The Blessing of Unity

Good morning. Please turn in your copy of God's word to the Book of Psalms.

we are concluding our Summer, break in the Psalms. Psalm 133. Will be our text for today.

Children, as we get ready to take up this reading, I want you to listen for what happens to the priest. And what comes from the mountain.

or Herman specifically as the mountain is called and pay attention because you will have a little assignment after after we read Psalm 133. A song of a sense of David. Behold, how good, and how pleasant it is for Brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious oil upon the head running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron. Running down the edge of his garments. It is like the Dew of Hermon descending upon the mountains of Zion for there. The Lord commanded the blessing life. Forevermore.

No children. I want you to

I want you to draw two pictures. Two pictures. The first I want you to draw a priest. Being Anointed with oil. What that means is he has oil that's being poured on top of his head. So draw a picture of a priest. If you don't know what a priest looks like, just draw the picture. Draw a picture of a pastor with oil being poured on his head. and then, draw a picture of Of a mountain. With do, which is like little bitty. They're not quite raindrops cuz they don't fall from Heaven, but with like clouds of of water around the mountain, okay?

This song. It's one of those songs that we are very familiar with and it's familiar to us because it speaks of pleasant things and as the psalmist writes in the beginning of this song, It Doesn't just speak of pleasant things. It speaks of good things and particularly the good that it is, and how pleasant it is to dwell together in unity. This is no doubt. A favorite song in our denomination to sing, it has a nice encouraging and cheerful tune that goes with it. And so we are, as we've been thinking about the life of Faith over these last few weeks. In the song, we come to this key part, which is unity in the faith. and so, we're going to take this up under three headings The first being the benefits of unity. The second, the disruptions of unity and then third the maintenance of unity. So let's begin with the benefits of unity and it is good for us to consider at the outset of this, what the psalmist or how the psalmist describes The unity of dwelling the unity of Believers noticed that he says it is good. He says, behold how good it is and two points you to other. Other areas in scripture where this term is used in this same. Sort of way, I want you to think back to Genesis chapter 1, And recall that refrain that that often follows God's creative works. Is said that he made evening and morning or he made the sun moon stars and it was evening and morning the fourth day and God saw that he had created that it was good. And he repeats that he repeats that a total of six times, but it is good and the one time that we find in Genesis in those opening accounts of Genesis chapters 1 & 2. The first thing. That God declares to be not good. Is Adam being alone. So that's the first thing that we need to acknowledge that. That Unity is a good thing. It's a good thing. We might even say that Unity is a very good thing.

Put the song That's goes on and he also declares that Unity is a pleasant thing or as some translations put it Unity is a delightful thing. So it's good and it's Pleasant and it's not pleasant in some cliche sort of sense but it is delightful. It is encouraging. It it builds up the soul. And it's good for us to have this. Have this at the front of our minds as we go to to consider this issue. because sometimes, Sometimes Unity doesn't seem very good or rather, the pursuit of unity doesn't seem very good and the pursuit of unity doesn't always seem Pleasant or delightful. What scripture declares very plainly that it is good and it is delightful. So that's that end goal that arriving at Unity. That is described them as being good Pleasant. And delightful. So the first thing that we that we need to note here under the benefits of unity as first that this is a Unity Unity is a thing that comes from gone it comes from God to man. And we see this in a couple of different ways, notice how the psalmist describes the oil, being poured on the head of the priests than in this tax, she's referring to the priest. The specific priest of Aaron. That it is, it is like that occasion when oil was poured. And if you recall on that occasion, there were a couple things taking place first, it was the Lord who set apart Aaron and his sons to serve as priest. It was the Lord who commanded the particular, right? That would be involved in ordaining. Those men to serve in that office. It was the Lord who gave the prescription? What the oil would be like that they would use for anointing. And all of this comes from the Lord. Now we can add another element to it. Paul often likes to use the imagery of a body for the church and when he does that, he starts with the head and he describes the head of the body as Christ and the rest of us all United together form the rest of the body with Christ as the head. And so if we take that, if we take the imagery of the church as a body and we understand this anointing that's being described as describing one, our Union with Christ and then the benefits that we partake of, as a result of being united with Christ, then it means and we should see here that as the oil is poured upon the head, that ultimate priest who was not from the line of Aaron. But from The order of Melchizedek that as that anointing oil is poured upon his head, it flows down and it touches the rest of his body as well.

