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Now we're reading again in the book of Exodus, and again in chapter thirty. The book of Exodus and chapter thirty and verse eleven. Exodus chapter thirty and verse eleven. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, verse seventeen. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, take thou also unto thee principal spices of pure myrrh, five hundred shackles, and of sweet cinnamon, half so much, even two hundred and fifty shackles, and of sweet calamus, two hundred and fifty shackles, and of cassia, five shackles after the shackle of the sanctuary, and of oil, olive, and hin, and thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary.
It shall be an 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 laver and his food. And thou shalt sanctify them that they may 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 an holy anointing oil unto me throughout your generation.
Upon man's flesh shall it not be poured, neither shall ye make any other like it after the composition of it. It is holy, and it 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. And the Lord said unto Moses, take unto thee sweet spices, stacte and onica and galbanum, these sweet spices with pure frankincense, of each shall there be a like weight. And thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the art of apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy.
And thou shalt beat 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. Chapter thirty one and verse one, uh and the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, and then verse twelve, and the Lord spake unto Moses, saying.
Now, again, that will do for reading, and we trust the Lord will grant understanding and measure in the Holy Scriptures. Now, I spent quite a little bit of time last evening introducing this section, taking into account that we are jumping in here to the middle of a section and jumping into the middle of a chapter in a book which is very, very closely connected. Hence, I did my best to take ten or fifteen minutes and give the broad framework of the Book of Exodus so that we could locate these particular paragraphs in context. I can't, unfortunately, go back and do that again.
I know some are with us tonight who weren't able to be here last night. We're glad to see you all, and I hope you'll be able to latch on to what we're aiming at. I will say this much, that I've read and reread the little formula that occurs six times in these two chapters, and the Lord spake, or the Lord said unto Moses. Now, it, uh, it attracts the reader's attention because the last time it occurred was in chapter twenty five and verse one, and through the rest of twenty five and twenty six and twenty seven and twenty eight and twenty nine and the first ten verses of chapter thirty, it didn't occur again.
You come across it in verse eleven of chapter thirty, and by the time you get to the end of chapter thirty one, you have it another five times. So that in these two chapters, from chapter thirty and verse eleven to chapter thirty one and verse eighteen, we have six little paragraphs. Paragraphs that are identified by the repetition of this expression, the Lord said unto Moses. I did emphasize last night that it is one of the greatest privileges that we have to have a God who communicates. He doesn't stay in the remoteness of heaven, incognito.
He doesn't remain in the distance of a silent eternity, but God has revealed himself. He revealed himself down the ages, and here we have divine revelation in these little expressions. Of course, wherever there is divine revelation, there will always come with it divine requirements, because when God speaks in these particular occasions, particularly these six paragraphs, he quite frequently says to Moses, take, take. For example, we had it in verse number eleven. or at least not the exact expression in verse eleven, but they were to take the atonement money.
Tonight, where we started off in verse twenty three, the Lord spake unto Moses, verse twenty two, saying, take. Verse thirty four, and the Lord said unto Moses, take. So with divine revelation, we have divine requirements. And when those two have been established, then the next thing, of course, is human responsibility. And we are asking, is there going to be a human response to what the Lord says? And of course, that is always demanding. The reason that I've ident- that I'm emphasizing these six paragraphs as they are emphasized here is because when we put the six of them together, God is giving to us a profile of the people amongst whom he will dwell.
Now he said, if I'm going to live amongst you in the tabernacle that I have just designed, he said, you people will have to meet certain requirements, and six being the number of man, in these six revelations, God giving a profile of the men and women amongst whom his presence will be enjoyed. I think I can say, I can speak on behalf of every Christian present tonight at the meeting, every assembly. Surely, dear brethren and sisters, there is nothing that we covet more than the Lord's presence. It's fine to have comfortable gospel hub, and we like that.
And I'm not complaining about number. We like that. But mind you, if we could have more of the Lord's presence realized, we could dispense with some of the other accessory. Now, says the Lord, if that is going to be so, and if my presence is going to be a reality, he said, there are certain requirements that have to be met. Now, we've already last night briefly looked at two of the paragraphs. We want to look at two of them tonight, and that will leave two for the meeting tomorrow evening in the will of God. Now, just to say this about last night, and then we need, we have to get down to business for tonight's paragraphs.
First of all, the first characteristic of the people amongst whom God would dwell, as we saw last night, was they were to be counted. Counted. God expected them to be numbered. He wanted them to stand up and be counted, their souls to be counted for his glory, and I spent a good while in the meeting speaking about how it is that we can make our lives count for God. Then, after emphasizing the importance of being counted, the next thing that God spoke to them about was the labor. For he said, I also want you people to be clean.
