Open with me to Hebrews 13. Hebrews
chapter 13. Got some sad news yesterday. Everyone here knows Gary Dunham. They came here for a long time.
He died Friday night and passed away. He had Lou Gehrig's disease. Got it and didn't know he was
sick even. We're very sorry for him, his
family, his wife, and his sons, and his grandchildren. He had
grown grandchildren, and very, very sorry for them, and heartaches
for them. So you remember Wilma and their
two boys, Ethan and Jason. Is it Jason? And they got three. I know that Ethan's got three
kids, I think. Jason's got a couple. Sad, sad
day for them. All right. I'm going to read
the 13th chapter here, down to verse 15. Let brotherly love continue.
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have
entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds
as bound with them and them which suffer adversities being your
all selves also in the body. And that's what we're, that's
what, that's what us getting under the feeling for Wilma and
those, those kids and grandkids, that's exactly what that means.
They're in, they're under a heavy load and they're, they're bound
down by suffering, and remember them. Marriage is honorable and
all, and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God
will judge. Let your conversation be without
covetousness, and be content with such things as you have,
for He has said, I'll never leave thee, nor forsake thee, so that
we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear
what man shall do unto me. Remember them which have the
rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose
faith follow, considering the end or the culmination of their
conversation or their life. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday
and today and forever. That should be our conversation. That's our manner of life. That's
the faith that we follow. Be not carried about with divers
and strange doctrines, for it is a good thing that the heart
be established with grace, not with meats which have not profited
them that have been occupied therewith. We have an altar,
whereof they have no right to eat, which serves a 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. were for Jesus also that he might
sanctify the people with his own blood. They took him outside
the gate, nailed him to a cross. Let us go forth therefore unto
him without the camp, without religion, without tradition,
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 to his name. With me again to Hebrews 13.
Dirk Smith just gave this to me. It
says, Visitation for Gary is at one o'clock today at the Lane
Funeral Home. That's in Spencer. and he's going
to be buried in Cagle, Tennessee. So 3 o'clock to 1 o'clock visitation
today at Lane Funeral Home in Spencer. All right, let's look
together here in Hebrews 13. I want to say just a few things
about... I want to talk about an altar
today. I want to talk about an altar. You remember when we believed
in what they called the old-fashioned way. old-fashioned way. You know, the old-fashioned way
was going to an altar. Old-fashioned altar. People would
come and they'd gather around an altar. And you know, the whole
church sometimes would come, gather around it, and everybody
would pray at the same time. Everybody would just be praying
and hollering and carrying on. And then, you know, and somebody
asked you, say, how'd the service go? Well, so-and-so came to the
altar, you know, and And every one of us has experienced that
to some degree, every one of us have. And when God saves us
from such traditions and such unscriptural practices, other
people come to you and say, yeah, condemn you and say, well, they
don't even have an altar now. When they took out the altar,
God went with it. Like God's in a piece of wood
or God's in a bench or something, or God's up here. And I tell
you what, and they ask this question. I've had them ask me this question,
and I'd probably ask you the same thing. How do you get people
saved without an altar? How in the world is anybody gonna
get saved if they ain't got no place to go? If you don't give
them a place to go. But look what it says in verse 10.
Oh, they have a wood altar, made out of wood, but we have a spiritual
altar. And look what it says in verse
10. We have an altar. We have an altar. And that altar
is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And they that serve the law,
those that go under works, those that go under merit, those that
go under the law in any way, any way in the world to come
before God other than through the Lord Jesus Christ, they have
no right to eat or come and partake of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
everything that was done under the law, done under Moses, was
just shadows. They were shadows. Shadows of
good things to come, but shadows don't add no substance to them.
But Christ is the substance of those shadows. Those shadows
from the Old Testament pointed to Christ who is the substance
of the New Testament, substance of everything under the law.
