It is that on the cross, my burden
gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, Thy Savior
God and King. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When Christ shall come, With
a shout of acclamation, and take me home, what joy shall fill
my heart. Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
Then there proclaim, my God, how great Thou art. Then sing, my soul, my Savior
God to Thee. How great Thou art. How great Thou art. And strength my soul by failure
of duty, I'll break the wall, I'll break the wall. Good singing. Good singing. Good playing. All right, go back to Psalm 133
now. As I said, I was reading the
word always in order to get a message, unless we're going through a
book, as we are in Ephesians and Romans. I just start reading
the Scriptures and ask the Lord to speak to me, make something
bless me. And I know if it blesses me,
it will bless you. And while just reading the Scriptures,
I was reading in the Proverbs, and that song, Bless Me the Tie,
that binds, was running through my head. And all things went
together, and it made me go to this Psalm 133, thinking about
that, because that's what this is speaking of, the unity of
the brethren and the tie that binds us. And I know of no other
church anywhere, any local church anywhere, to whom this applies
more, these verses. This is the blessed unity that
we have here. Now, the title of this, nearly
every psalm, you'll notice, has a little title underneath the
number of the psalm. And I think this was added by
the translators. I'm pretty sure it was. But they
entitled this A Song of Degrees of David, and the next 14 psalms
are titled by that, and someone said, I don't know if it's true
or not, but that these fourteen psalms were sung by the Levitical
priests when the temple was there. The Levitical priests, as they
ascended the steps of the temple, they would sing these psalms.
I don't know if that's true or not, but nevertheless, Song of
Degrees as they went up these steps. Verse 1, it begins this
way. Behold. Behold. God says this often in His Word. Behold. That means stop and consider
what you're about to hear. Stop and think about it. Ponder.
Behold. This requires our attention. Behold. In capital, all capital
letters. Behold. Think about it with amazement
and with great gratitude. Behold. You know, he said that
in Psalm 42. Behold my servant. Psalm 40. Behold your God. Behold. Behold, he says, verse 1, how
good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in
unity. We hope. Stop and consider. Just
think, with great gratitude, how good this is, what we're
doing right now. How good. How good it is. For brethren, brethren being
children of the same family, and that's what we are here.
You ladies are brethren. We're all brethren. Children
of the King, God's family. Sons of God. the church. The reason I love that hymn,
I love thy kingdom, Lord, the church of God. How good it is
for brethren to dwell together, and that's what brethren do.
That's what the church does. They gather together. They assemble together. They
flock together. That's the nature of sheep, to
congregate, you've heard me say so often. that sheep are gregarious. All clean animals are. The animals that went on the
ark, they were clean ones and they were unclean. All clean
animals, those considered clean by God, are gregarious. That means they congregate. They
flock together. They dwell together in flocks. They must. They have to have
each other. They depend upon each other. They feed upon one another. And
that's what the brethren do. And how good it is to dwell together,
assemble together. And dwelling, the word is to
dwell. It's present and continual. How good it is for brethren to
dwell, to continually meet together. And that's what we do. We abide
together. in this, on this bread of God,
which man must have to live. Dwelling together in unity. How good and how pleasant it
is for brethren to dwell together in unity. That's the subject
of this little song. This unity. Peace, harmony, and
of one accord. It said that of the church at
Acts, didn't it? In Acts chapter 2, they were
all of one accord. one mind, and how good that is. How good that is. How good is
it? It's as good as it gets down
here. You know what? This is as good as it gets down
here. And it doesn't get any better than this, to me. We sing
a psalm, Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine. And that's what
this is. Heaven is going to be the congregation,
the great congregation. A number which no man can number
as the sands of the sea. Just try to imagine that. As
the sands of the sea and the stars of the sky are numbered.
God has them numbered, but it's going to be a sea of people.
All those who are known and loved by the Lord and know and love
the Lord themselves. who dwelled together while they
were here on this earth and worshiped the Lord in spirit and in truth. And this is a foretaste of that.
