The Blessed Unity of God's People

This morning we'll be in Psalm 133, so please open up your Bibles to Psalm 133. It's a very short psalm. It's only three verses long. This is one of the psalms that we call a psalm of ascent.

In other words, it's a psalm of going up to Jerusalem.

Every male in Israel was required to appear before the Lord in Jerusalem three times a year for these three different feasts and to be able to bring with them offerings and to be able to make sacrifices for their families. And you'll find the Psalms of Ascent starting in Psalm 120 going all the way through Psalm 134. So there's 15 of them all together. These are beautiful psalms. If you've never spent time reading them, I encourage you to take them and make them your devotion for a month. We typically have about 30 days in a month, so you could spend two days on each one of them.

And there's so much blessing in them, so many promises, such as, "The Lord is my shade upon my right hand." "I'll lift up my eyes to the hills, and whence comes my help?" "My help comes from the Lord."

In the Psalm of Ascent, the reason why it's called the Psalm of Ascent is if you look at a topographical map of Israel, Jerusalem was a city that sat on a hill, right? Mount Zion. It's a hilly city, and everywhere that you traveled within Israel's borders was normally going uphill if you were going to Jerusalem. If you recall, Jesus spent much of his time in Nazareth, which was to the north of Jerusalem. But yet, you see in the Gospels where he takes a turn, he's going up to Jerusalem. You think, "Well, he must be going north." No, he's going south, but he's going up to Jerusalem. In the Psalms of Ascent, you would have a large pilgrimage of people. It wasn't just the men. The men were the ones who were required to present themselves before the Lord and to make the offerings, provide the sacrifices. But they often bring their whole families. You remember the story of Jesus, right, he was 12, and his family made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. And it was a large caravan of people. Oftentimes, these groups would get larger and larger as they go from one little township to the next, as they got closer and closer to Jerusalem. And it was a joyous occasion, because you would see people you hadn't seen in a while. It's not unlike us when we get together for holidays, like Independence Day or Thanksgiving or Christmas. Maybe we get to see friends and loved ones that we don't see so often. It was a time of joy. It was a time of fellowship and so much for Christ, family, that they lost track of Jesus when he was 12 and he was back at the temple being about his father's business. Well, that is exactly the type of journey or pilgrimage that's being described here. The basis of the Psalm probably was something in David's own life, because if you look at the superscript, it says it's a Psalm of ascent and it's a Psalm of David.

King David would have written about this, the Psalm's theme is the blessed unity of God's people.

And David did not have a lot of unity in his later years, right? We believed this probably would have come upon him actually having a unified rule over Israel. If you recall, David was anointed to be king when he was but a teenager, young man. And it would be 15 years before Saul died and he was actually crowned king, but even then it was just over the southern part, what we call Judah. It would be another seven years before the northern ten tribes accepted him as their king. It was actually 22 years waiting, right? And when that happened, it was a glorious time. I want to turn your attention to the scriptures. You look, first of all, Deuteronomy 1616 describes the idea of these pilgrimage journeys. It says three times of year, all of your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which he chooses at the feast of unleavened bread, at the feast of weeks, at the feast of tabernacle, and they shall appear before the Lord, they shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. They were to bring with them their offerings or sacrifices. Then we see when David was actually crowned king, if you will, accepted as king over a unified Israel. We find that in 1 Chronicles 11, 1 through 3.

"Then all Israel came together to David at Hebron, saying, "Indeed, you are our bone and your flesh." We are your bone and flesh. Isn't that a neat way of saying we're one? We're bone and flesh. We're the same substance. Also, when times pass, even when Saul was king, you were the one who led Israel out and brought them in. And the Lord your God said to you, "You shall shepherd my people Israel and be ruler over my people Israel." Therefore, all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel according to the word of the Lord by Samuel. They had anointed him. They were actually doing it, though it would be 22 years later.