And everything under the law was typical. And our Lord Jesus
Christ is the substance. And He is the fulfillment of
everything that was typical under the law. I mean, He was typical
of the law in the sense that He was all the sacrifices, all
the ceremonies, and all the rituals. and even the tabernacle and everything
that was in it. The entire system of worship
that God appointed for Israel was just typical. It's a picture
of our Lord Jesus Christ. The reality of it, the substance
of it, is found in our Lord Jesus Christ. All of it pointed to
Him. You know, He's the Great High Priest. He is one. They had lots of them. He's just
one. His body is the greater and more
perfect tabernacle than that made with hands, and His is made
without hands. And the Lord Jesus Christ, all
the sacrifices that was offered under the Old Testament, never
put away sin. His one sacrifice forever put
away sin once and for all, for all for whom He died. And He's
the fulfillment of all the vessels that was in the tabernacle. You
take the brazen altar, he's the fulfillment of that. You take
the laver where the priest had to worship before they could
go in. And there's the golden altar of incense where the incense
went up. And the mercy seat, he himself
is our mercy seat. And that Ark of the Covenant
where the law was kept and fulfilled, the law's kept and fulfilled
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me tell you something.
There's three things necessary, and you can tell any Jew this.
If you ever meet a Jew in New York City or here or anywhere
else, and they talk about going to their synagogue or something
or whatever it is, there's three things that you've got to have
if you're going to approach God. First of all, you've got to have
a tabernacle. You've got to have a place that God Himself appointed
to meet you. You got to have a place that
God said, this is where I'll meet you. And under the old law,
under the covenant of the law, they had one place, the tabernacle.
And God's tabernacled among us were at, and his blessed son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. God come and dwelt among us,
tabernacled among us. You got to have a tabernacle.
And God said, forsake, you know, do it according to the pattern.
And the second thing, not only do you have to have a place that
God appointed, but you got to have a priest that God appointed. You got to have a priest. You
can't approach God by yourself. Somebody else got to approach
Him for you. And that's why they had a priest. And they had a
priest, and they would take the offerings and make the offerings
too. And the third thing you got to have, is a sacrifice. And so if you brought a sacrifice,
the priest offered it, and you had to go to the place God said.
And our Lord Jesus Christ is all three of these. He's the
tabernacle of God among men. He's our great high priest, not
only to appear in the holy place, but in the heaven itself. now
to appear in the presence of God for us. And he is that one
final sacrifice to which all sacrifices pointed to. He is
that. He's all three of them to us.
We come to Christ, that's the place we meet. God meets us in
Christ. We have a great high priest. What did he offer? He
offered himself without spot to God. That's what he did. And
our Lord Jesus is the fulfillment of the altar, and He Himself
is the altar. You know what He said in Matthew
23, verse 19? He said, does the gift sanctify the altar, or does
the altar sanctify the gift? When you bring a gift, you bring
a sacrifice to the altar. Does that sacrifice sanctify
that altar and make it the altar itself make it sanctified? No.
It's the altar that sanctifies the gift, the giving. And our
Lord Jesus Christ, He Himself has to sanctify us and He does
sanctify us on His blessed altar. He sanctifies us with His own
blood. And that's why I said down here
in verse 15, look at this. Oh, we come with a sacrifice.
We come with a sacrifice. And He sanctifies our sacrifices. It says, By Him, therefore, let
us offer the sacrifice of praise continually. That is the fruit
of our lips, using our mouth to thank Him, to praise Him,
to bless Him. And that's what He do. Let's
by Him we offer. And those who keep the law, the
ceremonies, Moses' tabernacle, have no right to receive nothing
from God. And Paul told the Galatians,
he said, you that are circumcised, you that are trying to be cleaned
by the law and being accepted by the law, Christ shall profit
you nothing. Now you think about that. Christ
profits you nothing. His blood don't profit you nothing.
His righteousness don't profit you nothing. His sacrifice don't
profit you nothing. His intercession don't profit
you nothing. Anything about Him does not profit you nothing.
If you try to be justified any other way than through our Lord
Jesus Christ. All right, now let me tell you
this. Here's my first point. God's people, God's people have
always had an altar. And every one of those altars
picture our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm gonna show you the first
altar mentioned in the scriptures. Genesis 8.20. Here's the first
altar. And all these altars, I'm gonna
mention a lot of them. In Genesis 8.20, every one of
these altars mention and picture our Lord Jesus Christ and point
to Him. Genesis 8.20. God's people's
always had an altar and they all picture our Lord Jesus Christ.
Look in Genesis 8, 20. Now, Noah just got off the ark.
