Exodus 30:1-10
"You shall make an altar to burn incense on; you shall make it of acacia wood.
A cubit shall be its length and a cubit its width—it shall be square—and two cubits shall be its height. Its horns shall be of one piece with it.
And you shall overlay its top, its sides all around, and its horns with pure gold; and you shall make for a molding of gold all around.
Two gold rings you shall make for it, under the molding on both its sides. You shall place them on its two sides, and they will be holders for the poles with which to bear it.
You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold.
And you shall put it before the veil that is before the ark of the Testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the Testimony, where I will meet with you.
Aaron shall burn on it sweet incense every morning; when he tends the lamps, he shall burn incense on it.
And when Aaron lights the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense on it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations.
You shall not offer strange incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain offering; nor shall you pour a drink offering on it.
And Aaron shall make atonement upon its horns once a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonement; once a year he shall make atonement upon it throughout your generations. It is most holy to the Lord."

LESSON

In our study of the ancient Tabernacle in the wilderness, the earthly dwelling place of God, we now come to the last piece of furniture in the Holy Place. We have noted two other pieces of furniture in this Holy place, namely, the Lampstand and the Table of Shewbread.
Today, we shall consider the Altar of Incense which was placed in front of the Veil that separated The Holy Place and The Most Holy Place. We have observed in our study that this Old Testament place of worship is a type of our spiritual journey of faith. The function of that Altar of Incense and its New Testament spiritual application is obvious...it was the place of prayer.
Upon that altar a fire burned perpetually. The fire had been taken from the Brazen Altar in the Outer Court, and upon the fire the priest placed incense each morning

(Page Two)

and evening which burned before the Lord and filled The Holy Place with the fragrance of frankincense. This altar, measuring three feet in height and eighteen inches square, was made of acacia wood and covered with pure gold. As the other pieces of furniture, it had poles attached through rings secured under the molding of the top of the altar for the purpose of carrying it when the Israelites were on the move. A warning was given that no strange incense was to be burned upon it, or a burnt offering or a grain offering or drink offering. God gave very specific directions in the making of the incense. "And the Lord said to Moses: ‘Take sweet spices, stacte and onycha and galbanum, and pure frankincense with these sweet spices; there shall be equal amounts of each. You shall make of these an incense, a compound according to the art of the perfumer, salted, pure and holy. And you shall beat some of it very fine, and put some of it before the Testimony in the tabernacle of meeting where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy to you. But as for the incense which you shall make, you shall not make any for yourselves, according to its composition. It shall be to you holy for the Lord. Whoever makes any like it, to smell it, he shall be cut off from his people.’" (Exodus 30:34-38) Throughout our study of this ancient place of worship, we have noted that God gave specific and detailed instructions in the construction and making of the items of this tabernacle, as well as the performing of all the ceremonies and sacrifices.
The question is...Why? Our answer is found in Hebrews 8:1-5: "Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary and the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this One also have something to offer. For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, "See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain." (Hebrews 8:1-5)
God had shown Moses the real and eternal pattern of which all earthly worship is the shadowy sketch-like plan. The earthly Temple or Tabernacle was only a pale copy of

(Page Three)

the real Temple of God; earthly worship is a remote reflection of real worship; the earthly priesthood is an inadequate shadow of the real priesthood, which can really bring men to God. All these things point beyond themselves to the reality of which they are shadows. "And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission. Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has not entered the holy place made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us."
God says something very important in His instructions to Moses: "And you shall put it before the veil that is before the ark of the Testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the Testimony, where I will meet with you." This Altar of Incense was the place where man met with God and divine fellowship and communion took place! "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:14-16)
As believers, we have put our trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior and God. We have received forgiveness and cleansing from our sins through His precious blood that was spilt on Calvary. In obedience, we have followed our Master in the waters of baptism and have been made a part of His eternal family through the work of His Holy Spirit. "Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast, the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful." (Hebrews 10:19-23)
Incense is a common Biblical figure for prayer and for intercession. David said: "Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense."(Psalm 141:2)
Let's talk about prayer.
Prayer may well be defined as that force which vitalizes and energizes the Word of God by taking hold of God Himself!

