What a friend we have in Jesus All our sins and griefs to bear What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. ♪ What peace we often forfeit ♪
♪ Oh, what needless pain we bear
♪ ♪ All because we do not carry ♪
♪ Everything to God in prayer ♪ ♪ Have we trials and temptations
♪ Is there trouble anywhere? never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find difference of faith? Jesus knows our every weakness. Are we weak and heavy laden? Comfort with the load of care. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Do thy friends despise
for sin? He'd take it to the Lord in prayer. In His arms He'll take and shield
thee. If you have your Bibles with
you this evening, I'd like to read from the book of Isaiah
chapter 55. Isaiah 55. O every one that thirsteth, come
ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come
ye buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for
that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth
not? Hearken diligently unto me, and
eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself
in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto
me. Here in your soul shall live,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the sure mercies
of David. Behold, I have given him for
a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.
Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations
that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord
thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for he hath glorified
thee. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call ye upon him while he is
near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous
man his thoughts. And let him return unto the Lord,
and he will have mercy upon him. and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon. For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For
as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher
than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the
rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not
thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and
bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater.
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall
not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which
I please, and it shall prosper whereto I send it. For ye shall
go out with joy, and be led forth with peace, The mountains and
the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the
trees of the field shall clap hands. Instead of the thorn shall
come up the fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the
myrtle tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an
everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. Our Holy Heavenly Father, Lord
God Almighty, we come to you this evening through your blessed
Son, Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we thank you for your
blessed word. We thank you for the abundant blessings contained in it. the blessed truth of our dear
Savior. Lord, we thank you that we are
able to come unto you through prayer. We thank you that you
take our feeble mutterings and make them perfect before the
Father. We thank you that you make intercession for us. We thank you for that blessed
covenant we just read of, a salvation sure and free. Lord, we thank you that your
word does go forth and does accomplish thy will. Lord, we ask that you would give
us ear to hear tonight, send your spirit Be with our pastor as he proclaims
the gospel. Cause the seed to go out, Lord,
and cause it to flourish according to thy perfect and holy will.
We ask that you would bless it to our hearts tonight, to those
who are listening, to those who are unable to be here. Lord, we thank you for everything
you provide, everything you've given us. You
keep us each and every day, all the day long. And we trust that you will keep
us till our time to go home. For if you do not keep us, we
will not be kept. Lord, we ask that you keep us
under the sound of the gospel. Keep us cleaving unto thee. Lord, cause our hearts to pray
unto thee continually. Let us not look to this world
for the things that we need, Lord, but only to trust you for
them. We ask for mercy and grace and
strength and wisdom to those who are weak and weary, those
who are fighting great afflictions, those who are downtrodden in
spirit. those who have physical ailments.
Lord, there are many, and you know the needs. I ask that you
be their strength and their stay, that you'd be their comfort. Lord, I pray for my children,
that you'd have mercy upon them. If it would be thy will in your
time, Lord, have mercy on our lost
loved ones. Lord, we ask that you would cause
us to do thy will. Cause us to honor and glorify
and magnify thy name here tonight. Let us enter into worship. Father, we ask that you would
continue to forgive us for all things unlike thee. And we ask that that will be
done for Christ's sake. Amen. Page 31 in our course books.
31 in our course books. ♪ When I was lost in sin and shame
♪ ♪ How Thou let me take the blame ♪ ♪ Blessed Lord, how merciful
Thou was to me ♪ ♪ When I could look down deep within and see
the sin ♪ of sin. Blessed Lord, how merciful thou
wast to me. Oh, how merciful. How merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful. Oh, how merciful, how merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful thou
art to me. A sinner lost and so helpless,
can't thou a a a a a a a Blessed Lord, how merciful thou
art to me. Oh, how merciful, how merciful,
blessed Lord, have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have
mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy
have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have
mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have
mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have
mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy
have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy
have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy
have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy
have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have
mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have
mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy
have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have
mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy have mercy ♪
And when this world ceases to be ♪ Eternal blood to speak for
me ♪ Blessed Lord, how merciful ♪ Thou art to me ♪ Oh, how merciful How merciful, blessed Lord, how
merciful Thou art to me. Oh, how merciful, how merciful,
Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou art to me. Hebrews 13, Hebrews chapter 13. You know, we're Houston Red there,
and I say 55, that's God's marketplace. How much it cost you? Nothing. You get everything for nothing.