We also see 1 Chronicles 12, the very next chapter where the armies come together, and they ratify what the elders have already said. It says, "All the men of war who could keep ranks came to Hebron with a loyal heart to make David king over all of Israel. And all the rest of Israel were of one mind to make David king." They had loyal hearts, and they were of one mind. They were enjoying a special moment of national unity here. And they were with David three days, eating and drinking, for their brethren had prepared for them. They were celebrating. They had a three-day-long feast. Moreover, those who were near to them and from as far away as Ischachar and Zebulon and Naptali were bringing food on donkeys and camels, on mules, on oxen. Provisions of flour and cakes and figs and cakes of raisins, wine and oil, and oxen, sheep, abundantly, for there was joy in Israel." Unity is a blessed thing, is it not? It is a joyful thing. And they celebrated when David became king over Israel. That's probably the backdrop in David's mind when he's pinning this, because this particular psalm, even though it could have been his life, he was probably thinking about to those feelings where they're saying, "I am your bone. I am your flesh. We are of one mind. We are celebrating. We are having joy because you're God's man, and God has brought us together as a nation."

Pilgrim songs were sung to encourage the pilgrims on their way up to Jerusalem. So long after David had perished and the kingdoms were divided, this would have been the time of Christ, when Christ's family went up to Jerusalem, they would sing these songs of ascent, Psalm 120 through Psalm 134. And it was a way of praising God and giving him thanks. It was a way of joyful singing. Do you ever sing? Yeah? Do you ever have playlists? How about if you go to the gym and you work out? Probably have music in your ears, right? Maybe you're mowing the lawn or folding laundry. Maybe you have a playlist of your greatest hits. Well, the same thing for the Israelites. When they made the journey, the long journey by foot up to Jerusalem, this was their playlist. And Psalm 133 would have been one of them. They would have been singing this together.

Pilgrim celebrated that they had one God, they had one heart, and they had one mind. What was the purpose of going up to Jerusalem but to worship God, right? "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one. You shall love the Lord God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind," right? That's what they were doing, and they were doing it in unison.

The application for number one is this. Are you thankful for the fellowship of the body of Christ?

It's very much a parallel to what Israel had. Are not we all one in Christ Jesus? Every single one of us, if we have repented from our sins and placed our faith in Christ, we are united to Him through faith. His Spirit dwells within us. The same Spirit who dwells in me and dwells in Caleb. So Caleb is my brother, right? We both call upon the same Father. He is our God, right? We are truly bone of bone and flesh of flesh. That's a wonderful thing to have and to be thankful for, to have a church family. Yesterday, here in this very room, we had the home-going celebration for Don Peci, and it was a wonderful time of unity. We had brothers and sisters in Christ from all over, but they were here to worship God and to give thanks for our sister, Don, right? Christ is what unites us all, right? In the church, we may have different views on some things that are what we'd call non-essentials, right? The essentials is the gospel, that Christ was the very Son of God, that He took on flesh without sin. He was born of a virgin world to live a perfect life, to be a substitute for you and for me. And He died on the cross in our stead. The righteous one died for the unjust, that we might receive His righteousness. He was not only crucified, but He was buried. And He rose again on the third day, because He did not deserve death. Death cannot contain Him. He was the Son of God. He was innocent, and therefore, His justification is our justification, right? He rose from the dead, because it would be unjust for Him to stay in the grave, right? And same too with all of us who are in Christ, recovered by His blood, we're forgiven. God has bestowed His favor on us, just as He bestowed His favor on His Son, Jesus Christ. Christ was raised to the right hand of God Almighty, and from there, all blessing was poured out on the church, right? He poured out His Spirit upon us to equip us, to lead us, to make us Christ-like, and He's coming for us again. Those are the non-essentials of our faith. We can disagree on other things, though, right? Our interpretation of maybe the end times, or interpretation of this or that, that are not core, we can disagree with one other and still be as close as ever, right? Because it is our soteriology. It's what Christ has done for us, that unites us as brothers and sisters in Christ. And I am thankful for the fellowship of the Ula Baptist. I heard testimony today of, we had about 30 people, we still have some that are out, who went this past week or two to go to the Creation Museum and to go to the Ark Museum. What a glorious time they had of fellowshiping together. And that is a neat thing. That is a precious thing to have. We have a precious fellowship every Sunday morning in our Sunday school classes greeting one another. It does me good. This Sarah told me this morning, she says, "David, I want you to know I'm praying for you. I'm praying for Toby. I pray for you every single morning. I pray for your marriage. I pray for your ministry. I pray for your work. I pray for your family." How good is that? How sweet is that to hear those affirmations, right? It is a blessed thing and it's something that is worthy of giving thanks to God for the unity that He bestows upon His people. Unity is also something for us to behold and consider. Look at verse one.

