I'm sure it's a real joy to be
together again and gather round the precious word
of our Lord Jesus.
We give thanks to God for the privilege.
I humbly and earnestly pray as we've already
suggested in our prayers, it will please God
to preserve the testimony of his people until
our Saviour returns, that we may gather together
freely in this land of ours.
The greatest object on this earth, dearest to
the heart of God, is the church.
And those who belong to him, they are
the eternal object of his affection and the
affection of Christ.
And my humble desire is that you and
I will fulfill the scriptures to ask God's
preservation of our testimony for him until our
Saviour returns.
Now just a word about the book our
brother mentioned.
Just two months ago I had the privilege
of reading quite an elaborate number of letters,
commenting and appreciating the contents of the book
in regard to the Christian life.
From both old and young, from old brethren
that perhaps would be over 80 years old,
down to young teenagers, all expressing their appreciation
and help for the ministry of this book,
Living is Life.
It is a very worthy gift for any
young believer.
Do avail yourself of getting one out of
the bookstore if you can pass it on
to others, and even use it for yourself.
It's useful for Bible study in classrooms, for
individual study, for prayer meetings and Bible studies
in the local churches, and God, thanks be
to his name, is blessing it in that
way.
Today I would like to speak to you
and read first of all from one of
the psalms we mentioned last night, Psalm 133,
and then read a short section in the
book of Exodus, chapter 30.
First of all in Psalm 133, the words
that we read concerning the fellowship of God's
beloved people, whether it be the people of
God in the nation of Israel in a
past day, whether it be the people of
God in the nation of Israel in a
coming day, or whether it be the people
of God in this present day, we have
the blessed, appropriate words concerning their fellowship.
May I read verse 1, 2, and 3
of Psalm 133.
Behold how good and how pleasant it is
for brethren to dwell together in unity.
It is like the precious ointment, or the
anointing oil upon the head, that ran down
upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, that went
down to the skirts of his garments, as
the dew of Hermon, and as the dew
that descended upon the mountains of Zion.
For there the Lord commanded the blessing, even
life forevermore.
The book of Exodus, if you please.
The book of Exodus, reading in chapter 30,
from verse 22 through verse 25.
Exodus chapter 30, the second book of your
Bible, beginning at verse 22.
Moreover the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take
thou also unto thee principal or chief 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 cashier five
hundred shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary,
and of oil, olive, and hymn, that is
one and one-fifth gallon of olive oil,
and thou shalt make it an oil of
holy ointment, anointment compound after the art of
the apothecary.
It shall be an holy anointing oil.
May God bless the reading and the hearing
of his word.
Humbly but gratefully we depend upon the Holy
Spirit of God to be the teacher and
the revealer of the precious truth that lies
buried in the depths of this wonderful book,
the Word of God, the Bible.
Just a brief word again concerning Psalm 133.
There are many applications, a few applications that
can be given to the psalm, as we
mentioned in our preceding message.
First of all, it undoubtedly, in its primary
meaning, has a future application.
When in the glory of their kingdom, the
remnant of Israel that shall be redeemed, restored,
and glorified as a nation around their Messiah,
the King, the Lord Jesus Christ, will be
dwelling together in unity in that blessed day
of glory when our Saviour reigns.
May I give a word of emphasis, just
briefly, but I think it's necessary, on the
blessed hope that lies before Israel.
One of the tragic things that troubles my
heart is the realization that we have some
of our beloved brethren in the Lord who
teach that there is no future hope for
Israel, to which I heartily and fully disagree
when I read the Word of God.
The hope of Israel is genuine, and the
very present situation in the land of Israel
today, the very circumstances that surround the land
as well as possess the land, and the
very environment of the nations that lie around
them today, is one of the greatest prophetical
significant facts that the coming of the Lord
Jesus to the earth, to be King of
kings and Lord of lords, is very near.
One has only but to listen to the
political or the news broadcasts of today, to
recognize the development of Holy Scripture to the
final fulfillment, and I'm very confident that the
nation of Israel has returned and is developing
in the purposes of God according to His
Word, to that program that will eventually and
very quickly bring to pass their period of
greatest testing and their greatest deliverance when the
Lord Jesus comes.
