Well congregation to the word this morning. Let's open our Bible to that psalm. We just sang 133 psalm 133 Which will this morning by application give some indication of what was in Enjoyed and appreciated and learned and noticed at our synod meeting this past week. So Expect some of those details. And if you are interested in what happened at synod this week, you'll You'll hear some reflection on that drawn out of an application to the text. So We want to rejoice about God's goodness in those ways as well So beloved to Psalm 133 we turn now this is a the perfect and glorious word of the living God. How good, a song of a sense I should say of David, how good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity. It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down upon the collar of his robes. It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore. Let's fire to your congregation God's glorious and perfect word. Let's come and ask help from him as we continue. Let's pray. Oh, Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have blessed us richly in your word with every consideration the creature would ever have and an answer to all issues. Included in that, oh Lord, is the issue of unity. And we pray that you would bless us to understand this psalm and to see with great thanksgiving applications of it in the life of our congregation and federation. Lord, would you please strengthen us. Lord, would you please glorify your own name in that strengthening by your spirit. We pray now in Jesus' name, amen. Well, dear congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, Psalm 133 comes at the tail end of the Psalms of Ascent. The section of the Psalter which is called the Psalms of Ascent begins in Psalm 120 and goes through to Psalm 134. They are particular in their context. You might like to call them the going to worship God Psalms. And here is the case that the people of God, living in their communities and their little villages and their cities, would be called to come to Jerusalem to worship Him. And so they would follow probably well-worn paths of their forefathers, and from whatever part of the nation they were, they would come on those particular feast days and worship days, and they would come to Jerusalem. And as they drew near Jerusalem, the topography, the land, would begin to go upward, a movement toward Zion was the thought. They would move together in this way, That they in their caravans of people and animals probably. Would be singing certain songs. These songs 120 to 134 included in that, of course, obviously is. Psalm 133, but moving together in unity, not just in terms of the songs, but moving together in unity with purpose with an interest of the unified desire to worship God rightly. And as they were moving upward, it was as if God was descending to meet them in the assembly. I might say to us, with some certain emphatic purpose, the very same thing that has happened today. As we have moved to the house of the Lord to worship him, God has, in a sense, descended to meet us. We are not here simply on a horizontal plane. We are here, rather, in a vertical way, meeting with our God. But that meeting is proof positive of what our God has accomplished by His Son sent for us Jesus Christ and is applied by the Holy Spirit that if I might put it this way, and we'll get back to this point I'm about to make in a moment, that we smell of God's gracious unity. Unity from Christ for his church is by the Holy Spirit. Unity from Christ for his church is by the Holy Spirit. Well, that then is what we see in this text. And first of all, we'll notice unity as proof of the gospel is needed in our day. Now the psalm begins with an emphatic statement, which sadly, I have to say it this time, is not translated in our NIV Bible. There's a particular Hebrew word which comes in the Hebrew text. It's found in the ESV, it's found in the NASB, it's found in the New King James Bible, and sadly missing in our NIV translation. After the superscription, which by the way is in the Hebrew text, which is why I said, oh, I should have started with this, a song of ascents of David, that is part of the text. Then what comes next in the Hebrew is this word translated into the English, behold. And it's a weighty word. It's an emphatic word. God is telling us what his church ought to be emphatically excited about and interested in, that it is good and pleasant when brothers live together in unity. Behold is a shock and awe word in Holy Scripture. Behold church, says God by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Behold, that is state, affirm, make it clear to the whole world that we consider ourselves richly blessed. We consider ourselves tremendously honored by God. to be able to have this fellowship. Now, why is that? Because we live in a world that is shockingly broken. We live in a world which has tremendous separation and division, and it's more so the case now than it was 10 years ago. Have you noticed this? Have you noticed that what is going on in our culture and society is a strategic effort to divide, a strategic plan to separate? Now, there used to be division and separation. There used to be a simple and clear division and separation, if I might use this as an example, the creature of humans, a very simple separation and division called man and woman, right? Man is not man. Woman is not woman. Those two are divided in certain and