"Behold how good and how pleasant it is for the brethren to dwell together in unity."

The word behold means to look at, to ponder, consider. Think of John the Baptist when he says, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." He was pointing to Christ, right? He was drawing our attention there. And unity is something that we should behold and ponder and consider because it is something that is rare in this world. This world does not know unity, it wants to divide us among every line. It divides people among age, right? It divides people. The world seeks to divide people along classes, hitting the rich against the poor, the haves versus the have-nots, the oppressors versus the oppressed.

The world loves to divide people among racial lines, right? "Oh, I'm this minority or I'm this minority and you've oppressed me and this and that and the loves to divide people along things such as gender, right? Between male and female and even creating these nonsensical genders that you can't even number, right? Multiplying them in madness.

It seeks to divide us among even families, right? I mentioned Sunday school class this morning. There's a real phenomena of younger kids who are in their 20s and 30s who are saying, "Hey, mom and dad, I think that you're toxic and I want to cut off family relationship." And how sad that that is, right? This world loves to divide. It loves to, and the reason why, if you divide, you conquer, right? It loves to reduce us down to anatomistic or individual state where we don't have the strength in numbers, right? What does the Bible say? "In a multitude of counselors, there's safety." The Bible talked about a quarter three is strong, right? And so the world loves to break down and it is very rare that we see true unity in a divided world. I want to read to you 1 Corinthians 3.3. Paul was admonishing the Corinthian church. They were his problem church. And he says, "You are still carnal for where there are envy, strife, and division among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere man?" He's realizing that's the natural state of man apart from Christ, right? Is to have division. It is to be carnal. It is to have envy. It is to have strife. It is to have covetousness. And even encourage and fan the flames of that.

You may have even heard in workplaces there is division between boomers and Gen X and Gen Y and Gen Z. It's silly, but there are tropes and memes that are passed around trying to pit one group of people versus another just upon their station in life and how wicked that that is.

So it's something to behold. True unity is something to behold because it's rare in this world. It's not unlike Moses when he was walking out through the wilderness tending sheep. And what did he see? Something very rare, but a burning bush, right? A bush that was on fire, but yet not consumed. So he stopped to behold it. It got a hold of his attention. And the psalmist here, David, is saying, "Behold the unity of God's people who dwell together as brethren." It's a precious thing to behold. It's also a precious thing to behold because it's not something that can be achieved by us. It's the work of God.

True unity comes from being one with Christ, right? And if we have Christ in us, he changes us from the inside out. He teaches us to love one another.

He teaches us not to covet one another. He teaches us to serve one another. That's not natural. Man can't achieve that. You can try, put on your best straight face and avoid having covetousness, avoid having envy, avoid having strife, but underneath the right pressure, sooner or later, it's going to rear its ugly head, right? So unity is rare because it's the work of God. You see it in God's people. Look at Galatians 3, 28. "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus." And ladies, you can say, "Yes, you're daughters of God." Okay? The idea here, though, is sons in that we're all heirs, right? And to the sons went the land. And so it's actually a compliment calling you a son in this case. Figuratively, you are the recipient of all the blessings of God because you are in the divine son. You are in Christ Jesus, if you believe. If you have faith in him, you are in Christ, and therefore you are treated as the son of God. "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ," meaning placed into Christ spiritually through faith, "have put on Christ," as if Christ is a robe that you've stepped into, right? And you've received all this merit, all the divine favor that the Father has for the Son. He says, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased." He now confers on us because we are indeed counted as a son because we're in Christ. We've been baptized into him. We've put on Christ. There's neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. Those who are in Christ, your primary identification is you're a Christian. It's not that you are married, white, grandpa, I'm describing myself. It's no, it's I'm in Christ, right? And if you're in Christ, we have unity and how sweet that unity is.

