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Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church

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with a moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and

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faith. And today I want to ask you, where is true unity found in these days of division?

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Where is true unity found in these days of division? Dear fellow listener, dear fellow

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American, we are going to need to be united as the church against tyranny in these days of division.

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As one commentator puts it, as goes the church, so goes the nation. And therefore, we are going to

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need to be united because our enemy, that is the deep state, the satanic tyranny of the deep state,

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is trying to divide us with a variety of things. And we are going to need to be united. If we are

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indeed going to overcome and establish a Christian constitutional republic, we are going to need to

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be united because make no mistake about this, our enemies, the satanic realm set up against us is

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united and they are committed to overthrowing our Christian constitutional republic. So we are going

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to be united against tyranny. And if so, where is true unity found in these days of division? Oh,

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what makes groups united? Let me ask you that first of all, dear listener. What is it that makes groups

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united? For example, gangs, even criminal gangs in American cities are notorious for their crime and

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their violence and their drugs. But what many average Americans fail to understand is the bonds of

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friendship and family that is often missing in inner city youth that gangs provide. One young gang member

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in a Latin gang in Los Angeles spoke of that unity in this way when he was talking about the gang

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exploits of his friend Michi, as he called him and himself. He said, and I quote, it wasn't the money,

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power, women or drugs that bonded me and Michi. It was our brotherhood. The same reasons most people

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venture into gangs. Unity, a sense of belonging. And in Michi, in my case, I suppose our bond fulfilled

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something we felt was missing at home, unquote. Oh, yes. Unity, a sense of belonging. That's what

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oftentimes brings people together in various groups. And what looms very large for me as an avid student

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of history is the grand experiment that is the United States. We call ourselves the United States.

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What brings us unity, dear listener? Those elements have been delineated by historians as our shared

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culture, which is Western and European, our religious heritage, which is Christian, unmistakably,

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and most importantly, our constitution, which safeguards individual liberty and carefully

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hedges in government. It seems as if all of these are under attack now, aren't they?

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Our shared culture is fragmented by mindless cliches like unity through diversity or the critical race

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theory, which is that pernicious evil Marxist strategy that is meant to divide us, the United States,

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along lines of race. Oh, our constitution is, for all practical purposes, ignored and violated daily

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as our federal government grows like a many-headed hydra. And all of this is, of course,

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causes me to ask, where is true unity? What brings true unity? And who brings it, more importantly?

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Huh? What does that look like? Well, let me bring for you a psalm of unity that speaks of Jesus Christ,

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even, and that is Psalm 133, which is across Scripture, a classic understanding of what true

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unity is. Psalm 133, and I read it now. A song of ascents of David. Behold, how good and pleasant it is

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when brothers dwell in unity. It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the

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beard on the head of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon,

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which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord has commanded the blessing life forevermore.

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What a beautiful psalm that is, dear listener. And I want to make three points from that psalm.

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Number one, from verse one, unity, our fellowship in Christ brings the one blessing and joy, saturating

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the single band of brothers. We are a band of brothers in Christ, are we not? Verse one says,

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behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. Our psalm is a beautiful graphic

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picture of unity. And note, first of all, the kind of the psalm. It is a song of ascents. That is a psalm

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that's sung by people as they made pilgrimage to Jerusalem and to the temple for festivals and

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worship. And that psalm, a psalm of ascents, implicitly unified the pilgrims in their fellowship

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and their purpose. This psalm, Psalm 133, look this up in your Bible. Psalm 133 is also in the middle

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of three psalms that are grouped together as songs of Zion. Songs of Zion. For example, Psalm 132 is a

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psalm of Zion. It says, for the Lord has chosen Zion. He has desired it for his dwelling place in

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verse 13. And then we have ours, Psalm 133, that says, the dew of Hermon is that which falls on the

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mountains of Zion. And then, of course, we have the third psalm, Psalm 134, that says, may the Lord bless

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you from Zion, he who made the heavens and the earth. Three psalms of Zion. This brace of three

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psalms were popular psalms that were sung by Hebrew pilgrims that were making their way to Jerusalem.

