Good evening. Let's all stand together. We'll sing hymn number 272. 272. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweet ♪ But wholly lean on Jesus' name ♪ ♪ On Christ the solid rock I stand ♪ ♪ All other ground is sinking sand ♪ ♪ All other ground is sinking sand ♪ ♪ When darkness fills his lovely face ♪ I rest on his unchanging grace in every high and stormy gale my anchor holds within the veil on Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand. His oath is covenant, his blood Support me in the whelming flood When all around my soul gives way He then is all my hope and stay On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. When he shall come with trumpet sound, O may I then in him be found, Dressed in his righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before the throne. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. Baselated, we'll sing hymn number 464. 464. On the second line in the first verse, we'll write in, I obeyed the Spirit's calling when He said, believe on me. 464, the second line of the first verse, I obeyed the Spirit's calling when He said, believe on me. When I saw the cleansing fountain open wide for all my sin, I obeyed the Spirit's calling. When he said, believe on. I've got the wrong tune, don't I? I will praise him. I will praise him. ♪ Praise the Lamb for sinners slain ♪ ♪ Give Him glory all ye people ♪ ♪ For His blood can wash away each stain ♪ ♪ Though the way seems straight and narrow ♪ All I claimed was swept away. My ambitions, plans, and wishes at my feet in ashes lay. I will praise him. I will praise him. Praise the Lamb for sinners slain. Give Him glory, all ye people, for His blood can wash away each stain. Then God's fire upon the altar of my heart was set aflame. I shall never cease to praise him. Glory, glory to his name. I will praise him. I will praise him. Praise the Lamb for sinners slain. Give Him glory, all ye people, for His blood can wash away each stain. Blessed be the name of Jesus. I'm so glad he took me in. He's forgiven my transgressions. He has cleansed my heart from sin. I will praise him. I will praise him. Praise the lamb for sinners slain. Give him glory all ye people. For His blood can wash away each stain. Glory, glory to the Father. Glory, glory to the Son. Glory, glory to the Spirit. Glory to the three in one. I will praise him. I will praise him. Praise the Lamb for sinners slain. Give Him glory, all ye people, for His blood can wash away each stain. Good evening, let's turn together to the book of John, John chapter 6. I'd like us to read the words of our Lord and what he says about himself. Beginning in verse 26, John 6 verse 26. Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, you seek me not because you saw the miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled. Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you. For him hath God the Father sealed. Then said they unto him, what shall we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he hath sent. They said therefore unto him, what signs showest thou then that we may see and believe thee? What dost thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord evermore, give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you that ye also have seen me, and believe not. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life. and I will raise him up at the last day. The Jews then murmured at him because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Let's pray. Our kind and gracious and merciful Heavenly Father, we bow before you with such thankful hearts and that the words we just read, It thrills our souls to consider who Jesus Christ is. And he tells us plainly who he is. He is that bread of life sent down from heaven. And he that believeth on him hath everlasting life. Oh, how that floods our souls with joy. Help us to believe him fully, wholly, wholeheartedly. And flood our souls with the joy that comes in believing and trusting Christ. Lord, as our pastor said this morning, we have none else to trust but you and your word. We see nothing in us to trust. We see nothing in this world to trust. And that's why we come together at these times to open your word and look to your word, to hear your word preached, the eternal true word of God that can be trusted and believed. How we do thank you for this time of worship, this time when we can gather as a body to to hear your word preached. Help our pastor as he preaches, and we thank you for him. Thank you for his labor in the word. Speak through him, we pray, to our hearts. Our needs are greater. We see more of our need as we go through this life. We're more needy than we've ever been. And we have no ability, we have no strength, and we find our comfort and our peace and our assurance in your word and your promises and who Christ is and what he's done. Thank you for him. Show us him again tonight. May we see more of his beauty and be more in love with him. He's worthy of our love. He's worthy of glory. All glory and all honor belongs to him. We ask Lord that you'd be with those of