I invite you to turn with me
this evening to Psalm 133. This will be the 14th of the Songs
of Degrees. Each of the 15 songs highlight
a certain facet of our great God's work of redemption and
reconciliation. He begins talking about an inward
work back in Psalm 120 of an anxious sinner crying unto God
out of his distress. And then he talks about the competent
believer looking to God, his keeper. Oh, how soon we'd fall if God
didn't keep us. And then he speaks of a thankful
believer praising God for eyes to see, heavenly eyes. And an enlightened sinner talking
about God's glorious house, His glorious house. And a loving
sinner praising God for His intervention. And our song tonight is a song
of unity. Unity. And this wonderfully inspired
hymn begins with this word, Behold. Behold. If you dare to look through
the scriptures when you get home, you might be surprised at some
of the things that happened after he said that word, Behold. And
some of the subjects that he talks about. But the word means
to stand still and consider. Behold, stop, he said, and give
your full attention. Behold, here is a great wonder. A great wonder. Our Lord cast out a devil out
of a dumb man. And he spake. He spake. And everybody that was standing
there who saw it, it says they wondered. They wondered. They were filled with wonder.
He read in the book of Luke, he read the prophetic words of
Isaiah, and he said, this day is this scripture fulfilled in
your ears. And all that bare him witness
wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. He tells us that Jesus of Nazareth
is man approved of God among men by miracles and wonders. and science, which God did by
Him in our midst. And those wonders are still to
be seen. We want to think about wonders
and miracles and things being something in the past. I want
to tell you something. It's a miracle for any man to
believe, is it not? We ought to be awed by that work
in man. Somebody believes Do you know
when he talked about the Lord condescending into this earth,
and he talked about all those things, one of the things that
he said was, he was believed on in the world. Great is the
mystery of God. God was manifesting on my soul. He was believed on in the world. Those wonders are still to be
seen. Wonders of the new birth. That's not normal. Wonders of the revelation of
Christ in us. The gift of faith. The working
of his providence. All of these things. They're
wonders. We take them for granted. They're wonders. And in our text, he uses that
word, behold, concerning the unity of the brethren. Behold. And then listen to this. How
good. Boy, that's a word we use loosely,
don't we? That rich young ruler, I imagine
him just as, I couldn't tell you how many times people have
come up to me and called me good brother or good something and
he came up to the Lord and he said good master and Christ stopped
him right there in his tracks and he said why callest thou
me good? there's none good but God I'm
going to tell you something, this good in this verse is inspired
by God God the Holy Spirit. He's not talking about something
mediocre here. He's talking about something
good. God good. Behold, how good! You know, when Moses asked the
Lord, he said, Lord, show me your glory. Show me your glory. Over in Exodus 33, 18. And the
Lord said, I'll make all my what? Goodness to pass before you,
and I'll declare my name. God's name is revealed in his
goodness. Have you ever thought about that?
It's revealed in his, I'll proclaim the name of the Lord before thee.
God's mercy and grace and righteousness and justice and kindness and
love and long-suffering all revealed in God's goodness. And then he tells us in Romans
2-4 that the goodness of God leadeth into repentance. Oh, that word good. We need to
look at it in a little different light, don't we? Oh, David said, How great is
thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee,
which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the
sons of men. How great is thy goodness. And so the psalmist says, Behold,
how good and how pleasant it is What a wonderful enjoyment. That's what that word pleasant
means. Enjoyment. A happy enjoyment. What a wondrous fellowship. What
a delightful time it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Now there's a lot of words I've
come to know that find a special place in my heart. Savior. Savior. Don't you put that away
in your heart. Savior. Redeemer. Surety. Grace. Sovereign. Substitute. And on and on the
list goes. But this word kind of takes them
all in. That word unity, it means union. Union. Whenever I think of the term
brethren, the first word that comes to my mind is union. Union. He's not talking about
our blood brethren. He's talking about our spiritual
brethren. Why union? Because in the beginning,
God chose a people whom He collectively calls His elect, His sheep, His
bride, His people, His body, His church. sons of Jacob, sons
of Abraham, and God's people, he tells us, are all one with
Him. One with Him. Think on that for
just a minute. All one with Him. He prays in
John 17, not just for the 12, but for all those which shall
believe on Him through their works. And the very heart of
his prayer is that they all may be one. As thou, Father, art
in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, I in them,
and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one. Oh, I'll tell you why it's such
a good and happy Thank for brethren to dwell together in unity, because
they're one with Christ. They're all one with Christ.
