God started
it and God finished it. God started the killing, the
shedding of blood, and God finished it by himself coming down here
and putting away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Lest we think it unfair for God
to kill these animals or whatever. Although God warned us, he warned
man of the consequences. You eat, you're going to die.
So lest we think it unfair, he did warn us, get God in mercy. But God came down here and shed
his own precious blood. So you don't have to shed yours.
So you don't have to die. He came down here in mercy and
did that. So, in between those first animals that were sacrificed,
in between those first animals and when Christ came down and
shed his own precious blood, there were rivers of blood. Rivers
of blood. And all of it was shed upon an
altar. The altar was where the blood
was shed, the sacrifice was made. And right here in this tabernacle,
Now before the tabernacle was made, men, there were altars
of earth, there were altars of stone. God gave express orders,
though, not to put your tool on the stone. You find some stones
out there in the field, and you make an altar with oak. And that's a picture of Christ.
But nevertheless, finally, God gave this plan of the most elegant
or beautiful or the clearest and most glorious altar ever. It had to be a beautiful type
and a perfect picture of that one great altar who was to come
and be our altar, the Lord Jesus Christ, where that great and
final sacrifice was to be made. And that's the reason God made
this one. He made this one. He architected and commanded
the construction of this one to be a perfect picture of Christ
who was to come. Now we're going to see this in
a moment. The first thing I want you to know about this altar. When you come in that, in this
eastern gate right here, the first thing, what's the first
thing you see? The altar. And you can look at
the size of that thing. And when you first come in that
gate, the first thing you see is this great big altar, this
huge altar. It was large. It loomed over
you when you came in that way, that gate, into the court. That
large altar would loom over you. It was a glorious thing of brass,
and it was captivating. It captivated your attention.
Your eye was riveted on that altar. everything about it. It
was the most wonderful thing you'd seen up to that point,
until you got into the Holy of Holies. But it was big, it was
brass, it was bloodstained, and all the things that were going
on around this altar, everything was, all the work was going on
around this altar. There were priests all over the
place, clothed in white And there was smoke and fire and blood
everywhere, all over the altar. You've got, if you've got your
thing with you, there's a picture of the altar in there. But when
you first walked in this, in this doa, in this gate, it's
the first thing you saw, first thing you saw. And the first
thing we see when we come to worship God. is the cross of
Christ. We see Christ and him crucified. The first thing you must know
to come to God, the first thing you must see when you come to
worship God is a crucified Christ. You must see a substitute. You
can't get to God, you can't get into the Holy of Holies without
blood, without blood, without the shedding of blood. He said
there's no remission of sin. And if you ever get a glimpse
of it, if you ever do come to God, if you ever desire and seek
God, to know God with all your heart, and come to Christ the
door, the first thing you'll see is Christ crucified. And
it'll captivate your attention. You'll see it as being large
and looming over everything else. It'll captivate you, it'll rivet
your attention before anything else. Christ crucified. Paul said it, God forbid that
I should glory in anything else but the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ. God forbid that I should be taken
up with and enamored with any defense or anything else when
this glorious and beautiful cross and crucified Christ is before
me. And the cross of Christ In the
cross of Christ we see the wisdom, the power, the glory of God. We see the holiness, justice,
the love, the mercy, the grace of God. We see everything in
the cross of Christ. Christ crucified. We see everything. And that which pertains to it. Everything which pertains to
it. Everything else pertains to the
sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Everything. Now when you walked
into this This court, this outer court here, like I said, you'd
see these priests, these common priests ministering about this
altar. They were taken up with and ministering
about and busy about the things of this altar. They were wholly
taken up with it. The atonement depended upon it.
Everything depended upon it. They ministered about this altar.
They sacrificed upon it. They took care of it. They took
the ashes out, they prepared the animals for it, they attended
the fire in it, and more importantly than anything, they gathered
the blood from it. They gathered the blood from
that. Because everything else now was
useless until that sacrifice was slain, and that precious
basin of blood was gathered from that slain sacrifice. And then they carefully got that
blood. He gave it to the high priest
and he went on in. But everything about that altar,
they were totally taken up with it, the blood. And this is where
we've got to start. This is the starting point of
true worship and seeing God's glory. It's the cross of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the blood shed on the altar, the blood. And every true, like those common
priests of old, every true minister of the gospel and every priest. He calls us kings and priests
to our God, doesn't he? Every one of us. We're not high
priests. There's one high priest who goes into the very presence
of God with his own precious blood. But we're priests. We're
ministering about the things of the cross. Here in this life,
we're ministering about the things of the cross. we're taken up
with. Every believer is wholly taken
up with, concerned with, ministering about the things of the gospel.
