Would you turn with me to the
27th chapter of the book of Exodus? I've entitled this message, Christ
Our Altar. Christ Our Altar. I'd like us to read these first
eight verses of Exodus 27. And thou shalt make an altar
of Shittim wood five cubits long and five cubits broad, and the
altar shall be four square, and the height thereof shall be three
cubits. And 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, and thou shalt make his
pans to receive his ashes. and his shovels, and his basins,
and his flesh hooks, and his fire pans, all the vessels thereof,
thou shalt make of brass. 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 staves for
the altar, staves of shidom wood, and overlay them with brass.
And the staves shall be put into the rings, and the staves shall
be upon the two sides of the altar to bear it. Hollow with
boards shalt thou make it, as it was showed thee in the mount.
So shalt thou make it. Christ our altar. Now what is the purpose of an
altar? Let me give you a hint. Doesn't
have anything to do with a wedding. You've heard people refer to
getting married as going to the altar. It doesn't have anything
to do with what they call an altar call. An altar has one
purpose. You know what that is? Death. Sacrifice. No other purpose. The Hebrew word is taken out
of another Hebrew word, which means to slaughter. To kill,
to slay, to sacrifice. Turn to Genesis 22 for a moment.
You'll see what is meant by an altar. Verse six of Genesis 22, and
Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon
Isaac, his son. And he took the fire in his hand
and a knife. And they went both of them together.
And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father and said, my father.
And he said, here am I, my son. And he said, behold, the fire
and the wood. But where is the lamb for a burned offering? And Abraham said, my son, God
will provide himself a lamb for a burned offering. So they went
both of them together. And they came to the place which
God had told him of. And Abraham built an altar there
and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac, his son, and laid
him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his
hand and took the knife to slay his son. Now, that's what an altar is
all about. It's about death. Now, when you entered the courtyard,
what is the first thing you saw in the tabernacle? What's the
first thing you saw? The altar. The altar that we
just read of. Now, look back in our text. There's
something very unique about this altar. Look once again in verse
two. And thou shalt make the horns
of it, which represents power. Thou shalt make the horns of
it upon the four corners thereof. But notice this switch. Its horns,
no, his horns shall be of the same. And thou shalt overlay
it with brass and thou shalt make his pans to receive his
ashes and his shovels and his basins and his flesh hooks and
His firepans, all the vessels thereof thou shalt make of brass.
Now, notice personality is attributed to this altar. Not it, but him. This material altar represents
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the altar. Now let me show you another scripture.
Turn to Genesis chapter 33. This is when Jacob reared up
an altar. And we read in verse 20 of Genesis
chapter 33. And he erected there an altar
and called it, L-L-O-E, Israel, God, the God of Israel. He called
that altar God, the God of Israel. Now we know that the altar represents
the death of a sacrifice, but my dear friends, I want you to
listen to me real careful. Zero in on what I'm getting ready
to say. True faith is always in a person. That sounds simple enough. True
faith is always in a person. Abraham believed God. I do not trust the death of Christ. That's an event. The death of
Christ, that's an event. I trust Him who died. There's all the difference in
the world. I don't trust the finished work
of Christ. I trust Him who finished the
work. You see, what we believe is completely
determined by who we believed. Now, when do you believe Christ? Is it when you see He died for
you? No. You can believe He died for
you and He didn't because He didn't die for everybody. There's
all kinds of people who believe He died for their sins who He
never died for. You don't believe in Christ when
you have some assurance that He's died for you. You believe
in Christ when you see who He is. That's when you believe. You know when you love Christ?
You love Christ not when you see all that He's done for you.
You love Christ when you see that He is lovely. That's when you love Him. Not
when you see what He's done for you. You're grateful for what
He's done for you, but you love Him. Your heart goes out in love
to Him, not when you see what He's done for you, but when you
see that He is altogether lovely. Let me give you a New Testament
scripture for this. Turn to Galatians chapter 6. Galatians chapter six, as a matter
of fact, I'm going to quote this passage of scripture several
times in this message for various reasons. Verse 14. But God forbid. That I should glory. Save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. By which the world is crucified
unto me and I unto the world? No. By whom? By whom the world is crucified
unto me and I unto the world? The altar is not an event we
trust. It's not a doctrine we understand,
but a person, so much so that the personal pronoun is used
with regard to this altar. Now before this altar that was
part of the tabernacle, there were other altars built from
which we received much instruction. The first time the word altar
is used is found in Genesis chapter 8. Would you turn with me there?
Genesis chapter 8. This is when Noah gets off the
ark. And here's what he did when he
got off the ark in verse 20. And Noah Genesis 8, 20, and Noah
builded an altar unto the Lord and took of every clean beast
and of every clean fowl and offered burnt offerings on the altar. That's the first thing he did
when he got off the ark. And what took place? Verse 21.