He said, if I'm going to live with you, you'll have to be clean. And we spoke quite a bit about the washing that's involved in the laver in those verses, from verses seventeen to twenty one. Now, tonight we are coming to a totally different subject. You can see at the first glance from the reading that the two paragraphs, uh, tonight before us, they are quite similar in many respects. First of all, I want to speak about the function, the features of these two paragraphs, and the function of the things that are described in these paragraphs at the end of chapter thirty. Now, you can see, if you think about the setup and the ancient economy and the whole system of worship that, uh, it was very, very much a system of service that appealed to the senses.
There was a good deal that appeal- appealed to sight. They could see all the tabernacle and all those material things, and the gold and the silver, and all the curtains, and so on, so forth. Quite a lot appealed to the sense of sight. There was also a considerable amount of that system appealed to the sense of hearing. They could hear, the priests could hear the bells on the skirts of the high priest's garments. The people in general could hear the sound of the silver trumpets, so they had sight and they had hearing. There was also, in the whole business, quite a bit of an appeal to the sense of touch upon the heads of the various animals and the sacrifices.
They carried the vessels with their hands, and they felt the weight of them upon their shoulders, so there was sight and there was hearing, and there was the sense of touch. There was also the sense of taste. They had to eat certain things and so on, and they even tasted the manna. The taste thereof was like wafers made with honey. But in this section that we are in tonight, these two sections, these two paragraphs at the end of chapter thirty, the main emphasis is upon the sense of smell. Smell. Now God said to Moses in the first paragraph, verse twenty two, verse twenty three, he says, take principal spices of pure myrrh and of sweet cinnamon.
And then he speaks about sweet calum. carom. That's the first paragraph. When you get to the second paragraph, at verse number thirty four, God said unto Moses, take unto thee sweet spices. So God said, now I want them. He said, the place where I'm going to dwell. He said, I'll be very, very, I'll be very, very particular that you keep the atmosphere sweet. He said, if there's any smell that happens to occur that I find obnoxious, he said, it's going to make it very difficult for me to live with you.
So he said, I'm going to introduce Moses, and I'm going to give this people the opportunity to manufacture. I'll give them all the specifications, but they can manufacture two fragrance producing substances. Now, one of them was liquid. The first paragraph is dealing with the anointing oil. The other one was powder. But he said they'll lead the book. I'll speak about their different functions just in a second or two. He said that both of them are needed, and he said, what I want to emphasize about both of them is this, their function is to produce a pleasant odor in the house where I will dwell.
Now, I think, um, just speaking on it, I'm speaking now just down on the very, on the very lowest level, on the ground level at the moment. I think it's difficult for us in our climate and our culture just to, uh, appreciate how many unwelcome smells there could be in a culture such as these people in the, in the desert. You know, the Bible does speak about things that stink. By this time he stinketh. Even in this very book of Exodus, in fact, when God was plaguing the, uh, the Egyptians and the river Nile was turned to blood and it pushed up the fish onto the banks, it says the fish were stinketh.
So that stench is very often associated with death and with judgment. But when you get a sweet savor, it can be associated with something that is pleasant and something that is wholesome and something that is life-giving. You think, for example, of all those, uh, all those passages and beautiful passages in the Song of Solomon, where you have all those spices connected with plants and with gardening, life and all that kind of thing, so that these things are symbolic in the Old Testament scriptures. Now God says, you think, for example, you think of all the smell there must have been with the sacrifice.
You see, in our day, you know all the regulations about an abattoir, and you know even the regulations that we all have in ordinary things of life. Some of you farmers have very, very strict regulations to do with effluent and all those kind of things. We all have to make sure that our rubbish is taken to a proper treatment plant and all that. None of that was known in the ancient world. And the stifling hate. No shame. No dread. All that blood being shed at the altar. It must have created, I can tell you, quite a smell around the place where God dwelt.
Now he said to compensate for that, to compensate for that, he said, all that stench is coming up before me because of sin. For he said, those sacrifices have been killed and that blood has been shed because of sin. Now it's amazing that we are told the Lord from that ascending thought he smelt a sweet smelling savor. But to compensate for all those foul smells, God said, now, I want my sanctuary to be constantly filled with the pleasant odor of this liquid. And he said, the men that are serving me, he said, they'll be anointed with this liquid, and everywhere they move, he said, they'll carry with them the odor of this pungent anointing oil.
And he said, in my whole sanctuary, he said, there'll be the burning, not the burning of candles, but he said there'll be the burning of these incense crystals. So he said, my palace, if you like to call the tabernacle that because it was just like a miniature portable palace, he said, my palace will always have a royal smell. Now, so far so good. That's the function of these two substances, just to keep the place nice and sweet. And what about... What about... You know, can I say tonight in Banu Lub that to this present day, God is very much concerned about a good atmosphere in the place where he dwells.
