Hymn number 236, Amazing Grace.
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved
a wretch like me. ? I once was lost but now am
found ? Was blind but now I see ? T'was grace that taught my
heart to fear ? And grace my fears relieved How precious did
that grace appear. I first believed. Through many dangers, toils,
and snares, I have already come. Disgrace hath brought me safe. When we've been there 10,000
years Bright shining as the sun We've no less days to sing God's
praise Than when we first begun Netlana iuweji igaguyahei. Nabojosa iulose igaguyahona. you have your Bible turned, read
the 26th chapter of Exodus. I'm just going to read four verses
of this chapter. It's a very descriptive chapter
of all the things that are used and how they are made in the
making of the outward part, mostly, of the tabernacle. I'll leave
it to your reading if you'll take time to read it. I'm just
going to read verses 31 through 34 tonight, and that's going
to be the topic of my message. The title of the message is The
Veil. Chapter 26 and verse 31 says,
Now thou shalt make a veil of blue, and purple and scarlet,
and fine twined linen of cunning work, with cherubims made shall
it be made. Now shall hang it upon four pillars
of shidom wood overlaid with gold. Their hooks shall be of
gold upon the four sockets of silver. Now shall hang up the
veil over the taches that thou mayest bring in thither within
the veil the ark of the testimony. And the veil shall divide unto
you between the holy place and the most holy. Now shall put
the mercy seat upon the ark of the testimony in the most holy
place. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven,
We praise you and thank you that throughout the Old Testament,
in every book and every line, gave testimony of the Lord Jesus
Christ and his work, described his people and the manner in
which they were saved. We thank you that we have this
old book, for it's a treasure to us. It's a joy to search through
it and find our Savior. We thank you for the New Testament,
which sets forth the new covenant, that covenant ratified in the
blood of Jesus Christ. We're thankful that we can look
at this word and see him, who's altogether lovely and worthy
of all praise and honor and thanksgiving for what he's done for us. Father,
we pray for those who are sick and going through trials. Thou
knowest every case. Pray for those who've lost loved
ones, for the families we've mentioned, especially we would
mention our dear sister Arlene that lost a friend that you'd
continue to minister to her, strengthen her in these times.
Now know us to her heart, and now know us, our desire that
peace would be there, comfort in Christ. We are reminded daily
that we are shut up to your grace. that really what we hold on to
here soon passes away. What we have is what we have
in eternity. It is he who sits at thy right
hand ever living to make intercession for us. Pray for the Hightower
family, the loss of this grandson and great-grandson. We know that
this is beyond pain that human beings can take. It breaks the heart changes the
life forever. Father, we pray that you'd give
them comfort in Jesus Christ. Help them be close, a present,
close presence with Him. And help us tonight, Father,
as we look at your Word. We may rejoice in the glories
that are Christ Jesus alone. We're going to be thankful people. Let us not be in grace, but let
us be thankful and full of praise for what you've done for us.
The world passes away. All that is in there, therein,
decays. But you, Father, never change. And that's why these poor, wretched
sons of Jacob are not consumed. We thank you that Jesus Christ
is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And we can follow
in Him always. and make our hearts known unto
Him. We bless you, Father, for your goodness, your kindness,
your grace, and your mercy. It's in the name of Jesus Christ
we pray. Amen. Now, the 26th chapter of Exodus,
as I just said, addresses the materials and the placements
of those materials in the various outer parts of the tabernacle
Sometimes we think of the tabernacle and nobody has ever really seen
it, except those who erected it, and many drawings have been
made of it as to what it looked like. It was a giant, vast tent. A tent. Now here in the West,
our notion of a tent applies more to a portable covering having
to do with camping or some outdoor venture. But in the east, tents
are not of the pup-type tent, but were often like cloth palaces,
beautiful and ornate and capable of housing large families with
all the amenities therein for the living. Recently I was on
Facebook, and I like archeological sites, and I was looking at different
things, and I saw such a tent, an actual tent that some rich
emir owned, I'll tell you, it gave the Sistine Chapel a run
for its money. It was so gorgeous inside. It
was appointed and beautiful. In this tabernacle we have here,
which was a type and a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and
His Church, every element of its construction declared in
some aspect the glory of Christ and His humanity, His deity,
His manifold sufferings in the flesh, If you read this text,
and I hope you will, you'll find that the outside of this tent
was white linen, and that represented his righteousness. The shed of
wood boards covered with gold represented his humanity and
his deity. The silver represented his blood. The brass represented his power
to withstand judgment. The gold represented his royalty
and also his ability to withstand trials This magnificent edifice
was an intricate testimony of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
As you said in John chapter 1 and verse 14, the Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us, tabernacle among us, and we beheld His glory
as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. I want
to draw your attention tonight to the words I read in verses
31 through 34. This was the covering curtain
called the veil. the covering curtain that hung
over the front of the Holy of Holies. It separated the holy
place from the Holy of Holies. It was a huge curtain. It was
the only entrance into the location of the presence of the glory
of God, which dwelt between the cherubim above the mercy seat,
called the Shekinah Glory. It was not a divided drape, that
is in two parts that you could slide it open. It was one piece
and could only be entered by crawling on your face underneath. And it was a heavy curtain. It
was made of four individual curtains sewn together and was the dividing
line between the holy place and the most holy place. When it
was complete, the high priest with the blood of the Lamb and
a censer with coals from off the brazen altar where the lamb
was slain, which blood he carried under here. He only entered once
a year on the Day of Atonement with these items. He crawled
forth on his belly, a rope was tied to his leg in case he died
while he was in there and God killed him, they drug him out
by that way. And there he would take the blood and sprinkle it
on the mercy seat sprinkling on himself and sprinkling on
all the walls inside of this place. We think of it and we
think it must have been a beautiful place. I'm sure it was, but it
was also a place that was brown-stained with the blood of hundreds of
lambs once every year it was offered. It was the only place
to be entered into the Holy of Holies. This veil was. And this
veil represented access. Access to the very presence of
Almighty God, which men to that point and throughout the Old
Testament, other than the high priest, were not privy to. They never saw the Shekinah glory
of God. One man saw it one time a year. Immediately we see that this
represents Christ as the mediator between men and God. The only
access of men to the Father is through the Lord Jesus Christ.