our fellowship that can't gather. It would desire to be here. But they're providentially hindered and. There's those that come to mind that are. Sick unto death. Only you can help Lord. We bring him and lame at your feet. speak to their hearts, give them grace. Go and visit our children that don't know you, Lord, and intervene in their lives. Show them Christ, their need of Christ. Give them a glimpse of his beauty and his grace. And ask, Lord, in your time that you'd save them. Go with us through this service, come and meet with us, send thy spirit to allow us to preach, allow our pastor to preach for the hearers to hear, or we meet in vain. We look to you alone to supply our every need. Thank you for all thy grace and mercy. Continue to help us, and leave us not to ourselves. In Christ's dear name, amen. Amen. Thank you, sir. Hymn number 233. Depths of mercy, can there be? Mercy still reserved for me? Can my God His wrath forbear? Me, the chief of sinners, spare? I have long withstood his grace, long provoked him to his face, would not hearken to his calls, grieved him by a thousand falls. Now incline me to repent. Let me now my sin lament. Now my foul revolt deplore. We believe and sin no more. There for me my Savior stands, Holding forth his wounded hands. God is love, I know, I feel. Jesus keeps and loves me still. Hebrews 13. Hebrews 13. Starting verse 7 down through verse 15. 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 turn 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. I GET MY SUBJECT THERE IN VERSE 10, WE HAVE AN ALTAR. We have an altar, Christ our altar, Christ our altar. Everything that was under the law, everything that was under the law, under Moses, was just shadows and types of our Lord Jesus Christ, but He Himself is the substance. It's like having a picture of somebody and then having them both. And the Old Testament's full of pictures. When Christ come, he was the substance of the picture. You actually see him as he read so ably tonight. You know, and he's the fulfillment of all that was typical. So many types and pictures in the Old Testament. I preached it last, Sunday before last on Sunday night on Christ, our ark. How he was our ark. And here He called our altar, the law, the tabernacle, the entire system of worship appointed for Israel was just nothing but typical. The reality, the substance, is found in our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, when you talk about having a high priest, they had a great high priest. There was a high priest that condemned Christ to be crucified. Well, He's the great high priest. He is one. They were many, but He's one. He's our great high priest. They operate on this earth. He's passed into the heavens. His body, think about His body. He is the greater and more perfect tabernacle made without hands. That tabernacle that was in the wilderness, everything about it was a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell you what, He's the tabernacle come down among men. And His one sacrifice, His one sacrifice, fully and forever accomplished, accomplished, which all the offerings made under the law could never do, never made one soul acceptable to God, never put away one sin, never done anything to make them, but every one of them was pointing to Him who had put away sin once and for all by the sacrifice of Himself. Look over in Hebrews 10, let me show you what I'm talking about. Look what it says in verse 11, And every priest standeth daily, ministering, and oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. You know, every morning, every morning the priest went up, got up, and they offered a lamb, morning lamb, and every evening they offered another lamb. And Todd told me last week how many millions of lambs that was offered just in the morning and in the evening. That don't count the lambs and the bullocks and the heifers that other people bought, and the doves and the sparrows. So here he says, you know, they stand daily offering the same sacrifice. Never ever can take away sins. That's why works is so awful. Nothing you can do can ever take away a sin. And look what he said, but this man, He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever. Oh my. Sat down on the right hand of God. Why? Didn't have to make another offering. Didn't need another. Well, you got a perfect one, you don't need another offering. And watch what he says now. For his forth expecting is till his enemies be made his footstool. Now listen to this. