Well, good evening, everyone. If you would care to open your
Bibles with me to John chapter 17. The message this evening, Lord willing,
is going to be on Christ, our intercessor. And if you've ever
wondered what does it sound like as Christ makes intercession
for his people, we have a pretty good sample of it, John 17. So
I thought that would be a good chapter to read to open our service.
These words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said,
Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son that thy son
also may glorify thee. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the
earth. I finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now,
O Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self, with the glory
which I had with Thee before the world was. I have manifested
Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest me out of the world. Thine
they were, and Thou gavest them me, and they have kept Thy word. Now they have known that all
things whatsoever Thou hast given me are of Thee. For I have given
unto them the words which Thou gavest me, and they have received
them. and have known surely that I
came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst
send me. I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. All mine
are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. And
now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and
I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine
own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one
as we are, While I was with them in the world, I kept them in
thy name. Those that thou gavest me I have
kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition, that
the scriptures might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee, and these
things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled
in themselves. I have given them thy word, and
the world hath hated them, because they're not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest
take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them
from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of
the world. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. Thou has sent me into the world,
even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their
sakes, I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified
through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.
That they all may be one as thou father art in me and I in thee.
That they also may be one in us. That the world may believe
that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest
me, I have given them. That they may be one even as
we are one. I in them and thou in me. That
they may be made perfect in one. and that the world may know that
thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Father,
I will, that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where
I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given
me, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.
O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have
known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I
have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it, that the
love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. All right. John, come lead us
in our singing, if you would. All right. In your red
hymn books, turn with me, if you would, to page 75. Page 75,
Abide With Me. Abide with me, fast falls the
eventide. The darkness deepens, Lord, with
me abide. When other helpers fail and comforts
flee, help of the helpless, O abide with me. Swift to its close ebbs
out life's little day. Earth's joys grow dim, its glories
pass away. Change and decay in all around
I see, O Thou who changest not, abide with me. I need thy presence every passing
hour. What but thy grace can foil the
tempter's power? Who like thyself ? My guide and
stay can be ? ? Through cloud and sunshine, O abide with me
? ? Hold thou thy word before my closing eyes ? Shine through
the gloom and point me to the skies. Heaven's morning breaks
and earth's vain shadows flee. Let's turn back to page 225. Page 225. I heard the voice of
Jesus say. I heard the voice of Jesus say,
Come unto me and rest. Lay down thy weary wand, lay
down thy head upon my breast. I came to Jesus as I was, weary
and worn and sad. I found in Him a resting place,
and He has made me glad. I heard the voice of Jesus say,
Behold, I freely give. The living water, thirsty one,
Stoop down and drink and live. I came to Jesus and I drank of
that life-giving stream. My thirst was quenched, my soul
revived, and now I live in Him. I heard the voice of Jesus say,
I am this dark world's light. Look unto me, thy morn shall
rise, and all thy day be bright. I look to Jesus, and I found
in him my star, my sun. And in that light of life, I'll
walk till traveling days are done. Let's open our Bibles now to
Exodus chapter 30. Exodus chapter 30. We'll read the first 10 verses. And thou shalt make an altar
to burn incense upon, of Shittim wood shalt thou make it. A cubit
shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof,
Four squares shall it be, and two cubits shall be the height
thereof. The horns thereof shall be of the same. And thou shalt
overlay it with pure gold, the top thereof with the sides thereof
round about, and the horns thereof. And thou shalt make unto it a
crown of gold round about. And two golden rings shalt thou
make to it under the crown of it by the two corners thereof
Upon the two sides of it shalt thou make it, and they should
be for places for the staves to bear it with all. And thou
shalt make the staves of shit and wood and overlay them with
gold. And thou shalt put it before the veil that is by the arc of
the testimony before the mercy seat that is over against the
testimony where I will meet with thee. And Aaron shall burn there
on sweet incense every morning when he dresseth the lamps he
shall burn incense upon it. And when Aaron lighted the lambs
and even he should burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense
before the Lord throughout your generations. He shall offer no
strange incense there on, nor burnt sacrifice, nor meat offering,
neither show you poor drink offering there on. And Aaron shall make
an atonement upon the horns of it once a year with the blood
of the sin offering of atonements once in the year, Shall he make
atonement upon it throughout your generations? It is most
holy unto the Lord. We'll end our reading there.
Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, we bow before you
this evening, thankful that you are God upon the throne, ruling
and reigning over everything that is going on in our world
today and in our lives. Father, we're so thankful that
you're the sovereign over all of it, that everything that is
happening is happening according to your divine will and purpose. Father, we're thankful. We're
thankful to know that you're working your will, that all things
are being done according to your will and purpose, that these
things are not happening by happenstance or randomly, but it's all according
to your purpose to glorify your son, in the redemption of your
people. And Father, I pray that this
evening you would be pleased to give each of us here tonight
a heart of worship, that we might be enabled by thy spirit to hear
your word preached in the heart, not just with the ear, but Father,
in a heart of faith, that we might hear, that we might believe,
that our hearts might be thrilled at the thought at another site
of Christ our Savior. Father, bless us, we pray. Bless
us, Father, for our good. We hold up our empty hand to
Thee. We're such poor and needy people,
and we pray You'd bless us. How we need Your blessing. But
Father, we also pray You'd bless us for Christ's sake, that His
name would be glorified. First and foremost, that his
name would be glorified and be lifted up and extolled and that
we might see him lifted up and fall in the dust on our faces
before him. Father, enable us to worship,
we pray. Lord, we pray for ourselves, Father. We pray for your people
wherever they're meeting together tonight. In this dark day in
which we live, Father, cause your gospel to go forth wherever
it's preached. light in a dark place to call
sinners to our Savior. Father, we do pray a special
blessing for your people that you brought into the time of
trouble and trial. They're heartbroken. They're
in great, great need. Father, we pray for them. We
pray a special blessing for Earlene Meadows and her whole family
at this Very, very difficult time, Father, that you would
be with them. We hold them up to thee. Now,
all these things we ask, and we give thanks, and that name
which is above every name, the name of Christ our Savior. Amen. Now, I know that when we began
the study in the tabernacle, I told you that I was gonna take
everything, all these elements and pieces of the tabernacle,
as they were given to us in the word of God, And now I've already
skipped ahead and done different from that. But as I began to
look ahead and look at the altar of incense, it was just such
a blessing to me. I'm like a kid with a dollar
in my pocket. I just had to spend it. This was such a blessing
to me. I just wanted to bring a message
on this tonight, and then we'll go back and take the rest of
the things that this Lord gives them to us. But I've entitled
the message this evening, Christ our intercessor. And the picture
of Christ, our intercessor, is from the golden altar. It was
right here just outside the veil that separated the holy place
from the holy of holies. It's called, and sometimes in
scripture it's called the golden altar, other times it's called
the altar of incense, but it's one of those three pieces of
furniture that's in the holy place. is three feet high, about
a foot and a half square. And this is such a good picture
of Christ our intercessor. If the Lord will enable us to
see it, it'll be such a thrill to our souls. It'll be such a
comfort to our souls. And we need that comfort and
assurance because we're sinners. Even believers, sinners saved
by grace, we see so much of our sin, we need this assurance that
there is someone interceding for us that's got something to
plead, who is able to make the intercession for us, and I hope
it'll be as thrilling to you as it was to me. Now, the first
thing about the altar of incense, the picture of Christ, our intercessor
is the God-man. This is something you see all
throughout the tabernacle, we see it again in the altar of
incense. Verse one of Exodus chapter 30, the Lord says, and
thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon. Of shiddom wood
shalt thou make it. And verse three says, thou shalt
overlay it with pure gold. Now the incorruptible wood, that
shiddom wood is incorruptible wood, and that picture's the
sinless humanity of Christ. Our Lord Jesus lived in a world
surrounded by sinners. And they never corrupted him.
