Steadfast at the Altar

If you have a copy of God’s Word, please turn to Hebrews 13 this morning. Hebrews 13, as we resume our study in Hebrews—just a half dozen or so sermons left. We come to Hebrews 13, looking this morning at verses 10 through 12, with the Lord’s help.

The bottom line of this epistle is: Christ is sufficient. Or to use some of the language that is repeated in this epistle, Christ is better. He is better. As simple as that idea may be, the sufficiency of Jesus Christ—it is constantly our challenge to believe that, to believe that He is enough, to believe that no matter what we face, He is enough.

Fears grip us of various sorts. Life has many avenues of concern—many doors that open up, which on the other side are those things that strike fear into the heart. And Christ is enough. You need to believe it. You need to see it. You need to understand it. And every day, you need to be reminded of it.

So this morning, as we look again at this epistle, let us read—take the time to read from verse 1, and we’ll read through verse 12. Let’s hear God’s Word.

Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them, and them which suffer adversity. as being yourselves also in the body. Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have, for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines, For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat, which serve the tabernacle, for the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Amen.

We’ll end the reading there at the close of verse 12. And what you have heard is the word of the eternal God, which you are to believe, receive, and obey. And the people of God said, amen.

Let’s pray.

God give help today. We know from personal experience that Thy Word needs the ministry of the Holy Spirit to understand it. And even if things are explained, if they are broken up into the most digestible chunks, even yet, unless thou does give light, there is no light. And so we pray that thou will command over every heart, let there be light. Come Holy Spirit—strengthen and bless, help one and all. You know the need. We pray that thou would shut us in with thyself and meet with us today in a most gracious fashion. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

It is a great temptation to the human heart to crave the visible. We have a tendency to lean upon, or elevate, or desire that which is more tangible. This has always been the case. You go back to the children of Israel and their deliverance by the Lord—and they had seen such demonstrations of divine power and glory, the parting of the Red Sea and so on—and yet still, still, they were always looking for something that was more of this earth. And so, though they were fed by manna from heaven, yet still they wanted that which was—what they could connect with—that somehow their carnalities had more meaning upon, and that was all the delicious food of Egypt. They did not recognize that it wasn’t just manna in terms of what it tasted like; it was what it represented. It was communicating to them God providing for their souls.

And it’s not like with the passage of time anything changed, because when you come to the feeding of the 5,000, and especially John’s record of it, you see the same problem. Jesus feeds the 5,000. They are taken up with this, and they are longing for Him the next day to do the same thing over again. And they are rebuked because they come after Jesus just to have their bellies filled. And He teaches them again: you’re missing the point. You’re missing the point. We’re always inclined to miss the point—to lean into that which is more of a carnal substance. And this is what happens.

And it is what has been the threat upon those that the Apostle addresses in Hebrews. They also had the temptation of returning to the visible—craving the tangible stimuli that they apparently, of course, were being told, you’re leaving this, you’re leaving the temple, you’re leaving the priesthood, you’re leaving the sacrifices, and you have not a worthy substitute. And that had an argument in terms of it had a power in their heart. And though our circumstances are different—we’re not Jewish, and we’re not inclined to crave this because it’s not something we did from our earliest days—we still have a tendency to elevate something more tangible.

I mean, Christianity has fallen into this time and time again. All the smoke and symbolism and the vestments and the ceremonies and the altars of the medieval era—even to this day, the attraction of Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism—in part it’s because it’s very tangible. And even Protestantism—evangelicalism—as it has lost its moorings, especially over the last century or so, has also done the same thing. It has endeavored to feed that longing for something more carnal. It will bedazzle you with a very slick, well-oiled service that is designed to tantalize and give you a certain feeling—a performance that will resonate with your carnality, and put the hairs on the back of your neck on end, and make you feel like something is going on. And you attribute this to God.

We crave it. We crave it. Ultimately, what we’re saying when we look for these things is that Christ is not enough. I need more. We don’t say that. It’s not the words that we use. But that’s what we’re saying: I need more. As I’ve said already, the gospel is constantly driving this home to the heart—that the true child of God will be seen in their contentment with Christ. If I have nothing but Jesus Christ, I have more than enough.