Determined, like Paul said, not to know anything, but Christ
in him crucified. These priests of old, their work
never deviated from that altar. The common priests, they were
always taken up with this Nobody could go into the holy of the
court of the tabernacle except with. And they were taken up
with this the altar that was their job they were taken up
with the altar and there were never deviated from that altar
ever except that was pertain to the. And at night time when
they went to sleep so they woke up in the morning they were right
back to tend to that altar and there were many people but the
reason being because they were How many millions of you how
many sacrifices sacrifices for cleansing and purging and various
different sacrifices for different times and so how many sacrifices
were to be made how many people were involved how much work was
to be done as much blood to be shared many sacrifices to be
made so they were always taken up with his own. It was their
job. Can you imagine these men being
sidelined by something. Can you imagine them, with all
the people, with all the different sacrifices, all the work to be
done, and all centering around this altar, can you imagine them
stopping for a time and going over and fiddling around or playing
around or wasting time or start dabbling with other things? No. Couldn't even imagine it. Their
work was around that altar. And even so, God forbid that
I should go where woe is unto me. Woe is unto me if I preach
not Christ and Him crucified, the gospel. And we're all to
be taken up with, wholly concerned with Christ and Him crucified.
Nothing else. Not things of prophecy, because
the testimony of Jesus is a spirit of prophecy. All the Bible speaks
about the atonement. It all points to the atonement.
And this is where we start, and this is what we're taken up with.
And besides, someday, when we get to the throne of God himself,
what is the first thing we're going to see on the throne? What's
the first thing we're going to see on the throne? A lamb, as
it had been slain. What we're going to see is the
atonement. And we're going to be sitting
around the throne talking about the atonement for eternity, singing
about worthy is the lamb that was slain. So right now, Dare
we be taken up in anything else? Anything? No. We minister about
the things of the gospel. Those that minister about the
altar of the sacred should be up. We read that back in the
study. OK, the heart and the soul of
the gospel is the cross of Christ, rather the Christ of the cross. I'm talking about a piece of
wood now. When I talk about the cross, from here on out, when
I talk about the cross, I'm not talking piece of wood. We're not talking about that
at all. We're talking about the work of Christ. We're talking
about the person and the work of Christ. We're not talking
about the crop. There's no saving, benefit, or effect in that piece
of wood. Do you remember the story of
Hezekiah finding that, was it Hezekiah that found the serpent
of brass on the pole? Was it Hezekiah? Remember when
he, the people were worshiping that Serpent of brass that Moses
lifted up, they were worshipping that. He grounded to powder what
he found. Grounded to powder. He said it's
nehushtan. Is that what he said? Nehushtan.
A worthless piece of brass. If they found the very cross
that Christ was crucified on today, we'd ought to burn it.
Those men would worship it. The same is what they do with
Mary, and Mary was just an instrument from which Christ came. They
worship her. And they talk about the cross, all of these things.
It's the Christ of the cross. The person and the work of Christ
is what we're taking up with. It's the blood of God's Son that
makes atonement for the soul, not that piece of wood. Besides,
think about this. Did you ever think about this? That there could have been myriads
of men crucified on that very same cross that Christ was. Could have been. Could have been
a bunch before and a bunch after. And that thing, that was just
an instrument of his death. It had no efficacy in it at all. He was the one hanging there.
And what he did and who he was. Now, when you come into this
Holy of Holy, the first thing you saw was that altar. And it
was huge. Look at the size of that compared
to everything else. You see the little laver here?
Look at the size of that altar. It was huge. Big, looming thing. In other words, when you walked
in there, there's no way around it. There's no way of getting
around this thing. You couldn't hardly see the temple
for it, or the tabernacle for this altar. No way around it. And the scripture states, in
effect, what it did was barred the way to the tabernacle. You
can't get to the tabernacle except if you come by this altar. Except
if you stop right here and camp a while and take a look and smell
and know what's going on. And you can't get to God now
unless you see a sanctity, unless you see Christ crucified. It
bars the way to God. No man comes unto the Father
but by Christ's bloodshed for them. Now listen, some people
begin with the cross, or at least say they do. They don't go in-depth
into this thing of the redemption of Christ. Some people begin
with a cross, they dabble with it, they touch on it, but they
quickly get away from it. No. They quickly get around it
and dwell on other things, such as the candlestick. Let's talk
about the candlestick. Now that's something really interesting.
