Well, good evening, everyone.
If you would open your Bibles with me to Psalm 43. Psalm 43. As you're turning, make this
request. We have had a copy of the church
directory out there for a couple weeks for people to make changes
on and so forth. I was going to leave it out there
for one more week and make the changes and get it out to everyone. And our copies disappeared. So
if you happen to know where it's at, if you could get it back
to me, I sure would appreciate it, otherwise we'll go through
the whole process again. But it has disappeared, so we'll
get it eventually. All right, Psalm 43. Judge me,
O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. O deliver
me from the deceitful and unjust man, for thou art the God of
my strength. Why dost thou cast me off? Why
go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? Oh,
send out thy light and thy truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring
me unto thy holy hill and to thy tabernacles. Then will I
go into the altar of God. Unto God, my exceeding joy. Yea,
upon the heart will I praise thee. Oh God, my God. Now listen to verse five. This
is what a believer can say after they've been to the altar of
God. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted
within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet
praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God. All right, Sean. Okay, if you
would, turn to song number 477, and we'll sing At Calvary. Years I spent in vanity and pride,
Caring not my Lord was crucified, Knowing not it was for me He
died on Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace
was free, Pardon there was multiplied to me. There my burdened soul
found liberty at Calvary. By God's word at last my sin
I learned, then I trembled at the law I'd spurned, till my
guilty soul imploring turned to Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace
was free. Pardon there was multiplied to
me. There my burdened soul found
liberty at Calvary. Now I've given to Jesus everything. Now I gladly own him as my king. Now my raptured soul can only
sing of Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace
was free. Pardon there was multiplied to
me. There my burdened soul found
liberty at Calvary. Oh, the love that drew salvation's
plan. Oh, the grace that brought it
down to man. Oh, the mighty gulf that God
did span at Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace
was free. Pardon there was multiplied to
me. There my burdened soul found
liberty at Calvary. Okay, if you would, now turn
to song number 196. Blessed be the fountain of love
to a world of sinners revealed. Blessed be the dear son of God,
only by his stripes we are healed. Though I've wandered far from
His fold, Bringing to my heart pain and woe, Wash me in the
blood of the Lamb, And I shall be whiter than snow, Whiter than
the snow. Whiter than the snow, wash me
in the blood of the Lamb, and I shall be whiter than snow. Thorny was the crown that he
wore, And he'll cross his body o'er Cain. Grievous were the
sorrows he bore, But he suffered thus not in vain. May I to that fountain be led,
made to cleanse my sins here below. Wash me in the blood that he
shed, and I shall be whiter than snow, whiter than the snow. Whiter than the snow. Wash me in the blood of the Lamb,
and I shall be whiter than snow. Father, I have wandered from
Thee. Often has my heart gone astray. Crimson do my sins seem to me. Water cannot wash them away. Jesus, to that fountain of thine,
leaning on thy promise I go. Cleanse me by thy washing divine,
and I shall be whiter than snow, whiter than the snow. ? Whiter than the snow ? Wash me
in the blood of the Lamb ? And I shall be whiter than snow All right, for our scripture reading,
let's open our Bibles to Exodus chapter 27. Exodus 27, we'll read the first
eight verses. And thou shalt make an altar
of Chittimwood, five cubits long and five cubits broad. The altar
should be four square and the height thereof should be three
cubits. And thou shalt make the horns of it upon the four corners
thereof. His horns should be of the same
and thou shalt overlay it with brass. And thou shalt make his
pans to receive his ashes. and his shovels, and his basins,
and his flesh hooks, and his fire pans, and all the vessels
thereof, shalt thou make of brass. And thou shalt make for it a
gate, a network of brass. And upon the net shalt thou make
four brazen rings, in the four corners thereof. And thou shalt
put it under the compass of the altar, beneath, that the net
may be even in the midst of the altar. And thou shalt make staves
for the altar, staves of shidom wood, and overlay them with brass. And the stave shall be put into
the reins, and the stave shall be upon the two sides of the
altar to bear it. Hollow with boards thou shalt
make it, as it was showed thee in the mount. So shall they make
it." We'll end our reading there. Let's bow together for our Lord. Our Father, we've gathered here
together this evening out of the word, out of the world. Father,
to hear a word from thee, And Father, I pray that this evening
that you would speak to us through your word. Don't let your people
just hear the voice of a man. That would be a utter waste of
our time. But Father, I pray this evening