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Oh, the Lord Jesus' fulfillment, not only of the sacrifices and the priesthood and the tabernacle, but He's the fulfillment of all the VESSELS that was in the tabernacle. When you walked into the tabernacle and you walked into that altar court, there was a brazen altar, there was a laver, there was a golden altar of incense up before the veil. there was a candlestick, there was a table of showbread that they had to change every day, there s a mercy seat over behind the veil, and there was an Ark of Covenant, and then there was a veil that kept people from seeing that mercy seat. Now, there s three things, and I ve got some Jewish friends, and And they just celebrated the Passover, and today they had some kind of special Sabbath. They called it Shabbat, Shabbat, the Sabbath day. And I'm going to get an opportunity, and soon, and I'm going to ask all of them, I'm going to ask them, you know, what did it take in the Old Testament that God required for a person to worship? Three things that God required. Three things were necessary. First of all, you had to have a place. And God set up a place, a tabernacle. A tabernacle. He told Moses, He says, you make this after the pattern that I showed you. You make it exactly like I showed you to make it. I want everything just like I told you to make it. And then, not only then, but you've got to have a priest. And that priest has to be the one anointed of God, set apart by God, and blessed of God. And then you've got to sacrifice, and only that priest could offer that sacrifice. So you've got to have a place, God appointed, you've got to have a priest, anointed of God, and you've got to have a sacrifice that God requires. And our Lord Jesus Christ is all of them. He's every single one of them. Oh my, oh my. He's the tabernacle come among men. He's our great high priest, and He Himself is our sacrifice. And that Christ, and I've told you that Christ is our altar, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the fulfillment, is the fulfillment of the altar, and that He Himself is the altar. You remember our Lord Jesus Christ, He says, you know, when you bring an offering, a gift to the altar. Is your gift sanctify the altar? Does the altar sanctify the gift? Well, naturally, it s the altar that sanctifies the gift. The gift don t do anything to the altar. It s the ALTAR that makes the gift acceptable. It s the OFFERING, the SACRIFICE of the altar, excuse me, that makes the gift acceptable. And that s what our Lord and He sanctified the people back here in Hebrews chapter 13 where we re at. It says down there in verse 11 and 12, he said, for the bodies of those beasts that they offered on the brazen altar, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, he brought that blood in, and then after they done that, they took the body, what was left of it that was not offered, and the skin and everything else, they took it outside the camp and they burned it, burned it. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ, they took Him outside of Jerusalem, outside the camp, took Him outside of Jerusalem, and there, beloved, He offered Himself a sacrifice, and by that blood, He sanctified us, sanctified us, made us holy and acceptable to God. And then He goes on to say, so by Him, if we offer anything to God, if we make an offering to God, Everything that we give has to be an offer, the sacrifice, and listen to this, praise. He said praise is a sacrifice. Praise is a sacrifice. And he goes on to say this, the sacrifice of praise to God continually. And then he says the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name, praise and thanksgiving, praise and thanksgiving. God said that's a sacrifice. And the only way He'll accept it, even our praise and our thanksgiving, is by the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way He'll accept it. Only way He'll accept it. And I tell you what, those who keep the law and keep the ceremonies and Moses and the tabernacle, he said, here they have no right to receive nothing from God. They have no right to eat of the tabernacle, no right to eat of this altar. Now under the Old Testament, the priest and the priest, they got their food and their offering and the meat that they took home, they'd offer some and then they'd take some home with them. And that would be their meat, what was offered on the altar. they'd take it home, some of it they would, and that was the way they lived. But he says now that you know this altar right here, you can't take of this, you can't do that, you can't do that. And he said, Paul said this, If you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. YOU GO AHEAD AND TRY TO GO UNDER THE LAW, GO UNDER MOSES, GO TO WORKS, GO TO RITUALS, GO ANYTHING YOU WANT. HE SAID, CHRIST SHALL PROFIT YOU NOTHING. NOW THAT'S SERIOUS BUSINESS. CHRIST DON'T PROFIT YOU NOTHING. AND I TELL YOU WHAT, GOD'S PEOPLE, LET ME TELL YOU THIS NOW, HERE'S MY FIRST POINT, THAT'S MY INTRODUCTION. MY FIRST POINT, GOD'S PEOPLE HAVE ALWAYS HAD AN ALTAR. Every altar that they had pictured our Lord Jesus Christ Now I want to look at a few altars tonight and show you how every one of them pictures our Lord look in Genesis first of all chapter 8 Look in Genesis chapter 8 And down in verse 20 God's people's always had an altar Everywhere you find the LORD's people, they're going to have an altar. They're going to have a place that they can go. Now you remember Noah, when he got off the ark, sent that dove, and the dove came back, and then he came back with just a, and he had a place to land his feet, and look what it said here in verse 20. As quick as