Notice there's an exclamation
point at the end of this first sentence. He said, behold, how
good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in
unity. And then he tells us how good
and how pleasant it is. Why it's good and why it's pleasant. He says, it's 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. Here's why it's
good and it's pleasant. It says, the dew of Hermon that
descended upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded
the blessing, life forevermore. Unity, unity, union between brethren,
in Christ with God our Father. Union. This is good and it's
pleasant to God. It's good and it's precious to
God. And it's good and it's pleasant
to us and precious to us because God has united us with himself
in his son. He's united us with himself in
his son. We have union with God. We've
been united with God. And it's good and it's pleasant
and it's precious to us because it is the effectual work of God
only. God did it all. God did it. That's
why it's so good and so pleasant and a precious thing to us. God
did it. God did it. There's nothing about
us by nature that's good and pleasant. Nothing about us. Not one thing. You know, this
world, you can't say anything negative about folks and they
want you to be positive about speaking about folks and all,
but it's created a world of self-righteous people who are like little judges, you
know, ever entitled and condemning everybody. We need to be told
really and truly what God says about us. God says there's nothing
good about us. There is nothing good about us. Sin separated Adam from God. That's what happened. It separated
them. There was no unity. It separated Adam from God and
it separated all Adam's children from God. That sin did. God's
holy, he cannot have anything to do with a sinner. It separated
us from God. And sin makes us justify ourselves
and condemn others. That's what sin does. When God
came to Adam, And said, Adam, have you partaken of the tree
I told you not to eat? Adam justified himself by blaming
God and blaming Eve, the woman you gave me. That's what sin
does. Sin makes us justify ourselves
and condemn others. Why was Christ crucified? It
was self-righteous religious men trying to justify themselves
by their works and condemning Him as being a blasphemer and
a sinner. That's sin. That's what sin does. Sin defiles the conscience so
that by nature we hated God, we hated His Christ, we hated
His gospel, and we hated His people by nature. And that is
the only thing you and me would have ever been if God had left
us there. Separated. Separated. And here's the sad thing about
sin. Pharisee means separate ones.
There's the Pharisees, hating God, hating Christ, hating his
people, hating his gospel, and yet boasting they had separated
themselves and made themselves holy by their works and that
they were just fine. You see sin, you see what sin
has done. There's nothing good and pleasant
about us by nature. The first murder committed in
this world was based upon religion. It was a real worshiper and what
he was bringing to God was his fruits. Men in religion are always
talking about you bearing fruit. You have to bear fruit. Where's
your fruit? Where's your fruit? And they
inspect the fruit. They're fruit inspectors. They
inspect one another and constantly looking, and there's all this
division and strife going on. Well, that's exactly what kind
of religion Cain was in. He brought God his very best
fruits, and God rejected him. His fruits weren't good enough.
My fruits aren't good enough and your fruits aren't good enough.
Abel came confessing nothing about him was good and pleasant.
He came confessing there was nothing precious about him by
nature. He came confessing his only acceptance
with God was the blood of a lamb who died in his place. And God
accepted him. And for that reason, Cain killed
his brother. He killed his brother. And when
God came to him and said, what have you done? Where's your brother?
He justified himself and he condemned God and said, what am I, my brother's
keeper? That's sin. Nothing good and
nothing pleasant about it. That's you and me by nature,
brethren. That is us by nature. Unity amongst brethren is good. You know why it's good? It's
all of God who is good. It's all of God who is good.
Of us, scripture says, there's none good, no, not one. Christ
said there's none good but one, that's God. Unity is of God,
that's why it's called good. It's of God. Unity amongst brethren
is precious. You know why it's precious? It's
rare, it's costly, And everything involved in giving us unity between
brethren in Christ with God is precious. The most precious commodity
there is is unity because of the precious things He took to
give it to us. The precious thought of God toward
His people to give us an expected end. The psalmist said, how precious
are thy, your thoughts toward me, O God, how great is the sum
of them. Precious, the precious thoughts
of God toward his people to save us by his grace from eternity.
the precious blood of Christ. You weren't redeemed with corruptible
things, you were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ.