Too much bitterness and too little sweetness will drive God from amongst us. I say, dear brethren, I say, watch the badness. Watch the badness and watch the blackness of sin. But as I go along a little bit further in life, and I'm not old by any means, but even with my short experience, I would nearly say to a greater degree, watch the bitterness of sin. Because if bitterness gets in amongst the Lord's people, it takes away the whole sweetness of the atmosphere.
I know places where things used to be sweet and very, very fragrant and precious, I'm sure not only to those who were there, but precious to God. And now the whole atmosphere has become foul through something that has happened. Now, there's another word that comes in here, not just the repetition of the word sweet, but there's another important thing that must always be kept in balance with it. For example, in the first paragraph, when God's speaking about this liquid oil, he says in verse number twenty five, it's an oil of holy ointment. Again, in verse number twenty five, he says, it shall be an holy anointing oil.
Verse thirty one: this shall be an holy anointing oil. Verse number thirty two: he says, it is holy and it shall be holy. Now that's the liquid. What about the crystal? What about the powder? Verse number thirty five, he said, it shall be pure and holy. Verse thirty six, it shall be most holy. Verse thirty seven, it shall be unto thee holy for the Lord. Now, I'm not going through all those in detail. Every one of those references is distinct, and yet we can get, we can get the cumulative effect upon it, as well as having a sweet atmosphere.
God wanted to have a sanctified atmosphere because I don't need to tell you, dear Christians, wherever there's sin, there'll be a stench and there'll be an ugliness. Wherever there's holiness, there'll be a fragrance and there will be a beauty. So that the feature of these two substances was to be holy. The function of these two substances was sweeten the atmosphere in God's things. Now, we'll have to come a little bit closer and look at them one by one. First of all, as I say, the first one of the two about which God speaks here is the oil, this holy anointing oil.
Now, just for the sake of young, younger Christians here, I see some of them. It's great to see you, and we always try and, um, have a little bit for your benefit in a ministry meeting, because we all had to learn, number one, and number two, you're the hope for the future. So we're really glad to see you here. Younger believers, never think that you're discounted. Never, never imagine that you're unwanted. And sometimes you may be overlooked. That's too bad, but may God grant that you will learn these things because they're vital and valuable. Now, the simple thing that I want to mention this day, the older Christians know it like ABC.
In the ancient tabernacle, there were three liquids that were very important. In fact, the three of them are mentioned in this one chapter. Number one was blood. Number two was water. And number three was oil. Now that's as, that's as simple as, uh, as I can make. Now the interesting thing to remember is this, that what those three liquids represent are important to this very day. And the three liquids are associated with the three persons of the Godhead. For example, if I were to ask, what does the blood associate with? Well, you would tell me as quick as lightning that's the word of Christ.
We couldn't do without the blood. It is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul. What does the water represent? Mind you, they needed water. They couldn't go through all week in the tabernacle without the use of plenty of water. If the blood represents the word of Christ, the water represents the word of God, and they needed those constant ablutions in all their service so that it make the kept pure for the glory of God. And the oil, if the blood is the work of Christ, and if the water is the word of God, of course the oil is representing the witness of the Holy Spirit.
And that's what we're thinking about here in this particular anointing oil. Now Moses, as the Lord speaks to Moses, he first of all, I- I'll divide this into three very quickly now, because I better motor on here. I want to speak about the fusing of the oil. Then I say a little bit about the using of the oil. And then I want to say a little bit about the abusing of the oil. The fusing of it, the using of it, and the abusing of it. Now, first of all, the fusing of this very, very, uh, well, I, I don't think I can express strongly enough how precious and how powerful the fragrance of this oil must have been.
Now, God tells Moses, he said, in this particular oil, there are going to be five ingredients. There's, first of all, olive oil, a a hint of olive oil, a little bit more or less, more or less, uh, about a nearly a gallon of. And he said, with that hint of olive oil, he said, there are going to be mixed four, and he calls them in this passage, principal stices. Oh, he's, Mr. Darby, if I remember correctly, he translates that four best spices. God says, now look, I'm, I'm, I'm interested in quality here. And he said, the very best spices that can be obtained.
Now, we have to remember that this is the God who created the world. He has embodied in this world some of these treasures. He knows exactly what is there and what's available, and he says, Moses, I have picked out the four spices that are to be found in planet Earth, which I perceive to be the best. The myrrh, the pure myrrh, the cinnamon, the calamus, and the cassia. Now, I'm not, I'm not going into those in detail. Some of the brethren can do it and tell us all where they come from and the parts of the plant and so on.
