The following sermon is from the Westminster Pulpit, extending the worship ministry of Westminster Presbyterian Church, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. We are a local congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America. Please contact us for permission before reproducing this message in any format. Come again to God's Word tonight, and we are returning to our series in the Psalms. And if you've been with us, you know that this is not been a systematic approach to the Psalms. Rather, it's been an exercise in indulging the associate pastors in getting to preach our favorite Psalms. And we're continuing in that trend tonight. Tonight we want to look at Psalm 133. Psalm 133 is a short and yet beautiful psalm. that doesn't, it doesn't spend its time on sort of propositions or statements or arguments like some passages of scripture. But these three verses, this three verse Psalm, I think makes just one very brief point and then spends its time engaging our senses and drawing images to help us to feel the delight of God's people dwelling together in unified fellowship with each other before God. Would you join me as we read this brief psalm, Psalm 133. Behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. It is like the precious oil on the head running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron running down on the collar of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon which falls on the mountains of Zion for there the Lord has commanded the blessing life forevermore this is God's word let's pray briefly God we thank you that these are your words their words that you wrote by your spirit through David this text tells us but words that you're also speaking to us now so I pray that your word would be a blessing to our souls would give us a great vision for you we pray this in Christ's name and I don't know if you had elementary grammar school classes guessing that was fairly typical for most of us if you did maybe you had to diagram sentences up on the board. This is a memory some have heard. I did not do this as a homeschooler. We didn't have a chalkboard in our kitchen. But I do know that despite not diagramming sentences, I have the vague memory of adopting what I call the nationally standardized attitude of sixth grade boys, which is grammar exercises are ridiculous, purposeless, and meaningless. So I'm sure if I had, I would not have paid much attention. If we were going to diagram sentences to sort of understand the logical flow of thought, there are some passages of scripture that we really have to work to understand, you know, how does this phrase relate to this sentence and where's the argument going? That's not the case for Psalm 133. Psalm 133 is not a complex argument, it's simple, it's straightforward, it's the kind of sentence I would have loved to have been assigned to diagram in sixth grade. And it's really aimed at savoring and relishing the goodness of its truth rather than making an argument for it. I think we can break Psalm 133 down into one declaration, two comparisons, and a brief rationale. One declaration, two comparisons, and a brief rationale. And that's the outline I'd like to walk through and then talk briefly about some applications for us as God's people. So let's begin with the declaration. Verse one, the Psalm begins, by declaring, behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. Now we're told by the title of this psalm that this is a song of ascents. And if you remember, the songs of ascents are a group of psalms that were associated with the three great feast days that the Israelites would have kept. And these three great feast days would have been occasions where all of Israel would have gathered to Jerusalem, Passover, the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Booths, times when they would all come to Jerusalem to worship. They would gather from their territories and be together to remember God's goodness as he commanded. And these songs may have been sung by God's people either as they were on the road traveling to Jerusalem or perhaps as they came to Jerusalem and walked up the hill into the city itself. But either way, this psalm fits this setting perfectly as God's people are gathering to Jerusalem for one of this triannual feast. They would be singing about how good it is for God's people to gather together and to dwell in unity. If you can picture all Israel as they gather from from north and from south, from east and from west, from lowlands and plains to hills and forests, from You'd have the old and young coming together. You'd have priests and lay people coming together, rich and poor, men and women, and all of their differences of background and station and situation. From all of these various positions, they would be gathering together as one people of God. And as they would do so, this song would express the joy of the unity and fellowship they would experience as they came to Jerusalem to be together and to worship. I think it's always a joy to gather with God's people. But if you could put yourself in the situation of one of these Israelites gathering to Jerusalem with the whole nation, I think maybe we've had experiences where we gather with large groups of God's people from various backgrounds and places. The joy and the strength and the blessing it is to see that unity and that fellowship and the power of coming together before God. And I think maybe we have something of the joy that this would have been sung