Told Joy she has one more week. One more week. Looking forward to next Wednesday. Let's open our Bibles to Luke
chapter 1. Luke chapter 1. I'm glad we're
able to do this tonight. The whole world's going gaga
over their religious traditions. pray the Lord will give us some
true understanding of who Christ is and what it is he accomplished
in the flesh. The incarnation of the Lord Jesus
Christ was necessary in order for his sacrificial death to
be effectual. In Luke chapter 1, Zacharias,
the father of John the Baptist, is given a prophecy and in verse
67 his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied
saying blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited
and redeemed his people. Here's the glory of the incarnation
is that the Lord God Almighty has been pleased to visit and
in doing so purchase a people and has raised up a horn of salvation
for us in the house of his servant David. You know the horn is a
picture of strength. One of the reasons why everybody
loves Christmas is because babies are so attractive and so unthreatening. Everybody loves a little baby.
But here's one who's spoken of as the horn of salvation, the
power of God. As he spake by the mouth of his
holy prophets, which he had been since the world began, that we
should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that
hate us. That's what we need. We need
to be saved. We need to be saved from the
power of sin. We need to be saved from our
inability to believe. We need to be saved from the
law. The law actually hates us. In
our unconverted state, the law stands in judgment against us. To perform the mercy promised
to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant. You make a
covenant, I'll disannul it. But the covenant that I've made
is an everlasting covenant, cannot be changed. The oath which he swear to our
father Abraham, that he would grant unto us that we being delivered
out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,
without fear of judgment, without fear of condemnation, knowing
that he has bore our penalty for us. in holiness and righteousness
before Him all the days of our life. Only if God puts on Him
our sin and puts on us His righteousness can we come before Him in holiness
and righteousness. And thou, child, shalt be called
the prophet of the highest. Speaking of John the Baptist
now, he's the forerunner of Christ. who is called the highest. For
thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways,
to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission
of their sins." That's our need. Our need is to have our sins
remitted. How does God remit sins? Only
by charging the guilt of them to Christ. It's the only way
He can do it. through the tender mercies of
our God, whereby the day spring from on high has visited us,
to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow
of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace, to cause us
to flee to Christ." That's where we're at. That's
where he gets every one of us. He finds us in darkness. And
the child grew and waxed strong in spirit and was in the desert
till the day of his showing unto Israel. And it came to pass in
those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus
that all the world should be taxed. And this taxing was first
made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. And all went to be
taxed, every one into his own city." The Lord uses secondary
causes, but he's the primary cause of all things. That's what
he's doing here. I caused this governor to call
for a tax in order to get Mary and Joseph back to Bethlehem
that Christ would be born there and fulfill this prophecy. All
this was ordained of God. All of it was in his purpose.
And all went to be taxed, everyone to his own city. And Joseph also
went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth unto Judea to
the city of David which is called Bethlehem. Now Bethlehem translated
means the city of bread. And that's where the bread of
life was born. The son of David, as he's called,
who David calls Lord. because he was of the house and
lineage of David, to be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife,
being great with child. And so it was that while they
were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling
clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for
them in the inn." Men still have no room for Christ. They still
have no room for him. And there were in the same country
shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock
by night." What a picture here. God's shepherds declaring the
message of salvation to God's people. And lo, the angel of
the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round
about them, and they were sore afraid. Oh, there's a great fear
when God calls us into his presence. There's a submission and a worship
and an awe before him. And the angel said unto them,
Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy,
which shall be to all people. Now there's the gospel. The gospel
is good tidings, and the good news of the gospel is salvations
of the Lord. He's done it all. You can't do
anything to get into it, and you can't do anything to get
out of it. It's all of God. That's good news. That's the
kind of salvation I want. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Savior. A Savior. which is Christ, the
Anointed One, the Messiah, the One sent of God in the full power
of the Spirit of God to accomplish the salvation of God's people.
That's what Christ means. People call Jesus the Christ,
but they don't mean it. And He's Lord. He reigns sovereign
over all the sons of men and all the armies of heaven. He
does whatsoever He wills. He'll harden whom He will. He'll
give faith to whom He will. He'll save who He will. He's
Lord. It's amazing how men will give
Him the title of Lord and call Him the Christ and even use His
name Jesus and deny everything that those titles and names mean
about Him. Isn't it glorious to be able to read this story
and understand what it means? And this shall be a sign unto
you, you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes,
lying in a manger." Old men love the stories of the sweet-smelling
hay and the lowing cattle, but in fact the Lord was born in
a manure-filled barn and laid in a feed trough. Why? To picture what he came to do.
