Psalm 133. Psalm 133. The title of the message, Unity
Among the Brethren. Unity Among the Brethren. Our
subject is unity among the brethren, brethren being of the same family. That's what it means. In these verses, it is spiritual
brethren, not blood brethren, but spiritual brethren, born
of the same spirit, having the same Father, God the
Father, redeemed by the same Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. In this relationship that we
have, as brethren in Christ will endure forever. All other relationships
will be dissolved in time by death. Now, to really appreciate
the good and pleasantness spoken of in these verses of this unity,
We have to understand the disunity of humanity and how it came to
be. We must always keep that in front
of us lest we forget. When God created the heavens
and the earth, I want you to listen to this in Genesis chapter
one. In Genesis chapter one, I was
looking at this today in creation. Listen here. In verse four, God
saw the light that he commanded, and it was good, and God divided
the light from the darkness. And it goes on down to verse
10, and God called the dry land earth, and the gathering together
of the waters called he seas, and God saw that it was good. Just like in verse four there,
God saw the light that it was good. And then in verse 11, God
said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed,
and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind whose seed is
in itself upon the earth. And it was so, and the earth
brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after his kind,
and the tree yielding fruit whose seed was in itself after his
kind. And God saw. It was good, it was good. Verse 18, and he created the
two great lights, the lesser light and the greater light.
And to rule over the day and over the night and to divide
the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. He saw that it was good. In verse
12, at the end of that verse, and God saw that it was good. In verse 25, at the end of that
verse, and God saw that it was good. And then in verse 31, and
God saw everything that he made and behold, it was very good. Everything God made was good.
So when God created the heavens and the earth and he pronounced
them good, We understand that there was no flaw in creation. There was no flaw in creation
at all. And if God, listen, if God could
have, if God could have created it and it had a flaw in it, it
couldn't be called good and God could not be called holy. But only, God can only do good.
God can't do wrong. There's no sin in creation. But
when he created man, he created Adam and he was free to choose.
He was free to choose. And he chose sin. He chose rebellion. And if he had not fallen, that
would be before us and we would choose sin. We wouldn't, we're
not any better. We would have done the same thing.
I would have done the same thing as Adam did. This is the wisdom
of God. He allowed all to fall in Adam
so that those whom he saves, he saves all of them in the Lord
Jesus Christ. By one man, sin entered into
the world and death entered by sin, but also by one man. By
one man, we have righteousness and we have life. And when sin
came into the world, there's spiritual death. Spiritual death
happened first, then physical death. But this sin that came
into the world is divisive. It's divisive. Cain and Abel,
perfect example. Cain hated Abel and slew his
brother. It separates. Isaiah 59 too,
but your iniquities have separated between you and your God and
your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear. Sin separates. Sin is divisive. Sin divides families. I've watched
families split up over inheritance and can't stand each other over
inheritance. Grew up in the same house. They
can't stand each other. It divides families. It divides
neighbors. It divides nations. We see a
real division in this nation more than ever before. You know
why? Sin. Sin's the root of it. It's not this party, that party.
It's sin. Sin's the root of it. It's divisive. Listen to what James has to say
in James 4, 1 and 2. From whence come wars and fightings
among you? Come they not hence even of your
lusts that war in your members? You lust and have not, you kill
and desire to have, and you cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet
you have not because you ask not, and when you do ask, you
ask amiss. Now James is describing in those verses, he's describing
humanity. He's describing human nature.
