The Sacrifice Bound to the Horns of the Altar

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"God is the Lord—He has showed us light—bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar." Psalm 118:27

It is very sweet and blessed to trace in the Old Testament believers the same experience which God the Holy Spirit works in the hearts and consciences of the believers now; and I believe there is not one gracious feeling, whether it be in the depth of spiritual distress, or whether it be in the height of spiritual enjoyment, which we cannot find, if the Lord is pleased to give us light to see it, traced out in the experience of the Old Testament believers. In fact, it cannot be otherwise. There is but one God and Father of all; there is but one Lord, one faith, one Spirit; there is but one Teacher of the Church of God; and therefore all the saints in all ages have been taught the same lessons, and instructed by the blessed Spirit in the same divine mysteries.

Now there seems to be one feature which is common to every believer in whatever stage of spiritual experience he may happen to be, and that is an absolute renunciation of self, and an absolute dependence upon the Lord to work in him to will and to do of His good pleasure. Let men talk about the wisdom of the creature, or boast of human righteousness, or human merit, or any other such vain figment of the imagination, you will never find any of the Bible saints breathing forth any other language than a complete renunciation of the creature in all its bearings, and a simple hanging and dependence upon the Lord of life and glory to manifest Himself to them, to bless them, to teach them, and to lead them into all truth. Thus the experience of the saints stamps the lie upon the whole fiction of human merit, creature wisdom, and fleshly righteousness.

Nor do I believe that any spiritual man ever came before a holy God to pour out the desires and breathings of his soul before Him, and to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to Him through Jesus Christ, who came in any other frame than a complete renunciation of creature righteousness, wisdom, and strength, and a simple, sincere hanging and dependence upon God "to work in him that which is well-pleasing in His sight." "God is the Lord, He has showed us light; bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar."

The text sets forth two apparently unconnected things—the showing of the light and the binding of the sacrifice. What these are, and how they are connected, we shall endeavor, with God's blessing this evening, to show.

I. THE SHOWING OF THE LIGHT. The Psalmist was clearly possessed of light, for he says, "God is the Lord, He has showed us light." He was evidently, then, possessed of light; and this light was in him as "the light of life." This light had shone into his heart; the rays and beams of divine truth had penetrated into his conscience. He carried about with him a light which had come from God; in this light he saw light, and in this light he discerned everything which the light manifested. Thus by this internal light he knew what was good and what was evil, what was sweet and what was bitter, what was true and what was false, what was spiritual and what was natural.

He did not say, "This light came from creature exertion, this light was the product of my own wisdom, this light was nature transmuted by some action of my own will, and thus gradually rose into existence from long and assiduous cultivation." But he ascribes the whole of that light which he possessed unto God the Lord, as the sole author and the only giver of it. Now, if God the Lord has ever showed you and I the same light which He showed His servant of old, we carry about with us more or less of a solemn conviction that we have received this light from Him. There will, indeed, be many clouds of darkness to cover it; there will often be doubts and fears, hovering like mists and fogs over our souls, whether the light which we have received be from God or not. But in solemn moments when the Lord is pleased a little to revive His work; at times and seasons when He condescends to draw forth the affections of our hearts unto Himself, to bring us into His presence, to hide us in some measure in the hollow of His hand, and give us access unto Himself—at such moments and seasons we carry about with us, in spite of all our unbelief, in spite of all the suggestions of the enemy, in spite of all doubts, fears, and suspicions that rise from the depths of the carnal mind, in spite of all these counter-workings and underminings we carry about with us at these times a solemn conviction that we have light, and that this light we have received from God.

And why so? Because we can look back to a time when we walked in no such light, when we felt no such light, when everything spiritual and heavenly was dark to us, and we were dark to them.

1. If the Lord, then, has showed us any spiritual light, He has showed us light both with respect to Himself and with respect to ourselves. He has showed us with respect to Himselfwho He is; He has stamped something of Himself upon our consciences; He has brought some testimony concerning Himself into our hearts; He has discovered something of His glorious character to our souls; and brought us, under the operations of the Holy Spirit, into His presence, there to receive communications of life out of Christ's inexhaustible fullness. Thus in this light we see and feel that we have to do with a heart-searching God; in this light we see and feel that we have to do with a sin-hating God; in this light we see and feel that we have to do with a God who will not be mocked nor trifled with; in this light, as He is pleased to reveal it to us, we see and feel that every secret of our heart, every working of our mind is open before Him.

2. And also in this light, so far as He is pleased to manifest it, we see what we are in His holy and pure eyes—a mass of sin, filth, and corruption, without help, without strength, without wisdom, without righteousness, without creature loveliness, without anything of which we can say that it is spiritually good.