And the Lord smelled. The Lord's got a keen sense of
smelling. The Lord smelled a sweet savor
through this death on this altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet
savor. And my marginal reference says
a savor of rest. Does your margin say that? A
savor of rest. It has something to do with rest.
A smell of rest. A smell of satisfaction. So much
so that the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse
the ground anymore for man's sake. For the imagination of
man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither again will I smite
anymore every living thing as I've done. Now he makes that
promise because of that smell of rest, that smell of satisfaction.
Something about that, the death of those clean animals on that
altar. And if you know it pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ, it
doesn't have anything to do with any saving merit in those animals. God said, I'm satisfied. I'm
satisfied. I'm satisfied with this. Now,
I want you to think about this concept or this thought of satisfaction. What the hell is eternal? Eternal punishment. Why? Because
God can never be satisfied. He can never be satisfied. Now,
let's try to put this in human terms. Kelly, what if somebody
killed one of your kids? That'd be horrible to think about.
Think of your kid. What if somebody killed one of
your kids or your only child or whatever? What if the law
said, well, they need to pay $100? Would you be satisfied? Well,
let's take the price up to $10,000. Would you be satisfied then?
All right, they can go. What if they gave a million dollars?
Would you be satisfied then? Well, for a million dollars,
I can take the death. You'd never be satisfied, would
you? You'd never be satisfied. Now, do you think God can ever
be satisfied with the payment that the person who was guilty
of killing his son? No. That's why hell is eternal. Sin is an infinite evil and God
could never be satisfied with any payment I could make. It
would never make up for what I did. It can't do it. Because
it's me, I can't make the payment. But the Lord Jesus Christ, there's
such infinite worth in His death that God said, I'm satisfied. And He raised Him from the dead
because He was completely satisfied with what He did and He's completely
satisfied with everybody He did it for. Isn't that wonderful? God's satisfied with me. God
looks at me and He's satisfied. There's therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. God is satisfied. Now, I'm not satisfied with myself,
but God is. God is. And I'm satisfied with
what God is satisfied with. Turn to Isaiah 53 for a moment. Isaiah 53. Verse 10. Yet it pleased the
Lord to bruise him He hath put him to grief when thou shalt
make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed, the
people he's dying for. He shall prolong his days and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall
see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge. Shall my righteous servant justify
many for he shall bear their iniquities. Now I want you to
think about what his debt did. satisfied God, and by His death, He actually
justified. He justified many. Now, here's what I get out of
this. My justification, my complete
salvation, My perfection before God was accomplished completely
outside of my personal experience. You know what that does for me?
It gives me confidence and it gives me joy. If I had to look
within for any reason as to think why God has saved me, I couldn't
find a reason. Not something that would measure
up to God's standards, but seeing my salvation accomplished outside
of me, I rejoice. Do you find rest in this? His
death justified. I find such rest in that. God
smelled a sweet savor of rest. And I do too. They that have
believed do enter into rest. Now, did you notice in our text
that that altar had horns? There's several references to
the horns of the altar. As a matter of fact, several
times in the Old Testament, when people were seeking for refuge,
they'd get between the horns of the altar and they were protected
between the horns of the altar. Now, what do these horns have
to do with? Well, horns signify power and
strength. That's what they represent, power
and strength. Now, I want you to think of the
power. and the strength of the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. An altar has to do with death. You know one of the glorious
things about Christ? In Old Testament worship, you
had to have three things. You know what they were? First,
you had to have an altar. You couldn't worship without
an altar. And then you had to have a sacrifice. And then you
had to have a priest. You could not worship without
all three of these things. Christ is our altar. Christ is our sacrifice and Christ
is our priest. Isn't He glorious? Now, the power,
the strength of this sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. He on the altar, He as the altar,
drank the dregs of all of the wrath of God completely dry. And there was none left. God
said, there's no fury in me. God doesn't have a reason to
be mad. He really doesn't. Christ had such power that all
of the wrath of God could come upon him and he drank it completely
dry to where there's none left. His sacrifice made sin not to
be. Hebrews 9.26 says He put away
sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And in 1 John 3.5, in Him is
no sin. Now what about my sin? What about
my sin? It's very real. It's most real.
What about my sin? Is it really gone? Yes. Yes. What sin? There is no sin. That's the power of his sacrifice.
His sacrifice actually put away sin. I have no sin. That's why
I can come boldly into God's presence. Now, I come as a sinner. I realize that. I always come
as a sinner. I don't come saying, I have no sin. I come as a sinner.
But you know what? I have no sin. I come through
the Sacrifice of my great altar, the Lord Jesus Christ. His sacrifice
made all believers to be perfected forever. By one offering his
sacrifice, he had perfected forever. Then they're sanctified. Listen
to this scripture, Hebrews 10, 11, by the which will we are
sanctified. You know, somebody this week
said, don't you grow in sanctification? Don't you develop in sanctification?