You ain't got no money? Come on. That's the way our Lord does
things. I'm going to start reading here
in verse 8 down to verse 15. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
and today, and forever, be not carried about with divers and
strange doctrines, for it's a good thing that the heart be established
with grace, not with meats, which have not profited them that have
been occupied therein. For we have an 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. BY HIM, THEREFORE,
LET US OFFER THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE TO GOD CONTINUALLY, THAT
IS, THE FRUIT OF OUR LIPS, GIVING THANKS IN HIS NAME." You know,
the first thing that it tells us is about our Lord Jesus Christ,
that He's always the same, never changes. He's immutable. Never
changes. He's the same today. Always has
been, always will be. Never changes. And since he's
the same, yesterday, today, and forever, don't be carried about
with divers and strange doctrines. Free will is a strange doctrine.
144,000 going to heaven is a strange
doctrine. Being saved by law is a strange
doctrine. And it's a good thing that the
heart be established with grace. The heart, what you are, established
by the grace of God. Let it be established with grace.
Not with meat, not with what you eat, which have not profited
them, been occupied therein. And that's what you know, and
we have an altar. We have an altar, that's what
I want to deal with tonight, that they have no right to eat
which serves the tabernacle. All that was under the law, and
I mean when I'm talking about the law, I'm talking about the
first five books of Moses. Everything that was under the
law, Christ was a shadow, it was just a shadow of our Lord
Jesus Christ, just typical of our Lord, and He is the substance
He's the fulfillment of all that was typical. The Old Testament
had many, many types of our Lord Jesus Christ in it. You know,
when you take everything that was done that was typical under
the law, for Christ is the substance of it. You know, instead of the
shadow, He's the very image. When we talk about the law and
the tabernacle, the entire system of worship that our great God
appointed for Israel was only TYPICAL. The REALITY of it, the
SUBSTANCE of it, is found in our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what the whole book of Hebrews is about, is setting forth Christ
in LIGHT of everything that happened under the Law, under Moses, under
all the types. You know it talked about there
that the high priest says there in verse 11, For the body of
those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high
priest for sin are burned without. Now they had a high priest, he
s our great high priest, he s one, the last one ever. They were
MANY high priests. His body, his body is the great
and more perfect tabernacle that was made without hands. that
tabernacle of the wilderness was made by hands. But Christ,
as I did, He tabernacled among us, and He was a tabernacle not
made with hands. And His one sacrifice fully and
forever accomplished that which all the offerings made under
the law could never, ever do. Look over in Hebrews 10 with
me in verse 1. Let me show you some things here.
He was that one sacrifice. You know, they got up every morning
at the tabernacle, they got up every morning, and even in the
temple, they got up every morning and they offered a lamb, offered
a lamb, a lamb without spot and without blemish, and every evening
they offered an evening sacrifice, two lambs every single day, not
counting what people brought their sacrifice, Now, those sacrifices
never put away one sin, those sacrifices with all the bloodshedding
never put away one sin. And here s what he says, For
the law, now he s talking about everything under, well, is a
shadow, just a shadow, shadow don t have no substance to it,
of good things to come. And oh, what good things to come!
Christ was good! Grace was good! The fulfillment
of it was good! everything, you know, the substance
was good, and not the very image of those things, unless with
those shadows and sacrifices, can never with those sacrifices
they offered year by year, continually, they could not make the coming
star, they could not make them perfect, they couldn't do it
because if they would have made them perfect, Would they not
have ceased to be offered? You didn't need to offer it.
If a sacrifice made you perfect, you didn't need another offering.
That's what he's saying. Because that the earth worshipers
once purged should have no conscience of sins. Should have no conscience
of sins. Now look down here in verse 11.