That's blood. That's gory. We don't talk about blood. That's
old-fashioned, you know, and dirty. Let's go in there and
talk about the candlestick. Talk about what's the difference.
I said seven means seven, you know, seven. But Paul said the
preaching of the cross is to them to perish foolishness. If
you want the bigger and better things, right? But he said, unto
us which are being saved, us which are saved, it's the power,
the glory of God and the power of God, right? We don't want
to get around it. To the sinner, to sinners, it's
vitally important and it's very interesting, the cross. God forbid
that I go on to bigger and better things. What is bigger and better? Hmm? Than the putting away of
my sins. What am I more concerned with than that? Putting away
of my sins. Huh? To a dying leper. You know
the rites in the Old Testament that were the rites and sacrifices
that were made for the cleansing of a leper? We studied that one
time when we were at the church. But that leper who came to this
place, to the priest, covered with leprosy, he was dying. It was pretty important to him,
wasn't it? I bet you he sat right down on
the ground there and watched every movie that that priest
made. Shedding of that blood. That blood, the cleansing rites
of that high priest were all important to him. The shedding
of that blood. And after the priest got through
shedding the blood, he was a mess. He sprinkled that old boy. I
mean, just covered, doused him in blood. You reckon he objected? No. He wanted to be clean. He wanted to be whole, right?
Cover me with that blood. You say this blood is what's
going to cleanse me? This blood is what's going to
heal me of my leprosy? Cover me with the blood. Douse
me with it. That's what old Peter said. Don't
wash my feet, Lord. Wash me all over. He was vitally interested, and
so is every sinner who is leprous, who feels himself to be wicked
and vile before this holy God. He wants to be covered with the
blood of Christ to make us whole. Paul said this. He said, many
are enemies of the cross. He said that with a tear. He
said, I say it now weeping. Many are enemies of the cross. And it's so today. Even though
many people wear one around their neck, even though they wear them in
their ears, you see all kind of fools wearing one in their
ear. These athletes and all could
give a flip about Christ and the gospel wearing one across
their ear. The most vile people wear these
crosses. It's not blasphemy. But even though they wear them
in their ears, wear them around their neck, they have one on
their steeple, they never preach it. They're not taken up with
it. They don't talk about it. It's
bloody religion. It looks good as an ornament,
as a symbol, and it looks good as a sign through our ceremonies
and so forth, but they don't preach it, what this cross is
all about. What it's all about. There's
no way around it, though. There's no way around this altar.
No way around it. And I tell you what, like those
common priests who have always taken up with this altar, until
I shed this body, until I go into the very holy of holies
itself, I'm just going to stay right here before the cross.
All right? Anybody want to sit down with
me? at the feet of Christ, like Mary at the foot of the cross,
I wish you would. I'm not going to go on to anything
else. We're going to sit right here at the cross and learn of
Christ, and hear Him talk, and consider this atonement. So just
stay right here, enjoy the sights and sounds, and smells, and smells. Scripture talks about a sacrifice. being a fragrance, a sweet-smelling
savor to God Almighty. Remember reading that? A sweet-smelling
savor to God. What's one of the most savory
things known to man? Something that we all enjoy,
I believe. When you're cooking something
out, when you put a big old piece of steak on the grill, charcoal
that thing, big ol' T-bone, ribeye or something. It'll smell good
cooking, especially if you're hungry. If you're hungry, buddy,
nothing smells any better. Nothing. And nothing will quite
take care of your appetite than that, boy. Oh, my. Give me one
of them. Two of them. It's a sweet-smelling
savor, and I tell you what, to an old sinner who's hungry, who's
thirsty, the sight of that bloody man hanging on that tree, is
a sweet sight, brother. Precious sight. A sweet smelling
savor. It's a savor of salvation, is
what it is. You've got to see Christ crucified, taking away
your sin. There you do. It's a wonderful
sight, an old sinner. Now turn with me back to Exodus
chapter 27. Exodus chapter 27. I want to show you some things
about this altar. I'll make this short. Here's
some things to note about this altar. Like I said, when you
walked into that court, it's the first thing you saw. First
thing. Large, looming. It captivated
you. It took up your attention. You
were riveted upon. You were taken up with it. You
were wholly concerned with it. And there's no way around it.