To picture what he came to do. Our righteousness is as filthy
rags. Paul said, that which I thought was gain became dung to me. All my goodness became like that
filthy, smelly barn. And suddenly there was with the
angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying,
glory to God. All glory goes to Him. The gospel
of God's free grace in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ
is the only message of salvation you'll ever hear of in all the
world that gives to God all the glory. Every other message of
salvation, men rob Him of His glory. Here's what the angels
say, and here's what we say. We join our voices with the angelic
host, don't we? And we say, glory to God in the
highest, and on earth, peace. Oh, we'll have peace with God.
This message of salvation won't bring peace with men. It won't
bring peace with yourself. If you believe the gospel, you're
going to find yourself at odds with yourself. You're going to
be a contradiction to yourself. You're going to find a civil
war breaking out in your very soul between your spirit and
your flesh. The gospel won't bring peace
to you. And it won't bring peace between
you and those who are outside of Christ. It'll be a sword. It'll be a conflict. Your enemies
will be of your own household. But here's the glory of the gospel.
It brings us at peace with God. What? I mean, if God be for me,
who can be against me? That's what I'm interested in.
How do I get peace with God? How do I get peace with God? And it came to pass as the angels
were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one
to another, let us now go into Bethlehem Here's the messengers
now. Let's go to the house of bread.
That's where we are right now. This is where the bread of life
is, the children of God feasting on the bread of life. And the
shepherds said to one another, let us now go into Bethlehem
and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord
hath made known unto us. If we're ever gonna believe the
gospel, it'll only be because he hath made it known unto us. We can't figure it out on our
own. You can't study it out. You can't think it through. You
won't discover the gospel if he doesn't invade you and reveal
himself to you. He just has to do it. And he
does it that way so that what? He gets all the glory. He gets
all the glory. And they came with haste. When
the Lord reveals the gospel to you, you just go with haste,
don't you? You realize that this is the most important thing in
all of life. Life has no meaning apart from
this now. The Lord Jesus Christ is my life. He's my hope of glory. They came with haste and found
Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. And when they
had seen it, they made known abroad the sayings that were
told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered
at those things which were told them by the shepherds." Oh, they
just had to ponder them. They couldn't understand them. But Mary, Mary had some revelations
made to her early on when she conceived the Lord. that she's
putting all this together now and she's beginning she what
is she Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart
and the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the
things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them
we don't add to this book concludes with the warning If any man adds
to or takes away from the prophecy of this book, the curses of this
book will be added to him and his name will be taken away from
any hope of life. We just declare what God has
said, don't we? And that's all we need. All we need. Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
how thankful we are to know that you were pleased to establish
a covenant of salvation for your people according to your own
good pleasure, your own purpose, and your own will before the
world ever began. And that covenant of grace can
no more be changed than you can be changed. Lord, we find great
hope in that. And to read of these words, of
the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, the prophecy that you
gave to Zacharias and the fulfillment of that that we see in the birth
and the life, the death, the resurrection, the ascension of
the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask, Father, that you would
bless your Word by your Spirit to the hearts of your people.
that you would open the eyes of our understanding, that you
would do for us what you did for John and open the windows
of heaven, enable us to peer in and to see the Lord Jesus
Christ seated at thy right hand, interceding on our behalf. We ask that you bless the gospel
to our hearts now. We pray it in Christ's name.
Amen. Singing that hymn reminded me
to remind you to not forget to pray for Charlie. He's going
through a bout of chemotherapy right now. He and Cheryl weren't
able to be with us this winter. He seemed to be tolerating it
well the last time I talked to him. I talked to Gabe Stoniker
today. They found some lymph nodes that
are swollen, very large, and they're going to be doing some
biopsy on Gabe this coming week. So, Lord enables you to pray
for Gabe. I know he'd appreciate that. He's in real good spirits, and
they're hoping that it's not anything serious, but something
has to get checked out. And then the 8th, 9th, and 10th
of January, we're going to have a conference over in Sarasota.