He's not describing God's people. That's not a description of God's
people. If you really look at that, that's
a description of the carnal mind. That's what that's a description
of. In Romans 8, 7, because the carnal mind is enmity, it's hostile
toward God. James just gives us the fruit
of it, the fruit of human nature. But even among brethren, there
arises discord at times, which is a tool of Satan. I think one
of the greatest tools of Satan is discord. You know, one of
the six things, yea, seven, that God said he hates, and it's those
who sow discord among the brethren, because Satan is the head of
that discord. But even there arises discord
at times among the brethren, because James said this, in all
things we offend, How we handle offenses reveal
our maturity in Christ, how we handle those things. You see,
Satan knows a house divided can't stand. He knows that. So if he
can sow discord, he can divide the house. What does that old
saying, divide and conquer? But now that we have this contrast,
of what human nature is and what sin has done to us and the divisions
it has caused. Now we have this contrast here
in this Psalm 133 of unity. Unity. Is there anything more
beautiful to a parent than when their children are in unity with
one another? You can replace that word unity
with love. because that's the real cause
of unity. When a husband and wife, when they really get along
with each other, it's because love is there. That unity is
caused by love. And now he says here, behold,
take notice of this beautiful sight, this unity in spirit,
Behold how good and how pleasant. He does not explain the good
and the pleasant because it's unexplainable, but you know it
when you experience it. You know it when you experience
it. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together
in unity. It's truly good and pleasant
because it's a work of God. True unity. You see, this is
more than just coming together and agreeing with each other.
It's more than just agreeing about some doctrine. It's more
than that. It is a union. It is hearts knit
together. Our hearts are knit together
as one. That's what it is. Unity among
the brethren is more than just getting along. As it says over
in Acts chapter 4, you remember when after Pentecost and the
Lord saved all these few thousand people and how they sold all
their lands and they had everything as common? And it says this,
they were of one heart and one soul. That's this unity he's
talking about. One heart, one soul. And Paul
wrote in Ephesians 4, 4, there is one body, Speaking of the
body of Christ, there's one body and there's one spirit in that
body, even as you're called in one hope of your calling. You see, it's more than just
an agreement. It is a real union of heart. It is a real love for
one another. And our love for Christ is expressed
in the way we look after one another. That's how it's expressed. I put it in the bulletin. I haven't
sent it out yet. But he said, when I was hungry, you fed me. When I was thirsty, you gave
me drink. I just remembered it. But it's oneness of heart. See,
religion tries to bring about uniformity. That's what religion
does. All look and act the same. It's
like these hedges out here. We trim them usually once a year. We trim them and we try to make
them look what? Uniform. This is not uniformity
spoken of in this verse. This is union. This is hearts
knit together. Now, good and pleasant do not
always go together. He says here how good and how
pleasant. There's some medicines I took when I was, especially
when I was younger, that was good for me, but it wasn't pleasant.
Mom gave me castor oil several times when I was just a kid.
I don't know if that stuff any good or not, but it was given
to me, it wasn't pleasant. It might have been good for me,
but it wasn't pleasant. And there are some things that
are pleasant that are not good for you. But here, in this unity,
he says it's good in the fullest sense of that word. And it's
pleasant. It's pleasant. This unity here is spoken of
here in this verse, in verse one. It starts with the Lord
Jesus Christ. There's no unity apart from Christ.
Christ has reconciled us to God, and He's reconciled us to one
another. He put away that enmity that was between the Jew and
the Gentile. Now, not the natural Jew and not the natural Gentile,
but when God saves a Jew, and if God saves a Gentile, they
are brothers and they love one another. He says He took that
enmity and nailed it to the cross and made of two, one new man. He's joined us together in Him,
in Christ. He says neither Scythian, barbarian,
bond or free, all are one in Christ. We are all one in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what our Lord prayed
for in John 17. It says this, and the glory which
thou gavest me, I've given them, that they may be one, even as
we are one. As we go through John 17, We
will see that the very core of our Lord's prayer is the oneness
with God and with one another. That's his prayer, and his prayer
is going to be answered. It's going to be answered. And this unity among the brethren
sends forth a sweet smell. You know it when it's there. It's interesting that when our sister-in-law and her
sister, they all visited here, what, a few, several weeks ago.
