to Exodus chapter 27. Now in
the prior chapters, we looked at the furniture and the materials
used in the tabernacle. Now a new section begins and
we begin to look at the service that was done in the tabernacle.
And it's fitting since spiritual life begins with the Holy Spirit
regenerating us, giving us the light of life, it's fitting that
this portion that deals with the service in the tabernacle
begins with speaking of the oil that was for the lamps. Because
that's a picture of the Spirit of God giving us light. Now, let's read this together,
Exodus 27 verse 20. He says, Thou shalt command the
children of Israel that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten
for the light to cause the lamp to burn always. In the tabernacle
of the congregation without the veil, which is before the testimony,
Aaron and his son shall order it from evening to morning before
the Lord. It shall be a statute forever
unto their generations on behalf of the children of Israel. Our
subject this morning is our need for the pure oil. Our need of
the pure oil. Christ our High Priest, the High
Priest, the High Priest, Christ our High Priest, uses His ministers
to preach the Gospel, and through the Word, He sends the Holy Spirit. He sends the oil. And the Holy
Spirit gives us light. The light of life. is what He
gives us. This is through Christ our High
Priest. He uses the means of preaching
and the Holy Spirit is given to give us life. Now first of
all, first of all, the oil here had to be pure oil olive beaten. It had to be pure oil olive beaten. Now the process that was used
to bring forth this pure olive oil involved wounding and bruising
the olive. That was the process. This was
different than grinding in a mill because when they did that, they
would grind the olive, the seed, everything. And so that oil wouldn't
be pure olive oil. This process involved wounding
just the skin of the olive and bruising the skin of the olive
and then the oil actually came from the olive of itself, by
itself. And so it was pure, pure olive
oil. This is what God required. The
reason he required this, this pure olive oil, is it typifies
the holy Spirit of God. The Spirit of God, holy. Holy. The Lord Jesus was anointed by
the Holy Spirit above all other children of God. And do you remember
how Scripture tells us that? It says, Psalm 45 7 says, Thou
lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness. Therefore God, thy
God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy
fellows. He's saying he's anointed you
with the spirit above your fellows. But it's called the oil of gladness. The Holy Spirit is typified by
oil in the scripture. And so it's had to be pure because
God, the Holy Spirit is holy. He's pure. The third person in
the Trinity is pure and holy as God the Father and God the
Son. So, to be a good picture, this
all had to be pure. The Holy Spirit's work is to
take chosen, redeemed sinners, those the Father chose, the Son
redeemed, and He is to make us holy by making us a new creation. A new creation. Everything He
makes is holy. Everything God makes is holy.
And He creates within His people a new man. Scripture says, and
He consecrates us in righteousness and true holiness. The word true
holiness there means in opposition to that pretended, feigned, fake
holiness that men claim to have. Men say that this work of making
us holy is not complete, but whenever the Spirit of God creates
a new man within us, that new man can be nothing but holy. That new man is nothing but holy. And that will not be added to. That will not be added to. We
grow in grace and knowledge of Christ, but we don't grow more
holy. We're holy. We're holy as we'll
be because the Spirit of God created that new man. And you
think about men call subduing the flesh, they call
that growth in holiness. The flesh is just held in check
by the Holy Spirit of God. But that flesh is not becoming
more holy. Our flesh is not growing in holiness
at all. It's only in the new man that
we grow in grace, the grace of Christ and the knowledge of Christ.
But that new man is holy from the moment it's created by God. Because everything He makes is
perfect. The Lord who commands us, be
ye holy for I am holy, He's the one who makes us holy. It's He
that makes us holy. Now this oil had to come from
the olive being wounded and bruised. wounded and bruised because the
Holy Spirit of God is sent by Christ through Christ being wounded
and bruised for his people. Isaiah 53, 5, it says, he was
wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes were healed. Christ was not destroyed. He was not destroyed like the
olive that was ground, seed and all. He was not destroyed. Our
Lord Jesus was beaten. He was wounded and He was bruised. He was wounded and He was bruised
because the reason was He bore the iniquities of His people.
