Luke 23, beginning with verse
44. And this is our subject this
morning. He glorified God. He glorified God. Luke 23, 44,
and it was about the sixth hour and there was darkness over all
the earth until the ninth hour. It was about noon. sixth hour
of the day is about noon time and there was a darkness until
about three in the afternoon and this is a mysterious thing
there's a whole lot written about it and speculated about it it's
hard to say what all this darkness signifies but we know what darkness
is and we know what light is and we know what those things
represent in the scriptures. It certainly reminds us of what
the Lord Jesus Christ said in Luke 22, in the previous chapter,
listen to this. Luke 22, 52, Jesus said unto
the chief priests and captains of the temple and the elders
which were come to him, they were come out to arrest him.
He said, be ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves,
When I was daily with you in the temple, you stretched forth
no hands against me. And it wasn't because they didn't
want to. The Lord arranged it and here's what he's saying next,
but this is your hour. I've given you this hour and
the power of darkness. This is your hour and the power
of darkness. And so there was physical darkness
over the land. And I suspect it has something
to do with that. Don't you imagine? Think of this too. There was
darkness, but only for three hours. And then the sun came
out again. Don't dwell so much on the darkness. Think about the light. There
was darkness for a little while, for a little while. There had
to be darkness now, but just for a little while. And then
the sun came out again. Think about what that signifies.
That reminds me of this, Colossians 112, giving thanks unto the Father,
which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of
darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son. That's what he was doing on Calvary.
And so darkness, but then, In whom we have redemption through
his blood, through his blood, through his blood. That's how
we're translated from darkness into light, through his blood,
even the forgiveness of sins. And the gospel is so simple,
isn't it? And yet more and more beautiful. There was a flood. there was a flood, and it pictured
God's wrath against the evil of man. The imagination of man's
heart was only evil continually, and God sent a flood and wiped
out everybody, but there was an end to it. God's judgment fell on the ark
and his judgment was quenched. It didn't keep falling. There
was an end to it. After 40 days and 40 nights,
those who were in the ark were able to come forth into the light.
That's Christ. And so there was darkness. What if the sun never comes on
again? What if God shut out the light
and left it out. Would he not be right to do that?
You know what that would mean if the sun went out right now
and never came back? You know what that would mean?
Death for everybody everywhere. And it wouldn't be long. We're
goners without that light. But it came on again. because
the wrath of God was quenched upon the Savior. And listen to
the timing of it. Matthew 27, 45, now from the
sixth hour, there was darkness over all the land until the ninth
hour. And about the ninth hour, right
before the light came back on again, Jesus cried with a loud
voice saying, Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani. That is to say,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And then the light
came on again. The darkness and then the light,
and it directly corresponded to what Christ was doing for
us. The Lord was in the grave for
a while too, but only for a while. The Lord was in the grave, but
what happens if he doesn't come out of that grave? Then there's
no light ever again. There's only darkness ever. What
if the light of the world does not ever emerge again upon this
earth? Death for everyone, everywhere,
spiritual death for everybody, everywhere. But he arose. I believe this is the message
of this darkness, don't you, at Calvary? Darkness for a time,
for the space of three hours. The gospel is not the darkness. The gospel is that it only lasted
for three hours. So don't get hung up on the darkness.
Don't try to figure out what the darkness was. I'm just glad
it didn't last long, aren't you? I believe I know what it was.
I know this, it's death for us, unless the light comes on. And
because of what Christ bore, because of what he accomplished
on that cross, there was light again, because of what he said,
because of what he did, because of who he was, because of who
he is. The sun's not dark this morning,
is it? and I'm able to preach to you
the light because of what happened on Calvary.
That's the gospel. Now verse 45, look at verse 45
in our text. The sun was darkened and the
veil of the temple was rent in the middle. When you understand what that
veil of the temple was and what that represented, the significance
of this cannot be overstated. And don't forget verse 44 while
we're looking at verse 45. Man does his absolute worst. Remember what also is represented
at Calvary. This is man at his absolute worst. This is man murdering God. This
is man counting the only one who ever did nothing but always
only good, counting him worthy of death. They said we have a
law, and by our law, he ought to die. The only one that ever
earned life was worthy of death in our book. This is man at his
most vile and depraved, and God put the light out. sealing our
doom if it stays that way. But the Son of God bears the
sin and the penalty of the sin of his people, and the light
comes back on. And then also this, while the
Lord Jesus Christ accomplishes salvation for his elect, the
veil of the temple is ruined in 20." That was a heavy curtain.
