Unity. Unity amongst brethren is the
effectual work of the triune God through Christ Jesus. It is a
gift of God. Believers are exhorted to endeavor
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. And our
desire for unity, as well as our continuing in it, is to the
praise of God our Savior. It's by His grace. Last week
we watched as the Ephesian elders parted with great sorrow as they
didn't bicker and fuss. They knew they would see Paul's
face no more, but they submitted themselves to the will of God
in the matter. We saw those at Caesarea who
didn't divide over the fact that they couldn't turn Paul from
his heart of going to Jerusalem, and yet instead they submitted
themselves to the will of God. That same grace that created
those tears of joy and their concern for their brother is
the grace that caused them to submit to God. The unity they
had of God was to them holy and heavenly unity. That's what I
want you to see tonight, holy and heavenly unity. Our reference
last week was Psalm 133, and I want to bring tonight's message
from that text. Psalm 133, verse 1. Behold how good and how pleasant
for brethren to dwell together in unity. 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. And as the dew
of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains
of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. Now, we're reminded here in the
first verse with these words, good and pleasant, that unity
is indeed a most precious gift of God. Because there's nothing
about us that's good or pleasant by nature. By nature, every man
and woman born in this world is born into Adam's house, into
Adam's household. And Adam's household is a house
divided against itself. And a house that's divided against
itself will never stand. Sin separates. It caused Adam
to be separated from God and all his children in him. Sin
causes self-justification at the expense of everyone around
us. It caused Adam to blame God and to blame his wife. Sin defiles
the conscience so that by nature men hate God and men hate those
whom God accepts in the Lamb, in Christ Jesus. Cain and Abel
were brothers according to the flesh. They were brothers. Cain
was the firstborn. Eve actually thought when Cain
was born that she had had the seed of woman that God promised
in the garden. She said, behold, God has given
me a man child. She thought she had the Savior. And there's no doubt Cain regarded
himself in just that high esteem. And when he came to God, he came
to God expecting God to respect him because of these carnal privileges,
being the firstborn and so on. Abel came in a lamb, confessing
his sin, his worthlessness, desiring to be accepted of God, trusting
God would accept him in a lamb. And when Cain saw that God had
respect to Abel, to his offering, and not to Cain, Cain's countenance
fell. And the Lord came to Cain and
He said, He told him, He said, if you do well, you'll be accepted. If you come in the Lamb, you'll
be accepted. But if not, sin lies at the door. And He told Cain that none of
his civil privileges, none of those carnal privileges he had
as the firstborn, were altered in any way. None of that was
effective. But Cain hated God. And he hated the fact that Abel
had peace with God. And that's why he killed his
brother. He killed his brother. And everybody born of Adam is
just like Cain by nature. Hates God and hates those that
have peace with God. We like to say, well, our children
give us a little fuss now and then, but he's a good boy. You
might be according to mom and daddy's standard, but he's not
according to God's standard. God said there's none that do
with good, not one. Not one. But those that are born
of the Spirit of God dwell together in unity. They dwell together
in unity. I read Ephesians 4 to you. 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's
above all and through all and in you all. Together, those that
are born of the Spirit of God are one body. One body, the body
of Christ, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. Born
of one spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, filled with the fruits
of Christ according to the measure He gives to each one individually. We have one hope, the hope of
the glory of God to one day be to awake, perfectly conformed
to the image of Christ, to behold Him as He is. We have one faith,
one Lord, one baptism. And we have one God, and He's
the Father of us all. He's above us all, He carries
us through all, and He's in you all. We're of the household of
God the Father. God the Father is the Father. Christ the Son is the everlasting
Father, the second Adam, and He's our elder brother. And we're
brethren, brothers and sisters in the household of God. It's
good and it's pleasant before our God. It's good and it's pleasant
before our God for brethren to dwell together, to live together,
to abide together in peace, in unity. We worship together of
one mind. When we sing, we just got through
singing, and everybody sings differently. Everybody sings
at different loudness and what have you, but together it's one
voice coming up to God the Father in whom He takes delight. We
serve each other in love. We bear the burdens of one another.
We forgive one another our offenses. We have plenty, don't we? We
have plenty. We pray with and for one another. We don't have to be told to do
it. Nothing wrong with saying, pray
for me, brother. Nothing wrong with that, but
we don't have to be told. You pray for your wife. You men pray
for your wife. She don't have to tell you to
pray for her. You pray for your children. They don't have to
say a word to you, do they? You do it because you love them.