separate and important ways. But now what we have by the plan of the enemy is division upon division and separation upon separation and alienation and brokenness. That's the world. That's the time we're living in. Behold, that what man has put asunder, God has brought back together in us. In this place, in this time, in this room, in this worship service, in this congregation, in our life together. Behold, that brokenness has been overcome, that alienation has been bridged. By what? By the gospel. By God's gospel. Now, Paul picks up on something in Deuteronomy, which we're gonna go later to Deuteronomy, but Paul picks up on this in a certain way, and if you have your Bible still open, I want you to turn very quickly to 2 Corinthians. Chapter two. Second Corinthians chapter two, as we begin to tease this out just a little bit. The unity, the glorious unity that we have in Jesus Christ as we begin at verse 14. Second Corinthians two and verse 14. And I said just a moment ago that we smell nice in that regard. Well, here it is. But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us, spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ. Now he's picking up on what we have here in Psalm 133 and in Deuteronomy. I'll make mention of that in a moment. He is applying that now. Notice again the words. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death. They want nothing to do with us. To the other the fragrance of life and who is equal to such a task. We're gonna get to this in more detail in a moment, beloved, but we need to understand that we are in this unity that we have in Christ. We are the fragrance of Christ in a sour-smelling world, if I can put it in the nicest possible way. God is doing something otherworldly in us, and unity is the proof. Well, and then contemplating that unity, and as we were at Synod this past week, and in thinking biblically about that unity, we are given as proof and evidence of it, the gospel's effect that is, given proof and evidence of it, immediately in our name as a federation. It's a very descriptive name, isn't it? I've said before. What's the first word of our federation's name? United. Now you might say, well, that's pie in the sky and we're not entirely agreed on everything. Well, that's true. But beloved and the things which matter the most, we are united as we're going to see in our text. Now, why is that significant? It is because, as I alluded to a few moments ago in the prayer, and I have no intention to hold back from this ever. We need to be very clear about this always. Some of us, many of us, have memory of being a part of, belonging to a denomination which was not united. And that disunity only grew in generations after, and only got worse as time moved on. Now, in thinking about our own particular beginnings as a federation, prior to 1995, we struggled with how to call ourselves something. We called ourselves the Alliance of Reformed Churches. In 1996, we adopted the first official name, Uniting ING Reformed Churches, until we finally settled on and came to agreement about United. How can we say that? Well, we say that because of the word of God and our confessional standards. which I alluded to last week. And I think in terms of that, we grew up a little bit at this last synod meeting. I think we grew up a lot, actually, at our last synod meeting, which I'll give more proof of in a few moments, in a conscientious choice and activity to understand biblical unity and what that then demands of us. so that we can reflect on verse one. Behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity, not supposed unity or hoped for unity, but the beginnings of real unity. Well then secondly, unity is prescribed by God and procured by Jesus Christ. Don't trip over the words. It simply means that God commands it and Jesus Christ accomplishes it. These are substantive things. Look at it from the text. It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down upon the collar of his robes. It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. Now the psalm then clearly builds on the shock and awe of verse one. Behold the fact that there can be unity in a very broken world. That ought to be shocking, but it is also joyous. when different people from different backgrounds with different life experiences can agree about substantive matters. This comes from the gospel. Now here in the Psalm, I want you to notice that the Holy Spirit describes that using two related analogies. Verse two, It is like, verse three, it is like. These are analogies. It is like, first of all, precious oil. Now I wanna put another piece together and help us to solve this puzzle of what's going on here in Psalm 133 and why it is Paul said what he said in 2 Corinthians chapter two by having us turn back now to Exodus chapter 30. Exodus chapter 30. Let's notice something together here. In Exodus chapter 30, we'll begin at verse 22. Now remember, before I read this, that Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2 that we smell a certain way. And remember that in Psalm 133, the analogy is, it is like oil. Now, when we think of oil, we often think of cooking oil. It has very little smell. Or olive oil, which maybe has a little bit of scent to it, especially when you use it in cooking. But notice what kind of oil the Bible is referring to. Exodus chapter 30 and verse 22, and we begin. Then the Lord said to Moses, take the following fine spices. 