that you would be our teacher, that you would open up your word
to our hearts, to our understanding, to eyes of faith. And Father,
enable us to see the Lord Jesus Christ. Give us a refreshing
of one more time seeing Christ our Savior crucified for our
sin, having put away all of the sin of all of his people. Father,
we've trudged through a dry and barren land so far this week,
and we beg of you that you'd be pleased to give us a refreshing
tonight. Father, I thank you for this
place. I thank you for a place you've given to us where we can
meet together and worship. I thank you for a family of believers
that you've called together who has one heart and one desire
to hear the gospel of our Savior preached, to serve our generation
by preaching the gospel to all those that you would send our
way. Father, I beg your continued blessing be upon us. I beg that
you would be pleased to call out your people by the preaching
of your word Father, that you would continue to be with us
in the future as you have in the past, that you continue to
lead and guide and supply every need. And Father, in this difficult
day, dark, dark day where it seems there's no truth around,
there's nothing of any substance to be found. Father, we pray
for our country, we pray for Our leaders, we pray for your
mercy and grace upon this country, how we beg of thee that you would
not give us what we deserve, but Father, that you would preserve
and protect this country, the freedoms that we have so long
enjoyed, that you would preserve it for the sake of your people
here. Father, for those who are sick and afflicted or away from
us in different circumstances, Father, we pray you'd meet their
need according to your mercy and grace. We know these things
are your purpose brought for our learning, for our good. And
we know that you'll deliver from the trial as soon as it is thy
will. But Father, until then, we pray that you'd give your
people a special portion of your presence to comfort their hearts
until you see fit to bring them out of the furnace. And Father,
all these things we ask and we give thanks in that name which
is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. He was wounded for our transgressions. He bore our sins in his body
on the tree. For our guilt he gave us peace,
from our bondage gave release. And with his stripes, and with
his stripes, and with his stripes our souls are healed. He was not Transgressors, we did esteem
him forsaken by his God. As our sacrifice he died, that
the law be satisfied. And all our sin, and all our
sin, and all our sin was laid on him. We had wandered, we all
had wandered, far from the fold of the shepherd of the sheep. But he sought us where we were,
on the mountains bleak and bear, and brought us home, and brought
us home, and brought us safely home to God. Who can number his generation? Who shall declare all the triumphs
of his cross? Millions dead now live again. Myriads follow in his train. Victorious Lord, victorious Lord,
victorious Lord and coming King. All right, let's turn back in
our Bibles now to Exodus chapter 27. I've titled the message this
evening, Christ Our Altar. Our Lord begins with the instructions
for the altar in verse one of Exodus 27. And thou shalt make
an altar of shidden wood, five cubits long and five cubits broad. The altar shall be four square,
and the height thereof shall be three cubits. And thou shalt
make horns of it upon the four corners thereof, his horns should
be of the same, and thou shalt overlay it with brass." Now this
brazen altar, the altar for the sacrifice, was the first thing
that you would see when you would come in through the gate of the
tabernacle. It's the largest piece of furniture
that you find in all of the tabernacle. It's seven and a half feet square,
four and a half feet deep. And it is such an important picture
of Christ. The sacrifice of Christ is at
the very heart of the gospel. This is a very important study
to see these pictures of Christ in this altar. And the first
thing this altar tells us is this man cannot worship God without
a blood sacrifice. Like I said, when you come in
that gate of the, of the court of the tabernacle, this altar,
was the first thing that you would see. It dominated the whole
courtyard. And you couldn't go anywhere
in the tabernacle, in the courtyard or to the tabernacle building,
without going past this brazen altar, the altar of sacrifice.
You can't go to the laver to wash. You can't go into the tabernacle
and see the table of showbread and the candlestick and the golden
altar of incense, much less go through the veil into the Holy
of Holies and see the Ark and the Mercy Seat, you can't see
any of that until you first pass this altar. And that tells us
that the necessity of the sacrifice. This altar constantly had a fire
burning in it. They were constantly offering
animals on it and burning on it, their bodies on it. As you pass that, that altar,
you had to be reminded, I cannot come to God without a blood sacrifice. I cannot worship God unless I
first have a blood sacrifice. You know, salvation is not in
keeping the law. I mean, you know how important
that law was to those Jews while this, especially by the tabernacle
was being used as they went through the wilderness for those 40 years. The law was so important to them.