Now we should also learn from this, that Unity not only comes from crying but it is abundantly given no. Sometimes in today's and in our world today, when anointing with oil is used, we're not very generous with the oil. We might take like maybe a capful and then just like poor, the little cap full Under head. But what this is describing is that there is so much oil being poured on the head of the priests that it's running down and it's not just running down his head and into his beard. But it goes from his beard to the rest of his garments. It is a generous giving of unity. but it's also describes the pleasantness that is this unity and end, we see that particularly In the use of oil. And I want you to think about this, the, the oil that was used, which we find we find this, given in Exodus chapter 30, it was, it was a combination of olive oil with a variety of spices that would have been a pleasing Aroma to all to all those who witness it and were present either in the priest present or present as the ordination was taking place. I'm sure there's a certain sense in which its sensory its sensory experience is a pleasant experience, but we also need to remember the context in which this anointing took place in Exodus 30, it was a context of worship. And so what we learn from this then is that Unity true Unity, which comes to us, from God, from our Triune God, through the mediator ship of the Lord Jesus Christ, it comes to us through the vehicle as it were of worship. No. It's not to say that. That you can only experience Unity within the time confines of public worship. But it's that that's where it starts. And why is it that? That's where it starts well because it is in worship that we meet with God in a unique and special way it is in worship that God promises to be with his people in a way unlike his presence at any other time. In any other place. You see. We maintain that God is omnipresent right? Which means that God is present everywhere and yet when God's people Gather for worship. They enjoy a unique presence of God. And so this Unity flows through partaking in this unique presence of God. And there are all sorts of benefits that come to us as a result. One. Is that we have our sinful Hearts corrected, right? Our sinful Hearts 1 there more sinful than we realize. And of all people we realize the sinfulness of our own Hearts better than anyone else. And yet the constant refrain that we find in scripture is that our best Works. Our righteousness is as filthy rags and yet in Christ, in Christ, our sins, which have a Scarlet stain become white as snow. Think about that. I think about that. And let's, let's think about white garments and red stains and how difficult it is to get red stains out of white. Garments must think even more particularly about blood stains in white garments. And it doesn't matter if you simply busted your knuckles and then as guys are often a pro How to do you wipe it on your shirt or something? When you get those stains on, especially a white shirt, it is incredibly hard to get out. And yes, that is the imagery use of our centaurs are staying of sin being removed from us. And we are told in other places then that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of gone. We are told in other places that it is through the preaching of the word that God has ordained for the ordinary process of Salvation to take place, which means than that, as we gather together in worship, we are hearing from God. We are experiencing God in a way that is unique. And in a way that is both refreshing to the soul as well as cleansing for the soul.

Not another aspect to this again, highlighting this. This elements in in Verse to that the process of anointing. A priest takes place during corporate worship. We are reminded that Unity requires Community, Unity requires community and there are various blessings that actually come about as we come together. And as we are united together, in the worship of argon, think about Colossians chapter 3, where Paul exhorts this singing of songs, hymns, and spiritual songs, which we understand to be the Salter, and notice notice the directions that Christ through the Apostle Paul gives to us. But what are we to be doing in our singing? We are to let the word of Christ dwell in this richly. Singing to God. But yes, we do sing to God, and that's, it's important to remember, but we're not just singing to God, we are singing to one another so that in our singing We are teaching admonishing one another as Paul would say, in his letter, to the Ephesians, we are teaching and admonishing one another, to be filled with the spirit. And so, even in our singing, in our worship, we are gathering together and it requires our community. Because how can we teach and admonish one another in song? If it's just us, How can we be fulfilling that commands? Also we are commanded elsewhere say and Hebrews 13:2 not neglect, the Gathering Together of Believers. And again going back to Genesis what is the one thing that that God calls not good. It's Adam being alone and at this time he would have had all the animals and all of the other created beings but he had no other human companion. That's what what is declared? What is declared to be? Not good. Is a a loan existence and that is also true when it comes to the pursuit of unity. You seem Again, we've I think, I mentioned this last week or the week before, but you've heard the, you've heard the phrase that bad company corrupts good behavior. We see God has God has created us in such a way so that we need to be around people. And what's the fastest way that you can make someone go absolutely insane. You isolate them and you do not let them have any interaction with the people around them and this was a tactic that was often used in World War II. That's how they would break, some of their prisoners is by isolating them. So this, in order for us to be United, to experience, the blessing of unity of dwelling together, it requires Community, it requires that we have people to be United with. No. We're going to shift our Focus for a moment. We're going to look at the disruptions of unity and I realized that this particular point isn't addressed. Explicitly in the text, I get that bear with me. The destructions of unity sometimes when we think about the ideal of church Unity we think of it in such a way as to say, if if nothing else to say by our actions, that, that the pursuit of unity in the acquiring of unity would be a relatively easy task. And what we forget, Is that there are many things in this life that actually serve to work against unity and that they will wind. Unity has been established these things can also and often to disrupt that Unity So, we're going to address it under. Well I guess one primary heading and then two subheadings under that. So what disrupts Unity will first and foremost cin-cin disrupt Unity, we see this. We see this in the very first instance back in Genesis chapter 3 with the fall of Adam and Eve. What's the first thing that we learn? What when Satan who had?

