The Fire and Wood

Fire needs fuel to feed on; that is a fact we know...it isn't rocket science as they say. We also know that all life depends on heat and in order to have heat you must have fire. The sun for instance is a great ball of fire, fierce, self consuming fire. Nobody knows what the source of the sun's flame is but what we do know, we take for granted and that is that without it ...there would be no life. The fact is all life depends on light and heat for existence. The Bible says that the sun will last forever, does it not? In the heavenly city there will not be need for the sun because the Lamb is the light. PTL! Rev. 21:22 & 23, "And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the Light thereof."Hebrews 12:29, ""For our God is a consuming fire." We will worship like they do in heaven when we get there and that is continually. The fire at the Altar of Sacrifice never went out, the priest made sure of it and even took coals of fire to the Altar of Incense....God started the fire at the Brazen Altar which the priests took and carried to the Altar of Incense in the Fire Pans. The incense must have the fire that God provides..without the fire of God setting our hearts ablaze our prayers will not rise as sweet incense unto the throne of grace..we need the fire of God to set our prayers on fire at the Altar of Incense. Jesus offered Himself on the Altar of sacrifice...He went willingly. He laid down His life to take it up again on the third day because death could not hold Him. Fire is an instrument of God's judgement and Jesus took the judgement and paid the penalty for our sins on the cross.Sin brings judgement, remember God judged Sodom and Gomorrah by fire. There is a story in the book I am reading that the author tells of an airplane flight from L.A. to Toronto where he sat next to an Egyptian man who was a participant in the Six Day war of 1967 and this man related the following story. He said in what was almost a whisper, "There were balls of fire rolling across the Sinai desert. In an attempt to dodge them, our tanks ran into and over our jeeps and other means of warfare. " He went on to say, "Men were killed without an Israeli in sight. These things were not reported to Egypt for it was evidence that a supernatural God was telling us to go no further or He would destroy us." It happened before at the Red Sea and it will happen again as THIS NEW PEACE INITIATIVE PUSHES ISRAEL TO THE BRINK OF ANNIHILATION . I believe the Bush administration is treading on dangerous territory trying to establish a Palestinian state ...we just might see the "Fire of God " in judgement once again. We need to pray for Israel.

The old hymn says "Oh, the fire is burning, yes 'tis burning, burning, oh it's burning burning in my soul" Is the fire burning in yurt soul today?

Only God can ignite that fire; it is not ignited by human means. It requires the Spirit of God. Oh Lord send the fire just now...

Utensils of the Brazen Altar

I'm just going to touch on these utensils and the reference here is found in Ex. 27:3 , "You shall make pots, for it to receive it's ashes, and shovels and basins and forks and firepans; you shall make all it's utensils of bronze." Notice everything made of metal outside the tabernacle in the outer court was made of bronze, while inside at the Holy Place and in the Holy of Holies all the metal was gold. We said that gold represents or signifies Diety and bronze or what was probably copper(I'll explain that in a bit) represents or signifies judgement. According to Dr. Ness, the metal that was used was really copper and not bronze or brass either(there is a difference)but rather it was copper for the following reasons:

1. Brass is not a pure metal but a mixture of metals; God said not to mix things...Deut. 22:9-11.

2.Brass can't take the heat that copper can; it will crumble; the fire of the Altar never ceased.

3. There is no record that brass was used at the time of the exodus; copper was widely used.

4. The copper of which the censers were made became a part of the Altar as a record of God's judgement...Numbers 16:36-40.

I have looked up several Bible dictionaries and concordances and discovered that brass is not the correct term used here but copper . Brass is an alloy of copper, when you mix copper and zinc in proper proportion you get brass or bronze which is another alloy of copper. The term brazen in the Bible for the most part indicates copper. Brass was not invented until the thirteenth century and our Bibles as being translated from original manuscripts came later. So brass being well known by then became the common term for these utensils.