as the Israelites gathered. But the psalmist doesn't just want to tell us this fact. He doesn't want to just say, okay, it's a great thing when we can dwell in unity. End of story. He wants to help us feel and relish and enjoy the delight. of being together and dwelling in unity as God's people. He wants us to kind of roll it around in our minds and let it sit in our hearts and our souls and delight in it together. And so the psalmist goes on from his simple declaration that as God's people come together, it's a good and pleasant thing. And he gives us two similes or two comparisons to highlight the blessing of unity and fellowship with God's people. To return to your grammar class for a minute, you may remember a simile. was an image or a picture that would use like or as to compare something. And we have two of those here in verses two and three. In verse two, the psalmist says that brothers dwelling together in unity is like precious oil. running down the head, the beard and the robes of Aaron. And I would like if you if you can sort of say this in your mind or hear this said out loud, I think maybe you'll hear that the poetry of this verse is actually giving you a feel for what's happening. If you if you if you read it out loud and you say that the precious oil is on the head running down to the beard. the beard of Aaron running down to the collar of his robes you can almost hear the oil running and spreading down Aaron as you read as you read the language of the poetry there now I think in our context this is a similar a comparison that maybe is a little bit hard to understand why in the world would we want to be happy about oil running down our sleeves and as I read this I For the first time, I was two days removed from trying to bake a birthday cake for my wife with my three-year-old and one-year-old. And if you've ever been in the kitchen and tried to do anything productive with ingredients with a three-year-old and one-year-old, you envision the mess of flour and sugar and oil and all of the ingredients spread all over the kitchen, not just in the bowl. And so here I am, oil down my sleeves, which of course is especially slimy and greasy, and I'm thinking, why? Is it a good and precious thing to have oil running down your head and down your sleeves? So we have to remember what's going on here. It says here that oil, that this oil was precious oil, the precious oil that was poured on the head. And we know that, that the oil that was used in the tabernacle and temple settings was a perfumed oil, which would smell wonderful and please the senses. It would be a picture of pleasantness as the aroma of this oil would have spread. There's a pleasantness to good fellowship that warms and comforts. And as I thought of this, I couldn't help but remember John Leonard was a speaker at our missions conference several years ago. And he told a story of meeting a Christian randomly who he did not know in an airport. And the two of them struck up a conversation prior to their airplanes arriving. And he said it was so encouraging to sit with this fellow Christian who he didn't even know. He said it was like warm oil blessing my soul. And I thought of this psalm as I thought about that picture of sudden fellowship and unity where it was unexpected. That's this picture here, this pleasing, aromatic, comforting sense of oil. And it's not only pleasant, but it's running down from the head, covering the head, beard, collared robes. And I think we get this picture of this pleasing, comforting joy of fellowship that flows through the congregation of God's people, great and small. all alike, like oil flowing down from the head to the whole person. But this picture of oil is not just a matter of the pleasantness of the oil, because we have to remember why oil was used. What was the purpose of anointing Aaron's head with oil? Oil was used to set Aaron apart. as holy to God. It was used to set him apart for service to God. Oil was the anointing thing that said, this person, this thing is holy. And God's people, when God's people come together to dwell in unity, we're not here merely as friends. We're not here merely as people who come together for relationship in the same sense that we would with any secular relationship. When God calls his people together and they come together before him, together in his presence, these are relationships that are set apart, that are made holy for God's purposes in God's presence. The anointing with oil to set apart as holy would have allowed the priest to serve in God's presence and would have been done for the instruments in the tabernacle. God's people are welcomed into his very presence and set apart for him. And there also the anointing with oil set something apart for service to God. And God's people, as they're gathered together, are set apart to accomplish his purposes in each other's lives. Their mutual growth and for the accomplishment of the purposes of his kingdom. And so here we have this picture of dwelling together in unity, anointing with oil, being reminded that God's people are set apart set apart for him in for his presence and for his purposes. What an incredible joy and privilege it is to gather in the presence of the Holy God and be part of his work of blessing for each other and for the world. And so all these things come to mind when we hear how good it is for brothers to dwell in unity. It's like the anointing oil poured over the head of Aaron. Well, then the psalmist goes on to say that brothers