500 shekels of liquid myrrh. Stop there. Myrrh. Sound familiar? Where else in the Bible do we think of myrrh? And myrrh is a pungent smell, very unmistakable. So it goes on, half as much, that is 250 shekels, of fragrant cinnamon. We could say a lot about that. 250 shekels of fragrant cane, 500 shekels of cassia, all according to the sanctuary shekel, and a hint of olive oil. Make these into a sacred anointing oil, a fragrant blend, the work of a perfumer. It will be the sacred anointing oil. Then use it to anoint the Tent of Meeting, the Ark of the Testimony, the Table and all its articles, the Lampstand and all its accessories, the Altar of Incense, the Altar of Burnt Offering and all its utensils, and the Basin with its stand, that is, the whole of the inside of the Tabernacle. Now you're beginning to build a picture here. Verse 29, you shall consecrate them so that they will be most holy and whatever touches them will be holy. Now verse 30, anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them so that they may serve me as priests. I will, in other words, smell them coming. Verse 31, say to the Israelites, this is to be my sacred anointing oil for generations to come. Do not pour it on men's bodies and do not make any oil with the same formula. It is sacred and you are to consider it sacred. Whoever makes a perfume like it and whoever puts it on anyone other than a priest must be cut off from his people. It is a powerful smell. It is now Psalm 133, verse 2, like precious oil, which when it is poured, the scent is exceedingly rich. You see why now in 2 Corinthians 2, Paul says that in the gospel, we are a fragrant, unmistakable odor. that the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is supposed to be a fragrant, unmistakable odor in terms of the outworkings of the gospel. The formulation of it, again, Exodus 30, is very distinct and exacting and from God. So that just as he prescribes the particulars of the unity oil, so in Jesus Christ alone is true unity procured The Old Testament oil was a placeholder, it was a sign of what was to come. The pleasing aroma of the perfection of Jesus Christ and his sacrificial work. Why do we say that? Because if you put your Bible memory caps back on and go all the way back to Genesis, where it is Noah just after the flood. Do you remember what happens after the flood? What does Noah do? He is told to construct an altar. And what happens when he offers that sacrifice on the altar? Do you remember what the text there says? The scent goes up and God is pleased with the aroma. Why? Because it's Christ. Like in Exodus 30, it's Christ. Like in Psalm 133, it's Christ. So like in 2 Corinthians 2, it's Jesus Christ. It is Jesus Christ who procures this beautiful unity smell. Now we need to go on, and we will in a moment, and say it is the Holy Spirit then who processes and provides. But don't miss this first. But the smell that pleases God the Father the most is the offering of his dear and precious Son on the cross to provide the unity that we enjoy. And then what do we do with that? And how do we understand that? was interesting that on Monday night this past week we were some of the people especially more than I weary from the travel some of them traveled across several time zones to get to New York for the meeting of sin and there we were Monday evening in our in our prayer service gathered there together in the The note and the significance in the prayer meeting, it was exactly what we're talking about here. The nations being gathered in by the right proclamation of the gospel in a glorious, sweet-smelling gospel unity. That prayer meeting then being over at 8 o'clock, we moved at 8 o'clock to our first session. And one of the first things we did in that first session was to welcome, receive five new URCNA congregations. And their delegates were with us. It was a very significant time. Let me read their names just so that you have it before you. We gathered there together and we welcomed In that meeting, Cornerstone Christian Church of Medford, Oregon. Anchor of Hope Reformed Church. These, when I say reformed, I don't mean another denomination. I mean that's what they've adopted as their official name is URC&A Churches. Anchor of Hope Reformed Church of Silverdale, Washington. Redeemer United Reformed Church of Anchorage, Alaska. Redemption Reformed Church of Chilliwack, British Columbia, and Christ the Redeemer Reformed Church of Eureka, California. Do you get what we're saying here? Within the very first hour of our very first official meeting time, we received five new federation, churches to our federation. Beyond even that, During the five days of our meeting, in terms of churches we've had a connection with before, we received greetings and encouragement at a speech from a representative of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, of the Reformed Church of the United States, of the RPCNA, of the Free Reformed Church in America. These included also then the Canadian and American Reformed Churches, These we have been in fellowship with, and we loved to hear from them. Now, you might want to say, well, it was just a meeting. And it's part of the rote routine of the meeting, and you could say that. But it is also greatly encouraging to hear their comments to us. that they love us as a federation and they want nothing more than to be closer in union with us as a federation. To