Alright, Exodus chapter 30. We
begin reading in verse 1. And thou shalt make an altar
to burn incense upon. Of shed and wood shalt thou make
it. A cubit shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a 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 and the sides thereof round and the
horns thereof, and thou shalt make unto it a crown of gold
round about. In 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 shit and wood, and shalt overlay them with gold.
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 Aaron shall burn thereon
sweet incense every morning. When he dresseth the lamps, he
shall burn incense upon it. And when Aaron lighteth the lamps
at evening, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense
before the Lord throughout your generations. Ye shall offer no
strange incense thereon, nor burn sacrifice, nor meat offering,
neither shall ye pour drink offering thereon. 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." Now the altar of incense was here right
in front of the veil at the entrance of the Holy of Holies. It was
three foot high, one and a half foot square, and it was made
of the incorruptible wood covered with gold. We see that over and
over and over again. This is a theme that runs through
the tabernacle, the two different materials making up one piece
of furniture, one part of the tabernacle. The incorruptible
wood, you know, you've heard it over and over and over again.
It's a picture of the sinless humanity of Christ. The Lord
Jesus Christ was a man, just like we are. Flesh and blood
and bones, just like we are. but without sin. He was like
us in every way except sin. He was a real man. Yet at the
same time, he's God. That's what the gold is a picture
of. And together, that's our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the God-man. And we see that theme all throughout
the tabernacle. The God-man is coming. And the
altar of incense is going to teach us something that the God-man
does for his people. Now the purpose of the altar
of incense is Very easy to see, he says it right at the very
beginning, it's to burn incense upon. That's its function, to
burn incense. Now look over at Psalm 141. That
incense, when they would put it on the coals, a smoke would
come up. And that smoke is a picture of
the prayers of Christ for his people, when he intercedes for
his people. The word intercedes, all that means is that he prays
for his people, to the Father. Verse 2. I don't have many, but
do I have a lot of you? Do I have volunteers? Read verse
2 for me, Psalm 141. Okay, Isaac, read verse 2 for
us. Good, thank you. Let my prayer
be set before thee as incense. That's what this incense is a
picture of. The prayers of Christ for his
people. And the prayers of Christ for his people are very important. I mean, you just need to understand
how important the prayers of Christ for his people are. Now,
the top of this, we don't have this in our example here, but
the top of it had a crown of gold going around it, and it
had horns. It doesn't say how many. We assume
there was a horn on each corner of it, picturing the kingship
and the power of Christ. Remember, the horns are always
a picture of power, and of course, the crown is a picture of the
kingship of Christ, and that tells us about the power of the
intercession of Christ for his people. Christ always gets what
he prays for. When he intercedes for his people
with the Father, he always gets what he prays for. That's the
power of his prayer. Now look over in John 17. We
know our Lord Jesus Christ is crowned with glory and honor,
and the fact that he always gets what he prays for is such a comfort
to God's people. We can look at many, many examples
of it, but look at verse 24. This gives comfort to God's people
when you read this verse and know our Lord Jesus Christ always
gets what he prays for. Verse 24, do I have a volunteer?
Do you want to know? Okay, I'll read it then. 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."
That's a comfort to God's people. That prayer is going to be answered.
God's going to give his son exactly what he prayed for there. All
of God's people are going to be with him where he is. But
you'll notice, this is the prayer of the king. Only the King can
pray like this. You and me can't pray like this.
We can't say, Father, I will. We better not. We'll not be heard.