Noah just got off the ark. He'd been on that ark, and he'd
been riding out that flood, and he stayed on that ark a long
time for the water to go down. And when he got off that ark,
look what the first thing he did, look what it said, didn't
build him a house. Didn't build him a place to live. The first
thing he did was this, and Noah built an altar unto the Lord
and took of every clean beast and of every clean fowl and offered
burnt offerings on the altar. And listen to this, and the Lord
smelled a sweet savor. That's the first thing Noah did
when he got off that ark, was to build an altar. And I tell
you what, in all things, and this shows us that our Lord Jesus
must in all things have the preeminence. And that was an altar, you know,
and he had this altar of thanksgiving, this altar of praise. And we're
only accepted through our Lord Jesus Christ, and our praise
is only accepted through him. And the scripture said over in
Genesis 9-1 that God blessed the sons of Noah. And you know,
God only blesses us. through His blessed Son. Everything
that God did for Noah was because of those sacrifices in that altar.
And everything God does for us, He does through our Lord Jesus
Christ. And He blesses us because of our Lord Jesus Christ, our
altar. Now Abraham had an altar. The first altar he built is when
God first appeared to him. He went into Canaan. He left
Chaldea and he actually entered into Canaan. and the Lord appeared
unto him. And you know the first thing
he did after the Lord appeared unto him? He built an altar to
the Lord, and this is what he said, he built an altar, set
up an altar unto the Lord that had appeared to him. And I tell
you, beloved, if you ever go, God's ever gonna appear to you,
ever gonna make himself known to you, you're gonna have to
have this altar. And I tell you, God appeared
to him. He said, oh, listen, God appeared to me. I've got
to have a worship. God appeared to me. I'm going
to worship the Lord. And oh my, bless his name. And
it was the Lord, and God only appears to men. God only appears
to men. And I know a lot of people thinks
different things, but I tell you, God only appears to men
in Christ. And we're in the promised land
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And God's promises are in the
Lord Jesus Christ. They're yea and they're amen.
And I'm gonna show you another at Genesis 26. Here's another
altar. God's people's always had an
altar. And all these altars prefigured our Lord Jesus Christ. Genesis
26 and 25. This is Isaac. You know Abraham, Noah had an
altar. Abraham had an altar. And he
had an altar continually there in memory. And then here's Isaac
has an altar and we'll go and see that Jacob had an altar.
And look what it says in verse 25. And he built an altar there
and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there. And I'll tell you there, he built
an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord. The altar
was the place of prayer. That's where he gathered there
to pray. He had an altar and he sought the Lord. And I tell
you, as Christ is our altar, God only hears us. God only hears
us through our Lord Jesus Christ. He won't hear us any other way.
And God only speaks to us, hears us, appears to us through our
Lord Jesus Christ who is our altar. And I tell you, Jacob,
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whom the promises were, he erected
an altar. You know, God appeared unto him
and wrestled with him, and then he built in an altar. And you
know when he, and the name of that altar was, he says, to the
God, the God of Israel. That's what he named his altar,
God, the God of Israel. And you know when he built this
altar? When Esau met him coming back, when he was going back
home, Esau had 400 armed men. He said, I'm surely going to
die now. I'm going to die. Esau's going to kill me. He's
going to slay me. But Esau didn't do that. Him
and Esau had a wonderful fellowship, a wondrous thing. But he was
saved from Esau. And I tell you, this shows us,
after he built that altar, how secure we are. Eternally so in
our Lord Jesus Christ, our altar. I mean, there's no way all of
our enemies can meet us, but they can't get to us. And God
saves us from all of our enemies. And Moses built an altar when
there was a, they was fighting the Malachites. You remember,
as long as Moses held up his arms, they'd win the battle.
And when he got weak and he let his arms down, then the Malachites
began to win. So Joshua and Caleb got on either
side of him, held up his arms, and they whipped the Malachites.
