Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20100530.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Exodus: God's Forming The Nation Israel For His Abrahamic Covenant
Part II: God's Forming Israel To Heed Him, Exodus 15:22-40:38
K. God's Directive Of The Tabernacle To Fellowship With His People
5. The Altar And Court Fence: The Basis Of Fellowship With God
(Exodus 27:1-19)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    In the May 2010 issue of Dave Hunt's newsletter, The Berean Call, p. 5, a letter from a frustrated party asked: "Please tell me how I can determine with absolute certainty in which church I will find the fullness of Christian truth . . . (T)here are many . . . denominations . . . and . . . independent churches, all teaching differing and often contradictory versions of sound, Biblical doctrine' on critically important doctrinal issues which relate to salvation.'" (emphasis ours)

    Viewing some of those differences explains this frustration:

    (1) Calvinists claim God chose in eternity past who could even believe in Christ, and Loraine Boettner (The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination, 1972, p. 151) adds this requires that Christ's death not atone for the non-elect, the hotly-contested "limited atonement" belief!

    Many object to this, claiming John 3:16 teaches God wants to save the world, that "whosoever" believes in Christ will be saved!

    (2) Arminians hold the belief that man's faith in God or Christ partly contributes to his salvation. Indeed, many religions, cults and some Protestants hold man's merit or works at least partly save, so that if one's faith or works fail, though once saved, he loses his salvation!

    This idea produces lots of fear: people wonder if they "believed hard enough to be saved," or if they are "still" saved if they no longer "feel" it or if their faith is "still strong enough" to keep them from hell!

    (3) Another view touted by Liberal Theology is that the God of the Old Testament loved and saved only Jews, not Gentiles, in contrast to Jesus' New Testament claim that God wants to save the world.

    Were Liberal Theology true, there would be different deities in the Bible versus Jesus' John 17:18 claim that the Old Testament God the Father sent Him, and that would discredit Jesus' word on salvation!

    (4) Bishop Alphonse de Liguori, a canonized "saint" in the Roman Catholic Church, wrote in his work, The Glories of Mary that "Mary is called . . . the gate of heaven because no one can enter that blessed kingdom without passing through HER" (p. 160) as cited in Loraine Boettner, Roman Catholicism, 1978, p. 138.

    Yet, others teach Jesus is our only mediator with God!

    In the face of such frustrating contradictions, we are set to study Exodus 27:1-19 today, and it GRAPHICALLY reveals the WHOLE subject of the SALVATION of the SOUL!

    Thus, we turn to our sermon notes to address these matters!

    Need: "With all the conflicting ideas on the subject today, does GOD ever GRAPHICALLY describe HOW my SOUL can be SAVED?!"

