OPEN: A few years ago, USA Today conducted a survey and asked Americans in the top 1% income bracket how much they would be willing to spend on three intangible items:
Great intellect, true love, and a place in heaven.
They found that the super wealthy would be willing to spend an average of
• $407,000 for great intellect,
• $487,000 for true love,
• $640,000 for a place in heaven!
APPLY: How much would you be willing to pay for these items?
How much would you pay to be smart, to have true love, to have place in heaven?
Of course, most of us realize that we really can’t buy those things.
• You might be able to buy a good education, but you can’t purchase intelligence.
• You might find a person who’d give you affection for a price, but not true love.
• And the Bible repeatedly tells us – wealth can do many good things - but it won’t buy you a place in heaven.
But here in Exodus 27 we find that God DID require His people to pay a price to be into His presence.
The Tabernacle was set up right in the middle of Israel’s camp. It was the abiding symbol that God wanted to be WITH His people right in the center of their lives. But there was a price that had to be paid for that privilege. That price was the repeated offering of sacrifices to atone for their sins.
Now right there in the courtyard of the tabernacle was the very first piece of furniture that anyone would have seen - the altar of sacrifice. It was the largest piece of furniture anywhere in the tabernacle area.
No one was allowed to come into God’s presence until sacrifices had been made on this altar. When the tabernacle was first set up, the priests spent 7 days sanctifying the altar. Every day for 7 days – sacrifices were made in morning and evening. Grain offerings and drink offerings… and a sacrificed lamb were offered to God both in both the morning and the evening. And only AFTER those sacrifices had been made could the priests come into God’s presence.
From that day on the people of Israel offered up continual sacrifices to God to atone for sins. Now, this made this altar in the Tabernacle a highly important place of Israel’s worship.
Thus it was the very first piece of furniture you would see in the courtyard and nothing else could be touched in the tabernacle til the sacrifices made on altar.
But, why were these sacrifices so important to God?
As we mentioned in an earlier sermon – God told Moses to be very careful how he built the tabernacle. “See that you make them according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” Exodus 25:40
Hebrews explains why God was so particular about how the tabernacle was laid out:
We’re told that the priests “…serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: ‘See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.’” Hebrews 8:5
In other words, the tabernacle was intended to be an earthly illustration of heavenly truths. Their were spiritual realities that God wanted to communicate through every aspect of the tabernacle’s construction and layout.
Apparently, because the Altar of Sacrifice was so central to the tabernacle, the first truth God intended to teach His people was about the tragic nature of their sins.
ILLUS: Years ago I read the story of a man had worked for years in a meat packing firm.
He had cut the throats of many animals.
He had heard the cattle bellow, the birds squawk and pigs squeal.
But one day, a farmer brought a lamb to be slaughtered.
With business as usual, the man took his sharp knife and cut the lamb’s throat. But the lamb did not squawk and flop like the birds did. And it didn’t squeal and flounder like the pigs. The lamb did not bellow and slump like the cattle.
Instead, the little lamb just silently stood before the man. With blood flowing from its throat, the lamb tottered toward its executioner and licked the blood from his hands, and began to totter from side to side. Then, it silently slumped to the floor and died.
Even tho’ this man was used to killing animals on a regular basis… this disturbed him. For the remainder of the day, the lamb’s death occupied his mind. That night began a series of sleeplessness. After almost a month of restless nights and days, the man went to his supervisor and said, "I quit! The death of that lamb was more than I can bear. I cannot kill another animal. All I can think of is the death of that lamb!"
Now, that man could quit the meat packing firm, but Israel couldn’t quit it’s sacrifices. Sacrifices were required of them to cover their sins and to allow them to be in God’s presence. And each sinner was req’d to bring his sacrifice to the north end of the altar and there they (not the priests) were required to slay their own offering. (Leviticus 1:10-11)
So the 1st heavenly lesson God intended to teach His people at the altar was this:
Sin was a terrible thing.
And the cost of our sins calls for a horrible price - the death of a blameless creature to pay for our deliberate sin.
The 2nd truth God wanted to teach thru this altar was the foreshadowing of the death of Jesus for our sin. Remember – the tabernacle was an earthly illustration intended to teach heavenly truths.
Hebrews 9 teaches us that “When Christ came as high priest … he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made (in heaven)… He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. Hebrews 9:11-12
So Jesus offered His blood for our sins… and there must be something about this altar in the courtyard of the tabernacle that teaches us about what Jesus that fateful day at Calvary.
The first thing we notice in Exodus 27 – is what the altar is made of.
Look again at Exodus 27:1 "Build an altar of acacia wood…” Exodus 27:1
Wood?
Now you’d think that’s kind of peculiar - for an altar to be made of wood.
Why? Because wood generally burns.
But – of course - God knew that so He instructed Israel to cover the altar with beaten bronze.
ILLUS: Several decades ago, scientists made a discovery. They found that if they took a wooden door and encased it in copper so that it was perfectly sealed that the door literally became fireproof. Wood won’t burn when it’s encased with certain metals… like bronze (an alloy usually made of copper and tin).
No other altar in Scripture was ever made of wood.
No other altar in the history of mankind was ever made of wood.
Except one.
Tell me: when Jesus died at Calvary… on what did He die? (the Cross)
What’s the cross made of? (Wood)
Literally, you could say, the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins was made on an altar of wood.
2ndly – the wood was acacia wood.