So as these Hebrews wrestle with the threat—the natural temptations that befall men—of course, the economic challenges, the increased persecution of their context, and other things that are going on. As they deal with all of that, the temptation is: well, if we go back… It’s not just even the attraction of the temple and the priesthood and the ceremonies and the festivals. It’s not just that. It is, of course, the fact that if we go back there, this persecution is not going to fall out upon us. The Jews are protected in the Roman Empire—at least at this point. That would be the assessment in the early, mid-60s AD.

The apostle keeps hammering home the point: you have unique privileges in Jesus Christ. Do not move from the substance to the shadow. You have enough in Jesus Christ.

Now, the Westminster Confession of Faith in chapter 8 deals with Christ the mediator. One of those paragraphs, paragraph 5, states the following, and I want you to think upon this language: “The Lord Jesus, by His perfect obedience and sacrifice of Himself, which He, through the eternal Spirit, once offered up unto God, hath fully satisfied the justice of His Father, and purchased not only reconciliation but an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven for all those whom the Father hath given unto Him.”

Everything needed is found for the sinner in Jesus Christ. If you have Christ, what else is required? You don’t need all the paraphernalia. You don’t need the man-made structures. You don’t need anything. The people of God, as they have even this very day in parts of the world where they are persecuted, they have met in a stripped-down environment where there is little or nothing—and the Lord met with them right there already today. Christ is accessible to the believing heart.

Verse 5 has made that plain: I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Ever. The accessibility of Christ to his people. And this accessibility never changes. That’s underpinned by the language of verse 8: He is the same yesterday and today and forever.

So as you come into verse 10—We have an altar—it is illustrating for us not only do we have a high priest, one who represents the people of God, but we have an altar. Here we have the Lord Jesus Christ depicted in this way, that you’re not missing out by leaving that Jewish altar. You’re not missing out by what transpires there. You have, in Jesus Christ, an altar—an altar that is ever before you, accessible to you, and is everything you need before God.

So this morning, I want us to think of this steadfast living at the altar of Christ. Last time, when we looked at verses 7 through 9, it was steadfast living under an unchanging Christ. Now it is at the altar of Christ—or under, or rather at—pardon me—the altar of Christ.

And so I want you to see just three simple thoughts. We’ll see, first of all, the altar obtained. Then, the act explained. And then, the advocate pained. Just three ideas to hang our thoughts upon as we move through these verses this morning. Let’s pay attention to the text.

Verse 10: we have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. This altar obtained. It is, first of all, a real possession. It is real. We have an altar. It’s language of assurance. This is something we have. It’s in the possession—“we.” It’s not just for the apostle. It’s not just for an elite class. It’s for those who believe. The priest could say, we have an altar. In one sense, the Jewish people could say, we have an altar, but they didn’t really have access to it. But here, it’s speaking of those who are the genuine people of God who can say, we have an altar. We’ve not lost anything. As we have departed out of the old economy—accepting God bringing about the new covenant—we’ve not left anything meaningful behind. We still have an altar.

That old environment, of course, was precious to the Jew—to go in there, and all the history, and the—again—the senses overwhelmed with what was going on. Particular feasts that were so instructive in terms of pointing to what the Messiah would accomplish on behalf of His people—all of that was divinely appointed, and was precious, and had its place. But here there’s something far superior. Here, the altar is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one we’ve already seen as the priest and as the victim—who goes to be sacrificed—is also now described as the one who is the very place of sacrifice.

We have an altar. To say we have an altar—what does it mean? What really is the apostle driving home? He is effectively saying we have a place to meet with God. In Jesus Christ is our meeting place with God. That’s what the altar was.

I mean, you can go back to the early chapters of Genesis and see this. Around the altar is the place where men met with God. When Abraham erected a place of worship, there was an altar because that’s where he would meet with God. When the patriarchs would follow suit, again an altar was there to reflect upon meeting with God. And what the apostle says here is: we have a meeting place with God. It is in Jesus Christ.

We have an altar. In Psalm 43 verse 4, the psalmist says, “then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy.” And there you see the connection. It’s not just going to the altar of God—that’s purely a place. He’s going to the altar of God, unto God. He’s not just putting himself in some important location. He is meeting with God. That has always, again, been the intent. By going to the altar, there is a sense of meeting with God. It’s not just furniture. It’s not just a sacred place. It is meeting with God.