They never changed him. You know, you always worry about
your children hanging out with the wrong crowd, and parents
are worried about that, because you know what it is? You hang
out with the wrong people long enough, you start to act like
them. Our Savior was surrounded by sinners his entire life, and
he never started to act like them. They didn't corrupt him.
even when our Savior was made sin, He never became a sinner. He was never corrupted by sin. Instead of being corrupted by
sin, He made the sacrifice that put that sin away. And then the
wood, the incorruptible wood, is covered by gold, which the
gold's a picture of the deity of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ,
now He's a real man, but He's also truly God. He's God in the
flesh. And since he's God, he has the
righteousness to save. He has the holiness to save.
He has the power to save. He has the power to forgive sin. It's all sins against him. So he's the only one that has
the power to forgive sin. David said against thee, the
only have I sinned. He's God, so he has the power,
the right to forgive sin. So there's two elements, the
wood and the gold, but one piece of furniture, one altar. Just
like there's two natures, God and man, but there's one person,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell you why that is so
precious. When we look at Christ, our intercessor, our intercessor
became a real man. He became a man. He, he, he had
a body of flesh. He had a human nature, not yet
without sin. He had no sin, but he was a real
man so that he can be the high priest who's touched with the
feeling of our infirmity. He's able to have compassion
on us because he's been where we're at. He's in the flesh that
we're in. He knows what it's like to feel
the guilt and the weight of sin. When he was made sin for his
people, He knows that feeling. He knows the feeling of being
crushed in a trial so that you feel like, I can't make it another
second. I can't make it another minute
or another hour. He knows what that feels like.
In the garden, he had to pray to his father, Father, if it's
possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but if thou wilt. And the father had to send angels
to help him because that trial was going to crush him. Have
you ever felt like a trial is going to crush you? You have
an intercessor that knows what that feels like. You know, you
just can't have real compassion on someone else unless you've
been where they're at, unless you've suffered what they're
suffering. And our Savior did, our intercessor did. He knows
what it's like to have all your friends forsake you and abandon
you. He knows loneliness. Oh, he knows
loneliness. You ever felt lonely? All alone. Usually we feel that way at night,
don't we? All alone. Our intercessor knows what that
feels like. There is no one ever as alone as our Savior. on Calvary's tree. He cried,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? All his friends
abandoned him, and even his father turned his back on him. We say
he turned his back on him. What the father really did is
withhold his gracious, loving presence. The presence of the
father was still there, wasn't it? But it was in wrath. It was
in judgment. And the Savior had to suffer
that completely alone. He knows what that feels like. So he's able to make intercession
for his people because he knows what it feels like. And since
he's also God, he has the power to forgive sin. He has the power
to comfort the hearts of his people. I can't tell you how
many times that I have told someone or written to someone that's
in deep, deep, deep trial. And it's foolish to say, be comforted,
cheer up. It's not possible. It's just
not possible. So what I always tell them is
may God comfort your heart as only he can. Our intercessor
as a man knows what it feels like. And as God, he's able to
comfort the heart. And if God's ever comforted your
heart, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's something
you can't exactly explain, but he does it, doesn't he? Because
he's our intercessor. And here's some more real assurance
for you. Our intercessor is the one who suffered and bled and
died to put the sin of his people away. He suffered under the wrath
of his father to put the sin of his people away. He's the
one that made the sacrifice to put it away. He's the one that
died. to satisfy justice and put the
sin of his people away. Now, nobody knows better than
he does that the price has been paid. Nobody knows better than
he does that justice has been satisfied. And if he loved you
enough to suffer and die for you, he'll never forget to make
intercession for you. And he'll always make intercession
for you based on justice, that he put your sin away. So the
Father will always accept you. It's just, you see the importance
of having the God-man as our intercessor? He's got to be a
man who understands what we're going through. And he's got to
be God to have the power to comfort, the God-man. Second, there's
power in the intercession of Christ. This is what makes his
sacrifice effectual. Verse two says, a cubit shall
be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, four squares
shall it be, and two cubits shall be the height thereof. The horns
thereof shall be of the same. Now all throughout scripture,
horns represent power. And our little model doesn't
show it here, but there were horns on all four corners of
this, showing the power of Christ as he makes intercession for
his people. Our intercessor has such power
that he never one time has not received what he asked for. He
has such power, every time he makes intercession for someone,
he receives what he asked for, every single time. I thought,
the thing that immediately came to my mind is poor old Peter. bragging to the Lord about, oh,
I'll die with you. All these others are gonna forsake
you. They'll deny you, but I won't. And Peter told him, or the Lord
told Peter, before the cock crows, you're gonna deny me three times.