Noah got off that ark, he didn't build him a house, didn't want someplace to stay, the first thing he did as he came forth out of the ark, and Noah built an altar unto the Lord. That's the first thing he did. Now watch this, and took of every clean beast, every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. So the first thing he did when he got off that, hey, I gotta have an altar. I need to worship God. I've got to have a sacrifice. Now look what happens now. Well, look how God reacted to it. And the Lord smelled a sweet savor. Christ is a sweet saver unto God. And the Lord said in his heart, oh, I smell that sacrifice. He said, I'm not a never gonna curse the ground anymore for man's sake. And then he said in verse 22, while the earth remains, seed time, harvest, cold and heat, summer, winter, day and night. And then the beginning of verse nine, he said, and God blessed Noah and his sons. But the first thing he did, was He built Him an altar, and I tell you, God s people always have an altar, and they ve got the right sacrifice. You know, He offered, that s why He had all them clean animals, and He had those clean animals, and one of every clean animal, He offered it, He offered it. Now, let me show you another one in Genesis 12, 7, Genesis 12, 7. Now, this is about Abraham, this is about Now he had left there the Chaldees, and he had got into Canaan now, and he had arrived into Canaan, and the LORD said in verse 7, And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and you know what he said? Unto thy seed will I give this land. And what did Abraham do? And there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him. I'm going to worship that God who appeared unto me. He didn't have to appear. When the God of glory Appeared under our father Abraham and what he said when God appeared to him You know what the first thing he did he offered build an altar He said I want to worship that God that God who made me a promise that God who told me gonna give me everything that I set my foot on that God who said I'm gonna have a seed and that seeds gonna be my Savior my Redeemer my mediator oh my God only appears to men, I'll tell you this much, God only appears to men in Christ, and Cana is that promised land, and all of God's promises are in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell you what, there's only an altar, and we can only go to it in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me show you another, and there's Noah got off the ark the first thing he did. Most folks the first thing they'd say, Boy, I'm so glad to be off that ark, I'm so glad that water's gone. And the first thing he'd have done, he'd have went and took some of that ark and tore it all to pieces and built him a house out of it. But that's not what he wanted. I want to worship God. I want to have a sacrifice and God accepted and God smelled that offering. And he said, Oh, what a sweet smelling savor that is. And that satisfies me. And Abram, when he had God appeared unto him and when God appears to men in Christ, the first thing you do, you don't need to never worship God till God appears to you. And when God appears to you, that's when you really start worshiping. Then look what happened over here in Genesis 26. Genesis 26. In verse 25. Let's look at verse 24 first. And the Lord appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father. Fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake. Now watch what happens. And he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord. And where he appeared to him, you know what he done? Pitched his tent right there. He said, I will stay right here where God appeared to me. He pitched his tent right there. And I tell you what, and that's where he dug a well. And he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord. And I'll tell you what, and I'll tell you this was the altar, a place of prayer. He began to call on the name of the Lord. And God only hears us. God only hears our prayers. God only accept our prayers. God only accepts our worship. God only accepts anything that we do because of our altar, the Lord Jesus Christ. And when God made us a promise in Christ, and Christ is our blessed promise. Let me show you another now over here Genesis 32, excuse me, 33, Genesis 33. This is Jacob, this is Jacob, and you know when he had Esau had 400 men coming to meet him, and he started sending people out in front of him, you know, to see what he was going to do and how he was going to react. And I tell you, look what it said here in verse 20, chapter 33 and verse 20, And he erected there an altar, and listen to what he called it, Elo, Elo, O Israel. You know what that says? God is the God of Israel. He erected an altar, and do you know who He erected to? God. God, the God of Israel. God, oh God, the God of Israel. This was after He was saved from Esau for a hundred men. This shows how secure He was, eternally so in Christ. And I tell you, He was secure because God, He was one of God's elect. And I tell you, we're secure in our Lord Jesus Christ and all the