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One psalm spoke of the single place of God that he had chosen. This speaks of the single people he has

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chosen. That is Psalm 133. And then Psalm 134 speaks of the single blessing that flows from the previous

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two. Oh, these three psalms hang together very well. And one of the most significant features

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in this psalm is its authorship. That is a psalm of David, it says. That it is his presents us with

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two great ironies. Two great ironies in the life of David. Number one, the division and internecine

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fighting that transpired before his kingship. It's ironic that this is a psalm of David, because as you

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recall from Samuel, though Israel now had one king, they still fought amongst each other as 12 stubborn

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tribes. As one commentator, as Calvin puts it, as a matter of fact, as John Calvin puts it, he says,

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indeed, so mortal was the feud which existed that nothing else than the destruction of the party and

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opposition seemed to hold out the prospect of peace, unquote. And this almost happened, right? In the near

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extinction of the tribe of Benjamin, you can read about this in the book of Judges. Nothing seems

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stronger than the bond between brothers, and yet nothing seems more bitter than a feud between

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brothers, too. Second irony that we must note in that David is the author of this psalm is the division

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of the kingdom into two generations. After the death of Solomon, Rehoboam and Jeroboam rent asunder the one

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kingdom, fulfilling the words of the prophet who said, the sword shall therefore never leave your house, David.

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That was the consequence for David's adultery with Bathsheba. There would be no more unity in Israel, no

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further good and pleasant blessing. But during the days of the composition of this psalm, Psalm 133, we see that

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brief window of unity, blessing and peace. Though David was a man of blood, a warrior king, David nevertheless had defeated

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Israel's surrounding enemies. He had made them vassal states and he united the splintered tribes under his one kingship.

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And the matter of fact is that he left to his son Solomon peace on every side, as first king says. In Samuel, we see the

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auspices under which this unity transpired. Indeed, all the elders gathered together and gave themselves to David with

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all of the tribes united under David's kingship in true shalom, that is true peace. David could exclaim, behold, he could

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point to this circumstance in Israel's life, excuse me, and say to the world, look at this. David had a shining model of

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unity. We need unity today in America, and we only find it in God. We only find it in Scripture. David had this

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shining model of unity, be it ever so brief. Now, one of the things I love about this psalm, Psalm 133, and why it is

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one of my favorites, is its brief and succinct and abiding declaration of principle, how good and pleasant it is

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when brothers dwell in unity. What a great principle, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in

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unity. Oh, this psalm extols the virtues of unity. First of all, number one, unity is in accord with

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God's expressed will. We are meant to be united. That's the sense of good, how good and pleasant it is

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when brothers dwell in unity. It is good when brothers dwell in unity. It's God's expressed will.

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When God made man, he saw that it was good. Could Cain and Abel live in such brotherly love in the

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will of their Creator? How about Joseph and his brothers? On the other hand, could David and Jonathan

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live in accord? Of course they could, beautifully. Could the twelve tribes do so under David? They did.

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The notion of good here means precisely this. Unity is God's expressed will. Unity is God's expressed

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will. That's true for us, for the church, and it should be so in the United States of America, too.

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The church should be united in America, not dispensing perhaps with all denominations, but

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nevertheless, even with our denominations together, we should be working together in God's will for the

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things that he desires. Even as we are united to our Savior in the body of Christ, we should be united.

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And we are united to the Father in Christ, and we should be united to one another in Christ and express

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it. As Matthew Henry puts it, it is good in itself that is conformable to the will of God, the conformity

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of earth to heaven. Unity. This was God's desire for Israel, which was a type of the church.

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I will make them one nation, God says, in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king

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over them all, and they shall be no longer two nations and no longer divided into two kingdoms. Unquote from

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Ezra, or from Ezekiel, excuse me, 37 and 22. So it is to be for the church, for us, dear listener. We are to be

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built up in the body of Christ using the gifts of the Spirit, as Ephesians says, until we all attain to

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the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood to the measure of the

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stature of the fullness of Christ. Unquote. We are going to be united in Christ. We need to be

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united in Christ if we are going to indeed fight tyranny on behalf of liberty. It is the church that must stand

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united despite attempts to divide us. Well, the second point we need to make about unity is that unity is

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actually experienced as a delight to the brothers. Unity is experienced as a delight to the brothers. Have you

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experienced this in the life of your church? That's the sense of pleasant. God wired us to be pleased in

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our daily interactions with one another when that interaction is indeed harmonious. It indeed is

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pleasant and harmonious to dwell in unity one with another, isn't it? Oh, I should certainly say that it is

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until we all attain to the unity of the faith, right? This is the net effect of the early church.