And then after that was done, Moses built an altar, and you
know what he called it He says the Lord our banner the Lord
held us up the Lord was our banner That's our banner before the
man that was our banner before Israel's back victory over the
malachite is what he named that altar the Lord's my banner and
Only through Christ our Lord Jesus Christ Do we overcome our
spiritual enemies? We can't overcome our own flesh
much less a spiritual enemy Now second point, so all of God's
peoples always had an altar. You go through the Old Testament,
I've mentioned to you five altars, five altars. All of them had
something to say about our Lord Jesus. And now it said Christ
is our altar. Ain't that what it says there
in Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 10, Christ our altar. The Israelites'
altar was material, made out of stone, Our altar is spiritual. And there was two altars in the
tabernacle. Two altars. Two altars. There was the brazen altar. When
you went in the tabernacle, there was a laver there. And those
priests washed their hands and they washed their feet before
they came even to that brazen altar. And then there they come
and there's this brazen altar. And they would bring their sacrifices
to that brazen altar, and they'd kept a fire going, continue,
and they'd brought for their sacrifices, and the fire would
consume that sacrifice on that brazen altar. And then when you
went into the, before you went into the holy place, the holiest
of holies, there was an altar of incense. little golden altar. And every day they'd mix oil
and this apothecary and all these spices and things, they'd mix
them up and they kept a fire in it all the time, they'd sprinkle
that on there. And what that means is the intercession,
the sweet smell that went up in that altar when they kept
that altar of incense going, that was the prayers, that was
the sweet smelling savor of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so our
Lord is the fulfillment of both of these, and let me show you
how it is. The brazen altar had two uses. You use the brazen
altar for two things. First of all, to sanctify the
offering that was put on it. To make it acceptable. If you
offered a sacrifice anywhere else, it was unacceptable. It
had to be brought and put on that brazen altar. And so He
sanctified it and made it holy and made it acceptable. And the
second use of that brazen altar was that it had the ability to
sustain the weight of the sacrifice and also sustain the fire that
was on that sacrifice. And bear it up while the fire
was consuming that sacrifice, but it never hurt the altar.
And our Lord Jesus, He is our altar that sanctifies us. He
is the altar, He's the sacrifice on the altar, and it's by Him
that whatever is offered to God by Him is acceptable. And not
only is God able to sanctify, but also to stain it. You know,
now you think about this. They had to sustain that when
the fire fell on that, when the fire was burning that sacrifice.
It sustained that sacrifice and it is able to sustain and not
burn, just consume the sacrifice. But the altar stayed there. And
He Himself bore our sins, able to sustain our sins. And as a
man, He is able to be our sacrifice for us. And He sustained our
sins. He sustained our guilt. He sustained
our shame as God's fire and God's wrath fell on Him. He sustained
them. Men die, and listen to this.
I got this from Scott Richardson years ago. Men die and face the
judgment. Christ faced the judgment and
then He died. And this is how He perfected
forever them for whom He suffered for. Now look over here in Hebrews
10. Look in Hebrews 10 verse 14. Not only did He, you know, be able to bear that
sacrifice, and there's a sacrifice of sin offering, a sacrifice,
but He was able to sustain it. And look what He said here in
Hebrews 2.14, for by one offering, He has perfected forever them
that are sanctified. And not only that, but He sustained
us. He sustained our sins. We couldn't
sustain them. We can't sustain one of them.
But not only did He, when God's fire fell on Him, He sustained
it. He consumed the fire. Still the
fire consuming the sacrifice on the altar of our Lord Jesus
Christ. He consumed that fire. Himself
and here's something that brazen altar was only for Israel and
Israel alone and Christ is only for his elect and his elect alone You know it was he was only for
Israel well this altar is only for God's Israel God's elect
Now let me tell you there's the altar as the brazen altar And
then there's the altar of incense. But look at the place where this
altar was. Not only was it a brazen altar, it had two things to bear
up the sacrifice and sustain it. And you know when the place
of this altar was when you entered the door of the tabernacle. The
first thing you saw right in front of you was that brazen
altar. That's the first thing you saw.
That's where the altar of the burnt offering was. And there
was the laver right to the side of it. And you went past these
two before you got to the holy, holy place where the veil separated
men from that mercy seat. And at the very beginning, when
you first go into that tabernacle, at the very beginning, we learned
that there's no approach to God apart from the sacrifice of Christ. And also that labor that was
there to show us that there is no cleansing apart from our Lord
Jesus Christ. No cleansing. We won't be clean.
And so that's when the first thing you see, there's that altar.
And that's where you wash. And you got to wash. That altar
is where you're washed. And that's where you're accepted
of God. And that's where you're cleansed by the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is just the outer court.
That's where the court, that brazen altar. And when you went
in there, it perpetually, perpetually smoked. It kept a fire on it
24 hours a day, seven days a week, 360 days a year, 365 days a year. And they'd done that year after
year after year, perpetually smoking. And when you went in
there, you smelt a sacrifice. You smelled the sacrifice. They
had a morning sacrifice of lamb and an evening lamb. And during
the rest of the time, there was men who felt their sin and their
guilt. They would bring a sacrifice. They'd bring an offering. And
oh, it perpetually smoked and it smelled and was sacrificed. And beloved, I'm telling you,
we perpetually, perpetually, continually, constantly look
to the Lord Jesus. He is the sweet smell and savor
to God, and He's the sweet smell and savor to us. Smells good
to us. And the way, the way to the most
holy place was by this brazen altar. And we can't go where
God dwells, and we can't learn of God except through our Lord
Jesus Christ, our altar. You know, our Lord Jesus says
this. He said, I'm the way. There's no other way you can
come. I'm the way. I'm the way. And I'm the truth. There ain't no truth that you
can know about God, know about God's Word, know about yourself,
know about sin, know about sacrifice, know about altars, know about
seraphim. There's nothing in the world that you can know about
truth of God apart from me. And there's no life that you
can have. You lost life in Adam, there's
no life that you can have from God, from me, or anybody else,
except I give you that life. And then the next thing he says,
that no man, since I'm the way, I'm the truth, and I'm the life,
no man, no man can come unto the Father but by me, but by
me. And I tell you, beloved, we can't
go where God is until we learn about God from Christ, and He's
our altar, and He does that for us. Let me tell you something
else about this altar. The altar was four square, four
square. It's equal on all four sides,
and equal the height and the squareness of it. was perfect. It was the same height, same
width, same length. Everything was perfect. Perfect
all around. Even measurement. And the measurement
was just right. And everything about our Lord
is just right. Perfect. God ordered this everlasting
covenant and it's assured. And everything about our Lord
Jesus and salvation was arranged. by the infinite wisdom of God.
No imperfection in the Lord Jesus, none whatsoever. No imbalance
in Him. No imbalance in Him. There's
no excess, like there was no excess on that altar. There's
no excess in Him. There's nothing lacking in Him.
And that brazen altar had stability and had endurance. And there's
an endurance and a stability about our Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the same today. He's the same yesterday. And
He's the same forever. And another thing about this
altar, there's four horns on it. It had four horns, one on
each corner. And that, of course, was to help
hold the sacrifices on there. But that speaks of power. That speaks of strength. That
speaks of ability. And those horns of power. And
what did our Lord say? All power in heaven and earth
is given unto me. God has given me power over all
flesh that I should give eternal life to as many as thou hast
given him. He alone, he alone has the power to make a man live. He alone has the power to make
a man acceptable. He alone has the power to make
a man acceptable to God, and I'm telling you this, beloved,
a soul acceptable, nothing, nothing he does can make him unacceptable
when Christ makes him acceptable. There's nothing he can do to
make him unacceptable. You say, boy, I've done some
awful things. Nothing you can do, if Christ makes you acceptable,
nothing you can do can make you unacceptable. Can't do it. You
say, well, you don't know what I think. Yes, I do. I'm a man
just like you are. And I tell you, when he makes
you acceptable, nothing, absolutely nothing, will ever make you unacceptable. And let me show you this. The
material that this altar was made out of, not all the place,
four square, but the material that they made this altar out
of, talking about Christ our altar, is made out of sheetum
wood. and is made out of sheetum wood because sheetum wood would
not rot. It would not rot. And that talks
about our Lord's sinless humanity. Sinless humanity. I mean, beloved,
our Lord Jesus Christ, He is perfect just like that wood would
not rot. Our Lord Jesus Christ is sinless
in His humanity. And then it had brass. They took
that sheetum wood that would not rot and then they put this
brass all over it. top on the horns of the altar,
they put brass all over, down this morgue, everything about
it, they covered it up with brass. And this brass kept the wood
from being consumed by the fire. And I tell you, it endured day
in and day out. So it was made out of wood that
would not rot. That's our Lord's sinless humanity.
And then it was covered with brass, and that kept the wood
from being consumed. And our Lord Jesus Christ, He
endured the cross. He endured the shame. He endured
our sin. He endured God forsaken him. He endured God's wrath. And he
endured even unto death, bearing our sins in his own body on that
tree. Endured the curse of the law.
