Exodus 27 - The Altar of Sacrifice, Rome & The Idolatrous View of The Eucharist / Lord's Supper

Let's open in prayer. Heavenly Father, as we look to your word in Exodus chapter 27,

I pray that you would open our eyes to the truth that all of these things point to Christ and his suffering and death for the sin of the world.

So I pray this message would be an encouragement, this study, this time would be beneficial to each one who's listening and that Christ would be exalted.

We pray these things in his name, amen. Exodus chapter 27.

You shall make an altar of acacia wood, five cubits long and five cubits wide.

The altar shall be square and its height shall be three cubits. You shall make its horns on its four corners.

Its horns shall be of one piece with it and you shall overlay it with bronze.

Also, you shall make its pans to receive its ashes and its shovels and its basins and its forks and its firepans.

You shall make all its utensils of bronze. You shall make a grate for it, a network of bronze.

And on the network, you shall make four bronze rings at its four corners. You shall put it under the rim of the altar beneath that the network may be midway up the altar.

And you shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood and overlay them with bronze.

The poles shall be put in the rings and the poles shall be on the two sides of the altar to bear it.

You shall make it hollow with boards. As it was shown you on the mountain, so shall they make it.

You shall also make the court of the tabernacle. For the south side, there shall be hangings for the court made of fine woven linen, 100 cubits long for one side.

And its 20 pillars and their 20 sockets shall be bronze. The hooks of the pillars and their bands shall be silver.

Likewise, along the length of the north side, there shall be hangings 100 cubits long with its 20 pillars and their 20 sockets of bronze and the hooks of the pillars and their bands of silver.

And along the width of the court on the west side shall be hangings of 50 cubits with their 10 pillars and their 10 sockets.

The width of the court on the east side shall be 50 cubits. The hangings on one side of the gate shall be 15 cubits with their three pillars and their three sockets.

And on the other side shall be hangings of 15 cubits with their three pillars and their three sockets.

For the gate of the court, there shall be a screen twenty cubits long, woven of blue, purple and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen, made by a weaver.

It shall have four pillars and four sockets. All the pillars around the court shall have bands of silver, their hooks shall be of silver, and their sockets of bronze.

The length of the court shall be one hundred cubits, the width fifty throughout, and the height five cubits, made of fine woven linen, and its sockets of bronze.

All the utensils of the tabernacle for all its service, all its pegs, and all the pegs of the court, shall be of bronze.

And you should command the children of Israel that they bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to cause the lamp to burn continually.

In the tabernacle of meeting, outside the veil which is before the testimony,

Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening until morning before the Lord.

It shall be a statute forever to their generations, on behalf of the children of Israel.

All right, Exodus chapter 27 begins in verse 1. You shall make an altar of acacia wood five cubits long and five cubits wide.

So we see that there is definitely a connection between worship and sacrifice.

This is how the Israelites worshiped God, by offering sacrifices.

So the tabernacle is what? It's the tent of meeting, the tabernacle of the congregation.

This was the central location for the worship of Jehovah God amongst the children of Israel.

So they could not have worship properly without sacrifice.

That is what the Lord is showing them. And where are the sacrifices to be offered?

Well, on the altar. Okay, so we're going to spend a little time talking about the altar and the whole concept of an altar.

What is an altar? Well, let's turn to Exodus chapter 20 and we'll see what is said there.

Now, the first time in the Bible that the word altar is mentioned, does anyone know? Anyone want to take a guess?

Where's the first mention of an altar? Well, that's what I thought.

Genesis 4, Cain and Abel, but it actually doesn't mention an altar there. It's actually

Genesis chapter 8. When Noah got off the ark, what's the first thing that he did?

He built an altar and offered sacrifices of the clean animals unto the

Lord. Obviously, he did not have an altar made out of bronze.

Okay. And we're going to see what the Lord said about how they were to make an altar here in Exodus 20 in just a moment.

But let me just read the dictionary definition of an altar.

