Psalm 133 now. Psalm 133. Very short psalm, but a blessed
one. Psalm 133 begins, Behold. That means stop and consider.
Think about this. Think about this. How good, how
pleasant it is for a brethren to dwell together in unity. We need to stop and consider
what a blessing this is. Never take it for granted. You
stop and consider and think how blessed we are to dwell together
in unity, be united in this cause of Christ, for the gospel, for
God's glory. What a blessing to be here. What
a privilege to sit here together, to be gathered together. You
know, the lot is cast in the lap. I was honest with you. I told you, it felt like you
stayed an hour. that I'm here, and now I'm glad
I'm here. I was glad when they said I'm here. What a blessing. A lot's cast in the lap, but
the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Aren't you glad
the Lord overrules our flesh? If we were left to ourselves,
we wouldn't come here. No man can come except he draws. And so we pray like in Solomon's
song, draw us, we'll run to you. What a blessing to read, to hear
God's Word, to dwell together, to gather together. It's a blessing. Blessed unity. And we have a
unity here. We do. This church, I've been
to many places. Some of you have too. There's no better, closer fellowship
in any church anywhere. I've been to many. I've had. A long time now. All my life. And the Lord's blessed us. He really has. He blessed us.
It's a good, it's precious, it's valuable, it's a rare thing. It's not found in religion. But among brethren. Brethren. Brothers and sisters in Christ.
God's people. His true people. Israel. Now
there's nothing bad said here. There's nothing negative in these
three verses. So I'm not going to bet. I'm not going to talk about disunity.
I'm not going to talk about division. I don't want to. Satan is the
cause of that. Today, when I was considering
this, he was bringing all kinds of things in my mind that just
caused me inner turmoil and division. I don't want to go there. I want
to behold and stop and consider this blessed unity that God has
given. He really has it. A real and
genuine love for Him and His gospel. Nothing bad here. Nothing
bad. Let me say this. I listened to
my pastor preach from this and I recommended his message on
things that promote peace. And you heard it. It's been a
while ago. We wrote down those things in the bulletin. And I
listened to it again. It was such a blessing. But he
said these things. In order to have unity, there
must be peace. There must be peace with God. There must be peace with God. There is no peace to the wicked. There must be peace with God.
There must be a relationship with God. Union with Him, with
Christ. There must be peace in the heart.
And that only comes with peace with God through Christ in it.
And if there's peace in the heart and peace with God, you'll have
peace in your home. You'll have peace if you're married
to a believer. You'll have peace. There's no
reason not to have peace. And if you have peace in your
home, you have peace in the church. Peace among your brethren, right?
And it's also good. How good and how pleasant is
peace The opposite, I said I wasn't going to bring it up, but as
good as this unity is, how pleasant, the opposite is terrible. You can't hardly function in
religious division. But it's good, it's pleasant,
and this unity and this peace must be prayed for. He's the
God of peace. Must be prayed for, must be worked
at. David in Psalm 21, 22 said, I'm going to pray for the peace
of Jerusalem. He said, they'll prosper. You'll have peace if
you pray for peace. If you make peace, you'll get
peace. If you love, you'll be loved. You'll be merciful, you'll
find mercy. It must be prayed for. It must
be worked at. Relationships must be nurtured. Love must be worked at. like
marriage. Marriage. You've got two sinners
living together and one of them is a male and one of them is
a female. You've got trouble. You've got to pray. And you've
got to work at it, don't you? Yes, you do. But without Him,
you can't do it. If you ask Him, He'll give you
peace. Blessed are the peacemakers.
They'll obtain peace. So it's a thing to be worked
at. If there's peace with God, and
peace in your heart, and peace in the home, and peace in the
church, it makes this life tolerable, doesn't it? Otherwise, it's a
miserable place. So, peace. Someone sent me a text today. My sister in here sent me a text.
It meant so much to me. And she said this in her text.
She said, I just want you to know that I've been praying for
this evening's message. that the Lord will give you much
grace and liberty in bringing this message to us. She said,
central grace is truly the most precious place on earth to me
and God's people. And I'm so thankful that I feel
that way. And I enter. Thankful she does
and thankful I do. This is a heavenly place. Behold,
how good. How pleasant. It's good to God.
God's the one that said this. This is good. It's pleasant. It's pleasing to God. The opposite. Highly displeasing. This unity
is good to God. Good. Now, there's some things,
one of the writers, I look at so many books and times and sometimes
I just glean one thing. And I went through this, and
this fella said one thing. He said, there's some things
good that aren't pleasant. Like trials. Right? But they're good. He said, there's
some things pleasant that are not good. Like sin. The pleasures of sin, you see.