I'm, I'm really wary of some of that. You could nearly make the Bible mean anything if you just went too far at it. So I don't want to, I'm not pouring cold water on what many have taught, but I'm just, all I know is this, that most, if not all, of these spices belong to far country. Some of it may have come as far away as India, or what we, what we now call Sri Lanka. Some of them are away down in Arabia. What do you say to me, Telmo, is you're don't be talking, don't be talking Tommy right here. Sure, how did the people in the wilderness ever get those places away from India and so on?
Sure, it was impossible. They couldn't be that far away. They must have been near a town. They couldn't have belonged to distant lands far away. Well, maybe, maybe, but now don't forget, don't forget that even before the book of Exodus, you remember those Ishmaelites that sold Joseph, bought Joseph and sold Joseph, they were taking special spices, myrrh and balm down into Egypt. And to get from where they were coming from down into Egypt, they had to pass through this very wilderness and through the Sinai Peninsula. And in the ancient world, because of the heat and the body odor and all those other odors that I'm speaking about, the balm trade was a big trade.
And right from distant parts of the world, some of these exclusive balms were brought in trade to other parts of the world, so it maybe would surprise us that some of these things could be got from traveling merchants going through the wilderness, but they would have been very, very costly to buy. And one thing I'll say is this, once this compound was made, and once it was all brought together, fused together by the art of the apothecary, I take it the olive oil would probably have been heated, and then these other four things mixed in. I believe, I believe that there was no other human being ever thought of mixing these four before. I think that this was the first time that had ever been announced upon Earth to bring together this mixture in this quantity.
God says, Moses, I'm telling you about a special mixture that no man would ever have thought of. And he said, you make it. And he said, once that mixture is made after the art of apothecary, and it's all fused and blended beautifully together, and one perfume is complementing another perfume, and he said, it announced the people and announced the tabernacle. I'll be onto that in a minute. Once you use it, he says, if anybody comes in. And then what did it? You see, I get a waft of Africa.
You see, I get a waft of India. You say, where are these people? These people here serving God, it really seems as if, because of this perfume that fills the place, it seems as if they have links with a far country. I want to say, brethren, if our meetings and if our lives were being lived under the gracious influence of the Holy Spirit, the people that come into our meetings and the people that come into contact with us, it wouldn't be too long until they would get the flavor of another country, and they would say, do you see these people? Do you see those people that go to Bell and Luke Gospel off? Well, I don't know, they live in County Antrim, but I doubt, I think they have links with heaven.
There's a something about it that just seems to tell me a bigger story, and the worth and the wealth of this combination was unrepeatable and unbelievable, and you can be absolutely sure that the effect of it was stunning. The effect of it was stunning to anybody who caught a wow. If you'd been passing by a priest, I think there was enough of this oil on every priest to let you just be impressed. If you'd gone anywhere near the tabernacle, I'll mention more about that in a minute. Just one, before I leave the fusing of this ointment, there's one thing I'd mention about it.
It's not only its wealth and its worth, but you notice that it does emphasize in those verses, verses number twenty three and twenty four, it emphasizes the weight. The weight. God says there's so much, so many shackles of this one, and so many shackles of that one. Doesn't emphasize the volume. It doesn't emphasize the quantity. It emphasizes the weight. All I say is this, you know, true spirituality is always weight. True spirituality is, it always carries dignity, and it always carries some gravity with it.
That's the idea in the weight of these particular. Now, I don't think I'll say anything more just now about the fusing of this vial. What about the using of it? Now, there were two uses. They're identified in verses twenty six down to verse thirty. From verse twenty six to verse twenty nine, that's the one that I'm going to say a little about. God told Moses, he said, now with this perfume, this liquid perfume, he said, you have to anoint every vessel in the tabernacle, the ark, the lamp, the table of shewbread, the altar of incense. He said, the whole, the whole earth of them. He said, there be nothing in the whole tabernacle where I will dwell that isn't touched by this fragrant light.
Well, you say, what, what lesson do we learn from that? I think we can learn a very, very, a very simple and yet important lesson. You know, dear brethren and sisters, as we seek to serve the Lord, and speaking now of assembly life, God's dwelling place upon earth, the sanctuary of God, and as we seek to serve him in that sanctuary and in that dwelling place and bear testimony for him, there should be absolutely nothing in it that doesn't carry the sanction of the Holy Spirit. Now, do I need to repeat that? There should be nothing in God's dwelling place that cannot have the sanction of the Holy Spirit and also the sanction of the Holy Scriptures.
For Moses made these vessels according to the pattern, and then when they were made, this holy anointing oil was put upon them. But the oil was not only put upon things, they were spiritual things, or at least they had a spiritual significance. The oil was put upon persons, and the persons are identified in verse number thirty. Thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them that they may minister unto me in the priest's office. Now, just a little bit about this. Aaron and his son, that is the high priest and the priestly family, they were both to receive this oil upon their persons.
