Spiritual Fragrance

2 October 2011

Dear Phyllis,

This morning I was speaking at The New Creation Church here in Mae Jo. I had a message that had been burning in my heart for over a week, and I had no question but what that was what the Lord wanted to say to us today. But things got totally out of hand . Thai churches are notorious for starting late. That took a big bite out of the time. The praise service was very good but went on for over an hour. By the time I was introduced to speak I only had 15 minutes left. I feared the message I had would be at least an hour and a half – if I cut it short. To try to get in an hour and a half message in 15 minutes is pretty challenging. When I finally stood up in the pulpit, my opening remark was, “I have no idea why I am here. I had a very good message but left it at the front door.”From there on I was almost speechless.

But I had had a very good time Tuesday speaking to the Bible school. I told the story about the Moravian boys who sold themselves to be slaves to reach those 3,000 black slaves on St Thomas Island. Their parting cry, “May the Lamb receive the reward of His sufferings.” I reviewed the three reasons for evangelism: (1) to make your church bigger, (2) because the lost are going to hell, and (3) for the sake of the Lord. The first reason is self-centered. The second is human-centered. And the third reason is for the sake of the Lord. That theme burns deeply in my heart.

During the praise service they were singing a very fine song with the theme “may Thailand receive the blessing of heaven”. As they were singing that I thought, there is something wrong with this picture. The thought came to me; rather than being concerned that the blessing of heaven come to Thailand, shouldn't our passion be ; “May Thailand be won for Jesus”? As I thought about this, tears flowed down my cheeks. I pleaded with the Lord that Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, Laos, China, and other countries become the Lord's possession. Jesus shed His blood to buy back these countries for the Father. Shouldn't our concern be that they become His possession rather than the blessing of heaven come to Thailand?

They sang another song that basically was alright. It was honoring to the Lord, but the last line said,“when Jesus died above all He thought of me”.Evangelistically speaking this sounds very good, but I really don't think that was primary in Christ's mind as He died on the Cross. I don't believe His main thought was focused on sinners, but a deadly commitment to honor the Father and do the will of God. I suspect that His thoughts were more on the Father rather than being concerned for sinners. This smacks close to humanism. I felt like hitting that hard when I got up to speak, but I only mentioned the first point that our main motivation should be more for the Lord's profit than for what we can get out of salvation.

After devoting seven minutes to that subject I told the folks that my message this morning was to be on spiritual fragrance. In dealing with the subject of spiritual fragrance,I reminded the folks there that we simultaneously live in two worlds. Of course no one will question that we live in a material world. But along with the material world, we also live in a spiritual world. It is hardly necessary to try to prove that point as everybody in Thailand lives in fear of evil spirits. The Thais are very conscious of the spirit world. Just as we are related to the material world through our five sense; the same five senses exist in the spiritual world. There are numerous references to looking unto Jesus, or look to the Lord. (Sight) The Bible speaks a great deal about hearing the Voice of God; or God speaking. (Sound) We talk about touching the Lord. (Feel) The scripture speaks of “Of taste the Lord”, “If any man thirst” and such verses that deal with (Taste). And finally there is such a thing as spiritual fragrance. (Smell) The Song of Solomon deals more with spiritual fragrance than any other portion of scripture.

But if a person wants to preach on spiritual fragrance, of course, the basic passage is the gospels account of Mary's anointing Jesus. It is highly significant that Jesus singled out this event and said, “Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.” (Mt. 26:13; Mk. 14:9). Of all the events in the life of Christ, this is the only one that He singled out that would go together with the Gospel message. Watchman Nee suggests that the reason for this might be because this is what the Gospel is supposed to produce. Whatever the reason, there is no question but what that events sets forth spiritual fragrance as it is found in no other place in the NT.

In Leviticus, when the first five offerings are mentioned, each time, the phrase, a sweet savourunto the Lord, is uttered with them (Lev. 1:9,13,17; 2:2,9). This issue of a sweet savour unto the Lord is absolutely basic to the worship of the Lord. In Eph. 5:2, it says that Christ “hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour”. And 2 Cor. 2:15 says that “we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ.”

There are volumes that could be said on this subject. That is why I say I would be hard pressed to keep a message on this subject under an hour ad a half. But the first major point is that the sweet savour is inseparably joined to sacrifice. In Leviticus that phrase is always mentioned with the sacrifice. In reference to Christ, again it is that Christ gave Himself as a sacrifice. And in the gospel account of Mary's anointing Christ, what she did was a tremendous sacrifice. John comments that her spikenard was “very costly”. In our offerings to Christ, if it is not costly it is not a sacrifice. Cheap offerings can hardly be called a sacrifice. What Mary did cost her dearly.

