I please the Lord to bless our
souls this evening as we consider his word. Let's turn to the book
of Psalms and we'll read the 133rd Psalm. Psalm 133. Behold how good and how pleasant
it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It 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 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 for evermore." The Word of God is very complete
in everything it contains to address the life of the people
of God as they travel through this world. And there are some
parts which are very corrective and show us when we are walking
in a wrong path, an evil path and the need to be brought back
And there are other parts of the Word of God which are very
encouraging and very helpful and very strengthening to us.
And there are other parts also which direct us very clearly
to the blessing which is to be known and felt by the true living
Church of God. And I believe that's what we
have here in these short 133rd Psalm, one of the shortest Psalms
in the Bible. And David, he knew what it was
to praise God. He knew what it was to be far
off. He knew what it was to be in difficult situations and needing
the Lord to direct and to help and strengthen him and to correct
him. But now he comes and he makes
his statement and he says, Behold. What is good for us when we read
those words in the Bible to do exactly what it says. And here
we are told to behold something. And what are we told to behold? How good and how pleasant it
is for brethren to dwell together in unity. And so it is. It's a very blessed situation. And be very sure of this, the
devil will be very active to try and break down and destroy
such a situation. The last thing the devil wants
to occur is for the Church of God to dwell together in unity. He wants to divide as much as
he can. Therefore, how important it is
for us today to realise that the devil is at our elbow, always
trying to find a crack in our profession, in our life, to weave
his way in, so that he can get inside as it were and cause disunity. So we need to be very aware of
the keenness of the devil to produce disunity. And it's important
therefore that we are concerned to be found walking in a path
that will make it difficult for the devil to make an entry. One
of his most clever and successful tactics has been to find a way
in entry into our lives through pride. Pride is a tremendous
evil and it's a very subtle evil and it's a very wicked evil and
how we need to pray to be kept from a spirit of pride. Now,
if we really desire to be kept from a spirit of pride, which
I hope we do, then the result will be we'll be concerned to
be small people in our own eyes. Small people. And also, teachable. The Word of God tells us except
you become as little children. That means that we're not to
walk about with our chest puffed out saying, well I know everything
and I'm the person you've got to listen to. We've got to listen
to the Word of God. We've got to listen to what God
says. And so it would be a great blessing for you and me if we
are concerned to be teachable, to be as little children, and
to be, indeed as the Apostle Paul declared himself, less than
the least of all saints. Now, the blessing is, if God
enables us to desire a situation and a condition like that, I
believe we have a very clear evidence and a mark of God's
grace toward us, because our nature does not want to submit
to the will of God, and does not want to be less than the
least of all saints. Our nature wants to be thought
of as somebody important, or at least someone above, less
than the least. And you can observe this in the
world today. You can observe it if you look
carefully and you see how people operate. You will see that in
the way they walk even, in the way they answer things they do,
they have no desire to be less than the least of all saints.
And they will say things like, well don't put yourself down,
you know, think well of yourself. Well we are to We dare not think
well of ourselves, because in and of ourselves there dwells
no good thing. But what we want to see, what
we want to observe in one another is Christ. Now, how good and
how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity, and
that unity will only be as we are united in Christ. And that means, as you and I
bow down to the Lord Jesus Christ, and as you and I acknowledge
that He is our God, He is our Lord, He is our Master, He is
our Redeemer, He is that One who we desire to serve and follow,
and He is our friend. Now, if we are found then in
that situation and that condition, then you see there won't be room
for self. Self is such an evil. You know, we love ourselves by
nature, don't we? We love ourselves. What a blessing
it is when we are given that grace to love the Lord Jesus
and to love others better than ourselves. This is indeed the
recipe for dwelling together in unity. And it is pleasant
and good. David realised that. He had no
doubt seen the other side of it. He had seen it in his own
life. He'd seen it in the lives of others. And therefore, by
the Spirit of God, he was able to write these words and to say,
behold, look at the situation. Look around and observe this
wonderful truth, how good and how pleasant it is. for brethren
to dwell together in unity. Well, it is so. And may we be
thankful for it, and may we ever strive that it may ever be so.