hear that from other like-minded denominations and federations, I assure you, is greatly encouraging. And what does it teach us? That Christ is building his church. This Christ, this church, Well then thirdly, now we get into more of the detail of the text again, processed, this unity is processed by the Holy Spirit and provides for the church. Can we say it very simply this morning? Because we must say this. Unity, true unity, is only found in Jesus Christ. Every other issue only divides. In Christ, we are united. So that unity that was procured, accomplished by Jesus Christ, now the text of the word of God tells us that from Christ it is spread downward. Notice that in both analogies, verse two and verse three, the spread is from the head downward, from above to below. This, beloved, is the biblical notion of from whence comes salvation and how That salvation comes. Again, remember, we said this, that oil is the placeholder. It's an analogy. It's a picture. And in this case, it's also a scent, isn't it? We've seen that now. And you'll notice that in the psalm, the oil starts at the head and it runs down. In the first analogy, there's several sections running down the beard and down the collar of his robes. It's moving from the head downward. This is the picture of the spirit taking from Jesus Christ and appropriating that benefit of Jesus Christ downward. To us, we might add. The oil scented by the pure sacrifice of Jesus Christ, carrying his provision for sinners. That oil is the work of the Holy Spirit, spreading that unity, causing the unity by Jesus Christ. The work of God, for instance, seen as it's captured in the book of Acts. is the work from the head and then outwards spread. You remember the analogy? From Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth. And there in Acts chapter two and onwards, several thousand are brought into the church with immediacy by the preaching of the gospel. This is what the psalm here is thinking of. It is indeed a great blessing to realize that the church is gathered and unified, now I say this carefully, not by men, but by God, by his spirit. Does he use men in the preaching of the gospel? Absolutely. But it's not the preacher. It's the Holy Spirit who gathers in the church and who gives us this glorious unity, causes Unity. I want to encourage you in that regard with a few other things that happened at our Synod meeting. By the way, some of this I'm reading from the press releases, which you'll find openly and freely available on our Federation website. And I'm going to put some of this together in the messenger fairly soon. It is significant to think about what was accomplished there at Synod. It was interesting to hear, now I mentioned some of the federations and groups with which we've had connection already, but it was interesting for me personally and others to hear from some of the brothers coming from overseas. I read from the press release, with gratitude to the Holy Spirit for the progress made in our relationship with churches abroad, Synod decided to move into ecumenical fellowship with the Evangelical Reformed Church in Latvia. I'm going to give you a map and ask you to put your finger on Latvia. I couldn't have done it, not with great accuracy. Maybe you can. But where's Latvia? Well, we know generally Eastern Europe, a former Soviet bloc country. But think about that. The church growing, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ growing in such a way and maturity there that they want to enter into a relationship with us. Now, so there's Latvia, but think of this in your map skills. Next, the Reformed Church of Indonesia. Indonesia, a Muslim-based country, and here's a Reformed church in Indonesia who sent delegates to us that is at our meeting and they wanted to grow in unity with us. Here's another one. The Presbyterian Church of East Australia. The Presbyterian Church of East Australia? They want connection with us? Synod also decided to move into phase one with the Free Church of Scotland, with the Sudanese Reformed Churches, with the Free Reformed Churches in Australia, the Christian Reformed Churches in Australia, not to be confused with the Christian Reformed Church we're all familiar with, a different group, and the Evangelical Reformed Church in India. And I wanna pause at this last one. It was fun to listen to their different accents, by the way. But more significantly, it was glorious to listen to their desire of the same thing that we have. But then came this last, the Evangelical Reformed Church in India. And two men were sent from India to our meeting, and they stood before us, and they said we were nothing. until the Lord brought us into contact with the URCNA. By the way, I'm not here as a cheerleader of saying how great the URCNA is. We have our weaknesses, no doubt. But I want you to understand, beloved, that these two men said, and you can read their letter in more detail. I'll try to be very brief here. They said, we arrived one day a few years ago, many years ago now, at Mid-America Reformed Seminary. We wanted to see if that seminary would train young men in India that wanted to become a part of the group that we're trying to create. And one of the seminary professors determined to give a certain amount of money every month for that group. He began encouraging others to do that. They began sending teachers to India to help teach and train them. so that they then