That's why this unity, that's why it's precious. That's why
it's good and it's pleasant and it's precious. It was brought
about by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. the precious
death of our fleshly man and everything we thought was good
by the Spirit of God. That's the death that's precious
in the sight of God. Precious in the sight of God
is the death of his saints. We saw from that Psalm, he's
talking about when he puts you through the trial and he makes
you see there's nothing good in you and he mortifies your
sinful flesh and just like Paul, when the commandment comes, sin
revives and everything you thought good about yourself dies. That's
what keeps unity between brethren. The precious death of this sinful
flesh by God the Holy Spirit. That's why it's precious. And
like precious faith. Every one of God's people have
what Peter called like precious faith. It's a rare, rare, rare
thing to have faith. It's rare. There's not many people
in this world that have it. Those that have it are called
a remnant. among the millions and multitudes of people, a remnant,
it's precious faith. And it takes that precious faith
to look to Christ and find all your unity with God and all your
unity with brethren in Christ Jesus, our union. Precious faith. That's why this unity is good
and pleasant and precious to God and precious to us. And it's Christ himself. That's
the unity. You have God and you have sinners. And these chosen sinners are
brought together in union in Christ. And it's good and pleasant
and precious. And scripture says, unto you
who believe, he is precious. precious in Christ. Precious
because unity of brethren is the effectual work and gift of
God alone. That's why it's good, that's
why it's pleasant, that's why it's precious. So our subject
this morning is good and precious unity. First of all, Unity is
by the precious anointing of God the Holy Spirit. It's by
the precious anointing of God the Holy Spirit. Verse 2. It
is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon
the beard, even Olan's beard that went down to the skirts
of his garments. That ointment by which God anointed
Aaron, as high priest. God told him, you make this ointment
of the most costly, precious spices there were. You can find
this over in Exodus 30 and verse 23. Exodus 30, 23. It pictures the Holy Spirit of
God. That's why God told her to use
the most precious, costly spices, because it pictures the anointing
of the Holy Spirit of God. Exodus 30, 23, he said, take
thou also unto the principal spices, that means the choicest
spices, the most valuable spices. He says, of pure myrrh, 500 shekels, He says, of sweet cinnamon, half
so much, even 250 shekels, of sweet calamus, 250 shekels, and
of cassia, 500 shekels after the shekel of the sanctuary,
and of oil, olive, a hen. And thou shalt make it an oil
of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the
apothecary, and it shall be a holy anointing oil. Now, I want you
to look with me over at Psalm 45. This oil typified the Holy
Spirit by which God our Father anointed the Lord Jesus Christ
as the high priest over his people. Him anointing Aaron as the high
priest is a picture, with that holy oil, that's a picture of
God anointing his son, the Lord Jesus, as the man Christ Jesus. as the high priest of his people.
You know when he was baptized, the spirit came down upon him
and lit upon him like a dove. That's what was taking place.
Now listen to what he says here in Psalm 45, 6. He says, thy
throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of thy kingdom
is a right scepter. Thou lovest righteousness and
hatest wickedness. Therefore, God, thy God, hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. All
thy garments smell. What do they smell of? Myrrh.
