YP Sing Address—S. Rule
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I have a very serious and simple subject on my heart.
Umm, it's like you to think about the kind of perfume you're wearing. And I think it's pretty important. And I'd like you to see what I mean by turning to 2nd Corinthians chapter 2, just a couple verses.
So you only have the gym for short time or limited time anyway.
So I was told to be limited just like you to think about it.
I'll read a few verses from the end of 2nd Corinthians 2.
This is the Apostle Paul speaking in verse 14.
Now thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ.
And make it manifest the savour of His knowledge by us in every place.
For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, and them that are saved, and in them that perish. To the one we are the savour of death unto death, and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things, who are not as many which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God in the sight of God, speak we in Christ.
I guess the people that the apostle Paul was writing to would have understood what he was talking about.
Because although it's pretty rare, they are every decade or so, they had a triumph of a Roman general. And he would start at a certain gate of the city and there were a bunch of, umm, senators that went in front of him. And then came a bunch of captives that were carrying incense. And there are people lining the parade route. And they then the general would come dressed like a king in a chariot led by a bunch of horses and behind them his entire army. And it was a triumph to honor the king for a victory over the enemies of Rome.
They could never get a triumph if they'd won in a civil war, but if they'd won a significant victory over the enemies of Rome, then they got this triumphal parade when everybody turned out to honor the general. And when they turned out to honor the general, they brought those captives in front of the general's chariot and carrying the spoils from the war. And at the end of the triumphal parade, with the incense and the odors and all the glory for the king, some of those prisoners.
Died and some of those prisoners were given their liberty. They were released, they could go back to where they come from. They were completely free. And that's what he's talking about in these verses. The Lord Jesus Christ has already won the victory at the cross 2000 years ago over Satan, over sin, over death. And the last 2000 years have been a triumph parade of the victory of Christ. It might not look that way in your life and mine. It might not look that way in the profession of the Christian Church.
But the last 2000 years have been as far as God is concerned.
A triumph of Christ, He's already won it and there's a celebration of it. And at that triumph. And so the verse says, he always causes us to triumph in Christ. And Mr. Darby's translation, who always leads us in triumph in the Christ, because he's leading us in that triumph parade. And everybody could let that order of incense go up to God, go up at the triumph parade, and we let it go up to God. For some people, the result of hearing the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Is to reject them. They're dead and they reject the message, and the end for them of the triumph of Christ is a just, righteous, eternal death. It's a Savior of death unto death. The smell, the odor, the incense of the victory of Christ.
To others, they were to receive liberty, and that order of the incense of the triumph was going to end in eternal life for them. And I trust, I hope that everybody here.
No, the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior and for us, that odor, that smell that goes up to God is a delight to us. It reminds us of the triumph of Christ.
There's a practical side to it and it's in verse 17 the apostle Paul says for we are not as many which corrupt the word of God. He didn't take money for his service because explained a little bit better another place, Mr. Darby says in that translation.
For we do not, as the many, make a trade of the word of God. He didn't corrupt the beauty of the perfection of Christ by making money. A motive for what he did. And just taking that thought, I want to share two things with you. 2 examples.
My little boy has a blanket that he loves. He loves it so much he doesn't like it to get washed and it smells like him. It smells every once in a while it has to be washed but there's a stench to it.
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And, uh, he's about the only one that can have it anywhere near his nose. And in fact, but he's so used to it, he accepts it. And you know, sometimes we kind of like the odor of what we are by nature. And we're about the only one that can stand it, but we're pretty satisfied with it. But I want you to, in that connection, think of this. The thought may come out a little tangled, but I hope you catch it. I'll read the verse real quick. The Numbers 11.
And I'll just read it for you in verse five, the children of Israel left Egypt. They're wishing they were back in Egypt. They were sick and tired of the manna, which speaks of Christ. And they were wishing for the leaks and the onions and the garlic. Ever been around somebody that ate garlic the night before, that morning or recently sitting next to him at school, next to them at work? And they had a lot of it. They slathered it on whatever they ate. And you're sitting next to them the next day.
Do you see any garlic? No, but you sure smell it. And these people?
Had eaten that garlic and they wanted more. And I just want to apply it in this way. If we take in to our bodies, we take into our self something that belongs to this world, it's going to come out of us and it's gonna stink. It's not going to look like what we took in when you sat next to that person that smelled like garlic. You didn't see chunks, cloves of garlic popping out on there like beads of sweat and cloves of garlic popping out. And we might think that because what we took into the filth of this world.
Doesn't come out of us looking the same way that we don't smell like the world, but it's impossible to take in what this world offers and smell like Christ. It's going to come out of this and it's going to stink to the nostrils of God, even though it doesn't look to us like what we took in. We don't do the things that we saw or listened to or heard or read, but that stench goes up to God. But there's a positive side.
Turn 2 if you have your Bible to Esther chapter 2, here's the other odor to the odor of Christ. This beautiful chapter in Exodus 30, umm, it's well worth your time to read it if you're thinking about perfume, thinking about an odor. Uh, but that's too long a chapter, so we'll read one verse for our purposes tonight, Esther chapter 2.
And I'd just like to apply the verse.
So I think it's beautiful.
Umm, talking about Esther, if I can find it here quickly. Yes, in verse 12, she's preparing herself to go to see the king. And verse 12 Says now when every maid's turn was come to go into king of Hazueras. After that she had been 12 months, according to the man or the women, for so were the days of their purifications accomplished to it. Six months with oil and myrrh and six months with sweet odors, with other things for the purifying of the women.
They prepared themselves the entire year. The entire year.
They were bathing themselves with myrrh and the sweet odors. They're sweet spices. What they took in, what they surrounded themselves with for an entire year was something that smelled beautiful. Myrrh has to be crushed for there to be a beautiful smell to come out of it. The Lord Jesus may give you in a circumstance in your life where it's pretty difficult, but when somebody insults you or misunderstands you or mistreats you and out of you comes something.
That looks like Christ when he was mistreated. There is a sweet odor of triumph of Christ that goes up to God.
If you are rejected by friends because of the Lord Jesus, there's a sweet odor that goes up to God when there's something that comes from you of the kindness and love of the Lord Jesus Christ, because you've been surrounded with it all year long, because that's what you've taken in, because that's what you've bathed in the Lord Jesus, that's the odor you'll give off. And so just to go back and complete the thought, in Second Corinthians chapter 2, we are part of that triumph of Christ.
Are we mixing something with the beauty of the Lord so that the odor that goes up is a mixture?
Are we rank like garlic because that's what we're taking in? Are we surrounded with bathed in Christ and that's the odor, the delight that God wants from us and from our lives? Let's just thank Him.
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Dear Lord Jesus, we do ask.