PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 312: Altar Building, Part 5
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 312
: Altar Building, Part 5
We don't wear the same clothes on every occasion. When is it important to change our clothes? Check it out.
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. Here we are again, and we are in the middle of . . .
No. 11: WE BUILD A FAMILY ALTAR FOR CLEANSING AND SANCTIFICATION
I want to read the Scripture I ended with last week, just to put us in context. It is talking about the clothing of the priests. It talks about their clothing in Exodus 28, the whole chapter actually.
Then the last verse says: “And they shall put upon Aaron and upon his sons,” that’s the clothing that they had been talking about. “When they come in unto the tabernacle of the congregation, or when they come near unto the altar to minister in the Holy Place, that they bear not iniquity or die.” Wow! That’s pretty scary, isn’t it? “It shall be a statute forever unto him and his seed after him.”
That was talking about the priests who were functioning in the tabernacle. Now we go over to Ezekiel 44. This is a vision of Ezekiel’s temple, which we do not yet have. It’s an amazing chapter, this chapter of Ezekiel. I’ll just point out that in this one chapter, God is talking about things that are in the temple. He uses the word “my.” “Everything is mine.” It belongs to God.
In fact, He uses the word “my” 21 times. Can I t read you some of these “My’s”?
“My sanctuary.” Six times He says that.
“My house,”
““My bread,”
My covenant,”
“My holy things, “ Two times.
“My land,”
“My table,”
“My charge,” Two times.
“My people,”
“My judgments,”
“My laws,”
“My statutes,
“My assemblies, “
“My Sabbaths.”
21 times. Sometimes we seem to think that things revolve around us, don’t we? But really, they revolve around the Lord. It all belongs to Him.
Here again they’re talking about the clothing of the priests. First of all, let me read Ezekiel 44:5: “And the LORD said unto me, Son of man, mark well, and behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears all that I say unto thee concerning all the ordinances of the house of the LORD, and all the laws thereof; and mark well the entering in of the house, with every going forth of the sanctuary.”
That’s a verse, lovely ladies, that you could read over again later in your own time. Just read it over and relate it to your own home, because God will show you the order, and the ordinances, and the things that He wants you to have in your home, even to the entering in of your home, the going out of your home. Just let the Lord speak to you. I know that He will show you beautiful things.
OK, now we are going down to verse 16. It’s talking about the priests: “They shall enter into My sanctuary, and they shall come near to My table, to minister unto Me, and they shall keep My charge. And it shall come to pass, that when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments.” We talked about that last time. God wanted them to wear linen because it was a type of the righteousness of the saints.
“And no wool shall come upon them, while they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within.” Although wool is a very healthy material, as it gives off 5,000 megahertz of energy, actually wool and linen counteract one another. If you wear them both together, they counteract the goodness which each one gives off.
Eze 44:18-19: “They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with anything that causeth sweat. And when they go forth into the utter court, even into the utter court to the people, they shall put off their garments wherein they ministered, and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments; and they shall not sanctify the people with their garments.”
We go to verse 23: “And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.” It’s interesting, because we started off this point where God said to Jacob, “OK, before you come up to build this altar in Bethel, you’ve got to clean yourselves up, and you’ve got to change your garments.” We see here that in this passage, where the priests had to change their garments, they had to have different garments when they came near to the Lord’s altar. When they went out again, well, they changed into other garments.
Once again, this is just a type, but to me, it speaks of even a practical thing. You see, we talk about having a personal altar when we have a time with the Lord on our own each day. Mothers with lots of little children, that’s hard to do! How do you do that?
Well, I can remember when I first started in my motherhood. Oh my, I had our first baby, and then 17 months later, I had two babies. I had three in 17 months. Then I had four under four back in those days. How could I have time to spend in the Word? It was a whole new experience to me, because as a teenager, I had set my heart to seek God with all my heart. I used to spend three hours. I’d wake up very early in the morning and put aside three hours to wait upon the Lord each day.
