GOD STANDING ON THE ALTAR
[p. 46] GOD STANDING ON THE ALTAR
What is specially in my mind is the position in which the Lord is seen in this chapter; He is “standing upon the altar”. One could speak of many positions in which the Lord is seen, using the term Lord for the moment as referring to Christ. He is seen at the right hand of God; He is seen walking in the midst of the golden candlesticks in Revelation; and Isaiah says, “In the year of the death of King Uzziah, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple”, (Isaiah 6:1). But here He is standing upon the altar. The Lord Jesus was upon the altar in another attitude; it touches the believer to connect Him with the altar. There are several altars spoken of in Scripture; one of the most interesting being in Genesis 22, where Christ is seen figuratively bound to it. The ram caught in the thicket by its horns, being offered up, is the complete thought typically of Christ’s sacrificial death.
There was nothing feigned about Jesus; however you view Him, everything is real, especially Gethsemane and the cross. Our sins were there, but He went forward; He bare our sins, we are told, in His own body, (1 Peter 2:24). He has done many things through others, and He is doing things through others, and He will do things through others, but He did that Himself; He bare our sins in His own body on the tree. And not only so, but He was made sin; (2 Corinthians 5:21). Let us take that in. Not only did He become identified with us in His death, but He was made sin for us. How thoroughly, therefore, sin has been dealt with, and it is “that we might become God’s righteousness in him”; not only accounted righteous, but we become the thing itself.
But here He is standing on the altar. That is to [p. 47] say, God is standing on the altar. That is His attitude, and although the setting related to God’s earthly people, and will have application and has had application, it has application now. It depicts in a striking manner, to my mind, the present attitude of God in Christendom, for it has to be remembered that the gospel service today is almost entirely within the area of Christendom; within the sphere in which men and women profess nominal relationship with God. The name Christian is nothing if it is not that, and it is what this scripture implies that in spite of the conditions that have come about in the area of Christian profession, God is still standing on the altar. That is the position. It will not last long; the standing attitude intimates that it is not for a great duration. The sitting attitude is for duration, but this is a standing attitude and one whence God speaks in the most solemn manner to persons who are in outward relationship with Him, but void of any inward relationship, and therefore occasioning His most stern resentment. Yet the altar is there, the means of being in positive vital relationship with God are there. There can be none without the altar. And so I am here tonight as well as thousands of others elsewhere, standing up in this service to convey to you that God is still speaking in relation with the altar; but He may cease at any time, and without warning; indeed, He is full of ire in regard of the attitude and conduct of those who are nominally in relationship with Him. It is wonderful to those of us who know God, to see how patient He is, how He continues patiently in the gospel, in His gracious attitude towards men in the presence of such indifference, such worldliness, such disregard for His rights as are manifest generally.
Lately one has been dwelling on the history of Ahab. He represents Christendom. He is one of the worst men spoken of in Scripture, and his wife [p. 48] the worst woman, yet God undertakes to help him and to save him. And so it is that in spite of the unparalleled wickedness of mankind as seen in Christendom, where despite has been done to the Spirit of grace, where the blood of the covenant has been trampled under foot, where Christ’s rights have been denied on every hand and are being denied, where His Person has been blasphemed, I am here tonight to announce the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, that God is still saving, and that He is without partiality, for He would save even an Ahab. If so, why not you, however bad you may be? Before there is any mention of Jezebel, Ahab is said to be one of the wickedest of men, and to add to this he married her. It was in his days that Hiel the Bethelite built Jericho (1 Kings 16:34); that is to say, the world as opposed to God, once overthrown, is set up again. Yet the man in whose reign that was done is an object of mercy with God! The Syrians attack him and God sends a prophet to him to tell him that he is going to help him. So I am here to tell you that God is ready to save you.
Possibly in the city of Rome the gospel is being announced; the gospel is announced in all the great cities of Christendom, where wickedness is at its height; all this is in keeping with God’s grace to Ahab. The Syrians are outside his gates in multitudes. Today the power of the enemy is here; Satan in power is against men. But God says to Ahab, I will deliver you from them. Ahab says, By whom? And God says, “By the servants of the princes of the provinces”, and Ahab himself was to lead. That is God! And so there are two hundred and thirty-two servants of the princes of the provinces and seven thousand of Israel — a little handful in the presence of the multitude of the Syrians, yet God helped Ahab and delivered him.
Again the Syrians come up, and they say, God is [p. 49] a god of the mountains, but He is not a god of the valleys; (1 Kings 20:28). Is he not a God of the valleys? Has He not descended into death? Yes, He has, He that ascended is the same as He that descended and overthrew the power of the enemy in its own stronghold. That is what God has done in Christ, and that is the God we announce to you. He is here tonight to deliver your soul. He is not only a God that operates above; He operates below, He has a right of way everywhere.
