I paid good money for a concert
like that. Wasn't that a blessing? Thank you, guys. I appreciate
that. If you would, open your Bibles with me now to Psalm 133.
Psalm 133. First off, I'd like to thank
our teachers and Ms. Julie for a good week of Bible
school we had. Julie kept us all fed and her
teachers had such great lessons. I thank God for every one of
you. You're very special. I heard from Kathy that Gary
Faulkner came through his surgery very well. We're waiting on the
pathology report to see what the next steps are there. And
Novi Sparks, they did the endoscopy. That's what I'm looking for.
Didn't find a thing. She's still dealing with these
awful pain. episodes, as the Lord brings
her to your mind. Let's remember her in prayer.
It's a difficult thing. Also, next week, next Wednesday
night, there'll be no service. We'll have our midweek service
next week on Thursday night, which will be New Year's Eve. We'll have a service and observe
the Lord's table. Now you know everything I know.
Alright, Psalm 133. This is A short psalm, but it has been
a great, great blessing to me this week to study it. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren
to dwell together in unity. It's like the precious ointment
upon the head that ran down 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."
Thank God for His Word. Let's bow together. Our Father, oh, how thankful
we are that we can come into Your courts this evening with
praise and thanksgiving and call Almighty God our Father. We know it's only because of
your electing, redeeming, adopting, regenerating grace and how we
thank you for your mercy and grace to sinners that's found
in our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, we've met here together
this evening to worship Thee. And I beg of Thee that You would
enable us to do that this evening, to worship Thee. Enable us to
forget about the goings-on of this life, the cares and responsibility
of this life. And Father, for this next hour,
enable us to forget about those things and to hear of our Lord
Jesus Christ and to worship and adore Him, who alone is worthy
of all of our worship and praise. Father, we thank You for this
time that You've given us We pray that you not leave us alone.
Father, be with me. Don't leave me alone in this
awesome task of preaching your word to your people. Enable me
to rightly divide the word of truth. And Father, enable each
one here this evening to hear with your faith, to hear and
believe the things of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, I thank
you for this place that you've given to us, this people that
you've gathered together in this congregation. Father, I'm so
thankful. I'm thankful for your many blessings. It's how you've
blessed this congregation over so, so many years. And Father,
we pray your continued blessing and leadership upon us. I pray
your blessing on each home that you'd bless your people. Watch over and preserve and protect
us, we pray. Father, we pray for our country
at this time, that you would move in a mighty way Deliver
us from this virus. Deliver us from such political
unrest and division. Be with our leaders, Father.
Turn their hearts to lead this country for good, that your people
might continue to worship you without fear of reprisal. Worship you freely. Father, for
those that we've mentioned who are sick and undergoing so many
different heartaches and trials, we pray for them. Pray you continue
to be with Gary as he recovers, that you give us a good report.
Father, we pray for Novi that you'd undertaken her behalf to
give some relief from this pain. Give the doctor some understanding
what to do for her. Charlie, as he heals and recovers,
Father, bless. Those who are recovering from
sicknesses and COVID and different things, Father, thou art a great
physician. We're thankful for the good report
we've had and pray you continue to heal and bless. Now, Father,
again, bless us in this hour. Give us a word from Thee. Let
us leave here with the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in our
hearts and on our lips. For it is in His blessed name
we pray and give thanks. Amen. Oh. Joy to the world, the Lord has
come Let earth receive her King Let every heart prepare Him room,
And heaven and nature sing, And heaven and nature sing, And heaven
and heaven and nature sing. Joy to the earth, the Savior
reigns Let men their songs employ While fields and floods, rocks,
hills and plains Repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy
Repeat, repeat the sounding joy No more let sin and sorrows grow
Nor thorns infest the ground He comes to make his blessings
know Far as the curse is found Far as the curse is found For
as far as the curse is found He rules the world with truth
and grace And makes the nations prove the glories of His righteousness,
and wonders of His love, and wonders of His love, and wonders,
wonders of His love. know. All right, if you would open
your Bibles now again with me to Psalm 133. Titled the message
this evening, the blessing of unity. David begins to this Psalm
talking about the blessing of unity. And he says, behold, behold,
like this is a rare thing to see. And that is certainly true
in our day. It must have been true in David's
day. He wouldn't have phrased it that way. This is very much like
our world today. There is just not much unity
in our world today. If you do not agree with somebody
on just every little thing, the only option is you're mortal
enemies. And that's just the way of our world today, isn't
it? But here, I'm not talking to the whole wide world. I'm
talking to us here tonight. Hurricane Road Grace Church.
