THE ANOINTING
I count on the Lord’s help to say a word about the anointing. It is a very rich suggestion that I trust may become clearer to us as we proceed. Persons are anointed, anointed by God; it is not everybody who is anointed, but for us to enjoy the fulness of what divine love has purposed I believe it involves our appreciating the anointing. The matter is not a new thing, it is something that God has been very particular about; there was of old a tabernacle system set up, and before it functioned the whole system was anointed. There are many other references to God anointing, and it is something, I believe, that needs to be appreciated; indeed, without it, we shall function below our dignity. That is what I wanted to speak about, the need for dignity, because things around us today are very common. May we never think, dear brethren, that divine things are common, because divine things have been secured at tremendous cost. Whatever there is that belongs to God here. His value of it is seen in the price that has been paid for it. Have you some sense in your soul of the price that was paid for you? Paul says that to these very people that we are reading about here, he says, “Ye have been bought with a price”, 1 Cor 6: 20. I think Paul felt the need of reminding the Corinthians that they had been bought with a price.
Have you a sense of that? Could you tell me what that price has been? Initially the price that was paid for you was the blood of Jesus. If you look at the anointing in the old dispensation the blood was placed there first; the anointing never comes on anything common, never. Paul says, “he that establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us”—these are redeemed persons, they have been bought with a price. He says more than that; he says, “glorify now then God in your body” (1 Cor 6: 20), and for that we need the anointing.
But first of all may I just pause for a moment as to the price that has been paid for you. It takes away any right that you may think you have to please yourself. You have been bought; you belong to somebody else. Do you feel that? Do you take into account who you belong to in what you do, and where you go? You are not your own, you have been bought. O, beloved, that purchase price has demonstrated to you and to me His love for us. What a love! What a love that would pay such a price for one that was lost! What a love that would pay the price in His own blood to secure us for Himself, to be His own possession. It is a very sad thing to be purchased at such infinite cost and then to live to ourselves.
So Paul brings all these things home to these dear brethren, that the purchase price was the blood of Jesus. He did not hesitate to pay that price for you. Has that ever come home to your soul? It needs to come home to us time and time again, the rights of Christ over us in redeeming love. Redemption is a very wonderful thing. You know, if you really want to be happy just open your heart to enjoy redemption, because it is one of the most wonderful things. God has intervened in the power of redeeming love, and the persons who enjoy redemption are singers. You just look at the prophet Isaiah. He had a lot to say about redemption, and one of the things that he said was that the redeemed shall return and come to Zion with singing (Isa 35: 10)—a great system of liberty belongs to the redeemed. You may have thought that a system of liberty belonged to persons who were not redeemed. Maybe you looked out, and still look out, and think that persons in the world are in liberty. They are lying under death. The great system of liberty is opened up to those who have been redeemed, redeemed to God by the precious blood of Jesus. I commend some of the closing chapters of Isaiah to you as to the great system that is opened up to persons who have been redeemed.
John, the beloved writer, enjoyed it; he said, “To him who loves us ... to him be the glory” (Rev 1: 5, 6); that is the basis of redemption, His love for us. Beloved, there is nobody who loves you like Christ. In your gravest problems do not let anything becloud that; turn to Christ, turn to Him. The token of His love for you is that He shed His blood to have you. The enemy is very active to instil into your mind and mine that we are too bad to enjoy divine things; but the love of Christ never wanes, and the demonstration of it was that Christ died for our sins. Oh what a great fundamental truth it is in this very book, “Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor 15: 3), that we might be free from bondage and all that the enemy would try to impose upon us, that we might come to enjoy redemption. The redeemed shall walk there in liberty; the power of redemption gives you triumph over all that the enemy can bring in. We have one of the songs of redemption in Exodus 15 when Moses spoke not only about what God had done to the Egyptians but also says, “Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance”, Exod 15: 17. We are not redeemed, you know, to live here to ourselves, but are redeemed in view of inhabiting another land, to find our life somewhere else.
Well, these are things that I may say are fundamental, that I hardly intended to say, save to remind us afresh of the wonderful love of Christ that has brought us out of a system of death and bondage into a system of liberty and of joy. The psalmist said, “Why art thou cast down, my soul?”, Ps 42: 5. Have you ever said that? I have, and many others. It is only the enemy that would cause these thoughts.
But what a system, beloved, we have been brought into; what an outlook we have. Paul says, “Now he that establishes us with you in Christ”, establishes us each on the great ground of redemption, the great ground of the finished work of Christ—and then he says, “and has anointed us, is God”. The anointing is to give us power and, as I said, to give us dignity that we may not be enslaved in what is common, what is ordinary. And Paul says the Person who has done it is God. Why did He do that, beloved? Why should He anoint us? It was in view of our enjoying what it is to be His own possession, in view of each of us enjoying what it is to be a son of God.