But Peter, I've prayed for you. I've made intercession for you
that your faith fail not. Peter failed. Peter was taught
a real lesson, wasn't he? He denied the Lord three times.
But his faith didn't fail. You know why his faith didn't
fail? Christ, our intercessor, prayed that his faith not fail,
and it didn't. And there are horns on all four
corners of this thing. That's a picture of Christ having
the power to save sinners from every point of the compass, all
over the world. You can't go anywhere in this
world and find a sinner that Christ can't save, nowhere. His reach, His power, His song,
His reach is everywhere. And the perfect example of His
power to save sinners from anywhere is us here tonight. You think
about when the Lord first ascended and the disciples were gathered
there in Jerusalem. There's about 120 of them before
Peter preached that day at Pentecost. They're gathered up in Jerusalem,
over there in Palestine somewhere. I couldn't find it. But there
they are. I mean, it's a long way away.
And from that little group of 120, the gospel reached all the
way from there to Ashland, Kentucky, to the tri-state area, and saved
a people, and called the people out. The amazing thing is not
that people in the far front places from us, God saved them.
The amazing thing is He saved us. He sent the gospel all the
way to us. We're the evidence. Our Savior
has power to save people all over this globe. And the reason
that Christ has such power in His intercession for His people
is because of the blood of the sacrifice. Look at verse 10. And Aaron shall make an atonement
upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the
sin offering of atonements. Once in a year shall he make
atonement upon it throughout your generations. It's most holy
unto the Lord. Now on the day of atonement,
there are sacrifices and there are sacrifices and many of them
were all out here in the, I came to the wrong side. We're all
out here in the courtyard. All around this is brazen. We'll
get to that in a couple weeks. But this is where the sacrifices
were going on. This is where Aaron killed those
animals. This is where he caught their
blood in a basin. And one of the things that he
would do with that blood that he caught in that basin is he
would come in and put that blood on all four of these horns, the
blood of the sacrifice. where the power, these horns,
remember, they're pictures of power. The power came from the
blood, the blood of the atonement. See, Christ must die. Our intercessor
must die and his blood must be shed so that there is blood for
him to plead for the forgiveness of sins for his people. See,
the blood came from the sacrifice on the brazen altar. These two
altars, the brazen altar out in the courtyard and the altar
of incense in the holy place, they are very, very closely tied
together. Because the bloodshed at the
brazen altar, the burnt offering, the body is burned on the brazen
altar. It's the power from that sacrifice
that makes the intercession of Christ always effectual. Am I
saying that right? You understand what I'm saying
there? Even the coals, you know, they have incense and you gotta
put the incense on hot coals to get the smoke. Even the coals
had to come from the brazen altar. It all had to come from that
brazen altar because the power of Christ's intercession comes
from his sacrifice. Christ asked his father for justice. You think about that now as the
Savior's making intercession for you. He's not asking the
Father for a favor. He's not asking the Father, well,
just overlook their sin. Because if he overlooked their
sin, then he wouldn't be just. But if he overlooks my sin today,
will he be willing to overlook it tomorrow? I mean, you know,
that's not very good ground to stand on. He's just overlooking
your sin. But if our intercessor is pleading for justice, forgive
their sin because I paid for it. Overlook their sin because
my blood made their sin not to exist. That's the power of his
intercession that always gives him what he asked for, for his
people. Christ has already made the atonement
for the sin of his people. As I say to you so many, many
times, when the son sits on the father's right hand, he's not
