If you would, open your Bibles
with me to begin the service. Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter
13. Begin our reading in verse 7. Hebrews chapter 13. Remember
them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you
the word of God. whose faith follow, considering
the end of their conversation, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday
and today and forever. Be not carried about with diverse
and strange doctrines, for it's a good thing that the heart be
established with grace, not with meats which have not profited
them that have been occupied therein. We have an altar whereof
they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. For the
bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary
by the high priest for sin are burned without the camp. Wherefore
Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood
suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto
him without the camp bearing his reproach. For here we have
no continuing city, but we seek one to come by him. Therefore,
let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That
is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. but to do
good and to communicate, forget not. For with such sacrifices,
God is well pleased. We'll end our reading there.
All right, let's stand together as Mike leads us in singing our
call to worship. Born at thy table, we behold
the wonders of thy grace. But most of all, admire that
we should find the welcome place. We see the blood of Jesus shed,
and fall our garlands bright. Atonement made, and love's the
sacrifice. That I'd ten thousand hearts,
dear Lord, I'd give them all to Thee. Had I 10,000 tongues, they all
would join the harmony. Thank you. You may be seated.
Turn now to 385. 385. Let's sing the chorus after the
second and fourth, the even verses. Take the world, but give me Jesus
All His joys are but a name But His love abideth ever to eternal
years the same. Take the world, but give me Jesus,
sweetest comfort of my soul. With my Savior watching o'er
me, I can sing though billows roll. O the height and depth
of mercy, O the length and breadth of love, O the fullness of redemption,
Pledge of endless life above. Take the world, but give me Jesus. Let me view His constant smile. And throughout my pilgrim journey,
Life will cheer me all the while. Take the world, but give me Jesus. In His cross my cross shall be. Till with clearer, brighter vision,
Face to face, my Lord, I see. O the height and breadth of mercy,
O the length and breadth of love, O the fullness of redemption,
Pledge of endless life above. Now, right at the bottom of the
page, 386. 386. All for Jesus, all for Jesus
All my being's ransom powers All my thoughts and works and
doing All my days and all my hours All for Jesus, all for
Jesus All my days and all my hours All for Jesus, all for
Jesus All my days and all my hours Let my hands perform His
bidding Let my feet run in His way Let my eyes see Jesus only,
Let my lips speak forth His praise. All for Jesus, all for Jesus,
Let my lips speak forth His praise. All for Jesus, all for Jesus. Let my lips speak forth His praise. Since my eyes were fixed on Jesus,
I've lost sight of all beside. So entrain my spirit's vision,
Looking at the crucified. All for Jesus, all for Jesus,
Looking at the crucified. All for Jesus, all for Jesus,
Looking at the crucified. Oh, what wonder, how amazing! Jesus, glorious King of kings,
Thanks to call me His beloved, Let me rest beneath His wings. All for Jesus, resting now beneath
His wing. All for Jesus, all for Jesus,
resting now beneath His wing. Let's open our Bibles together
to Isaiah 45. Isaiah 45, we'll begin reading
in verse 20. Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together, ye that are
escaped of the nations. They have no knowledge that set
up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a God that cannot
save. Tell ye, and bring them near. Yea, let them take counsel together.
Who hath declared this from ancient time? Who hath told it from that
time? Have not I the Lord, and there
is no God else beside me? A just God and a Savior, there
is none beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved
all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself The word
is going out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return that unto
me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely shall
one say in the Lord have I righteousness and strength. Even to him shall
men come. All that are incensed against
him shall be ashamed in the Lord. Shall all the seed of Israel
be justified and shall glory. Let's go to our Lord in prayer. Our God, God in heaven, we thank
Thee for this Thy Word. We thank Thee that Thou art God.
Beside Thee there is none else. Lord, we thank thee for this
opportunity to gather together to worship. Lord, thankful that
you've brought us here to this place this morning. Lord, bless
us with a word from thee. Lord, speak to our hearts this
morning. Lord, we pray for our pastor.
Lord, how we thank you for him. We're thankful that You've given
us a pastor to faithfully declare the truth of Thy Word. Lord,
bless him this morning in preaching Your Word. Lord, take that which
You've laid upon his heart. And Lord, be pleased to speak
through Your servant here this morning. And Lord, for Thy people,
bless us with ears to hear. Lord, give us a hearing ear hear
and believe and rejoice in thy word. Rejoice in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Lord, we thank you for these
many young ones you've blessed us with. Lord, we pray that you'd
be merciful to them. Lord, we pray for our community.
