In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of reading and understanding the word of God. They urge the listeners to prioritize reading the Bible over their daily meals and desires. The preacher also encourages the congregation to lay their lives on the altar for God, surrendering themselves completely to His will. They reference Matthew chapter five, where Jesus delivers the Sermon on the Mount, highlighting the significance of fulfilling God's expectations in their lives.

I want to share an hour or so with you tonight on this great theme of the autumn. I want to stop mostly in the New Testament, but we'll take our reading, first of all, in Psalms. Just a short psalm to let us see the great truth of God that he wants us to understand. In the 110th Psalm, Psalm 110, this you will know is a great messianic psalm. It's one of those wonderful writings written hundreds of years before Jesus Christ came on the earth. And it's all about Jesus. And it's so glorious. This prophetic writing of this man David, who was moved on by the Spirit of God. As the scripture says, holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Spirit of God. Praise the Lord. It's so wonderful that God does this thing. And here we have the truth of the resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. And his seating on that throne that we've already been thinking about. And his great expectation. It's a tremendous thing. You know, the Lord Jesus, when he was on earth, he was always saying, when I say always, of course it wasn't every word he said, but over and over and over again in continuity, he was saying that this scripture must be fulfilled. This is being done, such and such a scripture should be fulfilled. And it's also true, and we're in an age of fulfillment of the Old Testament. We're in the age of fulfillment. What a tremendous thing that is for you to realize it. That you're in this room tonight and we're in the age of fulfillment. We've yet got to come to the age of consummation, but we're coming there. That will happen when the Lord Jesus comes back again onto this earth. Or his own coming in the air for us and he's coming onto the earth and all sorts of things are going to happen. All right, but here we are tonight. I trust for every one of us to realize that in our lives, God is expecting this book to be fulfilled. In your life. That is, the things that he has prophesied, stated very plainly concerning you, not particularly by name, but as a class or company of people. That in you, God is expecting this book to find its fulfillment. Listen, because we'll start on our theme tonight from this psalm, and it's along this line of God's expectation that our fulfillment must be. The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning. Thou hast the dew of thy youth. The Lord hath sworn and will not repent. Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the heathen. He shall fill the places with the dead bodies. He shall wound the heads over many countries. He shall drink of the brook in the way. Therefore shall he lift up the head. And in resurrection, our Lord Jesus Christ, being the great high priest of God's great temple worship and scheme of things, he went back and he presented there in heaven himself the sacrifice risen from the dead. He presented, offered himself at Calvary to God for us there as the victim and then rose as the glorious victor and now he's the great high priest and he's after the order of Melchizedek. Now in the order of Melchizedek, animals are not offered to God. There are no animal offerings. In the great Melchizedekian order, only human beings are offered to God. Jesus Christ offered a human being on the cross. He offered a human being as atonement for the sin of the human beings of the world. Praise the Lord. And when of old the Jews, the Israelites, offered animal sacrifices to God, when I say animal, belonging to the animal kingdom, they also offered birds as well, they didn't offer them really to atone for their sin because an animal's blood could not atone for their sin. They offered them to God and he accepted it in good faith at their hands that they were, although still looking forward and not understanding it, waiting for the time when the great offering should once be made on the earth. And he needed once, that's all. It was done at a point in history that we look back to. There was a point in history which they still look forward to those days. And they were waiting for Christ to come and offer the great sacrifice after the order of Melchizedek. Amen. And he's gone back up there. And now, he says this. The Lord has sworn, verse 4, if you're looking at this wonderful psalm, and will not repent, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now I don't know whether you are a priest forever. The Lord Jesus Christ is a priest to the great high priest. Amen. That's why earthly priesthoods now don't matter that much. They don't count wherever they be ordained and instituted. There is no such thing as a man ordained earthly priesthood. Men may be thinking there is such a thing, but there is no such thing. It's the one that God instituted in Christ wherein each one of us must come into our great priesthood with God. And this is a tremendous thing for you to understand, that the only offerings that God will accept today are human offerings. If you're going to be a priest after the order of Melchizedek, you've got to be in the line and in the power of human offerings. Amen. There are no substitute offerings. The first great priest, the high priest of the order of Melchizedek, offered himself without spot to God. He sacrificed himself for the sin of the world, but he offered himself without spot to God. Amen. And if you're going to be a priest after the order of Melchizedek, you've got to offer yourself by virtue of that spotless offering. You have got to offer yourself to God. Alright? You got that clear? You can't bring money. You can't bring possessions, particularly here, not when you come to the altar. You can't bring promises to God. You can't bring animals. Of course, we all know that now. The great lamb has come and died and he's risen and he's sitting there. You may only, first of all, if you're in the priesthood. Now, get this clear. You're not in the priesthood unless you have come to the place where you have accepted dynamically and personally for your own dreadful need, for your own sin and for your own atonement to God, you have accepted that which was done for you two thousand years ago on the earth. Not just given