If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen and brass can't take the heat that copper can. So where we refer to brass in this context we are really referring to copper and brass always infers judgement and we see here in the Brazen Altar the typology of Jesus bearing our judgement on the cross. He did it willingly and joyfully. 2 Cor. 5:21, "For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who(speaking of Jesus)knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." This Altar would have glowed copper red from the heat that was continuous, and speaks of God's righteousness and judgement. He has to judge sin because He is God. But through His sacrifice today there is pardon for guilt. As the old hymn reads.."pardon for sin and a peace that endureth. When we confess our sins and forsake it, there is an abiding peace that truly endures.There is no forgiveness apart from Him and good works in themselves will not cut it, it is only by coming to the Brazen Altar and casting ourselves upon His mercy that we can be forgiven.

So a brief mention of the utensils says that they also were copper(where it says brass it is really copper). First I would draw your attention to the pans and shovels that was named in our text. Exodus 27:3 we read earlier says "And 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(meaning copper).The pans and shovels are evidence that judgement has taken place and the ashes mean that a full sacrifice has been accomplished and how true it is of Christ Jesus sacrifice on the Cross. The ashes indicate that the sacrifice has been accepted and certainly that is the case with Calvary's sacrifice. It is a complete sacrifice and God has accepted this sacrifice,once, for all time.( The KJV and NKJV uses the term pans while the NRSV calls them pots.)

Next on the list were the basins and these also were made of copper. The purpose of the basins was to contain the blood from the sacrifice: evidence that life had gone forth; innocent for guilty as a type of the sacrifice on Calvary.

The flesh hooks were a three pronged hook made of copper and appears to be for the purpose of moving the sacrifice around for complete consumption as the priests also partook of it and today we partake of Him. He said "Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood HAS ETERNAL LIFE"...read the portion from John chapter 6 verses 47-59.

The next item or utensil is the fire pan(s)...made from copper also, they were used to transport the fire from the Brazen Altar to the Altar of Incense. God lit the fire at the Brazen Altar, but it was carried to the Altar of Incense by the priests. When God lights a fire in us at the Brazen Altar, our prayers will be set ablaze as we approach the Altar of Incense and offer up our sacrifices unto Him. It is the kind of prayer He wants to hear from our lips and coming from our hearts...impassioned, burning in our souls, living, breathing persistent prayer. Then we will see the hand of God move in our lives and in our assemblies and we will see revival start in our midst. The next thing I want to talk about is the fire and the wood, but I am going to leave it for our next lesson.

Since it will probably be mid to late January before Bible Study resumes at the church where I have been giving these thoughts, I have decided to offer a preview to you who are on-line and then go over these notes when we gather for study again at the church.

We left off last time with a look at the Brazen altar, the altar of sacrifice.

The old hymn of yesterday's songs that we sang asks this question..."is your all on the altar of sacrifice slain, your heart does the Spirit control?"

And then it says "you can only be blessed and have peace and sweet rest as you yield Him your body and soul" This is the truth and I hope my memory has given these words correctly. Paul wrote to the Romans and said "I beseech ye therefore brethren, BY THE MERCIES OF GOD that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto G OD , which is your reasonable service."KJV. The NRSV reads the same except in our every day English: "I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." This is from Romans 12:1. Verse 2 says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God---what is good and acceptable and perfect."

It has to be an acceptable sacrifice and when the children of Israel brought a sacrifice to the priest at the altar of sacrifice, the Brazen Altar it had to be a perfect sacrifice, no blemishes or fault in it. It had to be the best animal that the penitent sinner could bring. They came on a regular

basis and today we come on a regular daily basis not to offer up an animal for a sin offering because Jesus did that when He offered Himself at Calvary, once for all time sake, but we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice in a continuous attitude of repentance, not to be saved over and over again but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds that our lives will show forth His glory and we will be conformed to the image that God wants us to be...the image of Christ, His own Son. Do you want to be like Jesus? Then present your bodies as a living sacrifice,holy, acceptable...your reasonable service...your spiritual worship. Be not conformed to this world. In the previous lesson, I quoted from Paul's writing to Timothy epistle two, chapter three, verse two. It was talking about perilous times and about the conduct that we can expect from this world. Lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, and the list goes on.

