She sang that by special request
because my subject this morning is taken here from Matthew chapter
27 and verse 51. And behold, the veil of the temple
was rent in twain. And it was rent from the top
to the bottom. And I got to thinking about this
subject a little earlier in the week, so I asked David if he
would find the music and the words for that. I'm sure Marty's
quite familiar with that song. I haven't heard it in years,
and David graciously located it, and Susanna presented it
beautifully, and I appreciate it, because my subject today
is Behold, The veil was rent. The veil of the temple was rent. Now, maybe you could keep your
spot here in Matthew 27. I'll come back to it in a little
bit, but I want you to go to the book of Exodus and go to
the 26th chapter of Exodus. Exodus chapter 26. The portion of scripture that
I'm going to read has to do with the furnishings of the tabernacle
in the wilderness. The tabernacle was where God
met with men and men met with our God. God said, I'll meet
you there and I won't meet you anywhere else. And there was
an outer court of the tabernacle to which the Ordinary Jew had
access. And then there was a veil that
separated the outer court from the holy place. And in the holy
place, there was a table with bread on it called the table
of showbread, show meaning manifest, and that spoke of Christ who
is the bread of life. Then over to the other side,
there was a golden candlestick. And of course, that's Christ
who is the light of the world. And then there was another veil,
a much thicker veil. And just before that veil was
an altar of incense. And that's where the priests
went in and burned incense to the Lord presenting the petitions
and the prayer requests of the people. But then that curtain,
which we would do well to think of it as being a curtain of separation,
it separated the holy place from the most holy place, also called
the holy of holies. And in the Holy of Holies, that's
where the Ark of the Covenant was. And over the Ark of the
Covenant, there was a lid of pure gold called the Mercy Seat. And nobody could go into the
Holy of Holies but one man, and that man could only go in one
time a year, on the Day of Atonement. And when he went in there, he
could not go in without the blood of a God-appointed victim. And he would go in and he would
dip some hyssop in blood and sprinkle the mercy seat with
blood. The mercy seat literally means
propitiation. You say, well, Jim, that doesn't
help me much, just saying propitiation. That means a place of satisfaction. You see, God in His holiness
demands death for sin. That's what the blood represented. And so the priest would sprinkle
the mercy seat with blood one time a year. A good word to remember
associated with mercy seat, as I've already indicated, is propitiation. You remember in Luke chapter
18, when two men went up to the temple to pray, a Pharisee and
a publican. The Pharisee boasted of how good
he was and all the things that he had done that were good and
the things he had avoided doing which were bad. And even, thank God, he wasn't
like that poor publican. And then the publican just smote
upon his breast and said, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And when he said, be merciful
to me, he means show mercy on account of justice being satisfied
by the death of an innocent victim for me, the one who's guilty. Mercy seat. You see, within the
Ark of the Covenant, there was the law of God that had been
broken by men. And the only hope for law-breaking,
sinful people like us is for there to be a true mercy seat
that is our Lord Jesus Christ, who by the shedding of His blood
to His death, He satisfied all the demands of God's holy law
and God's justice. That veil, that thick veil, it
hid from public view the Ark of the Covenant and the mercy
seat. I'm sure the regular priests
who worked in the holy place, putting the loaves of showbread
in there and then eating, and who trimmed the lamps, the candles,
and so forth, And the priests who burned incense, I'm sure
they were curious, what's behind that veil? But nobody could look
behind that veil except the high priest, as I said, once a year. Now here in Exodus chapter 26,
let me read you just a very few verses about that veil. Look
at verse 31. Exodus 26, 31. The Lord is giving to Moses instructions
for making the various pieces of furniture and whatnot, all
the things of the tabernacle. Verse 31, chapter 26. And thou
shalt make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet and fine twine
linen of cunning work. With cherubims shall it be made,
and thou shalt hang it on four pillars of shenum wood overlaid
with gold. The shenum wood was very important
because, number one, it was wood that wouldn't rot, it wouldn't
get old, it was very supportive, And then it was overlaid with
gold. The wood itself pictured the
humanity of our Lord Jesus. He's the man who came from heaven.