Lord, what a blessing to have a place in this community to
come and hear thy word freely. Lord, bless the going forth of
Thy Word. Lord, as it goes forth in this place, Lord, in all those
ways in which Thy Word goes forth, Lord, the tapes and the CDs,
Lord, over the internet, Lord, in whatever way it goes forth,
bless it. Bless the preaching of Your Word
to the hearts of the people. Call out Your sheep, we pray. So we pray for those of our number
who are in a time of trouble, time of difficulty. Lord, you
know the needs of your people. We pray that you would, in all
things, cause us to, Lord, not lean on this arm of flesh. Lord,
to completely rest in thee, knowing that thou doest all things well.
Again, we thank you for your many blessings. Lord, forgive
us. Forgive us, Lord. We can't even
begin to praise Thee and give Thee thanks for Thy many blessings.
Lord, chiefly and above all things, we do thank Thee for the Lord
Jesus Christ. Thankful for Your mercies toward
us in Him. Bless us this morning. Bless
us with Your presence. Lord, set aside the thoughts
and cares of this world. Let us see Christ. In his name
we pray and give thee thanks. Amen. God's love has meant so much
to me. I want to praise His holy name,
His grace and truth have set me free. This blessed truth I
would proclaim. He is my hope, my strength and
guide. His spirit does my soul inspire. For me, he bled and groaned and
died. Christ is the Savior I desire. This Savior is our living bread,
Our wisdom and our righteousness. We eat his flesh, we drink his
blood. He is the source of all our bliss. He feeds my soul from things
above and warms me with His sacred fire. I want to feel His grace
and love. Christ is the portion I desire. He is my sun to give me light,
and in my spirit shall be blessed. His grace will bring supreme
delight, And give to me eternal rest. Without His mercies I would fall,
So for His way I should inquire, I bind in Him my all in all. the treasure I desire. Let's open our Bibles again to
Hebrews chapter 13. We titled our message this morning,
Christ the Only Altar. Text begins with verse 9, Hebrews
chapter 13. Be not carried about with diverse
and strange doctrines, for it's a good thing that the heart be
established with grace, not with means which have not profited
them that have been occupied therein. The writer here makes
a distinction between the two ways sinners try to come to God. The first one is grace. God's
sovereign, electing, distinguishing, saving, keeping grace. It's a
good thing. Grace is a good thing, isn't
it? It's a good thing that your heart be established in God's
grace. And grace means this, that salvation is all by God's
grace. All by God's grace and not in
any way having anything to do with any of our works. None of
our works, before conversion or after conversion. Grace is
God giving us what we do not deserve. It's not God giving
us what we've earned by our good works. It's not God blessing
us and giving us things because of our good Christian living.
Grace is God giving us what we do not deserve. Well, what is
it that we do not deserve? Well, the list is long and varied,
isn't it? We do not deserve God's salvation. We do not deserve
righteousness in Christ, the righteousness Brother Eric just
read about that's in Christ. We do not deserve the forgiveness
of our sin. We do not deserve eternal life,
acceptance with God, or favor with God. If we have those things,
it's by God's grace, isn't it? Salvation by God's grace means
that salvation is entirely the work of God. It's all what he
has done for his people and in his people, and our works do
not contribute to it. Now the writer describes a second
way sinners try to approach God as meats, and that simply stands
for all the works of the Old Testament law. The writer of
the law had many requirements. It takes up pages and pages and
pages of your Bible, many requirements, telling us what we could and
could not do, including what you could and could not eat.
The law forbid eating anything that God called unclean. Janet and I went out to eat the
other night, and I had pulled pork, and I had just finished
preparing this message, and I thought, I'm glad I'm not under the law,
because I'm going to enjoy this pork. I'm going to enjoy it.
But under the law, you could not eat it. Pork was something
God called unclean. You could not eat it. Now, the
purpose of the whole law, the reason God gave all that law,
the reason God gave pages and pages and pages in your Bible
of the law was for one reason. is to point sinners to Christ.
God never did give the law as a way that we could do something
to make God happy with us. The purpose of the law, all those
pages, all those commandments of the law, the purpose of that
was to show us we can't keep the law. It's impossible. The
law was given to show us our sin so that we would see I need
Christ to come keep the law for me. That was the reason God gave
the law. The purpose of the law was to
show us our sinfulness and how much we need Christ. That's the
purpose of the law. The purpose of the law was to
show us about these two ways of coming to God. When you, if
God ever give you an understanding of the law, you'll see this.
Salvation has got to be by grace. It can't be by me keeping this
law. It can't be by my works or doing something that will
please or impress God because I can't do it. And the writer
warns us this legal message of the law takes many different
forms. I mean, some mostly today, nobody
goes back and tries to make somebody keep all these these rules and
different regulations and ceremonies of the law. You know, they make
up their own or they pick out some of their favorite ones and
put you under that. That's a very, very common message.