3. Again, God the Lord showing us light has showed us more or less of the way of salvation through Jesus Christ. He has not only showed us what we are by nature, but He has in a measure condescended to show us what we are by grace; not merely brought into our hearts some acquaintance with Himself as a God of perfect justice, but He has also brought, more or less, into our souls some acquaintance with Him as a God of mercy; and has thus brought us in some solemn measure to know Him, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent; and thus to have the springing up of spiritual life more or less, each according to his measure, in our souls.

II. THE BINDING OF THE SACRIFICE. But if we look at the text, "God is the Lord, He has showed us light," it seems to be connected with the latter clause, "Bind the sacrifice." There is a connection between the two clauses of this text. "God is the Lord, He has showed us light." He has. And He has showed us light in this way—that there is a binding of the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar. This is the chief reason for which the light is given, the main object on which the light is cast, the hidden mystery which the light discovers. As Moses turned aside to see the great sight of a bush burning and not consumed; as Abraham on Mount Moriah lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a ram caught in a thicket by his horns, so the great object, to see which light is shown, is the sacrifice bound with cords to the horns of the altar.

What sacrifice is this which is bound to the horns of the altar? This sacrifice, primarily, no doubt, signifies the Lord Jesus Christ, who offered Himself as a propitiation for the sins of His people; who according to eternal decree and covenant engagements, yielded up Himself as a spotless sacrifice, that, by the offering of Himself once upon the cross, He might forever put away the sins of the elect. Now this sacrifice is said in the text to be "bound unto the horns of the altar." The "horns of the altar" were four prominences or projections at each corner of the bronze altar, to which the victim was attached; and the very circumstance of the intended sacrifice being bound by cords to these horns of the altar shows that there was a repugnance in the victim to be there offered; that the struggling animal was bound by cords to the horns of the altar lest it should escape the knife, and burst away from the hands of the priests.

A. The sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Thus, spiritually, the one great SACRIFICE, the Lord of life and glory, the God-man Mediator, was bound to the horns of the altar. There were certain covenant engagements, which indeed He had freely and voluntarily undertaken, but which, being once entered into, bound Him to the horns of the altar. To take upon Him the seed of Abraham, to suffer, bleed, and die, and thus offer Himself a spotless sacrifice on the ever burning coals of Jehovah the Father's displeasure, was a great part of the solemn engagements of God the Son, according to those words, "Sacrifice and offering You would not, but a body have You prepared Me. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book—the book of eternal decree—it is written of Me) to do Your will, O God" (Heb. 10:5-7).

But again, not only was He bound by covenant engagements, but He was bound also with the strong, the equally strong ties of affection and love; and bound by these to the horns of the altar, bound to execute to the letter what He had undertaken, bound to go through that which He had covenanted, bound to fulfill the work which He had taken upon Himself in the solemn engagements of the Three-One God.

But why was the victim bound? It implies that there was a repugnance, a shrinking, an inward horror which would gladly drive it from the altar to which it was bound by these strong cords. So, in this great sacrifice of the Lord of life and glory, there were sufferings to be undergone, there was the cup of bitter anguish to be drunk, there were the solemn pangs of agony and horror under a sense of the wrath of God against sin to be endured, and by which He was well near overwhelmed when deep called unto deep at the noise of God's waterfalls, and all the waves and billows of divine vengeance rolled over His head; and therefore He says, "If it be Your will, let this cup pass from Me." Here was the shrinking of the Victim; here was His human nature borne down by the load of imputed guilt, and only held up from being utterly crushed and overwhelmed, by the divine nature supporting it. There was the shuddering of nature recoiling from the agonizing death; there was the horror of soul shrinking from the wrath of the Father; there was the heavy burden of imputed guilt pressing the blood from His brow; and all these things centering and meeting together, so as to make the sacrifice to be, what it was, a sacrifice in every sense of the word.

He was bound, then, to the horns of the altar; bound by covenant engagement, bound by the strong affections of His soul; and yet bound there as a struggling sacrifice; that is, feeling those strugglings within which made Him three times groan forth the agonizing cry, "O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me." There was the shrinking of the victim. "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will." There were the cords that bound Him to the horns of the altar, the unextinguished coals of God's ever blazing wrath against sin, and bound there to bear that weight of wrath to the uttermost.

B. A broken and contrite spirit. But there is another sense which these words will easily bear. We read that "the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise;" and, therefore, there is not merely the binding of the great sacrifice, the Lord of life and glory, the God-man Mediator—there is not merely the binding of Him to the horns of the altar as the one great atoning sacrifice, the only propitiation for sin; but there is also, in a secondary and inferior sense, the binding of the sacrifice of the broken and contrite spirit to the horns of that altar on which the Lord of life and glory bled and died.

