Exodus chapter 30, verses 34
through 38. There were two things required
in the consecration of the priesthood to set them apart from other
men and to enable them to minister about the holy things of God.
There were two things here that he mentions. First, there was
to be a holy anointing. This was to take place before
the door of the tabernacle. They were to be stripped of their
clothes, they were to be clothed and they were to be washed, and
then they were to be dressed in these priestly garments. And
then they were to be anointed with this holy anointing oil,
which was typical of the anointing of the Holy Ghost. This anointing
pictured the work of God in us. That's what this anointing was
all about, taking the bitter sufferings and death of our Lord
and revealing to us the glory of God in the work of our Savior. And then the second thing required
in the consecration of the priesthood was that the high priest take
a holy perfume, sometimes called in the Scripture incense, and
daily he was to take this in as I read to you the formula
that he gave them, uncut, mixed together. They were to take that
in daily, that high priest, and coals from the altar and put
it in that golden altar of incense called the altar perfume. It
set just before the veil. And they were to pour that perfume
out on those hot coals, and that smell would just fill that outer
room of the tabernacle. And then one time a year, and
they had to have a little bit more preparation to this thing
was involved, and they were to beat it very fine, some of it,
he said, very, very fine. And he was to take that along
with the blood of the sinner And he was to take hot coals
from that altar and put them in a brazen censer. And he was
to take that censer in and go beyond that veil and then lay
that censer down before the Ark of the Covenant over which was
the mercy seat. And he was to sprinkle that blood
and pour that perfume out on those hot coals. And a cloud,
it said, would form around the mercy seat, a misty cloud. from this perfume. And it said
that he die not. That he die not. This was something
absolutely necessary for the high priest. And this perfume
is typical of the merits of the person and work of our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. And as the anointing oil pictured
the work of God done in us, this holy perfume pictures the work
of God done for us. It's what's being done for us.
And there's four things that I want us to look at tonight.
I want us to look, first of all, at the perfume itself. And we'll
look at that and those ingredients. And then we're going to look
at what it stands for. And then we're going to look
at how it was made. And then I want to, last of all,
try to give you, as best I can, the strong warning against making
this perfume for yourself. So here's the first thing, is
the incense itself. There was four basic ingredients
that made up this perfume. Now, I'm using another man's
pronunciation, which he got from the dictionary on these words.
So when I say these things and you say, well, boy, he butchered
that word, take it up with whoever wrote the dictionary. But the
first is stak-tea. That's how that's pronounced.
Stak-tea. And then the second one was onika. The third was galbunum or galbonum. And then the fourth was frankincense. Now there's all kinds of speculations
about the first three of these spices. But what I learned reading
about them is that nobody really knew what they were. It was just
guesses and speculations. They took the name out of the
original Hebrew and you remember the other night we were talking
about that holy anointing oil and I mentioned myrrh to you
and I told you the name means bitter. Well, I was studying
for the Sunday school lesson this week and you remember in
there where they took vinegar and gall and put it up to its
Do you know that in one of the writers said they took vinegar
and myrrh? That's what that gall, that bitter,
bitter, they took that myrrh and put it on there with vinegar,
which is nothing but wine past the point, and stuck it up to
his lips. But here's what I learned. These
things were a mystery. We all know what frankincense
is. The word frankness means superior. That's what that word
means. And the rest of that word is incense. So what's it mean? Superior incense. That's what
it means. But the rest of these things
were a mystery. And even so, we're told the same
thing about the gospel of God's sovereign grace in Christ. It's
a mystery. It's a mystery. What else do
I know about this perfume? Well, I know it must have been
a pleasing smell. Whatever it was, it must have
been extremely pleasing, else God wouldn't have forbid them
to use it for their own use. It must have been something people
would like. You could stand outside. I know
the aroma wasn't as strong as it was inside that tabernacle,
but I'm telling you, I passed by people's houses sometime and
smelled women's perfume just walking down the street. So here's
a perfume being dumped out on these hot coals and you know
that aroma came out and people smelled it. And then I know this
about that perfume, I know that it had to be beaten very small
and I know that it had to be mixed together. Well, here's the second thing
I want you to see. Now, I'm not going to elaborate
on those things because these other points will take care of
that, but here's the second thing. What is this holy perfume meant
to typify? Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
1. The incense was typical of the
merits of our Lord's person and work. How do I know that? Because it was used upon the
golden altar day to day to prefigure our Lord's intercession for us. That's what that golden altar
was all about. That's the Lord's intercession
for us. And so how does He intercede? Now the Catholics say, pray to
Mary and she can intercede for you. She has favor with Him. They call her Mary, the mother
of God. And so in their thinking, they
can find favor through her with God. And then they also pray
to a lot of the other saints. They have patron saints that
they pray to. And these patron saints like
Stephen and some of them and all of these different saints,
they all were special in their eyes. And in their mind and thinking,
it's just like Mary. They can find favor through their
favor. But I'm going to tell you something
about intercession to God for sinners. Favor don't buy you
favor with God. The Lord Jesus Christ was God. He was in the beginning with
God. Isn't that what John said? In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Father
always loved His Son. Always loved His Son. But that
didn't keep Him from having to die on the cross. His favor alone is not enough
to redeem His church. It took His suffering and death. He had to become a man and He
had to come into this world and He had to give His life. He had
to make His soul an offering for sin, Isaiah said. His favor
didn't buy them favor. And if His favor won't buy you
favor, I guarantee you Mary's favor ain't going to buy you
favor. You see what I'm saying? Does that make sense to you?