Now, with all these babies, I didn’t even have time! I had to put my Bible on my windowsill. I put it at Psalms or Proverbs so I could look up, and just get a little Scripture here and there to feed my soul. We do go through these seasons, but when we can, we love to have that personal altar with the Lord.
Then we have our family altar, where we meet together as a family.
Then we have our church altar, where we meet with a bigger crowd of saints. We gather together, either Sundays or Saturdays, according to when you worship. That’s also a time, it’s an altar where we meet with the Lord. I do believe that it is important, especially as we come together with other saints.
WEAR WHAT IS APPROPRIATE
We’re coming to meet the Lord, yes, to meet the Lord God of Hosts, the Lord of the armies of heaven, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, so we will change our clothes, I do believe. What is this Scripture saying in Exodus 28? Do you know, when you come near My altar, you wear clothes that are appropriate? I think there is such a thing as appropriateness. Today it seems that many people wear what they like wherever they like. They don’t have any discernment about the appropriateness of things.
So, today we have people who arrive to church with holey jeans! I beg your pardon? This most probably will trample on so many toes, especially all you darling, beautiful young people, who just love to be in fashion. Why do people wear holey jeans? Only because they are in fashion. Just because that’s what everybody is doing. They don’t have any beauty or glory about them. Remember the three basic foundations of clothing that God gives us are for holiness, for glory, and for beauty.
Well, back in New Zealand where I come from, it’s a farming country, a sheep country, and a dairy farming country. We had family in the dairy industry. We’d go out there, to their dairy farms, and out to the cowshed. Do you know that back then, they wouldn’t even wear holey jeans to the cowshed! Goodness, what would the cows think? [laughter] Really, because when they’re all holey, that’s when you throw them out.
OK, you want to wear them around. But we have to know the difference. We have to discern when we’re coming into the presence of the Lord. Yes, we’re in the presence of the Lord all the time, but there is something about coming to that altar, when all the saints are gathering together. I think it is something that we should take into consideration. We should be aware of the types, and change our clothes when we come into the presence of the Lord together with the saints.
Wear something appropriate. I’ve seen people come to church in shorts! Wow! Wear your shorts playing tennis or volleyball or basketball and going to the beach. But church is not at the beach. Church is not out on the basketball court. No, it is coming into the presence of our holy God where we are worshipping Him in holiness.
And dear mothers, I do believe we have a responsibility. I know our beautiful teens want to be in fashion. They want to look like everybody else but we can’t allow them to dress in an inappropriate way when they come into the presence of the Lord. We have to teach our children honor. Giving honor to God.
I love that Scripture; well, I’m not sure whether I should say I’m more challenged by this Scripture. It’s in Isaiah 66. It says in verse 2: “But to this man will I look, even to him that is of a contrite and humble spirit, and trembleth at my word.” What kind of a spirit do we have when we come to read the Word? How do you come? Do you come just to read, and “Oh, no! I don’t agree with that. Oh, no! That doesn’t fit me. No, just pass on.”
No, every word we read is from God Himself. And so, we come with this humble and contrite spirit, trembling at His Word. Do you tremble? I do. I tremble at the Word of God. When I read these things, I know they are not just something that happened back then. They are written for my learning. They are a principle for us today. I can’t gloss over that. So, I do believe that we have to understand it.
I remember back when I was growing up, it was the normal thing. Today it’s amazing how far we have fallen away. What was the norm back then? This was the norm for every believing family. Back then we didn’t even have showers. I’m going back a long way, ladies! I guess most of you can’t even believe a time when you didn’t have showers. Wow! We just had a bath.
So, every Saturday night, everybody in the family bathed, and you got out your clothes ready for Sunday. They were your special clothes for Sunday. You went clean, and you went with a change of clothes, especially your clothes to wear to the house of God, because they put in you that sense of honor and awe of what was happening. You can’t take God for granted. We can’t treat Him lightly. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
I think of that Scripture in Revelation 16:15: “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.” It’s amazing how people can even walk into church today. There is no shame. They come with bare shoulders, bare backs, cleavage, short skirts. This is in the house of God??