Now, if this is true, if "the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit," then he alone is bound to the horns of the altar whose heart is broken, whose spirit is contrite, whose soul is humbled, and who is feelingly laid at the foot of the cross. There is no binding of a whole, 'unbroken' heart to the horns of the altar, that is no sacrifice. There is no binding of a light, trifling, proud, presumptuous self-confident spirit to the horns of the altar—that is no sacrifice. There is no binding of a speculative knowledge of doctrine as it stands in the letter, to the horns of the altar—that is no sacrifice. There is no binding of a heated imagination and a deluded heart to the horns of the altar—that is no sacrifice. The heart must be 'broken' first and made contrite; it must be laid low, meekened and softened by the operation of God the Holy Spirit in it and upon it, before it can be spiritually bound to the cross of the Lord Jesus.

Therefore, when you hear men or ministers setting forth the cross of Christ, and speaking of themselves as savingly interested in that great sacrifice, and you see them light, trifling, boasting, presumptuous, proud, covetous, worldly—such men carry with them their own stamp, that they have a lie in their right hand. They are not bound to the horns of the altar, because they are not bound there as a broken-hearted victim. They are not bound there by the cords that the Holy Spirit has wreathed round their soul; they are merely bound by the light strings which they themselves have entwined around their own presumptuous hearts, by the cords of doctrine, or the bands of profession, to what they call the cross of Christ, but which is no more the cross on which the Lord of life and glory died, than the painted crucifix of a popish chapel.

But what CORDS are these by which the sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit is bound to the horns of the altar?

1. There is, first, the strong cord of NECESSITY. By necessity I mean, felt necessity. I mean necessity in the way of inward experience. What binds a sinner to the cross of Jesus? One cord thrown round his tender conscience and broken heart, is the strong cord of necessity; or rather, to speak more correctly, faith working through and with necessity that he cannot do without the cross, that his conscience is guilty and needs to be purged with the blood of sprinkling, that he is lost and needs to be saved, that he is afar off and needs to be brought near, that he is a ruined wretch who needs a manifestation of mercy to his trembling heart. And, therefore, around the tender conscience of a living soul, the strong cord of necessity is bound. As the apostle says, "Necessity is laid upon me," so necessity is laid upon the child of God to cleave to the cross, a strong conviction that from the cross alone comes the blood of sprinkling, which "speaks better things than the blood of Abel."

2. But there is not only the strong cord of necessity; there is also the strong cord of AFFECTION, or rather, faith working by affection, as the apostle speaks, "faith which works by love." The real cord is faith, both in necessity and in affection, but I call these cords the cords of necessity and affection, for these are their prominent features, as experimentally felt. Where Christ is made in any measure experimentally known, He has gained the affections of the heart; He has, more or less, taken possession of the soul; He has, in some degree, endeared Himself as a bleeding, agonizing Savior to every one to whom He has in any way discovered Himself; and, therefore, the strong tie of love and affection is more or less powerfully wreathed round the tender spirit and broken heart, and by that it is attached to the horns of the altar. His name is more or less as "ointment poured forth." There is a preciousness in His blood, there is a beauty in His Person, though more marred than the sons of men; there is that secret loveliness in Him which wins and attracts and draws out the tender affections of the soul; and thus this cord of love twined round the heart binds it to the horns of the altar, to keep it fast and firm to the cross of the Lord Jesus.

But as remarked before, the expression "Bind the sacrifice with cords even unto the horns of the altar," implies that the victim needed to be bound. Why was the victim bound literally? The knife was to be applied to the throat, pain was to be endured, blood was to be shed, life was to be yielded up; and, therefore, the victim naturally, literally, was bound to the horns of the altar that it might not escape—that it might not get away, but that it might bleed and die upon the spot.

Now this implies spiritually and experimentally, that there is that which would drive us from the cross of Christ—that as the victim would gladly break away from the knife held out to its throat, that as it trembled and shrank from suffering and death, so there is in the children of God a struggling, a shrinking, a flying back from the suffering which is to be endured, an endeavoring to break away, if it were possible, from the cross to which they are attached. Who would not willingly escape convictions? Who would not evade the pangs of guilt? Who would willingly wade through seas of trouble? Who would groan and sigh under a body of sin and death? Who would smart under wounds that "stench and are corrupt because of his foolishness?" Who would have the leprosy of sin break out in his forehead, and stand before God full of "wounds and bruises and putrefying sores?" Nature shrinks from it! the flesh abhors it! the carnal mind will have none of it! And, therefore, the strong cord of necessity is wreathed round the soul that it may not get away from the cross.

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