mental assent to it, but come as a person that recognizes there's nothing else for you to do but to drop into hell if you don't do it. However long you might linger on the earth before you actually do it. But you've got to come to the place where you have embraced to yourself this great sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for you and when you have come there and the Holy Ghost has come to you, you have now become a priest after the order of Melchizedek. Amen. And the order of Melchizedek starts here. That the priesthood of Melchizedek, everybody that's in it has to have no beginning of days, no beginning of life and no end of days. You see? That once you're really born of God, you've been born of the eternal spirit. You can't tell when you began. You may be able to trace your first birthday like I can to April. I won't tell you when. I won't give all the secrets away. I can trace my human birth. I can't trace my spiritual birth. I really was born in the will and in the heart of God way back there in eternity. Amen. Got that clear? All right. Amen. You got that clear? Of course there came a day when you came into the glory of it, when you stopped your red-handed rebellion against God and dropped all your excuses and lies and weeping about yourself and circumstances and saw well you're only in this earth for about 40, 50, 60, 70, maybe 80 years but it doesn't matter particularly whether you were born in the gutters of the East End of London, whether you were born in Buckingham Palace that's if they do get born in Buckingham Palace. It doesn't make, I mean they have to be born but whether they were born there I don't, I mean, all right. I don't need to know. You see that isn't it. As we're taught to sing in that hymn through the veil of tribulation glory, worthy of the Lamb. Do you know that great hymn? We're in a veil of tribulation. That's it. We didn't ask to come into the earth. Sometimes we want Job's comforters or at least Job's wife to come along and say well curse God and die. It's a rotten place. You see, why, why, why, why, why and the lies of the devil can come out of those that lie closest to your bosom if you're not careful. But the tremendous thing about it is that you have come to a realisation and you must come to this realisation that you've been brought into a priesthood. It has no trappings, no gowns, no special collars, no candles. I mean this, I mean it with all my heart. I'm not saying that some of them that wear them aren't in this priesthood but I'm saying those things don't belong to this priesthood. Not this priesthood. Amen. Let's get this as clear as clear as clear. And you can be a roughneck like me. You can be an educated person like I won't say who. You can be cultured or you can be uncivilised. It doesn't make any difference at all. There are no crosses and no candles and there are no genuflections. There aren't any prayer books and there aren't any hymns books. Not even hymns of eternal truth because we've got the eternal truth. Not in this tremendous thing. Now do you see this? This is only a preliminary. I'm not really touching the subject yet. That's why I said sit down. I've got a long time I want to talk to tonight. I shan't finish it tonight but I'll stop somewhere. And beloved, you're in the priesthood if you've been born again of God. That is your, I won't say automatic election but that is your glorious birth into it. Amen. You've neither beginning of life nor end of days. Amen. When you stop on this earth when you're 99 and the Lord takes you home your days haven't ended. You've but entered into the eternal day in a wonderful and glorious way. Have you got this clear in your heart? I'm going quickly because I had a little comment about somebody taping me and they eliminate my repetitions and cut out the pauses and stop most of the hallelujah and then it comes like a news report. Well they won't have to cut much out tonight. And here then is the great and wonderful thing beloved. I'm only wondering whether I'm, worry unless I'm going too fast for you to keep up with it. But that's how it comes hot when it's flowing in Revelation. And so the Lord brings us to the place where we recognize that we're priests. And thou art a priest says the sublime psalmist writing under the power of the Spirit when he looking through the spirit of Christ that was within him and inspiring him and moving him sees into this great finished work and glorious position of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord said and David heard it listen in the Spirit listen to it. The Lord said to my Lord sit thou at my right hand until I make thy name of his thy footstool glory be to his wonderful name. And Jesus is sitting there. You have been born into this great priesthood and a priest forever. All right. Jesus sitting in expectation sit down sitting there verse 3 this is what David heard thy people he heard the Spirit of God say shall be willing in the day of thy power praise God thy people and if you have a good Bible it will give you in margin thy people shall be willing offerings in the day of thy power this was the thing that Jesus promised before he went back you may read it in Acts 1 and verse 5 on he says you shall receive power verse 8 I mean after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you and the day of his power began in the great way that God intended to begin on the wonderful day of Pentecost then those men became priests and those women didn't become priestesses I'm afraid you became priests you understand that and so the Lord began his great and wonderful works but you see the thing he demanded of his people was there from that moment when these people were baptized in the Holy Ghost when they received the Holy Ghost in the full and proper way that God intends men and women to receive the Holy Ghost from that moment if you examine the Acts of the Apostles you will find that they were God's willing offerings the first thing they did was to offer themselves praise his name you see you can read it when they were baptized in the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost from that moment when the 120 received the Holy Ghost they stood up and preached the Gospel they all preached it through one man's mouth Peter's and they listened to this precious word and 3000 people from that moment offered themselves utterly willingly they offered themselves and all that they were and all that they possessed they let everything go you can read this as clear as anything if you read the Acts of the Apostles properly and