That is, the God-man. And the gold, of course, represents
His own deity. He is God. So there's the wood
and the gold. His humanity could not be corrupted
by sin. That's the reason this kind of
wood was selected. Acacia wood would be another
word to describe this. And then overlaid with gold.
And then their hooks shall be of gold. The hooks is what connected
the veil at the top of the room. to the pillars. And these hooks are also of gold,
picturing the deity of our Savior. The Bible always insists upon
Jesus Christ being the Son of God. All that He did for us is
dependent upon this fact that He was God in the flesh. But also, He was man. Because God can't suffer. God
can't die. Man can't redeem. Man can't satisfy
justice. But the God-man did. The God-man
did. So it says, their hooks shall
be of gold upon four sockets of silver. That's what the poles,
the posts, That's what they fit down in. And silver pictures
redemption. Redemption. The one who redeemed
us is himself God and man. God to satisfy God. Man to satisfy the demands of
God. Because you see, He is going
to establish salvation and redemption. He's going to redeem His people
by the blood of the cross. This veil then was like a wall
of separation held up by these four pillars. Strong. That veil was said to
be four inches thick. Four inches thick. And it reached
from one side of the Holy of Holies to the other side of the
Holy of Holies, and from the top of it to the bottom of it. And it was so very, very strong
that it was said that a team of oxen pulling in opposite directions
couldn't pull that veil apart. That's how stout it was. Nobody
could tear it. And it hung in the tabernacle,
separating the holy of holies from the holy place. And then
when Solomon's temple was built, that veil was moved into the
temple. And there in the temple it hung. Hundreds of years. And it was
still hanging there when our Lord Jesus was born. And hanging
there when they began to crucify him. And it hung there in its
sturdiness. You can almost see it in your
mind's eye, can't you? This, what, four inches, something
like that? That thick. and reaching from side to side,
from top to bottom, of the Holy of Holies. It hung there for
all those years. But then, when our Lord Jesus
died, some happened that veil. It was rent, it was ripped, not
from bottom to top, But from top to bottom, God did it. And then all of a sudden, that
view that had been hidden from the priests ever since there
was a priesthood, all of a sudden, everything was open. They could
see the Ark of the Covenant. They could see the mercy seat. Well, now, who ripped that curtain? God did. He did what no man could
do. He tore it. Now, what does that veil represent? I got another passage I want
you to look at, and that's in the book of Hebrews, chapter
number nine. Hebrews chapter nine, and then
I'm gonna go to the 10th chapter, but I wanna read these few verses
in chapter nine. Hebrews chapter nine, and I'm
gonna start reading at verse two. Follow with me now. Hebrews chapter
nine, verse two. For there was a tabernacle made. That's what I've been talking
about, the tabernacle in the wilderness. There was a tabernacle
made, the first, that is the holy place, wherein was the candlestick
and the table and the showbridge, which is called the sanctuary.
And after the second veil, the second veil, the tabernacle,
which is called the holiest of all, which had the golden censer
and the Ark of the Covenant overlaid with gold, overlaid round about
with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's
rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant, and over it
the chair bends of glory, shadowing the mercy seat of which we cannot
now speak particularly. Now when these things were thus
ordained, the priests went always into the first part of the tabernacle,
accomplishing the service of God. But into the second went
the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which
he offered for himself and for the errors, the transgressions
of the people." The Holy Ghost, this signifying, watch it now,
that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest. Was not yet made manifest while
as the first tabernacle was yet standing, which was a figure,
a parable, or a type for the time then present. in which were
offered both gifts and sacrifices, which could not make him that
did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience." So now you've
got this in your mind. Once again, we're reminded, here's
this veil. And that which was behind the
veil, and that which would satisfy God, was not yet made manifest. Because it couldn't see in there,
right? That's why it's not made manifest. But now look over at
Hebrews, the 10th chapter. Look at Hebrews chapter 10, and verse 19. Hebrews chapter
10, verse 19. having therefore brethren boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. See, now
we can enter right in to the holy of holies. We have access. Watch at verse 20. By new and
living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, and
this is very important, That is to say, that veil represented
His flesh. His flesh. Our Lord Jesus, by His death
upon the cross of Calvary, so satisfied the demands of God
that the veil in the temple was ripped. Ripped in two. to the bottom. And then what
was made manifest was there's the Ark of the Covenant. Man,
they hadn't been able to look on that. You remember earlier
when the Ark of the Covenant was taken by the Philistines?