Dear ladies, just let’s tremble at the Word of God. Let’s honor Him in our own lives, and teach our children how to honor Him, right from a young age. We don’t start when they’re older. We start when they’re younger, giving them a sense of awe of Who our God is. When we’re going to the House of God, we change our garments. We’re going near His altar. We don’t have the same clothes for outside as we do for when we’re going into His house.
OK, so that was number 11. Let’s move on, shall we? We’re going to . . .
No. 12: WE BUILD AN ALTAR TO REMEMBER THE BLOOD SACRIFICE OF JESUS, ONCE FOR ALL
I love that Scripture in 1 Peter 3:18: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” Five times in the New Testament, it tells us that Jesus died once and for all.
Back in the Old Testament, they had to sacrifice morning and evening, but when Jesus came as the Lamb of God, He only had to sacrifice once, because He was the true Lamb of God. If you want those references, I’ll give them to you in the transcript. Maybe you’re walking around, doing dishes, and you haven’t even got a pen in your hand at the moment.
LOOKING BACK
This is something I love to do, ladies. You know, every lamb, every animal that was sacrificed on the altars back in the Old Testament, every single one looked to the Lamb of God, Jesus, who would take away the sins of the world. Every sacrifice looked to that great sacrifice. Now, Jesus is sacrificed once and for all. But now do we forget about it all? No. I believe whereas the sacrifices looked towards Jesus, who was the Lamb of God, now we can look back.
And every time we have our family devotions, and it’s time for prayer, I always love to thank our Lord Jesus Christ once again for His sacrifice, for His great redemption, for shedding His precious blood. I don’t think we’ll ever understand the enormity of His sacrifice and salvation for us, even in all of eternity. But I think it's the least we can do.
I often think of those ten lepers whom Jesus healed, and how many came back to thank Him? Only one. Oh, may we not be like those other nine, who just forget about it. How can we? Let’s come, every morning and evening and thank Him again. Teach our children to thank Him for His sacrifice.
No. 13: WE BUILD THE ALTAR AS A PLACE OF SACRIFICE
Yes, there were sacrifices. The altar in our home is also a sacrifice to make happen. Well, I don’t really like saying that. I know that many of you would say, “Well, yes, it’s a sacrifice. I’ve got to give up this, give up that, change this, change that.” Yes, you will have to do that. To establish a family altar, you will have to change your whole lifestyle.
But is it really a sacrifice? No, it’s not a sacrifice. It is the least we can do. I think of when many mothers will say, “Oh, I sacrificed my career to come back and look after my children.” Oh, goodness me, that is a false statement too! No, they weren’t sacrificing their career! They’d been sacrificing their highest career of motherhood for this lesser career that they had.
Many times we get things wrong, and yes, although it will take turning everything around maybe, in your whole lifestyle, it’s not really a sacrifice, because, as I said, it’s the least thing that we can do. And remember one of our points? That when we make an altar, what does God say He will do? “I will come to you, and I will bless you.” How wonderful!
And of course, what does Mark 8:34 say? “Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
That’s what our walk is like. It’s a denying of ourselves, isn’t it? I think of that Scripture in Titus 2:11-14 onwards: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” Amen.
When an animal was sacrificed, back on the altar, it had to be a pure sacrifice. It had to be without blemish, a male without blemish.
Leviticus 22:20: “But whatsoever hath a blemish, that shall ye not offer: for it shall not be acceptable for you.”
Malachi 1:8: “And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts.”
And down to verse 14: “But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, saith the LORD of hosts, and My name is dreadful among the heathen.”
We read back in Exodus 12:3-7. This was when it was Passover time and they were coming out of Egypt. Moses told the people that God had commanded them that they were to take a lamb, a male without blemish. They would take it on the 10th day. Then on the 14th day, if this male was still without blemish, and it didn’t show any signs of sickness or blemish in its skin, they could then sacrifice it. That was four days, from the 10th to the 14th.
