I want you to take your Bibles
and let's turn to Psalm 133. Psalm 133. I read this passage of scripture last Thursday night when Brother
Mike was here. This passage of scripture that
had been brought back to my memory. because of, I guess, situation
that had happened lately. I found a little bit on that. I'd like to read it again. Psalm
133, three verses. Behold, how good and how pleasant
it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. 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, 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. Now the spirit of God has moved
upon David to pin that precious passage of scripture and has
instructed us to look at something that is truly a miracle of God's
grace. Unity among brethren. It's noted by the Spirit of God,
and therefore, when he says, behold, admire, desire, pray
for, be thankful for, because it's a blessing from the Lord. The Lord ordained it, the Lord
approves it. This dwelling or continuing together
in unity, in union, it's said to not only be good, but how
good. Behold how good and how pleasant,
how beautiful, how delightful, how sweet is brethren dwelling
together in unity. You know, something may be good,
good for us. All things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. But something may be good and
to the flesh not be pleasant. Hebrews 12, 11, now no chastening
for the present, the apostle Paul said, seemeth to be joyous,
but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yielded
the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby. I pray that I'm gonna share this
with you, and I hope I'm not exposing more than I should be,
but I'm just gonna be honest with you. This past week, we went down
to help some of our brethren in Florida. And there we were
blessed to be able to meet with them. And while we were there,
helping them and just looking at the situation as it was, I
thought to myself, in the midst of this situation, which was
grievous for the present, you see the suffering and the trials
and the tribulations, but I thought, I looked around and I thought,
we're brethren. We're brethren. And here we are,
we're down here and we're down here to do one thing. We're down here to help, but
we're down here following after our Redeemer. There was conversation
of God's mercy, God's grace, knowing that all things are ordered
by the Lord. And here in the midst of all
this, there was harmony. There was unity and love and
in the service of our Lord. We're all subject to the same
trials and temptations and sorrows, but brethren, that possess the
same hope comfort with this promise. I'm never going to leave you. I'm not going to forsake you.
And in the midst of what was going on around us, I thought,
there's nobody in this room, in this building right here,
that's not brethren. I thought, how good, how How
pleasant is that sweet thought that we were together in the
midst of this. But here, now the Spirit speaks
of that which is how good, how pleasant for brethren to
dwell together in unity. And the reason that there's unity
is because we're in Him. We're one in the Lord. We dwell
together. We continue in that quietness
and that unity because we're of one soul in Christ, worshiping together
in the Lord. Believe in Him. Believe in Him. Before the Lord called any of
us out of the darkness of sin and unbelief, we were united
in rebellion against the Lord. We all came from the same root.
Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. Apart from Him, we're all as
an unclean thing, and our righteousnesses or his filthy rags, but when
the Spirit of God was pleased to call us out of darkness, when
he passed by as that young child, you know, navel wasn't cut, you
weren't salted. He said, the time of love was
now, and I said unto you, live. And when the Lord called us out
of darkness, regenerated us by grace, they gave us ears to hear
and eyes to see, and we heard His voice live, and we followed. He called us, made us one in
Him, unified. Oh, how good and how pleasant
it is for brethren to dwell together, even together in unity. It's like the precious ointment
the Spirit of God is saying upon the head that ran down upon the
beard, even Aaron's beard that went down to the skirts of his
garment. I want you to turn to Exodus,
Exodus chapter 30, Exodus 30. Exodus chapter 30, this second
verse right here, it's explained right here about that ointment
that was poured upon the head of Aaron, picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Exodus chapter 30, verse 25. I shall make it an oil of holy
ointment. an ointment compound after the
art of the apothecary. It shall be a holy anointed oil. Now, what was this being made
out of? They were gonna make an oil. Look at verse 22. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Take thou also unto thee principal spices of pure myrrh, 500 shekels
of sweet cinnamon, half so much, even 250 shekels, sweet calamus,
250 shekels, and of cassia, 500 shekels after the shekel of the
sanctuary, and oil, olive, and hen. Now they took all of these
spices, and they were to take these spices and mix them together
with olive oil, and after the art of the apothecary, they were
going to be crushed, and crushed, and crushed, and ground, and
ground. You've seen that apothecary, that pedestal, or that squashing
all this. What is that? Here is the glorious
merits of our precious Savior in picture and type. And they're
all of these beautiful spices that are taken and they're crushed
and they're going to make this oil and it's setting forth the
preciousness of our precious Lord and the Spirit of God that
is given to Him without measure. And that oil of his merit, it
was taken and in type. Back in our passage in Psalm
133, it's that precious ointment, that glorious ointment that set
forth the savor of the Lord Jesus Christ whenever he laid down
his life as a burnt offering. You know that burnt offering,
it was said to be a sweet savor. That burnt offering was the offering
that was offered unto the Lord, only unto the Lord, and it was
the declaration of the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
here, what is this unity? Well, I'll tell you what it's
like. Unity, you're telling me, is
like that precious ointment that was crushed and poured back in
the Old Testament upon, ran down the beard of Aaron, who was a
type of the Lord Jesus. And this unity is like that ointment,
that sweet smell, that cinnamon and calamus and that myrrh and
all that, and it was poured. ran down and ran down his beard
and went down to the skirts in his garments. What were we looking
at here? Here's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and the
Spirit of God given to him without measure. Oh, the Spirit that
set forth the glory of our precious Savior and His merits and went
all through all of the areas of his beard and went down to,
here we are, his body. And as he was anointed without
measure, and we receive all of the benefits of that which was
given unto him, we have the earnest of his spirit. But here David
was moved to say unity among brethren. It's like that. Whenever you behold the unity
among the brethren, that unity, smells of the glory of Christ.
