Exodus (Lesson 57)

Welcome to the Preaching of the Cross Radio Podcast, featuring the radio ministry of Pastor James W.

Knox of the Bible Baptist Church of Delant, Florida.

Our prayer is that these half-hour Bible study programs will bring the lost to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and enable the saved to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior.

Now here's your host, Pastor James W.

Knox.

Very, very happy that you've tuned into the program today.

I know I say that every time, but every time I mean it, it's just a thrill to be able to teach God's Word, the Holy Bible, and it's a thrill to know that you want to hear God's Word, the Holy Bible.

So you put those two together.

I get a blessing, you get a blessing.

We trust that God gets a blessing as we honor His Word.

We are studying the Bible book of Exodus.

We have come to the 30th chapter, and we got through 16 verses of that chapter last time.

And so today, you can probably guess where we're going to start.

Exodus 30 and verse number 17.

And we'll be discussing on the program today the holy anointing oil.

The holy anointing oil.

Do you say why is that significant?

Everything in the Bible is significant.

Everything in the Bible is of importance.

And so we try as we go through verse by verse to get it all and learn all that we can from the pages of Scripture.

Now, let's read together.

We'll read the verses, then we'll talk about them, then read a few more, talk about them.

Starting in verse 17.

And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Thou shalt also make a lever of brass, and his foot also of brass to wash withal, and thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein, for Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat.

When they go in to the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water that they die not, or when they come near to the altar to minister to burn offering made by fire unto the Lord, so they shall wash their hands and their feet that they die not, and it shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his seed throughout their generations.

Obvious, it's obvious.

You got to be clean in the presence of the Lord.

Sanctified they are already, consecrated they are already.

And yet the defilement and the dirt that one picks up just walking through this world has to be washed and cleansed before one enters into the Lord's presence to worship the Lord.

You remember, Jesus went to wash the disciples' feet.

And Peter, well-meaning Peter, sincere Peter, but wrong, incorrect Peter, he rebuked the Lord.

He said, You're not going to wash me.

And Jesus said, If I don't wash you, you don't have any part with me.

And Peter said, Well, then wash every bit of me, not just my hands and feet.

And Jesus said, No, no, no.

If you've been washed, you just need your hands and your feet.

Just need a little touch-up work to be done.

Now, those of us that are washed clean in the precious blood of Jesus Christ, we stand as clean before God on the basis of that blood washing.

Not only that, the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, Titus 3.5, provided by the Lord when he saved us.

So our cleanliness, the cleansing that makes us meet to be called God's children, that takes place one time when we put our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

But, but day to day, in fact, hour by hour, we just pick up a little something here or there from walking through this world, and it clings to us, and it hinders us, and it makes us less than holy, and so God would have us to stop on the way in before we worship, and get all that cleaned up, get all that taken care of.

And that's the picture here with this uh laver of brass.

Now, verse 22.

Moreover the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take thou also unto thee principal spices of pure myrrh, five hundred shekels, and of sweet cinnamon half so much, even two hundred and fifty shekels, and of sweet calamus, two hundred and fifty shekels, and of cassia, five hundred shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, and an uh and of olive or oil olive and hen, and thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary.

It shall be in holy anointing oil, and thou shalt anoint the tabernacle of the congregation therewith, and the ark of the testimony, and the table and all his vessels, and the candlestick and his vessels, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt offering with all his vessels, and the labor and his foot, and thou shalt sanctify them that they be most holy.

Whatsoever toucheth them shall be holy, and thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister unto me in the priest's office, and thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, This shall be a holy anointing oil unto me throughout your generations.

Upon man's flesh shall it not be poured, neither shall you make any other like it.

After the composition of it, it is holy and shall be holy unto you.

Whosoever compoundeth any like it, or whosoever putteth any of it upon a stranger shall even be cut off from his people.

All right, this anointing oil had two purposes.

First, to anoint the tabernacle.

All the items in the tabernacle are mentioned specifically, a reminder that none of them must be omitted, and by this means they became most holy, that is, they became fit for the service of God.