Well, this is good, and this is pleasant. It's good. God said it was. It's good. Good
for His glory. Good for us. Good for all of
us. Good. It's pleasant. Very pleasing. Stop and consider that. Now good. Now good. Now throughout the
scriptures, there's several things that God calls good. See, it's
a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord. What we're doing right
here is a good work. It's good. It's so good. Nothing
better. It's good. God's pleased with
it. You see it. The sacrifices of praise and
thanksgiving, God has Well, please, you praise his son. He's pleased. Praise my wife,
my children, grandchildren. I'll just smile at you. Right? You praise God's son. You meet
together in honor of God's son. God will honor you. He'll bless
you. It's pleasant to God. It's a
good thing to do. Nothing better. Nothing better. It's good to hear his word. Blessed
are they that read. Blessed are they that hear. Blessed
are they that believe, lay hope, and keep the word of God. So
blessed. It's good. It's good to gather. It's good
to sit. Y'all got it made right now.
You just don't. Stop and consider how you got it made. Kelly, let's
trade places. Come on up here. Mike, come on. Anybody? No takers. It's a good place to be. Right
there. You sit, and I'm going to feed you. And you're going
to relax. You're going to rest from all
this turmoil and all this trouble and all this vexation. You're
going to sit, and you're going to hear good things. Good news.
You're going to hear some good news. This is good. You're going
to hear some good news in a world full of bad news. Good. Blessed. Good to gather. Good
to sit. Good to worship. How good? Behold,
how good? How good is it? God said it's
good. You know, when God created all
things, he created them for his glory, didn't he? Everything he made, he said,
it's good. It's good. Everything. He made the plants.
The first thing he made was trees with seed. Isn't that significant? And then things and animals. He said, this is good. He made
man. He said, it's very good. Now
he made, when he talked about making man, he made man and woman.
That's who he's talking about. A man and a woman. Because he
said, it's not good. That's right. It's not good for
the man to be alone. So he made him a helpmate. He
made this man and this woman together. And he said, this is
very good. How good? How pleasant? It was for them to dwell together
in unity. They knew God, loved God, walked
with God, worshipped God, God was with them. What were you
talking about? Blessings. They didn't need anything. They didn't
need any of those things we think we need to make us happy. None. Food? They didn't even have raiment. They had unity. united in God. Oh, how good. What happened?
Oh, boy. But they were dwelling together.
Pleasant. It's pleasing. It's pleasing. Oh, how pleasing. How pleasant
this is, what we're doing. Pleasant. And I can't make it
that way, but God must. Oh, boy. He said to dwell together.
John 15. Go to John 15. How pleasant, how good it is
for brethren to dwell together. together in unity. Dwell. Dwell. What does it mean to dwell
with somebody? It means you're with them all
the time. You might go away for a little bit, you go away on
a trip, or you can go away to work, you go here, but you come
back, don't you? You don't ever leave. Dwell. Right. You know we're married
to Christ. And that bride of Christ is never
going to leave him. He's not going to let her leave
him. She's going to wander, but he's not going to let her wander
far. He's going to get her. And she's
going to be so sorry she did. And she's going to be so glad
he brought her back. And she's not going to leave. That's just
the way it is. She wants to, what, dwell with
him. All right? We're married to Christ. We're
all his bride. What does that mean? We're married to each other.
Isn't that right? We may get put out with each
other and we may get mad at each other and all that. But we can't
leave each other. I'm sorry. Can't, like my dad said about
marriage. Divorce, no. Murder, yes. But
no, what's holding us together here? Love. But I'm going to find out. Love of
God. I'm getting ahead of myself.
This is what comes down from the head to the body. So John
15. This is what our Lord said. He's
the head. He's the vine. Verse 4. Abide in me. Dwell in me. And I in you. As the branch cannot
bear fruit of itself. What's fruit? Love, joy, peace,
longsuffering. Accepted to abide in the vine,
no more can you except you abide in me. I'm the vine, you're the
branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him the same, bringeth
forth much fruit. I want fruit, don't you? I want
to bear fruit, and I can't bear it. I can't do anything to produce
it. He says, I can't. How? Abide in him. When you think
about and behold and marvel at his love, it'll make you love. Read on. Without me, you can't
do, you can't do nothing. But with Christ, John Sheasley
Senior, we can do all things, can't we? We can. That's great.
It comes down. Read on. He says, if a man, we'll
go down to verse 6. If a man abides not in me, he's
a branch that's withered, and men gather him, he's going to
be cast into the fire. dwell together in Him. Verse
9, As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue
ye in my love. That means under the gospel.
If you keep my commandments, you abide in my love, even as
I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. These
things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you,
and that your joy might be full. Now this is my commandment. What? that you love one another
as I love you. Abide. Dwell. Stay right there. Dwell. How good, how pleasant
it is. Go back to the text. For brethren to dwell together.
