If you would turn with me to
the Old Testament book of Jeremiah chapter 17, please. Jeremiah
chapter 17. We want to begin reading in verse
12, just three verses here. Jeremiah 17, verse 12. A glorious high throne from the
beginning is the place of our sanctuary. I want you to think
about that for a minute. A glorious high throne from the
beginning is the place of our sanctuary. Oh Lord, the hope
of Israel, all that forsake thee, speaking of those who forsake
the Lord God, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed. And they
that depart from me "'shall be written in the earth "'because
they have forsaken the Lord, "'the fountain of living waters. "'Heal me, O Lord, and I shall
be healed. "'Save me and I shall be saved,
for Thou art my praise.'" In verse 13 there, the change of
the pronoun from thee to me shows us something about the nearness
of God to his prophet Jeremiah. You see, to forsake the word
of the Lord from the prophet of God is to depart from God
Almighty. Paul said that all God's people,
especially preachers, God's preachers, God's servants, are ambassadors
for Christ, one through whom God beseeches, and that word
means exhorts and comforts and encourages and consoles. It's through the preaching of
the gospel that God exhorts and God comforts and God encourages
and consoles sinners. And he said, do so in Christ's
stead to be reconciled to God. Now, Jeremiah spoke for God as
all God's prophets in the Old Testament did. He was endeavoring
to reconcile sinners to God. To reject Jeremiah was to reject
God. It was to reject his word. And it's the same today with
God's preachers. To reject the true message God's
servants preach is to reject the God and the Christ that they
preach. Friends, true gospel preaching
is serious, serious business. Can't stress that enough. It's
a matter of life and death. And that's why God commands us
to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the
matter of some is. Gospel preaching is the very
means that God uses to save sinners from their sin. Now, this is
nothing new. You've heard this, you hear it
all the time. But before I get into the heart of the text, I
want to, again, to remind you first of what scripture tells
us first, tells us something about ourselves. If a sinner
never sees who and what they are, they'll never see who and
what they need. And that's just a fact. Now look
up at verse one here. It says, the sin of Judah is
written with a pin of iron and with the point of a diamond.
And it's graven upon the table of their heart and upon the horns
of your altars. I recently read where archaeologists
say that inscriptions in stone, like in many of the caves and
I suppose even in the pyramids and all, the inscriptions in
stone by early civilizations remain sharp and clear somewhat
a thousand years later. And the reason is they attribute
that to the hardness of the rocks and and upon the sharpness of
the tools that inscribe them." What a description this is of
our sin. Our sins were written upon our
hard hearts with a pin of iron, with a point of a diamond. And
this shows us something of the fixedness, the deep rootedness
of our sin. It's engraved with an iron pin. It's with a diamond tip upon
the granite of our hearts. It's instilled in us by nature,
impossible to remove apart from a divine intervention of God.
We choose evil, we reject good. Sin is not an accident to man. It's not a ditch in which a man
or a woman falls. Sin is a deliberate preference. Man's sin is engraved upon his
heart and upon the horns of your altars. What does that mean?
Well, you remember on Mars Hill when Paul was there, they engraved
upon the altar an inscription for this God and for that God
and all the gods, even to the unknown God. And what a picture
that is of man's sin being engraved on the conscience within and
on their altars without. Men and women by nature love
sin. Our sin does not desire to conform
to the will of God and God requires complete and total obedience. So we see that we're in trouble.
Sin is the manifestation of man's disobedience to God's command.
And by nature, we will not have Christ to rule over us. We just
won't. Our sin within is determined
to ignore the relation which exists between the creator and
the creature. All sin is against God. And I'm
convinced that most sinners today have little or no clue as to
what sin really is and who it's against. We often describe sin
as not only being what we do, but what we are, that's true.
And we sin because we're sinners. I've said that many times, but
there are many who use that way of thinking as an excuse to sin. I've heard it, and so have you.
They'll say things like, well, I only do what comes natural.