Psalm 133 as well as Psalm 134 sets
before us the glory of that day when
they shall be dwelling together, good and pleasant,
in unity around their blessed Messiah.
Then we have mentioned, and we mentioned it
again briefly, the psalm pictures the beautiful unity
that the Spirit of God formed at Pentecost.
And may I say once again, and I
say it with gratitude, that you and I
should be grateful that in this land and
in this world, the Spirit of God has
called out a people from among the nations
to be the members of the body of
Christ, to be the members of that blessed
church of which our Lord Jesus is the
head.
And that within the nations there is that
testimony that the unity of the Spirit manifests
as having been formed, for we all have
been baptized into one body, whether we be
Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bound or
free, we have been all made to drink
into the one Spirit.
It is a joy to recognize that unity
exists.
You and I could never have formed it,
God formed it, and the Spirit of God
formed it.
And thank God, within the nations of the
world there is that blessed unity formed to
which you and I as a believer belong.
Now the psalm suggests to us the preciousness
of that unity when it's carried out in
goodly and pleasant manifestation.
And one can but make a plea for
what I would like to speak to you
about this morning, for the fragrance of Christian
fellowship.
You note the psalm, as we mentioned briefly
last night, suggests that when God sees his
people dwelling together, it reminds them of the
precious anointing oil that was upon Aaron's head
poured at his consecration to the high priest's
office.
Going down his head, his beard, and down
to the skirts of his garments, that fragrant
anointing oil, which God himself had ordered to
be made, reminds God of the fragrance that
he desires to see in the midst and
upon his people wherever they are.
May I suggest to you, my beloved brother,
as well as to you, my beloved sister,
and to myself, the fragrance of Christian fellowship
as but one expression when it is seen.
That fragrance is Christ.
That fragrance can be nothing but Christ.
That fragrance should be nothing but Christ.
For what God inhaled whenever the high priest
was anointed was a fragrance that he knew
typified the glories and the excellencies of his
beloved son when that son walked and lived
here upon the earth.
Go with me, will you please, back to
the book of Exodus, and consider carefully in
the scripture that we have read the anointing
oil with its different constituents, and all that
it involved in the making of it for
the anointing of Aaron.
Now let me repeat, and this will be
the emphasis.
Every ingredient of that anointing oil, and there
were four special spices together mixed with the
olive oil, all spoke to God of the
fragrance of Christ.
I do know how much you are as
a firm believer that in the word of
God the glories of Christ can be found
revealed from the beginning to the end.
Paul wrote the words of 2 Corinthians 3
and verse 18 saying, beholding as in a
mirror the glory of the Lord, we are
changed, we are transfigured, we are transformed into
the same image from glory to glory, even
as by the Spirit of the Lord.
What Paul means is this, there is a
mirror, there is a reflecting looking glass, and
in that looking glass there is a glory
of a person revealed.
The looking glass is the mirror of the
word of God.
The glory that is reflected and revealed in
that word is the glory of our Lord.
And beholding that glory in the word, you
and I can be transformed, you and I
may be transfigured, you and I can be
changed from glory to glory, even as by
the Spirit of the Lord.
And in the portion in the book of
Exodus, the anointing oil that was by God
alone prescribed, reveals to the heart of God,
even long before Christ came, the coming excellences
of his Son in his humanity here upon
the earth.
Now you note particularly, as you read that
30th chapter, and note specially the opening of
those words that God says to Moses in
verse 23, take thou also unto thee principal
or chief spices.
Now when you consider what the principal or
chief spices were, we recognize that it is
God himself who names them.
Moses was not left to make any choice.
In fact, Moses was given no choice in
relation to the testimony of the tabernacle.
He was given no personal choice to make
regarding the furnishings of it, and every detail
pertaining to that earthly testimony.
From all the way through it, everything was
patterned according to divine requirements.
Likewise, the anointing oil was by God himself
prescribed as to what were the chief spices.
Those chief spices are four in number as
you notice.
First, there was to be pure myrrh.
Second, there was to be sweet cinnamon.
Third, there was to be sweet calamus.
And fourth, there was to be cassia.