And this is what I'm saying. EVERY
PRIEST STANDS DAILY MINISTERING AND OFFERING OFTENTIMES THE SAME
SACRIFICES WHICH CAN NEVER TAKE AWAY SINS. BUT THIS MAN, THIS MAN This man, what man? The God-man, the Lord Jesus,
AFTER, AFTER He had outWON sacrifice for sins FOREVER sat down on
the right hand of God. They never had a seat in the
tabernacle because they never got done. Christ finished it
and sat down. Now watch this, expecting His
enemies to make His footstool. And this is what I love. For
by one offering He hath perfected You hear that? They couldn't
make the comers there unto perfect, but by his one sacrifice, one
offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now
how long are you sanctified? How long are you sanctified?
I think I said forever. I won't be no more sanctified
and not get into glory than I am right now. You know why? Because
of that one offering, that one offering. Oh my. Our Lord Jesus,
He s the FULFILLMENT, back over here in Hebrews 13, He s the
FULFILLMENT OF ALL THE VESSELS OF THE TABERNACLE. We ve went
through this so many times. He was the TRUE BRAZEN ALTAR. He was the LABOR in which you
had to WASH IN. He was the GOLDEN ALTAR of INCENSE
in which the INCENSE WENT UP. He was the CANDLESTICK that GAVE
LIGHT when you went into the TABERNACLE. He s the LIGHT of
the WORLD. He was that table of showbread,
that bread that we eat. He's a mercy seat that was behind
the veil that they offered the blood on. He was the ark of the
covenant where the law was fulfilled in. And everything about our
Lord Jesus Christ in that tabernacle pointed to Him. And there's three
things necessary, three things is necessary in the true worship
of God. First, you gotta have a tabernacle.
And what does that mean? A place of God's appointing.
You gotta have a place of God's appointing. And I tell you, God
said, make it according to the pattern. Second thing you gotta
have, you gotta have a priest. You've got to have a priest,
somebody that can offer sacrifices that God will accept and the
priest to be the one that God appointed. And then the third
thing you gotta have is a sacrifice. And our Lord Jesus Christ is
all three. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
tabernacled among us. His body was a perfect tabernacle. And oh, what a great high priest
is entered once into the holy place, having eternal redemption
for us. And he by the sacrifice of himself
put away sin once and for all in the end of the world. And
oh, my, that Christ that you were talking about there in verse I'm going to get back over here
to 13. When He says there in verse 10,
we have an altar, that Christ is the fulfillment of that altar,
that He is Himself the altar. He asked those Pharisees and
them, they said, you know, when they bring a gift, they thought
the gift was greater than the altar. He said, what's greater,
the gift or the altar that sanctifies it? Now, which is greater, what
we bring, or the ALTAR on which sanctifies us? And I tell you,
Christ sanctifies. Ain't that what it says there
in verse 12 here? Hebrews 13, we're for Jesus,
that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, with His
own blood. He sanctifies the people with
His own blood. So by Him, it says in verse 15,
by Him, therefore, let us offer, and this is what His, He calls
this a sacrifice, the sacrifice of praise, sacrifice of praise
to God continually, the fruit of our lips giving thanks in
His name. And you know, it says there in
verse 10, We have an altar, and those that have no right to eat,
we serve the tabernacle. Those who have, you know, when
you try to receive something from God apart from the Lord
Jesus Christ, you've got no right to this altar. You've got no
right to it whatsoever. That's why Paul said, Stand fast
in the liberty wherewith you've been made free. Why would you
go back under BONDAGE when Christ has already set you free? And
let me go through a few things here with you tonight. God's
people has always had an altar, and every single one of them
was a picture and a type of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we're
going to be in Genesis for a while, so turn to Genesis chapter 8.
Genesis chapter 8, the Lord's people, God's people's always
had an altar, always had an altar. Always had an altar. And Christ
is our altar. But look what it says here about
Noah. It says here in verse 20, God
told Noah, go forth out of the ark, you and your sons and your
sons' wives with you. And look what it says, and Noah,
when he got off that ark with his sons and his wives and his
sons' daughters, Noah built an altar unto the LORD, and offered
every clean fire and burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled
a sweet savor, and the LORD said in his heart, You know, let me
tell you the first thing Noah did when he got off that ark,
And there was only eight souls saved. You know what the first
thing most folks would have done when they got all there? We need
to build us a house. We need someplace to live. We
got to have someplace to keep us in out of the rain if it ever
rains again. We need to build us a shelter.