I sin because I'm a sinner. That's what sinners do, they
sin. Very dangerous. That's very dangerous. And it
was that attitude that caused Paul to ask this question, shall
we continue in sin that grace may abound? He answered the question
with, God forbid, very strong language. He said, how shall
we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Now, remember
that there is a death for sin. There is a death in sin and a
death to sin. Paul here is talking about a
death to sin, about the believer's death to sin. You see, having
been justified, made just, God's people have. Having been sanctified,
set apart, made holy and perfect in Christ, the child of God is
dead to sin. Boy, that's a wonderful, wonderful
truth. We are baptized into Christ. We're buried with him. We're
raised from the dead with him to walk in newness of life. We're
dead to sin. Sin has no claim on us any longer. We're risen with Christ. We're
new creatures in Christ. And only God can make a sinner
truly conscious of their sin and cause them to abhor it, to
hate it, and wish it was not there. Job did. Job said, I have heard of thee
by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore
I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. David did. David said, for I acknowledge
my transgressions. My sin is ever before me. Against
thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight,
that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear
when thou judgest. He said, behold, I was shapen
in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Paul knew
something about that. Paul abhorred his sin. He said,
but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my
mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in
my members, oh, wretched man that I am. Has God shown you
your sin? Who shall deliver me, Paul said,
from the body of this death? He said, I thank God through
Jesus Christ, our Lord. That's the only way. We have
a redeemer who will save us from our sins. Sin is what we are
by nature and God is angry with the wicked every day. Now look
at verse nine here in Jeremiah chapter 17. You're very familiar
with this verse. The heart is deceitful above
all things. Nothing more deceitful than a
man's heart. And it's desperately wicked.
Who can know it? And the Lord says, I, the Lord,
search the heart. I try the reins, even to give
every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of
his doings. Oh, I tell you, I read that.
I know that in and of myself, I'm in trouble. Do you see that
by nature you're in trouble? You've got to have help or you're
gonna die in your sin. I'm in serious trouble. If God
searches my heart, deceitful and desperately wicked, and He
gives me what I deserve according to my ways and the fruit of my
doing, I'm in serious trouble. What hope can I have when God
requires perfection? And that's all that I am is sin,
nothing but sin. Where can I find any hope? You
see, to be without God and to be without Christ is to be without
hope. Where can I find refuge? Where
can I find sanctuary? Well, there's only one place.
There's only one hope, just one. The gospel is so simple. It's
so simple. Jesus Christ is our refuge and
our strength and a very present help in trouble, Psalm 46, one. Now again, verse 12, look at
this in light of who and what we are. A glorious high throne
from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. Oh Lord, the
hope of Israel. So we see that the Lord is our
hope. The Lord is our refuge. The Lord
is our sanctuary. I'm speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the hope of Israel. He's
the hope of God's people. So the first thing I want us
to consider is our sanctuary. Now the word sanctuary means
a place of refuge and safety. It's often in scripture defined
as a holy place. Where is this place of refuge
and safety? Where is this holy place and
sanctuary? Well, it's not in Jerusalem. They call Jerusalem the holy
land but there's nothing holy about it. There's no sanctuary
there. Now, when the Lord was there,
he was holy. And when the Lord was there,
he was a sanctuary, but there's nothing about Jerusalem that's
holy. Nothing about Jerusalem, nothing
about Bethlehem. Nothing about Golgotha's hill. Nothing about Mount Calvary that's
holy. There's nothing holy about the
cross, the piece of wood on which our Lord hung. Nothing. Nowhere
in the Word of God does the Bible describe the cross as holy. It was not The cross that was
holy, friends, it was the Christ of the cross who was holy. He's
our sanctuary. That's what I'm wanting to drive
home to you this morning. We don't worship a cross. We
worship the one who was crucified upon. Our message is Jesus Christ
and him crucified. Now this building, this room
that we meet in is often referred to as a sanctuary. You've heard
it and so have I. Nothing about it, a sanctuary.
There's no sanctuary in this structure. The sanctuary is the
gospel message that's preached in this place. Now there's some
sanctuary there. There's some refuge and safety
to be found in that. The place of our sanctuary, our
refuge is in God himself. Now hear me on this. It's in
God himself. Lord, thou has been our dwelling
place in all generations. Psalm 90 verse one. And God is
my salvation and my glory. The rock of my strength and my
refuge is in God, said the Psalms. Do you know what the word or
the name of the title Lord means? It means undisputed ruler. He's the undisputed ruler. It means supreme potentate. The sad thing is men and women
not only refuse to acknowledge the Lord as the undisputed ruler
and as the supreme potentate, they actually rage against the
truth of it. Men and women in their own minds
and in their own hearts won't even allow God to exercise His
sovereignty in the matter of salvation. They believe that
He's bound by their rules and expected to deal with all men
and women alike. God declares in His word, I will
have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. I will have compassion
on whom I'll have compassion. It's His right as God. He's the undisputed ruler. He's
the supreme potentate. God does what He wills, when
He wills, with whom He wills. Our God is in the heavens. He's
done whatsoever He hath pleased. Whatever the Lord pleased, that
did He. Oh, we need to write that down.