You couldn't get around it anyway, even if you wanted to. You were
confronted with it. Confronted with it. And like
we were confronted with that Leviticus 17 letter, blood, blood's
got to be shed. Here's some things to note about
this altar. Exodus 27, verse 1. God here
gives the orders to make the altar. He says, You shall make
an altar of shittom wood. Now, shittom wood was a very
durable wood. It was an earthly material. It
was made of wood, but it was enduring material, much like
locusts, much like that acacia wood that we were talking about,
that the tabernacle was made of. But it was an earthly material.
God said, make this altar out of an earthly material. Christ
became a man. He became the tabernacle among
us. He put on flesh and blood. Earthly
material. Earthly material. But it was
enduring material, though. It endured through countless
sacrifices all the way to the promised land. This thing held
up. And I tell you what, there's still a man sitting up there.
When he came, when he rose from the grave, he came to touch me,
handle me. I'm not just a spirit, I'm a man. Flesh and bone. I'm a man. He's still tabernacling
with us as a man. Enduring material. We read that
over there in Hebrews 13, Jesus Christ. the same yesterday, today,
and forever. It never changes. It never changes.
It'll take us all the way in. And it was overlaid with brass.
Verse 2 says that this thing was—you make the horns of it
upon the four corners thereof, and the horns should be of the
same—all overlaid with brass. This thing was made of wood,
but it had to be covered with brass to endure the fire, to
hold the fire. It had to be covered with brass
on the end, lined with brass, or he'd burn up. Right? That's
the deity of Christ. That's his Godhood. Christ had
to be God in order to endure the trials and the fiery wrath
and indignation of God against sin. A man would have been burned
up, would have been consumed. But Christ is God and man. OK? And look at verse 1 again. It
says it's five cubits long. And five cubits broad. That's
seven and a half feet square. Seven and a half feet. That's
how big this thing is. Huge thing. And it was three
cubits high. The height thereof should be
three cubits. That's four and a half feet high.
That's right here. Four and a half feet high. Seven.
Huge thing. Great big old thing. And I noticed
this. It had this great thing around
it so that the high priest could stand upon it. They could get
up on that altar and go about their work, and they could lean
on it. They could stand on it. They could stand on the altar.
It was sturdy. It'd hold them up. It's huge.
But 7 1⁄2 feet square. Do you remember how high I said
this fence was? 7 1⁄2 feet, right? Now Christ,
it was 4 1⁄2 feet tall, this tall. Now Christ was down here
on our level, right? He's down here on our level as
a man. Yet, if he stood up to his full
length, he measured up to the law. He was stacked up in full
stature to the very law of God himself. Seven and a half feet
high. At any rate, it was solid. Picture this big thing. Four
and a half feet high, seven and a half feet square. It was solid,
square, and stout. Huge thing made of brass and
heavy wood. It was able to bear heavy burdens. It was able to withstand many,
many fires and many sacrifices that were made upon it. And Christ
bore in His own body on that tree the sin, all the sins of
all of God's people from the beginning. He's able. He's able. He's solid. He's stout. Thou shalt make the horns of
it upon the four corners thereof. His horns shall be of the same,
and be overlaid with brass." There were four brass horns. Now, keep your place there and
turn with me to 1 Kings 1. There were four brass horns.
Now, what these horns were for, 1 Kings 1, was the sacrifice. The lamb was tied to it. It wasn't
killed until it was put on that altar. And they had to tie it
down, right? They had to tie it down, and
they slit its throat and burn its body. He was tied to it.
These four brass horns represent the four Gospels, which bear
witness of Christ. And it also could represent his
hands and his feet, many things it could represent. But it represents
the four Gospels, which tie together and speak of the sacrifice, speak
of Christ and his atonement. Now, over here in 1 Kings, this
is interesting. 1 Kings, chapter 1. There was a fellow named Adonijah,
who was a son of David. You see these horns? This is
pretty much what it looked like. There was a man named Adonijah,
who was a son of David. Now, David had ordained Solomon
his chosen one to be his king. It was up to David. David was
the king, and the one who's going to be heir to his throne was
of his choosing, and he chose Solomon. He said, no, Solomon
is going to reign in my state. Okay? Abednego, though, was a
son of God, a son of David, and he thought, I want to be king.
