Into the Sanctuary

Thank you very much, shall we pray. Our Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, we we do thank thee that so many people have access to this technology where we can communicate and speak to one another and yet our Father there is a communication which is far more wonderful. We can go into the very sanctuary of God and hear the words of God and hear his voice and see his glory by faith.

We thank thee for the access that we have into the sanctuary and into our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you again our Father that he came down from heaven and went to Calvary and to the cross and paid that great price that we might be forgiven, that we might be saved, that our names might be written in heaven. We thank you Father that we're on our way to heaven and now Father in this life we have this tremendous privilege of entering the sanctuary.

So Father we pray that as we look at thy word that thou will give us good understanding of it and we pray that there is anyone who has got a need that there might be something in the teaching tonight that will be of great help. We pray that thou will bless thy word and grant us a sense of thy help and presence as we now turn to the word of God. So bless every home listening, bless everyone watching and listening just now in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Amen. Now I would like to look at Psalm 73 this evening with you if you would like to turn to that. Now I'm conscious that our brother Peter Ramsey back in April gave us some thoughts from Psalm 73 so I apologize if there's any overlap but then some things are worth repeating.

So we'll start by reading the first three verses of Psalm 73. A Psalm of Esau. Truly God is good to Israel even to search as are of a clean heart but as for me my feet were almost gone my steps had when I slipped for I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

So we'll just pause there please keep your Bible open. Sometimes appearances can be deceiving. We could see someone in our assembly meeting or in work or anywhere for that matter and family and we would think now there's a person who's enjoying the things of God there.

That person is doing well and we can see them singing the hymns and in seemingly enjoying the things of God and yet that same person inwardly things might not be good at all and that they might have a great crisis of faith that we know nothing about and that no one else knows anything about and such a man as that was this man called Esau. You notice it was Esau who wrote this Psalm. He wrote 12 of the Psalms and Esau I find him a most interesting character.

We discover that he was one of the musicians. He was the leader of the singers in the temple choir and if you heard of he was appointed by David at the time they brought the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem and at that time there were singers and choirs, there were cymbals, there were trumpets, there were psalters and there were harps. Now it must have been quite a sound and there were also trumpets.

So personally I would love to have heard it but the trumpets are most likely to have been round horns. So when they brought the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem and put it in a tent that David had prepared for it there was great celebration and great music and then if you fast forward in time when David was dead and Solomon had built the temple Esau was still alive and Esau was in charge of the singers and that the dedication of the temple it must have been something wonderful but at the east of the altar there were to be the musicians, there were the brass cymbals, the harps and the psalteries and the choir and Esau was one of the ones who was leading the singers and he was playing the brass cymbals and at the dedication of the temple there happened to be a hundred and twenty trumpeters. Now they were all in white linen.

It must have been a tremendous sight and I don't know if you've been to Jerusalem, some of you probably have, if you come from the Mount of Olives, if you're standing on the Mount of Olives and you're looking across the Kidron Valley toward Jerusalem you can see the Temple Mount where the temple had been. There's an Islamic shrine on it now as you know but it must have been a tremendous sight with the sun was glinting on the beautiful cream limestone of the temple and to hear the sound coming from the temple in unison, the singers, the cymbals, the harps and the 120 ram's horns. Now they were all to play in unison as one note and for someone arriving in Jerusalem and to hear it, it must have travelled for miles.

There would have been no traffic noise in Jerusalem and the sound would have gone across the hills for miles and miles and I would think that there was nothing else like it in all the earth in those days to have heard the temple singers and musicians in the quietness of a Jerusalem Sabbath day and playing and praising God. Now if you would have seen Esaf on that day at the dedication of the temple or even at the time of the bringing back of the Ark of the Covenant and so on, you would have thought looking at Esaf there he was in his in his white linen robe leading and conducting the singers, playing the cymbals and the sound must have gone up, it must have been riveting, tremendous and you would have thought with Esaf there as a man. If ever there was a man enjoying his God, if ever there was a man enjoying the things of God, it is Esaf.

But you would have been wrong because inside Esaf's heart there was a crisis of faith and he was a very worried man and he was in fact very close to losing his faith and falling altogether. So maybe there's someone listening and you're coming through a crisis of faith, something has entered your thoughts or your life and no one else knows about them. So it's good to see how the Bible deals with such a situation.

Esaf was not happy. So this is how he starts, truly God is good to Israel even to such as are of a clean heart. Now for Esaf that was a foundational premise of God's dealings with Israel and with men.