We went over Sunday night and preached with Donnie. He's preaching
there now tonight. So I hope that if you're able
to go any of those nights on the 8th and 9th, which is Thursday
and Friday, it'll be in the evening. And then on Saturday the 10th,
we'll meet just in the morning and then be back here Sunday
night. I've titled this message, A Cunning
Work. A cunning work. And I get that
from Exodus chapter 26, if you'd like to turn with me there in
your Bibles. Exodus chapter 26. In verse 30 it says, And thou shalt
rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which
was showed thee in the mount. God gave to Moses a very clear
vision as to exactly how the tabernacle was to be built. And
as you know, everything in that tabernacle pictures the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. from the single door that went
into the tabernacle, to the lavers, to the showbread, to the table,
to the light, to the sacrifices, to the poles, to the badger skin. Everything tells us something
different about who Christ is and about what it is he would
accomplish in the salvation of his people. These were the types
and shadows of the Old Covenant. And as you got deeper and deeper
into the tabernacle, you came to the holies of holies, or the
most holy place. And that place was divided from
access by anyone other than the high priest went in once a year
on the day of atonement and took the sacrificial lamb's blood
and put it on the mercy seat and the Shekinah glory of God
came and the sins of the people were put away once again for
a year until the coming. Not put away eternally, those
were put away through the blood that was shed before the foundations
of the world in Christ. Those bloods of bull and goats
didn't satisfy, they just pictured what God had covenanted to promise,
what he promised to do in the covenant of grace, and what he
accomplished in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
you know what happened. We saw it Sunday. when the Lord
cried on Calvary's cross and said, Father, into thy hands. Well, he started by saying, it
is finished. It's finished. Everything necessary
in order for you to have access to God. In order for you to have
your sins put away. In order for you to be made accepted
before God. In order for you to be saved.
Everything necessary. It's finished. It's paid in full. It's done. Nothing else for you
to do. Father into thy hands I commend
my spirit." And the scripture says that he gave leave to his
spirit. He allowed himself to die. No man took his life from him.
He laid down his life for his bride, for his people. He He
just went willingly to the cross all by himself, didn't he? And
we saw Sunday that when the Lord made that cry, that that veil,
that veil of separation, that's what it was. It was a veil of
separation. When those priests saw that veil
going into the holies of holies, they knew that they could not
tread into that most holy place. And if they did, they would suffer
the judgment of God. Well, there was a time, as a
matter of fact, when a king came in and tried to make access to
the sacrifice. He wasn't even going into the
Holies of Holies. He just went in to do the priest's sacrifice. And the Lord smote him with leprosy
right there in the year that King Uzziah died. And what does
Isaiah say? I saw the Lord. I saw him high
and lifted up. That, holies of holies, as you
know, is a picture of what God was going to accomplish in the
person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ in saving his people.
And I love in Acts chapter 6 when the scripture says that not a
few priests believed. Those priests that were in the
tabernacle in the sixth hour, during the hour of the evening
sacrifice. They were doing their duty there
at the Passover, preparing to make the sacrifice and shedding
the blood of the Lamb. And they knew the earth had been
darkened. They felt the earthquake. The
rocks were rent. The graves came open. And they saw the veil. They saw
it rent from top to bottom. as if someone had taken a razor
sharp sword and opened it up. and they looked into the Holy
of Holies. Don't you know that they probably
diverted their eyes as quickly as they could thinking, oh no,
what's happened now? Be like Manoah. You remember
when Manoah saw the angel of the Lord, he told his wife, he
said, we're dead, we're dead, we've seen God, and he's gonna
kill us. And his wife had said, no, if
he was gonna kill us, he would have already done so. He would
have already done so. That's what Isaiah said, isn't
it? When Isaiah saw the Lord, what did he say? What was the
first thing out of his mouth? Woe is me, for I am undone. Now what Isaiah was saying is,
I'm a dead man. I've seen God. And the scriptures
are clear in John chapter 12 that the one that Isaiah saw
was none other than the Lord Jesus Christ sitting upon his
throne. ruling and reigning sovereign. And the Lord forgave him, didn't
he? He took a coal from off the altar and he touched his lips
and he put away his sin. That's our hope. That's our hope. Now that veil, you have your
Bibles open there to Exodus chapter 26. It was to be built exactly
how God designed it. Nothing was to be changed. The
exact number of cubits were to be followed. The exact number
of poles. The exact number of rings. Everything
was to be followed exactly how it was designed by God. Because everything in it pictured
the perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you can't change
anything about Him. If we're going to be saved, we'll
be saved. Well, He said, I change not.
