Let us turn again to God's Word
in the portion of Scripture that we read in Luke. The 23rd chapter,
and I want this evening to direct you for our text to the words
that we find in verses 44 and 45. Luke chapter 23 and verses
44 and 45. And it was about the 6th hour. And there was a darkness over
all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened,
and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. And it was about the sixth hour,
and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth
hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was
rent in the midst. But to say something then with
regards to the darkness of Calvary. This morning we were considering
that that is said in relation to that ninth plague that the
Lord God visited upon the Egyptians. Remember In bringing the Hebrews
out of the cruel bondage that was theirs in the land of Egypt,
God did visit his judgments upon Pharaoh and all his people in
those ten plagues. And the ninth plague, the last
but one of those plagues, was the plague of darkness. And we spoke on those words in
Exodus 9.21, even darkness which may be felt, and said then that
in many ways it is a type or certainly directs us to the awfulness
of the judgment that will come upon the unbelieving which is
called hell. That awful blackness of darkness
forever. We also said that the Lord's
people have to know something of a felt darkness even in the
day of grace. They come to experience something
of that terrible conviction of their sins made to feel what
sin is as their conscience is troubled and they feel the awful
darkness that is in their own souls. That's the ministry of
the law. We remarked on how when Moses
is retelling There in the opening chapters of Deuteronomy retelling
what they had experienced those 40 years previously when they
had first received the commandments back in Exodus chapter 20. Now
they are on the borders of the promised land after their 40
years of wanderings in the wilderness and Moses recounts things. And
there in Deuteronomy 4.11 He tells them how the mountain burned
with fire onto the midst of heaven with darkness, clouds and thick
darkness. That is what the law is associated
with. There's no salvation in the law.
It is administration of condemnation, administration of death. There we discover God's wrath
against sins. But it is that schoolmaster to
bring the sinner unto the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's to the
Lord Jesus Christ that I want us to turn tonight as we consider
something of the Lord's experience as he comes to save his people
from their sins. And so we read here in the word
of our text of that darkness that fell upon the Lord Jesus
Christ as he suffered at Calvary. It was about the sixth hour and
there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.
And the sun was darkened and the veil of the temple was rent
in the midst. Again, we see that this is fearful.
a most fearful darkness. And what we see in the darkness
is the testimony of nature. Nature itself is here bearing
testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ. Men are so unmoved as we read
through this portion Luke's account of the crucifixion. How time
and again we read about the people about the Lord Jesus did nothing
but scoff and ridicule and mock. But how inanimate creation is
so affected by the sight. Here in verse 45 we're told of
the sun, that it was darkened. The sun was darkened. In the account that we find in
the 27th chapter of Matthew, he tells us there, the earth
did quake, the rocks rent. Oh, the inanimate creation. is touched by this awful sight. The hymn writer says, the rocks
can rend, the earth can quake, the seas can roar, the mountains
shake. A feeling all things show some
sign, but this unfeeling heart of mine. And how true those words
are, friends. We can read these accounts, and
God in his wisdom has given us a fourfold record. concerning
the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can read these words
and we can become so familiar with the truth that is set before
us and yet we feel nothing at all. Our hearts at times are
so hard and untouched by this dreadful scene. We see how that
sin of course has brought a terrible curse on every part of creation. This was the consequence of the
sin of our first parents, that solemn record that we find in
the third chapter of the book of Genesis, and the results of
the fall of our first parents. What does God say to Adam there
at verse 17? because thou hast hearkened unto
the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I
commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it. Cursed is
the ground. Cursed is the ground for thy
sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it
all the days of thy life, thorns also, and thistles shall it bring
forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. Why,
the very inanimate creation is cursed, because of man and because
of man's folly, because of man's sin. And again Paul makes mention
of this when he writes there in the 8th chapter of Romans.