Application for number two. Give thanks that Christ unites us to himself and to each other. If it wasn't for Christ uniting us to himself, we would not be able to enjoy the sweet fellowship that we have this morning. We wouldn't be praying for one another. We wouldn't be encouraging one another. We wouldn't be gathered here singing praises together, reading the scripture together, giving together, just enjoying each other's smiles. We wouldn't have that apart from Christ. So give thanks that God has united us in Christ. It's the work of God and it is worth beholding and it's worth pondering because what is precious, what is the work of God is worth considering. It is worth giving our attention to.

Unity is exceedingly good, beneficial, and fitting. Unity is exceedingly good, beneficial, and fitting. Look at verse one. Behold how good.

He can't describe the depths of its goodness. He says, how good? In other words, he's saying it's good and gooder and goodest. It's the superlative good. He can't quantify how good it is. So he's marveling in the very goodness of the unity that God gives us. It is good. It is, as we mentioned, pleasant or beneficial and it is fitting. I want you to look at Genesis 1.31. You don't have to turn there, but in Genesis 1.31, this is after he's created everything, God beholds his creation and what does he say? It is good. What God does is good. That's tové in Hebrew. It's good. He uses that refrain all throughout Genesis because what God created there in chapter one is good. It is fitting and it is proper. Unity is good because it's his design for his people.

God created us to worship him and to have fellowship with one another.

Remember he created Adam and there was not a helpmate suited for Adam, fitted for Adam. So what did he do? He wounded Adam's side and took a rib out from Adam and he created Eve to be one who is comparable to him. It's not good that man should be alone, is what scripture says. God created us to dwell in community. It was his plan for Adam and Eve to bring him glory through their relationship and with their family. That extends to us today.

You may not have any family left in this world. The older I get, I've lost more and more family.

My elders have all for the most part passed away. My wife's parents are still here, thank God. I'm treasuring every moment I get with them. But even when we've lost all family,

when God calls them home, what do we have? We have our church family, do we not?

We have our brothers and our sisters in Christ to come alongside us, to walk with us, to grieve when we grieve, to rejoice when we rejoice, to be able to pray for one another and lift one another up. You're never alone. You may feel that you're alone, but not only is Christ with you, but you are united with your brothers and sisters in Christ. And so it is a good thing. It is a beneficial thing and it is a fitting thing. That's the very nature of what he says when he says that how good it is to behold the brethren dwelling together in unity. John 17, Jesus, in his high priestly prayer, this is the night before his trial. He's going to be crucified the very next day. He's already had the Last Supper. Look what he prays.

"I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their own." He wasn't just praying for his disciples, but he's praying for the disciples of his disciples, which is you and me. He says that they may all be one as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, just as the Father and Son are one from all eternity, but they also may be one in us and the world may believe that you sent me. He's saying that they may experience the fellowship of the divine Trinity and the person of the Son, to know the Father's love, to know the love of the Spirit, to participate in that through the Son, and that the world may know that you, Father, have sent me. This is God's design. It's God's design not only for your benefit, not only for blessing, but for the whole world, right? Because when we walk together in unity as Christians, we're sending a message to the world that they're not used to seeing. They're not used to seeing unity. Remember, it's a rare thing. It's rare as hen's teeth, so to speak, but the church is a bright light because we say that Christ is in us and we've received the full favor of God in the Son, right? And his Spirit dwells within us and you can have that same blessing. That's what we share and preach as the church. The application is this. Pray. Pray that our unity in Christ would be a witness to the world. It was the will of Christ to pray for the Father, to ask for this unity to be bestowed upon us that the world may know. And if it was worthy of Christ's prayer on the way to Gethsemane, it's not worthy of our prayer, right? Pray, how, Lord, can I show unity in the church? How can I show the love of Christ abiding in me? How can I show a changed life that loves God and loves his ways and loves his people, right? Pray that. And you'll see his unity more and more as he works that unity within us. Unity is not only exceedingly good, beneficial, and fitting, but unity is exceedingly pleasant, delightful, and lovely. Verse one, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for the brethren to dwell together in unity." The word pleasant