But no, he never thought about a house. He never thought about
a place to live. He never thought about building
a house. He never thought about any of it. The first thing he
did after the flood was not build a house for himself. but to erect
an altar, to make an altar, and I tell you what, and he erected
that altar, you know, he erected that thing right after the flood,
right after the judgment of God, and I tell you what, in all things,
he must have the preeminence. It was an altar of thanksgiving,
and oh, I tell you, through our Lord Jesus Christ, all praise
is acceptable to him. And look what he said in verse
one of Genesis 9. God bless Noah and his sons. The first thing he did, I've
got to have a place to worship God! I need an altar so I can
call on God. I need an altar to give thanks
unto God. I need an altar to offer praise
unto God. He saved me. He put me in this
heart and he saved me from his wrath and his judgment. He said,
I gotta have an altar. First thing I wanna do is I wanna
worship God. I'm so grateful to be saved by
God and his grace. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. And God blessed his sons. And
a fella tells me all the time, and next time he says it, I'm
going to tell him. I try to be as kind as I can. But a fella tells me all the
time, said, blessings to you. The Lord bless you. and it says
that to me all the time, and I'm one of these times when we'll
say, You know, I've got every blessing that God has for me.
I get blessed from the time I get up in the morning, I get blessed
through the night, I get blessed every day, all day long. You
know why? Because all my blessings are
in the Lord Jesus Christ, huh? And they're spiritual blessings.
That's why we're interested, spiritual blessings. And oh my,
and God blessed the saints, and all of our blessings come through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now I'll tell you, a lot of folks
think they can earn a blessing, they can do something to get
a blessing. God only blesses and only has ever blessed anybody
for Christ's sake. I'll tell you what, could you
see me doing something that God would have to bless me for doing? You think about that! How good
would it have to be for God to bless you for something you've
done? It would have to be PERFECT! So that's why I said all blessings
are in heavenly places in Christ. All spiritual blessings are in
Christ. And oh, now, that's old Noah
building an ark. Look over in Genesis 17. Look in Genesis 17,
excuse me, verse 12, I'm sorry, chapter 12, I'm sorry, I've got
ahead of myself here. Chapter 12, look down in verse 7, here s
about Abraham, this is one called a friend of God, this is who
God made a covenant with. And the LORD appeared unto Abram,
and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land, and watch what
happens, and there builded he an altar unto the LORD who appeared
to him. After God heard him, God brought
him out, and the first thing he did when he got into the Promised
Land, that's Canaan, when he got into Canaan, and he actually
entered Canaan, that Promised Land that God said, I'm going
to break this land to be yours forever and ever. The first thing
he did was build an altar to the Lord that appeared unto him.
You know, it said over in Acts 17, it says there, when the God
of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he dwelt in Mammoth,
Mesopotamia. And oh my, he built an altar
to the Lord that appeared unto him. Now you know when only way
that God appears unto us is through our Lord Jesus Christ. He reveals
himself to us through our Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell you,
God only appears to us in His blessed Son. And this is something
people don't understand. Every time God appeared to anybody
in the Old Testament, and God spoke to anybody in the Old Testament,
it was through the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, when we get to Heaven,
the only person we're going to see is going to be the Lord Jesus
Christ. You know, He only appears to
men in Christ, and He only speaks to men in Christ. And one of
these days, He's going to take US into the Promised Land, and
God's promises in Christ are, first of all, they're yea. Yes,
every promise is right. And He said, All the promises
of God are in Christ Jesus. They're yea! Oh, yes, they are! And then you say, Amen, because
ain't nothing else to say about it. Nothing else to say about
it. All right, now let me show you
one in Genesis 26. You know, you start out with
Noah, and these are men that God called in Genesis 26, 25. Here's Isaac, here's Isaac. Look down at verse 25. Well,
let's read verse 24 first. And the
LORD appeared unto him that same night, and said, I am the God
of Abraham thy father. Fear not, for I am with thee,
and I will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's
sake. And watch what he said, he built
an altar there, and look what happens now. Over there he gave
thanksgiving, Noah did, praise for the grace of God given. Abraham
got into the promised land, and he built an altar there. and
because God appeared to him. Here he said, he called upon
the name of the Lord and he built an altar. This is the first place
you called upon the name of the Lord. Oh my. And you know what? It's talking
about calling on the name of the Lord. That means beloved
that God almighty, that's who he calls him. And this tells
us that an altar is a place of prayer. Altar is a place of prayer. And you know, God only hears
our prayers. Our prayers don't care how good
they are, how bad they are, that he only, only hears our prayers
for Christ's sake. He only hears our prayers for
Christ's sake. And there's times that you cannot
do nothing, nothing, but just sigh or groan. That's all you can do. You can't
do anything else. We dealt with that Wednesday
night when, when God, we, the Holy Spirit makes intercession
with groanings that can't be uttered. We have times that we
don't know what to say. We don't know how to act. We
don't know how to articulate what goes on in our heart. And
all we can say is, Oh, God! Oh, God! Oh, God, be our strength! Oh, God, we need you! And God
takes, the Holy Spirit takes the things that we have and takes
them to God and interprets them for Him, makes them acceptable.