But Christ the King can pray, Father, I will. And he gets the
request that he prays for his people because he's King. And
I give you a good example of the power of the prayers of Christ
for his people. Remember our Lord told Peter,
Peter, Satan's desired you. that he may have you, sift you
as wheat. And I pray for you, that your faith fail not. Peter
stumbled, didn't he? He denied the Lord. But his faith
didn't fail. Why not? The Lord prayed for
him. We'll look at this in the message
this morning. You know the difference between Judas and Peter? The
Lord prayed for Peter. And his faith didn't fail. He
always gets what he prays for. So this altar of incense is a
picture of Christ. But you know, the priest who
comes and offers incense on this altar is also a picture of Christ's
Arhat priest. When the priest came in to offer
incense, he would have the coals, he'd put the incense on it. Who's
he offering that incense for? For Israel. He wasn't offering
it for the Philistines or the Amalekites or any of the other
iths that lived around him. He was offering that incense
for the children of Israel. And that's a picture of Christ's
Arhat priest. When he prays to the Father,
he only prays for his elect. He's not praying for everybody
in the world. He is interceding only for his elect. John 17,
you've probably still got your Bibles open to it. That whole
chapter is the great high priestly prayer of Christ making intercession
for his people. What's the basis? I'll get to
that in a minute. But what does he say here in
that? I pray not for the world. He's not praying for everybody.
He says, I'm praying for those that thou hast given me. He only
prays for his people, just like Aaron only offered this incense
for the children of Israel. Christ only prays for his people,
and those people have access to the Father. When you would
go past this altar of incense, you go under the veil, you come
to the mercy seat. God's people have access into
the presence of the Father through Christ our mediator. So they
kept burning coals on this altar, and every morning, every evening,
the high priest would put incense on it, and the sweet-smelling
smoke would fill the place and rise up. And that sweet-smelling
smoke that rose up is a picture of the prayers of Christ for
his people. That's his intercession. Thirty-eight
times in the first four books of the Bible, The sacrifice is
referred to as a sweet savor to God, 38 times. That sweet
savor can only be a sweet savor when it pictures the Lord Jesus
Christ. And anything else, anything else
is a stench in God's nostrils. Anything other than Christ is
offensive to God. I don't care how good you might
think it looks, if you're following the right form, if you do a bunch
of right things. If you leave out Christ, it's
offensive to the Father. I'll show you that in Isaiah
chapter 65. The only way this can be a sweet-smelling savor
is if it pictures the Lord Jesus Christ. And anything else that's
offensive is an offensive over. Isaiah 65, verse 3. a people that provoketh me to
anger continually to my face, that sacrifice in the gardens."
Now, they're offering sacrifice, aren't they? "...and they burn
incense upon altars of brick, which remain among the graves,
and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine's flesh, and broth
of abominable things in their vessels, which say, Stand by
thyself, come not near to me, for I am holier than thou." They
think they have some righteousness of their own. I'm holier than
thou. And God says these are smoke. in my nose. There's an
offensive odor in my nose of fire that burneth all the day. Now, it looked like they were
doing some of the same thing Aaron did when he burned incense,
didn't it? But God says that is an offensive
odor because they've left out Christ. But this incense that
Aaron burns is a sweet-smelling savor to God. And I tell you
why. There is a very important connection
and union between the brazen altar and the golden altar, the
altar of incense. There is an important connection
between these two, and it's the connection between these two
altars that makes this incense a sweet-smelling savor to God.
Let's see if I can show you why. The intercession of Christ is
so powerful. He always gets what he prays
for, for this one reason, the sacrifice of Christ that's pictured
on this brazen altar. You know, the scripture says
we have an altar. Well, it takes these two altars together to
picture Christ, our altar. The power of the altar of incense
comes from its union with this grace and altar. Both altars
together picture the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The intercession of Christ is powerful because of the blood
of the sacrifice. Christ always gets what he prays
for with the Father because he offered the blood for the Father
as payment for the sins of His people. It's the blood of His
sacrifice. When Christ asks for forgiveness
of the sins of His people, the Father forgives because of the
blood. He doesn't just forgive because,
well, it's my son asking. I'm going to do him a favor.