I change not. And it's the only reason you
sons of Jacob are not consumed. I'm the same yesterday, today,
and forever. And you remember when David got the idea of putting
the ark on a cart? Got that idea from the Philistines,
didn't he? And the ox stumbled, and the
cart looked like it was going to fall, and Uzzah put his hand
to the ark in order to steady it, and God killed him right
there on the spot. The problem was that they had
changed the design that God had ordained. They weren't to carry
that ark on a cart. They were to put it through staves
and carry it on their shoulders and the priests would go before
them. And God gave very... The same thing is happening in
religion today. Men take big bits and pieces
of the truth and they twist it and change it. And God says you've
added to and you've taken away from the clarity and the simplicity
of the gospel. Paul said, I fear lest you be
taken away from the simplicity that is in Christ. The Lord doesn't
tolerate us adding to what He has said, or taking away from
it, or changing it in any way. And here He tells Moses, you
build this thing exactly like I told you. It's important. Why? Because the Lord Jesus Christ
is exactly as He is. And the only hope that you and
I have of being saved is that He doesn't change. look what
he says in verse 31, and thou shalt make a veil, a veil of
blue and of purple and of scarlet so the top of this veil was to
be made of blue the middle of the and as the blue came down
it mingled in with the red from the bottom and so in the middle
of the veil you had the mixture of scarlet and blue which gives
you purple. And woven as a tapestry in that
veil was pictures of cherubim. Look what he says. And fine twined linen of cunning
work with cherubims shall it be made. And thou shalt hang
it upon the four pillars of shittom wood, overlaid with gold." Now
the shittom wood was what the ark was made out of, and it was
overlaid with gold. And the poles that this veil
is hanging on are made out of shittom wood, and they're overlaid
with gold. Now from what I understand about
shittom wood is that it was kind of like ebony. Extremely hard
wood that wasn't subject to rot. And it's a picture of the humanity
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Overlayed in gold is a picture
of His deity, which is exactly what the veil is a picture of.
We know from Hebrews chapter 10 that when that veil was rent,
that that was picturing the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. His
body is that veil. And the blue is a picture of
his deity, and the red is a picture of his humanity, and the purple
in the middle is the mystery of the dual nature of the God-man,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who is himself fully God and fully man. What a picture. Here, with these
cherubim knitted in with fine linen. Cunning work, skillful work. These were artisans that were
to make this. It was to be done beautifully,
purposefully, and perfectly. It wasn't just a thrown together
kind of thing. This was cunning work. And it's
a picture of the cunning work of God in Christ, which had purpose
and beauty and perfection in its accomplishments. What a glorious
picture, look. And thou shalt hang it upon the
four pillows of shidom wood overlaid with gold, and their hook shall
be of gold upon the four sockets of silver. And thou shalt hang
up the veil unto the thatches 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 place. So what do we know about the
purpose of this veil? It was for the purpose of dividing. It was for the purpose of showing
us the division that exists between us and God. We come into this
world at enmity with God. Donny Bell and I were talking
Sunday night about famous last words and I remembered what that
naturalist, famous American author David
Thoreau said on his deathbed. They asked David Thoreau, they
said, have you made your peace with God? And the last thing
he said before he died was, I did not know that we had ever quarreled. That's what he said. And he took
his last breath and he found out in that moment of truth that
he had in fact quarreled with God. And God wasn't pleased. But we're all right there. We're
all right there. If the Lord doesn't reconcile
us to Himself, if He doesn't put away our sin, if He doesn't
redeem us, if He doesn't save us, we'll die just like David
Thoreau. not knowing that we've quarreled with God and finding
out when it's too late that God's not pleased with us. This veil will be a divider unto
you between the holy place and the most holy place. You and I are divided from God, apart from
the work of Christ, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ opening
up the most holy place. What is it that divides us? What
did that veil represent? Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
10. We looked at this Sunday, but I want you to see it again. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 17. And their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more." That's what we need, isn't it?
