Abounding Grace

Pastor Ed Taylor: The anointing of God moves in the giftings of God and His supernatural power in your life that so many times is unexplainable. It makes you different and unique in your workplace. It makes you different and unique in your family. It makes you different and unique even in the body of Christ. It's not something you can give away or sell.

Can you imagine if you tried to do that? Like you, just you're not on TV, you're not on television. Just like, you know what? You wake up one morning, I think I'm going to sell my anointing. I am an anointed brother and I'm going to create a ministry where I'm going to sell my anointing. It's just so foreign to the biblical text and to the heart of God, but unfortunately not so foreign to the church today.

Guest (Male): It is time once again for Abounding Grace with our pastor and teacher Ed Taylor. We take you to Exodus chapter 30 today and we're about to learn how to have anointed and spiritually cleansed lives. There is no doubt about it. We live in a filthy world and so we need continual cleansing that God alone can provide. We also desperately need God's anointing or hand upon our lives. Without it, we're in big trouble. Here is Pastor Ed with more.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Notice verse 11 now in Exodus 30. It says, "Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'When you take the census of the children of Israel for their number, every man shall give a ransom for himself to the Lord, then you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them. This is what everyone among those who are numbered shall give: a half shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary. A shekel is 20 gerahs. The half shekel shall be an offering to the Lord.

Everyone included among those who are numbered, from 20 years old and above, shall give an offering to the Lord. The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than a half shekel when you give an offering to the Lord to make atonement for yourselves. And you shall take the atonement money of the children of Israel and shall appoint it for the service of the Tabernacle of meeting, that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel before the Lord to make atonement for yourselves.'"

This ransom money, interesting. This census taking goes back as far as man can count history. Censuses, the counting of people within a nation, within a community, were normally used for military and taxing purposes. But notice now this census was taken for the sake of being numbered among the people of God. They aren't among Egypt any longer. They are now numbered as the people of God. And in this numbering, they were then to give this money for the atonement.

And I want you to notice, I thought this was interesting in how it was given and what was given. First of all, notice the rich couldn't give more and the poor couldn't give less. And what does that say to us but that every man and woman is equal in the sight of God? God shows no favors to the rich or to the poor. And no matter where a person might be financially, God looks at us on equal levels, drawing us into His presence and inviting us into worship and forgiveness.

In Romans chapter 2, verse 11, it says there is no partiality with God. We live in a very divided culture, so we know all of our differences. It wouldn't take much if you looked around the room, you'd see differences. You'd see male, female, you'd see different colored skin, you'd see young, you'd see old. You would see a lot of differences. It's just how we've been ingrained to see differences. But that's not how God sees us.

And with the eyes of God, we can lay down these differences for the sake of being one in Christ. Because I think we do have a tendency to take these differences and apply them to other people this way. For example, in our family of churches, Pastor Chuck Smith is a very important man. But if you're not careful, as many are today, they're not careful, they will elevate Chuck Smith to being more important than anyone else. And he's not.

He's a guy just like you and me. He was living his life honoring Jesus, he heard the voice of the Lord and he obeyed. And God used him greatly. Isn't that what you want for your life? But he's no greater than us and we're no greater than him. Or how about someone more familiar to you? You think of Billy Graham. You say, "Oh boy, look at what Billy Graham has done." Hey, Billy Graham is no greater than you and you're no greater than him.

He was a man seeking after the things of God and he answered the call and this was God's will for his life. Can I ask you this? Has God called you to be Billy Graham? Yes or no? No. Why? It's very easy. You're not Billy Graham. Has God called you to be Chuck Smith? No. Why? Well, you're not Chuck Smith. But you know, if I asked the question for each of the names here, because God knows you by name, He's numbered you, He knows you.

I said, "Has God called you to be so-and-so?" Well, yeah, of course He has. That's who I am. And you can be a woman, and you can be a man that listens for the voice of the Lord and when you hear Him, you follow. And you will be exactly what God has called you to be. You will produce the fruit that God has asked you and commanded you to produce that He does through you.

I don't ever want you to think of someone, even in this church and within the context of this church, because of my role in the church I get attention, I get focus, I'm the voice that God uses to teach us, but don't ever think that I'm more important than anyone in this church. I'm not more important than anyone in this church. I'm no better than you. You're no better than me.