dwelling in unity is like the dew on Hermon. Now, Hermon was the highest peak in Israel and rain and a heavy dew fell on this mountaintop regularly so that the result was that this mountaintop was renowned across all Israel for its lush greenness all year round. There was never a point where you would go to Hermon and say, oh, everything's dried up and withered. If it wasn't the rainy season, there was still a heavy dew falling. And so lushness, and greenness, and life, and fruitfulness were the reputation of this mountain through Israel. It was the prime example of fruitfulness and beauty and health because of this dew that fell on it. And so, as God's people come together to Zion, to the mountain of Zion, although Zion was not a high mountain and was not known for lush greenery, as God's people descend on Mount Zion for these feasts, singing this song, they are like the dew that descend upon Mount Hermon. As they descend on Jerusalem, they come together and they make it lush and beautiful for the fellowship and the encouragement and the joy of God's people coming together yields fruitfulness and encouragement and strengthening and health. And so the effects of dew on Mount Hermon are the same effects of God's people coming together on our lives. And so we have this beautiful picture of God's people, their fellowship and their unity together was like the dew for it's refreshing and strengthening and beautifying and sustaining as God's people come together and dwell in unity in God's presence. And so we have these two similes, brothers dwelling together like oil running down the head of Aaron and like the dew of Hermon falling on Zion. They help God's people to feel and express and understand the beauty and the blessing of being together as they're assembled at Jerusalem, unified from all Israel together to worship their God at his appointed feasts. So here the psalmist, he makes the declaration of how good it is for brothers to dwell in unity. He gives us these two comparisons to help us understand and feel the beauty and the goodness of this unity. But now he then ends the psalm by declaring why being together as God's people is so good. Why would it be that dwelling together as God's people in God's city would be so good? What makes the fellowship and the unity of God's people such a blessing? Verse three concludes with this statement, for, that's telling us, this is the reason he's giving us, for there the Lord has declared the blessing, life forevermore. The reason fellowship and unity is so good is that there, as Israel is assembled together in Jerusalem, God has commanded this blessing, life forevermore. God is the one who's commanded these blessings. God is the one who commanded Israel to keep these feasts. They're there because he commanded them to be there. And God is the one who created us for relationship with each other. And God is the one who ordained that his people should dwell together in community. God is the one who called his people out of the world to be his. And God's the one who bestows the blessings of his presence on his people. And so if we're going to trace any joys or blessings to being together in fellowship and relationship, it's because God has commanded it. God has brought it together. And it is because of God's will that we are here. All the joys of fellowship and unity come from God. They are his command. But then that last little phrase, I think if we were to stop and just say, the Lord is the one who has commanded it to be a blessing, it would be very understandable. But then we get this last phrase, for there, in the unified fellowship of God's people, God has commanded the blessing, life forevermore. It's an odd and unexpected ending, I think. We think, when it comes right down to it, sure, we could understand blessings of encouragement, maybe, but it seems to be saying that there in the blessing, God's people being together is is the blessing of eternal life life forevermore What does this mean? well life forevermore and Unified fellowship with God and each other this has been the yearning of all people since they broke fellowship with God and each other and earned death at the fall of The fall broke fellowship with each other and it broke fellowship with God. And the story of scripture is the longing for and God's promise of a restoration of that life, that life and fellowship with each other and with God. God's promise of hope and restoration repeatedly points ahead to a time when he will reconcile us to each other and unite his people once again in his presence. And we get glimpses of this throughout the Old Testament, glimpses as God's people enter the promised land together, or as the temple is built in Jerusalem and God's people are gathered around and God's presence descends on the temple. and they're there worshiping Him. Or as the feasts are celebrated and all Israel gathers together, these are glimpses, glimpses of the unity, a fellowship of God's people that we long for. But they're glimpses that keep getting broken again and again. Sin, conflict, exile break these pictures. And they keep the examples from the Old Testament fulfilling this yearning and longing. But the prophets keep this yearning alive. And as we think of this picture of dwelling in unity in God's presence, I immediately thought of the promise in Isaiah 66, the last few verses of Isaiah as Isaiah is giving this prophecy of God's future hope. And he uses these words at the end of chapter 66, God's promise. He declares