And of these chosen vessels, He gives them the name brethren.
He calls us sons of Abraham, sons of Jacob, Israel. Not their natural children. Romans
9.7 says, neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they
all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is,
they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the
children of God. But the children of the promise
are counted for the seed. And then in Galatians 3.26 he
says, per year all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus
And if you be Christ, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs
according to the promise. In Romans 8, verse 14, he said,
as many as are led by the Spirit of God. These are the sons of
God. God's children are put on Christ and they are all one in
Christ. Galatians 3, verse 28. They are
all one. Well, when did this union begin?
Well, it began back yonder in eternity. We don't have any words
in our dictionary that can comprehend eternity. We just have to say
eternity and leave it there. I don't know when that was. Farther
back than I can perceive. But it began in eternity past
when our Heavenly Father purposed to bless a people for the glory
of His name. And He blessed them, Paul said,
with all spiritual blessings. How did He do that in Christ?
in Christ. He chose Him and His Son, making
full provision for them that they might be holy. I think we've
got a whole wrong idea of what holiness is. Holiness is the
wholeness of God. That's what holiness is. Holiness
is not... It can be used to talk about
righteousness. or being seen for a bit of that
part of the whole character dot but the work on this one if you
did not have that one little thing you talk about the whole
list of god i'd tell you in christ that you
might be that's all we need to make a whole moscow i don't have
got that reviews In myself, I'm not perfectly
righteous. I'm not perfectly just. I'm not kind as God is. You see what I'm saying? He chose
us in Christ that we might be holy. How long? Forever. Forever. As long as He is holy, I'm holy
because I'm one with Him. I'm one with Him. And then listen to this. He chose
us in Christ, blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly
places in Christ, according as He has chosen us in Him, before
the foundation of the world, that we might be holy and without
blame. Who's going to bring an accusation
against one of God's children? They're without blame in Christ.
All my sins were charged to Him. And He paid for them in full.
Now who's going to bring an accusation to get God justified of us? Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God to let? You can't say
that about every individual, but you can say that about his
or her. And then he told us, in Christ, bless us with all
spiritual blessings that we might be holy without lying before
him in love. Is that talking about our love
for him? No, we're talking about before the foundation of the
world. They're talking about His love for us. He chose us
in Christ, and when He did it, He secured that love in Him. And I'm always... I like to read
that verse this way. Before Him being loved. Because that's what it means.
Always. Who's going to separate you from
the love of Christ? Nobody. Nothing. That love is
secured in Him. What does that mean? We don't
love Him? Not at all. But we love Him as a person of
this. And I don't ever want to compare
my love to His. Not ever. Not ever. And then watch this. Having predestinated
them unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will, This eternal union was a covenant
union. It was a promised union. It was
a purposed union. There was no creation as of yet. No people, no fall, no nothing.
Just the mind and purpose of God. Paul wrote to Timothy. This is
a young preacher. We don't want to mess up young
preachers. I don't want to tell you. Paul
did. He said, God hath saved them.
You say that to every preacher, he'll turn inside out. God hath
saved us. And then he called us. Oh, you got that backward, Preacher.
No, I don't think the Holy Ghost got it backwards. I think he
said it exactly the way it is. God has saved us and called us
with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. And then he tells us this, and
this is the second part of that union. I'm talking about that
eternal union between Christ and His Church, which was set
up from everlasting. Everlasting. And then he kills
a citizen, 2 Timothy 1.10. But he is now made manifest by
the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who has abolished
death and has brought life and immortality to life through the
gospel. The second part of this divine
union is manifested by God coming into the flesh. You want to talk
about a union? Eternal God manifest in the person
of a man. That's about as unified as you
can get, isn't it? Huh? And as near as I can tell
from the Scriptures, it was a permanent union. I love that message. Preachers years ago, I know you've
heard it, several of the preachers got to hear it up at 13th Street,
fell from down, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, got a priest.
There's a man in glory. And if there's one, there might
be two. Here's this eternal covenant
union, purpose to God. All things, provision of all
things, everything. David said, yet hath he made
with me an everlasting covenant. What? Ordered in all things and
sure. Why? Because he had a surety. And Christ is that surety. And
when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His
Son. Made of a woman. What a way for God to manifest
Himself to me. Made of a woman. Made under the
law. to redeem them that were under
the law. Why did he do that? So we could receive our adoption.
Our adoption, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children.