That's the only message sinful flesh can understand. Trying
to earn in our way to God. And the writer warns us, now
don't get carried away with these false gospels. There is a true
gospel and there's a false gospel. There's the true Christ and what
the apostle called another Jesus. Don't get carried away by these
other gospels that preach something other than Christ alone, God's
word alone, God's grace alone, faith in Christ alone. If you
hear preaching that makes you feel better about yourself because
of the things that you've done or things you haven't done, Run
away from it. Run away. I don't care how good
it is. Somebody tells you, you may feel good about yourself
because you don't lie. You don't cheat. You don't take the Lord's
name in vain. You know, you're kind and you give and all these
things. Well, that's good. You ought to do those things.
And you ought not lie. You ought not cheat. But if the
purpose of the message is to make you feel good about yourself
because those things run away from it, it's it's meat. It's another gospel. It's not
the gospel. of Christ alone. It's not the
gospel of God's grace alone. It's something that you, the
sinful creature, have done to contribute to this matter of
salvation, and God won't accept it. So run away from it. The
writer calls that kind of preaching strange doctrines. I won't go
into all that. I covered that. If you're here
Wednesday night, I covered that. But these doctrines are strange. They're strange to the character
of God. They don't match God's holy character.
They're strange to the word of God. They're things that they,
what the Lord called your teaching doctrine, the commandments of
men for doctrines and other, but they're strange to the word
of God. You don't find them in God's word. You just find them
in, you know, man's thoughts. And the message of works is strange
to sovereign grace. And it is anybody that preaches
works has got to be strange. It doesn't match salvation by
grace alone. So run from that kind of preaching.
Because the writer here says, people who have been occupied
in those things have never benefited from it. They've never profited
from it. Now the word occupied, this is
very interesting, the meaning of the word. It means trying
to progress. Trying to progress, trying to
get holier and holier and holier. Trying to progress, getting closer
and closer and closer to God. Trying to progress, getting better
and better and better. It means to regulate yourself. It's someone who is occupied
with the law. They're trying to regulate themselves
by looking at what the law says to do. They look, they say, well,
I don't know how to conduct myself, so I'm going to look at the law
to tell me what to do and what not to do. And that's never profited
anybody that's been occupied there. Never. It's never profited
their soul. Ever. Matter of fact, it made
them worse. It didn't make him closer to
God. It made him further from God. Because that's not God's
way of salvation. That's not grace, is it? That's
not salvation in Christ. It makes him further from God.
And the writer uses the illustration of meats here. Because he's writing
to Hebrew believers. And I'm just sure of this, that
these Hebrew believers, you think about them. They were raised,
they were eat in this Jewish religion. They were steeped in
the law, what to do and what not to do, what to eat and what
not to eat. They were steeped in it. And now the Lord saved
them. He has saved them. They have
faith in Christ. But they're still having a hard
time, aren't they? Having a hard time letting go of those things
that were so ingrained in them from the time that they were
born. The Apostle Peter knew and loved the Lord, didn't he? He said, Lord, you know all things. My brethren can't tell it from
looking at the way I've acted, but Lord, you know all things.
You know I love you. You know I believe you. Peter's the one that spoke up.
The Lord said, you can go away if you want to. And Peter said,
to whom should we go? We believe. We're sure thou art
that Christ. We're not going anywhere. You're
our only hope. Peter believed and loved Christ. Yet Peter told
the Lord, I'm not going to eat that. That's unclean. I'm not
going to eat that. He had such a hard time. Such
a hard time. It's just ingrained in him. He'd
seen the Lord live, crucified, rose from the dead, send it back
to the Father. He still said, I'm not going to eat that. I'm
under that law. I'm not going to eat that that's unclean. Oh, he's had
a hard time. And these believers that the
writer is writing to here, they they are having a hard time.
And the writer here is closing this epistle with some good news
for these Hebrew believers and some good news for anybody else
who's under the bondage of the law. This is the good news he's
giving us here. God has given us something far
better than the law. He's given us Christ. He's given
us Christ. God has given his people Christ,
who's a fulfillment of the law, who's a fulfillment of all those
ceremonies. Look at verse 10. He says, We
have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the
tabernacle. We have an altar. And by that,
he means we who believe have Christ as our altar. Christ is
our altar. Now, that's very important for
us to understand because sinners cannot come to God without an
altar. And they can't come to God without
a sacrifice upon the altar. Now here in this building, we
don't have a physical altar of any kind because believers don't
have an altar that's on earth. We don't have an altar that's
made up of earthly things. Christ is our altar and he's
in heaven. But the closest thing we have
is something that looks like an altar. And you might see this
in other places, is this table down here. Now this table is
not an altar. You know, I don't come down here
and have an altar call standing down here by this, by this table
because there's no saving power in this table. Cecil made it.