repeating over and over and over again, forgive that sin, forgive
their sin, forgive this sin. All he's got to do is sit at
his father's right hand with the scars of his sacrifice in
full view. The evidence that the sacrifice
has been made is in full view of the father. And the father
happily forgives the sin of his people. he happily accepts his
people into his presence because Christ satisfied justice for
us. That's his power. The power of
his intercession comes from him putting away the sin of his people. Then thirdly, this ought to comfort
us. Our intercessor is the king. Verse three says, and thou should
overlay it with pure gold, the top thereof and the sides thereof
round about and the horns thereof, And thou shalt make unto it a
crown of gold around about." They made a crown of gold that
went all the way around this thing. The crown is a picture
of the king. Our intercessor's wearing the
crown. He's the king. You know, you
and I don't understand much. about a king. We're Americans,
we fought a revolution to get out from under the boot of a
king, right? And even kings today don't have the rule like they
did at one time. At one time, the king had sovereign
rule over everything in his dominion. Someone would live or die at
his command. Pharaoh was the king. You know,
the baker bakes him some bread one day he doesn't like? He goes
to the dungeon. I mean, the king has power. It's not like the president's
got checks and balances or, you know, just ride him out. We'll
vote him out in four years. The king does his will always. Nebuchadnezzar learned that lesson
real well, didn't he? Oh, oh, I know, I know who God
is. He's doing according to his will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth
and nobody anywhere has any right to question him. He's king. David said about our king, Psalm
135 verse six, whatever the Lord pleased, whatever it is that
pleases him, that did he in heaven and earth, the seas and all deep
places everywhere. He does as he pleases. Now, if that king is making intercession
for you, what are you worried about? What can go wrong? This is the king. And you just
think not only of his power to make intercession for you, his
grace to do it. You think how gracious it is
that the king of kings takes time to notice you and me and
make intercession for us. Oh, it's grace. What a gracious
King that we have. That ought to comfort our hearts
and it also ought to make us want to worship him, shouldn't
it? Then here's the fourth thing. Our intercessor is always with
his people. Verse four says, and two golden
rings shalt thou make to it under the crown of it, By the two corners
thereof, upon the two sides of it, shalt thou make it. And they
shall be for places for the staves to bear it withal. And thou shalt
make the staves of shiddum wood, and overlay them with gold. And
once they made these rings and these staves, and they put the
staves in the rings, the staves were never to be removed from
the rings. They were always there. And I'll
tell you why. The altar of incense was always
ready to be moved. When the Cloudy Pillar would
move, they had to pack this whole tabernacle up. They had to pack
it up, and there's specific instructions for how to do that, and they'd
follow the Cloudy Pillar. And they'd keep going until the
Cloudy Pillar stopped, and then they'd stop, and they'd set all
this up again. The tabernacle was meant to be
a temporary thing. Just like the Lord Jesus, he
was just here temporarily, wasn't he? He was just here as a man,
temporarily, in a body that he obtained eternal redemption for
his people in that body. But it was always just meant
to be temporary. So when that cloudy pillar started
to move, they were able to pick this altar of incense up and
take it with them. Wherever the children of Israel
were led in the wilderness, the altar of incense went with them.
The intercessor was always with his people. Always. Our Lord said, lo, I am with
you always, even unto the end of the world. The Lord is always
with his people. Always. You can't go anywhere
that God's not there. But more accurately, a believer
can't go anywhere that God's not with them. He's in them.