enemies that come against us. He was so afraid of Esau and what Esau would do to him, but he was as safe as if Esau never existed. I tell you, when he erected that altar, he said, oh, Esau, he never touched me because God is my God. He erected an altar and said, this is my God and I'm gonna worship this God. And I tell you, we're eternally, eternally secure in the Lord. He was just secure there from Esau. We're eternally secure in Christ. And Moses, Moses built an altar after they had the battle with Bimelech. And you know what he called his altar? The Lord Our Banner. The Lord Our Banner. After his victory over the Malachites. And only through Christ, only through our Lord Jesus Christ, our altar, do we overcome our spiritual enemies. Now, let me tell you about Christ being our altar. Israel had a material altar. Their altar was a material altar, a physical altar, a place they could go. Our altar is a spiritual altar, a spiritual altar. And there were two two altars in the tabernacle, two altars. There was the brazen altar, and then there was the altar of incense, and our Lord Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of them both, the fulfillment of them both. Now, let s deal with the brazen altar first, talking about Christ our You know, the brazen order had two uses, had two reasons, had two purposes. First of all, it was to sanctify that which was put upon it, sanctify it, make it acceptable to God Almighty. And then when that sacrifice was put upon it, it being brass, it was able to sustain and bear up that sacrifice and not be destroyed because it consumed the sacrifice being made out of brass. And I tell you what, He is our altar, the Lord Jesus Christ. He sanctifies us, He sanctifies us. And He is the altar. He's the sacrifice on that altar. And it's by Him that whatever's offered to God is made acceptable. And as God, He is able to sanctify and sustain us Because, you know, He bore our sins, just like that sacrifice on that brazen altar, that would have sins upon it, it was offered for sin. And that fire consumed that sacrifice, but because of the altar, and the altar made it acceptable. And our Lord Jesus Christ, He bore our sins, He is able to bear our sins. And as a man, as God, He is able to bear our sins. As a man, He was able to be a sacrifice for our sins. And as that brazen altar was able to sustain that fire and burn up that sacrifice, our Lord Jesus Christ, He sustained our sins. He sustained our guilt. He sustained our shame. as God's holy fire of wrath fell upon His holy head. And I tell you what, He sustained it all. And His men die and face their judgment. Our Lord Jesus Christ faced the judgment, then He died. And this is how He perfected forever them that are sanctified. There's no other way. And let me tell you something else about that brazen altar. That brazen altar was only for Israel, nobody else. And this altar is for God's people and nobody else. Huh? This altar, Christ's our altar, He's our altar and nobody else's. He's God's elect's altar. We got to have some place to worship. We got to have some place to offer the sacrifice of praise. Got to have some place to come into his holy presence. And he had, and then because of that brazen serpent, because that brazen altar, he was able to sustain, sustain it. Oh my. And let me tell you where the place of that altar was. Oh, I'm so thankful he sustained our sins. Oh, I don't know what you think about sin, but I think it's an awful, awful, awful, awful, awful, horrible thing. Oh, my. My sins would absolutely destroy me if I didn't know Christ had sustained them for me. My guilt would have caused me to go under long ago had Christ not sustained my guilt. My shame over my sin. I'd been embarrassed to show my face, but God in His holy wrath and His fire of judgment fell on Christ, and He is able to stain everything that God put on Him because of our sin. Huh? Oh my. And that's why He said, I perfected forever them that are sanctified. And the place of this altar, you know where it was? When you went into that tabernacle, when you went into the tabernacle, the first thing you saw when you looked in that tabernacle, those four posts up there, and you went in there and through those curtains, you walked in there and the first thing you saw was a brazen altar. That's the first thing you saw. Then once you got in there, you saw a laver. Then you saw a candlestick. And the first thing you notice, thus, is that brazen altar, that tabernacle, that altar. And you went past these two before you got to the holy place where that veil separated between the holiest of holies. And at the very beginning, the moment you walk in there, the moment you walk in that tabernacle, at the very beginning you learn there's no approach to God apart from a sacrifice. There's no approach from God apart from a sacrifice. And there's no approach from God apart from the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. You said that he's that bread that came down from heaven. He said that bread that I'll give for the life of the world. They died when they