And oh my, oh we have an altar. We have an altar. Oh, everything
in that tabernacle spoke of our Lord. Then there was this altar
of incense. It's made out of sheet and wood too. But it was
covered with gold. It's covered with gold. And that's
His humanity and His deity. And He, as they offered that
incense on there and it burned and it smelled and it made that
place smell so wonderful in there. And our Lord Jesus Christ He
makes intercession for us right now and makes us acceptable. God, when He smells anything
that we come to God through Christ in, it's made a sweet savor unto
God. Smells so good to God. God says,
oh, what a sweet smell and savor that is. When we think about
His Son, what a sweet smell and savor. When we talk about His
Son, when we read about His Son, when we come to His Son, when
we pray in His Son's name, when we confess in the Son's name,
goes up as a sweet smelling savor. Well, let me ask you some questions.
Let me ask you some questions. Do you have a spiritual altar?
Have you got a place where you can meet God and God can meet
you? Do you? Do you have a spiritual altar?
Surely, surely you don't think God can be approached by any
means or any way but Christ, do you? You don't think I was
at a place recently where they was talking about this place
right here being holy because the gospels preach that. I don't
think this place is any more holy than any place else. It's
just a place where we gather to worship and I happen to be
the one standing up here preaching. There's nothing holy about this
building. There's nothing holy about these pews. There's nothing
holy about this... pulpit of wood. The only thing
holy in this place is the people that God made holy. There's not
any place, building, or pulpit that's holy. There's none. No,
no, this place could burn down. And we're going to stand out
there and cry, oh, our holy place is burning down. The only people,
the only thing holy in this place is the people that Christ has
made holy, that Christ has made righteous. And not only do you,
surely you don't think any place, building, or pulpit is holy,
do you? And you don't think that it's certain postures. You've
got to get in a certain posture. You've got to get on your face.
You've got to get on your knees. You've got to stand with your
hands up. You've got to do something. You don't think a posture that
people have any kind of holiness or humility that will make you
more acceptable, surely not. And I know this, I know this,
if we get away from the spiritual, get away from the spiritual,
and go to the physical or material in any mode or degree, we get
away from Christ. If you have anything physical,
anything physical, anything material that you go
to, to worship, you've left Christ immediately. You left Him immediately. And I tell you what, it would
rob the crowd of His glory, it would rob our Lord of His glory.
Second, here's another question for you. Would you dare to offer
to God, bring an offering to God without an altar? Would you
dare make an offering to God without Christ? Would you dare
come to God without Christ? Would you dare come to God without
the appointed place to come? The appointed one to come to?
Surely you wouldn't come and offer your duties. You wouldn't
come and offer your works. You wouldn't come and offer your
morality. You wouldn't come and offer your good character. Those
are not sacrifices acceptable to God. Only Christ is a sacrifice
acceptable to God. And the only place we can offer
any sacrifices acceptable to God is through our Lord Jesus
Christ. We offer spiritual sacrifices.
Look over here at 1 Peter 2.5. Read over to your right. Talking about offering offerings.
Everything that we offer is a spiritual sacrifice. We can't offer anything
that we own or possess. Look what he says. You also as living stones, 1
Peter 2, 5. You also as living stones are
built up a spiritual house and a holy priesthood. Now listen
to this. To offer up spiritual sacrifices. acceptable to God by Jesus Christ
our Lord. Oh, we got an altar. Let people
have their wooden altars. Let people come and get around
on their steps and let them do what they want to do. Let them
worship the way they want to worship. But we're going to come
to God on the only place God appointed. Through Jesus Christ
our tabernacle, Jesus Christ our great high priest, And Jesus
Christ, our one and only sacrifice for sins. We're going to come
to Him that way. And He, beloved, makes us acceptable
to God. His blood sanctifies us. His
sacrifice put away our sin once and for all. One place to go.
One way to go. One way of acceptance. And that's
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Father, in the precious name
of our Lord Jesus, we thank you for the gospel. Oh, thank you
for the truth as it is in our Lord Jesus Christ. How blessed
we are to know these things. How blessed to know that our
altar is spiritual, that our sacrifices are spiritual, that
nothing this flesh can bring, nothing this flesh can do, nothing
this soul can do, except come to the Lord Jesus Christ, be
made acceptable by Him. And Lord, we bring our spiritual
sacrifice. We offer spiritual sacrifice
even now. We offer our praise. We offer
our thanksgiving. We offer the depths of our heart
and soul. We offer ourselves to You. And
Lord, You're the only one who can make us acceptable. You're
the only one who can sanctify us. The only one who can make
us where God would hear us, where God would accept us, where we
can come into His holy presence. And we thank you that you made
us to know this, to believe this, understand this, and submit to
it. We bless you and praise you in
our Lord Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.