And so the Syrians come man for man, and horse for horse, an immense army to attack Ahab. It may be some of you can put yourselves into Ahab’s position; you have no merits whatever. None of us has any, and it is when you renounce all merit that you are ready for God’s salvation. So the Syrians come with all their forces thinking that God is the God of the mountains only, but He is the God of the valleys as well. The Syrians did not know this. The gospel is to illuminate us. It is the light we need; Satan darkens. Ahab musters his army “like two little flocks of goats” (1 Kings 20:27), and there they are, as we may say, in perfect weakness in the presence of the enemies’ hosts. But God gives deliverance; one hundred thousand of the Syrians are slain in one day. You see the power of God active at the present time in spite of the wickedness all around in the sphere of Christian profession, and that power is here tonight; He is making known His ire, His resentment of men’s ways, but He is standing on the altar as it were, and announcing the gospel, and at the same time making plain that there is no possibility of escaping His judgment if you refuse it. You may go up to heaven or down to hell, He says, but He will find you.
He further says, “Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in [p. 50] the bottom of the sea, there will I command the serpent, and it shall bite them; and though they go into captivity before their enemies, there will I command the sword, and it shall slay them”, (Amos 9:3,4). You see it is with God we have to do, but He is standing on the altar; He is not on the great white throne yet, but He is announcing what is imminent, His judgment from which no unbeliever can escape. Persons may exalt themselves to heaven, or descend to the depths of this world where the eye of their neighbour may never reach them; to the dens of this world whose guests are in the depths of hell. (Proverbs 9:18) Some may seek out those places and think no eye sees, but God knows. You cannot escape the eye of God, and not only this, but He will follow you there. You may go to the pleasures of the world, that is to say, Carmel, which means a park, or to the depths of the sea, which, I suppose, is humanity in the sense of the democratic element where it is hard to find people, where there is no distinction, but God knows. In all the myriads of the dead, every one is known to God. He has books. He speaks in language that is intelligible to us and when He refers to His books, He implies that there is enough space to include an account against every name. Then in the depths of the sea there is a serpent. You may think there is something in mutual relations, the current drift of mankind, but there is a serpent in them. The beast comes out of that condition. But even here God controls in it; the serpent serves His will; the judgment will find you.
The opportunity is now given you to draw near to the light of the altar. “Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried and that he was raised the third day, according to the Scriptures”, (1 Corinthians 15:3,4) and through Him, “is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by him all [p. 51] that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:38,39). That is the gospel, and that gospel is going forth, but the time of grace is about to terminate. Where shall we be then? His judgment will still find us. It is a solemn scripture and I would urge every one here not to take any risks in regard to this matter. Take account of God’s present attitude on the altar while you may, and have matters between your soul and Him settled. The great white throne means no hope, but the altar means hope. The harvest is not yet past, nor the summer ended, so that you may be saved. Will you not? God is waiting on you; He is waiting on you tonight as a Saviour.
He speaks about the land. He touches it and it melteth, and all that dwell in it mourn; and it rises up like the Nile. One has seen such things. It rises up like the Nile; it may be in prosperity, may be in some vaunting of its leaders, but God is doing it. Current happenings should be observed by us. God is not the God of heaven only; He is the God of the earth. He is operating in the governments of the world, and generally, He is over-ruling in all current movements. Thus there are risings up like the Nile and sinkings like the river of Egypt. Men are carried high, for instance in material prosperity. Values run up and run up, but then they go down, like the river of Egypt. They go down, down, down, and that is exactly what has recently happened. Do you think it is accidental? Not at all; God is seeking to get men’s souls. He will shake the world to get at you. He may take away your wife, your children, your business, because He wants you. That is what God does. Are you not afraid of Him? Have you no thought of God from whom your breath comes? We all live by Him, as Scripture says. He would warn you through His word here tonight. But although He warns you as to judgment, He says, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else”, (Isaiah 45:22). He shakes things up and down so that men might think, that they might become serious and say, What are we to do? I believe the leaders of this world are trembling. ‘Another great war’, one says, ‘will end civilisation’. Maybe it will end civilisation, as we call it, but in the present troubles God is seeking to get souls. As I said, He is saying, “Look unto me, and be ye saved ... for I am God, and there is none else”. How impressive that is: “There is none else”. When you come to the Jordan, that is to say, when you come to die, where is there any other help? Why not take advantage of the present, whilst you are well, and settle matters? God is waiting on you.