We need to write it right here on our hearts. The Lord Jesus
couldn't have said it any plainer than this. He said, is it not
lawful for me to do what I will with my own? After all, God the
Father has given him power over all flesh that he should give
eternal life to as many as the Father has given him. It's his
right as God. And men say stupid things like,
well, that's not fair. How can anyone dispute the sovereignty
of God when a glorious high throne is the place of our sanctuary?
Did you notice that verse 12 says that this glorious high
throne has been so since the beginning? That just stuck out,
didn't it? That means for eternity. There
was a time before time when there was no day, but the ancient of
days. God has always dwelt upon a glorious
high throne. And He always will. And this
is where the King of the universe dwells in all power and in all
majesty. Who can stay His hand? Who can
question anything He does? The Lord hasn't vacated His throne. Men have tried to dethrone Him.
They still try. They preach Him as a weak, puny
God who wants to do something, who's trying to do something.
No, sir. Not the undisputed ruler. Not
the supreme potentate. Nothing in this world has left
a chance. There's nothing in this world
left to man's will. God works all things after the
counsel of his own will. All things, everything. The place of our sanctuary is
on a high throne. And our refuge, our safety, our
comfort, our confidence, our peace, our assurance is in the
reigning God. Now listen to me. We need to
get a hold of this. The God who's on the throne,
child of God, is out to do you good. He's out to do you good. For the sake of his son, for
the glory of his own great name. As long as God is on his throne,
it must and it will be well with the righteous. I hear men and
women today carry on as if Satan is some kind of second deity.
Folks need to read the first couple of chapters of the book
of Job. The devil's on God's chain. Satan can only do what
God bids him to do. God determines, God purposes,
God arranges all things according to the pleasure of his will.
That's what the scripture says. That's what God says about himself.
And sometimes God lets Satan have his way and have his will
to accomplish his own perfect will. Our Lord said, Peter, Satan
hath desired to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed, I've petitioned
to God, my father, that your faith fail not." Listen, Peter
was sifted, but his faith didn't fail because the Lord upheld
him. The Lord prayed for him. The
Lord's in control. He's the undisputed ruler. Who
kept Peter from falling permanently? God did. It's in Him that we
live and move and have our being. Sometimes God will let us have
our will. Oh me, you're right. I've heard
men pray that here for years. Lord, don't let me have my own
way. Lord, deliver me from myself. People in this world will say,
that's a strange prayer. No, sir, it's not. That's a good
prayer. Lord, don't let me have my way. Don't leave me to myself. No, please don't, please don't. Sometimes God will let us have
our will, and sometimes he doesn't, and whether he does or whether
he doesn't, he's still working all things together for our good
after the counsel of his own will. Isaiah asked this question. He said, with whom did God take
counsel? We got men giving God advice today instead of listening
to God. God is so superior to us that
Paul asked, for who had known the mind of the Lord? Who has
been his counselor? Who's first given to him? When
I read that there in Romans 11 yesterday, I thought, that's
a good question. Who had first given to Him? He's
the first cause of all things. We're not. We love Him because
He first loved us. Who had first given to Him? Here
in His love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us. Who
had first given to Him? And because He first loved us,
He sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins. His love for us
is the reason He sent Christ into the world. Not our love
for Him. Men got it backwards. Who had
first given to Him? The Lord Jesus said, you've not
chosen me, but I've chosen you and ordained you that you should
go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain.
You ever thought about what that fruit is? Well, it's the perfect
righteousness of God. That's what we have to have to
be reconciled to Him. God requires perfection in order
to accept us. You've heard that several times
this morning. How do we obtain that holy righteousness? Christ
became the propitiation for our sins. He became the propitiation
for our sin. Was it because we first loved
God? No, it was because He first loved us. From the beginning,
God, from His glorious high throne, purposed, ordained, and arranged
everything from the beginning of time until the end of time.