And may we be concerned individually that we may individually never
be the people that cause disunity. Again, I believe, as you and
I pray against it, that we may not be the cause of any disunity. You look back in the history
of the church, and again and again you find disunity, and
again and again you find, because the great cause has been pride,
the great cause has been people not willing to submit to God,
and to be willing to fall down and take the lowest place. In
the same way we observe the importance of this a great statement. It is true, and it is so pleasant,
and it is so good. And may we know it and continue
to know it, as I believe, for the grace of God, we enjoy this
favour here. And I've seen it so different
in other places, indeed how sad it is. You know, in those conditions,
one thing is certain, God is not glorified. And the truth
is, the concern is not for the honour and glory of God. The
concern has been for the honour and glory of individuals. Well,
may our concern be for the honour and glory of God. So, David tells
us here how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together
in unity. Then he gives There are some
examples. Some examples of what it is like. First of all, he says, it is
like the precious ointment upon the beard that ran down upon
the beard, even Aaron's beard, that went down to the skirts
of his garment. And secondly, he says, as the
dew of Hermon and as the dew that descended upon the mountains
of Zion. And then he says, for there The
Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore. So we have this beginning and
the end and then the middle section. And it's good therefore to think
of this like that, to think how good and how pleasant it is for
brethren to dwell together in unity, for there the Lord commanded
the blessing, even life for evermore. We see there The Church of God
living together in unity. And the Church of God looking
forward to the time of eternal blessing which will be life forevermore. So we have these words 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.
we may realise that there was that anointing oil, specifically
prescribed, very carefully manufactured. And that anointing oil had a beautiful odour and it
was to be used for the anointing of the high priests and also
for the anointing of kings. And David directs our attention
here to the first time this was used. It was used in the case
of Aaron when Aaron was anointed as high priest. And what a blessing
that was to be anointed high priest. What a wonderful thing
it was for Israel to have a high priest to go in for them on their
behalf and to present their condition before a holy God. Of course that was only to be
brought about by the shedding of blood which was so essential
for the forgiveness of sins. And there was then this evidence
that the High Priest Aaron was anointed to carry out this work. Well, as we think of that, it
was so important that he was anointed. And there was the evidence
of it, of this oil which flowed down, it says here, down to the
skirts of his garment. Well, the skirt, of course, in
those days didn't actually refer to the very low garment, it was
a high garment, and it actually was probably just the border
of the neck, it flowed down to the beard into that situation,
but it was very clear, very clear anointing had taken place, 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. And we might think, well, that's
all very well and good, but we need of course to look beyond
of the outward figure of Aaron. We need to look, do we not, to
that one who Aaron prefigured. And who did Aaron prefigure?
The Lord Jesus Christ. Now, unity is to be found in
Christ. And therefore Christ needs to
be central in our times of worship. As we look to him and we see
how the Lord Jesus Christ was anointed indeed to do his Father's
will. He was anointed to die upon the
cross at Calvary to atone for our sins. And then he was that
blessed one who was to present our prayers to his father in
heaven. And therefore, as we think of
this, then surely it is a very blessed and good and pleasant
thing to dwell together viewing the Saviour and thinking of what
he's done and meditating upon his great glorious work, and
how sweet it is to think of what Christ has done, and to think
of what Christ is doing. Surely this is what brings the
Church of God together. Why have we come here tonight?
Well, surely it is to hear of Christ. Surely it is that the
Lord Jesus Christ might be lifted up and that he might be honoured
and glorified. And you see, the Church of God
is united when they're looking to Christ. You see, when we're
looking to Christ, we don't have time then to look all round and
at ourselves. All we see is the glory of the
Saviour. And we see the wonder of His
love. We see the blessing of that love. You know, we read together in
that very precious chapter that John wrote, that fifth chapter
in that epistle. And he comes and he says some
very beautiful things. He says, by this we know that
we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his
commandments. And as we're viewing the Saviour
dying and bearing our sins. What do we see there? We see
the love of God. The love of God. And what a blessing
it is to realise that we have such a Saviour. And then, as
we commence our reading this evening, whosoever... I love the Gospel words. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ. And so that means, it comes down
to you, it comes down to me. If we are amongst those who are
one of these, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ. And oh, may it be so tonight.