I love what Scott Richardson used to say. He said, God would
not touch you with a hundred-foot pole apart from Christ, and will
not let you come to Him without Christ. And I tell you, all of
our prayers, whether they're long, pretty prayers or they're
just groans, if they're just tears, if they're just praise,
if they're just say, Bless the Lord! And I've said sometimes,
and I know you do too, and you'll hear something, somebody say
something or something, a tear come to your eye and a tear come
into your heart, and you'll say, Oh, Lord, bless your name. That's
all you can say, Lord, bless your name. And who makes that
acceptable? It's coming from flesh, it's
coming from a human being. Who makes it acceptable? Christ
does. Ain't you grateful He does that?
Oh my. Now I'll tell you. Oh, he built
an altar there and called, called, oh. Whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. And that word calling
means call and call and call, not call just one time and call
upon the name of the Lord. Once you start calling on him,
you never stop calling on him. You call on him all the time.
Whether you're on your job, whether you're in your bed, whether you're
in your car, there's not nobody on this planet that don't know
God that don't call on the name of the Lord all day, I mean over
and over and over and over and over again. And you know where
that altar is that we call on the name of the Lord? Christ
has our altar. Christ is our altar. Oh my. Then look over here in Genesis
33. Genesis 33, and I think it's verse 20. Yeah,
I looked down here in verse 20, last verse of this book, chapter
33. And he erected, this is Jacob, He erected there an altar and
called it Elo, Elo, He Israel. You know what that name means?
He erected an altar and called it God, the God of Israel. You know how He got His name
Israel? Back over in chapter 32, God caught ahold of Him one
night and wrestled with Him and got Him all alone and leg out of joint, hip out of
joint, and he went from being Jacob to Israel, said our Prince
of God, and he erected an altar. He erected this altar, and it
says, The God, the God of Israel. My God, is what he's saying,
and oh my, and you know when he wrote this there, do you know
that God is my God? He wrote it after Esau come at
him with 400 men, and He built this altar, and He shows us how
secure and eternally secure we are in the Lord Jesus Christ,
our altar, our altar. And I won't look at this one,
but Moses built an altar, and he called the name of it, The
Lord Our Banner, after Israel's victory over the Amalekites.
They was fighting the Amalekites, You know, and Moses stood up
on a rock, and they stood up there, and as long as he held
up his hands, Israel was defeating Amalekite. When his arms got
tired, they started losing. So those two fellas got beside
him, held his arms up. And then when they won, he said,
oh, listen, we gotta make us a banner. We gotta make us a
flag. We gotta let folks know who this victory's over. So he
said, the Lord is my banner. He's the one that I put up. Oh,
he's the banner. And oh my, then we're eternally
secure in Christ our altar. Now back over in Hebrews 13.
Let me just make a few comments. We're not gonna have to go all
over the place, but when it says Christ is our altar there in
verse 10. You know, the Israel's altar
was a material altar, made, it was made. Christ our altar, it's
a spiritual altar, it's a spiritual altar. And I tell you there's a lot
of people still use altars. You know the first person that
ever used an altar in America? Charles G. Finney, Charles Finney
was the first person to use an altar. And what he done is he
was a lawyer, and he turned into a preacher, and he thought that
all we gotta do is morally persuade people to come to an altar. And
so what he done, he took a bench, turned it around, faced it this
way, and called it a mourner's bench. Now, if you want to come
forward here and say, ìWeíll talk with you,î and they started,
thatís the first time an altar was ever used in a building.