That thing was this thick or something. It was It was a heavy
veil that was, what it signified was exclusion, separation. That's God in there and you're
out here and you're not getting in unless you're the high priest
with an acceptable offering. That's Christ. Only Christ gets
in, but bless his name, he gets in for us. Our high priest has
entered into that within the veil for us. It's written in Twain, and we
know from another account, Matthew's again, we know just how it was
written, and that's important too. Matthew 27, 50. Jesus, when
he had cried again with a loud voice, and we believe that what
he cried there is it is finished. Yielded up the ghost, and behold,
the veil of the temple was written in Twain from the top to the
bottom. and the earth did quake and the
rocks rent. If somebody had rent that veil
from the bottom to the top, you don't want to be that person.
You don't want to gain access to God from where you stand.
You want God to give it from where he is above. Oh, the veil is separation, separation
from God. Only the high priest could enter
into that which was in the veil, and that only because he had
a sacrifice that was enough to gain him access. But now that
high priest, the great high priest, the high priest of God's elect
has entered into that holy place not made with hands. That's what
he did for us on Calvary. He, as our high priest, had to
have somewhat to offer too, Paul said. But not the blood of bulls
and goats, but with his own precious blood, he entered in, our forerunner,
into that holy place, not made with hands, and there is perfect,
full, complete access to God for all those whom he represented
as high priest. The veil is ripped from top to
bottom. And now we come boldly. Listen to it, Ephesians 2.14,
for he is our peace. He didn't just make peace, Christ
himself. Salvation's a person. Hope's
a person. Life is a person. Peace is somebody. who hath made both one and hath
broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having
abolished in his flesh the enmity between us and God. Even the
law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in
himself of Twain one new man, so making peace, and that he
might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, in
his body. having slain the enmity thereby,
and came and preached peace to you, which were afar." Listen, he's already accomplished it.
He made peace by the blood of his cross, and he may, this morning,
just let you know about it. He may come to you and preach
to you, to your heart, when I made peace, I made peace for you. preached peace to you which were
far off and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have
access, Jew or Gentile, by one Spirit unto the Father.
By the blood of his cross, Hebrews 6.18, that by two immutable things
in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong
consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope
set before us. We have strong consolation, strong
reason for peace and rest and confidence, because we've fled
for refuge to lay hold, which hope we have as an anchor of
the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that
within the veil. This hope has something to do
with us being where God is. This hope has something to do
with communion with God, with access to God. Within the veil, whither the
forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus. made an high priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. Our high priest entered. That's
what was happening on Calvary. That's why the veil is rent.
We have access to God because our high priest went into that
holy place, not made with hands, and bought it for us. Romans 5.1, therefore being justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom also we have access. The veil is separation, it's
gone. For everybody he represents as
high priest, for everybody for whom he shed his blood, the veil
is rent in twain. By whom also we have access by
faith into this grace wherein we stand. We come to a throne
of grace, not a throne of condemnation. We come boldly to the throne
of grace because of access purchased by the precious blood of God
and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Hebrews 4.14, this is
all through the scripture, isn't it? The veil was rent. Listen
to this, seeing then that we have a great high priest that
is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast
our profession. For we have not an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin, Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace. Paul said we have access into
what? This grace wherein we stand.
It's not a throne of terror and thunderings like it's Sinai anymore.