And because they received this oil, God says now, because of this anointing, he says, they will be able to serve me in my sanctuary. He says, this anointing will give them a fitness to serve me. I- I'll just, I- I'll abbreviate it, and I'll jump right away into the New Testament without going around any unnecessary corners. You remember what John said in his epistle? He says, ye have an anointing. You know, we have an anointing. I'm thinking about a verse in second Corinthians chapter one. is it, it tells us about the God who has established us and has anointed us and has given us the earnest of the Spirit.
So that every Christian, because we're in the priestly family, every brother, every sister, these men had been born into Aaron's family, and now they were anointed. Every brother and every sister, you know, it's a precious thing to remember that we have the anointing of the Holy Spirit. John thought a great deal of it. He said, now, because of that unction, ye have an anointing, and ye know all things. That is through the anointing of the Holy Spirit and his residence in every Christian's life. It gives that believer a capacity to enjoy spiritual things. Now, just when I'm on that, I would say this.
This oil was different for Aaron and his son. When they were consecrated, you'll find this maybe in Exodus twenty nine and Leviticus chapter eight. We didn't read this, but, uh, this is the detail. In the day when they were consecrated, now just listen carefully to this, there were two differences. Now they both were touched by blood. That is, Aaron, as the high priest, was touched by blood, so were his sons. Aaron was touched by this oil, and so were his sons. But there were two differences.
Now, younger Christians, I want you to listen to this because it shows the absolute accuracy of Bible tape. Now, I know sometimes we might twist tapes and pull at tapes, and we might try to get a little bit out of them and push them too far, but if we take some of the clear tapes just as they are, I tell you the accuracy of them is absolutely amazing. Now, first of all, Aaron, listen to this. When Aaron was anointed with the oil, the oil was poured upon him. When the sons were anointed with oil, the oil was sprinkled on them.
Now, Aaron represents Christ, the son represents us. Now, to put it in very plain terms, in the anointing of the oil, Aaron got a much greater quantity than the boys got. You know, there was a man stood one day on the banks of Jordan, and the Bible tells us that the Holy Ghost descended upon him like a dove and was allowed upon him. John tells me in the chapter three of his gospel, John tells me that he giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. There was one person in this world, our blessed Savior, he's now our risen Lord, and he received the Holy Spirit in unqualified measure.
He was anointed, it was poor, I said Peter, God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with power. He went about doing good, healing all that were oppressed of the devil. In the power of that descending spirit, he rolled back the frontiers of demonic activity and the world knew that God is here as he never has been before. God manifest in flesh, in the full energy of the Holy Spirit, a Trinitarian witness to the uniqueness of the one who is Jesus of Nazareth. The oil was poured on there, and then the blood, a little while later, the blood was put on Aaron's ear, thumb, and toe.
Oil first, then blood. Do you see when it came to the sun? You'll never guess what happened. It was blood first, and then later they were sprinkled with oil. Now, that rejoices my heart because, again, as I said a minute ago, it shows me the accuracy of Bible time. You see, the Lord Jesus was anointed, as I said, on the banks of Jordan before he went to Calvary. The oil came before the blood, but as far as we are concerned, we appreciated the blood before we received the oil.
Because as sinners, we trusted the one who died and rose again, and upon trusting him, immediately we were anointed and indwelt with the Holy Spirit. Now, just before I leave that, and get to the last section, but all I say is, both these men, both Aaron and his son, just for the practical, any of these boys I've already hinted at that have been moving their lives. Whatever they touched, wherever they went in their service for God, they carried with them the precious aroma of this anointing. You know, dear Christian, can I just say, you've already got the application of it clearly in your mind, but if we have been redeemed by blood and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, may God help us to live like people who are so.
May we carry something with us so that there'll be a flavor and there'll be a savor, and there'll be nothing in our lives that would at any way injure the fragrance and the sweetness and the odor of the Holy Spirit. That's why it wasn't to be poured upon any flesh. God says this oil can never sanction what is just of the flesh. He says whatever is just pure naked flesh, he said this oil must not come upon us. And dear brethren, may God help us to keep the flesh covered so that the oil and its fragrance can be freely shed, spread abroad.
They want to imitate it. He says, I don't be making any imitation of this. He says, this is to be absolutely unique. He said, I don't want you people in any way to be manufacturing something for your own cosmetic use or to be manufacturing something for your own private use. He said no counterfeits, absolutely none. We need to be very careful, just, just as I mention this and quickly pass on. Maybe not so right now, but a number of years ago, and it would be in certain countries of the world still. There are many experiences, and I'm afraid they're attributed to the Holy Ghost, but I'm afraid they're stage managed.