Who has possessed the serpent when Satan convinces Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit. And then when Eve turns and gives it to Adam, the immediate effect is that they're ashamed of their existence and and the sound that had become so familiar and so sweet to them. Now, became Dreadful, we are told that they heard the sound of the Lord, Walking In The Garden, in the cool of the day. They heard that sound and we're in times past that would have resulted in them running to the Lord. Now they're running away from him. Because of their sin. The one in whom they used to take the light, their creator, the one with whom they were made to have a great relationship with. Now, they are afraid of and they run from him, they run from it.

Until we see in the first instance, that sin disrupt our Unity with God, send disrupts our relationship with God and it alienates us because we recognized on a basic level. That God cannot dwell with sin. He is holding. He is Thrice, holy right? What is Isaiah saying? In Isaiah 6, at the Lord is described as holy. Holy, holy

and so when we bring our sin unrepentantly into the presence of gone, it disrupts that relationship, And what's even more, sad is the fact that we have a way of dealing with that disruption, which sin causes think about what what the Apostle John tells us. That God when we send that he is faithful. And just to forgive us and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness and ending, isn't that where the the imagery of our sins being like scarlet and then being washed white as snow? That's where it comes from. The idea that in our Union with Christ, we are cleansed of our sin and yet, when we remain unrepentant of our sin, It disrupts that relationship. It's a scrubbs that Unity that Union that we share with Christ. And as Jesus tells us that if we have Christ, we have the father and we have the spirit so it's not just that it disrupts our relationship with the Son of God, it disrupts our relationship with the entire Trinity. But sin doesn't just disrupt our relationship with God. It disrupts our relationships with one another and this is where I want to, to go into further distinguish, this or to highlight to particular areas, One, that is common to all men and the other one is coming to all men, but is seen at times particularly within reform circles. so first We see the destructive power of sin when it comes to loving our neighbors as strife's and slander. Goes and damages our neighbor and damages our neighbors reputation. I want you to think about when Jesus was asked, what is the greatest Commandment that Jesus? Well, as he was prone to be unapologetically upsetting to the Pharisees gives them two Commandments. The first love the Lord your God with all your heart mind, soul and strength and the second love your neighbor as yourself. And we can take these two summaries of the commands of God and divide. Even the Ten Commandments according to them, where we understand that Commandments, one, through four, particularly address, how we are to love, God and Commandments 5 through 10, particularly the address, how we are to love our neighbor. Now there is some bleed over in that we can get into that a little bit later but for now just just Baron mine. That is that summary. The Christ understands is loving your neighbor. So when we rebelled against proper authority, god-given authority, that is not loving our neighbors. When we are angry with our brothers without cause that is not loving our neighbor when we steal from from others. That is not loving our neighbor when we go. And and Take up sinful habits such as pornography or other sexual habits. We are not loving our neighbor. When we speak in a manner that is false. We are not love our neighbor. When we desire, our neighbors things rather than being glad for them that the Lord has blessed them. We are not loving our neighbor.

An end to further. Press this point home, I want to bring up.