that one day they shall gather all your brothers from the nations to my holy mountain, Jerusalem. And as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring in your name remain from new moon to new moon, from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me. And do you hear that God's promise is the eternal continuing this fellowship of God's people in his presence to worship him that all his people shall be gathered they shall dwell in unity and From new moon to new moon from Sabbath to Sabbath as long as God's new heavens and new earth shall remain His people shall remain there and their name shall remain there dwelling with him. This is the promise of The future promise of blessing that God has made to his people is perfect, unified, dwelling together with each other and with him in worship as long as his new creation remains, which of course is forever. That is life forevermore. See, when we think about eternal life, too often we think of eternal life as this thing that God gives us in exchange for believing in him, kind of like a teacher would give a candy bar in exchange for a good performance. It's a thing we get, we think. But heaven is the Bible's term for the eternal assembly of God's people, where there's no sin and no disharmony, And we have the blessing of being brought back and restored into fellowship with him. It's the joy of worshiping God's presence with each other forever. And that community, that community of God's people dwelling with him forever is the whole purpose of him calling a people out of the world to himself in the first place. And so Psalm 133, which is sung at the gathering of Israel for a feast in Jerusalem, is reminding God's people that brothers dwelling together in unity is so good because it's a brief foretaste of the promise that God has made for his people, of the hope that God has set before his people, that all of Israel, that all God's people are waiting for. And so as God's people experience that foretaste at one of these great feasts and they sing this song, they're reminded this blessing is actually a foretaste of the life forevermore that God has promised he is going to restore to us. What a beautiful promise. But it's just at this moment that we have to pause and remember the joy and the privilege of knowing Jesus Christ. Because if it were not for Jesus Christ, then all of us here would be like outsiders looking in at this party, looking in at this fellowship and seeing God has promised this community, this dwelling in unity in his presence, but what right do we have to be there? Remember Paul who says, you were formerly alienated from God without hope in the world and alienated from one another. As I thought about this psalm and its picture of goodness and joy and pleasantness and everything encompassing the joy of what God has promised and where we stand without Christ, I was reminded of a time, I think I was 11 years old, My family was known as a little bit different in my neighborhood We were homeschooled and Christians and you know, we didn't do different things and one morning Saturday morning I walked outside and looked over and there are all of my friends in the neighborhood Having a birthday party at the house next door and I wasn't there. I hadn't been invited I remember just sitting there by the side of the house for the longest time just watching them play games and thinking I'm left out. I'm outside of the party And we found out afterwards that they thought we didn't celebrate birthdays. And so they were trying to honor my family's differentness. And so we, I was invited to the party next year. But as I thought about the emotion of that, I thought, that is all of us without Jesus Christ. This picture of Psalm 133 and all of its goodness is what we have no hope of apart from Jesus Christ. And yet Paul says those of us who are alienated from Christ and alienated from each other and without hope with God in the world, Christ came. Christ came and he broke down the hostility of the barriers and he renewed hope and called us into one people to be united with all of God's people that we might receive mercy and be united both to God and with each other so that this hope can be ours. So here we have this declaration how good it is. When brothers dwell in unity, we have these pictures that help us understand the goodness and we have the rationale. Why is it so good? Why is it so good to dwell with brothers in unity? Because it's a foretaste of the blessing life forevermore that we're experiencing right now. Well, in our time that's remaining, I want to consider two applications of this psalm for us as God's people, one very brief and one at greater length. First and briefly, this psalm reminds us of the blessing and the importance and the joy of brothers dwelling in unity. And as the church, the New Testament echoes this same theme, calling on Christians to walk in Christ in unity with one another. And you might think of the opening verses of Ephesians chapter four, where Paul. calls on Christians to be eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. That there is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. You hear how many times one is stated, one in unity? The call is for God's church to be one and to be united. But when we look at the Christian church, whether it's in any given church or at the church as a whole, there is so much division. There's so much brokenness, conflict. So many things divide us from one another rather than unite us. Whether it's