And unity is something that believers should have. We must have. And
because we're in this world, we should have more unity than
we do have. But when we do see unity among
believers, it's a blessing. It's a real blessing. It's always
good and it's pleasant. It's enjoyable, but it's also
good. Good for folks. When brethren
dwell together in unity, David says, behold, how good and how
pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. And
tonight I want to give you three ways that the unity of the brethren
is good and it's pleasant. It's good for us. It's good for
the family of God. It's good for our community in
the whole. These three things came almost
immediately to my mind when I thought about this subject of unity.
It's an important subject. Number one is this, how good
and how pleasant it is to see unity, the unity of the Trinity. I don't know if you can exactly
call the three persons of the Trinity brethren exactly, but
you know, the Lord talked about my fellow talking about, you
know, the father and the son, my fellow, God, the father, God,
the son, and God, the Holy Spirit are three distinct persons, but
they're one God. And they have perfect unity,
perfect unity. Our Lord Jesus said, I and my
father are one, that perfect unity. They have unity, first
of all, unity of nature. They're all, they're all God.
They have the nature of God. Each one is holy and wise and
merciful and gracious and all powerful as God, because they
all, all three have the nature of God, that unity of nature.
But they also have unity of purpose. Now the purpose of the triune
God is God's glory and the salvation of God's elect. That is the reason
God does everything that he does. That is the reason that as God
overrules his creation that he purposes, that he ordains, that
he causes everything to happen just exactly the way that it
happens for this one purpose, the salvation of his people.
It's His glory in saving those people. God the Son came to this
earth for one purpose. He came to save His people from
their sin. God the Son came to earth for
that purpose. What a miracle that that is.
We just heard it sung about. We hear it so much this time
of year. I preached on it Sunday. The miracle that God was made
flesh. What a miracle that is. You want
to hear another miracle? God was made flesh to redeem
the lives of you and me. What a miracle. His purpose in
coming. And it was the purpose of the
Father and the purpose of the Holy Spirit too. The Holy Spirit
now moves where He will, just like the wind bloweth where it
listeth. The Spirit moves where He will. Blessing the preaching
of the word to reveal Christ to the hearts of His people,
to give them life, to give them faith, to bring them to the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the purpose of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And nothing can be more good
and more pleasant to God's people than to hear of the unity of
purpose of the Trinity. That's our only hope of salvation,
that God would purpose to save us. that God the Son would save
us, and God the Holy Spirit would apply it. That's our only hope
of salvation, isn't it? Isn't it good to hear about the
unity of the purpose of the Godhead? That they all do their job together. Each one has their own purpose,
their own work in redemption, and they all do it with unity
of purpose, so that God is glorified when His people are saved. You
think about the Father, to be chosen unto salvation by God
the Father. That's good and that's pleasant
to sinners who would never ever choose God if God left it up
to us, to our nature to choose Him. Yet He chose His people
to save. And then to be redeemed by God
the Son. That's good and pleasant for sinners, isn't it? Sinners
who could never be redeemed any other way than the blood of God's
Son. How good and how pleasant it
is for Christ to come in our flesh and pay our sin debt, pay
the sin debt for His people. How good, how pleasant it is
to be forgiven of our sin, to have that awful guilt of sin
hang over our head and to be forgiven by the blood of Christ.
How good and how pleasant it is to be cleansed from every
spot and every stain of sin by being washed in the precious
blood of Christ. Isn't that pleasant? How good,
how pleasant it is to be given life, to spiritual life and faith
in Christ by God the Holy Spirit. Isn't it good when the Holy Spirit,
that's good and pleasant, isn't it? When the Holy Spirit enables
you to believe Christ. Oh, that's pleasant. I mean,
it's good and it's pleasant, isn't it? How pleasant it is. Maybe you've heard the gospel.