became, by that influence of prayer and the work of the Lord, to be actually the Evangelical Reformed Church in India. The Synod was so encouraged to see what the Lord has been doing and to glory in our God in these ways. We also heard from the Reformed Church of South Africa, from the Evangelical Reformed Church I mentioned in Latvia, the Presbyterian Church in East Australia. They all gave addresses, they shared zeal about the bringing of the gospel. They have the same interest that we have. Beloved, this is exactly what our text is talking about. That spreading of the oil, moving from Jesus Christ to gather for himself a church. And fourthly, provision from above promotes the unity which proves God's blessing. That blessing, that unity we just talked about is like oil flowing down from the high priest, but then we get this other analogy. And I think, if anything, this one is even more significant. It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion, for there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore. Why is that significant? Because in that arid land, dew is life. And when there is no rain, The dew from the highest mountain in the region, Hermon, which, by the way, you can look it up, is known for its heavy fall of dew because of its altitude relevant to the other land around it. It pierces up into the sky further. That dew, which then comes down, brings life. There's a biblical analogy in Ezekiel chapter 47, which you could find, of the water flowing out of the temple and getting deeper and broader and bringing life, purifying. There's another analogy about which Jesus uses in John chapter 4, that he himself is living water, which needs to be tapped into. And so it is in the psalm here that this water is life. And the water that flows down from the mountain carries with it the life that we so absolutely need. Eternal life is what is meant here. It all comes flowing down as if from the Father of the heavenly lights, James chapter 1 verse 17. And we have that here in the psalm, the blessing. And note the last statement that is made here. For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even what kind of life? Life forevermore. To be found proclaimed and worked out and lived out in true churches. Now go on with that analogy just a moment. Where else do we see the waters of life that flow? Well, we see it in the new heavens and the new earth. with trees planted next to that river, do you know the picture here, that have leaves of healing? That is to say again, life. It is a biblical picture, dear congregation, of what it is God is at work doing. Now on day four of our synodical meeting Thursday, Having already heard from many of the churches in the United States and Canada, having already heard from many foreign churches overseas and all kinds of places in the world, our deliberations then came to settle finally on the question of our own Federation missions plan. What will we do? Before Synod, we had a missions coordinator. You know his name, Reverend Richard Bout. He's been serving us faithfully now. But the work is too much. How should we respond? We responded, I think, in what I would call an incremental good way, an incremental good way. There was a desire to go all the way in this synod meeting and to set up both the foreign mission coordinator and a home mission coordinator. We didn't quite get there. There wasn't enough agreement about all of the details, and there are many details, but we laid the groundwork for that. Reverend Richard Bout was moved from missions coordinator of everything to be now just the foreign missions coordinator. But we set up both a Foreign Missions Synodical Committee and a Home Missions Synodical Committee so that the work needed to be done in the United States and Canada is now under the charge of a committee. Now committees have their weaknesses, and probably there will be movement beyond that for a Home Missions Coordinator, if not the next synod, then certainly by the following synod. But what I want you to notice in this, beloved, is our interest and commitment to the spread of the gospel as a federation of churches. Now you might think, well, that's just one part of what it means to be a church. In a sense, that's true. But in this day, in this world, in this culture, With all the fracturing and division and separation that the enemy is working in us, you can't even just say, are you man or woman anymore? That's conceived to be offensive? We need biblical unity, if I might say it more than ever. How is that accomplished? By the preaching of the gospel to the nations. And I might say, to the people in the houses just north of this building and just east and west and south of this building and around our homes. Oh beloved, they need to be brought in. They need to hear the proclamation of the gospel and realize indeed it is from the head Jesus Christ flowing down like living water and they will be saved. Amen. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for incremental improvement. We thank you for a glorious gospel. We thank you for a sweet-smelling Savior and church. And we pray you now, Lord, that you would continue to encourage us in the hope of his gospel and empower us in our part, our participation in the spread of that gospel. Lord, bless our prayers. Bless our labors. Bless our congregation. Bless our federation. We pray all these things now, asking in Jesus' name, amen.