They're manufactured, and they're only counterfeit. And we need to be very, very careful about a pseudo spirituality, just something that looks like the work of the Holy Spirit, but there's no reality to it. God said, no, I want the genuine article. He said, I'm not interested in any second class, secondary invitation. Now that's the first perfume, the perfume of the oil, and that's the thing that will produce the sweetness in assembly fellowship. It's just the fragrance of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the believers. Now, what about this second section? Very quickly here, I've only a few minutes.
The incense. Now, if the reminds me of the power of the Holy Spirit, and there's no doubt about that, I could prove that from other scriptures in abundance. What does the incense represent? Well, just, just let me quote one scripture to try and find some meaning for the incense. I'm thinking, I'm thinking of Psalm one hundred and forty one. Indeed, I, I intended, but I'll not, I'll not backtrack now. I intended, when I was speaking on the oil, to go to Psalm one thirty three. The pre- it's called precious oil there, on the beard of Aaron, precious oil.
But I'll not go back on that. But if you turn a few pages to Psalm one four one, one three three gives you the oil, but Psalm one four one, you'll read a verse like this. The psalmist is crying to the Lord, and he says to the Lord, let my prayer be set before thee as incense. So that the psalmist seemed to think there was a parallel between prayer and incense. Thank you. If the oil gave a fragrance to the place, this powder gave a fragrance to the place, I still think, brothers and sisters, that the atmosphere of any assembly is greatly enriched by a healthy prayer meeting.
You know, wherever an assembly prayer meeting is neglected, wherever the incense is not being brought, and wherever the incense is not being burned, the atmosphere will be the poorer of it. I think we can prove that from New Testament scriptures. And you dear sisters here, I may say to you, don't you absent yourself. I'm not talking about parents with little children and having to take it in turns, and people who are sick and not well, and people with very, very demanding employment and so on, and excruciating circumstances. I'm not giving a sideswipe of those things at all, but can I say to you, dear sisters, you do your best, if at all possible, to be the family. Because the presence of godly sisters, modestly adorned, is a great asset to any pyramid.
That's why when the Apostle Paul in First Timothy chapter two, and I will coming back to that chapter just in a second, First Timothy chapter two, he says, I will let men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath or doubting. That's the labor. Hands wash, what we were at last night, lifting up holy hands. Now we're at the prayer. This is the incense, and just as soon as he has mentioned the contribution of the brethren, he just follows it immediately. He says, I will that the women. So that the presence of women appearing and adorned, as the apostle mentions in that passage, it greatly adds to the value and the weight of the prayer meeting.
Now, incense and prayer. Let me mention, well, I'll see, I'll say maybe three or four things about this incense. First of all, I want to say something about the blending of the incense. Then I'll say a little bit about the beating of the incense. Then something about the burning of the incense, and finally, and I don't think I will have time, but I would have said something about the banning of the incense, the blending of it. Now again, there were four ingredients. If you look at those four spices, they're mentioned in verse number thirty four: stacte, anica, galbanum, these sweet spices with pure frankincense.
There you have the four of them. Now he says, when you're going to put the incense before me, and it will, it will greatly increase, enhance the odor of my dwelling place, these four ingredients, Moses, will have to be present. What do these four ingredients represent? You remember that chapter I've already referred to, First Timothy two, the Apostle Paul at the commencement. He says, prayer, supplication, intercession.
Giving of tithe. Philippians four. Be careful for nothing. How does the verse go? But in everything by prayer. Supplication. With thanksgiving. Let your request be made known unto God. So that all prayer that's acceptable to God, I'm not like trying to, I don't want you to start to analyze your prayers to say they're this and they're that.
I think generally our prayers have these different ingredients. I'm not wanting us to become cramped or to take away our liberty, but dear brethren, in our prayers there ought to be comprehensive ingredients. In fact, when I was a boy, they used to tell me about the acts of prayer. I remember a Sunday school teacher telling us about the acts of prayer. Have you heard about that? The ACTS of prayer. And he used to tell us, old Tommy told us, he said, now boys, in true prayer there should be an A and a C and a T and an S. The A is adoration. The C is confession.
The T is thanksgiving, and the S is supplication. Now, very often in our prayers, I think that we might rush to supplication too quickly. We just ask God that we spend a little time appreciating God, then confessing our own unworthiness, then expressing thanks for previous mercies. I'm not saying it has to be lengthy, but I'm thinking of those different than grace. Then we can present our supplications. Follow the order of the Lord's Prayer, those things that the disciples' prayer called the Lord's Prayer, those things that I have mentioned can all be seen.
So that he says, now this incense that's going to be presented before me, it will be a blending, it will be a blending of those four precious ingredients. But then there's a fifth ingredient. Just as in the, in the perfume, in the oil, there were four spices plus the oil, so in this there were four spices plus a base material. What was it? Well, it actually doesn't come out clearly in our version. It's in the margin of my Bible, maybe in yours, at the end of verse number thirty five. Thou shall make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy. Tempered together.
