Let us ask the Lord to bless the reading and preaching of his word. Heavenly Father, you have given us the good gift of your holy word, revealed to us through your Son and Spirit. Lord, open our hearts to hear what it says. Bless our minds with understanding. Help us, O Lord, to truly see our greatest treasure in heaven and earth is you. that there is no greater treasure. Father, correct our misunderstandings. Convict us of our sin. Encourage us, Lord, in the lives that we should live, and give us hope for tomorrow. In Jesus' name we pray, and by the power of your Holy Spirit, amen. Please turn with me in your copies of God's word to our text this evening in Psalm 73. The psalmist in our text this evening will start this psalm with a statement of truth. The truth that God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as you will soon see, the psalmist is going to explain that he himself had almost stumbled into not believing this truth. He struggled in this way because of his own experiences and what he saw in the world around him didn't seem to match that truth, that God is good to Israel and to those who are pure in heart. He sees the wicked prospering, the wicked strutting about, denying and taunting God with seemingly no consequences. At one point, he even feels as though pursuing righteousness before God in this life is for nothing. It felt like living for God was in vain. The people of God, the psalmist in our text, explains more as he goes along that he did not have a full picture of what he was seeing. When what he saw didn't match the truth of God's Word, it's because he didn't have the full picture. He was only seeing a piece of it. It was all more than he could understand or figure out on his own. His eyes needed to be opened to see the full picture that was revealed to him. As we read through this psalm together this evening, pay close attention to what happens at the turning point in the middle of this psalm. What gives this psalmist the full picture that he lacked? And what does it mean to him and to us today? Hear now the reading of God's word. Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled. My steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pangs until death. Their bodies are fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others are. They are not stricken like the rest of mankind. Therefore, pride is their necklace. Violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes swell out through fatness. Their hearts overflow with follies. They scoff and speak with malice loftily. They threaten oppression. They set their mouths against the heavens and their tongue struts through the earth. Therefore, his people turn back to them and find no fault in them. And they say, how can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are the wicked, always at ease. They increase in riches. All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. If I had said I will speak thus, I would have betrayed the generation of your children. But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God. Then I discerned their end. Truly, you set them in slippery places. You make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors, like a dream when one awakes. Oh, Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms. When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant. I was like a beast toward you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward, you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. But for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our Lord endures forever, amen. Brothers and sisters, we see the turning point for this man, for this psalmist in verse 17. Something happens there. He goes into the sanctuary of God. And only then does he understand all these things that were so wearisome for him to understand in his own strength. he had not been seeing the full picture at all. He had been only looking at what happens in this life, what happens on the face of the earth, under the sun. But now his eyes had been opened to the full picture revealed to him by God. This full picture reveals that there is more, more to all things than just our mortal lives in this world. There's what happens after we die as well. The prosperity or poverty of the wicked and righteous here in this life is not all that there is. In God's sanctuary, the psalmist sees two things. He sees the true fate of the wicked on display. And he sees the true treasure, the hope of the righteous. First, this evening, we gotta look at the fate of the wicked that this psalmist sees in the sanctuary of God. What would the author of this psalm have seen, have heard in the sanctuary of God in his day? He would have heard the law of God spoken and read, which reveals that we are all guilty of sin and fall short of the glory of God. And he would have heard the prophecies foretelling of salvation which God would send. And because this is in the Old Testament, in the times of the temple and the tabernacle, the psalmist would have seen in that place of worship an altar. An altar covered in blood and ash. A grotesque image of death and the wrath of God for sin. and where sin leads. He would have seen the clean, pure animals brought to be slaughtered as a substitutionary sacrifice being offered in the place of God's people because of their own sin. The psalmist would have seen the need for a purified priest to go into the presence of God, the most holy of holies, on the behalf of God's people, and to bring sacrifices before God for them. But the wicked, the wicked have no substitute. The wicked bring no sacrifice to offer on that altar. They have no priest to go before them into the presence of God. they would have faced the wrath of God themselves. In the Old Testament, when they brought a pure lamb or ox, some animal to be sacrificed, it was set on that altar instead of them. They did not sacrifice people back then. That was not God's Purpose. Yet this all was to show that, as it says in Hebrews 9, verse 22, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood. And without shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. This is what the Old Testament sacrificial system was all about. It was all pointing to one true sacrifice of blood for the forgiveness of sins. The pure, clean animals which were sacrificed in the Old Testament were a reminder of the people's sin, frequently, yearly. But they could not make perfect those who drew near. Because it is impossible that the blood of bulls, the blood of goats and sheep take away sins. As it says in Hebrews 10, verses one through four. And every priest in the Old Testament stood daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which could never take away sins. And these sacrifices were not pointless, but they pointed to one single substitute sacrifice, offered once and for all, for all sins by Jesus Christ, as Hebrews 10 bears witness. The priests themselves had to offer sacrifices for themselves as well. Because they themselves were not truly pure. They were not truly sinless priests. But they stood as a testament to one truly pure and perfect High Priest. A sinless, perfect High Priest before God the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ. And these brothers and sisters in the times of the Old Testament were not made righteous for bringing an animal to die in their place, but by faith in the Messiah of God, the Christ, the Savior, who these sacrifices pointed to. The one promised by God to deliver His people. Jesus Christ is this perfect sacrifice. He is this perfect high priest who needs no purification. All of this, people of God, was present, was seen in the sanctuary of God and pointed forward to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It is through Christ that this man discerns the end of the wicked and the hope of all who are saved by him. Why do we not make sacrifices today? Maybe you've asked this