Just the words. In the Greek that are typically translated into English as slander just just so you get an idea of how the Apostle Paul and other writers speak of slander.

there are two principal words used, The first is diabolos, which is where we get our word devil, Diablo. It's that that's the first one that's the most common one actually. So that slandering is being, we could say a devil towards our neighbor, but then the other one that is used is it's the same word from which we derive, our English, word blasphemy, I just think about that for a moment, slander. Is is then being described as acting in a devilish way or blaspheming our neighbors. That's, that's serious. It's serious. And so, and so when we send in these sorts of ways, We don't just, we don't just harm, our neighbors, mentally or something. We go further. And we actually, we actually cause disruptions. We cause divisions, we called schisms by how we interact with our brothers.

No, there's another one that I want to point out and like I said, this is, I'm sure we can find examples of where this is true in the world and we can find examples where this is true in the church. But I want us to think about how this can be true and I pray that it is not true for us in this local Vonnie, but the pursuit of knowledge or studying can actually can actually result in a cause of division. It can actually be a disruptor of unity and this this is how and when it becomes a disruptor of unity, when we are seeking after knowledge for the mere sake of knowledge, when we are seeking after knowledge simply so that we can win a debate or simply so that we can tell the unbeliever why they're wrong. or when we come to a position, and then we forget We forget that a position that we may have wrestled with for for five or six years, all of a sudden we expect someone to come to it in an instance. And so, the pursuit of knowledge studying can also be a disruptor of unity. One way in which we see that particularly is when is when people go and hold up, one particular translation of the Bible or one particular Salter and say, if you are not using this Salter, or if you are not using this translation of the Bible, you are not a Christian and sadly, that happens, that happens in reformed circles where if you are not using the King James and I don't know, I don't quite understand why. It's it always seems to center around the King James Bible but it does. That if there are some who would say that if we are not using the King James exclusively that therefore, were either not Christians or were not reading the Bible. That we are reading the Devil's Bible, if we're using anything else. And by the way, for those that take that extreme position, they would include the new King James. Under the category of not the Bible of Satan's Bible, brothers and sisters, that is not only is that schismatic and divisive Behavior. But that is a major disruptor to Unity. And and I want you to think about that picture again, that Christ gives us. What is he tell? How does he tell us? That the world will know. We are his disciples. It's not through the theological library that we've built. It's not through whatever cars or trucks that we may. We Christ says that we will Proclaim to the world and thus the world will know that we are his disciples by our love. For one another not by our love for the world, but by our love, for those for whom Christ has died. so,

how then do we maintain? How then do we maintain Unity?

And as we go and and take up this point, I want to draw your attention to verse 3. I want you to notice the imagery that is being used to your first three says, it is like, so Unity, Is like the Dew of Hermon descending upon the mountains of Zion for there. The Lord commanded the blessing life forevermore Now, we need to acknowledge one thing at the outset is that Herman and Zion those mountains are nowhere near enough to each other, for the joy of Herman to actually fall upon the mountains of Zion. And so, the psalmist is using this imagery and he's using it because Herman is notorious for having. Well, will say heavy dues or abundant dues that come in, water, the land. And so when he's describing it, he's wanting us to take that picture of Mount Hermon, which is situated further north from Zion or Jerusalem, and he wants us to understand the Jew that falls on Herman where it fertiles and and gives life. Essentially all of their land surrounding it. He wants us to understand that do and unity as being like that, too. But on Zion So instead of just in the north, he wants us to think of this in such a way to say that the unity of the church is like the two of Herman that Waters.

In a bunch of Lee Waters without flooding.

the hills and the valleys, and The plains around Mount Hermon in using this imagery. Is that Unity is refreshing. It's hard work. It requires a lot of sacrifice but it's refreshing and not only is it refreshing? But the end result is actually more growth. More Harvest to be yielded. Think about that, we can we can go and speculate about what? What church strategy we need to take or, or how we need to go about growing the church. But what's been emphasized here is that the growth of the kingdom comes as God's people are united in their love first for Christ. And then also in their love for one another. So how do we maintain Unity? First thing Doctrine is important and particularly there are three areas of doctrine that are absolutely necessary in order for the maintaining of unity. And the first is we have to have a proper understanding of God. We have to have a proper understanding of God. And what I mean by that is we must understand our God to be one. God who has eternally existed in three distinct persons One Essence, three, distinct persons. Not three modes of existence, but three, distinct persons. Not three gods and three persons one. God and three, distinct persons. And if we get that wrong, then we're going to get our understanding of scripture wrong, and we're going to get our understanding of Christ wrong.

