We come this Lord's Day to resume our study on the God of all comforts from the book of Hebrews regarding the solemn oath God made to Christ that He would be a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now, we have spoken previously of other sacrifices and usurping false priests who offer them, but God has provided His people with offerings and spiritual sacrifices and gifts of worship and praise and obedience to Him and has expressed His delight in receiving those offerings from His people. None of those offerings are for sin. Only the sacrifice by Christ of His own body and blood were made for our sin. There are no other sin offerings and there is no other high priest to make a sin offering except Jesus. Rather, the spiritual sacrifices God has given to His people to return to Him in worship and praise are our response to Christ's sole sacrifice for our sin, which raises the question, what is our position in making such offerings by the power of Christ unto our God? Scripture declares that God has made all believers priests to Himself. We are never to offer Him sin offerings, but only spiritual sacrifices of peace and praise and worship, because He saved us. In olden times, God told the people of Israel that if they obeyed His commandments, He would make them a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And the people declared they would do all that God commanded them. But before forty days had passed, they made a golden calf and descended into obscene idolatry. After that, no longer was all of Israel a kingdom of priests. Rather, the priesthood was limited to the tribe of Levi, and specifically to the house of Aaron. Isaiah lamented at the corruption of the people, the blood on their hands, the injustice in their hearts and acts, and the contempt that God expressed for their sacrifices and their religious rituals. But in Malachi 3, there is a hint that the way to the altar would be widened when Messiah came to purify the sons of Levi. Then they too would be able to offer sacrifices in righteousness. When Jesus came and purified His people by His atoning blood sacrifice, He brought strangers nigh unto God, joining all His people together in one. Now we are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints. Now we are built into the very spiritual temple of God, wherein He dwells by His Spirit, and wherein we who had been barred as strangers from the altar make our spiritual sacrifices to God." But further still, Peter informs us that we who were nobodies are now made royal priests, fit to offer spiritual sacrifices. These sacrifices are our praise and worship and thanksgiving and deeds of charity in Jesus' name. Indeed, a priest must have something to sacrifice to God, for that's the purpose of a priest. The Aaronic priesthood had its animal offerings. which could never take away sin. Therefore, Christ, appointed our priest by God's oath forever after the order of Melchizedek, had to have a different sacrifice to offer up, which was his own body and his own blood. And therefore, if believers are to be priests of God, we must have an offering to make, not for sin, because that is the sacrifice that our high priest Jesus has already made. We dare not pretend to usurp Christ's priesthood by thinking we can offer sacrifices for sin. This is the blasphemy of the Romanist so-called priests. No, our sacrifice and offerings must be different from Aaron's, which could not take away sin, and our sacrifices must be different from Christ's, whose sacrifice of his own body and blood took away our sin. God has assigned to believer priests offerings different from Aaron's and Christ's. He has ordained our offerings of worship and praise and thanksgiving and obedience and kindness to each other. God has told us that with these sacrifices made by His believer priests, He is well pleased. Christ has refined us being poor sinners. And like Levi of old, he has by himself purged us of all unrighteousness, that we might offer unto God offerings in righteousness. Perhaps the most beautiful expression of this truth is found in Revelation 5, where the saints cry out in worship before God about the glories of the lamb that was slain. and how He has redeemed us to God by His blood and made us kings and priests unto our God. All the glory for this astounding turn of events goes to our God and to the Lamb that was slain." Now, this is probably the last in our sub-series in Hebrews about the comfort God gives us by His solemn oath to Christ. appointing Him our High Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, that is, if I can make it all the way through in a reasonable length of time. In Hebrews chapter 13, we read this final text from the book of Hebrews on this subject. Be not carried away with divers 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. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach, for here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. Now verse 9, Be not carried away with divers 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. This grace in which we are to be established, refers to the spiritual gospel and its great promises, to the work done by Christ, our high priest, by which he has saved us. This is the grace that our hearts are to be established, that means made firm in faith and trust and hope, and made sure of the salvation that we have through the grace which God has given us by Jesus Christ. Now, the meats, on the other hand, are the things we ought not to pursue after, by which he means not the rituals regarding foods, all the elaborate ceremonial rules of the Old Testament law regarding what is clean and what is not clean, nor the meat, that is, the flesh of the animal sacrifices, These are the things which we are not to follow after, we are not to pursue, we are not to seek that our hearts be established in such diverse and strange doctrines. And this, of course, is the word that the writer is giving to the Jewish believers who are thinking of going back to all those meets and diverse and strange doctrines, which are contrary to the true gospel and to the doctrine of salvation by the sacrifice of Christ. And notice that it says that those who are occupied with the meats and the divers and strange doctrines have not been profited thereby. They've gotten no good from it. Again, why would you want to go back to something that's unprofitable, that doesn't save, that doesn't take away sin, that doesn't give eternal life? Why would you want to do that? This verse you see is summarizing very succinctly what Christ taught us in John 6, which we read about this morning, about salvation and life coming by faith in His promises founded upon His body and His blood sacrifice, given in our place and for our crimes to take away the judgment which fell on Jesus in our place on the cross. while Christ sacrificed His literal, real human body and blood for us and presented it as our high priest unto God in the heavenly tabernacle, yet we receive its blessings and salvation by faith, feeding upon it by faith and receiving all the blessings from it. And so this is the grace which the writer has urged us to seek after for the establishment of our hearts, that we should receive the blessings of Christ's body and blood, offering for sin by faith, feeding upon it, receiving all the blessings from it. And that's what Jesus said in John 6, that whoever believes on Him, whoever comes to Him, whoever trusts in Him, receives that eternal life, which the bread of life offers to those who come to Christ. The basis of it is His literal body and blood sacrificed for the forgiveness of sin. That is the basis on which we receive the blessings of Christ. of His body and blood by feeding upon it by faith and receiving all the blessings from it. And so any doctrine that requires a continuing physical sacrifice for sin or depends upon physical rituals or the works of the law, the meats that Hebrews is warning against here, will not profit anybody. This condemns not just the Old Testament mosaic system, which has been set aside and superseded by the sacrifice of Jesus, which has been abolished in Christ, and which the writer of Hebrews has been warning against for God's people. Don't put your trust in those old mosaic law customs and rituals and sacrifices. They'll do you no good, he's saying here again. But this also condemns transubstantiation and any such physical sacrifice repeated and relied upon by sinners. Those who are occupied in those things which Christ has set aside get no profit from them." And we stop for a minute and think about the preoccupation that followers of such vain and foolish doctrines as the meats, as it were, the tangible physical things that they lay hold on. Think about how obsessed they are. Think about preoccupied they are. Why, they can hardly look to Christ in any purity or any trust or any hope when they're so busy following the rituals and on the treadmill of all of the requirements of their false religion. and putting no credit worth anything into the sacrifice of Christ, and not feeding upon Christ, but feeding upon other things which have been represented to them as better than spiritual feeding upon Christ. They get no profit from it, no profit at all. But then look at Hebrews 13 and verse 10, We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat, which serve the tabernacle. Those still attached to the old mosaic tabernacle is what it just refers to. And its animal sacrifices cannot partake of our altar. You see, there it is once again stressed by the writer of Hebrews, the mutual exclusivity between trusting in Christ's sacrifice, feeding upon it by faith, and every other curious and vain doctrine of the meats, of the physical ritual, and of any such animal sacrifices and so forth. There is a mutual exclusivity between partaking of, benefiting from that altar and the altar of Christ. And what is our altar? It is Christ and His sacrifice and His priesthood that are in view here. Some people will say as a shorthand that it is the cross. But it's what Christ has done, it's what He has sacrificed Himself, and it's His priesthood that has carried out the presentation of His sacrifice before our God for our salvation. If you are still serving the Old Testament Mosaic sacrificial system or any other system other than Christ, You are barred from our altar." This is what the writer is saying. We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat, which serve the tabernacle. Barred from Christ and from all of his benefits. That's what the writer of Hebrews is warning these people against. It's either Christ or it's whatever else you want to follow, but you can't do both at the same time. You'll be barred from partaking of, from feeding upon the sacrifice of Christ and from having its blood applied to your sins and His promise of everlasting life brought to you. How