We had Bible school this week. We do our best here, don't we,
to teach our children the Scriptures, to point them to Christ. I told
the kids today, each age that they were, from the youngest
to the oldest, I remember being their age, being in Bible school,
being in the services. I could mentally understand what
they were teaching. I could. To my shame, I have
to tell you, I didn't love it. I didn't love it. Oh, how could? and how pleasant it is when the
Holy Spirit gives you a love for Christ, when He gives you
a love for the gospel. And not only do you enjoy hearing
it, you need to hear it. Isn't that good? Isn't that pleasant? That can only come as a gift
of God the Holy Spirit. How good and how pleasant it
is for the Holy Spirit to enable us to rest, to rest in Christ,
to enjoy peace with God in our Lord Jesus Christ. That's good
and pleasant. that comes from the unity of
purpose of the Godhead. It's good and it's pleasant.
And there's a sweetness there too. There's a sweetness. Salvation
by the work of the triune God. Now that's the gospel. It's all
the work of God from beginning to end. It's the work of God.
But hearing that gospel, that's sweet to God's people. It's pleasant
to the ears of God's people. It's like the consecrated oil,
that oil that David writes about here. He says it's like the precious
ointment upon the head that ran down the beard, even Aaron's
beard that went down to the skirts of his garment. That's a consecrated
oil. It was a special recipe that
they used that God gave Moses. And he made this consecrated
oil. And the only time it was ever used was to pour upon the
head of the high priest. Just any Israelite, any priest,
they couldn't use this precious ointment. It was only used for
the high priest. And they started out pouring
it on the head of the high priest. And it ran down his head and
ran across his face and ran down his beard. I got a short beard.
Aaron had a long beard probably. It ran down his beard, just dripping. This precious ointment dripping
off his beard. Dripping down his clothes and
all down to the skirts of his garment. That ointment just coated
and soothed every part of Aaron's body. Now that ointment, that
precious consecrated ointment was only for Aaron, the high
priest. But I'm telling you, everybody
around benefited from that ointment being poured upon Aaron's head.
They benefited because once that consecrated ointment was poured
upon the head of the high priest, now that high priest is consecrated
to do something for them before God. to offer those sacrifices
for them before God. That ointment went all down Aaron's
body. But you know everybody around
him smelled that ointment. They enjoyed the smell of that
precious ointment. That's what it is to have the
gospel preached to us. That precious ointment is being
poured out upon the body of Christ. That sweet balm of Gilead is
being poured out on the body of Christ. And brother, it begins
at the top. It begins with Christ our head.
And it just goes down all the rest of His body to all of His
people. And they're all blessed by it,
aren't they? Y'all come here different ages, different needs,
different heartaches, different circumstances in your life. But
if you're God's people, that same gospel meets every need.
It's a precious ointment to soothe and to calm, to meet every need
of every one of God's people. The gospel of Christ soothes
and calms, calms the heart like nothing else can. You know, people
at that time, I don't know, maybe they had more understanding of
us, you know, than we do today of herbs and things that they
would use to make these oils and different things. I don't
know. It sounds good to say that they did. I don't know. Maybe
they did. Maybe they didn't. But I know when I was hurting
so bad, this trouble this past summer, Savannah brought me these
essential oils. And I don't know if they helped,
but they sure smelled good. I sure enjoyed them. This ointment
was precious ointment. And the gospel of Christ is no... This is what happens when you
get off your notes. It's the fake medicine. What's
a... Placebo. This is not a placebo. The gospel
of Christ soothes and calms and heals the hearts of God's people.
And it smells good. I mean, there's some medicine,
woo, this smells good. This ointment that heals and
soothes the hearts of God's people, it smells good. But now listen,
this ointment is precious. Something that's precious is
rare. Nothing else will do. Nothing
else will work. Nothing else will give life.
Nothing else will give peace. Nothing else will save other
than the gospel of Christ our Savior. And it comes from the
top down. That ointment runs from the top
of Christ our Head, Christ our High Priest, all the way down
to His people. It comes from the top down, just like the rain
water. Verse 3, As a dew of Hermon,
and as a dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion, for there
the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. That dew
and that rainwater, it starts out in the mountains and it runs
down the mountain, runs down to the valleys to give life down
in the valley. That's the exact way God commands
life. You see, He doesn't say He offers
life. It doesn't make life possible. It says He commands life. God
commands life to His people. But listen, it comes from the
top down. It comes from Christ to us. It
doesn't come from the bottom up. It doesn't come from our
works earning us a blessing from God. It comes from the top down. It comes from God's sovereign
will coming down to bless His people here below. And that is
good. It's pleasant. It's sweet. It's
life-giving to God's people. We would have nothing but bitterness
if it wasn't for this unity. David understood something about
that. David's family had division. I mean, you read the story of
David's family, the things his children did. Oh, my goodness. If my children did that. You know, that broke David's
heart. He understood the bitterness that comes from division. He
says, how sweet, how good, how pleasant it is for God's people
to dwell together in unity. You and I would have no hope
of anything but bitterness. if it wasn't for the unity of
the Godhead and the purpose of the salvation of God's people.
