Some years ago I was criticised by some because I had ceased to practice an altar call. The accusation was essentially one of theological liberalism. I was accused of not preaching the gospel—simply because I stopped giving an altar call at the end of my sermon. This was viewed as tantamount to not affording people the opportunity of being saved.
An altar call is an integral part of a worship service in the Baptist heritage in which I was raised. Once the sermon is preached, the pastor invites people to leave their seats and make their way down the aisle toward the pulpit. At the pulpit, counsellors are waiting who will take each person aside and explain the gospel to them in greater detail, affording them the opportunity to be saved. Sometimes an altar call is prefaced by such words as, “We now come to the most important part of the service.”
Several years ago I came to the conclusion that such altar calls have no Scriptural support. In fact, the altar call as we know it was only introduced in the 1830s. Before that time, God saved people without an altar call, and so it makes no biblical sense to insist on an altar call to provide opportunity for people to respond to the gospel.
In short, I came to the biblical conviction that altar calls have no Scriptural support. They are human inventions which, in a subtle way, can be a denial of God’s sovereign grace in the work of salvation. In fact, an altar call is actually closer to theological liberalism than to biblical orthodoxy, for it indicates more trust in the will of man than in the will (and power) of God. Surely God has the power to save people—whether or not they walk down an aisle or repeat a prayer after a particular counsellor.
And yet, in the text before us, God gives to Moses specific instructions for an altar. In a very real sense, God gives an altar call. He issues a call to those who are already His to come to the altar for worship. The command here is not to receive the gospel, but to worship. And I dare say that it is a call that we as the church must hear afresh—over and over.
It is all-too-easy for us to allow culture or society to inform our worship. We tend easily to forget that God has given to us means of worship. He has a particular way in which He expects to be worshipped, and He reveals that to us in Scripture. The church needs to be continually reminded of who God is and therefore reminded of how He expects us to worship Him. This is what the Israelites faced.
God had redeemed His people from Egypt. He had called them out and, at least 15 times prior to our text, He has said that He did so in order that they might know that He is the Lord. He had graciously delivered them from bondage and had completely humiliated the Egyptian forces at the Red Sea. The people had been travelling through the wilderness for just a few months, and had spent a good part of that time at Mount Sinai. God had given them His law in the form of the Ten Commandments, and in the chapters to follow He will give further instructions to them on how they were to treat each other. But before He does so, He first tells them what He expects from them in terms of worship. Before they could treat one another properly they must first respond to God in a biblical manner. They must first be reminded of the God of their Fathers, and this is a reminder that we also need.
I recently had the inestimable privilege to attend the Together for the Gospel Conference and to sit under the instruction of several men of God, whose teaching refreshed me in the glory of the gospel. Each of the speakers simply reiterated the old, old story of Jesus and His love. Through powerful exposition of Scripture, these men reminded us that God has not changed, that man has not changed and that God still wants to be worshipped the same way He has always wanted to be worshipped: in accordance with His Word.
In spite of cultural changes, in spite of the onslaught of various isms, we are called to worship our God by answering the call to come to the altar of Christ Jesus our Lord. Let’s learn about this now.
The Context of the Altar Call
Verse 22 begins a particular section of Scripture called “the Book of the Covenant.” This section runs up through 24:8. In this section, as I have mentioned above, God reveals how He expects the Israelites to treat one another. But He begins by revealing to them how He expects to be treated, for unless they respond to God in a worthy manner, they will never treat one another as they ought.
God desires to be worshipped. He redeems us in order for us to worship Him. We will develop this later, but we should also note that God cannot be properly worshipped apart from the altar, and our Altar is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. The altar in Exodus 20 points us to Christ, the only means by which God can be acceptably worshipped.
I recently read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. Dawkins, a professor at Oxford University, is probably the most militant atheist alive today. He is a brilliant communicator—gifted by the very God whose existence he denies—but he firmly believes that God is nothing more than a delusion. The book is a 400+ page unrelenting attack upon belief in the God of the Bible. His most determined argument is the fact that God cannot be seen. If He cannot be seen, He must therefore not exist.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) was probably the most militant atheist of his generation, and Dawkins references Russell in his book. Asked what he would say if he died and found himself confronted by God, demanding to know why he did not believe in Him, Russell would simply say, “Not enough evidence, God, not enough evidence.”