This is a good group for Wednesday night. I'm pleased. How good? How good is it? How
good is it? Oh, it's real good. It's enjoyable. When something's good, It's either
enjoyable. I mean, I mean, it's enjoyable
and it's profitable. It's it's it's vital. It's something that you benefit
from. And this is the most beneficial
thing we could possibly do. This is the one thing that how
good is it? It's the best. Like the Lord
said of Mary, she has chosen the best part and it'll not be
taken from Martha, you know, was over. doing some good things. But there's something better
than being all caught up with things. And the Lord said, Mary,
who was sitting at his feet, that's the best part, he said.
And it'll not be taken from her. Well, it hasn't been. She's there
right now, Jeanette. Mary is there right now, just
like this Mary. Mary Magdalene is up there. Doing what she loved to do down
here. How good is it? It's real good. How pleasant.
How good and how pleasant. Pleasant. Turn with me to Psalm
111. How pleasurable, how pleasing
this is. What's your pleasure? Ever had
anybody ask you that? What's your pleasure? Ma'am,
sir, if I ask you that, what's your pleasure? What can I do
for you? Well, this is the pleasurable
thing to God's people. This is the believer's pleasure. This is what we find great pleasure
in. Look at Psalm 111, verses 1 and
2. Praise ye the Lord. I will praise
the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright.
David was always with God's people, though he was a solitary man,
though he liked to, you know, get along with the Lord up on
the hills among the sheep. He's always with some sheep,
either human or whatever. But when he wasn't spending time
alone with the Lord, he was with God's people. He said, I will
praise the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the
upright and in the congregation. The works of the Lord are great,
sought out of all them that have pleasure. there is. So what's
your pleasure? What can I do for you tonight?
I'll tell you about the works of the Lord. How pleasant. How
pleasant. How pleasant is this unity. How good, how profitable, how
enjoyable, how vital, how needful, and how pleasant, how pleasurable
this is, what we're doing here. Scripture says, at thy right
hand are pleasures. forevermore. You know, the older
you get, the older you get, and I'm starting to realize that,
but the older you get, the more you just like to sit on the porch.
Some of you really old folks, you two are really into that
game. Isn't that so? The older you
get, the more you just like to sit and rest. and relax. And that's even more, you really
don't, you enjoy that more when you're with some good company.
And along with that, maybe sit at a table, sit around a table
with good friends, eating good food. Food is always better with
other people. You can enjoy, you can be eating
the best food on earth by yourself and not, you know, you have nobody
to talk to about it. And it'd be good, but nobody
to share it with. But when somebody's with you,
it makes it that much better. The older you get, the more you
like to just sit, relax, enjoy the scenery, sit at a table with
good friends, fellowship, eat good food together. And that's
the way it is when you grow old in the faith. That's what this
means, growing old in the faith. The more you just like to sit
and rest in Christ and worship. And I tell you, those pews out
there are mighty comfortable. But it's a good place to be.
It's a good thing. It's pleasant. How pleasant it
is for brethren to dwell together in unity. For brethren to dwell
together in unity. Look, there's an exclamation
point behind that. In unity. As if it's a rare thing. It is in this world. It really is. It's hard to find.
Behold, he said. Behold. This is so hard to find. You've found it. Oh, the Lord's
blessed you greatly. to be a part of this unity, true
unity. The old western song, you know,
Home on the Range, is the way it is here. Where seldom is heard
a discouraging word. And the skies are not cloudy
all day. That's true. That's the way it ought to be,
in God's place. You know, I came, coming from,
and I hope, I know you don't mind me speaking of my mother
church. That's the church that mothered
me, that dandled me on her knee up there. You know it now and
you love those people. Well, coming from that place,
I never remember any discord. I don't. I know there were some
people who tried to cause trouble and rose up and this and that
and the other. There were some troubles, but
they didn't last long. The Lord took care of it. And
by and large, 99% of the time, it was very, very always unified
and no troubles. Well, coming from that, now in
this church, We've never had any fussing and
fighting, and I wouldn't know what to do if I was in a place
where that went on. I don't think I'd take it. I
don't think I'd stay there. I really don't. I don't know
why that should be. Life's too short to fuss and
fight. These meetings we have are too
short. Few and far between to fuss and fight when we get here.
Isn't that right? You know, I thought about this
today. Life's too short to fuss and fight. And I thought about
that in regards to every relationship. Husbands and wives. That person sitting beside you
is going to die tomorrow. And so, you know, life's too
short to fuss and fight. Don't say goodbye to them like
it might be the last. Say good morning to them. Life's
too short to fuss and fight. And it's too short. These meetings
are too few and rare for me to fuss at you. Well, he said here
in verse 2, he said, this is like the precious ointment. This
unity 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 garment. It's like the precious ointment.