That was the principle. That lamb had to be checked out for four days to make sure that it was absolutely pure, because every sacrifice was a type of Christ, who was the pure and spotless lamb of God, with no blemish at all.
1 Peter 1:19 says we are redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” Do you remember, ladies, how Jesus fulfilled this type to the very T? He came into Jerusalem on the tenth day. Remember, riding on a donkey, and they laid the palms at His feet, and said, “Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord.”
And then, on the 14th day, four days later, He became the Lamb sacrificed for us. Before He was sacrificed, as He stood before Pilate, Pilate said, “I find no fault in this man.” So, the prophetic word, right back in the Old Testament, the type, was fulfilled exactly with Jesus, who came in four days before, and on the 14th day He was crucified. Isn’t it amazing? The Word of God is so perfect, isn’t it?
Back in those days, they sacrificed upon the altar. But today we’re not doing that. Today we have to offer spiritual sacrifices. We see this in the New Testament. In fact, I found 12 different sacrifices that we are to do, because they are to be acceptable, with the word “acceptable.” Because, did I read this? Yes, I must read it to you again. Leviticus 22:20: “But whatsoever hath a blemish, that shall ye not offer: for it shall not be acceptable for you.”
Of course, ultimately, to God, the sacrifice had to be acceptable to God, which means, without spot or without blemish. Now we go over to the New Testament, because everything from the Old carries on into the New.
We read in 1 Peter 2:5: “Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” There it is. We have it now in the New. We’re not doing animal sacrifices but we’re offering up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God.
Let’s look at the first one.
- 1) Offering ourselves, our bodies as a living sacrifice
Romans 12:1: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,” that means without spot of blemish, “which is your reasonable service.” Here we have it. Back in the Old Testament, they offered up animals. Now we offer up our bodies, not to be slain on the altar, but to be a living sacrifice unto Him each day.
So, as we come to the altar, which represents offering up an animal to God, now instead we offer up our own bodies to the Lord. “Here I am again today, Lord Jesus. I offer my body a living sacrifice unto You.” We’re yielding our lives, our minds, our hearts, our bodies, our hands, our feet, our mouths, every part of us, we’re yielding them unto the Lord as a spiritual sacrifice. We’re not doing our own thing, We’re doing that which will please Him. Amen?
- 2) The surrender of our will
What did Jesus say as He went to the cross? As He was there in the Garden of Gethsemane, sweating great drops of blood as he anticipated taking upon Him our sins and our sicknesses, the most horrific sins and sicknesses of the whole world, He took them upon Him on the cross. He sweat drops of blood. What did He say? “Not My will, but Thine be done.”
This is also our spiritual sacrifice. As we face things in our lives, “Not my will, Father, but Thine be done.” That’s not just for the big things in life, but for the little things, the little things that happen in the day. The little things, the things where we want to stand on our own rights. “I should have this,” and “This shouldn’t happen to me,” and da-da-da-da-da. No, the Spirit of Jesus is not my will, but Thine be done. This is our spiritual sacrifice.
- 3) We must not be conformed to this world
That’s Romans 12:2: “Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Here is another acceptable sacrifice unto God, by allowing Him to transform our minds from our old way of thinking to His way of thinking.
When we come into Christ, when we come out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His marvelous light. We come into a new kingdom. We are meant to leave our old life behind. We leave Egypt behind which was also the type. We’re meant to leave it behind. There’s a Scripture in the Old Testament which says: “You are never to back to Egypt again.” That’s going back to the world, going back to that fleshly spirit. We don’t go back to that. We leave it behind.
We don’t even sit on the fence. Oh, just close to the old way of thinking and the old life. Oh, no, if we’re on the fence, we can easily topple back in again. No, we have got to make a three-day gap. Remember, when the children of Israel came out of Egypt, Pharoah tried every excuse to keep them there in Egypt. One of them was, “Hey, I’ll let you go, but don’t go far. Just go over the border. That’s it. Just over the border.”