Good wood, good wood is well made, but it's just a table.
There's no saving power in it. It's just a table that we use
to serve the Lord's supper. And when we're not serving the
Lord's table, we got some nice flowers on there, you know, to
make it look good. It's just a table. There's no saving power
in it or in the space around it. It's just a table. The altar
is the place God said, I'll meet with you. And that's not this
table. It's not this table of wood.
God's not going to meet you here. But God will meet you in Christ.
That's where he'll meet you. And this is what the writer is
telling us and what the whole word of God is telling us. Christ
is our altar. And we must have an altar. Nothing's changed. We still must
sinners still must have an altar where God will meet us, where
God will do business with us and accept us. And if Christ
is our altar, Oh, God's given us great spiritual blessings. What a blessing to have Christ
as our altar. And I want to give you a few
of those blessings. Number one, if Christ is our altar, we can
worship God. Now, when Adam left the garden,
this is what Adam knew from the beginning. If God's going to
be worshiped, you've got to have an altar. You've got to come
to God at the altar. That's what Adam taught his boys.
The reason Cain and Abel came to worship God in an altar is
that's what Adam taught them. Adam knew God can't be worshipped
anywhere but at that altar. And when we talk about the altar,
just kind of keep this in your mind as I talk about the altar,
we mean both the altar and the sacrifice offered upon the altar. The altar is no good without
a sacrifice, is it? It's got to be both the altar and the
sacrifice offered upon it. Both are critical and they've
got to be the way God says for us to come. Now Cain was occupied
with meats, wasn't he? He was occupied with his own
works, the fruits and vegetables that he grew, and he brought
those things to God. And I just am confident of this.
Cain didn't bring any bruised tomatoes. I mean, you know, he
didn't bring any something that he didn't think that he would
like to eat. He brought the best. He brought the best. But that
was his own works. And Cain didn't profit, did he?
When he brought that to the altar, when he brought the very best
that he had to God, He didn't profit, did he? Because God didn't
have respect to his sacrifice. He didn't have respect to Cain.
See, Cain did not come God's appointed way. There's got to
be an altar and there's got to be a blood sacrifice offered
on that altar. There's got to be death for sin. There's got to be blood. And
that's what the altar shows. The altar shows there's death
for sin. There's the death of the substitute here. God can
accept me. God can forgive me. God can look
on me. God can accept my worship because
the substitute died in my place. I can live because the substitute
died in my place. There's got to be blood that
takes away my sin. There's got to be shedding of
blood. The blood, the sacrifice has got to die. It's blood's
got to be shed because without the shedding of blood, there's
no remission. And that's why Abel profited
when he came to the altar because he came with a blood sacrifice.
that pictured the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. And
Abel profited because God accepted Abel's sacrifice. See, it all
had to do with the sacrifice, didn't it? Well, Christ is the
believer's altar. Christ is the Lamb, the perfect
Lamb of God, sacrificed upon that altar. And God will meet
with sinners in Christ. He'll only meet with sinners
in Christ because that's God's appointed way. But oh, how happy
we ought to be. God's provided a way. He'll meet
with sinners. It's in Christ. God will accept every sinner
that comes to him through Christ the altar and Christ the sacrifice.
And that's a blessing. It's a blessing that we're unable
to worship almighty God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ,
our altar. All right, number two. The position
of the altar that was in the tabernacle is a picture of Christ
that tells us that Christ is all in salvation. God will teach
you Christ is all in salvation. You're going to have rest and
you're going to have peace for your heart. Now, when you entered
the court of the tabernacle, the very first thing you saw,
the thing that dominated the court of the tabernacle was that
brazen altar. It was large. It was the first
thing that you saw. And you could not go to the tabernacle
until you went past that altar. God cannot be worshipped until
you go past this altar with a sacrifice. The altar was the most prominent
thing out there in that courtyard. And you think about what that
place must have looked like. It had to be a bloody place,
didn't it? They were constantly sacrificing. They constantly
bringing animals there and the priest slitting its throat and
putting its body up there on that brazen altar. It's huge.
Just a bloody, bloody place. That fire constantly burning,
consuming the sacrifice. And here's something God said
about that brazen altar. Everything that touches it is
made holy. Now, all of that is given to
us as a picture of Christ. See, God can only be worshiped
in Christ. You cannot go to God any other
way except through Christ, our altar and his sacrifice. You
know, in the preaching of the gospel and the worship of God,
Christ is prominent, isn't he? You know why he's prominent?