No, you don't. Can't get any more sanctified
or less sanctified. You are sanctified, holy in Christ
Jesus. Now the scripture teaches we
do grow in grace, we grow in faith and all of those things.
But my holiness is Christ Jesus himself. And I can't get any
more holy than I am. I've been perfected forever.
Perfectly completed, never to be repeated. That's what the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ did. I'm holy before God. His sacrifice Has such power
over all for whom he died that every one of us say this. Can
you say this? God forbid. That I should glory. Save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. By whom I see this world. A crucified thing. In light of
the cross, this world seems to be nothing more than an empty
soap bubble. And this world views me the same
way too. Now, this is the subject of the
eternities, his sacrifice. The lamb slain from the foundation
of the world, that was the song of eternity past. And the song
of eternity future is worthy of the lamb that was slain. And here's another interesting
fact. Would you turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 12. Deuteronomy
chapter 12. Verse 13. Take heed to thyself. that thou
offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest.
Don't just think I can just go anywhere where I can offer this
burnt offering. No, but in the place which the
Lord shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer
thy burnt offerings and there thou shalt do all that I command
thee. You couldn't just pick any old
place to put this altar and offer up this sacrifice, only in the
place where God said, I've put my name and nowhere else. But in the place where the Lord
shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt
offerings, and there shalt thou do all that I command thee. That's
not saying what I thought it said. There's one in there. Well, he says the only place
you can do it is where I put my name. Evidently, I've got
the wrong scripture. I'm sorry. You can look it up
for yourself. But it says the only place you can put it is
where I put my name. Where's the Lord put his name? The Lord
Jesus Christ, that's a weak point because I don't have a scripture
to go with it, but I don't know how I missed that. But the Lord
Jesus Christ is where he puts his name. And the next point
flows from that. Look at Exodus chapter 17. Exodus
chapter 17. Verse 15. And Moses built an altar. and
called the name of it Jehovah Nisi. Jehovah Nisi, Jehovah on
this altar. He called this altar, this place
of sacrifice Jehovah Nisi. Jehovah our banner, Jehovah our
message. Here's what the New Testament
says about that. Here's our banner, here's our ensign, here's our
message. We preach Christ crucified. That's the very message of the
church, Christ our altar, Christ our sacrifice, Christ crucified. And Paul said this, he said,
I determine not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. Jehovah Nissi, Christ our banner,
this altar, this altar. I've never really seen it. I've
always known what Jehovah Nissi was, but I never thought of it
being an altar. He called the altar Jehovah Nissi, Christ our
banner, the sacrifice of Christ, our very message, what we delight
in, what we glory in. Now, if somebody cannot understand
why Paul said, God forbid that I should glory, save the cross
of Christ. If somebody can't understand why God, why Paul
said, I'm not even interested in preaching anything else but
Christ the uncrucified. Somebody can't understand that
because they've never seen the glory of the cross. This is the message
of the Christian church. Christ our banner. Now let me show you a scripture
that shows how effectual this altar is. Turn to Exodus 36. I love this, Exodus 36. This is talking about the altar that
we read of in Exodus 27. Verse 37. Well, I messed that one up, too. Let me see if it's in 37. Well, let
me tell you what it said. Let me tell you what it said. I'm sorry. This is this is not
good. I don't know how I manage this,
but I mess up some, you know, I'm sorry, Flash, you know, but
but let me tell you what this scripture said. It said this
altar is most holy. And anybody who touches it and
anything who touches it is holy. That's what the scripture says.
It's in Exodus 36 or 37 somewhere. You couldn't defile that altar. You couldn't do something to
make it unclean. You couldn't mess up the holiness
of this altar. You see, holiness is immutable
and anybody who comes in contact with this altar They're called
by God, holy. Isn't it a blessing to know that
you can't defile the altar? It can only make you holy. That's
all it does. Now, how do we come into contact
with this altar? If this altar makes us holy,
how in the world do we come in contact with it? Well, turn with me to Genesis
chapter 12. I know I got these scriptures right. Genesis chapter 12, verses 7
and 8. And the Lord appeared unto Abram
and said unto thy seed will I give the land and there builded he
an altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him. And he removed from
thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his
tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east. And there
he built an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the
Lord." Look in chapter 13, verse 4. He came unto the place of
the altar where he made there at the first, and there Abraham
called upon the name of the Lord. Now what did he do upon coming
to that altar? He called upon the name of the
Lord. Now what's that mean? to call
upon the name of the Lord. Well, His name is His attributes. His name is the person behind
the name. His holiness, His justice, His
sovereignty, His wisdom, His mercy, His grace, His power,
all of His wonderful attributes. That's who He is. The name of
the Lord is who He is. And when I call on His name,
it doesn't just mean I'm saying, Jehovah, save me. No, I'm saying,
Lord, save me by Your sovereignty, by an act of Your will. Save
me by your justice in a way that your justice is honored and my
sin is put away. Save me by your kindness and
your mercy. Save me by your wisdom where
you made a way to be just and justify the ungodly. When I call
upon the name of the Lord, I'm calling on who He is and I'm
asking who He is to save me. That's what it means to call
on the name of the Lord. I'm calling on the name of the Lord
right now while I'm speaking to you. Lord, save me by your
grace. Lord, save me as an act of your
mercy on me. Lord, save me by your justice.