and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces whereby they have
made thee glad. You see what that oil, that anointed
Aaron pictured? It pictures the Holy Spirit of
God so that all Christ's garments smell of myrrh and aloes and
cassia, the most valuable just like that oil was made out of. What is all that picture? What's
it mean? It means we have such a high priest who became us,
who's holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher
than the heavens. Christ Jesus, everything about
Christ Jesus smells of the most precious costly spices. He smells of myrrh and aloes
and cassia out of the ivory palaces above. He's the only man, after
Adam fell in the garden, he's the only man that ever walked
this earth who is perfectly, absolutely holy in his nature. He's the only man who of himself,
by himself from his mother's womb is holy, holy, holy. That's who Christ is. Every word
or every thought that he had, every moment of his life was
a holy thought. Can me and you say that? Never. Every word he spoke was from
a holy motive, a holy, pure heart. Every deed he did was from a
holy heart and love to his father and love to his brethren. Even
when they slapped him in the face, even when they spit upon
him, even when they plucked the hairs out of his beard, he never
had anything but holy, pure thoughts in his heart. I'd have lost it
right there. Christ Jesus is separate from
sinners. He said, for their sakes I sanctify
myself that they might be sanctified through the truth. He is that
truth. The spotless Lamb of God Went
to God then, and in holy obedience to God, He gave Himself, and
God made Him sin for us. God took all our unholy thoughts,
and all our unholy deeds, and all our unrighteousnesses, and
made Him bear them all in His body on the tree. And as He poured
out the just fury of His wrath on my Lord Jesus Christ, I don't
know, it's beyond me, but as He's bearing our sin, as He's
bearing our justice, at the same time in His heart, He never ceases
looking with a holy heart to God His Father. Never. He is
the positive, holy, righteous fulfillment of the law, and the
negative, justice-satisfying fulfillment of the law, all in
one person, all at one time on Calvary's cross. That's who he
is. And so through the eternal spirit,
he offered himself without spot to God. And by that precious
blood, by that precious, precious blood, Christ redeemed all God's
elect. He reconciled us to God. He brought all his people. He brought God to receive us
as his friend now, who before we were his enemy. Now he brought
us into friendship with God. So God will receive us and He's
just to receive us. And Scripture says, it wasn't
by the blood of goats and calves, by His own blood He entered into
the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us. That's
how this union was made. That's how we have this unity,
brethren. The precious blood of Christ. It's precious. It's that holy
anointing oil on him, declaring him being the holy spotless one. Now, catch this next thing. It's
our high priest, our risen high priest who worked out this perfect
righteousness for us from a holy heart. It's him. who gives us
this good and pleasant precious unity with Him. With God our Father in Him. Now
notice here, the picture in our text. Verse 2 says, it's like
the precious ointment upon the head. Upon the head. That ran down upon the beard.
even Aaron's beard that went down to the skirts of his garments. That oil, they poured that oil
on Aaron's head, anointing him the high priest. And that oil
flowed down, and it flowed down on all Aaron's members, from
the head down to all the members, all the members. his arms and
his hands and his fingers and his toes and all the way down
from his head all the way down to his pinky toe. It covered
every member of Aaron. All the members. Christ is our
head. That's who He is. He's our head.
He's our great high priest in whom His people are righteous
and holy. And He anoints each member of
His body. He said, I'll pray the Father
and He'll send the Holy Spirit. And He anoints each member of
His body, every member in particular, every one of His children that
He redeemed. He anoints us just like every
member of Aaron's body was covered with that precious ointment.
So every member of Christ's precious body is covered in this precious
ointment. Look at Isaiah 61.1. This is
how he gives you a new Holy Spirit and a new heart to believe on
the Lord Jesus. This is how he brings us experimentally
into this union with him. Isaiah 61.1. Don't tell me I wrote this down
wrong. I wrote this down wrong. Oh wait, I'm in the wrong book.
I don't think I wrote it down wrong. Hold on. Isaiah 61.1. Here it is. Isaiah 61.1. The Spirit of the
Lord God is upon me. This is Christ speaking. Because
the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the
meek. He has sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening
of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort
all that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give
unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning. the garment of praise for the
spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. It's our
Lord Jesus Christ's glory as our high priest to anoint us
that he redeemed with this. with this oil, with this precious
costly ointment, the Holy Spirit of God. And the Holy Spirit,
when he anoints you, he covers his child from head to foot.
Just like Aaron was covered from head to foot with that oil, the
Spirit of God's gonna cover you head to foot. You know why? Because
Scripture says, from the sole of the foot to the head, there's
no soundness in us, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sword. They've not been closed, they've
not been bound up, they've not been mollified with ointment.
And so the Spirit of God enters in, and He creates an entirely
new man, an entire new spirit that's holy, in whom is no guile,
that is the creation of God. It pleased the Father that in
Christ should all fullness dwell, and it's from Christ that we
have received of His fullness. We've received grace from Christ,
full grace, the Spirit of the Lord being poured out upon us,
just like that precious ornament. And it's that ointment from Christ
that gives us life and gives us faith and repentance and makes
us priests unto God. God said this in Exodus 30, 30,
thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons. and consecrate them that
they may minister unto me in the priest's office." That's
what happens. The Holy Spirit anointed our
Lord Jesus Christ and our Lord Jesus Christ anoints all his
sons and makes us priests unto God. Now, for the first time,
we can actually serve God. We can live unto God. We can
offer praise and thanksgiving and before when we were dead
in our sins, the plowing of the wicked is abomination to God.