That's in that eternal covenant of Christ. And now he comes in
the person of Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and he appears,
and the angels are just buried awed by it. Maybe more
so. And they sang. They just burst
out into singing. The second part of this divine union
is manifested by God coming into the flesh. God and man in one
holy union. Jesus Christ being in the form
of God, Paul said, thought it not robbery to be equal with
God, but made himself. of no reputation, and took on
him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, he
humbled himself, and become obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross. We read this a little earlier,
God took not on him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham. Why? Because in all things it
behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might
be a faithful and merciful high priest in things pertaining to
God. This bodily union is the very
heart of salvation. As our representative said, he
was made a woman, made under the law, redeemed all his elect
that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption
of children, God predestinated our adoption in Christ, and Christ
came to meet the demand of that adoption. So we can actually
be partakers of its benefits. And then listen to this, Galatians
4, 6. Because ye are the sons of God,
God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts,
Crying, have a father. Here's the third part of that
union. It's a union of revelation. He's going to reveal his son
in us. Not to us, although he does.
But that's not what he says. He says in us. In us. The glorious reality of this
union is manifested as the Spirit of God through the preaching
of the gospel forms Christ in us. Now if you're looking for
something more than Christ in you, you're looking for something
that's not there. If you're looking for some feeling,
some vision, some emotional experience, You're looking for something
that's not there. The Holy Spirit of God, when
He comes, reveals Christ. That glorious union, He reveals
Christ in you, and you're one with Him. What a statement. He says, work
out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God that worketh in
you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. But who believes? Does God believe? No. I believe. I believe. But I couldn't believe
without Him. You see what I'm saying? This
is a union. That's what we're talking about.
We're talking about something that He uses the word, behold.
This is a wonder. It's a wonder, God in you, Christ
in you, the hope of glory. And I'll tell you what he does,
and the more the gospel is preached, I'll tell you, you're constantly
like Paul, gathering up all the junk and throwing it on the dung
heap. Just keep throwing it on the dung heap until there's nothing
left but Christ. Isn't that right? Oh, he said
that I might win Christ. and they found in him. That's salvation. That's salvation. If you're looking for something
more than Christ in you, you're looking for something that's
not there. Some folks came to the churches at Galatia, and
they said, we believe everything you're saying, Paul, but we still...
Don't you think we ought to observe that ceremony of circumcision?
It was kind of important back then. Don't you think? Paul said,
if you so much as be circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And he went on and talked to
them, and he said, listen boy, he said, if you observe days,
it wasn't just circumcision. Now, you let them through the
door of circumcision, now we got some holy days. Don't you
think we ought to keep the Sabbath? You observe days, and months,
and times, and years. He said, I'm afraid of you, lest
I bestow upon you labor and vain. Oh, he said, my little children,
whom I shall barely birth again, until what? Christ be born in
you. I can tell you about it, but
I can't accomplish it. I can't make it happen. All I
can do is point you to the Scriptures and point you to Him and hope
that He will. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
1. We're talking about that blessed
union of Christ and His people. An eternal covenant union, a
manifested union of God and man. and a revealed union in hearts
and minds of all to select." And he tells us in Ephesians
1.11, talking about Christ. I read the first part of it.
He blessed us with all spiritual blessings and so on, having predestinated
us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will. We're accepted into beloved,
redeemed by His blood, On and on. Then he says, he's held back
nothing. He reveals the very mysteries
of God to you. And he gets down to verse 11,
and he says, In whom also we have obtained an inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will, that we should
be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ.
That's God. In whom, that is in Christ, ye
also trusted, after that you heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation, in whom also, after that you believed,
you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the
earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purpose
possession, under the praise of his glory. What in the world
is this predestinated purpose? Romans 8-29, for whom He did
foreknow. He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn
of many brethren. I want you to think with me for
just a moment about all before you ever knew God, before the
Spirit of God ever did anything for you. i want you to think
about all your brain i want you to think back on how you thought
about what kind of an image was in your mind about god this god
was nowhere near like the god of the bible he's nowhere near
like the god revealed in christ we had vain imagination we walked
paul said in the vanity of our minds, having our understanding
done, being alienated from the life of God. All our vain imaginations
of God and Christ and salvation, all at one time walked in the
vanity of our minds. But then God sent a preacher,
and He told us the truth. And He accompanied that preacher
with the Holy Ghost, and He revealed His Son in us. And His Son is
the brightness of the Father's glory, now listen, and the express
image of His person. In whom we are redeemed, Paul
said, through His blood and forgiveness of our sins, who is the image
of the invisible God. He's the God of all creation
and all our vain images are swept away. And as the gospel comes
in power and in the Holy Ghost, we're conformed to what? To the image of Christ. Ain't that what they're talking
about? He's going to bring you He's going to conform you to
the image of Christ. That's what you're going to see.