That's the only way sinners like you and me can be given life
and be brought back to God. The unity of purpose in the Godhead. All right, second, how good and
how pleasant it is for people to have unity with Christ. Look
over at John chapter 17. God's elect are all one with
Christ. That is the will of our Savior,
that His people be one, have union with Him. John 17, verse
20. Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also which shall believe on me through their word,
that they all may be one as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee,
that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe
that thou hast sent me. Now this is the Savior's will
for His people that they be one with Him. Now what does that
mean to be one with Christ? Well, God's elect dwell in a
state of unity with Christ. God's people are one with Christ. One with Him. So that we are
what He is. Now that is a blessing. And it
is a rich one. How good and how pleasant it
is for believers to be made one with Christ. To dwell in unity
with Him. How good, how pleasant it is
to be made righteous in Christ. To have the obedience of Christ.
To not have my disobedience, not have my rebellion, but have
His obedience. Oh, how good, how pleasant it
is to have life in Christ. If I have that life, I can never
die. It's eternal, everlasting life, because He is our life.
How good, how pleasant it is to have Christ's peace. He said, my peace, I give unto
you. The same peace He had, the peace
that He earned, the peace that has been bought by His blood,
He said, I give it to my people. How good it is to be one with
Him so we have His peace, peace with God. How good, how pleasant
it is. to bear the name of Christ our
Savior, to no longer bear my worthless name, to not bear the
worthless name of Adam, but to bear his name. Behold, this is
the name wherewith she shall be called, Jehovah Sidkenu, the
Lord our righteousness. That's your name if you believe
Christ. Oh, isn't that pleasant? Isn't that good news? And how
good, how pleasant it is for the Father to see me, to see
you who believe. to see you in Christ. To not see me in my sin, to not
see me in my sin nature, to not see me naked, to not see me defiled,
but to see me in Christ. How good, how pleasant it is
that when the Father sees me, He doesn't see Christ and then
He sees me. No. All He sees is His beloved
Son. And I'm hidden in Him. Oh, that's
good. That's pleasant. That's the only
way you and I could ever be accepted. if the Father sees us in Christ.
When He sees us, all He sees is His Son. Oh, how good, how
pleasant it is to be accepted in the Beloved, to be what Christ
is. Now, that's the gospel. That's
how God saves sinners. He makes them to be the righteousness
of God in Christ. And when that gospel is preached,
the gospel that you're accepted in the Beloved, the gospel that
your righteousness is already accomplished, You don't have
to keep the law to earn our righteousness. That'd be bad. That'd be bitterness,
wouldn't it? That'd keep us divided from God. But when the Gospels
preach, it says your righteousness is Christ. Your sanctification
is Christ. Your life is Christ. Your peace
is Christ. It's all in Him. Oh, that's good
news from a far country. It's like somebody walking through
the desert for days and days and days and days. And they're
hot. Their skin is all sunburnt and
cracked and dry and peeling and aching. And it's like pouring
that precious consecrated oil on their head. And that oil runs
all down their body, runs down their face, runs down their beard,
just covers their whole body. And that ointment feels so good.
It's soothing. It's healing. And it smells so
good. Doesn't it smell good to you
to hear Christ's sacrifice has made you whole? It smells good
to God. God says it's a sweet savor to
Him. It smells good to His people too. I tell you, nothing can
make a sinner smell good except being one with Christ. Nothing. There's just one way that a dead,
stinking, rotten sinner can smell like anything, but the offensive
smell of sin and decaying dead flesh is to have union with Christ,
to be made one with Christ. Oh, how good, how pleasant it
is for sinful men and women to have unity with Christ. Now remember,
this goodness, this pleasantness, it comes from the top down. All
the blessing comes from the top down, from Christ down to His
people. And without this union with Christ,
there'd be no life. Without this union with Christ,
there'd be no sweetness, there'd be no blessing. Without Christ,
there'd be no forgiveness of sin, there'd be no life, there'd
be no honey of the gospel, there'd be no peace with God. But we
have all that, all of it, through union with Christ. What a blessing
it is, how sweet, how pleasant, how good it is for a sinner to
have union with Christ. All right, here's the third thing.
