Go with me to Psalm 133 again. Psalm 133, a brother read this
Psalm last Wednesday night in my study. And it was such a blessing to
me. Then being with all of our dear
brethren at the conference this weekend, it just really put this
psalm in my heart. And it's such an encouraging
psalm to me. Verse one says, behold, how good
and how pleasant It is for brethren to dwell together in unity, and
it is, isn't it? 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. Behold how good and how pleasant
it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Oh, the blessing of
brotherly unity. He said it's like that oil. It's like that oil that was poured
on Aaron's head, Aaron the high priest. That oil was poured on his head
and it ran down his beard, down to his robes, and the skirts
of his garments. You know what that's a picture
of? Yep. Jesus Christ, our great high
priest. Our Great High Priest, the Anointed
One. The Messiah means He's the Anointed
One. Anointed of God, the scripture
says, without measure. Anointed without measure. Anointed with the Spirit. anointed
with grace, anointed with the blessing of God without measure. You think about Aaron, in order
for that oil to run from his head all the way to his toe,
that must have been a lot of oil. No, they didn't just put
a couple of drops on him. That must have been a lot of
oil. They had to just keep pouring and pouring and pouring. That's
what God's Spirit does and has done to God's Savior, God's Messiah,
God's Christ. He has taken the oil of gladness,
Psalm 45 says. He's taken the oil of joy, Isaiah
61 says. the anointing oil of holiness,
the anointing oil of the Father's favor, the anointing oil of worthiness
and accomplishment and satisfaction, the anointing oil of kingship,
the anointing oil of lordship, the anointing oil of preeminence
and power and sovereignty and majesty and glory, By the decree of the Father,
the Holy Spirit of God has taken all that oil of anointing and
poured it on Christ. Poured it on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he's still pouring it on Christ. He just keeps pouring and pouring
and pouring. He will never stop pouring. Never stop pouring. of the glorious
anointing of the Lord Jesus Christ, there shall be no end. There's
not gonna be an end to it. That oil will just keep flowing
and flowing and flowing forever. It's gonna flow forever. Verse
two says, 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. It's like the precious ointment
upon the head. The head. That's Christ. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the head of the body. The church. That's what Colossians
1 says. The head of the church and he
is the savior of the body. That's what Ephesians 5 says. And that's exactly what this
is telling us. He is the head, we are the body. And all of the
anointing that God has poured on the head, it's all running down to the body. We're in the middle of a Salah.
That's what's happening right now. I got a hold of that while I
was studying it. I'm getting a hold of it right now. You want
me to start over? Let me backtrack about four minutes.
And then we're going to talk about all of the precious anointing
that God has poured on Jesus Christ. And he's just pouring
it and pouring it and pouring it and pouring it. He's never
going to stop pouring it. And where does all that anointing
go? It's all flowing down from the head the body. Isn't that great? All the blessings that have been
poured on Christ, they're all poured on Christ. Everybody,
God the Father, God the Spirit, the people of God, the law, everybody
is saying pour it on Christ. And all of the blessing that
has been poured on Christ, it has run down to his people. And
that blessing just keeps running down to his people. Do you know
why we're so blessed? It's because God keeps pouring
it on our head. That's the reason why it just
keeps flowing and flowing and flowing. Verse two, 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. The glory and honor and blessing
that the Father has poured on Christ. Christ has sent it all
the way down to his people. You know, in John 17, he said,
Father, the glory which thou gavest me, I have given it to them. That's
amazing. And that glory and that blessing
has fed and nourished and made his people to be a fruitful people,
a flourished people, a kind of first fruits of his creatures,
as James chapter one says. Verse three says, as the dew
of Hermon and as the dew that descended upon the mountains
of Zion. Hermon is a mountain. It's still there. It's a mountain
in northern Israel. And I guess because of the climate,
it produces so much dew. It still to this day produces
so much dew. do at the bottom of it every
night. They say it's like it rained
all night long every night. You wake up the next morning
and it's just soaking, everything is soaking wet. Because of this, the lower slopes
and the valleys of it are lush. They're just full of life. Full of plant life, trees, vineyards,
they grow a lot of grapes there, lots of vineyards in that area.