He was good to Israel and he was good to those of a clean heart. So Esaf thought this, that God blesses the godly and he punishes the ungodly. Now as he looked at people around him, he was not seeing what he thought he should have been seeing and this premise that he began with, that God is good to Israel and to such as of a clean heart, it didn't seem to stack up with what he was actually seeing.

And he goes on to say, but as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well now slipped. Now that is quite an admission. Maybe you were in a hard place like that at one time in your life, in your Christian life where you had nearly fallen completely and walked away and nearly given up.

And he said my feet had almost gone, my steps had well now slipped. What was his problem? Well he says in verse three, for I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Now it's an age-old problem but Esaf thought this, that God should bless the godly man and the ungodly and the wicked, he should punish them and he should punish them immediately they've sinned.

This was a stumbling block. He could see that people who were wicked and they were foolish, that they were actually prospering and the Christian or the believer rather seemed to be much worse off. He was a lot poorer than these wicked men that he saw who seemed to be prospering and God didn't seem to be judging the wicked.

He didn't seem to be doing anything and he looks at these men and he reckons in verse four, there are no bans in their death but their strength is firm. They seem to have better health than the believer. There are no restraints on them, they just sin without boundaries and their strength, they're strong and they are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men.

This did not make sense to Esaf because why didn't God stop these men? Why didn't God judge them and why didn't God punish them? Now he goes on and he's making observations and he uses the metaphor of clothing to describe their character in a very interesting verse in verse six. He says, therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain, violence covereth them as a garment. Notice that these men are proud and they're violent and he reckons their pride is like the way a man would wear a chain or a necklace.

He wants to display it, he wants people to see it, they're arrogant, they're proud. So pride compasseth them about as a chain, violence covereth them as a garment. So notice they are both proud and violent.

Isn't it interesting how the word pride has been used and exalted by the vilest of people in recent years in the cities of the world and the western world and all these marches and they are pushing the word pride. We are proud of what we're doing, we are proud of our sin, violence covereth them as a garment. So some things haven't changed very much in three thousand years, pride and violence.

That's so prudent to have. Then he tells us in verse seven he observes these wicked men, their eyes stand out with fatness, they have more than heart could wish. Well, they seem to be in the best of health, they have the best food and their eyes are standing out with fatness, they are indulgent and greedy and they have more than their heart could wish and usually it is more of things that are foolish.

They are occupying their hearts with just things that are of no substance and of no value. Isn't it just like the way, have you noticed the way people have been missing their sport in this pandemic, in lockdowns, they have missed their big stadiums, they've missed their pubs and their concerts, they're really missing them and usually they have more than their heart could wish and you can see how men are wanting to get back to their pleasures, men do not like this lockdown. Then he says in verse eight they are corrupt and speak wickedly concerning oppression they speak loftily.

Well, corruption is nothing new to government, to people, they're corrupt and they speak wickedly. Why? Asaph wonders, why does God allow it? Why does he allow it to continue and concerning oppression they speak loftily. These are proud people and they boast of their victories and their conquests, corruption and wickedness and oppression.

These are the things that characterize these men that Asaph is watching and he's wondering about it and then not only that, verse nine, they set their mouth against the heavens and their tongue walketh through the earth. Now notice now these men, they are profane men, they are setting their mouth against the heavens, have you noticed that in the last 20 years how atheism and mockery has increased and we are hearing things on the media 30, 40 years ago you wouldn't have heard but now you're hearing people mocking God and going about, media atheists and going about mocking the idea of God and mocking the idea of heaven. They set their mouth against the heavens, what a dangerous thing to do and Asaph is appalled, he's shocked.

Why does God allow these men to speak against the heavens and their tongue walking through the earth? They're pitiless men, they're blaspheming men and they're profane, they have no time for God and then he says therefore his people return hither and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them and they say how doth God know and is their knowledge in the most high? Well men they're sinning willfully and they're saying does God know about it? You know men who are sinning even today they think that God doesn't know a thing about it and that there's no such thing as knowledge in the most high, it's quite a discovery to me isn't it that actually God is the moral governor of the earth. It was quite a shock and quite a discovery for the woman of Samaria wasn't it when she was addressed by the Lord Jesus at the well and at the end she went and told the people she said come see a man that told me all things that ever I did and that is quite a discovery for a sinner to discover that there is a God in heaven who knows all things that ever they have done and maybe if there's an unsaved person listening to this recording remember this that God knows all things that you've ever done but the good news is he will forgive you for all things you've ever done by resting in faith in his son our Lord Jesus Christ. Now how does God know and is their knowledge in the most high that's what these mocking blaspheming men say.