before they went out to try to impress anybody else with the Gospel they offered themselves first they were true priests after the order of Melchizedek and we can leave that psalm now I'm coming right back into the New Testament if you turn with me into the Roman letter you will find that this great Apostle Paul in the 15th chapter of the book of Romans states his position very very clearly this man he wasn't a great high priest but he was one of the chief priests so I've no doubt about that we shall find that out when we get to heaven I tell you why I reckon he offered a lot more sacrifices to God than most people do let's get it this way shall we he says verse 15 nevertheless brethren I have written a more boldly unto you in some sort as putting you in mind because of the grace that is given to me of God that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles ministering the Gospel of God that the offering up of the Gentiles may be acceptable being sanctified by the Holy Ghost he ministered the Gospel of God in order that the Gentiles may be offered to God having first given himself at the altar to Christ he went out to put everybody else on the altar now I tell you this that's why I'm here tonight I have one purpose in standing here tonight and if you don't want to hear any more about it and you don't want to get there you have my permission and my whole hearted will that you should leave the room I have one purpose the preaching of the Gospel is not just to get you saved and into heaven by your eyebrows or the skin of your teeth it's to get you on the altar offered to God no man may dare attempt to put another there by his preaching unless he is put in there by his example Paul got there first Amen from the moment from the moment that he had dealings with God this was the secret of this man's ministry and one of the things that you will find him talking about it seems to be that men of God have had this revelation down through the ages whether it be Jesus whether it be Paul or whether you go back before the life of Jesus on the earth if you say go back to Elijah's day and you will remember when Elijah lived let's read in the 11th chapter to the Romans I say then the 11th chapter hath God cast away his people he's talking about ancient Israel now know this get it into your heart God has not forsaken the Jews he hasn't cast away the Jews he hasn't cast away his ancient people Israel he has not God forbid by no means for I also am an Israelite says the man writing this letter of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew watch ye not what the scripture saith of Elijah how he maketh intercession to God and to Israel saying Lord they killed thy prophets and they digged down thy altars was the great complaint in Elijah's day they digged down the altar oh they wanted the incense they wanted the candles they wanted the feasts they wanted the fasts they wanted all the promises just like you do they wanted them all fulfilled in their promised land they wanted all that but they digged down the altars they've done it in Elijah's day and I'm afraid beloved that they're doing it in our day you and I have no outward altar there's no such thing as a special place in a special building that has a steeple on the top called an altar there aren't any such places on earth today there aren't any hallelujah glory be to God for that God has eliminated everything of the exterior of a religious order everything it's all to do with human beings now what a tremendous truth that is but it's still the same the altars have been digged down been digged down what a complaint and you see connected with the altar here you have the prophet praise God if a man's a true prophet an old Paul was a prophet and an apostle bless the Lord John was a true prophet do you remember John Baptist he pointed to the lamb the lamb he said a true prophet always brings you ultimately to the altar the prophet and the altar are always connected now bear that in mind that I want to tell you this that if you profess to have a gift of prophecy and you're not on the altar you are prostituting your gift the altar and the prophet are connected very vitally you have no right to abuse the gift called prophecy if you aren't living on the altar drop it unless you'll damn your soul and those that hear you these are very vital things and God complaining through his prophet for it's always God that speaks when a prophet is prophesying in his gift God was saying they dig down the altar and you see that this was an intercession against Israel not on their behalf that God was complaining that God was putting on record this dire sinful thing that his people had done they were wanting all the blessings all the benefits all the joys they were sort of coming to God saying God you fulfill it you fulfill it you do what you promise they weren't prepared to do what God required I suggest to you that it's possible in your life that God is not fulfilling everything he has said and promised to you because you are not fulfilling God's basic requirement along this line it's useless to wave the Bible fervently in God's face and say you said this in your word Lord you said this and you said that unless beloved you are very sure you haven't digged down the altar don't you realize that God never made one promise to anybody except it was done upon the fact even though the Calvary had not yet been enacted when you open the book of Genesis and start with the promises at the beginning of the book he made those promises upon the fact that upon the altar there was one day going to be laid by his son Jesus Christ the sacrifice and the offering that God required the sacrifice given to him that's what he wanted that's what he wants from you do you realize this? perhaps first when we come to the Lord Jesus we don't realize this we want him to give us things give us things, give us things it's quite right too he has to, he has to give us life we were on it this morning it's all gift you have to receive from God because we're all so totally dead God comes and in his grace and in his love he quickens us he lets us start hearing something inside where we've been all dead and senseless for years perhaps for decades he calls and he draws and he gives us blessings and he heals us and he touches our circumstances and he starts to do miracles for us recognizable ones he's done millions of them before you start to recognize it amen he's been so good it's his nature he can't help being good he's so wonderful he's good to the sinner and the unjust person there's no