May we have been blessed with that faith and it's a glorious
thing to be blessed with faith because it's living faith and
the truth is that if we believe that, then as John says, we are
born of God. That means we're born again of
the Spirit of God. That means where one of those
who are enumerated brethren who are dwelling together, and how
pleasant it is that we're viewing the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're viewing the shed blood
of the Saviour. How precious that is, isn't it?
How necessary it was, and what a wonderful theme it is. I believe
the theme of the Living Church of God is redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ. Oh, what unity there is in that
great work of redemption. It leaves no room for boasting.
It's only boasting in what Christ has done. Our concern will be
that He may be lifted up and He may be honoured and He may
be glorified. Is it not then, like this a precious
ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even
Aaron's beard that went down to the skirts of his garments. Then, as the Jew of Hermon, and
as the Jew that descended from the mountains of Zion. Well,
Hermon was a high mountain, some 10,000 feet or 3,000 metres or so high. It is a substantial
mountain. It's very cold on the top of
the mountain. And we know that Israel, as a nation, as a country,
generally was a hot or a warm nation. And it needed the dew. And the dew was formed through
the coldness meeting the hotness of the earth, and therefore producing
that which was refreshing to the ground. And the psalmist
draws our conclusion to the lightness of this. He says, how good and
how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. What
is it here? It gives us a picture of refreshment. Refreshing. And the unity of
the Church of God with Christ in the midst is a refreshing
time, a refreshing situation. Our spirits are revived. We may have become heavy laden. We may have become burdened with
the cares of life. We may have become cast down
with the hardness and trials of the way. but then, as it were,
to be blessed with a taste of this heavenly dew. Naturally,
it was a very blessed and a very wonderful thing to be granted,
to be found in the shadow of Hermon, or other mountains, the
mountains of Zion it refers to, and to benefit from the refreshing
of this natural dew, but how much more blessing it is to be
found dwelling together with the Church of God, and as it
were, being able to communicate one with another of what the
Lord Jesus Christ means. It's a precious thing to be able
to speak well of Him. The devil doesn't want that.
The devil hates Christ being exalted. He hates Christ being
mentioned. The devil will do all he can
to shut our mouth. Be sure of that. He'll want us
to forget about Christ. He doesn't want his name to be
spoken of. But what a blessing it is then,
if it's like this in our spiritual life, that the Lord Jesus is
like this dew of Hermon, and it's refreshing to our spirits. It revives us naturally, Even
in our country we know how a good dew will revive plants if it's
been a hot previous day and there's a dew which comes down. It's amazing how it comes and
there it is on the plants and we look at the plants and they
look refreshed and they look revived. So it is in a spiritual
life, when Christ comes to us, our spirits revive. Oh, we are, as it were, a new
creature. There's that blessing, and there's
that favour. Well, I wonder tonight, do we
know something of this refreshing in our souls? We may say, well,
I don't feel really much like that. I feel really, well, shriveled
up. put off things of the world,
have filled up my spirit. I don't seem to have any life.