I know you all know what an altar is, but this might be helpful. An altar is usually a raised structure or place on which sacrifices are offered or incenses burned in worship.

So we would agree with that. A raised structure where sacrifices are offered.

And then it gives a secondary definition and then a third definition. So that's the first one.

The second definition is a table -like construction used in the

Christian church in celebrating the Eucharist. We're going to talk about that one.

Okay. I'm on board with the first definition. I'm not so much on board with the second or the third, a table or place which serves as a center of worship or ritual often used to refer to the act of getting married.

We've all heard about the couple, the bride and the groom get married in front of the altar, right?

Okay. So we'll talk about that in a few moments, but look at Exodus 20, 24 and 25.

The Lord says to Moses and altar of earth, you shall make for me and you shall sacrifice on it.

Your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen in every place where I record my name,

I will come to you and I will bless you. And if you make me an altar of stone, so they could do that to either earth or stone.

If you use stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it.

So here in Exodus chapter 20, the Israelites basically could sacrifice to God, uh, anytime, anywhere, uh, didn't have to be at the tabernacle.

Of course, the tabernacle didn't exist at this point. Uh, but what would they do? Build an altar of earth, basically pile up dirt essentially, or pile up stones.

So these were the options. And now we get to the worship of the tabernacle. And now is this a contradiction?

Well, no, God says, you know, do it this way. That's generally how they were to do it. Stone or earth.

But when it comes to the tabernacle, this is, this worship is a little more specific. So God can,

God can have it either way. Exodus 27, go back there.

We learned something about the bronze altar or the brazen altar, depending on what translation you use.

Exodus 27 verse two, you shall make its horns on its four corners.

Its horns shall be, uh, of one piece with it and you shall overlay it with what bronze.

Okay. So you picture the, the altar. It's, it was about seven foot. We don't know the exact measurements, but figure about seven foot by seven foot squared and maybe about chest high, four feet, four and a half feet high.

So fairly good size, uh, structure and on each corner it had horns.

Now what was the purpose of the horns? Uh, part of it might have been ornamental.

Okay. Uh, also you remember criminals or someone accused of a crime, they would seek refuge by going to the altar and holding onto the horns of the altar.

Uh, that happened throughout Israel's history. Uh, but the horns, I think the basic practical reasons why the altar at horns is to hold the animal in place.

Remember they, they heaped up the flesh of the animal on top of the altar and the horns made sure it didn't slip off or, or slide off.

So, um, any questions so far? No. All right.

So that's the deal with the, the horns. Now I want to point out that the altar was not solid brass, right?

That's, that's for a good reason because remember everything is, is, um, portable.

The tabernacle could be set up, broken down, and it was to be moved. Well, if this thing was made out of solid metal, that, that wouldn't be a whole lot of fun to carry.

So it was overlaid with bronze, but what was on the inside of the bronze wood?

Now the wood wouldn't have burnt because it's overlaid with bronze, but what kind of wood? Acacia wood.

And we talked about this last time that the word Acacia is basically the

Hebrew word is derived from the same word that you get for scourging. So hopefully, you know, we're starting to make connections here because Jesus was scourged.

So I want to make a case here that the, because, uh, the altar is part of the ceremonial, um, the ceremonial law of God, and it's all pointing to Christ since Christ fulfilled this part of the law.

I want to make the case to you that there is no altar in the new

Testament church. Uh, I, I don't know if I'm the minority in this room, but certainly within Christendom, quote unquote, of all the professing

Christians on earth and the different churches on earth, definitely I, or maybe we would be in the minority, that there is no altar in the new

Testament church here at Morris corner church. We don't have an altar, uh, in this building.

Now, if somebody were to point to his head, Oh, that's not true. I was married in this church. I was married before the altar.

Where, where would the altar be? You've heard of an altar call, right? The pastor's preaching and gives the altar call and people are supposed to do what come up front.

So we know that people who calls whatever it is, the altar, it has to be up here somewhere.

