Sermon
#96 Hebrews
Notes
Title: Christ Our Altar
Text: Hebrews 13:10
Subject: Christ As The Antitype Of Old Testament Altars
Date: Tuesday Evening –
Tape # X-28a
Introduction:
Since the fall of our father
Adam, God has never allowed man to approach him without an altar and a
sacrifice of blood. In the old days of the patriarchs, from Adam to Moses, the
people of God built altars of hewn stone, upon which they offered sacrifices to
God. Whenever men drew near to God, whether to offer praise or to seek mercy,
they built an altar and offered a sacrifice of blood. Even in those days, men
of faith knew that God’s justice could only be satisfied for sin by blood, even
the blood of God’s own Son, the Redeemer who must come into the world to put
away sin.
Then, when God called Moses
up into the mount and spoke to him face to face he appointed one altar of
sacrifice to be built, and appointed a place for that one altar in
At first the altar was
placed in the tabernacle; and later it was placed in the temple at
As in the typical, legal
dispensation, so it is now. There is but one altar upon which the holy Lord God
meets sinners in mercy, only one altar upon which God can and will be worshipped;
and that Altar is Christ.
(Hebrews 13:10) "We have an altar, whereof they have no
right to eat which serve the tabernacle."
My subject
tonight is Christ Our Altar.
Proposition: The altar of sacrifice, in
the tabernacle and in the temple, was typical of our Lord Jesus Christ, (his
Person, his work, and his merit), as our Substitute before God. This is what
Paul is teaching us in our text – The only access which sinners have to God,
and the only acceptance we have with God is Christ our Altar.
Our Altar is in heaven. We
recognize no altar upon the earth. He who has an Altar in heaven needs no altar
upon the earth. He who has an altar upon the earth has no altar in heaven. The
Holy Spirit tells us this plainly.—"We have an altar, whereof they have no right
to eat which serve the tabernacle."
We cannot approach God
without a Mediator, without an Altar, and without a Sacrifice. We are all
guilty men and women, our best and holiest acts are but the sinful deeds of
sinful men, and our purest worship is but the worship of depraved hearts. Who
can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. Before we can ever be
accepted with God, before we can ever bring an acceptable offering or service
to God, there must be a shedding of blood for the removal of our sin and guilt.
We must come to God by way of the Altar and Sacrifice he has appointed, the
Lord Jesus Christ.
There is no door of
acceptance for us except through the merit of our great Surety, who laid down
his life for us. There is but one way by which we who are washed in the blood
of Christ can offer unto God our prayers, our gifts, our praises, or our
service, and that is by the Lord Jesus Christ, who alone is our Altar. We must
give ourselves to him, as living sacrifices to God, because only in him will
God accept our reasonable service.
Divisions:
1. There is but one Altar by
which sinful men may approach the Holy God.
2. Christ is our Altar.
3. I want to persuade you to
come to Christ our Altar.
I. There
is but one Altar by which sinful men may approach the Holy God.
In the Old Testament there
was but one altar of sacrifice by which men could ceremonially approach God;
and that one altar finds its fulfillment in the Person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The only altar, which can sanctify us and make us acceptable to God, is
Christ.
Today all physical, carnal,
ceremonial altars are instruments of idolatry. Use anything as an altar for
acceptance with God other than Christ and you have no right to the merits of
Christ. If you have another altar, your altar will drag your soul down to hell.
A. There are many who think of the cross upon which our Lord died as
an altar.
I have heard it said that
the cross was the altar upon which our Lord offered himself as a sacrifice for
sin. But it is not so. That cross upon which our Lord was crucified was nothing
more than the instrument of his torture. It is no more to be reverenced as an
altar than the whips of Pilate’s soldiers or the spit of those Jews, which
defiled his holy face.
I would no more wear a cross
around my neck than I would take the dagger a murderer used to kill my wife and
wear it on my belt.
B. Sometimes men talk of the heart as an altar to God.
I know what they mean. They
mean that sincerity makes our service to God acceptable. It is true that there
must be sincerity in our service to God, or it will never be acceptable. But
sincerity itself will never make our most solemn devotion acceptable to God.
Nothing but blood will ever make a man acceptable to God. Only the blood of
Christ, shed for the atonement of our sin can make us accepted with God.
C. It is common for men to talk of having a family altar.
It is good to worship God in
your home, with your family. But your family devotions will never make you
acceptable to God.
The
D. In many churches, the table used for serving the Lord’s Supper is
looked upon as an altar.
But the scriptures never
speak in such a way. The table spread before you is a table of communion; but
it is not a table of sacrifice. It is a place of remembrance, but not a place
of atonement. It is a solemn feast, but not a sanctifying feast.
E. Perhaps the most deceptive of all idolatrous notions is the idea
that there is an altar of salvation at the front of the church.
You can no more obtain
salvation by walking down the aisle of a Baptist church to an altar than the
papists can by making a pilgrimage to Rome and climbing the stairs to the
pope’s seat of infamy.
There is but one Altar.
There is but one place of salvation. That Altar is Christ. He is God’s
salvation. God only meets with men in his Son.
(Exodus 20:23-26) "Ye shall
not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold.
(24) An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon
thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all
places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.
(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.
(26) Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness
be not discovered thereon."
·
Christ is our Altar of earth.
·
Christ is our Altar of stone.
·
Christ is the Altar of God’s making.—“If thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou
hast polluted it.”
·
Christ is the Altar with no stairs for men to climb.
All forms of carnal worship,
all forms of physical things that men call “holy,” all attempts to place any
merit of any kind or any reverence of any kind in material things is base
idolatry (Ex. 20:23; John 4:23-24; Phil. 3:3).
Let us once and for all put
away every form of idolatry from our midst (2 Kings 18:4).