But salvation's not in keeping the law. All the ceremonies that
God give them, the different sacrifices and feast days and
ceremonies and things that they would go through, were so important
to those Jews. They were very strict about observing
all those ceremonies. But salvation's not in those
things. Salvation's only in the sacrifice. I cannot worship God without
a blood sacrifice. And the other thing, this brazen
altar, with its constant sacrifices being offered on it, it reveals
our sin, doesn't it? There is a need for our sin to
be put away, and the only way our sin can be put away, the
only way any sinner can be saved from our sin is through the sacrifice
that God's gonna provide. Obviously, the animal sacrifices
offered on this thing never got the job done, because they're
doing over and over and over again, We need God to provide
a sacrifice who will put away our sin. That's the first thing
that this brazen altar would tell us. The second thing it
tells us is this. God is sending an amazing man
to be the sacrifice for the sins of his people. This altar was
made with the shidom wood covered with brass. These are the materials
that become very familiar to us in our study in the tabernacle. The incorruptible wood is a picture
of the sinlessness of Jesus Christ. He had no sin. He did no sin. He was not even acquainted with
any sin. And when he died, he didn't die
for his own sin, because he had no sin of his own. He died because
the sins of his people were imputed to them. And when the sacrifice
was over, when he had suffered for All that time leading up
to the cross, his mock trial, his beating, the spitting in
his face, the mocking that they did of him as king. They nailed
him to the cross and hung him up between heaven and earth for
all to see and mocked him as he died. When the sacrifice was
complete, even then sin couldn't kill him because there was no
sin left. All the sin that had been charged
to him had been put away by his precious blood. And in order
to obey the law, that there must be death for sin, He gave up
the ghost because he had no sin of his own. And he only gave
up the ghost when he had completely put away the sin of his people.
And he became a man for that purpose so that he could suffer
and die for the likes of you and me. God can't die, but a
man can. So he became a man who could
die for the sins of his people. But then that incorruptible wood
was covered up with brass. Look at Psalm 89. There are several passages we
could have turned to, but I like this one to show us what this
brass is a picture of. Brass is known for its strength.
Psalm 89 verse 19. Then thou spakest in vision to
thy holy one, and saidest, I have laid help upon one that is mighty.
I have exalted one chosen out of the people. I have laid help
upon one that is mighty. That's what this brass is a picture
of. The Lord Jesus Christ is mighty
to save. He's mighty to save because He
is God. He has the power to save because
He's God. He has the right to save because
He's God. You know, all of our sin is against
God, isn't it? Well, the only one that can forgive
our sin is God. Jesus Christ is God. He has the right to save. He
has the power to save. This one who's coming, this is
what this altar tells us, the one who's coming is mighty to
save. And that makes me so happy. I
need a mighty savior, don't you? This is what I've learned about
my sin nature. It's too strong for me. I can't
conquer it. I can't do anything with it.
It can't do anything but sin. I need someone to come who's
stronger than my sin nature and put my sin away and override
my sin nature. Justice, God's justice has a
strong claim on me. God's justice would demand I
spend eternity in hell because eternity suffering. wouldn't
even put away one of my sins. I need one to come who's mighty
to save. And this altar tells us that's
who's God sending. He's not sending a boy to do
a man's job. He's sending someone with the
strength to save. And they covered this altar with
brass. Good thing they did because 7
1/2 feet by 7 1/2 feet by 4 1/2 feet deep, you can build a mighty
big fire. That's going to be hot. If it
wasn't covered with brass, it'd burn up that wood, wouldn't it?
It'd burn it up, but it's covered with brass. And they kept a fire
burning in there constantly. They had so many sacrifices.