Just something as simple and harmless as plowing a field was
an abomination to God. Now God says, everything you
do, I accept it. In Christ Jesus, perfect and
holy. Hmm. Unity's good and it's precious
because it's through the precious blood of Christ. It's through
the precious Holy Spirit. He makes us holy. He makes us
consecrated unto God so that we're one with God in Christ
and one with each other in Christ. That's what the Lord does. How
united are we? First Corinthians 6, 17 says,
he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. That means you,
you, you, you, you, me, and all His people in this world that
are joined to the Lord by the Holy Spirit are one spirit. We're one. We're one. For by one Spirit are we all
baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether
we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one
Spirit. You see why this unity is good
and pleasant to God? That's why it's good and pleasant
to us. By God's thoughts toward us in divine election, we say,
oh, Lord, how precious are your thoughts toward me. You gave
me this expected end. We see Christ lay down his life
and we say, oh, how precious is that blood that gave me this
unity. Precious Holy Spirit that anointed
us, unto you that believe, therefore he's precious. Precious, and
it's precious unity. Just being united with your brethren,
is that precious to you? It's precious to God's people.
Precious to God's people. This unity, secondly, is the
blessing God above has commanded be upon His church. He commanded
it. Verse 3, it says, The dew of
Hermon that descended upon the mountains of Zion, for there
the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. This blessing,
this holy unction that God gives, this unity is by the Spirit of
God coming down from God our Father through the blood and
righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, just like the dew came
down upon the mountains of Zion. When that dew, they said that
that was an area that would be saturated with dew because God
commanded it to be. He commanded it to be above all
other places so it was a very fruitful place. That dew descended
upon Mount Zion and saturated those mountains and it made those
mountains fruitful. God commanded that. Well, that's
what he's done for his church. You have been brought to Mount
Zion, the church of the living God, the city of the living God,
the heaven of Jerusalem. You've come to the church of
the firstborn. You've come to God the judge,
to Christ the mediator, whose blood speaks better things than
that of Abel. And God commands this blessing upon his church.
He commands it upon his church. He commands it upon each believer
in particular. You and me, brethren. He pictured
it, and that he promised this concerning the land into which
he delivered Israel, when he was delivering them into the
land of Canaan. This is what he said about that
land. He said, the land where thou goest into possess it. It's
not like the land of Egypt. He said, this is a land which
the Lord thy God careth for. The eyes of the Lord by God are
always upon it from the beginning of the year, even to the end
of the year. That's Zion. The Lord's eyes upon it, the
Lord's caring for it, and the Lord's blessing it. He's commanded
the blessing upon you who are his church. He's done that. The
Lord is gonna command it, and here's the blessing. It's life
forevermore. Life forevermore. You that believe
on the Son hath everlasting life. His life forevermore. This good
precious unity makes us worship Christ. It makes us give Him
all the glory from a new Holy Spirit in truth. That's what
it does. Now, due to God commanding the
blessing, Due to Christ, through the Holy Spirit, he's gonna keep
this unity among his people. He's gonna keep it among his
people. He's gonna make each brother and sister, by this holy
unction, he's gonna make us beholding Christ and what Christ has done. He just makes you behold your
brother and your sister to be better than you. That's what
the Spirit of God does. Do you feel that way? I'm telling
you this truthfully. You know, the world will hear
something like this and say, well, you just have a low self-esteem.
Yeah, that's exactly right. It's of God. He makes you esteem
your brethren. They walk better, they talk better,
they do more works better, they do everything better than you.
That's how he makes you see them. That's scriptural, he said that. That's how he keeps his unity.
That's not how natural man sees one another at all. Natural man
always sees themselves as better. And there's our old sinful nature
in us that sees ourselves that way too, but it's the Lord wins. He's gonna keep you, Steve, and
your brethren better than you. And he makes you submit to Christ,
and he makes you trust your brethren to Christ, and pray to Christ
for your brethren, and look to Christ to keep your brethren,
and to keep you, and to keep the church. He makes you trust
the Lord Jesus. This is all a part of this unity. And this unction keeps us forgiving
one another's offenses. You know why? Because by this
unction you see how great your offenses are. And you see how
great God's forgiveness is for Christ's sake toward you. And
you see how long-suffering He is to you and how forbearing
He is to you. And it makes you do the same
to your brethren. That's the key to dwelling together
in unity. When we stop forgiving, we'll
stop dwelling together in unity. Because as long as we're sinners,
we're going to have to. That's just all there is to it.