But we don’t have to go to an historic altar that was set up through the Levitical system. We have an altar—a place in which we meet with God. This man—chapter 10, verse 12 of this book tells us—after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God. It is him. In meeting with God, it is always through him. He has given access to his people, putting away sins for ever by one sacrifice. There’s no more need for any other ongoing altar in which there is a redoing of sacrifices over and over. The sense is: there is an altar in Jesus Christ through the sufficiency of His sacrifice. It has been established, and through Him we have access to God. Or, as elsewhere it says in this book, we can draw near.

Now, for those of you who are familiar with His language, why does this matter? This underpins the very model text we looked at last Lord’s Day—going in to the closet, shutting the door, and praying to our Father in secret. Wherever you make that location, wherever it is you appoint to exercise that liberty and privilege of prayer—right there is, as it were, an altar, and it is in the person of Jesus Christ where you meet with God. He is the way, the truth, and the life. No man can come to the Father but by Him. Or to put it in another way: those who come to the Father through Him actually do come to the Father. You have a real, living access to God.

We have an altar. This means if you’re still trying to attain some kind of acceptance before God by your own labors, by your own commitment, by your own dedication, by your own resolve—abandon it. Abandon anything that tries to substitute Jesus Christ. Abandon any dependence on the church—membership in the church, practice of the church. Abandon anything. As good and legitimate as certain things may be, as warranted as they may be from God’s Word, yet access to God is through Jesus Christ. And this morning—right now, right here, this moment—you have an altar. Even as I preach, you can meet with God. You hear His Word, you respond in faith. By His Spirit, He condescends to you—to meet with you. Don’t spend your life looking for something else. There is here a real possession, a present reality—not something you have to wait for, not something you have to go on a pilgrimage to enjoy.

I mean, that was what the males were appointed to do—was to go three times up to Jerusalem, and there they would be in the vicinity of that particular location. But every day, Jesus Christ—the same yesterday and today and forever—who will never leave you nor forsake you, is the altar of access to God for you. He is with you.

There’s also here a real exclusion: “We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.” So here he is drawing from—there’s a connection to verse 9, which encouraged the believers not to be carried about with diverse and strange doctrines. You know, don’t give yourself to that which you do not hear from me. Don’t give yourself to anything false, anything unbiblical, anything anti-gospel. Don’t give yourself to anything. “It is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meats. which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.”

There is a part of this sacrificial system providing meat for the Levitical priesthood. You will know that part of their fellowship with God—or man’s fellowship with God—was reflected through: some of the sacrifices would come, and part of it would be given to the priests. They would keep it, and it would show this sense of provision for them.

And sometimes, though—that part of the sacrifice—if you go through the book of Leviticus—part of the sacrifice would be kept for the family, and it would show fellowship—how the gospel provides a foundation of fellowship for men. So there’s a lot of weight, emphasis placed on that. And again, there’s some argument as to exactly what is going on, the context here, but the idea is that these meats—I think most men agree—is connected with those sacrificial meals and so on.

And in verse 10 then, the flow of the argument is: we have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. Men are excluded from what we have access to if their heart is in service—not to Jesus Christ, but to the tabernacle. They’re still trying to attain acceptability, or rightness before God—their justification—through all the ceremonies that they engage in. And in one sense they serve the tabernacle. They’re engaged in that—whatever their particular responsibility or access to the tabernacle may be—but they have no right to eat of Christ, is the point. They have no right of access to God through Christ if they’re rejecting Jesus Christ in place of the ceremonies. That’s verse 10 summarized.

And so it excludes those who are holding off. The apostle, in one sense, is using a very distinguishing language that is intended to put fear into those who will leave Jesus Christ. And he’s done this over and over again. He’s used language that really becomes a dividing line, and he’s doing it again here. You have no part with Christ if you go and serve the tabernacle. In other words, you will prove that you don’t understand the sufficiency of Jesus Christ if you try to circumvent Him, or add to what He has done by these ceremonies, and so on. So the language could not be clearer. If you rely on legalistic rituals, ceremonial washings, the works of the law—if you’re standing before God—if you even try to add it to Jesus Christ, you cannot. You can’t have one foot in the shadows and one foot in the substance.