The next thing that we need to have, Is, we need to have a right and proper understanding of who Jesus is. Who is Jesus and where we need to start is that he is the Son of God. Jesus is the son of God. He did not become God, he has eternally been God. Jesus is the Eternal Son of God, who took on human flesh. And so, Took a body to himself. And how he does that without without it being mixed in, with the essence of God, is a mystery. And it's something, the scripture does not define and explain for us. And as I used to tell those, the children that I taught in various classes, Sunday, School classes, if scripture doesn't tell us, then we don't need to know. The scripture doesn't tell us, we don't need to know. It doesn't mean that it's not a curious question. But as Moses said or rather as God said to Moses the secret things belong to the Lord. And the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever. What has been revealed is that the Son of God came to Earth took on human flesh? But in a way where his humanity and his divinity were not confused and smashed together, they remain. Distinct. And so we must hold to that The third we must have a right view of the word of God. Now this can be particularly confusing when it comes to our Westminster Confession and modern terminology used with regard to the word of God, there are some won't let me start with our Westminster Confession summarizes. It's saying that the word of God which is contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testament is the word of God. The scriptures contained in the Old and New Testament is the word of gone. Now, there are some Scholars who came later and they want to highlight that word contain. And what they want to say by that is that it has the word of God, but it is not the word of God and we reject that view scripture, doesn't merely contain God's word as if we need to go searching for in order to find it, the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments or defensively the word of gone. and so, it's on these It starts with these three points, where someone disagrees with us, theologically on these points, we cannot be United with them. We can't cuz they end up rejecting our savior.

The second way that Unity is maintained is by regular participation and worship the regular participation and worship. There are certain events in life that that may prohibit us from attending on any given day or any given week. But our commitment, not just to the public worship of God, but also to the gathering together, with this local body needs to be such that we make it a priority. That we prioritize coming and worshipping with God's people and especially when we have joined this local body that is a commitment to gather with God's people at this local assembly as much as we can. And as often as we can, we are to do this because one it is true worship that our souls are saved and Sanctified God uses the preaching of the word to draw centers to himself. And also to sanctify us to, to shine a light upon our specific Sims. So that we may know what sins are needing to be repented up and turned away from. But also the worship of God serves to unite us together as God's people and we can't be United together as God's people. If sometimes we attend worship and sometimes we don't It's, it's an impossibility. All that that would do is it would eventually lead us to a point where we are unable to Fellowship until love God's people as we aren't because we have distanced ourselves and it's a heartbreaking thing. It's heartbreaking. And so this is one of those areas where we must pursue Unity through the participation. In worship, I would add to that. That we should also consider times of Fellowship, especially on the Lord's day because because the Lord uses fellowship with Godly men and women in order to grow up in the face. So, if the saying is true, Is the saying is true that bad company corrupts good behavior. Then we would also say that Godly company encourages Godly Behavior. No. The Third. The third way in which we maintain Unity.

It is a radical Devotion to reconciliation. A radical Devotion to reconciliation as we touched on earlier that it's sin sin against God and sin against our neighbor that that ends up disrupting Unity. Which means that both when we are send against and when we sin against others we need to be so committed to following the the pads of reconciliation laid out for us and scripture that we actually run to it and and let me encourage you in this so often so often what keeps us from from pursuing reconciliation from being radically devoted to it as we get into our own heads. And we think you know what, if I go and point this out if I if I tell them that they send against me or that they offended me? Well that's just going to destroy our relationship. but beloved, what we, what we failed to see is that in not pointing it out, that is still destroying our relationship. That is why that's why the Lord in, in both Matthew 5, and Matthew 18, he gives that direction he provides us. With the guidance for how it is that we are to pursue reconciliation and and I want to highlight for you in Matthew In Matthew 18.