To Judas, and several other disciples, they thought what she did was mottai nai (what a waste!) (Mk. 14:4). Is that possible? Is there anything too valuable to be poured out on Jesus? Watchman Nee told of an incident that happened to him at a very low point in his life. Things had been going poorly with his evangelistic work. One day he was discouraged when he met a former professor from his college days. They both were delighted to see each other and went to a tea shop for a chat. The professor asked how he had made out in life. He had little to show for his efforts. Watchman Nee said his professor looked at him with pity and remarked,“What a waste! We had such high expectations for you. You were so gifted and we expected you to do well in life. But now look at you.”Brother Nee said that remark was almost indescribably crushing. And then suddenly he was filled with the spirit of glory. He thought,“How wonderful! What a privilege to waste my life on Jesus!”

When Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, and the other three missionary men were killed by the Akah Indians in Ecuador in 1956, the world said, “What a waste!” But oh the glory that came to the Lord through their sacrifice! The fragrance of their sacrifice has blessed and challenged tens of thousands. By their sacrifice they accomplished far more than anything they could have achieved had they lived to see 80, and the entire time be devoted to missionary work.

If Mary had not broken that bottle of spikenard and poured it all out on Jesus, nothing would have happened that night. It was because the bottle was broken and poured out that the fragrance filled the room. Brokenness is basic to spiritual fragrance.

In the five references to the expression “sweet savour” in Leviticus 1 and 2, and the reference to Christ in Ephesians and Christians in 2 Cor. 2:17; in each case it is written “unto the Lord”. It is unto Jesus that Mary made that sacrifice, but everybody in the house got blessed. John 12:3 says that “the house was filled with the odour of that ointment”. This is one of the principles of spiritual fragrance. It is not when we pour ourselves out in community service, or humanitarian relief work; but when we are poured out in a sacrifice to Jesus that the fragrance of Christ emanates from our lives.

All that I have said up to now was only to be the introduction to the message that I planed to give at the New Creation Church this morning. I didn't get to one word of it. I never opened the Bible or gave one scripture reference. The message that I had planed to give was the OT sister passage to Marys anointing Jesus. My text was Song of Sol. 1:12; “While the King sitteth at His table my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.”Very clearly, this is the sister passage to what is written in Mathew, Mark, and John. In it we see the law governing spiritual fragrance. There are three things that are common to Song of Sol. 1:12 and the three gospel accounts. One is that Jesus is seated at His table. In both cases it is spikenard. And in all accounts it is the fragrance that goes forth.

One of the points that I like to emphasize in the Song of Sol. account is that it is when the King is seated. It is a real grief to me that we have nearly totally lost any concept of who we are dealing with in our modern Christianity. There is a frightening familiarity with Christ today that I feel is terribly disrespectful and delusional. The flippancy and disrespect we show to our Lord is startling. I respect for Buddhism for their insistence that respect be showed to their idols. If you go into a Buddhist temple, they will not permit the blatant disrespect to their idols that is commonly accepted and normal conduct in Christian churches. The prayers of Christians sometimes makes me wonder who in the world they think they are talking to. Thank God, Jesus is a friend of sinners, but He is not that fuzzy teddy bear that so many Christians toy with. No one knew Jesus better, or was more intimate with Him, than John. But when John saw Jesus in heaven, he fell down as dead (Rev.1:17). This buddy buddy attitude towards Jesus does not bring a person into the awesome presence of the Lord. It is when the King is seated that the fragrance goes forth.

The table of course, speaks of fellowship. We call the Lord's table communion. In any social situation, to be invited for a meal and sit at a table; the whole purpose is for fellowship.

And in the Bible, sittingis the posture of rest or completed action.In Heb. 10:11, 12, we read of priests standing offering sacrifices that can never take away sin. The reason they are standing is because they are engaged in an impossible task. But “this one man (Jesus) when he had offered one sacrifice for sin sat down”.His job was done. The scene of Jesus sitting at His table does not mean sinless perfection, but there is such a thing as being right with God. Jesus is comfortable in our hearts. If He is seated, then the fragrance of Christ goes forth. The OT law of spiritual fragrance is simply the King being seated at His table; it is then that the spikenard sends forth the fragrance.

This is the message that I wanted to give this morning but I never got to say a word of it. I don't know, maybe if I get invited back again sometime, I might get into a little of it, but I can't imagine dealing with this subject in less than an hour.

But may God be gracious and allow the fragrance of Christ to emanate from our lives to the people around us this week.

bill