And I can rest right there, Linda. I can just rest. I can kick my
shoes off and lay back in my easy chair and just rest, knowing
that my God is on His glorious high throne. Because a man's
sin, yes, there's evil and there's sorrow and there's rebellion
in this world. But upon the throne of glory,
Jesus Christ is ruling and reigning and working all things together
for the good of his elect people. All things, all things. We have loved ones near death.
He's working all things together for your good. Somehow, someway,
Adel, I don't know, but he is. That's what he said. How is it
that I know that everything's gonna be all right? Higher than
the rule of Satan, higher than the heights of pride, higher
than mankind's ambition, higher than man's supposed will, higher
than the heaven of heavens, there's a glorious high throne where
Christ sits as a refuge and a sanctuary for the people of God. It was
on a glorious high mountain that Abraham offered Isaac, his son,
as a burnt offering unto the Lord. It was there on that high
mountain that God provided for himself a lamb for burnt offering. It's nothing but a wonderful
picture that scripture paints of our heavenly father, the greater
father, one greater than Abraham, And it's a wonderful picture
of the greater father who from a glorious high throne offered
up his son as the lamb slain before the foundation of the
world to die the just for the unjust. Why? To bring us to God. Did you know that it was on the
same mountain that Abraham offered Isaac, that place where God provided
a substitute and a sacrifice? It's that same mountain that
Solomon, David's son, built the temple of God. Same mountain,
Mount Moriah. Check it out. It was there in
that temple. Now listen, between the wings
of the cherubims, above the ark of the covenant, over the golden
lid called the mercy seat, where the blood was sprinkled, that
God met with sinners in mercy and in grace and in forgiveness. Christ is the ark of the covenant.
Christ is the mercy seat. Christ is where God meets sinners
in mercy. You know, within that ark, we
learned this in Exodus. Within that ark was the broken
tablets of the law of God. Christ perfectly fulfilled the
law we had broken. Did he not say, I'd like to do
thy will, O God? Yea, thy law is within my heart. The law of God is appeased in
Christ, friends. It has no claims on the believer.
Within the Ark of the Covenant was that golden pot filled with
manna. And it's in that that we see
Christ as the bread of life, who came down from heaven, where
if a man will eat of that bread, shall live forever. Within the
Ark of the Covenant, the rod of Aaron budded and blossomed,
bringing forth almonds. And this reminds us that the
scepter of life belongs to him and the government of all things
is upon his shoulder. He's rolling in rain and he's
looking out for you. The offering of Isaac and the
lamb that died in his room instead, along with the Ark of the Covenant,
and the mercy seat, and all the things in the tabernacle were
only types and pictures of Christ who was to come. You know what
the good news is? He came. It was God the Son who
came into the world, became a man, went up to the cross of Calvary,
and died for all he came to save, every one of them. Not one will
be lost. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and I'll in no wise cast him out. And it was there where it pleased
the Lord to bruise him and to make him an offering for sin. Upon the cross, our Lord was
lifted up and he was made very high. It was by the sacrifice
of himself. And by him offering that one
sacrifice for sins forever, the sacrifice of himself, he sat
down on the right hand of God, making his throne a glorious
high throne. And that's where he sits making
intercession for us. I pray you'll never try to worship
anywhere else. Christ is the one altar. Christ
is the one temple. Christ is the one sanctuary. There is no other. You know,
those cities of refuge were a place for guilty men to flee for refuge
and sanctuary. Within the city, they were safe. Now, is not Christ our refuge
from the guilt of sin? Is Christ not our sanctuary from
God's wrath to come? You better believe He is. He's
our refuge from temptation, from trials, from sorrow, distress,
pain, viruses, and diseases. This glorious high throne provides
us a shelter while under the assaults of the enemy. And secondly,
and I'll move quickly, is a warning. This is a warning to those who
without Christ is their sanctuary. Who are these people? They're
those who forsake the Lord. Did you notice that? They are
those who forsake the hope of Israel. They are those that shall
be ashamed. Now that word ashamed could be
equally translated disappointed. All who forsake Christ, the Lord
of hope will be greatly ashamed and disappointed. The Lord goes
on to say in verse 13, that this shame and disappointment awaits
all who depart from me, all who have forsaken the Lord, all who
have forsaken the Lord's word through the preaching of his
ministers, all who forsake the Lord who is the fountain of living
waters. Christ is the fountain of living
water. Every man that drinks from the water that flows from
him freely shall never thirst again. Are you still thirsty? I would have you also to notice
that those who had departed were not like the heathen who had
never heard his name. How can you forsake someone in
whom you have had no acquaintance? These people knew a great deal
about God. Isn't that alarming? They were
the people of Israel. God had given them His law. God
had sent His prophets to them. God had shown them great wonders
in Egypt. God had shown them great miracles
in the wilderness. They'd seen some things. They
professed to knowing. After all God had done for them,
they forsake the Lord. They depart from God's prophet,
rejecting God's word, and they forsake Christ, who is the fountain
of living water. And we come back to that question
of all questions. What think ye of Christ? In the
end, that's all that really will matter. What think ye of Christ? You know, my dad, I don't know
what made me think of this, but my dad, he was a, A rummage sailor,
you know, he liked to go to flea markets and stuff. And he always
had several hundred dollars in his pocket. It may have been
all he had to his name, but he had it in his pocket. It wasn't
in the bank. And if he was going to buy something, he was going
to make sure he had the money. But I'm going to tell you something,
when he lay on that deathbed with cancer dying, he wasn't
thinking about how many hundred dollar bills he had in his pocket.