They had sacrificed for everything that they did in their day. They're
constantly offering sacrifices. And that fire never changed that
brass one bit. Didn't affect it. The fire would
consume all the sacrifices that they offered on it, but never
the brass. It was unchanged. Our savior,
when he offered himself as a sacrifice for the sins of his people, is
the one and only sacrifice that the fire did not consume. Because
he has that brass, that strength to save. He's the only sacrifice
that consumed the fire. The fire of God's wrath went
out when sin was no more. That's what that brass is a picture
of. And that's what our Savior, somebody's going to save you
and me. He's got to be the God man. He's got to be a man to
be our representative. He's got to be a man who can
be sacrificed and suffer and die. But he's also got to be
God so that he has the holiness to save. He's got to have a righteousness
that he can give us. He's got to have the power to
redeem. He's got to have the holy perfect blood To offer on
the altar before the Father to put our sin away. He's got to
be the God-man. And this altar is showing us
that one day, the Lord's assuring us, one day, He's gonna send
the sacrifice who will put away sin. Now, when this altar was
in use, they only had it in picture, didn't they? But it's like the
Lord is telling us, one day, one day, He is coming. Did you catch that in verse three
when I read this earlier? And thou shalt make his pans
to receive his ashes, and his shovels, and his basins, and
his flesh hooks, and his fire pans, all the vessels thereof,
thou shalt make of brass. This alters a picture of a hymn,
of a person, of a man. He is coming and he is going
to put away the sins of his people And he has the power to save. That's what the horns on the
four corners of this are pictures of. Horns in scripture are always
pictures of power. This one who's coming has the
power to save. He has all power in heaven and
earth. He has the power to give eternal
life to as many as the Father gave him to save, because he's
going to suffer and die to put their sin away. But you know,
these horns also show us not just Christ's power to save,
but his willingness to save. Again, we need both, don't we? We need someone with the power
to save us, but his power doesn't mean much to us if he's not willing.
But if he's got the power to save and he's willing to save,
that's a savior that I need. Those horns on the altar, what
they would use that for is to bind the sacrifice to the altar. Well, that's Christ our savior.
He was not bound to the cross by nails in his hands and his
feet. He wasn't bound there by weakness,
you know, that he couldn't come down from the cross. You know,
those religious hucksters would, hypocrites, would look up at
him and say, well, he saved others himself. He cannot save you.
Come down from the cross. We'll believe you. And he didn't
come down from the cross. They thought it's because he
was too weak to do it. They thought, well, this is absurd. Nobody
can take himself off the cross once he's nailed to it. Oh, he
could have. He had the power to do it, but
he didn't do it. He was held to the cross. Our
sacrifice was bound to the cross by his power to save. He's the
only one that could save us. He came down from that cross.
You and I would have no savior. He is bound to the cross by his
power to save. but also by his willingness to
save. He was willing to endure his father's wrath and suffer
eternal hell for his people in just three, three and a half
hours because he loved his people. It was his power, his willingness,
and his love that held him to the cross. And this altar tells
us this is who God is sending to save his people from their
sins. Now you can trust him. Run to him. trusting. Your Jewish
tradition had it that if a person ran to this altar, grabbed hold
of the horns of this altar, that they would be safe from justice
because they laid hold on that altar and they're pleading for
mercy. They're pleading to be delivered
because of the power of the sacrifice that's offered on that altar
to pay for their sin. I know it didn't happen every
time, but that's the tradition. If you can lay hold on those
altars, on the horns of that altar, you're safe from God's
justice. Now that's just a, I don't know
if that's necessarily true or not. I know Solomon had a man
take it off the horns of the altar and put to death, so it's
just a picture. But every sinner, without exception,
every sinner that comes to Christ and lays hold on him by faith
They find salvation. They find salvation from God's
justice because they're clinging to the one who has sacrificed
for them. If you're clinging to the one
that has all power to save and the willingness to save, you're
saved. And this altar tells us that's
who God's sending to put away the sin of his people. And the
third thing about this altar, and it's something that's very
obvious but needs to be noted, The purpose of the altar is to
offer sacrifices on it. I mean, what's good is an altar
if you don't have sacrifice to alter on it. And this altar is
a place of sacrifice. It is a bloody, awful, smelly
place. The word altar is taken from
the word that means to slaughter, to slaughter. And it was not
a pretty place. You know, in verse three, when
it talks about The flesh hooks, I mean, they're just sinking