can be also translated as delightful and as lovely, right? There, a derivative of this is in Psalm 27.4. Many of you know it. "One thing I've desired of the Lord, that while I seek, I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple." Look at Psalm 81.2. "Raise a song, strike the timbrel, the sweet sounding lyre in the heart." Sweet, the word sweet is the same word here that's translated as pleasant in verse one. How good and how pleasant it is. It is a sweet thing to have unity. It is a sweet, blessed gift to experience just as you would taste. Yesterday they had donuts in the back, and you bite into a sweet donut, it sends your taste buds into merriment, it doesn't, right? That's a good thing. Same as with the fellowship. When you get a taste of heavenly fellowship, you don't want anything else, right? Vegetables are passe after that. "Give me the donuts, right? Give me the sweet stuff." Unity brings not only pleasantness, but delightfulness. Look in Psalm 116, song of songs. Here is a picture of a bride talking to the groom. "Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved and truly delightful." Our couch is green, it has so many metaphors there, but we say that you are truly delightful. That word delightful is the same word translated in Psalm 33 verse one as pleasant. So it means delightful, it means sweet, it means beautiful.

Application is this, "Blessed are the," what? "Peace makers," Matthew 5, 9, "Blessed are peace makers, for they shall be called the sons of God." We have a duty to set before us things that are right, things that are good. What is Paul right? Set not your mind on things below, but on things that are above, right? So we must strive together to be peacemakers, to experience sweet fellowship, to maintain it, to protect it, and to guard it, right? Be a peacemaker. And what does God say? He says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they are the sons of God." Christ is the prince of peace, right? And when we are peacemakers, we follow in Christ's steps. Unity is pictured when God's people dwell as a family. It's pictured when God's people dwell as a family. Verse one, "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." When it says to dwell together in unity, it means to be together as one. And sing, "How pleasant, how good it is for the brethren." Israel was referred to as brethren. It's not talking about a nuclear family here. In other words, father, son, mother, grandmother, not talking about that. It is talking about the family of God. In ancient times, Israel was addressed as brethren, right? Because they were the people of God, God's covenant people, a holy nation, right? In the New Testament, we find that those same words and same descriptions are applied to the church. We are the family of God. Because of Christ's work, right? Into the very family of God. And blessed are us when we dwell together in unity as a family. It's easy,

relatively easy, to share common beliefs with one another and common practices with one another when we're not together. In other words, at home, I can read God's word and I can pray and you're reading God's word and you're praying, and that's great, right? It's easy to follow God and say, "Hey, I got family. I'm going to pray for Jimmy because I know Jimmy and Joanne that were praying for Chip. That Chip's health will get better." So it's easy for us to remember someone's health. But then when we get together, it can be a little bit different, right? It's harder to have unity when you're gathered because sometimes we let our flesh stick up, right? We get short-tempered with one another. Sometimes we're tired. We let our guard down or we take for granted one another. And so it's harder to dwell together in unity. It's easier to be apart, right? Sometimes that's the way it is. However, in the church, we have the blessed benefit of having the Holy Spirit of God living within us, right? And if we're all centered on Christ and walking in the Spirit, then we want to pray for one another. We want to serve one another. What did Christ do in the upper room but put on the servant's uniform and He served His disciples? He says, "You do likewise," right? So it's neat to see us together serving one another. This morning, we had rain around one or two o'clock this morning or early this morning. In our little walkway that goes from the canopy all the way to the Sunday school classes was covered in mulch. I didn't know where a broom was. But as soon as Rebecca got here, Rebecca got a broom and started grooming. And then we had Carrie pick the broom up and broom some more. So we wouldn't have to walk through mulch all the way into Sunday school, right? That's serving one another, doing it out there in the hot sun, right? You see a need and doing it.

