First of all, I'd like to read from the New Testament from the book of Ephesians and chapter 4. The book of Ephesians, chapter 4, and then we will turn to Psalm 133. But first of all, in the book of Ephesians and chapter 4, this is just one of many passages in the New Testament that emphasizes the unity. of all born-again believers, and also the practical duties that believers ought to implement to maintain that unity, to endeavor to keep it. Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 1. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. but unto every one of us as given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. And then we'll turn back in our Bibles to Psalm 133. This inspired psalm or song sets out in a poetic way the blessing and the beauty of unity. Psalm 133. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard that went down to the skirts of his garments. As the Jew of Hermon and as the Jew that descended upon the mountains of Zion, For there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. Amen. May God bless this reading of his own infallible word. Verse 1 sets the theme of the psalm. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Literally, it is dwelling together as one. dwelling together as one. Have you ever heard it said there's strength in numbers? Well, that's not truly correct. You think of a builder's yard. You may see many, many bricks lying around. There's no strength in that. It's only when the bricks are put together with mortar and a wall or a house is built, you say there's strength because they are united. There's strength in unity. Strength in unity. One link in a chain by itself, useless. It needs to be linked with other links, of course. In recent months, we've had terrible storms here in the province, and many of us would have seen trees uprooted. The interesting thing is this. When you look at trees that are still standing, you may think that all those trees have deep, deep tap roots that go far into the ground. But that's not always the case. In fact, the redwoods in California that are among the tallest variety of trees in the world, they have very, very shallow roots. Maybe you say, well, how can they withstand the storms and the gales and the awful weather? Well, it's simply this. They say that the redwood tree, it sends out its roots twice as far as the tree is growing tall. And those roots go out, and the redwood doesn't grow on its own. In other words, it's planted with other redwood trees. And so as the roots go out, they entwine in among the roots of the other trees. And so when the wind and the storm comes, they are united together and therefore they're strong against the storm. They're strong against the storm. You see, you and I will face the storms of life. We'll face the storms of temptations of Satan. And we need to be united together. That's God's purpose for a local church. that we would be strengthened by putting out, as it were, our roots to our brethren and sisters in Christ. So these illustrations emphasize for us the theme of the psalm, brethren dwelling together as one. And that's what the local church ought to be like. First of all, notice there's the beauty of unity, the beauty of unity. We're told in verse 1, behold, look, stop, listen, pay attention. This is something important. This is something wonderful. And then it says how good and how pleasant it is. There are some things that are good, but they're not very pleasant. And there are some things some may consider to be pleasant, but they're certainly not good. But this unity is good and pleasant. Now, this is a song of degrees. It was sung by the tribes of Israel when they would make their way to the temple earlier to the tabernacle. And here come the various tribes. And it's amazing when you think about it, the rich, the poor, the old, the young, grandparents, grandchildren. All the various groupings, the rich and the poor and so on. And they're coming together to go up the hill of the Lord. The tribe of Reuben's there, the tribe of Simeon, the tribe of Levi, all the rest. And as the people of God come, they're coming unitedly. All the petty squabbles are set aside, as it were. And David looks at that and he said, what a sight. It's beautiful to see. It's good. It's pleasing. Now, I believe it was especially pleasing to David because he knew division. Maybe some of you listening grew up in a divided home, a home where there was rejection. David, as a lad in his home, knew rejection. Remember when Samuel the prophet came to pick out a son to anoint to be the future king? Where was David? Now his brothers didn't even think about him. He was out in the fields looking after the sheep. He knew what rejection was like. He was rejected later on in his life. He knew what ridicule was when he went to meet his brothers to bring them supplies and Goliath was putting forth his challenge and blasphemies against God. David says, is there not a cause? and his older brothers turned on him and ridiculed him. You, you're just a lad. We'd say in Ulster, get lost. Go away back to your few sheep. He knew what it was to be rejected, to be ridiculed. Even when he defeated Goliath, Saul tried to kill him. Then