According to the measurements that God gives, these
ingredients were to be brought together and compounded,
mixed together with one and one-fifth of
olive oil to make the liquefiable ointment or
perfumed oil that was upon Aaron's head poured
and went down his beard even to the
skirts of his garments.
This was a divine prescription.
You know it's a wonderful thing that God
neither leads to you nor to me to
make the choice of what ingredient should be
found in our lives as we seek to
live for him.
Whatever ingredient that God would see in you
and me can be summed up again as
we stated in one word, he desires to
see some of the fragrance of Christ.
Now, note these separate ingredients with me.
The first ingredient was pure myrrh, 500 shekels.
Now, the obtaining of myrrh was an unusual
procedure.
The spice itself, for any anointing or for
any use, was obtained from the myrrh tree.
Generally, the spice was obtained by a deep
incision being made in the bark of the
tree, and then when the sap thus exuded
out of the bark, it distilled in the
shape and the form of a tear, from
which it derives its name, myrrh, meaning tear.
A bitter but an aromatic substance, and usually
obtained by an incision made in the tree
to bring out the pure myrrh that was
within it.
But may I give the suggestion that the
Hebrew idiom has in its meaning.
You read of myrrh in many other scriptures,
but you really hear that it had to
be pure myrrh.
In fact, the Hebrew idiom suggests the myrrh
of freedom, and the meaning of it was
this.
The purest myrrh was obtained not by an
incision, but by the voluntary pouring out of
the tree without a necessary incision, and voluntarily
the myrrh exuded without any incision being required.
Now this speaks to the heart of God,
of his dear son in his earthly life.
You know as I do too, that when
you read the earthly life of the Lord
Jesus, myrrh was associated with that life.
When the wise men came and worshipped the
babe Jesus, they brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
That which was symbolic of that blessed one
in the sufferings of his life, even from
birth, was brought and associated with the person
and with the life of the Lord Jesus,
even when born in the manger of Bethlehem,
and worshipped by the wise men who later
came to see him.
Then when you think of the death of
the Lord Jesus, you remember they gave him
vinegar to drink, mingled with myrrh.
Myrrh again being associated with that life of
the Saviour, and the death of the Saviour,
as thus he poured out his soul in
death to redeem you and me.
When you see the women coming to the
sepulchre, or rather shall I not say when
Joseph of Arimathea, and when Nicodemus buried the
Lord Jesus, they buried him with many spices,
and among them was myrrh.
And myrrh was an associated ingredient of the
life of the Lord Jesus from the beginning
to the end.
Now that spoke to the heart of God,
and it spoke to the heart of God
of that voluntary devotion of Christ to do
his will, from the beginning to the end
of his life, even into death, and even
to the tomb.
Voluntarily pouring out his own heart and life
to do the will of God.
There was no necessary incision, there was no
compulsion that he would do the will of
God, for before he came, you have his
words in that divine conversation as you read
it in Hebrews 10, as well as in
Psalm 40, from which it is quoted, Lo,
I come, I delight to do thy will,
O God.
And that first ingredient of the anointing oil
suggested the sinless and perfect devotion of Christ
to do the will of God, from the
heart, from the beginning to the end of
his life.
Beloved, may I say, there was that about
the life and the death of the Son
of God which only the Father is able
to comprehend.
All that you and I can do is
to take our shoes from our feet and
worship in adoration, making no attempt to define
what is indefinable, and to penetrate what is
impenetrable to human hearts and creature minds.
The Father alone knows the fragrance of that
life, which was the devotion of his Son
to do his will, from the beginning to
the end.
But may I add, as Paul writes, if
he did write the book of Hebrews, which
I believe he did, Paul said, by the
witch will we are sanctified.
My brother and my sister, if it had
not been for the will and the devotion
of Christ to do that will of God,
in infinite perfection, you and I would never
have a Saviour.
But thank God the fragrance of that devotion
still remains, and you and I are enjoying
the fruit of it.
Now may I go back regarding to our
subject, the fragrance of Christian fellowship.
One of the ingredients of Christian fellowship is
myrrh.
I guarantee, and I'm assured, we shall never
produce pure myrrh.
But may I quote to you the words
of Romans 12, 1 and 2, I beseech
you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God,
that you present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable unto God, which is your
reasonable or intelligent service.