God's always with his people. Now, as a point of fact, we all
know that, don't we? We know from reading the scriptures,
God's with his people. But we don't always have a sense
of it, do we? We don't always have a sense
of it. We wished we sensed it, but we don't always. But whether
we sense it or not, his presence is always with his people. His
eye is always on them and he's always perpetually making intercession
for those people. And for the believer, there's
nothing better in this world than a sense of the Savior's
love. I know there's times that we
don't have a sense of his presence, But when we have a sense of His
presence with us, there's nothing better, is there? When you're
in a trial, I mean a trial that's crushing you. It's pain of body,
pain of mind, doubt, and worry, and suffering. Watching those
that you love suffer, whatever it is that they're suffering. The only way I know of to describe
it is it's crushing you. You can't take it. And the Lord gives you a sense
of his presence with you. The trial hasn't ended. The pain,
the suffering, whatever it is that's causing the trial is still
going full bore. But when you have a sense of
his presence with you, The calmness of heart, the thrill of soul,
His presence is with you. Maybe a preacher shouldn't say
this, but now there's times that we come to the worship service
and it's humiliating to say it, but we go through the motions,
don't we? And then there's times that we worship. I mean, there's
times we worship. The Savior's presence is just
as thick upon us as the people sitting around us, and we worship. And our souls are thrilled, aren't
they? To have a sense of his presence. Newton said, prisons would palaces
prove, excuse me, that Jesus would dwell with me there. If
I have a sense of his presence with me, December is as pleasant
as May. And it ought to comfort our hearts
that his presence is always with us, whether I feel it or not. Whether I feel it is not the
issue. If he's always with his people,
and he's always making intercession for people, his people, That's
what I'm gonna hang on to. That's what comforts my heart.
Then fifthly, Christ, our intercessor, is the way into God's presence.
This altar of incense was placed right outside the veil that separated
the holy place from the holy of holies. Verse six says, and
thou shalt put it before the veil, that is by the ark of the
testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony where
I will meet with thee. And when it came time for Aaron,
and he only went in once a year, but when he went into that Holy
of Holies once a year, he went with the blood, didn't he? But
he had to pass the altar of incense in order to get to the Holy of
Holies. The way into the presence of
God has to come through the intercession of Christ. And here is such a
comforting assurance for the hearts of God's people. If we
come to the Father by Christ, through Christ, our intercessor,
we will always be accepted. Always. Don't ever think, oh,
God will never accept me. I've got these matters of prayer.
I want to come into his presence. Oh, I desire to hear from him. I desire to worship from him.
I desire to truly pray, but now I got to start doing better.
and acting better for a little while before God will accept
me. No, sir. We all could do better every
second of every day, but as far as our acceptance with God, that's
not the issue. God never gonna accept us because
of our persons, because of what we've done or what we haven't
done. It's always for Christ's sake. And if we come, I don't
care how sinful we are, how sinful we think we are, If we come into
the presence of the Father by Christ, we'll always be accepted,
always. Now there's this matter of the
incense that's gonna be burned on this altar, and we have a
recipe for it. Look over, beginning at verse
34 of Exodus 30. You know, you couldn't just take
any incense that you found somewhere. There's a specific recipe for
the incense that's to be burned on this altar. Verse 34 says,
The Lord said unto Moses, take unto these sweet spices of sakti
and onyacha and galbanum. These sweet spices with pure
frankincense of each shall there be a like weight and thou shalt
make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary,
tempered together, pure and holy. And thou shalt beat of it very
small and put it before the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation
where I will meet with thee. It shall be unto you most holy. This incense and the making of
it was to be most holy because it's a picture of Christ our
Savior. It's a picture of his person.