We don't know God save in the body and the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the God we know. He's the
God revealed. He's the God who revealed the
Father to us. That's what he said in his high
priestly prayer in John chapter 17. I came to reveal the Father. To reveal the Father. The veil
was made of four curtains, that is what it says in verse 31.
Now shall make a veil of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and
fine twined linen of cunning work, with cherubims made, shall
it be made, and the cherubims were like embroidered into this
curtain, and could be seen in the approach of it. One curtain
was fine linen, We know that linen, fine linen, represents
the purity of Jesus Christ, the purity of His human nature, and
also His divinity and His righteousness. It was twined linen. What does
that mean? It was tightly woven. This pictures
Christ's strength and His bravery and His faithfulness. The blue
and the purple and the scarlet represent the manifold ministrations
of grace of His Holy Spirit, whose function is to take the
things of Christ and reveal them to His elect. They also pictured
His singular interest in glorifying His Father and controlling all
things for the good of His people. The scarlet pictured His precious
blood, His sufferings, and His effectual death. The purple and
the scarlet address His glorious exaltation the colors of kings
and royalty. The images of the cherubim stitched
thereupon signified both angels ministering to Christ and also
the ministers of the gospel who speak of the glory of Jesus Christ.
A few examples of that, of the angels ministering to Christ
is found in Matthew chapter 4. After our Lord was tempted in
the wilderness, after forty days having nothing to eat and nothing
to drink it says in Matthew chapter four and verse eleven it says
then the devil leaveth him because he found nothing in Christ and
the angels came and ministered to him in Luke chapter twenty-two in the garden of Gethsemane our Lord as you know prayed and
sweat, as it were, great drops of blood, saying unto the Father,
If it be possible, let this cup pass through thee, nevertheless
not my will, but thine, be done. In chapter 22 and verse 43 it
says, And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening
him. So the angels ministered to the
Lord Jesus Christ. They minister to the people of
God. For it says in Hebrews chapter
1 that the angels are ministering spirits, ministering to those
that shall be heirs of salvation. Likewise, These angels or these
cherubim represent the ministers of the gospel. In Isaiah chapter
6, Isaiah in his vision of the Lord in his temple saw creatures
flying around, cherubim or seraphim. In Isaiah chapter 6 verse 2 and
3 it says that above it stood the seraphims, each one having
six wings. With twain he covered his face,
and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
Now angels don't have wings, but cherubim and seraphim do.
These are not angels. but they are often called angels
in scripture. And one cried unto another, Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his
glory. These are those who speak of the Lord's glory and his holiness.
Who are they? They are ministers of the gospel.
They are said to have six wings. Why? With two they covered their
face, so people won't look at them, they'll look at Christ.
With two they covered their feet, So nobody would look at their
walk or their conversation or their work in this world. And
with two they did fly, being sent to where the Lord would
have them go. In Revelation chapter 5, we also have these creatures
pictured as well as the angels. In Revelation 5, after the church is said of the
worthiness of the Lord Jesus Christ, in chapter five verse
eleven twelve says I beheld and I heard the voice of many angels
round about the throne and the beasts and the elders and the
number of them were ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands
and thousands saying with a loud voice worthy is the lamb that
was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and blessings so this curtain represented all
those things this one veil represented all those things about the Lord
Jesus Christ. And when our Lord was crucified
on the cross of Calvary, and He gave up the ghost, having
effectually completed the work of redemption, having fulfilled
the Scriptures, and having satisfied God's law and justice, He cried
with a loud voice, It is finished! And something happened when He
said that. The record is that upon the shout of the King, the
veil of the Temple, the veil, this thing, this four-layered
curtain, was now in the temple. It wasn't in the tabernacle anymore
because the tabernacle was for the wilderness. It was in the
temple of the Lord. It was ripped. Ripped from top
to bottom. Ripped right down the middle
from top to bottom as if heaven began the rip and ended it on
the earth. What did that mean? Who's supposed to be in there?