Christ. Christ. And when you see Him,
you're looking at the Father. When you hear Him, you're hearing
from the Father. Well, I thought that had to do
with how we live. Let me tell you something. If Christ is in
you, it will. It will have something to do
with how you live. It'll have everything to do with how you
live. You know what Paul wrote to Colossians and told Gentile
believers? No telling what they received
here before they heard us. Paul said, I'm going to tell
you what to do now. The Lord saved you. Give me your
faith. Give me your repentance. Now
we're going to get down to the heart of it. As you have received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. rooted and built up
in Him, established in the faith. We don't believe Christ. Better
not. Salvation is in Him. Life is
in Him. all our vain images are swept
away. And we're conformed to that one
image, the image of God in Christ. And that's the image revealed
by the Holy Spirit of promise. And all is elect by the holy
unity of faith in their union with Christ. The one thing every
grace believer will agree on is this, union with Christ. Christ is my salvation. i'd argue
with the old church government but he and i would be with me
on that i'm one of the crash one of the crash this is a very
rare in the spirit of your mind and then put on the new man with
that regard is created in righteousness and true holiness that i met
you as well but it's still talking about me I'm in union with Him. Preachers are said of God for
the perfecting, Paul said, of the saints. How are God's saints
perfected? By one offering He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Them whom God set apart from
all eternity, they are perfected by His sacrifice. that are brought into a perfect
union with Him. And we preach, he said, pastors,
evangelists, they preach that we all come in the unity of the
faith, now watch this, and of the knowledge of the Son of God
unto a perfect man. Does that mean we inch our way
up to perfection? No. He's talking about what we're
preaching. What we're preaching. We just
keep preaching. Keep preaching to you. And the knowledge of
God, when it begins to come in, and you begin to see, and the
Holy Spirit begins to relieve, what do you come to? A perfect
man. What's it take to save yourself? A perfect man. A perfect man. Paul tells them on down in in
colossal he told him that you receive gratitude for the lord
so what do you think rooted build-up and he established in fact what
they will come in and try to spoil that on the right now kind
of but not really what he's talking about as the like the sport you
know come in and take from you what you have but he said in christ in christianity
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are
complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and
power, made one with Him." Let me tell you something. Over the years I've gotten to
know a lot of people. Not too many I won't live with. You know a lot of people. Ain't
too many of you won't come take up residence in your house, is
it? But in Christ, all God's children,
he said, dwell together. They dwell. We live in the same
house. We are the house. We all live
in the same house. We all eat the same food. We
all sleep on the same bed. We live and move and have our
being in this house. We dwell together. How? In union. And if you're in union with him,
you're in unity with one another. Now I know we have sands and
butts about it. We made one. We walk in the light, John said,
as he is the light. And we have fellowship. What's
that? That's, Henry said, fellers in
the same ship. and she all you have in the same
house and then they did in person and
i i i can't wait to all members will be a part of the day to
give us a couple of times in person or story to illustrate
this unity to illustrate this divine union and he began with the anointing
of the high priest of israel He said this unity of brethren,
this whole thing of union, this whole thing of salvation in Christ,
being one with Christ. He said it's like that precious
ointment. And you can go to the book of
Exodus and they'll tell you what that ointment was made from.
Myrrh and cassia and sweet cinnamon and oh man, I just almost imagined
the scent from that. And he said, it's like that precious
ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's
beard. Here's Aaron. And Israel sinned,
and how many hundred thousand of them died from their rebellion? But now, God gives instruction
to build a tabernacle out there in that wilderness. And he separates
for himself a high priest, Aaron. And he tells you all about the
dress. And he dresses him up in this
fine linen, golden bells around the bottom of it, a golden plate,
a mitre on his head. And I can just imagine the children
of Israel seeing Aaron for the first time and he steps out and
he's got all this robe and all this stuff on and he comes up
and they look and bad names. are inscribed over his heart
and on his shoulders to bear them up before the Lord. And
they're being told all this. They're being instructed about
all this. And then he comes. And he takes that little, no,
no, no, no, that little vial couldn't run down on his beard.
