The Fire Shall not go out

Turn to Hebrews 13 and lets look a verse 10-15 quickly

Introduction

Hebrews 13:10-15 “We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.”

Keep your finger or book mark there in Hebrews because we will be back.

This text in Hebrews will serve to guide us in our sojourn in Leviticus. God gave the ancient people of Isreal verse specific commandments, concerning offerings, concerning holiness, and concerning every day life and duty. These commandments given by God serve three primary functions. First, they inform us about God; God’s nature if revealed in God’s Law. Second, they inform us about how God expect us to worship; God expect his people to be peculiar. Third, and by no means the least important, they point us to our need for Christ and reveal to us the depth of his work on our behalf.

The author of Hebrews gave us several this to look for.

What do we have a right to eat?

What does it mean to go outside the camp?

What does it look like to continually offer up praise?

The sermon title for tonight is, The Fire Shall not go out and

Our Text for Tonight is Leviticus 6 verse 8-13

If you would turn in your Bibles to Leviticus 6 verse 8-13 we can consider what God would have us see to Night.

Leviticus 6 verse 8-13

Leviticus 6:8–13 ESV

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offering. The burnt offering shall be on the hearth on the altar all night until the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it. And the priest shall put on his linen garment and put his linen undergarment on his body, and he shall take up the ashes to which the fire has reduced the burnt offering on the altar and put them beside the altar. Then he shall take off his garments and put on other garments and carry the ashes outside the camp to a clean place. The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it shall not go out. The priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and he shall arrange the burnt offering on it and shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings. Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out.

Lets pray.

Transition

The section that starts here in chapter 6 goes all the way into chapter 9 where God himself ignites the fire on the alter. Let’s get into this text by looking at verses 8 and 9.

Body

The God of the Details (1)

Text

Leviticus 6:8–9 (ESV)

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offering. The burnt offering shall be on the hearth on the altar all night until the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it.

Explanation

God is a God of the details.

He orders our worship

He orders the universe

one of the most powerful arguments for the Existence of God is the impossible order within the universe

God wants obedience more the sacrifice

John Calvin writes, ‘He [God] more distinctly explains what might have appeared to be omitted; nor is it without reason that he carefully enters into these full details, for since God prefers obedience to all sacrifices, he was unwilling that anything should remain doubtful as to the external rites, which were not otherwise of great importance; that they might learn to observe precisely, and with the most exact care, whatever the Law commanded, and that they should not obtrude anything of themselves, inasmuch as the purity of the holy things was corrupted by the very smallest invention. He would, therefore, leave nothing to the people’s judgment, but directed them by a fixed rule even in the most trifling matters.[1]

Hosea 6:6 “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. (Ho 6:6, ESV)

First of three times the instruction is given that the fire shall be kept burning

Three is an imperative.

Illustration

As an Illustration think briefly of the surrounding nations and how they purported themselves compared to the actions God is commanding of Israel. The surrounding nations worshiped their gods, with drunkeness, the worst imaginable lewdness, and unspeakable debauchery. The worship of the true God is holy different. Consider three points application for just a minute.

God’s worship is specific

The people of God, that means us are to worship God in a holy different way from how and what the world worships.

The worship of God makes God’s people peculiar from the world.

The worship of God is continual

“Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.” (Hebrews 13:15, ESV).

Transition

The next part of the test in verse 10 and 11 emphasis the concept of the how sin, and uncleanness are to be removed from within the camp of God’s people. The author of Hebrews said Christ is the priest that took the sins of his people outside the camp.

Christ Outside the Camp (2)

Text

Leviticus 6:10–11 ESV

And the priest shall put on his linen garment and put his linen undergarment on his body, and he shall take up the ashes to which the fire has reduced the burnt offering on the altar and put them beside the altar. Then he shall take off his garments and put on other garments and carry the ashes outside the camp to a clean place.

Explanation

The phrase outside the camp appears least 25 times between Exodus and Deuteronomy.

The over whelming theme of these instructions to take stuff out of the camp are things that are unclean, sin baring, unholy.