(Page Four)

Prayer is our need crying out for help.
Prayer is the voice of faith to the Father.
Prayer is the Living Word in lips of faith.
Prayer is the channel through which all good flows from God to man, and all good from men to men. Prayer is a privilege, a sacred, princely privilege. Prayer is a duty, an obligation most binding, and most imperative, which should hold us to it. But prayer is more than a privilege, more than a duty. It is a means, an instrument, a condition. It is the appointed condition of getting God's aid. It is the avenue through which God supplies man's wants. Prayer, in its primary essence, is worship. Worship is the recognition of worth, the fitting of God into the overall picture of our lives in His proper perspective. The very act of prayer, whether we kneel, sit, lie on the floor, or stand is an affirmation of the worthiness of God. God's Word is a record of prayer—of praying men and women and their achievements, of the divine warrant of prayer and of the encouragement given to those who pray. Faith is constructed of the Word and the Spirit, and faith is the body and substance of prayer.
In many of its aspects, prayer is dependent upon the Word of God. Jesus said: "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." (John 15:7) The Bible is the believer's prayer-guide. It unfolds the nature and necessity of prayer, and is eloquent with praise as to its privilege and power. Scripture reveals that when God made man, He did not leave Himself without witness. Within the spirit of man God implanted a desire for Himself. This is one reason why even godless men instinctively pray when some trouble or sore trial overtakes them. Plants in a dark dungeon bend toward a crack of light.
Prayer is not only a privilege, it is a necessity, for without its exercise we are cut off from the Source of life, light and love. No one can read the gospels and fail to recognize that Christ constantly urged His followers to make it the chief business of their lives to pray. From His own example we learn the necessity of prayer. When He left the glory above and wrapped Himself around with the robe of humanity. He died to self-sufficiency in that He became the God-dependent Man. His life and labors reveal an entire absence of self-dependence. "I can of mine own self do nothing."
By virtue of Christ's finished work at the Cross, we are united to Him and having nothing of our own, seeing all we have was bought with a price, we yet "possess all

(Page Five)

things in Christ." It is this identification with Christ which forms the ground of our appeal and approach. As I have just noted, prayer occupied a very prominent place and played a very important part in the earthly life of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Mark 1:35 we read these words: "And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, He went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed." The preceding day had been a very busy and exciting one, but Jesus shortened the hours of needed sleep that He might arise early and give Himself to more sorely needed prayer. In Luke 6:12, we read: "And it came to pass in those days that He went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God."
The words "Pray" and "Prayer" are used at least twenty-five times in connection with our Lord in the brief record of His life in the four Gospels, and His praying is mentioned in places where the words are not used.
Evidently prayer took much of the time and strength of Jesus, and a man or woman who does not spend much time in prayer, cannot properly be called a follower of Jesus Christ. "He who says he abides in Him (Christ) ought himself also to walk just as He walked." (1 John 2:6)
Praying is the most important part of the present ministry of our risen Lord! Christ's ministry did not close with His death. His atoning work was finished then, but when He rose and ascended to the right hand of the Father, He entered upon other work for us just as important in its place as His atoning work. It cannot be divorced from His atoning work; it rests upon that as its basis, but it is necessary to our complete salvation.
What that great present work is, by which He carries our salvation to completeness, we read in Hebrews 7:25, "Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them." This verse tells us that Jesus is able to save us unto the uttermost, not merely from the uttermost, but unto the uttermost, unto entire completeness, absolute perfection, because He not merely died, but because He also "ever liveth." And the verse also tells us for what purpose He now lives, "to make intercession for us," to pray. Praying is the principal thing He is doing in these days. It is by His prayers that He is saving us!
The same thought is found in Paul's remarkable, triumphant challenge in Romans 8:34, "Who is he that shall condemn? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of

(Page Six)