And this fellow said, I'm going to look in there. Let's look
in there and see what's in that box. And a bunch of them got
killed. Shut the lid on that thing. Because
you see, symbolically, over top of the mercy seat dwelt God in
what was called the Shekinah glory. You can't look in that
box. Probably some of you thinking
about Indiana Jones and the Ark of the Covenant. You can't help
but think about it Watch that Hollywood entertainment. Tell
you what, anybody who sought to look into it as the last thing
on earth they ever did. But now, now since Christ died,
immediately when he died, the veil was rent. And the rending
of the veil, first of all, represented the rending of his own body.
It represented His crucifixion. Not only did men do to Him all
that they could to torture Him and inflict horrible pain upon
Him, but God the Father smote Him with the sword of justice
in His innermost being. And our Lord Jesus was, as it
were, Rent from the justice of God. He suffered, he bled, he
died. And as a result now, the way
unto God is made known. Before this, the way unto God
was hidden in types and figures and pictures and sacrifices and
offerings. The way to God was hidden. It
was mysterious. Mysterious. And then Christ died. And the veil was rent. And now
the way into God, the way into the presence of God, the way
of salvation is made manifest, which for so many years, since
the beginning, was hidden. In pictures and proverbs and
types and symbolism, it was hidden. But now the way is made known.
It's clear. It's clear to you, isn't it?
The only way it can come to God is through Christ crucified,
buried, risen again. That veil of separation represented
our Lord Jesus Christ. So now go back to Matthew 27,
and let me tell you this, just a couple of things here before
I go any further. You know, for God to say one
thing in His Word, that makes it important, doesn't it? If
He just says it once, if it's just recorded once in the Word
of God, like if only Matthew had recorded this, that doesn't
make it any less true, does it? Of course not. But it's not only
recorded by Matthew, it's recorded in the book of Mark. Mark records
this rending of the veil in Mark 15, 38. And then Luke. Luke also records this rending
of the veil in Luke 23 and 45. In fact, since Mark was most
likely, if it wasn't the first book that came out, of the four
Gospels. It was certainly, well, I should
say it was the first of the four Gospels to be printed for John
Mark wrote it. But when he, by the inspiration
of the Spirit of God, put these words down, then people began
to understand. So that's what happened at the
cross. It's not like Just a man died
on the cross. This is an unusual man, a unique
man, a man, never a man like this man, the God-man. And he
was rent, he was crucified, and he was crucified for a purpose,
to open up the way to God. And we come to God by him. He
is the new and living way. So Matthew, Mark, and Luke all
record the rending of the veil. Now, this tells me several things. Number one, the substitute who
died on that cross was real. This is not fiction. This is not something invented
by Matthew or Mark or Luke. This really happened. It happened
just exactly as the Scripture says. One who was absolutely
qualified to represent us, because He is bone of our bone, flesh
of our flesh, born of a virgin, not diseased with sin like all
the rest of that, like Adam's race was. He is of the seed of
the woman, Christ was. So He's the perfect man, the
perfect He's a qualified man, but he's also qualified being
God. He had to feel pain, agony, he
had to experience death, and he must be God to know the demands
of God. The substitute was real. A substitutionary
act really took place on Golgotha's brow. Jesus Christ died in the
stead of somebody. And whoever He died for, they've
got to be saved themselves. They've got to live forever.