So it is with brethren. We encourage one another with
sweet reminders of the faithfulness of our Father. toward his children,
the children of his house. And the psalmist doesn't merely
say that it's good and pleasant, he exclaims this. He says, behold,
how good and how pleasant for brethren to dwell together in
unity. Now, the first thing I want you
to see is this unity is holy unity. Verse 2 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. Now you hold your place there
in Psalm 133. Turn over with me to Exodus chapter
30. Exodus chapter 30. The ointment spoken of here is
the ointment that was made in poured out upon Aaron. And this
ointment was commanded of the Lord to be made with the most
valuable, the most sweet-smelling spices and oil. Look at Exodus
30, verse 23. Verse 22. Moreover, the Lord
spake unto Moses, saying, Take thou also unto thee principal
spices of pure myrrh, five hundred shekels, I believe that's 250
ounces. Pure myrrh and of sweet cinnamon. These are good smelling, good
smelling spices. Pure myrrh, sweet cinnamon, half
so much. Even 250 shekels. and of sweet
calamus, this was sort of like what we would call sugarcane,
sugarcane, sugar, 250 shekels, and of cassia, 500 shekels, after
the shekel of the sanctuary, that means according to the pure
measure of God, according to His measure, not the polluted
measure of men, according to His measure. And of oil, take
olives, olive oil, a hen of olive oil. That was over a gallon. And thou shalt make it an oil
of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the
apothecary. It shall be an holy anointing
oil. Now you hold your place here
in Exodus 30. We'll come back here in just
a moment. But can you imagine how fragrant
how fragrant and how pleasing that ointment smelled when it
was poured on Aaron's head and ran down on his beard and on
his garments. It was sweet. It had a pleasant
smell. That's what the psalmist says.
How good and how pleasant. It's like this precious ointment
that was poured upon Aaron's head and ran down his beard and
on his garments. But this oil Brethren, there's
something that makes this unity more precious than just the fact
that these were rare and precious spices. There's something that
makes this more precious than the fact that it
smelled so good. This oil is a type of the Holy
Spirit. Without this oil being poured
out on Aaron, Aaron wouldn't be consecrated to the office
of high priest. Without this oil, Aaron could
not enter into the holiest of holies with the blood of the
Passover lamb and make atonement for the sin of the children of
Israel. This oil had to be poured out
upon His head to consecrate Him to that office. This oil is a
type of the Holy Spirit which was poured out upon Christ, our
High Priest. That's what the oil typified.
Psalm 45.6 says, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.
The scepter of Thy kingdom is a right scepter. The Hebrew writer
tells us that this is the Father speaking to the Son. He never
said this to any angels, but the Father said to the Son, Thy
throne, O God, is for ever and ever. The scepter of Thy kingdom
is a right scepter. Thou lovest righteousness and
hatest iniquity. Therefore, God, Thy God, hath
anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. All your garments, God the Father
said to the Son, all your garments smell of myrrh and aloe and cassia
out of the ivory palaces whereby they've made thee glad. We read
in Hebrews, for such a high priest became us, who's holy and harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens.
All his garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the
ivory palace above. He had a holy nature, holy thoughts
and holy words and holy deeds. And if you read Psalm 45, it
doesn't say that God anointed him with the oil of gladness
and therefore He loved righteousness and hated wickedness. It says,
He loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God anointed
Him with the oil of gladness. This is who He is. This is who
He is. Pure and holy. And this anointing
oil, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him like a dove. And God
the Father spoke from heaven and said, This is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. This is Him. He's come. Harmless. Like that dove. Harmless as a
dove. Harmless. The spirit of our Redeemer. Harmless. Undefiled. Tempted in all points like as
we are yet without sin. Separate from sinners. He said,
for their sakes, I sanctify myself that they might be sanctified
through the truth. You said it Sunday. He's the
truth. I sanctify myself that I might
sanctify them. He's the truth. He's the Word.
He is the truth. This spotless Lamb of God, the
Hebrew writer says He didn't enter into that holy place with
the blood of bulls and goats. He entered in by His own blood.