Now, this was hard for Jews to come to terms with, but their souls depended on it—especially leading up to, and again, they couldn’t see—even though Christ had prophesied of it—the fall of Jerusalem. This is just a few years away now. And there’s going to be no altar. There’s going to be no tabernacle or temple. There’s going to be none of this. It’s going to be over. So if you’re in some way depending upon that, you’re going to find yourself at a loss—devastated. But if you have Jesus Christ, you need not worry.

In Galatians 5, verse 4, Paul warns there: “Christ has become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, you’re fallen from grace.” That’s the same as verse 10. If you’re trying to marry these, if you’re trying to bring them together, if in any way you put weight—then you’ve fallen from grace.

Now, there are forms of Christianity that do this, and they have done it over and over again, and I can’t get into the various ways in which this happens, but there are even forms of so-called Protestantism that do the same today. They add to Christ. They put weight on other things. They view the children of believers as elect. They view their baptism as some way showing that they have acceptability before God—really it’s not about being born again, it’s about making sure you don’t become apostate from the truth. And as long as you do that, you’re fine. And all of these things—they’re taking away from Christ. They’re putting it back into ceremonies.

Is baptism important? Yes. Is the Lord’s table important? Yes. But there are those gaining ground, calling themselves Reformed, identifying with Protestantism, and they are departing from the fullness that is found in Christ alone. The threat never goes away. There’s an exclusion. If by grace, then it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace—Romans 11. There’s a real exclusion. You’re excluded. You have no right—if you can see it this way—you have no right to claim Christ, participate in Christ, identify with Christ, say you have the benefits of Christ, if you serve the tabernacle, if you serve the ceremonies. No right.

So, the altar obtained.

The act explained. We move on then as he continues in his argument in verse 11: “for the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the camp.” So here is explanation of what was going on, and what he’s drawing from in the Day of Atonement.

There was, first of all, blood that went into the sanctuary—the blood that was brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin. They were to think upon the Day of Atonement, in which—the Day of Atonement, again, I’ve said this before—there was no single festival or feast or ceremony that could fully reflect upon what the Lord Jesus Christ was going to do, what the Messiah was going to accomplish. And so God, in His wisdom, gave various ceremonies and festivals and feasts and so on, in order to help bring about the picture and the image of what the Messiah would accomplish. And even then, still they came up short. Even collectively, they came up short.

But one of the benefits of the Day of Atonement versus some of the other sacrifices was that it was done entirely with the people watching on. The children of Israel were called in this day to fast—abstaining from normal things—and they would gather together, and they would watch as the high priest would conduct these various practices and ceremonies given for us in Leviticus 16. And really what they were seeing was that this access to God, in one sense, is without our involvement. It has nothing to do with us. We need a priest to represent us and bring us to God. We stand here and lament our sin. That’s all we do. We bring the sin that makes it necessary. And another does the work.

And that was a very helpful illustration. So what they did: the high priest would, of course, take the blood of one of the goats and carry that blood right into the most holy place—right in before the presence of God. And this is what he’s referring to: “the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin.” The blood was brought in. The blood was sprinkled upon the mercy seat. The blood was put there.

Again, there’s a sense of that ark that was laid up in the most holy place—and in that ark, of course, was contained the law of God. That law in that ark was pronouncing guilt upon the entire nation. That law that was within that ark was telling the people of their guilt, saying they’ve come up short. And the answer for it then was atonement, and the blood was sprinkled to make atonement for sin. So that was part of it.

But there’s another part to it as well. Not only was there this blood that was sprinkled—which again typifies what was being sung by the choir this morning, and the various hymns that we sang together as well—helping us understand again that the blood of Christ is so essential, that there the Lord Jesus upon the cross is shedding His blood to fulfill these types, to put away sin for us.

But more to the point, as far as the context of this passage is concerned, is that “the bodies”—the bodies of the beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin—are burned without the camp. So there’s the blood that went into the sanctuary, and the bodies that went outside the camp. And here you have again another impression that was put upon the mind of those watching on.

The blood is shed—okay. The sacrifice is given there. And other times, as I’ve already said, some parts of the sacrifice would go to the priests for their provision, and sometimes the sacrifice would appoint that part of the sacrifice would go back to the offerer, and they would have a feast with it. And they would gather the family together, and the household would enjoy it—a fellowship meal from part of that which had been offered.