We encourage one another, as the Apostle did, with a sweet
reminder of our Father's blessing upon us, what He's done in Christ
and what Christ has accomplished and how He created this unity
by His Spirit. This is what Paul said in Philippians
2. I want you to go there with me. Philippians 2. He's talking
about this unction. He's saying if you know how good
and pleasant this unity is and how precious it is, This is what
he says, look at Philippians 2.1. If there be therefore any
consolation in Christ, any comfort in Christ, any comfort of love,
any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, you
know what he's saying right there? If you know anything at all about
how good and pleasant this unity is, if you know how precious
it is, He said, Fulfill ye my joy that ye be like-minded, having
the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done
through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let
each esteem other better than himself. Let not every man on
his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. This
was his mind, that was Christ's mind. He didn't do anything through
strife or vainglory. He did everything in lowliness
of mind. He esteemed his brethren better than himself. He didn't
look on his own thing. Everything he did was looking
on things of ours. That was his mind. And he did
this too. He committed everything to the
God, his Father, who judges righteously, and he teaches you and me to
do everything with fear toward him and trembling before him
without murmuring, disputing, knowing Christ is in your midst.
He created this unity. He's commanded the blessing to
be upon his people, and he's gonna keep this unity. And so
you know verse 13, it's God which worketh in you both the will
and the do of His good pleasure. That's how He keeps this unity
amongst His people. Go back with me now to Ephesians
1. Ephesians 1. I'm sorry, Ephesians 4. Ephesians
4. By God commanding the blessing,
even life forevermore, by Him making you see how good and how
pleasant and how precious your Savior is and all of these blessings
and this unity is in Him. This is how He makes you endeavor
to maintain this unity. Paul said in verse 1, I therefore,
the prisoner of the Lord, You know, if it wasn't for this unction
from the Holy Spirit, when they saw Paul locked up in prison,
a lot of brethren broke from this unity. They never had it
to begin with. But God's people look upon him
and know he's the prisoner of the Lord. He's the Lord's prisoner. And He said, I beseech you that
you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called, with
all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one
another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace. Here's what it is. There's one
body and one spirit. Even as you're called in one
hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God
and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you
all. You know what our Lord said?
I'll show you how to go to John 17. I want to show you this unity. It's just a cartoon. I didn't
have this written down, but you got to see this. John 17. Let's
look here at John 17 and see if I can find it. Verse 11, now I'm no more in
the world, but these are in the world, and I have come to thee.
Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast
given me, that they may be one as we are one. He said, While
I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those
that thou gavest me, I have kept. None of them is lost, but the
son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled. Now I come
to thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they might
have my joy fulfilled in themselves. Look down here, let me see. He said, verse 20, neither I
pray for them alone, but for them also which shall believe
only through their word, that they all may be one, as thou,
Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in
us, that the world may believe, his people all over the world,
that they may believe that thou hast sent me, and the glory which
thou gavest me I've given them, that they may be one, even as
we are one, I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made
perfect in one, that the world may know that thou hast sent
me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. You see that,
brethren? That's the unity we have. And this unity will never be
severed because Ephesians chapter 1 tells us this. Ephesians tells
us this is the purpose of God, that in the dispensation of the
fullness of time, He might gather together in one all things, all
things in heaven, all things in earth. And He's talking about
all His people. He's going to gather us all in
one even in His Lord Jesus, in the Lord Jesus. That's the purpose
of God from before the foundation of the world. This unity will
never be severed. That's what Paul meant when he
said, who's going to separate us from the love of God in Christ?
Nothing. Nothing. Why? Because God's commanded
the blessing, and where He's commanded the blessing, He's
there. He said this, Paul said, brethren, farewell, be perfect,
be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace, and the
God of love and peace shall be with you. You see how good and
how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. God's
done it, and God maintains it, and it'll never be severed. God
does this work, brethren. What a blessing, what a blessing.
All right, Brother Greg, after we've sung