Called Unto Holiness
“The Altar”
Scripture: 1 Thess. 4:1-8
Text: 1 Thess. 4:3
Take your Bible and turn to 1 Thess. 4:1-8. This is going to be our key passage for messages for the next few weeks on holiness. I don’t know how many weeks. We’ll see how the Spirit leads.
1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 (READ - mention verse 3 as text verse.)
(Show video - Stuck - from Worship House Media)
Sometimes we get stuck. Sometimes we get so used to how things have always been, that we don’t see the answer that is right in front of us. The answer is there, but we’ve never seen it done, or it’s not part of our environment, or we’ve just never thought about it as a possibility. But once it’s discovered, it’s simple.
We don’t have an altar in this church. A physical altar, but there is always a place of prayer in this church. If you ever feel a tug on your heart to do something that will make things better between you and the Lord, you do it. I’ve been in churches where there was an actual physical altar, across the front here, and I’ve seen people come forward on the very first hymn. The Holy Spirit has been speaking to them about something all week long, and they could hardly wait to get to church to come forward and have the prayers of the pastor and people, and make their commitment (their sacrifice), known. Now, the most usual time, is during the last hymn, when I’m praying at the end, or even as you sense me coming to the close of my message. Just get up out of your seat and walk to the front. I might finish my sentence, we’ll finish the verse that we’re singing, or I’ll finish my prayer, but then I will have a prayer with you, talk to you, and we’ll follow the leading of the Holy Spirit from that point on. When that happens, - when someone comes forward - your responsibility as a congregation is to simply sit back down if you’re standing, pray for the person who is at the front. Or if you also feel led to come up, you come. And then, depending on the prayer needs of the person who has come forward, we will have a corporate time of prayer, or a time of celebration.
Jesus said if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth, that you are mine, then you will be saved. Jesus is telling us to make sure that our heart and our mouth is in sync. Jesus always calls for public confession - for a witness to God’s work in our life. He does that, because this life we live, salvation, healing, victory over temptation - none of that is about us - it’s about God’s glory. It’s about His mercy in our lives. And if we don’t testify to that work, then God does not get the glory, and the witness of what God has done will be void - there won’t be any witness at all. We will have snuffed out God’s glory by our silence. I hope we can understand what a privilege that is, and that we literally can stuff, or quench God’s glory by our silence.
When I was a girl growing up, in my childhood church, there was a banner across the front of the church - it was painted right onto the back of the wall. It said, “Holiness Unto the Lord.” That’s why I called this series of messages “Holiness Unto the Lord." It’s a basic doctrine of the Bible. Most denominations have a doctrine of holiness. If you check around, most denominations have a doctrine of holiness. They may call it something else - sanctification, holiness, Christian perfection, Christ-likeness, but you really can’t not have one and be a Bible-believing church. They may have set it on the back burner - not preach about it, but it’s there. God said we are to be holy as he is holy. The text we read earlier says, “It is God’s will that you are holy.” So if we’re going to live according to God’s will, we have to live holy lives. But where do we start? Where on earth do we start. I mean is this concept of holiness something basic that you all already know all about, or is it new to you? Where do we start? We start with the heart.
And for that, we need to know about the altar - the physical altar that we use as a place of repentance and mercy, and the altar of our heart. The altar of our heart is activated inside of us, and it manifests itself at the physical altar. And it is my prayer that as we go along, you will see how each of these messages fit together with our calling to be holy.
Throughout the whole Old Testament, the Old Testament characters built altars to the Lord. The Hebrew word for altar is literally, “slaughter place.” The New Testament Greek word for altar translates literally as “place of sacrifice.” The NT refers to altars in terms of proper worship and in warning against hypocrisy. (Matt 5:23-24 & Matt 23:18-20.)
So the theological significance of altars in the Bible is that they were places of sacrifice. But beyond that, the altars were also places of God’s presence. The Bible regularly records the building of an altar at the site of theophany - that means a place where God had appeared to an individual. It was quite natural, and common, to build an altar to commemorate the appearance of God. If God had appeared once at a site, that would be a good location for Him to appear again. So sacrifices were offered there with the sense that if he showed up there once, he would show up again, and the offering would be accepted by Him. What was offered would be accepted.
Here’s an example from last week. You know when we come here, we can sense God’s presence with us as we gather, right? We sense Him with us as we worship. Last week, we had all left here. I was driving away, and I saw a familiar gold colored Jeep Liberty driving back toward the center. I came back to let Rod in to retrieve something that had been forgotten, and when he came back out, as he came toward me with the key, he had a big smile on his face, and he said, “He’s still in there!” At first I thought, “Who did we forget?” but then Rod said, “The Spirit - he’s still in there.”
See, the Spirit lingers where we invite his presence. Right from the very first verse of the very first book of the Bible, we are told the Spirit hovers. The Spirit was hovering over the waters. To put it in modern terms, the Spirit hangs out where He feels comfortable. And when we bring our needs to the altar, when we sacrifice our selfish ambitions, pride, possessions, and anything else that we hold on to, at a place designated for prayer and repentance and sacrifice, the Spirit is drawn to that place - and He’ll show up. And he lingers there. You know when we come into this place, we bring the Holy Spirit. You know, the verse that says our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. We literally bring the Spirit in here when we gather in.