So this golden altar here that represents the intercession of
our Lord was not about favor gaining favor, but this has to
do with the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. This had to do
with what He bought. This had to do with who He was. when He came into this world,
and why He came. This incense was typical of the
merits of our Lord's person. And it was used in the Holy of
Holies on the Day of Atonement to picture His meritorious sacrifice
to make atonement for His people. And there were four basic ingredients
in this holy oil, and there are four basic things involved in
this meritorious work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation
of our souls. Here in I Corinthians chapter
1 and verse 30. Now watch this. But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Now there was three of these
spices that were a mystery and one was common knowledge. So if I look over these four
things here that those spices were typical of, these four meritorious
accomplishments of Christ our Savior and high freedom, I see
here that three of these are a total mystery to men. Christ
our wisdom, they don't know anything about that. They don't even know
what you're talking about when you talk about it. You read the
book of Proverbs and Solomon told his son, get thee wisdom. This is the principal thing.
Get thee wisdom. You can just take that word wisdom
out of there and put Christ in there. Get thee Christ. Because
He is wisdom. He made of God unto us wisdom. But this world is ignorant of
that. They don't understand that. They don't reason from the person
of Christ. They don't reason from His sacrifice
and from His blood and from that work He accomplished. They just
reason with natural reasoning. And it's foolishness to them.
And now what he said, the preaching of the gospel is foolishness
to them who are perishing. But Christ is our wisdom. And
then the second thing this world's ignorant of that's a total mystery
to them, they don't know anything about it, is Christ our righteousness.
They have no idea what you're talking about. Righteousness. Down at the farm where I used
to hunt, there's a very religious young man who, well, they all
are, but one above the rest. And he told me, he said, we're
saved by grace, but we're sanctified by the law. That's what he told
me. They don't understand anything at all about this righteousness.
That was the Jews' problem. They, being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness,
had not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes. They don't know anything about
this. This is a great mystery to them. And the third thing
is sanctification. This world don't have a clue
what this sanctification is. A holy God, an unapproachable
God, holy beyond your wildest imagination. We have never even
scratched the surface of His holiness and His righteousness
and His justice. And yet, to be sanctified, to
be considered holy before this God, there's no other way to
do that except in Christ. Paul said he didn't want to be
found, and he isn't. I don't either. I don't want
to be found having my own righteousness, which is of the law. Paul said
when he found out what it was, he took it out and put it in
the dung heap. That's where it belonged. So let's look at these
things. Christ is our wisdom. But the
one of these four that the world has at least an outward knowledge
of is redemption. And they'll talk about that.
They'll talk about redemption. But these other subjects, they're
totally quiet on them. They'll guess. They'll make guesses
and they'll make speculations the same as these old writers
did about those spices. But when it comes down to it,
you know they're just guessing. Christ is our wisdom. All of
the things we've been studying were given typically to Israel
to bring them into a saving knowledge of God in Christ. in Romans chapter
3. You might want to turn over there
for just a second. Romans chapter 3 and verse 24. Paul said, "...being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through
faith in His blood to declare His righteousness for the remission
of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God." Now,
he's not talking here about the believer's past sins. I remember
Henry saying to a lady, she was arguing with him, she said, that
clearly says that he's talking about forgiveness for your past
sins, not your future sins. And he said, well, ma'am, he
said, which one of your sins was passed when Christ died?