How good, how pleasant it is for a congregation to have unity. And this is the tricky one. Because
try as we might, even believers will not always have unity because
of our sin nature. We should. We must. But it doesn't
always happen. Paul and Barnabas were separated. At least for a while. I hope
they came back and were bosom buddies again. But for a while
they were separated. These are two believers. These are two
men, giants in preaching the gospel. They knew God. God blessed
them. But they were separated. Didn't
have unity for a while, did they? John Bunyan, I'll paraphrase,
but this is what he wrote. There are some believers you
just cannot have fellowship with until we both get to glory. He
wrote that. Maybe our day wasn't so different
from his, I don't know. And unfortunately, he's right.
Unfortunately, he's right. But I tell you what, I don't
ever want to be the cause of it. I don't want to be the brother
that you can't have fellowship with because I'm so contrary
and I'm so angry and I'm so contentious all the time that other believers
just can't have fellowship with me. I don't want to be that guy.
I want to have unity. I want to have peace with you.
I want to have peace with all of God's people. I don't want
to wait. I want to have it right now.
Don't you? And God's blessed us with that. I'm thankful. But
I'm telling you, don't take it for granted. I want to make it
easy for people to get along with me. I want to make it easy
for people to have fellowship with me, as long as I don't have
to compromise the gospel to do it. I really want to bend over
backward to have fellowship with you. I do. As long as I don't
have to compromise the gospel to do it. And every congregation,
a local church, absolutely should have unity. And when they're
not, there's something wrong with us. Something wrong with
us. Nothing wrong with the gospel. Nothing wrong with the Savior.
Where the Prince of Peace reigns, there should be unity. Is that
right? Of course it is. And I tell you
where our unity, when a congregation has peace and unity, I can tell
you where it comes from. Our unity comes from unity of
love. We're all in love with the same
Savior. If we're in love with the same
Savior, we'll have unity. Our unity comes from unity of
nature. You know, every believer has
two natures and we should remember this. We should remember this.
We all have unity of nature in Adam. Every single one of us
here has the nature of Adam. That ought to make us a little
understanding of each other, shouldn't it? You can't expect
nothing but sin and problems when somebody's got the nature
of Adam. But God's people also have the same nature. nature
of Christ. We've been made partakers of
the same nature and we have unity of nature and that should give
us peace, shouldn't it? Should. Should give us unity.
I'll tell you another place our unity comes from. Unity of need. Unity of need. We all, whether
we know it or not, we all desperately need the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a desperate need to hear
the gospel. And that ought to give us unity,
shouldn't it? Unity of purpose, that this would be a place where
the gospel is preached. Our unity comes from unity of
purpose. This is our sole purpose. This
is the purpose of this congregation. It's to preach the gospel to
our generation. Our generation. To preach it
to each one, from the youngest to the oldest. That's our purpose.
And we preach the gospel, first of all, because that's what God
commanded us to do. So we preach the gospel because
he commanded us to. But I'll tell you another reason we preach
the gospel. Because God's sheep need to hear it. If God's sheep
are going to be fed, we need to preach the gospel. If God's
sheep are going to be instructed and we're going to grow in grace
and the hearts of God's people are going to be comforted. We
need to preach the gospel. You know, this thing of comforting
God's people is important. God said it. Comfort you. Comfort
you, my people. You know, we live in a world
where there is no comfort. What do you got out there? You're
on your own. I mean, it's every man for himself.
