Turn to Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. Title of the message, We have
an altar. We have an altar. Now that word means place of
sacrifice. That's what altar means, place
of sacrifice. And it says in Hebrews 13, in verse 10, we have an altar
whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle,
the law, the ceremonies which we that were some in Galatians
this morning. But we have an altar, the believer. Those in Christ have an altar. Remember, he's writing here to
the Hebrews. And they knew what the altar
was. It was in the temple. They saw
it. That's the first thing you see
going into the temple. That's the last thing you see going
out of it, was the altar. When that altar was offered the
sacrifice, that altar burned with fire continually, continually. And now these Hebrews who have
been brought to faith in Christ and left all those things under
the law, ceremonies, types, pictures, that altar. I have no doubt that Judaizers
were saying, you know, God can't be worshipped without an altar. Abraham, in the Old Testament,
before the law was given, Abraham built an altar. Before Abraham,
Noah, in Genesis chapter 8, built an altar. Abraham, in Genesis
22, bound Isaac, his son, to an altar. He tied him to an altar,
and on that altar he was offering him up as a sacrifice. And then Isaac built an altar.
Jacob built an altar. It was ingrained in them. There
had to be an altar, a place of sacrifice, if God is to be worshipped. And the apostle here is telling
them, we have an altar. And it's not made of wood, hay,
and stubble. It's not made of stone. We have an altar, and
that altar is the Son of God. That altar is Jesus Christ. It is in Christ that we worship
God. It is in Christ we meet God and
are accepted. We do have an altar, and that
altar is the Son of God. God cannot be worshiped without
a blood sacrifice that was made so evident in the Old Testament
upon the altar. But make no mistake, he's saying
here, the apostle's saying here to them, make no mistake, we
have an altar and there is only, only one altar. There is only
one altar by which God is worshiped and the sinner accepted. And
that altar is Jesus Christ. Now, when God gave the law to
Moses, He gave him one altar of sacrifice, and that one altar
was to be placed in the tabernacle. And later on, after the temple
was built, that altar was placed in the temple. No matter where
you lived upon this earth, there was only one place where the
altar was, in the tabernacle. in the temple where God put it.
There was not many altars. Men have made many altars over
the years. You can go to the darkest part
of this world, and they will have some kind of altar made
to some god of their imagination. But there is an altar, and there's
only one altar. There's only one place of sacrifice.
There's only one place where God meets sinners, and that's
His Son. That's His Son. This altar that
was to be built by Moses represented the Lord Jesus Christ. He is
our sacrifice for sin. He is. He is our altar. It is in Christ that we worship
God, and our worship is accepted. Our worship this morning, our
praise this morning is accepted upon the altar of Christ. He
is it. I'll show you this in the Scriptures
in just a little bit. Don't think that God is worshipped
because someone is sincere or someone is religious. There is a prescribed way in
which God is worshipped, and that way is Christ through Him. through his blood, his righteousness,
his person. It's through him. Christ said,
I am the way. I'm the way to God. He's the
way we worship God. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man, no one comes to the Father except by me. There's no other way. There's
no other altar. No other sacrifice. He's it. He's it. The message
is this. The Christian, the Christ follower,
the true Christ follower, has an altar, and those who serve,
he says, the tabernacle. The law, the ceremonies, the
types, you know, they didn't want to let that go. They didn't
want to let it go. And he says, those who serve
those things, have no right to eat at this altar. They have no right to the blessings
of Christ who try to mix works and grace. They have no right
to it. If you're going to serve the
law, if you're going to serve the tabernacle, if you're going
to serve those things, you have no right to this. You've got
to leave one and turn to the other. Isn't that what repentance
is? Repentance is an absolute turning
from something to someone or to something else. And true repentance,
Godly repentance, is turning from our own righteousness, our
own works, our sins, and is turning to Christ and Christ alone and
hoping in Him, trusting in Him alone for salvation and nothing
else to the exclusion of absolutely everything else. So we have an
altar. We have a right. We have a right
to the blessings and the privilege through the Lord Jesus Christ.
But apart from Him, you have no right. You have no right to
anything, any blessing of God. Let this ring loud and clear.
The church has an altar, and that altar is Jesus Christ Himself. It's not the cross He hung on.