It gives a whole list of what we might expect from conformity to this world....as one anonymous comment to our blog moreaboutHisWord said, "just don't go there" and I have sort of claimed that word as a motto when it comes to my walk and you can expect to hear me say that in times to come. Temptation...just don't go there. Questionable entertainment??...just don't go there. Just do not go there. I think I will do a blog in my series about words of knowledge on that theme.

The Altar of sacrifice...repentance, identification, forgiveness. The Bible says "Be sure your sin will find you out." Unrepentant, hidden sin. The Bible says, "Whoso covereth his sin will not prosper, but whoso confesseth it and forsaketh it will have mercy."At the Brazen Altar we can confess and forsake that sin...I have done it many times...you ask "have you had hidden sin in your life?" Yes, and I have confessed it and forsaken it and He has forgiven me. You may ask what was it? and I would say it's underneath the Blood; I have confessed it to Him and He has forgiven me. If you have sinned and unfortunately Christians sin every day but we have an Advocate with the Father...praise Him! You need to confess it and forsake it...it's between you and Him and unless it has involved someone else or has hurt the church it does not need to be publicized. But you need to confess it as I have done and you need to forsake it. Am I alone in this...as they say "I think not."

There can be no fellowship in the Holy Place; there can be no opportunity of entering into the Holy of Holies; there can be no access to the throne of grace until we have first been to the Brazen Altar. The sacrifice has been made, atonement has been obtained, but we have to appropriate it by faith. For without faith, it is impossible to please God. You must believe that He died, you must believe that He rose again, and you must believe He will save you when you come to Him in repentance. I don't believe that there is one Christian who has not been saved without faith in HIS finished work on Calvary and it is typified here at the Brazen Altar. We must believe. Abraham believed and it was counted for Him as righteousness. That has never changed, we must believe, the OT believers looked ahead to Calvary every time they came to this Brazen Altar; we look back and know that we do not need to offer the blood of animals such as bulls and goats but that the sinless blood of the Lamb of God is all mankind ever needs. It alone atones for sin forever. The Blood that ends all other sacrifices.

The staves that were made to carry the Altar were made of acacia wood overlaid with brass and it has been said that to carry the message to the world requires these two staves...Jesus death and His resurrection as these two staves give the required balance to the glorious Gospel. We can declare all we want about His death, His sacrifice, but it must be accompanied with His resurrection and you can speak all you want about His resurrection power but we must never forget that He rose from the dead because He paid the full price for your sins and mine. Sacrifice.

1Cor. 15:3,4 "For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised the third day in accordance with the scriptures. Concerning the four horns of this altar, I have previously referred to what they represent when we talked about the Golden Altar of Incense, how that they represent strength, salvation, security and power and I am listing some scriptures for you to look up:Psalm 92:10, Psalm 132:17, 1 Samuel 2:10b, 1Kings 1:50, 1 Kings 2:28,29. If a man has a tendency to fall let him grab hold of the horns of the Altar of Sacrifice. This Altar was where the sacrifice was willingly made and Jesus has willingly made the sacrifice for sin, so when satan comes round to tempt and to try to persuade us to sin we can grab hold of the horns of this altar and hang on in faith believing that Jesus will and has already made this Altar a way of escape. Somebody said that when satan comes knocking...send Jesus to the door. I like that. When you grasp hold of the horns of this Altar you cannot help but get Blood on your hands...when you grab the horns on the Altar of Incense, you get Blood on your hands, but it is His Blood...it's all about the Blood. This study on the Tabernacle is all about the Blood. It was His Blood that stained the old rugged cross. When you cling to the horns of the Altar of Incense in desperate prayer, you can rest in the assurance that you are heard and that you have access to the very throne room of heaven because the Blood has been applied on the horns.(next lesson will cover the utensils used at the Brazen altar.)