The work of man's hand cannot be fit for God's service until it is anointed, just as believers become fit to serve when they receive the unction or anointing from the Holy Spirit.

And second, second, the oil was to anoint the priests when they were consecrated, and they were anointed once, just as the Holy Spirit was only given once.

So, this precious anointing oil was not to be poured on any other but the priests, nor was it to be made for any other purpose.

So grave a sin was it to even think of doing such that one would be cut off from among the people.

And so, who receives the Holy Spirit?

Not everyone, only believers to fit them for service in the presence of God.

What other purpose?

For what other purpose is the Holy Spirit given none whatsoever?

None whatsoever.

Now, in this compound we read about myrrh and cinnamon and calamus and cassia, and this these were all mixed together into a holy compound.

Now, myrrh is a gum which comes from the stem of a low thorny ragged tree that grows in the Arab lands and in East Africa.

The word uh pure pure myrrh means free flowing.

The best myrrh exudes spontaneously from the bark, while the inferior myrrh comes more abundantly by splitting the bark.

And the Lord said here, I want you to use the pure myrrh, free flowing.

Then cinnamon comes from a tree that grows in Ceylon and the islands of the Indian Ocean.

It is the dried inner rind of the tree.

You'll find it mentioned also in Proverbs 7.17, Song of Solomon 4.14, and Revelation 18.13.

Frankincense, verse 34, is the most important of the aromatic gums, and is regarded by itself as a precious perfume.

We learn that from Song of Solomon 3.6, 46, and 414.

While the other items in verse 34, uh sweet spices, uh stacti, onicha, and galbanum, these these additional spices are mentioned only here.

Frankincense is mentioned seventeen times in God's Word, the Bible.

In some Jewish rituals, the frankincense was used alone.

Number of references.

Leviticus 2.1, 6.15, 24 7, Numbers 5 15, 1 Chronicles 9 29, Nehemiah 13, 5-9.

It was, as you recall, one of the gifts that the wise men brought when they came to the house where the two-year-old Jesus was residing with his parents, in Matthew 2, verse 11.

Matthew 2:11

It's also named as one of the last-day articles of commerce in Babylon.

Revelation 18, verse 13.

Revelation 18:13

It comes from a tree that grows abundantly in India.

Song of Solomon 4 14 tells us that.

Cassia is the aromatic bark of a shrub resembling the cinnamon, which grows in various parts of the East.

Psalm 45.8, Ezekiel 27, 19, and then the sweet calamus.

That's a fragrant cane.

It grows in Arabia and India, and from whose root a highly prized spice is taken.

Again, those references, Song of Solomon 414 and Ezekiel 27, verse 19.

Ezekiel 27:19

The stacti is a fatty, resinous liquid, very, very strong odor.

It distills or falls in drops from fresh myrrh or cinnamon.

The olicha, this is a shell of a species of mussel found in the lakes of India, and when burned, it gives off a musky odor.

Galbanum is a resin flowing from the stem of an umbrelliferous African plant.

It has an acrid or bitter taste and a strong, unpleasant smell.

But you mix them all together, some sweet, some bitter, some strong, some gentle, and you get this beautiful, wonderful, spicy anointing oil that was used on the high priest and the items of the tabernacle.

Now, myrrh, myrrh, it's uh worth noting some of the times and places where this is mentioned.

In Psalm 45, 8.

Well, Psalm 45, we have a picture of Jesus Christ as the bridegroom in his royal wedding being joined to his bride.

And in that passage, we are told that uh the garments of the king smelled of myrrh.

Myrrh in the Bible speaks of the sufferings, the sufferings of the Lord.

It was uh well, it it it it just that gold and frankincense and myrrh, the uh the wise man, even in those early gifts, pointed to the fact that Jesus Christ had come to suffer.

But as the king takes his bride, everyone is reminded of what he did and the price he paid to purchase that bride for himself.

He he truly laid down his life to obtain her in Song of Solomon, verse uh thirteen of chapter one.

Her beloved is a bundle of myrrh unto her.

During the night of his rejection, his own love him and hold him dear.

He enjoys her affections, but she enjoys the fragrance that he brings.