Something that is precious in scriptures means it's very rare. It's hard to find. Precious substance
is something that's rare. It's difficult to be obtained. Something that's precious is
valuable. It's very valuable if you have
it. You need to hang on to it. It's enriching. Something that
is precious is costly. It's worth a lot. Something that's
precious is savory. And this says precious ointment. Ointment is something that someone
uses to anoint you or something or someone with. And ointments
in the scriptures are many, are spoken of often. Ointments are
always fragrant. They're always perfumed. My wife
gets in bed every night. She's been knitting, as several
of you have. And she uses this ointment on
her, a knitter's ointment. And it has a real pungent, yet
pleasant smell. I love the smell of that. Ointment does that. Ointment
is very, well, aromatherapy. People talk about that now, don't
they? Aromatherapy. There's something to that. I
like good smells, don't you? An ointment is a salve. An ointment
is always something that is a healing balm or salve. Well, this says
that this unity is like the precious ointment upon the head. on the head even of Aaron. Turn with me to Exodus 29. This
is what this is speaking of, the anointing of Aaron, the high
priest. Exodus chapter 29. This is what
David is referring to. What is this ointment? What is
this ointment speaking of here? It's the grace of God, that's
what it is. ointment, this rare, this valuable,
this costly, this savory ointment or savory perfume or salve or
healing balm is the grace of God. As an ointment is always
something that is applied by someone, an ointment. And so
it is with the grace of God. This is God's grace that He We're
going to see who He anoints with it first, and we receive promise.
But it's God's grace that chose us, God's grace that saved us,
God's grace that bought us, God's grace that brought us here tonight. It's God's grace that unites
us. It's God's grace that keeps us. It's God's grace that supplies
us. It's God's grace. And like the
Scripture says, when Zerubbabel and Christ The great Zerubbabel
shall someday put the topstone on that spiritual temple. He's
going to cry with cries of grace until the whole thing was built
from the foundation to the topstone by the grace of God. By the grace
of God, we're saved by his grace and we are what we are by the
grace of God. All right, well, where is this
ointment? Where is this ointment? In Exodus 29, it says upon the
head of Aaron, Exodus 29, verses 4 through 9, Aaron and his sons,
thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,
and shalt wash them with water. And thou shalt take the garments,
and put upon Aaron the coat, and the robe of the ephod, and
the ephod, and the breastplate, and gird him with the curious
girdle of the ethan." That is, no one else has it but him. And,
"...thou shalt put the miter upon his head, and put the holy
crown upon the miter. Then shalt thou take the anointing
oil, and pour it upon his head, and anoint him." Aaron was to
be anointed first, and then read on. Then it says, "...and thou
shalt bring his sons After you anoint Aaron, bring his sons,
and put coats upon them, and thou shalt gird them with girdles,
Aaron and his sons. Put the bonnets on them, and the priest's office shall
be theirs for a perpetual statute, and thou shalt consecrate Aaron
and his sons." and caused a bullock to be brought before the tabernacle
of the congregation. Before that bloody sacrifice,
Aaron was anointed with this oil in the midst of his brethren. It says here, in the midst of
his sons, this anointing oil. There was one high priest. Let
me tell you what this is all about, in case you don't know.
There was one high priest in the Old Testament, ordained by
God. God chose him. He was God's servant,
chosen, God's elect, God's chosen one, to take that one sacrifice
into that holy of holies in the tabernacle. Only one person could
go through the veil into the holy of holies, where was the
ark, whereupon was the mercy seat. and take the blood of that
lamb which was slain and pour it upon the mercy seat as a token
of the blood of the coming Christ for the remission of the people's
sin. Only one. Only one. Aaron was that chosen
one. Chosen by God from among his
people. And he was to go in there and
make that bloody sacrifice. Aaron was to be the intercessor,
the mediator, the one who took the sacrifice, the anointed one.