The Tabernacle: lesson seven

The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy and he said, “Tim my boy, watch out for the last days cause they’re going to be tough ones.(that might be how he would say it today) HE SAID in the second epistle of Timothy chapter three and verse one, “But know this, that in the last days, perilous times will come.”
He didn’t say they might come or perhaps you might have to face it, perilous times, or there is a slight chance that perilous times might come….no, he said they will come. Then he goes on to list what men will be like when these times come and I believe he is speaking of these days just before the coming of the Lord. Let’s read what he says starting in verse two. “For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3.unloving, unforgiving, slanderer’s, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,4.traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. 5. having a form of godliness but denying the power. And from such people turn away!” Is this not a picture that we see every time you turn on a TV set, look at the shocking events in Colorado just this Sunday…or read the morning paper or pick up a news magazine in the doctor’s office? Perhaps you have seen some of this right in your own home and I am sure that all those who have earned their living in a school in this city or anywhere else can say amen to this.
We are living in the last days! But all is not lost; the end is not yet and God has laid out a pattern for our living and we find it in His Word in typology as we look into the subject of the Tabernacle. And as we have been looking into the various aspects of the tabernacle furnishings, starting with God coming to man through Christ as pictured in the golden Ark of the covenant, in which were contained the two tablets of stone on which were the ten commandments written, the golden pot of manna, the bread from heaven and also Aaron’s rod that budded, God’s approval on the man He had chosen for the priesthood and all this was covered by the Mercy Seat with the two cherubim, their wings touching each other in unity as they faced each other in power and guardianship; it was upon the Mercy Seat that the Blood was applied to make atonement for sin. This was the only piece of the furnishings located within the Holy of Holies. The Ark was the first item that God told Moses to build after He had told them to bring an offering, a free will offering from their hearts so that He could come and dwell with them. Let me just say something here about the prosperity doctrine; the prosperity doctrine says give and you will get back, give and you will receive, it’s an almost get rich quick scheme. But we should give with only one motive in mind and that is because God asks us to. And we should do it freely, that should be our only motive; He asks us to give. It must be from our hearts. Yes He will bless us but that should not be the reason for our giving, to get rich…it’s because He asks.
God desires to live among His people and it was God who came to man first and foremost, not man coming to God but we shall see in this next portion of scripture tonight the provision that God has prepared for man to come to Him. For as we come God’s way from the Holy of Holies into the Holy Place we immediately enter the place where there is fellowship and communion at the Table of Shewbread and experience the light of the golden Candlestick in which we see Jesus and the church portrayed so beautifully. Where it is our responsibility to bring the oil for the light; the oil of course represents the Holy Spirit but we are to bring it. You may have the lamps and the stands and the wicks, but unless you have the oil…there can be no light. You must bring the oil, and allow it to burn in order to give off the light. The oil must burn in order to give light and heat. Remember the word from Exodus 27:20, “And you shall command the children of Israel, that they bring you pure olive oil beaten (or crushed or pressed just as Jesus was beaten and crushed and pressed) for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always.” And that light from the Candlestick never, ever went out. It was the only source of light in the Holy Place. And then there was the wicks and we saw that they represent humanity yielded to God’s trimming and His correction. The trimming is not pleasant but it is painful for the moment but afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. While there in the Holy Place we can find a place of prayer and offer up sweet incense unto Him. We can lay hold of the horns of the Altar and cry out to God in time of need. Now to tonight’s subject, “the Brazen Altar” and here is where we can see man coming to God. We see sinful man coming to a righteous and a holy God. We see man at the Brazen Altar. This may very well be the singular most important aspect of the study to date. Read Exodus 27:1-8.