And Charles G. Finney, and he wouldnít know
the Gospel if he met it in theóhe wouldnít know Christ if he met
Him in the middle of the road. He had no idea who Christ was. And I tell you what, he thought,
boy, all we got to do is just convince people that they got
this spark of divinity. All you got to do is just come
forth here and meet God here. God's got to come where you are.
You know, there's an old fellow, St. Malcolm Turner from England.
He put out a little thing yesterday and he says, you know, Christ
found me. Christ found ME! Instead, it s the people saying,
I found Christ! Christ wasn t lost! Christ got
to find you! He got to come find you! You
re the one that s lost! He got to come where you are!
And oh, my! So look what he said. There was
two altars in the tabernacle. Let s go through a little lesson
here. Two altars in the tabernacle. There was the brazen altar and
the altar of incense. And you can find those in Exodus
27 and also Exodus 30. Now, that brazen altar and altar
of incense, both of them, Christ is the fulfillment of both of
them. Now, the brazen altar had two uses, two uses the brazen
altar did, to sanctify that which was put upon it and to sustain
and bear up so the fire wouldn't consume it. when a fire was made
of brass so the fire wouldn't consume it when they offered
sacrifice on it. And Christ is a fulfillment of both of them.
Our altar, He as our altar, He sanctifies everything we do. He sanctifies it, He makes it
holy, He makes it acceptable. And not only that, He's the altar,
the sacrifice. Let me tell you about our Lord.
He's the altar, He's the sacrifice on the altar, And it says, by
him that everything we do is offered to God by him is acceptable
only through him. And God, let me tell you something,
as God, he's able to sanctify us and sustain us. Oh my, he himself bore our sins
on the cross. And as a man, as a man, he was
able to offer sacrifice. As a man, he's able to sustain
us, sanctify us. As a man, he is able to bear
our sins on that altar. And oh my, it says that altar
sustained, it sustains you. Our Lord Jesus Christ is our
altar. He sustained our sins. He sustains them. He sustained
our guilt. He sustained our shame. And when
that flame, you know, when they put an altar, a sacrifice on
that brazen altar, they had wood under it to burn it. They burn
it. Well, when Christ fulfilled that
judgment, you know, when the flame of God's wrath, the flame
of God's fire came on Him, You know, He consumed it. In the tabernacle, the fire consumed
the sacrifice. But when our Lord was on that
altar, our Lord, He consumed the fire. Men die and face the
judgment. Christ faced judgment and then
He died. And that makes all the difference
in the world. That's why He has perfected forever them that are
sanctified. And let me tell you something
else about the brazen altar. It was only for Israel, not anybody
else. It was only for Israel. You know
what that tells me? That Christ is only for God's
elect. His altar, that altar was only
for Israel. That tabernacle was only for
Israel. That priest was only for Israel. And Christ is only
for His elect. Christ, our sacrifice is only
for us. His altar is only for us, not
for everybody. Only one for all the people of
all of God's elect everywhere. Everywhere. Let me tell you where
that place of that altar was. When you entered the door of
the tabernacle, the first thing you saw was that brazen altar
right back there in the middle of it. But before you got to
that altar, there was a laver, and in that laver was water,
so they had to wash and clean up and wash their hands and their
feet before they could ever go into the presence of God and
offer that sacrifice. Well, listen, our Lord Jesus
Christ, He's the One, He's that Labor. When we go in the tabernacle,
the first thing we do in Christ, He WASHES us, He CLEANSES us
from all sin, from all shame, from all guilt, and then not
only that, but when you get to that brazen altar, He sustains
everything that's put on that altar. And I tell you what, you went
to these before you got into the holy place, and then there
was a veil that separated from the holiest of holies. And I
tell you what, at the very beginning, the first thing that you see,
there's no approaching God, no approaching of God apart from
sacrifice of Christ and the cleansing of Christ. We got to have Him. And I tell you what, when you
get in there in that basin altar, There's two things that they
kept going all the time, three things they kept going in Tabernacle
all the time. Once every day they changed the showbread, they
kept the candle lit, that seven golden candlestick, kept it lit
all day, every day, filled it with oil every day. And they also put apothecary,
a mixture on the altar of incense, And they kept a sacrifice burning
on that altar, brazen altar, 24 hours a day. That fire had
to be kept going. And when you went in there, there
was a sacrifice burning, the smoke burning all the time, all
the time. And I tell you, you know, perpetually
smoking, smelling with sacrifice. And oh, who do we look to perpetually? Oh, we perpetually look to the
Lord Jesus Christ. You know, He's that sweet-smelling
Savior. When we open this blessed book,
when we open this book, Christ is the sweet-smelling Savior,
