It's so good to see everybody,
to be home, be back in God's house, meet God's people. I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the 133rd Psalm, Psalm 133. Psalm 133, all three verses. Behold how good and how pleasant
it is for the brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious ointment
upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's and 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. Our Father, how we thank you
this evening. Oh, for the glorious, blessed
privilege to be able to meet together to hear the gospel. We thank you that you've given
us this time. Lord, help us to worship. Help
us to hear. Bless the preaching. Have mercy upon us. Cause us
truly to worship for Christ's sake. Amen. The Spirit of God directed the
writer, the sweet psalmist of Israel to pen these three verses
and instructed us to behold something that is truly
a miracle of God's grace. unity among brethren. May we admire it. Right now, considering this congregation,
one where we're in, other congregations where the Lord's raised up the
gospel. Admire that. Desire it. Pray for it. And be thankful. It's the blessing of Almighty
God, and God approves of it. Behold how good and how pleasant
it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Scripture says it's how good. It's beautiful. It's cheerful. And how pleasant! It's sweet
and delightful. You know, something may be good
for us, really truthfully good, and not be pleasant to the flesh. Hebrews 12, 11 says, Now no chastening
for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless
afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them
which are exercised thereby." Now there are some things that
we experience daily, or every once in a while, let's say for
sure, that are good and pleasant. This message, well, let me say it like this.
This past weekend, when we were able to go and to be with our
kids and grandkids, I began to think on that. Last Wednesday, We were at the church there in
Kingsport, and then we met the kids outside of Gatlinburg. We all
sat around, about 25 of us. We all sat around and ate together,
and then we went over to this big log cabin that we rented. For 72 hours, we were together. Family. Family by blood and family
by marriage. And I'm telling you, it was good. And it was pleasant to see those that we see so seldom. But it was such a delightful
thing. And for those few hours, we met together and there wasn't
one real... I mean, we had grandkids there. I was going to say there wasn't
any problems or something. We had grandkids there. But I'm
telling you, for the family of grown-ups, I mean the vast majority, huge majority, brethren, Not
only family by blood and by marriage, but brethren. And it was so delightful. But here's a situation that the
psalmist writes about. He's talking about unity within
the body of Christ. Brethren. Brethren, that is,
kindred in Christ that dwell together. That is, to continue
in quietness, united in Him, that dwell together. Now, before the Lord called His
people out of darkness, a lot of you grew up in this area and
grew up together, went to school together. And before the Lord
called you out of darkness, You dwelled together, but you dwelled
together in rebellion against God. You may have come to church. I'm not saying you didn't come
to church. I'm just saying before the Lord called you out of darkness,
you were together in union and unity in rebellion against God. Scripture says, Romans 3.23,
for all have sinned. and come short of the glory of
God. But now, those that the Lord
has called out of darkness, there is a new dwelling. There is a
new unity. We dwell together in unity in
Him. And when did that outward manifestation
of unity begin? Well, the Scripture sets forth
The Lord Himself speaking, He said, when I passed by, when I beheld you in your blood, then I looked upon you when I
saw you in your blood and I said, live. And you lived. Joined together
visibly. Always His and the eternal counsel
of His grace and mercy. Always in Christ. Never been
a time that God's people were not in Christ. Chosen in Him
before the foundation of the world that we should be holy
and without blame before Him in love. United in Christ, but
in time. visibly brought out. And the
Lord was pleased to raise up an assembly, cause a group of
people to come together and want to meet together for one reason, to hear the glorious gospel of
Christ. No other reason. We don't cater
to things that don't matter. We've got one purpose. One Lord. One faith. One baptism. Brethren. Brethren. Behold. Look upon. Gaze upon with amazement. Behold
how good and how pleasant it is for brethren that dwell together,
even together. That's what the margin says in
unity. Well, how good is that? What's
the source of it? Where does it come from? Is it
just because we've all got the same disposition and we just
all, you know, all see everything outwardly exactly right? Where
did this come from? Well, verse 2 says, it is like
the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard,
even Aaron's beard. It went down to the skirts of
his garments. Now, hold your place right there.
