covered with bronze. Not huge, it would have been about 7 1⁄2 feet by 7 1⁄2 feet, so maybe think from that rostrum there perhaps to the end of the communion table, about that size, and about 4 1⁄2 feet high. So I'm 6'1", so about that high maybe, something like that. And the top of it, as I say, a hollow wooden box covered in bronze, a grating really. And just hearing it and looking at it, you just say, well, that looks like something you might grill meat on. That's exactly what you did on it. And I'm talking about the altar of burnt offering. What we'll read about as the bronze altar. If you were to ask an Old Testament believer, You would say, is there a central visual symbol of your religion? I think most of them would immediately say, yes, it's the altar. The altar gets at what the heart of our religion is all about. In the same way that if you ask a typical believing Christian, Is there a visible symbol of your religion? I think most would immediately say, yes, it's the cross. Not crucifix, not with Christ on it, but the cross of Christ. And that's not accidental because as we'll see, you can take the altar and make a beeline to the cross. When we talk about the altar, let's think about the cross. So we're talking about the tabernacle and now we're looking at the courtyard. The tabernacle, which Pastor Boland preached about last week, that the tent itself was surrounded by about a 75 foot square courtyard, which was ringed by a curtain about seven and a half feet high. And now we're thinking about what's in the courtyard, and as you entered that courtyard with a sacrifice, the first thing you would have seen was this bronze altar, this grill, if I may call it that. Let's read about it in Exodus 27 verses one through eight. You'll notice this is this is basically a description. Doesn't give us much explanation, though it does give us some hints. So we'll need to use the tried and true principle of letting scripture interpret scripture and look at some other verses to help us understand this. But nevertheless, here's the description of the bronze altar. Exodus 27 verses one through eight. You shall make the altar of Acacia wood. Five cubits long and five cubits broad. The altar shall be square and its height shall be three cubits. And you shall make horns for it on its four corners. Its horns shall be of one piece with it and you shall overlay it with bronze. You shall make pots for it to receive its ashes and shovels and basins and forks and firepans. You shall make all its utensils of bronze. You shall also make for it a grating, a network of bronze. And on the net you shall make four bronze rings at its four corners. And you shall set it under the ledge of the altar so that the net extends halfway down the altar. And you shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze. And the poles shall be put through the rings so that the poles are on two sides of the altar when it is carried. You shall make it hollow with boards as it has been shown you on the mountain. So shall it be made. And then just to be clear, when the construction of this is described in Exodus 38, it's called the altar of burnt offering. And then just to be clear, also, yes, this is the altar some of you have been reading about recently in Leviticus, where the specific instructions are given about how to make these various offerings. This was the altar. on which those offerings were made. Let us pray. Father, thank you for each part of your word and thank you for teaching us through this bronze altar. May we be led to the cross. May we be led to a greater and fuller appreciation for our Lord Jesus and all that he is and has done for us. Help me to speak clearly in the power of your spirit. For we pray in Jesus name. Amen. So you would have entered the courtyard from the east. And as you entered the courtyard with your offering, the first thing you would have seen was this bronze altar. And let's use our imaginations a little bit. I wonder maybe if your nose wouldn't have become active even before your eyes, because the smell of blood would have been overpowering. Blood was everywhere. You were bringing an animal to sacrifice and you would have cut its throat and blood would have run all over you. Blood would have been splashed on the altar. Blood was taken inside the holy place. Blood would have been all over the priests. And if you think of a steady stream of worshipers, the smell of blood would have been overpowering. And then, of course, there was also the smell that it would mingle with. And that would have been the wonderful aroma of grilled meat. OK, barbecue, if you will. And I'm not trying to be flippant when I say that. I'm just trying to make it vivid. That's what it was like. And that grilled meat was part of the priest's portion to eat. And you would have also seen people then, after your nose adjusted to that, you would have seen people covered with blood. You would have seen the priests arranging the pieces on this grill and they would have been covered with blood. That's why there was a labor there for them to wash in. You would have seen other worshipers who'd offered their sacrifice. They'd be passing you on the way out. They'd be covered with blood. What is