(2 Kings 18:4) "He removed
the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in
pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children
of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan."
II. Christ
is our Altar.
Moses describes the altar of
sacrifice for us in Exodus 27:1-8. All that the altar of the tabernacle and the
temple signified typically is fulfilled for us really and truly in the Lord
Jesus Christ.
(Exodus 27:1-8) "And thou shalt make an altar of shittim
wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be foursquare:
and the height thereof shall be three cubits. (2) 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. (3) And
thou shalt make his pans to receive his ashes, and his shovels, and his basins,
and his fleshhooks, and his firepans: all the vessels thereof thou shalt make of
brass. (4) And thou shalt make for it a grate of network of brass;
and upon the net shalt thou make four brazen rings in the four corners thereof.
(5) And thou shalt put it under the compass of the altar beneath, that the
net may be even to the midst of the altar. (6) And thou shalt make
staves for the altar, staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with
brass. (7) And the staves shall be put into the rings, and the staves
shall be upon the two sides of the altar, to bear it. (8) Hollow with
boards shalt thou make it: as it was showed thee in the mount, so shall they
make it."
A. The altar of sacrifice typifies Christ in the use for which it
was made.
1. The altar
sanctified the gift, the sacrifice, which was placed upon it, and made
it acceptable to God (Matt. 23:19).—Christ sanctifies us. He makes the
believing soul and our sacrifices acceptable to God (1 Peter 2:5).
(Matthew 23:19) "Ye fools
and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that
sanctifieth the gift?"
(1 Peter 2:5) "Ye also, as
lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up
spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ."
2. There was one altar
for all the people, one altar for all their sins, one altar for all
their sacrifices.—There is one Altar for sinners; and that Altar is Christ.
3. The altar bore the
violent heat of divine wrath, so that the sinner might go free. While
the fire consumed the sacrifice on the altar, the altar itself was not
destroyed.
Even so, Christ our Altar
bore the violent heat of God’s wrath. He poured out his soul unto death for our
sin as a sacrifice to God of a sweet-smelling savor. Yet, he is not destroyed.
This sacrifice, rather than being consumed by the wrath of God, has consumed
the wrath of God (Rom. 8:1).
4. The altar was a
place of refuge for guilty men.
·
Adonijah (1 Kings 1:50).
·
Joab (1 Kings 2:28-30).
a. What else can a guilty
man do but take hold of the horns of the altar? Christ alone is the Refuge for
guilty sinners.
b. There were four horns on
the altar.
These four horns represented
the universality of Christ’s redemption, reaching to the four corners of the
earth. “Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved.”
You will be wise to lay hold
of the horns of the Altar, and plead for God’s mercy.
·
The Grace Of God.
·
The Merits Of Christ.
·
The Promise Of God.
·
The Invitations And Commands Of The Gospel (Isa. 43:25-26).
(Isaiah 43:25-26) "I, even
I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and
will not remember thy sins. (26) Put me in remembrance: let us plead
together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified."
B. The altar of Sacrifice was typical of Christ in its position.
The moment the sinner
entered the door of the tabernacle, the first, the most important, most
prominent thing he saw was that huge brazen altar. As he went into approach God
the first thing he saw was the altar. As he left the tabernacle, and went out
to live in the world, the last thing he saw was the altar.
1. Christ is pre-eminent. All
fullness dwells in him.
2. In order to approach God, we
must come by the Altar, Christ Jesus (Heb. 7:25).
3. As we attempt to live in the
world, we must live with the Altar of Sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ, ever
before our heart’s eyes.
4. Every relationship in life
is affected by this Altar.
C. The altar of sacrifice was typical of Christ in its form.
1. The
altar was four square.
·
The Fullness Of God’s Love (Eph. 3:19).
·
The Fullness Of God’s Covenant (2 Sam. 23:5).
·
The Fullness Of God’s Grace (Eph. 3:8).
·
The Stability Of All Things In Christ (Heb. 13:8).
2. There
were no steps going up to the altar.
·
There is no possibility of approaching God by the steps of your own
works.
·
There are no steps of preparation before you come to the Altar.
·
When the priest approached the altar, no nakedness could be seen – His
robe completely covered him.
3. The altar
was completely covered with blood.
·
Sin can only be put away by blood (Heb. 9:22).
·
Justice must be satisfied.
D. The altar of sacrifice was typical of Christ in its materials.
1. The shittim wood represents
the incorruptible humanity of Christ.
2. The brass represents the
eternal Godhead of Christ.
3. The shittim wood overlaid
with brass represents the eternal duration of the sufficiency of Christ’s
sacrifice.
E. And the fire, which continually burned upon the altar of
sacrifice, is also typical of Christ.—That perpetual
flame represents:
·
The eternal love of Christ for his people.
·
The zeal of Christ for the glory of God.
·
The purifying of God’s elect by the blood of Christ.
·
The unfailing intercession of Christ for us.
III. I
want to persuade you to come to Christ our Altar.
·
Christ is the only Altar.
·
Christ is the appointed Altar.
·
Christ is a living Altar.
·
Christ is a lasting Altar.
·
Christ is an accessible Altar.
·
Christ is a saving, sin-atoning Altar.
A. Sinner, come to Christ.
You have no
hope but to lay hold of the horns of this Altar.
1. Horns denote strength.
Christ is able to save.
2. Horns denote sufficiency.
Christ is the Horn of salvation. He is a Horn of plenty.
B. Children of God, come to Christ your altar.
1. Come continually (1 John
2:1-2). Eat of the Altar.
2. Come and offer yourself to
God upon this Altar (Rom. 12:1-2).
Application:
1. See to it that you keep but
one Altar – Christ.
2. If you trust any other
altar, you cannot have the benefit of this Altar.
(Hebrews 13:10) "We have an
altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle."