I'm looking very forward to all
three of the messages that I'm going to bring to you today. We're going to be in the Psalms
all day, all day today, which the Psalms They're a deep place of comfort
for me. I believe they are for all of
God's people. I believe all of God's people truly love the Psalms. And because of the conference
that we have coming up this weekend and all the brethren that will
be traveling in and will be with us, we're gonna have one big
weekend of fellowship around Christ. All of these brethren
are gonna come in. We're going to be together and
it made me want to look at Psalm 133. Alright, so turn with me
over to Psalm 133. I pray the Lord will give us an
enjoyable day in the Psalms today. That's what I'm hoping for an
enjoyable day in the Psalms. Psalm 133 verse one says, 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 forevermore. What a blessing. What a blessing
that psalm is, such a blessing. This is the greatest understatement
that could ever be made. All right, this right here is
the greatest understatement that could ever be made. I'm gonna
make it anyway. Being a child of God is a great blessing. You think that could be the greatest
understatement ever made? Being a child of God is a great
blessing. Being a believer is a great blessing. We take so many things for granted.
We have a brother who closes the doors of this room every
service. He's on vacation right now. And
he has been for, I don't know, a week or so. And every service,
those doors don't get shut, and I go back there and shut them,
and it made me think, I need to thank him for something that
I'm taking for granted. I really appreciate him closing
those doors. Somebody gets me this water, that water's just
sitting there every time I stand up here. And I'm so, you take
it for granted. There's so many things we take
for granted, and I'm gonna tell you what one of them is. Being a
believer. being a believer. We take it
so for granted. It is such a great blessing to
be a believer. It's an eternal blessing. It's a spiritual, eternal blessing,
but it's also a physical, temporal blessing. God's children have
all spiritual blesses in heavenly places. all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places. But God's children have blessings
that start right here on this earth. And one of the greatest
blessings that a child of God can experience on this earth
is being huddled up together with other sinful men and women,
not self-righteous, but sinful men and women who are broken,
and humbled and have cast their all on Christ, have literally
cast their all on Christ. The blessing of that close bond
between God's people. It's a relationship that surpasses
every other relationship on this earth. No matter what the physical
relationship is, that bond as God's children, it doesn't matter
if it's father to son, or brother to brother, or husband to wife,
or friend to friend, the relationship of the children of God will always
surpass it. Always. One of the greatest blessings
we can experience on this earth is our relationship together
as God's people. And that's what David is telling
us here in this Psalm. Psalm 133, verse one says, behold,
how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together
in unity. Now I want us to see four things
in this. Number one, I want us to see how amazing it is that
we even dwell at all. We're gonna start right there.
How amazing it is that we even dwell at all. Number two, I want
us to see what makes us want to dwell together. We want to, don't we? We want
to dwell together. Number three, I want us to see
how we dwell together. And number four, I want us to
see where we dwell together. All right, Psalm 133, verse one. It says, behold. Behold, that means see this. Observe this. Look at this amazing
thing. That's what the word behold means.