It's not that piece of wood He hung on. It's not a bench up
here in front. You notice we don't have one,
and we'll never have one. We do not come to what we call
the mourner's bench. I listened to a man preaching
a message a couple of weeks ago. He said, now before I give the
altar call, he said, let me say a few words. And he said a few
words and then he gave an altar call to come to the front. I believe that's been one of
Satan's great deceptions. Making people think that coming
up to this front, coming up to this mourner's bench, Coming
up here is getting in contact with God. That is getting saved,
so called. Coming to Christ has absolutely
nothing to do with a physical move. Not one physical move. It has to do with, it's a spiritual
move. It's the heart coming to Him. It's the heart crying out to
Him. I heard someone say on tape one time in a message, come to
Christ, but don't you move a hair or a muscle, but you come to
him. You say now, but how do you make
it public? Baptism. That's a public confession
of Christ. Being baptized, but coming up
front, repeating the prayer, that is not coming to Christ.
And that's been one of Satan's great deceptions. Many people
have been given a false hope on something they did and not
on what he did. We come to the true altar of
sacrifice when we come to Jesus Christ himself. When we come
to himself. And that has nothing to do with
this flesh. Nothing. I want to read about the altar
that God had Moses to make over in Exodus 27. Turn over there. I want to read the first eight
verses. Here's the altar that he was
to make. five cubits long and five cubits
broad. The altar shall be four square,
and the height thereof shall be three cubits. Thou shalt make
the horns of it upon the four corners thereof. His horns shall
be of the same, and thou shalt overlay it with brass. Thou shalt
make his pans to receive his ashes, and his shovels, and his
basins, and his and his firepans, all the vessels thereof shalt
thou make of brass. And thou shalt make for it a
great network of brass. And upon the net shalt thou make
four brazen rings in the four corners thereof. And thou shalt
put it under the compass of the altar beneath, that the net may
be even to the midst of the altar. And thou shalt make stabs for
the altar, stabs of shenum wood." and overlay them with brass.
And the staff shall be put into the rings, and the staff shall
be upon the two sides of the altar to bear it. Hollow with
boards shalt thou make it. As it was shewed thee in the
mount, so shall they make it." This is how it was to be made.
This is the altar that God gave to Moses to make, and it represented
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the altar and the use of
it was fulfilled by Christ. In Christ we are accepted. In
Christ we are sanctified. We have in Christ all we need.
We have in our altar the Lord Jesus Christ, the sacrifice that
makes us accepted. Over in Matthew 23, I'll read
this to you. He's the one of great importance. You fools, and you're blind,
for where there is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies
the gift? The greater is the altar. The
greater is Christ who sanctifies us, who cleanses us, and makes
us holy. The altar made the gift, the
sacrifice, accepted. It's not my repentance that makes
me accepted of God. It's not my faith that makes
me accepted of God. It's Christ. It's Christ. It's the altar. It's Him. Look over at 1 Peter, 1 Peter
chapter 2. In verse 5, he also, as lively stones, hath
built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God, how? By Jesus Christ. He is the altar upon which we
offer this morning our praise, He's the altar, and it is through
Him that what we are doing this morning is accepted. Now, look
back in Hebrews 13 and verse 15. 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 it's by Him. It's by Him. We do not just thank God, we
thank God in Christ. It is by Him. When we pray, when
we pray, we end our prayer in Christ's name. We praise You in Christ's name. We worship You. in Christ's name. It is by Him, therefore, let
us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. Christ, our
altar, makes our praise and our worship acceptable. He's the
one who does that. Now let me make a note of something
here. When the sacrifice was laid upon
that altar there in the temple, And it was laid upon that altar.
That sacrifice was consumed by fire. However, the altar was not. The sacrifice was, but the altar
was not. The altar remained the same. It remained the same. Last week
we looked at Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus Christ bore the heat of
God's wrath against sin, yet he was not consumed. He was not consumed. Someone
said this, his divine nature was the altar upon which his
human nature was sacrificed. He's God. God is our altar. He's our altar. And you remember when I read
to you back there in Exodus, there were four horns upon the
altar. One on each corner. It was square. There was one on each corner.