Christ is our life. Christ gave His life for us. Love's so amazing, so divine.
It demands my soul, my life, my all. Christ gave his life
for us. So how good, how pleasant it
is for brethren to dwell together in unity, united, one cause. We really do have one cause here. We really do. We really do. We're united in this cause of
Christ. For God's sake, we really are. You can do one thing here. And
if somebody doesn't like this, you won't be happy here. Because
this is what we do here. We exalt our God. We preach the
gospel. We're united in this cause. And
we're in concert with one another. This is an orchestra. God has
orchestrated his church, and it's a concert. You know what
concert means? Everybody together in a concerted
effort to produce one sound. In an orchestra, you've got all
these different instruments, don't you? One by itself, like
a tuba. I don't know why anybody would
want to take a tuba, but I'm glad somebody did. A bass drum. You sit around all day, Practicing. I'm glad somebody does. You put
all that together and they're doing it in harmony. Flutes,
violins, violas, the bass, the drums, the clarinet, all these
instruments, you put them all together and they're playing
in harmony one tune, middle C. If everybody's in concert, everybody's
united in harmony, it sends chills up your spine.
Oh, hell. You ladies, you know, if you
make a wrong note, it just kills you then. You're the only one
it kills, so quit worrying about it. You messed up tonight. But who cares? If it was for
the glory of God, it was music to His ears. You know that? If you did that for God's glory,
it was pleasant, more pleasant than Johann Sebastian Bach. That's
a fact. How good and how pleasant. God
sent it. This is good. My people get together,
united in this one cause for the glory of my Son in loving
unity. with him and one another. It's
like precious ointment. Precious ointment. Look at our
text. Verse 2. It's like the precious
ointment upon the head. Anointed on our head, Christ. It ran down upon the beard. Aaron's
beard. It went down to the skirts of
his garment. Go to Exodus 30 with me. Real quick. John texted. I got the text from John. Not
John the Baptist or John the Apostle, but John the Davis.
I got a text from him today, and he told me of Deuteronomy
and Exodus, and I said, yeah, you're reading this, aren't you? And this oil, the anointing oil,
is all through the Old Testament, beginning in Exodus. It's everywhere. And Exodus 30, if you look at
the top of the page, the heading up there, it says, Holy Anointing
Oil. Exodus 30. Look at verse 22. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Take thou also unto the principal spices. And the first one was
what? Murder. That's the balm of Gilead. That's the sweetest smelling
thing of all. And we've been looking at that. He went on with
several spices. There's five principal spices.
The first one is myrrh. All of this is referenced to
Christ. We go on down to verse 25. Thou shalt make it an oil
of ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary,
the perfumer. This is olive oil mixed with
these wonderful spices. It's a holy anointing oil. Who's
it for? Who is this to be put on first?
the high priest, back in chapter 29, it says you put this oil
on the high priest. So you put the garments on the
high priest, you put the ephod on the high priest, you put all
this, the breastplate, everything went on him first. That's crap. That's crap. And then this oil
was to be anointed his sons. Him first, because he well deserves
his holy anointing oil. What is it? What is it? Well,
the love of God. The love of God. Who does our
God love supremely? This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. Anoint Him. Arise, anoint Him. That's it. This love of God came
down on the head of Christ. Oh, I love my Son so much. What
manner of love the Father had bestowed upon them that we should
be called the sons of God. And that love of God came, why? Because of Christ. It came onto
His head and come down upon us. God loves us because we're in
Christ. Right? It's the love of God.
It's the grace of God. It's holy anointed oil. It's
the grace of God. All grace. The God of all grace,
vested all grace, put all grace, all gifts, everything on the
head of the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation's by grace, and he
gave it all to Jesus Christ to perform. It's grace, not works. It's grace. It's his work. And it all comes down. All the
grace of God flows down from Christ our Lord. on his body. It is the peace of God. God's a God of peace. He's the
God of peace. And when Christ came, he came
to make peace, didn't he? Make peace. Well, what else? The blood of Christ. The blood
of Christ. Isaiah 63. Go there real quickly
with me. Isaiah 63. I'm determined to make this short.
May the Lord make it sweet. Isaiah 63. What is this holy
anointing oil? It is the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It came down, see, from His head,
His hands, and His feet. Sorrow and love flowed and mingled
down. Isaiah 63 verse 1. Who is this
that cometh from Edom with dyed garments from Bosra? This is
glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength.
And he answers, I that speak in righteousness am mighty to
say, well, why are you red in thine apparel and thy garments
like him that treadeth the wine vat? I've trodden the winepress
alone. There's nobody with me. The blood
of Christ. The blood of Christ, the sweet-smelling
savor to God Almighty and his people. The blood of Christ is a sweet
smelling savor to God and His people. The blood covered our
Lord like that ark, like that mercy seed did. He was covered
with His own blood. And that blood covered our sins. And it was a sweet-smelling savor
to God and to us, too. How good. How pleasant. What Christ did for His people.