he says, if your brother sins against you, Go to your brother one on one. That's the first step you go one-on-one. You tell him his fault. And if he hears you've gained a brother, And then if he does not hear, if he will not hear you then you take a witness or two witnesses and then if even at that point he still will not here. Then you take it to the church. You see if we are not going to be radically committed to reconciliation, we end up forfeiting. Unity in the church. That's all there is to it. If we're not going to be committed to it. And and let me highlight also, I started off with saying and the only the only reason I didn't include this but I started off in the first point of of how we maintain Unity with it being all right, view of the Trinity of Christ and of the word, I was tempted to say it needs to be a radical view of these things. The only reason I didn't was just I didn't want to use radical again, but now I'm using it again. You see if we are radically committed to the word of God, then that means we will be radically committed. To the steps of reconciliation laid out for us in the word of God. Let me let me highlight something else. Jesus Takes pursuing reconciliation and the dissolving of any disruptions being caused by sin. He takes that. So, seriously, listen to his words in Matthew 5, there for If you bring your gift to The Altar and there remember that your brother has something against you leave your gift, leave your gift there before. The altar go, your way. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. Think about this. God commands that we gather together to worship him. God commands that we see that in the first of the Ten Commandments with you, shall not worship. Any other God. We see that in the second commandment that you were to only worship God in the way in which he has commanded. But then Jesus goes so far as to say that sin is such a disruption, not only in your relationship with God. But also in your relationship with God's people, that it is better. In a certain sense, we might say to neglect worship. In order to be reconciled. It's not neglecting worship though. It's not neglecting worship because we cannot come into the presence of God and offer our sacrifices of prey while there is still unresolved sin in our lives. So that would be an instance where it's not neglecting worship. It is actually pursuing the means of being able one to follow God's command, and to, to be able to worship him without the stain of sin. Now, we know that it is only Christ that remove send, right? So in that going to to the brother, we should also include in those interactions. Once things have been resolved, there should be a time of mutual prayer. Asking that God would forgive the sin, that was committed and if we were slow at heart to pursue that reconciliation, we should be asking that God would forgive us of that sin as well.

Unity Unity. We are told is a blessed thing behold. How good, and how pleasant it is when Brothers dwell together in unity?

But Unity requires work. It's hard work. Sometimes it's stressful work and sometimes it is heartbreaking because as we are reminded by Paul, Sometimes we cannot live at peace. With men. Paul tells us that as much as it depends upon you, to live at peace with all men and sadly, there are times when we can try everything. We know, we can follow every exhortation and scripture about reconciliation and still not have reconciliation.

But we need to at that point, take it to the Lord. We take it to the Lord. We take it to the Cross. We take it to our mediating savior, We Lay it at his feet. And we walk away. That's not to say we walk away from Christ. We walk away from that particular scenario, that particular issue because we've done all that we can do. And then at that point, we leave the rest to Christ. may the Lord be pleased to grant us both the desire to pursue this unity and also this Unity itself but a spray Our Father in heaven. We thank you for this reminder. We thank you for this. Reminder, that Unity is a good thing. It's a pleasant and delightful thing.

We thank you for these sweet descriptions. That you've given to us. Unity being described as as that time when Aaron was first anointed. His priests in the excitement that would have gone with it. Unity being described.

According to the refreshment that the duo of Herman brings to the area around it. And father, we ask that that you would be pleased to grant us Unity as we gather together to worship you father, granters Unity as we spend time with one another and father cause this Unity To serve as refreshment for Souls.

Father, make us quick. Make a quick to reconcile.

Make us quick to pursue and preserve Unity as much as it depends upon us. I'm father, we ask that you would bless our efforts. We ask that you would bless us. Ultimately with peaceful union.

With you, through Christ, Our Savior. Father, we ask also that you would provide this Unity provide this love for us.

so that Whether we live in Sabetha Hiawatha.

Denison. Topeka wherever we live that the world would know that we are Christians that we are, Christ's disciples.

Not by what church we go to. Not by, what's what songs we sing. But by our love for one another, and father, we ask that you would be pleased, not only to make this testimony evidence in our lives and in our communities. But father, we we ask that you would Grant to us the privilege. Of playing a role in the salvation of souls in our community. As we love you through, loving your people. this we pray that our great king and savior would be glorified and exalted in all that we do and say, Hey man.