They were all future, weren't they? He's not talking here about believers'
past sins, but about the sins of the Old Testament saints before
the coming of Christ. Because in the very next verse,
he says, to declare at this time, to declare at this time His righteousness. So what is that telling us? That's
telling us that Christ was our wisdom as God set Him forth in
His Old Testament ceremonies, in His Old Testament sacrifices,
in the perfume, in the tabernacle, and all those typical figurative
things, He set forth Christ as our propitiation. Through faith
in His blood, the blood of that substitute, the blood of the
paschal lamb, He sent Him forth through faith in His blood to
be a propitiation for our sins, that He might be both just and
justifier of all that believe. In all of the world, there's
only one way that God Almighty can forgive sin, and that is
through the meritorious righteousness and shed blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Christ is our wisdom. Paul said
in Colossians chapter 2, in him are hid all the treasures of
wisdom and righteousness. No man knoweth the Father, our
Lord said, save the Son, and He to whom the Son will reveal
Him. Christ is our wisdom. And then secondly, Christ is
our righteousness. After a long and exhaustive testimony
concerning the nature and cause of sin, Paul sums things up in
Romans 3, verse 20, saying, Therefore by the deeds of the law there
shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is
the knowledge of sin. Now watch this. But now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. When did they witness it? Way
back yonder in that tabernacle. through all those Old Testament
prophets, Romans 3.22, even the righteousness of God which is
by faith of Jesus Christ, or the faithfulness of Jesus Christ,
unto all and upon all them that believe. For there is no difference,
that is, between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. But by His righteous obedience
we stand faultless. Faultless, the Scripture said,
before the presence of His glory. And then in Philippians chapter
3, Paul said that I might win Christ and be found in Him not
having my own righteousness. Christ is our wisdom, and Christ
is our righteousness, and thirdly, He is our sanctification. In
Hebrews chapter 10, verse 9, it reads this way. Then said
he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first,
that he may establish the second. By the which will, that is, the
doing of the will of God in the sacrifice of himself, by the
which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. By this one all-sufficient sacrifice,
our Lord and Savior put away all our sins. It says in Hebrews
9.26, once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put
away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Now, if He put it away,
it's gone, isn't it? If it's still here, He didn't
put it away. He either did or He didn't. It
seems perfectly clear to me. And it says in Hebrews 10 verse
14, by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Some young man asked me one time
at a Bible conference, this had been a while back. He said, how
do you explain your past? And I said, same way you do. By the grace of God. By the grace
of God. through the meritorious work
of our redeemers. That's how I explain my past.
How do you justify your past? By grace. Being justified freely
by His grace. And my friend, if you have some
other kind of sanctification other than Christ, you need to
put it where Paul put his, on the dome heap. And then fourthly,
Christ is our redemption. He's our redemption. He paid
the debt, all the debt, nothing left to pay. You remember when
old Boaz married Ruth, he went to the elders of Israel before
the whole city. He went to the gate. Anytime
it talks about those old timers back there going to the gate,
that's what they're talking about. That's where the rulers of the
city met. That's where all judgments and all that type of thing was
held, at the gates of the city. And Boaz and a nearer kinsman
than him, All went up there. Everybody concerned with this
thing was up there before the people. And He said to them,
He said to this next of kin, He said, if you can redeem her,
redeem her. You redeem her. And I believe
that's what God tells us. If you can redeem yourself, do
it. But you can't. You can't. And He couldn't either. And he
stepped aside. And he said, if you can't redeem
her, get out of my way, for I'm going to redeem her. Man cannot
redeem himself, nor can any of his brethren, after the sons
of Adam. And in God's time, that man, if he's one of God's elect,
he'll be made to publicly confess his inability and give all the
honor and glory to Boaz. our Lord Jesus Christ. All right,
now, that's what this perfume means. It typifies the meritorious
work of Christ. But how was it prepared? Well,
I've got two things here for you to think about. First of
all, it was prepared according to the Word of God. God said,
take this and this and this and this and mix it together. These
men didn't stand back there in the wilderness. They were ignorant wheat gatherers
and brick makers. They were slaves freshly delivered
out of Egypt. And they're out here now in this
wilderness without a clue of how to worship God. And God's
teaching them how to do this. And these guys didn't sit around
and scratch their head and say, I tell you what, let's just take
some stack tea And this Annika, let's take some of that and we'll
get some galbonum and we'll get some frankincense and we'll mix
it all together. And we'll make it easier to remember,
so we'll put the same measurement in. That ain't how that come
to be. God said take these things. You
take these things. Don't take something else. Don't
take no myrrh. This ain't anointing oil here.
Don't take no myrrh. You take this. Now, what happens
when this world begins to preach the gospel of Christ? They don't
follow after the Word of God. God said, this is how it's done.
This is the righteousness. Christ is your righteousness. Here's justification. Here's
the sacrifice. Here's redemption. Here's these
things. They're all in Christ. Oh, no. No, we're going to include
man. We're going to include his will.