Now, in the margin of my Bible, it says salt. So that I take it, there was salt that was basic, and into the salt there was put these other four spices. What does the salt represent? Hm. Well, and I- I'm really rushing now just to get tidied up, and I'm not proving things. I'm- I'm- I'm very strong on assertion and assumption now, and very short on argument for the last three minutes of the meeting. But I just say this, I think that all our prayers should go well salted. Well salted with what? Well salted with the purifying influence of the word of God.
You take those, take, take the three big nines. Younger Christians again, you examine these at some stage in your devotional reading. The three big nines of prayer. Ezra 9, Nehemiah 9, and Daniel 9. And when you've examined those three prayers, you'll hardly ever pray again. You'll be so afraid. Mighty men of prayer and supplication. And the one thing that you'll discover, whether you take any of those three names, oh, each of those men was absolutely, his prayer was filled with quotations in the name. So that when they were speaking to God, they were using the language in speaking to him, which he had previously used in speaking to us.
I think it's a, it's a fair good rule of thumb. It's a fair good rule of thumb that we should do our best to use Bible language in our prayer. You know, these are some of the prayers that we would hear, and I don't want to, I don't want to crush anybody, because mind you, when you've been around a little while and you see the gaps in the prayer book, you need to be out of a crow to pray. Some of them. I don't know what you'd do. And the atmosphere becomes stately and starchy and stiff, and how you women folks bear it, I do. If you get a crown for endurance, some of the sisters will have crowns on, uh, on every side of their head, enduring the silence of men.
You say, you men, you men. Brethren, listen to that. I'm gonna tell you, you're allowed to pray in public. You're all right. You're allowed to pray in public. You're allowed. You're allowed. You sisters are not allowed. But I'm gonna stop preaching that. I'm gonna have to start preaching that. Brethren are allowed to pray in public. It's not a crime or anything. You're not, you're not to put in the back seat for it or anything. You're allowed to pray, but when you do pray, I don't want to stop anyone, but when we do pray, may God help us. I know the nervousness and the difficulties and all that, but may God help us to use Bible language. Mind you, there are some prayers and some languages and the ways of referring to God, if the salt of the Bible was put into them, there'd be a lot of the material melt.
But I trust the Lord will help us to have the four ingredients, plus plenty of the salt mixed through, that would just have the blending of the incense. Now give me just a word on the beating of the incense. He tells him in verse number thirty six. thou shall beat some of it very small. I would love to get some of, I would love to get a hall full of these fifteen-minute men here tonight. And if I had them here for fifteen minutes, I would beat them very small.
Thou shall beat some of it very, very sm- How men pray in public for fifteen or twenty minutes and then look the Christians in the face, I don't know. There's one thing sure, brother, if you pray for fifteen minutes, you'll get a hearty amen when you stop. And everybody will be glad to see you over. Make some of it very, very small, and he said about this, but I'm only giving that an application. But mind you, can I just say this? I believe that some of the sweetest prayers are the shortest. You know, you know we pray, and I'm not saying anything wrong, we pray generally. But sometimes, sometimes there can come into our lives crushing experience.
Remind you, once those come, all, all the floss is gone, and all the fluff is gone, and you beat it small. And he says, do you see the stuff that you beat small? He said, those crystals, he says, put it, get them really fine. Grind them fine. And he says, with a small quantity of it, he says, just put it before the veil, and he says, it's most holy. He said, it's all holy. But he said that which is beaten small. You know, I believe there are cries that have gone to God. If we knew the whole story of this day, there are cries have gone to God today from hearts that are crushed, and they've arrived before the veil of his sanctuary and within the veil as most holy and most sacred.
It's great when we really get down to prayer. You've all been at prayer meetings when there was some special need, and there was some crisis, and there was some real burden upon the hearts of the Lord's people, and I tell you, the brethren did pray because it was beaten small, and it was most holy. That's the beating of it. That's the special little section of it, the blending of it, the beating of it. Finally, I'm not saying about the banning of it. It wasn't to be manufactured or imitated. If I had been going on to that, I would just say this, you know, if there's any place where hypocrisy is of nothing, don't be imitating just somebody else's language.
Don't be just a copycat. Help us to be real. It was ban any imitation or any shoe pick. But the burning of it, well, he said that, he said it'll sit there as crystals, but he said before it sends out and emits its beautiful fragrance, it'll have to be burned. Where was it burned? It was burned at the golden altar of incense. When was it burned? It was burned every morning and every evening. Not a bad thing to burn a little incense every morning and every evening. Why was it burned at those two stages? Because in the morning, the priest took away the charred wick.