Not for us, not for those he shed his blood for. It's a throne
of grace. And it's because we have a high
priest. that has no sin. Let us therefore
come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help when we
need it. When have you ever not needed
grace? Verse 46, look at verse 46. You talk about, anybody wanna
be a preacher this morning? And when Jesus had cried with
a loud voice, and we're pretty sure now that's
when he cried, it's finished, it's finished. He said, father into thy hands,
I commend my spirit. And having said thus, he gave
up the ghost. Think of this, when Adam sinned, When Adam faced the wrath of
God, he was subject to God's wrath. Now he had disobeyed God
and he was subject to God's wrath and he knew it. You know what
he did? You remember what he did? He
ran and hid from God. He tried to, you can't hide from
God. That just shows how stupid he was. We are. You can't hide
from God, but that's what he tried. He ran and tried to hide
from God, didn't he? But when the last Adam, is bearing
all of the sins of all of his people for all time and is about
to die for them. What did he do? He comes to the Father. He commends
his spirit. He said, Father, I come into
your very hands. I'm coming to you. He doesn't
run from God guilty and ashamed. He runs to God, confident and
in perfect faith. Think about the perfect faith. You know what perfect faith says?
Again, we can try to define this a lot of different ways. God
defines his word by his word. You know what perfect faith looks
like? Father, into thy hands, I commend everything I am, my
spirit. I commend myself to you. I'm
in your hands. He commends himself into the
hands of his father, knowing that he does all things well
and he always does what's right. The judge of all the earth, shall
he not do right? I rejoice in that. I don't know
what all this means, but I rejoice in that, don't you? He didn't
run from God, he didn't try to hide. He commended himself. My savior commended his spirit
into the hands of the father who always does right. And you
know what the father did? What was right. He did what was
right. And the result of it is all my
sins are gone. And it was right. If the Lord Jesus Christ is guilty
of my sin, then he and I both are goners. If the Lord Jesus
Christ does not bear my sin, then just I'm a goner. But what happened is he bore
my sin, all of it, and vanquished it, himself being the sinless
sacrifice. He commended himself into the
hands of the judge of all the earth, into the hands of him
who must punish sin and did punish sin. But he put away sin, my
sin, by the sacrifice of himself. And the father into whose hands
he committed himself was fully satisfied with what the Lord
Jesus Christ offered for my sin. You know what it was? A perfect,
sinless, spotless soul. He made his soul an offering
for my sin. Is that clear? I hope that's
clear. If it's not clear, it's because
of me. And I want very much to make
it clear. May God give us grace seeing
we have such hope to use great plainness of speech. The Lord Jesus Christ commended
himself to his father all of his life. Did he not? And in his death, it was no different.
He commended his body in life and his spirit in death. He was,
as a man, the perfect fulfillment of this verse I'm about to read.
Christ is the perfect fulfillment of Romans 12. I beseech you,
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is
your reasonable service. That's the savior now. He commended
his body, a living sacrifice, and he commends in our text his
soul as the dying sacrifice. That's my salvation. This is why we say salvation
is a person, because he is. He gave up. the ghost. You're not gonna do that. It's gonna be taken from you.
Your spirit's gonna be taken. It was given when God breathed
into man the breath of life and he gave you life when you were
born. Your life was given to you by God and it'll be taken
from you by God, but he won't take true life from you, just
the life of this body, just physical. life when he's pleased to do
that. Physical life as we know it now is taken when God's ready
to take it and we're for it. Paul said it's not just that
I want to be unclothed but clothed upon and I know that in order
to be clothed upon I've got to be unclothed first because this
mortal cannot put on immortality. This mortal cannot inherit eternal
life but it must put on immortality. in order to be with God. So we're
for that. We're for that. He's gonna take
our spirit from us. And we're for that. Take us to
be with him. And this body's gonna be in the
grave for a while if we die before he comes. Now listen, we can,
by faith, commend our spirits to God. That is to entrust ourselves
unto him. We do that by faith. I believe
that's what we do. Don't we? That's faith. Father,
into thy hands. I'm a wretched, vile sinner,
and I deserve your eternal wrath. But I beg your mercy. God, be
merciful to me, the sinner. I'm a sinner. Mercy. And we commend our spirits to
God. But we cannot, of our own initiative,
usher ourselves into his presence whenever we want. That's what
the Savior did though. That's what he did. He laid down
his life of himself. He said, I have power to lay
it down. I have power to take it again. This is him laying
it down. Sin had no dominion over him. None. The wages of
sin is death. but sin had no dominion over
him. And so he laid down his life when he got good and ready