favoritism on this level but you come into the special blessings when you really start to respond amen and because you've got into the habit of oh God give me this and give me that and you read the right magazines that tell you what you should ask for and what you should give, get and what you should have and so on and so on your life is nearly a constant oh God give me this, give me that give me the other, give me something else bless me, bless my family bless the new job I've taken up bless my car bless the workers bless this, bless that that's really isn't it and it's right that's how good God is but there comes a time when it sinks into your heart I trust it's got really there that what God is wanting is you offered like it's said in that verse thy people shall be willing offerings in the day of thy power the acts of the apostles is the record of it that they were willing offerings from the time when God came down there in mighty power and in fire and in all sorts of glorious fulfilments on that great day of Pentecost Amen you think perhaps you would have liked to have been there then but you've got a better privilege you're here now you're here now and I want to ask you are you one of his people this will settle it the scripture says that if you're one you'll be a willing offering thy people shall be willing offerings not coerced, not bludgeoned not get a sort of conference speaker to come and bash you on the head when it sinks in willing offerings perhaps just needing directing perhaps needing encouragement perhaps needing drawing more again by his love away from the disappointments away from the tragedies and away from the unworkable propositions that people have tried to push into you away from all these things right there to the altar beloved have you digged down the altar let's have a look let's read sometimes in the bible we spoil the blessing by stopping our reading too quickly let's go back to this verse again Lord, verse 3 they've killed thy prophets they've digged down thy altars and I am left alone and they seek my life what's the answer of God I've reserved to myself men who haven't bowed beneath the image of Baal has God reserved anybody here brother come on come on has God reserved himself anybody here well I want to know so that some big head doesn't get up and think he's the only one in the world praise the name of the Lord are you God's people we shall see where the altar is and where you are we shall see hallelujah let's go back into Matthew's gospel and we'll read here something very very true we'll go into that 23rd chapter it's not the nicest chapter in Matthew in that if you read it you're liable to get a shock it's the chapter that has lots of woes in it but there's this thing he was speaking to some people and this type of person let's look at verse 16 woe unto you blind guides which say who shall swear by the temple nothing who shall swear by the gold of the temple he's a debtor you fools and blinds listen to Jesus speaking for whether he's greater the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold and who shall swear by the altar it's nothing but who shall swear it by the gift that is upon it he's guilty you fools and blinds for whether he's greater the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift now there brothers and sisters we have this thing put to us so very plainly from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ himself it's no good you talking about giving yourself to God because unless you've seen this it is that the only thing that will ratify the gift and sanctify the gift in that it will consume the gift is the altar and the fire that's on it other than this we're all deceived I've given my life to God or I've given myself to Jesus Christ friend don't you know that he's a priest and he's after you to sacrifice you on the altar to his wonderful father he loved his father and he loves you and he knows that the only life in the end is the life that's burning there clear and pure and eternally for God that's the only real life it isn't just that God gives you a gift it's called eternal life and now and again you give a five pound note to the Lord or something like that or you give a prophecy in a meeting it's very nice if you do perhaps we might talk a little about these precious ministry before we're through but let's have first things first my love are you given on the altar to God it's only the altar that sacrifices a gift you can bring your gift and you can put it right down there in the altar and say now isn't this marvellous you can admire the sacrifice you can glory in Calvary but take good care that it's from a little distance anyway not a long way off and you can worship it and you can sing about it and you can do everything that there is to be done about it and you can say all the nice things and you can trail around it and you can do everything you like but until you see it's our altar until you see that it's the place where a life was given to God and for you unless you get there you've made the gift a lie in your behalf for he faithfully took your place and gave himself to God for you in his great offering a great high priest offered all the offering and he's given you the privilege of coming to consciousness in a new life a glorious new life from heaven in the power of the spirit to realise what it's all about and say Lord, Lord here I am this is all consuming love this is the desire Lord this is him showing you the way Amen I'm the way he went straight to the altar I'm the way and this is the whole thing beloved it's the altar that sanctifies the gift you can give thousands of unsanctified gifts and keep a list of all the societies you've given them to you can give an unsanctified prophecy an unsanctified tongue you can also give sanctified tongues and prophecies too, bless God only that which comes to God from a life that's on the earth is the altar it's only the altar that sanctifies the gift that's all wouldn't it be a terrible thing if we had to stand before God as a company if Jesus walked in the room there and said you fools and blind it seems that the last thing people see in it's true light is Calvary though they all want the benefits of it please forgive me but to see what was brought on that cross ah beloved I want to tell you that in these days God is exercising my heart over and over and over again in a greatness of this tremendous thing that he did there I love to take up the pen and a paper and just sit right down because if I'm in a meeting I stand up and speak it's the same thing