If I'm to be faithful in what God has called me to, then I'm going to do what God has called me to do: pray and study the word, equipping the saints for the work of the ministry. And when I cease to do that, then I cease to live according to the calling of God upon my life. That's my calling. Have you been called to be me? No. You don't ever need to worry about that. You've been called to be you.

I like this. And when you're giving, like the rich, the rich needs to do this, and the poor needs to do this. The offering, according to verse 16, notice, the atonement money, verse 16, of the children of Israel, you shall appoint it for the service of the Tabernacle of meeting. What does that mean? That this half shekel was to be given for the upkeep of the Tabernacle.

It was to be given so that the Tabernacle was taken care of. The community of believers shared in the upkeep and the care of the Tabernacle. Together they were strong. And that's why I think the enemy works overtime, trying so hard to divide us from one another internally, externally, trying to divide churches against churches, trying to divide churches, trying to divide families, just taking us in a place where we're thinking about each other as an enemy instead of as a friend.

And you get a little division there, you get a little contention there, you get a little condemnation there, and before you know it, everybody's fighting one another and the enemy's moved on. He's not here. He's like, "You're not fighting the enemy anymore. You're fighting each other." We're standing up so much for ourselves instead of dying to ourselves. So this ransom money was to be given, a half shekel.

It was an offering even though it was for the upkeep of the Tabernacle. Upkeep of the Tabernacle. I want you to go back and mark this. You can even write a little arrow, you can even write a little star, however you want to do this. In verse 13, it says this half shekel shall be an offering to the Lord, but in verse 16, verse 13 it's to the Lord, but in verse 16 it was for the upkeep of the Tabernacle.

It was to the Lord. So all of our giving is to the Lord, but there are purposes in the use of God's money as we give it to the Lord. And that's why, you know, if some listening to me, they've given an offering, they've been ripped off by some televangelist on TV or they've been ripped off at a church. Some of you, I might be speaking to you. You came from a church where they just totally ripped you off and it took you a while to understand that what that guy was doing, he was lying to you, taking advantage of you.

And offering, you know, "We need this offering and this offering," and, "Offer this and you'll get a thousandfold return," and you're just giving, giving, giving because that's all you knew until the Lord broke through and said, "No, don't give them anymore. Don't even be in that church anymore." But you know what? There was a part of you where you did give that offering to the Lord. So you don't need to worry about it.

You don't need to beat yourself up. You don't need to, you know, sometimes you just think, "Man, what was I thinking?" There was probably a lot in your thinking, you were worshiping God to the knowledge that you had. And then as the Bible opened up or you listened to someone on radio, somebody gave you a book, you go, "Oh, I have new knowledge now."

That's not the kind of offering to, you know, the enemy of our souls will prop up people to take advantage of you spiritually because deep down in your heart as a born-again believer, you do want to honor God. You do want to honor Him with your money and with your time and with your talents. Of course you do. And so I love that. It was an offering to the Lord, but there was a purpose for it.

Notice verse 17 now. "Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'You shall make a laver of bronze with a base that's also bronze for washing. You shall put it between the Tabernacle of meeting and the altar.'" Now a laver is just a basin. It's just a big tub. "'You shall put water in it,' verse 19, 'and Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet in water from it.

And when they go into the Tabernacle of meeting and when they come near the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire to the Lord, they shall wash with water lest they die. And so they shall wash their hands and their feet lest they die, and it shall be a statute forever to them, to him and his descendants throughout their generations.'"

So Aaron and his sons were to go through ceremonial washing of their hands and their feet. This brass, bronze laver was between the Tabernacle of meeting and the altar. And every time they were to perform something, they had to be constantly cleansed. When they went outside and came back, they were to be cleansed. And this becomes a picture for us today to live a cleansed life. To really bring our lives before the Lord and receive a continual cleansing of the filth of this world.

I mean, it is a filthy, disgusting world that we live in. I don't know any other words. I guess I could use stronger words, but we're in church, teaching a Bible study. It's just a filthy, disgusting world. That's why it just makes no sense for us to get caught up in it all and to jump into it. The things that we were delivered from: the party scene, the club scene, the drunken scene, all of that stuff.

We were delivered from. Many of us were delivered from that stuff. It was filth and darkness, disgusting. The world's inventing new ways to perpetuate evil and to harm children and women, and on and on, and men. The world is filthy. Can I get an amen on that? If that's all you leave here with today is that you need a continual cleansing because you live in this world. And we work in this world.