Let’s look at four reasons why altars are important - the altars of our heart and physical altars, is something that God honors and asks of us.
First of all:
1. It shows God that we fear him (Gen. 22:12).
Coming to the altar shows God that we are serious - that we fear him enough to sacrifice whatever it is he asks of us. Go back in your Bible to Genesis 22, verse 12. God had asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac and Abraham carried the fire and knife while Isaac carried the wood that would be burned on the altar and the Bible says Abraham built an altar and with his knife poised and ready to do as God had commanded, an angel of the Lord called to Abraham, “Don’t lay a hand on the boy! Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.”
“FOR NOW I KNOW THAT YOU TRULY FEAR GOD.”
What does it take for God to know that we truly fear him. One thing - absolute surrender - God doesn’t want just some parts of us - he wants us ALL.
And I think you’ve hear me say it before, but it bears repeating - God does not call you to give up the thing you love the most because he’s mean, or because he doesn’t want us to have nice things - God calls us to give up the thing we treasure the most, because HE wants to be our only treasure. The Bible says, “Seek FIRST the kingdom of all God and all these things will be added on to you.” God is not interested in taking away from us the good gifts he has given us, but it all has to be surrendered to him. We are to hold the gifts he has given us so loosely in our hands, that if they were all gone tomorrow, it wouldn’t change our level of trust in the Lord, or shatter our faith.
God wants us to come to the altar of sacrifice because it shows Him that we truly fear Him. Altars are a place of sacrifice - it ALL has to die! And just as a side note - remember - the fear of the Lord, is the BEGINNING of wisdom. This is just where it starts.
The second reason the altar is important is because:
2. It strengthens us.
Any step of faith that you take that is an act of surrender to God’s will - that God is calling you - and that you need to rely on God for - will strengthen you. God never calls us to do anything on our own steam. If we can do it ourselves, we don’t need God. The things He calls us to do, will be things that will strengthen our dependence on Him. That’s why the Holy Spirit nudges us to do those things that God requires of us. We’d never do it all on our own. That’s why we have the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth.
Coming to the actual physical altar is a step of faith. It’s a step that should always be just a little bit difficult because it’s about sacrifice. But it should not be uncomfortable. There’s a difference. It should be at least a little bit difficult but not uncomfortable and that’s because thirdly.
3. It encourages grace community.
It encourages grace community. I know I talk a lot about grace community, a community of grace. And we are building here, among us, I hope more and more, a community of grace. A community where the difficult becomes possible because grace overflows. For example, it is always difficult to confess a sin - but if we know that once we confess that sin, we are going to receive forgiveness and grace and encouragement to keep on going, then as difficult as it is, the reward - the outpouring of grace that we know we are going to receive - makes it not uncomfortable.
We encourage grace community through our:
a. forgiveness
I remember one time asking a friend of mine for forgiveness and she said to me, “Oh, it’s there before you even ask.” That’s how we need to live our lives. In a constant state of forgiveness. And when we know that forgiveness is always there, then we develop a community of grace.
b. prayer
We encourage a community of grace when we pray for one another. When someone comes to the altar, we have the amazing opportunity to pray for that person. Truly pray for them. The Bible says we are to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. When someone’s broken and repentant spirit is presented to us, as a grace-filled community, we have an opportunity that no other community on the face of this earth has. We have the opportunity to go to God on that person’s behalf and ask God to rain down forgiveness and strength and courage on that person so that they will never struggle with that temptation again. What an amazing privilege prayer is!!
c. example
Finally, when we obey, we provide a godly example for others. Simply put - we make it less scarey for the next person. We mentor our children. I asked the men to pray today because I believe we need to hear godly men pray. I believe our children need to hear godly people pray. And I believe with all my heart that we need to have that kind of community - that kind of spiritual family - that knows how to set a godly example for those around us. Our kids need to see us broken before the Lord. Our young people need to see us committed to honesty and integrity and purity before God. I mean we can’t expect our young people not to cheat in school if they see us cheating on our income tax - amen!?!
Finally,
4. It helps others fear God.
This is pretty similar to setting a good example. But it’s more than that. People who fear the Lord teach others to fear the Lord. People who act with integrity, purity, holiness, teach others to do the same. It’s not just because they are setting an example, but because when we live holy lives before others, it evokes in the people who are watching us, their own God-shaped vacuum. See we’re all made with a God-shaped vacuum inside of us and it’s there in all of us. Some people stuff that or deny that. I’ve seen men under conviction, white-knuckled holding on to the back of the pew refusing to surrender to the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives - stuffing the Spirit, quenching the Spirit, and yet, when we live as holiness people and get around some of those people who have stuffed and quenched, it starts to bring alive in them, that God-shaped vacuum that only God can fill. It brings to life in others, the need for godliness that might have been lying dormant for months, even years.
We’ve talked today about the altar. We’re going to stand and sing, “Is Your all on the Altar.” Perhaps the message for you today was a bit dry - or maybe you gained some new insights that you hadn’t understood before. I hope the later is true. I’m trying my best to be faithful to the calling of God on my life. He’s changing me. The pastor you have today is not the pastor you will have a year from now, or hopefully, even six months from now. My prayer is that as he changes me, we will all change and grow together to be the community, the church, and the individuals that He is calling us to be.
Let’s stand.