Look at this amazing thing. What are we looking at? Life. Life. The word dwell means live. That's what it means. Live. Behold, there is life. Behold, there's life. That's
what God's people come together to celebrate. There is life. There's life. Our Lord said,
I'm the way, the truth, the life, that life is Christ. How amazing is it that we dwell
at all? We who were dead in trespasses
and sins, that was us, dead in trespasses and sins, we know
we were dead. We know that this is a body of
death. We know our inability. We know
we could not come to him. Don't we know that? If we don't,
we need to. No man can come to Christ except
the Father who sent Christ. Draw us to him. We know we couldn't
come to him. We know we couldn't believe on
him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. We don't have the free will to
do that. Why? We were dead. We know we couldn't gather ourselves
with his fold. We were dead. But God, who is
rich in mercy for His great love, wherewith He loved us, He chose
us. He chose to love us. He chose
to redeem us. He chose to adopt us. He chose
to put faith in us. He chose to call us to His fold. When did He do that? Even when
we were dead in sins. How did he do that? He quickened
us together with Christ. So number one, it's amazing that
we even dwell at all. You talk about take a word for
granted. You talk about take one word for granted. It's amazing
that we dwell at all. It took the choice of the Father
and the payment of the Son and the quickening of the Spirit
for us to even dwell at all. How amazing that is. Behold. Behold. All right, now, we dwell,
God's people, God's chosen, we dwell. Why do we dwell together? We dwell, all of God's people
individually. Why do we continue together? Those of you who've known me
for a long time, some here have known me for a long time. Why
in the world do you keep putting up with me? Why are we still dwelling together? Why? Why do we still, this is
called a congregation. What that means is all of us
came to congregate. Why do we still congregate together? Just because we want to. Do you want to? Do you want to
be here? It's because we want to. It's
because we love to. It's because we live to be together. We really do. I'm looking so
forward to being with brethren. I was talking to one of the pastors
who will be speaking this weekend and I told him, I said, it is
such a blessing to me to get to spend time and just talk to
you other men and all of my brethren. I just can't wait to have this
weekend to just see these brethren that I love so much and you love
so much. What makes us desire being together
so much? Verse one says, behold how good
and how pleasant it is. We love it because of how good
and how pleasant it is. Being in worship when God's Spirit
blesses us and meets with us, is anything better or more pleasant? than this is such a relief from the world.
In the world, there's nothing but tribulation. There's nothing
but tribulation. But believers come together and
all of a sudden, if God's spirit descends all of a sudden, they're
of good cheer. Out there, it's just tribulation
upon tribulation and trial and sickness and sorrow. But in here,
it's good cheer. Why are God's people of good
cheer? Well, it's not because of anything in them individually.
That's for sure. It's not because of our flesh.
It's not because of our nature. All of that is still full of
sin. We all sit here knowing that
in our nature and in our flesh, we're still so full of sin. So
what are God's people so happy about and full of good cheer
over? It's because of what happens when they come together. That's
the reason why, it's because of what happens when they come
together. What happens? Turn over to Matthew 18. Matthew 18, verse 20. Our Lord said, for where two
or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the
midst of them. That's why it's so good and pleasant.
There's nothing better than believers coming together around the subject
of, and the conversation of, and the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. There's just nothing better.
His spirit and his presence is with us when we do that. That
is such an awesome thought. I've thought so many times, what
would it be like if all of the sudden the Lord Jesus Christ
walked through those doors? Well, he has. He has, if his
people are met here in his name for his glory to worship him. We can't yet see him, but he
has. His spirit, his presence is with
us here. That's not something he's promised
for us when we're alone. You know, people say, well, I
don't have to gather together with God's people. I don't have to congregate
with God's people. A lot of people believe they
can just, you know, in their mind and I'll just have my own.
Our Lord has not promised to meet with us that way. He said
when two or three come together with one heart, one purpose around
the conversation and worship of Christ, he's given us his
word. He said, I'll be there. I'll
meet with you there. And when his spirit is among
us, it's so good and pleasant, so good, so pleasant. So behold
how amazing it is that we dwell, that we even dwell at all. And
we dwell together because it's so good and pleasant. That's
the reason why. Now how do we dwell together?
Turn over to Hebrews 13. While you're turning there, I'm
gonna quote Psalm 133. It says, behold how good and
how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together. For brethren
to dwell together. We dwell together as true brethren. That means brothers and sisters,
actual family. Actual family. Romans 8 says
the spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children
of God. And if we're children of God,
then we're joint heirs with Christ, and we can, right along with
him, cry, Abba, Father. So how do we dwell together?
It's knowing that we've been adopted into the same family.