It’s a common wood found in the desert and like many desert plants it has a defense mechanism that protects it from predators: THORNS
The day Jesus was crucified we’re told the soldiers “…stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. "Hail, king of the Jews!" they said. Mt 27:28-29
Scholars don’t know what kind of thorns made up this crown … (the Bible doesn’t say) but frankly I wouldn’t be surprised if they had not been from an acacia tree.
The 3rd thing I noticed was that the Altar had 4 horns.
Exodus 27:2 tells us they were to “Make a horn at each of the four corners, so that the horns and the altar are of one piece…”
Four horns on the altar?
What are they there for?
Well, in Psalm 118:27 we’re told “Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.” NKJV
But now… that’s a bit odd.
The sacrifice was already dead.
Why would you want to tie it to the horns of the altar?
In our quartet we have a song we love to sing and it’s chorus goes this way:
“It was love that held my Lord upon the Cross
Matchless love, for all the world He paid the cost
But the nails through His hands could not hold Him
It was love that held my Lord upon the cross”
(Lyrics: C.W. Brown; Music: C.W. Brown & John Campbell)
The cords held the sacrifice to the horns of the altar, but it wasn’t the cords that really held the offering there. The offering had already given it’s life to attain forgiveness of sins for the people.
In the same way – the nails didn’t hold Jesus on the cross.
When Peter pulled his sword and tried to defend Jesus from being arrested at the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said to him "Put your sword back in its place ... Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? Matthew 26:52-53
Jesus went to the cross by His own choice.
And Jesus stayed on the cross and died for you and I by His own choice.
No ropes, no nails, no army of man could have kept Him there had He decided otherwise.
It was love that held the Lord upon the cross.
(break)
Note also that they were to “… overlay the altar with bronze.” Ex 27:2
We’ve mentioned this before, but as I looked closer at the rest of the tabernacle, I found that this was one of only two pieces of major tabernacle furniture that was covered in bronze (the other is the brazen laver).
The rest of the furniture is inside the tabernacle… and that’s all covered in gold.
But not the altar of sacrifice.
The Altar and every tool used with it was covered in bronze. Why?
Well, this is the place of judgment.
This is the place of fire.
The alloy we call bronze holds up better to fire than gold does (it has a higher resistance to heat). What makes Bronze so resilient to heat is the fact that it is an alloy - this means it’s made up of at least two elements (usually Copper and Tin).
Because it’s an alloy it can withstand the heat.
When Jesus came… you could say He was literally an alloy.
He was made of two elements.
He was truly man… and He was truly God.
Philippians 2:5-8 tells us
“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!”
As our sacrifice, Jesus had to be both human and divine.
For God cannot die.
But no mortal man could ever withstand the fire of God’s judgment and wrath that we deserve. Being both God and Man, Jesus was perfectly prepared to become our sacrifice for sin.
Now, the last thing that caught my attention is found in Leviticus 9:23-24
“Moses and Aaron then went into the Tent of Meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people; and the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people. Fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown.”
The first sacrifice at the Tabernacle that God accepted was consumed by fire that came out of His presence. The Israelites had prepared the sacrifice, they had placed it on the altar, they had put the wood underneath… but it was God who literally “made” the first sacrifice at the tabernacle.
ILLUS: Some time back I was teaching a young couple the Adam and Eve. You remember the story: Adam and Eve were given the wonderful Garden of Eden to live in and eat of its trees, but there was one tree that God commanded them not to eat of (Tree of knowledge…)
Of course, they ate of the forbidden fruit anyway, and then they noticed they were naked. So what do they do? (Sew fig leaves together to cover their nakedness)
But obviously their mortal efforts to cover their nakedness because once God confronted them about their sin He made another kind of garment for them.
Genesis 3:21 tells us
“The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.”
Garments of skin?
Where did the skin come from? (An animal)
How do you get skin from an animal? (It has to die)
So, in order for that animal to give its skin to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve, God had to sacrifice an animal.
Thus the very first sacrifice for sin - to cover the shame of Adam and Eve’s guilt - was made by God. And the New Testament tells us that the very last sacrifice for sin - to cover the shame and guilt of our sin - was made by God.
Jesus came out from the presence of God and died so that His blood could cover us.
He paid the price for our sins.
You can’t buy your way into heaven… because the price has already been given.
CLOSE: But now, if God has paid the price for our sins…
If He offered the ultimate sacrifice to bring us back to Him…
If God has already done it all… is there anything left for us to do?
Can we really do anything on our part for salvation?
That’s an interesting question.
At the Tabernacle, God could have done everything and left the Israelites to merely watch.
The Priests could have raised the sheep, bro’t the sheep to the altar, and sacrificed each offering for Israel.
But He didn’t do it that way.
Instead, He expected His people to bring the sacrifice to the altar, lay their hands upon it, and take its life with their own knife.
In other words – in order for the people’s sins to be forgiven God expected them to identify with their sacrifice.
That’s what Romans 6 says we do when become Christians:
“…don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Romans 6:3-4
Jesus has already paid the price for your forgiveness.
You can’t do anything to buy your way into heaven.
But in order to have His forgiveness you need to identify with Jesus.
You need to believe, repent, confess, be baptized, and live your life for Him.
But your faith doesn’t buy your salvation.
And your repentance can’t purchase God’s love.
And your confession of Jesus as Lord won’t pay the price of your sins.
And your baptism won’t make a downpayment on heaven.
The only thing that can do those things is the blood of Jesus.
But in order for your to be saved, you need to do these things to “identify” yourself with the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