At the Together for the Gospel Conference I was speaking to a publisher for Evangelical Press, which publishes several Christian responses to The God Delusion. I told him that I had recently read Dawkins’ work and he asked what I thought of it. I told him that, as I read, I could not help but think, at just about every page, of Romans 1-2.
In the opening chapters of his letter to the Romans, Paul argues that, by virtue of creation and conscience (and, for many, His commandments), God has given every human being all the evidence he needs to come to the conclusion that He exists. It is only because man has suppressed this truth that atheism persists. This is nothing new, according to Paul. From the very beginning of time man has rejected God’s revelation and chosen to worship the creation rather than the Creator.
Rather than wringing His hands in despair and wondering what must be done to convince such individuals, God has given them over to a reprobate mind, hardening them in their own unbelief. Dawkins is no doubt one such individual. Though he is a genius on an intellectual level, where it really matters he is nothing more than a biblical fool (Psalm 14:1).
It is interesting that, in issuing His instructions to the Israelites concerning worship, God does not give evidence of His existence in the form of images. Instead, He gives them His Word. Based on His Word, He expected them to obey Him. The evidence (“you have seen”) was His Word (“that I have talked”) (v. 22). The Arabic proverb tells us that the good speaker turns the listener’s ears into eyes. God had communicated His Word to Israel, and that was all the evidence they needed to obey Him.
Let’s now take a closer look at the text and see precisely what this altar call involves.
The Concern of the Altar
The concern of the altar, simply stated, was exclusive worship. God expected to be worshipped to the exclusion of all other so-called deities.
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. You shall not make anything to be with Me—gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves.’”
(Exodus 20:22-23)
God is intolerant. He is a jealous God. And He does not want others to have less than what is available to them: Him!
Moses, God’s appointed mediator, was to reveal His transcendence to those with whom He desired a relationship. The mediator was to lift their hearts above the mundane so that they could hear God’s voice. They must not settle for false, domesticated gods. Only the true God of the Bible deserved their worship.
False gods are always gods one can see and touch, and this very quality demonstrates their falsity and their nonexistence as gods. The true God is incomprehensible and incomparable. As W. H. Gispen has said,
Gold and silver are mentioned specifically to make clear that even the most precious and valuable things could not be compared to Him who spoke from heaven. It does not mean that simply images of wood or stone were permissible.
Despite what atheists like Bertrand Russell and Richard Dawkins would have us believe, God’s invisibility does not mean that God is an illusion. He is very real, and He expects real and exclusive worship.
Let me ask at this point, have you embraced God’s concern? Are you committed to exclusive worship? Will you empty your hands of everything and come to the living God alone in humble worship?
The Call of the Altar
At this point in history, the children of Israel were destined to soon enter Canaan. Of course, we know that their own disobedience eventually caused them to wander for 40 years in the wilderness, but obedience to God would have led them directly to the Promised Land within a few months. God was preparing them for that.
Our Worship Must Be Scriptural
You see, God knew that, upon entering the Promised Land, they would be surrounded by pagans who worshipped false gods represented by various images. He knew that the temptation of the Israelites would be to mimic this emphasis on images. Even if they constructed an image of that which they most valued (“gold” and “silver”) God would reject it.
Not only does this text emphasise the call to exclusive worship, but it also emphasises the call to Scriptural worship. We must worship only the true God, but we must also worship Him only in the way that He prescribes. “The Jews were called to be a people of the Word,” writes Warren Wiersbe. “The success of the nation depended on hearing God’s Word, believing it and obeying it.”