Behold he says these are the ungodly who prosper in the world and they increase in riches and Asaph this was a big theological problem for Asaph he could not work out what he saw he couldn't reconcile what he saw with his understanding of God, a God who rewarded the pure the clean heart the God who rewarded and did good to Israel when he saw the wickedness of the ancient world and I tell you when he when he looked at the the lives of the Philistines and the Ammonites and the Moabites and when he saw the wicked even in his own nation he would have realized there is something that doesn't stack up with my understanding of God he ought to be stopping these people and maybe there's someone and you've been praying about something and it would seem that God is sitting back from it and hasn't acted does that mean he's forgotten well let's let's continue with Asaph's discovery but he says behold these are the ungodly who prosper in the world so he has an obsession with the ungodly he he can't get them out of his mind they're spoiling the scriptures for him they're spoiling his worship they're spoiling his faith and he has nearly fallen his foot has nearly fallen and he says he comes to this conclusion he says verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency well that's quite that's quite a an awful conclusion to come to he he is still at this point he is envious of the foolish verse 3 and when he sees the prosperity of the wicked he's full of envy it's a sad thing when a Christian envies the unsaved there's something missing there's something wrong we're missing something if we envy the unsaved now he says I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency so my self-control my separated life my godly life it's made no difference I should just have been like the ungodly and this is the painful conclusion that he was coming to and it affected him morning and night this just wasn't a passing phase look at verse 14 for all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning all day long and every morning that is not a nice condition to be in to be miserable all day and every morning and he really he was in a very hard place spiritually his spiritual life had never been lower well you know what your spiritual life is like but Esaf he wondered should he tell people about this now he says if I say I will speak to us behold I should offend against the generation of thy children now that doesn't mean if you have a problem you should never tell anyone you can speak to a trusted fellow believer who will be able to counsel and guide and help that is a different thing but he was thinking of am I going to just spread my doubts everywhere I go share my doubts with people that that would have been a very sad thing he says I couldn't do it I couldn't do it because he knew there was something wrong with the the conclusions he was coming to and he did not want to stumble a fellow believer a fellow Jew he did not want to offend another brother mind you Paul has a lot to say about offending the weaker brother so we should be careful what we say and what we do when it comes to a brother who could be and could be hurt but he didn't if I say I would speak thus behold I should offend against the generation of thy children now when it comes if a person has a problem of massive doubts he's coming through a crisis of faith Graham Sprague gives a lovely little piece of advice on this he says tell your certainties to others but keep your doubts to yourself that's good advice for a Christian that's good advice for conversation at home in assembly at work or wherever the subject of faith and Christian issues come up and if you have a problem in understanding something and you're struggling with it well keep keep your doubts to yourself but share your certainties with others be positive and that is that is a good advice Asaph wouldn't tell any other believer what was going through his mind he didn't want to stumble them and then he was coming now to the conclusion he says when I thought to know this it was too painful for me the conclusion was most unwelcome he was coming to the conclusion that it wasn't true but that God that God blesses the good and punishes the evil it just didn't stack up with what he was observing around him but then we come to the pivotal verse verse 17 he was suffering pain I read verse 16 and 17 when I thought to know this or to understand that it was too painful for me until I went into the sanctuary of God then understood I their end now what has happened he has gone in to the presence of God to listen to what God is teaching and saying and he discovers that he had the wrong end of the stick entirely and that these ungodly men will come under the judgment of God they are not escaping their apparent prosperity is only temporary they will have their day but it will end and after death is the judgment so as Asaph's eyes were opened in the sanctuary of God he began to understand now it's a good thing to take your eye off the problem and to put your eye on the Lord take your eyes off the problem and put them on the Lord and there in the sanctuary he began to see the end of these men that God is the moral governor and he began to see the thing from God's point of view so when you go into the sanctuary God is sharing his thoughts with you and for us when we go into the sanctuary it's even better that God is sharing his thoughts about his son with us into the presence of God now as he as his understanding increased and he was seeing things through God's eyes if I can use that expression regularly reverently God wanted him to see the problem from God's viewpoint from heaven's viewpoint looking out from the point of view of heaven's values not earth's values and when you get your eye on heaven's values and live for heaven's values earth's values will lose their appeal now Asaph continues he's been in the sanctuary he's gone in and in verse 18 he says surely thou did set them in slippery places thou castest them down into destruction he's now saying the end of these wicked men is terrible it is a terrible prospect of judgment he had thought that God should punish sin immediately but now he's realizing