Save me by your kindness. Save me by your power. Every
one of your attributes, you save me. What a wonderful scripture,
whosoever don't care who you are, whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. You know, that's always
true. And, you know, quite often that's
the only thing I got. That's the only thing I got.
But that's plenty, isn't it? Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Turn to Hebrews chapter 13. Verse 10. We have an altar. where they have no right to eat
which serve the tabernacle. Now, if you believe in salvation
by works, you have no right to eat from the meat that comes
from this altar. And remember, the priest would
eat the sacrifices. Now, you have no right to eat
of this sacrifice on this altar if you believe in salvation by
works. But if you believe the gospel, This is for you. You have an altar and you have
the right to eat. If you believe on Christ, Christ,
our altar, Christ, our sacrifice, Christ, our priest. This is all
our food. And what a good meal he is. You can have complete confidence
and joy in his sacrifice. Look at Romans chapter five with
me for a moment. I'm going to show you a few other scriptures.
I'm going to quit. Is it my imagination or has it
been very hot in here? That's been that way last several
Wednesday nights. We need to address that. I'm
sitting here. Matthew, chapter 23. Verse 16.
Woe unto you. You blind guides would say, whosoever
shall swear by the temple, it's nothing. But whosoever shall
swear by the gold of the temple, he's a debtor. You fools and
blind. For whether it is greater, this is Matthew 23 verse 17,
you fools and blind, for whether it is greater the gold or the
temple that sanctifies the gold. And whosoever shall swear by
the altar, it's nothing, but whoso swears by the gift that's
upon it, he is guilty. You fools and blind, for whether
it is greater the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift. Now, what they were saying is
here's what lends credibility to our gift. If we swear by the
gift, if we if we swear by the altar, it's non binding. It doesn't
matter if we don't do what we said we're going to do. But if
we swear by the gift, if we swear by our contribution to that altar,
then then the promise is binding. But the Lord says, you fools.
What's more important, what's greater, your gift or the altar
that sanctifies the gift. You see, it's the altar that
sanctifies the gift. Our little pathetic attempts
at worship. They're pathetic, aren't they?
You know what? The altar sanctifies that worship
and it's holy to God. It smells good to God. That prayer that you prayed that
had so much unbelief and so much wandering and so You just thought,
this didn't even get past the ceiling. What a pathetic prayer.
The altar sanctifies the gift. And it comes up before God and
it smells good. That gift that you gave, you
didn't give it as willingly as you should. You know that you're
doing it out of duty far too much. You weren't doing it as
joyfully as it ought to be, but the altar sanctifies the gift
and everything that a believer does is sanctified by the Lord
Jesus Christ. You know that fire upon the altar.
that we just read of was continual. There was a morning sacrifice
and there was an evening sacrifice. And that fire never went out. That fire was always burning
at the altar. And you know the power of the
blood of Christ never goes out. It never gets old. It never gets
stale. It's new every morning. Now one
final scripture, turn to Exodus 20. Here's some more instructions
regarding the altar. Verse 25. And if thou will make me an altar
stone. Thou shalt not build it of hewn
stone. For if you lift up your tool
upon it, you've polluted it. Neither shalt thou go up by steps
unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon. Now, works are excluded. You put your tool to it, if you
have anything to do with it, it's no good. It's His sacrifice
alone. Even the altar that the sacrifice
is laid. He said, no eunstone. If you
worked it out, it's unaccepted. It's polluted. But I love the
way He says this. There are no steps to this altar. You don't have to go through
this step, the seven different steps, or you need to go through
conviction of sin and mourning and then, no. No steps to this
altar. I come to this altar just as
I am. I don't try to make myself ready.
I don't try to make myself fit. I come to this altar just as
I am. That's the only way I can come.
And if I try to make myself fit, all I do is make myself unfit.
Like we sing in that song, let not conscience make you linger. nor fitness fondly dream, the
only fitness he requires. You know, the song says, is to
feel your need of him. But I've got a better way to
put it. To have a need of him. Because sometimes you feel your
need, sometimes you can't feel a thing. It's not just to feel
your need, but it's to have a need. You know something I always have?
I always have a need. I always have a need. Christ our altar. Let's pray together.