He speaks of that bondage of corruption. that has been visited
upon all of creation in Romans chapter 8 and there at verse
22 he says the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain
together until there. Oh the sin of man it has affected
that work of God the great work of creation that God formed and
fashioned in six days and then God looks upon his work at the
end of the sixth day of creation and pronounces it to be very
good but now under that curse of God because of man's sin. Not surprising then that so many
times in scripture we see God's servants calling upon the creation
to bear its testimony against man. We see it many times in
Moses. In Moses writes, there in Deuteronomy
chapter 4, he speaks of how creation will bear testimony against man,
in the folly of his idolatry. In chapter 4 of Deuteronomy,
in verse 25, When thou shalt beget children, and children's
children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt
yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of anything,
and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God, to provoke
him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness, I call heaven and earth to witness
against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from
off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it. Ye
shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed."
Well that's Deuteronomy chapter 4, but when we come to the end
of the book of Deuteronomy we see the same sort of language
being employed by Moses in chapter 31 verse 28 gather unto me all
the elders of your tribes he says and your officers that I
may speak these words in their ears and call heaven and earth
to record against them for I know that after my death ye will utterly
corrupt yourselves and turn aside from the way which I have commanded
you and evil will befall you in the latter days because ye
will do evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger
through the work of your hands. And then when we come to what
is called the Song of Moses, how does it begin? Give ear,
O ye heavens, and I will speak. And here I was, the words of
my mouth. And we see him calling upon the
creation to bear its own testimony against the sinful folly of man. And what was true in Moses is
also true in the prophet Isaiah, there at the very beginning.
of that remarkable part of Holy Scripture, the prophecy of Isaiah
in the very first chapter, almost the first words of the book.
We're told in the opening verse that this is the vision of Isaiah,
the son of Amos, and so forth. And then we come to this verse
too. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath
spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they
have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, the
ass his master's crib, but Israel doth not know. My people doth
not consider. Our sinful nation, a people laden
with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors,
they have forsaken the Lord. that provoke the Holy One of
Israel unto anger, they are gone away backwards." And He is calling
the heavens and the earth to witness the truth of what He
is declaring. Oh, how solemn it is, friends.
And here we see in the dying of the Lord Jesus men on move,
men only there to ridicule, and yet How the inanimate creature
is so affected. Those three hours. The sixth
hour being of course high noon when the sun is at its zenith. From 12 noon to 3 pm a darkness
over all the earth it is. The sun was darkened and the
veil of the temple was rent in the midst. nature bearing its testimony. Again, think of that remarkable
hymn. And what a remarkable hymn it
is, 153. It's a long hymn. There's two
parts to the hymn. It speaks to us of the passion,
the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. And look at the language there
in the second part. Verse 3, when rocks and mountains
rent with dread, and gaping graves gave up their deads, when the
first sign withdrew his light and hid his head to shun the
sight, then stood the wretch of human race and raised his
head and showed his face, gazed unconcerned when nature failed
and scoffed. and sneered and cursed and railed
harder than rocks and mountains are more dull than dirt and earth
by far man viewed the viewed unmoved thy blood-rich dream
not ever dreamt it flowed for him you make use of the hymn
book and read those hymns and meditate upon them and the truth
that's set before us the hardness of the heart of men are moved
that the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what is it
that Christ is experiencing? He is experiencing the sufferings
that His children must have endured to all eternity in hell. It is
hell that is coming into the very soul of this man, the Lord
Jesus Christ. As we said this morning, this
darkness That darkness that we were considering, that darkness
which may be felt, it reminds us of how? Outer darkness. Outer darkness is the language
that is used there in Matthew 22 at verse 13, again in chapter
25 and verse 13. These expressions, the language
of Jude verse 13, the blackness of darkness forever. The devil himself reserved, it
says, in everlasting chains under darkness. It's a darkness that's
associated with the devil. It's the realm of the devil.