that God doesn't punish sin immediately but the person who dies in their sins will ultimately be punished even in eternity now it's an old argument against the existence of God isn't it why does God if God exists why does he allow suffering in the world or why did he create a suffering and an evil world well there's an answer to that there's a bible answer to that isn't there the world as we see it today is not as it came from the hand of God the world as we see it today is a fallen world a ruined world and sin came into the world through and death by sin and the suffering and the dysfunction of this world is all because of sin and so God did not create a suffering world he created a perfect world and we can say in truth an enemy have done this but God did not leave us in in our fallen condition God and when the fullness of the time was come God sent forth his son and down from heaven into this world came Jesus the son of God and we see in him for the first time in all history a perfect man a man that pleased God his father and everything he did and everything he said and everything he thought and he willingly went to Calvary's cross and came under the judgment of God for our sins and on that on Calvary's cross he finished the work he cried it is finished and everything necessary for your salvation and mine was finished and for those of us isn't it wonderful to be saved I'm glad I'm saved our names are written in heaven we're on our way to heaven to be with our savior forever in heaven and so God why does God not judge the world immediately because at this present time the throne of God is not a throne of judgment but a throne of grace and God is dealing with the whole world in grace and the gospel of the grace of God goes out to all men so provision for forgiveness and salvation has been made for the whole world for all men and God if God punished us the moment we sinned who would be alive but God in grace allows men to make their choices but sees to it that the gospel reaches them and God is dealing today with a fallen world in grace that is wonderful and to me God in his sovereignty is reigning in grace now Asaph as he thought more about the situation he said surely thou did set them in slippery places he's thinking now of the ungodly for a thou castest them down into destruction how are they brought into desolation as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors now he's getting the wicked sorted out and now he's going to get his eye off the wicked and on to God but he says as the dream when one awaketh so O Lord when thou awakest thou shalt despise their image things will change and things will change very quickly isn't it amazing how the eastern block collapsed in such a short time things we thought would would last to the the coming of the Lord suddenly collapsed and vanished in big measure and then look how fast the whole world has stopped because of a virus every country in the world affected by it who would have thought of it this time last year how so much can happen so quickly and when God does act he will act quickly excuse me thus my heart was grieved and I was pricked in my reins so foolish was I an ignorant I was as a beast before thee in other words looking back on the doubts that he had he's now embarrassed by it and he he says I was foolish to think that God wasn't in control or that things were working against God and against the his rule in this world he says I was foolish and ignorant in the things that I was thinking it's good to discover sometimes that were wrong Asaph discovered he was wrong about God now we come to verse 23 down to 28 and these are beautiful verses before this started chatting to Caleb there was a short conversation about the weather now the weather here changes because up until this point up until verse 17 we've been Asaph was living in the clouds of doubt now from verse 23 to the end we're moving out of the clouds of doubt and we're coming into the sunshine of certainty and verse 23 says nevertheless I am continually with thee thou hast told me by my right hand now he realizes even through that crisis of faith the Lord was with him and was holding him by the right hand and if you've been having a hard time in your Christian life remember this the Lord will not forsake her and he will not leave you and he'll not fail you he's holding you by the right hand I'm quite sure that many of the people I'm speaking to just now out there you can remember a time in your life when you came through a crisis could have been a health crisis employment domestic could have been a crisis where you were very very low but as you look back on it now from this vantage point maybe some years after you look back and realize that during all that time he was with me and he was holding my right hand isn't that wonderful and when we get to heaven we look back over life and realize the times I thought it was hard and I was alone and I was impatient he was holding my right hand the moment those times when I was in pain physical pain mental pain he was there holding my right hand there's no refuge like that to know that and to live in that so thou hast told me by thy right hand verse 24 he says thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory guidance thou shalt guide me with thy counsel God is my counselor and he will guide me what a God we have in life to guide and to counsel and afterward receive me to glory now isn't that wonderful you see up until this point in the psalm he had his eyes on earth and on the wicked and on all the the problems of earth and he had been thinking of the corruption and the pride and the violence and so on now he's got his eye off that he's taken his eye off the problem he's taken his eye off the ungodly and what's he looking at now glory he has lifted his eyes from earth to glory thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory isn't it wonderful to think we're on our way to glory now he asks a question whom have I in heaven but thee it's a rhetorical question and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee whom have I in heaven but thee so notice the two words he's bringing together and esophagus is in