isn't it what God has to say concerning these tremendous things you're in a priesthood beloved let it sink into your heart you're not just in sonship the son would have been no good to me unless he'd been a priest none think of it think of it he would have been no good to me what a terrible thing to say unless in his heart he was fixed to give himself to God for me think of it then he wouldn't be here tonight no and he's he's moving on in this great and wonderful ministry it's the altar that sanctifies the gift it's all human offerings not flower offerings now not atoning offerings now that's all been done but a recognition of that which God would require and desire and coming in beloved unto all that God wants of you let's go into the book of the revelation here and this is the great truth that links us up with the Wesley poem that we said in the sixth chapter of the book of the revelation and you see how the chapter opens I saw the Lamb I know I've just selected those words I saw the Lamb when I saw the Lamb open one of the seats the Lamb notice it's the Lamb and notice where he is you will find him if you look into the fifth chapter he's on the throne verse six I beheld and in the midst of the throne and of the four living ones and in the midst of the elders stood a Lamb as it had been slain oh glory God had preserved the precious moment fragrance of that moment when he gave himself unto God in a new and wonderful way he gave himself to Father there right there in the throne of the Lamb you see he still got the dew of his youth the young Lamb as it had been slain Psalm 110 he got the dew of his youth there with him there glory the heart of God will never be able to tell what it means to him that his very son should go to the altar I want to tell you it's but a step from the altar to the throne this is why people don't reign in the life of Jesus Christ a step from the altar to the throne eons didn't pass nothing he went up fresh to the glorious throne the judge says I see him I saw them there bless God I saw them there and as we go down that chapter he opens seal after seal and in verse 9 it says and when he'd opened the fifth seal I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they had under the altar I saw them I saw them Amen when they laid the bodies of the animals on the brazen grill and they were burned up and consumed in fire to God their ashes fell through and lay there under the altar the sacred ashes there but here you see there's no animal offering here at all under the altar the souls the altar filled with people giving their lives for Jesus giving their lives for the land lands in the tradition of the land sons following the son offerings upon the offering oh glory be to the name of the Lord this is the great whole course of love that God wants men and women giving themselves under him on the altar oh praise God he said when he opened the seals I saw them I saw them there these souls listen listen to what they're saying he says they cry with a loud voice they're saying how long oh Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth white robes were given unto every one of them you see the souls that wear the robes of righteousness don't you you see the souls only those that have been on the altar I take it only those they've given white robes it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season until one of the great untils take this to your heart beloved unless it could be too late in 1971 until their fellow servants until their fellow servants also and their brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled thank God for the remnant thank God men and women that were on the altar of God John was one of them bless the name of the Lord a man can only speak revelation in the new covenant of his in the life of the thing that he's preaching that's all a tremendous truth it is and they're there men of the altar and the women of the altar glory to God they're there amen for the word of God and for the testimony that they have the word of God and the testimony if you read back in the first chapter you'll find that's why John was on the Isle of Patmos was on the Isle of Patmos for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ he held that testimony what's the testimony of Jesus Christ on this issue with regard the altar I offered myself without spot to my father this testimony have you got this testimony I offered myself without spot to my father my father my God praise Him these are they and they're waiting they're waiting there's another two waiting for you waiting for you it may have other meanings I want to take just this one praise the Lord do you know beloved I want to be with this company I want to be with this company hallelujah it's so amazingly easy to dig down the altar you can do it without most people knowing you've done it I can still get along alright but to be there like old David find the sacrifice with cords for the altar find it there make sure it doesn't fall off hallelujah if I'm going to be in bondage let me be in bondage there bound there for God amen what tremendous truth this is beloved as our hearts search the glorious scriptures look at James for instance it's always been this way is everybody getting warm I thought somebody was getting warm I'm getting warmer and warmer you like open windows or doors or something then everybody will open their eyes thank you beloved meanwhile we try to inject glorious truth here in this book of James for our hearts to take in this time in the second chapter verse 18 a man may say thou hast faith and I have works show me thy faith without thy works and I will show thee my faith by my works that's the best way to show it praise God thou believest that there is one God thou doest well the devils also believe and tremble but wilt thou know O vain man that faith without works is dead was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar you see it's always been the way we've gone right back with Abraham it was no good Abraham making God promises about things if he didn't do it not the slightest there came a moment beloved when God you know he demanded Isaac of Abraham and Abraham showed his faith to God and to the whole wide world it's all written in the book of James and that he went there faithfully almost wordlessly not making big songs and dances with tambourines nor making huge prophecies all over the place but in a wonderful way of the spirit of the life in Christ Jesus he went there to Moriah and he put his son there on the altar and the altar sanctified the gift Isaac