Evening, everybody. If you would,
turn over to Psalm 133. Psalm 133. It's a very short psalm. It's only three
verses. We'll read all three to begin with. Psalm 133, look at verse one. The psalmist says, behold, pay
special attention to this, how good and how pleasant it is for
brethren to dwell together in unity. What's it like? Here's what it's like. It is
like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the
beard, even Aaron's beard. that went down to the skirts
of his garments. It's as the dew of Hermon and
as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion. For there
the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore." How good and how pleasant it
is for brethren, the Lord's people, to dwell together in unity. It's very good and it's very
pleasant, isn't it? To be able to gather with the
Lord's people, to be able to rally around the Lord Jesus Christ
in dependence and in worship, being able to talk from your
heart and about your heart, about the evilness of it. about the
disobedience of it, about the infirmities of it, about things
like unbelief. And nobody looks at you cross.
And nobody judges you because we all suffer from the same disease. To help one another, to console
one another, and to bear one another's burdens, that's good,
isn't it? And that's pleasant. That is
a good and pleasant thing. Paul says this, though. In Ephesians
4, 3, he says, endeavoring, working, striving to keep the unity of
the Spirit in the bond of peace. You know what he's saying there?
He's saying this is something you've got to work at. This is
something you have to give yourself to. This is something where you
need to be intentional with your actions for this reason, that
temporal peace that we enjoy with one another. that joy we
feel around one another, that peace we have here in this world
between us, it can be broken. Now, let me explain what I mean.
We can't lose our union with Christ. And by virtue of who
he is, and by virtue of us being the body and him being the head,
we can't lose our spiritual union with one another. But that peace
we enjoy with one another, we can lose that. And so he says,
endeavor in this, give yourself to this, be intentional in it. And he mentions about four things.
And would to God that he would cause me to do this when I deal
with my brother. Four things, not have an expectation
that my brother would treat me this way, but have only an expectation
for myself that I would treat my brother this way in lowliness,
in meekness, in long suffering and forbearing one another, suffering
one another for love's sake. That's how we endeavor to keep
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. And that peace,
that sweet union is so good. But, now all that being said,
preeminently, that is not the first teaching out of this passage
of Scripture. The first teaching out of this passage of Scripture
is how good and how pleasant union with Christ is. That's
what it's talking about. What is union with Christ? All
of the elect, We have always been one, united in one in Christ. We're talking about spiritual
geographic location, all located in one man, so much so that truly
everything he has done, we did. That's it. And everything that
was done to him, it's done to us just the same, because you
can't separate the two. Now, two examples are given here
in the text. I'm only gonna deal with one
tonight, and that is simply because both of them relay the same thing,
and we only have so much time. But look down at verse two of
your text, and let's read it together. What's union with Christ like?
How good and how pleasant is it? It's like this, verse two.
It is like the precious ointment, the anointing oil, upon the head. that ran down upon the beard,
even Aaron's beard, that went down, all the way down to the
very skirts of his garment. Now I got three things for you
on this. Aaron, number one. Two, Aaron anointed. And three, that anointing oil
that went all over the head, and kept on running and covered
the entire body all the way from head down into the toe. Three things there. Number one,
Aaron. Who was Aaron? Aaron was a high priest. Who
does this speak of in this illustration here? Christ, our great high
priest. We talked about that this morning.
Christ, that one who makes intercession for His people, that one who
stepped in the Holy of Holies in the very presence of His Father
with His own blood, and makes effective intercession for all
His chosen people. He brings them all to God and
they are all accepted because of who came, who they come in,
and what He has done. Aaron, Christ, Aaron anointed. Christ is God's anointed. We
look at that this morning. Listen to this. This is Acts
1038. It says, How God anointed Jesus
of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about
doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil,
for God was with him. What does it mean to be anointed?