We're in the same family. We love each other. We care for
each other. We respect each other. We esteem
each other better than ourselves. We look out for each other. Family
looks out for each other. Brothers and sisters look out
for each other. We have each other's best interest in heart. We help each other. We're there
for each other when we need it. Look right here at Hebrews 13
verse three. It says, remember them that are in bonds
as bound with them. and them which suffer adversity
as being yourselves also in the body." What we just read right
there is the work of Jesus Christ from the cross of Calvary. That's
what we just read. We just read the cross of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It says, remember them that are
in bonds. That's what he did. We were the
one in bonds. He said, it says, remember them
that are in bonds as bound with them. That's what he made himself
to be. Bound with his people. And them which suffer adversity
as being yourselves also in the body. Joined together with them. That's what Christ did for his
people. And because of that, he said, you remember your brethren
too. As he remembered us, remember
each other. Be bound with each other, you're
in the same body, same family, one. He said do it because the
blood of Christ that united us is thicker than water, it's family,
it's blood. The song says, we share our mutual
woes, our mutual burdens bear, and often for each other flows
a sympathizing tear. I think about our Lord standing
there at Lazarus, Lazarus's tomb, and that's where it says, Jesus
wept. And they said, behold how he loved him. And he did. He loves his people, his people
love him, his people love each other. That's how brethren dwell
together. All right, here's the last one. Where do we dwell together? Don't
turn back, but Psalm 133 says, behold, how good and how pleasant
it is for brethren to dwell together in unity, in union. in unitedness. I know that sounds
like a how, but it's not. The only way, the only place
that sinners can truly dwell together in unity is in one,
in Christ, in him. Unity is a person. Unity is a
person. He is what unites us. It is in him that we live and
move and have our being. Turn with me over to Ephesians
4. Ephesians 4 verse 1, it says,
I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk
worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. We're called
into this family, into this brotherhood, called into this union. I therefore
the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith you are called with all lowliness, And meekness,
and does this not describe the Lord Jesus Christ? He said, I'm
meek and lowly in heart. With all lowliness and meekness,
with long-suffering, that means patience, forbearing one another
in love. That's what we just read in Hebrews
13, verse 3. Bound with one another in the
same body. And just listen to this. This
is Colossians 3, verse 13. It says, Forbearing one another and forgiving
one another, if any man have a quarrel against any, even as
Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Is that not reason enough
to forgive? Well, you don't know what they
did to me. You don't know what I did to Christ. And he forgave
me. As Christ forgave you, forbear
one another, forgive one another. So verse 3 right here in Ephesians
4 it says, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the
bond of peace. That is that good and pleasant
place where God's people desire to dwell in the bond of peace. The bond of peace is Christ.
It's in Jesus Christ, it's in the Lord Jesus Christ. He said
endeavor. Verse four, there's one body and one spirit even
as you are 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. He dwells in us, we dwell in
him. Union, unity. Now go back to
Psalm 133, we'll close with this. Verse one says, 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. This pleasant dwelling together
in unity, the unity of Christ, it soothes us, it comforts us. Aaron was the high priest, and
they honored him in pouring oil on him. And we have a high priest, Jesus
Christ, the Lord. And David said, brethren dwelling
together in unity is honoring to him, very honoring to him. And he said in verse three, as
the dew of Hermon And as the dew that descended
upon the mountains of Zion, those great snow-covered mountains
of Hermon, Psalm 125 says, as the mountains are round about
Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people. Well, these
huge mountains of Hermon, They're covered in snow, and in the springtime,
that snow melts and all that living water flows down to the
hills and valleys of Zion. It sustains them, it refreshes
them. And David said, brethren, dwelling
together in unity does the same thing. It's so encouraging, it's
so refreshing. And he said, in that coming together,
that's where we enjoy the remembrance. and the realization of the blessing
of the Lord. He said at the end of verse three,
for there, right there at the mountain of Zion, for there the
Lord commanded the blessing. And what is that blessing? Even
life forevermore. Right there at the mountain of
Zion, Mount Calvary, Right there at Mount Calvary, our Lord commanded
the blessing. He demanded the blessing. And he said, if you seek me,
you have to let them go. If I die, they have to live. In seeing what it took for us
to be allowed to dwell together, that didn't make us want to dwell
together in unity. For Christ's sake, what a blessing. Amen.