No, sir. He wasn't thinking about that
at all. What think ye of Christ? In the end, they're gonna find
out that Christ was their only hope of eternal life. Christ
is the only sanctuary. He's the only refuge. There is
no other hiding place. There is no other dwelling place.
And my time's about up, so let me give you one last thing. Who
are those who come to Christ? You know who they are. They are
always the ones that come sick with great need. Those that are
well have no need of a physician, but those that are sick do. We
go to the doctor when we're sick, no way. They are the ones that
come crying, verse 14, heal me, oh Lord, and I shall be healed.
They're the ones that come saying, save me and I shall be saved
for thou art my praise. You're my sanctuary, you're my
refuge, you're my everything. That's the way that sinners come.
Lord, heal me. Lord, save me. The Lord's the
only one who can. Notice that we are to come in
faith. Come in faith believing. That's
the cry of the sick and needy. They say, heal me, and I shall
be healed. That's faith, isn't it? Save
me, as lost as I am, and I shall be saved. That's faith. That's
faith. God will do what He promised.
He's faithful to the promise. That's having faith in what Christ,
your sanctuary has done for you. As the Lord Jesus said, look
unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth for I'm God
and there is none else. Oh friends, those who looked
high to that serpent of brass hanging on a pole high and lifted
up, everyone that looked lived. Everyone. Every single one. Our
Lord said, come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord,
though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
Though they shall be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
Well, how do you know? Because he said they would, and
he is the one that washes them white for you. Come to your God,
come to your God in Christ Jesus with the full conviction that
he can and he will heal you. that He will save you. You can be confident of it. You
don't have to worry about being rejected. Now, men may reject
you, but God won't. If you come in need, God will
receive you. Coming to Christ, acknowledging,
Thou art my praise. Now listen, we make our boast
of God in Christ. We've never done a single thing
that would deserve His merit. There's nothing for us to brag
on. That's what Paul said, didn't he? He said, not by works, lest
any man should boast. Because if it was by works, we'd
be boasting. We certainly would. But it's
by grace through faith. It's not of yourselves. It's
a gift of God. Not of works. We boast on Him. That's what we do. We brag on
our Lord. We brag on our Savior. Oh, we've never done a thing
that would deserve His merit. We've brought shame upon ourselves.
But if He heals you of your disease of sin, you shall be healed.
If He saves you from your sin, you shall be saved. And those
who endure to the end, isn't that what we're doing? Man, we're
enduring to the end. We've come and we hear what God's
done for sinners. And we're encouraged and it gives
us comfort and we hang on a little tighter. We endure to the end,
trusting in Christ alone as our substitute, our sacrifice, and
our Savior. And if we do, we shall be saved.
But we only endure to the end because our great Savior, our
great sanctuary, our great refuge, the undisputed ruler, the sovereign
potentate, loved us until the end. He keeps us by His power,
kept by the power of God. Oh, what a glorious high throne
that our Lord sets upon, ruling and reigning. Oh, what a glorious
Savior who loved us and gave Himself for us. Have you ever
heard the sinner that you are? Such good news as that.