Because he's all, he's all, he's everything. The only way we can
approach God is through the blood of Christ, which takes away the
sin of his people. The only way we can come before
God and live is if the substitute died for us. But Christ is so
much better than that brazen altar. That brazen altar, all
it is is a picture of Christ. The priest would put that sacrifice,
that animal he just killed, put it on that altar and the fire
of it would consume the sacrifice. Christ, when he was offered,
he's the altar and he's the sacrifice. When he was offered, He sacrificed
himself before the Father. The fire of God's wrath fell
upon him for the sin of it. I mean, God didn't turn the heat
down at all. He poured out his unmitigated
fury upon his son. And it kept falling until the
sacrifice consumed the fire. It's the only sacrifice that
ever consumed the fire. The fire of God's wrath finally
went out. You know why? The sacrifice put
sin away. There was nothing left to make
God angry. There was nothing left to draw his wrath. The sacrifice
of Christ removed the sin of his people. God's wrath is gone. And all that's left now is peace
with God. But it's all in Christ, isn't
it? See, the death of Christ made his people holy by taking
away their sin. So God will accept them. That's
a blessing to think we can come before God accepted. It's no
wonder Christ is prominent. And that's the only way it could
happen is in him and that his sacrifice upon the altar. All
right, now I want you to look at Exodus, the book of Exodus chapter 27. The third thing I want to show you
is the materials that were used to make an altar are all pictures
of Christ, the savior. Exodus chapter 27 verse 1. And thou shalt make an altar
of Shittim wood, that is incorruptible wood, 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
shall be of the same and you shall overlay it with brass.
Now, this brazen altar was made of incorruptible wood and it
was covered with brass. And that's a picture of the two
natures of Christ, Christ, the God-man. The incorruptible wood
is a picture of Christ's sinless humanity. Even after Christ died,
his body saw no corruption, did it? Because he was sinless. And
the brass is a picture of the deity of Christ, the strength
of his deity to stand up to that fire that was constantly burning
in this altar. This brazen altar was also a
perfect square, which pictures the perfection of Christ. Salvation
in Christ is perfect and complete. There's nothing you need to do
to add to it. There's nothing you need to do to ratify it.
It's already perfect and it's complete. And the sacrifice of
Christ gives his people a perfect, full salvation because of who
died. So all those animal sacrifices
never gave anybody any salvation, did they? It's because of who
died. It was just an animal, a bullock,
a goat, a sheep, a ram, something that was a picture of Christ.
But when Christ died, there's full, free salvation that's complete
for His people because of who died. The wood and the brass
that God made. His sacrifice is a perfect sacrifice. See, if God's going to accept
a sacrifice, it's got to be perfect. Christ became a man so he could
be the representative of his people, but he's God, so he'd
be perfect. And then each corner of this
brazen altar had a horn on it. Horns in scripture are pictures
of power to show us there's power in the sacrifice of Christ. There's
power in his blood to cleanse from sin because of whose blood
it is. This is the blood of God shed
for sinners to give them a perfect salvation. That's a blessing,
isn't it? All right, now look back at Exodus
chapter 20. God gave instruction for some other materials that
could be used to construct an altar, and all of them are pictures
of Christ. Exodus 20 and verse 24. An altar of earth thou shalt
make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings,
and thy peace offerings, by sheep and nine oxen. In all places
where I record my name, I will come unto thee and I will bless
thee. I'm going to come unto you and
bless you at this altar. Now this altar was made of earth
and it pictures the humanity of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ
is God. He's not a special manifestation
of God. He's not something that looks
like God. He is God. manifest in real human flesh.
He is a real man just as surely as he is really God. Now our
flesh is made up of dirt, isn't it? Just made up of dirt. That's
all we are, a pile of dust. I mean, why are we so proud of
ourselves? All we are is a pile of dirt. But the Lord Jesus Christ
became a real man with flesh and bones and blood, just like
our flesh and bones and blood. And He did that so He could be
the representative of His people. See, just like those animal sacrifices
never took away sin, did they? Because that animal can't be
a substitute for us, can't be a sacrifice for us. That animal
has a different nature than we do. God can't be our representative. He can't be a sacrifice for us.
He doesn't have the same nature that we do. God's spirit, he
doesn't have a body to sacrifice. But the God man come in the flesh,
he can be our representative and he can be our sacrifice and
save his people from their sin. And the sacrifices God said you
can offer on this altar of earth, show us the blessings that we
have through the sacrifice of Christ, through Christ our altar.