It's the only way He could be wounded and bruised. He bore
the iniquities of His people. He suffered the stripes of chastisement
that made peace with God for His people. He suffered those
stripes that made peace with God for His people. And so with
His stripes, we are healed. With His stripes, we are healed.
Now, our Lord told us, before He went to the cross, He said,
when He was resurrected, having justified all His people, having
made all His people righteous, He said, when He arose, I will
pray the Father, and He shall give you another comforter. Christ
was a comforter, but he says, I'll pray the Father, he'll give
you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever, even
the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because
it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but you know him. He's saying
this to his people, to those he redeemed. You know him, for
he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. And so, this pure
oil olive beaten. It shows us how that the Spirit
of God, Holy Spirit of God was given us through our Lord Jesus
Christ being wounded and bruised in the place of his people. You
get that? That's how we receive the Spirit. Now secondly, notice the purpose
of the oil. Verse 20. The purpose of the
oil was it says for the light to cause the lamp to burn always. It was for the light to cause
the lamp to burn always. That lamp that was in the first
room of the tabernacle. Remember we saw the, we looked
at the candlestick and that lamp, that's the one we're talking
about. This oil was so it would burn always. Now, without the
oil there would be no light. Without the oil, the lamp would
have just been an empty vessel. Well, brethren, without the Holy
Spirit of God, we can have no light. We would be just an empty
earthen vessel without the Spirit of God. And darkness, darkness
is opposed. Nothing better portrays being
opposed to the worship of God than darkness. They can't exist
together, light and darkness. And so, what we were in ourselves
was nothing but darkness. That's all we were in ourselves
was darkness. We didn't have any light and we couldn't produce
any light. We would have just remained in
that state. Brother Ben last week or the
other week told us, dead man can't do anything. We couldn't
have done anything if we were dead. And so we had to have this
oil given to us. We by nature were those described
in Psalm 107 verse 10. Such as sit in darkness and in
the shadow of death. That's where we were. We were
bound in affliction and iron. We couldn't break free. Why were
we in that state? Because in Adam we rebelled against
the words of God and contemned the counsel of the Most High.
That's why. That's why. And so light must
be given to us from God the Holy Spirit. The oil of the Spirit
must enter in and He must produce the light in us. Go back to Genesis
chapter 1. Verse 2 says, The earth was without
form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And
the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, the Spirit
of God did, the Spirit of God. And God said, Let there be light,
and there was light. That's how the first creation
was created. Go to 2 Corinthians 4. How's
the new creation? How's this new creation? How's
a new man created within God's people? 2 Corinthians 4, verse
6. God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness. The Spirit of God moved upon
the face of the deep within His people. And 2 Corinthians 4,
6 says, And God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
just like He did back there in creation, He hath shined in our
hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. Look at what Paul said in verse
5. He said, this is why we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus
the Lord and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake because God commanded
the light to shine. That's why we preach the truth.
Look at verse 7. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. Just like that lamp had the Spirit
of God within it. It was an earthen vessel and
it had the Spirit of God within it. We're an earthen vessel.
An earthen vessel. And we have this treasure, this
Spirit of God dwelling in us and it makes us preach the Gospel
of Christ Jesus in truth. So that when another sinner is
born of God, the powers of God and not of us. That's what he's
saying. Now get this and understand this. A sermon, whatever sermon you
hear, a sermon, if it does not give Christ all the glory, it's
not of God the Holy Spirit. That is plain and clear from
what Paul just said. Without the Spirit of God, it
doesn't matter, a man won't preach the truth. And if you hear a
message and it doesn't give Christ all the glory and put sinners
in the dust and make us entirely dependent upon God and give God
all the glory for salvation, the Spirit of God has nothing
to do with it. Listen to this. Isaiah 8.20 says,
To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to
this word, It is because there is no light in them. Men like to make excuses for
preachers. There is no excuse. Men speak
and it's not according to this Word of God. It's not giving
Christ all the glory. It's because they do not have
the oil of the Spirit giving them light. That's why. Listen to what Christ said. Go
to John 16. I'll back that up. I'll back it up right here. John
16. Look at what our Lord Jesus said. Verse 13. He said, Howbeit when
He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself,
but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak. And he will
show you things to come. He shall glorify me. For he shall receive of mine
and shall show it unto you. There's no ifs or maybes in that. That's certainty. That's why
Christ could could say way back through the prophet Jeremiah,
Jeremiah 3.15, he could say, I will give you pastors after
my heart which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.