And be not conformed to this world, but
be ye transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that you may prove what is that
good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
One of the ingredients of Christian fellowship, that
will be precious to the heart of God,
is when every believer will give himself and
herself in devotion and yieldingness to the will
of God.
Now may I state, and I think you
will all agree, how often times God has
to use the knife, God has to use
an incision, God has to bring us through
experiences, to break our will, that we will
devotedly yield our hearts and lives to do
his will.
Why?
He wants to see that fragrance of Christ
in the lives of his own, as they
seek in obedience to do his will.
My beloved, in relation to the fellowship of
God's people, contribute in the yieldedness of your
life to God's will, to Lipsary's glory, contribute
the fragrance of myrrh.
The second element and ingredient, you note, was
sweet cinnamon.
Sweet cinnamon.
Now cinnamon was the spice that was obtained
from the cinnamon tree, and it had a
unique origin, for the spice was obtained from
the inner rind of the tree.
The bark was stripped from the tree, and
the spice was obtained from the inner rind
of that bark, and was thus processed to
become the spice that is called sweet cinnamon.
A most unusual manner to obtain a spice,
a precious ingredient of that biblical day, but
it speaks to God as Christ, and it
speaks to God of another ingredient of Christ's
character when he was upon the earth.
Not only did he have a devotion to
do the will of God, perfect devotion through
his life from beginning to the end, but
there was an inward devotion, there was an
inward fragrance, a fragrance of inward beauty and
glory and holiness that only the Father could
comprehend, and that was the inner life of
our Lord Jesus in the sight of God.
You and I will never know, and only
the Father comprehends this, what the fragrance of
that inward life of the Son of God
meant to the Father's heart above when he
walked down here in the midst of this
thing, in all the sinlessness and purity of
his character.
He could challenge his enemies and say, which
of you convinces me of sin?
Let me quote the words of Peter, as
well as Paul, as well as John.
You remember Peter's sin?
He did no sin.
And that man of action, who was ready
to do something, and sometimes it was frequently
wrong, but he said of Jesus, he did
no sin.
Let me quote the words of Paul, who
wrote saying, he knew no sin.
And Paul was a man of letters and
learning and knowledge, but of that blessed one
he could indeed say, he knew no sin.
Let me quote the words of dear Apostle
John, who leaned upon the bosom of his
beloved Saviour and came nearest to his heart,
perhaps, than any others of the disciples, and
who said, in him was no sin.
As though leaning upon his bosom, John detected
in that holy one was no sin at
all.
The fragrance of that inner life, absent sin,
nothing but pure holiness, glorifying the holy God
in the midst of a world where sin
surrounded.
What a fragrance that must have been to
the heart of God.
Beloved, I am grateful that there was one
that lived upon the earth, whose inward heart,
so pure and spotless, rose in its character
to tell the heart of God above of
that inward purity that ever was his.
Thank God.
Have you never noticed in the offerings of
Leviticus, as you read them, and particularly the
burnt offering, the first one in Leviticus 1,
the victim was slayed, and the body was
slayed open, that the inwards of the body
might thus be visible.
And beloved, it spoke to the heart of
God of that coming one, whose Him inward
being was visible to the eyes of Him
with whom we have to do.
Now my beloved believer, may I say to
you, and to me, to myself most of
all, how important to have the ingredient of
sweet calumny in your life and my life
in our testimony for the Lord.
Remember the Lord Jesus said in John 7,
and from verse 37 in that last great
day of the feast, Jesus stood in Christ,
saying, If any man thirst, let him come
unto me and live.
As the Scripture has said, He that believeth
on me, as the Scripture has said, out
of his inner being shall flow rivers of
living water, and this they feel the spirit
that should come.
My beloved believer, may I remind you, as
well as my own soul, of the importance
of sweet calumny, an ingredient of Christlike character,
where within the likeness of Christ is thus
to be developed in the holiness, the personal
holiness of your life and of mine.
Man looketh on the outward appearance, God looketh
on the heart.
And when God looks upon the fellowship of
His dear people, the fragrance He desires and
requires to thus be manifested for His glory
is not only nerve, the soul devoted to
do the will of God whenever the cost,
but also the inward life in corroboration, living
in personal holiness that the fragrance of that
blessed Christ may still be found within the
believer.