They offered burnt offerings on this altar of earth. Now burnt
offering, they used it as an atonement to make an atonement
for sin. And when you had a burnt offering, the whole animal was
sacrificed to God, was completely burned up. It went up in smoke
as a sacrifice offered unto God as an atonement for sin. Well,
Christ, our altar, is also our burnt offering. The whole Christ
was offered as a burnt offering to the Father. He offered himself
up, he sacrificed himself, both body and soul. And his sacrifice,
completely sacrificed to God, made atonement for the sin of
his people. He put it away. The Father was
never pleased with all those animal sacrifices. He required
them as pictures of Christ, but he wasn't pleased with them in
the sense that they took away sin. But the father is well pleased
with the sacrifice of Christ, because his sacrifice took away
everything contrary to God, took away the sin of his people. And
they offered peace offerings on this altar of earth. We have
peace with God. God's people have peace with
God. How? Through the sacrifice of Christ.
through His blood that He shed. And this is the altar in the
Lord Jesus Christ. God will meet with us in Christ.
This is where He says, I'm going to come and I'll bless you. I'm
going to come and meet with you in the Lord Jesus Christ. The
altar of earth, a real man. Now verse 25. And if thou wilt
make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone.
For if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.
Now, you could also make an altar out of stone. We read about that
many times in Scripture, somebody making an altar of stone. And
you could do that. But if you use stones to build
an altar to God, God says you be careful. You take those stones
and you use them exactly like you find them laying around.
What he's telling us is you use them the way God made them. See,
if you take that stone and you put your tool to it, Because
you want to make the you want to make the altar look more religious.
You want to make it look more impressive. And you put your
your tool to it to cut that stone. You know what you've done? Oh,
it looks more religious to you. I know. But God said you polluted
it. You polluted the altar and you
polluted the sacrifice offered on it. God said I won't accept
it. Can scripture make it more plain? Now we're going to build
this stone altar and we really are offering a sacrifice to God.
But God won't accept it if any of our works go into it. I mean,
can scripture make that more plain? God's not going to accept
our works. It's got to be the stone just like God provided
it, laying there on the ground. The picture is Christ is God's
altar and Christ is God's sacrifice. God cannot and he will not accept
what sinful man produces. He can't because he's holy. But
God will accept what God provides. If you come to Him in the way
God provided, then you'll be accepted. If you come to God
in Christ alone, God will accept you. But if you try to add your
work to Christ to make this thing look better, God will reject
you. Who do we think we are? I mean,
really, who do we think we are that we can add something to
Christ's righteousness and make it better? That is just the ignorance
and darkness of His flesh. You come to Christ, God and Christ
alone. Don't try to make yourself look
better. Don't don't say, well, I'm going to clean myself up
a little bit and start, you know, get get some things, my ducks
here in a row and then I'll come to Christ. No, sir. Come to him
just as you are. Just I mean, right as you are
naked, filthy, undone, wicked. You come to God as you are pleading
nothing but Christ alone. God will accept you. And he shows
us here in verse 26. This is exactly what he says
in verse 26. Neither shall thou go up by steps unto mine altar,
that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon. If you're going to build
an altar, you build it right down here on the ground, right
at the level that everybody's on. Don't put a platform that
you've got to go up by steps and put the altar up there because
you know, you just think it looks, it looks more impressive. You
know, it just, it looks more religious that way. Now it might
look that way to you, but God says he won't accept it. Here's
why you don't build steps up to that altar. It's very similar
to being occupied there. God is not to be approached gradually,
step by step, little by little, climbing our way up, making ourselves
better and better and better till we finally get up to where
God will accept us. Sinners don't come to God gradually
by degrees, getting ourselves better little by little over
time, that's being occupied with the law. Sinners come to God
in Christ. And in Christ, instantly made
holy, instantly made righteous, instantly made perfect. And even
in glory, you who believe sitting right here, right now in the
flesh, even in glory, you'll never be more holy than you are
right now. Holy, not because of what we
do, but in Christ. You see that? And if we try to
come to God by our works, you know what will happen? God says
your nakedness will be exposed, uncovered. And our nakedness,
what that means is it's the shame of our sin. Adam and Eve were
naked. Everything was fine in the garden,
weren't they? But the moment they sinned, they
became ashamed of their nakedness. See, nakedness is a picture of
the shame of our sin. And God will never accept us
if we come to Him just gradually trying to climb up a little bit,
a little bit, make ourselves a little bit more better, a little
more holy, you know. Our sin's exposed by our works. But if
we come to Christ alone, with an altar with no stairs, coming
to Him just the way we are, just exactly the way God has provided,
our sin won't be seen. It won't be uncovered. You know
why? It's covered in the blood of
Christ. God does not see the sin of his people in Christ.
Our sin's been washed away. But God sees his people in Christ.
You know what he sees? Christ. That's why your sin's
covered. And it will never be uncovered.