And we take in the media of this world. Even the most committed person that says, "I don't watch much TV," we commend you, but you still live in the world. Remember when a Jewish man was to enter into a house, they were to clean off the dust of their feet? Because if you were to walk in a dirty world, your feet would get dirty in those sandals naturally. You didn't have to do anything except walk.

You didn't even have to try to get dirty. You don't have to roll around in the mud. If you just walked in the dusty world with open sandals, your feet were going to get dirty and when you walk into someone's house, you're going to cleanse your feet, you're going to clean them up. Remember, Jesus took a towel and He began to wash the disciples' feet. And then Peter came to that place, "Oh, you can't wash my feet." And I'm paraphrasing.

And Jesus said, "No, if I don't wash you, you have no part of Me." He goes, "Well, then wash me all." I think he has a little bit of this in mind. Wash me all. I need to be cleansed. I need my mind cleansed. I need my thinking, I need my behavior, just constantly washing in, washing out, worship, washing. It's almost like speaking to another part of our lives where we need to come prepared in some respects to worship.

Maybe just a little moment in the parking lot and saying, "Lord, You know what a messed up day it was, but I'm going into Your house. Just cleanse me. I want to receive from You. Just forgive me." We in our devos today as a team, Pastor Randy had shared with us a very familiar passage. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and," what? "Cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

My pastor always referred to that as the Holy Spirit soap, First John 1:9, where we just need to be cleansed by the Holy Spirit as we confess our sins. He immediately goes to work. The power of cleansing and confession and repentance. I love that. How much we need to be cleansed.

Verse 22. "Moreover, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'Take for yourselves quality spices: 500 shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much sweet-smelling cinnamon, 250 shekels, 250 shekels of sweet-smelling cane, 500 shekels of cassia, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and a hin of olive oil. And you shall make from these a holy anointing oil, an ointment compounded according to the art of the perfumer. It shall be a holy anointing oil.

And with it, you shall anoint the Tabernacle of meeting and the Ark of the Testimony, the table and all its utensils, the lampstand and its utensils, and the altar of incense, the altar of the burnt offering with all its utensils, and the laver and its base. You shall sanctify them that they may be most holy. Whatever touches them must be holy. Verse 30: you shall anoint Aaron and his sons and sanctify them that they may minister to me as priests.

And you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, 'This shall be a holy anointing oil to me throughout your generations. It shall not be poured on man's flesh, nor shall you make any other like it according to its composition. It is holy and it shall be holy to you. Whoever compounds any like it or whoever puts any of it on an outsider shall be cut off from his people.'"

Now, oil, we've learned already, so often speaks of the Holy Spirit in the Bible. And in ancient times, before anyone can enter the presence of a king, oil was poured over that person. So these priests, according to verse 30, would need the anointing oil on them to go forward in the service of the Lord. So you've got that cleansing to go into service and then you have that anointing of the Holy Spirit to go into service. It couldn't be copied.

It couldn't be poured on anyone else, and especially couldn't be poured on an outsider. It was special and consecrated, a very precise formula. Now, there is a word I think today is misused and it's this word here in Exodus 30: anointing. You hear that a lot. And I don't know that it's always misused, but often it is, especially in the 21st century church, in the Western church, but around the world.

You'll hear that word among Christians and just talk about, they have the anointing. And you're expecting them to take off their coat and wave it around you or something where they have now said, "I am someone more special than you because I have the anointing and you don't." And I want you to listen for that. I want you to be careful of that. I want you not to follow men or women that use the word that way.

You have these guys, they're still around. They're like 150 years old and they're still doing the same thing. I don't know how they do it, but they're waving their coat, they can move everyone and everybody falls back. And it's so convenient because they fall back to pre-placed catchers that are behind them. You're like, "What are you doing?

Where is in the Bible that says the anointing is going to gather a group of people, swing everything, knock everybody down and take an extra offering from them? Where is that in the Bible? Like, where did you get that from?" I'll tell you where they got it from: the flesh. The flesh. They treat the anointing like it's some special, curious power that only they have and that if you give them enough and you do enough and you call precisely the right 800 number or you go to just exactly the right website, that somehow they will share their anointing with you in some small way, although if you give more, you will get more anointing.