those hooks in flesh and tearing it and moving it around. I mean,
this is not a dainty thing going on here. I mean, this is slaughter. And you watch what's going on
around this altar. You know, somebody brings a bullock
or a goat or sheep or ram, whatever they bring, and that priest there
slits its throat, blood's going on the ground, blood's going
everywhere. They take that thing and set it up on that fire and
burn in it. I mean, this place, all around it was just bloodstained. The blood on the ground, the
blood on the brass, the burning of the flesh, I mean, it's just,
I mean, like I said, it's not dainty. That's the sacrifice that's required. It's a picture of the sacrifice
that's required for our sin. You know, when you think about
the tabernacle and the courtyard, what do you reckon most people
think of? Even believers, what is it that we think of? We think
of the gold and the silver, don't we? Oh, the gold of the mercy
seed. All that incorruptible wood covered with gold and the
value of the brass and all the posts. I mean the riches of this
tabernacle. The walls are covered with gold. But you know what the most glorious,
rich thing in the whole tabernacle is? The rivers of blood that
were shed at this altar. All the rest of it is useless
without the sacrifice. The mercy seat is no good to
us unless there's been a sacrifice offered on this altar and they
caught the blood in a basin and the high priest went in and sprinkled
the blood on the mercy seat. Everything had to have blood
put on it in order to sanctify it. Once a year, they put blood
on it to sanctify it. It had to be the blood that came
from the sacrifice here. It's all useless without the
sacrifice. Now, Christ came. Like I say,
the people are caught up with all the worldly riches that you
might find here in this tabernacle. Well, now Christ came. And he
came for one purpose. He came to establish righteousness
for his people and to be the sacrifice in his hour. He be the sacrifice that would
put away the sins of his people. Well, when people talk about
Jesus today, what do they talk about? They talk about his miracles,
don't they? And no doubt, I mean, the miracles
are impressive. A man that raises somebody from
the dead, that heals a leper, the miracles that he did. I mean,
they were very, helpful to people. If you are a leper that he cleansed,
I mean, you know, this, that miracle is valuable to you, but
that's not his greatest work. The thing to be so caught up
with is not his kindness and his wisdom. And you know, the,
the Lord dealt with sinners and such kindness and wisdom. He didn't deal with the Pharisees
that way, but he dealt with sinners, didn't he? And kindness and wisdom.
And people think about the way he conducted himself, and they
wear a bracelet that said, what would Jesus do? And I always
want to ask people, you wear one of them bracelets, what does
it matter what Jesus would do? You and I can't do it. I mean,
we wouldn't do it. All those things that people
get caught up with, with the Lord Jesus, is not the thing. It's not the thing. It's not
the point. The reason Christ came into flesh
was to suffer and die as a sacrifice for sin, his greatest glory is
not seen in the miracles. His greatest glory is not turning
water to wine or healing the sick or raising the dead or walking
on the water. That's not his greatest glory.
His greatest glory came when he was unrecognizable on the
cross. when he had been beaten and battered
so he did not look like a man hanging there. That's his greatest
glory. When he had been slaughtered
by the flesh hooks and the fire of God's justice and the beating
that he took, and he still hung there. He refused to come down
because he's gonna save his people from their sin, because he's
gonna honor every attribute of his father, because he's gonna
keep his promise to his father that he'll save his people from
their sin. That's when he's at his greatest glory. When the
flesh sees him and goes, that's his greatest glory. Because what
you see there on the cross, that's what our sin deserves. That's
what we deserve. The cross is a place of blood
and gore and unimaginable suffering and sacrifice and death. That
was what was all the blood and the gore and the guts and just
the stuff that was all around this altar that they were, the
cross is the fulfillment of that picture. But unlike all those
animal sacrifices that can never put away sin, Christ by his one
sacrifice for sin, put away the sin of his people forever. All
right, now here's the fourth thing about this altar. You see
it in Exodus chapter 40. I saw this this week. It's the
first time I've ever seen this. This altar is most holy. Exodus 40 verse 10. And thou
shalt anoint the altar of the burnt offering and all his vessels
and sanctify the altar and it shall be an altar Most Holy. Now, I knew that the altar is
Most Holy, but this is why I never knew before. The marginal reading
there of Most Holy says the altar, it should be an altar of holiness,
of holinesses. Holiness of holinesses. Like
the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. The holiness of holinesses. What happens at this altar is
a picture of supreme holiness. See, this altar wasn't just a
piece of furniture that you find in the tabernacle, in the courtyard.