No wonder the poet wrote those lovely words,
Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in
me.
All of his wonderful passion and purity, O
thou spirit divine, all my being refine, till
the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.
My beloved believer, may I say, give more
attention not to the outward part of your
life, but chiefly to the inward.
Out of the inner man shall flow rivers
of living water, for Christianity is the life
of Christ communicated to a believer, and dwelling
in a believer, and to flow out through
the believer.
Sweet calamus.
God help us to put a lot of
fragrance of calamus in our testimony of believers
together.
Note the third ingredient, sweet cinnamon.
As you have it, sweet calamus, the first,
second one was sweet cinnamon, and the third
sweet calamus.
Now calamus was not a tree.
Calamus was a reed.
A reed that grows, I understand, in Pennsylvania,
but was found in biblical days in the
country of Tibet and India.
It grew in marshy places.
And when taken out of the marshy places,
it had to be dried, but the obtaining
of the spice was most unusual.
It was obtained by taking the reed when
dried, and pounding it, pounding it, pounding it,
pounding it, and it was subjected to frequent
and constant pounding, outward blows that brought out
the fragrance and the sweetness of the spice
that was within.
Now when you look at the life of
the Lord Jesus upon the earth, and may
I say this very carefully, and consider carefully
about it with you, there has never been
a human being on the earth who was
subjected to indignities and outward humiliation by mankind
than the Lord Jesus himself.
He was the object of indignity, of shame
and contempt, of humiliation and degradation at the
hands of men that you and I have
never been able and shall never be able
to enter into.
But my beloved, may I say, it is
that life of humiliation that is given to
you and to me, the fragrance of a
person who delights our hearts.
To see the pathway of that man as
he walked here upon the earth.
May I just quote the words that Paul
wrote in Philippians 2, verse 5 through 8,
let this mind be in you which was
also in Christ Jesus, who being in the
form of God, thought it not robbery to
be equal with God, and made himself of
no reputation, and was found in the likeness
of men.
And being found in the likeness of men,
he humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross.
My beloved, I'm sure that none of us
fail to realize to some degree the fragrance
of that precious life in all of his
humility.
One wrote the little poem saying, Wouldst thou
be chief, then lowly third?
Wouldst thou go up, go down?
But go as low as you will, the
highest has been lowest still.
Another has given the expression, so try, God's
way up, his down.
Peter wrote, humble yourselves under the mighty hand
of God, that he might exalt you in
due time, casting all your care upon him,
for he careth for you.
The fragrance of this sweet calumny was the
fragrance of Christ's humility in the days of
his flesh.
I don't know my brother and sister whether
you've ever felt so humble, have you?
I met a dear brother to my astonishment,
that made the statement as I was trying
to minister for his comfort.
Brother, he said, please don't think of me.
God long ago took all pride out of
my heart.
And when I heard that, I said, Lord,
I can't help him a bit.
He was even proud of his humility.
No, my beloved, we'll never be too low.
But the fragrance of humility was the fragrance
of Christ.
How the apostle Paul exhorts, that we prefer
one another, we honour one another, above each
other.
And wherever you find a fragrance of Christian
fellowship in its true character, you'll find humility.
And that is a fragrant quality of Christ
in the life of the believer.
And then there's one more thing.
The fourth spice is cashew.
Now cashew was a very principal spice in
biblical days, obtained from cashew trees.
I remember reading in my research on this,
that there were said to be 60,000
acres of such trees in the country of
China.
But the cashew tree gave the spice cashew
either from the bark, which was processed, or
even from the buds of the tree.
And being processed, they obtained this priceless cashew
that was a fragrant ointment.
Now you have the word cashew in Psalm
45.
It is in relation to the coming glory
of our Lord Jesus when he comes as
King of Kings.
Cashew is one of the fragrant spices adorning
his garment in that coming glory.
Now cashew, in the meaning of its word,
is very helpful.
The word means, literally in the Hebrew, to
cleave, to hold to, to hang to, to
be faithful to.
And when I think of the life of
the Lord Jesus upon the earth, will you
tell me, has there ever been such an
one who could be called a true and
faithful witness?