God's people are united in one spirit. I'm not going to read this, but if you look in Philippians, the whole chapter of Philippians 2 is talking about our Christian unity. And I'm going to read Philippians 2, 1 through 4. "But therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection in any mercy, if there's anything in Christ that unites us to each other," is what He's saying, "fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love and being of one accord of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interest of others." If we're truly doing that, if we're trying to esteem others better than ourselves, we're not worried when someone offends us. We're not worried when someone steps on our rights. "I have a right to be treated this way," or "I have a right to this." When you lay that down in service, it's okay, because the focus isn't on you anymore, right? It is on your brother. It is on your sister, right? So we are united together in the same spirit. We're united together in humility. We're united together in worship. Later on in Philippians chapter 2, it says, "Let this mind be in you." That was first in Christ Jesus who humbled himself right to the point of death, and he was exalted to the right hand of God, raised from the dead, that every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. We're united in our worship. We're united in our mission. If you continue to read there in Philippians 2, it talks about how church is to be a witness, a light in this world. Then it says in verse 17 and 18 of Philippians 2, I want to read that to you, that we're united even in our ministry to one another. It says, actually, I'm not going to read it. I'm going to pass up, but just know that it talks about our ministry and service to each other. We often think of being united only in our mission of preaching the gospel, but it starts here. It starts in our ministry to one another, and you'll find that in Philippians 2, 17 through 18.

The application for this is this. Let this mind be in you, which was first in Christ Jesus, Philippians 2, 5. Christ is our example, right? He left glory, humbled himself, took on human flesh, was susceptible to human weaknesses, to hunger, to thirst, to suffering,

and He did it to save us, right? He laid down His life for us, and that is what we do to make each other family. We've been made family in Christ, so we lay down our lives for each other just as Christ laid down His life for us. Unity also flows from Christ our head to His body, sharing with His people His holiness, intercession, and blessing. Let me reread that. Unity flows from Christ our head to His body, sharing with His people His holiness, intercession, and blessing. It's not just that Christ is our example, that He laid down His life for us as Philippians 2, 5 says, "We should have that same mind and follow His example." It's not just that. It's that the actual blessing of unity starts with Christ and flows down to us, and we see that in verse 2. "It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down to the edge of his garments." He's referring to Aaron, Moses' brother, the high priest of Israel. Aaron was a type of Christ. Christ is our prophet, giving us the Word of God. He is our priest who made sacrifice for us, continues to make intercession for us, and to bestow blessings upon His church. And He is our King who delivers us out from the domain of darkness and into His marvelous light. And all these Old Testament offices pointed forward to Christ, and Aaron, as high priest, pointed forward to Christ. When Aaron was anointed as priest, they took a special mixture of oil and they put it upon his head. You can read about this in your own time in Exodus chapter 20. Fascinating read where you find that this oil was very special. It was made with the most costly of fragrances mixed together by the finest perfumist.

Normally, oil is used in the Scripture as pictures of gladness, of joy. If you had someone in your house, you would anoint them with oil to refresh them, to bless them. But that's not the main purpose here of the oil that was put upon Aaron.

It was an oil that was precious, that was described in Exodus 20 as being holy. And it was to demarcate him as the high priest of God. And that oil was only to be placed upon the priest. You couldn't go in no matter how much money you had or whatever your status is and get some of that oil. It was reserved for the priest. Okay. What we find in Scripture is that he was anointed with this oil of consecration. I said Exodus 20, I meant Exodus 30. You'll have to forgive me.

As being anointed by God with this oil, he would then proceed to make sacrifice. That was part of what he did. Every day, there was a priest that would go in in the morning. It wasn't the high priest. But every morning he would do the morning sacrifice and the separate priest would go in and do the evening sacrifice. They would take the sacrifice that was made on the brazen altar. They would go into the temple and they would sprinkle it there on the altar of incense. In the tabernacle or the temple itself. After that, they would intercede while they were inside the temple, they would pray. They were carrying with them reminders of Israel. When it was a high priest, he'd wear the breast plate on his chest, which had 12 stones. In each one of those precious stones were each one of the 12 tribes of Israel. It had their name on it. Right? And from there, after he would make intercession before God in the temple, he would go out and he would pronounce God's blessing on the people. Right? After he would pronounce the blessing on the people, the Levite chorus, the Levitical singers would begin to sing. One interesting thing is there were 15 steps that went from the outer precincts of the temple into the temple proper. And the Levitical singers would sing each one of these songs of incense, one per step, as they made their morning procession to the temple and also their evening procession to the temple. So it was an act of worship is what he would do. And when the priest, such as Aaron, the oil was poured upon his head, it was poured out in copious amounts, large amounts, uncomfortable amounts, and it would go from his head down to his beard. Now, the way this is translated, depending on how he translate the some have said that Aaron's beard went all the way down to the hem of his garment.