So I'm just posing the question to you, where's the altar or what would be called the altar?

Okay. Cause this, the platform is elevated. Okay. So some people will call the platform, the altar.

Well, if I'm standing up here, am I the sacrifice? No. All right. What else?

There's something else that would be called. Okay. The table, right? So this right here would normally be called the altar, but I'm telling you that this is not an altar.

I know if you put money in the plate, it feels like a sacrifice, but that's, that's not, it's not the altar.

Okay. So there is no altar, uh, in the new

Testament church. Here's why number one, the sacrifices that we offer are spiritual sacrifices.

Uh, our body Romans chapter 12 verse one, our body is to be presented as a living sacrifice.

So in service to God, we offer ourselves. Uh, also, uh, we offer the sacrifice of praise, which is the fruit of our lips.

That's Hebrews 13 verse 15. So we do offer spiritual sacrifices, but there is no physical sacrifice.

Therefore there is no physical altar. And then going back to the second definition of Miriam Webster's definition of an altar, a table used in a church for the celebration of the

Eucharist. Who knows what the Eucharist is? What's the Eucharist? The word

Eucharist means thanksgiving. Um, and there is an element of thanksgiving with the

Lord's supper. That's fine and good. But usually there's certain groups that use the term

Eucharist. We don't use that term. Yeah. So Catholic or Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, uh, they will use, uh, this term

Eucharist. And they would say that they have an altar and their churches and their altar is the communion table because they really believe they are offering physical sacrifices.

The elements are bread and wine, and they believe that the bread is the literal.

I mean, I know we talk about eat my flesh and drink my blood. Well, that's in John six and he's not really actually even talking about the

Lord's supper. Uh, but we talk about the bread and the cup. They believe they are actually offering the literal flesh and blood of Jesus Christ on their altar.

So why do some people call the communion table and altar? Because they believe it's a real sacrifice.

So that's, uh, generally the Catholic church that believes that, but also there are some

Protestant churches, uh, that believe the Lord's supper or communion is an actual sacrifice that that Christ is being presented.

Okay. The Catholics have a doctrine called transubstantiation where when the priest holds up the wafer and the bell rings and he offers this prayer that it, that it literally becomes the flesh of Jesus and the, the wine, his literal blood still looks like wine and tastes like wine, but they say, no, it's, it's really his body and blood.

Uh, the Protestant, some Protestants like Lutherans will say that no Christ really is present.

It's not actually his flesh and blood, but he is present under the elements.

I don't really know what that means. Okay. Um, but that's, that's what they say.

What's our view of the Lord's supper? Do we view it as a sacrifice? No.

And because we don't view it as a sacrifice, therefore this is not an altar. What is it?

It's just a table. That's all it is. So any questions so far?

All right. So we hold to the memorial view of the

Lord's supper. Why? Because Jesus said, when you do this, we do this in remembrance.

That's where you get the idea of a memorial. We do this in remembrance of what he did on the cross.

So the bread represents his body. The cup represents his blood, but it's symbolic.

Okay. It's a metaphor. It's symbolic. It's not the actual body and blood of Christ.

I didn't need to tell you that. Did I? Okay. You know this, but this whole idea of the altar, cause that's really what we're talking about.

I think a lot of Christians, yeah. Where's the altar in your church? Oh, it's up front. So is this a totally new idea for anybody that actually, no, we don't have an altar.

Okay. It might be, it might be for a few and, and that's, that's okay. All right. Any hands up?

Any questions? No. All right. So just to recap,

I do not believe that there is an altar in the new Testament church.

One more comment. Let's turn to Mark chapter two. Say, well, what difference does it make?

Well, I mean, it does make a difference because it is tied in with your view of the

Lord's supper. And this has been maybe one of, if not the, but definitely one of the most important issues throughout church history, your view of the

Lord's supper. Uh, there are churches where they have adoration services.

If you ever heard of this, I think I read this in the paper a few weeks ago that, uh, a local Catholic church was holding adoration services.