chopped up denominations, whether it's centuries long divisions or even hostility between people who both believe in Christ and the triune God, or whether it's conflict that exists between people in pews of the same church. There is much that divides God's people from each other. I think Dr. Rogers sermon this morning is a great exhortation for us to move towards each other and to reconcile and forgive within the pews. But I think I want to make sure that we remember the call and the vision for unity as God's church as a whole as well. One of the great strengths of our own denomination is a love for doctrine and the truths of Scripture. And we must continue in that love for doctrine and the truths of Scripture. But as a result of this emphasis, sometimes our denomination can almost seem to take greater delight in the things that distinguish us or divide us or make us different than other denominations. We take more delight in that than we do in yearning for the unity of fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. I think it's a particular danger that we need to be aware of. Of course, this isn't the time or place to parse out all the questions of when do we emphasize doctrinal distinctions and when do we emphasize, you know, unity around a common fellowship in Christ. But I think this psalm reminds us that we ought to grieve for anything that divides God's people, and we should long for the unity that this psalm pictures and that Christ through Paul calls us to in the unity of his people. And we should be looking forward to anticipating the joy of real solid unity with all believers. That is our hope in heaven. We need to remember that now. Second, I want to spend the remaining time on this. This psalm should remind us of the blessings of fellowshipping together in unity with God's people. And one of the cultural trends that is attracting more and more attention is how the internet and smartphones and social media are harming people's ability to form real relationships. And technology is becoming something that isolates people. And trends of anxiety and depression and lack of real relationship are on tremendous rise. And it doesn't even have to just be isolation. Not only that, but as a result of that, there's also an increased focus on myself and what I need and what I want. Whatever seems to benefit me or be what I want is what I'll do. And so we have a number of trends, like people who don't go to church to gather with God's people because they can listen to a better sermon online or a sermon they like better online. I can't think of how many times I've been told by people in the last five years as a pastor, I'm really looking for a church that meets all of my needs or all of my criteria. Just look at how not only are we being isolated, but even what we're looking for is focused on me and what I want. It struck me 27 years ago in 1991, Michael Horton, a well-known Reformed author, wrote this. He said, many of us drive to church, listen to the sermon, say hello to our circle of friends, and return home without ever really experiencing community while we're there. That was 27 years ago. Imagine how much more that is true. 1991, the internet wasn't even really alive and well, not to mention smartphones and social media. And so here, this psalm, reminds us of the goodness and the importance of dwelling together with God's people. And as I thought about this and read this psalm this week, I began to make a list of the blessings and the joys of being united together with God's people and to remind myself of the importance of real fellowship with God's church. There's probably hundreds of things we could mention, but there were six that I thought of this week, and I want to just spend our remaining minutes reviewing these six things that I thought of, these six joys of fellowship with God's people. First, in fellowship with God's people, there is the joy of knowing others and being known by others. I think there's nothing lonelier than feeling like no one understands me. No one really knows me and the life that I'm walking through. Perhaps the worst scenario though is, is when there are people around me who are greeting me fairly pleasantly, but there's no real relationship. So they don't actually know what's going on in my life. Everything feels like a formality or a facade because we're not, we don't truly know each other and aren't truly known by each other. There's so much that others don't know, and perhaps we're even in a situation where we have a relationship, but because we aren't truly known, we're afraid. We're afraid that if people actually realize who we are and what we're going through, that would break the relationship, or they would not think as well of us as we want them to. But from the very beginning in Genesis 2, God has declared that it was not good for man to be alone. We were made in the image of Father, Son, and Spirit, the God who has known and been known in deep intimacy for all eternity. And we were made in that image for that purpose. And so as one author says, there is a hole in our humanity that was meant to be filled by relationships. Without relationships, we shrivel and are missing a part of what it means to be human. But when we have that true relational connection, it gives us tremendous joy. But I think God's church not only provides community, it not only provides fellowship, but it allows us to know each other and be known by each other in a unique way that other relationships don't. Because