Because they're going to be born of the Spirit of God and therefore
they're going to preach Christ and Him crucified. They're going
to give God all the glory. Now, back in our text we see
another point of good news. That oil kept the lamp burning
always. It kept the lamp burning always. When Christ gives the oil of
gladness, when the Spirit of God enters in, He never forsakes
His regenerated child. The Spirit of God dwells in His
people. throughout the days of our life
on this earth once we've been born of the Spirit. When He enters
in, He never leaves, so that His child has the light of life
always. Back there in 2 Corinthians 4,
Paul said, as we have received mercy, we faint not. We receive mercy by the Holy
Spirit of God, and it's by the Holy Spirit of God that we don't
faint. We continue by the Spirit of
God, burning always. Christ said, I'll pray the Father,
He shall give you another comforter that He may abide with you forever. Forever. That's how come Scripture
says, Scripture tells us if you continue in the faith, if you
persevere in the faith, then that is the proof that you really
are a child of God. Because the Spirit of God, once
given, always is with us, always abides in us. That one who professes
to believe and then falls away, ceases to assemble with God's
people, doesn't need the gospel anymore, why did they do that? Oh, well, God must have failed.
No. They never were born of the Spirit of God to begin with.
Never were. Now, thirdly, let's go back to
our text. Notice where the oil was kept
burning and notice who kept it burning. Look here in verse 21. In the tabernacle of the congregation
without the veil, which is before the testimony. That holiest of
holies is where the ark of the covenant was, that's where the
testimony was, that's where the covenant was. And outside of
that holiest of holies was that first room, the tabernacle, and
it was in that room, that first room, that tabernacle, is where
the lamp was. And look who put the oil in and
who kept it burning. Aaron and his son. shall order
it from evening to morning before the Lord." Now that tabernacle
of congregation without the veil outside of that holiest of holies,
that's a picture of the house and church of God in this earth. That's what there's a picture
of. The holiest of holies is God's presence where Christ is
seated and this tabernacle of congregation is his house, his
church. A picture of his house and his
church. Aaron was the high priest. Aaron pictures the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's our high priest. And Aaron's
sons, they were priests. Not high priests, they were priests.
And they typify those that Christ redeemed and through His blood
He made us priests unto God. And here, in this particular
picture, they especially typify His ministers who preach the
Word. It's in God's house, right here,
where His people are assembled through the preaching of this
Gospel. through the preaching of the
Gospel that Christ our High Priest continually fills His people
with the oil of the Holy Spirit. He does it. He does it. And He
does it through the preaching of the Word delivered by His
sons, His ministers. That's how it's done. Now God
here, He's reminding you and me, brethren, as believers, that
we need the oil of the Holy Spirit. He's teaching us we need this
oil constantly. And He's teaching us that it's
given by Christ our High Priest. It's given through His Gospel. And He teaches that by having
the children of Israel to bring the oil. They brought the oil. Now, it's not because we can
produce the oil of the Spirit. That's not what's being said
there. That's not the picture. It's not because we can produce
the Holy Spirit ourselves. It's to remind us we need Christ
to give us the oil. We need Christ to fill our lamp.
We need the Holy Spirit in our vessels to keep the light burning
continually. And it's to remind us of the
means that Christ uses. It's through the preaching of
His Word. It's through praying and singing. It's through the reading of Christ's
Word that the Lord strengthens His people with the Holy Spirit.
That He fills us with this oil and keeps us continually burning.
Now get that lesson. Here you have a sanctified lamp
in the tabernacle. God's already sanctified. He
already set it apart. He already said, this lamp is
only for my holy use. That's you, believer. You're
sanctified by God. He set you apart by the Holy
Spirit in regeneration and declared, you're only for my holy use. You're consecrated to God, devoted
to God for God's holy use. But even that sanctified vessel
in the tabernacle of the congregation had to have oil put in it continually
or the light wouldn't burn. and that's you and me. We've
been sanctified by God, but we have to have Christ give us new
oil, fresh oil, and continue to give us oil. Remember the
psalm we were in Saturday night? Somebody tell me what psalm that
was. I can't remember. Does that make y'all feel better?