So basically there's an ornate, like usually golden, um, looks like a sun and in the middle there's the communion wafer and people, they come to the church and they, they're worshiping the bread.

They're adoring the bread, bowing down to the bread when they go into the church and you know, they kneel before they go into the pews.

Why are they kneeling? Because God is there. That's God. That's the literal flesh, body, soul, and divinity of Christ.

So they're worshiping the bread. The Protestant position was that that's idolatry.

If you're worshiping an object as God, that's not God. You're bowing down basically to an idol.

And the other side said, well, if you don't believe this is the literal flesh of Christ, you don't have eternal life because Jesus said to have eternal life, you must eat my flesh and drink my blood.

So for Catholics and Protestants, this was a salvation issue. Your view of the

Lord's supper, uh, meant you're either saved or damned. Now you might think that that's silly and well,

I don't see how that is. I'm just telling you throughout church history, it was that serious of an issue.

So it does matter. Um, Dennis. Yeah. When I would be talking with someone in Ireland, that's exactly what

I would go after. If they came to me and said, so what's the difference between a Baptist and a

Catholic? Let me explain. Right. That's exactly what I would go for. Um, when, when

I was there in 1980 as an apprentice, they didn't do it by the time we were there full time, but they had a pageant where thousands marched through the city with the priests at the head.

And they had one of those big shiny crosses with the Eucharist right in the middle.

It was called Corpus Christi. And that means body of Christ. And all it was, it was big stuff.

And we were, you know, tracks being handed out and the priest turned around, everybody dropped them right then and there.

It was real powerful back then. Right. And you know, and I don't say this to, Hey, let's bash the

Catholics tonight. That's not what this is about. This is about the truth. And I think based on what we just said, this is very, very important.

Again, throughout church history, eternal life, at least partially depended on your view of this.

So this is about trying to convince people of the truth and say, well, everyone here knows and agrees.

Not everybody knows. And people watching online, you know, at some point someone's going to watch this and listen who needs it.

Another thing, why at Morse quarter church churches like ours, why don't

I have these vestments and this, this flowing gown with all the decoration, right?

And the big hat, right. It's all tied together because there is no special priesthood.

There is no altar. If we believe that the Lord's supper was a sacrifice, then this would be an altar and I would be a priest and I'd have the vestments.

So it's all tied in together. People look at it. Well, they they're different because they have different clothes and different garb.

Well, yeah, but there's significance behind it. So this stuff really does matter.

I think I said this last week or the week before that type of religion, that style of Christianity, which

I would argue is a corruption of Christianity. It is more like the old covenant than it is the new covenant because in the new covenant we have the empty cross.

That's another thing. Why is our cross empty? Because Jesus, he isn't there anymore.

He's not being represented as a sacrifice over and over again.

We have the empty cross. So Larry. And I think also by having on all that garb, they're kind of presenting themselves as more than just a man, you know, and people look at them as more than just a man, you know, they almost worship them and put them up on a pedestal to be praised and honored as opposed to right.

Every Catholic priest is ordained and alter Christos.

You know what that means? Another Christ. Like he's literally ordained as another cry.

Didn't the apostle Paul say something about that? So that's more old

Testament religion. And then there's the whole idea of clergy and laity. Like I'm, I'm clergy and you're just laity.

No, we're all brethren. Jesus said, we're all brethren. So this is all

Catholic stuff. So when you refer to this as an altar, that's a holdover from Rome.

Just, just letting you know, we've all, we've probably all called it that at some point, you know, and it's not saying that it's some big thing, but just so we understand.

All right. So Mark chapter two, I said, this is more old Testament religion with an altar and sacrifices and a priesthood.

Jesus taught that there is to be no blending together of old and new covenants.

And that's partially what he's talking about here. Mark two, starting at verse 21,

Jesus says, no one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment or else the new piece pulls away from the old and the tear is made worse and no one puts new wine into old wine skins or else the new wine bursts.