was not God's until he was on the altar Amen do let that sink in beloved let it sink in and when he was on the altar that was sufficient for God he said take him off God didn't want to kill him that's right only one human sacrifice acceptable to God and that was Jesus Jesus wouldn't let you and me go through the awful awful thing that was his love to us he came and it's good enough and it's sufficient and it's reckoned to you tonight in God's wonderful love you haven't got to come to the extreme point but you've got to go to the extreme intention Amen praise the name of the Lord Abraham was justified by works and you've got to be justified by works not for salvation but in salvation Amen you can work till you haven't got any skin on your bones and you can die what people will think to be a martyr's death but unless you've been justified unto the banishment of sin from your life unto the setting up of your life in the righteousness of God and the fruitfulness of your life in the holiness of God my friend you will not never will see heaven you may work yourself to death but once you're there and the comfort of the comforter is in your heart and the joy of salvation is there and the peace that passes understanding is building up and holding you steady through all the vicissitudes of life you can go right through to that place and start now on justification by works Amen not to keep you justified not to show that you are justified it's an exposition of justification a proof of justification a testimony to justification never a purchase of salvation or justification never Amen that is a gift but oh beloved who said Abraham was a priest but he was after the order of Melchizedek he met Melchizedek he met the great high priest you remember this read your glorious scriptures and then beloved he became a priest after that order he never knew the doctrine of it he never knew the teaching of it he never had a poem to unfold it to him as we were thinking this morning that Paul was called up to the third heaven to receive the revelation and unfold the mighty truth that had been hidden from patriarchs and prophets and generations and kings and priests we're in the great new revelation era Hallelujah but nevertheless Abraham was there God works on one pattern in every age you've got to come here every one of you if you say you belong to God let there be a praise Amen gave himself gave Isaac and he was justified by his works and God could write down here if you like in the scripture that he was vindicated in his choice of England to be the father of the faithful a man who never could wave a bible in God's face and say give me all the promises of the milk and honey that you talked about in Canaan never once just believe God and act as God wanted him to act and live as God wanted him to live now these are the things that God is concerned about in our lives today you've got to get there you've got to no man can force you if the man of Calvary can't draw you to it if the movings of the Holy Ghost on your life have not accomplished it because you either won't believe or whatever reason it is then no man can do it Amen I'm so glad of that that in this area of our spiritual life it's hands off my people are going to be willing of it there are no pistols held at people's heads none at all I know how we all go through this agonizing period of kicking and arguing and bickering and listening to what he says and looking at her getting our eyes on this man and on that woman and going round in circles and making a big palaver and blaming everybody else except yourself when the Holy Ghost has written into this sacred page the one sure testimony of God throughout the ages and it's here and you're supposed to read it for yourself more than you want your breakfast and more than you want your lunch and more than you want just tea and more than you want your dinner and more than you want your supper and more than you want a woman or more than you want a man or more than you want children or more than you want money or more than you want anything else in the world that's what it's there for do you understand this? have you got it clear? have you known that from whence flowed that purple sea that we sang about? have you known the love of God is the heart of God revealed to you? have you come to your senses? do you know why you're on the earth? do you think it's to be smoked away drunk away danced away gambled away lived away loved away lusted away this life that you have? but you see your altar imperishable there in the heart of God fixed in time once brought into the present by the Holy Spirit there's an altar amen Calvary was just two bits of wood nailed together rough hewn out of some old trunk that God should be laid on it hammered on it kept there unresisting willingly offering himself when they said come down we'll believe you not he didn't even bother to ask he just hung there hung there and loved there and lived there and overcame all death there before he died himself amen and then offered himself at that moment perfect and glorious praise God death didn't kill Jesus death always kills us in the physical realm this grim specter not he he mastered it and then he laid his life down he said now father I've beaten everything everybody everywhere every conceivable thing hallelujah and he laid his life down as a spotless sacrifice to God untarnished unspotted unwrinkled if you could have seen his body it was twisted it was scarred it was holed it was rivened it was all sorts of things but to God he was as beautiful as the sunrise in fact he is the sunrise he was beautiful as the morning in fact he is the new day you see this thing is what God is wanting you and me to see I trust I see it clearer than I can even speak it to you lest my words be my whining there's an altar and it's there and I tell you the only person that can dig it down for you is you the devil can't he can't she can't it can't God won't he's put it there for you but Loris I'll tell you where the best nights lived on the altar I'll tell you it's there where the offering is made to God where the sacrifice is complete given unto the Lord that's what the writer to the Hebrew says you will remember let's turn it up I was going to say we won't turn it up because it's in the last chapter of the Hebrew's letter in the 13th chapter you find this thing being said verse 8 Jesus Christ I'm putting in a little word is the same yesterday and today and forever he's the same he hasn't changed you won't offer an opinion about this oh Lord give me all these