You know, I like him. He's my son. I'll do what he asks. No. The
Father forgives sin when Christ asks for it because of the blood. The blood of the sacrifice and
that's what the one that we read there with the high priest once
a year would put the blood on the horns. That's the blood,
the power comes from the blood of the sacrifice that's offered
on the brazen altar. That's why Christ must die on
brazen altar before he can offer intercession to the father on
the golden altar. Now they burned coal, they had
coals in this thing and that's what they put the incense on
and made smoke, right? Where'd they get the coals? You
know where they got the coals for the golden altar? They took
coals from the grazing altar and came and put them on the
golden altar. And then they put the incense on it. The coals
came from the altar of sacrifice. And both of them worked together.
That's their union. They both worked together to
accomplish God's one purpose. The salvation of God's people.
That's what these two together picture. So Christ had to die. He must die. That's why this
was very first. When you come in the gate of
the tabernacle, the first thing you see is the brazen altar.
The sacrifice must be offered. Christ must die. There must be
blood to shed and plead before the Father. And on the day of
atonement, the high priest gave us a picture of that. He took
some of that blood and put it on those horns. Now, that's the
blood that gives power to the intercession of Christ. It's
the blood that gives power to his prayers. When Christ is pleading,
when he's making intercession to the Father for his people,
he's asking God to give his people what he already purchased. He's
not asking for a favor. He's saying, I've purchased this
with my blood, and I give it to my people. And the Father
said, I will, because of the blood of Christ. That's why Christ
always gets what he pays for, is because of his blood. Now
in John 17, the high priesthood prayer of Christ, what's the
basis of everything he asked for in that prayer? It's his
sacrifice. He said, Father, I finished the
work that you gave me to do. It's done. Now on that basis
of my finished work, of his sacrifice, let my people come where I am,
that they may behold my glory. It's all because of the sacrifice
of Christ. Christ is pleading for what we
sinners do not deserve ourselves, but he's pleading for exactly
what we deserve in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's because of the sacrifice. You know, I told you when Christ
asked for the forgiveness of sins for his people, the Father
always gives it. That's what the Apostle Paul
said. Who's he that condemned him? How can you be condemned? He said, it's Christ that died. It's not because you did anything
right, because you followed the sacrifices, you kept the law.
No, you're not condemned because Christ died. Another way we could,
when we're looking at this intercession of Christ, who is he that condemned
him? Well, let's answer the question with the question. Who is he
that's making the intercession? If the answer to both of those
questions is Christ, there's no condemnation. You can't be
condemned. Because Christ is pleading for
you, the blood of his sacrifice, and that's what makes it acceptable.
If Christ represented you, Calvary, if Christ bore your name on his
heart when he died on Calvary's tree, I guarantee you at this
very moment, he's at the right hand of the Father making intercession
for you. If he represented you, Calvary,
at this moment, he's representing you before the throne of God.
Now imagine such a thing. That's the union of these two
altars. But now, don't ever be mistaken. God will accept sinners in Christ. But he will only accept sinners
in Christ. And this altar, the golden altar
of incense, tells us that too. You can read about this if you
want. Leviticus chapter 10, Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abiham, they
thought, we're going to come worship another way. And they
got strange fire, coals from someplace else, other than the
brazen altar. They said, you know, that incense
smells pretty good, but we'll make up our own recipe, because
we think it smells better. And they brought coals God told
them not to bring. They brought incense God told
them not to burn, and burned it on this golden altar in front
of the mercy seat. And God sent fire and consumed
them, and told Moses to tell Aaron, you tell him, don't say
a thing about it. Now that's what God did to somebody that
violated the picture of His Son. You imagine what He's going to
do to those who refuse the Son Himself. This is God's justice. He will only accept sinners in
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's through His sacrifice
and through His intercession for His people. In Christ, we're
accepted in the Beloved. In Christ, the Father accepts
his people, but outside of Christ, he's a consuming fire. And that's
that fire that came to consume Nadab and Abiram. Now, when it
came time for them to move the tabernacle, you know that cloudy
pillar would move, they'd have to pack everything up and move.
They would take this altar and they'd cover it with the blue
covering. And you know that's a picture of blue is the color
of heaven, right? And then they'd cover it with
the badger skin, a picture of the humanity of Christ. Those
two coverings together, tell us there's a man in heaven right
now making intercession for his people. The Lord Jesus Christ,
when he took on him flesh, he never stopped being the God-man.