and when we open this book, And if God's able to make us have
a smell, it's either life or death. And when we open this
blessed book and we start talking about our Lord and all the things
that point to Him and all the things about Him, it becomes,
oh, God says, oh, that smells so good. That smells so good. And I'll tell you, we think the
same thing. We think the same thing. That
altar of incense while it was burning, I tell you, it gave
off this wonderful fragrance. As we talk about Christ and come
to our altar, Christ, our altar, I tell you what, there's just
a sweet smell and savor unto God. God smells and said, that
smells so wonderful. That smells good, I'll accept
that. I'll accept that. Oh my, he's
that sweet smell and savor unto God. and the way into this holy
place by this brazen altar. And we can't go where God dwells
or learn of God, but by Christ, our altar. I wanna show you something. Let me look in John chapter 14. Let's look at John 14, talking
about, you know, going before God. And that brazen altar, we
gotta have that brazen altar. And Christ is that altar in John
14. And look down here at verse... He said, our Lord said in verse
four, He said, I'm going away, I'm going away. And Thomas said
in verse five, saith unto him, Lord, we don't know where you're
going. We don't know where you're going.
How can we possibly know the way? But we don't know where
you're going. If you was going to Galilee,
we know how to get over there. If you're going to Nazareth,
we know how to get over there. You go to Capernaum, we know
how to get over there. You go to Jerusalem, we know
how to get there. But you said you're going away. You said you're going away. He
said, Lord, we know not where you're going. How can we know
the way? Our Lord said unto him, I'm the way. You want to go where
I am? I'm the way to get there. And the truth of it is, I'm the
truth. If you wanna get to where I am.
And I'm life, I'm life. If you wanna get to where I am,
I'm life. Oh my, and look what he says.
No man, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. Oh, and listen to what he says
now. And then, if you had known me, you should have also known
my father. And Philip saith unto him, verse
eight, Lord, show us the father, and it'll satisfy him. Our Lord
said unto him, have I been so long time with him? Yes, that's
not known me, Philip. He that hath seen me hath seen
the father. Oh my. That's how, you know,
the only way we see God's in Christ. The only way we can approach
God's in Christ. And he's our altar by which we
approach him. Oh, my. That's the only place
we can go. I'll tell you, I got to hurry.
I got to hurry, hurry, hurry. I got to get on with this. That
altar, let me tell you about that brazen altar. It was four
square. It was four square. There's churches up in Indiana.
They're called four square, ain't they, Steve? That means, boy,
that if you go there to worship, you're going to walk the straight
and narrow, and they'll see to it. But oh, this altar was four
square. Measurement was just exactly
right, the same way all the way around, same way. And everything
about our Lord Jesus Christ is ORDERED, ARRANGED by infinite
wisdom. There's no imperfection in it,
no imbalance in Him. There's no excess in Him, no
lack in Him. Oh, he had stability and endurance. There was a balance in him. No
overrunning, no overturning. Oh, everything was perfect in
him. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. And then
it talked about there's horns, four horns on those hogs. One
over here, one on that corner, one on this corner. You know,
horns, horns represent power, power, power. And that's why he represents
horns. And our Lord Jesus Christ said, All power is given unto
me, both in heaven and earth. Thou hast given him power over
all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou
hast given him. He is the only one who has the
power to give life to a man and make him live. He's the only
one who has the power to make a man acceptable to God. He's
the only one who makes a soul acceptable. Nothing, nothing
that a man can do can make him unacceptable once Christ makes
him acceptable. Can't do it. And let me tell
you two other things about it. I got to hurry. That material was made out of
sheetum wood. That brazen altar is made out
of two materials. Sheetum wood, that's a wood that
would not rot. Would not rot. And then they
overlaid it with gold. Now the sheetum wood speaks about
our Lord's humanity. His humanity. Nothing wrong with
him. Perfect, perfect. And then they
put the gold on top of it. I mean, excuse me, not the gold,
but the brass, the brass on top of it. That speaks of our Lord's
power and His glory and His endurance and His ability to suffer on
our behalf. That was His sinless humanity
and the brass kept the wood from being consumed by the fire. And
let me tell you what our Lord endured. He endured day and night
in that fire. Our Lord endured the cross. Our
Lord endured the shame. Our Lord endured sin. Our Lord
endured being forsaken and hated and betrayed of men. Our Lord
endured of God forsaken Him. Our Lord endured God's wrath. And our Lord endured the curse
of the law. He endeared it. And I tell you
what, that's why I call He is our brazen altar. He is our altar.