to. What a savior. Now, verse 47,
in closing. Now, when the centurion saw what
was done, he glorified God. You know, there wasn't a whole
lot of people doing that that day. There wasn't a whole lot of that
going on. Even his disciples, the ones that walked with him,
they forsook him and fled. Is that glorifying God? Now,
in some of the things that were said and in some of the, you
know, the Lord kept them. The Lord prayed that their faith
fail not. But I don't think they were bragging
a whole lot later on about what happened that day. But this centurion, he wasn't
bragging about it either, but I'll tell you that he glorified
God. There were very few doing that. There were a lot of people
crying and some mocking, many mocking. Many were very happy
about what was happening. He glorified God, and here's
the expression of that. Here's the way he glorified God
in his heart he did, but this is the expression of that. Certainly, without doubt, this
was a righteous man. You think about what he was looking
at. We talk about that with regard to the thief, The thief, how
did he see what he saw? What was he looking at? He was
looking at the same one everybody else was making fun of and scorning
and blaspheming. When he saw what was done. Something was done. And I'll
tell you that he didn't see what was done to Jesus and glorify
God. Somehow by the grace of God,
he saw what was done by the Lord Jesus. That's when you're gonna glorify
God. That's when you're gonna glorify
him, isn't it? You glorify God when you see what Christ did
on Calvary. When we see what this centurion
was enabled to see and glorify God, we won't be dwelling so
much on what sin did to Christ and what these enemies did to
Christ. We're gonna dwell on and glorify God for what Christ
did to sin. But now once in the end of the
world, hath he appeared to put away sin, by the sacrifice, by
the perfect, spotless, holy sacrifice of himself. There's no glory
for man at Calvary. This centurion saw things by
God's grace. It's mysterious, and how in the
world could he say that? How could he see what he saw
and say that? By the grace of God, just like
you can. But think about this now. This
centurion glorified God. And if you ever see what was
done at Calvary, that's what you're gonna do too. There's
no glory for man at the cross. There's absolutely none. The
cross just shows how evil we are. The cross shows how hopeless
we are and that it took the blood of God to save a wretch like
you. In fact, until you see him and
what was done by him on that cross, you're not ever gonna
glorify God. You're just not. But when you
do, you'll glorify just him. Sola gloria. We glory in him alone, God forbid. Anything else? God forbid that
I should glory He glorified God Isn't that wonderful? We get
these glimpses of these beautiful things that happened All pointing
to the Savior and what he accomplished on Calvary You don't look at
what sin did to Christ. You don't look at what was done
to him and say this You might still glorify God in that if
you know why it was done to him. Of course you will. We know why
he was beaten and scourged and nailed to a cross and spit on
and despised and rejected. We know why. Because he was taking
our place. And we glorify God in that. But
I'll tell you this, you're not gonna look at that and say this,
certainly he was a righteous man. man if what you are observing when
you look to the cross causes you to say look how righteous
he is then you're looking at him and what he did centurion didn't say look how
guilty he is he didn't say certainly this
was a sinful man although he was bearing all of the sins of
all of his elect for all time and some were saying that listen
that's what those who did not see rightly Those who did not
glorify God said this, surely, listen, surely he hath borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. Well, he was smitten of God and
afflicted, Chris, but what that saying there is, we esteem that
he was worthy of that. We esteem that he was getting
what he deserved. But he was wounded for our transgressions,
not his. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was on Him. And with His strife,
it had a definite result, didn't it? We're healed. We're healed
by what He did. As I was writing this, what I
had to write next was this. What an amazing gift faith is. This man was given faith to see
the son of God as he was. There were very few, like I say,
we don't see in the scripture much of anybody doing that. But
this old centurion, what an amazing, when God gives
you eyes to see, you're gonna look to him You're going to see
what was done. That's the language of when he
saw what was done. You're going to see what he did.
And how are you going to see him? How will you see him? How do
you see him? Listen to this. Now the thief
looked at a broken, bloody, naked, apparent failure and saw the
king. And this centurion looked at the woman, bearing
all of the sins of all of his people for all time. And you
know what he saw? Righteousness. Certainly this was a righteous
man. By God's grace, When we look to Calvary, we don't
see sin. We see sin put away. When I look
to Calvary, I see him who put it away. And by grace through faith in
him, may we say, certainly this was a righteous
man. There's ever only been one. And He is my righteousness and
my King. Let's pray.