1 “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. 2 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. 3 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. 4 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. 5 You shall put it under the rim of the altar beneath, that the network may be midway up the altar. 6 And you shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze. 7 The poles shall be put in the rings, and the poles shall be on the two sides of the altar to bear it. 8 You shall make it hollow with boards; as it was shown you on the mountain, so shall they make it.” What makes this altar so important is the Sacrifice. So why did I choose to go this route and start from the inner part, the Holy of Holies and work outward? Because God has made every provision so that He could meet with man at the Altar of sacrifice and there man can receive forgiveness of sins so that he can go in to the Holy place and enjoy fellowship and offer up spiritual sacrifices. Even into the Holy of Holies because now the Veil has been rent in two. We can enter into the very throne of grace. The Brazen Altar is where sinful man can identify with a Holy God, where repentance is made and where sins are forgiven. It is the first step in a walk with God. It was located just inside the gate, it was the first thing the people saw when they entered the court, the outer court and whether there was a sacrifice or not the smoke ascended continually because the fire never went out...it was a place of repentance and identification where sin was confessed and the sacrifice is accepted, where we identify with Christ. Some people stop here and go no further but the next step is the Brazen Laver and this is the place of sanctification and of daily cleansing. Our spiritual journey starts here at the Altar and we can enjoy the privilege of living in Him and serving Him as we now move forward into the place of prayer and fellowship. Remember the Brazen altar is the altar of repentance while the Golden Altar is the place of fellowship, of incense as we offer up prayer to Him. The further we go the closer we get to the Holy of Holies where we are hid with Christ in God. Look up Col. Ch.3:1-4.
So as I already stated the Brazen Altar represents our beginning with God, the place where God came down taking the form of a bond servant, a slave, where He clothed Himself with humanity and gave Himself for us. The Brazen Altar is a place called Calvary; in the Hebrew it was called Mizbeach which translated becomes “slaughter-place) and that is what Calvary was, a slaughter-place. God had to provide animal skins for Adam and Eve after they had sinned to cover their nakedness, their shame and that meant blood had to be shed, so that shedding of blood even in the Garden of Eden became a “slaughter-place” and these sacrifices upon the Brazen Altar are all a type of the sacrifice that Jesus made once and for all time sake on the cross at a place called Calvary. The worship that was accomplished in the tabernacle and moving forward from the Brazen Altar had all to do with the shed blood. The blood that was spilt at this altar was sinless blood I’m not talking about the blood of animals now, I am speaking allegorically, I’m speaking of the Blood of the spotless Lamb of Calvary as seen here in type. Moving from the Old to the New Testament and into the book of Hebrews ch. 9 vvs. 11-14, it says,
“ 11But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;
12Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
13For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
14How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
Let’s read it from the Amplified version, “Hebrews 9:11-14 (Amplified Bible)
“11But [that appointed time came] when Christ (the Messiah) appeared as a High Priest of the better things that have come and are to come. [Then] through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with [human] hands, that is, not a part of this material creation,
12He went once for all into the [Holy of] Holies [of heaven], not by virtue of the blood of goats and calves [by which to make reconciliation between God and man], but His own blood, having found and secured a complete redemption (an everlasting release for us).
13For if [the mere] sprinkling of unholy and defiled persons with blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a burnt heifer is sufficient for the purification of the body,(A)
14How much more surely shall the blood of Christ, Who [a]by virtue of [His] eternal Spirit [His own preexistent [b]divine personality] has offered Himself as an unblemished sacrifice to God, purify our consciences from dead works and lifeless observances to serve the [ever] living God? “
Look up Romans 3:24-26. Aren’t you glad we don’t have to go back to that ceremonial cleansing; that the blood that flowed from Calvary once for all time avails for sin? And this was what was happening or was in danger of happening in that congregation that caused the epistle to the Hebrews to be written, little wonder for the strong warnings found there. That is why he tells more than once to “exhort one another daily” and “to provoke one another to love and good works.” Heb 10:24
It is our responsibility to encourage each other, to find someone, another Christian or someone who is not a Christian and encourage them and to lift that person up. Jesus was lifted up for us at the Brazen Altar; as typified there. It was His Blood that was shed on the cross that was shown in type here; only His blood can take away sin; only His blood can be the atoning sacrifice. Let us be glad and rejoice. Read John 1:29It’s all about the blood and only His blood could ever atone for the sins of mankind…the sacrifices on the Brazen Altar could only point to His sacrifice on the cross. Man had to come continually to this altar but when Jesus paid for our sins on Calvary He did it once for all time and eternity. He came down to my level when I couldn’t get up to His, with a strong arm He lifted me up and showed me what living’ is; He’ll come down to your level if you’ll open up the door, He’ll make your life worth living, that’s what He came down for.
Jesus came down from the Father and we have discussed the fact that He laid aside FOR A WHILE His Divine powers and humbled Himself …He became obedient unto death even death upon a cross…a death that was only for criminals and yet He gave Himself…the God of heaven gave Himself…can you say amen? Let’s praise Him tonight.