in the church, we are those who are coming together as sinners who have been redeemed and forgiven by the grace of God. And there is a security that we have and being vulnerable and open and allowing others to know us when we have the security of knowing God's grace and God's forgiveness. We don't need to fear ultimate rejection because we have security in Christ and that same security in Christ can give us security in our relationships with each other and a comfort in being open and vulnerable and known at a deeper level. And at the same time, Christ's willingness to love even sinful people gives us the example and the motivation to pursue each other and know each other, cover over each other's faults, to love each other in a way that apart from Christ we would not have. And so the love of Christ in the community of the church gives us an area to know one another, to pursue one another in relationship, to forgive one another, to be known and vulnerable with each other in ways that apart from Christ and apart from the church we could not have. And so it is a joy to be in deep, intimate fellowship with one another, knowing each other and being known by each other. Second, in fellowship with God's people, there is the joy of shared loves. Last week we had our missions conference here at Westminster and I spent quite a few different opportunities talking with Sam and Lizzie Goodwin from Germany. I talked with them on a Wednesday night here at church and we talked to them on Friday at the missions brunch and on Saturday at the missions conference. But on Sunday, having already talked to them three different times, we suddenly had a new source of connection when we realized that Sam and I both grew up in Northeast Ohio less than an hour from each other. And suddenly this kind of shared love brought a new and deeper connection and level of relationship with each other. I think you know how it is. You know how it is when you love something, some hobby, some sports team, and you don't really know someone else who loves the thing you love, and then you meet someone who loves the same thing, and there's this immediate connection and bond. and an ability to have relationship with one another. And this can happen around anything. There's joy and connection in that relationship. But in the fellowship of God's people, not only do we find people who love the same things that we do here on earth, we are people whose very reason for gathering together is that we share the same supreme love. We are here because we love the same person, Jesus Christ, more than anything else. And so in God's church, we have people who are gathered around the same greatest love. We are here because our hearts have been overwhelmed by the beauty of Christ. And so we can have the deepest joy and deepest fellowship because we love the same person the most. Our lives have been changed by the same one person. And so we can have a deep joy of shared love in the church at a deep level. This is the second joy that we can have in the church. Third, in fellowship with God's people, there is the joy of companionship. in times of both joy and in sorrow and blessing and in need. Ed Welch has argued that we are all needy people who are broken by sin and sufferings and disappointments here in this world. And God, in the face of these pains and disappointments and sufferings and brokenness, has called us to rely on His grace. But so often, we ask the question, well, where does God's grace come from? And isn't it true that so often God uses his people in the body of Christ to be the instruments of his grace in times of need? God's people are how he walks with us so often. Who hasn't had the experience of a friend or a brother or sister in Christ praying with us, encouraging us when we're weak, or practically helping us to get through a difficult time with meals and phone calls and other things? And then, of course, on the flip side, it is in a relationship with other people that we can fully delight in blessings. When you get something wonderful, your first reaction is to tell someone. If you think of a young woman who gets engaged, it's a wonderful thing to be engaged, but think about getting engaged and having no one to tell. It's still a good thing, but you lose a great part of the joy if you have no one to tell because joy increases when you can share it in community. And so you think of in Romans where it calls on us to mourn with those who mourn and to rejoice with those who rejoice. That fellowship in both mourning and rejoicing is part of the deep joy and comfort of being with God's people. Fourth, in fellowship with God's people, there is the joy of God's presence. And maybe this is one we don't think of very often, but I love how Dietrich Bonhoeffer puts it in his excellent book, Life Together, when he says, The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer. The prisoner, the sick person, the Christian in exile, sees in the companionship of a fellow Christian a physical sign of the gracious presence of the triune God. And this makes sense, of course, doesn't it? The church is called the body of Christ. And how do you know when someone else is with you? You don't know someone else is with you because there's some kind of secret mental signal. You know someone else is with you because you look and you actually see their body right there with you. You look next to you in the pew and there's somebody. He's right there. The body of that person is right there and we can see