I know you forget the message. I can't remember what psalm we
were in. What was it? 92, yes, Psalm 92. Look at it there, what it said. What was one of the things we
thanked Him for? We thanked Him for strengthening us. He says
in verse 10, My horn, my strength, shalt thou exalt like that of
a wild ox. I shall be anointed with fresh
oil. With fresh oil. And that's what
He does. He gives you fresh oil through
the preaching of the Word, through the study of the Word, through
the singing of Christ and everything you hear through this means. He gives you fresh oil and strengthens
you. And do you remember the foolish
and the wise women? parable of the foolish and the
wise women. In Matthew 25, it tells us that, I'll just read
a portion of it, but in Matthew 25, it tells us in verse 3, it says there were foolish virgins
that took their lamps and took no oil with them. But the wise
took oil in their vessels with their lamps. And look down at
verse 9, when the foolish went to the wise and said, we don't
have any oil, we need some oil. The wise told them, go ye rather
to them that sell and buy for yourselves. Now here's what we're
learning in this picture in our text. You and I, believer, continually
must go to Christ. We continually must go to Christ. He says, come, buy, buy without
money and without price. This is free. But you have to
continually go to Christ. Once you've been born of the
Spirit of God, once you've been given the oil and the light begins
to burn, it'll never be taken away. But we have to keep coming
to Christ, our great high priest, to receive more oil. He's the
only one that can give it. The Holy Spirit. And He does
so through this Word. Assemble together under the preaching
of Christ crucified. And then take what you've heard
and be always in the Word of God, studying what you've heard,
looking these things up to see if these things be so. And our
Lord Jesus Christ will continue to give us the Holy Spirit so
that we'll continually have fresh oil and the light continues to
burn. It'll never go out. You notice
there at the end, it says, this was a statue. That's a law. It was a law forever unto their
generations. That means until the one it typified
came. Until the one it typified came.
Then when Christ has come though, now he's given us a statute forever. We have this standing law forever. It's this, to you that's been born of God
through the gospel, you must continually come to Christ, continually
come to Christ. And it's through this means of
the gospel he'll continue to give fresh oil. That's why we
read in Hebrews 10.25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together
as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so
much the more as you see the day approaching. We're to encourage
one another to continue assembling together. Encourage one another
not to forsake the gospel of Christ, because this is the means
he's chosen. to keep our light burning. I
pray that's a blessing to you. Let's stand together. Our gracious Father, we come
to you in Christ Jesus our Lord, begging you to send forth the
Holy Spirit and give us this fresh oil. We have no light, we can't produce
light. We need you, Lord, to send us
all through Christ Jesus the Lord. We thank you, Father, that
you sent your Son and he justified us and made us righteous. We're
thankful that you regenerated us by the Spirit of God, and
Lord, we're so thankful that you preserve us. If you don't
continue the work you've begun, we can't continue. Preserve us,
Lord. Keep us. Continue to fill these
vessels and make the light of Christ burn. Lord, we ask that
you keep us coming to Christ. Never let us grow beyond coming
to Christ. Never let us grow beyond being
absolutely dependent upon our Savior, the Lord Jesus. Lord,
keep us always at his feet. Keep us hearing his gospel. Keep
us filled with the Spirit of God. Lord, teach us to not grieve
the Holy Spirit. Teach us not to walk as children
of darkness, but to walk as children of light. And Lord, we thank
you that these are the promises you've given to your people.
We ask now in this second hour that you bless the word, bless
the reading of the word, bless the preaching and the singing,
and Lord, keep us filled by this spirit of light, this oil. Forgive us our sins, Father.
Be with those that couldn't be here today, that have sickness
in their families and other troubles, and we pray that you would bless
this word to their heart, too. And forgive us, Lord, our sin
and our unbelief. We ask these things in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.