Why is that? Because death has already been
inflicted upon their representative. That's why I remind people I'll
remind you, I'll remind those of you who are watching, there's
nobody in hell for whom Christ died. He was our substitute. He died in the stead of His people. God saw what He endured, and
it was the payment price of redemption. The price has been paid for somebody
Now, I don't know who the somebodies are. I know they're God's people. I
know they're God's elect. I know they're God's chosen ones,
but I don't know who those are. So I preach to everybody, look
to Jesus Christ and live. You can come to God through Christ. That's what I tell you. Come
to God through Christ. The heaven, as it were, has been
opened. There's access to God, God who's
holy, God who's righteous, God who's just, God who demanded
death for sin. God now receives sinners for
Christ's sake. We have access into glory through
Jesus Christ the Lord, and in Hebrews 10, it's called the new
and living way. Substitution was real. I'll tell
you something else. The sin that he bore when he
died was real. He took on him the load of the
sins of all of his people of all ages. Interesting verse stating
this in Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 6. It begins with all and
it ends with all, but it's all his people. All we, all we like
sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all. That iniquity laid on him that
was made to meet on him was real. It was real. I don't know how
God did it. But He took all of the iniquities
of all of His people of all ages, from Adam and Eve all the way
to His people now and all the way to the end. God gathered
together all of the iniquities. What a pile of filth that would
be. And He made the meat on our substitute
and then punished Him in our stead. That sin was real, because your
sin is real. That's right, your sin is real.
And I'm gonna tell you something, God's gonna get justice when
it comes to your sin. Either in a suitable, significant,
suffering savior as your substitute, or he'll get it from you. He's
gonna get death now. It's like in the book of Exodus
when God told Israel, kill the Passover lamb. When I see the
blood, I'll pass over you. And God went through Egypt that
night. He got blood, he got death, he got a life at every single
house. Either the life, the death of
a suitable God-appointed, God-approved sacrifice, a lamb, or the firstborn
of the family. And I'll tell you this, if God
saves you, don't know whether He will or not, none of my business.
But if God saves you, it's only because His justice has been
satisfied in the death of Christ Jesus. The veil was rent for
you, if you're a believer. Say, Jim, you talk about election,
you talk about redemption. How do I know this involves me? You know this way. Do you run
to Christ Jesus as Savior? It's for you then. We flee to
Him. Do you need him? I need him. I need him so desperately. And
I see in this that his body was rent from me because I believed him. I trust
that's the evidence of it. I'll tell you something else.
I said the substitution was real, the sin was real, and the transfer
was real. And that's just another word
which means imputed. My sin charged to his account. How utterly astounding. All my
filth, I try to dress up pretty good,
but I'll tell you what, if you could see me as I really am spiritually,
in and of myself, I'm quite filthy. No different from you really. Ungodly, unclean. But here's what happened. Here's
what happened at the cross. And really it was eternally.
All of my filth, all of my sin, all of my transgressions, all
of my iniquities were taken away from me and charged to his account. And that was real. And His perfect righteousness,
His perfect obedience, His holiness, that's charged to me. That's
a real transfer right there. Because though I know and feel
and own up to and acknowledge my sins and iniquities and transgressions,
I believe the Word of God that before the Lord Himself I have
no sin. I'll tell you something else
that was real. His suffering was real. His sacrifice was real. His being forsaken by God, that
was real. Why did God forsake him? Because
God's holy. And sin had been charged to Christ's
account. And the wrath of God was real. Nothing make believe in his death
now. This is not fiction. This is
just not a brutal story to stir people up, to get emotional. This actually happened. And our Lord Jesus, bearing our
sins, died in our stead. And God poured out his wrath
upon him. The wrath was real, the cup of
damnation. He drank it dry. He drank it dry. And when he died, when the Savior
died, several things happened. There's three hours of darkness.
