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.)