We need for God to put our sins and our iniquities under the
blood of Christ, to hide them from His own eyes. Now, where
remission is, And here's the question that
you and I have to ask ourselves. How is it that God Almighty remits
sin? How does He put sin away? How
does He satisfy His divine justice? How is it that God can be just
and justifier at the same time? How can a man born of a woman
be right with God? How can it be? What does he do? Now where remission of these
is, there's no more offering for sin. All those offerings
that were made year after year after year. Moses brought the
children of Israel out of Egypt around 1400 BC. So for 1400 years,
the high priest is going into the holies of holies once a year
for 1400 years. taking the blood of the sacrificial
lamb and putting it on the mercy seat in hopes of what would be
accomplished. But it had to be done year after
year after year. But now, now, where the blood
of Christ has been put, not on the mercy seat made with man's
hands, but on the mercy seat of God in heaven. That's where
He applied His blood. Now there's no more sacrifice
for sin. No more. Having therefore, brethren,
boldness, confidence. You know, I talked about, I'm
preparing a message for Sunday about confidence. I made a comment
about self-esteem this past Sunday. I want to clarify that. And how
is it that we're to have confidence with men? How is it that we're
to have confidence before God? We have boldness. We have liberty. We have access into the very
presence of God. The bottom line is, you'll either
fear God or you'll fear men. If you fear God, you won't have
any reason to fear men. If you fear men, it'll be because
you're not fearing God. We have boldness to enter into
the holiest by the blood of Jesus. not by the blood of those bulls
and goats, which can never take away sin, by a new and living
way. Those priests, they had to be
ordained year after year, generation after generation. The lambs died. They were dead. They never came
back to life. It was a dead religion. It was
a bloody religion in the Old Testament. But now we have a
new and living way. The Lord Jesus Christ, who is
our life, though He died, He did not remain dead. Look what
He says, "...by a new and living way, which He has consecrated
for us." He's consecrated it. He's ordained it. He's made it
acceptable to God. For us. Through the veil. through the veil, that is to
say, His flesh. So we know that that veil of
separation is a picture of flesh. And as it was cunning work given
to Moses, blue, purple, and scarlet, and with the seraphim in it of
fine linen, it was a picture of what the Lord Jesus... But
it was a barrier, wasn't it? We saw that in our text in Exodus
chapter 26. This veil shall divide you between
the holy place and the most holy place. What is it that divides
us from God? I tell you, it's your flesh.
It's your flesh. You come into this world with
one nature, and that nature is a fallen nature of flesh. And nothing about it, nothing
about it can ever be improved to the point to where God's pleased
with it. Nothing about the flesh. That's why we say if you're born
once, you're going to die twice. If you're born twice, you die
once. If you're only born once, you're
only born of the flesh, then you're going to die. Your flesh
is going to die and you're going to suffer the second death, which
is eternal separation from God. There's nothing about our flesh
that's pleasing to God. Nothing that's acceptable to
God. And after our conversion, our flesh is still nothing but
flesh. You can't fix it up. You can't dress it up. You can't
make it acceptable to God. After our conversion, the only
reason that we have acceptance in the presence of God is because
we have a new nature. Christ in you is your hope of
glory. He is the fullness of the Godhead
bodily and we are complete in Him. As He is, so are we. We're still going to have to
suffer the death of our flesh, aren't we? But for the believer,
it's going to be a deliverance. It's our flesh that pains us,
isn't it? It's our flesh that grieves our
soul. And the thought of ridding ourselves
of this flesh, and having the corruption being made incorruptible
and the mortal being made immortal and it does not yet appear what
we shall be but we know that when he shall appear that we're
going to be made like him a glorified resurrected body in perfection
with no memory of the flesh no ties to the flesh whatsoever
what glorious hope that is This veil is a picture of the flesh
of the Lord Jesus Christ according to Hebrews chapter 10. We just
read that. But it's also a picture of our flesh. It's what separates
us from God. It's what keeps us from being
able to have access into the holies of holies. It was of cunning work, wasn't
it? Oh, I bet it was beautiful. But
the beauty of it cannot compare to the beauty of the one that
it represented. It cannot compare. That blue, however royal and
however beautiful it was, can never compare to the beauty of
the glory of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. John said
the Word became flesh and He dwelt among us and we beheld
His glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and full of truth. Oh Lord, would You open the eyes
of my understanding? Would you enable me to not just
honor you with my lips as religious men do, but believe in my heart
that thou art God? Would you enable me to believe
that? That's what the Ethiopian eunuch said when Philip said,
if you believe with all of your heart, you may. I believe that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That's the cunning work of the
blue in the veil, the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He himself
is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He's the glorious Son
of God, the second person of the triune God. Scripture describes