And one of them said, she said, boy, the people there just seem
to get along so well. She said, they don't seem to
be any kind of division at all. It just dawned on, I mean, it
just struck me that she picked up on that. She picked up on
that unity that's here. It impressed her. You can tell when you go somewhere,
you don't have to be there very long if there's a real unity
there or there's not. You can go to a home. You can
be in a home. You don't have to be there very
long and you can tell whether there's unity or not. It's so evident. It has an odor
about it. Unity has a sweet smell about
it. Listen, it's like, in other words,
verse two, it's like, that is in comparison, and he gives another
spiritual application here. 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, I want
you to turn to Exodus chapter 30. You need to see this, and
you'll see what he's talking about. In verse 22, I'm going
to read verse 22 through verse 33. Moreover the Lord spake unto
Moses, saying, Take thou also unto thee principal spices. spices that are unmixed in and
of themselves. Principal spices of pure myrrh,
500 shekels, and of sweet cinnamon, half so much, even 250 shekels,
and of sweet calamus, 250 shekels, and of cassia, 500 shekels, after
the shekel of the sanctuary, and of olive oil of hen, And thou shalt make it an oil
of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the
apothecary. It shall be an holy anointed
oil, none like it, none like this. And thou shalt anoint the
tabernacle of the congregation therewith, 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, and his
foot. And thou shalt sanctify them
that they may be most holy. Whatsoever touches them shall
be holy. And thou shalt anoint Aaron. See, it was poured on
the head of Aaron, sprinkled on the sons of Aaron. But thou
shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they
may minister unto me in the priest's office. And thou shalt speak
unto the children of Israel, saying, This shall be an holy
anointed oil unto me throughout your generations. Upon man's
flesh shall it not be poured, neither shall ye make any other
like it. Don't try to imitate it. Don't try to imitate it. Brethren, we cannot imitate the
Spirit of God. We cannot imitate the grace of
God. Power of God. This is of God. This is of God. There's not any other like it
after the composition of it. God put this together. It's holy. And it shall be holy to you. Whosoever compoundeth any like
it, or whosoever putteth any of it upon a stranger shall even
be cut off. That's serious, isn't it? You
know why? It has a spiritual application
to Christ. That's why it's so significant. Just like that rock, when God
told Moses, speak to the rock, and he struck it twice. Christ
crucified one time, not two times. These things that God gave in
the Old Testament picture of Christ, and they're very sacred.
You don't mess with these things. You don't mess with the gospel.
You wanna play with something, go play with a snake or something,
but don't play with the gospel. You stand a better chance playing
with a rattlesnake than you do the gospel. You would. Whosoever compounds any like
it, whosoever puts anything or any of it upon a stranger, he'll
be cut off, be cut off. Now this oil that we just read
about, It's holy oil. It's consecrated. It's for a
holy purpose. It's what it's for. And you notice,
as I was reading that, if you'll notice, all these spices are
put together, and it is written, they had a sweet smell to it. This one holy oil had a sweet
smell to it. And I thought of this when I
was reading this, and this sweet odor that filled the room, it
filled the air, filled the air. Only God can make all our different
personalities to blend and send forth the sweet smell of grace
and love. There are strong personalities.
There are passive personalities. And yet God brings us all together
here, and we blend, and we have this sweet smell of the love
and grace of God Almighty. Only the gospel can do that.
Only the gospel can enable Mary, the mother of Christ, and Mary
Magdalene walk together to the tomb that morning. Only grace
can do that. Only grace can make two people
like that, two total opposites, walk together, Two total opposites. All these different spices, when
joined together, became one oil. It became one. Now, why is this oil so precious? First of all, it was of God.
God told Moses to do this. The ingredients were chosen by
the Lord. There's none like it. Done like
it. And it was never to be used for
common use. It was never to be used for that.
This was of God. Poured upon the head of the high
priest. What does oil represent in the Scriptures? The Holy Spirit. Christ was given the Spirit without
measure. And get this image in your mind. Here's Aaron, here's Moses going
to pour this oil on the head of Aaron, and it covers his head. Christ is our head. And then
it runs down, it says, to his skirts. It float down. His whole body is anointed with
the same spirit. We have the same spirit Christ
was given. He had it without measure. Now,
we have the fullness of the Spirit of God, but we don't have the
fullness of all gifts. Some of you have gifts. We all
have different gifts, don't we? Christ had all the gifts. He
had them all. He didn't have a gift of preaching
and someone else of something else. No, He had all of them.