going on here? What is going on at this altar? Let me. present what I think I'll summarize it by saying four truths, really four related truths that God is making known to us through this altar. So as you stand at this hollow wooden box that's covered with bronze and there's the fire burning and by the way, that fire in the grill was to be kept burning all the time, just like the lights in the holy place. It was to be kept going all the time. You would have seen smoke rising. And as you stop at that altar, the first thing the Lord wants you to know is that the Lord has drawn near to bless you. That's right, the Lord has drawn near to bless you. That's hinted at in verse eight is the theme we keep seeing throughout the tabernacle as it has been shown you on the mountain, so shall it be made. In other words, this altar is an earthly expression of a heavenly truth. So God has drawn near to you in this altar in order to bless you. Let me read Exodus, chapter 20, verse 24, which I think makes this explicit and I think summarizes a lot of the theology of the altar, if you will, in our Bibles. Exodus 20, verse 24, an altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. Listen to this. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you. The altar was a place that was constructed in response to God's revealing himself. Now, don't be confused. This was this was speaking here about an altar made of earth. It was a temporary altar, altars like the patriarchs would have made. Now we come to Exodus 27 and we're talking about a more permanent altar that could be transported and carried around by people. But the principle is what I'm after. You'll notice that throughout the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they are altar builders. God reveals himself to them, speaks to them. What do they do? They build an altar. And they worship God. No Israelite in his right mind would ever have thought of constructing an altar just wherever he wanted to. It was always in response to God revealing himself. And in that place only, you might say the altar became a reminder that they were standing on holy ground. But notice, God had not drawn near to curse them. You might think that with the fire and the blood and the smoke, but no, he had drawn near to bless them. I will cause my name to be remembered. I will come to you and I will bless you. Strange way of blessings. How is that a blessing? You come and you build this place basically of death and fire and smoke and blood, and that's blessing? Well, you know, I believe that the altar points us directly to the cross. And let's remember that people have always had that same revulsion to the cross itself. In the apostles day, when the gospel, when Christ was being preached, the gospel of Christ crucified, what was the response? Well, the Jews found it very offensive. The very idea that God would be present in this itinerant rabbi and die on a cross as if we needed that. And that would be the way that God would save us. How offensive is that? And the typical pagans reaction would have been somewhat different. They would have just thought that was a very unimpressive way of saving anyone. Death on a cross? That seems rather foolish. And I think the more sophisticated pagans would have said, that's even vulgar, really. The idea that God would reveal himself and save us through someone dying on a cross. I really don't think the reactions have changed all that much. And I'll talk about that more later. But God has drawn near to bless us. And maybe the first lesson we learn is that you and I must always find God where he has promised to be. We must find God where he has revealed himself, whether that makes sense to us or not. Yesterday, we were in men's group, we were talking about the epistle to the Hebrews and how people in that day were being more fascinated by angels than they were by Jesus. And angels could be kind of fascinating. You can speculate about angels and oh, they're mysterious and they're wonderful beings. And I could see someone being really excited about some kind of mystical experience with angels. Yes, that's how I'll meet God. But the author of Hebrews says, no, you don't meet God that way. You meet God through Jesus. We must meet God where he has promised to be. We must find him where he's promised to be. We must submit to the way that he's revealed himself, whether it makes sense to us or not. That altar wasn't especially attractive. It's interesting that it was covered with bronze. Now we've seen that the accoutrements in the holy place were covered with what? So in one sense, this was inferior. Why was it covered with bronze? I think it's because it was dealing with sin and with death. God's ultimate presence is his holy purity, not the place of sin and death. So I think it's fitting that this altar that deals with sin and death was covered with bronze. So it wasn't especially visually attractive, just like the cross. It's not initially especially attractive to us. We must find God where he has revealed himself. And this altar, just like the cross, tells us that the Lord has drawn near to bless you. Now, as we stand there at this altar, this first lesson leads to a second one, I think a very