Turn with me to Exodus 30. Let me show you what the Spirit
of God moved upon David to write about. David's writing this,
penning this, and the Lord moved upon him to bring back to our
memory a commandment of the Lord concerning the anointing of God's
priest, God's temple. Exodus chapter 30, verses 25
to 30, the Lord is given Moses' instruction here, and
it says, And thou shalt make an oil of holy ointment, an ointment
compound after the art of the apothecary. It shall be a holy
anointing oil. And thou shalt anoint the tabernacle
of the congregation therewith, and the ark of the testimony,
and the table, and all his vessels. the candlestick, his vessels,
the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt offering with
all his vessels and the laver and his foot, and thou shalt
sanctify them that they may be most holy. Whatsoever touches
them shall be holy. And thou shalt anoint Aaron and
his sons and consecrate them that they may minister unto me
in the priest's office." That holy oil that was made according
to God's specifications. You make this oil just exactly
this way. And that oil was a picture, a
type of the Spirit of God. And David, back in Psalm 133,
talking about how good, how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together
in unity. He said it's like that precious
ointment that ran upon the head. Now realize, we have one head. Aaron and that tabernacle and
that candlestick and that table, that labor, all the implements
that was anointed with that holy oil, All of those implements
were pictures of Christ, and every one of them was just anointed
with that oil. Our precious Savior was given
the Spirit of God. He who is the man Christ Jesus, anointed
with God's Spirit without measure, And this unity that we have,
that brethren dwell in, and rest in, and thankful for, and rejoice,
and thank God for, it's like that precious ointment that was
poured, not only on the tabernacle and all the implements, but on
Aaron himself, a picture of the high priest, That oil that just
anointed and perfumed everything that it touched, because it pictured
Christ, it was beautiful. It was lovely. It was precious. And it poured it on top of Aaron's
head. A picture of our head. Our Savior. And that oil ran
down Upon his beard, and you have to understand now, it's
poured on the head, but it's going somewhere. Where did it
go? It was on his beard, but then
it ran down, even down to the skirts of his garments. Where
is his body? Where is his body? And we are
the recipients. He was anointed by God's Spirit. without measure, based totally
upon his merit, his worthiness, his honor. And when that oil
was poured upon Aaron's head, ran down his beard and all the
way down the skirts of his garments, everything about Aaron smelled
of the perfume of God's grace. and God's mercy. And there, anointing
Him, we're the recipients of that blessing. Listen to this
precious scripture, Ephesians 4.7, But unto every one of us
is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ for His sake. for His honor,
for His glory, for His praise, we benefit. So this good and pleasant dwelling
together in unity of the brethren is the result of the anointing
of the Lord Jesus Christ without measure by the Holy Spirit. It is from Him that we partake
of His benefits. If you want to see, actually
visibly behold one of the benefits of the Spirit of God being given
to the Lord Jesus Christ without measure. You want to see one
of the benefits? Well, then behold how good and how pleasant it
is for brethren to dwell together in unity. That's the result. This is the blessing of Almighty
God. But also, verse 3, 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. I looked up Actually, Herman
was. Herman was a mountain. It was a very, very high mountain. And on that mountain, the account
says that it had great forest on that mountain. And there were
huge ravines on the mountain. And the ravines were such that
because of the elevation of that mountain, snow continually filled those
ravines. When we were out in Oregon a
few years ago, out to see Brother Norm Wells, we went to some of
the mountains. We went to Mount Hood. Now when
we started at the base of that mountain, Norm and Nancy brought
us up to top that, not top, we went up the snow line. We started
off, and we started off and just, I mean, it was June. It was June. It's summer. And we started driving up that
mountain. I kept watching the temperature on the car. It kept
getting lower and lower and lower. And we got to the snow line. There was a lodge and we had
lunch and everything together, but from that point right there
up, always snow. Told us that the U.S. Olympic
ski team trains there all year round. Herman was like that. It was a huge mountain, big ravines
filled always with snow. And the sun would come out and
would draw the moisture from Mount Hermon. And it was such a huge amount
of moisture that was drawn out that there would be a dew that
would be deposited on the surrounding areas. And one account said of
a man and his party that had gone hunting. And they camped
at the base of Mount Hermon. And he said the next morning,
the dew, not only outside but inside the tent, it was so heavy,
so thick, everything looked like it had been in a torrential downpour. It was dew that was unbelievably
heavy. And the Spirit of God moved upon