This spotless Lamb of God, this high priest is the spotless Lamb
of God, and this one was made sin for us who knew no sin, for
those God gave Him, for the brethren of His Father's household. He
was made sin for them, and bore the wrath of God, and declared
God just and the justifier, and put away our sins, and made forgiveness
with God. And through the eternal Spirit,
he offered himself without spot to God. Through the eternal Spirit. It's eternally efficacious. This
offering is eternally. because of the eternal spirit,
and he's made higher than the heavens. This man, after he had
offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right
hand of the majesty on high, henceforth expecting that his
enemies be made his footstool, because by his one offering,
he has perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now what
does all that have to do with brethren dwelling together in
unity? Look at our text and get the
picture. Psalm 133. This unity is like the precious
ointment upon the head. Who's the head? Christ is the
head. This 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. You get the picture. That oil was poured on Aaron's
head. And it ran down, and it ran down
his eyes, and it ran down his nose, and it ran across his lips,
and down on his beard, and over his ears, and down his neck,
and over the skirt of his garment, and covered his body. And just
like that, Christ our Great High Priest pours out this oil upon
His body, the church, each member in particularly. Just like that
oil went down on the eye, and the ear, and the nose, and each
member of Aaron's body. This oil is poured out upon the
members in particular of the body of Christ. He's the head.
He said, look in Isaiah 61 verse 1 with me. This is his first
message that he preached. Listen to this. Isaiah 61 verse
1. The Spirit of the Lord God is
upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings
unto the meek. He has sent me to bind up the
broken hearted. 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. Our God is going to take vengeance upon all His enemies
and ours, brethren. Our Redeemer has come to where
we are and He has He has set the captives free, captive in
sin, captive to our sin nature. He set us free. He's bound up
the broken hearted. He's proclaimed liberty to the
captives, the opening of the prison to them that are bound.
He says, and to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, in His
holy hill, in His church, to appoint unto them in Zion, to
give unto them beauty in the place of ashes, in the place
of their sorrow and their repentance and their mourning and sackcloth
and ashes. He said, I'm going to give them
the garment, I'm going to give them beauty and the oil of joy
for mourning. I'm going to give them the oil
of joy, the Holy Spirit of joy for their mourning. the garment
of praise for the Spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees
of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be
glorified. You see, our problem wasn't just
with our head. Our problem wasn't just with
our tongue. Our problem wasn't just in our
hands. Our problem wasn't just in our
hearts. The Scripture says, from the sole of the foot even unto
the head, there's no soundness in us. No soundness in us. It's wounds and bruises and putrefying
sores. They've not been closed. They've
not been bound up. They've not been mollified with
ointment until this precious ointment is poured out. This Holy Spirit, He's poured
out on His people and binds up the brokenhearted through the
gospel that declares the victory of Christ. He accomplished the
redemption of His people. Brethren, there's absolutely
nothing, nothing, nothing left to be done for you to be accepted
with God. Can you just think on that? Righteous and holy? Perfectly
sanctified? Perfectly set apart in Christ
Jesus the Lord? One with God? It pleased the
Father that in His Son should all fullness dwell. And you know
what the Scripture teaches us? John said, and of His fullness,
of His fullness, Have we all received grace for grace? That's what he said, I came to
do. He said, I came to put away their sin and I came to give
them of my fullness. That's what the picture is. Now
look back there at Exodus 30. Back there at Exodus 30 and let's
see the type in the tabernacle. Exodus 30 in verse 30. And thou shalt anoint Aaron and
his sons, and consecrate them. I tell you what, back up, let's
read the whole thing. I want you to get the whole thing
here. Verse 26. And thou shalt anoint
the tabernacle of the congregation therewith. The tabernacle. and the ark of the testimony,
and the table, and all his vessels, and the candlestick, and his
vessels, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt offering
with all his vessels, and the laver in his foot. And thou shalt
sanctify them that they may be most holy, and whosoever touches
them shall be holy." What does the Hebrew writer tell us? Of everything we've said, this
is the substance. We have such a high priest that's
passed into the heavens. One who's the high priest of
the true tabernacle. which God pitched and not man.
Everything in that tabernacle typified Christ Jesus the Lord.