But we have different gifts. We have different gifts. But
this oil that's poured onto the head of the Lord Jesus Christ,
also ran down through the skirts. And it filled that room, or that
area, if they were out in the open, it filled it with a sweet
odor. When the Spirit of God, when
the Spirit of Christ is among us, there's a real sweetness
about it that is nowhere else to be had. Nowhere else. And
we'll see this at the last verse. He says, there he commanded the
blessing, even life forevermore. There is where? Zion, the church. It's the church. I'm getting
ahead of myself now. But it says here it ran down.
It descended. What does that mean? It came
from above. This blessing. that we have,
this grace, this love, the Spirit of God came down. It descended. It descended on us. Just as it
did Aaron there when they was anointing him. And the power
of that smell just overtook the place. I'm telling you, where
love is real, not worth pretending, where love is real, it takes
over the house. It takes over the house. You
can tell it, you can tell it when it's there. Smell has a,
you know, smell has an unseen power about it, doesn't it? Have
you ever smelled something and it just brings things to your
remembrance? You know, they tell me, I've
told this by a person who sells houses, that it's easier to sell
a house if you have the smell of bread. Baked bread in it. Somebody's been baking bread
when they walk in. It just smells like home. You can have certain
smells that just take you to certain places. They take you
to home, take you to your childhood. Smell is very powerful. It's
very powerful. We cannot see love, but we can
feel its force. It constrains us, it motivates
us for Christ's sake. Also, the love of Christ constrains
me. We cannot see the Spirit, but
like the wind, we can feel its force. You know when the Spirit
of God is with us, or if it's just a dead, dry surface. But listen here, let's look at
the benefits of such unity and the power and the power of love among brethren. He says here in 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,
even life forevermore. You'll notice here again in this
verse, in this verse it says it descended, just like it did
on Aaron's head when he poured it on his head, and it went down
over his body. and here it descended, it's from
above. Here again, it's from above.
This unity, this heart love for Christ and for one another is
from above. You and I do not naturally love
God. We do not naturally believe God.
It's a work of God. It's a work of God. As the wind,
and listen here, I read this, this is good. As the wind blew
over the snow-peaked mountains of Hermon in the north, it was
in the far north, to the mountains of Zion in the south, even so
the Spirit of God brings the grace of God from above and blows
over our hearts and unites us, unites us in love. There is a
real common love we have to one another, and the evidence of
that love is in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. It's kind, it's gentle,
it's long-suffering. And I read something of the benefit
of this dew of Hermon. See, Hermon had these snow-capped
mountains, and the wind would blow over them, and it would
blow toward Jerusalem, toward Zion. And it said it cools the
air in that hot, dry climate. It cools the air and feeds the
plants in that place. I read, in more than one place,
I read where this dew was just unusual dew. You know, we go
out in the mornings, and I go out in the mornings, and you
do too, I take Gus out every morning. And he's out there running, gets
his feet wet, and I have to lock him in the laundry room until
his feet dry. The dew. I mean, even when it was so dry,
there was dew on the grass. And I read a story where in this
area, this particular man was camping on Mount Hermon, one
of those mountains around this place. And when he got up that
morning, he said it looked like it rained. His tent was soaking
wet. He said the ground was wet from
the dew, just the dew. that came from that mountain
as the wind blew, as the wind blew over that mountain. And
it carries it to the mountains of Zion in the south. God's grace rains on us, falls
on us. It falls on us through the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says His grace reigns through
righteousness. It says where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. In this dry, arid world we live
in, God's grace just, it descends upon us. It just descends upon
us. You can't hear love, can you? Can you hear dew in the morning?
And you get up, you see that dew on the ground. Did you hear
it fall last night? You can hear the rain. You can hear the wind
blowing and howling. You can hear the ocean roar and
the waves crash. You can't hear dew. But oh, how
powerful it is. And the watering effect it has
on plants. God's grace descends on us through
the righteousness of Christ. And his love is shed abroad in
our hearts, it says, by the Holy Spirit. The love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. You know one thing about
love, like the dew, it's not noisy. It's not noisy. It's not clamoring. Turn over to 1 Corinthians 13. Love is not noisy, it's not clamoring. In verse four, listen, charity, love suffers
long. It's quiet, isn't it? If you're
suffering long with somebody, you're just patient. You're patient,
you're quiet, and it's kind. You see, this love spoken of
here, this unity is kind. Love envies not. It doesn't envy
you. Do you envy your children? I
want mine to have more than I ever had. I want them to have, I desire
more for them. I'm being honest, I desire more
for them than I do myself. And I think every parent in here
says that. Especially spiritually. Spiritually. Charity envies not. Love vaunteth
not itself. It's not rash. It's not puffed
up. Doth not behave itself unseemly.