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The early church experienced this, and I read from Acts chapter 2 verses 42 to 47. And they, that is the

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believers in the early church, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship to the

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breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done

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through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common, and they were selling their

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possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the

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temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous

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hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day

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those who were being saved. Oh, yes, the fullness of Christ. Unity is experienced as a delight to the

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brothers. Now, dear listener, it's only now when I look back upon my childhood years with my extended

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family, my grandmas and grandpas, my aunts and uncles, and 48 cousins. All of us had in one town,

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that is Grand Rapids, Michigan. It's reflecting on this and realizing that I too can declare how good

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and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity. And we did so as a family, really and sincerely,

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for some 50 years. I know this to my toenails. All of our get-togethers were pleasant in this sense

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that on Sundays, all day, or at Christmas, or New Year's, or birthdays, or Easter, Memorial Day,

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Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, well, I looked forward to being with my family. How pleasant.

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I do not know what it is for brothers, or I'm sorry, I do know what it is for brothers to live in unity.

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This unity, this oneness is deep and profound and goes to the heart of God, to the very Trinitarian

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relationship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And we should be reflecting this in the life of the

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church. Jesus said in John chapter 17, he said, I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world,

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and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me,

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that they may be one, even as we are one, that they may all be one, just as you, Father,

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are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have

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sent me. The glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we

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are one, I in them, and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know

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that you sent me and love them, even as you loved me. What a beautiful picture of unity.

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Here is true unity. The world will not be able to achieve this in any way, shape, or form. All

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other ways of unity are counterfeit. Sex outside of Christian marriage is a vain pursuit, a personal

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unity between two persons. Human societies, whether they be things like Civitan or Freemasonry,

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even shared football teams. These are but a carnal imitation of true unity. The United Nations

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is a devilish charade of unity, used by tyrants to persuade naive souls that our dear leaders have

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the peace and prosperity of our people at heart. Oh, I in them, and you in me, that they may become

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perfectly one, Jesus said. That perfect oneness is even now being brought about by the third person

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of the Trinity, which is pictured by our next point in verse two, unity. This fellowship in Christ is

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like the one oil that saturates our high priest and the breastplate in verse two, in verse two of Psalm

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133, which indeed does nevertheless picture our true unity in Christ, doesn't it? Verse two of Psalm 133

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reads like this. It is the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron,

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running down on the collar of his rose. Oh, the oil is a precious image of the Holy Spirit. And this

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psalm is a clear enunciation of principle, followed by two expressive metaphors to illustrate,

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with which every Israelite on pilgrimage would resonate. Here in verse two, we have a picture

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which begs to be interpreted in the light of Christ, that is, the high priest, at his christening,

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standing before the people in his gorgeous vesture, every garment profound with meaning, that is, for

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example, the breastplate, which was garnished with twelve stones, that is, the twelve tribes of Israel,

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or the urim and the thumim, symbolic of biblical wisdom, the application of Torah of God to life in the

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creation of God, or the turban with the plate that said, holy to the Lord. All of these were symbols of

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Yahweh and the people united in one person, crowned with the pouring of the fragrant oil of the temple

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that was blended exclusively for use in the temple. This oil, the anointing oil that saturates

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the disparate elements of Aaron's vesture altogether in one oil. Wow, how beautifully Solomon's temple

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and their rituals portrayed there point to the greater work of Christ. And that includes the symbol

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of the fragrant oil poured out on Aaron and his progeny subsequent, which then saturated his garments

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literally from head to foot, to the collar, to the skirts of his robe, that is, right?

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That the anointing of oil as a symbol of the Holy Spirit becomes early on established in Israel. For

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example, in 1 Samuel 16, then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him, that is, Saul, in the midst

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of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. Oil as a symbol of

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the Spirit. Or as in 1 John 2 and 20, you have an anointing from the Holy One and you know all things.

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So, the oil thus serves as a unifying element among the disparate pieces of clothing flowing over them

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and on Aaron and the person of the high priest, that is, his beard and his head. When we then consider

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the office of this man, the high priest, how profound the metaphor. Hebrews chapter 9 tells us,

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into the Holy of Holies, only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood,

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for which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people, the whole

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people, the one people. The high priest did not enter the Holy of Holies for each separate individual

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in Israel, but rather, having been anointed to stand in for the whole of the people, the united

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nation. That's the true united nation, not the united nations. Well, that priest obtains forgiveness

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of sins for all the people. In an age of rampant individualism to a fault, how necessary this truth