In Christ, we have no sin to be seen. So God will accept us. Now that's a blessing, isn't
it? The altar was the only place
that God would meet with men. God would only meet with men
at the altar where a blood sacrifice was offered that pictured Christ.
And that's still the same thing is true today. God will only
meet with men. And by that, I mean us. God will
only meet with you and with me in Christ, in Christ, not in
our good works because we don't have any. Not in Christ, plus
our good works, because you can't improve on Christ. If you try
to add your good works to Christ, you're just going to pollute
it. And God said He won't accept it. But God will meet with men. He will meet with sinners in
Christ. Because Christ took away the
sin that made God angry. And that's just too simple. That
is so glorious in its simplicity and clarity. This altar that
the writer here in the book of Hebrews is talking about is teaching
us that salvation is not in what you can do for God. Salvation
is in what Christ has done for God on your behalf. That's where
salvation is found. Now don't get mad that God's
not going to accept you in your works. Get glad that God will
meet with you anywhere, that God will condescend to meet with
you in Christ because of who Christ is, because of what Christ
has done for His people. Be glad and give thanks and rejoice. God has provided something far
better than the law. It's a full, free, complete salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not by our works. It's by
grace. I turn back to our text. The
whole point of this passage, and I've preached everything
I've said up to now to get to this point. This is the point
I want to make this morning. The whole point of this passage is
sinners cannot come to God by our works. We cannot come to
God by our good religion, our good doctrine, or whatever it
is you're impressed with. We can't come to God that way.
But sinners can come to God in Christ and be accepted. That's
the point of this passage. I'll show you that verse 10.
We have an altar. Whereof they have no right to
eat. which served the tabernacle. Now what does this mean? They
have no right to eat what served the tabernacle. Well, the law
said that only the high priest and his family could eat that
meat that was off of the meat of the sacrifice, which was offered
to God. That was their portion. That
was the Levites portion, the portion that God gave them. The
Levites didn't have farms and side jobs and herds of animals
and investments and stuff that they would use to make a living
and pay their bills. They didn't work out in the outside
world, for lack of a better term, to provide for themselves. The
only work of the tribe of Levi was the work of the Lord. In
the tabernacle and later on in the temple, that was their work. That was their only job. And
God provided for them. He provided for them through
the sacrifices and through the tithe, which was simply a tax
on the other tribes used to support the tribe of Levi. And if God
didn't make it a tax, they wouldn't, they wouldn't pay anything. If
God said, well, we're going to make it an offering. They wouldn't
pay it. You know, there's stiff day, selfish people got out and
make a tie the attack. So they would provide for everything
for the tabernacle and the temple and the Levites. Well, here's
the picture. This is what he's saying. If
you're working, trying to serve the law to make God happy with
you, if you're using the law as a way to regulate yourself
and see how to conduct yourself, if you're losing, using the law
as your rule of life to say, well, if I act this way, you
know, then God be happy with me. If that's the way you're
trying to approach God, if that's the way you're trying to live
your life here on earth, then you have no right to come to
Christ. If you're trying to use the law to come to God, you have
no right to the blessings that are found in Christ. No right
whatsoever. Eating Christ is partaking of,
it's believing him, it's having all the blessings that God has
provided in Christ. But if you're trying to use the
law, you have no right to grace and these blessings that are
found in Christ. The only people have a right to come. and eat
of Christ and partake of those blessings that God has provided
in His Son are people who have no works of their own. They're
depending entirely on Christ to be everything that they need,
everything that God requires. Those people have a right to
come eat of Christ and enjoy all the blessings that God has
provided for sinners in His Son. Now I tell you this morning,
you come eat. You come eat. hungry, you come
naked, you come empty handed and come eat. And eating is simply
believing Christ. It's having union with Christ.
When the Lord talked about eating his flesh and drinking his blood,
he didn't mean be a cannibal. He's talking about believing
him, having union with Christ by faith. And you just leave
all your works behind at home. Just throw them in the trash.
Don't even leave them there. You can come back and get them
later. Throw them in the trash and come to Christ as you are,
as a sinner. needing a savior, and you eat
all you want. You have all you want. See, the
people who could eat of the meat of the sacrifices was the family
of the high priest. You know, the tribe of Benjamin
or any other tribe, they couldn't eat of the meat, only the tribe
of Levi. Christ is all in salvation. Christ is the altar on which
the sacrifice is offered. Christ is the sacrifice that's
offered on the altar. He's the perfect lamb of God.
And Christ is the high priest who offers the sacrifice to God.
Christ is our great high priest. And believers are his family,
they're the family of the high priest, they're his children.