important one, and if you were standing there attentively at this altar and especially if you were paying attention to all that I've said so far about blood, You would have heard God saying to you, and I don't mean with an audible voice, but you would have heard him saying his message through that altar is the wages of your sin is death. And unless you were completely dull and unbelieving, you really couldn't have missed the point. God was preaching that through that altar, the wages of your sin. Is death. Why? Why this? Why this? You might say obsession with blood. Why this blood all over the place? Leviticus Chapter 17, verse 11 helps explain it. God says the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. Explain what atonement means a little bit later, but notice God gives the blood as a gift to his people in order to reconcile them with himself. Why? Because the life of the flesh is in the blood. Don't miss the point as we stand at that altar, God is saying to us, you deserve death. Make no mistake about it, you deserve death. Because of your sins, that's why the blood is here. The blood is given as gift of God to pay the price for your sins. And we see this fulfilled in that majestic statement in Hebrews chapter nine, verse twenty two, which is one of the reasons we're studying Hebrews in the men's group, because we thought it'd be a good parallel and fulfillment to what we're studying in the tabernacle. But in Hebrews nine, twenty two, God says without the shedding of blood, There is no forgiveness of sin. My friends, I want to encourage you to be very wary, in fact, to flee from bloodless Christianity. In fact, I would have to say so-called bloodless Christianity. There is a kind of Christianity that I think probably means well. And you'll hear a lot about a loving God accepting and affirming everyone. You'll never hear about the wrath of God. And you'll hear a lot about good people doing good things and being encouraged in that. Oh, they're not perfect. There's brokenness, but you won't hear much about sin. And this so-called Christianity then becomes basically about inspiring pretty good people to be a little better and to be kind to their fellow man. Let me tell you this, that religion won't save you. If that religion does save you, then I say to you that the God of the Bible went to a whole lot of trouble for no purpose. He went to a whole lot of trouble to send his beloved son to the cross when it wasn't really necessary. All we really needed was some affirmation and inspiration from the Lord. Reinhold Niebuhr, I think it was, summarized this kind of Christianity so-called very well. He says, a God without wrath invites men without sin into a kingdom without a cross. That's not Christianity, that's not the religion of the Bible. And we need to go to the altar and stand there to recognize that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. We stand at the altar and we hear God say the wages of your sin is death. That bloodless Christianity trivializes our dilemma before God, and therefore it trivializes God's provision. And that's what I want to go on to the third, the third lesson I want to draw from this. is that the offering of blood sacrifice is a soothing aroma to the Lord. I suggested that this is a grill. It is a meat grill. And part of those offerings, that deliciously grilled meat was given as food for the priests. God said, here, this is how I'm going to provide for you. I'm going to give you some of this grilled meat to eat. That's part of your sustenance. And it's a blessing for me. That was God's provision for them. But also know that the burning of that meat, as Leviticus will tell us over and over again, is a soothing aroma to the Lord. When Noah came off the ark in Acts or in Acts in Genesis, chapter nine, first thing he did is what builds an altar. He offers a sacrifice. God smells the sacrifice and he says, this is a soothing aroma. Then he says, I will no longer curse the earth. You see, God is satisfied with the with the offering that's given in faith. And the curse is removed. That's why a bloodless Christianity will do you no good. But when God provides the perfect sacrifice, we are free from our condemnation. So notice this. We can go to this altar with our goat to offer or our lamb, and we can offer a sacrifice and we don't die. How amazing is that? Then I just say the wages of sin is death. But here we can offer our sacrifice in faith and we don't die. That sacrifice is acceptable to God. And do I need to remind you that that sacrifice is a substitute? You and I ought to be the ones who die. But God accepts substitute in our place, and he is pleased with that offering. So this bronze altar teaches us propitiation back to Leviticus 1711. I've given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls. It means an offering that satisfies the wrath of a holy God. And again, there are many in our world today, even people in pulpits, who would say that's a vulgar idea. One New Testament scholar in an article in which he describes the death of Christ as cosmic child abuse. That's how sick this religion is, they would say. How far they are from understanding what our dilemma is that only God can fix it. The Bible is about propitiation. About the wrath of God being satisfied by a substitute that he provides, but never forget that this propitiation, this sacrifice that God provides is a wonderful demonstration of his love. This is what John tells us. We read part of this earlier. Listen to 1 John 4, 8-10. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us. There's that idea of tabernacling again, by the way. That God sent his only son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love. Not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. So yes, God is satisfied in his holiness by this sacrifice. And the sacrifice that he provides is also the wonderful demonstration of his love. But this bronze altar also teaches us that there's the need for a greater sacrifice. And I think even Old Testament saints must have realized that. OK, I get the idea. God has drawn near to bless us. OK, I get the idea that the wages of my sin is death. And I get the idea that this blood sacrifice is a soothing aroma to the Lord. Thank you, Lord. I'm so grateful to it. So grateful to you. Why do I have to keep on offering it over and over and over and over and over and over and over again? Why do I have to keep coming again and again and again and again? You see, it points us to what Hebrews tells us. That the blood of goats and bulls can never take away sin. In the ultimate sense, the blood of goats and bulls can never take away your sin or mine. We need the blood of a greater sacrifice, even that of God's Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And my final lesson, and I bring this sermon to a close by saying that this bronze altar points us to a better altar. It points us to all that God has provided for us in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll conclude by reading from Hebrews, the very end of the book of Hebrews, chapter 13, wonderful words, verses eight through 10. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods which have not benefited those who devoted those devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. He's saying a wonderful thing here. In the Old Testament, one day a year, there was the Day of Atonement. Now, I've already told you that in the normal offerings, as part of their provision, part of their pay, you might say, and a blessing from God, is they got to eat some of the barbecued meat. They got to eat some of the grilled offerings. But once a year, the Day of Atonement, the high priest would offer sacrifices for his own sins and for the sins of God's people. He would offer a bull, he would enter in at God's discretion to the holy place only once a year to the Holy of Holies and sprinkle the blood. He was not permitted to eat the meat of that sacrifice. That carcass was taken outside the camp and disposed of. He was not permitted to eat it. So now the author of Hebrews comes and says, we have an altar from which those priests have no right to eat. But we do. He's saying a wonderful thing. He's saying we are permitted to eat the fruits and the benefits of God's ultimate sacrifice on the Day of Atonement, even our Lord Jesus Christ. We are permitted to eat to our hearts content of the fullness of Jesus Christ. It's not like that old sacrifice on the Day of Atonement where no one could eat it and it was taken outside the camp. The author of Hebrews says, now we have an altar, even the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. by which we may eat to the full, and as he says, for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. I know you didn't come here today thinking about bronze altars. I know you don't go around thinking probably about the furniture in the tabernacle and the bronze altars and all that kind of thing, and you may even come here and think, you know, what he's talking about up there is sort of interesting, but it's kind of irrelevant. to the trenches of my life. I mean, I don't go around thinking about this kind of thing. What I go around thinking about is my family, and my kids, and my marriage, and my emotional issues, or my worry, or my illnesses, or the illnesses of my family, or my job, or my money situation. I mean, that's what I think about. Okay, it's interesting to hear about bronze altars, but I mean, why don't you talk to what I'm really dealing with? Well, I would dare say I'm talking to exactly what you're dealing with. I'm speaking to it precisely what you're dealing with. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is here to strengthen your hearts by grace to live the life that is in Christ. You may eat of Christ to the fullness. We have an altar of which even the high priest of the old covenant could not eat. I tell you, that does speak to the trenches of your life. And if that doesn't, I'm not sure what does. It speaks to the trenches of my life. Thank God for his provision of the ultimate sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I hope we can see how in this altar and in the cross, God himself has drawn near not to curse us, but to bless us. May we feed our souls by faith on the wonderful Lord Jesus Christ, the sacrifice for us, who, of course, did not only die, but rose again. and now sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Amen.