That is what you are, you know; “Ye are all God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus”, Gal 3: 26. For a long time I thought sonship belonged to progress in the truth; I thought it was something for older brethren. No; God having brought us into His house, I would address you tonight, dear believer in Christ, as a son of God. That is why I am speaking about the anointing; there is no point in speaking about the anointing to sinners. God does not anoint sinners; God does not anoint anything that is of man in the flesh, but as to you, dear fellow-believer, I would regard you and speak to you, and God would speak to you, as one of His sons. It is a very elevating thing. Think of Paul saying that to these Galatians. As that letter was read in Galatia they were acting rather badly; maybe that is like you and me. Yet Paul wrote these precious words, “for ye are all God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus”, Gal 3: 26. Well, you know, there are a lot of things that are unsuitable to a son of God. You would readily admit that, would you not? You would readily admit that a great many things, things that are common, are quite unsuited to a son of God. Well, Paul does not only say that they are sons of God by faith, but he says, “God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts”, Gal 4: 6. He has given you the wherewithal, dear fellow-believer, to enjoy sonship. So it is not only something that is yours in title, but it can be, and should be, yours in possession and in enjoyment.
So the apostle would seek to elevate us, and I would seek to elevate us all tonight in our own thoughts about ourselves as subjects of the work of God. Paul is elevating the Corinthians here, he is elevating them as Christians. He says, “Now he that establishes us ... and has anointed us, is God”. Why should He anoint them? You know, the anointing separates you morally from the race of humanity. You only need to think of what God said to Abraham. Abraham was a lonely pilgrim in the eyes of men in his journeyings, but God writes about him later and He says, “Touch not mine anointed ones”, 1 Chron 16: 22. Some people would not have given much for Abraham, but there he was, protected, sheltered under the divine anointing. What protection there is for you, beloved, as anointed of God. Oh do not treat it lightly! There was a man in the Old Testament who died, and somebody wrote about him that he died as not anointed—not anointed, 2 Sam 1: 21! It is possible to act in a common way. But the anointing is there that we should not; we have been anointed in view of moving in the dignity and the blessedness of the wealth of divine love, and, beloved, it is God who has done it. There is a wonderful range of things with a very final touch about them; forgiveness of sins is one of them. Some people will tell you that it is not final, but John says our sins are forgiven us. Why? “for his name’s sake”, 1 John 2: 12. There is finality about that, you know. That your sins are forgiven you for Christ’s name’s sake means they are forgiven in a final way.
Well, these things need to be enjoyed in our souls, beloved. It is not to say we may not sin again, but the memory of our sins should not hold us in bondage because of forgiveness “for his name’s sake”. O, beloved, look off on to the Saviour! Our great deliverance is in looking to Him, finding that there is such a One who has come in to break the power of bondage that we were under, and God has anointed us that we may live in the dignity of the anointing. Paul says too that He has sealed us; that means you know that you are His. Have you got His stamp? Every believer, you know, who belongs to Christ has got His stamp; sometimes you do not see it too easily, but it is a fine thing to find it expressing itself. It is a wonderful thing to talk to somebody—maybe you did not know he or she was a believer—and you find in the conversation that something comes out and you see they have been sealed; they are divine property; they belong to God. Then it says, “and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts”. These things are more than we have time to speak about. The seal underlies the anointing; the seal is that you belong to God; He has made you His own at the cost of the precious blood of Christ, and He has anointed us that we may live in the wonderful wealth and blessedness of that anointing.
Well, I want just to speak about the protection of that anointing. We are exposed to a great many things, but, you know, you are protected by the anointing. Do not treat it lightly, beloved. It refers in its application to the blessed Holy Spirit of God. He has come here to give us power to go against the stream. The protection of it, as I say, was seen in Abraham, that God shielded him from all these forces that were around—“Touch not mine anointed ones”—“Touch not”; that applies even to the enemy; that word is addressed to him too. Satan took up certain things with Job but he could go only so far—“Touch not mine anointed ones”. God has ownership and it is seen in the seal, that you belong to Him, and He protects you in the anointing, the Spirit of God. Sometimes you may be in a tight corner, as all of us are at times; the Lord says, “It shall be given to you in that hour what ye shall speak”, Matt 10: 19. Christianity is very simple. Confidence in the anointing gives us power in the hour when it is needed. “He that ... has anointed us, is God”.
Well, there is much more to the anointing; it comes out very beautifully in circumstances of suffering. The oil that we referred to earlier, in the Old Testament, must have been very fragrant. I do not understand all the ingredients, but if you look at it in Exodus 30 the anointing oil must have had a very fine fragrance about it, and the fragrance of the anointing was seen par excellence in Jesus. I have often wondered that He never preached until He was anointed; there He was, God’s blessed Son, but He waited until that time when the Spirit came upon Him. It says the Spirit descended in bodily form as a dove and abode upon Him (see Luke 3: 22; John 1: 32); I take it that was the anointing, and from that point onwards there is a service of unparalleled beauty and majesty by Christ. He reads a scripture, and He stops at a certain place; I think that is the divine anointing. He could have gone on; the prophet went on; but He stopped at a certain point and He says, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4: 21)—the divine anointing. As I said, never seen so excellently as in Him.