them. Scripture tells us that the church is the body of Christ, and we see the presence of Christ through his body in many ways. Rory Shiner, another Reformed author, puts it this way. He says, according to the New Testament, church takes union with Christ from an invisible truth known by faith only to a concrete and this worldly experience. What sort of union is it that we have with Christ? It's the sort of union that has you eyeballing your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ as together with one voice you glorify God in the presence of each other. Being together with God's people is an assurance of God's love, presence, and faithfulness to his people. I think this was summed up to me in a powerful way. As Solomon, one of our young refugee young men, said to me the other day, he said, Chris, how do I know that God loves me? And I was about to answer and he said, wait, I think I know. I know that God loves me because the people in the church love me and care for me. What a great statement that the presence and the love of God is often known. We often feel and are assured of that by the church, the fellowship of God's people. Fifth, In fellowship with God's people, there is the joy of confession, accountability, and growth. Sin loves to isolate people. Sin is like mold. It thrives in the dark. It thrives when things are moldy and hidden. It's almost impossible to overcome sin on our own. But the fellowship of God's people bring light into the darkness. accountability and encouragement to the struggle and an assurance of forgiveness to the sinner. And this is so important when we commit sin. So often our natural response is to hide or to keep it to ourselves. And I don't know about you, but I've often thought, well, I'll pray to God and confess this to God, but I'm not telling anybody else about it. And what that attitude reveals is that my first priority is still appearing respectable to everyone else. That's still my first priority. I'm more concerned about how I appear to anyone else than I am in growing through my sin. And so Bonhoeffer again says that God has blessed us with brothers and sisters in Christ. to be a means for us to know that we've truly repented. How do we know that we've truly repented? We're willing to confess our sin and bring it into the light. Bonhoeffer puts it this way. He says, since the confession of sin is made in the presence of another Christian brother, the last stronghold of self-justification is abandoned. The sinner surrenders. He gives up all his evil. He gives his heart to God and finds the forgiveness of all his sin in the fellowship of Jesus Christ and with his brother. What a joy to find help, accountability, a place to confess and hear an assurance of God's forgiveness through Christ and community with our brothers and sisters in Christ. And finally, in fellowship with God's people, there is the joy of a glimpse of heaven. We've already talked about this a bit. From the Garden of Eden, through God's call to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob's offspring to a promised land to the vision of the prophets. God's plan has always been in his promise of hope is always that he is going to call a people to be his people and fellowship with each other and with him forever. And that's the hope of heaven and eternity and perfect united fellowship with God and with his people. That's where we're headed. And when we gather with our brothers and sisters in Christ, like we are here tonight, when we gather with the church, we have a foretaste. of that eternal hope. See, church isn't about sitting back and appreciating some good music and hopefully at least a halfway competent sermon. It's our chance to participate in a foretaste of heaven. It's our chance to come together and enjoy fellowship with God's people, united together in God's presence, worshiping him. If anyone were to take the thing you're looking forward to most, maybe it's a summer vacation on the beaches of Hawaii, and in the middle of February, snow's coming down, say, hey, I would like to transport you to Hawaii for three hours to give you a foretaste of your summer vacation. We'd all do it in a second. Get out of the snow and get to the beaches of Hawaii. Here, on a weekly basis, God has said, you have a chance to enjoy a foretaste of the eternal blessings of heaven. with God's people in his church. What a blessing, what a blessing. And so we could go on and on, there's so much more that could be said. But in the end, after we go through all these blessings of being with God's people, we come back to the simple declaration, how good and how pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity. For there, in that place, God commands blessing, even life forevermore. Amen. And thank God. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this blessing that you've given us. We thank you for the joy of Christian fellowship. And we thank you above all for Jesus Christ, for Jesus who came out of heaven and was willing to hear or to say those words. His father had forsaken him on the cross out of the most intimate fellowship. Why would he go through that so that we could be brought into the fellowship? so that we could have the blessings of being with God's people. Thank you, God, for sending Jesus. And thank you for the blessings of this fellowship, which is just pointing us ahead to the greatest party we will ever know. Eternity together with you, worshiping your name forever. We thank you in Christ's name. Amen.