And for the believer, on top of that, you're carting around
this old dead nature that's always whispering in your ear, that
gospel's not for you. Christ didn't die for you. This
can't be good. You've got to earn your way. Constantly dragging
you down. Constantly trying to drag you
back into captivity to the law. Constantly trying to ruin your
peace and your fellowship. You need to be comforted, don't
you? You need to be comforted. You know how that comes? The
preaching of the gospel. You care about these folks? I
mean, look around you. You care about these folks? Then we ought
to make it This is our purpose. It ought to be so easily done
that we're never distracted from this purpose to preach the gospel. That's what we'll do if we care
about one another. That's right. Look at 1 Corinthians 1. I tell
you when there's unity among God's people, when there's unity
in a congregation, it's when the gospel is preached. 1 Corinthians
1. Verse 10. Now I beseech you, brethren,
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the
same thing. That there be no divisions among
you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind,
in the same judgment. And that'll happen. There'll
be no divisions among us. We'll be perfectly joined together
in the same mind and same judgment if we all speak the same thing.
If the gospel's preached, we'll have unity. As long as what we're
doing is preaching the gospel, we won't be causing division.
And it's good and it's pleasant for a congregation to dwell together
in unity of purpose in preaching the gospel. That way, when the
gospel is being preached, and we don't have any other agenda,
that way we can all worship. We can all be fed. We can all
be instructed. We can all grow in grace and
knowledge. We can all have our hearts comforted
when we're reminded of Christ the Savior. There's so many things
that get us down and get us depressed and just down in the mouth. And
the only answer to whatever it may be is the preaching of the
gospel. You know, my sin depresses me. I mean, oh, it depresses me. Why do I do that? Why do I think
that? Why do I say that? It depresses me. And the only
thing that will comfort me is hearing about the forgiveness
of sin, our Lord Jesus Christ. The world depresses me. What's going on in our world,
the attitude of people, the attitude of our nation, what direction
are we going? I'm telling you, beyond worrying
me, it depresses me, just utterly depresses me. And the only comfort
I can find is in the gospel that tells me our God is sovereign. He's sovereign overall. Our Savior
has already overcome the world, and He's in complete control
of everything going on in it. Now that'll comfort my heart.
That'll comfort my heart. You'll need to remind me again
tomorrow, but it'll comfort my heart today. It surely will.
So we must, this congregation must be united in this purpose,
the preaching of the gospel. Now look at Ephesians chapter
4. This thing about unity, we should
be, we must have this unity. I'm telling you, we're going
to have to work at it. We're going to have to work at it to
have this unity with each other. Ephesians 4 verse 1, I therefore the prisoner of the
Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith
you're called with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering,
forbearing one another in love, working hard to keep the unity
of the spirit in the bond of peace. Now it's good, it's pleasant
for God's people to dwell together in unity, but you're going to
have to work at it. I'll tell you how you work at
it. Paul tells us here. With all lowliness, with meekness,
with long-suffering. Be long-suffering. Be quick to
forgive one another. Be quick to overlook the faults
of one another. Don't be looking for a fight.
Don't be looking for a reason that somebody slighted you. You're
going to be mad at them for the rest of your life. You're going
to pout at them every time you see them. It's good. It's pleasant for God's people
to dwell together in unity. Reach one in seeking His own
recognition. Reach one that's not seeking
His own praise. where each one's not seeking his own rights, but
where everyone is seeking what's best for others, so that it does
not detract from the preaching of Christ. You know, if I'm making
a show of myself, maybe I'm right. I'm probably
wrong, but maybe I'm right in demanding my rights and demanding
this, that, or the other for myself. But you know what I've
accomplished in doing? Destroying the unity of this
congregation. Now I've got somebody thinking about me instead of
thinking about the Savior. Instead of thinking about the
gospel. Instead of thinking about coming together to worship Christ
our Savior. Can you think about anything
worse than that? Can you think of anything worse than that?