What God thinks of what Christ did for His people. Nothing better.
It's the good news. And well-pleasing. He's well-pleased
for His righteous sake. Well-pleased for His sacrifice.
And I am, too. Aren't you? Nothing more so.
And by that blood, He made peace. Unity. We have unity with God. We're united. We lost that union
with God in Adam, but the second Adam came down, and by his precious
blood he made peace. We're united with God. How good. Our great I pray. Behold that
blood, that sacrifice that Christ made, how good, how pleasant
the gospel is. How pleasant, what a privilege
it is to hear it. Look at, well let me just read
this for you. Over in John chapter 12, I'll read it for you real
quick. It says that our Lord was in the home of Lazarus and
Martha and Mary and Martha served and Mary took a pound of ointment
of spikenard, which has myrrh in it. It's a mixture. Very costly, which is a picture
of Christ. And she took that costly ointment
and anointed the feet of Christ and wiped his feet with her hair
and in another place she anointed his head. But it says when she
did that she broke open this box of this sweet smelling ointment
and anointed Christ her head. It says it filled the room. It's the whole room. You know, the least little obnoxious
smell ruins everything. Boy, you let, you know, the nose
is a powerful sensory and it's pleasant. It's pleasant. Well,
this gospel of Christ. and how good and how pleasant
it is. If we just get a whiff of what Christ is, if we can
just, you know, if we could just break, if our hearts be broken
and lay our hands on the head of the sacrifice and worship
Him with our hearts and love Him and love one another, it's,
just fill this place with pleasantness. Fill this place with pleasantness. You know, what we're doing here
is not about me. And it's not about you. We don't
come here. The kingdom of God, the worship
of Christ, the church is not about you. It's exactly opposite
of what religion says. It's not about you. It's about
Him. We're all together to worship Him. It's not me. It's not, we
don't come here to draw attention to ourselves, to get pity, to
get anything. We come here to give praise and
worship to our Lord. It's all about Him, like that
song. Not about me. Or somebody, what
if Daisy plays in there, what would you say? Hey, hold on here.
I want to do a little solo here, somebody. You sit down and you
play with the rest of them. right or you're out of here.
No, no, no. Who wants to do something? Anybody
in here want to do something? No, you don't. But boy, we love
singing together. It's not about me. It's not about
you. If that's the case, you'll get
your feelings hurt. But if it's about Him, if you think about Him, if you
behold what He's done for you, It ought to be a hard matter
for us to get offended about anything. No matter what anybody
has to do. We're not here about me. We're
here about Him. And he says in closing here,
he says, this is like the dew of Hermon. The dew of Hermon. Verse 3. A
dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion. The dew of Hermon. That's the highest place in Israel.
You know that? The highest mountain in Israel.
It's a pretty mysterious place. But it's about 10,000 feet high,
and it's covered with snow most of the year. And that snow melts
gradually, and it comes down upon, look at it, mountains of
Zion. This snow, this wonderful water
from high above comes down from that mountain upon this one place. Mount Zion. That's the church. And the scriptures talk so much
about Him coming down like rain. And the dew. My doctrine will
drop as rain as the dew of the earth. It comes from above, but it condenses
on earth. Dew. And I was going to quote
another place, but I lost the place. But it's upon Mount Zion,
and look at the last line. It says, there is where the Lord
commanded the blessing. He's commanded. Mount Zion, that's
where you go. That's where I'll be, he said. That's where you go. You meet
together in unity to praise my son, be with my son, hear him,
bless him, and I'll be with you. And I will fill that place with
sweet-smelling odor. of Christ's sacrifice, and fill
you with love, and fill you with peace, and fill you with joy.
And I've commanded, and what God commands, it's going to happen.
You go there, I'll be there. It's a command. Go there. He's given commandment to save
us. He gave a commandment to fetch
us. He's given a commandment to us to call. He says call,
and I'll hear you. It's a commandment. He's given
a commandment to repent. Repent, I'll forgive you. It's
a command. He's given a commandment to believe.
Not do. Believe. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Believe. He's given a commandment.
He's given a commandment, it says, He gave a commandment to save
us, to fetch us, to call us, to repent, to believe. He's given
a commandment to the Holy Spirit to bring the gospel to us. He
gave a commandment to Christ to come and do this work. The
Holy Spirit to round us up, send the gospel, save us. And he says,
this is the commandment, the blessing, and here it is, life
forevermore. I command it. I give commandment
that they have life forevermore. Sounds good. Oh, how good, how pleasant. May the Lord keep us in unity
with Him and each other. Okay, stand with me.