In Matthew 2 11, the wise men brought the myrrh in anticipation of his sufferings.

In Mark 15 23, they offered him myrrh on the cross, but he would take nothing to alleviate the pain.

In John 19 39, Nicodemus brought a great weight of myrrh and aloes to anoint the body of Jesus.

And in Revelation 2.8, Smyrna.

Smyrna, hear it?

The myrrh there.

That's the name.

The name means myrrh, place of myrrh, and it symbolizes the suffering of the church in that town.

Myrrh has always been valued.

It was among the commodities taken by the merchants down to Egypt in Genesis 37.

It also formed part of the gift that Jacob sent to Joseph in Genesis 43 and verse 11.

So this oil, beautiful to smell, expensive, difficult to make.

These things had to be brought from all the world over.

But there's there's nothing, uh, no reason to cut any corners.

We're dealing here with a place where God's people worship God.

And we ought to uh marvel at the precision and the detail set forth with regard to this anointing oil.

In verse 35, thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection, after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy, and thou shalt meet some of it very small and put of it before the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation, where I will meet with thee.

It shall be unto you most holy.

And as for the perfume which thou shalt make, ye shall not make to yourselves according to the composition thereof, it shall be unto thee holy for the Lord.

Whosoever shall make like unto that to smell thereto shall even be cut off from his people.

You know, it it it appears that there's always been this danger on the part of God's people to take those things which pertain to God and to the worship of God and make them ordinary, to make them common.

The argument that many would offer is that we're not sinning or we're not turning something good or something holy into something sinful, but I would suggest to you that the Bible teaches, uh in fact, I'm certain that the Bible teaches, that there is a danger of taking something that should be absolutely holy and making it something common, ordinary, something not necessarily sinful.

We're not talking about committing iniquity, we're just talking about losing reverence and losing value for the things of God.

Now look, I I I I want to be very careful how I say this because the building, the building is not the church, the people of the church.

I understand that.

And I want to say this very carefully because I know that that uh in America we've got so much wealth and so much money that we can build just about anything.

And if if it's uh if we want to do uh two things, we build two buildings, we don't do two things in one building.

If we want to build uh if we want to do four things, we build four buildings, we don't do four things in one building.

I look, I understand, so I'm trying to be very careful because if something's not true everywhere in the world, it's not true anywhere in the world, and so I I don't want to fall victim to to preaching and teaching an American version of Christianity.

But please hear what I'm saying.

This tabernacle that was constructed in the wilderness was constructed and built for the sole purpose of worshiping God.

It was a place where the furniture was holy.

It was a place where the very lights were holy.

It was a place where the walls, the curtains were holy.

It was a place where the vessels for washing were holy.

It was a place where the altar was holy, where the table was holy, where the food inside was holy.

There was there was nothing about it that was common or ordinary.

It was all to be understood as being very special, and special not because of the wealth or extravagance or beauty, but because it was the place where God did meet with man.

Now, I I want to ask you something, and I'm I'm I'm being as serious as I can be, and I'm not trying to be overc overly critical.

I I just want to ask you something.

Can you picture, can you picture, on the month after the tabernacle was erected, and and two months after Aaron received the holy anointing, and three months after the light of the candlestick was first lit, and the fires on the brazen altar were first kindled?

Can you picture the people coming into the tabernacle in their crummiest clothes and playing volleyball?

You said they didn't have vol you under listen, just stay with me, please.

Can you under can you picture, can you imagine in your mind the people turning the tabernacle into a place for games and play and secular amusement and worldly activity?

And justifying it all by saying, well, look how many more people come if we don't care how anyone dresses, and if we don't come here for the worship of God, and if we don't treat the place like it's some sort of super holy, special, sanctified worship center.

Now you know that you can't in your in your darkest imagination, you cannot picture within six months of that tabernacle being constructed, the people using it for a playhouse.

Everything in that building was consecrated for the service of God and the worship of God.

Now here's what I want to know.

How have we reached the place in the churches of our land where we no longer consider the place to be holy?

We no longer consider the altar to be holy.

We no longer see any need to be washed and cleansed before we enter.