It wasn't just a tool to be used. It's a place where God would
meet Israel in covenant relationship. It's a place where God would
meet with his people in mercy and grace. They would come through
the sacrifice that God was sending. It's holiness of holinesses. It's the place where God's holiness
is seen the most clearly. And if you look back at Exodus
29, show you what a blessing this
is to the believer. Exodus 29, verse 37. Seven days thou shalt make an
atonement for the altar and sanctify it, and it should be an altar
most holy. Whatsoever toucheth the altar
shall be holy. This altar, what's going on,
the sacrifices at this altar, it's a picture of how God is
going to make his sinful people to be completely holy through
and through. By the sacrifice of our Lord
Jesus Christ, through union with Christ, his people are holy. He touched me. Oh, he touched
me. Nothing's ever been the same
ever since. His people are holy in Christ. And this altar is
the place where God meets with sinful men. Look down at verse
42 of Exodus 29. This shall be a continual burnt
offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation before the Lord, where I will meet with
you to speak there unto thee. God cannot meet with us and speak
with his people without a blood sacrifice. It's here where God
meets with sinners in mercy. The only way God can meet with
you and me in mercy is through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's got to pay the penalty that
we deserve. He's got to suffer the justice
that we deserve. Everything that touches this
altar shall be holy. Everyone in Christ has been made
holy. That's the only way we can be
accepted. The only way the Father can accept us is if we have been
made as holy as he is. And that can only be done through
the sacrifice of Christ. His sacrifice, the sacrifice
of himself, of everything that he is, body and soul, made his
people holy. But that suffering, it's greater than you and I can
really imagine. It really is. We say this all the time. You
think about the bodily sufferings of our Lord, because mostly that's
all we can identify with, is his back being lacerated and
beating, his beard being plucked out, his face swollen and being
beaten and battered in the face, that crown of thorns thrust down
on his head, the nails driven through his hands and his feet. It's just unimaginable. But that's
just the tip of the iceberg to his suffering. And you know,
this altar gives us a picture of that. I lost my place. Where am I? It says, let me get
back in our text here. I'll find it. Verse eight, hollow
with boards, shalt thou make it as it was showed thee in the
mount. So shall they make it. This thing, we have the pattern
that we had when we got this tabernacle pattern. has the net
up here, but really it was down here. The thing, it was hollow.
And so when they put that sacrifice in there to burn, the animal
was down in there. The altar is hollow. The fire
that burned was inside the walls of the altar, showing us as a
picture the inward sufferings of Christ. You see, that's what
he had to suffer in order to put away our sin. Because sin
is not what we do. Sin is what we are. We do what
we do because of what we are. We commit sin because we are
sin. So Christ had to suffer in his
soul. That's where his most severe
sufferings took place, in his soul, when the father thrust
his sword into the heart of his fellow. Isaiah said he made his
soul an offering for sin. And the fire of God's wrath burned
in his soul. And all of that was an act of
the Father. You know, all the instruments
of the altar, the pans and the shovels and the basins and the
flesh hooks and the fire pans, they were all solid brass. They
weren't wood covered with brass. They were solid brass. Remember,
brass is a picture of deity. All this, the execution of the
sacrifice, was all done by the Father. Man did what they did
as an instrument in the hand of the Father to accomplish the
sacrifice of his people. And the sacrifice of Christ is
the only way we could ever see how can God be both just and
still justify the ungodly. It's because he transferred our
sin to the Savior and slaughtered him for it. His justice is satisfied
in the sacrifice of Christ, and now the Father can justify you
and me. Sinful as we are, even though
we'll never do anything but sin, he's justified us in Christ because
he put our sin on the sacrifice and he put it away. You don't
ever have to worry about the fire of God's wrath and justice. There's a picture of what burned
in this altar. But you don't ever have to worry
about the real thing ever touching you, even singeing your hair
a little bit. Not if Christ suffered and died
for you. He bore it all. In fifth, Christ our altar provides
meat for the souls of his people. The high priest and his family
would eat the meat that was offered on this brazen altar. That's
where they got their meat from. But only the priest could do
it now, only the priest. Well, here's another example
of Christ being so much better than the picture. Every believer
has been made a king and a priest unto God. So believers have the
right to eat from Christ our altar. Look at Hebrews chapter
13. You're probably quoting this
already in your head, but let's read it to see what the writer
to the Hebrews has to say about this. Hebrews 13 verse 10. We have an altar whereof they