Full of animal life, there's plenty of water, plenty of rivers,
streams, plenty of food. What that means is it's a fat
pasture. That's what it is, it's literally
a very fat pasture and that's what God's people are. That's
where the sheep of the great shepherd live and it's all because
of the blessing that has flowed down to them. Hold your place
right here and go over to Ezekiel 34. Ezekiel 34 verse 11, it says,
for thus saith the Lord, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I
even, I will both search my sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd
seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep,
that are scattered, so will I seek out my sheep and will deliver
them out of all places where they have been scattered in the
cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from
the people and gather them from the countries and will bring
them to their own land and feed them upon the mountains of Israel
by the rivers and in all the inhabited places of the country.
I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of
Israel shall their fold be. There shall they lie in a good
fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains
of Israel. I will feed my flock, and I will
cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God. Doesn't that sound
nice? Verse 23, and I will set up one
shepherd over them. What is a flock of sheep without
a shepherd? I will set up one shepherd over
them, and he shall feed them, even my servant, David, the son
of David, Christ. He shall feed them, and he shall
be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their
God. And my servant David, a prince
among them, I, the Lord, have spoken it. And I will make with
them a covenant of peace and will cause the evil beasts to
cease out of the land. And they shall dwell safely in
the wilderness and sleep in the woods. And I will make them in
the places round about my hill a blessing. And I will cause
the shower to come down in his season. There shall be showers
of blessing. And the tree of the field shall
yield her fruit. And the earth shall yield her
increase, and they shall be safe in their land and shall know
that I am the Lord when I have broken the bands of their yoke
and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves
of them. And they shall no more be a prey
to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour
them, but they shall dwell safely and none shall make them afraid.
And I will raise up for them a plant of renown. Isaiah 60 and Isaiah 61 call
that plant the branch, the tree of righteousness, that's Christ.
Verse 29, I will raise up for them the plant of renown. And
they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither
bear the shame of the heathen anymore. Thus shall they know
that I, the Lord their God, am with them, and that they, even
the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord God. And you,
my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith
the Lord God. That's what Psalm 133 is talking
about. Go back over there, Psalm 133,
verse three. As the dew of Hermon and as the
dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded
the blessing. He commanded the blessing, even
life forevermore. Oh, behold, how good and how
pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Our unity is Christ. Our unity is Christ, and it's
so good and so pleasant to dwell together. When I tell you all
that I love you all, I mean it. I love you guys. And I do not want to separate
from you. I love you all so much. And it's
above other people. I love y'all more than other
people. And it's because of Christ. Anybody who has Christ and anybody
who Christ has We love them. We want to be with them. And I want to be with you all. I want to be with the Lord's
people forever. I don't ever want to separate. You know, just
leaving the conference a minute ago, I lived there for 10 years.
And I have some dear, dear brethren who I love. And we were hugging
each other by, you know, see you next time. And I just told
one of them, In just a minute, no more. It's not going to be
anymore. We're not going to do this anymore. It's not going
to be any more goodbyes. Christ is our unity, and it is
so good, it's so pleasant to dwell together in his blessing,
in his covering, in his provision, in his promise, in his safety,
in his salvation. We dwell together in his salvation. We love being brethren together. Brethren love each other in him. And it's all because he loved
being brethren with us. I love being brethren with you. And the reason is because he
loved being brethren with us. That's the point of this message.
Let's behold how good and how pleasant it is that Christ desired
to be brethren with us. Brethren with his chosen people,
behold how good and how pleasant it is that he chose to dwell
together with us in unity. As our brother, he chose to be
family brethren with us. That is good and pleasant. So good, so pleasant. Let me
show you this in the word, all right? Follow me to a couple
of scriptures here. Go to Psalm 22. Clearly this is the Lord Jesus
Christ speaking. Verse one, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? These are the words of our Lord.