David to speak of the immense blessing of Almighty God's moving
upon God's people and granting them this blessing to dwell together
in unity. It was so heavy. so thick, so
rich, not only referred to as like that precious ointment poured
upon Aaron's head, but also as the dew of Hermon, as the dew
that descended upon the mountains of Zion. There the Lord commanded the
blessing that Almighty God would, in His infinite mercy, One that
said, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. I'm going
to bless you. I'll pour out blessings that
you can't contain. You know people, they talk about,
well, the Lord's really blessed me. I've got money, health, on
and on and on. You want to see the blessing
of God? brethren dwelling together in
unity. That's a blessing. The Lord commanded
it. Even life forevermore. Oh, when we consider this glorious
blessing. Oh, Lord, help us take Him this
lightly. Romans 14, 19 says, 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 established peace before God, for God's people. The blood of Christ. But this
piece he's talking about is things that make for peace within the
body of Christ. And I'm going to be real brief
here, but I'm going to just be honest. I got these points right
here. I listened to a message that
Brother Henry had preached on it, and he brought out a few
of these things, and I thought, that's so good. I need to hear
that. I want to share it with you. what he was talking about. He
was preaching actually out of Romans 14, 19. Let us follow
after the things which make for peace. And he said this first
thing right here. He said, Be thankful for and
pray for one another. Let me ask you something. Have
you prayed for the brethren here today? Have you called their
names before the throne of grace today? Lift it up. Let me show you. Look at Philippians
1, 3-5. Philippians 1. Philippians 1. It's calling each other's names
before the Lord. I encourage myself to do that. Look at Philippians 1, 3-5. I thank my God upon every remembrance
of you, always in every prayer of mine for you, I mean for you
all, making requests with joy for your fellowship in the gospel
from the first day until now. I noticed this thing, Paul in
verse 3, he thanked God for every time the saints at Philippi came
to his mind. Now, you look at verse 3 again.
Tell me if that's not what he's saying. I thank my God upon every
remembrance of you. Every time you cross my mind,
I thank God that the Lord brought you to my heart, brought you
to my mind. I thank the Lord could make requests with joy
for you, thankful. Every time he thought on them,
he prayed for them. Thanking God, verse 5, for your
fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. What
a blessing that the Lord would give us all a heart to pray for
one another and lift up each other. and to call your names
before the throne of grace. Pray that the Lord bless our
fellowship in Him. Pray the Lord have mercy. Here's
the second thing. Love one another. Things that
make for peace. Praying for one another. Loving
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. Our Lord said this is a new,
not new in the sense of newly created, but new daily. It's a daily commandment wrought
to the heart of God's people to love one another. That the
Lord would freshly give us a heart To pray for, to be thankful for,
and to love one another. Brethren of the same family. Children of the same Father.
And the miracle of God's grace is notwithstanding all of our
frailties and weaknesses, frail creatures, whoever one of them
be the first to tell you, I'm the chief of sinners here.
I'm the lowest of the low. Esteeming others better than
themselves. You know, if everybody's fighting
to be the lowest, boy, that's a blessing. Third thing, and finally, forgiving one another. Praying for one another. Loving
one another. Forgiving one another. Ephesians
4, verse 32, And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. What has the Lord forgiven us
of? Everything. Everything. What have we got to stick in
our craw against a brother? Forgiving one another. Ephesians
4, I'm going to just read verses 29 to 31. The apostle says, 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 are sealed unto the day of redemption."
That grieving of the Spirit of God is grieving the unity among
the brethren. I mean, there's no way in the
world that if the Spirit of God were to consider our frailties
that we wouldn't grieve Him. But it's the grieving of the
unity. wrought among the brethren. Grieve
not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of
redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor,
evil speaking, be put away from you with all malice. And be ye kind one to another,
the verse I just read, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Beware of being argumentative. Pray that the Lord deliver us
from the spirit of jealousy and envy. Guard against a quick temper. 1 Corinthians 13, 4 and 5 says,
ìCharity suffereth long and is kind. Envieth not.î Donít be
rash. It seeketh not her own, it is
not easily provoked, but it rejoiceth in truth." Oh, the blessing of being able
to dwell together in unity, peace. I thank God for this assembly. I thank God that He has raised
up a body of believers, people that love one another and pray
for one another and forgive one another. Lord, bless these words to our
heart for Christ's sake. Amen.