We're going to include his work. They're going to make their own
perfume. You can't make your own perfume. And you can't copy
what God made. You're going to have to follow
the Word of God. And that's the first thing I
know about this stuff, of how it's prepared. It's prepared
according to the Word of God. Paul said to Timothy, from a
child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to
make thee wise unto salvation. visited up here. I'm not going
to name names and things, but I visited a church here recently,
and in that church I saw things that they were teaching their
children, which I doubt these small children could even comprehend. But even if they could, why don't
you teach that child the Word of God? Why don't you teach him
that? Timothy's grandmother and his
mother had good sense. They taught this child the Scripture.
Scripture. Why? Why did they do that? The
Scriptures are puzzling to us sometimes. Why would they teach
the Scriptures to the children? Because they're able to make
you wise unto salvation when God tells you what to mean. That's
right. And so they taught them the Scriptures.
And that's how this came. It came from the Word of God.
Our Lord said to those Jewish elders, you search the Scriptures,
for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they
which testify of Me. No man in Israel came up with
this formula. This holy elixir came by the
Word of God. And then secondly, it was to
be made, now listen to this, after the art of the apothecary. An apothecary is one skilled
or gifted in the art of preparing spices. He's one taught and trained
to do this job. Now, I'm going to take just a
second here and I want you to turn with me to Exodus chapter
31. I just want to show you something
here. I feel like I need to take time and read this to you. Exodus 31. And the Lord spake
unto Moses, saying, See, I have called by name Belziel the son
of Uri, the son of Hur of the tribe of Judah. And I filled
him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, and in understanding,
and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship. to devise
cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and brass, and
cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to
work in all manner of workmanship. And I, behold, I have given with
him Aholiab, the son of Ahissimat, of the tribe of Dan. And in the
hearts of all that are wise-hearted, I have put wisdom, that they
may make all that I have commanded thee. the tabernacle of the congregation,
and the ark of the testimony, and the mercy seat that is thereupon,
and all the furniture of the tabernacle, and the table, and
its furniture, and the pure candlestick, with all of his furniture, and
the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt offering, with
all of its furniture, and the labor, and his foot, and the
cloths of service, and the holy garments for heir, and the priest,
and the garments of his sons to minister, and the priest offering."
Now watch this. and the anointing oil and the
sweet incense for the holy place. God took a man gifted, one that
he gifted to mix these spices and to make these things, and
that's who he used to do it. That's who he used to do it.
These men typify gospel preachers who set before men what God has
set before them. And let's do it according to
the Word of God. The gospel of the meritorious
person and work of Jesus Christ. And this is what Paul called
in II Corinthians 4.4, the light of the glorious gospel of Christ
shining unto us. That's what he talked about.
In verse 6, the light of the knowledge. of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. And this is what Peter described
as a light shining in a dark place that we need to take heed
unto. As a light shining in a dark
place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your heart. Let me show you something here.
There were two things this holy perfume was used for. First of
all, it was sprinkled daily upon the coals of the golden altar
of perfume. And this is done to picture that
perpetual intercession of our Lord in heaven for us. Daily, daily, continually. He called it a perpetual act
or ceremony. This thing was continual all
the time, all the time. And it was done to picture that
perpetual intercession of our Lord. As it was in the beginning,
so it continues to be and will be forever. In Hebrews 7, verse
24, it said, But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable
priesthood, whereunto he is able to save them to the uttermost
that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession. for them. And this incense was
to always be in the house of God. And then secondly, this
perfume was to be carried one time a year into the Holy of
Holies in conjunction with the sin offering and put upon the
coals carried in a censer and placed before the Ark of the
Testimony and that cloud of holy vapor surround the mercy seat. And you can read about that now
over in Leviticus 16.13 if you want to get some more details
on that. But in II Corinthians 2.15, Paul
used this type concerning the gospel he preached and that others
preached. And he said this, we are a sweet
saver in Christ. He said God is pleased to make
us a sweet saver everywhere we go. And where do we go? Because
we bear His Gospel. And we are a sweet saver of Christ
in them that are saved and in them that perish. To the one
a saver of death unto death, showing the glory of God's holiness
and justice. And to the other a saver of life
unto life, showing the glory of His mercy and grace. And this
holy perfume had to be mixed skillfully, each spice of equal
weight, Too much of one and not enough of the other would ruin
the perfume. And gospel preachers are giving,
those who seek God's message, are giving God's message for
that hour. And it's mixed. It's mixed in
them by the Holy Spirit of God and those gifts that God gives
them. And they don't put too much of one thing and not enough
of the other. They put in there exactly what
God gives them to give to His people. And then last of all,
let's look at the Lord's warning to His people. It's very similar
to the warning about that holy anointing oil. Look here with
me in Exodus 30, verse 37. And as for the perfume which
thou shalt make, ye shall not make to yourselves according
to the composition thereof, It shall be made unto thee holy
for the Lord. Whosoever shall make like unto
that, to smell it, shall even be cut off from his people."