wonderful form now he's talking about glory and he's talking about heaven what a word for the christian it just sums up all our hope doesn't it we put our faith in christ and all our hope is heaven where we will be with the lord forever and love believing loved ones have gone on before us we're on our way to heaven to glory and to heaven why asaf i can see asaf singing now with the white robes and the symbols and leading the singers and now he's who's enjoying the truth about god now in verse 26 he says my flesh and my heart feeleth but god is the strength of my heart and my portion forever my flesh and my heart feeleth we grow old we get a few pains as we move through 60s 70s and on our bodies change and slow away down and the heart isn't as strong as it was and one day if the lord hasn't come our body will shut down the lord will call us home my flesh and my heart feeleth we are in mortal bodies but god is the strength of my heart and my potion forever we have god and we can trust god with all heart because of what the lord did on calvary now he says for you they that are far from thee shall perish thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee there is a distance from god the ungodly are at a distance from him and what will happen to them they'll perish it's one of the most chilling words in the bible isn't it that they'll they they that are far from thee shall perish thou has destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee verse 28 but it is good for to draw near to god i have put my trust in the lord god that i may declare all my work so now he's using the word good he's he's he's got his problem completely sorted and he's got his trust back in god and he's thinking of glory he's thinking of heaven and he's thinking of his god and of that great privilege it is good for me to draw near to god i have put my trust in the lord god that i may declare all my works he wants now to speak about god he can now speak about him to his fellow believers and to those who are not believers his trust is in the lord god and he wants to declare all his works that's a lovely frame of mind to be in to have an exercise to share something with someone and he says it's good for me to draw near to god he started off by saying as for me my feet were almost gone my steps had well nigh slipped i was envious of the foolish when i saw the prosperity of the wicked the envy has vanished and he is now seeing and enjoying god for what he is now you might say i have a problem maybe there's someone listening to me and you have a problem and you say now how do i go into this sanctuary just just exactly what does it mean now in the new testament the only book that has the word sanctuary it has it five or six times is the book of hebrews but i want to read i want to read two parts of hebrews i'm going to read hebrews chapter 4 first of all some from verse 14 14 hebrews chapter 4 verse 14 now the word sanctuary isn't in this verse seeing then that we have a great high priest that has passed into the heavens jesus the son of god let us hold fast our profession for we have not on high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points touted like as we are yet without sin let us therefore come boldly on to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need so if you have a problem you are invited to come boldly to the throne of grace and we do it on our knees in our room we can do it anywhere we can enter the holiest we can approach the throne of grace and avail ourselves of the ministry of our great high priest that we may obtain mercy and grace to help in time of need whatever your need is this is where you need to end up you need to end up at the throne of grace and we are told to come boldly what an invitation now just over to chapter 10 and this will be our final thoughts chapter 10 and verse 19 the first we all love having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil that is to say his flesh and having an high priest over the house of god let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water isn't that wonderful we have a high priest over the house of god and he says let us draw near with a true heart and esaf said the same thing as for me he says it is good to draw near to god and that privilege fellow believer is yours you can draw near to him and go into the sanctuary and by the spirit of god and by the blood of jesus you can spend time in the holiest in the presence of god it is yours you know there is a sense in which we are better off than esaf esaf i suppose when he was using the word sanctuary he simply meant the presence of god but esaf couldn't have gone in to the holiest place but we as christians can go in to the holiest place in heaven by the blood of jesus it's your privilege and if there's someone and you have been going through a crisis of some kind and it has been getting you down and perhaps no one else knows anything about it you can go boldly to the throne of grace into the sanctuary and draw near to god and god will make himself known god doesn't promise to explain everything and when he saved you he didn't promise you that you would have no trials in your christian life but he did promise this that he would be with you in your trials and in fact he would never ever fail you and he will never forsake you what a god we have and may the experience of esaf perhaps someone needs to come in to the sanctuary of god may god bless his word shall we pray our father in the name of the lord jesus we thank thee for that rich and mighty provision that thou hast made that we can enter the sanctuary of god we thank thee that we're family we're children of god we thank thee for the adoption of sons we thank thee for our great high priest we thank thee for the sanctuary we thank thee for the blood of jesus so father receive our thanks for these wonderful things that we've been thinking about and blessed to all our hearts thou knowest the need of every person listening and we do not have a shadow of a doubt that every person listening is highly valuable highly important and precious to thee so receive our thanks now and bless thy word we pray in the name of the lord jesus amen