Has there ever been such an equal as
to one like he is?
Faithful!
And when he comes in his glory, as
Revelation 19 describes it, faithful and true will
that blessed one be.
And as Isaiah says, faithfulness will be the
girdle of his loins.
For he could say and did say in
Revelation 3, I am the true and faithful
witness.
Faithfulness, oh what a fragrance to the heart
of God was the faithfulness of the Lord
Jesus as he did the Father's will.
My beloved, how for you and for me,
this ingredient of faithfulness is such a requirement
in our testimony for the Lord here upon
the earth.
Now look at them together.
You've got cumin, and you have sweet cinnamon,
then you have sweet calamus, and then you
have cashew.
And then these spices were to be taken
by the apothecary and compounded together, mixed together
by the apothecary with the olive oil, one
one-fifth gallon.
And I'm sure that you realize throughout this
scripture that olive oil is a precious type
of the Spirit of God, and it is
the Spirit of God who takes the ingredients
of these contributions of Christ's character in and
through the believer, and he puts the believers
together in their testimony, and he mixes us
together.
Now, I don't know what part I form
a part of what particular ingredient.
God grant we shall have all these ingredients
in some measure.
But the preciousness of realizing when God looks
at his people, every one of them has
a contribution of Christ's character to make, of
Christ's character to develop in their personal testimony,
and God brings us together in collective capacity.
And the Spirit of God, well thank God
we're not all alike.
But if we were all alike, if you
were like me and we're all like, well
I tell you frankly, there wouldn't be too
much fragrance.
But when God can get the fragrance of
each believer, though it be different from one
another, he can put them together, and he
mixes them together by the power of the
Holy Spirit, and the whole fragrance comes from
the collective brew that speaks to the heart
of God of the preciousness that was poured
out upon the head of Aaron, and the
fragrance of it speaks to him of Christ
when he was healed upon the earth, his
devotion to do the will of God, the
inner holiness of the life, and then the
humility of the testimony, and the faithfulness of
the believer's life.
And as God sees his people putting these
constituent parts into the testimony by the Spirit
being mixed together, God smells the savour of
it, and the sweetness rises that he might
enjoy Christ again.
May I say this?
Now it may sound a little bit blunt,
but you know the world is an awful
smelling mess today.
You and I have no conception as to
the stench that must rise from the pollution,
and I don't mean literal pollution, I mean
moral and spiritual pollution, that rises from the
lives of mankind.
My beloved, listen, it is only in his
people, and from his people, that God looks
and expects to have the fragrance of Christ
rising to his soul and to his heart
of hearts.
Oh my beloved, may you and I take
good care of being a sweet smelling savour,
that God might again smell the fragrance of
Christ as we are here upon the earth,
even at the park upon, together today and
tomorrow.
Now beloved, look, the psalm tells us that
where that fragrance is, there the Lord commanded
the blessing, even life forevermore.
And may I say, I say it without
hesitation and with full confidence, wherever the fragrance
of Christ is seen, the blessing of God
will be.
And may it be true for your life
individually, and for all of us collectively, to
his glory.
Amen.
Shall we pray?
Blessed Father, we thank thee for the loveliness
and the perfect beauty and fragrance of that
blessed one when he was here upon the
earth, even our Lord Jesus Christ.
How we thank thee for directing our thoughts
and our hearts to that blessed one, who
gave to thee the greatest joy that ever
rose from this earth, from any human life.
We thank thee for it.
By that blessed one, we thy people have
been redeemed.
We've acknowledged with thanksgiving he has set us
free.
And though we live in a world where
we know men are bound, and in the
bondage of sin and the tyranny of Satan,
he has delivered us.
And as his free men and women, we
humbly but earnestly ask, may his fragrance be
reproduced in our lives and through us.
To thy glory, O God, and to the
blessing of thy testimony that we maintain for
thyself.
Now Lord, again we pray that the fragrance
of our Lord Jesus will fill this day
as we fellowship together, as we continue in
thy will gathering together in later sessions, that
the whole weekend may truly bring to us
and to thyself the excellent beauties and glories
of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the honor
of his name.
For we ask it in his precious name.
Amen.