The wine skins, the wine is spilled and the wine skins are ruined, but new wine must be put into what?

Now this is important, you know, practically, cause you don't want to ruin your wine skins, but that's not really what Jesus is talking about.

One of the points you can take away from this, you don't mix old and new. You don't try to blend the two together because if you do, you'll ruin it.

So the new covenant is the new covenant and it is a distinct and separate from the old.

All right. So in Exodus, this is the old Testament practice.

We're reading about this through Exodus 20, 25, 27. This is old

Testament. We can learn from it. Paul said, all scripture is profitable for doctrine.

Everything in the old Testament is still true. It's just not always applicable to us today.

And this is why Paul said to Timothy, you need to rightly divide the word of God. So we just don't take things from the old

Testament. Well, they did it back then. We should be doing it today. That's not always true. All right.

Any questions before we move on from this subject? And as I always say, if somebody wants to challenge anything that I say, um, you can, you can raise your hand, but you better have chapter and verse to back it up.

That's the only thing. All right. So if you've called this an altar,

Hey, I'm not against you. I'm just saying there really is no altar in the new Testament church. If you want to try to prove me wrong, go home, uh, this week, do a word study in the new

Testament for the word altar, starting at the crucifixion of Christ, the book of Acts onward, look at what the new

Testament says about altar when alters brought up. I think after you do that, you'll, you'll come to the same conclusion.

There is no altar in the new Testament church. All right. Uh, two more things to cover.

Uh, there is the court of the tabernacle versus nine through 19, and then the care of the lamp stand and versus 20 and 21.

So look at verse nine, you shall also make the court of the tabernacle for the

South side. There shall be hangings for the court made of fine woven linen, 100 cubits long.

And, uh, for one side. So as for the dimensions, uh, the tabernacle was, uh, enclosed in a court where we looked at it last week, the tabernacle proper, like the actual tent was relatively small, but the courtyard is fairly, fairly big.

So the tabernacle is small. The holy place, remember that two compartments, the holy place called the holy of holies.

That's not actually what the Bible calls it. Um, but the most holy place is a smaller compartment in the tent contained the ark of the covenant.

Then there's the holy place, which was a little larger. It had what three objects in it. Who remembers the lamp stand table of showbread and no, that's the, the most holy place, the altar of incense, which in fairness, we haven't really covered that yet.

All right. So that the tent was relatively small, but the courtyard is pretty big. All right.

And, uh, here's something I believe is significant. Um, there was only one way in.

You want to enter into the courtyard. There's only one door. What do you think that's pointing to?

You tell us here. You tell me what is it pointing to right?

One way, one door, only one way to approach God. Good. Look at verse 16 and the gate.

They see the outer core. It's there's like this fenced in area. It's made a cloth, but the door, the gate in was a different color.

What are the colors for 16 for the gate of the court? There shall be a screen 20 cubits long woven of what blue, purple and scarlet red.

So it appears the border of the courtyard. Uh, so it would have been this cloth, this fabric acting as a fence or a wall all around it.

That's probably white or a color similar to that. But the way in was blue, purple and scarlet.

So the, the gate is symbolic of that. There's only one name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

Uh, Jesus said in John chapter 10 verse nine, I am the door.

If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and we'll go in and out and find pasture.

You say, well, okay, the gate represents one way to God and that's Christ. Got it.

What about these colors again? Blue, purple and scarlet.

I think it's well accepted that the red represents, you know, the cross, the blood of Christ, right?

And I proposed last week that the blue and the purple represent the suffering of Christ.

When somebody is beaten or scourged, Jesus was beaten before he was crucified. We call them black and blues, but they're not really black.

They're purple and they're blue. So basically I would say this, that this is all an indicator that the only way to enter into God's presence is through the suffering and the death of Christ.

So the blue, purple, scarlet represents his suffering and his shed blood. That's my position.

I'm sticking to it. And then we talked about the veil in the tabernacle, which was in the tent and the blocked everything, right?