Then our chapter says, “It is he that buildeth his upper chambers in the heavens”. Surely He has some purpose in that; He does not act in vain. Some of us are to be there, in those dwellings in the heavens. God builds His stories, or spheres in the heavens beyond the raging of the flood here. Do you think He is building in vain? I do not. I know that He is considering for me, and for every believer. The Lord Jesus spoke about going to prepare a place for us. There is “the gospel of the glory”; there is a gospel that contemplates heaven for believers. The apostle Paul writes to the Ephesians about their being raised up and seated in the heavenlies in Christ, and in connection with this says, “By grace ye are saved”. (Ephesians 2:5) What is salvation? Complete salvation implies that we are taken out of this world altogether; it is, so to speak, the salvation of place. Did you ever think of that? God has a place for the believer. Is that of interest to you? We would love to have you come along with us. We are going there; here we have no continuing city. We seek [p. 53] one to come, also a heavenly country, and so it is said that God has prepared for us a city; (Hebrews 11:16).
And then He has a vault on the earth. The word troop’s in the authorised version is very vague; the better translation says that God “hath founded his vault upon the earth”. That is to say, He not only has rights up there; He also has rights down here. The millennial day, I believe, will show the perfect relation between the heavens and the earth, and God will have a people on the earth in full relation with heaven. He will have a place for His earthly people, and there will be perfect relation between the spheres above and those below. But the gospel today is in relation to a place above, and so there is, as I said, the gospel of place. I believe this gospel is largely for Christians. Sometimes we assume that the gospel is only for unbelievers, but it is an entire mistake. The great gospel epistle, Romans, was written to Christians, and the epistle to the Ephesians, which speaks about the glad tidings of the unsearchable riches of Christ, was written to Christians, and, as I said, it is that epistle that speaks about believers being seated in heaven.
And so I would suggest to the brothers and sisters here, the importance of the gospel of place. Some are justified, thank God; your sins are forgiven through the death of Christ, but you are not delivered from this world; your hopes are in connection with this world. What you need to understand is that God has a place for you infinitely better than this world. He would stir you up that you may not remain in this place; your hopes and desires are in relation to the wrong place. God never intended to justify you so that you should have your hopes in this world The Lord Jesus spoke about “that world, and the resurrection”, in which He says, they “neither marry nor are given in marriage, for neither can they die any more, for they are equal to the angels, and [p. 54] are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection”, (Luke 20:35,36). Is that not inspiring? I think it is. I think the gospel of a place in heaven is wonderful. God has a place for us up there: “Because of his great love wherewith he loved us, ... has quickened us with Christ and has raised us up together, and has made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus”, (Ephesians 2:4 - 6). And then He says, “For ye are saved by grace, through faith; and this not of yourselves; it is God’s gift”. That is the thing.
Then there is another thing here; He “calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out of the face of the earth; Jehovah is his name”. The sea is a symbol of many things, but one special thing said about it is, that it is God’s and He made it; (Psalm 95:5). I never go on the sea without that in my mind. He has “paths” in the great waters of the sea. But then there are the waters themselves, and our scripture says, He “that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth”. He has resource; the sea is a symbol of this. He has used it for judgment, but He also uses it for the benefit of the earth. What would we do without the waters of the sea? Some of you here may not think of these things, but human existence as it is now on earth depends upon the sea. It is thus typical of His resources in grace. There is the system of grace, it involves the Spirit. The Lord Jesus was “full of grace”, (John 1:14). But now it has become a system in connection with the Spirit and in it there are wonderful divine resources. He has means of equalising so that there is fruitfulness; therefore He calls for the waters of the sea and brings them on the arid earth.
It may be some thirsty soul here tonight feels the need of God refreshing him in this way. Literally the water comes by the way of clouds. God said of [p. 55] old, when we have clouds first mentioned. Whenever I put a cloud in the sky, I will put a bow in it (Genesis 9); that is to say, it is for good. In Elijah’s time there was a famine for three and a half years. God brings a famine into the soul, but it is limited. With Elijah there is the idea of prayer, he prayed and there was a famine; he prayed again and God sent rain from heaven and the earth bore its fruit; (James 5:17,18). Where did that rain come from? From the sea, what God has here already. In the same sense, help comes into the soul now from what is here in the Holy Spirit. One desires that we should have our souls bathed in the abundant grace that there is in the divine system. So, although Elijah prayed, he had to get his face between his knees in the profoundest exercise at the top of Carmel. He sends his servant out once, twice, three times and so on, but the seventh time he looks out on the Mediterranean and says, “Behold, there is a cloud, small as a man’s hand”, (1 Kings 18:44). That water is to be lifted up from the Mediterranean: it is coming up first in the size of a man’s hand, but it falls on Palestine in volume. The land of promise, is thus to yield its fruits.
That is what God does, and so Elijah says, “Go up, say to Ahab, Harness and go down, that the pour of the rain stop thee not”. And the heavens were covered with clouds and the rain came down. That is God! He is not only a God of judgment; He is a God of grace. The grace of God, we are told, carries salvation with it, and so it is He that calls the waters from the sea and pours it out upon the earth. And then it adds, “Jehovah is his name”. Will you not draw near and trust in that name? It is a strong tower. All these things enter into it, especially the last; the wonderful grace of God waiting to greet you and to meet you in all your need. “The Lord is his name”.