Everything we just saw. And everything in it is His vessels,
God's vessels. And they're all holy. Everything
about our God is holy. And if you're going to touch
it, if me and you are going to touch it, we're going to come
into His presence. We have got to be holy. Absolutely holy. Now look at verse 30. And thou
shalt anoint Aaron, he's the type of Christ, and his sons,
brethren, his children. Christ Jesus the Lord is Aaron
our high priest. He's the everlasting Father and
all his brethren have got to be anointed with this oil. Why? What's the purpose of that? He
says, consecrate them, that they may minister unto me in the priest's
office. That's the only way they can
enter in to the tabernacle. That's the only way we can enter
into God's presence, is that we've been anointed with the
oil of gladness. We've been sanctified. You see,
the Lord's telling us something here, brethren. We rejoice Beyond
comprehension, we rejoice in what Christ Jesus, our Lord,
has accomplished for us on Calvary's cross. But there's absolutely
no way that you and I can enter into God's presence unless the
Spirit of Christ enter in and sanctify us and make us holy
so that we can enter into these precious promises and that we
can believe on Christ and that we can approach our God. We've
got to be made holy to approach Him. And that's what this anointing
oil did. Now, he says verse 31, "...and
thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel." That's what I'm doing
right now. I'm telling you that. That's
what the psalmist is telling us. This unity of brethren is
precious and it's good. It's pleasant. It's as precious
as this ointment right here. Why? Speaking to the children
of Israel saying, this shall be an holy anointing oil unto
me throughout your generations. God the Father said, this is
the holy anointing oil unto me. This is precious to me. This
oil is. It's a type of the Holy Spirit
of God. He said, this is precious to
me. Upon man's flesh it shall not be poured, neither shall
you make any other like it after the composition of it. It is
holy. Now look at this next word. And
it shall be holy unto you. Who's he talking to? He's talking
to the children of Israel. He's talking to the brethren,
the picture of His brethren, the type of the true spiritual
Israel. And He's saying, it's holy unto me and it'll be holy
unto you. You know how it's going to be
holy unto a sinner? When God speaks through this holy anointing
and says, it shall be holy unto you. When He says it, it will
be. When He says it, it will be.
And he says, verse 33, and whosoever compoundeth any like it, or whosoever
putteth any of it upon a stranger, shall be cut off from his people.
God said this is precious. The precious anointing of this
Spirit brings us into this unity, brethren. It brings us into unity
with the triune God. It brings us into unity with
Christ Jesus, our Redeemer. And we're made one in Christ.
And we're made one with each other. Holy unto our God. And brethren, this Spirit, the
Scripture says, let me show you some Scripture. 1 Corinthians
6.17. 1 Corinthians 6.17. The Lord said, this is a mystery,
but I speak concerning the church. Just as a man leaves his father
and his mother, and he is joined unto his bride, and they too
become one flesh, so is Christ and His bride, Christ and His
church. They are made, the two have become one flesh. Look at
verse 17. He that is joined unto the Lord
is one spirit. He is one with God. Look over
at chapter 12. Look at verse 13. Verse 12, As the body is one
and hath many members, and all the members of that one body
being many are one body, so is Christ. For by one Spirit are
we all, this is the members that that oil flows down from the
head on to. By one Spirit we are all baptized
into one body, whether you're a Jew or a Gentile. Whether you're
bond or you're free, You've been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member,
but many." We talked about those members, the eye and the foot
and the hand of Aaron. Those are all illustrations of
this one body, of the members in particular that make up the
one body of Christ. And that's how this unity of
God is created. That's why it's so good and it's
so pleasant. Let me read this to you. I want you to get this now. Unity
is created of God when we're made to worship Christ in spirit
and in truth. That's how unity is created.
Were we still in our flesh, we would still be like Cain. There
wouldn't be any unity. There was no unity between Cain
and Abel. There was an apparent religion
with the two. They both had a religious form. But one was according to the
power of God. He had union with God, with Christ
the Lamb. The other one didn't. And so
therefore there was no unity between the two of them. This
is the tie that binds. It's God putting us in Christ. It's Christ who redeemed us.
It's the Holy Spirit being entering into our hearts and making us
one with God. And now there's not murder. There's not division. But now
there's unity. It's through the righteousness
of Christ Jesus. Wherefore, we don't know any
man after the flesh anymore. Old things are passed away and
all things are become new now. Aren't they? We no longer live
unto ourselves anymore. Cain was living unto himself.
Cain said, I'm not gonna have that boy. Take away my privileges, my birthright,
everything that I have, and my mama's gonna respect him more
than she's gonna respect me. She knows God accepted his sacrifice,
didn't accept mine. But now, brethren, we don't serve
ourselves, now we serve Christ. The precious ointment makes the
brother and the sisters to esteem the other better than themselves.
It creates submission for Christ's glory over our own glory. We
don't want to be right all the time. We might be right, but
we won't be right at the expense of killing our brother or our
sister, because Christ's glory is more important. We trust He's
on His throne. We know what He did in our heart.
We know what He'll do in our brother's heart. And it keeps
us forgiving one another's offenses, bearing one another's burdens,
dwelling, abiding, living together in unity. This is the fragrance
of delight before God the Father. Psalm 133.2 back there in our
text. He said, 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."
Now here's the second thing. Let me make sure you get this.