he was, of course, hunted. by the enemy. In older life, he knew division in his grown-up family. He knew division in the nation, civil war. Oh, David knew all about division. And division is a terrible thing. Terrible thing in a family, in a church. But David also knew the beauty of unity. The beauty of unity. Do you know when he was hiding from King Saul, it said there were 600 men came to join him. And there were people who were discontent and in debt. In other words, there were scoundrels. And yet David molded those men with all their flaws into a great army. It was great to see the unity that he was able to create. Then, of course, when he became king, he was able to unite the whole nation after it had been divided by civil war. And now as he looks and he pictures in his mind as he writes this, the tribes, the people of God are coming together. There's no more any division. No more any division. Oh, it's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful. It's beautiful, I believe, because We speak of God, Trinity in unity. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit dwelling together in perfect harmony. But I believe it's beautiful because it is the desire of the Savior, the desire of the Savior. In John 17, we're told the Savior is praying, this is verse 21, that they all may be one, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. So here's the Lord Jesus Christ as our great high priest, and his desire is that we be one, that there be unity among the people of God, that they may believe. As I say, it's beautiful, it's wonderful to see unity. And the Savior likes to see unity among his people, it pleases him. You ever seen a family? and maybe their children there and you go out on a trip, probably wouldn't happen to any families around Macrafelt but you get a bit of a row, the brothers and sisters maybe in the back of the car, there's a line don't you cross over into my side and there's a whole fuss and you know and there's a fuss among the children, nothing seems right. But you know, as the children get older into adulthood and you sit back and look and you see them showing love to one another, complimenting one another, fellowshipping with each other, that brings joy to a parent's heart. You know, you bring joy to the Lord. It's beautiful, beautiful. Desire of the Savior. And then it's the delight of the saints. There's nothing more beautiful and sweeter than to go into a church and be part of a church family where there's unity. The opposite of true. You ever gone into a home where mum and dad are at war with each other? And maybe you enter the room at the wrong time and you go, whoops, I've come in at the wrong time. I remember hearing somebody putting it this way. He grew up in a family where he said, it was a broken home, sadly. Had to be taken into care of, this gentleman. But he said, in the home, it was as if they were always playing the game, the gunfight at the OK Corral. Dad and Mom were always ready to blow at each other, to shoot at each other. He said they played Eskimos. I didn't know what he meant, but he explained it. He said they never played Eskimos. Freezing each other out. No. Yes. Grunt. No conversation. That's sad in a family, in a home. But how terrible to go into a church and you just go, oops, there's something wrong. They're ready to fly at each other. There are members freezing each other out. They hardly speak to each other. And I believe the psalmist is saying here, oh, when you get a church in unity, it's beautiful. It's the delight of saints. And it's beautiful because sinners discern it. You know, the outside world can discern if a church is united in love. Remember the Lord said in John 15, by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples. By this. How well you know Calvin's Institutes? How well you know the difference between infralapsarianism and superlapsarianism? Two doctrines? No. How good the music is in the church? No. How great the preacher is? No. By this shall all men know that you're my disciples, if you've loved one for another. There's something attractive even to the unsaved. when they come in contact with a church where there is that unity and love. It's been well said, the outside world, the sinner, the unsaved, they don't care how much we know until they know how much we care. The sinner discerns it. It's the desire of the Savior. It's the delight of the saints. And I think it's a beautiful thing, unity in the church, because it's the dread of Satan. It's the dread of Satan. Satan dreads unity among God's people. We'll see later in the psalm why that is. Satan dreads it. That's why in the book of Acts, he attacked the church. He hates God's people. Well, surely you know the illustration. If you take one stick, easy to break. Take two, you may be able to break it. Take three, oh, it's harder. Put a bunch of sticks together, then you can't break them. And Satan tried to break the early church in the book of Acts. And listen, he's trying to break every congregation, your congregation. He's trying to do it, to sow discord. You see, the devil hates God's work and he hates God's people, and that's why he loves to sow discord. Oh, unity's a dread. of