ate that bread that God gave them in the wilderness. But this bread, you eat it and you live forever. And I tell you, at the first, when you walk in there, the first thing you realize that you can't go any further until you have an altar offering on that brazen altar. And we can't approach God. We can't go any further unless we've got a sacrifice and we got an altar to put it on. And I, Lord Jesus Christ, the altar and the sacrifice boat and the cleansing blood of Christ. And there in that outer court, STOOD THAT BRAZEN ALTAR, AND LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING IT DID. YOU KNOW, YOU READ ABOUT THESE PRIESTS WEARING THIS WHITE LINEN. THEY'D GET UP EVERY MORNING, PUT ON THEIR WHITE LINEN, AND THEY'D GO OUT AND START OFFERING SACRIFICES. AND DO YOU IMAGINE HOW BLOODY THEY WAS? I MEAN, THEY WAS COVERED IN BLOOD. EVERYBODY WANTS TO THINK ABOUT THEM GOING UP THERE PRISTINE AND ALL THAT. LISTEN, THEY WAS WHEN THEY GOT THERE. But I tell you, after they offered some sacrifices, there was blood on their arms, blood on their, and that's why they had to have a labor, to worse it off. But oh my, look what it says now. In that outer court, at that brazen altar, it perpetually, perpetually was smoking and smelling with sacrifice. And I'll tell you something, beloved, we perpetually, Look at the Lord Jesus Christ. He's that sweet smell and savor unto God. And I tell you what, he's a sweet smell and savor unto me too. Ain't he, you? Oh, I hear somebody preach the gospel. I say, oh, no, I smell so good. Oh, I love that gospel. And I tell you, the way into the most holy place was by this brazen altar. Our Lord Jesus Christ. says no man, no man can come unto me except by the Father. And I tell you what, we can't go where God dwells, we can't go behind that holiest of holies unless we've got a sacrifice, unless we've got an altar. And the only place we can learn of God is at that altar by our Lord Jesus Christ teaching us, teaching us. Let me tell you another thing about this altar, this brazen altar. It was four square. Four square. There's some churches up north, they used to call them four square. That meant that they was supposed to really be something. But four square, that means it was this way, four square. Four square, it was a perfect, perfect square. You go, it's perfect. It was as tall this way, four square in every way. Four square on every side, on the top and on the bottom. You know what that tells us? That it's perfect all around. Measurement was just exactly right. And everything about our Lord ordered. It s perfect. Oh my, I said, Make that order four square. Well, it s perfect. Oh, everything s even. The measurement s just everything about our Lord Jesus Christ is ordered. ARRANGED BY INFINITE WISDOM, NO IMPERFECTIONS IN HIM, NO IMBALANCES IN HIM, THERE'S NO EXCESS IN HIM, BUT THERE'S NO LACK IN HIM, AND I'LL TELL YOU THAT BRAZEN ALTAR MEANT STABILITY, IT MEANT ENDURANCE, THERE'S A BALANCE IN HIM THAT NO ONE ELSE IN THIS UNIVERSE HAS EVER HAD LIKE HE DOES, AND THAT'S WHY HE SAID JESUS CHRIST THE SAVIOR, yesterday, the same today, and he'll be the same tomorrow. Huh? Oh, I don't know how long, how long I've been preaching, but, and then let me tell you the material, this, this, this, this brazen, this altar is made out, talking about Christ, our altar, the material, material of that brazen altar. First of all, it was made out of sheet of wood and sheet of wood would not rot, would not rot. And that is emblematic of our Lord Jesus Christ's sinless humanity. He is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate for sinners, sinless in his humanity. And then it was that wood that would not rot, they covered it with brass. They took brass and molded it and covered all that wood, that wood that would not rot, covered it with brass. Brass. Oh my. And that material, that material, this kept the wood from being consumed by the fire. Huh? And that wood, that fire, it endured day in and day out, the fire did on that altar. And our Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity was sinless. And in His Godhead, beloved, He endured the fire and fire and fire day in and day out. And our Lord endured the cross, He endured the shame, He endured sin, He endured God's forsaken Him, He endured God's wrath, He endured the curse of the law. Death, death, death. And then there's this altar. The second altar is the altar of incense. Now this altar of incense, it was made out of gold. It sat on a little stand, and they would go in there every morning, and they had a special thing that they put on that. They had the apothecary, had certain spices that they put together, and they would take that, and they kept a little fire on there, and they would sprinkle that on there, and smoke would ascend up. Right before that veil, right before you get into that holiest of holies, that fragrance went up. And it made that tabernacle smell good. It was a sweet smelling savor to God. And it was made like the brazen altar. It was made out of wood and covered in gold. And you know what that spoke of? After