We can look to the word of the Author or Hebrews.

“For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.” (Heb 13:11–13, ESV)

Jesus took the sin of his people outside the camp.

RC Sproul said it like this, “The consecration portrayed by the burnt offering points to Christ, who is wholly consecrated to God, suffering death for sin and bringing about the believer’s death to sin” [2]

Application

We should live in the understanding that the high priest has removed the guilty of sin by taking it outside the camp.

Since the high priest has removed the guilty for sin far from us, then beloved sin ought to be far from us.

Peter calls us a nation of priests (1 Peter 2:9), as priest we are to be continually removed from the camp those things that are not in the highest keep with the worship of God.

Transition

We have seen the peculiar nature of God’s worship among his people. Next we will look at how God’s people worship continually.

This Fire Shell not go out (3)

Text

Leviticus 6:12–13 ESV

The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it shall not go out. The priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and he shall arrange the burnt offering on it and shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings. Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out.

Explanation

Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out

The primary point here is the fire of worship is to be kept continually

The author of Hebrews said “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God” (Heb 13:15, ESV)

Only through Christ can true offering be made

In Leviticus 9:24 we read that God was the one who ignited the first fire.

“And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar, and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.” (Le 9:24, ESV)

The priest shall burn wood on it every morning

Whats our priority every morning?

The Israelites did not keep, could not keep the fire burning.

Neither can we a lone. Our fire goes out if it left up to use to maintain it.

Illustration

There is an illustration in the interpreters house in The Pilgrims Progress.

In the interpreters house there was many rooms with wonders. In one of the rooms was a fire that would not go out. No mater how much water was thrown on the fire in would not go out. When Christian, the Pilgrim, walked around the wall he say the on the other side of the wall was a man continually poring oil into the fire. [3]

Application

The doctrine we are talking about here is commonly known as perseverance of the saints

The 1698 chapter 9 article 2 says

“This perseverance of the saints depends not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father, upon the efficacy of the merit and intercessions of Jesus Christ and union with Him, the oath of God, the abiding of His Spirit, and the seed of God within them, and the nature of the covenant of grace; from all which arises also the certainty and infallibility thereof.”[4]

God is the one that pours oil keeping our fire going even when we through sin pour water on it.

The only human that has keep the fire going, has never failed to feed it, has never lacked putting wood on the fire in the morning is Jesus.

God imputes to us Jesus perfect work and perfects us within that work

Transition

We have seen that Jesus is the priest took the sin outside the camp, Jesus is the sacrifice that perfect sinners, Jesus is the one who never failed to keep the fire going. In consultation there is one more warning for us today at the Interpreters House.

Conclusion

“Now, said Christian, let me go hence. Nay, stay, said the Interpreter, till I have showed thee a little more, and after that thou shalt go on thy way. So he took him by the hand again, and led him into a very dark room, where there sat a man in an iron cage.”[5]

Christian is ready to go, after seeing the fire but the interpreter shows him one more thing.

After conversing with the man Christian learns that he was once a professor of Christianity. He used to teach and preach about Jesus, but now he find that sin had so hardened his hard he was unable to believe.

It is possible, dear friends to believe oneself to be saved and still be dead in your sins. There for the Apostle Paul said, “work out your salvation with fear and trembling … because it is God that works in you both to will and to do his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12–13)

If Christ Jesus does not keep the fire going in us through Holy Spirit we are lost.

Benediction

“Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jud 24–25, ESV)

Go in peace or stay and fellowship both are good.

References

[1] John Calvin and Charles William Bingham, Commentaries on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony, vol. 2 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 363.

[2] R. C. Sproul, ed., The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) (Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015), 165.

[3] John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress: From This World to That Which Is to Come (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1995).

[4] R. C. Sproul, ed., The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) (Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015), 2486.

[5] John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress: From This World to That Which Is to Come (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1995).

Bibliography

Bunyan, John. The Pilgrim’s Progress: From This World to That Which Is to Come. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1995.

Calvin, John, and Charles William Bingham. Commentaries on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010.

Sproul, R. C., ed. The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition). Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015.