We saw that this morning. Chosen of God. Appointed by God
for a particular task. and then given all necessary
armament to complete the task so that you cannot fail. Jesus
Christ is the anointed of God. He gave him all the spirit. He
gave him all power to do what? Well, what I just read there
told us. He said he did good, to do good,
right there. He kept the law. and he kept
it as an us. When he kept that law, we kept
that law in him. And to deliver all those oppressed
of the devil, that's his people right there, folks, oppressed,
captives, oppressed by sin, oppressed by death, cannot get out, captives
of Satan himself, to oppress them from that, to save his people
from their sins. That's what he was sent to do,
and he did this all as an us. carrying all of us in Him the
entire time. Now, let's look at Aaron's anointing. Turn over
to Exodus chapter 30. Now, when the high priest was
anointed, and the other officers of God were anointed, that bucket
of oil, that spiced oil was dumped on their head. And just as we
saw in the illustration, it would run down, it would cover the
head, it would cover the ears, it would run down the beard,
it would cover the mouth. But in that illustration, where
does it say it ended up? It went all the way down to the
skirts of his garment. This went all the way down and
what covered the head covered the body as well. Now let's read
a little bit about Aaron's anointing. Look at verse 30. Exodus 30 verse 30. And thou
shalt anoint Aaron and his sons. and consecrate them that they
may minister unto me in the priest's office." Consecrate them. You know what that means? It
means to sanctify, to take something that is common and ordinary and
make it holy. And this is what this is talking
about. How are God's people made holy? How are they sanctified? Well, it's very simple. This
is what Hebrews 2.11 says. This is the sum and substance
of all the teaching. For both he that sanctifieth and they
who are sanctified are all of one. For which cause he is not
ashamed to call them brethren. Because holiness courses through
that man, the Lord Jesus Christ, through the head. It courses
through the body as well. Because He is holy, we are holy
in Him. This thing about progressively
getting holy, no, holiness is in Christ. If you're in Christ,
the toe is as holy as the nose is, all the way through completely
and utterly holy. But what by what means? This
thing of being sanctified, I think we normally think of God the
Holy Spirit being the one who sanctifies, the one who makes
holy, and that's absolutely true. But in actuality, the scriptures
say all of the Godhead, every person of the Godhead is accredited
with this thing of sanctifying God's people. Let me give you
a few things here. Jude 1.1 says, Jude, the servant
of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified
by God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ and called. Jude
says God the Father sanctifies. In what way? To sanctify, to
take something common and ordinary and set it apart and make it
holy. What did God the Father do to
sanctify His people? He set them apart. He chose them
before the world ever began. He chose them unto salvation. But that choosing was in Christ. It all comes back to who's in
Christ. Listen to this, this is Ephesians
1 verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. You see what that
says? Everybody the Father chose, there's only one place He chose
them from, in His Son, in Christ. You see, this is an eternal union.
That means every member of the elect, everybody God the Father
chose to save. We have always been in Christ.
We always will be in Christ. There will never be a time that
we are separated from Him. When He chose He didn't have
to look far to see where to choose from. He chose one man. Don just
read it in his text right there. He's His elect. He chose Christ.
And when He chose Christ He chose everybody that was in Him, sanctified
by God the Father. sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15, 16 says this, that I should be the minister of Jesus
Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God that the offering
up of the Gentiles might be acceptable being sanctified by the Holy
Ghost, by God the Holy Spirit. How does He sanctify? In regeneration,
because we are one with Christ. We have to have that same nature
as the head. And so, because we were chosen in Christ, because
we have always been in Christ, God the Holy Spirit comes at
His appointed time and He gives you life. He gives you that very
spirit and mind of Christ, that holy nature, that is what He
does. But why does He do it? Because
we are in Christ. Because that which surges through the head
must surge through the body as well. It is all about spiritual
geographic location. And it says this in Hebrews 10.10, By the witch will, we are sanctified,
we are made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. Christ sanctifies us. He makes
us holy or made us holy, more particularly. And how did he
do that? When he went to the cross. when he bore our sins
in his body, when he suffered under the wrath of God and put
those sins away, and his very righteousness is given to us.