the Lord Jesus Christ as holy, undefiled, and separate from
sinners. He's not like us. He wasn't conceived
of Adam like you and I were. He was conceived of the Holy
Spirit. Here's His glory. We couldn't go into the Holies
of Olives. We couldn't. If we went in our own, God would
kill us. We needed God to open up the
way. We needed one who was in Himself,
holy, undefiled, and separate from sinners. We needed Emmanuel,
God with us. We needed God to do it for us. The sins that He bore in His
body on that tree, though He made them His own, were ours. They were imputed to Him. And
the only reason that God accepted the sacrifice that He made for
sin is because He had no sin of His own. And the only way
that you and I are ever going to be able to approach the presence
of God is either we're going to have to be sinless, We're
going to have to be like Him. That's what the Lord told the
rich young ruler. The rich young ruler said, what must I do to
inherit eternal life? What did the Lord say? You know
the law. You want to inherit eternal life?
That doesn't even make sense, really. To inherit something,
it's given to you, isn't it? What must I do to inherit the
eternal life? There was a flaw in the question,
wasn't there? Lord said you want to inherit
eternity, you know the law all these things I've done since
my youth up well if you had then you would have eternal life God would be obligated he'd be obligated to have fellowship
with you to receive you into his presence if you were as perfect
as he is That's the only way that you and I are going to get
into the presence of God. That's the only way. Here's the gospel. You've got to be perfect. I mean
absolutely spotless. Perfect in the presence of God
with no sin whatsoever. That's the only way you're going
to get in. How's that going to be? The veil was rent. The blue veil. The God man. laid down His life. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself
is God. Even his enemies knew that that's
what he was claiming. You hear people talk about the
traditions of Christianity and they got all kinds of stupid
stuff on television and books being written and liberal theologians
here and there wanting to question the deity of Christ. But our Lord told his enemies,
he said, for which of my miracles do you want to stone me? What
good works? Oh no, we're not stoning you
for your good works. You feed the poor, you do all
those good things. We want to stone you because
you being a man make yourself out to be God. Now, if the Lord didn't believe
himself to be fully God, That would have been a good time for
him to say, no, wait a minute, you're all misunderstanding me.
That's what Peter had to do, didn't it? Paul had to do it
when they went to pagan places and they preached the gospel
and God performed miracles. And there are several occasions
in the book of Acts where men tried to worship these apostles.
And they stopped him in their tracks. They said, don't worship
us. John, one of the apostles in the book of Revelation, tries
to worship an angel. And the angel says, no, John,
get up. I'm one of your fellow servants.
Don't worship me. Only God can be worshipped. And
the Lord Jesus Christ accepted the worship. Why? Because he
is God. He's fully God. We worship Him
as God. We bow before Him as God. When
that veil was rent, it started with the blue. And it was torn. It was cut right from the top
to the bottom. And it went right down to the
scarlet, the red picture of flesh and blood. Your life is in your blood, isn't
it? It's in your blood. You drain the blood out of your
body, you're not going to have any life. As a man, the Lord Jesus Christ
had to shed blood. God said without the shedding
of blood, there's no remission of sin. God required a perfect
sacrifice, and that could only be provided in the God-man. God's
perfect man and man's perfect God all wrapped up in the mystery
of godliness. The mystery of godliness. Isn't
that what Paul said? It's a great mystery. Without
controversy great is the mystery of godliness. That God was manifested
in the flesh. God became a man. Who can comprehend
that? Who can understand the glory
of that? It's not to be understood. It's
to be believed, isn't it? It's to be believed. He came
in the likeness of sinful flesh, born of a woman, born under the
law to redeem those who are cursed by the law. The God-man. The Lamb slain before the foundation
of the world. There is one mediator, the scripture
says, between God and man, the man Jesus Christ. He's called
the Son of Man and he's called the Son of God, isn't he? The
blue and the red cunningly woven together into purple. And we see that this veil was
of fine linen, don't we? Fine linen. Now, I've done a
little study on that, and some commentators say, well, one thing's
for sure about fine linen, one of the points of fine linen is
that it was bleached, pure white. And some say, well, it was made
of flax. And others say, well, no, the fine linen was really
made of silk. And I thought, boy, that's a
glorious picture, isn't it? Did you know the scriptures,
the Lord Jesus Christ refers to himself in the scriptures
as a worm? As a worm? When he hung on Calvary's
cross and bore the burden of our sins and God forsook him,
He calls himself a worm. Where do we get silk from? What a beautiful veil here now,
this finely woven silk veil of blue and purple and red. put
together all picturing the Lord Jesus Christ in his perfect righteousness. One thing is for sure about fine
linen in the Bible, it is a picture of moral purity and it is a picture
of royalty. The priest wore it and the kings
wore it. And the scripture says that God
has made us to be what? Kings and priests. And when John
saw the saints in glory dressed in fine linen, the angel said,
who are these? John said, you have to tell me.