It's overlaid with brass. Sinners from north, south, east,
west can lay hold upon this altar. You have a right to it. You can
lay hold upon this altar and find refuge from the wrath of
God. I want to show you something
interesting. Turn to 1 Kings chapter 1. 1 Kings chapter 1. Let me find the verse. Okay, turn to 1 Kings chapter
1. Look in verse 49. And all the guests that were
with Adonijah were afraid, rose up and went every man his way. And Adonijah feared because of
Solomon, and arose and went and caught hold on the horns of the
altar. He didn't run and hide, he ran
to the altar and grabbed hold of the horns of the altar. And
it was told Solomon, saying, Behold, Adonijah feareth King
Solomon, for lo, he hath caught hold on the horns of the altar,
saying, Let King Solomon swear unto me today that he will not
slay his servant with the sword. And Solomon said, If he will
show himself a worthy man, there shall not inherit him fall to
the earth. But if wickedness shall be found in him," he's
a false person, he'll die. So King Solomon sent and they
brought him down from the altar and he came and he bowed himself
to King Solomon and Solomon said to him, go to your house. He was going to kill him. He
was going to kill him. And that man took off like a
jet. That man took off and headed
for the altar. And he grabbed hold of the horns of that altar,
and they couldn't pull him off. You couldn't pull that man off.
His life was hanging in the balance. His life was in the balance.
And he said, I'm not letting go of this altar. The only hope
I have is through the blood and the sacrifice. And King Solomon
said, let him go. Let him go. Jesus Christ is Higher
altar. Flee to Him. Lay hold of Him. And you just hang on. You hold
on. If I perish, if I perish, I'm
going to perish right here at the altar. No man, no sinner ever perished
who went to Christ. No sinner. When we lay hold of
Christ and we sue for mercy, God is able to show mercy and
be just in doing so. We plead the merits of Christ.
We plead His blood and righteousness for acceptance. Listen, let His
blood be propitiation for my sins. That is laying hold of
the horns of the altar. Laying hold of it. And you stay
there. You stay there. Now it says back in here in Hebrews,
we, we have an altar. He's not talking to everybody
because he just says, they who serve the tabernacle, they don't
have any right to this. You don't believe on Christ,
you have no right to the blessings. You have no right to paradise.
You have no right to forgiveness. You have no right to pardon.
You have no right to justification. You have no right to these things
apart from Christ. We? Who's the we? Those who believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ alone? God's elect from beginning to
end? That's the we. That's the we. Those who serve the law, or anyone
who believes that he or she must do something, has no right to
the blessing. He has no right to it. That's
what he says. Grace and works don't mix. They don't mix. I
want to show you something else. Turn over to Exodus chapter 20.
You know, that's, as I was saying in the Bible class, these types
of pictures were given as instructors, teachers, and tutors. Exodus
chapter 20. I want to show you something
here. Look in verse 24. God speaking to Moses, "'An altar
of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon
thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and
thy oxen, in all places where I record my name. I will come
unto thee, and I will bless thee. And if thou wilt make me an altar
of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone. You're not
going to take and put a chisel to it and make it, you know,
chisel it out the way you want it to make it look good. He said,
you're not going to do that. For if thou lift up thy tool
upon it, thou hast polluted it. The altar that God has provided
man had nothing to do with. You and I did not come up with
Jesus Christ. He's of God. His human nature was created
by the Holy Spirit. Nothing of this flesh entered
into his birth. He said, if you have anything
to do with it, if you try to construct it, if you have anything
to do with it, it's polluted. I don't want nothing to do with
it. Listen, neither shalt thou go up by steps into my altar.
You're not going to work your way up. Merit, acceptance by doing something. Don't make steps. Don't make
steps. Thou shalt not put a tool to
it, and you don't make steps to go up to it, that thy nakedness
be not discovered. The altar is of God. The true
altar is of God. And it's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's there. The Jews had their altar. I read
it to you, Exodus 27, and what it was made out of. They had
their altar. They had their physical altar.
When they would go into the temple, they could see it. The believer, the Christian's
altar is a person. Our altar is a person. Our sacrifice
is not that of bulls and goats. Our sacrifice, the sacrifice
that he gave, was himself. And in this person, sinners meet
God and they are accepted. So don't move. Here's what he's
telling them. Here's what the apostles tell
the Hebrews there. Don't move from this altar that God has
provided in His Son. He's it. Don't go back to that
altar. They may taunt you and say, see,
we have an altar Moses gave it to us. God gave it to Moses.
Moses gave it to us. You don't have one. Yes, we do. We have the one that that one
pointed to. And that's the only one there is. And don't you move
from it. Don't move from it. Be like Adonijah. Grab hold of those horns and
don't you let go. Because Christ is our altar.
He is our place of sacrifice. In Him, you are complete.