do we eat at our own altar? as Christ has told us in John 6. We come to Him, we believe in Him, we trust in the gospel words of salvation by His sacrifice, by His death for our sins. We feed upon Christ's body and blood spiritually as we have demonstrated over and over again. by putting all our trust in what He did and what He promised, forgiveness of sins, redemption, everlasting life in His presence for all the ages. You see, our sacrifice lives forever because He rose again, and our high priest represents that sacrifice literally in His body before God forever for us. So Christ and His body and blood are everlasting life and salvation for us. We feed upon that at our altar, that is at Christ. And we celebrate and worship and give thanksgiving at the Lord's table. You see, the Lord's table is a picture of our altar that we eat at. It's not the altar itself. He's not referring to the partaking of the elements of the Lord's table. He's referring here to the spiritual feeding upon Christ, the reliance exclusively upon His body and blood as made a sacrifice in our place and for our sins. And so around the Lord's table, we celebrate and worship and give thanks for that altar of Christ by which we have all our hope and life. spiritually feeding on Jesus for our very life and hope and salvation. But those who serve at the Old Testament altar, or any other sacrifice trumped up by wicked men, have no right to partake of Christ at all. Which is profoundly sad, since what they depend on provides no life and no food at all either. And the writer of Hebrews goes on to depress this point by quoting the rules of the Old Testament sacrifices. In verse 11 he says, For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priests for sin are burnt without the camp. This refers to the disposal of the principal Old Testament sacrifice for sin, which took place on the Day of Atonement. In Leviticus chapter 6, which we read this morning, you will find, remember, that the writer Moses gives from the mouth of God all the rules for how sin offerings are to be offered. And the priest got to eat the sin offering, the routine one, Whoever touched the flesh of the sin offering was made holy, and the earthen vessel wherein it was sodden had to be broken up. All the males among the priests shall eat thereof, it is most holy." But then verse 30 of Leviticus 6, which almost nobody takes note of. I have used it most profitably in debates with people. And no sin offering, which is what was offered on the Day of Atonement, whereof any of the blood is brought into the tabernacle of the congregation to reconcile with all in the holy place shall be eaten, it shall be burnt in the fire." So the sin offering made on the Day of Atonement was the only offering which was taken into the holy place and into the holy of holy place where the mercy seat was and sprinkled upon the mercy seat. And of course, it's this offering which the writer of Hebrews has focused on principally throughout all of his comparisons, that offering that was brought within the veil by the priest, had to be obscured with incense lest he see the ark and the glory of God and die, brought within the veil only once a year. He could only go in there with the blood of this sacrifice. That's the one that could never take away sin. That's the one that could never purge the conscience of guilt. And the proof of it, as we've gone over, is that it had to be repeated every year, and it therefore stood as a reminder of continual unforgiven sin. To top it all off, it provided no food at all to the priests because it had to be taken outside the camp and burned up with fire. And then the very offering that Hebrews has compared with Christ's offering is this once-a-year sacrifice which could not take away sin and which had to be repeated. The Day of Atonement sin offering is described in great detail in the entire chapter of Leviticus chapter 16, and we won't read the whole thing. But consider this at verse 11, And Aaron shall bring the bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and shall make an atonement for himself, and for his house, and shall kill the bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself. And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord, and his hands full of sweet incense, beaten small, and bring it within the veil and he shall put the incense upon the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not. And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward. And before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times." And the Scriptures say that this is the sacrificial ritual that represents the making of an atonement, a propitiatory sacrifice for the sin of the Lord's people. But this offering was only for Aaron, the priest and his family. Going further in this text, notice that the priest had to make a separate atonement for his sins before he could make one for the people's sin, because their offering, their sin offering, comes next in the narrative. but not our Lord Jesus. He never had to make a sacrifice for His own sin. Why? Because He had none. He's our High Priest who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, who needs not to make a sacrifice for His own sins before He makes a sacrifice for the people's. And then Aaron would sacrifice the goat for the people's sin. We find that in Leviticus 16 at verse 15. where we read, "...then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is, for