It kept everybody separate from the most Holy place. Only the priest could enter in once a year.

Of course, when Jesus died, when he shed his blood, we remember that the veil was rent. It was torn top to bottom.

And they estimate that the veil was what? Four inches thick. No human being could rip it, but God did.

He tore it top to bottom, symbolizing that man now through the cross, through Christ can now approach

God when he couldn't before. Cause throughout the old Testament, God's unapproachable, right? They see

God there. It's a fearful site. He's a consuming fire, but through Christ, we now have access to God.

So Jesus is the only way to God. This is why, this is why it upsets me so much.

Uh, when I hear Christian preachers making, you know, cutting corners, it's worse than that.

Um, but saying that people can be saved another way, another way, the majority of evangelical preachers are so -called evangelical preachers believe and teach that people can get to God another way.

I would say that disqualifies you from being an evangelical, but that's another story for another day.

So do we see the symbolism? Does all this make sense? And the apostle Paul said, if, if you could get to heaven any other way, then

Christ died in vain. Yeah. Okay. So being sincere, uh, is not good enough.

All right, Dennis, you get more.

Yeah. All right. The last thing we're going to talk about is the lamp stand.

And, uh, maybe you've wondered, okay, we've talked about God, you know, that's God's throne room, the most

Holy place. And the arc talked about that being his footstool. So God is certainly in the picture.

Uh, Jesus, these things point to Jesus. What about the Holy Spirit? Right. The Holy spirit really hasn't been brought up.

So what here, if anything represents the Holy spirit, well, the oil in the lamp stand is what represents the

Holy spirit. Look at Exodus 27, starting in verse 20, and you shall command the children of Israel, that they bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light to cause the lamp to burn continually in the tabernacle of meeting outside the veil, which is before the testimony

Aaron and his sons, they were the priests. They shall tend it from evening until morning before the

Lord. And it shall be a statute forever to their generations on behalf of the children of Israel.

So it is well accepted that the oil is a picture or it's symbolic of the

Holy spirit. Now, does anyone want to tell us why or, or what verse in scripture say, well, okay, prove it.

So who wants to take a, okay, Dennis. I mean, there's just one example of where the spirit of God came upon David, uh, left

Saul and came upon David when he poured oil on his head and anointed him to be king of Israel.

Okay, good. One example, right? It's the anointing. That's, that's the key. The, the oil represents the

Holy spirit because the oil in the old Testament was used to anoint, right? David was the anointed one.

He was anointed with oil and that was symbolic. It was tied to the Holy spirit coming upon him in Luke four 18,

Jesus quoting. Um, Isaiah said the spirit of the Lord is upon me the spirit because he, what he has anointed me.

So who anointed him? The spirit. So the oil, you see the connection there.

The oil is symbolic of the Holy spirit. Also in first John, chapter two, verse 20, uh, the apostle says, but you have an anointing from the

Holy one and you know all things. So John speaking to believers,

I can say this to you, you have an anointing and through this anointing, you know all things.

So this actually ties in with the lamp stand. The anointing is a reference to the

Holy spirit who is imparted to us by Christ, who's the Holy one. And it is the

Holy spirit who illuminates the word of God so that we know all things so that we understand.

And what does the lamp stand do? It'll, it illumines, right? So it illuminates the Holy spirit, illuminates the word of God, the things of God so that we know and understand all these things.

So hopefully you see how the tabernacle and all the furniture and everything at all points ahead to Christ and speaks of him and salvation.

I'll just close with this. Matthew Henry writes this about verses 20 and 21 he says, the pure oil signified the gifts and graces of the spirit, which all believers receive from Christ and without which our light cannot shine before men.

The priests were to light the lamps and tend them. And it is the work of ministers by preaching and expounding the scriptures, which are as a lamp to enlighten the church, which is

God's tabernacle upon the earth and blessed be God. This light is not now confined to the

Jewish tabernacle, but is a light to lighten the Gentiles and for salvation unto the ends of the earth.