I'd have been a spectacular beard, wouldn't it have? Doesn't have to be translated that way, though. It could just be to the vestment of his garment, the aperture of his neck, that the oil would flow from his head down his beard like a ladder onto that breastplate, representing the 12 tribes of Israel and would soak his clothes. Okay.

That was a picture, the blessings of Christ.

The Bible tells us in Ephesians chapter one that we are blessed in the heavenly places with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. When Christ ascended the right hand of the Father, he sat down because he's done making sacrifice. He made the sacrifice once and for all. And what does he do from there? He led captivity captive and he bestowed gifts upon his people. He sent out his spirit. He blesses us. All spiritual blessing comes from our head, Christ. And one of those blessings is the unity of the people of God. It's just as the anointing oil came from the head of Aaron down his beard onto his clothing. So the blessing of unity starts with Christ. He is one with the Father, right? Spirit goes between him, the Father blessing one another. It's this triune blessedness from all eternity is now bestowed and shared with us, his people. It comes down to us. And the blessing of him becomes to us. On Christ, the spirit was poured without measure. You find that in John 3, 34. He was the anointed Messiah, right? On whom the spirit was poured out without any measure, without any reservation. In the same way, the spirit pours Christ out on us, without measure. We receive the very fullness of God. Christ shares his fullness with his people. John 1, 16 through 17. Of his grace we've received, right? Fullness we've received, grace for grace. In Christ we receive all of God. We don't receive just a little bit of God. We see the divine fullness because Christ is the fullness of God. And we receive that when we receive his spirit in our salvation. Christ blesses us with every spiritual blessing in him. Let me read to you from Ephesians 1, 22 through 23. "And he, God, put all things under his feet," Christ, this is in Christ exaltation. He made everything subject to Christ. "Put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all and all." God, his fullness is displayed in Christ Jesus. We can't see Christ until he returns, but we can see his body. That's us, right? And his body is his fullness, right? It's the display of his fullness. He's gifted us all, and one way that we show his fullness is in our unity.

The application is this. Receiving Christ makes his people to be the children of God. Receiving Christ makes his people to be the children of God. John 1, 12 says that, "To all who believed in him, he gave the right," he gave the earning, "to be called the children of God." And so we are. Unity flows from Christ our head to his body, sharing with his people his life, refreshment, and fullness. Not only do we find God's holiness, his consecration in Christ, but we find his very life. We find refreshment and fullness. Look in verse 3.

It's the second metaphor, the first metaphor to describe this is the beard of Aaron. The second is the dew of Hermon, good old mountain dew. It's like the dew of Hermon descending upon the mountains of Zion. For there, the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore.

He describes this unity that he's beholding, that he's amazed to see God's people dwelling together in unity. He says it comes from above, just as the oil came down the beard of Aaron, so too, Christ's unity comes from the head. The second metaphor is just like the one, but instead of using a person, here he's using a figurative place, a real place, and this is Mount Hermon. If you look on a map of Israel, Mount Hermon is the very north, right? It's where the mouthwaters begin, the headwaters of the River Jordan now goes right down the middle of Israel, right? And that's about 180 miles or so from Jerusalem. That's a long way.

Mount Hermon is noted, even to this day, for its excessive dew. It produces a lot of dew. If you put a tent there, it will be wet. If you keep your sheep out at night, they're going to wake up wet, just the way it is, it's very lush there because of this alpine effect, right?

Meteorologists will even say that mountains 150, 180 miles away can have a great effect downstream. You can have coolness and refreshment that comes from them. This is being pictured here as a way of saying that unity, again, comes from God. Times of refreshing comes from God. Times of life, of fertilization, of fruitfulness that we find in the unity of Christ only comes from Him. You can't fake unity just like you can't fake life, right? Can you fake fruitfulness? No. People can see that, but this comes from the Lord.