the offering, Christ makes the intercession for us. Now, you know what makes our prayers acceptable? He does. You know, it's said over in Revelations, when I went through Revelations, he says, you know, he said, what's all this smoke coming up out of that altar? That's the prayers of the saints coming up before God. He said he put our tears in a bottle, and he said, what's all this coming up out? He said, that's the prayer, that's the sacrifice, that's the prayers of the saints. And our Lord Jesus Christ, bless his holy name, right now, right now, right now, he makes intercession for us continually and constantly. I mean, they kept that thing going 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And our Lord Jesus Christ, his ascending prayers go up seven days a week, 365 days a year, it has been. And always will be. And you know when they'll stop? When we get there. And I'm certainly grateful. I'll be glad when he don't, you know, I get to go there. But I'm sure thankful that he's, let me ask you some questions. Let me ask you some questions. Do you have this spiritual altar? Do you have this spiritual altar, Christ our altar? You reckon a person thinks they can approach God by any means or any way but Christ? Do you think that there's any place, any building, any pulpit that's holy? This place ain't holy. Where I'm standing is not holy. This building's not holy, only he's holy. And you know how we're made holy? In him, by him. You know, listen, there ain't no altar here. There's not an altar in here that you can see, but there's an altar you can go to all the time. You get ready to go to the altar, hey, I'm going to the altar. I'm going to Him. I'm going to Him. I'm going to go to Christ, my altar. I had the paper the other day up here. I heard a guy on the radio talking about it. He said, Boy, we're an old-fashioned, Bible-even, fundamental church. We only use the King James Version. And he said, And I tell you what, we have united prayer when we all get together. That means they all come down to the front and they all pray. I am so thankful that I found out that you don't go here to pray. We got an altar in heaven. Jesus Christ is righteous. Huh? Ain't we thankful you learned that? Oh my. You don't think it isn't. Do you think certain postures, having them any kind of holiness or humility that make you more acceptable? Every time you see somebody pray on TV or see somebody pray in some place, the first thing they do is put their hands together. They put their hands together like this. What in the world does that do? What can that do? And then you got other fellas that get on their knees and go down like this and go down like this. You can, right where you're sitting, you go to God in prayer, right where you're sitting. You go to God to give thanksgiving, right where you're sitting. You go to God and give you praise, right where you're sitting. Now ain't that something? That's something. And you know what? All of us can go at the same time, and every one of us be like we're the only one there. Oh, my. If we ever get away from the spiritual and go to the physical or material in any way or any degree, we've left Christ altogether, robbed God of His glory. And I'll tell you what, we dare not offer to God anything without an altar. And we dare not come to God without Christ, and He's our altar. Oh, we ain't gonna bring our duties, we ain't gonna bring our work, we ain't gonna bring our morality, not gonna bring our good character. And I tell you what, I'm gonna bring me, my old sorry self, I'm gonna bring me, bring my old sorry self, go to that altar and say, Lord, it's me, it's me. And I ain't got nothing to offer but thanksgiving, and I am so thankful, oh, so thankful. I ain't got nothing to offer to you but thanks. There's so much to be thankful for. So much, so much, so much. And all I've got to offer, Lord, is not only thanks, But I'd like to praise you. I'd like to glorify you. I'd like to offer you. I'd like to say, Lord, there's no one like you. I'd like to tell you, oh God, you've got all the glory and you're worthy of all of it. You've got all the power and you're worthy of all of it. And Lord, I got nothing to bring but thanksgiving and praise. Would you please accept it for Christ's sake? It's all of God. It's all of God. That's what I want to bring. Oh, our blessed Savior. Oh, our master, our Lord Jesus. Oh, I'm so thankful we have an altar to come to this evening. Altar not made with hands. Eternal in the heavens. An altar that's already bore our sins away. An altar that's already been offered, been accepted, just passed into the heavens. God bless us. Lord, meet the needs of our hearts, needs of our home, needs of our family, needs of our lost loved ones. Oh, God. And please be merciful and gracious, kind and tender, and pitiful towards them that are not with us because they're not able. We bless your holy name in Christ for his sake. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me thy great salvation. So rich and free. See you Wednesday, God willing, Lord bless you. See you, Stanley.