It's where Satan is. And so this morning when we consider
that thick darkness that's spoken of there in Exodus chapter 10,
remember we read two portions in the Psalms, Psalm 105 and
Psalm 78, because those Psalms, they're recounting something
of the history of the children of Israel, a mention is made
in those Psalms of those plagues. And in Psalm 78, There, at verse
44 following, we have mention of the ten plagues, and we said
that, interestingly, there's no reference to the plague of
darkness. However, we do read there, in
verse 49, of how God sent evil angels among them. And I said
then that those evil angels, spoken of by the psalmist, are
associated with that ninth plague, the plague of darkness. The language there in the Psalm,
verse 49 of Psalm 78, "...he cast upon them the fierceness
of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble by sending evil angels
amongst them." All the other plagues are spoken of quite specifically,
There in that psalm, but not the ninth plague, but that reference
to the angels. It reminds us of what was associated
with that darkness. It's Satan. This is Satan's hour. And the power of darkness, says
the Lord Jesus Christ. And as I've said this, that we
have in our text, indicates to us something of the fearful condition
in the soul of the Lord Jesus Christ, that holy soul. Oh, he's
a real man. And man, his body and soul, when
God made the first Adam, he made his body out of the dust of the
earth, he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, he became
a living soul. And the last Adam, is also a
real man in possession of a human body and a human soul and that
human nature of course joins, this is the great mystery of
the incarnation that human nature joins to the Eternal Son of God
He's the God-Man but what of that human nature? It is spoken
of remember here in Luke as that holy thing the angel says that holy thing
that shall be born of the earth speaking to Mary that holy thing shall be called
the Son of God he was a holy soul and yet now experiencing
all the dreads of those sufferings that he must endure in order
to save his people from all the torments of hell. He must experience
it himself in order to save his people. He is suffering the punishment
that was there just as that. It's interesting when we turn
to the account as we have it in Matthew and the guy there
in Matthew's account we have mention of the the sun being
darkened but see the juxtaposition of the verses there because what's
immediately associated with that darkness is Christ's great cry
when he feels so derelict in his soul verse 45 in Matthew 27 from the 6th hour. There was
darkness over all the land until the 9th hour and about the 9th
hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, That is to say,
My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? All that darkness
you say. It was desertion. That's what
he felt. Isaiah tells us what sin does,
your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and
your sin has hid his face from you. That's what sin does, it
brings separation. Man who is created in God's image,
made in God's likeness, man who is made for God, made to know
God. Man whose soul must be restless
forever until he finds his rest in God. That was the saying,
they reckon, of the great Augustine of Hippo. Our souls are restless,
he says, till they find their rest in the earth. How terrible is separation from
God, that's so much a part of the sufferings of those who are
in that dreadful place called hell. There's no unbelief there. Or they might blaspheme, as we
said this morning, but they know that God is. And they are eternally
separated from God. And they are made to know God
and to enjoy God forever in the language of the Shorter Catechism. Man's chief end. Remember the
opening question, what is the chief end of man? To glorify
God and to enjoy Him forever. Forever and forever. And eternally
shut off. And shut off from God. and this
is what the Lord Jesus himself is experiencing in all that darkness he feels it in his own soul and
he cries out in that language of the 22nd Psalm my God my God
why hast thou forsaken me what a mystery it is oh there's a
mystery in everything about our Lord Jesus Christ there's a mystery
of course in his birth but there's a mystery in his death. How can
it be? How can it be that there should
be any separation in the Godhead? That's an impossibility. God
is one. Hero, Israel, the Lord our God
is one Lord. God is one. Yes, God is three.
But the three are one. And there can be no separation,
and yet, in the Lord Jesus, when he comes to save his people,
oh, he has to endure all the terrors of a most dreadful
death. He tastes hell in his own soul.
This darkness, then, it's something that is felt. This morning we
sought to say something about that particular expression that
we have there at the end of that 21st verse in Exodus chapter
10. Even darkness which may be felt. And that's what the Lord Jesus
knew. He felt it. Now of course it's
it's a figure of speech as we said this morning because We
don't perceive darkness and light by the sense of touch. It's by the sense of sight. But if we feel something, we
have to touch it. You can't touch the dark. It's
a figure of speech, but it's a very striking figure. And it
denotes, as we said this morning, something of the nature of the
darkness. Now, what of this darkness that we read of in connection
with the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus? It was about the sixth
hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the
ninth hour. And the sun was darkened. It's
a supernatural darkness that is being spoken of. This is not
natural. And this is more than an eclipse. It's a darkness that endures
for some three hours. It is God, you see, who is in
these things. It is God who is withdrawing
the light of the sun. Where do we find the source of
light? Really, the source of light He's not the sun, is he? The source of light, of course,
is God. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
says, I am the light of the world. One of those great I am statements
that we find in John's Gospel. God himself is the source of
light. And we see that quite clearly
in the way in which God works in creation. What does God do on the first
day? He gives light. Now, we're not just thinking,
of course, of this universe with a sign at its center. We're
not just thinking of this solar system, we're thinking of the
whole vast universe. And there we see how that God
himself is the source of light. The language is so striking there
at the opening of the book of God, the first chapter
of the book of Genesis. God said, let there be light.