There were some 7,000 attendees at the Together for the Gospel Conference. It was a glorious thing to sing songs of worship to God with fellow believers in Christ. The words were displayed as we sang, and the constant reminder was for us to focus on the lyrics. We were singing truth, and even while 7,000 voices were raised in praise to God, I could hear God’s voice speaking to my soul. As the designated speakers declared God’s Word, without fanfare, we could hear God speaking to our souls. The Israelites heard an audible voice from atop Mount Sinai. We no longer hear God’s audible voice, but when truth is proclaimed from Scripture God speaks to us. And as God spoke to us we worshipped. A holy hush descended as God’s servants proclaimed His Word. We were hearing the voice of God and it drove us to worship.
Before God said anything about the altar, He reminded the Israelites that He had formed them by His Word. It was His Word, and nothing else, that would provoke in them acceptable worship. It was by their Word that He would be sustained.
God’s invisibility does not make Him less real. In fact, it is because He is real that He is invisible. As Scripture clearly testifies, no man can see God and live. But we have His Word by which we know of His reality. Richard Dawkins sets forth a number of arguments against the existence of God, but those who belong to Him hear His voice as the truth of His Word is preached.
The response of Israel to God was informed by Scripture, and for our worship to be accepted it must likewise be informed by Scripture. “We are not to pattern our worship after the values of the surrounding culture,” writes Ryken. There is nothing more powerfully transforming than biblical, public, corporate worship.
There are many who are leaving evangelical churches today because they are tired of going to church only to watch a performance on a stage. They are flocking instead to churches where worship gives a sense of transcendence.
This sense of transcendence cannot be explained. Can it be explained how a sinful man stands behind a wooden pulpit and delivers a discourse from a book printed in black and white letters which somehow drives an entire congregation to worship? How does a sense of God’s presence result from such a seemingly mundane activity?
At the Conference I heard a man named Matt Chandler speak. He began pasturing a church in Dallas, Texas at the age of 28. When he first assumed the pastorate of the church it was running a membership of 160. For the last five years the church has grown by 1,000 annually. He testified that his church is filled with young people (in their 20s and 30s) who are “looking for parameters.” There are no bells and whistles in that church. They sing songs of worship, pray to God, read Scripture and hear it expounded, but God has worked mightily in that area and built a healthy, vibrant church. He has transformed lives through His Word.
The Word of God must shape our worship, must shape our view of God, must shape the way in which we live. We do not need bells and whistles; we must instead maintain a firm focus on God’s Word. Through that we will become better worshippers, and people will be converted for God’s glory.
John MacArthur spoke at the Conference on “The Theology of Sleep.” His text was Mark 4:26-29, where Jesus told the parable of the growing seed. A farmer scattered his seed on the ground and even while he slept at night the seed grew into healthy crops. The farmer did not understand all that took place biologically, and he did not have to be so concerned that he lost sleep. He simply did what was expected of a farmer and trusted God to do the rest.
In like manner, says MacArthur, we need to have a theology of sleep. We sow God’s Word, we preach the truth, and then we trust God to work in hearts and produce fruit. God does not require sleepless nights from us in order to produce fruit for His glory.
Worship that is Scriptural is by nature countercultural. We live in a day of images, but God will not be represented by images. Innovations are not allowed! At the Conference R. C. Sproul spoke via live streaming from his home city. He encouraged us, as did all the speakers, to remain biblical in our preaching. For fifty years, he said, he has seen innovation after innovation enter and exit the church, but the biblical preaching of God’s Word remains firm.
Our Worship Must Be Simple
God-appointed worship is simple. Consider God’s instructions for worship.
An altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I record My name I will come to you and I will bless you. And if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it.
(Exodus 20:24-25)
God did not require anything elaborate. “An altar of earth” would suffice. In fact, even if they chose to make it of stone, He would not accept something that was constructed of “hewn [chiselled] stone.” It must be rough stone. They would not be heard for their much speaking or their complicated innovations. The emphasis was not on how the altar looked but on what would happen on it.
New covenant biblical worship is no more complicated than old covenant worship. What does God require of us today who worship Him? The elements of biblical worship are plain: We must sing Scripture, we must pray Scripture, we must read Scripture, we must preach Scripture and we must display Scripture in the ordinances (baptism and the Lord’s Supper). Worship is offered by ordinary churches under the leadership of ordinary pastors using God’s ordinary means. This is God’s method of accomplishing his extraordinary purposes.