There's a man in heaven right now making intercession for his
people. Now, why is that important? Now,
we stress that. Christ is a man. There's a man
in glory. Why is it important that we stress
that? When Christ makes intercession
for His people, He's got power. He gets what He asks for. But
there's a man making intercession for His people. And because He's
a man, He can sympathize with us. He can empathize with our
weakness. The Lord Jesus Christ is a man
with all the limitations that we have. He can work a miracle
for His own self. He can work a miracle to help
others. But not Himself. Because you and me can't work
a miracle to help ourselves. He took on him all the limitations
of our flesh, and it's a man that can sympathize with our
weakness who's making the intercession. Isn't that who you want interceding
for you? Somebody that can empathize with you. Look at Hebrews chapter
4. Hebrews 4 verse 15. For we have not an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
He's touched with that, he feels, he can sympathize and empathize
with us. But he was in all points tempted, like as we are, yet
without sin. Now let us therefore, because
we have a high priest who's touched with the feeling of our infirmity,
let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace. that
we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
That's what we have with the intercession of the God-man. The power and the sympathy to
help sinners. Now, look over Revelations chapter
5. This altar also pictures the
union with Christ and his people. Now the smoke that came up off
this altar, that's a picture of the intercession of Christ.
Isn't that right? That's a picture of Christ's
prayers for his people. Well, look in Revelation 5, verse
8. And when they had taken the book,
the four beasts and four twenty elders fell down before the Lamb,
having every one of them hearts and golden vials full of odors,
full of incense. Which are the prayers of the
saints? Well, now, wait a minute. I thought that intercession,
the incense, was a picture of the prayers of Christ. This says
it's intercession, or the prayers of the saints. How can that be?
Well, we can understand that, what this means, if we understand
the union between Christ and His people. Look over a few pages
in Revelations chapter 8. Our prayers are accepted in Christ,
who is making intercession for us, even while we pray. Revelations 8 verse 3. 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 the saints upon the golden altar, which
is before the throne. And the smoke of the incense,
which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before
God out of the angel's hands." That angel's Christ. And he mixes
his prayers with our prayers. to make them accepted before
the Father. That's how he does that. Look in Romans chapter
8. Romans 8 verse 26. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth
our infirmities. But we know not what we should
pray for as we ought. But the Spirit as itself, and
you've got to pinch, scratch that out, right? Himself. Spirit's
not an it, it's a him. The Spirit himself maketh intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. I have to tell you,
I love that verse. Because honestly, there are many
times I don't know how to pray. There's a situation, I don't
know what to ask for. I just don't know. I don't know
how to pray. I don't know what to ask for. But I pray anyway. I pray anyway, because God hears
those prayers and those prayers are accepted in Christ. They're accepted by the Father
in Christ and because of Christ, because even as I'm praying,
He's making intercession for me. And that prayer, even when
I think I do know what to pray for and I do know how to pray,
that prayer's not heard because I know what to pray for. That
prayer is heard the same way as the days I don't know what
to pray for. They're always only heard in Christ. Look at Hebrews 13. Hebrews 13 verse
15. By him, therefore, by Christ
Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that
is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. We offer
our prayers before the Father by Christ, in Christ, through
Christ. That's the only way they'll ever
be accepted. The Father never hears the prayers of his people
because of our merit, because we pray right. He always only
hears the prayers of his people through Christ our intercessor.
Him making intercession for us. So the altar. The incense and
the smoke is a picture of Christ. The high priest that offers the
incense is a picture of Christ. But what about the incense itself?
The incense itself is also a picture of Christ. And look back at Exodus
30. I had never really seen this before until I was looking at
this the other day. God bless you from it, so I hope
you will too. The incense itself is a picture of Christ. He says
in verse 36 of Exodus 30, thou shalt beat some of it very small
and put it before the testimony of the tabernacle of the congregation.