Zion symbolizes where God dwells with his people, and you'll find that if you flip over just a couple of pages of Psalm 125, verse 1 and 2, we see that Mount Zion is simply another name for Jerusalem, but it's figurative for the people of God where God dwells among his people. Psalm 125, one of the Song of the Sensors, verses 1 through 2, "Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever." "As mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people, from this time forth and forever." Mount Zion is pictured as a place where God dwells, where he surrounds his people.

What did Jesus tell the Samaritan woman? She says, "My people say we can worship God and gurizim." Here you Jews say you have to worship there in Zion or Jerusalem. Which is it? And Jesus says, "The time is coming and now is when you're not going to worship him there or there, but you'll worship him in spirit and in truth." God's people is where he dwells, and where he dwells, you'll find refreshment that his unity brings. You'll find fertilization where his unity brings. Do you want to grow in Christ? Do you want to be fruitful?

Be a part of his body. Isn't that not what Ephesians 4 tells us? That God gave some prophet, some apostle, some pastor, some teachers. What? For the edifying of the body, for the building up of the church. We use our gifts to edify one another. When we serve, when we exhibit mercy, when we use gifts of administration, whatever gift God has given you, it's for the edification of the body. That is part of this unity. That is part of this fruitfulness, just as the dew coming down off the mountain provides refreshment and vitality to all who live below.

Christ unites all of his people with them in Zion. We've preached before on Hebrews 12, or I've preached before on Hebrews 12. I want to read to you Hebrews 12, 23, which is a picture of God's people. It says, starting verse 22 of Hebrews 12, "But you have come to Mount Zion." It means it's not something that you've got a pilgrimage to anymore as Christians. It's something you've already attained if you are in Christ Jesus, because if you are in Christ Jesus, he dwells in you, and you are in him. It says, "But you have come to Mount Zion into the God." That's his vitality. That's his life that he shares with us. "The heavenly Jerusalem to an innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, who were registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel." He's picturing a unity that we can't even see. Where angels participate in our unity, when we worship, angels here are present this morning. When we're worshiping here this morning, God is worshiping in heaven with us, isn't she, Jeb? That's what the Bible tells us. The spirits of just men made perfect, right? We're all worshiping the same Lord, and we're in unity with one another, and that is life-giving. That is something that fertilizes our faith. That is something that we can't make on our own, but God bestows upon us. First John 4.9 says, "In this the love of God was manifested towards us, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world, and that we might through him." This is God's love. Just like the dew coming down from the mountain, it's bestowed upon us through Christ. Lastly, unity is inseparable from the gospel.

Look in Psalm 133 verse 3. He says, "It is like the dew of Hermon, descending upon the mountains from there the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore." The church must proclaim eternal life in Christ Jesus alone. That blessing that was given, the new covenant, that is the gospel, that Christ died for me, it's commanded, right? What did Jesus commission us before He ascended into heaven? He says, "All authority has been given to me on both heaven and earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations."

We can't ever hope, hope to have unity in this world apart from the gospel.

You can rally around the flag. That used to be something that people would do, patriotic. Now people say they're triggered by the flag, right? You could rally around the cause, save the whales, whatever else, but those are all going to fall short. The only way that we'll ever have unity, the only way that you can ever have world peace is through the Prince of Peace. It's through Christ who came to lay down His life for us so that we could all live if we repent and believe in Him.

John 6, 47 says, "Most assuredly I say to you," it's Jesus' words here, "He who believes in me has everlasting life." It's the only way is through believing in Christ. We've mentioned before, believing in Christ includes both faith and repentance, right? To be able to turn to Christ in faith, you have to first turn away from hope in everything else, right? And that's the gospel, that He is worth turning to. He alone gives life and gives us life abundantly as we see in John 11.

The application is this, unity begins in obeying the gospel. It's where it starts. It starts, "Christ, I want you to be in me and I want to be in you." My prayer today, if you have not trusted Christ, turn to Him. In Him alone, you'll find blessed union with our God. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank You for the unity that You grant this church, what a blessing it is to be one with our Savior. Therefore, we are one with one another. I pray, Lord God, that You do its work, that You would set us apart, Lord, in holiness and in goodness. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.