The word Christ means anointed one. Aaron is a figure, the scripture
says, the Hebrews says. The whole book of Hebrews is
about this. Practically the whole book of
Hebrews is about a greater high priest, Christ himself. Aaron was a figure of him who
was to come. Scripture said, Christ, the great
high priest of our profession, who by himself purged our sin,
who entered into the holy place, not made with hands, but heaven
itself, not with the blood of bulls and goats, but with his
own precious blood, Scripture said. And he obtained eternal
redemption for us. Only one. And since he did that,
the veil of the temple was rent. And now we can come both to the
throne of grace to find help in time of need. But only through
our great high priest, Christ. And it's by him. By him. He's
the only one. And as it was from Aaron, the
sons of Aaron received their blessings through him, so it
is. that we receive all blessings
from Christ Himself. Go back to the text. It says
that precious ointment. You see, God Almighty chose His
Son and chose all the sons of God in Him. He's called the firstborn
among many brethren. That's what that means. Christ,
God, as Barnard said in his plain North Carolina way, He said,
in eternity past, God... Well, Martin said it this way.
He said, God got up for breakfast one morning. He didn't do that. But anyway, he said he took one
look at his son and loved him so much and admired him so much
that he decided to have a whole bunch of boys just like him. And that is called predestination. That God predestined a people. to be just like Christ, to be
conformed to His image. He's the firstborn among many
brethren, the only begotten, well-beloved Son of God. And
God Almighty anointed Him in the midst of His brethren. He's
the anointed one. He's the Christus. He's the Christ.
And from Him all blessings flow like that precious ointment upon
the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, went
down to the skirts of his garment. All the grace of God that comes
to us comes from our head, from Christ. It comes down to us from
Christ, down to the skirts of His garment. You know, I thought
about that. The blood of Christ when He was on Calvary's tree,
literally. The blood, well, before that,
when they crowned Him with that crown of thorn, and His head
was a bloody mass, a nest. And that blood just poured out,
you know, there's much blood in your head. And that blood
just poured down his and covered his garments, did it not? Now,
that blood of Christ flowed down, and it's the blood of Christ
that covers us. We are his body, are we not?
Christ is the head. We are the body of Christ. And
that blood is what covers us. And you know, it's the blood
of Christ that unites us. All of us have been given a spiritual
transfusion. The blood of Christ courses in
the veins of God's people. Uh-huh. That's right. We're blood
brothers in the true sense of the word. God's doing. I thought about this. You know,
the old saying, blood is thicker than water. And it's so on this
earth. That relationship, blood relations,
relationships are very close. There's nothing closer on this
earth, humanly speaking, than these blood relations, family
ties. Yet, there is a relationship
closer than that. There sure is. It's the blood
of Christ. It's this relationship of believers
who will leave their flesh and blood to be united to God's people
and not even count their own family as family over God's people. The blood of Christ is indeed
flowing through the veins of His people, and that's what unites
us. We are of one blood. We are brethren. We all bear His name. One Father, one family, upon
whom the whole family of heaven and earth is named. All right,
he says, this is like the dew of Hermon. Verse 3, this unity,
he said, is as the dew of Hermon, the grace of God. It's so good,
it's so pleasant, which causes unity, which gives us this precious
unity. It's this precious ointment that
comes from Christ. Our head is like the dew of Hermon. Now, Hermon is a mountain, and
the reason I brought this a nap here tonight. It's a mountain
in the northern part of Israel. Right up there. You see that?
That's right there is Mount Hermon. It's the highest mountain in
the land. It's 9,100 and some odd feet. Highest mountain in Canaan. According to Dr. Gill, I read
him on this passage on the dew of Hermon. I wanted to read what
he had to say about it. But he said this dew of Hermon
is so thick on that mountain that travelers who are passing through there and Dew is so thick and plentiful
there that comes down from that mountain, the dew of Herma, the
highest point. Now, dew is—what is dew? Dew is moisture. It's air that's
laden with moisture. And do is something that's more
gentle than rainfall itself. Do is something that you can't
hear, but it just appears. And you really don't know where
it came from. It just comes out of the air and it just appears. What a good description of the
grace of God. Do is much more tender. than
rainfall. Dew is slow to accumulate, yet
it truly moistens and waters the earth. Dew comes from above. That's what I'm trying to say.
It comes from above. Every morning upon awakening,
that dew is there. It comes from above. That's a great description of
God's grace, is it not? That comes to us through Christ.