I don't seem to be amongst those who are good and pleasant. I
really don't give forth a good smell. I find really I'm just
of the earth and earthy. Well, what a blessing to be found
with a desire to understand and be found walking in this path,
this path where Christ is lifted up, where Christ is exalted,
where Christ is spoken of. There's no greater blessing than
when the Church of God are together speaking of Christ. Here it is, isn't it? how good
and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. And then the examples are given
of this precious ointment and this dew of Hermon, this dew
which flows down. Well, may we covet it. Now we are told in the word of
God, thou shalt not covet. That's a command, isn't it? And
that's right. We're not to covet things in
a natural way for our natural life. But we do read in the New Testament,
Paul tells us the reverse. To covet earnestly the best gifts. And that means to desire fervently
spiritual blessings. So, on the one hand we are not
to go after earthly things, but we are to go after spiritual
things. And here we have set before us
the blessings of the spirit and those things which we should
be coveting, because these situations are healthy for our souls. And sadly we live in a day when
many are lukewarm, they're not really found walking in this
path, they're not really earnestly coveting the best gifts. Well, David goes on to say, for
there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. Now, surely the great blessing
for us is to receive the gift of eternal life. Surely there
is no greater blessing than to receive the gift of eternal life. Indeed, it matters not about
so many, many other things. And Paul, when he wrote to the
church at Rome, He told them the truth of these things. And he said, what fruit had you
then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? I'm sure
you and I can look back in our lives to things that we're ashamed
of. And if we look at them and consider
them, we know they didn't really produce any spiritual fruit. In actual fact, it brought us
into a barren condition. And what was the result of that?
There was a famine. There was a famine of the hearing
of the word. So he says, for the end of those
things is death, spiritual death. Tragic, isn't it? But now, he
says, being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye
have your fruit unto holiness." That's a desire after walking
in the right God-honouring way, that path of holiness, that path
which is pleasant to our new nature. It's not pleasant to
your old nature, but it is to your new nature. and the end
everlasting life. Everlasting life. Not everlasting
death. Everlasting life. Both are everlasting. Those who are in hell are enduring,
as it were, everlasting death. But to be blessed with everlasting
life. For, he says, the wages of sin
is death. And that's the path we followed.
Are we following that path tonight? That means the payment for our
sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. See how valuable Christ
is. See how important Christ is. Because eternal life is His gift. It only comes through Jesus Christ,
the Lord, this gift of eternal life. So the Psalmist David says,
The Lord commanded the blessing for even life for evermore. What it produces is this. As
the Church of God are dwelling together and conversing together,
they have the evidence in their heart that they possess this
blessing of eternal life. which God has given. And in fact,
the word is so emphatic, for there, for there, the Lord commanded
the blessing, even life forevermore. And we can view it in this way.
In this blessed situation, there, the Lord graciously comes and
commands that you and I might receive the confirmation that
we are amongst those who have received the gift of eternal
life and we received it through what the Lord Jesus Christ has
done. We received it through his great
work of atonement and it is indeed a gift which is life for evermore. Now I'll try and evaluate the
difference between our natural life and our spiritual life. Our natural life will end. And we're told it's just like
a vapor which vanishes away. It's very, very short. But spiritual life is eternal. That means it never ends. It never ends. Now, you and I,
be wonderfully blessed with this gracious gift. And may we know
that God has commanded it for you and for me. When God speaks,
when God commands, it's given. May we have the evidence in our
heart that God has commanded the Word of Life to your heart
and my heart. and that we now are walking in
that path which evidences the truth of this commandment being
fulfilled in our life. Even life forevermore. These
are so important. These things are so vital. But
oh, we bless God that we have the Word of God whereby By His
grace, we can trace out the dealings of the Lord with our soul. As we read the Word of God carefully,
in that chapter we read tonight, that fifth chapter in John's
epistle, that first epistle, it's a very instructive chapter. Let us read it carefully. Go
home and read it carefully. And pray over it. You may be
confirmed in your spiritual life Therefore, that you are one of
those that come within the category of these three verses, and you
can bless God for the wonderful confirmation that you are among
the children of God, one of those whom the Lord has loved with
everlasting love. And I'll tell you this, the result
will be, small as it may seem, your heart will respond in love
to your Saviour, because of His love towards you, so unworthy,
such an ungracious, wretched sinner, to think that the Lord
has looked upon you and loved you with an everlasting love. And so may we tonight behold,
let us behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren that
dwells together in unity, it 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, 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 for evermore. Amen.