That incense that was beaten small is a picture of Christ. He was beaten and bruised at
Calvary. He made his soul an offering
for sin. He was beaten small for sin. It goes back to what we were
looking at earlier. The sacrifice of Christ is what
gives power. to the intercession of Christ.
His sacrifice, beating that incense small, is what gives it its power,
because it's a picture of Christ's sacrifice. Now look at verse
34. This is the recipe for the incense
that they used. The Lord said unto Moses, Take
unto thee sweet spices, sacti, and onyca, and galbanum, these
sweet spices with pure frankincense of each shall there be a like
weight." You put the same amount of each of these in and mix it
together, and this is the incense. Now, this is the blessing. When
we pray, we plead always the merits of Christ. We pray for
Christ's sake. We pray in his name. We pray
for the sake of his blood. And that's what these four spices,
when they put together the incense pictures, That came from a special
tree. This tree has sap in it, like
all trees do, but this tree, its sap would just spring out
of it and run down the outside of the tree, run down the bark.
When they went to get this sap to make the incense, they didn't
have to tap the tree. They didn't have to cut into
the tree. The sap just flowed freely on the outside of the
tree. Well, that sap is a picture of the blood of Christ. Christ
shed his blood freely. for the sins of his people. We're
told, wash in the blood. You don't have to go to Christ
and tap him, cut him open, make him do something to give you
the blood. He shed his blood freely for the sins of his people,
just like this strapping that flowed on the outside of the
tree. Then Aniaka, that came from crab shells that are found
in one place on the face of the earth, the Red Sea. And they'd get these crab shells,
and they'd burn them, and the ashes of it would smell really
sweet, and that's what they'd use to make this incense. Now, what happened at the Red
Sea? Why is it important that they get these shells from the
Red Sea? Remember, the children of Israel were leaving Egypt.
They were trapped at the Red Sea. And God told Moses, strike
that water with your rod, your staff, and the Red Sea parted.
The children of Israel walked over on dry ground. Walls of
water up all around them. And those walls of water didn't
come crashing down on them and destroy them because they were
seen in Christ. This is God's electing love.
The children of Israel passed through on dry ground because
of Christ. Well, the Egyptians thought,
well, they did the same thing. They went down in the midst of
that red sea and the walls came crashing down on them and drowned
every last one of them because they didn't have a substitute.
They didn't have a sacrifice. So when we pray, We pray knowing
God's the one who chose us. God's going to accept me only
in his son. God's going to accept me because
his son gave himself for me. And that makes our prayer a thankful
prayer. Thankful for his love, his electing
love. Then galvanum. That came from
leaves of a specific shrub and the leaves were kind of puffy
and they break the leaves open. and this goo was in there would
run out, and that's what they would use to make this incense.
That's a picture of Christ. When we pray, we know we're only
heard for this reason, because of the broken body of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He gave his body to be broken
for the sins of his people, and we know a sinner can only be
heard by the Father through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ
when he was broken for us. Now, frankincense is a bitter
resin that they used that came from the sacrifice. And when
we pray, we always pray for what? For Christ's sake. In Christ's
name. That's how we end our prayers.
It's for Christ's sake. We're praying on the basis of
the sacrifice of Christ. He suffered all the bitterness
of the sin of his people. So we can be accepted before
the Father. It's interesting, this frankincense
is kind of bitter, but it was part of the sweet incense. Well,
the reason the intercession of Christ is sweet is because he
suffered all the bitterness and the sin of his people and took
it away. So his intercession to the Father is always sweet.
Now, remember when we read about the instruction of the golden
altar, the altar of incense. God said don't offer any sacrifice
on it, didn't he? Don't offer a meat offering,
don't offer a burnt offering, don't offer a drink offering
where they pour out something on the altar. Don't offer any
sacrifices on this, you only burn incense on it. But isn't
it interesting how an altar that you offer no sacrifices on tells
you a lot about the sacrifice, doesn't it? Tells you a lot about
the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's his sacrifice
that gives power to his intercession for his people.