And I've often thought about this. You know, he died at three
o'clock in the afternoon, okay? That was the time of the evening
sacrifice. And a bunch of the Jews would
have been over at Mount Moriah. He's crucified on Mount Calvary
over on Mount Moriah. And at Mount Moriah, that's where
the temple was. And a bunch of the Jews had no
doubt already gone over there because this is Passover time.
And at three o'clock in the afternoon, that's when the evening sacrifice
was killed. But before that, God put His
hand over the sun and there was total darkness. You know the only place there
was light? in the holy place of the temple,
where the candelabra was burning. See? That's the only place of
light. I've often thought about, those
people saw that unusual darkness. Probably most, somebody would
have said, well, probably just an eclipse of the sun or whatever. Science has always got a way
to explain things that are miraculous, supposedly. Supposedly explain
them. But darkness covered everything. That's when God forsook his son.
And try to picture the scene now. Okay, it gets daylight again. And the priests are in there
working in the holy place. I can see them, can't you? Loaves
of bread, maybe one of them said, you want a piece of bread? Yeah,
let's eat some bread. But at three o'clock in the afternoon,
they gotta trim the lights for the night. So they're doing that,
getting everything ready. Burning incense. And maybe here's
a priest, he's got some incense and giving it to another guy
and they're burning incense. And then all of a sudden, that
veil before which they had worked, some of them for years and years,
all of a sudden, it's open. I believe they'd give me a heart
attack if I'd been there. I was thinking, wouldn't that
be a shocker? So you've been a priest for 30
or 40 years. Yeah, you're about ready to retire.
And here you are in there in the holy place, and you know,
well, today's my day to help me and so and so and so and so.
We're trimming the lamps and getting them all ready. And then
as they do that, here's somebody burning incense. And the veil
is rent. Boy, that was a shocker. And one of them said to another,
I've always wondered what he looked like in there. And I'll tell you several things,
just bear with me. That veil was not consumed by
fire. Had it been consumed by fire,
we might miss its meaning. By his death, our Lord did not
destroy the weight of God, but open up a way to God. That's
what he did. Now we go through the red veil.
Say, Jim, how can I come to God? Through Christ. He said, I'm
the way, didn't he? I'm the way, the truth, the life. He said, I'm the door. That wall
of partition that may as well have had a sign hanging outside,
no entrance, this means you. This means you. You can't come. That wall of petition just ripped
in two, not from bottom to top. Man didn't do it. It wasn't destroyed
by fire. It was rent in twain. Means the
way to God is open. And I'm telling you this morning,
the way to God is open. Hear me now for anybody who wants
to come. Is that right? Of course it's
right. For anybody who wants to come, oh that God would make
you willing to come. Don't bring your baggage of good
works and your Bible readings and your prayers and all those,
that's just excess baggage and you're not going to get in. Just
come empty handed. Just as you are, Lord, I'm a
poor sinner. I'm not worthy of your salvation,
but Christ the Savior is the way to God. I read it, I believe
it. I believe that he's the Savior
who died and put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And
Lord, here I am, I come, as Charlotte Elliot said, just as I am. And I'll tell you what you'll
find out. He'll receive you, for Christ's sake. He's the veil. When was the veil
rent? At the time of the evening sacrifice,
when Christ died. Come on to the Savior. Don't
come down here. We're not talking about coming
down here. We're talking about coming by faith from the innermost
being to Christ. We're gonna partake of the Lord's
Supper right now. This is a picture of what happened
to our Savior upon the cross of Calvary. His body, his flesh
was rent like the veil was. That's what the bread represents.
And then he shed his blood. That's the price of redemption.
So these fellas are gonna serve you the bread. Wait till everyone
is served before we, I'll pray and then we'll eat together.
And then they'll serve you the wine, which pictures the blood
of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is for those who believe
the gospel. If you believe the gospel of
Christ, this is for you. This is for you, okay.