But he knew, if he had them just over the border, he’d easily be able to get them back again and herd them back into Egypt to be his slaves again. But no, Moses would never ever give in. Each time, he said, “No, God has told us to go a three-day journey into the wilderness to sacrifice unto Him.” That was a type (Read Exodus 3:18; 5: 3; and 8:27).
We have to have to have a three-day gap between Egypt and going into our new kingdom. We don’t stay close to the old ways. Those who say they’re Christians today want to be like the world. They want to look like the world. Even churches want to look like the world to bring people in. No! We are a different kingdom altogether. We are severed from the old kingdom. We are never to go back to Egypt again. We’re to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We are a totally new creature.
2 Corinthians 5:17: “Behold, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things have passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
Of course, that happens as we allow the Holy Spirit to transform our thinking. That means we’ve got to let the Word of God do that. That happens at our altar, morning and evening. The Word is going into our hearts, into our minds, transforming us, changing our thinking. This is an acceptable sacrifice.
- 4) Praise, worship, and thanksgiving are spiritual sacrifices
Hebrews 13:15: “By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name.” One of our sacrifices is to be praising the Lord when things are going great? No, it doesn’t say that. To praise the Lord when we’re feeling so happy? No. Praise the Lord when everything’s going just the way we want it? No. It says: “Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.” Continually. Whatever is happening in our lives.
I remember a little instance when Colin and I were first married. Colin had gone out full-time for the Lord when we were engaged. We were involved in what was called “Tell New Zealand Crusade,” taking the gospel of John personally to every home in the nation.
Then from there, we went, well, I didn’t but, we were planning to go to the Philippine Islands as an outreach, to continue that vision of taking the gospel of John, this time, to a people who did not have the Word. We were thinking of going and we’d just got married. I had just conceived and was pregnant.
The leader of our team, Campbell McAlpine, a very wonderful man of God, came to Colin. He said, “I do not believe that Nancy should come. We’re going out. We don’t know when we will be coming back. We don’t know where we will be living. Nothing is set in stone. We’re just going by faith. I don’t think it’s going to be in any way a situation for Nancy to come.”
So, my beautiful new husband was going out and I didn’t even know when he was coming back. I didn’t know if it would be a year, two years, three years. When would I see him again? I didn’t know. I don’t know whether we would do things like that in this hour in which we’re living, but that’s the sacrifices we made back then.
I remember waving him good-bye. I came back to the home where I was staying and I was devastated. I wasn’t just crying. I was heaving sobs. I wondered, “Will this baby ever see its father?”
The Lord brought to my mind 1 Thessalonians 5:23. I knew this Scripture by heart. “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus, concerning you.”
I heard God speak to me. “Nancy, do you want to do My will?” Sobbing, I said, “Yes, Lord.” He said, “Well, thank Me. This concerns you. Thank Me.” I didn’t want to thank Him, but I just did it by faith. I began to thank Him and I continued to thank Him until I got the victory in my soul, and the joy of the Lord in my soul. God was so good. I was able to get that victory. It comes through thanking the Lord, even in the circumstances that you don’t like. Amen?
Well, time is gone again, so we’ll continue next week.
“Dear Father, we thank You again for the principles that You have been showing us. Each one is so amazing.
I pray for all the families who are listening today; the mothers, the wives, the children, the teens, and their husbands, and everyone in their households. I pray that You will bless them. I pray that You will teach them Your ways. I pray that You’ll give them such a heart to seek after Your truth, Lord God.
Oh, Father, that they will not be tainted by the things of this world, but they would be filled, Lord, with the knowledge of Your truth in Your Word. I ask it in the Name of Jesus. Amen.”
P. S. Eight more spiritual sacrifices next week.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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Transcribed by Darlene Norris
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No. 12 ONCE AND FOR ALL
Five times the Scriptures tells us that Jesus “ONE SUFFERED FOR SINS.”
(Hebrews 7:27; 9:12; 26:28; 10:10; and 1 Peer 3:18).