I want to be king. So he got him a bunch of fellows
together, a bunch of people who liked him and so forth, liked
his ways, and he set himself up as king. And he tried to reign
a little while. In his own mind, he was a legend
in his own mind. He tried to reign as king, but
Solomon was king. Solomon was David's chosen king,
not Adonijah. This fellow was walking on thin
ice, brother. And he found out later on that
Solomon had been made king, and that Solomon was angry, and Solomon
was going to come get him. So look at this. 1 Kings chapter
1. So you know what he did? 1 Kings chapter 1 verse 50. Adonijah, when he heard that
Solomon had been made king, and that he had been trying to usurp
the rightful king's throne, he arose, he feared because of Solomon,
and arose and went and caught hold on the horn of Noah. He went up to this old altar
here and grabbed ahold of one of the horns, and they just got
And it was told Solomon, saying, Behold, Adonijah fears King Solomon,
and he's caught hold on the horns of the altar, saying, Let King
Solomon swear unto me this day he won't slay his servant in
the sword. And Solomon said, Well, if he'll show himself a
worthy man, that is, an obedient, worshipful servant, if he'll
bow to me as king, He'll come to me, I won't touch your hair."
And wickedness, he'll not die. So King Solomon sent and brought
him down from the altar and he bowed himself to the king. You
see the picture there? That's us. You and I, like natural
men, like all natural men, despise the sovereign God, His reign
and His rule, yet God has made Christ his king, he's chosen
one, he's exalted one to be his heir to the throne, Christ, not
us. We're not in charge of our own destiny. We're not middle
gods. There's one Lord, one ruler,
one master overall. And Christ gave that parable
of the men saying, we'll not have this man reign over us.
And that's what people say about this sovereignty we preach, this
sovereign, reigning, ruling Christ who gives salvation to whom he
will. And that was us, every one of us, by nature. We despised
this gospel of God's sovereign grace, this reigning Lord and
King who elects and chooses, who disposes of salvation as
He will. We despised that. Yet one day,
we heard somebody told us, now listen, bud, Christ does reign. Christ Jesus
is Lord, and you're in His hands, and He's going to come slay you.
He's going to come and slay you. So what do we do? What's our
only hope? What's the only hope of any rebel? It's to run, grab
hold of the horns we own. Go and grab hold of Christ and
Him crucify. The very hem of His garment.
Cling to the cross. Lay hold of Christ by faith.
Say, Lord, you're just going to have to slay me. If you slay
me, you're that person. Plead for mercy, plead for the
blood shed for a guilty sinner. Lord, I got a hold of the altar
now. The blood, he said, the blood makes remission for sin,
atonement, propitiation, coverage, sin, a pardon. Lord, I got a
hold of Christ. I believe Christ. Christ came
to save me. I know I'm a rebel. I know I
deserve to die, but please, let the blood be propitiation on
the mercy of Jesus. What's it gonna say? Don't touch a hair
of your head, boy. No condemnation to them that
are hanging on the horns. All right, look at verse 3, back
at Exodus chapter 27 again, verse 3, and I'll hurry. Exodus 27,
verse 3 and 4, and he says, Thou shalt make pans to receive ashes,
and shovels, and basins, and flesh hooks, firepans and all
these things. All the vessels thereof shall
be made of brass and make a great network of brass as for the blood
to run down into. And the nets shall make four
brazen rings in the four corners thereof. Everything about that
altar, all the utensils pertaining to that altar, were gleaming
brass. Some of you have brass things
in your home. It's beautiful. It really adorns
your home. Well, time would fail us. We're not going to go into every
aspect of it, but time would fail to tell of the life, the
death, the burial, the resurrection, the ascension, the glorification
of Christ, his foreknowledge, all of his character, his foreknowledge,
his predestinating power, his sanctifying power, his justifying
power, his glorification, creation, his priesthood, his manhood,
his deity, his lordship, all of the utensils, all of the character,
all of the attributes of God are found in this one man, gleaming
brass, beautiful, the riches, both of the wisdom, the depth,
the height, the glory of the glory of God in Christ. All the
riches, unsearchable, all the facets and things that pertain
to cry, the riches of his glory. And note, did you notice there
in verse four, it says, four brazen rings, four brass rings
and four corners, four brass rings. Christ is called, he's
made unto us, somebody want to quote it, wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Four rings, four rings, necessary
things that are tied to this The person and work of Christ,
and it's all supported. Look at verse 6. And these rings
are so that you could put staves through it. Make staves for the
altar of shit and wood overlaid with brass. Two sticks, two big
long poles overlaid with brass, running through these four rings
so that you could hold it all up, support it all, carry it
around. What's that? The wisdom, righteousness,
Sanctification, redemption of Christ, these four things, are
seen in the person and the work of Christ. It's all supported
by the person and the work of Christ. All these four things,
he's made them. And this will be it. Look at
Psalm 118 with me. This will be a blessing to you. These spades, you know, were
to carry the altar around. He tells us to take up his cross.