or your child has asked you recently. Why don't we make sacrifices? Why don't we bring goats and bulls and lambs into this room and sacrifice them somewhere over here? It is because the cross, people of God, the cross is our altar, and one sacrifice, once and for all, has been made for all sins, for those who believe in Jesus Christ for salvation. This atonement for sin, this righteousness of Jesus Christ, accounted to us, applied to us, imputed to us, has fully satisfied all that is required of us before God. and this bond of love to him who loved us is unbreakable. Romans 8, 38 through 39 testifies that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. See, those who, like the psalmist, have had their eyes open to the full picture of things, are not just looking at how things turn out in this life, but looking towards what happens after we die, what is bigger than even our experience could ever show us. Such people as the psalmist are brought to a saving faith in which they repent of their sin and bitterness toward God. They no longer are tempted to envy the apparent prosperity of the wicked as they once were because they now see what the true treasure is, what the greatest treasure in all of heaven and earth really is. This treasure that no one who is apart from God can ever have. What is this true treasure? What is the greatest treasure in heaven and earth? In verses 23 through 28, the psalmist confesses the truest treasure, the greatest treasure is to be near to God. Our second point is the true treasure of heaven and earth is to be near to God. This is the greatest treasure of this world and of our life to come. There's perhaps no other time in which we think more of heaven than at a funeral. We're often tempted in such times of grief to accept whatever thoughts will comfort us most about heaven. But as important friends, brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ, that you have a true and biblical knowledge of the true treasure of heaven, which we long for. Because it will impact how you live today, how you live the rest of your days, here and now. Too often, people will speak of the joys of heaven, yet never mention God. They speak of the joys of heaven, and yet they never mention God Himself. Often people are tempted to project onto heaven whatever little things brought them comfort and joy in this world. and make that amplified in some way, saying things like, in heaven, you can eat as many donuts as you want without ever growing fat or unhealthy. In heaven, all the people you admired in history and life will be there with you. In heaven, you will fish and the sun will never set, and the DNR officers will never come looking for your license. And there's no limit. The people of God, what does this Psalm say of heaven? What does the inspired, inerrant, infallible, authoritative, trustworthy word of God tell us will be the best joy, the best comfort in heaven? Look with me again at verse 25. It says this, whom have I in heaven but you? and there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. Just think about that for a moment. The true treasure, the true comfort, the true eternal joy of heaven is to be near to God and to behold his glory. There are other things, people of God, that we do long for in heaven that we will experience. To be free from whatever afflictions we suffer in this world. To be free from temptation and sin and our own sinful nature. To see once again those brothers and sisters that have fallen asleep in the Lord Jesus Christ. Those fathers who have gone before us. when we are gathered together with them. The people of God, even if all of that was present in heaven, without God, heaven would only be a husk. It would be like chaff with no grain. Though there are many good things that we may find pleasing in this life and things that we look forward to in heaven, They are faint shadows compared to this greatest pleasure, this greatest treasure in heaven and earth. For there's nothing on earth that is more desirable than God himself, and no one in heaven that compares to being near to God. If being near to God is the true treasure of heaven, the greatest treasure in heaven and earth, then to be near to God, even in this life, is the greatest way to live in this world. Do you know this true treasure for yourself? Is God continually with you? Because God is continually with those who do know this true treasure, and he holds them by the right hand. They are guided by His gracious counsel. And His Holy Spirit lives within their hearts. They go to the house of the Lord. And they gain understanding. They see, under the faithful preaching of His Word, and the reading and meditating on it in prayer, they see people of God. The truth. The full picture. The grace of God for sinners like you and me. And where we stand if we do not stand in Jesus Christ. People who know this treasure do not just hear the Word of God read and preached, but they live by it. They do what it says. They believe in their Savior, Jesus Christ, and live a life unto Him as their Lord. Do you desire nothing on earth more than God? If you do, then though your flesh and your heart may fail, God will receive you into glory. And God will always be your strength and your portion. Even those in heaven now who are with God in the fullness of his glorious presence, free from sin and pain and sorrow, are awaiting the day of Christ's return with us. when they will be raised again to new life, to bodies imperishable and perfect, once more body and soul as God created us to be. And we will live together with our God and be near to Him in the new heavens and new earth. Do not be far from God. Do not be far from Him. You should not and you need not be far from Him this evening. Because no matter what you have done or no matter what you will do, no matter how grievous the sin may seem, how many people you may offend or who may be disgusted with you or yourself, you may be disgusted with yourself for the secret sins that no one else may know. Even in that place, Jesus Christ has abundant grace for sinners like you. If you haven't already done so, turn in your heart from your wicked ways and your unrighteous thoughts. Forsake these false treasures, these trinkets that sin offers, these distractions that the earth claims are the greatest things there could ever be. Turn to the Lord in the name of Jesus Christ and He will have compassion on you and will abundantly pardon. And this true treasure, the greatest treasure of heaven and earth will be your own as well. If you are brought near to God, nothing will ever bring you away from him again. If you stand near to him today, you will stand near to him tomorrow. He does not step away from you, people of God. You may feel at times his presence stronger than at others. You may feel a certain way one day and a certain way another, yet the Lord God is always near to those he loves. Wherever you stand today, it is good for you to be near to God. and you can only stand in the Lord Jesus Christ. Make him your refuge and treasure in life and in death, amen. Holy God, we see today in your sanctuary the fate of the wicked, that what was dealt out to Christ will be dealt out to all who are not in him. But to we who believe, we have been spared by the blood of your son, for it has purchased our redemption. Though our sin had made us far from you, the blood of Christ and his obedience has brought us near by your spirit. Lord God, help us to not wander, to not stray, to not slip, and to think that the wicked, though they are prosperous, are better off than we are. For you have shown us their end, and you have shown us the true treasure that the righteous have in you, those who are righteous in Jesus Christ. Continue to comfort us and help us to long for heaven, and to be with you, embodying soul, in the new heavens and new earth. In Jesus' name and in the power of the Holy Spirit we pray, amen.