God, who also maketh intercession for us." Although we have been made "temples of the Holy Spirit," we are still subject to frailty and ignorance. Because of this fact we know not how to pray as we ought. The Holy Spirit, however, "helpeth our infirmities" (Romans 8:26-27). What a comfort to our hearts to realize that "He that searcheth the heart knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." Consider with me some Biblical rules or directions concerning this glorious privilege of prayer.
(1) Jesus taught that prayer must be accompanied by faith. "Jesus...said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith and doubt not, ye shall...say unto the mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. (Matthew 21:21-22) "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." (James 1:5-8) "And without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him." (Hebrews 11:6)
(2) Jesus taught that prayer must be offered in His name. "And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full." (John 16:23-24)
The name of a person represents his character, his merit. The value of a check lies in the signature. When we pray in the name above every name, we are assured of an answer, seeing that we plead the merit of Christ, of His perfect propitiation for sin.
Let me give you an example. If I should go to a bank and present a check I have signed for $100.00, but had no account with that bank, the check would be refused. But if I went to that same bank and a wealthy depositor of that bank had signed it. The check would immediately be honored.
So it is when I go to the bank of heaven, when I go to God in prayer. I have nothing deposited there, I have absolutely no credit there. But when I go to God in prayer in the name of Jesus, He has unlimited credit in heaven!

(Page Seven)

(3) Jesus taught us to pray in secret. "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." (Matthew 6:6)
Behind closed doors, alone with God, the world shut out, prayer can become both a battle and a benediction. Dr. J. Holman, commenting upon this verse, remarks, "This is not mere ritual. Shut the door, for none must invade the holy intimacy between you and God. Shut the door, for you are engaged in the greatest enterprise of your life. Shut the door, for only so can you call in wandering thoughts. This is why we find it most helpful to pray with eyes closed, lest the mind become distracted, and drawn off from the great central purpose of this time with God."
(4) Jesus taught us to pray persistently. "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." (Luke 11:9) Intensity and earnestness of purpose are expressed in such persistency. The saints of old knew how to storm heaven with their prayers. Listen to Moses pray: "Then once again I fell prostrate before the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the Lord's sight and so provoking Him to anger." (Deuteronomy 9:18) James tells us, "Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years." (James 5:17) The early church prayed. "So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him." (Acts 12:5) Jacob of old prayed. Then the man said, "let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." (Genesis 32:26)
(5) Jesus taught us to pray, conscious that we are right with others.
"For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6:14-15) "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perversity." (Isaiah 59:1-3)

(Page Eight)

At that Altar of Incense in that ancient place of worship, God promised to meet with men! Let me ask...Do you have a special place of prayer where you meet with God? There are a couple of verses on the subject of prayer that really challenge me. One is found in Ephesians 6:18. "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watch thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints." The other verse is found in Jude 20. "But ye, beloved, build up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost." Let me mention just one more. "Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." (Romans 8:26)
I think in these verses we find a great secret in prayer! There is no true prayer without the direction and dynamics of the Holy Spirit. When a man calls upon God for saving efficacy, that was not the first call. The first call was from the Spirit of God in the heart of that man. And from that time all true prayer, as at the beginning, is a work of the Holy Spirit through the believer.
There is only one alternative to praying in the Spirit and that is praying in the flesh!
Abiding in Christ is another way of stating the prerequisite of praying in the Spirit. To be filled with the Spirit is to be controlled by the indwelling Christ. So, to be abiding in Christ is to be filled with the Spirit. To pray in the Spirit is to be under the Spirit's control. He helps our infirmities; that is He cooperates with us in the venture of prayer. To pray in the Spirit is to pray in the Spirit's communion. In the highest sense prayer is communion with God. It is in the fellowship of the Spirit. The deepest and most sacred intimacies of love both human and divine are wordless. If prayer at first seems to be on our part, the Spirit reciprocates and prayer is His part and ours. In the first stage of prayer we pray and ask God to help us. In the transcendent stage of prayer the Spirit in His temple, our body, prays in us in fellowship according to the will of God. He makes prayer more than human. He renders it supernatural! He is the power that works in us both to will and to do God's good pleasure.
As we close our lesson today, my prayer is that you enjoy the privilege of prayer at the place, your altar, where you meet God daily. As believers, we are invited to come boldly to our Great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is here we receive grace and find mercy to help us along life's journey.