And then He's our altar of incense, wood and gold, the same way.
And it was in the holy place. And they put that incense on
there and it's ascended up constantly as the prayers of our Lord does.
And let me ask you one question here, one question. Would we ever, ever dare to offer
God or go to God to offer God anything without an altar, anything
at all? Would we dare offer anything
to God without Christ? He said, I won't even accept
your praise apart from Him. I won't accept your praise. And
over in 1 Peter 2, 5 it says that we make spiritual sacrifices. Spiritual sacrifice. Sacrifices
we offer are spiritual. Just giving thanks. Just giving
thanks. God said that's a sacrifice. Giving Him praise. He said that's
a sacrifice. Can you believe that? That God
says that we praise in Him. He said that's an acceptable
sacrifice through the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, our works, our duty, our
good character, oh, we don't bring anything, but we come to
God through Christ, and Christ is the only altar that God will
accept us on. And I thank God that Christ is
our altar, that we don't have to come to a piece of wood, we
don't have to come to a particular place, we don't have to get in
a particular posture before we can pray. before we can pray. And how many times have you prayed
sitting in a service like this? Offered thanks and praise sitting
right here. Thank you, Lord. Bless you, Lord. Oh, God, thank
you for that word. Thank you for speaking to me.
Thank you for all touching my heart. It's offered on that altar of
Christ. And God said, I'll take that. I'll take that. I'll take
that, I'll take that. All right. Oh, blessed, blessed, blessed,
blessed God in heaven. How blessed, how glorious, how
wondrous is thy ways. Lord, we, oh, I would to have
the ability, I would to have the wisdom and the understanding
to actually take your word and use it the way it ought to be
used. It brings all the glory to you. Oh, Lord, instead of
a faltering tongue, a tongue that would never falter, Lord,
we just don't have the ability to deal with the things of Christ
the way that he's worthy to be dealt with. But Lord, we're not
going to quit trying. We're going to keep on trying.
We're going to keep on laboring, going to keep on preaching, going
to keep on talking about him, keep on presenting him as our
all in all. He's our altar that you makes
us acceptable, our prayers acceptable. It's by him that we offer these
sacrifices. And Lord, bless these dear saints
of God. And Lord, our brothers and sisters
that's traveling, that's traveling, and Lord, people we love so dearly
that's traveling now, see them safely back home. Please allow
them to come back home and come in and worship with us. And we
pray for Fran and her two sons and their families, grandchildren,
that you'd please be merciful to her. Tomorrow, as she goes
under the knife, that, Lord, you'd protect her and that you'd
raise her up, that you'd be pleased to save her through this. And
if she don't make it, Lord, she has a blessed hope in our Lord
Jesus Christ. God bless these dear saints.
Bless our brothers and sisters in Christ, wherever they are.
Thank you for the gospel. Thank you for Christ. Thank you
for the blood. Thank you for this glorious gospel
of Christ. We bless you and praise you in
Christ's name, amen, amen. ♪ Jesus Christ is made to me
♪ All I need, all I need ♪ He alone is all my plea He is all I need. Wisdom, righteousness, and power. Holiness forevermore. My redemption full and sure. He is all I need. And he really, really, really,
really is. Ain't he? See you Wednesday night,
God willing. Good night, God bless you.