and there was light, and God saw the light, and it was good,
and God divided the light from the darkness, and God called
the light day, and the darkness He called night, and the evening
and the morning were the first day. Now, how the critics like to
come and say, why this is nonsense. You say God creates the light
on the first day, but we have to wait until the fourth day. until we read of the creation
of the sun and the moon and the stars and we have it again there
recorded in that opening chapter of the Word of God verse 14 God said let there be
lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from
the night and let them be for signs and for seasons with days
and for years and let them be for lights in the firmament of
the heaven to give light upon the earth and it was so and God
made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the
lesser light to rule the night he made the stars also And God
set them in the firmament of the heaven to give you light
upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and
to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it
was good, and the evening and the morning were the fourth day. All the critics come and they
say, how can it be? God creates light on the first
day, but there's no sun, moon and stars until the fourth day.
It is no problem, friend. These are but light bearers.
These are light bearers. God is the source of light. God
is the source of light. And here we see how God in a
miraculous way can for those three hours extinguish the light
of the sun. He can do it. It's interesting when we think
of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ There, of course, we see
the darkness of the night turned into the brightness of the day. Remember, we have it here in
this very Gospel of Luke. There in chapter 2 at verse 8,
we're told how there were in the same country shepherds abiding
in the field keeping watch over their flock by night. 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. And the angel said unto them,
Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy,
which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And
this shall be a sign unto you. Ye shall find the babe wrapped
in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there
was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising
God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, good will toward men." All this glorious appearing,
the brightness of the angels as they come to proclaim the
birth of the Messiah. The great mystery of godliness,
God manifest in the flesh. There in the night, there is
great light. But now when we come to the death
of the Lord Jesus, now noonday light is turned into darkness,
a terrible darkness. It was about the sixth hour and
there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. I say it is that that can be
spoken of as something that is felt because it is so unnatural.
It is supernatural. It is God. It is God at work. But then it's not only a supernatural
darkness, This is the important thing. It's a spiritual darkness. It's a spiritual darkness. Oh
yes, it's a real darkness, but there's a spiritual significance
to these things. Remember what we've said now,
that this darkness is representing to us something of what is transpiring
in the very soul of the Lord Jesus Christ. We read back in
that remarkable 53rd chapter of Isaiah's prophecy, and there
in verse 10, his soul, reading with the margin, in Isaiah 53
verse 10, the margin says, his soul shall make an offering for
sin. His soul, it's what is taking
place in Christ's soul. the darkness of his soul, the
mystery, and I say it again to emphasize this fact, the mystery
of that terrible cry of dereliction as we saw just now there in Matthew's
account the juxtaposition of those verses. Now that the darkness
is associated clearly with what the Lord Jesus Christ himself
says In all the agony of his soul, he cries out, my gods,
my gods, why hast thou forsaken me? We sang the words as we have
them in the psalm. Quite deliberately I chose not
only the opening part of that 22nd psalm, but also the closing
parts. of the Psalm. We sang from the
beginning and from the end of Psalm 22. Because there's significance
not only in the opening words but also in the closing words.
Right at the end of that Psalm, verse 31, we have that expression,
He hath done this. But you will observe that in
our authorised version the word this is in italics. Indicating, of course, that that's
not a translation of any Hebrew word. It's a word that's been
brought in by the translators attempting to bring out, as they
understand it, the right meaning of what is being said. But how
interesting if we omit what they've introduced and simply read it
as it stands in the origin. It finishes with those three
words, He hath done this. He hath done this. And it's those
words really that the Lord Jesus himself speaks from the cross
when he speaks and says it is finished. All that is spoken throughout
that psalm is prophetic, it's a messianic psalm, it's speaking
of the sufferings of Christ. Isn't that the great beauty of
the Psalms? We've said this on a previous occasion, probably
more than once. We have these records in the
New Testament, a fourfold gospel that tells us so much concerning
the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. But when we come to those Psalms,
oh, the veil is drawn aside, and we look into the very soul
of the Lord Jesus Christ that's the beauty of the Psalms David
who is the author of so many of the Psalms David is speaking
out of his own experience he's speaking out of the fullness
of his own heart this is the way the Lord dealt with him and
yet David is saying things far greater than he could ever really
know for himself he's speaking of the experiences of his greatest
son you read through that 22nd Psalm
and there we're gazing into the soul of Christ in the midst of
all those awful sufferings that he had to endure all he experienced,
all the darkness all the blackness of the sins of his people And
that was what the law demanded, that's what the law commanded.