Now I don't know what all these, I can't even pronounce the spices
and the things that went into it, and I certainly don't know
what all they mean, but I do know this. They're all a picture
of Christ. And they were put together in
an exact recipe, a body, hast thou prepared me. The body of
the Lord Jesus had to be prepared by the Father. And then like
this incense, it was beaten small. They took these and they just
beat them with the hand, just beat them and beat them and beat
them until they were small. That's a picture of the suffering,
the death of Christ our Savior. It was under the rod, under the
hammer of God's justice that kept falling on him and kept
falling on him, kept falling on him until sin was paid for. And like I said earlier, it's
that suffering that makes his intercession effectual. The Lord
calls it here, sweet incense. I don't know what other kind
of incense it could have been, but sweet incense. It had such
a sweet smell to it. I ask you, how sweet is it to
your soul to think that right now Christ is making intercession
for you? How sweet is that? And besides
it being sweet to us, do you know the intercession of Christ
is sweet to the Father too? It's a sweet smelling savor to
the father because his, remember his intercession is based upon
his sacrifice. Justice is satisfied. So God
delights to show mercy. It's a sweet smell to us. And it's also sweet to the father
because it enables the father to remain just and still be merciful
to the people that he chose to save. It's sweet to the father
because it honors all of his attributes. If you look at Revelation
chapter eight, I'll show you something else that's sweet about
this intercession of Christ. Christ, our intercessor, even
intercedes for his people to take their prayers to the Father. Revelation eight, verse three.
And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden
censer, And there was given unto him much incense, that he should
offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar,
which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense,
which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before
God out of the angels' hands." This incense was the prayers
of the saints was put on this altar. This smoke went up with
the incense, with the incense. The person with the intercession
of Christ is Christ taking the prayers of his people to the
Father. Now that's such comfort. I don't
know if you're like me, but prayer is difficult. I mean, real prayer. I'm not talking about just, you
know, saying your prayers at night like you were taught to
when you were a child. I'm talking about praying. Praying. It's hard. It's hard to know
what should you pray for as you ought. There's situations come
up, well, should I pray that the Lord do this or that, you
know, we just, the only thing we're left to do is always pray,
you know, Lord, thy will be done. But as we pour out our hearts
before God, you don't have to worry if you're saying it just
right, if you're doing it just right, because our intercessor
takes those prayers and brings them to the Father. I wish I could say that like
it ought to be said, if I could. Oh, it's just, it's so heart
thrilling to think I don't have to do this exactly perfectly
because the Savior is going to make it perfect and take it to
the Father for me. That's our intercessor. It's
a sweet incense. But if you look back in our text,
while we're on this subject of the incense, there's a warning
about strange incense. Remember this incense, the recipe
that the Lord gave Moses is most holy. We only use that incense. Don't use a strange incense.
There's a warning here. Verse nine, ye shall offer no
strange incense thereon, nor burnt offering, or burnt sacrifice,
nor meat offering, neither shall you pour drink offering thereon. This is what the Lord's saying
when he says you only use the incense, the recipe that I gave
you. Don't try to come to God any
other way other than Christ alone. Don't think, well, you know,
this is good, and this is religious, and this is good, and this is
better than what these false religions should do over here,
and I can take that and come to God that way. If you do, you
won't be accepted. You'll be destroyed. This incense
is most holy, God said, most holy. Coming to God by his son. This is most holy, most holy. And any other way is offensive
to the father. And we have illustrations in
scripture of what he'll do if we try to come to him some other
way. Little while after all this was put in place, I don't know
why they did it, but Nadab and Abihu, Aaron's sons, they, for
whatever reason, they made up their own incense. They didn't
follow the recipe that God had given them. They made up their
own incense. And they thought, well, you know, well, this is
good. You know, this is just a little bit different than that.
And this is almost exactly like that. It's close enough. They
made up this strange incense and they put it on the altar
before God. And God sent fire and destroyed
them, just obliterated them with a fire that came out from God.