the people, and bring his blood within the veil, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat." Now, sure enough, as the writer of Hebrews said, and as Leviticus 6 commanded, all of this ends on the Day of Atonement, With what? See verse 27 of Leviticus chapter 16, "...and the bullock for the sin offering, and the goat for the sin offering," which we just read of, "...whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place shall someone carry forth without the camp, and they shall burn in the fire their skins and their flesh and their dung." So whatever was left over from the sin offering on the Day of Atonement was completely consumed by fire outside the camp, outside the camp. So in the end, the animal sacrifices left nothing at all to eat. They provided no life. They provided no sustenance. They provided no food. The truth of the matter is that those sin offerings for the sin of the Lord's people were all used up, weren't they? There was no good left in them. They had to be repeated next year because they couldn't take away sin. And on top of that, as a sign of the futility and the exhausted nature of these sacrifices, they were taken outside the camp and they were burned. And so, the people who couldn't eat at the altar of Christ because they were following after the meats and the obscure and diverse doctrines, they couldn't eat at their altar either, could they? On the Day of Atonement, there was nothing left for them to eat. But our altar, which they have no right to eat at, provides food and drink. Indeed, unto believers provides eternal life to all who trust in our altar, which is Christ and His sacrifice and His priesthood. And thus, the writer of Hebrews finishes his warning against all sacrifices which are not Christ's, no spiritual or even earthly benefit, and they exclude their offerers from the food and drink of Christ, at Christ, as our altar. And there's one final stark comparison between the sacrifices of the Old Testament on the animal sacrifices of the Day of Atonement versus the sacrifice of Christ. As we said, the sacrifice of the animal offerings was all burned up and used up, and there was no good to be obtained from it in the future, but new offerings perpetually had to be made. We read in Hebrews 13 at verse 12, "...Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people, with His own blood suffered without the gate, let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing his reproach." So the writer of Hebrews is pointing out that Christ's sacrifice is similar in a certain way to the animal sacrifice in that He was offered outside the camp. The animal sacrifice was offered inside the city walls, but the sacrifice of Christ was offered outside the camp at the place, more or less, where the animal sacrifices were burnt up and consumed and destroyed. leaving no good thing that could come from them. But we are told that we ought to follow our Lord Jesus and His altar outside the camp, against the crowd that rejects Him within the city walls, outside the comfort of the religion of man, into His presence where He was crucified for us. But catch the comparison. We're to follow Christ outside the camp. bearing his reproach, where he was crucified, that we might partake of his altar, which is his cross, which is Christ, which is his sacrifice, which is his priesthood for his people." Catch the comparison. Nobody followed after the bullock and the goat of the sin offering outside the camp, did they? Why should they? There was no use left. It was going to be burned up. They were going to be burned up. There'd be nothing left. Nothing but a few ashes. And so nobody followed that sacrifice outside the camp. For there was nothing left to follow. It was all burned up and offered no forgiveness, and not even any meat, not any food, not any drink. But we readily follow our Savior, our Offering, our High Priest, because our sacrifice lives forever. Lives forever. And we live by feeding upon His body and His blood by faith. And we have everlasting life. And that's why we follow Christ outside the camp. No matter what the reproach. What about the reproach of Christ and His sacrifice? It doesn't scare us away. from keeping close to our altar, our sacrifice, our High Priest, the Lord Jesus. And this is a rebuke, you see, to the Jewish believers who were thinking of going back. You want to go back to meats and divers' doctrines and things that couldn't profit you, to things that provide no life, that are all burn up anyway, that you can't follow? and lay hold of, but must repeat forever in futility. But you're going to allow a little reproach of your neighbors, of your family, of your friends to keep you from following after Christ our altar outside the camp. One final observation. Old Testament saints brought sacrifices to their priests to offer But only their priests could offer them to God. You remember, you had to hand off your offering at the door, at the curtain of entrance outside the tabernacle in front of the altar of burnt offerings. The priests took it from there, you see, because they were the only ones who'd been ceremonially cleansed to offer sacrifices for the people. And even though that was the case, they couldn't go into the tabernacle. They couldn't go into the Holy of Holies. And neither could you. Neither could anybody else. But you see, because we are made a royal priesthood by our God, we have the