And when he took away the charred wick of the lampstand, so he burned incense. In the evening, he relit, he relit the lampstand, and when he relit it, night was just the wee slight smell of burning. So God said to over offset the one in the morning and to offset the other, he says, you burn the incense when you're tending the lampstand. Dear brethren, you know there are some assemblies in County Underham could be doing with things a wee bit brighter. The same's true in County Armagh. We need to tend the lampstands a little bit.
If we're going to do that, and if we're going to take away some of the burned out pieces, and if we're going to get it to burn better than ever before, I hope that God will help us to do it in the atmosphere of prayer. That we'll always exercise the removal of the dross with a prayerful attitude. The incense went with the tent. Now, just as I close, I'm away with the time here, but we're not be going back in this paragraph, and best of all, tomorrow night's the last. You'll only have this to endure once again. But just before I close, you know, it was the high priest upon the golden altar that burned the incense. There are two lovely verses, two lovely verses there in Revelation, little section.
Chapter five, first of all, it speaks about the bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of saints. I would say if I could get a look tonight, just right now at ten past nine, if I could get a look tonight into heaven's bowl. Carefully treasured up in those bowls are the prayers of some of the saints that fell on them. You know, unanswered prayers haven't been lost. Every one of those saints that burned his incense in holy prayer on earth, it was treasured up in heaven's bowl.
Bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of saints. That's Revelation chapter five. but if it's possible, it gets better in chapter eight, Because you know what you read in chapter eight? It says that there came an angel. I've often wondered if it's the Lord Jesus, but we're not, we're not going to that just now. And he took much incense. He came to the golden altar, and he took much incense. And he offered it with the prayer. He put, you see, in chapter five, the incense, the prayers are the incense, but in chapter eight it's different.
In chapter eight there are the prayers, and this angel takes much incense, and he adds that incense to the prayer, so that when those prayers arrive from the altar and reach the throne, they come to the throne accompanied by unique perfume. That's absolutely delightful in the nostrils of God. You know, some of us, we're all the same. Every time we pray, no matter how well we pray, our prayers are always tainted by our own infirmity, our selfishness, our bitterness, our grudge, our the infirmity of indwelling sin. They leave us with the contagion upon them.
Brothers and sisters, when they reach the throne, they'll absolutely come back. You know why? Because he takes the incense of his blessed person, he adds them to our imperfect prayer, and we sang it there a few minutes ago at the end of the meet- at the beginning of the meeting, to all our prayers and praises, Christ adds his sweet perfume and love the sense or raising his odors to consume. Our brother Radcliffe, was it, he was telling us there was one of the nights in Lurgan Conference or somewhere. He was in Scotland, and we lot prayed in a prayer meeting and didn't make a big job by the standards of the brethren.
And he stammered and he stuttered, and he went to quote a hymn, and he forgot a verse, a line or two, as thing would never happen to you, but it happened to this lad, and he just staggered through a bit, and it was a fair enough, but there was a sincerity about it at the same time. So the thing was over, and they were dispersing, and a couple of the brethren were talking at the back, and one happened to, he says, well, he says, young Samuel didn't, didn't make a great sh- great shape of his prayer in the night. You know what the other brother said to him? He says, don't worry, brother. He says, when young Samuel's prayer reached the throne, it was the revised version.
Thank God there's a revised version. Touched by incense, and all I'll say is this, a healthy holy prayer meeting greatly enriches the atmosphere of any assembly. Watch the liquid perfume, the fragrance of the Holy Spirit on the believer's person. Watch the perfume, the fragrance of prayer from the believer's heart. May God help us to look after both these things so that the atmosphere will be sweet and protected for his glory. Shall we pray? Our Father, we commend to thee thy precious word. We commend to thee thy people. We thank thee again for the privilege of prayer.
We sang earlier in this meeting about the pure delight of a single hour which before thy throne we spend. We do confess that these hours with us are very scarce, with many of us, they are practically unknown, and we ask that thou wilt make us more and more diligent in this holy exercise as we appreciate its virtue and its value before the throne of grace. Bless thy saints and help us as we journey home, and give us sweetness in our souls and holiness in our lives and fragrance in the atmosphere of the gatherings of thy people. We ask for these spiritual mercies. Keep us from bitterness of every form.
We ask for these things in the Lord Jesus' precious name. Amen. Just now one verse of... for him here, I had it. Take the name of Jesus with you. Six hundred and eleven. just one verse of six hundred and eleven. Take the name of Jesus with you. Precious name, oh how sweet, hope of earth and joy of heaven. The verse that we'll sing is verse two, the second verse and the chorus of six one one. Standing to sing, and thanks for your patience. The name of Jesus ever, as a shield from every snare.
If temptation tries to gather, bring the holy name in prayer. Precious name, For O my dream, sweet, O hope of earth, and joy of men. Precious days for my dream, hope of earth and joy of men.