It's new every morning. You don't hear it, but it's there.
You might not even see it, but it just comes. And it's so tender
and pleasant and moistens and waters the dry, parched wilderness,
the dew of Hermon. Another fact about Mount Hermon
being the highest mountain in all of Israel is it's really
a snow-capped mountain. It stays pretty much with snow
on the top of it year-round, especially in the wintertime.
And from these dews, or from these snow-laden mountains, the
dew then, of course, descends all over that mountain from that
moist air. And then it floods down into
rivers. And then these rivers go down
into the sea, and then the sea goes down into tributaries, or
the rivers go down into tributaries and waters. So everything throughout
the land, everyone, everywhere, somehow or another, gets something from Mount Vernon. Did you notice, Dan, can you
see something there? Can you see that? What's that sound?
Well, I thought you said you could see it. What's that say? John, what's that say? Can't
you read that? Henry, it says Dan. That's the tribe of Dan was right
there at the foot of Hebrew. I thought Dan was a great recipient
of the dues of Herman. How about you? I thought about you. There is
Dan at the foot of that mountain just getting the first fruits
of that dew. Mount Hermon fed the whole valley,
the dews of Hermon. Psalm 104, I wanted to read that
to you. Psalm 104, I paraphrased it for
you. Psalm 104. I started to read
it for our Scripture reading, but it was just too long. But
it says in Psalm 104, Verse 10, He sends the springs
into the valleys, which run among the hills. They give drink to
every beast of the field. The wild asses quench their thirst.
By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation,
which sing among the branches. And He waters the hills from
His chambers. The earth is satisfied with the
fruit of Thy works. He causes the grass to grow for
cattle. So everything is a recipient of the grace of God, is it not?
all the earth. That's the reason he tells all
the earth, praise the Lord for his wondrous work, the sons of
men. And we, above all creatures,
have reason to praise him for the grace, the saving grace of
God, as in and through and because of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
know, Christ read on in our text, Psalm 133, as the dew of Hermon,
as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion. Actually,
Hermon is Mount Zion. That is Mount Zion. You hear
us read about and sing about Mount Zion. That is Hermon, Mount Hermon. Some people
say, some think that that's where Christ went when he was transfigured. It may be. It says that he went
up into a high mountain. and there was transfigured. He
was in and around that area, so it could be. But we don't
pay any great, there's nothing special about
that mountain. But nevertheless, this is a picture,
this is a type. Christ himself is that mountain.
Christ himself is Mount Zion. He is the lofty one. As I said, that mountain's cap
of that mountain is snow-capped. A mountain's got to be up in
the heavens to be snow-laden. Christ, the Scripture says, is
hairless as wool, whiter than snow. And Christ is He who reaches
our head, who reaches to the highest heaven, but yet His body,
His feet are upon this earth, reached to the earth, from whom
all blessings flow, the dew of God. flowing down to this earth
upon us lowlanders. Verse 3 says, upon the mountains
of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing. All the blessings
of God are in Christ Jesus. All the blessings of God, the
true blessings of God, are in Christ Jesus. They said he commanded
it. He gave commandment to save them.
All the commandments are fulfilled by him. The commandment of the
blessing is to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Even life
forevermore. This is the blessing of all blessing. Life, everlasting life, which
we shall fully experience one day, some day. So he said, Behold,
how good this is, what we're doing. How pleasant it is. I don't know if this was enjoyable
to you. I hope it was. It was to me.
How pleasant it is for brethren to do this, to dwell together
in unity, unified, one Lord, one faith. It's like precious
ointment. That's because it is God's grace
who anointed our head, Christ. And it runs down. All the blessings
of God come from Him. It runs down from him to us who
are his body. It's like the dew of Hermon,
tender, sweet, refreshing, always there, new every morning. And
it comes from, it's found in Mount Sion, the church where
the Lord commanded the blessing. This is where the blessings of
God are even like. All right, may the Lord bless
His Word for His glory and our profit. Stand with me. Our Father, thank You for Your
Word. It is truly pleasant and pleasurable. We thank You for it and ask that
You would use one word of it for our good. feed upon it and
grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank
you for your great grace that comes down to us through him.
It's in his name we've met here tonight. Amen.