God's supposed to be in there. So that represents access to
God. Jesus Christ by His work. made
access to God possible not with just the high priest once a year
but with all of the children of God the new covenant was established
then ratified by the blood of the testator and now believers
have access into the very presence of God in fact it says we're
to come boldly to the throne of grace as if we belong there
as if we were Welcome there, because we are, to come boldly
to the throne of grace to make our petitions known and for God
to help us in our time of need. The new covenant was established,
ratified by blood, and now men can come into the very presence
of God. Now, more than likely, when that curtain, that veil
was rent from top to bottom, the very object where God was
worshipped, The Ark of the Covenant, the Mercy Seat, where he was
worshipped once a year. More than likely, the Ark of
the Covenant, the Mercy Seat, was not behind that veil. It
had been captured by the Chaldeans a century or so prior, and there
was no record of its return. So for over a century, if that
was the case, the High Priest was just going through the motions.
You see, nobody knew except him. He's the only one that crawled
under that curtain once a year. And nobody knew that the presence
of God wasn't there anymore, but God had not spoken to this
people in over 400 years by a prophet or a priest. I guess he was pulling a fast
one on the people, if that were the case, if this ark wasn't
there. But this, too, set forth a new way of access to God that
did not involve the earthly ark and the mercy seat. No, it didn't
involve that at all. Isn't that what Hebrews chapter
9 says? In Hebrews chapter 9 verse 11
and 12, But Christ, being come in high a priest of good things
to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made
with hands, that is to say, not of this building, Neither by
the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. Then in verse 24, For Christ
has not entered into the holy places made with hands, which
are figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear
in the presence of God for us. For us. No need of that earthly
heart. Christ has entered into the heavenly
place. to the heavenly holy of holies and offered his blood
on the mercy seat for us. And we know that the mercy seat
in the New Testament, the four times it's used, it's interpreted
propitiation or satisfaction of God. The access to the Father
is then where? Through Jesus Christ. Through
Jesus Christ. Through his blood. We have access. The veil is rent. we have access to the grace wherein
we stand. Now this is declared precisely
in God's Word. And we rejoice in the types and
shadows and the mystery of Christ shrouded in the Old Testament.
But greater our joy when we see it clearly revealed in the New
Testament. The glory of the veil is seen
in the New Testament and explained as to what it is in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ, beginning in Hebrews chapter 6. Remember, Paul here is telling
the Hebrews what these things mean. He said, You had the veil,
we got something better. You had the priesthood, we have
something better. You had the law, we have something better. You
have the angels, we have something better. You have the word of
the prophets, we have something better. We have the message and
the messenger of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we got a better veil.
Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 17 says, wherein God, willing more
abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of
his counsel, confirmed it by an oath. that by these two immutable
things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have
strong consolation who have fled to the refuge to lay hold of
the hope set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of
the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth within the
veil." Within the veil, with the forerunner, the first one
to go through, is entered for us even Jesus Christ. made a
high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Then in chapter
10 of Hebrews, chapter 12, verse 12, beginning with the work of
Jesus Christ. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting, or waiting till his enemy had
made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. where the Holy Ghost also is
a witness to us, for after He said before in Jeremiah 31, this
is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith
the Lord, I will put my laws in their hearts and their minds,
will I write them, and their sins and their iniquities will
I remember no more. Now where remission of these
is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Christ, by a new
and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the
veil, that is to say, his flesh. That's what that veil was. That's
what all those things meant, his flesh. And having a high
priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true
heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water, entered
into the holiest How? Through His flesh. He's the rent veil, pierced in
His hands and side, shed forth His blood. We have entrance into
the very presence of God through Christ's work on Calvary's tree. In Ephesians chapter 2, Ephesians chapter 2 and verse
18 it says, For through Him we both have access. by one spirit
unto the Father we have access by one spirit and in John 14
in verse 6 he said I am the way the truth and the life no man
comes to the Father but by me that's how we get to the Father
that's our access just as in the old covenant the access was
under that veil by the high priest one time a year That was the
only man that had access to God. Now every one of God's children
has that same access to enter into the holiness through the
veil, that is to say, his flesh. One more thing, the word veil
comes from a word that means hardness, cruelty, and stiffness. This may refer to our sin that
separates us from God, which was put away by the sacrifice
of Christ rending the veil thereby giving us access into the very
presence of Almighty God. Look at Mark chapter 15 and we'll
close. Verse 37 says, And Jesus on the
cross, Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghosts,
and the veil of the temple was rented in twain from top to bottom. That is the meaning of the veil.
Father, bless us to understand and pray in Christ's name. Amen.