gifts but please I don't want to go on the altar he won't change he can't it's his nature it's his life Christianity is the outworking of the principles and characteristics and glories of the nature and life and person of Jesus that's what Christianity is the other is nonsense that's all that Christianity is it's as simple as that it's Christ himself in you being the same being thinking the same thoughts moving the same way doing the same things glory be to his name it's him forever and forever Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever Lord you come right in me then be yourself in me do your works in me take over my whole self completely I don't mean in some big emotional sweep when you're stirred and I'm bleeding but in that steady glorious way of which I was speaking to you this morning that you should move in with glorious intent Amen like the Lord Jesus going as a land of the slaughter dumb before his shears moving under the glory moving into the best yet moving into the highest all the time that's what Christianity is Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever the wonderful next verse he says now don't be carried about by divers and strange doctrines for it's a good thing that the heart be established with grace not with myths which have not profited then that have been occupied therein so we've got Jesus Christ the same yesterday and forever your heart established in grace and the next step is to the altar we have an altar Amen the great same unchanging Jesus in you your heart absolutely established in grace the next step is the altar we have an altar not we have a ministry though we have the great ministry that you need is the basic ministry of the priest that's the great ministry put yourself there will God accept me? will God receive me? does he want me? yes he says hungrily hungrily the altar is hungry the altar is God's expression of hunger all those myriads of sacrifices all those ashes strewn across the desert all spoke of God's hunger for his people he wanted to eat them up eat them up he said well burn them all but let it get fixed on your mind will you that I was hungry in love for you as that I want to voraciously eat you up in love glory to God I want to assimilate you into myself oh love must have it must have it I remember a time when I've been caught in for a few years as somebody I was away down in another part of the country and somebody I went up to them and said now I want to pack in and I want to get my notice in and I want to go and I want to move they said well what for? I said because I'm going to get married I want to be married so the fella ran off and saw the big guy at the top he said offer me the best job we'll increase your wages we'll get better quarters we'll make you, this will make you I said no I want to get married who? he said well he was very white he said well get a better job to keep his wife I never married that kind of a woman did you? it's unfortunate that you did my wife's got to be prepared to share a caravan with me it's the other way about it I've got to be prepared to share a caravan with her she likes it, I don't but nevertheless that's in it that's in it do you understand? share my Bethnal Green gutter with me Jesus said you can share my heaven, my throne, my father, my life with me but share my altar glory be to God and I want to tell you my young friend you people that are engaged and loving one another tremendously you're going to be married if it isn't self giving and an altar break your engagement now break it now this is why marriages go wrong I know I have to deal with so many of broken marriages so I know I'm not talking out the back of my neck now you're all quoted self giving it's at the basis of all true love in fact I've discovered I don't really know much about love not really, I'm really only beginning to get into it a bit what love really is the rest is yapping, snapping, snarling, self preservation getting hurt and taking the mic and taking the half and all this business glory be to God an altar puts you beyond getting hurt when they stuck the spear in Jesus' side you couldn't hear it he didn't feel it he was dead he didn't feel it he'd been on the altar he didn't feel it and it was from that place flowed forth the blood of the altar that place the unhurtable Jesus glory be to God go and get buried go and die your hateful but Jesus loves you nonetheless it's wonderful he absolutely loves you and there's no reason why you can't be all that he wants you to be because we have an altar bless you Jesus for securing it to me I'd never have had one I might have gone and bowed at some heathen lump of earth or some painted, gilded, nicely chiseled stone in a more cultured heathendom but beloved I have an altar I have an altar it's fixed in the heart it's there in the spirit Jesus brought the wafting breezes of it down to heaven lived the life of a priest died and offered the sacrifice showed me banished the temple banished the cross except that in the spirit where the wood doesn't count there it remains there it remains an altar for you waiting for you the altar has a voracious appetite it's the open heart of the love of God the flames are flaming out to you to consume you you want to get on the altar we'll have one last look then into Matthew chapter 5 listen for this is the teaching from the lips and the heart of the great teacher in the fifth chapter of Matthew the chapter that begins what we call the Gratitudes where Jesus is sitting on the mountain in verse 1 and he's got absolutely set and he's coming from this place of being set absolutely set in what he says here no one will change him nothing can be altered added thereto or taken away or even slightly deflected from its proper meaning he's set on the mountain of truth and telling you the only way and in the fifth chapter then and in these verses that we may read unto you or we'll read together verse 23 if thou bring thy gift to the altar and there remember us that thy brother hath ought against thee leave there thy gift before the altar go thy way first be reconciled to thy brother then come and offer thy gift there it is do you want to give your gift? what are you going to give to God? what are you going to give yourself? now listen you're there you're sitting there I talk to you as a brother in Christ you cannot give your gift to God not even yourself if you now can remember that your brother has anything against you your enemies may have lots against you Jesus Christ's enemies had the world against him it doesn't matter about