Seeketh not her own. Is not easily provoked. Thinketh
no evil. Rejoices not in iniquity, but
rejoices in the truth. Beareth all things. Believeth
all things. Hopeth all things. Endureth all things. Love is quiet. Love is quiet. This unity, it's a real quietness. It's real harmony among the brethren. You really do love one another.
Because the love of God is shared abroad in your heart, you love
one another, you love Christ. You love, you do so genuinely. It's not show, it's not show.
And this unity is the evidence of spiritual life. It's the evidence of life. And
the reason, now listen, here's a reason, there's many reasons
to be here when the gospel's being preached, but listen here.
For there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life, and
all that goes with life, forevermore. God commands the blessing here.
There's a special blessing on this place, there really is. There's a real blessing on it.
We cannot command any blessing, we can beg for them, but God
commands the blessing. How many times have I sat and
listened to my pastor preach and go away so watered, so filled,
so fed, Questions answered. You know, if you listen long
enough, if the gospel's being preached, if you listen long
enough, your questions will be answered. Because the Lord is
the counselor. He counsels right from this pulpit.
He counsels right from the pulpit. I learned some years ago, when
I've had questions, just listen. Lord, give me an answer through
your preaching of the gospel. You'll get your answer if you
really want one. But I want to close and I want
to read over in Ephesians chapter 4. The New Testament sheds a whole
lot of light on the Old Testament. In Ephesians chapter 4, let me
see the verses. Look in verse 1, I therefore
the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith you are called. And then he gives this walk. with all lowliness and meekness,
with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring,
that word means putting forth great effort, working at it,
endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Now in
verse 4, 5, and 6, the word one is used seven times. There is one body, this shows
the unity, and one spirit, one spirit. Someone was telling me of a couple,
of a situation where a couple men were interested in being
a pastor at a certain place, and this person was telling me
about it. I said, well, the one thing I know for sure, one of
them's right, one of them's wrong. One's right, one's wrong. Or
I said, they both could be wrong, but
they both can't be right. Not if they feel like the Lord
led them to be the pastor. Well, you can't, that can't be
so. You have, there's only one spirit
and you're not gonna leave one this way and one that way. That's
why we believe the same gospel. There's one spirit, there's one
gospel. There's one body, one spirit, even as you're called
in one hope of your calling, there's one Lord. There's one faith, there's one
baptism. There's one God, and Father of all, who is above all,
and through all, and in you all. This is our unity. This is our
unity. And if we have a difference,
if we have a difference, somebody's wrong. Or we both could be wrong,
but we both can't be right. Because there's only one Lord,
one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who's in you
all. Here's what we do. Lord, what is your will? Give us understanding in this
matter. That's why usually when I'm told
something or hear something, I say, let me think about it,
let me pray about it. I don't like to just pop off.
I've done enough of that over the years. I have popped off
way too many times over the years. When you tell me something, I
do like to step, I always like to step back and think about
it, pray about it, and wait on the Lord. We don't have the patience
to wait on God, do we? It's just like, no, that's not
how God works. We wait on Him. And He gives
the answer. And you know, every time, His
answer's right. Every time. It's right every
time. That's why we wait on Him. But
this unity, it's of God, it's from above, it's the work of
the Holy Spirit, it's the work of Christ who reconciled us to
God, It's the evidence of love, this unity is the evidence of
love. We need this. This is why it's
so important to go verse by verse. So we don't just jump on a special
doctrine and we have to deal with everything. You learn as we go verse by verse,
it makes us deal with everything and that's what the body of Christ
needs. Paul said, I have not shown to
declare the whole counsel of God in every matter. We not only preach the doctrines
of grace, but we also preach the application of grace in our
lives. All right.