We no longer consider the light that shines in that place to be a holy light, the walls and the curtains and the and the surroundings to be anointed, specially anointed, to set them apart and to sanctify them, to make them meet and fit for a place where God would meet with man.

I am afraid, my friends, and I do not want to be overly critical.

I do not want to be hypersensitive, but I am afraid that under the excuse of we have to be relevant to our generation, that we are becoming our generation.

I am deeply concerned that while we say we just have to relate to the people of our day, that we are turning God's people back into the people of our day.

Why should people stagger out of bars and find themselves in churches and find that the churches have been conformed and transformed so that the bar hopping crowd feels comfortable and feels and doesn't feel out of place.

If I, as a saved Christian, indwelt by God's Holy Spirit, living in accord with God's Holy Bible, if I walked into a nightclub or a bar or a house where people were doing drugs or a place of prostitution, I would hope to God, I would expect to feel completely out of place and massively uncomfortable.

I would not expect a bar to begin to play conservative Christian music so that I would feel at home there.

I would not expect a bar to stop serving booze so that I wouldn't be offended there.

I would not expect a bar to require its patrons put on decent clothing so I would not be offended by their attire.

I would expect that bar to be what it is, to be what it's supposed to be, whether a Christian ever walked in there or not.

In fact, if a Christian did walk in there, I would expect the people in that bar and the owners of that bar to do everything in their power to turn that Christian from their faith and make them a dirty, drunken adulterer or adulteress?

That's what I would expect of a bar.

Now, why in this world would lost people who love sin, love iniquity, love filth, love wickedness, who wallow in their shame and glory and their depravity, why on earth are we reworking and reshaping and reorganizing and redirecting our churches so that those people are not offended, so that those people are not uncomfortable, and so that those people do not feel out of place.

Would someone please explain to me the madness of such compromise?

Have you forgotten that God is holy?

Have you forgotten that in the holy place where God met with his people, his people were to be holy, and they were to recognize that the walls and the floor and the furniture and the vessels and the basins and the clothing, everything in that place was to be dedicated and sanctified to and for the worship of God?

Why?

Why have we turned our churches into entertainment centers for carnal worldly people?

Why have we turned our churches into playhouses for intemperate and insincere teenagers?

Why have we abandoned our unapologetic love for and our uncompromised worship of the Lord Jesus Christ in order to satisfy the ever-changing appetites and demands of an ungodly and an unsaved populace?

Shame on the preachers, shame on the deacons, shame on the bishops, shame on the elders, shame on the congregations for forgetting all about holiness and substituting it for big crowds.

Look, we have a big crowd.

God must be pleased.

Really?

Really?

If you had to abandon the evident, visible testimony of his holiness and his righteousness in order to get that big crowd, he is not pleased.

Did they have a big crowd on the ark or a faithful crowd?

Will there be a big crowd in the rapture or a faithful crowd?

Just asking.

I think you know the answer.

Well, that wasn't in the notes, but there we went.

This is the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast.

We are very blessed when you take the time to write to us.

Every day it's a joy to go to the mailbox and read those letters from across the nation and around the world.

Would you please write to us today?

Our mailing address is 872 Glenwood Road.

872 Glenwood Road.

That's in D-Land.

D-E-L-A-N-D.

D-Land, Florida.

The zip code number 32720.

That mailing address is in the United States of America.

Now, you may also visit us on the world wide web.

Be careful, it's a web.

It's called the Internet.

Be careful.

And our address there, you can type in the preaching of the cross or JamesKnox.com.

JamesKnox.com.

That'll get you there as well.

All right, this program is heard by the grace of God and through your kind help on many different radio stations.

We'll trust the announcer to come on in just a moment and let you know when it'll be heard again over this particular station.

And we hope at that time that you will join us for the Preaching of the Cross radio broadcast.

Until then, I'm Brother James.

May the Lord richly bless you, and good day.

For hundreds of hours of in-depth expository Bible teaching, please visit our YouTube channel, James W.

Knox Sermons, our sermon audio page, Bible Baptistoland, or our website, Bible Baptistteland.com.

Until next time and throughout eternity, may Jesus Christ be praised.