I was reminded at the Conference that church size is a relative thing. Our church has some 250 members, with perhaps 350-400 in attendance each week. In South African Reformed circles we are considered by many to be a large church. At the Conference, I was talking to a particular man who asked if I was a pastor. When I told him that I pastor a church in South Africa he immediately asked how many members we have. (It’s an interesting thing that the first question often asked by pastors who do not believe that the size of a church has any bearing on its standing before God is how many members a church has!) I told him, and he responded by telling me of the burden that he has for “small” churches like ours.
But whether your church has 10,000 members or 250 members, we are all called to do the same thing: to offer God Scriptural, simple worship. As long as we are biblically practising the ordained elements of worship, God will receive and bless it.
C. J. Mahaney, one of the speakers at the Conference, spoke about “ordinary pastors.” He made reference to Tom Carson (father of well-known theologian and author Don Carson) who pastored for many years, but never more than about 40 people at one time. Don Carson has written a tribute to his father, whom he called an “ordinary pastor.” Mahaney made the point that God most often uses ordinary pastors and ordinary churches to change the world.
God’s altar was one of earth or perhaps unchiselled stone. Nothing elaborate was required for worship. I am thankful for that. I am thankful that God receives simple worship, so long as it is offered in Scriptural sincerity.
In 1 Kings 19, we have the record of Elijah’s despondence. He came to the point in his ministry where he felt as if he was all alone. He had ministered faithfully for the glory of God, but it seemed that his ministry was completely fruitless. In the preceding chapter, he stood alone against 850 false prophets. Even though God granted him a tremendous victory, his life was still under threat by the crown.
Elijah became so despondent that he asked God to allow him to die. God responded to his request by giving him a fresh reminder of His character and then He said to Elijah, “I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him” (1 Kings 19:18).
We don’t know the names of most of those 7,000—but God did! We can probably name Elisha, Micaiah and Obadiah amongst them, but for the most part we have no idea who they were. They were simply ordinary believers, offering biblical, simple worship to God, whom God used to maintain His purpose for Israel.
Earth and stone could be found anywhere, and therefore worship could be offered anywhere. Similarly, the simplicity of our worship means that in can be reproduced anywhere. “In every place where I record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you.” Wherever God chooses to be worshipped, worshippers can be blessed if they offer simple, Scriptural worship to Him.
Eventually, of course, God chose a specific place of worship. The temple was built in Jerusalem and it was there that the Jews came to worship. In our new covenant era, there is no longer one centre of worship. God can be worshipped anywhere, for the church is now the temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 2:20-22; 1 Peter 2:4-5).
Our Worship Must Be Sacrificial
The word “altar” comes from a root word that means “to slaughter,” and so even in the use of the word “altar” we see the concept of sacrifice. But God makes it explicit in v. 24: “An altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings.”
Two offerings are mentioned here. The first was the “burnt offering.” With burnt offerings, the entire offering was dedicated to God. The word “burnt” literally means to rise up, and the picture is often portrayed in Scripture that burnt offerings—when offered biblically—were a sweet aroma in God’s nostrils.
The second offering was a “peace offering,” or a fellowship offering. The word “peace” comes from the root word shalom, and it refers to the condition of being in covenant with God, and therefore in Communion with him and with fellow worshippers.
It is interesting that this command to worship is preceded by the Ten Commandments. Anyone seriously reflecting on the Ten Commandments will feel the weight of sin. You will realise upon serious reflection on the Ten Commandments that you are not right with God. But it is precisely at that point that you must approach the altar and come to God in worship. He has provided the sacrifice necessary to make you right with Him so that you can worship Him. And, significantly, once the command to worship is given God then fleshes out the Ten Commandments, showing those who had been redeemed and come to worship Him how they are to live. Philip Ryken puts it well:
By providing a way to make atonement, God gave his people everything they needed for their salvation. . . . God brought them out of bondage. Then he told them how he wanted them to live. . . . But God knew that his people would break his law; so he also gave them sacrifices to pay for sin and reconcile them to himself.