If you believe on Christ, he's your father, he's your older
brother, you're the family of God, then you have every right
to come eat of Christ. You might be thinking, Well,
especially I'm Jonathan. I were talking about this last
night. I talk about this is the way I experienced these things
growing up here in the gospel. And I, you know, I believe that
the gospel was so, I mean, there, there is no way anything else
I've ever heard could possibly be the gospel of God. There's
no way possible. Anything else I've ever heard
could save a center except this. I didn't believe it. I didn't
love Christ. God was patient and unthankful.
But you might wonder what I wonder. Well, what right do I have to
believe Christ? I mean, what right, really? I
mean, I've just heard this so long and I haven't believed it.
What right do I have to expect God to save me? What right do
I have to come to God and expect he'd forgive me? It's Christ our altar. Christ
is your right. Christ made it right for God
to save his people by taking their sin away and putting it
away. He made his people kings and priests unto God. So you
have every right to come because of who Christ is. Because Christ
died, what a blessed privilege to be able to come to Christ
our altar. I pray God enables us to do that. Let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, we dare not even take upon our lips to try to express the thanksgiving,
the awe, the wonder that's in our hearts, the sacrifice of
your darling son, Put away the sin of your people that gives
us a right to believe, that gives us a right to come to thee. Father,
how we thank you. Oh, how we thank you. Father,
I pray that you'd use your word as it's been preached to bring
glory to your name, to enable your people to see the glory
of Christ and to cause our hearts to be thrilled at him, to rest
in him, to find peace, joy, or satisfaction. in Christ, in Christ
alone. Father, bless your word, we pray.
Father, we thank you for this time that you've given us that
we'll have here in a few minutes to sit and eat together. We thank you for this food, and
we ask that you bless it, and we thank you for the occasion.
Father, I thank you for Blaine. Thank you for your blessings
to him, and Father, as he prepares to go off to boot camp, Father,
I pray you go with Oh, don't leave him alone, but everywhere
he goes, both now and in his future, Father, go with him.
Bless his every step, direct his every step and be with him
mightily, we pray. Cause us to remember him and
to pray for him and to give him a good send off in our love and
care for him today. All these things we ask and we
give thanks in that name, which is above every name. In the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Now, before Mike leads us in
a song, I want you to take your Bibles, if you would. Turn with me to Psalm 36. Psalm
36. I heard that Blaine had joined
the Air National Guard. There are two verses that almost
immediately came to my mind. And this is one of them. And
mostly this is for Blaine, something I want you to take with you.
But the rest of us can take this with us, too. I want Blaine to
be able to take this with him. He goes off flying into the sky
and all the things. He wants to be an airline pilot.
He's joined the Air National Guard to get training and money
to be able to do all that. And Blaine, what you're getting
ready to do, you've already flown. It's an utter mystery. I mean,
how somebody can take off in that thing, fly that, there's
an utter mystery to everybody in this room, but Bob, I mean, just
what a mystery to us. So as we watched him up there,
there's something we can take with us too, to remember. Oh,
I pray God bless you, son. Verse 36, or verse five, excuse
me. Psalm 36, verse five. You got
it? Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens. In thy faithfulness,
reacheth unto the clouds. Blame when you're off sailing
in the wild blue yonder. Remember this. Anywhere you go,
God's been there first. He's already there. He's there
in His mercy, and He's there in His faithfulness. And that's
what we'll pray, won't we, if this plane goes off, all right?
All right, Mike, you come lead us in. In that vein, Mike's going
to lead us in this song. Take the name of Jesus with you.
You take with you what you've heard, what you've learned, all
right? It goes without saying, but y'all,
the ladies have got us food prepared. Watch for Blaine. You know, he's
going to be in mess halls and stuff, so he gets to go first,
have all he wants, and then we'll go after him, okay? Let's stand and sing 63, number
63. Take the name of Jesus with you,
Child of sorrow and of woe, It will joy and comfort give you,
Take Him in, where'er you go. Precious name, O how sweet, Precious name, O how sweet! Hope of earth and joy of heaven. Take the name of Jesus ever,
As a shield from every snare. If temptations round you gather,
Bring that holy name in prayer, precious name. Oh, how sweet, hope of earth
and joy of heaven. Precious name, O how sweet! Hope of earth and joy of heaven. O the precious name, Lord Jesus,
How it fills our souls with joy. When His loving arms receive
us, And His songs our tongues employ, Precious Name, O how
sweet! Hope of earth and joy of heaven,
Precious Name, O how sweet! Hope of earth and joy of heaven,
At the name of Jesus bowing, Falling from strain at His feet. King of kings and heaven we're
crowned in When our journey is complete Precious name, oh how
sweet Hope of earth and joy of heaven Precious name O how sweet
the hope of earth and joy of heaven!