Satan. Oh, but when we think about it, I'm not speaking about uniformity, where everybody dresses the same, says the same, acts the same. We're not talking about that. We're certainly not talking about unity at the expense of truth. But unity is beautiful. What's the basis of unity? What's the basis of unity? Well, the psalm tells you here. Look at verse 1. Brethren, brethren, The basis of our unity is we're sons of the same Father. We have a common Father, therefore we have a common family. We don't pray, my Father, to our mighty Lord. We pray, our Father. In Ephesians 4 and 6, we read that one God and Father of all. Now to be brothers in a spiritual sense, you have to be born again. To as many as received him, Christ, give he the power to become the sons of God. So if you haven't believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, God is not your heavenly Father, and therefore we're not your spiritual brother. But there is, the basis of our unity is we have the same Father. But look, we're members of the same body. Do you not see here now in verse two, it talks about it's like the precious ointment upon the head of Aaron. Aaron was the high priest. In the New Testament, Hebrews were told, the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son, our Savior, is our great high priest. So Aaron is a picture, a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's Aaron, and the oil is poured over him, and his body speaks of our Savior. You see, not only are we sons of the same Father, we have a unity because we are members in the same body. The book of Ephesians chapter four says that we're members of his body, we are members one of another. The book of 1 Corinthians 12, for the body is one and of many members and all the members of that body being many are one body, so also is Christ. We are members of one body. Body, unity. We're supposed to be one body. We're in the body of Christ. When we were saved, we were placed into Christ, baptized into him. So we're all part of the body. That's what Paul goes on to say practically in 1 Corinthians 12. Some a hand, some an ear, some an eye. The ear can't say to the eye, you're not needed. And we're all needed in the church of God. But we're to remember, we're part of the same body. How terrible it is when you see someone because of some disability, and sadly I've seen it, and they can't control their hand, and they're hitting themselves. You say, there's something badly wrong. Well, there's something badly wrong in the church of God when we are attacking each other, attacking each other. No, we're members in the same body. And not only that, sons of the same father, members of the same body, but we're anointed with the same God, the Spirit. That's what unites us. Look at verse two. It's like the precious ointment. That was special oil. Oil mixed with various expensive spices and perfumes. It was to be unique. None was to be made like it. This was a beautiful scent. A lovely aroma. And my, when there was a gallon of oil and other ingredients in the mixture, and they poured it on the high priest's head, and it ran down his garments. And I've said the body represents the members, but the idea is here, the Holy Spirit. You see, oil in Scripture is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. And we are one, we have a unity, because the Holy Spirit indwells every believer. That's what makes a unity among Christians. The same Holy Spirit. I remember my late father used to tell me he heard actually a Chinese evangelist many, many decades ago. And he told about a business meeting in a missionary organization where it got a little bit heated. And some of the brethren were getting, as we'd say, a little bit hot under the collar. So the chairman just said, brethren, let's stop. And he got up and he walked behind every chair and he said, put his hand on his shoulder, brother, the Holy Spirit indwells you. Next man, the same Holy Spirit indwells you. And went round the room. Brethren, let's not grieve the Holy Spirit. We are united because the same Spirit of God that dwells in you, Christian, dwells in me. That's what unites us as a church. Can you see it? It's the work of the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit has made us united. United. We're united in Christ. One Spirit. Ephesians says that. One Spirit. We're with one God and Father. We're in Christ, the Lord. Now, the beauty of unity, the basis of our unity. But look again, the blessing of unity. And you have that in verse three. Notice the end of the verse. For there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. There, there, the place of unity. God has commanded that he will bless. Think of it. The living, almighty, omniscient. God commands blessing. Command gives the idea of a king who commands and his servants obey, none can stay his hand. Listen, our God, none can stay his hand. And he gives this wonderful promise that where there's unity among God's people, at that place, God will command the blessing. And look at the blessing, the oil. We've read about the oil here in verse two that flowed down. I said it was a unique fragrance. You could smell it. What a sweet perfume. What a sweet perfume. What