It has a savor. It's a sweet savor. Oh, how good
and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity because
it glorifies the Lord, honors him, poured on the head of our
blessed heavenly Aaron, that oil that runs down, and we receive
all of the benefits. How good and how pleasant. It's as the dew, verse three,
of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains
of Zion, and there the Lord commanded the blessing even life forevermore. Herman, I read, was a mountain
that had great forest, and these huge ravines that were filled
with snow, from what I can understand, year-round, and the sun would
draw the moisture from the snow, and the mornings would witness
on that mountain a dew that was so heavy, so pristine that campers
were even said they'd go out there in their tents at night
and the next morning their tents would be soaking wet with the
dew. I mean, just like a huge rain
had come. It was just that the dew of Hermon
as that dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion. Now Mount
Zion and Mount Hermon were many miles apart, but it was given
an illustration that the heaviness of the dew that fell there in
Hermon was as this blessed dropping of God's mercy upon Zion. That blessing of granting unto
God's people the blessing of the unity of the brethren. So the Lord commanded it. The dew of Hermon, as the dew
that descended upon the mountains of Zion, the Lord commanded the
blessing even life forevermore. And here we find this blessing.
What a glorious joy. to dwell together in the unity
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Brethren, let's not take it lightly. Take, you know, let us therefore,
Paul says, Romans 14, 19, let us therefore follow after the
things which make for peace and things wherewith one may edify
another, things that make for peace. Not before God, the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ has done that, but that which makes
for peace in the body of God's people. Be thankful, be thankful
and pray. for one another. I want you to
turn to Philippians 1. Philippians 1, three to five.
Oh, how precious a passage of scripture. Here's the Apostle
Paul. Philippians 1, verse three to five. Speaking to the church
there at Philippi, he said, I thank my God upon every remembrance
of you. Always in every prayer of mine
for you all making requests with joy for your fellowship in the
gospel from the first day until now. Paul thanked the Lord. He thanked the Lord every time
the saints at Philippi came to his mind. I thank God for you. I thank the Lord that he's laid
you on my heart, be praying for you. He said, every time, he
said, I'm making requests with joy for your fellowship in the
gospel. Pray, pray that the Lord bless
our fellowship together, our fellowship in him. Secondly,
love one another. John 13, 34, a new commandment
I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you
that you also love one another. This is a, when he said a new
commandment, it's a fresh, it's fresh every day. This is a new
commandment, a fresh commandment. We're brethren, we're brethren.
That's what Abraham told Lot. Lot, don't let there be a squabble
over grass. We're brethren of the same family,
children of the same father, born of the same spirit, redeemed
by the same blood, kept. of the power of God through faith
and forgive one another. Turn with me, last verse, Ephesians
4, Ephesians 4, verse 25, I'm sorry, 29. Ephesians 4, verse
29 to 31. The Apostle Paul says, let no
corrupt communication, foul, polluted, unwholesome, worthless
talk. He said, let no corrupt communication
proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use
of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve
not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you're sealed unto the day of
redemption. Brother Henry, I read Brother
Henry's comment on that, grieve not the Holy Spirit. He said
this is the explanation of what he had just said, let no evil
communication come out of your mouth, and the thing it says
right after that too. Let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you
with all malice and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath
forgiven you. Beware, beware of doing anything
that would hinder the unity. of the brethren. Pray that the
Lord deliver us from that spirit of jealousy and envy and guard
against all the wiles of the devil. Behold, behold, how good
and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. I pray, Lord, bless this to our
hearts, this short word of exhortation. May He bless it here and bless
it among all of our brethren, wherever they are, for God's
glory and our good. Amen. All right, let's take a
break.