Now I wanted to speak about the time of His sufferings, because I think the anointing shines there in the spirit of another Man. We have referred to it already today, a Man rejected, despised, crucified, saying these words, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”, Luke 23: 34. There was the anointing. Oh what words they were! What words of meaning they were! because, you know, the anointing gives power to words; it gives power in adverse circumstances. They were not empty words that He said; the very fact that you are here tonight shows the power of these words of Jesus, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”. There we see the grace, the blessedness, of the anointing.
But I would speak of it for a moment as seen in Stephen, a man like ourselves. He was stoned unjustly, despised by those around him. He said a very true word and they took up stones that they might stone him; it says, “And kneeling down, he cried ... Lord, lay not this sin to their charge”, Acts 7: 60. He also said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”. It must have been a very easy thing for heaven to receive the spirit of such a man. I believe we need to count on the Spirit’s help in times of suffering; there is much of it among us in body, and more of it in spirit, and perhaps suffering in spirit is something that tends to induce hardness. I speak carefully, but maybe it does. Suffering in spirit going on for a long time tends to produce hardness in the human heart apart from the anointing. “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge”; I doubt if there had been more precious words uttered, at least up to that time, since the words of the Saviour, and we see Stephen, kneeling in the hour of such extremity, and the power of the anointing coming out in his suffering.
Well, I leave that, beloved, for you to think about. I believe that there is a need for the anointing. We do not want to speak mysteriously; it refers to the power of the Spirit of God, who has been given to us, coming into expression in persons in circumstances of pressure and suffering, that we may not become hard. The altar, in Leviticus 8, was sprinkled seven times with the anointing oil. I do not understand it in its fulness but it arrested me today. I do not know that Moses was told to do it seven times, but he seemed to have some impression that there was a need for the Spirit’s particular help in the suffering that the altar speaks about; it says, “And he sprinkled thereof on the altar seven times”, Lev 8: 11.
It seems to suggest the need for counting on the Spirit in times of suffering, especially suffering in our spirits, that we may not become undignified. It is very easy to answer the flesh by the flesh; very easy to resort to what is below the level of sonship; very easy to act in our own ability; whereas just at your hand, beloved, to be called upon, to be relied upon, to be made room for, is the power of a divine Person, the Holy Spirit of God. You all know that if there is something in your heart it means that it is peculiarly treasured. That is where He is operating; He has shed abroad in our hearts the love of God, and it says God has given “the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts”. God has to say, you know, “Oh that there were such a heart in them”, Deut 5: 29. Does He have to say that to you and to me tonight—“Would that there were such a heart in them?” Would that there were a space there that could be filled with the joy and energies and blessings of this divine Person, come to be with us and in us, in our very hearts.
Well, I have spoken of the great area of the anointing as being proved in these circumstances, that we may not become ordinary. I would like to speak in the other scripture of how we “have all been given to drink of one Spirit”. The allusion is to persons being satisfied. It says, “For also in the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body” and then, “have all been given to drink of one Spirit”. May I say reverently, What a well to drink at! Samson found that; you will recall he was weary; he had done certain great things, but he was very weary. I suppose there are none of us who do not taste something of that at times. Then it says he found ‘the caller’s spring’; he found something that refreshed him to go on his way. Well, may we find that in the Spirit, beloved—strength to go on our way. You know, “to drink of one Spirit” is meant to make you satisfied. It is another thing about the anointing; persons are not looking for help here or there, but are satisfied in what they have drunk into—we have “all been given to drink of one Spirit”.
I just close in speaking again for a moment about Abraham. The king of Sodom came to him to try to bring him into his system. Abraham’s answer to that monarch shows that he had a sense that he was anointed by God. He says, ‘You cannot add anything to me’. The greatest king, I suppose, of the moment approached Abraham and said, Whatever you want I will give you. What an offer! Beloved, would you trade the enjoyment of divine love for that tonight—would you? Abraham would not. He says, “I have lifted up my hand to Jehovah, the Most High God”, Gen 14: 22. ‘I have been given to drink of all the wonderful resources of divine love. What can you give me?’
Dear friend, what can the world add to you? May you open your heart tonight to drink into “one Spirit”. He is here tonight to satisfy your longing; He is here tonight to satisfy your need. The early chapters of the epistle to the Romans speak of the Spirit in His grace and patient service, satisfying you about your need and all your problems, but His normal service is to lead you into the great system of the blessings of divine love. Open your heart, beloved, tonight. As I said in relation to Abraham, what can the world add? It cannot anoint you; that is one thing; it cannot offer you an inheritance among the sanctified; it cannot offer you anything that is going to last; but Abraham had the assurance that the Most High God, and the great resources of divine love, were all for him, and he said, ‘You cannot add anything to me’. May we be satisfied, beloved; there is more than will fill our hearts; may we be drawn into the great system of wealth that is ours. May we make way for that anointing and move here in all the dignity of it. The world can only take away your beauty; that is all it can do; that is what it did with Saul as not anointed. May it be that the Spirit tonight in you and in me has more uninterrupted liberty to form us in divine love, for His Name’s sake.
BIRMINGHAM
13th September 1986