Of course, things are procedurally different for us. We do not bring blood sacrifices to a physical altar today. The altar of Exodus 20 was merely a foreshadowing of a greater altar.
We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
(Hebrews 13:10-16)
The Lord Jesus Christ is our sacrifice. Jesus’ sacrifice on Calvary was the sweet smelling aroma that God accepted once for all (Ephesians 5:1-2). Every blood sacrifice in the Old Testament was merely a shadow of Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice. To be accepted, our worship must be gospel-centred.
It is all-too-easy to preach from God’s Word and yet to miss the gospel. The Word of God can be used therapeutically. Many use God’s Word to promise their hearers a better life, a better marriage, a better family. These may or may not be result from submission to God’s Word, but our focus must be fixed firmly on the cross of Christ. God’s Word is more than a how-to manual; it points to Jesus Christ, the sacrifice by which our worship is accepted.
Our Worship Must Be Sober
God’s final instruction may seem strange to our ears: “Nor shall you go up by steps to My altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed on it” (v. 26). Dawkins, who pulls no punches in his irreverence, complains that God is a prude. He speaks of the Bible’s frequent references to “nakedness” in a negative sense and concludes the prudishness of the Bible’s God from it.
Nakedness in Scripture usually has a sexual connotation, and often it refers to a sense of shame (1 Samuel 20:30; Ezekiel 16:8; Revelation 2:18; 16:15; etc.). But God is not a prude. The emphasis on nakedness in this text is to show the need to be sober about having our sin covered.
You will remember that Adam and Eve were created naked. In their prefallen state they were naked and unashamed. When they fell, however, they suddenly realised that they were naked and felt a great sense of shame. They immediately covered themselves, though ultimately their covering proved useless and God Himself made clothing for them. The point is, however, that the clothing provided for them pictured a covering for their sin.
God prohibited the people from elevating the altar because if they did so their nakedness would be revealed as they walked up the steps and those on the ground could see up the garments that they wore. God was not being prudish, but the nakedness of the people spoke to their sin problem, and the altar was a picture of sin being forgiven.
When it comes to worshipping God, it is necessary for us to have a proper sense of shame. God views those who have placed their faith in Christ as being as righteous as Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21). But even though we are positionally righteous in Christ, we still sin, and therefore when we come to worship God we must do so with a proper sense of sobriety over our sin. Worship must be offered in humility.
At the Conference, the humility of the speakers struck me powerfully. In particular, I could sense this in the ministry of John Piper. There was almost a sense in which he was embarrassed about the task to which he had been assigned. He was not in the least apologetic about his message, but he manifested a healthy sense of humility that God would use him to deliver His Word.
God does not want us to be haphazard in our worship. We must approach the altar with a healthy sense of humility and sobriety.
Later, when God gives instruction for the tabernacle, He commands that steps be built to the altar. However, only the priests are permitted to go up the steps, and the priestly garments were to contain an undergarment to hide the nakedness of the priests as they walked up the steps. God would provide a covering to hide the shame of those participating in worship (Exodus 28:42-43).
When we worship God we do as sinners—saved sinners, yes, but sinners nevertheless. When we gather for worship we must do so with the sense that we are sinners in need of a Saviour. We must be thankful that we have a Saviour, but we must never underestimate the gravity of our sin condition. I dare say that approaching worship with this sense of sobriety will allow us to hear with greater reverence the Word of God which transforms our lives.
Let us remember that when Jesus Christ was crucified, He was naked. The Roman soldiers stripped Him of His garment as gambled for it while His shame was exposed on the cross. He died naked because He bore iniquity—not His own, but ours! He took our shame that we might be clothed unashamed in righteousness. In the ultimate act of worship, Jesus made it possible for us to hear and embrace the call of the altar.
Have you heard God’s call to His perfect altar, the Lord Jesus Christ? If not, then hear the call and run to Him today. Believer, let us daily obey the call of the altar and offer ourselves as living sacrifices, for He was the accepted sacrifice on our behalf. Amazing love, how can it be, that thou, my God, shouldst die for me!