And to his credit, scripture says Aaron held his peace. But
God said, after Aaron held his peace, and then God said, don't
you let anybody mourn for him. You're not even allowed to mourn
for them because they offered this strange incense on this
altar. They tried to come to me some way other than Christ
alone. And God destroyed them, and God
said, don't you mourn over them. Don't you mourn over them. That's
how serious this thing is, coming to God by Christ alone, by Christ
alone. Uzziah, King Uzziah tried it
one day, didn't he? I mean, boy, he's the king. He
does whatever he wants and nobody can stop him. And he's going
to come in and offer incense on the altar before the Lord.
And only the priest could do it. The king could never do it.
And Uzziah did it. And God struck him with leprosy.
He's a leper to the day he died. What a miserable, horrible existence. Because he tried to come to God
some way other than Christ alone. We have a glorious, glorious
message to preach and to believe. To tell all sinners everywhere,
you come to God by Christ and you'll be accepted. You'll be
accepted. You'll be accepted despite your
past sin and you'll be accepted despite your current sin. You
come to God by Christ and you'll be accepted. But come some other
way, come bringing just one flake of your own works and you'll
be destroyed. Come to God in Christ. And here's
one final bit of assurance for you. Christ, our intercessor
is always making intercession for his people. Verse eight says,
and when Aaron lighted the lamps and even he should burn incense
upon him, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your
generations. Morning and evening, Aaron would
come in, when he lit the candles, put the oil in and kept that
burning, he'd put incense on the altar. And then in the evening,
he'd put more oil in there and he'd put incense on the altar.
That sweet incense was constantly smoking up, just constantly,
all day long, every day, smoking up, filling the holy place with
this sweet aroma, day and night. and it filled the holy place.
I'll tell you what that's a picture of. Right now, I mean at this
very second, there's a man on the throne of heaven making intercession
for his people. Always. Whether we are thinking
about it or not, he's always making intercession for his people.
He's making intercession for me as I preach. And boy, don't I know I need
it. What filled with so much sin and he's making intercession
for you as you hear. He is answering our constant
need. Whether we realize it or not,
our intercessors always making intercession. The writer to the
Hebrews said in Hebrews 7 verse 25, wherefore, He's able also to save them to
the uttermost that come unto God by Him. If you come unto
God by Him, you'll always be accepted, no matter when you
come, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them. He's
always making intercession for His people. And to a man who
sins constantly, that's a great comfort. And I hope it will be
to you too. Let's bow together. Our Father, we thank you. We
thank you for this passage that gives us such a clear picture
of Christ, our intercessor, and how thankful we are that our
intercessor ever lives to make intercession for us, to make
intercession for his people, always pleading his sacrifice
that put away our sin, that as sinful and rotten and weak in
faith as we are, were always accepted in him. Father, how
we thank you. Father, take your word, I praise,
it's been preached, and apply it to each heart so that we can
go home this evening thrilled at the thought of the King of
Kings making intercession for us. Father, cause it to thrill
our hearts and cause it to make us humbled and at his feet to
be found at his feet, worshiping him, him and him alone. It's
in Christ's name. For his sake, we pray. Amen. All right, Jonathan. Let's stand together and sing
page 475. Page 475. We'll sing it to the
alternate tune. Redeemed, how I love to proclaim
it. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. Redeemed through His infinite
mercy, His child and forever I am. Redeemed, redeemed. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. Redeemed through his infinite
mercy, his child and forever I am. Redeemed and so happy in Jesus,
no language my rapture can tell. I know that the light of his
presence ? With me doth continually dwell ? ? Redeemed, redeemed
? ? Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb ? ? Redeemed through
his infinite mercy ? ? His child and forever I am ? I think of
my blessed Redeemer. I think of Him all the day long. I sing for I cannot be silent. His love is the theme of my song. Redeemed, redeemed. ? Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb ? ? Redeemed through His infinite mercy ? ? His child
and forever I am ? ? I know I shall see in His beauty the King in
me ? whose law I delight, who lovingly guardeth my footsteps
and giveth me songs in the night. Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb, Redeemed through His infinite mercy, His
child and forever I am.