Now, to me, this has several applications. First of all, to
those who would take it upon themselves to be God's preachers
or priests, who are not called or gifted to mix this holy perfume. But they do it for personal reasons. They do it for personal gain.
They do it because they want to do it. And every time I read
this verse, I think of that Catholic priest waving that incense burner
at Kathy's dad's funeral. That was the first time I ever
been to a Catholic service, and we went in there for his funeral.
And this guy came out with this incense burner and had little
puffers and there was smoke and incense and things going around
and he did this thing. This was a man. This was a man
with no instruction from God concerning this perfume and this
incense and no knowledge of how this incense was to be mixed
or used. Ignorant. Ignorant of it. And
then secondly, this speaks to me of men and women who bypassed
the work of the high priest and performed the work themselves.
Nobody was to handle this perfume but the high priest. This came
by his hand alone, by the high priest. And those who are going
about like ancient Israel trying to establish their own righteousness
By their own merits and works, God said of such people, you're
a smoke in my nose. That's what he told. And if you'll
look that up, what that means is the smell of garbage. You remember the Israelites had
to take all that stuff outside to camp and burn it. All that
certain leftovers and certain of this and certain of that,
it all had to go outside in a dung and all that had to be burnt.
So you can imagine what a rotten smell that was. And that's what
God told them about their own righteousness and their own merits. He said, you're a smoke in my
nose. And then thirdly, this speaks
of men and women who trod underfoot the Son of God and do despite
unto the Spirit of grace, to treat these things as commonplace,
unnecessary or optional in the salvation of their souls. There's
a story over in Numbers chapter 16. You can read it a little
later on tonight if you want to, in verses 28 through 50.
It's the story of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. And they stirred
up the hearts of the elders of Israel against Moses and Aaron.
You remember the story. And Moses told them, this is
how they could tell if God had chose to deal with them through
these men. or deal with them through him
and Abraham. He said, here's how we're going to tell. He said,
this is what we're going to do. If these men die a common death,
we're going to all gather out here, and if they just die a
common death, if nothing happens to them today and thirty years
from now they die, you'll know that God was in their calling. That was God who chose them to
do this work. But if the Lord make a new thing,
And the earth open her mouth and swallow them up with everything
that they own. Everything that belongs to them.
And that they go down quick into the pit. Then you'll know that
these men have provoked the Lord. And you know that the rest of
that story, God took them to hell with their shoes on. And
these men had stirred up 250 of the princes. I'm talking about
the wisest, best, choicest men in that whole outfit, out of
those millions of people. He got 250 of their princes,
the most noble men in that company, and got them on their side. And
Moses told them. Now, he told them the same time
he told Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. He said, each one of you get
your brazen censer and put some hot coals in there. You put the
incense on it, and you come and stand before the door of the
tabernacle, and we'll see who called who. And they did. And the fire of God came out
of heaven and burned them to a crisp, all 250 of them. And
God demanded that all those censers be melted down and be made into
a covering for that burnt altar. But that still wasn't enough.
That wasn't enough. Verse 41 in Numbers chapter 16,
And on the morrow all the congregation of Israel murmured against Moses
and Aaron, and God smote the whole outfit with a plague, and
to stay the plague. Now they're just dropping over
like flies. Actually, 14,700 of them, besides the 250, and
besides all the men with Korah in that matter, were laying dead
on the ground. And you know what God commanded
Aaron to do? Take his perfume, put it on them
coals in that censer, and run out in that congregation and
show them the merits of Christ. And it stayed the pledge. Actually, the word is, it made
atonement for them. The only place I know of in the
scripture where this holy perfume is called the atonement. But
it's that meritorious work of Christ that makes atonement for
your souls. And that's what stays the plague.
It's the only thing that will stay the plague. And the only
one who can use this perfume is the high priest. The high
priest. He takes these merits and He
pleads these merits before God where they need to be pleaded.
And then especially, especially beaten fine, beaten fine in that
sacrifice of His at the cross. That's where we really see it.
And then we know what it is we're smelling out here in the sanctuary
of service. We know what that is that's going
on that golden altar. And we know what's taking place
up into heaven now. That same meritorious perfume
that was poured out before the ark in the atonement was the
same perfume that they put on that altar. And it's the same
thing He pleads today in heaven for us. The merits of His righteousness
and His shed blood.