But God on the Day of Atonement wanted to show something else. I mean, there are different things being shown here—provision, fellowship—but there also needs to be an understanding that in what Jesus Christ did for sinners is the taking of the curse, the full weight of divine judgment. And so on that Day of Atonement—which was a key day of driving home gospel principles into the mind of what they needed—there is a taking of the body beyond the camp, outside the perimeter of the people. And so there had to be a location: as they all gathered there and watched the high priest conduct his service, someone then is appointed to carry this body—the leftovers, as it were—beyond, through the camp, outside to the perimeter where it has to be burned. And that person would become, by virtue of touching that creature in that way and engaging in that practice, he himself would become ceremonially unclean.

And the whole idea of being outside the camp is language of apostasy. This is what happened when you were guilty of certain things in the old system, in the old economy. As far as Israel was concerned, there were certain things—if it didn’t bring about death, it would have you put outside the camp. It’s language of apostasy. It’s being put away. And on that Day of Atonement, it is showing that this One who is going to offer Himself—this Substitute who must die—this One who must shed His blood—will also be put out, will be made a curse for us, will be viewed as even apostate before God by virtue of the transmission of guilt. Our sins laid on Him. He becomes the guilty one, put outside the gate to suffer—to burn—to bear the curse.

This is what the Apostle is drawing from. In Leviticus 16 this is explicit: the bullock for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering shall one carry forth without the camp and they shall burn in the fire their skins and their flesh and their dung. This is what he’s drawing from. This is what Paul is pointing to when in Galatians 3.13 he says, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.

And what we’re meant to see is the loathsomeness of our sin. That there’s a sense in which the guilt is so real, you can’t use a part of the sacrifice for fellowship or for provision. You have to communicate the idea that this is worthy of nothing but destruction.

And friends, that’s where the world today—and has always—really had a struggle with the exceeding sinfulness of sin. When we read through that law and it points out our shortcomings, and you get exposed—your heart, as mine too, gets exposed—in terms of how far short we fall across every single commandment that summarizes the mind of God. When you see it is not a light thing—it is serious business. Sin cuts men off. Sin must be punished. Sin is loathsome before God. He is of pure eyes, and to behold evil, and canst not look upon iniquity—and so it must be put out and burned.

This imagery then brings us, thirdly and finally, to the advocate pained. The advocate pained: “Wherefore Jesus also”—here is the one the sinner needs—“that he might sanctify,” or set apart, make pure, “the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.” Jesus also. See how it all comes back to him. It doesn’t matter where the apostle turns. When you’re looking at imagery of that Levitical system, it’s just time and time again—here’s Jesus.

Once again, the bodies of those beasts carried outside the camp to be burned—that is a depiction of the sacrifice of God’s Son. We say, firstly then: He suffered without the gate. He suffered without the gate—outside the gate. Here the gate, of course, refers to the gate of Jerusalem. Jerusalem functions then like the old camp of Israel in the wilderness. The walls of that city function as the perimeter. And the death of the Messiah must be outside the gate to fulfill the type—or rather, that the type might see, the truth of it might be rightly understood. He was always appointed to suffer outside the gate.

You remember—I can’t take time to turn there—but I think if you go to John 18, and you’ll see the high priests as they come. They’ve gone through their whole shenanigans, and now they’re going to pass over the responsibility of dealing with the Lord Jesus to Pontius Pilate. Of course, it’s the Passover. They come early and they try to get rid of him. Of course, they will not come into the judgment hall. They will have nothing to do with it, because these areas were deemed to make them ceremonially unclean, and they’re not going to risk that. But it was all right for Jesus. Put him there. It doesn’t matter that he is ceremonially unclean. And so they put him there. And again, though they were not thinking about fulfilling anything, you see how the Lord Jesus is put in the place of guilt.

They won’t do it. They won’t become ceremonially unclean, even though they have all this guilt and sin. But the righteous, the perfect, the innocent Jesus Christ is put in the place where he’s perceived to be ceremonially unclean. He’s seen to be a curse. And there, under the judgment of Pontius Pilate, he is pronounced to go and suffer like a criminal.