have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. Now here's what
the writer's saying. If you trust Christ alone, you
trust his grace alone and salvation is by God's grace without any
of my works, it's by faith alone without any of my works, I trust
Christ and Christ alone. If you trust Christ that way,
you have every right to eat of this sacrifice, of this altar. You have the right to partake
in every benefit of the Lord's death for his people. You have
the right to partake of his holiness. You have the right to partake
of his righteousness. You have a right to partake of
his acceptance where the Father accepts you in the beloved. You
have the right to it. You have the right to it because
Christ purchased it for you by his bloody death. It's not by
our works now, it's by faith alone, by grace alone. And if
you trust Christ that way, you have every right to partake of
every spiritual blessing that God has for a sinner because
of his sacrifice. And then one more thing is a
way that Christ is better than the picture. Christ came to save
sinners from all over the world, not just Jews, sinners from all
over the world. Verse five in our text, Exodus
27, And thou shalt put it under the compass of the altar beneath,
that the net may be even in the midst of the altar, the compass
of the altar. Now this altar had four sides
facing all four points of the compass. And that's a picture. God's telling us the Messiah
is going to come to be the savior of sinners from all over the
whole world, not, not just the Jews. And there are so many pictures
of that through, through the old Testament. The Jews never
saw it for whatever reason. Peter had a hard time coming
to grips with this thing, didn't he? But none of us are natural
born Jews. So this, I think, at least it's
the way with me, I think, this sticks out to me because I'm
not a Jew. I need a savior who's gonna come save the Gentiles
too. This altar tells us Christ is coming to offer himself as
a sacrifice for sinners from all over the world. Now I tell you one more time,
come to Christ. Right now, come to Christ. Don't ever be afraid to come
to Christ begging for mercy. Now, I'd be concerned about coming
to Christ if you're coming to bargain with Him. That's not
going to work out too well for you. But if you're going to come
to Christ as a sinner, begging for mercy, don't ever be afraid
to come to Him. He came to save sinners. And
He came to save sinners from all over the whole world. Don't
let your sinfulness keep you away from Christ. He came to
save sinners. It's not someone would say, well,
I'd come to Christ if this, that or the other. Let me tell you
what's keeping you from coming to Christ. It's not your sin.
Because Christ came to save sinners. It's your righteousness. If you
think you've got some righteousness of your own to hang on to, you
won't come to Christ. You won't commit all to Him.
But if you've got nothing but sin, you've got no hope except
God would show mercy to you even though you don't deserve it in
the least, you come to Christ. Because you're who He came to
save. The blood of Christ is a fountain that's open for sin. And I never read in this book
that it's ever been closed. It's still open. The blood of
Christ is just as powerful today as it ever has been. So don't
be afraid to come to him begging for mercy for a sinner. He came
to save sinners. He shed his blood as a sacrifice
to put away the sin of sinners. And the Father always accepts
everyone who comes to him in Christ. Then come to him. This altar shows us He's able
to save even you and me. Even you and me. I just have to tell you, I've
been happy all week studying this. I've been happy all week.
I hope you go home happy like I've been all week studying this.
All right. Let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for Christ, our altar. He's our altar. He's the sacrifice
that's offered on the altar. He's the high priest that offers
the sacrifice. How we thank you, Christ, is
our all. He's our only plea. And how we
thank you for a savior who completely saves his people from their sin. Father, how we thank you for
a savior who has the capacity to love sinful men and women
such as we are. To love us enough to sacrifice
himself to put away our sin and make us accepted in your sight.
That one day he might bring us to be with him where he is to
behold him face to face. Father, how we thank you. And
how I beg of you that you be pleased to give each one of us
here tonight faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. To leave here tonight
trusting him and him alone. Father, it's in his name, for
his sake and his glory, we pray, amen. All right, Sean. Okay, if you would turn in your
hymnal to song number 240, and stand as we sing, I am coming,
Lord. I hear thy welcome voice that
calls me, Lord, to thee, for cleansing in thy precious blood
that flowed on Calvary. I am coming, Lord, coming now
to Thee. Wash me, cleanse me in the blood
that flowed on Calvary. Though coming weak and vile,
Thou dost my strength assure, Thou dost my vileness fully cleanse,
Till spotless, all and pure, I am coming, Lord, coming now
to Thee. Wash me, cleanse me in the blood
that flowed on Calvary. Tis Jesus calls me on to perfect
faith and love, to perfect hope and peace and trust for earth
and heaven above. I am coming, Lord, coming now
to Thee. Wash me, cleanse me in the blood
that flowed on Calvary.