He took a big thing of this ointment and he poured it out on his head. All of it. All of it. And it ran down on his beard,
and it gripped down off of his beard and run down to the skirts
of his garment. And I can't imagine the scent
of that ointment as it went out. Who was there who couldn't smell
it? That sweet savor. Isn't that
a picture of Christ? He came into this world, manifested
that holy image, God said thou art a priest forever after the
order of Melchizedek. Made him priest. And he anointed
him with the Holy Spirit just a little bit. Without measure
poured it all out. I'm going to do all that on the
hill. And oh, there's a sweet saver now of Christ in them that
perish and in them that are saved. It don't matter. The sweet saver
is coming from the priest. No matter what. No matter what. And that's what he's telling
us. That this unity is all based on the priesthood of Christ and
all the appointments of Christ. And all those things. And we
see those things. field wonder where you stand
there behold i don't want us to say behold look no other nation in the world
had a high priest anointed to make atonement for their soul
just as strong just as strong and i can almost enter into their
wonder as they saw him in all this dress and all these things. And we see God's Son as the High
Priest being anointed. And then, in verse 3, listen
to this. He said, as a doer of hermine...
What's that mean? I've read that a hundred times,
and I've never even stopped, paused to think about what he's talking
about. The Dune of Hermon. That's the same as Sinai. Same mountain. And by inference, it's the Mount
of Transfiguration. It's the highest point on that
coast. And when he said they went up
into that mountain, he said they went up into a high mountain. And what a picture of our Lord
conversing with the law and the prophets about His exodus on
that mount. What a picture, His holy law
being given, being given on that mount. And the figure though
here is not necessarily including all those things, those are just
things I thought about. But the figure here is talking
about the blessing coming down. it's descending back it's coming
down from uh... and sailing on the map but it's
basically what now the blazing coming down from the highest
to the lowest james ever good and perfect year coming down
from above It comes down from the Father
of Lights, with whom is no bearableness, neither shadow or eternity. And
all listen to me. This is not the coming of a flood
and a storm. Y'all had some bad weather here.
I saw it on the news, a lot of flooding and lives lost. This
didn't come by a flood from a storm, but something that gently distills
on the mountains of Zion. It gently distills on Zion's
church. The hymn writers did thy bountiful
cares. What tongue can recite? It breathes
in the air. It shines in the light. It's
everywhere. It streams from the hills. And
what it does, descends to the plains. and sweetly distilled
in the dew and the rain." That's what he's talking about in this
verse. This is like this. This is what the brethren in
union with Christ, they understand this, they see this, they have
the vision, they understand these types and figures, they understand
the work that Christ has done, and they see the wonder in it.
You know what he calls it? The glory of God shining into
our hearts. Brother Ralph Barnard said one
time he dreamed a dream. Henry was telling me about it.
He said that in his dream he died and he woke up in heaven. And he said I opened my eyes
like I had been asleep. And he said, I kind of batted
my eyes and it was misty. And he said, the first regulation,
the first thing I realized as I opened my eyes, I was hearing
the most beautiful music I'd ever heard in my life. Multitudes
and multitudes of people singing. And they were singing in absolute
perfect harmony. Every one of them. And he said,
as I opened my eyes and began to get some sense of what was
going on, he said, I looked and you couldn't take it all in.
The people were on mountainsides as far as the eye could take
in. Just people after people after
people. A number that no man can number.
And he said, I stood there and I listened to that music and
it began to burn in my heart. And he said, oh, I want to join
in. I want to sing this song with
him. I want to sing it. I don't want to just sit there
and listen. I want to sing this song. I want to enter into this
song. And he said, I looked, and way
up at the top of this one mountain, there was a vacant spot. And
he said, I began to push my way through the crowd, and he said,
they graciously gave way to me, and I, fast as I could go, he
said, I got up that mountainside, and he said, I worked my way
over, and he said, when I got over there, he said, there was
a chair. And he said, when I got up to
it, it said, reserved for a walled barn. Behold, what a good and pleasant
thing it is for the children of God, for brethren to dwell
together in unity. In unity. Who we got to quibble
about? We have everything. They were
quibbling in the Corinthians about whose message they were
saved under. Paul said, don't you know that
the world is yours? The apostle Paul is yours. You
mean God ordained an apostle, inspired him to write half the
New Testament for me? I absolutely believe that. He
tells me this is the what? Children's Am I a child? That is mine. And that's what
Paul said. Whether Paul or Paul's, we're
yours. The world, it's yours. There's
only one reason for God to create a world, and that's for His people
to have their being. Ever thought about that? God
gave us a being. to manifest His glory in His
Son. Oh, my soul, what a benefit! What a benefit! Oh, God help
us. I want to learn to sing. I don't
want to say this, but I want to learn to sing. I want to learn
to sing this song of unity. Thank you.