By and by, that’s what transpires. He’s led as a lamb to the slaughter. He’s taken outside the city of Jerusalem, bearing his own cross—dragging it there to the hill of Calvary—to, as it were, be burned for our sin, to be made a curse.

Your guilt, your sin, your shame laid on Him. Not just the awful things—the things of which you have great shame, the things that still reverberate in your heart and cause it to sink—those things, yes. All the guilt, all the sin, all the shame—He puts His omnipotent arms around it all, dragging it to the cross outside the camp to be made a curse for you. Burned outside the gate, as it were. This is the man of sorrows, acquainted with grief—suffering as the outcast for sinners. What a thing it is.

What have you done to deserve this? What have you done that should so move the heart of God that the Son would take our nature and endure the most shameful, horrendous—not just suffering, but even how it is viewed: Don’t go near that one. Don’t touch that one. If you come even close to him, you’ll become contaminated yourself. That’s the kind of shame he’s bearing.

Why is he doing all this? “That he might sanctify the people with his own blood.” That is, by his atoning death—by what he has done—he is going to sanctify, set apart, make holy, cleanse for divine use a people. And it took his own blood—his own blood, his own blood. Let those words sink in: that it might sanctify the people.

What was necessary to sanctify the people? You can put your own name there. What was necessary for you to be a child of God? His own blood. The apostle puts his arms around all the aspects of his suffering. It took his own blood—nothing less. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. God said, the blood of my son is enough. And every believing soul responds in kind: the blood of your son is enough.

So whatever your sin, whatever your shame—your guilt and your fears—whatever mountains of impossibility stand before you—there was one who was made a curse. And you have an altar. He is your access to God. He did everything necessary to reconcile you to God, to make you a child of God. He has no regrets. He has no shame. He does not look at you and regret the divine appointment, that you might be his child. No.

As I quoted, I think in prayer, there is a fountain opened in the house of David for sin and for uncleanness. God opened the fountain. God provided the fountain. Jesus Christ, in His blood, is the fountain—and He is for sin and uncleanness. That’s His work. It is His glory to take the guilt and the sin and the shame and make you whiter than the snow.

The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. His own blood. He sets you apart through His own blood. And not just in justification—in sanctification too. He continues to set you apart by His own blood. It is through His atoning work that He continues to enable you and empower you, because it’s through His atonement that the Spirit dwells in you. It’s because of the atonement that you have the abiding presence and power of the Holy Spirit. And you lean on Him every day to help you walk this pilgrimage, and to honor God with all of your life, and you put down your life for Him.

His own blood was what He shed, and your response is: my own life is how I respond. My own life.

Is your life His? Is your life His? He’s watching.

Yesterday, some of the service from my own sending church. They always have a missionary weekend at the beginning of January. And they’re longing for, praying for God to raise up laborers. God has been pleased to answer prayer in the past. I still remember going back to my sending church—I was still a student at the time—and Reverend David Park saying to me, I was going through Daniel, seeing these choice men, and I’m praying for four choice men. God will raise up from our church four choice young men. God answered that prayer—and quick. And remarkably fast, just in a handful of years, four young men from that church are now in the ministry. But the need is always present.

Christ shed his own blood. You respond with your own life. We have an altar. Jesus Christ is our access to God. He is the place of fellowship. He is all our assurance. Where are you with God today? How is it with you and your soul? “That he might sanctify the people.” Is that going on in your life? Do you feel yourself to be living out a set-apart life? May the Lord help us all.

Let’s bow together in prayer.

Christian, may the Lord give you grace, too, to simply be what His grace will enable you to be. Abandon the compromises. Forsake the sins. There’s no telling—there’s no telling—what your life may amount to if your goal is simply that I might be as one set apart by his blood. You young people, seek the Lord early.

Gracious Father, please bless thy word. Even in the stillness of this moment, help us to think upon what it is that we have heard. What provision is ours in Christ—what a standing. And it behoves us then to respond, to present our bodies, a living sacrifice—to give of our best to the master, to give him first place in our heart. So help us. May the gospel be what motivates, pushes us forward, enables us to bring glory to our triune God. Hear us now, and continue to give us a sense of our pardon and fill our hearts with thy joy. And may we do Thy bidding, engaging in this spiritual warfare by Thy grace, and being instruments in Thy hand for good.

Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. May the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion, and power, both now and ever. Amen.