As we said earlier, as we said this morning, the law is clearly
that ministration of condemnation, that ministration of death. The
law worketh wrath. As it says there in Deuteronomy
4, the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven with
darkness, clouds, and thick darkness. Here is the soul of the Lord
Jesus. How He is having to endure that punishment
that the Lord of God demands. Oh, the soul that sinneth, it
is to die. The soul that sinneth. It's soul
work. The wages of sin is death. It's
that that's being visited upon the Lord Jesus. How He experiences
the real death, the separation of body and soul. Why, when Jesus
had cried with a loud voice, it says here in verse 46, He
said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And having
said thus, He gave up the ghost. the separation of body and soul. When God makes man, he is body
and soul together, united. This is how man is. This is what
man is. It is our natural deseperation
that is experienced in death. And this is what the Lord Jesus
Christ himself has to experience. And then here in verse 45 we're
told how the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. Oh, how significant it is, friends. He has fulfilled the law. He
has satisfied the law. That's what it means. That's
what it means. Remember how that vial separated
the holy of holies. We read of these things in Hebrews
and there in the ninth chapter the apostle says a great deal
concerning the tabernacle, then the temple. He speaks in verse 3 of Hebrews 9 of the
second vial after the second vow the tabernacle
which is called he says the holiest of all that is the holy of holies and then later at verse 7 he
says into the second that is into the holy of holies when
the high priest alone, once every year, not without blood, which
he offered for himself and for the errors of the people, the
Holy Ghost is signifying that the way into the holiest of all
was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet
standing. It was only that one day, the
great day of atonement, that we read of in Leviticus 16, when
the high priest goes beyond that second veil and enters before
the mercy seat and he takes the blood of sacrifice and he springs
the blood upon the mercy seat and before the mercy seat and
the people are outside and they're listening and they can hear the
sound of his bowels the bowels about the hem of his garment
as he's engaged in this most holy exercise making atonement
for the sins of the people. But here in the Lord Jesus we
see the very fulfillment of that that was set before Israel in
a time. Now the veil of the temple is
rent in the midst and the way is opened. The Lord Jesus Christ
is that One who is the Great Antichrist. Again, look at the
language that we have in Hebrews There in chapter 10, verse 19,
Paul says, "...having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into
the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which
he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his
flesh. And having an high priest over
the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us all pass
the profession of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful,
who promised. For with those friends who can
enter in, blood marks out the way, even the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. those who feel all the dreadful
darkness of sin in their souls, or they have to look to this
Lord Jesus Christ. You must look to Him as that
One who is the Great Sin-Bearer, who was born in His own person
all the dreads of that wrath of God against the sins of His
people. He has made the great sacrifice. And what does He say? This one who experiences this
darkness, I am the light of the world. He that follows me shall
not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. This is what God has done in
the Lord Jesus Christ. How the light has come to shine
in the midst of all the darkness. Nothing but darkness and terrors
in the Lord of God. But what do we find in the Gospel
light? Comfort. God who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness, Paul says, has shined in our
hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. Oh God grant that we might be
those who are brought to walk in that light of life to be those
who are truly the followers of this Lord Jesus Christ that we
might know that He has tasted tasted hell for our souls that
He has felt all the darkness of that dreadful place as he
endured these sufferings upon the cross. It was about the sixth
hour and there was a darkness over all the earth until the
ninth hour and the sun was darkened and the vial of the temple was
rent in the midst. Oh God grant that we might be
those in who know what it is to enter in. Amen.