  1. God had Israel build a tabernacle to typify how He as a holy God could fellowship with sinful man and meet man's needs, Ex. 25:1-9.
  2. The Exodus 27:1-19 altar of sacrifice and fence graphically clarify the doctrine of salvation so we can know how to be saved (and we use New AND OLD Testament verses to answer Liberal Theology):
    1. The altar's frame was of acacia wood (Ex. 27:1a), typifying Jesus' humanity that was offered on the cross for sin (Heb. 10:5-7; Jn. 1:29; Isa. 53:3-5, 10b). Christ's cross satisfies God's demands re: our sin.
    2. Being 7 ft. square, the altar addresses [in "II, K"] the 7 ft. fence separating the lost from God, Ex. 27:1b,c; 27:18c. The cross is the basis for reconciling God and man! (2 Cor. 5:19f; Isa. 52:15a; 56:4-7)
    3. The square-shaped altar had 4 equal corners (Ex. 27:1d), and as the world is signified by 4 equal corners (Rev. 7:1; 20:8 NIV), and as the altar addresses the fence separating the lost from God, this typifies the unlimited atonement of Christ, 1 Jn. 2:2; Isa. 45:22-24a with 52:15a!
    4. This altar stood 4 ft. (Ex. 27:1e) tall, being more eminent than the ark with its mercy seat and table of showbread (both at 2 ft.) and the altar of incense (at 3 ft.), Ex. 25:10, 23; 30:1-2. These other items typify God's acceptance and forgiveness (ark and mercy seat), Bible "feeding" (showbread) and prayer (incense altar), so Christ's cross is the basis for fellowship with God, Eph. 2:11-18; Isa. 52:15a; 56:4-7.
    5. Four horns stood atop the altar's corners, but not as mere ornaments, but as part of the wood frame itself, Ex. 27:2a (NET Bible: Ex. 27:2, ftn. 6). "(F)ugitives could cling to them" for delivery, and "priests would grab the horns of the little altar [of incense] when making intercessory prayer" (Ibid.), so they typify Christ's full human (wood core of the horns) empathy with sinners [or believers who cleave to Him in faith for help, Hebrews 2:17-18; 4:14-16; Isaiah 53:12d].
    6. The underlying acacia wood frame and all the tools used to service the altar, along with the grated platform for the sacrifice, the altar's carrying rings and their acacia wood poles -- all these items were to be either covered with bronze or formed from it, Ex. 27:2b-5. Bronze typifies judgment, so this big emphasis on judgment shows Christ at the cross "propitiated", or, fully satisfied God's wrath against our sin as a substitutionary atonement, Rom. 3:23-25; Isa. 53:6, 10b-11.
    7. The grate where the sacrifice was placed was set halfway up inside the altar (Ex. 27:4-5 NIV), signifying Christ is the perfect Mediator between God [above] and man [below]. (Heb. 9:13-15; Isa. 53:12d)
    8. The altar was 4 ft. high (Ex. 27:1e), so its grate stood 2 ft. high, the same level as the ark with its mercy seat and the showbread table and below the 3 ft. top of the incense altar. Christ's mediation stoops effectively to our level to supply us God's acceptance and forgiveness (ark and mercy seat), Scripture "feeding" (showbread) and effective prayer (altar of incense), Heb. 9:13-15; 1 Tim. 2:5-6; Isa. 53:12d.
    9. The altar was to be made hollow out of wood (Ex. 27:8a), so Christ as God Incarnate "emptied" (kenosis) Himself of the visible expression of His divine attributes in dying on the cross for us, Phil. 2:5-8; Isa. 53:2-5; John F. Walvoord, Jesus Christ Our Lord, 1969, p. 143-145.
    10. The courtyard area of 5,000 square cubits was 15 times larger than the 300 square cubits of the tabernacle, typifying the vast separation of a holy God from unbelievers, Ex. 27:9-13, 18; Eph. 2:2-3; Isa. 64:6-7.
    11. Yet, as noted in "II, B" above, the 7 ft. high court fence, with its white linen, bronze posts and silver bands and rings (silver pictures redemption, Lev. 27:3-8), in connection with the 7 ft. square altar, teach Christ's work on the cross addressed and SOLVED the barrier separating lost sinners from God: (1) Christ bore the fence's bronze [God's wrath at sin] on the cross, and (2) God gives the believer in Christ the fence's linen [God's righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21; Isa. 53:5-6, 10)] and, (3) with the silver, redeems him [from the curse of the Mosaic Law's condemnation for his sin], Gal. 3:13-14; Isa. 53:11.
    12. The way through the foreboding courtyard fence for the unbeliever is the appealing curtain near the bronze altar, typifying Christ's drawing all men to Himself (conviction ) to believe in Him to be saved (the gospel), Ex. 27:11-16; John 12:32; 5:24; Isa. 53:10-11, 11b NIV ftn.
    13. The gate was the only access to God, so faith in Christ is the only way to God, John 14:6; Isaiah 53:11 (The last "He" is emphatic, so to acknowledge God's Servant, the Messiah, by faith will lead God to justify one as Messiah (alone) bore his sins; Kittel, Bib. Heb., p. 684).
    14. As one relied on the sacrifice's death in his behalf to approach God, not on his own merit, we must trust in Christ to be saved, Lev. 17:11; Rom. 3:24-28; Eph. 2:8-9; Isaiah 53:11 ("acknowledge" [by faith])!
Application: May we trust alone in Christ for salvation, John 3:16!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 The issues we raised in our introduction we can then answer from the message's content as follows:

(1) Since Christ's atonement is "unlimited" in scope in His having died for the world (the altar's 4 equal corners), Calvinism as a system errs: it claims God planned in eternity past to save only those He elected to come to believe in Christ, but that view makes the "unlimited" atonement for the non-elect illogically wasted, cf. Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination, 1972, p. 151!

God does not waste His works, so Calvinism as a system errs!

(2) Since the sinner can not rely on his own merit to please God, but only on the substitutionary death of Christ in his behalf to be graciously saved regardless of his fallenness, no future sins can harm one's salvation status any more than his original fallenness could keep God from saving him! He is unconditionally eternally secure in Christ, John 5:24. This counters all reliance on human merit for salvation!

(3) Since we have shown in our sermon notes various Old Testament references that reflect the New Testament claims of salvation by faith alone in Christ, Liberal Theology's assertion that we cannot trust Jesus' words about the Old Testament God's love for and salvation of people of the world is unfounded! The God of the Old Testament, as well as of the New Testament, desires to save all men!

(4) Since Christ as God Incarnate has full human empathy with our needs (seen in the horns of the altar the destitute or the interceding priest grasped were part of the altar's underlying wood frame), we need not appeal through any other party to gain God's full empathy! We have one Mediator, Jesus, and He is the Perfect Mediator (the grating's location), so we need only plead to God in Jesus' name to find God's full empathy in our behalf, 1 Timothy 2:5.

(5) [Many other questions we doubtless may have can be answered by these sermon notes, too many to list here, so we urge you to answer them yourself as you apply the Scripture's teaching!]



Thus, may we (1) believe on Christ for salvation if we have not yet done so, (2) and/or answer the questions that arise on the doctrine of salvation as based on its teaching in Scripture!