These are the saints which have washed their robes in the blood
of the Lamb. And they're made white and pure. You know there was two things
that are set in contrast to one another at the cross. The veil
in the temple that was rent by the sword of God's justice. And
there was the cloak that the Lord Jesus Christ wore. that
when the Roman soldiers began to divvy up the possessions of
the crucified one, they came to his robe and they said, it
has no seams, rent it not. Don't rent that robe. Don't tear
that robe. Let's cast lots for it." And
one soldier ended up with it. They didn't want to ruin that
piece of fabric. Somehow this robe was woven together without
any seams. That was purposed of God, wasn't
it? The robe of righteousness, the only hope that you and I
have to stand before God, has no seams. It can't be ripped. It can't be divided up. It will
be received in whole. A seamless garment. The cherubim. You saw that in
our text, didn't you? That in that fine, cunning work
of fine linen woven together in blue and purple and scarlet,
there were cherubims tapestried into that. Where is the first time we hear
of cherubims in the scriptures? First time we hear of them. When
God cast Adam and Eve out of the garden, He took two cherubim
with flaming swords and placed them at the entrance to Eden. You can't come in here. These
cherubims, they're the ones that are hovering over the throne
of God. When Isaiah said, I heard them cry, holy, holy, holy is
the Lord God of hosts. And each one of them had six
wings, and with twain they covered their eyes, and with twain they
covered their feet, and with twain they did fly. Picturing
the deity of Christ, and their own creatureness, and their feet
of clay, and their service to God. These are ministering angels. that are given by God to guard
the glory of the gospel against men. And there they are in that
veil. You come in here, the sword of
God's justice. And then where to us do we see
cherubims? On the ark itself that was inside the Holies of
Holies there were two cherubims, one on each side. and they hovered
their wings spread together and touched over the mercy seat. What was God saying? Don't come
in here any other way. You follow the exact prescribed
method that I gave you or you'll not have access with me. I've
got angels that I can commission to your judgment. You don't want to mess with one
of them. What a glorious picture. Don't
try to enter in with your flesh. Don't try to enter in with your
law keeping. Don't try to enter in with your
free will. You'll come into the presence
of God only through the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, whose flesh
was rent on Calvary's cross. The veil was opened. And at that
moment, mercy and truth met together, righteousness and peace kissed
each other. The birth of the Lord Jesus Christ,
as I said in the earlier part of this service, men like Christmas
because nobody is threatened by a baby. Everybody likes cooing
babies, sweet smelling babies. They're non-threatening, aren't
they? Who's ever been threatened by a baby? That baby came to die. His death on Calvary's cross
is the only hope entering into the Holy of Holies. And the sword
of God's justice rent His flesh just like it rent that veil. And now the Lord says, the spirit
and the bride say what? Come, come, come. The way has been paved. You have
a forerunner, the anchor of your soul, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, we're so very thankful for the revelation of salvation
in the person of Your dear Son, and we pray that You would minister
grace to our hearts by Your Holy Spirit, remind us of the things
You've taught us, and cause us to rejoice from the heart. in the person of our Savior. For it is in His name we pray,
Amen.