And then they sell you these little vials of Crisco oil and call that the anointing. They buy them by the millions, they get shipped in on containers from China and there they are: the anointing oil of God. I wouldn't even cook my eggs with that oil. It's nasty, rancid stuff. Today, it's not the oil. This oil only pointed to the God of the oil.

It was precise and specific, but I want you to know it wasn't used to take advantage of people. It was used to set apart the priesthood. It was used to show the power and the presence of God among the people. The anointing oil couldn't be copied. You couldn't use it any way you wanted. You couldn't formulate it and try to copy the formula. You couldn't use it by imitation or trickery.

And so today you wonder, well, what is the anointing of God? First of all, we believe that every born-again believer has received the anointing of God. You have the Holy Spirit in you. If you ask for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit comes upon you. You have all the oil. You have all the oil. I believe that the anointing of God is just simply His hand upon you as a sister and a brother in Christ.

It transcends your natural abilities. The anointing of God moves in the giftings of God and His supernatural power in your life that so many times is unexplainable. It makes you different and unique in your workplace. It makes you different and unique in your family. It makes you different and unique even in the body of Christ. It's not something you can give away or sell.

Can you imagine if you tried to do that? Like you, just you're not on TV, you're not on television. Just like, you know what? You wake up one morning, I think I'm going to sell my anointing. I am an anointed brother and I'm going to create a ministry where I'm going to sell my anointing. I'm going to include some sweatcloths like Paul, because he did so I'm going to catch my sweat and I'm going to sell my sweat.

I'm going to sell the oil that I have. It's just so foreign to the biblical text and to the heart of God, but unfortunately not so foreign to the church today. To the mixed multitude, to gatherings that are filled with believer and unbeliever alike. The anointing of God can't be sold. It can't be bought. You don't make money off of the anointing of God. You serve Him. It's His power.

God is concerned that we do His work His way with pure motives and hearts. And I get that I use that word myself when I just think of the anointing of God, I just see it. And what I'm saying, if I see a brother and I go, "Man, I just see the anointing of God," what I'm saying with that is that it's very, very clear that God is using you. It's very clear because I know you and I've known you for a while and it's very clear this is not you. This is God's hand upon your life.

That's a powerful... Like, you walk by the priest and you would know the priest were different than others, not just by their clothing and not just by their service, but they would smell differently, too. They would have this beautiful smell about them. The whole offering of the service, everything that was supposed to... it would be poured on, notice in verse 26: anoint that Tabernacle. So that's going to smell good.

Anoint the Ark of the Testimony. That's going to smell good. The table, all utensils, the lampstand, the altar, sanctify them that they might be... whoever touches them must be holy. Then anoint Aaron and his sons. There's that familiar smell among us, the smell of the presence of God. In this case, was very clearly this special, beautiful-smelling anointing incense and oil that's going to be all around there.

Which notice now in verse 34 as we close, "The Lord said to Moses, 'Take sweet spices: stacte and onycha and galbanum and pure frankincense. With these sweet spices there shall be equal amounts of each. And you shall make of these an incense, a compound according to the art of the perfumer, salted, pure and holy. You shall beat some of it very fine and put some before the Testimony in the Tabernacle of meeting where I will meet with you.'"

Don't get confused by the smells, He says. Don't get confused by the oil. Don't get confused by the clothing. Don't get confused by the Tabernacle, by the tent. Don't get confused by the Ark of the Testimony or the laver or the water or the cleansing. He says, "Don't let all that get in the way. I just want to remind you," over and over, you can count it, I didn't but quite a few times, He just says, "This is where I'm going to meet with you. This is where I'm going to meet with you. This is where I'm going to meet with you."

It's going to be a beautiful, set-apart thing, different than anything of the dusty, dirty, smelly desert. It's going to be special. There's an anointing taking place, set apart, holy, sanctified for God.

Guest (Male): This is Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed. To give this a second listen, just go online to aboundinggraceradio.com or oneplace.com or listen through the Calvary Church app. You can search for Ed Taylor to download that today. What is real worship? Is it a playground, a battleground or holy ground? Warren Wiersbe looks into this in his book titled *Real Worship*.

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Connect with us through social media. We're on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. There's a link to each page at aboundinggraceradio.com. There's another great study in Exodus to look forward to tomorrow on Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed. May God richly bless you with His abounding grace. Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church Colorado here in Aurora.