Why? Because it's ours. Because we
are in Christ. righteousness. He reckoned to
be righteous. He can only reckon, He can only
impute what is actually there. And here is the truth for every
believer, for every member of the elect, we are righteous because
we are in Christ. And when He did righteousness,
we did righteousness as well in Him. This is real. But all three members of the
Godhead are used in this thing of sanctifying God's people.
Now, let's look how this oil was composed. Look up at verse
22, says moreover the Lord spake
unto Moses, saying, take thou also unto thee principal spices,
the chiefest, the best, of pure myrrh, 500 shekels, and of sweet
cinnamon, half so much, even 250 shekels, and of sweet calamus,
250 shekels, and of cassia, 500 shekels, after the shekel of
the sanctuary, of an oil, olive, and hen. Now he mentions here
four chief principal spices. And this all speaks of what Christ
did for his people. And they did too in him. Listen to this, myrrh is the
first one. I looked at some of these. Myrrh, two attributes,
bitter taste, but a sweet smell. Now, this is poetic language.
This is something that Solomon said in the Song of Solomon 113.
It says, A bundle of myrrh is my beloved unto me. He shall
lie all night betwixt my breasts. Poetic language, but they were
talking about the custom of the day. The custom of the day was
this, a woman she would take a bundle of myrrh and she'd put
it around her neck and she'd wear it right there above her
heart. It had a sweet fragrance. Christ, our sweet smelling savor
before the Father. The bitterness of sin, He bore
it. His righteousness becoming ours,
therefore now before the Father in Christ we have a sweet smelling
savor. Why? Because of what the head
did and we did in Him. Second thing here, cinnamon.
Christ our firmness and our uprightness. He's talking about a seminar
stick. You ever seen one of those? It's erect, it's solid, it's
upright, it stands up. Because Christ is upright before
His Father. Because He did everything His
Father commanded Him to do before the world ever began. He stands
upright before the Father and we do too. As He stands, we stand
in Him. And it's firm, it's hard, it's
immovable. This thing of being in Christ,
you can't be moved. We have always been there, we
always will be there if you're a believer, and we cannot be
moved from this unchangeable state. Calamus, Christ our righteousness. Now, Calamus is interesting.
It was a pole, a marsh reed. primary use throughout the Scripture
when you look it was used for measuring, to see if something
measured up to the exact measurement. So, they would take a reed and
say, well I want this reed to be about three cubits. So, they
would measure out the cubits, cut it on both ends. This reed
now measures three cubits. Everything is supposed to be
three cubits. So, you take the reed, measure it all out, right? Listen to
this, Isaiah 36 verse 6 says this, "'Lo, thou trustest in
the staff of of this broken reed on Egypt." He's talking about
the law. He's talking about a breaking
of the law. "'Whereon if a man lean, it will
go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to
all that trust in him.'" He talks about a broken reed, the law
we broke. And he says, if a man leans upon
that, If he leans upon what he has done before the Law, here
is what that reed is going to do, it is going to pierce his
hand, it is going to do him harm. If you come to God by way of
the Law, expect damnation. There is also hope in that verse
of Scripture. That is exactly what Christ did.
We broke the law and He became all our law breaking, and He
leaned on it, and He suffered, and He was pierced through the
hands, and pierced through the side. And now, this is where
the measurement comes in. Now, God the Father takes out
that measuring stick of His holy law, and He stands it up, and
He says, everybody has to meet this mark. They must be exactly
this, the very righteousness of Christ. And we all meet the
mark. We all meet the measurement because
of what Christ did. And finally this, Cassia. Christ, our just weight, and
our balance. Now, we get some interesting
information about Cassia in verse 24. It gives us some more information
about how it was to be weighed. And of Cassia, 500 shekels after
the shekel of the sanctuary. What was the shekel of the sanctuary?