a blessing. And you know, we can't manufacture this. You can't manufacture this fragrance. This is the fragrance through Christ produced by the Holy Spirit. But it is true. that when you have a congregation who are united and acting as a unit together for the cause of the Lord, united in their love for Christ and for each other, God sends a fragrance of his presence that can be sensed. Can be sensed. Oh, you can sense it when you go in among a people. that are loving, it can be sensed. But then it talks too here about the Jew, the Jew. It is, verse three, it is like the Jew of Hermon. What's that talking about? The Jew of Hermon. Well, Hermon was a tall mountain. Most of the year, it still had snow upon it. Down below in the valley, it could be arid. and dry and barren. But God ordained it and controlled the weather so that the way the winds would blow it would carry the wet and the cold from the snow and of course mix it and so on with the hot air and it would become dew. And so during the night the dew would fall silently but surely, secretly you could say. And in the morning You get up and everything's fresh. We love fresh things, don't we? Fresh bread, oh, it's lovely, isn't it? The fresh smell of a new car. We talk about as fresh as morning dew, as fresh as morning dew. And maybe you've gone out in the morning and you see the dew, like millions of diamonds in the grass and how beautiful it is, and you feel refreshed. Oh, God does that to a congregation that is united. There's a fragrance. There is a freshness. Ah, but there's a fruitfulness. There's a fruitfulness. Where do we get the fruitfulness? Well, they tell us that in Israel, there's such a thing called dry farming. Now, it's not completely dry, but that's the expression. What they mean is it's not the rain. But the dew can be so heavy, coming off Mount Hermon, that there's enough moisture in the morning dew to cause the grass to green, to cause plants to grow up and be lush, to create fruit. And surely what God is saying here, there where there's unity, God commands the blessing and he'll give a fragrance and he'll give a freshness and he'll give a fruitfulness, a fruitfulness there. That's why we need the unity. That's why we need the unity. Oh, for that wonderful beauty, to recognize the basis of our unity, to recognize the blessing that this unity gives. We know that ought to prompt us, ought to prompt us to do what we can to promote unity. to do what we can to promote unity. You see, when you get unity in a church, when you get the unity, you go in and you see a place where God's blessing is, you will see a place where God's people are putting into practice God's commands. You see, God has commands in Scripture for unity. He has commands. Have you ever studied the one another passages in the New Testament? Forbear one another in love. Don't judge one another. Love one another. Don't grumble against one another. Don't grudge one another. We could go on and on. Bear one another's burdens. There's many, many others I could mention. And you take it seriously in churches like this. Take it seriously. The unity, it's how good and how pleasant It is for brethren to dwell together in unity. But for God's blessing to come, there has to be that unity. There, there the Lord commanded the blessing. Now, do you want to see this unity? I've already said the basis of the unity is from God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. But we have a duty. We have a duty, we are united spiritually in Christ, but there's to be a practical outworking of that unity in order for this psalm to be true in the experience of a church. And that's why back in Ephesians 4, I read that chapter. Because we're told in Ephesians 4, and this is the question in verse 3, if you want to see God's blessing upon this church, Calvary Free Presbyterian Church, if you say, I want to see God among us in a wonderful way, bringing his fragrance, bringing his freshness and his fruitfulness, I want to see our preacher continuing to be empowered by the Holy Spirit of God. I want to see souls saved. I want to see the believers grow in edification of the Lord and the knowledge of Him. I want to see sinners reached with the gospel. I want to see God's blessing. upon the congregation. Well, recognize your unity. And then what does Paul say in Ephesians 4? He tells us to walk worthy in verse 1. In verse 3, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. We don't create the unity. It's unity on the basis of a relationship to Almighty God, but we must endeavor. That means give diligence, strive, work at it. This doesn't come naturally. It takes effort. There can be personality clashes. There can be difficulties. There can be disagreements because we're human. We're human. And where there's people who have problems. But it's how we react. Let me quickly give you three things that you need to do in order to see the unity of the Spirit go forth. Well, we're told quite clearly here in verse two, with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another. That's how you keep unity, forbearing one another. That simply means you put up with each other. You put up with each other. The idea is actually to hold