So look at verse 22. He said, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren. In the midst of the congregation
will I praise thee. From the cross, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? From the cross, he said, Father,
I have declared your name to my brethren. I'm so glad to hear
him say that. My brethren. He was hanging there
on the cross, the cross of God's judgment for his brethren. He was bearing the sin and the
blame and the punishment of his brethren, his brothers and his
sisters, his family. He did that for his family. Turn
over to John 20. Our Lord has just risen from
the grave. And verse 11 says, Mary stood without at the sepulcher
weeping, and as she wept, she stooped down and looked into
the sepulcher, and seeth two angels in white sitting, one
at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus
had lain. And they say unto her, Woman,
why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because
they've taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid
him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back and saw
Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith
unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the
gardener, said unto him, Sir, if thou hath borne him hence,
tell me where Thou hast laid him and I will take him away.
Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself and saith
unto him, Rabboni, which is to say master. Jesus saith unto
her, touch me not, for I'm not yet ascended to my father, but
go to my brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto my father
and your father. Same father. Brethren. Same father. My father and your
father and my God and your God. Brethren. He lived for his brethren. He died for his brethren. He
rose again for his brethren. Go over to Romans 8. Romans 8, 14. For as many as are led by the Spirit
of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the
spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children,
then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so
be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. He suffered with his brethren
so his brethren could be glorified with him. Verse 29 right here says, For
whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among
many brethren. By the election of the Father,
we were all made to be brothers and sisters with the son. All of us were made to be, all
of his elect were made to be brothers and sisters with the
son, but he's still the firstborn. He's still the elder. Therefore,
the birthright goes to him. He gets it all. He gets it all. You know, you've heard that in
the Old Testament. You know, the firstborn son gets
it all. And I know what all of you have
thought about that. I've thought the same thing.
That's not fair. He gets everything? That's not fair. What do we think
about that concerning Christ? He's the elder brother. And he
said, my father has literally put all things into my hand.
What do we have to say to that? Amen. Amen. Behold how good and how pleasant
that is. Amen. Let all of it be placed
in his hands. Turn over to Ephesians 1. It's
my last page of notes. Ephesians 1. Verse 3. Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself according to the good pleasure of his will, to the
praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted
in the beloved. The adoption of children. brethren
in the beloved. Look at Ephesians 3 verse 14. For this cause, I bow my knees
unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. of whom the whole family
in heaven and earth is named. That sounds really good. On the day that our Lord returns,
we're gonna have a family reunion. The whole family, same name, same father, So good, so pleasant. Look right
here at chapter four, verse four. There's one body, 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. One God and father of all
the brethren. One more place, go to Hebrews
two. Hebrews 2 verse 9, it says, but
we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the
suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the
grace of God should taste death for every man. For it became
him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing
many sons unto glory. to make the captain of their
salvation perfect through sufferings, for both he that sanctifyeth
and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he
is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren. In the midst of the church will
I sing praise unto thee. And again, I will put my trust
in him. And again, behold, I and the
children which God hath given me. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part in the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of the devil, power of death, that is the devil,
and deliver them who through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his
brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For
in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he's able to succor
them that are tempted. Because he was not ashamed to
be joined with such wretched sinners as us. And because he
endured the payment of our adoption, we've been made to be brethren.
Brethren in him. Brethren with him, that is so
good and so pleasant. Because of that, because of what
he's done to join us together in him and with him, may God
give us the grace to strive for the unity and peace of the brotherhood. May God give us that grace to
strive for the unity and peace with all lowliness and meekness,
with long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one
another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace. Because of what Christ has done
for us, may God give us a heart, a real heart to love each other
as brethren. Love each other as brethren.
Let's just close by reading Psalm 133 one more time. Go back there
one more time. 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 evermore."
Amen. How good, how pleasant. Amen.