person and work. Two stages. Take it up. And it
balanced, too. There weren't three, there were
four. Balance. Perfectly balance this thing.
We need those four things for Christ to be made unto us. Psalm
118. I tell you what, believer, we
have an altar. Oh, this is beautiful. I just
jumped when I saw this. Psalm 118, look at verse 26.
And this altar of ours is much more glorious than than that
one in the wilderness. David, old David, was a man after
God's own heart. He knew something about this
place right here. He was always inquiring about it. He was taking
us with him. He was always thinking about
it. Many psalms were written about it. He said he envied those
that were about the tabernacle. He said, oh, how long for the
tabernacle. How angry about the tabernacle.
How long for it. When he was out of town, away
from this place? Oh, he told me. He said, let
me look towards the tabernacle. Point me in the right direction.
Let me think about it. And he prayed about it. He was
taken up with the tabernacle. David knew something about Christ. He was a man after God's own
heart. Look at this right here. He spoke of Christ. Verse 25,
David says, Now save me, Lord, save me now, I beseech you. I
beseech you, O Lord. O Lord, I beseech thee. Prosperity. Save me by the riches
of your glory, by your grace. He got an answer right away.
Look at verse 26. Blessed be he that comes in the name of
the Lord. Here it comes. Save me, Lord.
Here it comes. A man. Ah, here it comes. Look at this, verse 26. We've
blessed you out of the house of the Lord. We've just been
talking about you. See that joke? We've just been talking about
you out of the house of the Lord. God is the Lord. Who's this coming? Who is this that enters into
the kingdom? It's the king. Psalm 24. It's
the king coming in. God is who it is. God is the
Lord. He showed light. Lights come
in the eastern gate, binding the sacrifice of the cold. Binding
Christ crucified, even under the horn of death. You're my
God. And I'm going to praise you forevermore
for this great sacrifice. You're my God and I'll exalt
thee. Oh, you thank the Son of the Lord. He's good. He has mercy
unto us forever. He hath not left us without a
sacrifice, without a Savior. Did you see where it says, bind
the sacrifice with cords? Listen to this. You listen. God says in Hosea 11.4, I drew
them with cords of a man, bands of love." I like that. Bind the sacrifice
with cords, and then he says over there, I drew them with
cords of a man. Christ hanging on that cross,
bound with bands of love. He didn't have to. Because of
that love, that great love wherewith he loved, he willingly bound
himself. to that cross. And that's the
reason we say with David, we're going to thank you forever, forever. And you're my God, and we'll
exalt you, worthy as the Lamb of God, who redeemed us from
our sin. The altar, the altar. There's a burst in a song. Come
up here, Jeanette. We sing it all the time, and
in light of that verse there in Psalm 118,
I want you to look at this verse of this song. He says, Let your
goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee. I'm
prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I
love. Here's my heart. And Solomon
said over and over, he said, take these words and bind them
to your heart, like cords around your neck. Let them not depart
from you. Take and seal it, seal it for
thy cords of love. The cords, bind my wandering
heart. Cords of love, cords of a man.
Let's stand and sing this. Let's just sing the last verse. Yes, I got there by my wandering
heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it. Prone to live, God, God, I love. Here's my heart, I'll take and
steal it. Steal it for thy courts above.