So do you see what I'm saying here when I say this unity is
holy? It's a guarded thing. It's a cherished thing. It's
a precious thing. It's the closest thing we have
to being Face to face with God is this unity we have with one
another in this earth. The closest we've got. It's holy. It's of God. It's of Christ. It's of the Holy Spirit. We want
to protect it. We want to guard it. We cherish
it. It's precious. It's precious. And here's the
second thing. This unity is heavenly. Verse
3. As they do of Herman, that descended
upon the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord commanded
the blessing, even life for evermore." Now we'll be brief here. We just
saw that this holy unction flows down from above from God our
Father and our resurrected Redeemer. And he says here it's like the
dew. It's like the dew. Here's a few comments on this.
The dew that descended upon Mount Hermon, it came down from God
above. That's where this unity is going
to come from. It comes from God above. It's
what James said. Every good and every perfect
gift cometh down from above from the Father of lights, with whom
is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. And it saturated
the mountaintop, this dew did. Saturated the mountaintop. And
it brought forth much fruit. It brought forth green pastures
on the mountaintops. And this moisture would flow
down the mountain to the valleys. And that's how it is with Mount
Zion. Mount Zion is the church of the living God. The writer
in Hebrew said, you've come into Mount Zion and to the city of
the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to the general assembly
and church of the firstborn. Those who reside in this mountain,
they don't depend upon, you know, if you live in a mountain, if
you live in a mountain and you want to have some crops in a
mountain, and bring forth some fruit in a mountain, you're not
going to get it from a river. You're not going to irrigate
the land and bring the water to your crops like men that live
down in the plains do, that men that live on the earth do. It's
just not going to happen that way. How are you going to get
this? How are you going to get what
you're depending upon if you live in the mountaintop? Look
at Deuteronomy 11. Deuteronomy 11. Now here's how you're going to
get it. Deuteronomy 11.10 The Lord's leading the children
of Israel out of Egypt and He's leading them to the land He's
promised. Here it is. This is how you're
going to get it. Deuteronomy 11.10 For the land whither thou
goest in to possess it is not as the land of Egypt from which
you came out, where thou sowest thy seed, and water'st it with
thy foot as a garden of herbs. You used your strength and your
ingenuity and your wisdom to sow these seeds, and to bring
water to it, and to water it, and to try to bring forth fruit
when you lived in Egypt. God said, that's not how fruit's
going to be brought forth in the land I'm carrying you to.
How's it going to come forth? Verse 11, But the land where
you go to possess it is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh
water of the rain of heaven, a land which the Lord thy God
careth for. The eyes of the Lord thy God
are always upon it from the beginning of the year even until the end
of the year. That's what he said. That's this
unity. That's where it comes. It's a
holy unity that's created in Christ our High Priest. And it's
a heavenly unity that comes down from God that He gives in abundance
because He cares for Mount Zion. He cares for those that are on
top of the mountain. He comes down and just steals
as to do upon the tender earth. And He brings forth fruit in
abundance. You get a hold of this now. The Lord has commanded
the blessings. That's what he said, the Lord
commanded the continual blessing of the Spirit to his saints in
his holy mountain, even life forevermore. God is love, and
Christ is the life. And wherever Christ is, wherever
the Spirit of God abides, love abides, even life forevermore. You can't separate the two. You
can't separate love and life. Life is love and love is life.
And it's God in Christ. And where He abides, there's
life and there's love forevermore. And He says, I've commanded the
blessing. I've made the covenant in the
heart of my people and I've commanded the blessing. Life forevermore. Someone said, the Father is so
pleased to see His dear children happy in one another. that He
fails not to make them happy in Himself. Isn't that right? And as this do, the Spirit flows
down from our Father, through Christ Jesus His Son, just like
it flows from the mountain of Hermon and flows down into those
valleys. So this spirit of blessing, where
it rejoices our heart and causes us to sing songs of grace, flows
from us to one another, to our brethren who walk through the
valleys and who need the dew from heaven. It flows to them
through us. And God says, it's good and it's
pleasant. It's good and it's pleasant.
Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Teaching and admonishing one
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with
grace in your hearts to the Lord He said behold how good and how
pleasant this unity is It's holy. It's cherished sacred unity given
to us by our Redeemer through the Spirit and it's Heavenly
unity. He said I've commanded it. You're
gonna have it. You're gonna have it Paul said
this then to the Corinthians. You think of how much trouble
the Corinthians were in. You think of just all the factions
among those brethren in the church of Corinth and all the troubles
they were having. Listen to what Paul said when
he ended his second letter. He said, finally brethren, farewell.
Be perfect. Be of good comfort. Be of one
mind. and live in peace. And the God
of love and peace shall be with you. For in this mountain, the Lord
has commanded this blessing, even life forevermore. You'll
have it. You'll have it.