It was a unit of weight. They kept it in the tabernacle,
in the temple. And so, on the day of atonement,
or I'm sorry, rather, when a census was taken, everybody had to be
numbered. Everybody who was numbered, a
male of 20 years old, he had to have the atonement money,
a half shekel. And he'd step up to that bar, and he'd bring
that half shekel, and they would weigh it against the shekel of
the sanctuary. Put it on the scales, you have
the shekel of the sanctuary on one side, and the half shekel
he brought. And it had to be an exact just weight and balance.
It couldn't be more, and it couldn't be less. All God will accept
is Christ. You take anything away from that,
you try to add anything to it, it is a false weight and balance. He put it on there, and if it
matched, if there is a just weight and a just balance, your name
was written in that book and you were accepted among the people. He is our just weight and our
balance. He is our atonement. And through
that, He paid our debt. Now, to where we are measured
against God's holy law, there is a just weight and there is
a just balance, all in Christ. And because of this, because
Christ did all His Father gave Him to do, He completely and
utterly ransomed all His people, those in Him, back to the Father. There is now another oil that
flows upon Him. Let me read this to you. This
is Hebrews 1, 8 and 9. But under the sun, he saith, thy throne,
O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness
and hated iniquity. Therefore, God, even thy God,
hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. The Father's gladness falls down
upon the sun. It coats him, it envelops him
just like on air and it covers the entire head. It runs down
to the beard, it runs over the ears and over the eyes, but it
doesn't stop there. It flows all the way down to
the very skirts of his garments. The very oil of gladness falls
on every elect child of God. Why? Because we're in Christ,
just one place. Now, a logical question that many may ask. Todd asks
this question all the time and it's a good one to consider.
Then how do I get in Christ? Let's look at it. Turn over to
1 Corinthians chapter 1. First Corinthians chapter one,
look at verse 30. It says, but of him, who's the
him? That's God the father. But of
him are ye in Christ Jesus. Here's the answer. God has to
put you there. Don't forget, this is an eternal
union, one that did not have a beginning and will never have
an end. You see, I can't get into Christ.
I've either always been there or I never will be. This is a
done deal. The Father had to put you there,
but it's an eternal beginning, an eternal putting in Christ. So the question is not, how do
I get in Christ? The question is right now, am I there or am
I not? That's it. That's the only question
we need to ask. Finish the verse. But of him
are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and
righteousness and sanctification and redemption. What does that
mean? He is made unto us all these
things. This is the wisdom of every believer.
The only way I can stand before that holy and just God, the only
logic, the only wisdom, this is this, I have to be in Christ.
I have to have him walk in front of the Father with full acceptance,
with full gladness because of what he's done and he has to
bring me with him. He cannot accept the head and
not accept the little toe. I have to be brought before him.
That's the only possible way. Him satisfying the perfect justice
of God and making me what I was not before, wholly unblameable
and unapprovable in his sight. One way, one way in Christ. Our
righteousness. Do you have any merit whatsoever?
A man who has no merit whatsoever, and this is all he's got, he's
got the very righteousness of Jesus Christ. That is my only
righteousness before God. What he did. That's it. That's
all I have. My only hope is that that's my
history. Everything I ever done was what Christ did. That's it. Nothing more. He is my righteousness. Sanctification, all my sanctification,
my holiness is found in this man because he is holy. Because
He did what was necessary to make me holy. I therefore am
holy. The same holiness that courses
through the head must course through the body. But it's all
about location because I'm in Christ. That's it. And my redemption. I'm bought and paid for by price.
There is a just weight and balance because Christ shed His precious
blood. The Father is appeased. And now the mercy He shows me
It's a just mercy. It does absolutely no damage
to His just character, because the way He did it, oh, it's a
good weight, and it's a good balance. It's all fair, and it's
all right. And folks, if that's the case for you, Christ has
been made unto you all these things, and that's because the
Father put you there eternally. Short message, but I'm gonna
leave you there.