To get somebody thinking about you instead of thinking about
the Savior. God forbid. God forbid. We're to work at having unity
with each other by giving up our so-called rights. I know,
Americans, we got our rights. Let me tell you what the right
of everybody here is. Everybody that gathers here,
whether they're a member of the T.R. Abbey service, whether it's
somebody that visits once on a blue moon. Let me tell you
what the right of everybody that comes in this room is. This is
our right. To be able to hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And no other so-called rights
of mine will ever Trump that, ever. I'm to give it up so that
you can hear the gospel of Christ and worship Him without any distraction. That's so, isn't it? And we're
to work at unity by remembering this. If we'll remember this
one simple thing, it really will help. To remember the important
thing here is not me. The important thing here is not
what's best for me. The important thing is what's
best for Christ. The important thing is what's
best for God's people. And whatever that is, whatever's
best for the glory of the Savior, whatever is best for you, God's
people, buddy, that's what I better be doing, no matter what it costs
me. I mean, it's such a silly, trite
example. But I mean, I think about it
because I sit up here looking at y'all wearing masks. I know, I understand
it's not the most comfortable thing in the world. Just so you
know this, I really do. I work on brevity. I know it
might be a little harder to breathe. I work on brevity here, so not
spending an hour and a half wearing this mask, me preaching it. I
understand it's not the most comfortable thing in the world,
but we do it. We do it to be obedient. The
Scripture tells us, whatever it is that our government tells
us to do, as long as it's not telling us what we can and cannot
preach, we're to be obedient. Scripture can't be more plain
than that. the reason that grips the hearts
of God's people. We do that to protect others. Now, if I can do something a
little bit uncomfortable to possibly protect you from some virus that
I might have, I ought to do it, and I ought to do it with a smile
on my face. Even if you can't see it behind my mask, I ought
to do it with a smile on my face, shouldn't I? I absolutely should.
That's unity in action. You just apply that to any little
thing that comes up. It's unity in action. The things
that disrupt the unity of God's people is always a small thing.
I mean, it really is never a big thing. It's a small thing. Watch
for those small things. Watch for those small things.
They'll destroy our unity. And when that unity and that
harmony is in place, God's people are blessed. They really are.
You've been someplace where you've heard the Gospel preached and
you may have really heard the Gospel preached, but there's
contention, there's strife going on. It just takes away from the blessing,
doesn't it? It does. But when that unity
and that harmony is in place, it's like that precious ointment
running down our head and running all down our body. Isn't it? It is. It feels good to the heart. It feels good to the soul. when
there's unity in the congregation. And I tell you when we'll have
unity, when we're all focusing on Christ. If we're focusing
on Him, how can there be anything but peace? How can there be?
And that's why this unity is such a blessing. This unity comes
when everybody's focusing on Christ. But one more scripture,
if you would, look at Acts chapter 2. Unity in the congregation
is good for us. It's good for God's people. But
you know what else? It's good for the lost. Unity
in this congregation is good for the lost who live around
us. Make good on that. Acts chapter 2 verse 41. Then they that gladly received
his word were baptized. And the same day there were added
unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of
bread and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul.
And many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all
that believed were together. They had this unity. They had
all things common. And sold their possessions and
goods and part of them to all men, as every man had need. And
they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking
bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness
and singleness of heart. They had this unity, singleness
of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people. Listen
to this. And the Lord added to the church
daily, such as should be saved. The Lord added to the church
daily, such as should be saved. That came when the congregation,
when that people there had unity of purpose, when they had one
goal to preach the gospel so that God's people, so that the
lost would be saved and to take care of one another. So God's
sheep would be fed. So they'd have life. So they'd
have the comfort and joy of the gospel. And now God commands,
God commands life to His people. But it comes down to us to the
preaching of the gospel. May God be pleased to make us
here to have and to seek this unity of heart, this unity of
purpose in preaching Christ. If God will give it to us, we'll
be blessed. We will be. Well, I want to wish
you all Just the merriest Christmas. I know this seems like it's a
weird Christmas. However, we feel like we can
celebrate it. But I hope you all have the best
possible time with all your families and hope Santa's good to all
you little ones and just brings you everything you want. I just
hope you get it all. And I'm just confident it won't spoil
you. That's what I hope for you. So we'll meet again on Sunday. Find out what everybody got,
all right? Let's bow together. Oh, our God, how we thank You
for Your Word. Father, I thank You for this
unity, the unity of the brethren. I thank You that it is Your unified
purpose, the unified purpose of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit to bless Your Word to save Your people. to call
out your people to give life and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Father, I pray you continue to bless Your Word as it's preached
to you. Father, bless. We beg. We do ask for our sake, for the
sake of our children, for the sake of our loved ones that don't
know You, for the sake of our community. But Father, for Thy
glory's sake, would You bless Your Word. Let us see Your glory
in our day in the salvation of And Father, I thank you for the
unity that you've given this congregation. I pray you'd give
us the wisdom to endeavor, work hard, to keep it, to earnestly
protect this blessing that you've given us. That you'd give us
a unified heart for this purpose, to worship and praise Christ
our Savior. Father, it's in His precious
name we pray and we ask this great blessing. Amen. All right,
you're dismissed.