that but no brother had anything against him and no father Amen you bring your gift to the altar now do you remember your brother's got anything against you now leave your gift right there before the altar right there Amen leave it stop it don't go a step further but leave your gift all I'm yours I'm only going to settle this I'm going to settle this I'm going to get this settled and then do you know why some people's giving of themselves has not counted anything after the first lovely five minutes comparatively five minutes it's because they've never gone and got settled with their brother right so there's a leak there's a running out there's a loss you can never settle with your enemies you can never never get reconciled to enemies that will not be enemies you know these people you know them you just have to leave them but if you got a brother or a sister and they've got anything against you and you know that it's right you know that it's right the Holy Ghost never convicted you of anything unless it's right go and get it settled Amen Lord may not be a gift and because you haven't got to go to any geographical point because you haven't got to go from here to Jerusalem or to Mecca or to Canterbury or to Rome and because you haven't got to go anywhere you can cross the gap in one sacred moment one sacred moment Lord I'm yours I'm yours is the name of the Lord on the altar Lord here I am I reserve unto me 7000 men sent from God to Israel to Elijah would not bow the knee to fail 7000 so that nobody stands up and say I shouldn't stand in the meeting like this and I say I and only I God's got a wonderful way of deflating prophets even though they're really sincere Amen and all these other humble unknowns Amen Amen these people that haven't got names like Elijah I know them I tell you there is a remnant of Calvary truth in the earth there is a remnant there are those beloved and God multiply it into multiplied millions God do it here in this room tonight I believe he will Lord that you should give me the altar Lord I'm yours every bit of me Lord I'm yours everything everything now think before you make the step everything if you're married your wife your husband you, your children your home your ambitions your hopes your work your profession your calling your England you've got to give that up I gave that up long ago your patriotism your bank balance if you've got any Sherbourne Road or wherever you come from or go to on the altar glory on your altar glory of God Jesus went there Jesus went there he went loving, beautiful, glorious he went full of all love tender, sweet, precious, marvelous the most glorious being you've ever seen he never pushed me when he came back he was the same he got under that altar when he came back he was the same beautified amplified if I may put it this way glorified oh, oh oh, he brought them into his secrets now he brought them into glorious things they'd never known before he brought them into revelations he brought them into gifts he brought them into powers he brought them into uses he brought them into service because he was on the altar he'd been there the offering had been made he'd got something to give beyond a blessing and beyond a touch of love and beyond a word of advice he'd got something to give and he couldn't give until he'd been to the cross and on the altar he couldn't, he couldn't, he couldn't and neither can you the altar is the place of consumption consuming the altar is the place of release the altar is the place of everything given over entirely it's the place where another absolutely takes over where the priest has power over the offering where another mind makes the decision where a fire burns that isn't yours amen it's the altar where a life is handed over in sublimest trust it's a place where a man sinks down into childlike simplicity where a woman blossoms forth in her greatest glory the altar where Christ redeemed your soul where we found a gospel to preach where the life-giving stream really flowed where nothing was withheld nothing at all nothing nothing nothing glory he saved not himself he saved nothing for himself and thereby saved the church for himself and saved the name and honor and glory of his father and shouldered responsibilities beloved that docile yieldedness alone could enable him to do his work, his greatest work was accomplished in total submission the yielded life was given there the altar it speaks louder than all prophecies it gives more than all gifts it conserves more than it gives away and gives away more than it reserves hallelujah all for God, it's glory have you ever come down have you ever said Lord I'm yours not yours, not me, I don't hold back anything not a pet desire to indulge of one, of some lovely little thing inside I've treasured in hell nothing, Lord I'm yours utterly yours God fulfills himself in the life that's given on the altar God comes to an end and makes a beginning when the life is on the altar with you are you on the altar? being on the altar will save you from so much it'll save you from pettiness you won't feel all these things it'll save you from littleness for who shall measure the life that's gone up to mingle with the fragrance of all the scents of God and loses itself in all the other sweetness that's going up to the heart of the Lord eh? where shall the devil find you if you'd be on the altar amen and there under the altar, the souls that say Lord, Lord, how long how long the Lord said, just wait a while I've got some more down there I know they'll come on the altar, just wait there just wait there God is completing the altar call he's making the altar call are you going to respond to God's altar call? this isn't the manufactured phraseology of modern evangelism just wait there put your white robe on stay there in all your purity there are others there are others seven thousand Lord I see to hear him say seventy times seven amen and is he talking about you? they used to teach me to sing a chorus and it went like this lay your life on the altar of God he's calling for you today lay your life on the altar of God this moment his sons obey fields of the harvest are white the labourers are scattered I'm sure lay your life on the altar of God he's calling for you for you amen I'm not asking you to come in stirred emotion at the moment though if it's stirred it's no more than mine for who can visualize an altar and remain calm who can gaze on an altar and stay a thousand miles away or even a thousand yards or inches eh? can you? can you? Lord I'm yours I'm yours let's pray come on