privilege to bring our own offerings of praise and of thanksgiving and worship and kindness and obedience to God and help for the believers. We get to bring those and not hand them off to some man-made priest to interface with God on our behalf. You know, as royal priests, we have a right to bring our offerings of praise and thanksgiving directly before the throne of God. What does Hebrews say in chapter 10? That because of the blood of Christ, we have boldness to appear in the holiest place, through the veil, that is the flesh of Christ. And so we're allowed to deal directly with our God when it comes to the sacrifices that He has ordained that we as believer priests should make unto Him and offer them ourselves. No need for any ritualistic priests to intervene between us and our God or between us and our High Priest, the Lord Jesus. No need for any of that. And this is another example of how we have a right to eat at the altar of Christ. You see, most of the Old Testament Jewish people, they couldn't even eat at the altar. Only the priests could do that. And then when it came down for the important sacrifice for the propitiation of sin, even the priests couldn't eat at the altar. But we have a right to eat at the altar of Christ as priests ourselves come before Him, come into the holiest place in heaven by Him, the place in the tabernacle or the high place made by God, the one in the heavenly places and not the one made by the hands of men. Ordinary Old Testament saints could never go there, but by the blood of Jesus, we can. We have the privilege because Christ has cleansed us by His sacrifice to bring our offerings as priests before the throne of God ourselves. And there we bow down and we worship the offering that Christ made that took away our sins. And our high priest sits there at the throne of God making intercession for us. And so no wonder God has comforted us by His oath to Christ to make Him our perpetual priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. It is by that priesthood, by Christ's body and blood offered by our priest and presented unto God by which we are purged and cleansed and made righteous before God, justified as if we had done nothing wrong, all for the sake of Jesus, all because of the work of Christ as our High Priest. That is our great consolation and comfort which we have by the oath of God to His dear Son. It reminded me the words of a hymn that we don't have in any of our hymn books. It goes like this, Outside the camp, under thy dear name draw me, O Lamb of God, far from the world with its sin and its shame, cleansed by the Savior's blood, outside the camp, tis a lonely place outside the city wall. There at thy breast let my soul ever rest outside the camp with thee." And so around the Lord's table, you see, we offer our sacrifices of thanksgiving and praise to our God for what He has done for us and how He has saved us by Jesus Christ. And we remember and we celebrate His body and His blood that were sacrificed for the forgiveness of our sin and by which we are able to eat at the altar of Christ and spiritually feed upon the bread of life and the blood of the Lord Jesus, by which we obtain all of our hope, all of our life, and all of our joy into eternity. Praise God. Well, let's give thanks for the bread that reminds us of the body of Christ broken for us. O God, our Father, we rejoice in Your dear Son. in the body which He offered up for our offenses and which was riven and torn for our sins there to make an atonement for us. We thank You that His body did satisfy the requirements of a substitutionary sacrifice that we might escape all the wrath that was poured out on our Lord Jesus there on the cross by You when You laid our sins on Him and judged Him as if He were guilty in our place for our crimes. And we thank you that His flesh is the bread of life and that we feed by faith, by believing in what Christ has done and its sufficiency. and trusting in the promises that He made to whoever trusted in Him, He would raise up unto everlasting life. We thank You that we have an altar at which we have a right to feed, and that You have provided so graciously for us, and that You have left us this bread, that Christ has left us this bread to picture Wholesome nourishment that is at our altar that's not at any other altar known to man. We pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen. The Scriptures tell us that on the night our Lord was betrayed, He took the bread and He blessed it and He broke it and He said, Take and eat. This is My body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of Me. Let's give thanks for the cup. I'd like to ask my father if he'd give thanks for the cup that pictures the blood of the Lord Jesus shed to make atonement for us. The Scriptures tell us after they had supped that Christ took the cup and blessed it and said, Drink ye all of it. This cup is the New Testament in my blood for the remission of sin. Do it as often as you do it in remembrance of me. And the Scriptures tell us that as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we do preach the Lord's death until He comes. Let's stand and sing number 124 in the black book. The Holy One who knew no sin, God made Him sin for us. The Savior died our souls to win upon the shameful cross. His precious blood alone availed to wash our sins away. Through weakness, He o'er hell prevailed. Through death, He won the day." Number 124.