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is to be held, to be embraced. Behold true unity. In fact, even the Jewish Haggadah, the commentators

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on this text said, two drops of the holy anointing gall remain forever, hanging on the beard of Aaron

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like two pearls, as an emblem of atonement and of peace. Unquote. That's an apocryphal story, but

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nevertheless illustrates how the oil unites. As the oil saturates the garments of Aaron, uniting the symbols

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of Yahweh and his people on him, so the Holy Spirit, the active agent in your redemption, applying the

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labors of Christ, so the Holy Spirit saturates us and the Father and the Son, bringing us into mystical

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union, dear listener. Oh, how beautiful the image. And David does not conclude there, but he also

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employs yet another familiar metaphor that pilgrims would eagerly anticipate as they approach Jerusalem,

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and that is the dew of Hermon. Point number three from verse three. This fellowship in Christ is like

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the single dew that saturates the high places of the land. Oh, yes. The unifying element here in verse

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three is the blessed dew of Hermon that saturates the cool high places surrounding Jerusalem and Mount

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Hermon. Oh, sheep used to quaff deeply of the still waters that distill upon the green grasses of their

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pastures the dew of early morning. The ever-present snows on Mount Hermon to the north of Jerusalem were a rich

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source of this dew, and farmers and herders relied upon this dew as a source of moisture for their

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crops and for their livestock. Oh, such a blessing it was, the dew of Hermon. Just as the ubiquitous dew

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from Hermon on high descends to the lower hills, including the hills of Jerusalem and most especially

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Mount Zion, so the unifying ministry of the Spirit refreshes the people of God. Oh, the Holy Spirit

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unites the whole topography of the church. How pleasant, indeed, in an arid and hot climate to

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feel the moist cooling effects of real mountain dew. Not the pop, but real mountain dew. You see it in

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the grass as you walk those early morning fields of Judea. Indeed, like it, the Holy Spirit unites the

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whole topography of the church. That's the sense of pleasant. Unity, when it saturates the life of God's

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people, is so pleasant and refreshing and vivifying. This is the state to which we aspire, dear listener.

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It is the blessed eternal state that we will attain when Christ returns. And so, two equally seeming

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opposite points must be striven after with extreme zeal. Number one, we must labor for this unity of the

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Spirit insofar as it is able to be achieved. Dear listener, we are equipped with the anointing of

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the Spirit, even now, the church, and we're going to need this in days to come. Let the Holy Spirit work

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within to bind us together in love and in unity. As Paul says, maintain the unity of the Spirit in the

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bond of peace. And it is achievable to saint to saint, church to church, and denomination to denomination.

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God bless the peacemakers in all denominations of the church and all individual churches. Blessed are

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the peacemakers. But secondly, we must not labor for a false unity based upon error or heresy. And this

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calls for wisdom. The ecumenical movement of the mainline denominations of the last century is exhibit

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A. They display a union of denominations who no longer believe the Bible, no longer take the creeds of

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their churches seriously, and no longer preach the doctrines of the church that made them Christian

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in the first place. Evangelicals and Catholics together is another well-intentioned movement,

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for example, to reconcile the two sides of the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation.

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Little progress has been made, however, and I'm going to remain a Protestant until the Roman Catholic

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Church returns to the doctrines of her beginning. Dear listener, it is important to maintain both the

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unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace and not unite with heresy, too. Oh, dear listener, we are

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going to need to be united in days to come as a church. We're going to need to span denominational

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boundaries, doctrinal boundaries, some of the doctrinal boundaries that do not ultimately divide

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us, but we're going to be united against tyranny. We need to be united as the church against tyranny,

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because it is the church who ultimately is the only place where we will find true liberty and freedom.

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We will be able to establish a Christian republic. We will be able to establish liberty in politics

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and in culture precisely because we first established liberty in the Spirit. We are going to be united in

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days to come. We're going to have to be united in days to come if we are overcoming the tyranny that

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is presently upon us in the United States of America. As goes the church, so goes the nation.

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And so we must always remember that we need to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,

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even as it is expressed for us in Psalm 133. Embrace this. Strive for it. Work for it. Work with your

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brother. Be found one with your brother, and work for liberty with your brother. This has been Pastor

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David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. We meet for holy worship in complete liberty

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and freedom, dear listener. New Geneva meets for a free and liberated worship on Sunday morning at 10 a.m.

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at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call us for more information and feedback

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at area code 208-523-0196. 208-523-0196.

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Thank you.