yourself back. Picture yourself, maybe you're picturing yourself out running and suddenly a Rottweiler comes around the corner, the jaws, but then you look and the owner has it with a leash. You're not so afraid now. Oh, it may bark, but it's held back. That's what the word forbear means. Paul is very practical. He's saying, you need a humility. You need that spiritual grace. You say, but that person, I have every right to get back at them. Look what they've done to me. I have every right. No, no. No, no. You see, when everybody demands their rights, you have a revolution. But when people live up to their responsibilities, you have revival in a church. Oh yes, you could react. You could say that word. You could get back at them. But you don't. That's holding back. We don't always demand our own way. That's what humility means. We put the other's interests first. I love a true story, and this actually happened years ago. There were two missionaries, two men, single men, living together on the mission field in a certain area. They were sharing the same house, and they had different bedrooms, just a small house, window in the middle, and they were studying, learning the language. One of them liked the window open. The other one liked it closed. And you know, they fell out, because missionaries are human. And they fell out. And one said, keeping that window closed, I need air. My sinus, oh, I need to get air. This is terrible. You ought to get that window open. The other says, but look, I have a bad chest, and it'll give me pneumonia if you open that window. And they fell out. They fell out with each other. And they went to their different rooms. And they began to pray against each other that the Lord would open the other brother's eye to be humble. And they're both convicted. The Lord convicted both of them. And they realized how stubborn and foolish they were. And they came back in, and one said, look, I'm sorry. Sorry for what I said. Sorry for my attitude. The other said, look, I feel the same. Forgive me, would you? Certainly. I'll forgive you. Look, it's all right. You can have the window open. No, no, no. It's all right. You can have it closed. I don't know what happened after that. But forebearing is a practical thing, and that's what keeps the unity. But then in this chapter, in verse 15, you'll see there's something about speaking. If you read chapter 4, chapter 4 of Ephesians on into chapter 5, you'll find it mentions a lot about our speaking. In verse 15, speaking the truth in love. Literally, that's one word. Truth in love, loving in truth. It's one word in the Greek. It's been well said, this. Truth without love is brutality. You ever met a Christian? Huh, I just tell things as it is. I just tell the truth. I call a spade a spade. And they treat other people like dirt. Listen, truth is to be mixed with love. But then you meet some people, love. Oh, I'm all love. I could never tell anybody off. I could never confront them with their sin. I just love. Listen, love without truth is just sentimentality. We're the love and truth. But speaking is so important. How we speak to one another. You see, you need to learn to think. Have you learned to think? You know what I mean, don't you think? You ever heard the acronym? T, before you speak, think. Before you speak about somebody and fellow believer or to them, think. T, is it true? H, is it helpful? I, is it inspiring? N, is it necessary? K, is it kind? So even if it's true and it doesn't meet the rest, don't say it. Think before we speak. Think of how we speak. F.B. Meyer once said this, I would rather handle live electricity than to speak disparagingly of one of God's children." Oh, how we speak. Then verse 32, there's a very difficult one, the one I'll finish with. This is just a few practical pointers in Ephesians 4 on how to know this unity and how to keep it and maintain it, know the blessing of God. It says, verse 32, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Oh, but you don't know what they did to me. even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you." Oh, we must have the unity. We must have the unity. Take it seriously. Lord Nelson, the famous, of course, British seaman at the Battle of Trafalgar, it's said that he heard the two of his officers, a Captain Rotherham and an Admiral Collingswood, had fallen out with each other. He ordered them both to come to his flagship And he took both their hands and put them together, made them shake hands. And then he turned and he said, look men, there's the enemy. There's the enemy. Get your eyes on the enemy. And we as a church face great enemies today. Our young people are facing great enemies. We all face the world of flesh and the devil. There's our enemy. There's our enemy. Oh, we need to get our eyes on Christ. We need to know his love. Now, sadly, tonight, there may be someone listening to this, and you don't know anything about this unity, because you're not in Christ. You're not a son of God the Father. You're not a member of Christ's body. You're not saved. The Holy Spirit doesn't indwell you. O come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust Him as Saviour. Be united to Him and trust Him.